Chapter 51
A beautiful young girl came to the Chen family. She wore a white dacron shirt and a navy blue long skirt. She took Yang Qiujin's son to play in the yard all day long, attracting a lot of attention.
Some gossipy military wives heard that the girl was Yang Qiujin's sister, and they started gossiping all kinds of things. Some said that Yang Qiujin was too careless, and that with such a beautiful girl at home, she wasn't afraid that her husband would lose control and have an affair with his sister-in-law.
There are also reports that Yang Qiujin brought her sister here, just like those military wives with ulterior motives before her, because she came for the unmarried officers in the army, intending to find a military officer husband for her sister so that she could live a good life as a military officer's wife. This is a typical double standard approach.
Some people also think that they are simply here to visit relatives and may just stay for two days and then leave.
.....
Yang Qiujin heard all this but didn't take it to heart, because during the days that Yang Qiuyue was at Chen's house, Chen Shengqing had been staying in the army for training and had never been home, so the gossip was easily dispelled.
Yang Qiuyue also heard the gossip. In order not to trouble her sister and brother-in-law's family, she stayed in Chen's house for a few days and asked Yang Qiujin to find a job for her.
Yang Qiujin said, "Go to the farm I run. You will be the accountant of the farm. You will be responsible for entering the accounts of the farm. You will live in the staff dormitory of the farm at night. I will give you a gun. I will feel at ease with you guarding the farm."
"Sister, I don't know how to do accounting." Yang Qiuyue said hesitantly, "I used to be a printer in a printing factory, so I don't know much about accounting."
"Do you think your sister and your junior high school diploma are just for show? What did I do in the production team before? Have you forgotten? If you don't know how to do it, I'll teach you." Yang Qiujin took out a self-made account book from the cabinet and handed it to her, "Just follow the instructions above. If you don't understand, just ask me. I'll cover everything for you."
So, Yang Qiuyue went to work at the farm and lived in the farm's staff dormitory.
The four employees at the farm knew that Yang Qiuyue was Yang Qiujin's sister, who was in charge of their monthly salary payments. They were all very polite to Yang Qiuyue and would take her with them when eating, drinking, defecating, and urinating. Yang Qiuyue got along quite well with them.
The day after Yang Qiuyue left, Chen Shengqing came back. It was not known whether he was deliberately avoiding suspicion and chose to go home after Yang Qiuyue left.
He also returned home with a large, long-haired black wolfdog and two black-gray, somewhat ferocious-looking puppies.
When he came back, Chen Tianyou was playing with water in the corner of the yard. Ever since Chen Shengqing taught him to swim, the little guy has been fascinated by playing with water. Every day he is either playing with water or on his way to play with water. His clothes and pants are soaked every day. He has been scolded by Yang Qiujin many times, but he still plays with water as he pleases.
Hearing the dog barking, Chen Tianyou looked into the yard curiously, and saw a huge wolfhound jumping in from the door. He was immediately frightened and screamed, and ran to the kitchen in a panic: "Mom, Mom, there's a dog, a very big dog!"
When Chen Tianyou was a little over two years old, a relative of the Chen family had a dinner party. Grandpa Chen took Chen Tianyou to his house for dinner. His family had a local dog, which bit Chen Tianyou. Although it was only the back of his hand, he was disinfected in time and sent to the hospital for rabies vaccination.
But from then on, Chen Tianyou had a deep fear of dogs. Whenever he saw a dog, no matter how big or small, he would tremble with fear and had to hide behind Yang Qiujin to feel safe.
Yang Qiujin was cooking in the kitchen. When she saw him rushing in with his farts and urine streaming down his face, she reached out and pulled him into her arms. She patted his back and soothed him, "Don't be afraid. Mom is here. She won't let the dog bite you again. I guess it's your dad who brought Shan Dian back. Shan Dian is a military dog and has received professional training. He won't bite anyone randomly."
Yang Qiujin pulled Chen Tianyou into the yard, and sure enough, she saw Chen Shengqing walking in from the gate holding the dog.
At this moment, Chen Shengqing was shouting, "Lightning, sit down!"
Lightning changed the environment to a new one. According to regulations, he checked for dangers everywhere in the hospital. I don't know why Chen Tianyou was scared.
It heard Chen Shengqing's call, ran towards Chen Shengqing, sat obediently in front of Chen Shengqing, looked at Chen Shengqing with bright eyes, and waited for Chen Shengqing to give orders.
