After dinner, Liu Meiyu was telling the three brothers a story she had made up to coax them to sleep.
"Meiyun, do you want some water? I'll go get you some hot water."
"No." Liu Meiyu finally coaxed the children to sleep, covered them with small quilts, and prepared to go to bed early.
"Are you tired? I'll give you a massage for a while."
"No need, go to sleep." Liu Meiyu slapped the man's hand away and lay down, ready to sleep.
As a result, the man next to me looked strange, as if he wanted to say something but hesitated.
"What's wrong with you?" She turned over, holding her chin with her hand and asked, "Who called you just now?"
"No one, just comrades." Lu Changzheng answered vaguely.
"Which comrade?"
"Borrow money from you?"
Lu Changzheng, who was seen through at a glance, nodded guiltily and stared at the expression on his wife's face, fearing that she would be unhappy.
"You have no money?" Liu Meiyu was not unhappy. After all, they had been married for so many years and her husband had borrowed money from outside many times.
They were all old comrades in difficult circumstances, and they were lending money to them for emergency use. Basically, they would slowly pay it back when they were well-off. In this regard, Liu Meiyu was not too harsh.
"I have money in my pocket, just take it." Liu Meiyu pointed at the coat on the bedside table, not taking it seriously, it was only a few dozen dollars anyway.
"If it's not enough, there's another hundred in the drawer. I told you to carry more money with you. You're a grown man, and you only have so much money on you. If something happens urgently, you have to go home to find your wife..."
"Meiyun." Lu Changzheng held his wife's hand and said carefully: "I borrowed a lot this time..."
"How much?" Liu Meiyu didn't care, thinking that two hundred yuan was the highest amount.
Lu Changzheng stretched out his palm and said cautiously: "Five...hundred"
"Who?"
Liu Meiyu frowned. Borrowing five hundred yuan was really not a small amount.
"It's just a comrade-in-arms. It seems that he has encountered some difficulties at home. It's quite difficult."
Seeing the man was vague and clearly trying to cover up for someone, Liu Meiyun raised her eyebrows, thought about the people on the island, and finally said, "Sun Aiguo, right?"
Lu Changzheng's eyes widened in surprise, "Wife, how did you know?"
Giving the man a cold look, Liu Meiyu pinched his arm hard and said, "Lu Changzheng, you have grown up. You dare not tell me the truth."
"No, my wife, I'm telling the truth." Lu Changzheng said aggrievedly, "Sun Aiguo didn't want to make this happen. He didn't tell me what happened. Anyway, I saw that he didn't look very happy."
"I guess something happened in my hometown." Lu Changzheng guessed.
"His mother has the time to come here to help him give birth, so what could possibly go wrong in his hometown?" When Liu Meiyu heard that Sun Aiguo wanted to borrow money, the first person that came to her mind was Bai Ting.
After being quiet for so long, this time he caused something big to happen.
It’s still five hundred yuan, which is Deputy Colonel Sun’s allowance for half a year without food or drink.
"Did Vice President Sun get fooled? Did you ask more questions?"
Lu Changzheng shook his head, "He didn't want to talk about it, and he looked very upset. You know Sun Aiguo is a face-conscious person. Before, we were at the same level and we always competed with each other during military training. This time, when I saw him asking me to borrow money, I felt bad for him. I couldn't say no, so I said I would come back to discuss it with you."
"So what do you think?"
Liu Meiyu didn't care about other people, she just looked at Lu Changzheng and asked softly.
After hesitating for a while, Lu Changzheng spoke: "Wife, we still have a thousand yuan in banknotes that we haven't touched yet. I wonder if we can give some of it to Sun Aiguo to help him out. Don't worry, he will pay it back in a year at most. He is a face-conscious person, so he will definitely write an IOU."
After Lu Changzheng finished speaking, he looked at the changing expression on his wife's face with a feeling of insecurity, fearing that she would get angry and kick him off the kang.
But to his surprise, Liu Meiyu just nodded and said casually: "The paper is in the drawer, you can get it yourself tomorrow."
Lu Changzheng looked surprised and asked, "Wife, do you agree?"
"Why, you want me to disagree?"
