Chapter 57
Early the next morning, Chen Shengqing got up comfortably from his bed. Yang Qiujin had already prepared the meal and urged him and Chen Tianyou to eat.
He washed up, sat at the table, and ate the egg pancakes Yang Qiujin had made for him. Feeling the fluffy and soft taste of the pancakes blooming on his tongue, he said, "The army is distributing allowances today. Do you want to go and collect them, or should I?"
His salary allowance had been collected by Yang Qiujin on his behalf since a few months ago, but many times Yang Qiujin did not have time to collect it, so he was still the one to collect it, and he would always ask about it every month.
"You go get it. I'm going to the farm in a bit." Yang Qiujin put a peeled salted duck egg in his bowl. "The weather is getting cold. I don't know if the pens at the farm can withstand the snowstorm. I'm worried about leaving the farm alone with the staff watching over it."
"Be careful on the road. With such a strong snowstorm, I actually suggest you stay home. It's too dangerous to ride a horse to the farm. You may get lost easily." Chen Shengqing poked the salted duck egg open with chopsticks and put the most delicious part, the greasy salted duck egg yolk, into Yang Qiujin's bowl.
Yang Qiujin didn't like eating chicken egg yolks, but she liked eating salted duck egg yolks. She put the egg yolk into her mouth, and the salty, fragrant, and fine sand-like texture of the egg yolk bloomed in her mouth. She hurriedly shoveled two mouthfuls of sweet sweet potato porridge into her mouth to suppress the salty taste of the egg yolk: "The wind and snow have subsided now, and Benying is smart. He won't let me get lost."
Chen Shengqing knew that no matter what he said, she would not change her mind about going to the farm. She glanced at Chen Tianyou across from her and asked, "What about the child? I'm busy these days and don't have time to pick up the child."
"The snow and wind were too strong last night. I don't know what the situation is at the farm, and I don't know what time to go home." Yang Qiujin was also in trouble.
"I can go home by myself after school." Chen Tianyou raised his hand and said, "I am already a big boy. I can take care of myself. Besides, the school is not far from our home."
"Can you really take care of yourself?" Yang Qiujin hesitated. "How about I tell your Aunt Zhao to take you to their house when she picks up Dadan?"
Normally, Chen Tianyou, who loves to be around people, would be happier than anyone else when he heard that he could go home with Li Goudan and the others after school and play together. But today, he refused adamantly, saying, "No, I want to go home by myself."
Chen Shengqing and Yang Qiujin looked at each other and Chen Shengqing asked, "Your mother and I were not at home this afternoon. No one was lighting the fireplace at home. The house was freezing cold. What were you doing at home alone?"
"I can build a fire wall myself." Chen Tianyou said as a matter of course.
"You want to build a fire wall yourself? I think you want to play with fire." Yang Qiujin frowned and tapped him on the head with her hand. "Tell me, what do you want to do at home alone?"
"It hurts." Chen Tianyou covered his head and said aggrievedly, "I really want to be alone at home. I don't want to do anything bad. If you don't trust me to light the fire wall, I can just not do it."
"Are you really so honest?" Yang Qiujin asked suspiciously.
Chen Tianyou raised his hands and said, "Mom, didn't you say you would trust me?"
Yang Qiujin choked, "It's not that I don't want to believe you, but..."
But this kid is a devil, from childhood to adulthood, as long as he is quiet, he is definitely making trouble. Yang Qiujin is really afraid that this kid will turn the house upside down when he is alone at home.
Chen Shengqing said: "If he wants to stay at home, then he can stay at home. But Comrade Chen, you can't do whatever you want at home. If you do something bad at home, you know the consequences."
Chen Tianyou puffed out his chest and said, "Don't worry, Comrade Chen. I swear to the Party and the people that I will never do anything evil at home."
After Yang Qiujin left the troop, the wind and snow outside indeed subsided.
Since the beginning of winter, it snows almost every day in the border area at the foot of the Tianshan Mountains. Sometimes it snows heavily, sometimes it snows lightly, but most of the time it snows lightly.
It snowed all night last night. Everywhere I looked was white, and there were snowflakes floating in the sky.
