Chapter 20
People in the countryside always go to bed early.
Zheng Mei was sitting at the square table.
There were some papers with slogans written on them scattered around the desk, all about the implementation of the household contract responsibility system. She was the women's director of the production brigade, and because she had always insisted on studying, she was well-educated and literate, so she actually also served as the propaganda work of the production brigade.
Zheng Mei has always done a good job at work, and was known as the "Iron Girl" when she was young. In addition, she is warm and generous, and is willing to help the villagers, so everyone in the brigade praises her.
She was a person who cherished her reputation, and because of these compliments, she became more careful in what she did, fearing that she might not do well enough and make these compliments unworthy of her reputation.
Although the second daughter Lanjun bought a lot of candles last time, Zheng Mei only gave the candles to her younger sister Zhujun out of cherishment. The remaining candles were kept in the cupboard, waiting for Lanjun to come back and use them, so he still used a kerosene lamp.
The kerosene lamp was dim, so she had to move closer to the table and read the proposed slogans again and again.
After making sure she couldn't think of a better one, she circled a sentence.
“Long live the word ‘bao’! The sooner you bao, the sooner you will get rich; the later you bao, the later you will get rich; if you don’t bao, you will never get rich.”①
Just choose this one.
After finishing the work, Zheng Mei stretched herself and put away the papers.
At this time, Chen Zhisheng came out of the kitchen, holding a copper basin of warm water in his hand, and gently placed it on the old-fashioned wash basin stand. This basin stand was made by him in the year he got married, and it was very sturdy. Chen Zhisheng originally wanted to carve some flowers on the basin stand, but was stopped by Zheng Mei. Zheng Mei's political sensitivity was several times stronger than his. In that era, making a carved basin stand by hand would look like furniture dragged out of a landlord's house. It's better not to do it, so as not to cause trouble.
So in the end, this bare pot rack was left in the house and I used it for many years.
"Auntie, please wash your hands." Chen Zhisheng greeted his wife with a smile.
Zheng Mei glanced at him with a smile in the corner of her eyes, hummed softly, walked over and dipped her hand in the water, the temperature was just right.
Just at this moment, I suddenly heard a noise outside the door.
"Mom - Dad - I'm back, open the door!"
It was the voice of the second daughter, Chen Lanjun.
Chen Zhisheng hurried over to open the door. When he opened the door, he saw Chen Lanjun holding a wooden box, looking very happy. But her hands were covered in ink, very black and dirty, as if she had just been to a river to clean up the silt.
"How did it become like this?" Zheng Mei shook the water off her hands and walked over to ask.
"It's okay, it's just stained with ink. Just wash it off with water later." While talking, Chen Lanjun was busy walking towards her room, anxious to put down the hand-push mimeograph machine.
Although the weight was not extremely heavy, her hands were sore from carrying it all the way, so she decided to put it down quickly.
As she rushed forward, Zheng Mei and Chen Zhisheng hurriedly followed behind her, one holding a lamp to light the way for fear that she would fall, and the other pushed the door for her so that she could pass without hindrance.
Putting down the mimeograph machine in her hand, Chen Lanjun breathed a sigh of relief, raised her hands and fell on the bed to rest.
"Your hands are so dirty, and you're still lying like this. Wash your hands quickly."
"My hands were raised, not touching the bed."
Chen Lanjun stayed in bed, refusing to get up. In fact, she herself did not realize that whenever she returned home, she became somewhat unbridled. Her maturity and stability were like an umbrella, automatically retracting under the eaves of her home.
Just like at this moment, she is acting like a child, acting like a spoiled brat and being coquettish to her parents.
"I'm too lazy to ask you."
Zheng Mei scolded him a few words, then turned around and asked Chen Zhisheng to bring some water to the room so that Chen Lanjun could wash her hands.
She opened the cupboard and took out two or three candles. She borrowed the flame from the kerosene lamp, lit one and placed it on Chen Lanjun's desk.
The marks of ink are not so easy to wash off. Zheng Mei held Chen Lanjun's hand, put it in the water, and rubbed it again and again, but there were still some dark blue marks that could not be washed off.
Chen Lanjun didn't care and said, "It can't be washed off, forget it, it might get stuck again later anyway, so I'll wash it all together then."
"Little ancestor, what are you doing?"
"I want to print out some review points and give them to my classmates later."
Zheng Mei was puzzled: "Shouldn't your teacher be responsible for this?"
Chen Lanjun smiled and said, "I'll do it. I can also get some hard work fees. Besides, it's not a big deal."
When Zheng Mei heard this, her brows slowly furrowed.
But Chen Lanjun was so focused on making copies that she didn't notice it.
Chen Zhisheng asked: "Are you hungry? I'll go cook you a bowl of noodles."
When he mentioned it, Chen Lanjun actually felt a little hungry. He had been running all the way without taking a break, let alone eating.
The earthen stove in the countryside was always a hassle, but luckily the coal stove that was used to boil water had not completely gone out. Zheng Mei and Chen Zhisheng were busy for a while, and soon, a bowl of noodles was brought in, with an egg in it.
Chen Lanjun held the bowl of noodles and ate all of them, even drinking up all the soup.
It can be seen that he is really hungry.
After a brief exchange of pleasantries, she and her parents said good night to each other.
As soon as the door was closed, she lit another candle.
On normal weekends, my younger sister lived in the school dormitory and did not come back. This was also good, as it made it convenient for Chen Lanjun to occupy the entire desk.
She laid out all the materials needed for mimeographing, including styluses, wax paper, ink pots, rollers, and white paper, filling up the desk.
This kind of handicraft is called mimeographing, and it is also a technical job. First, you have to carve marks on the wax paper with a stylus, then put it into the mimeograph machine, and push it with a roller dipped in ink. The ink penetrates through the marks carved on the wax paper, and the shadow of the words appears on the paper below.
If the words on the wax paper are not carved evenly, the words on the white paper will be printed in a mess, so the carving skills are very important.
Chen Lanjun failed twice and only succeeded on the third attempt.
By the time the usable paper was actually printed, the moon was already at its zenith.
** **
On the other side, Zheng Mei lay on her side on the bed with her eyes open, but she couldn't fall asleep.
She knew her daughter well. Chen Lanjun was a lazy person, and if she didn't want to make money, she wouldn't take on such a job as printing papers for others.
Why should I earn money if I am studying hard? It is to reduce the burden on my family.
But this... is clearly the responsibility of parents.
The more Zheng Mei thought about it, the more she couldn't sleep.
She was pleased with Chen Lanjun's understanding, but also felt sorry for her. At the same time, she was annoyed that she was useless and could not let her daughter study without distraction. If she were a senior cadre or a big leader, and her family had no worries about food and clothing, why would Lanjun suffer so much, study hard, and think of ways to make money?
In the night, she sighed softly.
The person beside him turned over and asked softly, "Amei, you didn't fall asleep either?"
Obviously, Chen Zhisheng didn't sleep either.
Zheng Mei simply sat up and said, "No, for the sake of our three daughters, we have to work harder."
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