"No." Lu Changzheng shook his head and asked, "You're not angry either?"
"Why should I be angry?" Liu Meiyu asked back, "You want to help your comrade, I want to make you happy, my family has money, you can borrow 500 yuan if you want, Sun Aiguo is the deputy regiment commander, he can pay it back even if he doesn't eat or drink for half a year, and I am not afraid of him defaulting on my debt. How can I make my man embarrassed for these 500 yuan? I am not happy, right?"
"Wife!"
Lu Changzheng's face instantly turned red with heat, and the irregular heartbeat began to feel like a throbbing pain again.
He hugged Liu Meiyu tightly, how can I describe the feeling? It was as if the whole person was floating on the clouds.
Especially his wife's words "I wanted to make him happy" kept repeating in his mind all night long and he couldn't get them out of his mind.
Liu Meiyu was held tightly by the man, and she was almost out of breath. She slapped the man hard, broke free, glared at him, and said, "Okay, don't be moved. Don't complain to me that I only favor my sons and don't feel sorry for you. Don't you see that I don't even give pocket money to Dabao, Erbao, and Xiaobao? Look at you, I give you more pocket money every month, and I'm still worried that you don't have enough money outside. Who do I love more?"
"Me, me, me!" Lu Changzheng quickly answered according to his wife's words.
Captain Lu, who was so confused by his wife's words, didn't realize there was anything wrong with her words.
"Wife, you are so good to me!"
There was a burning light in Lu Changzheng's eyes as he stared at Liu Meiyu closely. He couldn't help but throw her onto the kang.
Lu Changzheng was originally worried about Sun Aiguo's loan, but when it came to Liu Meiyun, the issue was easily resolved. Not only did the couple not have any disagreements over the issue, but Lu Changzheng was unilaterally comforted by his wife's words.
In fact, when it comes down to it, it’s because of the strong family background.
There is nothing wrong with the old saying that poor couples have many worries. If there is no money at home, she will quarrel with her husband even if he gives her fifty yuan, let alone five hundred yuan.
And if it were Liu Meiyun herself, she would definitely not be willing to borrow this money.
But Lu Changzheng's attitude clearly showed that he wanted to help Sun Aiguo, and she didn't want to have a disagreement with him on this matter and end up in an unpleasant situation.
The couple cuddled for a while, and Lu Changzheng lay there until he fell asleep, holding his wife in his arms, with the smile on his face.
About two months after the loan incident, news spread on the island that Sun Aiguo and Bai Ting were getting divorced.
What is there for a couple not to understand?
It was later that Liu Meiyun learned from Lu Changzheng that Bai Ting was willing to divorce Sun Aiguo, and the breakup fee she asked for was not five hundred yuan but one thousand yuan.
Sun Aiguo finally gave 600 yuan and found a job in a factory for someone in the city before he was able to negotiate the deal.
The two of them divorced "peacefully" and quietly got a divorce certificate. Bai Ting moved out of the island overnight without saying goodbye to anyone except Sun Aiguo.
In 1974, with 600 yuan and a formal job, Liu Meiyun began to admire the couple.
"There will be places for people on our island to study at the military academy next year, and Deputy Colonel Sun will most likely be among them. He is afraid that Bai Ting will make a fuss and cause a bad impact, and the place will be lost." Lu Changzheng explained to his wife.
Liu Meiyu suddenly became enlightened, no wonder.
One really dares to ask, the other really dares to give.
"Wife, you are still the best."
Lu Changzheng hugged Liu Meiyu and sighed sincerely in his heart.
Before meeting Liu Meiyun, he really had no expectations for marriage, but since meeting his wife, he feels that he wakes up every day full of expectations.
"Don't worry." Liu Meiyu patted the man on the back and joked, "If we get divorced in the future, the family property will be yours, and the three sons will be mine. You don't have to pay a penny for their upbringing."
"What nonsense are you talking about!" Captain Lu, who was feeling very moved, was poured a big basin of cold water by his wife. He rarely looked at his wife with a stern face and said sternly: "Comrade Liu Meiyun, please correct your thoughts on marriage. Unless I die gloriously one day, don't think that we will separate on this matter!"
"Shut up!"
