Chapter 100
Knitting a sweater is a job that requires patience, endurance, and time.
Yang Qiujin was busy at work, and she had to take care of little Tianxing when she returned home. She knitted very slowly, and it took her almost two months to knit a sweater for Chen Tianyou and a towel for Chen Shengqing.
Li Xiu'e couldn't stand it anymore, so she simply packed up all the sweaters of the family. By the time she finished knitting all the sweaters, winter had already arrived in the border area.
It was snowing heavily outside, but the room was warm as spring with the wall heaters on.
Li Xiu'e handed out the knitted sweaters to her son, daughter-in-law, and grandson one by one and said, "Try them on to see if they fit you. If they don't fit, I'll take them apart and make some changes."
Yang Qiujin was the first to put on the sweater. She didn't like the straight collar of the sweater and felt that the wool pricked her neck and made her uncomfortable. So Li Xiu'e knitted her a chicken heart collar and specially knitted a large and complicated chrysanthemum pattern.
When Yang Qiujin put it on, the clothes fit her perfectly. The light yellow sweater made her look slim, with fair skin and a small face as delicate as an eighteen-year-old girl.
By the way, Yang Qiujin is 32 years old this year. She has eaten well and slept well in the military family compound these years, and has been buying various skin care products to apply on her face. Now she is fair and clean with smooth skin, completely different from the dark and earthy country woman before.
As soon as she put on the clothes, not only Chen Shengqing was stunned, but even Chen Tianyou was stunned and exclaimed: "Mom, how come you are getting more and more beautiful and younger? When you put on the milk knit sweater, you look like my sister."
These words made the two women in the family happy.
Li Xiu'e said complacently, "Don't you see who knitted the sweater? Your grandmother's knitting skills are among the best in the village. When she was in the village, many wives, both big and small, had to ask me for advice on the patterns when knitting sweaters."
"Mom, you are really good at knitting sweaters." Yang Qiujin fluttered in front of Chen Shengqing and his daughter like a butterfly, and smiled sweetly, "Do you think I am pretty too?"
Chen Shengqing looked deep in his eyes and nodded without hesitation: "It looks good."
Lying on the kang bed in the living room, the six-month-old little Tianxing made baby sounds and looked at Yang Qiujin with bright eyes.
Chen Shengqing looked at her in surprise and said, "Qiu Jin, our daughter is praising you for your beauty."
"You are talking nonsense again. She is only six months old. How can she know what is beautiful or not?" Although she said this, Yang Qiujin was still very happy in her heart.
Reaching out and picking up little Tianxing, Yang Qiujin kissed her chubby cheeks, then held her on her lap and fed her warm water with a small spoon.
Although Li Xiu'e, Chen Shengqing and his son helped take care of little Tianxing most of the time, the blood relationship between the baby and his mother cannot be severed.
Since he was three months old, little Tianxing has been particularly attached to Yang Qiujin, and only has his mother in his eyes.
No matter what Yang Qiujin was doing, her big eyes like grapes would always follow Yang Qiujin.
Yang Qiujin was always touched by her young lady's lovely and well-behaved eyes. She had clearly made up her mind not to hold her, fearing that she would get used to being held and would always be held by others, which would burden the whole family. But in the end, she always made an exception.
For example, now, when she was tired of holding the baby, she took out the cloth sling sewn by Liu Xiu'e and carried little Tianxing on her back. Not only did she not resist, she also happily babbled in baby talk.
Zhai Hongbo was surprised. "Xiao Yang, it was so cold, but you carried Xiao Tianxing to work, and she didn't cry or make a fuss. Your daughter is so well-behaved."
"Of course not. She knows how hard I work and is always considerate of me." Yang Qiujin stood in front of the farm gate, watching the workers loading fat rabbits, chickens, ducks, geese, pigs and other poultry and livestock onto various transport vehicles, and asked Zhai Hongbo, "Secretary Zhai, how come you have time to come to our farm today?"
It's the end of the year, and it's time for most of the poultry and livestock on the farm to be sent out.
At the end of the year, people who have worked hard all year will definitely buy some meat to take home to eat at home during the holidays or to entertain friends and family.
