Chapter 120
Chen Tianyou's anger didn't last long as another incident diverted his emotions: the Tangshan earthquake.
That night, the whole family was asleep, and suddenly they all felt their beds shaking. They thought it was an illusion and didn't take it seriously.
When we woke up the next morning, we heard news of the earthquake on the radio. The death toll was in the tens of thousands. We were overwhelmed and our whole family prayed that the victims in Tangshan would be safe.
Later they learned that the Tangshan earthquake was extremely severe, with a magnitude of 7.8. The entire city of Tangshan was razed to the ground in an instant. The earthquake occurred in the early morning when people were fast asleep and completely unprepared. It caused the deaths of more than 200,000 people and tens of thousands of serious injuries. For a time, the entire country entered a state of silence.
Shortly after the earthquake, Tangshan gradually began to rebuild houses and cities. When the living people were full of hope, on September 9, the national leader, Chairman Mao, passed away. The whole country was shocked, cried bitterly, and immersed in great grief.
When Chen Tianyou heard the news of Chairman Mao's death from the radio, he remembered the kind old man who happily picked up balloons for his sister in Tiananmen Square, and he couldn't help but burst into tears.
Li Sannier, who was the same age as him and came to his house to play, was so scared when she saw him crying that she put down the Hero brand pen in her hand and said helplessly: "I just borrowed your pen to write something, why are you crying like this? You are not a man at all."
Chen Tianyou ignored her and coldly took his pen back from her hand.
Li Sannier sighed and followed him, "Seriously, why are you crying? Are you missing Wang Songyue so much that you're crying? I mean, she's been gone for a few months, it's too late for you to cry now. If you really miss her, let's go to Xiangbei to see her during the winter vacation. I'll ask for leave from the factory and I'll buy you a ticket."
After the junior high school entrance examination, Li Sannier failed to get into high school. Zhao Erfeng sent a telegram to Yang Qiujin, who was far away in the capital, hoping that she could help pass a message to the director of the newly opened textile factory in Tianshan Farm to allow Li Sannier to work in the factory as a textile worker.
Yang Qiujin called the director of the textile factory and asked Xu Xia, who had also stopped studying, and Li Sannier to report to the personnel department of the textile factory.
Although the two girls were young, one was 16 and the other 14, they both had a junior high school diploma and were hardworking. They soon entered a textile factory as apprentices. In the first year, they were paid only 20 yuan a month, but after becoming regular employees, they received 30 yuan a month, a collective grain quota of 21 kilograms, and an additional 20 yuan a month in subsidies for frontier workers.
Subsidies for frontier workers began this year. The farm received preferential treatment from the Corps and local policies and began to give employees preferential treatment when the farm achieved profitability. In addition to the original salary, employees were given a minimum subsidy of 20 yuan per month.
This greatly increased the wages and benefits of employees, and people no longer had to live a hard life like before, with little left over from their monthly salary after paying for daily living expenses and supporting their parents and children.
Nowadays, all workers enjoy preferential treatment and have ample money. Many families work hard to earn money. After a few months, they have saved a lot and built houses with red bricks and tiles. They also have money to buy new clothes and extra food, meat and vegetables, so that the whole family can have enough food and clothing and gradually live a good life.
Under this policy, even though she was paid as an apprentice in a factory without being converted to a regular employee, Li Sannier was very happy. She did not have to hand over all her wages every month. Her mother let her save the money for her dowry. After working as a female worker in a textile factory for a few months, her wallet was bulging. Among her partners, both young and old, she was undoubtedly a wealthy woman and was very generous.
"You're not going to work today?" Chen Tianyou wiped his tears, put the pen in his trouser pocket, and said indifferently: "If I don't cry when the chairman passes away, I am not a good son of the party. Don't spread rumors and ruin Wang Songyue's reputation."
Li Sannier was silent for a while and said, "I'm sorry, Chen Tianyou, I was wrong. Today is the weekend and the factory has a day off. I didn't have anything to do. I thought that Aunt Yang, Grandma Li, and Tianxing were all in the capital, and Uncle Chen was working in the army. You were the only one at home, so I was afraid that you would be bored, so I came to play with you."