Yang Qiujin shuddered, wrapped her face and neck with a headscarf and towel, leaving only her eyes exposed, and rode her horse towards the farm.
The snow on the road was not deep because the farmers were clearing the road to the farm. The clatter of horses' hooves kicked up the snow all the way, and they arrived at the farm twice as slow as usual.
The workers had already cleaned up the snow on the wide open ground of the farm. At this moment, Fan Hui was directing Song Zhaodi and several other workers to push all the snow off the roof using a snowplow that had a long stick and rectangular pieces of wood on it.
"Sister Fan, what is this? It's quite convenient." Yang Qiujin stopped in front of them on her horse and watched in curiosity as they pushed and pulled the snow pusher, and pieces of snow like big pieces of tofu fell from the roof.
Fan Hui dodged the falling snow and stood under the eaves and said, "Director Yang, this is a homemade tool made by people in the northeast. I made a few of them myself with wood blocks. They can shovel snow off the roof very quickly."
"That's good. There was such a heavy snowstorm last night. The sheds at our farm weren't damaged by the accumulated snow, right?" Yang Qiujin released the horse and let it run freely in the snow on the farm to find grass to eat. She walked around the pen and looked up at the roofs.
"Reporting to Director Yang, no, last night my sister Qiuyue and I were worried that the shed would be damaged by the accumulated snow, so we got up several times to check it all night." The speaker was Song Zhaodi.
Ever since she listened to Yang Qiujin's words, awakened herself and cut off contact with her family, she and Yang Qiuyue have been living in the farm.
She cherished the job given to her by Yang Qiujin and worked diligently and conscientiously. She treated the farm as her own home and rushed to do any work. She was very popular among other colleagues in the farm.
"No, Zhaodi, you've done a good job." Yang Qiujin took a look around and indeed saw no damage to the sheds. She looked back and saw bruises under Song Zhaodi's eyes. She knew what she said was true and praised her sincerely, "With a diligent comrade like you in our farm, we can avoid a lot of unnecessary troubles and losses."
"I was just doing my job." Song Zhaodi was embarrassed by the compliments and adjusted her hair.
"Sister." Yang Qiuyue walked to the reservoir, followed by three dogs: Lightning, Black Panther and Black Tiger.
When the three dogs saw Yang Qiujin, they all ran towards her with their tails wagging, affectionately pulling at her trouser legs with their front paws and licking the backs of her hands with their tongues.
Yang Qiujin touched their heads one by one, looked at Yang Qiuyue, who looked exhausted and had a gun on her back, and asked, "Where have you been? You're carrying a gun on your back in broad daylight."
"What else can we do? Patrol." Yang Qiuyue put the gun down from his back and wiped the snow off the gun with a clean cloth. "Recently, there have been more and more wild wolves and beasts appearing near our farm. Lightning and the other three dogs are busy all the time. Yesterday, I seemed to hear a bear digging into our farm's enclosure, so we went around the farm early this morning."
Yang Qiujin frowned, "A blind bear? This is not something you female comrades can handle at night. It seems that we need to recruit two healthy people from the farm, preferably those who have served in the military. They should not only protect the livestock in the pen, but also protect the safety of you female comrades."
Yu Qiaoyun and the others looked at each other after hearing what she said. Fan Hui said, "Does Director Yang have any candidates he wants to recruit? If not, I do have a candidate to recommend."
"Oh? Tell me about it."
"The person I recommend is my younger brother." Fan Hui smiled embarrassedly. "Back then, my younger brother was afraid that I would suffer alone in the border area with my husband, so he brought me here. After arriving, he settled down here and got married. But his wife had a difficult birth, and both the adult and the child died. He was depressed for several years and lived a miserable life. I wanted to cheer him up, so I wanted him to come to work in our farm."
Yang Qiujin frowned and said nothing.
Fan Hui added, "Don't worry, Director Yang. My brother is tall and strong, and he is a down-to-earth man. He used to go hunting with my dad in our hometown, and he is very skilled. With him around, he can handle anything, whether it's a blind bear or a wild wolf."
Yang Qiujin asked, "Does he drink?"
