Chapter 95
At the end of June, it was time for Chen Tianyou to take the high school entrance exam.
This time, they were going to take the junior high school entrance exam in Tianli in the town. In order to avoid the children having to travel back and forth, the family decided to let Li Xiu'e take Chen Tianyou to live in the house in the town and come back after the exam.
The house in the town was already in good repair and there was no need to change anything. Li Xiu'e and Wu Shulian had already cleaned the house before. Now all they had to do was get some bedding and clothes and they could move in directly.
On the morning of check-in, Wu Shulian cooked two poached eggs and fried a dough stick for Chen Tianyou to eat. "Eat it. You can get 100 points if you eat it, and you can get into junior high school."
"Thank you, grandma." Chen Tianyou didn't believe in these feudal superstitions, but he had to give face to his grandmother. If he didn't, his mother would punish him.
When his grandmother first came, he complained about her rustic clothes and his mother almost pinched his ears off, which hurt him so much.
He was holding a spoon and was about to scoop up the poached egg in the bowl when Wu Shulian hurriedly stopped him and said, "Child, eat the fried dough sticks first, then the egg. If you eat the egg first, you will get zero on the test."
Yang Qiujin couldn't help laughing: "Mom, you're here again. When I took the high school entrance exam, you also fried dough sticks and boiled eggs for me. I followed your request and ate the dough sticks first and then the eggs, but I still didn't get a perfect score."
"That's because you're stupid." Wu Shulian glared at her. "Our Tianyou is very smart. He will definitely get 100 points in the exam after eating it."
Li Xiu'e hurriedly packed the clothes and bedding she would need for the exam and put them in Chen Shengqing's jeep parked outside the yard. She urged Chen Tianyou, "Eat quickly. It's getting late. Songyue, Sanni'er, Xu Tao, and Xu Xia must be waiting anxiously."
Wang Songyue, Li Sannier, Xu Tao and Xu Xia are all in the fifth grade and will all take the high school entrance examination.
Yesterday, Zhao Erfeng came to ask Yang Qiujin if she could help take Li Sannier and Chen Tianyou to take the high school entrance examination.
She worked in the canteen's logistics department and had no time to take her children to the exam. Deputy Head Li was on a mission outside and could not come back.
Yang Qiujin agreed immediately, thinking that the high school entrance examination would last for two days, and Xu Tao and Xu Xia's biological father and stepmother would definitely not send them to the town to take the exam. She also let Xu Tao and her sister go together. Anyway, there were four houses in the town and they could live in any of them.
After hearing about it, Liang Xueqing also came to the door and asked Wang Songyue to go with them. The main reason was that Liang Xueqing was unwilling to leave the army and Wang Jianjun was also busy with work. She thought that Yang Qiujin's family was reliable and felt relieved to entrust Wang Songyue to them.
Yang Qiujin naturally agreed. She could take one or four. If the house was full, she could just let the maids stay in one room in pairs.
As they were talking, the four maids came out of the Chen family's yard, carrying their own clothes and bedding.
"Good morning, Grandma Li, Grandma Wu, Aunt Yang, and Uncle Chen." Wang Songyue took the lead in politely greeting the elders of the Chen family.
Then, Li Sannier and Xu Tao sisters also greeted.
"Good morning, Songyue, Sanni'er, Xuxia, Xutao, have you brought the pens, erasers and other things you will need for the exam?" Yang Qiujin supported her lower back with one hand and her round belly with the other, walked out of the yard and asked them with a smile.
The four girls all had their own unique looks. Wang Songyue wore a white lace dress with her hair in a retro bun with light red hairbands on both sides. She looked very fashionable and pretty.
San Ni'er is slightly dark, with delicate features. She is wearing light blue short-sleeved shirt and long pants, and looks cheerful and healthy.
Xu Xia and Xu Tao were good-looking and fair-skinned, but they were both wearing washed-out slant-collared overalls and long trousers. The quilts they carried were also thin, and their foreheads were sweaty. It was obvious that they had no short-sleeved, light summer clothes to wear, and it was very uncomfortable for them to wear such spring and autumn clothes.
Yang Qiujin frowned at what she saw, turned around and took out two sets of thin cotton and linen short-sleeved clothes that she had worn before and felt were a little small. She whispered in Li Xiu'e's ear, "Mom, when you get to town, have this dress altered to a smaller size and give it to Xu Xia and Xu Tao. Give it to them without telling Tianyou or they might refuse to take it because they are too proud. It's so hot, and they are still wearing their smocks. How hot it is."
