16
"Mom, don't worry, I have money on hand." Yang Qiujin stuffed the money into Wu Shulian's hand again, and smiled coquettishly, "Shengqing came back this time and gave me a lot of household expenses. I don't lack money. After I leave, I don't know when I can see you again. I can't take care of you like before. This money is for you to keep as your own money. Don't let Dad know."
When her father-in-law passed away and her mother-in-law fell ill, Yang Qiujin took her mother-in-law to seek medical treatment everywhere, causing everyone in the Vanguard Brigade to mistakenly believe that Li Xiu'e was very ill.
But in fact, Yang Qiujin saw through the Second Wife's thoughts and did this deliberately for her to see if she was willing to lend them money for their medical treatment.
As expected, the second wife ignored them, so they split up the family.
At that time, Li Xiu'e was indeed ill, and it was a mental illness. She was depressed, refused to eat or drink, and always wanted to die with Lao Chentou.
In order to appease Li Xiu'e, Yang Qiujin took her around on a tour under the pretext of taking her to see a doctor, so that this old lady who had stayed in the countryside for many years could broaden her horizons and let go of everything. Only then did she return home.
Yang Qiujin also gained a lot of knowledge and ideas through this trip, and her personality became quite different from before.
Most of Chen Shengqing's allowance over the years was mailed back to her. From the initial one or two yuan per month to fifty yuan per month now, Yang Qiujin had more than three hundred yuan left after deducting daily expenses. In addition to the twelve hundred yuan that Chen Shengqing gave her after he came back, she gave one hundred yuan to her mother, which was really not much.
Wu Shulian couldn't refuse, knowing that this was a token of her daughter's affection, and accepted it with tears in her eyes.
During lunch, Yang Chenghua, for the first time, did not look at Yang Qiujin with anger. He hugged Tianyou and laughed and joked non-stop.
When Yang Qiujin and her family finished their meal and were about to leave, Yang Chenghua sneakily stuffed a bunch of crumpled bills into Yang Qiujin's hands, "Use this money to buy Tianyou some good food and drinks, don't let my grandson go hungry."
This was the first time Yang Chenghua gave money to Yang Qiujin since their marriage.
Yang Qiujin looked at the pile of bills in her hand, which only added up to five yuan. She threw the money back into his hand in disgust and said, "You can keep it for yourself. I don't need money, and Tianyou doesn't need your concern."
She didn't know why he did this. It was because Chen Shengqing came back and was promoted to battalion commander. She had a future with him, and it was better for them and their son. He wanted to please her and get benefits later. She cut it off from the root.
"You! You don't know what's good for you!" Yang Chenghua was enraged by her contemptuous attitude and wanted to curse her, but Chen Shengqing suddenly appeared beside him like a ghost, with a cold light in his narrow eyes, and the whole person was so cold that he looked like he had crawled out of the ice and snow. Yang Chenghua was frightened by her and swallowed back the words that were about to come out of his mouth. He watched the three of them leave.
After returning home, Yang Qiujin immediately packed her clothes. She also packed a lot of pickled vegetables, salted vegetables, dried radish, bacon, sausage, etc., filling three large bags.
She also took various seeds that she had hung under the eaves, such as seeds of cabbage, soybeans, radishes, rapeseed, pumpkin, peppers and other fruits and vegetables, and put some of each in her bag.
After thinking about it again, he took out a small bag and put a dozen yellow-heart sweet potatoes and potatoes developed by Professor Zheng in it, intending to take them to the frontier family courtyard to plant.
Chen Tianyou sat under the eaves, watching her and Li Xiu'e busy packing their luggage. He leaned against the door listlessly and asked, "Mom, do I have to go with the army? Is it okay if I don't go?"
"Why don't you want to go?" Yang Qiujin asked without turning her head as she stuffed the homemade canned bean paste into the already bulging package.
"I can't bear to leave my grandma, and I can't bear to leave Xiaohua who played well with me..." Chen Tianyou sighed sadly like a little adult, "What will they do when I leave?"
Xiaohua is Chen Tianyou's female classmate. She is very cute and obedient, and usually gets along well with Chen Tianyou.
"Pfft..." Li Xiu'e, who was helping Yang Qiujin pack her luggage, turned around and saw his expression. She chuckled and teased him on purpose, "Then you don't leave. You stay at home with grandma and Xiaohua. Your mom will go to the border with your dad and come back to see you during the holidays. Okay?"
"No!" Chen Tianyou refused without hesitation, "I want to follow my mother."
No matter how good Nai and Xiaohua are, they are not as good as Mom. He would refuse to separate from Mom no matter what.
"You little rascal, your mother loves you so much!" Li Xiu'e poked his round head with her hand in anger and amusement, "You forget your mother now that you have a mother."
"Mom, you really don't want to go to the border with us?" Yang Qiujin tied up the cloth bag, turned around and said seriously: "We can rent a small house outside the army, and then you can find a job with me. We can earn money and see Tianyou all the time. How great is that."
"No." Li Xiu'e waved her hand. "I have lived in the Pioneer Brigade for most of my life. It is hard to leave my hometown. I can't bear to leave your father, so I have to go up the mountain from time to time to visit his grave. Besides, you two are living your own lives, and I, an old woman, can't complain about me joining in the fun. You two just live a good life, which is better than anything else. When you get pregnant one day, I will come to take care of you. Before that, I won't go anywhere, and don't waste the money to rent a house. It will make people laugh."
Yang Qiujin could not persuade her, so she could only shake her head and go into the kitchen to cook.
