Chapter 98
Yu Cong was right. Not long after, Secretary Zhai said to Yang Qiujin with a happy face: "Little Yang, you have passed the assessment of the Central Youth Group. You should go to the Party School to study for two years, and then you can become a formal cadre. You will have a bright future in the future."
The promotion of cadres nowadays is somewhat different from that in later generations. Today’s cadres do not focus on academic qualifications or qualifications, but only on their class background.
That is to say, even if you can't read, as long as you have a good background, such as being a third-generation poor peasant or a descendant of the Red Army, you only need to go to a Red and Expert School, serve as a reserve cadre for a few years, and then study at the Capital Party School for a few years. After completing your studies, you can be promoted by your superiors to a higher position and become a formal cadre.
Yang Qiujin actually did not have any big ambitions, and she did not want to be a high-ranking official. From beginning to end, she only wanted to make money to support her family and live a good life with no worries about food and clothing and eating meat every meal.
As for being an official, it was just a side job. If there was a job that could make more money and support the family than being an official, she would not hesitate to give up the official position and do something else.
She asked Secretary Zhai: "Secretary, I am still breastfeeding and my child has not been weaned. I cannot go to the Party School for the time being. Can I postpone my study for a year?"
Secretary Zhai said, "Cadres can study at any time. Especially since you are a female comrade and a military dependent, our organization will give you preferential treatment. It is okay for you to go to the Party School a year or two later. Anyway, no one dares to take your position as the director for the time being."
Yang Qiujin was immediately relieved, and after returning to the farm, she began her routine inspection.
After increasing the number of breeding birds in the farm, poultry hatching has also entered a state of fully artificial hatching. Now is summer, which is not suitable for hatching breeding eggs, nor is it suitable for keeping poultry in captivity all the time, because the poultry will have less activity and will be prone to various diseases if they are piled together. Therefore, the chickens, ducks and geese in the poultry farm are basically raised in the large farm during the day.
The poultry farm was newly renovated. Apart from the pens in the farm, the area for free-range breeding is divided into two parts. Half of the field is next to the large pond in the farm, and the other half is close to the Gobi beach. It is enclosed by tree trunks that are more than one meter high, and then the tree trunks are tied together with ropes to form a fence. Weeds grow everywhere, making it convenient for chickens, ducks and geese to run around and forage for food.
Because the area for raising chickens is so large, covering dozens of acres, the workers in charge of the poultry farm not only have to use long poles and other tools to chase away eagles that circle in the sky and may fly down at any time to eat half-grown chickens, ducks and geese, but also have to chase away wild foxes, weasels and other animals that sneak in, repair damaged fences at any time, and also have to farm and mow grass, chop grass and crops such as pumpkins and sweet potatoes by hand, and feed them to chickens, ducks and geese with cornmeal and other grains, then clean the pens, catch mature chickens, ducks and geese to sell, pick eggs and transport them, etc. They are exhausted after a busy day and are bound to be careless.
The weather is hot in the summer, and the chickens are fine. They just move around on land. The eggs are basically laid in the haystacks, and you can pick up the eggs by turning the grass over. Even if you occasionally miss an egg, over time, under the blessing of the high temperature, many chicks will hatch by themselves. The workers will take the chicks back to the pen to raise them. However, the survival rate of chicks hatched by themselves in such high temperature weather is not high.
Ducks and geese often lay their eggs near the water, sometimes in shallow water, sometimes in deep water. In order to pick up duck and goose eggs in deep water, the workers have to make several "small boats" and paddle in the water to pick them up.
When Yang Qiujin arrived at the pool, Song Zhaodi was sitting in a round wooden basin, planning to go to the deeper part of the pool to pick up goose eggs.
Seeing Yang Qiujin, Song Zhaodi waved to her happily: "Director Yang, you are here to inspect again. The weather is hot today. Do you want to go boating with me to pick up goose eggs?"
"Okay, it's just right for me to see how the fish are doing in the pond." Yang Qiujin looked at the so-called "boat" with great interest. With the help of Song Zhaodi, she sat on another small wooden tub. The two of them paddled the water with their hands and came to the deep water area of the pool, which was equally large and as big as a lake.
Song Zhaodi carried a net bag with her. Whenever she saw goose eggs in deep water, she would use the net bag to catch them one by one and put them in a wooden basin.
She murmured to Yang Qiujin, "Director Yang, when the weather gets hot, ducks and geese are happy to stay in the water. They don't even want to come ashore to lay eggs, so they just lay them in the water. Sometimes we don't see them, and the eggs sink in the water for too long, or the shells are damaged by fish, shrimps, and crabs in the water and float to the surface. When we catch them, they are rotten. And the soaked eggs have to be sold as soon as possible. If the grocery stores and supply and marketing cooperatives can't sell them for several days and they become rotten, they have to come to us to exchange them, which is a big loss."
