"Yes, yes. I still have a lot of photos of him when he was little. I took him there several times a year to take photos when he was little, from the age of five to twelve. He also sent me a few photos after he joined the army."
As she said that, Li Cuiying started looking in the box on the kang.
"I also wanted to buy a photo frame to hang up the photos, but then I thought better of it. It would be inconvenient to hang them up, and it would look weird to have all the small photos in one frame."
I took out an iron box containing biscuits from the box, opened it, and wrapped it with paper, otherwise the photos would have stuck to the box over time.
Li Cuiying opened it and took out the pictures one by one to show Jiang Mengxue.
"This was when Qingbei just came back from school when he was five years old. We took his grandparents to the city to take some family photos. Your uncle's family also came, as well as Meifeng's family.
Your parents-in-law rarely come home, and we don’t know when they’ll come again. It’s also rare for the whole family to get together like this every year.”
In the photo, two elderly people are sitting in the front, holding a little boy in their arms, with children sitting around them. Behind them are Wang Daya, Li Cuiying and Luan Huiying from left to right, while the brothers Gu Zhenjiang are standing behind their wives.
"The one sitting in his grandparents' arms is Qingbei. His grandparents are so fond of him when they see him. The other children are all your uncle's brothers and sisters."
There were several family photos, including separate photos of the two elderly people with three families, and the only group photo taken of the elderly couple themselves. The rest were photos of each family.
The rest were all photos of Gu Qingbei. Some were group photos of Li Cuiying and Gu Zhenjiang taking Gu Qingbei with them, but most were individual photos.
"We took four photos of him when he was six years old. One of them was for his birthday when I made him a special festive outfit. But at that time he was already aware that red was a color only worn by girls. I coaxed him for a long time before he cooperated with the photo.
When he was a child, he was chubby and very cute. He was fair and tender, and red clothes were especially suitable for him. So every year I coaxed him to wear them and take a photo.
Hahaha, but after he turned ten, he refused to wear it, and since then, taking photos has become much more serious."
Jiang Mengxue looked at each photo one by one and listened to Li Cuiying telling the stories behind the photos. It was so funny to see her chubby little face pretending to be serious.
"Second Mother, can I have these photos developed again?"
Li Cuiying thought for a moment and said, "It's okay. I still have the negatives. I'll get them developed tomorrow. Having these photos will also give me a souvenir. I don't know who your child will look like after you give birth, but no matter if it looks like you or Xiaobei, it will be beautiful."
After seeing these photos, Jiang Mengxue became even more excited. So many people loved him, regardless of whether he was a boy or a girl.
"By the way, Xiaoxue, your parents know your address, right? When your uncle and I went to Taoyuan Brigade, we went to your parents' home and told them about your pregnancy. They wanted to bring something for you, but since we didn't need anything, I told them not to prepare anything.
Your mother said she would come to the city to see you after she finished her work at home, and asked if you were free.
Jiang Mengxue slapped her head in annoyance. She really didn't think of telling her hometown. Fortunately, her second aunt remembered it, otherwise she wouldn't have waited until she was about to give birth to remember to tell her parents.
"I completely forgot about it. I'll wait until I have time to send someone back with a letter. I wonder when my mother will be free to come over."
"I'm afraid it will take a while. There must be a lot going on at home lately. The men in the team are all chopping wood and digging cellars. There's a lot to prepare."
There are no coal consumption quotas in rural areas at all, and even if there are quotas, people are reluctant to spend money to buy them. So when winter comes, every household has piles of firewood in their yards that can burn for a whole winter, and they are neatly stacked.
After dinner in the evening, Jiang Mengxue returned to her room. It was rare that she was alone tonight, so she waited until it was quiet outside and then entered the space.
Unexpectedly, Gu Qingbei was also inside at this moment, sitting at a folding table and eating voraciously. I don’t know how long it has been since he last had something to eat.
"Wife, I miss you so much."
Gu Qingbei sensed it as soon as Jiang Mengxue came in. He put down the bowl and ran over to hug Jiang Mengxue.
Jiang Mengxue was very surprised. She didn't feel anyone entering the space at all. If Xie Sheng hadn't been there today and she hadn't remembered to come in to take a look, would they have missed each other today?
Jiang Mengxue reached out and patted Gu Qingbei's back to comfort him.
"Okay, okay, why did you come into the space today? Is your mission over?"
Gu Qingbei let go of his hands, held Jiang Mengxue's face and kissed her left and right.
Jiang Mengxue had no choice but to kiss her face full of oil, then took out a handkerchief to wipe it off.
"Hmph, you despise me." Gu Qingbei took Jiang Mengxue's hand with grievance and walked back to continue eating.
"No way, you haven't told me whether your mission is over and you're back in the army? You haven't left any messages in your space for several days."
Gu Qingbei nodded, and while eating, he took the time to answer her question: "I just finished reporting back to the army and wanted to ask for leave to come back to see you, but I don't have much vacation time left. Even if I take the train back, I'm afraid I can't stay for two days. But our army has built a lot of dormitories this year. I live alone now, so I will have time to enter the space in the future."
The conditions in the army were really bad before. Even the officers were paired to a dormitory. Gu Qingbei used to live with his instructor Lu Zhengming.
Jiang Mengxue was pleasantly surprised: "So if your troops have accommodation, does that mean I can follow the troops?"
She didn't want at all that they would only see each other once every few years, and the child would grow up without even knowing what his father looked like.
Gu Qingbei shook his head with a guilty look on his face: "Wife, it's not possible yet. This year we only built dormitories for single soldiers. The previous ones were too crowded. Many of the new recruits who just joined the army this year live in a room with more than ten people. The rooms are still small. We have only allocated land in the past few months to start building new dormitories.
But don't worry, the family housing project should be on the agenda next year. Someone even brought it up at the last meeting, so it's almost here."
In fact, Gu Qingbei didn't really want Jiang Mengxue to join the army. It wasn't that he didn't want to reunite with his wife, but the conditions here were too difficult. Located in the northwest of the country, it was very dry with wind and sun. Even if they wanted to go to town to buy something, they had to take a few hours' drive.
By then, even if family members can come to accompany the army, I'm afraid each family will have to be self-sufficient. According to the conditions here in previous years, soldiers have to farm their own land. Regardless of whether they can arrange jobs for their family members, the army will probably have to find a way to allocate land for each family to grow crops.
He didn't want his wife and children to suffer here. At least they had his uncle and aunt to take care of them at home, which was better than going with the army.
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