Chapter 94
Li Xiu'e took Wu Shulian to the military service center. She got along well with most of the military wives in the family compound. Many of them greeted her when they saw her: "Auntie Li, good morning, are you shopping?"
"Hey, Auntie Li, who's that person standing next to you? He looks familiar."
Li Xiu'e responded with a smile to each of the military wives who greeted her, and did not forget to introduce Wu Shulian, telling everyone that she was her mother-in-law.
Everyone had an expression of sudden enlightenment, and their eyes looking at Wu Shulian always contained some other meaning.
Wu Shulian was restless, twisting her clothes and saying, "Sister Li, will I be embarrassed by Qiu Jin and Sheng Qing if I look like this?"
"Of course you are. You dress so rustically, and those arrogant wives will look down on you." Li Xiu'e deliberately provoked her, "When I first came to the army, they also looked at me as a country bumpkin. Later, Qiu Jin bought me new clothes and asked me to dress like the people in the city, and I didn't object. It's rare for you to come to the army, don't you want to wear some nice clothes like me?"
Li Xiu'e wore a white short shirt with floral patterns, a black ankle-length skirt, a pair of dark red sandals, and her hair was neatly tied up with a hair tie. She looked fashionable and refreshing, and was many times younger and more beautiful than other women of the same age.
Wu Shulian looked at him with envy on her face, but she didn't say anything against it this time. After all, women love beauty no matter what age they are.
Li Xiu'e stood in front of the military service center and talked to the salesperson for a while. She pointed at the clothes hanging on the wall of the clothing counter and soon took out a white short-sleeved dacron shirt, a navy blue long skirt, and another dark red dress made of light cotton yarn. She gestured in front of Wu Shulian and said, "These two sets are quite suitable."
Wu Shulian pursed her lips and said, "Sister Li, I'm already old. It's not appropriate for me to wear a skirt like a little girl. And white clothes don't get dirty easily..."
"We are still young. If little girls can wear them, why can't we? Don't always think about buying those black and linen clothes. Wear them for work. Your son-in-law wants you to join the army. Besides letting you help take care of Qiu Jin, he also wants you to enjoy life. He won't ask you to do dirty work in the fields, and your clothes won't get dirty."
While Li Xiu'e was taking out money, she asked the salesperson to get Wu Shulian a pair of sandals of similar color to the ones she was wearing. She also bought a lot of hair ties, vests, and facial cleansers. She spent nearly fifty yuan in odds and ends, and took Wu Shulian back home to let her try on new clothes and new shoes.
Wu Shulian changed into her white dacron shirt, skirt and sandals, walked out of the room carefully, and asked Li Xiu'e, "Is this okay?"
"Okay, why not? You look much more beautiful and fashionable now than before." Li Xiu'e looked her up and down, clapped her hands and laughed.
In fact, Wu Shulian looked very good, with regular features and a body shape that had not changed. It was just that due to years of hard labor in the fields, her skin was tanned and rough, and she was also oppressed for many years by Yang Qiujin's scumbag father Yang Chenghua. She had a very low self-esteem, always kept her head down, and looked very rustic.
After she put on new clothes and dressed up a little, she looked much younger than before and no longer looked rustic.
Wu Shulian became more confident when she heard her say this, "Sister Li, you must have spent a lot of money this time. I'll ask Qiu Jin to buy you two more sets later."
Li Xiu'e waved her hand and said, "I don't need to buy any. Qiu Jin bought me new clothes every year, and she herself was reluctant to buy more. I have so many clothes that I can't even change them all. Why should I buy more? We should save the money for your two older grandchildren."
Wu Shulian thought about it and went there excitedly after putting on her clothes.
While they were buying clothes, Yang Qiujin gave the special products that had been distributed yesterday to the families she knew one by one.
Zhao Erfeng thanked her and said, "Big sister, there are so many things. It would be great if you could keep them for yourself. How can I accept so much food?"
Yang Qiujin smiled and said, "Sister-in-law Zhao, my mother brought a lot of things this time. It's hot and they can't keep them all. I didn't give you much either. Just try them. There's nothing to be embarrassed about."