The weather is cold, and if poultry and livestock are not taken out of the pens, they will easily die of disease, and coal for heating will be wasted. Therefore, starting three years ago, farms will take the livestock out of the pens before the end of the year.
Zhai Hongbo said, "In previous years, your sister-in-law always complained that she couldn't find the chicken she wanted when she went to the grocery store. This year, I'll just bring her to your farm to catch fresh chickens, and she can buy whichever one she likes."
In a poultry farm far away, a plump woman in her fifties was leading two young men to catch chickens in the chicken farm. They were busy doing it.
Yang Qiujin took a look, then turned to Song Zhaodi and said, "Zhaodi, our farm has employee benefits at the end of the year. Before the New Year, you can buy poultry one piece of each type without a meat ticket. The cadres can buy two of each type. Remember to weigh them and register them later."
"Okay, Director Yang, I'll go register in a moment." Song Zhaodi understood and turned around to ask Secretary Zhai's lover for a free ticket.
After the revolutionary group incident, the farm returned to its former peace, and some things that cut off the tail of socialism also emerged one after another.
Just like when Secretary Zhai came to the farm to buy poultry, as he was the farm's first cadre and secretary, Yang Qiujin naturally could not accept his meat coupons, and the price had to be lower than the price sold to the grocery store. It was not abuse of power for personal gain, but a necessary personal exchange between cadres.
This matter had become an unspoken secret on the farm. Many farm cadres came to the farm to buy poultry and other things. As long as they did not go too far, Yang Qiujin would give them free meat tickets to accumulate popularity.
After all, things die, but people live, and living connections are even more precious. When you give convenience to others, others will also give convenience to you.
She is not afraid of being reported by others. Everything she does is reasonable and has a traceable basis.
Furthermore, she was very nice to the workers in the farm, and she often used the profits from the farm to provide them with benefits. The salary of the regular workers in the farm was also higher than that of the farm employees. If they wanted to keep their jobs, they had to turn a blind eye.
Zhai Hongbo felt relieved to see her being such a good person. He said cheerfully, "Xiao Yang, the farm will hold a year-end party in a few days. Several cadres and militia comrades from Ava Farm will come. Next year, our farm plans to open a textile factory. By then, it will be large in scale and will require a mature leadership team. You must seize this opportunity."
The farm held social gatherings every year. During festivals or after the autumn harvest, various social gatherings were always held. Yang Qiujin was not unusual.
However, Secretary Zhai specifically told her that the farm would open a textile mill next year, and it would be quite large. He specially invited cadres and militiamen from the Ava Corps to come for friendship. Yang Qiujin immediately understood that Secretary Zhai wanted to use the friendship to get the Corps to invest and promote her at the same time.
Once promoted to a reserve cadre, she will go to the Party School for further studies and will be at least a secretary when she returns. By then, her salary will be much higher than it is now.
Being promoted to secretary was something Yang Qiujin had never dared to think about before. As the saying goes, one should do things according to one's ability. Yang Qiujin did not think that she was qualified for the secretary position of a factory.
However, Secretary Zhai had already built such a big bridge, so she had to give him face, so she smiled and said, "Thank you for the reminder, Secretary. I will definitely live up to your trust."
Secretary Zhai, his wife, and their two children left with satisfaction, grabbing a few big fat chickens, ducks, geese, and rabbits.
Yang Qiujin waited until the afternoon, when all the goods that needed to be shipped out of the farm had been shipped out and the farm had been cleaned up. She then called all the workers to a meeting at the farm's cultural center.
The cultural center was not big, only about 100 square meters, with five long square tables in the middle. Normally, workers could sit at the tables to read or play table tennis. When there was a collective meeting, the tables were put together to accommodate nearly 55 workers, including Yang Qiujin.
Yang Qiujin sat in the top seat. The child had been handed over to Li Xiu'e, who took her outside to play.