"This is unavoidable. In the future, we should salt the eggs laid by ducks and geese in water and give them to the farm workers as welfare."
It is not common for ducks to lay eggs in water, but because there are so many ducks and geese, with tens of thousands of ducks playing in the pond every day, it is inevitable that some of them will lay eggs in the water. Over time, the number of duck eggs soaked in water increases, and the weather is hot, so they are easy to spoil. The best way to preserve them is to salt them.
Yang Qiujin moved the wooden basin to the center of the pond and checked the condition of the fish in the pond. Fortunately, the pond was as large as the lake, and the upstream and downstream connecting the canal were blocked by special fences. Many fish fry were put into the water every year, and ducks and geese would not swim to the deep water area to eat fish. Under the clear water surface, various fish could be clearly seen swimming, and a new batch of fish would be available next month.
After leaving the poultry area, Yang Qiujin went to inspect the rabbit breeding farm. The rabbit farm also had several large pens, and there was no need to deliberately introduce new breeds, as the rabbits had a strong reproductive ability.
Many female rabbits can give birth to several litters a year. As long as you pay attention to pen hygiene and feed them on time, the rabbits will grow well. They can grow into adult rabbits in half a year and can be sold. They are much easier to raise than other animals.
Yang Qiujin stood in front of the pen and saw the small rabbits with gray, white, brown and other colors running around or huddling together in a lively manner when people came. She pointed at a white rabbit and said to a rabbit manager, "Help me catch that rabbit. I want to take it home to cook tonight."
Being an employee of a farm has its advantages. Whenever you want to eat meat, you can buy it from the farm at any time. The price and meat coupons are more favorable than those for ordinary people. If you don’t have meat coupons, you can buy it at twice the normal price. This is the welfare provided by the farm to the employees.
During the time when Yang Qiujin was in confinement, Li Xiu'e had basically spent all the meat coupons in the family. Now she had to buy rabbits at double the price.
The price of a live rabbit in a grocery store was about 60 cents per pound. Yang Qiujin caught a rabbit weighing about 15 pounds, which cost her 7 yuan. She tied the rabbit with a rope and took it home.
Chen Shengqing returned home and saw a rabbit in the yard. He realized that Yang Qiujin wanted to improve the food for the family, and was about to kill the rabbit with a knife. But Chen Tianyou, who had gone out to play somewhere, came back with Wang Songyue and Wang Songyang, two siblings, all sweaty.
Wang Songyue saw the white rabbit tied up with ropes on the ground, struggling pitifully, and asked with pity: "Uncle Chen, do you want to eat this rabbit?"
Chen Shengqing hummed, took out a kitchen knife from the kitchen, and squatted in the corner of the yard to sharpen the knife: "Your Aunt Yang brought it back. You and Songyang can have dinner at our house tonight."
Wang Songyang's eyes lit up, "Okay, Uncle Chen, you want to kill the rabbit, right? I'll hold its head down for you so you can bleed it, to avoid dirtying the rabbit skin."
In this era, rabbits are treasures from head to toe. Not only can their meat be eaten, but their skin can also be scraped off and, after being processed with saltpeter and dried, the skin can be made into socks, gloves, knee pads, hats, etc., which are very warm to wear in winter.
Many hunters on the border would basically skin the rabbits after borrowing them, and then keep them for their own use or sell them at grocery stores. A good rabbit skin could fetch a lot of money.
In order to sell the rabbits for a good price, they usually kill them cleanly and neatly, trying to avoid the rabbit's blood getting on the fur and destroying the beauty of the fur, thereby lowering the price. Chen Shengqing does the same.
Since Yang Qiujin joined the army, her family had eaten a lot of rabbits every year. Some were bought from farms, and some were hunted by themselves. The rabbits they brought home were basically skinned and processed by Chen Shengqing, and after drying, Yang Qiujin made them into shoes, socks, gloves, etc.
Today the rabbit's fur is pure white. Chen Shengqing immediately thought of giving the rabbit skin to his little daughter. He would cut it off and prepare it carefully. After it was dried, he would ask Yang Qiujin to make gloves, socks or a hat for his daughter, which would be both beautiful and warm.
When Wang Songyue heard that it was the rabbit brought back by Yang Qiujin, she knew that the rabbit was doomed. She pursed her lips and said, "Uncle Chen, I won't eat it. You guys eat it. I'm going back first."