Zhao Erfeng had no choice but to stuff a basket of fruits and vegetables grown at home into her hands and said, "Go slowly on the road, don't fall."
"Okay, don't worry about it."
When they arrived at Wang's house, Yang Qiujin specially taught Liang Xueqing how to cook. For example, the skin of the bacon should be burned black with fire, and then the black part should be scraped off with a knife to reveal the golden skin. The loofah naan should be washed clean with hot water and stewed together with bamboo shoots and radish soaked in cold water. It tastes very delicious.
Liang Xueqing would not do such a troublesome job herself, but she did not refuse Yang Qiujin's kindness. She agreed and then turned around to throw the job to Wang Jianjun.
After delivering the things, Yang Qiujin rode a horse-drawn cart and slowly arrived at the farm. She handed the two cloth bags that Wu Shulian had divided to Yang Qiuyue and said, "Mom is here. These are things for you. When you have time, come with me to the army to see Mom."
"Our mother is here?" Yang Qiuyue accepted the package in surprise. She took out the bag of bacon, sausage and other things from it, and hung it on a tree trunk to ventilate the room where she lived. She asked, "Our father is not here, is he?"
It can be seen that she also hates that scumbag father.
Yang Qiujin shook her head: "Our mother came alone. Shengqing bought her a sleeper ticket. She slept all the way here. After arriving in Ava, Shengqing drove to pick her up."
"No wonder. I was wondering why she suddenly came to the border to see you. It turned out that it was my brother-in-law who did it." Yang Qiuyue walked up to Yang Qiujin, reached out and gently touched her belly, and said with envy: "Sister, my brother-in-law is so good to you. You are finally getting what you deserve. You are already more than nine months pregnant. Don't try to be brave and go to work. If you have an accident on the road, none of us can help you."
As if she felt someone touching her, the baby in her belly moved slightly. Yang Qiujin felt the fetal movement and reached out her hand to touch her belly lovingly. "I came here today to hand over my work to Yu Cong and you, and then ask for leave from the farm group. I will come back to work after I give birth and finish my confinement."
Nowadays, most women who give birth will work until the day they give birth and then rest. If they have a wicked mother-in-law or a bad man, they will have to continue working the next day. Only women with better conditions will rest for two more months.
Although Yang Qiujin wanted to pursue her career, she also had to take care of her health. As she was about to die, it would be risky for her to travel back and forth in a horse-drawn cart.
Her husband and her two mothers are very worried about her. There is no need for her to torture herself and her family at this critical moment. She should take a rest.
"That's more like it. I was really worried that you would keep being stubborn, just like the first time, and keep doing it until the birth." Yang Qiuyue looked at her belly for a long time and said, "Sister, your belly is different from when you were pregnant with Tianyou. It feels rounder and much smaller. Could this baby be a concubine?"
"If it's really a daughter, that would be great." Yang Qiujin's face was full of smiles. "When I was pregnant with Tianyou, my mother and my mother-in-law said that my belly was round, not pointed, and that I was carrying it too low, so it must be a girl. Who knew it was a son. This time they said it would be a son. You don't know how upset I am. I really want an obedient and sensible daughter."
Yang Qiuyue closed the dormitory door and walked side by side with her to the farm's office. "No matter what kind of baby you give birth to, it's still your own child. With some education, he will become an obedient and sensible child."
Now the farm has resumed its previous production. The incident with the sick pigs has taught all the employees in the farm a lesson. Now all the employees strictly follow Yang Qiujin's requirements, clean the excrement in the sty every day, do a good job of ventilation and disinfection, wash their hands at any time, observe the breeding conditions of poultry and livestock in the sty at any time, and report any signs of suspected illness immediately and ask a veterinarian to check the situation.
Once seriously ill poultry and livestock are discovered, they will be immediately processed and incinerated, and eating sick pigs will never happen again.
Now all the workers in the entire farm dare not take it lightly and are busy working everywhere.
