26
A border defense regiment is stationed at the camp.
After finishing the morning training, Chen Shengqing washed his face and walked towards the local office building.
On the second floor, a middle-aged military officer with regular features, wearing a pair of black-framed glasses and looking very elegant was standing at the door of the conference room smoking. When he saw him coming upstairs, he smiled and asked, "Captain Chen, I heard that you brought your family here. When can we meet them?"
"Political Commissar Liao." Chen Shengqing dodged the smoke coming out of his mouth. "There's nothing to see. They're all human beings with noses and eyes. They all live in the same military compound. You'll run into her sooner or later."
"What are you saying?" Liao Zhenxing glared at him. "It's been so many years, and you have never been interested in women. This time you brought your family here without telling us. You don't even ask us to treat us to a meal, but you want us to formally meet your wife? Could it be that your wife is just like what those military wives say, a country, ugly, uneducated freak? Do you look down on her?"
"Come on, Lao Liao, stop making things difficult for him." A tall, bearded, rough-looking military officer next to him also puffed out smoke and said, "My wife met his wife yesterday. She said that my brother's wife is pretty and has a good personality. She doesn't look like someone from the countryside, but she's a little darker than the military doctor's wife."
Ji Mingchen was also wearing a military uniform and standing at the door of the conference room. Hearing this, he glanced at Chen Shengqing and said nothing.
Chen Shengqing also glanced at him, expressionless and silent.
The atmosphere between the two was very subtle. The rough-looking officer who had spoken earlier saw their expressions and remembered the gossip his wife had told him last night. He suddenly laughed and said, "Doctor Ji, you and Captain Chen are from the same place. I heard that your wives are also from the same place. What a coincidence."
"We are from the same village and grew up together." Ji Mingchen looked a little embarrassed.
Li Zhiyong wanted to say something, but Political Commissar Liao interrupted him: "Okay, Deputy Head Li, everyone is here, let's go in and have the meeting."
A group of officers in green military uniforms filed into the conference room, where the long square conference table was fully occupied.
The leader was a stern-looking officer in his forties with thick eyebrows and big eyes. His name was Guo Shengrong and he was the head of the Second Regiment of the Border Defense Department.
After he routinely talked about some military affairs of the military, he held a stack of official documents in his hand and said solemnly: "Recently, the inland struggle has become more and more serious, and our military has also been affected. Many brother departments have been fighting internally, and the civilian and military positions have their own ulterior motives, which has led to the continuous decline of the military's armed strength. Our Second Border Defense Regiment is located under the Tianshan Mountains and is responsible for the security of the motherland's border. Those neighboring countries with ill intentions have been eyeing us covetously. If we engage in internal strife, the enemy will take advantage of the opportunity to break through our defense line, and the rear of our motherland will be finished! I will never allow our regiment to engage in factional internal strife like other troops. I called everyone to the meeting today mainly to listen to your opinions or ideas, and everyone should actively express them. "
There was silence in the conference room.
The national situation is not good. A single word can cause trouble. The more you say at this time, the more mistakes you will make.
After a while, Political Commissar Liao spoke up: "Captain Guo, the current struggle in the country is to accept orders directly from the central government. Although we are located on the border, we have all lived together for many years and do not have major conflicts like other brother troops. We will not be divided into factions for the time being, but there is no guarantee that the higher-ups will not send people to parachute in and stir up conflicts between us."
"Then what do you say we should do?" Captain Guo frowned.
"If you ask me, we'd better remain unchanged in the face of all changes." Political Commissar Liao pushed up his glasses. "As long as the brothers in our regiment are united and have the same aspirations, no matter how many people the higher-ups send us, we will face the outside world in unison. Well, as long as we all do our own duties well, what can the higher-ups do to us?"
"You make sense." Captain Guo's brows relaxed, and he looked at the silent officers, tapping the table unconsciously with his fingers. "Does everyone have any opinions on what Political Commissar Yu Liao said?"
