Chapter 33
The sky was dotted with stars, but the military compound was dark without a single light.
Chen Tianyou, who was afraid of the dark, held Yang Qiujin's neck tightly with his hands and nestled in her arms like an octopus, with his little face pressed against Yang Qiujin's face. He looked particularly well-behaved and cute.
Yang Qiujin felt touched to see her son, whom she had not been with for a long time, become so well-behaved. She did not let Tianyou get down and walk by himself as she did before. She endured the pain all over her body after finishing her farm work and her first time riding a horse, and she carried Tianyou home from the main road of the compound.
When they got home, Chen Shengqing noticed that she was feeling unwell and said, "You've been tired all day. Go to the living room and take a rest. I'll take care of the rabbit and then make dinner. What do you want to eat tonight? After dinner, I'll make you some bath water."
"It's so late, let's make some simple and easy-to-digest food. After peeling the rabbit, rub the meat with a little salt to prevent it from getting smelly." Yang Qiujin put Chen Tianyou down and looked at her watch. It was almost eleven o'clock in the evening.
She had been extremely hungry for a long time, and now she was tired and hungry. She just wanted to eat something, take a shower and go to sleep.
"good."
Without saying a word, Chen Shengqing put the mutton and milk dumplings in place, took out a small knife from the kitchen, carried it to the right corner of the yard, and deftly peeled and cleaned the wild rabbit. After washing it with clean water, he slightly marinated it with salt, placed it in a large bowl, covered it, and started cooking.
In the living room, Chen Tianyou leaned against Yang Qiujin and chatted non-stop, talking about what he did and encountered at school during the day and what happened at Li's house at night.
Yang Qiujin listened to him patiently, occasionally agreeing with him. She was getting more and more tired, and Tianyou showed no sign of stopping. She was helpless and had to take two pieces of yogurt lumps given by Bart's wife from the kitchen and gave one to him to eat: "This is the yogurt given by the Kazakh auntie, try it."
Tianyou had absolute trust in her. He picked up the yogurt and put it into his mouth to chew. After chewing it, he almost put it into his mouth without spitting it out.
"Mom, this is too disgusting." Tianyou wrinkled his face and felt like vomiting.
Not only was the yogurt extremely sour, it also had the unique cow smell of milk and an indescribable taste. Tianyou felt like he was eating poison and couldn't eat it at all. However, he adhered to the principle of not wasting food, so he swallowed it with a bitter face.
Yang Qiujin also ate a piece of yogurt lump and had the same reaction as him, not much better.
However, she knew that these milk dumplings were precious food in the eyes of nomadic people. They were made by slowly fermenting milk. A piece of milk dumpling was more nutritious than several pounds of meat. So she quietly put away the remaining milk dumplings and let Chen Shengqing eat them.
There was a lot of clanging in the kitchen. Yang Qiujin was worried that Chen Shengqing was not very good at cooking. After thinking about it, she decided to go to the kitchen to take a look.
Chen Shengqing was kneading a ball of dough in a basin in the kitchen. I don't know if it was his first time kneading dough, but he didn't know how to do it. His face, head and body were all covered with flour, which looked quite funny under the dim oil lamp in the kitchen.
Yang Qiujin stood at the door of the kitchen and saw this scene. She couldn't help but burst out laughing, "Are you kneading the dough or eating it?"
"..." Chen Shengqing turned around, his handsome face darkened, "How about you do it?"
"No, I'm very tired, you do it." Yang Qiujin walked into the kitchen and took a closer look. "What are you going to do?"
"Mutton noodle soup." Chen Shengqing raised his chin towards the chopping board.
There was a large leg of lamb there, which Bart's wife had given him, and he cut off a small plate of it and put it there for later use.
"Your knife skills are good. The mutton is sliced very thinly and evenly sized. It will be cooked after a little bit of boiling in the pot." Yang Qiujin took a look and praised him generously.
Chen Shengqing said calmly, "I am not Tianyou, nor your son. You don't have to praise me anytime and anywhere."
It turns out that he knew it all. Yang Qiujin smiled awkwardly and said, "I was praising you from the bottom of my heart. If you don't like it, I won't say these things again in the future."
"No one doesn't like praise." Chen Shengqing lowered his head, covered the pot with the kneaded dough, and let the dough rise for a while.
"What do you mean?" Yang Qiujin watched him pick up a piece of cloth and wipe the chopping board clean. "Should I still praise you in the future?"