Liu Meiyu pinched the man hard and frowned, "You can't even hear a joke. Look at what you're saying. You're almost thirty. Can you be more mature?"
Normally, if someone went on a mission and didn't go home or contact her for two months, she would already be worried enough, so she didn't even want to hear such words.
"Okay, okay, I was wrong."
Lu Changzheng originally wanted to speak up to argue, as it was clearly she who started the joke first. However, when he saw the serious worry in Liu Meiyu's eyes, his words got stuck in his throat.
He held her in his arms and coaxed her, "I was just talking nonsense. I'm just stupid and forgot that you always like to make fun of me. Next time, let's not talk about these things. If you don't mention divorce, I won't say anything else, so that we don't have to make trouble for no reason. Okay?"
Liu Meiyu nodded, but still not satisfied, she pinched the man's waist twice.
Lu Changzheng: “…”
When the triplets were five years old, Liu Meiyun cleaned up the room next to Bowen and let the three brothers start sleeping independently.
Dabao was definitely the one who was most reluctant. He protested in the first few days, and then sneaked back to his parents' room in the next few days.
But once Liu Meiyu made a decision, no matter how stubborn the three brothers were, they would always obey her in the end.
Lu Changzheng undoubtedly supported his daughter-in-law's decision the most.
In order to make the three brothers less noisy, he even took them to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy snacks and toys.
"Dad, I want that cigarette box!"
The three brothers recently learned how to shoot cigarette boxes from their uncle. Whenever they see cigarettes on the shelf, they point at the box and ask for them.
"Go pick them up yourself outside!" Lu Changzheng didn't smoke, so he wasn't that wasteful to buy a few boxes of cigarettes just for an empty box.
Erbao was still thinking about the cigarette box he wanted to give to Tiantian, so he said angrily, "Dad, if you are not good at all, Dad will buy a cigarette box for Tiantian!"
"Your uncle Zhou smokes, but your father I don't smoke, so why would we spend money on that thing?"
Erbao thought about it, his eyes lit up and he said, "Dad, then you can buy me the box and we can give the cigarettes to Uncle Zhou!"
Lu Changzheng glanced at the second son of the family and said unhappily: "Then I'll just send you to your uncle Zhou's house. You can have toys and I can save money!"
"Okay! Dad, let's go quickly!" Lu Erbao just wanted to go play with Sister Tiantian.
“…”
"Go home and tell your mother!" Lu Changzheng bought a box of glass balls for each of the three brothers, poured two bottles of soy sauce, and led them home in a hurry.
The triplets, who no longer need to be held by their parents, are holding new toys in their hands and walking inattentively. The long march saves them energy but also wastes their voices.
"Can you go home and play some more? Hurry up, Mom is waiting at home to make you some delicious food!"
Xiaobao followed obediently, but he would look back at his brother behind him every few steps.
Dabao and Erbao were exchanging the colors of the marbles in their hands, not caring what Lu Changzheng was yelling in front of them.
When Xiaobao saw that his two brothers were not leaving, he decided not to leave either, as his mother would leave food for him when he got home. He moved closer to his two brothers and started exchanging marbles with them.
Lu Changzheng can no longer just let others pick up the triplets and carry them away like he did when they were little. Now the triplets are already the best in terms of weight and height among children of the same age on the island. When they go out, people don’t treat them as five-year-old children at all.
"I don't care about you anymore. If you come home late, you'll be scolded by your mother!" Lu Changzheng was in a hurry to go home to bring soy sauce to his wife, so he left the three brothers and went away.
Liu Meiyun was frying shredded potatoes. The soy sauce arrived just in time. After a few stir-fries, the dish was served. She didn't see the triplets who went out with Lu Changzheng, so she asked, "Where are the three of them?"
"He refused to come back on the road." Lu Changzheng washed his hands and helped to set the table.
"They are probably waiting for their uncle to come back together on the way." Liu Meiyu knows her three sons best.
Ever since Liu Bowen brought the games he learned outside home and taught the three little boys, the three brothers have become particularly attached to their uncle.
Every day after kindergarten, I would eagerly look forward to my uncle finishing his homework so that I could follow him and play together.