"no!"
All military officers expressed their views one after another.
"You have been given the opportunity. If you don't express your opinions, don't blame me for vilifying you in advance." Captain Guo said coldly, "Whoever says one thing in front of me and another behind my back, tries to sow discord among the brothers in our group, dares to take sides and form factions, inform the higher-ups, and sell out the organization, I will make sure you are buried with me even if it means sacrificing my future and my military career!"
…
"Disband!"
A group of military officers came out of the conference room. Captain Guo deliberately kept Wang Jianjun and Chen Shengqing. He said to Wang Jianjun, "The problem with your spouse's background is quite serious. What do you think?"
Wang Jianjun replied: "Captain, I know what you mean. My wife had already published an announcement in the newspaper a few years ago that she had severed ties with her parents, brothers and sisters. She is no longer the eldest daughter of a capitalist family. She is just my wife. She is the person I love the most. I can't divorce her and abandon her and leave."
"You know, because of her, your future may end here!"
"I know. I'm ready to retire and change careers if I don't get promoted by the age limit!"
"You don't regret it?"
"Never regret it!"
"Okay, I get it, you can go out now."
Wang Jianjun saluted Guo Zhiyong and left the meeting room.
Guo Zhiyong took a sip of the strong tea in the enamel water cup and asked Chen Shengqing: "Do you know why I kept you until the end?"
"Please let me know, Captain." Chen Shengqing shook his head.
Guo Zhiyong picked up a red-letter document and said, "I am already 40 years old. If I am not promoted to deputy division commander in a few years, I will be like Wang Jianjun and retire from the army."
Chen Shengqing stood straight in front of him like a pine tree, without saying a word.
Guo Zhiyong didn't care and continued, "Among the three battalion commanders in the Second Regiment, the Second Battalion Commander is mediocre and the Third Battalion Commander is inexperienced. Only you are born with a good family background, are well-educated, and have made significant military achievements. If it weren't for the mistakes you made in the past few years, you would have been promoted to the position of deputy regiment commander by now."
Chen Shengqing lowered his eyes, "Blood debt must be repaid with blood. I don't think I made any mistakes."
"You are sometimes too impulsive and aggressive, which is not a good thing for you." Guo Zhiyong sighed and went straight to the point: "I kept you here because I wanted to give you a choice. The higher-ups have given our regiment an opportunity to transfer positions. This opportunity is rare. After two years of training in the Capital Military Region, you can be promoted to deputy regiment commander."
"If it's so easy to get along in the Capital Military Region, Ji Mingchen would not take the initiative to transfer from the capital to our border defense regiment." Chen Shengqing exposed him mercilessly: "People in Beijing want to plant people here, and you can't refuse, so you use me as a trade. I know that you are doing this for my own good, and you want to promote me everywhere, but with the current situation, I think it's safest to stay in our border defense department. As for promotion, I don't care. If I can be promoted, I will be promoted. If I can't be promoted, I will be retired and transferred to civilian work when I reach the age, and I can live anywhere."
"What are you talking about!" Guo Zhiyong was so angry that he pounded the table. "I'm jumping up and down and planning everything for you, and you all regard money and power as dirt. I'm working for you but it's thankless, right? Fine, if you don't want to go, you will patrol the border for an extra month from next month. Let the snow on the border mountains freeze your brain and sober you up."
Half of the Tianshan Mountains border the Soviet Union. There are many peaks and the terrain is dangerous, but there are also relatively flat and gentle areas.
In recent years, the diplomatic relations between the two countries have been poor, and frictions and conflicts on the border are common. The border covers too vast an area, and spies, reactionaries and rebels from various countries emerge in endlessly. Once their identities are exposed, they always flee to the border.
The border defense troops had to guard against Soviet invasions and work together to capture these spies, rebels and instigators. They also had to endure the high altitude, breathing difficulties, snow everywhere, and the pressure of patrolling the border. Every extra month of patrolling meant a lot of hardship for them.