"You can brag if you want, but don't treat me like a child like Tianyou. I'm your husband, not your son. You have to keep the distinction." Seeing her confused face, Chen Shengqing didn't bother guessing with her and went straight to the point.
Yang Qiujin was quiet for a moment, staring at him for a long time, and then smiled, "Chen Shengqing, you are not jealous of your son, are you?"
Chen Shengqing felt uncomfortable for a moment after his thoughts were exposed. Soon, he looked into Yang Qiujin's eyes, which were as bright as stars. He raised his lips slightly and admitted in a low voice, "Yes, I am jealous."
The air became very ambiguous at this moment. Yang Qiujin and Chen Shengqing looked at each other for a moment, then turned away in a panic and said, "You are a grown man, why are you jealous of a child?"
Chen Shengqing said nothing more about this. He chuckled twice, walked out of the kitchen, went into the room, got a flashlight, and said to Chen Tianyou who was playing with paper in the living room, "Son, let's go pick vegetables with Dad."
"Okay!"
The vegetable garden is in the yard. The vegetables that Yang Qiujin planted a month ago are growing gradually and are ready to be eaten.
Chen Shengqing is usually serious and strict with Chen Tianyou, but when the child is not naughty or causing trouble, he will become a kind and gentle father and will call Chen Tianyou no matter what he does.
Chen Tianyou's world is very pure and simple. Someone cares about him all the time. Even if he is asked to do something as small as picking vegetables or just walk a short distance, he will feel that he is needed and recognized by his father.
His previous dissatisfaction with his father disappeared instantly. Chen Tianyou happily held Chen Shengqing's hand and went to the yard to pick vegetables.
The father and son walked with flashlights to the yard on the left, where garlic sprouts, onions, leeks, water spinach, Chinese cabbage, etc. were planted. They were half a leg tall and grew lushly.
Since noodle soup doesn't require many vegetables, Chen Shengqing picked a handful of tender green water spinach and asked Chen Tianyou to help pick some green onions.
Who knew that Chen Tianyou was unwilling to help? When he saw him picking vegetables, he covered his nose and said, "Hey, Dad, it stinks."
Chen Shengqing raised his eyebrows and looked at him, "Where does it stink?"
"The vegetables stink!" Chen Shengqing pointed at a row of green onions and garlic sprouts in front of him and pinched his nose and said, "My mom poured feces and urine on them."
Yang Qiujin was very good at growing vegetables. When these vegetables were still seedlings, Yang Qiujin did the same as she did in the countryside. She did not mind the smell and scooped feces water from the toilet septic tank to water the vegetable patch. Every now and then, she would fill the small urine bucket in Chen Tianyou's room with water and sprinkle the water on the vegetable patch.
Occasionally, she would break up the soil burned in the beehive coal stove, mix it with the ash made from burning dry grass she had found, and sprinkle it on the ground.
These vegetables are growing very well, especially the sweet potato vines on the right side of the yard, which are more than one meter long.
Yang Qiujin, who was originally cooking in the kitchen, heard this and walked out of the kitchen, put her hands on her hips and scolded, "You stinky boy, I just said that you were obedient and well-behaved recently and not picky about food, but now you are picky again! We country people grow grain, fruits and vegetables with this kind of fertilizer. If you think it smells bad, then don't eat the mutton noodles your father made tonight. Anyway, the wheat used to grind flour is also grown with feces and urine."
The planting technology in the 1960s was very backward, especially in border areas, because most of the land was reclaimed Gobi wasteland, which was not fertile and moist enough. In addition to building a large number of ditches for irrigation and removing the large amount of alkaline substances in the soil, people also had to find ways to fertilize the soil.
Fertilizer factories were rare in those days, and a bag of fertilizer was not cheap. In order to save fertilizer costs, many farms adopted the oldest method of using human and animal feces to fertilize the land. This job was smelly and difficult, but the effect was immediate, and many grains and vegetables were grown in this way.
After being scolded by his mother, Chen Tianyou immediately shut up.
Knowing that his mother was a person of firm principles, he dared not say any more bad words and went to pick the scallion leaves obediently.
Under the system of communes, supply and marketing cooperatives, and supply by vouchers, which was practiced throughout the country, most people were not well fed or well clothed. In order to save food, they were reluctant to eat, use, or throw away many things.
People like Yang Qiujin who have their own private plots to grow their own vegetables would not uproot condiment crops such as scallions and garlic sprouts, but would keep the roots and just pinch some leaves when they want to eat them. In this way, the scallions are like leeks, and can be eaten over and over again.