She said some routine nonsense, summarizing the farm's performance for the year and the work performance of each department and unit, and finally said, "Starting tomorrow, the farm will start a holiday for a week. Of course, we still have to keep people on duty, and we will take turns on duty in pairs as in previous years. Everyone will go to the warehouse to collect the year-end benefits. In addition, the farm regiment headquarters will hold a social gathering in three days. This time there will be young militia comrades from the corps. If there are unmarried female comrades in the farm, or if you want to introduce a partner to your sisters or daughters, you can go and participate."
When they heard that they would have a holiday and receive benefits, the employees in the field were all beaming with joy.
However, half of the people were not interested in attending the social gathering, probably because half of the employees recruited there were housewives with families, and the other half were gay men and a few unmarried lesbians.
The unmarried female comrades behaved quite interestingly, asking Yang Qiujin all the time what kind of people would be joining the Corps.
Yang Qiujin actually didn't quite understand either. She said a few words to them vaguely and then asked them to go to the warehouse to collect their New Year benefits.
The warehouse of the farm is managed by Yang Qiuyue, who is both the accountant of the farm and the warehouse manager.
When a group of workers arrived at the warehouse, she was already waiting for them there.
The welfare of the farm this year is a bar of soap, a bar of scented soap, a washcloth, one or two ounces of sugar, a pound of fine flour, and ten boxes of matches. In addition, there is a large herring, a rabbit, ten eggs, and two pounds of milk raised in the farm. This is half more than the welfare of the farm workers, and each farm worker is very happy to receive the benefits.
As there were so many people coming to pick up things, Yang Qiuyue was a little overwhelmed, so Fan Sui stayed by her side to help.
Now Yang Qiuyue has been pregnant for almost five months. Fan Chongbao loves her very much. He follows her wherever she goes and rushes to do any work. Everyone is used to it.
After most people had received their stuff and returned home, Yang Qiujin slowly appeared in the warehouse, called Song Zhaodi and a dozen other unmarried women, and said to Yang Qiuyue, "Qiuyue, take out the birth control condoms I asked you to buy last month and give them to Zhaodi and the others, one box each."
When Song Zhaodi and the other female comrades who stayed behind heard the words "family planning condoms", they blushed and asked, "Director Yang, why are you giving us family planning condoms?"
Yang Qiujin said, "I'll ask you to protect yourselves. The group will hold a social gathering in three days. The handsome young men from the armed forces and militia companies are all more handsome than each other, and they are full of coaxing words. I'm worried that you will be coaxed and lose control of yourself, and accidentally discharge your guns, leaving yourself with bad things."
A pretty twenty-something female employee named Zhu Mei said shyly, "Director Yang, we are not those educated youth who have never seen the world. How can we be easily tricked by those stinky men and let them succeed? You are overthinking it."
"Don't be afraid of the unexpected. When the passion reaches its peak, you have no choice. If you can't control yourself and let the other person wear a condom, it will be for your own good. Otherwise, you will have to bear the consequences of pregnancy, miscarriage, and childbirth alone. Are you willing to do that?" Yang Qiujin asked.
The farm has sent many young men and women from the mainland over the years, and the farm itself has many former soldiers and employees. With so many people, and everyone being young and full of vigor, it is inevitable that they will be impulsive and try the forbidden fruit.
When some girls get pregnant, the man will take responsibility, and the two will get married and have children.
Some people, due to their own background, or other considerations, such as the man being a traitor, simply ignore the woman after she becomes pregnant.
At this time, many girls do not want to have children, so they have to find ways to abort the child, which is very harmful to their bodies.
If you can't bear to abort the child, you will be like the beautiful Long Yanli, who has to give birth to the child, raise the child, and raise the child yourself.
In order to get the position of deputy director of the farm, Long Yanli insisted on not beating her child. She gave birth to a son a week ago and came to work at the farm on the third day after giving birth.
Yu Cong's term of office has expired, and he is about to return to the capital to take up an important position in the central department. He must not make mistakes on his business trip at this time. In order to appease Long Yanli, he can only use his father's background and make Long Yanli the deputy director of the farm.
Everyone knew it, but no one objected. This was mainly because Yu Cong's father had a powerful background and no one dared to offend them.
After Yang Qiujin said this, the unmarried girls fell silent.
