07
Shi Fangfang looked at Yang Qiujin's back as she left, feeling a little complicated. Ji Mingchen was also at the frontier, having been a military doctor for several years. Even Chen Shengqing was about to return as a battalion commander, and he might bring Yang Qiujin with him this time. What about Ji Mingchen? When would he return, and when would he let her join the army?
"Mom, Shengqing is coming back!"
As soon as Li Xiu'e got home, she saw Yang Qiujin holding a letter and running towards her quickly from the village road, shouting as she ran.
"What? Shengqing is coming back?" Li Xiu'e suspected that she had heard it wrongly, "Am I dreaming?"
"It's true. Shengqing is really coming back." Yang Qiujin ran to her and read the letter in her hand to her breathlessly. "Not only is he coming back, he has also been promoted to battalion commander. He will probably arrive in the next two days."
"Oh, our Shengqing has become an officer!" Li Xiu'e was happy at first, then she wiped away her tears. "This stinky boy finally decided to come back. I thought he had died outside! Now that he is back, you can enjoy your life."
Enjoy life? Yang Qiujin never thought about it. She always wanted Chen Shengqing to live. She didn't think it was important whether he was an official or promoted.
At the time, she and Chen Shengqing were reluctant to get married. Their marriage was partly forced and partly arranged by their parents. She knew very well that Chen Shengqing had no romantic feelings for her.
For so many years, she has been bearing the pressure alone, taking care of her parents-in-law, raising children, working, and taking care of the house. It would be a lie to say that she is not tired and does not complain.
Many times she felt that she couldn't bear it anymore, cried silently in the dark night, and thought about divorcing Chen Shengqing. But she thought, after the divorce, can she live the good life she wants?
Due to the limitations of the times, in the eyes of most people in this era, women must get married, have children and work hard all their lives. If she really divorces Chen Shengqing, not to mention how the villagers will scold her for being ungrateful, even her mother will not be able to get over it.
If she divorced, her mother would definitely force her to remarry and find another man to live with. And finding another man might not be better than Chen Shengqing.
She thought she could live well without a man, but she couldn't stand the looks of the villagers and her mother's crying, making a fuss and threatening to commit suicide.
In addition, she was used to seeing her own scumbag father, and many men in the village had a lot of problems and did not treat their wives as human beings. Therefore, Yang Qiujin felt that Chen Shengqing was a good person, so she never openly mentioned the divorce to Chen Shengqing.
Now that Chen Shengqing is coming back, Yang Qiujin is half expectant and half confused.
She had heard the gossips of the villagers. Many people said that Chen Shengqing despised her and that he had not come back for so many years because he despised her. If he came back, the first thing he would do would be to divorce her and marry a gentle and virtuous woman.
She doesn't plan to divorce Chen Shengqing, so if he comes back, will he divorce her?
Yang Qiujin looked at her mother-in-law who was leaving happily to tell the good news to relatives and friends, and she suddenly felt sad.
Forget it, just divorce, she won't want anything then, just Tianyou. That's the child she worked so hard to give birth to, if Chen Shengqing dares to fight with her for the child, she will kill him!
In the next few days, the Chen family was filled with joy. Wherever Li Xiu'e and Yang Qiujin went, people congratulated them. When relatives and friends who had never been related to them heard that Chen Shengqing had become a battalion commander, they came to congratulate them.
Yang Qiujin was too impatient to deal with these powerful relatives and friends, so she left them all to her mother-in-law to entertain, and did what she was supposed to do.
The weather was not very good today. The sky was overcast and it looked like it would rain at any moment.
Yang Qiujin was sitting in the brigade office, calculating the brigade's financial income and expenditure for the past two days quickly with an abacus in her left hand, and recording the accounts in the account book with a pen in her right hand. Suddenly, she heard a commotion outside.
"What happened?" Yang Qiujin put down what she was holding and looked out curiously.
I saw a large group of young students wearing military green uniforms and red armbands coming up the village road not far away. They were holding red banners and small red flags and marching in a high-pitched voice, shouting: "Down with imperialism and capitalism!"
"Down with feudalism, superstition and the four old things!"
"Down with all the counter-revolutionaries, demons and monsters!"
......
"What else could it be? It's just those little red soldiers who are full and have nothing to do and are causing trouble."
The team leader, Deng Jianshe, was a man in his thirties who looked like he was forty because of years of hard work. He had a worried look on his face. "These students, instead of attending junior high and high school, insisted on participating in some kind of movement. They fight for this today and that tomorrow. They have made a good place a mess. They used to fight only in the city, but now they have come to our countryside. Do you think they are sick?"
"Hmph, you can eat whatever you want, but you can't say whatever you want." Secretary Zhang, who was also watching the excitement, shook his head at Deng Jianshe. "The situation outside is tense now. Any random words can be used as a handle for those little Red Soldiers to catch and fight to death. They didn't fight us before because we are in the countryside and they mainly fight in the city. Now that they have almost finished fighting in the city, they are pointing their spearheads at us in the countryside."
He took a sip of the old tea he brought with him, smacked his lips and said, "I think things are going to change in our Pioneer Brigade. Jianshe and Qiu Jin, you two should stop working here. Before those little Red Soldiers join our brigade, quickly notify the members to clean up the feudal four olds that shouldn't be in their homes and shut up the mouths that should be opened, so as not to cause trouble and cry for their parents."
Deng Jianshe and Yang Qiujin were both nervous. They had attended a cadre meeting in the county last year and had witnessed the crazy fighting of the Little Red Soldiers in the city. They did not dare to delay and packed up their things and hurried to inform the members.