The father and son washed the green onions in the yard. Yang Qiujin had already boiled water in the pot. She took the dough that Chen Shengqing had kneaded and used a knife to cut it into slices. She then put the thin slices, about the length and width of a finger, into the pot to cook.
She was so hungry that she couldn't wait for Chen Shengqing to make it herself, so she cooked it herself.
The water in the pot is boiling, and thin slices of noodles fly into the pot one by one. As the bubbles continue to roll, when all the dough is cut, the noodles in the pot are almost cooked.
Yang Qiujin took out three large coarse porcelain bowls, put salt, MSG, soy sauce and a little vinegar in them, put a spoonful of red chili oil and pepper powder in her and Chen Shengqing's bowls, and only a little in Chen Tianyou's bowl. She put the cooked noodles into the bowl, and then threw the mutton slices and water spinach that Chen Shengqing had cut and washed into the pot one by one and boiled them for a few seconds.
When the color of the mutton changes and the slices curl up slightly, pick them up and divide them evenly into three bowls. Finally, sprinkle them with the neatly chopped green onions by Chen Shengqing. A bowl of mutton noodles with good color, aroma and taste is ready.
The family sat in the living room and ate mutton noodle soup.
The noodles are thin but not mushy, and are packed with the spicy flavor of chili peppers and Sichuan peppercorns. They taste delicious and strong in your mouth.
The mutton is cooked for just the right amount of time. The thin slices of meat are tender and not tough. Mixed with the boiling spicy noodle soup, the crispy and fragrant water spinach, and the aroma of chopped green onions, a bowl of spicy and fragrant mutton noodle soup makes the hungry Chen Shengqing feel very satisfied.
He ate a large bowl of noodle soup in no time, and said, "Qiu Jin, you are still the best cook. My food is far inferior to yours."
"I think it's good too." Yang Qiujin accepted his compliments as much as she could. After eating a few mouthfuls of noodles, she felt her hungry stomach was soothed. Sweat broke out on the tip of her nose. She sighed, "It's a pity that there is no pork for sale here. If there is fat pork or lard for sale, I can buy a few pounds to make a pot of lard. When making the noodle soup, I can scoop a small piece of lard into the bowl to dissolve it. The soup will be fragrant and the noodles will be delicious."
"You want to eat pork. When our troops kill the pigs, I'll ask them to leave some pork for you." Chen Shengqing saw that Chen Tianyou was having trouble eating the noodle soup, so he frowned and helped him correct his chopstick holding posture.
"We have pigs in our army?" Yang Qiujin was a little surprised. "Isn't this a frontier area where ethnic minorities live and rely on cattle and sheep for survival? Where did the army get pigs?"
Chen Shengqing said, "The pigs are raised by the soldiers in the army's kitchen. The quartermaster asked the soldiers to raise them. The border conditions are too harsh. More than ten years ago, the roads here had not been built and the supply from the military supply department was insufficient. In order to ensure the food supply for the soldiers, our border defense department was also reclaiming wasteland and raising pigs to ensure the food supply for the soldiers. However, they don't raise many pigs, so they kill some during the New Year and other festivals. If the wives of soldiers want to buy some, they have to tell you in advance, because the price is not cheap."
An idea flashed through Yang Qiujin's mind. She ate up all the noodle soup in the bowl, put down her bowl and chopsticks, and asked solemnly: "Shengqing, what do you think if I set up a breeding farm, raising chickens and ducks or piglets?"
Chen Sheng frowned, "This is a remote border area with a small population, most of whom are ethnic minorities. If you raise pigs, there are few buyers for pork. Raising chickens, ducks and geese still has a certain market. It's not easy to open a farm. You need to have enough funds, enough connections, and you have to go through layers of approval from local government departments before you can open a farm."
"What if I apply to Tianshan Farm to open a breeding farm and let the farm provide the money and labor?"
Chen Shengqing didn't answer her question, but looked at her deeply. "You don't want to quit your hard work and go to work on the farm. Have you made plans long ago? If you want to gain the right to speak and start a farm among those old hands, you have to be prepared for them to cause you trouble."
"It's okay. There are always more solutions than problems." Yang Qiujin put down the bowl in her hand and smiled confidently. "If I really can't handle it, I still have you. Didn't you say that if I encounter a problem that I can't solve, I will ask you for help. I believe that no matter what troubles I encounter, as long as you are here, all problems can be solved."
Even though he knew she was making fun of him, Chen Shengqing couldn't help but curl up the corners of his mouth when he said this.
