Chapter 15: Performance by the Lower Company

Lin Shuyin must go to Sanhe Village next week because Lin's mother said in a letter that she had given her ten yuan, which was at her brother Lin Jianshe's place.

Lin Shuyin didn't know how to say good things to her mother. She said that she loved her daughter just so-so, or not much. She cried in the letter that she was short of money and even mailed her ten dollars.

Although he kept nagging her to spend frugally, he still gave her the money.

Human emotions are so complicated.

Lin Shuyin thought that to Lin's parents, the five children were like five fingers of a person, some long and some short, and the love they received was also more or less.

Forget it. I don't want to think about it anymore. She's not my biological daughter anyway. I don't have to be close to her. It's enough for us to just get along on the surface.

It was winter when Lin Shuyin came to the art troupe. It was near the end of the year, and the new recruits had finished their training and it was the New Year, so she participated in a performance.

She felt that the art troupe was not very busy, but she was totally wrong. The captain Meng Jia told her that their art troupe had to perform at least 100 shows every year.

There are 365 days in a year, and at least 100 performances a year, which means almost one performance every three days.

Sure enough, no unit will let you just eat and do nothing.

"Shuyin, now that you have mastered the horse-head fiddle and erhu, you can choose two more instruments to learn."

"You have a great talent for music. Now you have the opportunity to learn. You should take this chance to learn a few more instruments. Don't waste it. This will be helpful to your work in the future, understand?" Meng Jia said earnestly.

Lin Shuyin nodded, "I understand, Captain."

Meng Jia patted her shoulder and said, "Go to training. You will be performing in the company tomorrow."

Yes, starting tomorrow their art troupe will go to the companies to perform.

The unit they belonged to was a division, which was composed of five brigades, five brigades were composed of ten regiments, and one regiment was composed of three battalions.

Those ten regiments make thirty battalions.

A battalion consists of three companies.

Thirty battalions, that's ninety companies.

Their force is nearly 10,000 strong.

Captain Huang said that the one thousand people in their art corps had to sing on the stage, and when they walked to the sentry post and saw a soldier on duty there, they also had to sing.

Art soldiers are also soldiers. Their mission is to boost morale and spread positive energy through singing and dancing.

Lin Shuyin has been here for more than half a year. Although she is used to the poor life in the 1970s, her mind is always wandering, thinking about this and that, and she has not integrated into the current society.

It was not until she joined the army, or to be exact, this year, after the New Year, that she felt settled and completely integrated into the current society. She no longer had those messy thoughts in her mind.

I have finally come to terms with it.

Since she is here, she should make the best of it. Since she can't go back, she should just live well in the present.

Who was the happiest person at the performance of the lower company? Of course it was Li Ting, because she was going to meet Shen Guannan.

Although their art troupe building was not far from the camp where Shen Guannan was located, there were two work units, especially the art troupe which had many girls, so the comrades in the army could not see them unless they went to perform in the company.

The performance for the company should of course start from the nearest company, which is the battalion where Shen Guannan is located.

Song Weiwei smiled, "Li Ting, you can see Captain Shen again."

Li Ting was shy, "What are you talking about? I'm going to perform, not to date."

Although I said this, I was unhappy inside.

But the flowers may have feelings, but the water is merciless. Shen Guannan is thinking of someone else at this moment.

After Lin Shuyin and others finished their performance, Shen Guannan hurried to the backstage. He had completely forgotten the lyrics he had prepared when he saw Lin Shuyin herself.

What was he going to say?

"Hey, Li Ting, look, Captain Shen is here. Is he here to see you?" Song Weiwei grinned.

Li Ting suddenly became nervous after hearing this. She smiled.

"No."

But the footsteps were already moving towards Shen Guannan.

"Captain Shen."

Li Ting greeted him, and Shen Guannan came back to his senses, "Yeah."

Li Ting, "Captain Shen, what's up?"

Shen Guannan nodded, "Well, I have something to ask your captain."

He didn't know why he came.

"Oh, I'll call her for you."

Li Ting felt a little disappointed. She thought Shen Guannan came to see her, but it turned out that he had something to do.

Meng Jia came over and asked, "What do you want from me?"

Shen Guannan remembered why he was here. He took out two milk powder tickets from his pocket and said, "Captain Meng, please help me pass these to Comrade Lin Shuyin."

"Milk powder ticket"

"Yeah, milk powder tickets."

He heard Instructor Lu say that she seemed to be looking for milk powder tickets, and he happened to have two of them.

Meng Jia: "Just give it to her yourself."

This boy is using her as a mouthpiece. No, to pass things on.

Shen Guannan, "I'm a little busy, sister-in-law, please hand it over to her for me."

Meng Jia: "Okay."

"Next time something like this happens, you'll know for yourself."

There is no way to let others tell you how to pursue a girl.

Fortunately, she is a girl and she wants a younger man, so Shuyin should like her.

Shen Guannan, "I understand, sister-in-law."

He was afraid that she would refuse, because a refusal would mean that the other person didn't like him. He didn't want to know the outcome of this relationship yet, since she had only been in the army for a short time anyway.

We'll talk about it later.

Lin Shuyin was indeed looking for milk powder tickets, but she was looking for them for Saren. She didn't need them herself, but because Saren's sister-in-law had given birth to a baby and had no milk, so she needed to feed the baby with milk powder.

She asked her team leader Meng Jia that day and got two tickets. Today Meng Jia gave her two more.

"Shuyin, these two tickets were brought over by Captain Shen."

Lin Shuyin was surprised, "Did Captain Shen bring it over?"

Meng Jia, "Yes, I mentioned your search for milk powder tickets the other day..."

Lin Shuyin understood that she really needed the milk powder coupons and it was impossible to send them back, and it was also difficult to send them back.

She asked, "Captain, did Captain Shen say what we can exchange for? I have grain coupons, cloth coupons, and cotton coupons."

Meng Jia, "He didn't say anything. He just left after sending it off. You can ask him yourself some other day."

Lin Shuyin nodded, "That's fine."

Milk powder tickets are very precious, so she, Sarin and other people in the tour group exchanged other tickets for milk powder tickets.

So we can’t take Captain Shen’s milk powder coupons for nothing.

Lin Shuyin decided to wait until Sunday when she had a day off to ask Shen Guannan.