A batch of new piglets were introduced into the farm today. Yang Qiujin watched Fan Chong and Yu Cong at the gate of the pig farm, directing the workers to carefully lift the piglets off the truck and load them into the pig farm.
She glanced at Yang Qiuyue and said, "Have you reconciled with Fan Su?"
"Sister, how did you figure that out?" Yang Qiuyue thought her sister was simply amazing. How could she figure that out?
"Isn't it obvious?" Yang Qiujin pointed at the sweat towel on Fan Sui's shoulder and said, "He is a grown man. If there is no woman to take care of him, how can his sweat towel be washed so white and so clean? I have seen his sweat towel before, and it was black and had never been washed."
Yang Qiuyue smiled shyly, "Sister, I was just about to tell you that I have already accepted Fan Sui's proposal, and we are planning when to get the marriage certificate. It's a good thing that our mother is here, so she can attend my wedding with Fan Sui."
"You're going to get the marriage certificate now." Yang Qiujin was happy for her sister. "If you really want to get married with Fan Chong, you should tell our mother about it and let her help you with it. Then I'll give you some extra preparations and make your wedding a beautiful one."
"There's no need to keep it secret. I don't plan on making a big deal about it. Fan Sui and I are both getting married for the second time. If we make it a big deal, I don't know how many people will gossip about us. I'm just planning on inviting friends and family to a simple dinner. Sister, let's not choose a different day. I'll go to the army with you this afternoon and talk to mom about this." Yang Qiuyue said.
Yang Qiujin did not object: "Just make up your mind."
When the two of them walked into the farm's office, Yang Qiujin saw a beautiful female comrade sitting in the office. Who was she? It was Long Yanli, whom she had not seen for a long time.
When Long Yanli saw her, she stood up and called out, "Director Yang, you're here."
"Comrade Long, what a rare guest." Yang Qiujin walked over and shook her hand. "Why did you decide to visit our farm today?"
Long Yanli shook her hand back and sighed, "I'm pregnant and wanted to break up with Yu Cong, but he avoided me, so I had no choice but to go to the office and wait for him."
This time it was Yang Qiujin's turn to be surprised. She lowered her voice and said, "Didn't I tell you to play hard to get with him and seduce him? Why are you......"
"How did I lose my virginity? I don't know. Maybe it was the atmosphere, or maybe I got carried away. Anyway, I want justice for myself now." Long Yanli said firmly.
"What do you want to do?" Yang Qiujin was exhausted after walking all the way. She sat on the chair in front of her and drank some water. "You don't want to force him to marry you, do you? With his background, it might be difficult for him to marry you."
Long Yanli shook her head. "I didn't expect him to marry me, but he did those things to me and got me pregnant. If he doesn't want to take responsibility, he has to pay the price."
Yang Qiujin's eyelids jumped, "What do you want to do?"
Long Yanli smiled and said bluntly, "Yu Cong's term of office will expire in half a year, and he will return to the capital. After he leaves, the position of deputy director of the farm will be vacant. What I want is very simple. I want to replace him."
Yang Qiujin was stunned. "You want to be the deputy director of the farm?"
Yang Qiuyue, who was sorting out various accounting documents, was also stunned for a moment. "Comrade Long, given your background, it might be difficult for you to become the deputy director."
Long Yanli smiled gently, "This is a problem that Yu Cong should worry about."
Yang Qiujin and Yang Qiuyue looked at each other, and the two sisters saw understanding in each other's eyes. No wonder Yu Cong, who was always lazy, went to supervise the workers to move the piglets for the first time today. It turned out that he was hiding from Long Yanli.
Yang Qiujin had no objection to Long Yanli being the deputy director of the farm. Long Yanli was a college student, knowledgeable and courageous. Apart from her bad background, there was nothing wrong with letting her be the deputy director.
In fact, because Long Yanli wanted to be the deputy director, she even had other ideas.
The scale of the farm is getting bigger and bigger. A larger scale means that the farm will be like a farm, and new secretaries and other cadres will be parachuted into the farm to carry out management work.
