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Yang Qiujin currently has enough cash on hand, so she chose to settle the account at the end of the month.
She had to go to the Finance Department to collect her salary every day. Firstly, it seemed that she was careless and was afraid of not getting paid. Secondly, she had not discussed with Chen Shengqing about coming to work on the farm. Many people in the Corps seemed to know her. If she collected her salary every day and made herself familiar here, she didn't know what others would think of Chen Shengqing.
As usual, he gave two cents and rode on the ox cart of a fellow villager from the regiment headquarters back to the border defense unit’s family area.
As soon as she got home, Tianyou rushed back from the Wang family next door, hugged her thighs and cried loudly: "Mom, I was wrong, I was wrong, please don't leave me, wuwuwu..."
"What bad things have you done again?" Yang Qiujin frowned and pried his arms apart. "You didn't study hard, and you got into a fight with someone again?"
"No, I didn't fight." Chen Tianyou rubbed his eyes and sobbed, "I sat in class well, and after school, I waited for a long time, but you didn't come to pick me up. I had to go home with Sister Songyue and the others, but you were not at home, and the door was locked..."
It turned out that she was crying about this. Yang Qiujin laughed and said, "Mom went to work on the farm today and didn't have time to pick you up. You are already a big boy. The military primary school is only half an hour away from our home. You have to walk to and from school by yourself in the future. Mom will not pick you up anymore."
She took out the key from her pocket and opened the living room. Chen Tianyou followed her, aggrieved, "Mom, I've already apologized to you, why are you still angry with me? You didn't cook for me, didn't pick me up after school, and didn't give me snacks."
Yang Qiujin walked into the living room, picked up the enamel water cup on the wooden table, and gulped down a large cup of cold water. Her burning throat felt much better. Then she turned to look at her son and asked, "Tianyou, Mommy wants to ask you, do you think Mommy treated you well in the past?"
"good."
"Then remember this. No matter how good your mother was to you, you always thought it was your due. You even complained that your mother wasn't good enough to you. You thought someone else's mother was better and wanted to recognize someone else as your mother. You thought you could get over this matter by admitting your mistake and apologizing, but for your mother, it will never be over."
"Mom..." Chen Tianyou looked at Yang Qiujin cautiously, his expression terrified and uneasy, not knowing what to do.
Seeing his expression, Yang Qiujin sighed and said, "Mom is also wrong about this matter. It's because I took it for granted that I was good to you and used the wrong education method, which made you have that kind of idea. It's not that Mom doesn't want you. It's because Mom has figured out a truth after this incident: If you don't work for yourself, you will be punished by heaven and earth. No matter how good you are to others, even if they are your own children, they may not be grateful to you. In this case, I might as well be nicer to myself. From now on, you can listen to what Mom says if you want to, and if you don't want to, Mom won't force you. Everyone has his or her own destiny and way of living, and Mom wants to live her own life."
She said a lot of things, and Chen Tianyou seemed to understand them, but he understood one thing: his mother would no longer control him like before.
Logically, he should be happy because no one is controlling him. He can play however he wants and be as naughty as he wants.
But if he wants to be as free as before and his mother doesn't care about him anymore, who will clean up his mess and who will bear the consequences of his bad deeds?
There is no way his father would clean up his mess. He is just a stepfather. Just yesterday, his father picked him up with a dark face and threw him on the small kang with a cold look. If he did anything bad, his father would beat him to death.
Chen Tianyou felt like the sky had fallen on him, sobbing in the living room. Chen Shengqing came back with a cloth bag and asked, "What are you crying about?"
Yang Qiujin lazily lay on the wooden table, looking tired: "No one will clean up his mess for him. He will be responsible for his own actions in the future."
"What did you do today to make your mother angry?" Chen Shengqing put the bag on the wooden table, reached out to take off his military cap, put it on a stool beside him, turned to look at Chen Tianyou with a very dark face.
"I didn't." Chen Tianyou was very scared of him and quickly denied it: "It was my mother who didn't come to pick me up after school and said she wouldn't care about me anymore. I was very sad."
Chen Shengqing tilted his head to look at Yang Qiujin: "You didn't go to pick up your child from school, where did you go today?"
