Chapter 63
Yang Qiujin heard something and asked, "Is he causing you trouble?"
"It's not a problem, I just can't stand his rogue look." Yang Qiuyue pouted and said, "This guy says one thing to one person and another to another. He's not a decent person at all."
"What, did he tease you?"
Yang Qiuyue blushed and said shyly, "It's not flirting. He just came to the site every day and cared about my daily life and the daily life of other female employees. He knew I was sick and brought me medicine. He talked to us and was quite humorous. At first, I thought he was a nice guy, but as we got to know each other for a long time, he would shake my hand and pat my shoulder. Once he even hugged me and said he wanted a comradely hug. He didn't just do this to me. I saw him do this to other female educated youth. I'm not a virgin, so I can tell what he's thinking. Yu Cong is a typical playboy."
Yang Qiujin frowned. She had never thought that Yu Cong would attack her own sister.
She said, "Just understand it in your heart. Yu Cong was transferred to our farm to do gold plating. He will stay here for five years at most and then go back to Kyoto. He is not the same as us. Don't be fooled by his face."
Yang Qiuyue nodded: "Sister, I know my limits."
Yang Qiujin didn't know whether she had a sense of propriety or not. She only knew that Yu Cong looked like a decent man, but he did not do his job properly at the scene. He just wanted to flirt with female comrades and organize cultural performances. Yang Qiujin was annoyed by him!
She kicked open the half-closed door of the deputy director's office. Yu Cong was sitting with his feet resting on the desk, sipping a cup of coffee. Next to him was a record player playing some lascivious music that was not allowed to be released to the outside world.
Seeing Yang Qiujin coming in with a murderous look on her face, he was so frightened that he quickly stopped the record, stood up and glanced outside: "Director Yang, why didn't you knock when you came in? You scared me!"
"Deputy Director Yu, the farm is busy everywhere now. You don't supervise the expansion of the pen to see if it's proceeding as per the drawings I drew, you don't check if the newly purchased breeding eggs are up to standard, you don't post big-character posters, and you don't assess the workers who are about to be recruited. Instead, you just sit here listening to lascivious music. Aren't you afraid that I will hand you over to the hands of the Little Red Soldiers?" Yang Qiujin said angrily.
"Hey, Director Yang, don't be so arrogant." Yu Cong made sure that there was no one behind her, and lazily lay back on the recliner and said, "Didn't you tell me that I am in charge of the daily operation of the farm, and you are in charge of production. I have taken out a loan for the expansion of the farm, and the materials have been purchased. The migrant workers in charge of building the pens are all from the farm, so they dare not cut corners or cheat. We must have basic trust in revolutionary comrades. I know the workers who have been recruited, so don't worry. I've been tired for several days and want to relax. If you don't tell me about the record, who will know."
Yang Qiujin snorted coldly: "I don't want to ask too much about your work style, but this record player and those colored records will still be in the farm tomorrow. I will definitely show them to Secretary Zhai. If you don't want to be in charge of the farm's affairs, I tell you, our farm will not participate in the autumn harvest meeting. If other farms have a good harvest, what does it have to do with our farm?"
"Oh, no." Yu Cong still wanted to stand out at the autumn harvest party and attract the beautiful female educated youth to throw themselves at him. "Can I go to supervise the work? I will also put away the records, but Director Yang, you have to ask a few female comrades in the farm to cooperate with me. Our farm also needs to put out two programs to show its presence at the farm party."
"It's up to you." Yang Qiujin turned and left.
She had no objection to letting the employees in the farm perform at the party. Everyone had worked hard for several years. Before, because she had to take care of Chen Shengqing, there was no time for the employees to rehearse programs to participate in the farm's party. This was more or less a pity for the employees.
After all, there are too few entertainment activities these days. Everyone wants to go and perform on stage, communicate with other comrades, eat, drink and have fun for free, and relax after a busy work.
There was no way she would ask all the farm employees to skip the party because of her personal emotional problems.
"Huh? Don't be so casual. The employees in the field all listen to you. If you don't give the order, how can they cooperate with my work?" Yu Cong chased out.