When Yu Cong leaves, those cadres will go against her and she won't be able to do her work. So she has to cultivate some cadres who stand on her side before those cadres show up, so that she can do her work well in the future.
Thinking this way, she arrived at the farm headquarters to ask for leave from Secretary Zhai, and asked in a roundabout way: "Secretary Zhai, our farm is a subsidiary of the farm. The Corps has not assigned a secretary to work in our farm in recent years. Will you be in charge of it in the future?"
"That's not necessarily true, Comrade Xiao Yang. You should know that the incident with the Capital Revolutionary Group has already made the Corps very dissatisfied with our farm. It's hard to say what will happen in the future." Secretary Zhai held a small handkerchief and wiped a black pen in his hand. He said, "Also, the plague accident that occurred in your farm this time has caused a very bad impact. Although I intend to suppress this matter, if nothing unexpected happens, the higher-ups will definitely send someone to investigate the matter. You must also pay attention to the impact, so as not to be dismissed by them."
Is the matter so serious? Yang Qiujin felt very uncomfortable. She had built the farm with her own hands. If the higher-ups held her accountable for the plague and fired her, she would definitely go crazy and rage against everyone. If she didn't make a big deal out of it, she wouldn't be Yang Qiujin.
However, now was obviously not the time for her to worry about this. She handed the leave application form to Secretary Zhai and said, "Secretary, if you have anything to say, let's talk about it after I give birth to the baby. Before I come back, please help me to suppress the things that need to be suppressed, considering that I have worked hard for the farm for so many years."
Secretary Zhai took her list, looked at it carefully, nodded and said, "Go home and wait for the birth. If there is anything, we will talk to you when you come back."
After receiving his promise, Yang Qiujin felt relieved. In the afternoon, she took a horse-drawn cart and took Yang Qiuyue back to the army.
Entering the living room, two fans were whistling, making it very cool.
"Sister, you actually bought two fans." Yang Qiuyue walked into the living room and looked at the fans spinning in the living room with envy, "I have to ask Fan Chong to buy me a fan too. The summer in this border area is too hot."
Before Yang Qiujin could say anything, Wu Shulian, who came in with a bunch of grapes, said, "Yue'er, I'm not saying anything to you, but the man you're going to marry just renovated his new house and can't even buy the three major appliances. He has to borrow money to buy them for you, and you're thinking of asking him to buy you a fan. If you marry him and get into debt with him, how can you still live with him?"
Fan Sui was one of the first workers who fled famine to the frontier with his sister to work on the construction site. He had a shack allocated to him by the farm, so he saved his money and applied to the farm to rebuild a house on the spot. After the farm approved it, he spent money to buy the abandoned shack next door and built a two-room red brick house together. He also bought various household appliances, and spent most of his savings.
"Mom, I'm just talking." Yang Qiuyue took the grapes from her hand, picked one for herself and ate the rest, and passed the rest to Yang Qiujin.
The grapes were delivered by Zhao Erfeng next door in the morning. Almost all the wives of soldiers who have yards in their families’ courtyards grow local grapes from the frontier.
This kind of grape is not big in size and looks green, but it tastes very sweet. This is because the border area has a long period of sunshine, so the fruits here are sweeter than those in inland areas. The only drawback is that you have to spit out a lot of seeds when you eat a grape.
"You're finally getting married for the second time. Since you've made up your mind to spend your whole life with him, you should love and care for your man. Be frugal when necessary. Wait until you have money and ability before you think about buying those big things." Wu Shulian said earnestly.
She had no objection at all to her second daughter getting married for the second time. On the contrary, when she heard her second daughter say she was going to get married, she was happier than anyone else.
As a mother, Yang Qiuyue saw all the hardships that the man she had married before had to endure.
At that time, Yang Qiuyue and Ke Jian divorced, and in order to avoid the harassment of Ke's family, she had to pack up and go to the border.