"I went to the farm to do farm work." Yang Qiujin worked on the farm all day. Although she often did farm work and was not as timid as the educated youth, she had done physical work all day. Her arms were sore and she felt weak all over. She didn't want to move after sitting on the stool.
"Farm?" Chen Shengqing frowned. "The bills I gave you are not enough? Why do you want to work on the farm?"
"Why? Because I don't want to be like my mom, revolving around my scumbag dad all my life, losing myself, living a life worse than death, and still not wanting to leave him! I don't want to be like your mom, who regards her husband as the sky and the earth. When her husband dies, it's like the sky has fallen, and she wants to live and die! I don't want to live a muddled life like them. I don't want to revolve around you and Chen Tianyou!"
Seeing his puzzled and slightly angry expression, Yang Qiujin suddenly stood up straight and exploded like a lit firecracker, "Do you think that since you gave me an allowance, I should be like other women, staying at home and taking care of the children, raising them, and doing housework for the rest of my life?"
Chen Shengqing was silent for a while. "I just think that you married me and suffered alone in the countryside for so many years. Now that you are following me in the army, you should take a good rest. There is no need to make yourself so tired."
"I also want to have a good rest, but at home, doing housework all day and taking care of a troublesome child, isn't it tiring?" Yang Qiujin suddenly couldn't control her emotions, her eyes suddenly turned red, and she choked up and said, "No matter how hard I work on the farm, at least I will get corresponding rewards and respect. But at home, no matter how much I do, you all take it for granted, and I don't even get your respect."
I understand now. The words that brat said were like a thorn that pierced her heart deeply. Even if the thorn was pulled out, a deep hole would still be left inside that would never heal.
This woman, who appears fierce on the outside but is as naive as an 18-year-old girl on the inside, is not as strong as she imagines herself to be.
"Okay, stop crying." Chen Shengqing glared at his ignorant son, reached out and hugged the woman into his arms, and coaxed her softly: "It was me and Tianyou who messed with you. We are sorry for you. We didn't consider your feelings and made you uncomfortable staying at home. If you don't want to stay at home, then don't stay. If you want to go to the farm, then go. But there is one thing you have to remember, you have to do everything within your ability and don't show off. If there is anything you can't solve, you can tell me and I will do my best to help you solve it."
In Chen Tianyou's impression, Yang Qiujin has always been a strong and fierce person. No matter what she faced, she had never cried as much as she did today.
Seeing her crying, Chen Tianyou was surprised at first, then he understood why she was crying, and he also felt bad and cried loudly: "Mom, I'm sorry, I'm really sorry, it's all my fault, it's my fault, I was disobedient, I was ignorant, I said something wrong and hurt your heart, I'm really sorry, please don't be sad..."
The husband's embrace was broad and warm, and the child's tender cry brought her back to her senses. Yang Qiujin wiped the tears from her eyes and pursed her lips in embarrassment: "I'm sorry, I lost control of my emotions."
"It's okay. Everyone gets emotionally out of control sometimes. It's normal." Chen Shengqing reached out and touched her head soothingly. "Take a rest. I'll make dinner."
He took out two fist-sized red apples from the cloth bag he brought back and handed one to her and Chen Tianyou respectively. "Eat them. They're apples imported from the Soviet Union. They're very sweet." He then went to the kitchen to cook.
The man's palms were broad, thick and strong, as if they had some kind of magical power. With just a light touch, Yang Qiujin's irritable mood was immediately soothed by him.
The apples in my hand are heavy and give off a strong apple fragrance. In the border area in April when there is a shortage of fruits and vegetables, such bright red apples are undoubtedly extremely tempting.
Chen Tianyou stopped crying and swallowed unconsciously. However, he did not wolf down the food like other children. Instead, he stretched out his hand and handed the apple to Yang Qiujin, "Mom, you eat first."
Chen Tianyou did have many shortcomings, but he also had many advantages, for example, when it came to food, because Yang Qiujin never let him go short of food, and she always taught him to remember to share food with everyone and not eat alone, so that if others had delicious food, they would share it with him.
He may not remember other things, but he remembers this matter very clearly.