Chen Shengqing patted its head and pointed at Yang Qiujin and her son who were walking out of the kitchen and said, "Lightning, from today on, they are your new masters. The little master is a little afraid of dogs, so try to stay away from him."
Lightning barked and turned to look at Yang Qiujin and her son. He sniffed in their direction, as if he was smelling their scent.
Chen Tianyou hid behind Yang Qiujin and poked his head out to look at it.
Lightning grinned, uttered a low barking sound, and prostrated himself on the ground, to show Chen Tianyou that he was friendly and would not bite him.
"It's lightning." Yang Qiujin was surprised, walked up to it, and reached out to touch its head.
He didn't dodge the lightning, nor did he show his teeth, but just let her touch him obediently.
Yang Qiujin chuckled and said, "It is indeed a good dog. It knows who its master is."
"Lightning is a second-class meritorious dog of our border defense department. He has made many military achievements in the past and has trained many excellent military dogs." Chen Shengqing handed the two fat, whimpering puppies in his arms to Yang Qiujin and said, "These are Tianshan mastiffs I bought from a Kirgiz village guarding the border. They are the offspring of wolves and dogs, and have a very fierce personality. When they grow up, they will be very tall and have strong attack power. They are very loyal to their owners, and they have high IQs and strong herding abilities. There will be no problem keeping them to guard the farm."
"They look quite cute. How many months old are they?" Yang Qiujin reached out and took the two puppies. The two puppies whimpered in her arms, twisting their chubby bodies, trying to get down to the ground.
"They were over a month old and had just been weaned. Their owner was reluctant to sell them, but when he saw that I was a border guard officer, he accepted a symbolic sum of money and gave the two dogs to me for free."
Chen Shengqing took off his hat and walked to the kitchen. "What delicious food did you make today?"
"It's hot, so I cooked a pot of mung bean porridge. I was afraid that you and Tianyou wouldn't be full, so I fried a few egg pancakes, stir-fried some green peppers and pork, cooked a pot of scorpion soup, and mixed a plate of cold eggplant strips. Is that enough?"
"That's enough." Chen Shengqing walked into the kitchen and brought the dishes prepared by Yang Qiujin into the living room one by one.
While eating, the two puppies were whimpering and crawling around at the door of the living room, while Lightning was sitting next to Chen Shengqing's stool, waiting for Chen Shengqing to feed it the sheep bones he had chewed on.
Chen Tianyou sat next to Yang Qiujin, gnawing on some scorpions that he didn't really want to eat, while watching Shan Dian. He saw that Shan Dian was sitting obediently next to his father and was not as scary as the big dogs he had seen before. After hesitating for a while, he threw the scorpions in front of Shan Dian.
Lightning looked up at him, then politely gave up the bare bone in his mouth and ate the bone he threw away, chewing it with relish.
"Chen Tianyou, if you don't want to eat mutton, don't pick it up. You threw such a big piece of scorpion meat to the dog without even chewing it. Do you think the money your father spent on buying meat came from the wind?" Yang Qiujin felt a little distressed when she saw this.
Chen Tianyou stuck out his tongue and said nothing.
Chen Shengqing said, "It's okay. You can feed Shan Dian. Shan Dian has contributed to our border defense department for more than ten years. In my eyes, he is my family. He deserves to eat something good. In the future, he will help you train puppies and look after the farm. Be nice to him."
It wasn't that Yang Qiujin was reluctant to feed meat to the dog. It was mainly because she grew up in a time and environment where everyone was short of food and clothing and ate very little meat, so she subconsciously felt sorry for the dog.
After hearing what Chen Shengqing said, she sighed and said, "Yes, you are right. From now on, Lightning is our family. Since it is a family member, it will eat what we eat."
As she spoke, she found a piece of meat with the most meat in the bowl of mutton and scorpions and threw it in front of Lightning, "Eat it."
Lightning wagged its tail at her and politely ate the mutton she threw to it.
Chen Shengqing smiled, revealing two rows of white teeth.
He was very happy that his wife respected his decision, respected the military dog he took in, and was willing to treat it as a family member.
After dinner, Chen Shengqing took the initiative to clean up and wash the dishes, while Yang Qiujin took a broom to sweep the yard, then took a rag and went back to the house to wipe the dust off the tables, chairs, stools, cabinets, kang beds, windows and so on.
The climate in the border areas is too dry. There is wind blowing all day long, blowing the dust on the ground everywhere. The houses in the border areas are all dusty. If you don’t sweep the floor or wipe the table for a day, the dust will choke you to death.