Fan Hui said honestly: "Drink a little, it won't cause any trouble."
Yang Qiujin thought for a moment and said, "Sister Fan, I believe in you and am willing to give your brother a chance. But you know, my farm doesn't accept idle people. If your brother comes to work, he will not only have to stand guard with you female comrades, but also help with farming and feeding livestock and poultry in the spring. My farm does not accept lazy people."
"Director Yang, I understand. I promise you that as long as my brother comes to work at our farm, he will definitely work hard."
"Okay, bring the person to me later."
"Okay, I'll go find him now."
"Director Yang, I also want to recommend someone." Yu Qiaoyun also immediately recommended: "This person is my brother-in-law. He is a very honest man and in good health..."
Yang Qiujin waved her hands and said, "Then just bring them here after lunch."
"Okay."
Yang Qiujin spent the entire morning checking the condition of the livestock and poultry in each pen of the farm. Because the farm was operated in the summer, all the poultry and livestock raised on the farm were only half-grown and did not meet the requirements for release.
To prevent them from freezing to death, a fire wall was built in each barn, and coal was burned every night to keep them warm. Although the breeding costs increased a lot, all the livestock and poultry were alive and well, with no signs of freezing to death or death from disease.
The number of piglets increased from four to eight, and the last four were bought from the Border Defense Department's kitchen.
As soon as Yang Qiujin walked to the two pig pens, the eight half-grown pigs thought they were going to be fed, so they all grunted and crawled up from the ground, lying on their front hooves beside the pig pens, grunting at Yang Qiujin for food.
Yang Qiujin reached out and touched their pink heads, muttering, "You are all my big babies. I am counting on you to give birth to piglets next year. Whether you can leave the pen the year after depends on you. You must eat and eat well."
The half-grown pigs had no intelligence and could not understand human language. When they saw her stretching out her hand, they stretched out their pig tongues to lick her fingers, which made Yang Qiujin's hands itchy and she laughed.
The rabbits had been pregnant and giving birth for several months, and now there were more than 200 rabbits in the rabbit houses. When they saw her coming, they timidly shrank into the corner.
Yang Qiujin looked around the rabbit house with a flashlight and found that some of the female rabbits had bitten off all their fur to make nests for their little rabbits, leaving their backs and stomachs completely bald.
Fortunately, Yang Qiujin was willing to spend money to buy coal for the fire wall, otherwise all the mother rabbits and their baby rabbits would have frozen to death in the pen.
The condition of chickens, ducks and geese is not as good as that of the livestock. Before winter, they were always kept in the open space of the farm. Now that winter has come and it is icy and snowy outside, they will freeze to death if they go out. They all stay in the square pens with not much space to move around. They all huddle their heads and look a little listless.
In order to avoid the possibility of plague, Yang Qiujin went to the group and got medicine from veterinary apprentice Ren Ying.
As usual, Ren Ying gave her a few bottles of chloramphenicol tablets. This medicine is commonly used in poultry, livestock and aquatic products. Each bottle contains 500 tablets and plays a preventive and therapeutic role.
In addition, the old veterinarian, based on his many years of experience, specially prepared Chinese herbal medicines such as Astragalus, Lianshao, Honeysuckle, Epimedium, etc. for Yang Qiujin Farm. They are ground into powder and mixed with the feed for feeding. They can detoxify, strengthen the body and expel evil, prevent viruses, etc.
Yang Qiujin gave the money and took the medicine and was about to leave, but Ren Ying stopped her and said, "Sister Yang, Han Yongxin and I will be getting married on the 15th of this month. Remember to bring your family to the party and drink."
"Oh, you two are really together." Yang Qiujin turned around and was happy for Ren Ying. "Congratulations, I will definitely come when the time comes."
As Yang Qiujin spoke, she took out a piece of money from her pocket, handed it to Ren Ying and said, "Here, this is the wedding gift money, keep it."
"Sister Yang, this is too early, it's too much." Ren Ying shyly pushed the money to Yang Qiujin with a red face, "I won't accept gifts when I marry Brother Han."
