Chapter 43
The sun was shining brightly, and the air was filled with uncomfortable heat waves. Even the wind was filled with scorching heat, making people feel like they were being roasted by fire.
Farm leaders stood on both sides of the warehouse in the vast field, and everyone was sweating profusely from the hot sun.
Secretary Zhai, who was in the lead, stood in a small cotton field, touching a ball of white cotton in his hand and said, "This improved cotton seed will be softer and produce more cotton than the cotton we grow now."
"There's more." Yang Qiujin plucked a few fist-sized tomatoes from a tomato tree whose branches and leaves were wilted by the sun from a dirt embankment nearby. She broke open one of the tomatoes with her hands, revealing the sandy, bright red flesh inside, and handed half to Zhai Hongbo: "Secretary Zhai, try it. This is an improved tomato."
She then cut the other tomatoes in her hand in half one by one and handed them to the farm director, factory committee leaders, trade union leaders, women's federation leaders, Han Yongxin, Party Secretary Zhang and others standing behind Zhai Hongbo, asking them to taste them too.
Everyone picked up a tomato and tasted it together. From the outside, the tomato looked bright red, sweet and juicy. Once you bite into it, you will find that it is juicy, and the sweet and sour flesh with a sandy texture spreads in your mouth. The mellow taste and rich tomato aroma made everyone unable to help but taste it one bite after another.
"Is it delicious?" Yang Qiujin asked.
Secretary Zhai nodded: "Not bad, thin skin and plenty of meat, sour and sweet, rich in juice, and tastes very good."
"Xiao Yang's tomatoes are indeed delicious." Others agreed.
"Secretary Zhai, these tomatoes are not only delicious, but they also produce more fruits than the varieties currently planted in our farm. And look at the other crops in my field."
Yang Qiujin pointed to several small plots of land around the warehouse. On the left were planted fruits and vegetables. There were several rows of trellises made of poplar branches, hung with green beans, chayote, cucumber, winter melon, etc. On the right were several rows of corn stalks taller than a person. On each corn stalk hung two ten-centimeter-long corn bags, which were heavy and swaying in the wind.
Under the corn stalks, half are planted with half-leg-high soybeans, and the other half are planted with lush sweet potato vines. The fields next to them are planted with watermelons, pumpkins, cantaloupes, etc. The melon stems are slightly yellow and dry, indicating that the fruits are ripe for picking. The big green-skinned watermelons are scattered among the leaves, and you can smell the unique fragrance of fruits from a distance.
Yang Qiujin wore a homemade straw hat, her pretty face flushed by the scorching heat. She walked to the cornfield, broke off a corn, peeled off the green husk, revealing the tender golden corn inside, and handed it to Zhai Hongbo, "Secretary Zhai, try this."
He bent down again and dug up the loose soil under the corn stalks, and pulled out a bunch of sweet potatoes as big as wrists and about ten centimeters long from under the sweet potato vines. He gave them to other cadres to taste, and said, "This is delicious, too."
Everyone tasted the corns, and each person ate two. Although it was raw, the corns were very tender and tasted sweet with the unique fragrance of corn. Most importantly, the corn cobs were long and the grains were full without any empty grains.
This is completely different from the corn planted in the soil of current farms, which produces sparse grains, with incomplete ears and many empty kernels.
The sweet potatoes are not yet harvested and have not grown that big, but when you break them open, you will find that the flesh is yellow, not the traditional white-fleshed sweet potatoes. They taste crispy, sweet and crumbly when eaten raw, just like some crispy, sweet fruit.
Yang Qiujin introduced: "If the sweet potatoes are steamed, they will become soft and delicious. If the cooked sweet potatoes are put back into the hot pot and slightly baked until the skin is slightly charred, the sweet potato flesh inside will become even sweeter and more delicious. And it will not be like the white sweet potatoes currently grown on farms, which will choke you to death after eating one bite. You have to hammer your chest for a long time and drink a lot of water before you can swallow the choke."
The leaders ate the fruits and vegetables brought by Yang Qiujin in silence. After listening to her introduction, Zhai Hongbo looked at the farm manager Lu Xingxian, who was neither tall nor short, looked honest, but actually had a shrewd look in his eyes, and asked, "Old Lu, what do you think?"
"Don't ask me. You are the head of our farm. You have the final say in our farm." Lu Xingxian chewed the sweet potato in his hand, thought for a while, and told the truth, "But the fruits and vegetables grown by Comrade Xiao Yang are indeed better than the varieties currently grown in our farm."