Liu Bowen is now a big kid on the island. He no longer plays house, pretending to be a soldier, or hide-and-seek with his friends. Every day he plays with spinning tops, cigarette boxes, or rolling hoops. In winter, he asked Lu Changzheng to help him make an ice sled. He and other kids of the same age on the island play together and refuse to go home until dinnertime.
The triplets now love to follow their little uncle and play games, but Liu Bowen never likes to take them with him. They are not happy to play and they like to make trouble!
"sister!"
When Liu Bowen came back from school with his schoolbag, Xiao Hei, who was now half as tall as Liu Bowen, ran over happily to greet him.
"uncle!"
As expected, following behind Liu Bowen were the triplets, one of them holding a marble in his hand to bribe his uncle.
"Uncle, let's play marbles together this afternoon!" Dabao generously gave two marbles.
Erbao was reluctant to give it up, so he gave one to him, holding it tightly, "Uncle, play with us!"
Xiaobao was the most direct. He held Liu Bowen's arm and would not let go until he agreed.
Liu Bowen, who was favored by his three little nephews, looked sad. He sighed and said tiredly, "You guys can play by yourselves. I still have homework to do in the afternoon."
"You finished it very quickly!" It's not like Erbao hasn't seen his uncle doing homework before, so he finished it very quickly.
"I still have to read books after I finish writing." Liu Bowen tried every means to refuse.
"Let's see tomorrow!" Xiaobao looked stubborn.
Liu Meiyun took off her apron, urged them to wash their hands, and wait for Lu Wanjun to come back to eat together.
Because it was Friday, the triplets and Liu Bowen didn't have to go to school in the afternoon, so the three brothers knew that their uncle would definitely go out to play after dinner, so they all pestered their uncle to take them with him.
Liu Bowen was so annoyed by the pestering that he finally nodded reluctantly: "You can go out and play together, but you are not allowed to rob, beat others, or cry if you lose everything. I will help you win it back!"
"Uh-huh!"
The three brothers nodded in unison. As long as they could go out and play together, they would nod their heads no matter what.
After dinner, the triplets followed their uncle, carrying their newly bought marbles and new cigarette boxes in their pockets, and went to play in the yard, forgetting all the instructions their uncle had given them at home.
Let’s play with the cigarette box. The triplets are only five years old, but they insist on challenging themselves to play with the older kids like Liu Bowen. If you play with them in a coaxing way, they can’t get the cigarette box back if they lose. If you don’t play with them in a coaxing way, the triplets will be unhappy after losing all their money, and they will keep acting like a spoiled child and glaring at people.
The same goes for marbles. How could a five-year-old child possibly play better than an eleven or twelve-year-old? In just a few minutes, the new box of marbles that his father bought was all lost.
Fortunately, Liu Bowen is very good at playing games, and whatever the triplets lost, he would always win back in the end.
That’s why Liu Bowen doesn’t like to take the triplets out for this reason. After playing for a whole day, all the “property” that they have worked so hard to win ends up being lost by themselves, and the whole day is wasted!
Sure enough, after returning from a day of fun, not only were all the marbles the triplets had bought that afternoon gone, but even the cigarette boxes they had saved with great difficulty were all gone.
The triplets went home broke as losers, looking depressed and following their uncle with their heads down.
"Sister, look, I said I wouldn't take them out to play. My brother-in-law just bought two boxes of marbles this afternoon, and I only won this little." Liu Bowen felt heartbroken.
He was already very good at playing pinball on the island, but today, Brother Gangzi was here and he won a lot of pinball games.
"It's okay, it's just a game. I'll win it later." Liu Meiyu was open-minded. A box of marbles only cost a few cents. Could a few kids really make her go bankrupt?
"Mom, I want a cigarette box." Erbao was not too sad about losing his marbles, but he wanted a cigarette box.
"Go outside and pick them up yourself." A pack of cigarettes is expensive, and even if Liu Meiyu has money, she can't be so wasteful.
No matter how Erbao acted coquettishly, she just wouldn't give in.
"These are the milk biscuits that grandpa sent to you. Which obedient child wants to try them?" Liu Meiyu thought Erbao was too noisy, so she went back to the room and took out a box of biscuits sent by grandpa to distract them.