Yang Qiujin pushed the money back and said, "Silly girl, how can you not accept gift money for your wedding? Without gift money, how can you two prepare the banquet? You won't let our guests eat dust when they come, right?"
Nowadays, when a couple gets married, their relatives and friends would give them thirty or fifty cents. Yang Qiujin was close to Ren Ying, so she gave an extra fifty cents.
Ren Ying thought about it and didn't refuse. "Then Sister Yang, you should come to my master's nest as soon as possible, be my in-laws, and help me get married."
Yang Qiujin thought about her situation. She was afraid that she had already severed ties with her parents who had harmed her. It was really pitiful for a woman to marry alone. So she nodded and agreed, "I will."
After leaving the group and returning to the farm, Yang Qiujin asked Fan Hui and others to grind the medicine into powder and put it into feed to the chickens, ducks and geese.
The so-called feed is mixed by themselves. The main raw materials are wheat bran and bean cakes purchased from the farm. They are mixed with winter melon, pumpkin, cabbage, radish, etc. picked and stored in the cellar of their farm before winter and cooked into a pot. The chickens, ducks and geese enjoy the feed very much.
In order to avoid the situation where there were not enough fruits and vegetables stored in the cellar for the chickens, ducks and geese to eat during the winter, Yang Qiujin spent a lot of money to build a greenhouse on the farm before winter. She used plastic film to grow some out-of-season vegetables such as pumpkins, winter melons, cucumbers, eggplants, sweet potatoes, cabbages, etc., which have now sprouted and are growing at a gratifying rate.
At noon, they had a separate meal at the farm, and Fan Hui brought her brother Fan Sui over. As expected, he was tall and strong, with a sturdy build. He was wearing a thick black cotton jacket, as strong as a bear, and had a beard. He looked like a bandit no matter how you looked at him.
"Fan Sui, call for help." Perhaps seeing the surprise in Yang Qiujin's eyes, Fan Hui pushed the "bandit".
Fan Chong's throat rolled over, and he shouted in a hoarse voice: "Sister Yang, no, hello, Director Yang."
Only then did Yang Qiujin realize that Fan Sui was two years younger than her and was about the same age as Yang Qiuyue.
Yu Qiaoyun's brother-in-law happened to come. He looked quite honest. Yang Qiujin called them together and told them about their salary and daily work. Finally, she said earnestly, "All the workers in our farm are women. You two are the only men. I hope that there will be wolves and wild animals appearing at night. You must be worthy of your responsibilities as men. No matter what happens, it is important to protect the safety of the women and yourself."
Yu Qiaoyun's brother-in-law immediately stated that he would guard the farm and protect the female comrades, but Fan Sui said nothing, but just silently touched the rifle hanging in Yang Qiujin's office.
On the other side, Chen Shengqing was summoned to the regiment office by Guo Shengrong as soon as he arrived at the unit.
In the office, most of the officers of the border defense regiment were there.
Guo Shengrong stood beside an enlarged border map, holding a pendant in his hand, pointing to a red line drawn with a red ink pen and said: "According to the confession provided by Zhou Xue, their superiors have planted spies in various areas of our border defense, and most of the corps have been infiltrated by the enemy. They have many purposes, some want to steal our border security maps, some want to find the location of our oil fields and obtain various oil field data, some want to investigate the exact location of our border Dongfeng City and want to bomb it, and some want to steal various crop seeds developed and researched by various corps, etc. Soviet spies and agents are everywhere, and ferreting them out is one of the things our border defense department has to do."
He paused, then continued, "This time, the spy elimination plan will involve the joint efforts of multiple corps and border defense departments. I will select a few of you to assist the brother units."
He glanced at all the military officers present, mentioned a few names, and then turned the meeting to other matters.
Chen Shengqing sat in the crowd and asked, "Captain, I won't participate in this spy-elimination operation?"
Guo Shengrong paused for a moment and said, "Xiao Chen, I know you have been a spy in the Soviet Union for several years. You have excellent skills in disguise, tracking, counter-detection, etc., but unfortunately, you cannot participate this time."
Chen Shengqing looked serious: "Why?"