"What about you?" Zhai Hongbo looked at his subordinates one by one, "If you have any ideas or opinions, please share them with me."
“Personally, I think it’s good.”
"I think it's OK."
"Comrade Xiao Yang is indeed a good comrade. Not only did he bravely remove the cancer from our farm and get rid of the harm for everyone, he is also a good hand at planting. It is a blessing for our farm to have you."
Several officials from the factory committee came, including section chiefs, directors, and clerks. Several officials from the trade union and the Women's Federation also came. These officials were all old-timers. They hemmed and hawed, talked about this and that, and flattered others, but they never got to the point.
What Han Yongxin hated most was seeing these leaders flattering and talking in official language, wasting his time and energy. Seeing that these farm cadres did not talk about business, he said impatiently: "Secretary, director, you have seen the results. Talents who can develop seeds better than our current farm are rare. There are so many low-level and stinking ninth-class elements who have been sent to our farm for labor reform. It doesn't matter if we ask for two professors who have been labeled as stinking ninth-class elements from the local area. Besides, everyone knows what kind of person Comrade Yang Qiujin is. With her as a guarantor, there is nothing to worry about."
Secretary Zhai was waiting for these words. After experiencing the incident in which Cao Jun and others raped the female educated youth, he was repeatedly reprimanded by his superiors and was suspended from work for nearly a month without pay. After going through many difficulties and hardships to return to his post, his old bones could no longer withstand the torture.
When he returned to his post, he originally wanted to award Yang Qiujin the medals and rewards he had promised her at the farm hospital. However, Yang Qiujin did not want any rewards and only asked Secretary Zhai to bring a group of cadres to the Second Company to see the crops she had grown. She also proposed to relocate the two professors who developed these seeds to their farm. This matter could be a big deal or a small one to him.
To put it in a broader sense, he is still under observation. If these two people cause trouble for him, he will forget about being the secretary and will have to retire and return home.
To put it simply, there are quite a few third-rate reformed elements on the farm. If there are too many lice, one is not afraid of being bitten, so it is nothing wrong to have two more of them.
After all, he didn't want to take responsibility. What Han Yongxin said was exactly what he wanted. He looked at Yang Qiujin and said, "It's not difficult to get someone from the local area, but you have to write me a letter of guarantee..."
"I will write the letter of guarantee right away. Secretary Zhai, don't worry. When Professor Zheng and Professor Cai come over, if any problems arise in our farm, I will be solely responsible." Before he finished his words, Yang Qiujin already understood what he meant and agreed readily.
Zhai Hongbo smiled and said, "Okay, write the guarantee letter and go to the factory committee tomorrow to get a certificate for the relocation. I just happen to have something to discuss with you."
What can't be discussed here? Yang Qiujin looked doubtful, but it was a happy thing for her that Secretary Zhai agreed to invite Professor Zheng.
She wrote a letter of guarantee and handed it to Secretary Zhai. She also picked some fruits and vegetables from the fields, weighed them with a public scale, entered them into the public account, bought them with money out of her own pocket, and distributed them to the leaders for them to taste. She sent them away as they smiled and politely carried the fruits and vegetables.
After everyone left, Yang Qiujin closed the warehouse door and handed the key to Han Yongxin as usual.
Unexpectedly, she saw a familiar petite figure in Han Yongxin's cave. She was stunned for a moment, "Ren Ying, why are you here?"
Ren Ying didn't expect that someone would suddenly break into Han Yongxin's cave at this time, and was hiding behind Han Yongxin's tall body.
Seeing that it was Yang Qiujin, she breathed a sigh of relief and walked out from behind Han Yongxin. "I'm here to bring ointment to Captain Han. Yesterday, a cow in the second company got sick. When I was treating the cow, it suddenly convulsed and kicked Captain Han who was holding down its leg. I think he was kicked pretty hard, and today he's limping. I'm here to bring him ointment for his injuries."
After Cao Jun and others were shot, the farm implemented preferential policies for all female educated youth at the time in order to make up for its mistakes. For example, the three female educated youth who were bullied were transferred to the factory committee, the trade union, and the Women's Federation as clerks and no longer had to do hard labor. Although other female educated youth were not transferred, they were obviously assigned to lighter work.
