Chapter 3: I want to join the army!
Ma Zhenshan's voice was not loud, filled with anger, but every word struck a chord with the heart.
"Comrade Weiguo died fighting bandits! And you broke into his house, beat his wife, and robbed his child? Is this the way your Zhou family is?!
Is this how you treat his family?!"
Wang Chunhua was intimidated by the old Party Secretary's authority. Her face changed and she tried to argue: "Secretary Ma, you can't say that. She's an outsider..."
"outsider?"
Ma Zhenshan stomped his crutch suddenly, making a dull sound.
"Comrade Shen Lingning is Weiguo's legitimate wife! She's registered in our brigade! She's from Majiaji! The baby coming out of her belly is Weiguo's!
Is what you did today considered human?!"
His gaze was like a knife, fiercely scraping at Zhou Weidong and Mrs. Zhou: "And you! The old ones are confused, and the young ones are bastards! Get out! All of you, get out!
If you dare to step into this room again, I'll have you tied up and thrown into jail!"
Zhou Weidong's lips trembled and he stammered for a long time but couldn't utter a word.
Mrs. Zhou was so frightened that she trembled all over and the blue cloth purse in her arms almost fell to the ground.
Wang Chunhua's face turned pale and blue, and she glared at Chen Lingning on the ground with resentment.
He looked at the angry old Party secretary and the villagers behind him with unfriendly eyes and clenched fists, and knew that he would not get away with it today.
She spat out a mouthful of thick phlegm in anger, right next to Shen Lingning: "Alright! Secretary Ma, you're protecting this capitalist's slut! We'll see what happens!"
After saying that, he pulled up Zhou Weidong who was still in a daze.
He tugged at Mrs. Zhou, who was hiding in the corner, and said, "Mom! Let's go! Let's go!"
The three men were like defeated dogs. Under the contemptuous gaze of the villagers, they pushed their way through the crowd at the door in a dejected manner and disappeared in the increasingly heavy snow and wind.
The room suddenly became quiet, and the tense nerves suddenly relaxed.
Shen Lingning's eyes went dark and he collapsed on the cold ground.
While she was conscious, she seemed to hear the old branch secretary's anxious call, and felt someone carefully carrying her and her child onto the gradually heating kang.
A faint but reassuring thought gently brushed across her heart:
"Okay... man... take a nap..."
Shen Lingning felt drowsy, his body seemed to be falling apart, and he fell into a deep sleep.
After sleeping for only a short while, Shen Lingning struggled to open his heavy eyelids a crack.
Under the dim kerosene lamp, the old branch secretary Ma Zhenshan was standing by the kang, holding the IOU that was crumpled by her hand in his hand, and looking at it carefully under the lamp.
His brows were furrowed and his face looked serious.
Aunt Wang's eyes were red as she carefully fed the baby in the cradle a little bit of warm rice soup from a rough porcelain bowl with a crack on it.
The little guy seemed tired of crying, and his little mouth moved instinctively, sucking on the thin warmth.
"Ma...Uncle Ma..."
Ma Zhenshan immediately turned around, carefully folded the IOU, and stuffed it back into her hand: "Girl, keep it. This is Weiguo's property, and it's yours."
He looked at Shen Lingning's pale face and the wound on his forehead, and sighed heavily, "Don't worry, I'm here, and those bastards from the Zhou family won't dare to come again. You take good care of yourself, you just gave birth to a child, your health is important."
“Thank you, Uncle Ma…”
Shen Lingning tightly grasped the IOU, the silver clove earrings that had been lost and found, and the round, plump tea seeds in the package.
She felt the lingering warmth from the spiritual spring nourishment in her body, and the steady breathing of her daughter in her arms as she fell into a deep sleep after using her ability. One thought became extremely clear to her.
"Uncle Ma,"
She licked her cracked lips, her gaze passing over the old Party Secretary, as if piercing through the mud house and the snowstorm. "Weiguo...did he have an accident...at Yingzui Cliff?"
Ma Zhenshan nodded gravely. "Yes, in the Qinnan Mountains, near the Yingzui Cliff outpost. We're suppressing a group of roving bandits... Sigh."
Qin Nan… Mountainous area… Shen Lingning’s heart suddenly jumped.
That place... I heard there is a tea mountain!
"Tea Planting Mountain" guided by the daughter's heart.
Is that where you mean?
"Uncle Ma."
Shen Lingning's voice carried the calmness and strength of someone who had burned their boats and crossed the river: "I want to... wait until I recover and the road is open in the spring... I want to take my children with me... to join the army."
Ma Zhenshan and Aunt Wang were both stunned.
"Follow the army? Lingning girl, this... this is a long journey. You just gave birth to a child, and you are carrying a baby... Besides, Weiguo is not..."
Aunt Wang was the first to worry.
Ma Zhenshan pondered for a moment, and looked at Shen Lingning with sharp eyes: “Do you want to go find Weiguo?”
He sighed. "The army... they're just saying he's missing, but there's hope he's still alive..."
"I know."
Shen Lingning interrupted him, his eyes extremely firm: "I want to see him alive, dead... and the body. I can't let Weiguo be left in such an unclear state. And..."
She gently stroked the tea seed bag beside her pillow: "The things my mother left me can only be used over there... Here..."
She looked around the dilapidated mud house and said, "This place can't accommodate us, mother and daughter, nor can it accommodate the thoughts of defending the country."
She paused, looked at the old branch secretary, and said pleadingly, "Uncle Ma, you watched Weiguo grow up. Please help me. Help me contact the army and get a certificate.
The pension...whatever they stole, I'll just throw away. I just want a ticket to take me and my child to Qinnan, and...this bag of seeds."
Ma Zhenshan looked at Shen Lingning's pale but resolute face, and then at the baby sleeping in the cradle.
Thinking of the "weird" scene described by the villagers and the Zhou family's domineering behavior, he sighed deeply and nodded heavily:
"Okay! Girl, since you have this intention, I, an old man, will help you even if it costs me my reputation! Weiguo is a great man, and his wife and child cannot be treated so badly!
Qin Nan... the conditions over there are tough, but with the troops here, it's better than living in fear here! Come spring, when the thaw comes and the roads become easier to travel on, I'll personally take you and your daughter to the car!"
Aunt Wang handed over a bowl of steaming millet porridge: "In southern Shanxi, drinking millet porridge during confinement is nourishing. You were frightened and had a difficult delivery, which damaged your blood and qi. You need to take good care of yourself..."
"I dare not miss the confinement period and get sick, or I will suffer for the rest of my life!"
Alas, pitiful thing, a child without a mother is like a weed...
Shen Lingning took it and drank it obediently. With food in his stomach, a warm current rose instantly, and his heart felt a lot lighter.
After the old branch secretary, Aunt Wang and others left, the cute baby was heard mumbling in his sleep, as if confirming his mother's decision in his sleep.
"Tea... Mountain... Dad..."
The wind and snow were still howling outside the house.
Shen Lingning sat on the warm kang, holding his daughter tightly, holding the bag of tea seeds that determined his future.
However, before leaving, she still had to deal with the Zhou family!
At the same time, she had a question in her mind: how could her daughter speak in her mind?
What's going on with that space?
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