Wu Shulian had never been to the border, but she knew that was not a place for people to stay. She didn't know how much suffering and fatigue her second daughter would have to endure if she went to the farm in the border alone. So Yang Qiuyue had not mentioned getting married or going home for many years, and she couldn't say anything to her.
Now, the second daughter said she wanted to get married the first time she saw her, and the eldest daughter told her that her future son-in-law was a nice guy. Naturally, she trusted her two daughters and did not have any objection.
However, Chen Shengqing heard that Yang Qiuyue was getting married. Before going to bed at night, he said to Yang Qiujin: "Your sister is getting married. She is in the border area with only you and our mother. She has no extra relatives and friends to help her. Let's go to the bank tomorrow and withdraw some more money. We will give your sister fifty yuan for the dowry, and another one hundred and fifty to buy a house in the town."
Yang Qiujin was drowsy at first, but she woke up after hearing this. "Giving my sister so much money, don't you feel bad? Have you found a house?"
She took a shower, but her hair was not dry yet. Chen Shengqing wiped her hair with a dry towel. "She is your sister, not an outsider. You should give her the money. How can she marry alone without some family property? I asked someone to find a house for her. It is a large suite with a yard and four rooms. I think it is suitable. Let's go and take a look tomorrow morning. If you think it is suitable, we can decide on it. If not, we can choose another one."
Yang Qiujin felt very happy when she heard this. The man valued his family, which actually meant he valued her. She got up, got in front of him, kissed him on the cheek and said, "Thank you. I am absolutely confident in you. If you say that the house is OK, then it is absolutely OK."
Chen Shengqing looked deeply at her rosy little mouth and kissed her back without restraint: "Go to bed early."
The two slept in each other's arms. Early the next morning, Yang Qiujin took out the money, took out five large group notes, and stuffed the bills into Yang Qiuyue's hand. "This is the money your brother-in-law gave me. It's not much. You can use it to buy yourself a new set of clothes and new shoes and socks. Don't wear old clothes when you get married, looking shabby."
Yang Qiuyue held the bill, her eyes red, "Sister, thank you, and thank you brother-in-law, you are so kind to me."
"We are sisters, what is there to thank each other for? Go to work quickly. Remember to bring Fan Sui and her sister to meet our mother when you have time. Before you get married, in-laws must meet each other."
"Okay, got it."
As soon as Yang Qiuyue left, Chen Shengqing drove a jeep and took his family to Tianli Town to look at houses.
Compared with the bleak and desolate appearance five years ago, Tianli Town has become prosperous gradually due to the arrival of young people and other Han people who have come to support the border areas. The town is no longer full of gray earthen houses and green brick and tile houses. Red brick houses have been gradually built on the roadside. The several-story tube-shaped buildings have white-painted walls, which look very good.
The house that Chen Shengqing had his eyes on was a green brick and tile house located near Tianli Junior High School, behind a street shop. It had its own entrance and yard, and the total area was about 150 square meters.
The houses are built in a row, with four rooms opposite each other on the left and right sides, a large living room in the middle, the kitchen and toilet are on the right side of the yard, there is a well on the left side of the yard, a date tree, a grape and many blooming flowers are planted near the door wall, each room is spacious and bright, with windows and kang, which looks very comfortable.
Chen Shengqing said: "This house was a side room of a landlord in Tianli Town who kept a mistress. The best materials were used to build the house. Later, after the reform and opening up, the house was returned to the government and has been vacant until recently when the Tianli Town government found out that the landlord's three sons had all joined the army and died in battle, leaving only one grandson alive. In order to thank their fathers for their efforts, the house was returned to him. He married and had children in another place and didn't want to come back here, so he asked someone to sell the house. I thought it was good, so I reserved it. You can buy it if you think it's suitable. If not, we'll look at it again."
Li Xiu'e and Wu Shulian both felt that the house was a bit expensive, but everything else was fine.
However, Yang Qiujin was quite satisfied with the large yard and its proximity to the school, so she let Chen Shengqing settle down there.
In the afternoon they went to the Housing Authority, discussed the title deed with the owner, paid the money, and the house officially became theirs.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