Chen Tianyou noticed that something was wrong with her, followed her into the Wang family yard, and asked her, "What's wrong with you?"
Wang Songyue sighed and said, "You wouldn't understand even if I told you. I just felt sorry for the rabbit. I didn't have the courage to save it, thinking it was about to become meat on the plate. I felt very sad."
"So that's what happened." Chen Tianyou suddenly realized, "If you want to save it, it's not that easy. I can just tell my dad and give you the rabbit to raise."
"No." Wang Songyue hesitated, "Although I feel sorry for it, if I rescue it and let it be raised by me, I don't have the time and energy to feed it, and it will suffer in our house. We will go to middle school soon, and my mother is worried about me living in the dormitory, and my father is worried about letting his mother send me to school. My mother plans to buy me a bicycle so that I can ride to and from school by myself."
Chen Tianyou frowned, "You have to go to evening classes in middle school. The town has been very chaotic in the past two years, with idle hooligans hanging around everywhere. It's not safe for a girl like you to ride a bike to school."
Wang Songyue stepped into the main hall. "My dad will come to pick me up when the time comes. If he is really busy, he can ask another uncle to pick me up."
Chen Tianyou followed her into the main hall and said, "Uncle Wang often has to go on missions, so his return home time is uncertain. The same is true for other uncles. Are you sure they can pick you up?"
"Then what should I do? I can't ask my mom or my brother to pick me up. My mom never likes to go out, and she's delicate and weak. It would be even more dangerous for her to pick me up. My brother is still young and can't handle it..."
"How about you live with me in the house in town that my parents bought. My grandma will take care of us, and I will protect you. No one will dare to bully you. We can go back to the army together on the weekend." Chen Tianyou suggested.
"This...is not good." Wang Songyue was embarrassed.
She was already a teenage girl, no longer a little girl who knew nothing. She knew everything about the avoidance of suspicion between men and women. If she wanted to live in the same house with Chen Tianyou and those gossipy women in the family compound knew about it, who knew how much gossip would be spread. She didn't want to listen to their gossip.
Chen Tianyou said, "Don't be so quick to refuse. We are not alone together. My grandma is here. Even if others know about it, we are upright and aboveboard, and they can't say anything bad. When Uncle Wang and Aunt Liang come back, I will talk to them. If they agree, you can live with me in the town. If they don't agree, I will ride my bike to pick you up and drop you off."
Wang Songyue chuckled, "If you want to pick me up, then why are you still living in town? Why not just come home with me?"
After all, she knew that Chen Tianyou had good intentions, so she did not refuse.
After Liang Xueqing came back from buying soy sauce, and Wang Jianjun, who happened to run into Liang Xueqing after get off work, came back with her, Chen Tianyou told them about the incident.
Liang Xueqing said, "Tianyou, I know you mean well, but your parents have to agree to this. Besides, even if your grandmother goes to town to take care of you, you and Songyue are not related at all. If Songyue really lives under the same roof with you, I'm afraid someone will gossip about her."
Wang Jianjun didn't care. "Xueqing, I think it's good to let Songyue live with Tianyou. Tianli Town is indeed a bit chaotic now. There are hooligans everywhere in the town. Those hooligans are half-grown children who have not been to school. They steal and cause trouble everywhere. The police in the town can't do anything to them. I'm busy with work and I'm not sure when I get off work. I can't keep asking my comrades to help me pick up the child. I can't let Songyue ride home alone. She and Tianyou are half-grown children. With Aunt Li watching over them, nothing will happen to them."
In fact, the couple also thought about buying a house in the town so that Wang Songyue could live there and study.
However, because of Liang Xueqing's background, Wang Jianjun has stopped moving forward and may be discharged from the army in three years at most. It is possible that they will return to their hometown by then.
If you want to buy a house in Tianli Town, firstly, the price is not cheap, and secondly, it will be difficult to sell the house if you cannot live in it for more than two years.
If Wang Songyue were to live in a dormitory, she would be ignorant of farming and lazy. In addition, Wang Songyue's personality was too gentle, similar to Liang Xueqing's. The couple worried that she would be bullied if she lived in the dormitory, so they thought of letting her ride a bicycle home.
Now that Chen Tianyou is the guarantor, Wang Jianjun thinks it's not bad for his daughter to live in the house in Chenjia Town. Chen Tianyou was someone he had seen grow up, so he knew the boy's temper very well. In addition, he was very confident in Chen Shengqing and his wife, as well as Li Xiu'e, so regardless of whether Liang Xueqing was willing or not, he took the initiative to follow Chen Tianyou and went to the house to tell her about the matter.
