Chapter 68
In winter, the frontier is covered with ice and snow everywhere. We can no longer put the stove outside the dormitory to cook because it is too cold and the fire cannot be lit.
Yang Qiuyue moved the stove to her single dormitory room of more than ten square meters. She put a piece of beehive coal in the stove, which was burning vigorously, and a chicken she had killed was stewing in the pot.
It was too cold outside, with the wind howling and making her shiver. She simply closed the door, leaving a small crack in the window, sat on the kang bed, took out a book called "Basic Accounting Knowledge", and leaned against the wall to review her knowledge.
She didn’t know whether it was because the kang bed was too warm, or because the weather was just right for sleeping, but as she watched, her eyelids began to droop and she fell asleep before she knew it.
She didn't know how long she had slept. In her dream, she always felt dizzy and had difficulty breathing. She couldn't wake up even if she wanted to.
She didn't wake up from her sleep until a biting cold blew on her body, freezing her teeth and making them chatter.
When she looked around, she saw a vast expanse of white with heavy snow falling everywhere. A man was carrying her on his back, moving laboriously in a certain direction in the snow.
Yang Qiuyue was shocked. She didn't even know that she had fallen asleep and a criminal had broken into her house and carried her away.
She raised her hand and hammered the man on her back on the neck, struggling hard: "Who the hell are you to dare to set your sights on me? If you don't let me go, I'll beat you to death!"
The person carrying her didn't expect her to suddenly attack. He lost his balance and stumbled forward, dragging Yang Qiuyue forward with him.
"Ah——!" Yang Qiuyue screamed.
Seeing that she was about to fall flat on her face, the man carrying her quickly steadied her body, allowing her to fall on him without getting hurt, but he fell heavily to the ground.
Fortunately, the snow on the road was thick enough, so the person carrying her fell face down, but it was not a serious problem.
When the man got up from the ground, coughed and wiped the snow off his face, revealing a familiar face, Yang Qiuyue recognized who he was: "Fan Sui, why is it you? Why are you here, and behind my back?"
"I was worried that you were on night duty at the farm alone and couldn't handle the wild wolves there, so I came back to check." Fan Sui patted the snow off his body and said, "I went to the dormitory to find you. I wanted to tell you that during the time when Director Yang and the others were on vacation, I would stay at the farm. I called you, but you didn't respond. I looked in from the window and saw that your stove was still burning and you were lying inside without any response. I guessed that the room must be stuffy and you must have been suffocated by the coal stove and passed out. So I quickly pried open your door and carried you to the farm hospital. I didn't expect you to wake up. How do you feel?"
"I feel a little dizzy and have no strength in my body." Yang Qiuyue said as she felt the world spinning and fell to the side.
Fan Sui quickly reached out to support her, "You don't look well, get on my back, I'll carry you to the hospital for some oxygen."
"No, I just need to rest for a while." Yang Qiuyue held his hand and stood there for a while, then smiled at Fan Sui: "Comrade Fan, thank you. If you hadn't come back to see me, I might have been suffocated to death by the coal stove."
"It's okay. It's just a piece of cake." The woman's hand was slender and warm. Fan Sui silently withdrew his hand and tried to keep a distance from the unmarried lesbian in front of him so as not to offend her and avoid being seen by others and gossiping about her.
Yang Qiuyue turned around to look at him. The man in front of her was tall, wearing a gray padded coat and large cotton shoes of the same color. His facial features were not particularly handsome, but he had thick eyebrows, big eyes, and a high nose. Even though his hair was a little long and his chin was untidy, he looked a little unkempt, but for some reason, Yang Qiuyue felt that he was quite manly at this moment.
She asked him, "Why did you decide to go back to the farm to work the night shift and come to see me? Didn't you go home with your sister to celebrate the holidays?"
"I'm a single man. Every year when I celebrate the holidays with my sister and her family, they always nag me to get married again. I don't want to listen, so I just want to go back to the field to stand guard at night." Fan Sui said honestly.
Yang Qiuyue looked at him, her eyes suddenly reddened, "I am also alone, if it weren't for you today, I would have died on the spot."