After notifying the members working in the fields, Yang Qiujin and Deng Jianshe parted ways. They first ran to the storeroom at home to get a handful of herbs they had picked and dried, then went to the stove to get four steamed buns, two cooked eggs, and five and a half palm-sized sweet potatoes and put them in a basket. Then they ran to their own private plot, picked two emerald green cucumbers, and carried them to a remote cowshed at the foot of the mountain at the end of the village, where lived two intellectuals from the returnee faction who had been labeled as rightists from the capital.
When Yang Qiujin arrived at the cowshed, Professor Zheng Jintong, a man in his fifties with half-white hair, wearing a gray patched straight-ribboned shirt, with a handsome face and a very scholarly temperament, was squatting by the cowshed, shoveling fresh cow dung with a shovel.
"Professor Zheng, I'm here to see you and Professor Cai." Yang Qiujin approached the bullpen carrying a basket.
Professor Zheng had cleaned the cowshed very well, without any foul smell. Yang Qiujin suddenly appeared and startled Zheng Jiyi. He tilted his shovel and fresh cow dung fell to the ground, splashing all over him.
When Professor Zheng saw that his clean clothes were covered with cow feces, he did not get angry or sad like he did when he was sent down to the countryside. He just sighed softly and smiled at Yang Qiujin, "Comrade Yang, why are you here?"
"Little Red Soldiers have entered the village. I'm worried about you and Professor Cai. I'm going to bring you some food and give you a reminder."
Yang Qiujin handed the basket in her hand to Zheng Jintong, and then looked at the middle-aged man sitting in the corner of the cowshed. He was skinny, with sunken eyes and lifeless eyes. He was about 55 years old. His name was Cai Zhengmao.
Yang Qiujin half squatted down and asked with concern: "Professor Cai, are you feeling better?"
Cai Zhengmao had caught a cold some time ago and had been working despite being sick, and his health had not improved. Every few days Yang Qiujin would secretly give him herbs she had picked herself so that he could boil them into water to drink.
"Much better, thank you, Comrade Xiao Yang." Cai Zhengmao coughed, stood up with difficulty and greeted her, "I'm sorry to trouble you again. For so many years, it has always been you, the little comrade, who has taken care of us two old men. We are unworthy of it."
"You're welcome. It's just a small favor." Yang Qiujin waved her hand and asked him to sit down and rest. "My mother fell down the mountain while chopping wood. If you and Professor Zheng hadn't seen her while herding cattle and carried her back from the mountain ditch, I don't even dare to think that she would be eaten by a blind bear while lying in the ditch. You and Professor Zheng saved my mother's life. What I have done for you is not worth mentioning."
Professor Zheng put the basket away and turned around to say, "Xiao Yang, you should go back quickly. If someone sees you interacting with us in broad daylight, it will cause unnecessary trouble. We have received your kindness, but please don't come here too often in the future. When we have the ability, we will definitely repay you well. Don't worry about the Little Red Soldiers. This is not the first time we have been criticized. Don't worry, no matter how they fight us, we will persevere."
Yang Qiujin made this special trip because she was worried that the two knowledgeable professors would not be able to endure the torture of the Little Red Soldiers and would commit suicide like the senior elements in the city.
After hearing what Professor Zheng said, she nodded and said, "Professor Zheng, Professor Cai, remember, no matter what happens, never give up hope and stay alive. Only by staying alive can we have hope and see the light."
"We all understand, Comrade Xiao Yang, please leave now."
After Yang Qiujin left, Professor Zheng handed the basket to Professor Cai. When Professor Cai saw what was inside, he said with red eyes: "There are still many good people in this world."
It has been eight years since they were labeled as rightists and sent down to the countryside in 1959. During these eight years, they have done the dirtiest and most tiring work, eaten the worst and rottenest food, lived in the cowshed with cows, and were dragged out for fights by people from the brigade and the commune every now and then. They have suffered all kinds of humiliation, and their former pride and self-esteem have been trampled into the mud.
If Yang Qiujin had not secretly supported and cared for them all these years, the two old bones would have been unable to endure the torture and would have died of illness, hunger, or suicide.
Yang Qiujin always encouraged and comforted them to live well, and occasionally she would secretly help them mail letters home to give them hope of survival.
Although they had lived a hard life in recent years, they were still alive, and they were happier than anyone else to see Yang Qiujin coming.
"Don't be sad, eat the food while it's hot." Professor Zheng stuffed the cooked egg-shaped sweet potatoes into his arms. "We were beaten by those little red soldiers last year and our skin was peeled off. This time it won't be easy. Let's eat up everything Xiao Yang gives us and throw the eggshells to the cows. Don't let those people catch us and implicate Xiao Yang."
"You're right." Professor Cai peeled the green-skinned egg, revealing the shiny white egg inside. He took a big bite and tasted the tender egg white and pink yolk. It had been a long time since he had tasted delicate food. He was so happy that he almost burst into tears. He muttered to himself that when he got his life back on track, he would definitely repay Yang Qiujin.
Professor Zheng ate the yellow-heart sweet potatoes that Yang Qiujin had grown and sent him, and felt the sweet and tender taste in his mouth. He thought to himself that the taste was still a little worse than the sweet potato variety he had researched at the Japan Agricultural Research Institute, and the taste was not as sweet.
When he has time, he will study the hybrid sweet potato cultivation technology and ask Yang Qiujin to plant some more to see if the taste is as good as the sweet potatoes he studied before.
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