"Yes!" Chen Shengqing responded expressionlessly. Before leaving, he said, "Captain Guo, I think the second battalion commander is more suitable than me to go to the Capital Military Region for gold plating. After all, he has been the battalion commander for five years. Do you want to consider him?"
"Get lost!" A piece of waste paper was thrown hard at his face.
Chen Shengqing walked away dejectedly, rubbing his nose.
Yang Qiujin left the Wang family, carrying a basket and walking around the rows of birch trees, she came to a row of houses at the deputy regiment level or above, all of which were larger than the courtyards of battalion commanders.
At this time, most men have gone to work in the army, and there are only women and children at home. Today is Saturday, and the children are not in class. They are all playing outside the yard or inside the house.
Yang Qiujin carried a basket and walked towards Zhao Erfeng's home. Along the way, she met several military wives. They looked at her strangely and whispered to her, and no one knew what they were mumbling.
Yang Qiujin glanced at them and saw that they were avoiding her gaze. She walked up to them and asked, "What are you sisters-in-law saying about me? Why don't you tell me in front of me so that I can tell whether it's true or not?"
"We didn't say anything." The four women of different heights and weights had never seen a woman as straightforward and shameless as Yang Qiujin, and they all smiled awkwardly.
"It's best to say nothing." Yang Qiujin had a decent smile on her beautiful face. "I hate it most when someone gossips about me behind my back. If you say something to my face, I will accept it humbly and won't get angry. But if you say nonsense and untrue things behind my back, I'm sorry. When I turn my back on you, I will hit you!"
"Haha...you think too much. We were just chatting, not talking about you."
The four women watched her enter Zhao Erfeng's yard. One of them, a round-faced military wife, spat at her from behind, "It's just like Shi Fangfang said. She's just an uneducated country bumpkin who behaves rudely. We haven't even said anything to her yet, and she threatened to beat us up."
"That's right. How can she be good if she can make friends with Zhao Erfeng, an uneducated peasant?"
"It's a pity that Captain Chen, who is so handsome, married a country bumpkin."
......
"Sister Zhao, I am here to bother you."
Zhao Erfeng didn't get along well with her neighbors. She had walls on both sides of her house. When Yang Qiujin walked into her yard, she was sitting in the yard drinking a large bowl of porridge.
"Don't bother me. I'm so happy that you can come to see me." Seeing Yang Qiujin coming into the courtyard, Zhao Erfeng stood up enthusiastically to greet her, "Have you had breakfast? If not, have some more."
"I've already eaten it. It was the pancake you made yesterday. It tasted really good." Yang Qiujin took out something from her basket. "Sister Zhao, these are some specialties from my hometown. Take them and try them."
"Oh, thank you." Zhao Erfeng did not refuse. He quickly put the bowl on the ground, put the pickled vegetables and dried radish that Yang Qiujin brought into the kitchen, opened the glass jar of bean paste, poured the red, tempting bean paste that made people salivate into a bowl, then washed the glass bottle clean, handed it to Yang Qiujin and said, "You made a really delicious hot sauce. My second child has no appetite these two days, so I'll use it to eat steamed bread at noon. I don't know if he can handle spicy food."
"Sister-in-law, this is bean paste, not the hot sauce from other provinces. I made it not that spicy, and your children should be able to eat it." Yang Qiujin put the washed glass jars into the basket, thinking to herself that Liang Xueqing, who was accustomed to a good life and was born into a capitalist family, was really different from Zhao Erfeng, who was accustomed to a hard life and was from a rural northerner.
She gave Liang Xueqing some fermented bean paste, but Liang Xueqing took the bottle away. Zhao Erfeng poured out the fermented bean paste and returned the empty bottle to her.
Nowadays, people have to prepare their own bottles and cans for soy sauce, vinegar, sauce, etc. Most people will return the bottles and cans, dishes, etc. to others when they receive food or something like that, mainly out of sympathy for the cost of buying the bottles and cans.