Fan Sui saw her eyes suddenly turn red, and he was a little at a loss. He was not good at coaxing women, so he could only say: "You southerners don't understand the dangers of coal stove poisoning. Be careful when cooking in the house in the future, and remember to ventilate well."
Yang Qiuyue did not refute. She had been living in the border area for more than two years and knew the dangers of burning a stove in a house without ventilation in winter. In fact, she had opened a corner of the window before going to bed. It was probably because of the strong wind outside that the window was blown closed, causing the air in the house to be blocked, and she fainted from gas poisoning.
"I don't think it's a big deal now. I have to go back and see if the chicken in my stove is burnt. Comrade Fan, you haven't eaten yet, right? Why don't you come to my place and have a bite? That'll be my way of repaying you for saving my life." Yang Qiuyue said to Fan Sui as she walked forward.
Fan Sui was indeed hungry. It was getting late and almost dark. If he went back to the dormitory to cook, it would take him a long time. After thinking about it, he didn't refuse. "Then I'll bother you for a meal."
"What do you mean by disturbing me? You are my savior, so you deserve a meal from me."
The two walked in the snow and ice for more than half an hour and returned to the female dormitory of the farm. Yang Qiujin then discovered that Fan Chong had carried her out in such a hurry that he didn't even have time to close the door. The stove in the room had been blown out by the cold wind. Fortunately, the chicken in the pot was stewed till it was rotten before the soup had dried up.
Yang Qiuyue lit the stove again, added a ladle of water into the pot, and reheated the chicken. She kneaded the dough again, planning to make two bowls of pulled noodles.
Fan Sui entered her room and looked around. The room was built with adobe walls, as was the case with the farm. There was a small earthen kang against the wall with a floral quilt on it. There was a small wooden box in the corner, probably for clothes. Then there were a hot water kettle, washbasin, bucket, pots, pans, and other things lined up. Although there were not many things in the room, the room was kept clean and tidy, and it looked very warm.
Fan Sui only took a glance and then looked away. He looked at Yang Qiuyue's skinny arms and legs, and saw that she couldn't knead the dough into a ball even after kneading it for a long time. He couldn't bear it anymore, so he walked over to her and said, "Let me do it."
Yang Qiuyue was stunned, watching the man wash his hands, take the basin from her, pull up his sleeves, revealing a pair of strong arms to knead the dough, then put the basin on the chopping board, kneading the dough skillfully, the muscles of his hands bulging with his movements.
She sighed, "You northerners mainly eat noodles, right? The way you knead the dough looks more skillful than mine."
Fan Sui was a taciturn man who didn't talk much. He nodded when he heard this and kept kneading the dough in his hands.
Yang Qiuyue didn't care. Fan Sui had been at the farm for almost two years. She had known for a long time that he was a taciturn man who liked to work hard, so she didn't mind his lack of words.
The chicken soup in the pot was boiling. Yang Qiuyue changed to a steamer and scooped two ladles of clean water into it.
Soon the water boiled. Without her telling him to do anything, Fan Sui quickly pulled the kneaded dough into strips of varying widths. When he was about to put them in the pot to cook, he suddenly asked her, "I almost forgot to ask you, do you prefer thick or thin noodles?"
Yang Qiuyue didn't expect him to ask her this, and said blankly, "I can do either."
"Okay." Fan Sui put the noodles into the pot. Seeing that she didn't move, he frowned slightly, and then took out two large bowls from the small cabinet where she kept the bowls, put the seasonings in them, picked up the noodles, handed them to her, and said, "Let's eat?"
Yang Qiuyue came back to her senses, holding the noodles in her hand and said, "Do you know that you are the first man who made noodles for me besides my sister and my mother. My ex-husband and I were married for two whole years, and he never helped me with any work, nor cooked a meal for me. He treated me worse than a stranger. Just because I didn't have my period on my wedding night, he thought I was a slut. But before him, I had never had contact with any gay man, and I didn't know why I didn't have my period. I asked the doctor, and the doctor said that women don't necessarily have their period the first time, it's normal. I told him what the doctor said, but he didn't believe it at all, and even teamed up with his mother to bully me..."