Wang Jianjun said to Chen Shengqing and his wife, "Deputy Commander Chen, Sister Yang, you all know that Songyue is very spoiled. We are afraid that she will be wronged if we let her live in the school, and we are afraid that she will be bullied if we let her go to school on foot. We are also worried about letting her live alone in the house in the town, so I think Tianyou's suggestion is very good. We have been comrades-in-arms and neighbors for so many years, and we all know each other well. I am absolutely confident in Aunt Li. If you don't mind Songyue, she will live in your house in the town when she goes to middle school. We will give Aunt Li 20 yuan every month as rent and living expenses. What do you think?"
"I think it's a good idea. Songyue will definitely not stand being wronged if she lives with our Tianyou. What do you think, Mom?" Yang Qiujin agreed 100%. She liked Songyue and hoped that the two young people could spend more time together and grow in affection. Maybe in the future Wang Songyue could become their daughter-in-law.
"That's good. With Songyue accompanying Tianyou, they can learn from each other. Maybe Tianyou will have a greater chance of getting into high school in the future." The daughter-in-law is the one who makes the decisions at home. What can Li Xiu'e say?
Wang Songyue is a girl who can't do housework, but her grades have always been ranked first in the school. I heard that Tianyou had been tutored and urged by her before, and his grades were slowly catching up with hers. Even for the dream of her grandson getting into high school and college, Li Xiu'e had to let go of her opinion of Wang Songyue.
Besides, Wang Jianjun was very generous. He provided lunch for her in middle school and gave her 20 yuan a month. It was like she was earning a living, so she had no reason to refuse.
In this way, both parents agreed and everyone was happy.
Yang Qiujin wanted to invite Wang Jianjun to dinner, but Wang Jianjun waved his hand and said no. Before leaving, he pointed at Wang Songyang who refused to go home and said, "You guys always eat at your uncle Chen's house. You should be more aware of it and be smart. You should do the work you are supposed to do. Don't eat at other people's houses with a mouth full. Do you understand?"
Wang Songyang nodded: "Dad, I am very hardworking. I will help Aunt Yang pick and wash vegetables, wash pots and dishes, and I will never eat for free."
"You little bastard, why are you never so diligent at home? You let me do the housework alone." Wang Jianjun muttered a few words and turned away.
As soon as he left, Yang Qiujin asked Wang Songyang to help wash the vegetables, not treating him as an outsider at all, "Songyang, help Aunt Yang wash some ginger, green onions, and garlic. Also wash the cucumbers, radishes, and beans in the basket."
"Okay." Wang Songyang went to help Yang Qiujin wash the vegetables. After washing, he put them in front of the stove and asked, "Auntie Yang, what delicious food are you going to make today?"
Yang Qiujin took a kitchen knife and chopped the rabbit on the chopping board and said, "Today I'm going to make a rabbit with hot peppers, boil some bacon and pork, and cook some bean soup, and then cold mix some cucumber and radish."
During her confinement period, she had been eating extremely light food, which was quite slow for people from Sichuan who like oily and spicy food.
She looked forward to it day and night, and finally counted the days to her end of the confinement period. But she was worried that her little girl was too young, and that she couldn't handle the spicy food that would cause her milk to come in. She had been abstaining from spicy food for a month, and now she really couldn't stand it anymore, so she planned to make spicy dishes.
She took down a piece of bacon, cut two sections of sausage, scraped the skin of the roasted bacon and washed it clean, put it and the washed sausage into a pot, added a few ladles of water, and put the beans that Wang Songyang had folded into the pot and cooked them together.
After the bacon and bacon are cooked, take them out and cook the beans until they are soft. Add a little MSG to the bean soup, but no salt is needed. A pot of bacon-flavored bean soup is ready.
Yang Qiujin scooped two teaspoons of chili oil into a small bowl, then added pepper powder, salt and MSG, a little soy sauce and vinegar, a little dried chili paste, chopped green onions, and a little bean soup to make a bowl of dipping sauce for beans.
The beans are eaten with water, which is spicy and numbing, and goes well with rice.
Then she chopped the rabbit into small pieces, stir-fried it in hot oil until slightly charred, added chili sauce and bean paste, and stir-fried it until fragrant. She then added scallions, ginger, garlic, a handful of dried chilies, half a plate of fresh chilies, and a handful of whole Sichuan peppercorns and stir-fried them. Soon the yard was filled with the rich, fragrant aroma of the spicy pepper rabbit.
Several children from the Li family next door smelled the fragrance and started drooling and sneezing.