The jar of hot sauce that Yang Qiujin had was filled from cans that she had collected on a daily basis. She gave it directly to Liang Xueqing without feeling sorry for it.
If it were any other woman, she would have complained a little, because an empty can can be sold for at least one cent.
"That's great. My second child loves spicy food. If he wasn't my biological son, I would have suspected that he was from Sichuan Province in his previous life. Big sister, wait for me." Zhao Erfeng quickly ate the thin soup in the bowl, put the bowl in the kitchen, and shouted in a long voice: "Big sister, mother and your aunt Yang are going to the service center. You take care of your younger brothers and sisters, and wash the dishes in the pot."
"Oh, I got it." A girl's crisp voice responded from inside the room.
Zhao Erfeng ran back to the house, picked up the money, and was about to tell Yang Qiujin to leave when her youngest son, Gou Dandan, who was only a little over one year old, hugged her thighs with tears and snot, crying incoherently, "Mom, hold me, hold me."
"Da Ni'er, Er Ni'er, carry your brother in." Zhao Erfeng turned around and shouted.
"Mom, I'm washing dishes, I don't have time."
"Mom, I'm taking a shit, I don't have time."
The voices of two girls came from the house one after another. Zhao Erfeng looked at the fourth child who was playing in the mud in the yard. The boy was only three years old and was very naughty. It was unbearable for him to look after the child. The second child was sick again and was lying in the house.
Lao Wu hugged his legs and cried bitterly. Zhao Erfeng picked him up helplessly, cursing: "You are not easy to take care of. I can't even relax for a moment."
She turned to Yang Qiujin and complained, "Sister, what do we women live for? We have to run around our husbands and children from morning till night without a break, and men don't show any consideration for us, thinking that this is what we should do. Take my husband for example. He doesn't even help when the soy sauce bottle falls over when he comes home. When I let him take care of a child, he scolds the child like a new soldier and makes him cry loudly. The children are all afraid of him, which makes me angry. That's fine, but he also flirts with those military wives who are a bit pretentious, which makes me angry. I fight with him from time to time. I don't know when this life will end."
Yang Qiujin was not in a position to comment on other people's family affairs, so she smiled without saying anything and followed Zhao Erfeng to the military district service center.
Although the border defense garrison is not as big as the military district, it has everything that is needed. It is about half an hour's walk from the family area. It has a family canteen, a military school, a military hospital, a military service center, a grocery store, etc., and is basically fully equipped.
It's hard for Yang Qiujin and Zhao Erfeng not to attract people's attention when they walk together.
She was beautiful, with delicate features and a slender figure. Even though, like Zhao Erfeng, she dressed a little rustically, had a big braid, and had a dark skin, she was obviously much more eye-catching when compared with the average-looking Zhao Erfeng.
Some passers-by saw them and started talking about them.
Some sarcastic words would fall into Yang Qiujin's ears from time to time, such as "two country bumpkins", "birds of a feather flock together", "country woman", "it is indeed a charcoal", etc.
"What are you talking about!" Zhao Erfeng was a man with a bad temper. When he heard these words, he rushed to the women with his child in his arms and angrily said, "Say it again if you dare!"
"We didn't say anything." She suddenly got angry, and the child in her arms burst into tears. The women who were gossiping were also shocked. Knowing that her husband was the deputy head of the group and that she had a bad temper and would quarrel with others at the slightest disagreement, the women all avoided her.
Yang Qiujin was repeatedly talked about behind her back. Logically speaking, she had just arrived and had not made much contact with the military wives. No matter how curious and gossipy they were, they should not say such nasty things.
But now that they opened their mouths, Yang Qiujin knew there was something wrong without having to think too much.
"No one can leave until we make things clear." Yang Qiujin stopped the two young women who were gossiping, her face gloomy, "Who told you about me and made you say I was a slut right away?"