The biscuits are full of milky flavor and topped with a layer of white sugar. Even Liu Meiyun finds them delicious, let alone the children.
A few pieces were given to Liu Bowen and the three brothers respectively. Liu Meiyu and Lu Changzheng were eating their own food when they saw Erbao reaching into the jar again.
"Erbao, have you finished eating?" Liu Meiyu frowned and grabbed the mischievous little hand.
"Mom, have you finished eating? Why don't you buy me a cigarette box and allow me to eat two more biscuits?" Erbao opened his mouth and showed his mother the biscuit crumbs in his mouth.
"I'm telling you to eat slowly. No one's competing with you for the food. If you finish it all at once, there won't be any left for next time." Liu Meiyu took two more pieces for Erbao, then sealed the jar and put it back in the room.
When I came out, I found that Erbao had disappeared again.
"Where is Erbao?" she asked Liu Bowen, Dabao and Xiaobao.
"I went to the toilet." Dabao answered his mother.
Seeing Liu Bowen and Xiaobao nodded, she didn't say anything, but waited for a while. After a long time, no one came back, so she ran over to check, but there was no one in the toilet.
"mother!"
Erbao, who was not in the toilet, appeared in the yard, sweating profusely.
"Where have you been?" Liu Meiyu stepped forward and wiped him clean with a towel.
"I'm going to find Xiao Hei!" Er Bao blinked and answered his mother breathlessly, with Xiao Hei beside him also wagging his tail.
Liu Meiyu didn't suspect anything and just took the man back to the house.
But after several days, Liu Meiyu found that there was something wrong with Erbao.
Every time when she got home to distribute snacks, Erbao always ate quickly and fought for more, and then often played the disappearing game and ran out without saying a word.
When asked where he was going, he refused to tell me. His expression was like, "I have a little secret."
I asked Dabao, Xiaobao and Bowen, but they didn't know either.
The main reason is that Lu Erbao is a clever kid who often disappears in a flash.
At night, after the three boys fell asleep, Liu Meiyun covered them with quilts and returned to her room. She asked Lu Changzheng, "Do you know where Erbao has been running these days?"
Lu Changzheng had been training harder recently, so he was a little tired when he got home, but he still pulled himself together and answered his wife, "I know, Political Commissar Zhou's family."
"???"
"Did Erbao tell you?" Liu Meiyu sat up, feeling a little jealous.
My son had a little secret when he was only five years old, and Lu Changzheng was the first to know it.
"No, Political Commissar Zhou told me."
"What did he say to you?" Liu Meiyu asked curiously.
Lu Changzheng: "Just say that his daughter Tiantian has gained a lot of weight recently, and ask Lu Erbao to stop secretly sending snacks to her."
Liu Meiyun: "..."
Liu Meiyu was devastated. This was more heartbreaking than knowing that her son had told Lu Changzheng his little secret but not her.
The second child is only five years old, but he has already started giving snacks to the girl, and he is hiding it from the adults. What will happen when he grows up?
"When a son grows up, he is no longer under the control of his mother." Liu Meiyu sighed, lamenting that time passed too quickly.
Lu Changzheng rubbed his temples and held his wife in his arms. He was not as sentimental as Liu Meiyu, and even couldn't help complaining: "That kid asked me for a cigarette box to make Tiantian happy before, and even asked me to send him to Political Commissar Zhou's house. I think your son will grow up without us having to worry about his wife."
"You're only a few years old. You may be scattered all over the world in the future. Who knows where you are?" Liu Meiyu rolled her eyes at the man.
It is already 1975. After the college entrance examination in 1977, they will definitely move to Beijing. By then, who knows where Political Commissar Zhou and his family may still be.
"By the way, Meiyun, I have a mission next week and may not be back for more than a month." Lu Changzheng yawned, feeling a little sleepy.
"Got it. Go to sleep quickly. You have to get up before dawn tomorrow for training."
Liu Meiyu felt sorry for her man because he had to work so hard in training recently. He had to get up before dawn every day and often came home covered in mud.
She couldn't help, so she could only make different kinds of delicious food for the man every day to nourish his body.
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