Li Xiu'e also saw it. She put away the clothes, patted the back of Yang Qiujin's hand and said, "I thank you on behalf of Xiaotao and the others. I will also take out two old clothes and go to the town to alter one for each of them. They are already so grown-up girls. If they still wear smocks to take the high school entrance examination, they will definitely be laughed at by their classmates."
After Chen Tianyou had packed up, Chen Shengqing drove a jeep to take Li Xiu'e and the children to a house in the town to stay temporarily.
It was the first time for the four girls to ride in a jeep. They were all looking out the window excitedly in the back seat and chattering non-stop.
After arriving at the Chen family's yard in the town, Li Sannier walked around the yard and said in amazement, "Chen Tianyou, the yard your parents bought is really big, the rooms are big, the grape trees in the yard are full of grapes, and there is also a well. My God, how much did it cost to buy such a big yard?"
"I don't know. Anyway, my parents bought this for me to live in while I go to school. We don't live here often." Chen Tianyou stood in front of the grape rack and picked bunches of lush green and ripe grapes one by one, letting Li Sanni'er and the other four girls eat one bunch each.
"Chen Tianyou, your parents are so good to you." Xu Tao ate the sour and sweet grapes in her hand and said with envy, "Just to make it convenient for you to study, they spent a lot of money to buy a house for you to live in. Unlike my cheap biological father and stepmother, they were reluctant to spend money even for us to go to junior high school, let alone send us to town to study, thinking it was a waste. If I had parents like you who are kind to me from the bottom of their hearts, I would be so happy."
Chen Tianyou nodded in agreement, "My parents are really good to me. Xu Tao, you don't have to envy me. As long as you study hard, find a good job and marry a good husband in the future, you will live a good life."
Why did these words sound so familiar? Xu Tao secretly glanced at Wang Songyue who was eating grapes elegantly beside her, and thought sourly in her heart that no matter how hard she studied, she could not compare to Wang Songyue and Chen Tianyou who had a good family to support them. Even if she was admitted to university and had a good job in the future, could she feel as happy as them?
At night, Li Xiu'e made the beds and asked Wang Songyue and Li Sanni'er to stay in one room, and Xu Tao and her sister to stay in another room. After they washed up, she quietly took some clothes and went to Xu Tao and her sister's room and said softly, "Xiao Tao, this is a short-sleeved shirt that grandma and your aunt Yang used to make for you. Try it on. The weather is getting hotter day by day, and you look hot wearing your smocks all the time. Don't mind that the clothes grandma gave you are old. Wearing old clothes is better than dying of heat."
"Grandma Li, you and Aunt Yang are so kind to us, how could we dislike you?"
Xu Tao had long wanted to wear light summer clothes like other girls, but her stepmother gave all the fabrics she had to her younger brother to make clothes. She even took their old clothes and used their tuition fees to extort money from them.
The sisters had no choice but to wear the only smock without patches and scream about the high school entrance exam, hoping that their classmates would not laugh at them.
In fact, they also understood that among the children of military personnel who all wore light summer clothes, they would definitely be laughed at if they wore such clothes to take the exam.
The two sisters were ready to be laughed at, but now Li Xiu'e held up a pair of clean summer shorts for them to wear. The two sisters were so moved that they burst into tears. They put on the cool short-sleeved shirts without saying anything, turned around in front of Li Xiu'e and said, "Grandma Li, do they look good?"
"It looks good." Li Xiu'e nodded with a smile, "It fits me well too."
Xu Xia looked at her kind face and suddenly she saw the same face as her grandmother who loved her and her sisters very much but has passed away. Xu Xia solemnly vowed, "Grandma Li, when I grow up and make a lot of money, I will definitely give you a lot of money to support you in your old age. I will definitely make sure you live happily in your old age."
Li Xiu'e was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said, "Silly child, let's talk about it later. Grandma is kind to you, but I didn't expect you to repay me."
In the room next to them, Wang Songyue reached out and touched the carved window in front of her, and said with admiration: "The carvings on this window are so exquisite. I heard from Chen Tianyou that this house was built before the founding of the People's Republic of China. I wonder if the carpenter who carved the windows with flowers is still here."
"Why, do you want to ask that carpenter to carve a window like this for your house?" Li Sannier was lying on the bed with her arms and legs spread out, combing her wet hair. "Don't learn from your mother and do the extravagant things like those wealthy ladies. If someone reports this, your whole family will be broken up."
Wang Songyue didn't like to hear this, but she also understood that Li Sanni was just like her mother, both were straightforward and said what they thought, without any bad intentions.