"Aren't you?" One of the women asked back, "You scolded Xiang Yuxiang as soon as you arrived. The words you said were so ugly that they spread throughout the family compound. You are a shrew."
"That's right. Xiang Yuxiang was just helping Captain Chen clean the house out of kindness. Not only were you not grateful, you insulted her. You are just like what Sister Shi said. You are just a rough, uneducated country woman!"
When Yang Qiujin heard this, she understood that it was Shi Fangfang and Xiang Yuxiang who were spreading bad things about her behind her back.
She laughed angrily. She did have a bad temper and was a bit harsh, but she always had a clear distinction between love and hate. She would never bully or criticize others, or say bad things about others.
She always has a reason for everything she does.
Now, look what happened. She had just arrived to join the army and these two women came to ruin her reputation, making her the subject of talk wherever she went.
Fine, since they are unkind, don't blame her for being unjust.
Yang Qiujin asked: "Which sister-in-law's sisters are you?"
"Why are you asking this?" The two women looked wary.
"I'll have to make a note of it and see which military officer with a family background you guys hooked up with so I can send you to a military court."
She smiled maliciously, "You must know that destroying a military marriage will result in a lawsuit and imprisonment, right? You are about the same age as Xiang Yuxiang, and both are unmarried girls. Since you support the people who want to destroy my family, I will follow you like a ghost every day in the future to see if you can seduce other people's husbands! Oh, don't disbelieve me, I don't have a job now, my children will go to school soon, I am free from morning to night, and the family area is not this big, no matter where you go, I can find you."
The two young women were frightened by her vicious smile.
According to the military's troop accompanying system, no outsiders are allowed to enter except wives and children.
But if the military wives apply to the higher authorities, saying that they are sick, or have given birth, or for other reasons, and want their sisters, sisters-in-law, mothers-in-law, etc. to help take care of their children, they can stay here for about ten days to half a month.
Generally speaking, the purpose of young unmarried girls who come here is self-evident.
There are not many officers in the border defense department, most of them are married, and there are also quite a few unmarried ones. Many girls are very eager to hook up with those promising unmarried officers. If they are really entangled by Yang Qiujin's ghost, they will not be able to do anything and their trip will be in vain.
A girl with an oval face said with a guilty conscience, "This sister-in-law said those bad things about you to Xiang Yuxiang and Shi Fangfang. We just said a few words casually and didn't mean anything else. Don't be angry."
"Yes, yes, sister-in-law, we were bad-mouthed and we were wrong. We apologize to you and we will never gossip again. Please be magnanimous and forgive us this time." Another girl echoed.
"That won't do." Yang Qiujin refused.
The oval-faced man gritted his teeth and said, "Sister-in-law, what do you want us to forgive?"
"Why are you talking about forgiveness? You didn't do anything wrong. You just heard some things from others and spread them around." Yang Qiujin said calmly, "I have some gossip here. I wonder if you are interested in listening to it."
The two women looked at each other and said in unison, "Sister-in-law, tell me about it."
Ten minutes later, Yang Qiujin and Zhao Erfeng arrived at the Military Service Center.
The military service agency is similar to the supply and marketing cooperatives outside, with a small storefront and a half-person-high platform at the door, on which some daily utensils are placed sparsely. There is also a wooden lattice shelf full of goods on the back wall. On the left and right sides are several large brown jars filled with soy sauce, vinegar, wine and oil. The two military wives are salespeople inside.
Yang Qiujin looked around the counter and bought some needles and thread, toothpaste and toothbrushes, seasonings such as salt and star anise, as well as bowls and chopsticks, scissors, soap, an enamel water cup with the words "Labor is the Most Glorious" printed on it, a military cross-body schoolbag, a red-painted iron thermos with a silver spout, two pounds of fruit candy, a pound of peanuts and melon seeds, two pear-shaped light bulbs, and after giving away the industrial coupons and banknotes, her eyes fell on the bottles and jars placed on the left side of the counter.