Seeing Chen Tianyou eating the noodle soup slowly, Chen Shengqing knew that he had eaten dinner at Li's house before and could not eat that much. He put Chen Tianyou's bowl in front of him, ate it up without saying a word, put away the dishes and chopsticks, and went into the kitchen to wash them quickly.
After washing the dishes and boiling a large pot of bath water, the family of three took a bath one after another and took a stroll in the yard to digest the food. It was already past midnight and Chen Tianyou could no longer bear it and fell asleep.
Yang Qiujin covered Chen Tianyou with a blanket and returned to the main room. She saw Chen Shengqing rummaging around in the room and asked curiously, "What are you looking for?"
"Books." Chen Shengqing said concisely. He took out several books from a shabby black wooden cabinet in the corner of the room, brushed off the dust on them, and handed them to Yang Qiujin.
When they first started moving, Chen Shengqing moved all the luggage from the military officers' dormitory. He had very little luggage, just two bags for clothes and daily necessities, and this black wooden cabinet that was more than one meter long and wide, which was placed in the corner of their room.
Yang Qiujin knew the army's confidentiality system, so she never thought of looking through Chen Shengqing's things. She also did not allow Chen Tianyou to rummage through their room, in order to prevent him from seeing things that should not be seen or leaking things that should not be leaked.
This was the first time that Chen Shengqing rummaged through the box in front of her. Yang Qiujin took it and looked at the cover of each book one by one. There were books like "How the Steel Was Tempered", "Mechanics and Structure", "The Sun Shines on the Sanggan River", etc. The covers of the books were a little worn, obviously they were often flipped through.
"Why did you suddenly give me these books?" Yang Qiujin flipped through them casually. Except for the book on machinery and structure that interested her, she had read the others when she went to the Xinhua Bookstore in the county when she was in school.
"I was a new soldier, and when I was a sentry at Tuomu Peak, I had nothing to do at night after patrolling the border, so I read these books." Chen Shengqing stared at Yang Qiujin: "I have kept these books and moved them around with me. They are very precious to me. I will go on a border patrol in two days. If you have nothing to do at night, you can read them. When I am free, I will assemble a radio for you so that you can listen to the radio. When I am not with you, you will not be so bored with the radio."
Yang Qiujin thought to herself that she was busy every day, so how could she be bored?
Although she will have free time as a statistician starting tomorrow, she will have to take care of the children, do housework and other things when she gets home. How can she have time to read?
But she didn't say this to the man. The man meant well, and she wouldn't refuse his kindness. She just nodded, said "I understand," and put the book on the small table at the end of the kang.
Chen Shengqing saw her expression and knew that she would not read those books for the time being. His eyes flashed with subtle complex emotions. He took off his coat, lay on the kang bed, looked at Yang Qiujin who was sitting on the kang bed and brushing her hair, and said: "After I leave, what will Tianyou do? We can't always let Comrade Liang next door help us look after the children. This is not appropriate."
It's not that he looks down on Liang Xueqing, but Liang Xueqing's capitalist lady status is there. No matter how nice she is, she always has the corrupt attitude of capitalists. It can be seen from the fact that Wang Jianjun and his two sons next door have almost all the best food, clothing and other things. Although Liang Xueqing is low-key and does not have much interaction with many military wives in the family compound, her extravagant and corrupt nature has not changed.
He was worried that Tianyou would become arrogant and corrupt after being in contact with the Wang family for too long. It would be better for him to be more powerful and let Yang Qiujin stop working on the farm and just stay at home to take care of the children.
"Starting tomorrow, I will pick up Tianyou." Yang Qiujin was so sleepy that she wiped her hair quickly and rashly. "You got me a Benying. It's so fast. I have a lot of free time at work as a statistician. I can ride it to pick up Tianyou. If you feel uneasy, you can send a telegram to our mother and ask her to take care of Tianyou. We will rent a house for her in the town."
Chen Shengqing saw that her hair was frizzy from rubbing it, and knew that she was impatient and wanted to go to bed early. He sat up, took the towel from her hand, and gently wiped her wet hair. "Given Mom's personality, she won't come to our place for a while. It would be best if you could take time to pick up Tianyou."
He wiped Yang Qiujin's hair naturally. Yang Qiujin's body stiffened, but feeling his gentle movements and the rising sleepiness, she slowly relaxed.
Throwing aside her embarrassment, Yang Qiujin simply lay down beside the kang bed, enjoying his head-wiping service, "Don't worry, even if I didn't pick up Tianyou, he is already a big boy now, he can take care of himself at home. Oh, by the way, there is so much mutton and rabbit meat at home, we can't finish it all in a short time, tomorrow night you can invite familiar comrades and superiors to come to our house for dinner, we will treat you..."