Yang Qiuyue felt ashamed and extremely sad when she spoke out the things that had been suppressed in her heart for many years. She knew that she shouldn't tell Fan Sui these things, but she just couldn't help it. She couldn't help but want to confide in him, to tell Fan Sui about her grievances, and to let Fan Sui know how lonely she was.
Fan Sui watched her tears flow into the bowl, shaking his head in uneasiness, "Don't cry, Comrade Yang, it's not your fault that you didn't have your period, it's your ex-husband who was blind and missed such a good woman like you. Let the past be the past, you will definitely meet someone who loves you and is willing to hold you in his hands in the future."
"Will it?" Yang Qiuyue lowered her head unconfidently, looking at the white noodles in the bowl, "My ex-husband said that I was just a pile of rotten meat. If I left him, even a dog would not want me. Who would want a divorced woman like me?"
"I can." Fan Sui blurted out.
After saying that, she felt something was wrong and quickly explained, "I mean, Comrade Yang, you are very good, beautiful, gentle, generous, and hardworking. Many male comrades in the farm are asking about you, but our farm is far away from the farm, and they don't dare to approach you because of your sister's reputation."
His explanation, which was too obvious, made Yang Qiuyue burst into laughter. "It would be great if it was really like what you said, Comrade Fan. I am so lonely here. If there is a gay man who is willing to talk to me and has the same interests as me, I think my life will definitely be better than it is now."
She was from the southwest, and had regular features and was bright and beautiful. Her smile was particularly brilliant, like a snow lotus blooming in the wind and snow, looking pure and clean.
Fan Sui was distracted for a moment until Yang Qiuyue put a large chicken leg into his bowl. Then he came to his senses. He didn't dare to look at Yang Qiuyue's face and buried his head in eating noodles.
The Chinese New Year was getting closer and closer, and after several days of heavy snow, it finally stopped today.
The sun came out of the sky, which is rare. It shone on the endless white land of the border, causing the waist-deep snow to slowly melt.
In order to prevent the melted snow from flowing onto the ground and causing passers-by to slip, the army sent soldiers to clear the snow on the roads every day, even in the family compound.
Yang Qiujin heard the sound of water dripping on the window outside and knew that the snow was melting. She got up, got dressed, took a shovel and shoveled the snow on the roof. She stored the dried snow on the roof in the water tank at home and waited for the snow to melt before washing the vegetables.
Although the Border Defense Department dug a canal from the Tianshan River to bring water to the troops and provided running water to the barracks and family compounds, the Tianhe River was frozen by ice and snow most of the time in winter, and there was no water in the tap pipes. The troops had to dig clean snow blocks and put them in tanks to store water, or fetch water from the river themselves.
Li Xiu'e was cooking breakfast in the kitchen when she saw Yang Qiujin using a wooden ladder to shovel snow on the roof. She was so frightened that she quickly walked over to hold the ladder and said, "Qiujin, you are still pregnant. Let Tianyou and I do the shoveling. Watch your belly carefully and don't try to show off."
"Mom, it's okay. I'm not that delicate. I didn't have any reaction this time when I got pregnant. I even suspected that I was faking it. Besides, you were still working in the fields when you were about to give birth. I was just shoveling snow. It's okay." Yang Qiujin said while shoveling snow in her hands.
"How could we be the same as you are now? If we didn't work, we would have no food to eat. No matter how big our stomachs were, we had to work, otherwise the whole family would starve to death. You are different now. The conditions are getting better and better. You don't have to work in the fields. You can support your family by doing other light work. With such good conditions, you must rest well so that you and your children can be well."
Li Xiu'e climbed up the ladder without saying a word, took the snow shovel from Yang Qiujin's hand, and let her go down to rest.
Seeing that she insisted, Yang Qiujin had no choice but to go down.
Chen Shengqing stood at the door of the hall with a cane and saw his mother and daughter-in-law busy outside. Due to his disabled legs, he could not go up to the roof, so he could only silently urge Chen Tianyou to get up and let his son help them with the work.
After the family had breakfast, as everyone was on holiday, Yang Qiujin had nothing to do, so she thought of taking her mother-in-law to the state-owned store in the county to buy some New Year's goods for the family.
When Chen Tianyou heard that they were going to the county, he immediately raised his hand and said, "Mom, I want to go too!"