Chen Tianyou still remembered Yang Qiujin's promise to him to use gas and guns to hunt. Looking at the chicken coop in front of him, which was full of uncleaned chicken droppings and piles of unpicked eggs in the haystacks, he wrinkled his nose and asked, "Auntie, do I have to clean up all this chicken droppings?"
"You don't have to sweep, there are workers to do it. Your mother was just trying to scare you before. Just pick up the eggs." Yang Qiuyue handed him a basket and said.
Wang Songyang stood at the door of the chicken coop, covered his nose and shouted, "Brother Tianyou, I won't help you pick up eggs. This chicken coop is too smelly. I don't want to go in and get myself dirty."
"The chicken coop stinks, but you eat eggs and chicken meat, and you eat them more deliciously than anyone else." Chen Tianyou said to him unhappily, "Are you my good brother, who can only share the good times but not the bad times? Then why did you follow me to the farm? You came here to watch the show."
Wang Songyang was rebuked by him and hung his head in dismay. He said reluctantly: "Okay, then I'll help you."
Wang Songyue, who always liked to keep things clean, hesitated for a moment, walked into the chicken coop, and said to Yang Qiuyue, "Aunt Qiuyue, give me a basket too."
Before winter, poultry on the farm are raised in open-air dams on the farm. Chickens, ducks, and geese build nests and lay eggs everywhere. Some are laid in nests made in the chicken coop, some in the grass, some in the vegetable field, and some in caves. If the workers fail to pick up the eggs in time, they will be eaten by weasels, snakes, or rats. If they are left for too long, the eggs will go bad.
Chen Tianyou and his three children followed Yang Qiuyue, picking through the grass to look for chicken, duck and goose eggs. It was like treasure hunting and it was quite fun.
Yang Qiujin walked around the site, first looking at the expansion of the farm's pens, and then walked around the poultry and livestock sheds to check the growth of the poultry and livestock one by one.
Then he went around to the pond to see if the water was turbid and whether the fish had died. Finally, he ran to the dozen acres of land outside the farm to check on the growth of the fruits and vegetables planted there to feed the poultry and livestock.
You don't know until you see it. You will find that dozens of corn cobs have been broken off from several acres of late-maturing corn that was grown on the farm specifically to feed chickens, ducks and geese. Judging from the traces of being picked, they must have been picked in the past one or two days.
Yang Qiujin's heart sank, and she immediately returned to the field and called all the workers to a meeting. "Dozens of corn cobs were picked from our east corn field. Who was on guard last night and didn't hear anything?"
Yu Qiaoyun said, "Director Yang, my brother-in-law and I were on guard last night, and we didn't hear anything."
"Could it be that some of the migrant workers who came to repair the livestock shed picked them with dirty hands and feet?" said Yu Qiaoyun's brother-in-law.
"That's not possible. They come to work here in the morning and leave before dark at night. The cornfield is far away from where they work. There is no need for them to go such a long way just to pick corn cobs and do such thankless work. Do they still deserve to be paid?" Yang Qiujin said.
These corn cobs are all new varieties improved by Professor Zheng’s group of agronomy professors. They are large in size, with full grains. Each one weighs at least one kilogram, which is much larger than the old varieties of corn.
Although losing a few dozen corn cobs was not a big deal, Yang Qiujin was very picky and would never allow anyone to do anything sneaky under her nose.
Yang Qiujin looked at the cornfield and said, "This thief who stole the corn cobs is quite smart. He picked corn cobs here and there so that he wouldn't be easily discovered. He only picked the shorter corn cobs. Tell me, what kind of person would pick corn cobs like this?"
The others looked at each other, unable to guess what was going on.
Fan Hui said: "Could it be the kids in the field who did it?"
The children she was referring to were the children of the farm workers. The farm school was on holiday and the farm workers had to go to work, so the children were basically left at large during the day.
Although the farm is far away from the farm, because it is close to Tianhe River in the east and Gobi Beach in the west, many children go to the nearby river to fish and catch shrimps, and go to the Gobi Beach to pick sour dates and sea buckthorn berries and look for wild vegetables. It is not impossible for them to come to the farm to pick corn.