"Big sister, this is Shanghai brand whitening cream, it has whitening and moisturizing effects. If you use it for a long time, your skin will definitely be a shade whiter than it is now." The military wife working inside saw her gaze and hurriedly promoted it, "It's just that the price is a bit more expensive than other skin care products, seven yuan a box."
"Yeah." Yang Qiu nodded and looked at the two large glass bottles, one white and one red, placed next to him.
The military wife added, "This is pearl cream. It's much cheaper than whitening cream, about RMB 1.50 per pound. It has a good skin care effect and can resist the wind and sand dryness in our border areas. If you use it for a long time, your skin will look moisturized."
It has to be said that this military wife is very good at salesmanship. Yang Qiujin was very moved by what she said. What made her feel most inferior was that she did not inherit her mother's fair skin, but instead inherited her scumbag father's dark skin.
She inherited her mother's beauty perfectly, but what's the use of being pretty? With dark skin, she looked inferior to others in every way, especially when compared with Shi Fangfang, who was fair-skinned and a fierce enemy all her life. Yang Qiujin felt extremely frustrated.
Today, she kept hearing gossips saying that she was dark and not as fair and pretty as Shi Fangfang. Yang Qiujin was very dissatisfied. She didn't care about the pain of spending nearly fifty yuan on a lot of things. She pointed at the bottles and jars and said, "Give me three bottles of whitening cream and two kilograms of pearl cream."
"Okay." The salesperson saw that she bought a lot of things and knew that she was the wife of the new Captain Chen and had no shortage of money, so she quickly packed the whitening cream. When it came to the pearl cream, she gave Yang Qiujin a suggestion: "Sister, I suggest you buy the pink pearl cream directly. It has better whitening and moisturizing effects than the silver pearl cream. You can use it together with the whitening cream, apply it every morning and evening before going to bed, and I guarantee you will see results within a month."
"Okay, I'll listen to you." Yang Qiujin handed over the bill quickly.
"Big sister, do you have an empty bottle?" The salesperson said, "If you don't have one, you have to spend an extra dime and buy an empty bottle to put the pearl cream in."
"If you don't have a bottle, I'll give you another dime."
"Okay." The salesperson took the money without wasting time. He turned around and took out a clean glass bottle, then took a special piece of wood, and scraped the pink pearl cream from the five-pound large glass jar on the counter and put it into the small glass bottle. When it weighed about two pounds, he scraped the uneven parts flat and put it on the scale. It was exactly two pounds, no more, no less.
After buying daily necessities, Yang Qiujin went to the grocery store next to the service center to buy vegetables.
The grocery store sells both vegetables and meat, but the vegetables are not fresh and the varieties are limited. There are only onions, cabbages, radishes, and potatoes, and they all look wilted and seem to have been left out for several days.
The only meat available was mutton; no chicken, duck, fish or beef.
Their troops are located at the foot of the remote Tianshan Mountains, and the roads are blocked by heavy snow for many months a year. Although it is already spring and there is a state-owned farm nearby, the new vegetables have not yet grown to the point where they can be eaten. The vegetables sold in this grocery store are winter vegetables stored in the cellar last year, so they do not look fresh.
There are many ethnic groups in border areas, and most of them are engaged in grazing. Cattle are used to plow the land or sell milk and dairy products, and beef is rarely sold.
Chicken and duck meat are all raised by farmers at home. No one raises them on a large scale, and they are rarely sold.
You have to rely on luck to get fish. The Kule Lake a hundred miles away delivers fish to the troops from time to time. If there is fish, you can buy it. If not, you can’t buy it.
Although meat and vegetables were in such short supply, Yang Qiujin could not afford to give up. She ordered two pounds of mutton, which was shaved very cleanly, and sheep bones which cost only ten cents, and bought some pickled cabbage, radishes, potatoes, etc. She also used the oil coupons to buy two pounds of rapeseed oil, and used the grain coupons to buy ten pounds of fine rice, ten pounds of white flour, and five pounds of corn flour and sweet potato flour.