Chen Shengqing brought out all the bedding and pillows, "Hook up the frame, and we'll go together."
Yang Qiujin: ...
She just wanted to buy some New Year's goods, and her whole family wanted to go with them, so she couldn't refuse and had to agree.
The roads were difficult to walk on after the melted snow in winter, but fortunately Benying was strong and smart, so he deliberately walked along the paths that other ox carts had walked on. They set up the horse carriages all the way to the county, and the journey was relatively smooth.
When they arrived at the state-owned store, they parked the horse-drawn cart and saw from a distance a sea of people in front of the store.
Because Chinese New Year is coming, the state-owned stores posted a big red paper notice a day in advance, stating that from yesterday until the day before Chinese New Year, there will be purchase restrictions on items that do not require tickets every day.
When Yang Qiujin and her team arrived, the staff in the store stood on the counter and shouted: "Labor is the most glorious, big sale before the New Year! All people's comrades, with work ID and unit certificate, can buy a bar of soap and a washbasin without soap rolls or industrial coupons!"
The staff were shouting over there, and here a group of people holding their work IDs and unit certificates were trying their best to squeeze forward.
After Yang Qiujin's last experience of buying things at a state-owned store, she brought her family ID card with her and found the counter staff as usual. She activated her military family benefits and successfully grabbed two restricted items that did not require a ticket. She also bought a lot of melon seeds, peanuts, candies and snacks.
Finally, he heard that the cloth coupons could actually be used to prove that he could get three inches of cloth for free, so he quickly bought several inches and planned to make a new dress for Li Xiu'e.
Then she took out the cloth coupons she had saved this year and bought more than ten inches of soft pure cotton cloth, intending to make small clothes for the baby in her belly.
Since it's the New Year, we naturally have to buy some cigarettes and alcohol to entertain the guests who come to pay New Year's greetings on the first and second days of the New Year. We also have to buy some fireworks and firecrackers for Chen Tianyou so that he can set them off at home when he has nothing to do and have fun.
The family spent a long time shopping in the department store. They bought everything they needed and were about to go back with their bags when Chen Shengqing suddenly said, "Qiu Jin, let's go to the photo studio across the street and take a family photo. We've been married for so many years, and I still don't have a photo of you."
Yang Qiujin thought about it and it made sense. She had been married to Chen Shengqing for many years. Their marriage was a coincidence and even the wedding banquet was hastily arranged. There was no big celebration. How could she have the leisure to go to a photo studio to take pictures?
Then he nodded and said, "Let's go, it's time for our family to take a family photo."
When they arrived at the photo studio, the photographer, a Uyghur man wearing a hat, looked at them as they walked into the studio and greeted them in Mandarin with a frontier accent: "Dear guests from afar, are you here to take pictures?"
"Yes, we are here to take a family photo, as well as a few couple photos, mother and child photos, and an individual photo of each person," said Chen Shengqing.
The photographer looked him up and down and said, "Adasi, you may not look good in the photos after you are injured like this. I suggest you wait until your injuries are healed before taking the photos again, because developing a photo costs one dollar, which is not cheap."
Chen Shengqing sat on a chair in his shop with the help of a cane. "It's okay. We have been a family for more than ten years. This is the first time we take a photo. No matter what I look like, I want to take a photo."
The photographer couldn't persuade him, so he had to lead them into a small photo studio and let the injured Chen Shengqing sit on a bench. He put another bench next to him for a female comrade to sit on, and there was a person standing on each side of the bench.
Yang Qiujin originally wanted Li Xiu'e to sit next to Chen Shengqing, but Li Xiu'e refused, "You are pregnant, and you are our national treasure. If you sit next to Shengqing, you can just take a picture of our second baby in your belly. Mom and Tianyou can just stand next to you."
As she spoke, she pulled at her clothes nervously and muttered, "I have lived with the old man for most of my life and have never taken a picture. He has only been gone for a few years and I can't even remember his face. If I had known you were going to take me here to take pictures, I should have worn something nicer. After I die, when you look at my pictures, they will always show me when I was pretty."