Yang Qiujin's face was gloomy. She called Fan Hui's taciturn brother, "Fan Sui, go to the farm and tell the farm security team to search every house to see if there are any stolen corn cobs."
Yu Cong, who came over after hearing the noise, said, "Director Yang, aren't you making a big fuss about this? For this kind of thing, ask a few parents. If it was really the children who stole it, give them a beating and make them pay. That will teach them a lesson, right?"
"If they can steal corn cobs from my farm today, they can come to the farm to steal chickens tomorrow, and even pigs in the future!" Yang Qiujin squinted at him, "Besides, do you think they can run so far to steal things from the farm? Is this their first time stealing things? Maybe they have stolen other things from the farm before, but they were not discovered, or the people on the farm think it's not a big deal, so they make them habitual offenders! These bad guys whose parents tolerate petty theft should be eradicated!"
Yu Cong choked, knowing that he couldn't win the argument with her, and sighed helplessly.
Fan Sui, who was a man of few words, immediately ran to the farm security department and told the chief of the security department about the incident.
The head of the security department also thought that Yang Qiujin was making a big deal out of nothing and was unwilling to send anyone to investigate.
Professor Zheng happened to pass by the Security Department. After hearing their conversation, he turned around and found Secretary Zhai. He said seriously, "Secretary Zhai, recently the fruits and vegetables grown in our test fields have been stolen frequently. Among them, the sweet and crisp watermelon seeds that we borrowed from other farms and studied by Dr. Wu are the most serious! The watermelons are about to mature, and most of them are red soil with very few watermelon seeds. This is a change from the traditional watermelon seeds with white soil, mostly seeds, and not very sweet. If all of them are stolen by thieves, where can we find seeds? How can we cultivate better watermelon seeds?"
"Is this true? Who is so bold as to steal fruits from the experimental field?" Secretary Zhai was very angry when he heard this. He called Han Xin from the Armed Forces Department and the head of the Security Department and said, "Immediately send people to search the homes of all the employees on site. Find all the people who stole fruits and vegetables and send them to the police station. Expel them from the household registration and kick them out of our farm!"
Over there, Han Yongxin and his men quickly went in to search. Here, under the leadership of Yang Qiuyue, Chen Tianyou and his three children took gas and guns and followed Yang Qiuyue to the Gobi Beach, where they went hunting happily together.
Accompanying them were three dogs: Lightning, Black Panther and Black Tiger, to ensure their safety.
At that time, Chen Shengqing originally planned to raise Lightning in the farm for a period of time, and after teaching Black Panther and Black Tiger the special skills, he would bring Lightning back home.
Unfortunately, something happened to him and Yang Qiujin had no time to take care of her family, so the matter of bringing Shan Dian home was repeatedly delayed.
Lightning has been in the farm for more than two years and has become accustomed to life there. He can run freely in the large area of the farm, or follow the farm workers on patrol, and he has a good diet.
Yang Qiujin had discussed this with Chen Shengqing before and decided to raise Lightning in the farm, and Chen Shengqing had no objection.
Black Panther and Black Tiger have both grown into adult dogs. Thanks to the guidance and teaching of their dog master Lightning, they are now as smart as Lightning and can fully understand human commands. Moreover, due to their sturdy size, they are very good at guarding the farm.
During the more than two years since the farm was opened, they and lightning have repeatedly fought off wolves, tigers, leopards and other ferocious animals that attempted to break through the farm walls and eat poultry and livestock at night.
With them, the losses of the farms are minimized.
The sky was high and the clouds were floating. A dry wind blew over the bare Gobi beach, raising a light cloud of dust.
Groups of children were walking around on the beach next door, all of them looking dusty and dirty, with their hands and pockets filled with sour, red dates and thornberries.
Seeing so many children wandering around the Gobi Beach, Yang Qiuyue taught Chen Tianyou how to use a gas and a gun. She thought there shouldn't be any ferocious beasts nearby, so she told Chen Tianyou and the other two not to run around, and to leave Lightning behind while she took the two dogs, Black Tiger and Black Panther, to go hunting farther away.
Chen Tianyou carefully remembered the tips his aunt taught him, holding his gas and gun, and looking for prey everywhere.