She spent at least a hundred dollars today to buy all these things.
This money is really hard to spend!
"Big sister, let me help you." Yang Qiujin bought too many things and she couldn't carry them all by herself, so Zhao Erfeng borrowed a backpack from the salesperson, tied her little son on her back, and helped Yang Qiujin carry the things.
"Mrs. Zhao, won't the child be uncomfortable carrying him like this?" It was the first time that Yang Qiujin saw someone carrying a child like this, and she felt a little worried.
Zhao Erfeng held a hot water bottle in his left hand and a pile of groceries in his right hand: "It's okay. Our country boy is tough. He's comfortable even if you carry him casually. Isn't that right, Gou Dandan?"
As she spoke, she leaned sideways and shook her shoulders, and Gou Dandan began to chuckle, revealing his toothless gaps.
Yang Qiujin saw that there was indeed no problem, so she just let her do it.
She bought so many things that it was too difficult for two people to carry them all. Fortunately, a patrolling soldier saw them and helped Yang Qiujin take them home.
Before parting, Yang Qiujin stuffed a handful of fruit candies into Zhao Erfeng's hands and said, "Sister-in-law, thank you for helping me lead the way and carry things today. Take these candies home and share them with the children."
"I'm so embarrassed." Zhao Erfeng pushed the candy back into Yang Qiujin's hands: "I just have nothing to do so I'm helping you. Don't be polite to me."
"Sister-in-law, please keep it." Yang Qiujin said, "I like your child. I didn't give him anything expensive. I just gave him something to please him. If you don't accept it, I won't dare ask you for help next time."
Zhao Erfeng had no choice but to accept it. He chatted with Yang Qiujin for a while and then went home with his child on his back.
Yang Qiujin returned home and put away all the things she had bought one by one. Seeing that it was getting late, she made a simple lunch and ran next door to ask Chen Tianyou to eat.
As a result, the boy didn't go home at all, and even wanted to eat at the Wang's house next door. Yang Qiujin had no choice but to give a handful of candy to Wang Songyue and her brother, and then brought a bowl of food to the Wang's house next door for Wang Songyue and her brother to taste, which was equivalent to exchanging food for Chen Tianyou. Only then did she go home to wash up.
After washing, she went back to the room and looked in the mirror. The woman in the mirror had a small oval face, beautiful eyebrows and features, red lips and white teeth. She looked like an eighteen-year-old girl, but with two braids on her hair, she looked a little rustic.
Yang Qiujin thought about it, picked up a pair of scissors, and made up her mind to cut the two beautiful black whips short, leaving medium-short hair a little bit longer than her shoulders. In this way, she could either tie her hair up or wear it down.
Thinking that she had brought a lot of vegetable seeds from her hometown and that the yard was empty, Yang Qiujin walked out of the house and went to the next door to borrow a hoe. "Sister Liang, do you have a hoe? I want to loosen the soil in my yard and grow some vegetables."
"Yes, wait a minute, I'll look for it." Liang Xueqing was born into a wealthy family and was accustomed to a wealthy life since childhood. Other families grew vegetables in their yards, but her yard was planted with flowers and plants, so she had a hoe, but she didn't use it often. It took her a long time to find it.
"Thank you. My naughty boy didn't touch your flowers and plants, didn't fight with your children, and didn't cause you any trouble, right?" Yang Qiujin asked while carrying a hoe.
"No, he listens to Songyue very much. He is playing marbles with Songyang in the living room right now." Liang Xueqing smiled, "You cut your hair. I almost didn't recognize you when you called me just now."
"Doesn't it look good?" Yang Qiujin touched her hair uncomfortably.