She half-opened the window to let in the air so she could sleep well at night. She turned around and walked to the bed, sat on the left side, and said softly, "Sanni'er, I'll tell you the truth. I don't think there's anything wrong with my mother's way. She loves cleanliness, reading, wearing beautiful clothes, and keeping everything in the house neat and tidy, just to make herself and her family feel more comfortable. I think it's good this way. Girls should live their lives like my mother, keeping themselves and their homes neat and tidy. That's how life is fun. I don't like dirty rooms, dirty people, or dirty things. Sometimes when I see those exquisite objects, I want to own them. I don't think I'm wrong."
"If you don't like dirty people, then why do you associate with Tianyou and us brothers and sisters?" Li Sannier found it new. Her mother was not a particular person. She had many brothers and sisters, and their home was mostly a mess because of them.
Her mother often scolded them for this, making them sweep the floor, pick up the garbage, clean the tables and chairs and the like. Every time she felt so annoyed and tired that she wished she could do nothing.
She didn't even dare to imagine how much time and effort it would take to make the Wang family's home spotless and clean everywhere.
She simply thought that Wang Songyue and her mother had a problem with their love for pure love. She and other friends usually didn't dare to go to Wang's house to play, for fear of dirtying the house and making Aunt Liang unhappy.
"That's different." Wang Songyue said while untying her hair rope, "At least you know to wash your hands before meals and after going to the toilet, and change your clothes when you're dirty. You're different from those people who don't wash their faces, bathe or feet for days and are smelly. You're pretty clean."
"You and your mother have some kind of obsession, right?" Li Sannier turned over, came up to her, and said with a gossipy look on her face, "If you keep doing this, I wonder if Chen Tianyou will be able to stand it when you marry him in the future."
"What are you talking about?" Wang Songyue blushed and pushed Li Sanni'er, "Who said I'm going to marry him in the future?"
"Oh, don't be shy. We can all see that Chen Tianyou has always liked you." Li Sannier laughed, "Chen Tianyou is so handsome. There are so many female classmates in the school who are surrounding him, but he doesn't even look at them. He only cares about you. If you ask him to go east, he will never go west. He will obey you in everything. If you don't marry him in the future, where can you find someone like him who is handsome, has a good personality, and has good parents?"
"Oh, stop talking nonsense. We are only a little older, and you are always thinking about the future." Wang Songyue's face was red as blood dripped. She lay on the bed and said, "Besides, Chen Tianyou doesn't like me at all. He has always treated me as his sister. How could he like me? You think too much. Go to sleep."
Li Sannier watched Zhen close her eyes and fall asleep, muttering, "Everyone can see that he likes you, but you don't know. I don't know if you've become stupid from studying too much."
The next day, Li Xiu'e got up early, prepared breakfast for the five children, called them all up, watched them finish their breakfast, and sent them to the gate of junior high school so that they could prepare well for the exam.
Tianli Junior High School was built in the late 1950s by the incoming town mayor according to the instructions of the regional government after the Ava Regional Corps wiped out most of the bandits here. It is not large in area, and the walls are built with large stones from the Gobi Desert, which looks very old and simple.
However, because it is a military primary school and children from nomadic primary schools within a thousand miles attend the same school, this middle school is quite lively.
Two days later, after the exam, Li Xiu'e took her five children back to the military family compound. Ten days later, she received the admission notices. All five children were admitted to junior high school without exception. They were all very excited.
Wang Songyue got the first place in the whole grade, Chen Tianyou followed closely behind and got the second place, and the sisters Li Tao and Li Xia were both in the top ten in the class. Only Li Sanni'er ranked last and almost failed to get into junior high school.
Li Sannier held the report card, wiped the sweat off her face and said, "It was a close call. I almost didn't get into junior high school. If I hadn't, my dad would have beaten me to death."
Chen Tianyou laughed at her, "What are you afraid of? Didn't your brother Li Dadan fail to pass the junior high school entrance exam? Your father beat him for two years in a row, and he repeated his studies for two years before he was able to pass the junior high school entrance exam. Your father didn't beat him to death, either."
Li Sannier pouted, "My brother's mind is full of playfulness. If my father hadn't insisted on him repeating his studies to take the junior high school entrance exam, he would have given up on studying. I'm happy for my parents that he can finish junior high school diligently."
Wang Songyue asked her, "What about you? You are lucky to be able to get into junior high school with your grades. If you don't study hard in the future, I'm afraid you will be like your brother and fail to get into high school."
"I also want to study hard, but I can't understand or learn those questions and knowledge." Li Sannier was very distressed.
Wang Songyue and Chen Tianyou looked at each other, and after a moment of silence, they said, "Starting from the next semester, we will help you consolidate your knowledge, grasp the key points of knowledge, and solve all the questions you don't understand. You are not allowed to be lazy, and you must work hard to practice questions, and your grades will always improve."