Li Danier sneezed and said, "Auntie Yang next door is making delicious food again. I don't know what she is doing, it's so spicy."
Li Dadan asked: "How do you know it was Aunt Yang who was cooking?"
Li Danier said: "Among the families in this row, only Aunt Yang and her family are from Sichuan Province. Grandma Li's cooking is not that spicy. Apart from Aunt Yang, no one else can cook such spicy dishes."
Li Sandan picked at the tasteless roll in the bowl and said, "I really want to eat Aunt Yang's cooking. Her cooking is delicious."
"You bastards, isn't it enough that you guys go to other people's homes to eat for free anytime? When they cook something delicious, you want to eat for free?" Zhao Erfeng slapped Li Sandan on the head and cursed: "You have no shame, but I still have some dignity."
"Mother, why don't you just talk to the child nicely instead of hitting him for no reason?" Li Zhiyong, who was sitting at the top of the table, said with a frown.
"Stop being a good guy here. I have to listen to them. Why would I beat them up?" Zhao Erfeng glared at him. "Deputy Captain Chen and Sister Yang hold all their money in their own hands. They can eat whatever they want. We are not like that. We have a lot of children and the burden is heavy. We have to pay a lot of money back home. The money we have is enough for our family to eat and drink. We can only afford one meal a month. I bought some meat to satisfy my hunger. When the kids smelled the meat being cooked next door, they would be greedy and would often go to their house to eat. If they eat once or twice, it would be fine, and they wouldn't say anything. But if they eat three or five times, with so many kids, if I were the eldest sister, I would be unhappy for her. If I don't restrain them, and let them run to the next door, you can afford to be embarrassed, but I can't!"
Li Zhiyong knew he was in the wrong, so he shrunk his neck and said, "I just gave my family 20 yuan less. Now you have a job again, and the children want to eat meat. You should buy some meat for them every three or five days, and they won't be so greedy."
"Bang!" Zhao Erfeng put the bowl heavily on the table and glared at him: "You talk better than you sing. You gave me 20 yuan less, but you still have to mail 30 yuan to your mother every month. Don't think I don't know that in addition to this money, you also save some private money and secretly give it to your mother every month. Why do I work? Don't you know? If you didn't always think about giving money to your mother and your brothers, I wouldn't have any extra money in my hands. Money and food, do I have to work so hard! The children are getting older day by day, they need money for food, clothing, housing and transportation, Dadan is already a 16-year-old boy, if he fails to pass the high school entrance examination, he will have to go out to work, and then we will have to talk about buying a house and getting married. Danier is not young anymore, we have to save up dowry for her, if we don’t save some money, how can we buy a house for our children and get married? How can we save up dowry for our daughter. "
Li Zhiyong was completely speechless. After a pause, he said, "Then tell me, how much money should I send back to my mother?"
"Ten yuan is enough for the two old people," said Zhao Erfeng.
"Ten dollars? That's too little. My mom and the others won't agree."
Zhao Erfeng stood up and said with his hands on his hips, "Li Zhiyong, don't force me to fight with you. Many people in the rural production team can't earn ten yuan a year. Ten yuan a month is enough for the old couple! Don't always think about taking care of your two useless brothers. If ten yuan is too much, then five yuan a month. If you dare to send more money behind my back again, we won't live together anymore. Divorce me as soon as possible and I'll remarry. You can take care of these five children by yourself!"
As she spoke, she untied her apron and walked out angrily.
Gou Dandan burst into tears, "Wow, I don't want my mom to remarry."
Li Danier jumped up and chased after Zhao Erfeng. Before she left, she said, "Dad, if you really divorce my mom, I will not recognize you as my dad, and you can't even think about marrying another woman. I will definitely beat her to death and make you lose face."
"Yes, if you want to divorce my mother, we will not recognize you." The other children expressed their opinions one after another.
Li Dadan was even more angry, stabbing him in the heart, "Dad, you are already a middle-aged man, why are you still so confused? You still can't tell who is closer and who is more important? My mother has tolerated you supporting that old lady in the country for so many years, and she has done her best. The money you sent to them is at least thousands of yuan, so much money, even if they eat for half a lifetime, they can't spend it all. If you want to continue to be foolishly filial, you can live with that family in the country. When we brothers and sisters grow up, don't expect us to control your life or death."
Li Zhiyong was so angry that his whole body was shaking. He wanted to say something, but the children ran out in a group to chase Zhao Erfeng, and the bustling living room suddenly became quiet.
Li Zhiyong sat in his seat and reflected on himself for the first time. He thought, was he doing something wrong by sending so much money to his parents to show his filial piety to them?
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