Finally, Song Zhaodi took the lead in picking up a box of birth control condoms and said, "Our Director Yang is doing this for our own good. Take them all. If you need them, use them. If you don't need them, you can just put them aside and use them later."
The girls thought it made sense and went to get it.
Yang Qiujin then asked them, "Do you know how to use a birth control condom?"
Except for Song Zhaodi, the other girls blushed and shook their heads.
Zhu Mei said: "Aren't birth control condoms used by gay men? Why would we use them?"
"Yes, it is indeed used by gay men, but many of them are first-time users and do not know how to use birth control condoms, so you have to remind them and teach them how to use them." Yang Qiujin opened a box of birth control condoms, took out a condom from it, and taught the girls how to use it.
More than a dozen girls received her instructions with blushing faces, and each of them held the birth control condoms in their arms, afraid that others would know, and left shyly.
Before Song Zhaodi left, Yang Qiujin said to her, "Zhaodi, you are not young anymore. If there are any good gay men who show interest in you at this social gathering, you should consider getting along with them, finding a good man to marry, and living a normal life. You have been alone in our farm for almost three years. It is time to consider the rest of your life."
It's not that she is nosy or likes to act as a matchmaker and urge marriage, but she thinks Song Zhaodi is a diligent and hardworking girl. Although it is easy for her to live alone, her awful parents and her awful brother are not easy to deal with. They have been causing trouble at the farm in recent years.
Song Zhaodi had to marry a man who could protect her. As soon as she left the farm, her evil family would eat her bones. So Yang Qiujin still hoped that she could find a good man and marry well.
"Director Yang, I feel pretty good being alone now. I can feed the whole family and I don't have to live by other people's faces like before. I think this is better than getting married. Besides, everyone knows about my past affair with Cao Jun. I had a miscarriage and my body was injured. I don't know if I can get pregnant again in the future. Later, I married a widower. I don't know how many men have abandoned me. I don't think there is any man willing to treat me sincerely. I might as well live alone." Song Zhaodi was holding a pile of things with a melancholy expression.
"Because of what happened in the past, you are discouraged and don't want to get married again." Yang Qiujin pointed at Yang Qiuyue and Fan Sui who were chatting and laughing in front of the storehouse and said, "My sister used to have the same idea as you. She felt that she was already a divorced woman and it would be difficult for her to find a good man to marry again. But now she met Fan Sui, and fate has come, and she can't stop it. Look how happy they are now. Fan Sui almost praises her to the sky. Aren't you jealous?"
It was a lie that Song Zhaodi was not jealous. Fan Sui looked like a rough man with his muscular build. Many people on the farm had their eyes on him and wanted to marry him, but he looked down on them and only liked Accountant Yang.
Now she follows Accountant Yang around and is not allowed to do any more work. All the money she earns is handed over to Accountant Yang without a single cent left. Accountant Yang also has the final say in the household affairs. How can she not be jealous?
As a woman, Song Zhaodi thinks she is no less pretty than Yang Qiuyue. So why doesn't she have the same luck as Yang Qiuyue to meet a good man like Fan Su?
For the first time, she thought about finding a man who loved her and getting married again.
In the evening, Yang Qiujin returned home and told Chen Shengqing about the party. "The Corps will send several officers to come. I will have to dance with them. But you know me. I can't dance at all. You have to teach me how to dance. Three quick steps, three slow steps."
Chen Shengqing had previously been a spy in the Soviet Union, so he had to learn everything, and social dancing was just one of the necessary skills. It was very appropriate to ask him to teach dancing.
"Okay, I'll teach you after the kids fall asleep." Chen Shengqing was in the main room, giving little Tianxing a bath.
The weather was cold, and it was too cold to take a bath in the toilet. Yang Qiujin was very clean, so she would bathe her child every two or three days.
In order to avoid freezing the child, Chen Shengqing specially asked someone to make a larger bathtub. Every time he gave Tianxing a bath, he would bathe her in the main room with a heated wall. That way, she would be kept warm and would not be frozen.
The temperature of the bath water was just right. The little girl bathed very comfortably. From time to time, she slapped the water with her little hands, making her father wet all over and laughing.