Li Sannier had a bitter face, "Oh my God, you two academic masters, please forgive me, a poor student. I think I'm doing well after finishing junior high school. Don't force me. With my brain, it's useless no matter how much I study."
"There are no students in this world who cannot be taught. As for knowledge that cannot be learned, it all depends on whether you are willing to learn it." Wang Songyue said firmly, "Anyway, starting from the next semester, don't even think about running away."
Several children were admitted to junior high school. Except for the Xu family, the other three families were very happy.
Everyone agreed to have a meal together. Yang Qiujin had a big belly and it was inconvenient for her to cook. Zhao Erfeng was busy with work and had no time to cook. Liang Xueqing didn't know how to cook. Finally, the three families got together and decided to give more money as gift money, and go to the farm to attend Yang Qiuyue's wedding on the weekend when they were off.
A group of people arrived at Fan Chong's newly built house in a grand procession, and the couple expressed their warm welcome.
Yang Qiuyue was informed by her sister in advance, so she asked Fan Chong to prepare more food early, and asked the farm workers and familiar neighbors to help, so that she could make a big pot of slaughtered pig with northern characteristics early in the morning.
Fan Hui, Fan Sui's elder sister, saw that her brother was finally willing to remarry, and the man he married was the sister of their farm manager. She felt that she could not neglect Yang Qiuyue and her relatives, so she made a big reservation for a pig from the farm a few days ago, spending almost all of her family's meat coupons that she had saved for a year, and also bought many of her colleagues' meat coupons to be able to buy a pig.
Early this morning, she asked her young and strong relatives and friends to hold the pig down and kill it in the yard.
After the pig is slaughtered, the pig's blood is stuffed into blood sausage using the pig's small intestine. The other pig offal, such as the pig's head, large intestine, heart, liver, lungs, etc., are all cleaned and paired with half a pig's meat, cut into pieces, and cooked into a big pot of slaughtered pig dishes with vegetables such as radish and cabbage.
The rest of the meat is made into stir-fried dishes, braised pork, sweet and sour spare ribs and other meat dishes, served with large buns and steamed buns in a large steamer. The dishes are quite rich.
Several important officials of the farm, such as Secretary Zhai, Farm Director Lu Xingxian, Chief of the Armed Forces Han Yongxin, Ren Ying and his wife, etc., all came to attend the wedding.
The Fan family courtyard was very lively. As the girl's family, Yang Qiujin and Wu Shulian were in Yang Qiuyue's dormitory, helping her to dress up.
Yang Qiuyue bought herself a set of army green Liberation clothes, drew her eyebrows, and put on red lipstick, looking delicate and charming.
Wu Shulian complained, "Today is your big day, why don't you buy some bright red fabric to make some festive clothes? Instead, you wear military green clothes. What a joke."
Yang Qiuyue put down the red paper in her hand and said, "Mom, you have an old feudal mindset. Nowadays, everyone gets married in casual clothes. If you really want to wear bright red clothes, you will not be able to wear them casually in the future. It will also be easy for the little red soldiers to catch you and make trouble. Do you want you and me to be caught by the little red soldiers and fight on our wedding night?"
Wu Shulian had not expected this. She had seen how powerful the Little Red Soldiers were in fighting. She was so frightened that she turned pale and dared not say anything more.
Yang Qiujin looked Yang Qiuyue up and down, and nodded with satisfaction: "When my sister dresses up a little, she looks like a fairy from heaven. Just like this, she is so charming that everyone will die."
Li Xiu'e helped Yang Qiuyue comb her hair and continued, "Qiuyue, you are not young anymore. After you get married, you must hurry up and have two children with Fan Chong. That way your marriage with Fan Chong will be strong."
Yang Qiuyue nodded shyly: "I know Aunt Li, before, I and Fan Sui..."
She suddenly stopped talking here. When she had sex in the wild with Fan Sui before, they had taken contraceptive measures, but this was obviously not suitable to say to Li Xiu'e and the others.
They were all relatively conservative. After knowing what she had done with Fan Sui before, they couldn't help but accuse her of being reckless.
Yang Qiujin promptly changed the subject and said, "It's getting late. We should get ready to go out. Fan Sui should be here by now."
As soon as he finished speaking, he heard the sound of car bells ringing outside.
Everyone looked outside. Hooray! Fan Sui had shaved his beard for the first time. He was wearing a neat and clean Liberation Army uniform with a small red flower on his cuff. He looked tall and energetic. He rode a 28-bar bicycle that he had borrowed from someone. There was a red flower tied to the front of the bicycle, which looked very festive.