After searching for a long time, he finally saw a rabbit hole with a rabbit hiding inside. He was about to shoot to test the feel of the gun when suddenly a dozen teenage boys came running over and scared the rabbit away.
The children ran to a distance of ten meters from him. One of them, a dark and thin boy about twelve or thirteen years old, asked gloomily, "Are you Yang Qiujin's son?"
Chen Tianyou didn't know them, and seeing that they were not friendly, he was wary and didn't admit it directly. Instead, he asked, "What do you want to do? You scared my rabbit away."
As he spoke, he shook the gas gun in his hand, telling the group of kids clearly that he was not to be messed with.
Wang Songyang, the fool, saw the group of older kids coming and said with his hands on his hips, "He is my Aunt Yang's son. I tell you, don't mess with my brother Tianyou, or else my Aunt Yang will make you pay for it."
"Songyang, shut up!" Wang Songyue wanted to cover his mouth.
Anyone with a discerning eye could tell at a glance that these older children must have had a grudge against Aunt Yang and were here to cause trouble for Chen Tianyou. His shouting like that was clearly an attempt to cover up the truth.
Her brother usually seems to be a very smart guy, how come he fails at this critical moment?
Sure enough, the boy who spoke earlier sneered and said, "I'm looking for you! Your mother killed my father. I can't deal with her, so I'll deal with you. Let your mother also have a taste of losing a loved one!"
"Come on!" He waved his hand and a group of children rushed towards Chen Tianyou.
Chen Tianyou raised the gas gun in his hand, "Don't move, whoever moves, I will hit him!"
The children hesitated for a moment, and the dark and thin boy said, "Why are you afraid? He is holding a gas gun, not a real gun. He can't kill us. Come on! Don't forget, it is because of his mother that we are living such a miserable life now. If my father were alive, the whole farm would belong to our Liu family. We would be the ones who eat and drink the best food. How could this kid have the chance to hunt leisurely here?"
As soon as these words were spoken, the children seemed to have found an object to vent their anger on. They all raised their fists and rushed towards Chen Tianyou without caring about their lives.
Chen Tianyou raised his gun, hesitated, and did not shoot at them.
He knew very well that if he shot these children, even if it was in self-protection under threat, as the son of Yang Qiujin's farm, the parents of these children would make a fuss about it and cause trouble for his mother.
So he put the gun on his back and said to Wang Songyang and his brother, who were still stunned, "Run!"
Wang Songyue hesitated for a while and felt that he and his brother were no match for these half-grown children. He gritted his teeth, turned around, and took Wang Songyang to the direction where Yang Qiuyue was hunting, seeking help from Yang Qiuyue.
As soon as they left, the children rushed to Chen Tianyou.
Chen Tianyou was not panicked. He had been bullied by bad kids in the military compound three years ago. In order to protect himself, he learned fighting skills from his father, starting with military boxing. Over the past three years, he would run and exercise whenever he had free time. He also kept up with fighting skills and military boxing. He was not afraid of these kids attacking him at all.
He kicked down a boy who ran over first, then squatted down and swept his legs to knock down two children. He quickly stood up, clenched his fists, and punched one child in the face, causing the child to bleed from the nose. The children finally realized that something was wrong. This Chen Tianyou looked only eight or nine years old, and was at an age that was easily bullied, but how could he be so good at fighting!
That was not all. When they rushed over to beat Chen Tianyou, the big wolf dog beside him, protecting its master, rushed over with bared teeth and bit their calves.
The timid child was so scared that he burst into tears and turned around and ran away.
The other children were also frightened and dared not move forward.
One of the children said to the skinny boy, "Dabao, this guy looks difficult to deal with. He has a wolfhound to help him. We can't beat him. How about we retreat?"
Liu Dabao said with a dark face: "What are you afraid of? There are so many of us, can't we beat him alone?"
In fact, they were really impossible to beat. In the blink of an eye, Chen Tianyou knocked down a group of children, and they all ran away in a hurry.
Liu Dabao looked at the tall and thin boy unwillingly. After thinking for a while, he picked up a few stones from the ground and said to the children around him: "Pick up some stones and throw them at him. Even if we can't beat him, we have to make him suffer!"
