Chapter 40 Night Talk
Everyone returned to the dormitory together. Xie Yun followed the old soldier to wash, make the bed, and go to bed, and started the night talk.
Yan Yuying was a very responsible veteran. She took the initiative to ask Xie Yun and Xu Laowu, "How is it going? Are you adapting today? Did you understand everything the instructor said this afternoon?"
Xie Yun: "Adapt, understand."
Xu Laowu: "It's OK, I understand almost everything."
Yan Yuying smiled and said, "That's good. If you have any questions, just tell us. Let's help each other and overcome any difficulties. Let's strive for everyone to make progress after this training camp."
Xie Yun asked her, "Sister Yuying, are you almost able to memorize this training manual?"
Yan Yuying smiled and said, "No. I don't remember the manual very well. I only graduated from elementary school, so I don't have a good understanding of things like atomic weapons and poison gas bombs. But I can handle the practical aspects. We'll all practice what's in the manual. We need to learn how to lie down, how to dodge, how to aim."
Xie Yun is ready to go and full of anticipation.
Zhao Hongxia asked Xu Wumei with a chuckle, "Sister Wumei, you've finished your training today. How do you feel? Do you understand how difficult it is for your partner?"
The others in the dormitory also became curious and asked, "What does this have to do with the five beauties' partners?"
Yan Yuying said: "The five beauties are all soldiers."
One girl suddenly realized, "Oh, is this what they mean by empathy? Right, Five Beauties?"
The youngest female militia member in Liushutun is Zhao Hongxia, who started training at age 16. Now 17, she's joining the ranks for the second year. Then there are Xie Yun and Xu Wumei, both a little over 18. The others are older.
Yan Yuying is 22 years old.
There is also Song Zhaoxia, 20 years old. She was engaged to a man from another brigade, but she accidentally discovered that the man was secretly holding hands with a girl from her brigade. Song Zhaoxia immediately broke off the engagement and is still unmarried.
Almost everyone in the team knew about her affair, but the atmosphere in Liushutun Brigade was quite positive, so no one said anything. At most, when they talked about it, they would say, "That man is very cunning. He was engaged but still not honest. When Zhaoxia found out, she broke off the engagement." The responsibility was placed on the man, and no one put the blame on Song Zhaoxia.
Wu Hongjuan, 21 years old, has just been married and has no children yet.
Wang Jieyun, 20 years old, unmarried.
Wang Qingli, 21 years old, is unmarried.
This is the basic situation of the eight people in the dormitory. They are all young people, gathered together and chatting happily. Although they are not as unrestrained as the aunties and grannies in the village, they will also quietly talk about some private topics.
The one who just said "I can empathize with you" was Wang Qingli.
When there were so many people around, Xu Wumei felt a little shy, not as relaxed as when she was chatting with Xie Yun and Zhao Hongxia in the morning. She smiled and didn't say anything.
Zhao Hongxia replied for her, "That's what she meant. Sister Wu Mei told me and Sister Binbin this morning that Aunt Xu asked her to come to the training so she could understand how hard it was for her boyfriend. This way, she could get along better with him and feel sorry for him after she got married."
Wang Qingli curled her lips and said, "Being a soldier is very hard, and doing farm work for us is not easy either. Besides, he is respected by the people as a soldier, can get promotions, and can get high allowances. What do we get from farming? Every year, we can fill our stomachs and have a surplus of a few melons and dates. It's good enough. Wumei feels sorry for him, but does he know that she feels sorry for Wumei? What Aunt Xu should do is let her son-in-law do more farm work and experience the difficulties of Wumei. Instead of letting Wumei participate in training, understand his difficulties, and feel sorry for him. This is completely the opposite!"
Xie Yun echoed repeatedly: "That's right."
Zhao Hongxia clapped her hands and said, "When Sister Wu Mei told me this this morning, I felt something was a little awkward and wrong, but I couldn't figure out what was going on. Sister Qingli was really good and pointed out the problem right away."
Wang Qingli added, "If he thinks being a soldier is hard, then he shouldn't have been one. Wouldn't he have just come back and farmed? There's a saying, 'You get what you pay for, but you still act nice,' and he's in that situation. He wants the benefits of being a soldier, but he also feels the hardships of being a soldier, and he wants his partner to understand him. How come he gets all the good things? He's just wishful thinking."
Xie Yun called Wang Qingli "the strongest mouthpiece" in her heart. Because the Zheng family had proposed marriage to her before, she had many concerns about what she said, but Wang Qingli did not, and she said whatever she thought.
Xu Laowu interrupted, "This has nothing to do with him. My mother said so."
Xie Yun smiled and said, "That's the key. He doesn't have to think about these things himself. Aunt Xu does it for him. His life is so easy. Someone thinks of everything for him."
Wang Qingli said, "It's not easy. Take my brother, for example. He's 18 this year and only earns four work points working in the fields every day. He can't even support himself, and yet my parents think he's working hard. They also think he's exceptionally good and perfect, and they want to find him a good partner, preferably someone from the city with a job. I'm almost dying of laughter. What city girl is so blind as to fall for that? He's got no looks, no height, no skills, and he's so smug all the time. How shameless! I want to use a loudspeaker to shout to the whole world, 'Don't marry my brother, or you'll suffer endlessly if you do.'"
Everyone laughed at what he said.
Song Zhaoxia said, "It's no use feeling sorry for a man. The guy I mentioned earlier has already been decided, and both parents agree. I've even met him twice and made him a pair of shoes. My mom also said it would be a good opportunity for him to see my needlework. I'm pretty good at needlework, and I gave him the shoes, but so what? He still hooked up with someone else behind my back! He's always looking for more! So, if a man is not good, it's useless no matter how nice you are to him. The key is that he has good character and a strong sense of responsibility. Everything else is useless."
Yan Yuying comforted Song Zhaoxia: "Don't be angry about this kind of person. He doesn't deserve it! Breaking off the engagement is his loss, not yours."
Xie Yun also said, "Sister Zhaoxia, this is called cutting losses in time. You're lucky to have discovered this man's bad character before getting married. If you discovered it after you got married, you'd have to divorce, wouldn't that be even more troublesome?"
Song Zhaoxia smiled and said, "I'm not angry. I didn't lose anything. It was just a broken engagement! Everyone knows that I broke off the engagement because he was having an affair with someone else. His family was afraid I would report him for being a hooligan and having affairs, so they broke off the engagement without hesitation and gave me twenty yuan in compensation."
Wang Qingli asked her, "Were you angry when you first found out?"
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