"Mom, New Year's Day is coming soon. Don't talk about death or life. It's unlucky. We are not taking pictures just once. When the second baby is one month old, we will take pictures again. You will be dressed up beautifully then. We will take pictures every year in the future and make sure we capture you at your most beautiful." Yang Qiujin coaxed her.
Li Xiu'e thought about it and happily stood next to Yang Qiujin, and let Chen Tianyou stand next to Chen Shengqing.
The photographer lifted up the heavy domestic camera, turned on all the lights in the studio, and found the right angle for them: "Little comrade, get closer to your father and raise your head a little higher. That's right, don't have a sullen face, but smile a little. That's right. Big sister on the right, you should also smile more naturally and don't be nervous. The two comrades in the middle, you can move a little closer and face me. That's right, get ready to call Tian Qi, one, two, three, Tian Qi, smile——"
"Click——" the camera froze, capturing the family's first family portrait.
After taking the family portrait, take couple photos and individual photos next.
The first photo taken was of Chen Shengqing and Yang Qiujin as a couple. People in those days were mostly reserved, and when a couple took a photo, they would keep a very small distance between them. Every time the photographer had to spend a long time preparing the photo, and the couple would shyly lean against each other's shoulders, not even glancing at each other, as if they were strangers.
This couple was fine. At first, they sat next to each other seriously, allowing him to take the first photo without any hesitation. Then when taking the second photo of the couple, the man, whose hands and feet were still in plaster bandages, actually hugged the woman in his arms, put his hands on her waist, and asked him to take the photo.
He was dumbfounded. It was the first time he had seen such a bold couple.
Although the situation in recent years is not as serious as in previous years, there are still little red soldiers patrolling the streets. Singles and married couples dare not hold hands or hug each other in public, for fear of being caught by the little red soldiers, interrogated in various ways, and accused of being hooligans and arrested and criticized.
"What are you doing? Who takes photos like this? Aren't you afraid of being laughed at?" Yang Qiujin was also frightened by Chen Shengqing's bold action. She reached out to push him and tried to get off him.
Chen Shengqing held her tightly and refused to let go. "What are you afraid of? We are a legitimate couple with two children. What's wrong with us taking loving photos? If others see it, let them be jealous. At worst, let them take the same photo."
In front of outsiders, he always presents himself as a gentle and easy-going person, but in fact, he is a cold and selfish person at heart. Before he confirmed his feelings with Yang Qiujin, he was so indifferent that he didn't even care about his own life and everything else was dispensable to him.
Things are different now. As he spends more and more time with Yang Qiujin, he discovers that the woman whom he once looked down upon and didn't care about many years ago is so beautiful.
Her actions gradually opened his heart. Even though his life was threatened, he would never give up the life he had once despised, and he wanted to return to her side at all costs.
He desperately wanted everyone to know that Yang Qiujin was his wife, his woman, the mother of his two children, and he would not allow anyone to covet her and take her away from him.
Taking a more intimate photo was just one of the means he would use to promote himself in the future.
Yang Qiujin's face turned red with anger at what he said, but she couldn't persuade him in the end. Thinking that neither of them did anything out of the ordinary, she let him take the photo.
After the two of them took the photo, they took photos of grandparents and grandchildren, mother and son, and father and son.
When it was time to take a solo photo, Chen Tianyou insisted on taking the photo on the curb outside the photo studio.
Yang Qiujin originally wanted to stop him, fearing that it would cause trouble for the photographer.
Unexpectedly, the photographer did not object and asked Chen Tianyou to stand on the side of the road, open his arms, and make a cheerful laughing gesture.
The camera in his hand took freeze shots of the horse-drawn carriage running behind Chen Tianyou, the open state-owned stores, and other shops.
When they were checking out, the photographer saw that the family was so handsome and the photos were taken very well, so he said that if they were willing to put an extra photo in his shop as a sign, he could charge them a little less.
Chen Shengqing said no, he had no shortage of money, but he mainly didn't want so many strangers coming and going, looking at their family photos like monkeys, so he politely declined.
In the end, the bill cost twenty yuan. Because Chen Shengqing requested an extra copy of each photo, Yang Qiujin felt very distressed when she paid the bill.
Twenty yuan is almost half of her salary. She is the director of a farm and her current salary is only forty-one yuan.
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