"What's so fun about me? You've always said that I'm getting more boring as I grow older, and I can't compare to those eloquent hooligans in town. Why don't you go play with your brother Tao today?"
The two stood in the courtyard of Chen's house. The sun was shining brightly in the sky. The frontier sun in late autumn was still hot enough to make people dizzy.
Chen Tianyou picked a bunch of green grapes from the grape rack in the left corner of the yard, walked to the sink to rinse them, and put them in Li Sanni'er's hand, "Eat it, we grew up together, I treat you as my sister, you won't come to me for no reason, tell me, come to me if you encounter any problem that you can't solve."
Li Sannier is actually half a year older than Chen Tianyou, but because of her simple personality, she is always heartless and carefree, and is like a little sister who needs protection. So Chen Tianyou should take care of her a little more.
Li Sannier took the grapes but didn't eat them. She blushed and stammered, "I'm older than you, so you should call me sister. I came to you for nothing. I just wanted to ask you, that...if you boys like someone, would you do anything to her?"
"Did that guy named Ah Tao take advantage of you?" Chen Tianyou's eyes darkened, and his fists clenched. "He is just a scoundrel, how dare he lay hands on you? Is he looking for death?!"
"Oh, it's not what you think." Li Sannier was shocked by his expression and explained hurriedly, "A Tao didn't do anything to me. The reason why he was a gangster in the town was because his parents were of bad class background and were forced to death by the Little Red Soldiers. In order to support his younger brothers and sisters, he had to do sneaky things. He was very good to me. He knew that I didn't want to live in the dormitory in the factory and wanted to go home to sleep. Every day he rode an old 28-bar bicycle to take me to work, bought me food and drinks, and promised me that he would reform and stop being a gangster. He worked in a bar in the town to earn money. It was not yesterday that he confessed to me that he liked me and wanted to be with me. He kissed me. I didn't know what to do, so I came to ask."
"Do you like him?" Chen Tianyou asked with a frown.
"I, I don't know." Li Sannier answered truthfully.
Chen Tianyou took a deep breath and said, "Sanni'er, do you still remember when you were little you always told us that you wanted to marry a rich man, be a rich wife, and live a life without worries about food and clothing?"
"remember."
"Well, remember, a man with a criminal record, no matter how handsome he looks, how sweet his words are, and how he can make you happy, even if he reforms, it is difficult to hide his true nature. He is nice to you, but he is just trying to take advantage of your young body. Once you fall into his trap and eat the forbidden fruit with him, the end that awaits you will be irreparable."
Chen Tianyou said this solemnly, and then said in a soft tone: "The reason why you came to me is that you dare not tell Uncle Li and Aunt Zhao about this matter. You are afraid that they will oppose and suppress you and not let you associate with that person. And you don’t know what to do, so you come to ask for my advice.
My opinion is that you are still young and cannot distinguish the sincerity and falsehood of an adult man. If you really like him, you can play with him, but you cannot go to the last step. You must protect yourself, do not easily eat or drink anything he buys, and try not to be alone with him.
After three to five years, if he is still sincere to you and has really changed for the better, and you still like him very much, then you can consider talking to Uncle Li and Aunt Zhao and ask for their opinions. Don't act on impulse and do something irreparable. You don't want to end up like the Xu Tao sisters who were abducted, right?"
After hearing what he said, Li Sannier's face changed and she lowered her head in grief, saying, "Tianyou, you don't believe that Ah Tao will turn back and be good to me forever, do you?"
"Nothing is absolute in the world. I am also a man, and I have a certain understanding of men's dirty thoughts. Most men have bad genes, but I will restrain my despicable thoughts and will not do anything out of line against the wishes of the person I like.
If the person you like cannot respect your wishes, satisfy your material desires, or give you a good life, then he is absolutely hypocritical to you. What is the point of such a person? You might as well listen to your parents' advice and marry a rich and capable man. At least you will be satisfied financially, and you will have no worries about food and clothing, so you can ignore other things. "Chen Tianyou said earnestly.
