"Sister Anian, have you told Brother Zhao about this?"
Xu Nian paused while rubbing the clothes, and lowered her head with an unclear expression. After a long while, she said softly, "There are three brothers in his family. Back then, the whole family supported him to study. Brother Ze listened to his mother and brothers very much."
After hearing this, Gu Qingqing almost understood.
Zhao Ze's allowance was sent back home, but was withheld by his mother, who felt that it was the whole family that supported him so that he could join the army. As for the money and tickets, they should be divided among his two brothers.
Gu Qingqing had never encountered such a thing before, and didn't know how to help her. Seeing that her hands were red from rubbing them hard, she whispered, "Sister Anian, why don't you tell Brother Zhao about the situation at home?"
Xu Nian shook his head: "Forget it."
Gu Qingqing chatted with her for a while, then went to visit Sun Shufen twice.
Yu Xu and Yu Tu were tired from playing and were taking a nap. Sun Shufen came out to sunbathe with a blanket in her arms. Gu Qingqing held the bamboo pole and saw her going in and out several times. She couldn't help but ask, "Auntie, have you washed the blanket? Can we do it today?"
"Yes, it's the best time to dry the quilt. Even though it's afternoon, it's hotter than the midday sun in our hometown." Sun Shufen smoothed the quilt and saw that she was wearing a blue floral short-sleeved shirt. "Qingqing, did you bring thick clothes? It's very cold in the border town at night."
"I brought it." Gu Qingqing had heard from Meng Nan that the temperature difference between day and night in the border town was large, so she not only brought two sets of newly made short-sleeved shirts and long shirts, but also two cotton jackets.
"That's good. By the way, your uncle Yu told me that the cultural troupe will show a movie tonight. It's called the Harbor. It's in the open space in front. They're putting up the curtain now. Do you want to go and watch it?"
"Look!" Gu Qingqing became interested: "I've watched movies two or three times at home."
"Hey, now that televisions have been released, movies are no longer a rarity." Sun Shufen leaned against a bamboo pole and chatted with her, "The guy from Zhaojiagou next to us bought a television last year, and everyone in the village went to watch it."
Gu Qingqing couldn't bear to think about television: "Our Datunzi Village and Dagouzi Village still don't have electricity."
Now some production teams have started pulling wires so that each household can connect a light bulb, but there is no sign of their Invincible production team yet.
The Red Flag Production Team and the Red Star Production Team next door also had no electricity.
There was a child crying in the house. Sun Shufen heard the sound and rushed in: "Xiao Xu is awake, Qingqing, you can walk around by yourself, just don't go to the training ground, you can go anywhere else if there are no soldiers blocking you."
"Yeah, okay."
Gu Qingqing took out a military green thermos from the house and went to the cafeteria to get some hot water.
She carried the water bottle and walked forward slowly, looking around.
Quilts were also drying outside the yard where the southern art troupe lived. Young female soldiers were laughing and playing. When their eyes met, she smiled and nodded in greeting, and they smiled back.
Gu Qingqing suddenly missed Zhao Yu a little, and also missed her uncle and brothers.
She heaved a long sigh of relief, and thinking about the movie she would watch in the evening, a smile reappeared on her face.
After walking for about 20 minutes, she finally saw the cafeteria. A dozen soldiers were peeling potatoes and sweet potatoes outside. When they saw her, they all looked up and greeted her in a friendly manner.
"Little comrade, are you Platoon Leader Gu's sister?"
"Yes," Gu Qingqing wondered how they knew that, and pointed at her own face and asked with a smile, "Do my brother and I look a lot like each other?"
"They do look a bit like her." The young soldier who spoke looked at her face and smiled, "The ones who came to visit are our squad leader's sister-in-law and military doctor Zhao's wife. The rest is Platoon Leader Gu's sister. Judging from your age, you must be Gu's sister."
Gu Qingqing pulled a small stool and sat down next to him, then picked up a scraper and helped peel potatoes: "Brother, what are we going to eat tonight?"
The young soldier looked about the same age as Gu Qinglie. Seeing how straightforward and unpretentious the girl from the Gu family was, he liked her better. "Pork and potato stewed with vermicelli, pickled vegetables, pumpkin porridge and sweet potato rice, that's all we have. We don't have more produce here than other places. If you have a stronger taste, you can grab a handful of kimchi from the squad leader's vegetable pool."
At this point, the young soldier also said, "You are late. If you had come a few days earlier, you could have caught some pickled fish. Captain Chu led his soldiers to the desert for training and caught hundreds of kilograms of fish in the lake!"
Unfortunately, such training sessions are only held four or five times a year, and they are usually during festivals.
If it wasn’t for the Mid-Autumn Festival, they wouldn’t be able to add more meals.
Gu Qingqing was touched by the purity in his eyes, and her homesickness faded a little. She swiftly threw the peeled potatoes into the basin beside her, "What kind of person is Captain Chu?"
"Cold on the outside, warm on the inside." The young soldier thought for a moment and said, "When you first meet him, you'll think he's aloof and arrogant, but he's really good to his brothers. He was injured several times because he blocked bullets for his brothers."
He said with a bit of regret: "If I were a woman, I would definitely apply to the organization to marry him."
Gu Qingqing: "...Are there many female soldiers in our corps?"