"Because your application to be promoted to deputy regiment commander has been approved, you should be notified in the next two days." Political Commissar Liao next to Guo Shengrong said slowly, "According to the weather forecast, the wind and snow will get worse during this period. If a snowstorm occurs, our border defense department will need someone to lead the disaster relief efforts on the front line."
"What does this have to do with me?" Chen Shengqing asked stiffly.
"You kid, you have to get to the bottom of this matter before you're happy!" Political Commissar Liao said unhappily.
Chen Shengqing pursed his lips and said nothing.
Guo Shengrong was impatient. "You want to know, right? You and the family of Ji Junyi, that is, Shi Fangfang, were engaged many years ago, right? Shi Fangfang committed the crime of treason and collaborating with the enemy, and Ji Junyi used his military merits and medical skills as a guarantee to spare her life and let her go to the military labor reform mine for reform. Although you are now married to Comrade Yang Qiujin, you also know that there are struggles everywhere now, and our border defense department is being watched all the time. Your previous relationship with Shi Fangfang can easily be used as a handle to control our entire Tianshan Border Defense Department. We can't make trouble at this critical moment."
Deputy Head Li said, "Old Chen, don't be angry. We don't let you participate in the spy-catching mission because it's for your own good. Didn't you hear what Zhou Xue said? Your old enemy in the Soviet Union already knows that you are still alive and is sending spies everywhere to look for you. If you are exposed at this juncture, not only will you be in danger, but your wife and children will also be in danger. Once we root out those hidden spy tumors, you can participate in the catching mission anytime you want."
Chen Shengqing was silent for a while, then he said, "Then follow the regiment's arrangements."
Guo Shengrong breathed a sigh of relief, fearing that the old man would be stubborn and cause trouble for him at this moment.
Chen Shengqing seems to have a good temper, but in fact, he has been a stubborn person from the time he was a recruit to now, otherwise he would not have made such a big mistake and was sent to the Soviet Union as a spy.
Fortunately, he has his wife and children by his side now, so he has things to consider and will not be as desperate as he was before, not taking his own life seriously. It will be good for everyone to keep him in the army.
In the evening, after finishing his work in the barracks, Chen Shengqing dragged his tired body back home. He originally wanted to take out all the dirty clothes piled at home and wash them.
Who would have thought that as soon as I entered the yard, I would see my own washed clothes hanging in the middle of the yard, frozen hard by the wind and snow, standing still like mannequins.
Yang Qiujin had not returned yet because it was only around seven in the evening. It gets dark early in the border areas in winter, and Yang Qiujin would get home after get off work after eight or nine. It was obvious that the clothes hanging in the yard were done by her son.
"Tianyou?" Chen Shengqing shouted, strode into the house, looked around, but did not see Chen Tianyou.
Finally, in the master bedroom, Chen Tianyou was found sleeping in the corner of their kang bed.
The room was cold and the child was lying on their kang bed, and no one knew how long he had slept.
Chen Shengqing covered him with a blanket lovingly. As soon as he covered him, Chen Tianyou woke up. When he saw him, he put his arms around his waist and said with a bright smile, "Happy birthday, Dad."
Chen Shengqing suspected that he had heard it wrongly, "What did you say?"
"Today is your birthday." Chen Tianyou looked up at him. "When I was in my hometown, my grandmother and mother would cook a bowl of longevity noodles every year on this day. They said it was for my father. I remembered it when I was very young."
Chen Shengqing was stunned, a warm current swept through his chest, and his eyes suddenly became hot, "So this is why you have to stay at home today? Did you wash the clothes in the yard?"
"Yeah, mom always says I'm a dirty child. It's tiring to wash my clothes. You've been washing my clothes these days. I think dad is very tired, so I want to wash them myself. It's really hard to wash! I also want to make longevity noodles for dad, but I don't know how to knead the dough. I'm afraid of wasting food and being scolded by mom, so I just wanted to warm the quilt for you, but I fell asleep." Chen Tianyou yawned and rubbed his eyes. He was obviously still sleepy.
Chen Shengqing held him in his arms and said with tears in his eyes, "Thank you, son. Dad is very happy that you have finally become obedient and sensible."
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