"Okay, I understand. Thank you for your advice." Li Sannier felt her heart bleed and walked away listlessly.
Chen Tianyou looked at her leaving back and sighed softly.
The friends around him grew up gradually and had their own lives. Girls like the Xu Tao sisters and Li Sanni'er all had the thoughts and worries of young girls. Only Wang Songyue was like a piece of wood. No matter how he hinted, she had no reaction.
But he couldn't say it directly, for fear of scaring her and making her hide even further away. He could only sigh, return to his room, pick up a pen, and start writing to her.
When the capital learned that he had left the frontier, his family went to Xiangbei. God knows how sad he was.
He didn't know what Wang Songyue was thinking. She didn't want to tell him the news that her family was leaving. Was it because she thought he was too annoying, or did she think there was no need to tell him at all?
Even Wang Songyang, who was close to him, kept him in the dark.
He didn't know what kind of status he held in Wang Songyue's heart, nor did he know what Wang Songyue felt towards him. He didn't dare to break the paper window, for fear that if he did, they would not even be able to be friends.
But how could the young man suppress his feelings? Since Wang Songyue left, he wrote to her almost every week. There was not much in the letters, just daily news.
For example, his sister's hands are getting stronger and stronger, and she can run faster and faster. His grandmother's eyesight is getting blurrier and blurrier, and she can't even sew. His mother is getting better and better at dressing up, and she looks particularly young. When she walks out with him, people still think his mother is his sister...
At first he thought Wang Songyue would not reply to his letter, and waited anxiously for more than a week. Finally, Wang Songyue replied. In the letter, she was by his side as usual, telling him about her trip to Xiangbei, the scenery of Xiangbei, how she studied in the best high school in Xiangbei, and how delicious the food in Xiangbei was...
From then on, the two began to write to each other once a week. Lei would write to him without fail, and the content of the letters was only about what happened to him and his surroundings that week. Both of them tacitly did not mention why Wang Songyue did not mention it to Chen Tianyou before she left.
After writing the letter, Chen Tianyou carefully put it into an envelope, sealed it with glue, and put a stamp on it. Instead of rushing to the post office to mail the letter, he sat at the desk, took out a piece of drawing paper, picked up the drawing pen he bought, and began to write and draw on the drawing paper.
Since going to the capital to see the prosperity of the big city, Chen Tianyou deeply realized that the pocket money given by his family was not enough for his daily expenses. He could not ask his parents for money at any time. After all, his parents' money was used to support the family. So after seeing the manuscript in the newspaper once, he thought about writing his own manuscripts and submitting them to the newspaper to earn royalties.
After he received his first small payment of a few dollars, he felt that submitting articles to newspapers alone was not enough, so he began to teach himself comic strips. He wrote stories about border guards and a child living in the frontier, herding and hunting, and fighting wits and courage with the enemy. He submitted his stories to a famous comic book publishing house in the capital, which received good reviews and his royalties began to increase dramatically.
He felt that these two things were not enough, so he began to learn chemistry and physics in high school, and began to draw mechanical drawings and research equipment. Once the research was successful, he would send the drawings and the successful experimental designs to the secretive forces contacted by Chen Shengqing to the secret weapons research personnel in Dongfeng City. Once adopted, he would receive a generous bonus.
But in just over three months, he had nearly two hundred yuan in his personal piggy bank. Of course, he didn't tell anyone about this money, including his parents. After all, his money would be very useful if he kept it.
When Chen Shengqing returned home from work in the army, it was already dark.
The lights were on in the living room. Chen Tianyou was still working on making his own weapons. When he saw Chen Shengqing coming back, he said without even looking up, "Dad, I cooked and left half of it for you in the tin pot in the kitchen. You can just heat it up and eat it."
Chen Shengqing hummed, took off his military cap, put it on the sofa, unbuttoned his military cap with one hand, sat down next to Chen Tianyou and asked, "When did you come back? Are you short of money? When are you going to leave?"