She cooked a simple lunch. She washed two pieces of spicy sausage and cooked them in the pot. She then threw in a handful of radish strips that had been dried in the sun last winter, steamed a layer of rice on top, and smashed two juicy green cucumbers picked from her own plot of land to make a cold dish. Soon the whole room was filled with the special aroma of radish strips and sausage mixed together.
"What delicious food are you making?" Chen Shengqing pushed a half-worn 28-inch bicycle into the yard. When he smelled the rich aroma of radish and meat in the air, his throat moved.
"I cooked radish and sausage, and steamed rice." Yang Qiujin cut the slightly cooled sausage into thin, shiny slices and placed them on a white porcelain plate. She scooped up the shiny radish soup with a hint of red oil, and placed the food on the wooden table in the yard. When she saw him pushing his bicycle in, she exclaimed, "The captain is willing to lend you his bicycle."
This bicycle was assembled by someone else when the captain purchased it from the county scrap yard a few years ago. He treated it like a treasure to himself, even more than his own son. He never rode it lightly and never lent it to outsiders. He polished the bicycle every day and kept it at home for him to look at every day. He actually lent it to Chen Shengqing to ride. It was truly a blessing from heaven.
"We are somewhat related. He has to lend it to me even if he doesn't want to." Chen Shengqing parked his bicycle in the yard, took Chen Tianyou to the corner of the yard to wash his hands, and then sat at the table. He scooped rice for her and Li Xiu'e first, then scooped for Chen Tianyou, and finally scooped for himself. "After dinner, we will go to the county department store to see what you want to buy. Buy everything, and I will buy the tickets. Tomorrow morning, we will take a bus to the provincial capital to take the train."
Transportation was underdeveloped at that time, especially in southern Sichuan Province, where the mountain roads were rugged and the roads were muddy. In order to get from southern Sichuan Province to the border, in addition to taking a day's bus to the city center to buy a train ticket, you also had to take a two-day and one-night train, and then change trains twice, to reach the camp where Chen Shengqing's troops were located.
Yang Qiujin had no objection and did not ask him why he did not take Ji Mingchen's jeep. "Okay, when we get to the county, I will go see my sister and take care of some things for her."
Chen Shengqing didn't ask what was going on. He lowered his head, picked up his chopsticks, and asked everyone to eat.
The sausages on the table were cut into even thicknesses and neatly placed on a white porcelain plate. Under the sunlight, they emitted an alluring oily glow.
Chen Shengqing puts a piece of sausage into his mouth. It tastes spicy and fresh, with a faint smoky aroma of pine and cypress. One bite makes your mouth water and the aroma of meat fills the air.
He knew in his heart that his mother's cooking skills could not produce such delicious taste, and this must be the sausage made by Yang Qiujin.
It had been many years since he had eaten such delicious sausage. He had been a soldier on the frontier for many years, and most of what he ate was big pots of vegetables and dry food, which left him with a tasteless mouth all day long. Suddenly, he tasted authentic Sichuan cuisine, and the spicy sauce in it was so spicy that his lips turned slightly red.
However, the hotter it was, the more he wanted to eat it. He turned his chopsticks and ate the cold cucumber. The crispy, tender and refreshing spicy taste made him eat two mouthfuls of rice. He then quickly picked up a radish strip to suppress the spicy taste in his mouth.
He didn't expect that the radish strips were stewed till soft and tender, soaking up the soup. When he bit into them, they were hot and delicious, with a strong aroma of bacon and gravy. He was so delicious that his eyes widened, wondering when Yang Qiujin's cooking skills became so good.
The meal was cooked to his liking and in a short while he had finished two large bowls of rice and drank up the carrot soup.
"Eat slowly, no one is competing with you for food." Li Xiu'e felt very distressed when she saw his exhausted appearance. "Are you full? If not, I'll make some more."
"No, I'm full." In fact, Chen Shengqing felt that he could still eat two bowls, but because Yang Qiujin didn't cook much rice, and there were very few meat and vegetables these days, he had to leave some for his family, so he stopped when he was half full.
Yang Qiujin was also surprised by the way Chen Shengqing ate. She felt that Chen Shengqing was not full and was somewhat surprised at his appetite. When Chen Shengqing drove her and Chen Tianyou to the county and passed by a state-owned hotel, she specifically asked: "Do you want to buy some more food?"
"How much do you think I can eat?" Chen Shengqing stopped the car with a creak, propped up his long legs on the car body, turned around and looked at her, his eyes full of a timid smile, "I bet that the cooking skills of those state-owned chefs are not as good as yours to my taste. You should feel sorry for me and cook more meals in the future so that I can eat more."
Yang Qiujin's face turned red when he looked at her, "Who cares about you? You are just being sentimental."
Chen Shengqing raised his eyebrows and smiled. Without saying much, he pushed his long legs and rode the bicycle forward at high speed.
"Wuhu~take off~!" Chen Tianyou, who was sitting on the front bumper, opened his arms and laughed.
"Hey? What are you doing?" Instinct made Yang Qiujin lean back, and she was so scared that she hurriedly grabbed Chen Shengqing's clothes around his waist. Unexpectedly, he rode faster and faster, and Yang Qiujin felt like she was going to fly up. She had to hold his strong back tightly with both hands, and she did not forget to extend one hand to angrily hammer Chen Shengqing's shoulder, "Ride slower, do you want to kill me?"
He felt the warm and fragrant body of a woman on his back, and the child in front of him was laughing particularly happily. Chen Shengqing laughed along with Tianyou, slowly slowed down the car, and drove towards the department store in the county.
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