As she spoke, her voice became quieter and quieter, and it was obvious that she had fallen asleep.
Chen Shengqing was stunned for a moment, shook his head amusedly, and after slowly wiping her hair dry with a towel, he put his hands around her waist, picked her up, and put her on the kang bed.
It was not known whether he was too strong or she had forgotten to button her clothes, but when he picked her up, her head tilted back and the two buttons on her chest burst open with her movement. Her two round breasts were completely exposed in front of Chen Shengqing, rising and falling slightly with her breathing.
For the first time, Chen Shengqing discovered that even after seven years and even after giving birth to a child, Yang Qiujin's waist was still so slender and her body was still as fair and pure as he had seen before. Not only had her breasts not shrunk, but they had become much fuller. If he covered them with his big hand, he might not be able to hold it.
His heart was stirring, Chen Shengqing's throat tightened, and he forced himself to look away. He covered Yang Qiujin with a quilt, turned around to blow out the oil lamp, and lay beside her, unable to sleep all night.
There were several other people who had the same sleepless nights as him.
In a low underground hut in the Second Company of Tianshan Farm, several men sat on a clay kang with solemn expressions.
"Xiaoshan, is your news true? Do the higher-ups really want to replace your brother Dashan?" A donkey-faced man with thin cheeks and long cheeks in the middle, holding a large Chinese cigarette, had a long face.
"It's absolutely true, Uncle Fugui." A short, fat man with a face full of flesh said angrily, "Han Yongxin, this scoundrel, actually teamed up with Lao Zhang to play tricks on us. He quietly went to the regiment headquarters to apply for the cancellation of my brother's job as the company warehouse statistician and replaced him with another person. Originally, our deputy director refused, but Secretary Zhai agreed. I heard that it was Chen Shengqing, who shot our brother Wenshan, who came to Secretary Zhai to plead for him because the person Han Yongxin wanted to take the blame for was Chen Shengqing's wife."
"Great! This Chen Shengqing, I haven't even taken revenge for my son's murder, but he actually sent his wife to my house!" Liu Fugui said gloomily as he broke the cigarette in his hand. "There's a road to heaven but you don't take it, there's no door to hell but you insist on coming. I can't kill you, but can I kill your woman?"
A skinny man next to him said, "Uncle Fugui, I don't want to lose my job as a statistician. The people in Liujiazhuang all depend on me for their livelihood. What should I do now?"
"Why are you in such a hurry?" A man with a face full of pits and very bad skin next to Liu Fugui said, "If you want to keep your job, there are many ways to do it. Why are you in such a hurry?"
Liu Dashan's eyes lit up. "Master Cao, tell me, what can we do?"
"What Secretary Zhai has agreed to is set in stone, and no one can change it." The man took a puff of his cigarette and said, "Since his wife is going to take your job, you should be generous and hand over the job."
"Ah?" Liu Dashan was confused. "If I just hand over the work like this, what should I do?"
Cao said, "A statistician is only responsible for statistics and bookkeeping, which is different from the nature of a warehouse keeper's job. Although you have lost your job as a statistician, you can apply for a warehouse keeper job from your eldest brother-in-law, Deputy Director Feng. By then, the woman will be a statistician in name only, but the actual power of managing the grain in the warehouse will still be in your hands. You can control the woman however you want, and you can also avenge your rich uncle, killing two birds with one stone."
Liu Dashan asked suspiciously, "Aren't statisticians supposed to be in charge of the warehouse? How come there is also a custodian? Officer Cao, what on earth are you talking about? You've confused me."
"What nonsense!" Liu Fugui glared at him. "How can an illiterate like you compare with Cao, who graduated from high school? What Cao says is what it is. Just do it. He won't hurt you. We are grasshoppers on a rope. The monk can escape, but the temple cannot!"
Liu Dashan was speechless. He thought that Cadre Cao, who worked in the Youth League Committee, had been in cahoots with them for many years and would definitely not harm him for such a small matter. So he said nothing more and turned around and walked towards the Youth League headquarters in the dark to talk to his brother-in-law.
After he left, Cao said to the rest of the people: "The statistician is going to be replaced, which is not a good thing. We think it will be difficult to make money from it in the future. Why don't we take this opportunity to do something big? Come over here and I will tell you..."
A few people gathered together and whispered to each other. Soon they came out of the cave and walked towards the company's logistics warehouse.
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