Ava High School is far away from Tianli Town, and it takes a day's drive to get there. Chen Shengqing has been living in the school dormitory since he started high school. Logically speaking, he has no time to come back even on weekends, because it takes two days to go back and forth, which is too troublesome. Except for national holidays and winter and summer vacations, he should not come back at this time.
"Dad, I have enough money. The school provides room and board. You gave me a lot of money before I started school, and I am not the kind of person who spends money recklessly. I came back because today is your birthday. I was afraid that you would be lonely at home, so I took a leave of absence and cooked two dishes you like in the pot. Come and eat them." Chen Tianyou finished drawing the paper in his hand, looked up at Chen Shengqing and said, "Dad, happy birthday."
In fact, in the morning, Chen Shengqing received a call from his wife and daughter in the capital wishing him a happy birthday. Yang Qiujin had also bought him a men's wool coat long ago and calculated the time to mail it from the capital to the border. He happened to receive it today, and he was already very happy at that time. He didn't expect to receive such a surprise now.
Chen Shengqing smiled. He was almost forty, but his handsome features were full of satisfaction. He couldn't help but touch Chen Tianyou's hairy head like he did when he was a child. He sighed, "Tianyou, you have really grown up. Daddy is very pleased and happy. Thank you for taking time off to come back and spend my birthday with me."
When boys grow up, they start to have their own self-esteem. They don't like their parents to touch their heads anymore. They think that if they do, they are treating them like children who will never grow up.
Chen Tianyou turned his head uncomfortably, took out a long ballpoint pen from his pocket, handed it to Chen Shengqing and said, "Dad, this is a gift for you. It is a hidden weapon that I researched and modified myself. It contains three sharp iron tools that are thinner than needles. Just twist the pen tip once to turn on the switch, and press the pen tip again to fire. The iron tools inside can penetrate a person's throat and save lives at critical moments."
Chen Shengqing was stunned and wanted to say something, but Chen Tianyou said, "I have made many similar small weapon modifications and sent them to Dongfeng City for research. If you don't want them, I can give them to others."
Chen Shengqing frowned, looked at the ballpoint pen in his hand, and chuckled, "You have your own ideas and abilities as you grow older. How could I not want the things you gave me? I have only one request from you from beginning to end, and that is..."
"Be careful, protect yourself, and don't cause harm to others, okay?" Chen Tianyou stood up and walked into the house. "I know everything, Dad, please stop talking. My ears are about to get sore."
Chen Shengqing watched him leave, smiled silently, strode into the kitchen, opened the lid of the pot, and saw a large plate of hot pepper stewed pork, a bowl of braised pork, and a bowl of longevity noodles that had already clumped up. He picked up a pair of chopsticks, picked up a piece of fat and pork belly and put it into his mouth, nodding with satisfaction, "Smelly boy, your cooking skills are really good, I don't know if you got it from your mother."
In the capital, after six months of study, Yang Qiujin finally passed the assessment of her teachers and the Party School, got good grades, and was able to graduate and go home.
Of course, the classmates who studied with her also passed the assessment and had to return to their respective local departments to work.
After this separation, I don’t know when we will meet again.
An Hongji suggested: "Classmates, we are about to leave, let's get together tonight, if not for anything else, just to celebrate our being classmates from all over the world, to celebrate our future careers, and to celebrate our graduation. Let's have a drink."
Everyone agreed, and it would be inappropriate for Yang Qiujin to refuse at this juncture, so she went home to settle her children, told her mother-in-law about the dinner party in the evening, then got dressed and made herself look a little more formal, took the tram that also ran at night in the capital, paid the eight cents fare, and went to a famous hotel near the Party School.
When Yang Qiujin arrived, most of her classmates were already there, and they specifically requested a private room on the second floor of the hotel.
As soon as Yang Qiujin appeared, everyone's eyes lit up.
As October approached, the capital began to get colder. She let her hair down, which she usually kept tied up, and wore a slim-fitting wool khaki coat and a pair of newly bought cowhide low-heeled round-toed leather shoes. She looked less stern and more charming than usual, and was as beautiful as a rose in the cold wind. It was hard to believe that she was already a mother of two children.