While the couple was busy at home, Chen Tianyou sneaked out to look for Zhao Erfeng's children while they were not paying attention.
"Li Dadan, Li Dadan." Chen Tianyou hid on the left side of Zhao Erfeng's yard and called softly into the yard.
"Chen Tianyou, what's the matter?" Li Dadan came out and asked while chewing a piece of food.
"It's nothing. I just want to tell you that my dad got a retired military dog. It's tall, big and majestic. In the future, you should avoid bringing Erdan and Goudandan to my house to play, to prevent them from getting bitten by it." Chen Tianyou said, gesturing with the figure of lightning.
"Got it." Li Dadan gnawed on his nest, his eyes rolling, "It's good to have a dog in your house. If you can't beat Ji Feiwu in the future, you can let the dog bite him."
Shi Fangfang hated Yang Qiujin and her husband to the core, and Ji Feiwu also hated Chen Tianyou and regarded him as an enemy. During this period, Ji Feiwu often teamed up with some bad kids in the school to bully Chen Tianyou.
Li Dadan often eats Chen Tianyou's candies, and both of their mothers get along well with him. Naturally, he stands by Chen Tianyou, and often brings his sister, brother, and Wang Songyang from the Wang family with him. They share the same hatred with Chen Tianyou, and together they fight against T Ji Feiwu and fight with them.
Of course, they fought in private, mainly because this was a military family compound and their parents all served in the military. It would be embarrassing for either of them if the fight came to light in front of their parents.
Basically, they would sneak out to fight, and run away if they couldn't win. If they were beaten black and blue, they would just say they fell accidentally.
Chen Tianyou chewed his fingers, thought for a while and said, "My dad told me that the dog is a military dog and will not bite people easily. He will lend it to my mom to the breeding farm for a while and bring it back in a few months. I'm afraid it won't be able to bite Ji Feiwu."
Li Dadan was a little disappointed: "Okay, I heard from Dazhuang that Ji Feiwu and his friends are going to the river to pick duck eggs tomorrow, then we will..."
He chuckled, and his thoughts were obvious on his face.
"What are you two doing?" Chen Tianyou was about to respond when Sanni'er, who was about his age, suddenly appeared, circled around their faces, pointed at them and said, "Are you two planning to do something bad again?"
"No." Chen Tianyou would not lie, so he touched his nose and denied it.
Li Sannier snorted, put one hand on her waist, pointed at him and said, "Chen Tianyou, I'm telling you, my mother told me to help Aunt Yang keep an eye on you, so that you don't cause trouble everywhere and cause trouble for your mother. If you dare to beat Ji Feiwu behind my back again, I will tell your mother!"
"Sanni'er, why are your arms so bent outward?" Li Dadan was unhappy: "Whose sister are you?"
Li Sannier said, "I'm doing this for your and Chen Tianyou's sake. Ji Feiwu has been hanging out with Deng Gangzi and his senior classmates. The two Deng Gangzi brothers are so strong. If you want to fight them, aren't you courting death?"
Deng Gangzi is in the fifth grade this year. His father is the deputy director of the Quartermaster Department of the Border Defense Force, and his mother is the logistics director of the school cafeteria. He is tall and strong, and relying on his father being the deputy director of the Quartermaster Department and in charge of all the supplies of the army, no officer is willing to offend his father. He has been bullying his classmates in school, and many children dare not speak out.
Li Dadan was unhappy: "Deng Gangzi is only a few years older than us and a little stronger than us. Tianyou and I may not suffer any loss if we fight him."
"Just brag." Li Sannier sneered, "Don't get beaten up black and blue and come back crying for your parents. Let our mom and dad help you."
Li Dadan was not convinced and wanted to say something, but Chen Tianyou pulled his arm and gave him a look.
Li Dadan then snorted and turned back home: "I'm too lazy to talk to you."
From that afternoon on, Yang Qiujin discovered that when Chen Shengqing asked Chen Tianyou to run, practice martial arts boxing, and practice fighting techniques, he had always been lazy and unwilling to move, but recently he had become particularly diligent.
Not only did he get up every morning when the bugle call sounded to run and exercise with her, and practice fighting, he also doubled his food intake and ate everything.
Not long after, Chen Tianyou grew taller, and his small body looked much more solid, not as thin as before.
Yang Qiujin was surprised and said, "What has stimulated this kid recently? He is so diligent."
At that time, Chen Shengqing was fiddling with some strange parts in the yard. "Don't worry about him. It's enough for him to practice fighting skills diligently and protect himself."