Whenever he had something delicious, even his favorite candy or meat, he would take it out first and let Yang Qiujin and Liu Xiu'e eat it first.
The little child, with tears in his eyes, handed Yang Qiujin her favorite apple, and the tears that had just flowed away welled up again.
She felt that she was really crazy. Tianyou was just a child. What he said before was just his words without thinking. She had been angry with the child because of this matter. She was a really unqualified mother.
She tried hard to suppress her emotions, with a gentle smile on her face: "Thank you Tianyou, Mom knows you are a good child. This is the fruit that Dad brought back. There are only two, and Dad wants to eat it too. What should we do?"
"Cut it in half and we'll each eat half." The familiar mother came back and was no longer cold and indifferent to him. Chen Tianyou was so happy that he smiled heartlessly.
"Okay, I'll listen to you." Yang Qiujin picked up the apple and walked into the kitchen holding Tianyou's hand.
The kitchen was bustling with activity. The man was cooking on a beehive coal stove. Seeing the mother and son come in hand in hand, he asked curiously, "Are you reconciled?"
"Your son has to share half of the apple with you." Yang Qiujin said without further ado. She broke open Chen Tianyou's apple with her bare hands and handed half to him.
By the way, I whispered in his ear: "You must eat what the child gives you, no matter how much you want to eat, even if it's just for show. If you don't eat, he won't give it to you again in the future."
The woman whispered softly in his ear. Chen Shengqing's ears were itchy. He tilted his head and opened his mouth, "Okay, feed me."
The man had handsome features, deep eyes with an ambiguous look in his eyes, and his thin lips were slightly open.
Yang Qiujin's cheeks became hot unconsciously when he looked at her like this, and she said softly, "Get it yourself."
"Then I won't eat. I don't have time." The man was cooking, his hands busy.
The child next to him was looking at him eagerly. This was the first time that Chen Tianyou shared food with his father. If Chen Shengqing lost interest here, it would be difficult for him to eat Chen Tianyou's food in the future.
Yang Qiujin had no choice but to stuff the apple into his mouth.
Chen Shengqing opened his mouth and bit the apple. It was not known whether he did it on purpose, but his tongue touched her fingers while he was biting the apple.
Yang Qiujin was so frightened as if she had been electrocuted that she quickly withdrew her hand and glared at him. This guy might have done it on purpose!
Chen Shengqing saw her movements and asked without blushing or panting, "What's wrong?"
"What did you say?"
"Did it bite your finger?" Chen Shengqing smiled, "How about you bite it back?"
As he spoke, he stretched out his bony right palm.
"......" Yang Qiujin blushed: "Rogue!"
"What is a hooligan?" Chen Shengqing smiled faintly: "You are my wife, even if I kill you right here, no one will care. Being a hooligan will only be said to be a marital interest."
"Dad, what is the interest between husband and wife?" Chen Tianyou asked sweetly while chewing half an apple.
"Comrade Chen, please be aware of your personal influence and don't corrupt the child in broad daylight!" Yang Qiujin couldn't stand Chen Shengqing's unruly look, so she pulled Chen Tianyou out of the kitchen and went to the living room to urge Chen Tianyou to do his homework.
Chen Tianyou took out his homework book from his schoolbag and said, "Mom, I've finished it."
"Eh." Yang Qiujin took out his homework book and saw that he had really finished it. "Why are you so self-conscious today?"
Chen Tianyou chuckled and said, "I did this with Sister Songyue."
Wang Songyue is amazing as he can control his naughty monkey to do his homework obediently.
For dinner, Chen Shengqing cooked a pot of rice, fried a plate of shredded potatoes, and a serving of mixed onions.
The potato shreds were cut thicker than fingers and the onion was over-salted, making it too salty.
"Oh, it's so salty." Chen Tianyou ate a piece of onion with chopsticks. It was so salty that he looked for a water bottle and drank a lot of water.
Soldiers have to survive and fight in the wild. Chen Shengqing knows how to cook, but he doesn't cook much. He mostly eats dry food in the wild.
He had just finished cooking a table of food and was full of confidence, but his son slapped him in the face. His face turned green and his hand holding the chopsticks stopped in mid-air, not knowing whether he should put down the chopsticks or not.