"It looks good. You look much more energetic and heroic than before. But it would look even better if you curled your hair a little and changed your homespun clothes into a Lenin suit or a blouse." Liang Xueqing suggested kindly.
"Thank you for your suggestion." Yang Qiujin's eyes lit up, and then she thought of something and smiled and shook her head: "The situation in various parts of the country is not very good now. Perming your hair will be considered petty bourgeois. Lenin uniforms are too formal and it is not easy for me to work in them. Bragi is a uniform passed down from the Soviet Union. If I wear bragi, the little Red Soldiers will label me a Soviet revisionist. I'd better not wear it."
"Oh, I forgot about this." Liang Xueqing was a little embarrassed.
The colorful clothes and dresses with capitalist characteristics in her closet were all thrown away in order to clarify her identity when she was in Shanghai.
After coming here to follow the army, she wore a Lenin suit most of the time. Occasionally in the summer, she wore a gauze dress and a blouse, but no one pointed out that there was anything wrong with her dress.
At least no one dared to say anything about her openly, because the little red soldiers could not enter the army.
"Sister Liang, please don't mind. I know you have good intentions." Yang Qiujin said, "You are from a big city and have seen a lot of the world. I know that some military wives would look down on my clothes in the army. I also want to change, so I cut my hair. When I have some cloth or you are free, I will bring some old clothes and ask you to help me modify them into a more fashionable style like your big city. Do you think it's okay?"
"Sure! I majored in fashion design in college." Liang Xueqing was more than happy to be able to showcase her strengths.
Because of her background, she faced many restrictions in the military. She could not find a job in the army or outside like other military wives. She could only stay at home to take care of the flowers and plants and take care of the children. She was so bored every day.
Yang Qiujin's request just happened to realize her value, and she was happier than Yang Qiujin.
The hoe Liang Xueqing gave was not the light and easy-to-use square-headed hoe used in Sichuan Province, but a digging tool called Kantuman commonly used by farmers in the border areas.
This tool has a unique shape and is only suitable for turning the soil, not for hoeing or digging. It took Yang Qiujin nearly an hour to dig the less than one mu of land on both sides of the yard.
The sun was very strong in the border areas in the afternoons of spring. After working in the fields for a while, Yang Qiujin felt her skin getting darker. She quickly ran back to the house to apply the newly bought whitening cream and pearl cream. Then she took the seeds and dug four trenches in the turned vegetable field with a ditch. She scattered three fields of vegetable seeds such as cabbage, pineapple, leek, leeks, amaranth, beans, cowpeas, etc. on the earthen fields. She used half of the other field to plant the sweet potato seeds she brought, and the other half to plant potatoes.
After finishing all this, it was almost five o'clock in the afternoon. Yang Qiujin drank some water in the house, took a short rest, and then went straight to cooking dinner.
Because she was not sure whether Chen Shengqing would be back in the evening, she still steamed three servings of cornmeal, chopped the radish, washed the lamb bones and put them in the bottom of the pot and boiled them with water, then she crushed a piece of ginger and put it in under the cornmeal, and a pot of white, fragrant lamb soup with the aroma of corn was ready.
Then she cut the mutton into thin strips, thickened it with sweet potato starch, put oil in the pot, added some bean paste and stir-fried until fragrant, then added the seasoned mutton shreds and stir-fried until it changed color, added the chopped onion strips and a little soy sauce, and finally added salt and MSG. A dish of stir-fried onion shredded lamb with color, aroma and taste was ready.
When Chen Shengqing came back, she had just finished cooking and was bringing the dishes to the wooden table in the living room.
"What delicious food have you made?" A strong fragrance wafted through the yard. Chen Shengqing came into the house carrying a large bucket of rapeseed oil and a large bag of rice and asked.
"Bovine mutton stewed with radish, mutton fried with onion." Yang Qiujin looked out and saw the rice and oil he was carrying. She was so surprised that she couldn't close her mouth. "Where did you buy so much rice and oil?"
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