Yang Qiujin walked up to him and saw a pile of black rubber tubes, iron sheets and other things beside him. She asked curiously, "What are you doing?"
"You'll know soon." Chen Shengqing pressed the lighter, burning a hose, and said without raising his head.
"It's quite mysterious." Yang Qiujin didn't ask any more questions. She muttered and went about her own business.
After Lightning was brought to the farm by her, he took good care of the two puppies named "Black Tiger" and "Black Panther", teaching them how to hunt, how to crawl forward without disturbing the prey, how to sit, stand, make sounds, understand the owner's orders, etc.
On the large farm, which was already covered with many crops and weeds and was in full bloom with unknown wild flowers, there were traces of lightning carrying two puppies everywhere.
Under the careful incubation of Yang Qiujin and others, batches of chicks came out first, with a hatching rate of about 90%.
Newly born chicks cannot be placed on the ground to see the sun, and need to be placed in a cool, spacious nest shed and carefully fed with crushed millet and bean cakes every day. After a week, when the chicks are slightly larger and have adapted to the environment, they can be raised on the ground.
The incubation period of duck eggs and goose eggs is about 28-35 days, which is more than a week longer than that of eggs. The ducklings and goose chicks are hatched only after the chicks have laid down.
After the goose chicks and ducklings are hatched, they are raised off the ground for a few days, just like chicks. When they grow a little bigger and adapt to the environment, they are allowed to go back to the ground.
Once the chicks, ducks, and geese are hatched and released onto the wide, grassy grounds of the farm, Lightning's work begins.
It has to stand under the scorching sun, be alert to the eagles circling in the sky and ready to fly down to eat the chicks at any time, beware of wild wolves and beasts that roam at night, and train two ignorant puppies who will bite the chicks and ducks to death if they are not careful.
It can be said that one dog can do many things. Yang Qiujin was tired for it. From time to time, she would buy some mutton for it or take a gun to the Gobi Beach to shoot some wild rabbits for it as a reward.
On this day, the weather was fine. Yang Qiujin spread some water plants in the pond next to the farm to feed the fish in the pond. Then she turned and walked to Yang Qiuyue's room in the farm staff dormitory and said to her, "Lightning has been very busy these past two days. I'm going to take him to the Gobi Beach to hunt rabbits. Tell Sister Fan and the others to pay attention to the eagles in the sky and make sure they don't fly down and catch the chickens, ducks and geese and eat them."
Yang Qiuyue was calculating with an abacus. "Okay, go ahead. Be careful."
Yang Qiujin went to the empty farm office next door, picked up a real gun with live ammunition, carried the rifle and rifle provided by the farm on her back, mounted her horse, and called to Lightning and the two puppies who were resting under the eaves of the chicken coop: "Lightning, Black Panther, Black Tiger, follow me."
The Gobi Desert where she was going was a little far from the farm and closer to the Tianshan Mountains. There were many wild animals there. If she went there alone as a woman without a real gun, it would be difficult to escape if she encountered a wild animal.
Black Panther and Black Tiger have been in the farm for more than a month. They have grown several times larger than before and are now half-grown puppies. Under the guidance of Lightning, they have begun to look like sheepdogs.
Yang Qiujin wanted to train their courage, so she asked them to go hunting in the Gobi Desert together.
"Woof!" After receiving Yang Qiujin's order, Shandian immediately sat up and nudged the two 'apprentices' who were crawling beside him with his mouth.
The black panther and black tiger reacted quickly, sat up, and followed it to Yang Qiujin.
Yang Qiujin pointed in a direction and said, "Go that way."
The three dogs followed her horse, running at a moderate pace towards the Tianshan Mountains.
As autumn approaches, the leaves of the birch and poplar trees growing on the border are slowly changing color. From a distance, the leaves of the few trees are mostly green, with a few yellow. Occasionally, you can see a few red maple trees. Walking in the desolate Gobi Desert and looking at such a beautiful scenery still makes people feel refreshed.
No one knew whether Yang Qiujin was unlucky or it was just the wrong timing, but she wandered around the Gobi Desert with her three dogs for a long time and only caught two small rabbits, which were not enough to feed the three dogs.
She decided to head north to the grasslands under the Tianshan Mountains, and make sure to kill enough rabbits to feed her three dogs and also get some food for herself.
One man and three dogs walked north for about two hours. The desolate Gobi desert gradually turned into lush valley grasslands filled with aquatic plants and trees.
Passing by a gurgling stream that flowed down from the snow-capped mountains, Yang Qiujin stopped to let the horse drink water and eat grass.