Because Ren Ying had some nursing knowledge and had lived in the cowshed for some time, and there happened to be a shortage of veterinarians in the regiment, she took advantage of this opportunity and volunteered to learn veterinary nursing from an old veterinarian. She usually followed the old veterinarian to the livestock sheds in several camps of the regiment.
Yang Qiujin saw that Ren Ying had an unnatural blush on her face when she spoke. Han Yongxin leaned on the kang bed, lit a cigarette, smoked slowly, and glanced at Ren Ying from time to time. She could see that Ren Ying was a little annoyed, and was happy for her in her heart.
Han Yongxin looks like a quiet man with a bad temper, but he is actually a kind-hearted person. It would be a good thing if these two could get together.
She threw the key in her hand to Han Yongxin and winked at Ren Ying, "When you sleep in the small office in the warehouse at night, remember to close the door. In summer, the snow on the Tianshan Mountains melts, the Gobi Desert becomes lush with grass, and hares, pheasants, and mice run around everywhere. Wild beasts like wolves also run around. Our farm land is endless and there is no shelter. If you don't close the door, be careful that the wolf will take you away."
"What nonsense are you talking about? We have militia patrolling every company on our farm. There are no wolves around." Ren Ying didn't understand what she meant. She pushed her with a red face and said, "Go quickly. It will be dark when you get home."
Yang Qiujin laughed, left the hut, rode her Benying to the post office agency opened by the farm, put a letter written to Professor Zheng and Professor Cai informing them that they could transfer their household registration to Tianshan Farm, and informed them of the good news in advance.
Thinking about how Chen Tianyou had been muttering these days that he had had enough mutton and wanted to eat something else, she went to the farm food station to take a look. She unexpectedly discovered that the food station actually had fish for sale today, including blue carp, black-spotted pike, white salmon, etc., with quite a variety of species.
Unfortunately, the fish were limited in quantity. Each farm worker could only buy one kind, and the weight could not exceed five kilograms. Yang Qiujin finally chose two pike with fewer bones, one weighing about three kilograms and the other about two kilograms, exactly five kilograms.
I also bought two pieces of tofu, planning to use the fish bones and head to make soup, and the fish meat to make braised fish fillets.
The price of fish sold at the farm fluctuates, sometimes rising and sometimes falling, depending on the amount of fish caught in the nearby reservoir.
The price of pike today is 48 cents per pound, and five pounds is 2.40 yuan. Along with a fish ticket, Yang Qiujin borrowed a water bucket from the salesperson, put the two fish in it, carried the bucket in one hand and held the reins with the other, and went home at half the speed of usual.
Chen Tianyou did not wait for her to pick him up after school, knowing that she must have been delayed by something. He did not feel wronged and obediently returned to his family compound and went to the Wang family next door to do homework with Wang Songyue and her brother.
When Yang Qiujin rode back to her family compound, she naturally attracted the attention of a group of military wives. They all greeted her and chatted with her enthusiastically. After all, she was the heroine who was reported in the newspapers as having the courage to fight against evil and save the female educated youth from dire straits. It was impossible not to admire her.
Yang Qiujin responded with a smile. When she returned home, she saw the two fish were dying. She quickly took a kitchen knife and killed the fish in the yard.
Chen Tianyou had heard the sound of her riding a horse early in the morning and went home with his schoolbag. He was accompanied by Wang Songyue and her brother.
Wang Songyue looks like her mother, fair and pretty, while Wang Songyang looks like his father, as dark as a piece of charcoal and chubby.
"Aunt Yang, let's have fish tonight." Wang Songyang saw Yang Qiujin killing a fish and hurried over. He used his small hands to laboriously help Yang Qiujin hold down the swinging fish tail to make it easier for her to kill the fish.
Chen Tianyou and Wang Songyue were also very curious about Yang Qiujin killing fish, but they stayed far away for fear that the blood would splash on them.
Wang Songyang was braver than them. Even though the pike struggled desperately and its tail slapped his little face, he refused to let go.
"Songyang is awesome and very brave. Auntie will make fish soup and braised fish tonight. You should eat more." Yang Qiujin slashed the struggling pike with a knife, gutted it skillfully, and praised Wang Songyang.
"Okay." Wang Songyang agreed happily.