An Hongji was the first to come forward and said, "Beautiful lady Yang Shanshan, you are late. You are the last one to arrive today. You are late and you deserve to be punished. Come on, toast to all of our classmates and we will forgive you."
Yang Qiujin looked around at the people in the private room and estimated that there were no more than twenty people. One third of them did not come. She didn't know whether it was because they didn't want to come or for some other reason. In short, she knew very well that An Hongji had other intentions.
She smiled and said, "Student An, I have to tell you that I can't drink much. I seldom drink. If I drink with you one by one, I'm afraid I'll drink myself to death. Then I'll get drunk and beat you to death. You'd better forgive me. After all, I've been training for many years and learned a lot of fighting skills from my husband. When I'm drunk, I won't care about the severity of my attack."
"Is this true?" Peng Guohao came over and put his left elbow on the table in the private room: "Come on, compete with me, let me see how good you are. I'll let you, and I'll arm wrestle with you using my left hand."
Everyone came over curiously and started to make a noise: "Brigade Commander Peng, you are a military officer who has been in military training for many years. We male comrades are no match for you in arm wrestling. How could Yang Qiujin, a female comrade, possibly beat you? Stop making a fuss."
Who knew that Yang Qiujin shook Peng Guohao's hand without hesitation and smiled at him: "Brigade Commander Peng, let's start."
"Okay, I'll count to three and we'll start." Peng Guohao said with a smile: "One, two, three..."
The two of them exerted force at the same time. At first, Peng Guohao was trying to let him go, but Yang Qiujin was so powerful that she twisted his wrist off in almost an instant.
Everyone exclaimed in amazement: "Oh my God, I never expected that Yang, who usually looks so quiet and weak, could have such great strength that he could knock down Brigade Commander Peng in one fell swoop. Brigade Commander Peng, you can't do it."
Peng Guohao blushed and said, "I am just giving in to classmate Yang. There is no way I can't beat her. If you don't believe me, let's try again."
In the next round, he did not dare to be careless and used all his strength. It took him almost a minute to knock Yang Qiujin down.
After everyone exclaimed in amazement, they finally realized that what Yang Qiujin said was true. This bright and beautiful woman really had her own ability. No one dared to toast her randomly, and basically they just said a few words and stopped at the right time.
Despite this, Yang Qiujin, who was not good at drinking, was still drunk after the meal. She was dizzy when she walked and could not even walk steadily when going downstairs. She had to be helped downstairs by An Hongji.
An Hongji said he would take her home, but she was very clear-headed and knew that was not the way home, so she scolded him, "An Hongji, this is not the way to my home. Don't think of taking advantage of me. I am a military dependent. Do you know what the consequences will be if you touch me?"
An Hongji supported her and walked along the roadside, saying, "You know what I can do to you. You think too much."
A woman's intuition told Yang Qiujin that she was not overthinking it. During the six months she had been studying at the Party School, she had heard a lot from others about An Hongji's unclear affairs with several female classmates in the Party School.
Both parties are married with children, and are also reserve cadres of the country. In order to seek excitement and to maintain each other's connections, they disregarded propriety and did immoral things, and they took it for granted and thought it was a normal thing.
Yang Qiujin did not dare to agree with such values. At the same time, she also understood that if she fell into An Hongji's hands today and had a relationship with him, An Hongji could turn black into white and would definitely say that she seduced him. Even if she jumped into the Yellow River, she would not be able to clear herself.
The other students were all drunk and didn't have the ability to pull An Hongji away. She could only wrestle with An Hongji in the street with weak hands and feet, and said angrily: "Let me go. I can go home by myself. You don't need to send me home."
An Hongji said shamelessly: "Sijiu City is full of bullies. It is too unsafe for a beautiful lesbian like you to go home at night. You will be beaten by the women. Don't try to be brave. I will make sure to send you home safely."
He held Yang Qiujin's hand tightly, not letting go, and pulled her in another direction.
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