She stood by the stream, scooped up a handful of cool snow water and washed her face.
Lightning took Black Panther and Black Tiger for a run around to see if there were any ferocious beasts or poisonous snakes nearby, or any dangers hidden in the bushes. After making sure there were no signs of ferocious beasts, he ran to Yang Qiujin's side, lowered his head to drink water, stuck out his tongue, and took a breath to rest.
On the endless grassland, the wind rustled the grass. The trees grew very far away, so no cicadas could be heard. The whole grassland was very quiet.
Yang Qiujin stood by the stream, looking at the majestic Tianshan Mountains in the distance, feeling the cool breeze from the grassland caressing her cheeks, and suddenly felt that without her husband and children around, life was so comfortable and free with just her dog and horse by her side.
She stood there for less than three minutes, and saw the two Lightning dogs' ears raised. At the same time, the two puppies, Black Panther and Black Tiger, also raised their ears, listening to the movements nearby, which meant that there was prey nearby.
Yang Qiujin looked in the direction they were looking, but she didn't see any prey except for weeds that were half a leg deep.
She took off the rifle and gun from her back. Lightning was already leading two half-grown dogs, crawling forward with slight movements.
Yang Qiujin held the gun and followed them slowly. The three dogs and one man moved about fifty meters. Suddenly, two rabbits jumped out of the grass and ran away in different directions. It was obvious that they heard their movements and were frightened.
"Woof!" Lightning barked, and Black Tiger and Black Panther seemed to have received its order. The two dogs quickly chased after the rabbit running on the right.
After Lightning shouted, he quickly ran to the left.
Yang Qiujin held a gun in her hand, not knowing who to deal with. Just as she was hesitating, Lightning had already caught up with the fleeing rabbit on the left at lightning speed, bit the rabbit on the back of the neck, and ran to Yang Qiujin quickly while the rabbit was screaming.
Yang Qiujin took the rabbit out of its mouth, held it by its ears and looked at it in front of her. The rabbit had gray fur and was quite fat, weighing about five or six pounds. Its neck was bitten and bleeding a little, but the rest of it was fine and it was struggling desperately in her hands.
The hare runs very fast and can jump more than ten meters in one breath. The retired and seemingly old Lightning can catch up with it quickly and make sure not to bite the hare to death. It is really amazing!
A few days ago, when Yang Qiujin took it to the Gobi Desert to hunt, she suddenly had an idea to see if she could keep some rabbits alive for breeding and raise some rabbits on a farm to sell.
There is no shortage of weeds in the farm now, and the rabbits do not need to eat any feed. They can be fed with some carrots and vegetables. Moreover, rabbits have strong reproductive abilities. A pair of rabbits can give birth to several litters of baby rabbits a year. Raising rabbits is probably easier than raising other livestock.
At that time, she casually told Lightning to remember to leave the rabbits alive when catching them, but she didn't expect that Lightning actually remembered it.
It’s so smart!
No wonder Chen Shengqing said it was a meritorious dog. With its IQ, Yang Qiujin estimated that it was as smart as a five or six-year-old child.
"Lightning, well done!" Yang Qiujin reached out and touched Lightning's dog head, praising it generously, "Let's catch more rabbits. When we get back, I'll make boiled rabbits for you."
Lightning grinned and barked, wagging his tail, seeming to like her praise.
After a while, the black panther came back with a wild rabbit in its mouth, and the black tiger followed behind it.
Yang Qiujin took the rabbit from the black panther's mouth and found that the rabbit had been bitten to death, and one of its legs was bitten to pieces.
Black Panther's mouth was covered in blood, and Black Tiger's mouth was also covered in blood. She knew that the two dogs had killed the rabbit in a fight.
I couldn't help but sigh, this is how trained military dogs are different from the untrained dogs, Lightning is smart and steady, Black Panther and Black Tiger are brave but reckless.
However, they were able to control their appetite and did not eat the rabbit on the spot. This was a result of successful teaching by their dog teacher, Lightning, and it was also a sign of their progress.
Yang Qiujin also reached out and touched their heads, praising them: "Black Panther, Black Tiger, you did a great job. I'll make you some delicious food later at the venue."
Black Panther and Black Tiger are also highly intelligent dog breeds. As puppies, they are very trusting and attached to their owners and Lightning who leads them.
Regardless of whether they understood what Yang Qiujin said or not, they enjoyed Yang Qiujin's touch on their heads and licked the back of Yang Qiujin's hand with their tongues to show affection.
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