"I think it's delicious." Yang Qiujin slowly ate the potato shreds, no, potato strips, "It's just that my cooking skills are not very proficient, so it's a little bit inferior. I will get better after making it a few more times."
After saying this, he patted Chen Shengqing on the shoulder in a heavy tone, "The revolution has not yet succeeded, comrades still need to work hard!"
Chen Shengqing smiled, "There's going to be a next time? Aren't you afraid that the food I cook will be too salty for you to death?"
"I would be happy to eat it even if it's salty to death." Yang Qiujin said without hesitation.
If a man is willing to cook and work, he must be praised no matter how good the food is. This is what Yang Qiujin concluded after observing the relationships between couples among her relatives and friends.
Men are like children, they need to be pampered and coaxed. The more you coax them, the happier they will be and the more energetic they will be when working.
As expected, Chen Shengqing was silent for a moment, then agreed, "Okay, I'll practice more when I have time."
He is proficient in all kinds of skills. It’s just a matter of cooking. Sooner or later, he will be able to cook as deliciously as she does.
At night, Chen Tianyou was driven out of the cabin by Chen Shengqing and slept alone.
"You are already a big boy. You should know how to avoid suspicion and sleep in your own room. You can't always share a bed with your parents."
It’s not that he wanted to have anything happen with Yang Qiujin, but he felt that his son was grown up and should learn to be independent and fall asleep by himself.
"Mom, I'm scared to sleep alone." Chen Tianyou looked at Yang Qiujin.
Yang Qiujin ignored him completely. He had no choice but to go to the hut obediently, cover his head with the quilt, shiver and curl up into a ball, telling himself not to be afraid.
No matter how scared he was, he fell asleep very quickly, basically glued to the pillow, and fell asleep in just a few minutes.
Yang Qiujin waited for a few minutes, then tiptoed to the hut to see him. Seeing that he was asleep, she covered him with a quilt, sat beside the kang bed, and asked seriously, "Comrade Chen Shengqing, what did you do four years ago? Why did Director Ge of the farm ask me to be careful when working on the farm?"
There was a kang table on the bed. The troops turned off the lights at nine o'clock in the evening. After the lights were turned off, a small oil lamp was lit on the kang table, and the wick made a crackling sound when it was burned.
Chen Shengqing used scissors to pinch the wick of the lamp, and the light slightly brightened the store. He slowly said: "Four years ago, I was not here to serve in the army. I was on duty as a company commander at the Kunshan outpost. That year, civilians wanted to escape to the Soviet Union again. A team of 100 people chose our outpost to go to the Soviet Union. The soldiers at our outpost tried to stop them, but they refused to listen and clashed with our border guards, killing two soldiers from my company. When I rushed to the outpost, I saw two cold bodies with their faces completely destroyed."
The lights in the house flickered, and the moon was shining brightly outside. The silver light shone through the window and onto Chen Shengqing, making him look very lonely.
"Aren't border guards equipped with weapons? Why were they beaten to death by civilians?" Yang Qiujin asked.
"Because we have a rule that guns can only be pointed at enemies, not at comrades. We cannot attack civilians, let alone shoot."
That is to say, when the conflict broke out, the sentries tried to block the way but were beaten to death by the impulsive and angry civilians. But what does this have to do with what Chen Shengqing did?
Chen Shengqing answered her doubts: "One of the two soldiers who were killed was a Kyrgyz. His wife was also a Kyrgyz. She lived at the foot of the sentry post. She and his parents were responsible for delivering supplies to the sentry post. On the day of the conflict, his pregnant wife insisted on going up the mountain to deliver supplies to the sentry post and to see him. When the conflict occurred, his wife was pushed down by those fools and bleeding all over the ground. He got angry and started fighting with those fools, but he always remembered the military regulations and did not use any weapons. In the end, he was outnumbered and beaten to death by those fools. His wife witnessed the tragedy and fainted. Later, she was sent down the mountain. Because of excessive blood loss, she also lost her life. One body, two lives."