"No, they are all old men." The potato peel got stuck in the peeling knife. The young soldier rubbed the knife on his leg and continued peeling. "But there are a few girls in the art troupe who are interested in Captain Chu. It seems that one of them is his childhood sweetheart. She often goes to the troupe to perform for him."
Gu Qingqing nodded and said, "He is quite good-looking." No wonder so many people like him.
The young soldier looked at her strangely and said, "Sister, we shouldn't judge people by appearance. Although Captain Chu is handsome, he is even more handsome when he leads his troops in battle. What's this called..."
He thought for a long time and finally remembered what the instructor said: "She is very charming."
Gu Qingqing thought that everyone had different perspectives on people. So, maybe Chu Dai also thought differently from Goudan and didn't necessarily want to find a fair, tender and gentle girl.
Otherwise, why did he refuse when his regiment commander and battalion commander introduced him to so many female soldiers from the city, including those from the art troupe?
"Qingqing!" Just as she was lost in thought, Yu Fugui and his wife's voices rang out in unison: "Do you want some hot water? Come quickly."
"I'm here." Gu Qingqing put down the potatoes and walked into the cafeteria carrying a kettle of water.
When she first came in, she was coughing because of the heat and smoke in the room. Yu Fugui poked his head out from the steam engine at the back and waved at her: "Here, here."
We now use a steam machine that can steam rice and boil water. The kitchen is as big as three or four customer yards and also has an earthen stove.
There are few trees here, and hence no firewood, so we just burn coal.
Yu Fugui’s biggest worry every day is how to control costs to make three dishes and how to save coal.
The prices in the border town were too high, the troops were intensively consumed, and there was a ration for everything. He felt that he was now making more money than the accountants on the production team.
He filled the kettle with hot water, plugged it with a wooden stopper, and handed the kettle to Gu Qingqing.
"Don't let your brother fetch you food at night. Come to the cafeteria to eat. If you don't have enough food, you can get more. It's also lively here."
Yu Fugui was worried that a little girl like her would not be able to adapt to the new environment suddenly, and that she would get sick by staying stuck in the house all day.
The troops were full of energetic boys, and he saw that Gu Qingqing had a straightforward personality, so he thought they should be able to get along well.
Moreover, how could Gu Qinglie be willing to let his sister come to visit such a barren place? Most likely, he wanted to find a partner for his sister in the army, and most likely he already has a candidate.
Otherwise, they wouldn't send people directly to the Corps.
I just don’t know who Gu Qinglie falls in love with.
She took the hot water bottle, thanked Yu Fugui, and prepared to go back for a nap.
At six o'clock in the afternoon, Gu Qingqing came to the cafeteria on time.
Soldiers came in one after another, all wearing army green training short-sleeved shirts, with cheerful expressions and singing songs -
"The sun sets in the west and the clouds are red. The soldiers are returning to camp after shooting. Returning to camp."
Gu Qingqing tilted her head to the side and saw Chu Dai walking towards her from behind in a neat military uniform. Gu Qinglie had his hand on his shoulder and was talking about something with a beaming smile on his face and a grin on his face like a fool.
Gu Qinglie glanced around and saw her sitting in the corner, so he pulled Chu Dai towards her.
"We are so sweet..."
When Gu Qingqing heard this beginning, her heart skipped a beat and she thought, "Oh no!"
Goudan would definitely tell her about her embarrassing childhood experiences.
As expected of siblings, Gu Qinglie pulled out a chair and sat down next to her, and started talking: "When our Qingqing was little, she was so fierce. She followed my second uncle and cousin to the mountain to chop firewood, and she climbed up the tree by herself."
"Old Chu, guess what happened in the end?"
Chu Dai leaned back casually, no longer tense as he was during training. "What's wrong?"
"My second uncle and cousin were bundling firewood under a tree when a large lump fell down and was buzzing with wasps."
Gu Qinglie laughed so hard that his teeth were exposed, and he revealed all the secrets of his sister: "My cousin later told me that he saw nothing but black clouds in front of his eyes at that time, and he thought it was dark."
Chu Dai's eyes rarely showed a hint of smile, and his gaze fell on the embarrassed girl opposite him, "I really didn't see it."
A person who is afraid of blood actually dares to poke a hornet's nest.
Gu Qingqing stomped on Gu Qinglie under the table, her eyes slashing at his face like knives.
Gu Qinglie bared his teeth and stood up suddenly: "I'll go get some food."
Only Chu Dai and Gu Qingqing were left looking at each other.
Gu Qingqing subconsciously avoided his gaze, always afraid that she would be seen through. She dug her fingers on the edge of the chair and whispered, "Brother..."
"Hmm?" Chu Dai responded lazily.
"Well, my brother was talking about something that happened a long time ago when I was a kid. Now I don't climb trees or poke wasp nests anymore."
Chu Dai made a "tsk" sound.
“That’s a shame.”
Gu Qingqing: “…” From the tone it sounds like it’s not sarcasm, nor a joke, but pure regret?
Her eyes lit up. Could it be that he liked girls with wild personalities?
This is what she is good at!
"What are you talking about?" Gu Qinglie pushed two aluminum lunch boxes over. "You two can have some porridge if you want. I'll get some of Lao Yu's secret kimchi to go with the rice."
Gu Qingqing: "Brother, go ahead."
Goudan, get out of here quickly!
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