"No!" Wang Songyue covered his mouth with her hand. "Mom said that you can't eat at Aunt Yang's house every day. These days, everyone's family has a hard time. If you eat at Aunt Yang's house every day, Aunt Yang will go bankrupt. You have to be polite and have manners like me. You can't be so thick-skinned and ask for food from others all day long. Mom is learning to cook recently. Let's go home for dinner."
"I don't want to go home and eat the food my mother cooked." When Wang Songyang thought of the dishes Liang Xueqin cooked, they were either burnt, or had a weird color, or were tasteless, or were too salty, and had a burnt smell. He felt like vomiting after eating two bites and cried in anxiety.
"It's ok, Songyang, just add a pair of bowls and chopsticks, so that auntie won't be starved." Yang Qiujin comforted Wang Songyang and said to Wang Songyue, "Songyue, when auntie is busy, Tianyou has nowhere to eat, but he often goes to your house to eat. It's normal for you two to come to my house for dinner. Why are you being so polite to auntie? In my opinion, your mother is too polite. If I were to be like her and be restrained in everything, then should our two families still keep in touch, and should you two still come to my house to play?"
Yang Qiujin cooked delicious meals and often secretly gave candies to the brother and sister. The two siblings liked her very much. After hearing what she said, Wang Songyue hesitated for a moment, but in the end she could not resist the temptation of Yang Qiujin's cooking skills and did not insist on taking her brother away.
Pike has few bones and its meat is firm and not fishy, so it is delicious when used in braised dishes or stews.
Yang Qiujin split the two fish in the middle, separated the fish bones from the fish meat, chopped the two fish bones into large pieces, and put them into the pot together with the fish heads and fried them until both sides were golden brown. She then added a few slices of Laotan sauerkraut that she had soaked herself, added Tianshan snow water and stewed it for about ten minutes, then cut the tofu into pieces and put it in to continue stewing. After a few minutes, she opened the lid of the pot, and a pot of white and fragrant sour soup of dog fish and tofu was ready.
Chop the fish into pieces with a knife, marinate it with salt, cooking wine and starch for a few minutes, pick some green peppers from the small vegetable garden in your own yard, pull some green onions and cut them into small pieces. After heating the oil, fry the fish until golden brown and then take it out. Then add the green onions, ginger, garlic and bean paste and stir-fry until fragrant. After adding water to boil, put the fish pieces in and simmer for a while. Adjust the salt and thicken the sauce. A delicious roasted fish piece with good color, aroma and taste is ready.
While she was cooking, the three children stood by the pot, watching her put the dishes on plates, and their mouths watered.
After she had cooked two vegetarian dishes and set the rice, the three little ones couldn't wait to sit at the table and start eating in a hurry.
Wang Songyue was fine. After all, she was a girl. She remembered Liang Xueqin's teachings and paid attention to her eating manners and etiquette. She ate the fish slowly and politely.
Wang Songyang and Chen Tianyou looked like they hadn't eaten fish in several lives. They stuffed the food into their mouths hungrily.
"Eat slowly, and be careful of the fish bones. Don't let them choke on your food." Yang Qiujin saw how they ate and was afraid that they would get choked on their food, so she picked out the fish bones for them while telling them to eat slowly.
"Mom, this fish is so good, it's a thousand times better than mutton!" Chen Tianyou was about to cry as he ate the fish meat that was as tender and firm as garlic cloves. "Can we eat fish every day? I don't want to eat mutton anymore."
The border area is vast and rich in resources, and there may be very little meat to eat in this era. Chen Tianyou has been in the army for several months. In the beginning, he thought the mutton here was delicious, but gradually he ate mutton every time. He didn't want to eat it anymore, he was afraid of it, and he wanted to vomit when he smelled mutton. Now he rarely eats other meats, and he is more excited than Wang Songyang, who rarely eats meat.
Yang Qiujin put a piece of fish meat with the bones removed into his bowl and said, "Don't be ungrateful. If you really eat this fish every day, you will dislike it like mutton."
"I won't give up." Wang Songyang ate a piece of tender tofu, his eyes sparkling as he said, "As long as it's cooked by Aunt Yang, I think it's delicious no matter what it is, and I can eat it."
Yang Qiujin thought of the plain food she got from the canteen next door every day, and the smell of burnt food she smelled from time to time recently. She put another piece of fish meat with bones removed into Wang Songyang's bowl with a smile, "Songyang is still easy to feed. He eats everything and is not picky about anything. He will definitely grow up strong and taller than your brother Tianyou."