Behind him, there were several men driving ox carts and mule carts. Each of them tied a red flower around the neck of the animal and shouted with a smile: "Sister-in-law, our second brother is here to pick you up."
Fan Sui parked his bike aside, strode to the dormitory door with a refreshed look, and shouted, "Wife, I'm here to pick you up."
Yang Qiuyue's face was as red as the sunset. Amid the laughter of her relatives and friends, she glared at Fan Sui and said, "Come on, why are you yelling so loudly? I'm not deaf."
"I'm just afraid that you didn't hear me and would say I wasn't sincere." After Fan Sui finished speaking, he stood in front of Wu Shulian and respectfully called her "Mom". He then called all the relatives and friends he should call, and then he patted the back seat of his bicycle and made a gesture of invitation to Yang Qiuyue, "Get in the car, wife, and go to our house."
It was almost noon when Fan Sui drove Yang Qiuyue and her relatives and friends to Fan's house.
Under the chairmanship of Secretary Zhai, the couple made a simple oath and the wedding banquet began.
Big pots of food, large steamed buns, dumplings, and various meat and vegetarian dishes were served on the table. Friends and relatives praised Fan Sui for being generous and said that Yang Qiuyue had married a good man.
Seeing that relatives and friends were satisfied, the Fan family, Wu Shulian and Yang Qiujin were also quite satisfied. After all, in those days, who would dare to be so generous as to buy a pig for a banquet? Even the cadres on the farm did not dare to be so lavish. This was enough to show how much Fan Sui valued Yang Qiuyue.
Zhao Erfeng's mouth was full of oil. She looked at Chen Shengqing, who was in casual clothes, who didn't eat much meat himself, but put meat into Yang Qiujin's bowl, until her bowl was almost full. However, her man was like a pig, busy eating his own food. She was so angry that she stomped on Li Zhiyong under the table.
Li Zhiyong felt pain for no apparent reason and looked at her blankly, "What's wrong?"
Zhao Erfeng was so angry that she didn't want to talk to him and turned around to feed the child.
Ren Ying, who sat at the same table with them, held her half-year-old son in her arms and asked Yang Qiujin, "Sister Yang, you are almost full-term, right? Why is there no movement in your stomach yet?"
Yang Qiujin ate a piece of blood sausage that was as tender as tofu and said, "It's already full term, I'm also surprised that there's still no movement. Shengqing and my two mothers are very nervous. If it weren't for my sister's wedding today, they wouldn't let me go out."
Chen Shengqing put a large piece of braised pork into her bowl and said, "Ji Mingchen said that if you haven't started labor for more than a week after the full term, we have to go to the hospital to see if we can use other methods to help you deliver."
Yang Qiujin thought of what the gynecologist had said, touched her belly, shuddered, and said, "Did Ji Mingchen say that if the baby doesn't come out after the contraction time, we have to do a caesarean section?"
"Caesarean section? Oh my, that's a major operation, it's very bad for a woman's body. You can give birth on your own, or it's better to give birth on your own." Zhao Erfeng continued, "Big sister, you should walk around more after dinner, you can't sit all the time, you have to find a way to hurry up the birth of the baby."
Yang Qiujin nodded: "I know sister-in-law."
In fact, Yang Qiujin had been moving around a lot and exercising a lot, but for some reason, the baby in her belly just wouldn't move.
Liang Xueqing, who was eating with everyone at the banquet, said quietly, "Sister Yang, I think you are definitely having a girl. When I gave birth to Songyue, I was held back like you, and when I gave birth to Songyang, I gave birth a month early."
"Really? That's great!" Yang Qiujin wished she was pregnant with a daughter. She happily ate two bowls of slaughtered pork dishes until her stomach was so bloated that she couldn't eat any more. Then she put down her chopsticks and asked Chen Shengqing to support her while she strolled around Fan's house to digest the food.
Today is the weekend and the school is on summer vacation. Most of the relatives and friends who came to attend the wedding banquet brought their children with them. On the road outside the Fan family's yard, a group of children were laughing and playing.
Chen Shengqing helped Yang Qiujin carefully walk around them, intending to go for a walk in the nearby ditch. However, Zhao Erfeng's youngest son, the five-year-old Gou Dandan, had gone crazy playing with some kids of the same age, and rushed over from another path with his head tilted, bumping directly into Yang Qiujin's stomach.
He ran too fast and bumped into Yang Qiujin's stomach. Chen Shengqing was too late to stop him.
Yang Qiujin only felt a sharp pain in her belly and a stream of fluid flowing out of her lower abdomen. She could not help but grab Chen Shengqing's hand and said, "Shengqing, my water has broken. Hurry, take me to the hospital."
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