The children who were running away were also very angry. When they heard what Liu Dabao said, they thought it made sense, so they picked up stones and threw them at Chen Tianyou.
Chen Tianyou was no match for their move and was hit on the head by several stones. His head was bleeding and a big bump appeared on it. He had to cover his head and run towards Yang Qiuyue in the lightning.
Yang Qiuyue, led by Wang Songyue and her brother, rushed to Chen Tianyou's position. Those bad kids had already run away without a trace.
"Oh, Tianyou, you are bleeding. Come and let your aunt see where you are hurt?" Seeing Chen Tianyou's head injury and bleeding, Yang Qiuyue was very anxious and went to check his wound.
Wang Songyue asked worriedly, "Tianyou, how do you feel?"
"I feel a little dizzy." Chen Tianyou, with blood and lumps all over his head, looked at Yang Qiuyue dazedly and said, "Aunt, please take me to the hospital."
As soon as he finished speaking, he fainted.
"Tianyou!" Yang Qiuyue and Wang Songyue, brother and sister, were greatly surprised. Yang Qiuyue hurriedly carried him on her back and ran quickly to the farm.
When Yang Qiujin learned that her son was bullied by a group of bad kids and had a blow on his head and fainted, she rode her horse and took Chen Tianyou to the hospital on the farm for treatment without saying a word.
The doctor in the hospital examined Chen Tianyou, sutured and bandaged him, and then said to Yang Qiujin: "It's nothing serious. He was scratched by a sharp stone and bled too much. He fainted. There is a bump on his head and he has a slight concussion. Apply some medicine and rest more. He will be fine after a while."
"Thank you, doctor." Yang Qiujin escorted the doctor out of the ward.
"It's all my fault. If I hadn't wanted to catch more rabbits for everyone to eat, and hadn't taken Black Tiger and Black Panther away, Tianyou wouldn't have been bullied and injured by those kids." Yang Qiuyue blamed herself.
"It's not your fault. Who would have thought that there would be a group of kids who would specifically bully Tianyou?" Yang Qiujin sat beside Chen Tianyou's bed and covered the child with a thin blanket with heartache. Then she turned to ask Wang Songyue and her brother, "Songyue, do you know which kids bullied Tianyou?"
"It seems that it was started by a kid named Liu, about twelve or thirteen years old. He said that you killed his father, so he killed Tianyou to avenge his father." Wang Songyue said after thinking carefully.
Surname Liu? Yang Qiujin, a twelve or thirteen-year-old boy, had already guessed who the other person was. She stood up and said, "Qiuyue, you ride my horse and help me send Songyue and Songyang back to the army. By the way, bring my mother-in-law here to help me take care of Tianyou."
"Okay." Yang Qiuyue agreed and took Wang Songyue's and her brother's hands, "Let's go. I'll take you back."
After they left, Yang Qiujin called a nurse and said that she had something to do. She handed the child to the nurse for temporary care and turned around to go back to the group.
The staff dormitories and dugouts in the regiment were in a mess. The workers complained and grumbled, but Han Yongxin pretended not to hear them. He led dozens of armed men, loaded with guns and live ammunition, and forced his way into the houses to conduct inspections.
Soon, they caught the melon thief. They found more than a dozen corn cobs, some eggs, melons, fruits, vegetables, etc. in the firewood storage area behind the cave where Liu Xiaoshan's family lived.
Relatives of Liu's family and relatives from his mother's side who were related to Liu Xiaoshan's family all found the hidden fruits and vegetables from different places.
Now the employees were all excited and rushed to where the Liu family lived to join in the fun.
Han Yongxin was blocking the Liu family in their den, and said coldly: "Lu Damei, after your husband Liu Xiaoshan was shot, Secretary Zhai felt sorry for you as an orphan and a widow, so he didn't drive you out of the farm and let you continue to work on the farm to support your family. But you are so ungrateful that you even dared to steal the fruits and vegetables grown in the professors' experimental fields. You also ordered the bastards to run a long way to break the corn cobs in the farm, and let those bastards beat Director Yang's son so hard that he was hospitalized. I think you are tired of living."
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