When he got to this point, he stood up and rummaged around the house. He fished out a pack of Daqianmen cigarettes from an old piece of clothing, took out a cigarette, took out a match, lit the cigarette and smoked it. "The large-scale escape of Tacheng civilians to the Soviet Union had already shocked the country and abroad. Our outpost is at a very high altitude, and there are usually only two soldiers stationed there. I never thought that two years later, someone would organize a large-scale escape. The organized and disciplined escape of so many people was obviously planned by spies, counter-revolutionaries, and revolutionaries. Such a tragedy happened to my soldiers, and the superiors asked me to investigate it thoroughly. It took me two days to find the planner of the escape and shot him dead!"
Yang Qiujin understood that it was a serious mistake for soldiers to kill criminals privately without going through a military court or taking legal action. No wonder when she arrived at the army before, she heard Zhao Erfeng say that her husband said that if Chen Shengqing had not made a mistake, with his military achievements, he should have been promoted to the deputy regimental level or above, but now he was only at the battalion level. It turned out to be this reason.
The room was filled with smoke. It was the first time Yang Qiujin saw Chen Shengqing smoking. She didn't dislike the smell of smoke, but she just thought it was unpleasant. She sat a little further away from him and asked, "You told me so much. Are you trying to tell me that the family of that counter-revolutionary is in the Corps Farm?"
"Smart." Chen Shengqing exhaled a puff of smoke and smiled at her in the smoke, but his narrow eyes did not show any smile. "Now you know why I said I would teach you military boxing and fighting skills, right? I have enemies at home and abroad. If you don't follow the army, it's actually safer to stay in the countryside than to stay with me. However, since you and Tianyou are here, I have to teach you self-defense."
No wonder he heard that she was unhappy working on the farm; this was the reason.
"I misunderstood you. I'm sorry." Yang Qiujin apologized readily, "But I won't give up working on the farm. I have my own ideas that need to be realized there."
Planting crops on a farm is just the first step.
"You can go if you want." Chen Shengqing put out his cigarette with his bare hands. "You must take time out to practice martial arts and fighting techniques with me every day. I think you are qualified. You can go wherever you want."
"Okay." As long as she is not stopped from doing what she wants to do, she is not afraid of a little hardship or fatigue.
She regretted it the next day. Before daybreak, she was woken up by Chen Shengqing, who asked her to run in circles around the family yard with him, saying that it was to keep fit.
Unfortunately, she hadn't even woken up yet and was still confused, so he dragged her around everywhere.
That would have been fine, but the most embarrassing thing was that she was running in a daze when she suddenly heard a thunderous slogan: "One, two - three, four!"
Swish, swish, swish, a series of neat and powerful running sounds passed in front of her. A group of soldiers doing morning exercises ran past her, shouting, "Hello, sister-in-law! Hello, sister-in-law!"
She woke up instantly and smiled awkwardly at them, "Okay, everyone is fine."
Chen Shengqing led her to run one lap and then another lap as if nothing had happened. When they passed by Li's house, Zhao Erfeng had just gotten up to prepare breakfast for the family. Seeing her running breathlessly with Chen Shengqing, she was surprised and said, "Oh my God, sister, you worked all day on the farm yesterday. Aren't you tired? How come you still have the energy to keep fit with Captain Chen?"
"Tired." How could she not be tired? She was so tired that she was almost dying!
But if she gave up at this point, she wouldn't be able to go to the farm. She didn't want to stay at home and be a housewife who never left the house.
In order to go out, she had to be a little harder on herself.
She encouraged herself: "The iron will of the revolutionary comrades will never be disintegrated. Sister Zhao, I am now the iron lady in the newspaper. I will learn their hardworking spirit, never give up for the sake of revolutionary construction, and strive to be the first!"
Zhao Erfeng laughed and joked: "Oh, that would be incredible. If one of our military wives really turns out to be an iron lady, I would be honored for it!"
"Sister-in-law, just wait, one day, I will be in the newspaper." Yang Qiujin smiled heartily and suddenly felt full of energy.
She followed Chen Shengqing for a morning run, and then performed a set of military boxing under Chen Shengqing's instruction. Although she was a little tired after finishing, she felt more energetic and had more energy to do anything.
This is probably the motivation that allows you to persevere no matter how hard or tiring it is when you have a goal in mind.
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