Chen Tianyou, who was reading in the small room, heard his sister's laughter coming from the living room. He put down the book in his hand and just walked out of the door, he was pushed back into the room by his mother: "Sister is taking a bath in the living room, wait until she finishes and then come out, don't look at her."
"Why can't I see her?" Chen Tianyou was puzzled.
"My sister is getting older day by day. She is a girl and you are a boy. You must know to avoid suspicion. From now on, you cannot be present when my sister takes a bath, changes clothes, or changes diapers. Also, remember not to allow other boys to see her private parts, not even Wang Songyang, Gou Dandan and the others." Yang Qiujin said sternly.
"But dad is also a man, how can he give my sister a bath? Shouldn't he also avoid suspicion?" Chen Tianyou said unconvinced.
"That's different. Your dad is your sister's father. It's his responsibility as a father to take care of your sister before she's two years old. After she's two years old, mom won't let him bathe or change clothes for her. You're in puberty now, so you need to understand the difference between men and women. Mom doesn't want you to look at your sister too much and think about other things."
It’s not that Yang Qiujin was cruel, but adolescent boys are most likely to have wild thoughts.
Most other families favor boys over girls. Men are reluctant to do housework, and mothers won't let their sons bathe their daughters. It's rare to see adolescent boys bullying their sisters, or holding their sisters to be molested and bullied by other boys of the same age.
But this does not mean that young girls have not been bullied or molested by other relatives, friends, brothers, uncles, etc.
When Yang Qiujin was very young, she has a vague memory that when her mother was giving her a bath, a distant uncle came to visit and happened to see her bathing. He stared at her private parts. Her mother didn't take it to heart at all, thinking that she was just a little girl and there was nothing wrong with her looking at it.
Little did she know that from then on whenever the uncle saw her, he would look at her with lustful eyes. Later, when she was in the first grade of elementary school, he even tried to molest her on her way to school, but she escaped.
She never told anyone about this incident, and that uncle died the year after it happened.
While Yang Qiujin was feeling lucky that the beast had died, she was also thinking that when she grew up and had her own daughter, she would definitely protect her well. That was why she asked Chen Tianyou to stay away from her.
Chen Tianyou was getting older and older, and he knew a lot of things. Seeing Yang Qiujin's serious expression, he probably understood what her mother was thinking, and he surrendered helplessly: "Okay, from now on I won't watch my sister take a bath, nor will I help her, and I won't let Wang Songyang and the others come to watch, okay?"
"That's about right." Yang Qiujin returned to the living room with satisfaction, quickly gave Tianxing a bath, dressed her in a pink and comfortable cotton-padded jacket, and put on the little sweater knitted for her by Li Xiu'e, then carried her back into the house, coaxed her to play for a while, and then fed her. The child gradually fell asleep.
As soon as the child fell asleep, Yang Qiujin couldn't wait to ask Chen Shengqing to teach her to dance.
Chen Shengqing patiently taught her: "Open your hands and follow my rhythm. One tuck, two tucks..."
The radio in the room was tuned to a music station. The volume of the songs played was very low, so as not to wake up Xiao Tianxing, but it was just right for Yang Qiujin to dance to the music.
Yang Qiujin tried hard to follow Chen Shengqing's rhythm and dance to the music. Sometimes the rhythm was too fast, sometimes it was too slow. She always bumped into his arms and stepped on his feet.
The two danced several pieces in a row and the same thing happened. Yang Qiujin couldn't help but feel discouraged. "I won't dance anymore. I'm a terrible dancer. I'll just not attend the social gathering."
"Do you want to miss the opportunity for promotion and salary increase that Secretary Zhai has fought for you?" Chen Shengqing held her slender waist and said, "Don't give up. I'm not an outsider. No matter how you step on my feet, it won't hurt me. You're not the kind of person who gives up halfway. Just follow me and you'll learn it. If one day doesn't work, we'll try two days. If two days don't work, we'll try three days. You're such a smart woman, you'll definitely learn it."
Yang Qiujin was boosted by his flattery and felt that she had given up too early. If others could learn it, she could too. So she gritted her teeth and followed Chen Shengqing to dance until late at night.
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