Chen Tianyou was about to retort when he heard Liang Xueqing next door shouting, "Songyue, Songyang, go home for dinner."
Chen Tianyou smiled at Wang Songyang and said, "Your mother called you home for dinner."
"I'm not going back to eat." Wang Songyang desperately tried to eat the food in the bowl, wanting to finish it quickly so that he wouldn't have to go home to eat the disgusting meals his mother cooked.
Wang Songyue reluctantly put down her chopsticks, stood up and politely said to Yang Qiujin: "Thank you Aunt Yang for hosting us. The food you cook is really delicious."
Then he went to pull Wang Songyang and said, "Let's go, brother. Mom wants us to go back."
"I won't leave." Wang Songyang held on to the dishes in his hands tightly.
Wang Songyue raised his eyebrows: "Are you going to leave or not? If you don't leave, I will beat you."
Wang Songyang's neck shrank, tears welled up in his eyes, and it was obvious that he didn't want to leave.
"Okay, Songyue, your brother doesn't want to leave. Let him eat first and don't scare him."
After several months of observation, Yang Qiujin discovered that Wang Songyue was not as gentle and quiet as she appeared. On the contrary, she had a strong temper and was very decisive. She liked to order the children around, and if they did not listen to her orders, she would get angry and even beat them.
Chen Tianyou, Wang Songyang, and other children of their age in the family compound all liked to play with her and listen to her instructions. However, there were times when they didn't listen to her instructions, and Wang Songyue would lose her temper at that time, and her temper was terrifying.
Yang Qiujin liked this girl very much. In her opinion, a girl must have her own temper and personality so that she will not be so weak that she can be manipulated by others when she grows up. This girl can help her control her naughty son, and she wants to worship her like an ancestor.
Wang Songyang finally went home without eating enough, because Liang Xueqing said she would not support the child, so he came to look for the child.
Yang Qiujin divided the two kinds of fish in half, put them in a bowl, and asked Liang Xueqin to take it home to feed her children.
Liang Xueqin embarrassedly refused: "Songyang always comes to your house to eat. I didn't teach him well. I always feel ashamed and uneasy. How can I eat and take it away?"
"Look at you, you are being distant with me again." Yang Qiujin put the bowl of fish in her hand. "When I first came, you said you wanted to make friends with me. It has been several months, and you are still so distant with me. If you continue to be so polite, we should just break up and save myself from having to listen to your nagging every day."
Liang Xueqing knew she was joking and quickly said, "Comrade Yang, don't be angry. I have never been able to speak since I was a child. In fact, I think you are a very good person. I am just not used to being too close to people."
"I understand. It takes time for people to get along with each other. After a long time, they will open up to each other naturally. It's getting late. You should go back. If the child wants to come to my house for dinner in the future, just let him come. With him and Tianyou competing for food, Tianyou will eat two more bowls of rice. He is not picky about food."
"You're right, Comrade Yang. You're about the same age as me. Why don't I call you Sister Yang and you call me by my name?"
Is this a step forward in neighborly relations?
Yang Qiujin said, "Okay, it's up to you."
Liang Xueqing smiled and said, "Sister Yang, we'll leave first. If you're too busy tomorrow afternoon, I'll pick up Tianyou for you."
"become."
After seeing Liang Xueqing and her son off, Yang Qiujin and Chen Tianyou finished their meal and took the leftover food into the kitchen, placing it in a basin half filled with water. The cold water would cool down the temperature of the leftovers in the bowl. In such hot weather, the leftovers would not go bad so quickly if left overnight.
She washed and brushed the pots, pans, dirty clothes, shoes, socks, etc., and then turned around to urge Chen Tianyou to do his unfinished homework. After finishing his homework, she went to the yard to weed and water the fields, and sort out the crops. After finishing, she boiled water for Chen Tianyou to take a bath, mended the clothes that Chen Tianyou had worn during the day, and coaxed him to go to bed. After all the busy work, she was exhausted.
At this moment, she missed the time when Chen Shengqing was at home very much. When he was at home, it seemed that he took the initiative to do all the chores. When she came back from get off work on the farm, she only needed to cook. He had been gone for more than two months, and no one knew when he would come back.
As she thought about this, she leaned against the kang and fell asleep in a daze.
In the middle of the night, she suddenly heard someone climbing over the wall into the yard. The sound of feet landing on the ground scared her so much that she woke up immediately and reached out to touch the dagger under the pillow.
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