The two men brought down a dozen pheasants and rabbits from the mountain and found a nest of pheasant eggs.
When they were almost at the foot of the mountain, Jiang Qingshan asked, "What are you going to do with these game?"
Yuan Jing was stunned for a moment. He was so busy competing with Jiang Qingshan that he forgot about this. This kind of weather is not good. He asked back, "How are you going to deal with it?"
Jiang Qingshan said: "I will go to the town to find a place to do it before dawn tomorrow."
This is a sign of trust in Yuan Jing. He is not afraid that Yuan Jing will inform on him. Yuan Jing also saw that although this man was born a soldier, he was not rigid in his work. He smiled and said, "You have a channel, why don't you help me out?"
"Okay." This was the last word Jiang Qingshan said before arriving home.
Yuan Jing smiled and followed him, thinking that this man looked more like a person from the end times than himself.
When she got home, Niu Guilan knew that her son would not come back empty-handed, so she smiled and said to Yuan Jing, "Don't cook alone tonight. Let Qingshan cook for us. Let's try his cooking skills."
Yuan Jing didn't expect that this cold man could actually cook. It was really surprising. Although Yuan Jing and Chen Jianhua took turns cooking for more than a month, they only cooked the rice. As for the deliciousness, forget it. They all came from the same pot. If the rice was not cooked through or was undercooked, they could only eat it.
Yuan Jing smiled and said, "Jianhua and I are in for a treat tonight. I have to go call Jianhua back so that he doesn't have to eat at the Youth Farm. I'll come back and help you, Brother Jiang."
Niu Guilan agreed on behalf of her son: "Okay, Xiaoji, go quickly and come back soon."
Chen Jianhua just thought that Yuan Jing had prepared dinner and came to call him back to eat. When he got back and saw Jiang Qingshan boiling water to scald pheasant feathers, the indescribable fishy smell made his eyes widen.
"My mouth is watering."
Chen Jianhua subconsciously wiped his mouth, and then he saw Ji Yuanjing making fun of him. He didn't bother to fight back: "Is this a pheasant?"
Actually, I want to ask, do they have a share in this?
"I didn't tell you on the way, but Brother Jiang and I went into the mountains and caught some pheasants and rabbits. Brother Jiang will cook for us tonight."
"Great, Brother Jiang, let me help." Chen Jianhua shouted happily and rolled up his sleeves to help.
That night, they had stir-fried rabbit meat with spicy sauce, pheasant stewed with wild mushrooms, and a vegetarian dish. The three grown men were using their chopsticks very quickly, and Niu Guilan was smiling so much that her eyes narrowed into slits.
Sure enough, after Xiao Ji and his family moved in, the house became much more lively and his son was in better spirits than before. Although he didn't say it, she, as a mother, could feel that his son was in a good mood.
After the meal, Chen Jianhua took the initiative to clean up the dishes and the kitchen, smiling the whole time. His words made Niu Guilan laugh from time to time.
After packing up, they returned to their rooms. One of them lay at the table and wrote a letter, while the other lay on the bed, crossed his legs and picked his teeth happily.
"I didn't expect Brother Jiang could cook, and his cooking skills are so good. You can't judge a person by his appearance." Chen Jianhua sighed, because Jiang Qingshan gave people the impression that he was not someone who would touch the kitchen. Usually when they got off work, Aunt Guilan would prepare meals for Jiang Qingshan to eat when he came back, and at most she would just help to boil water.
"Days like this are so happy. I wish they could always be like this." Chen Jianhua savored the taste of meat tonight and made a wish.
"Hey, Yuan Jing, why don't you agree? Are you writing a letter to your family? It's been a while since you sent the letter, and you haven't received a reply from your family yet. Are you writing again?"
He was the only one who spoke up, and no one responded by drinking. Chen Jianhua was going to drag Yuan Jing into the water.
Yuan Jing didn't even turn his head. After spending so much time together, he was familiar with Chen Jianhua's personality. He replied, "This time it's for my dad, and last time it was for my mom."
"Huh? Not the same place?" Chen Jianhua heard something wrong.
Yuan Jing had no intention of hiding it: "My mom and dad are divorced, and now she lives with her stepfather. My dad was exposed and is now undergoing reform on a farm."
The reason why I didn't write to Ji's father right away was that I wanted to wait until I got used to life here before reporting to him that I was safe, so as not to worry him.
Chen Jianhua smacked his lips a few times. He had not expected the situation at Yuan Jing's home to be so complicated. After a long while, he said dryly, "Is uncle okay now?"
Yuan Jing turned around and smiled: "Just make do, I just hope this kind of life will end soon. I've thought about it, I'm good at hunting, I'll find time to go hunting with Brother Jiang more often and find a way to improve my dad's life."
"It's my duty, it's my duty." Chen Jianhua didn't think there was anything wrong with Yuan Jing helping his father. Even if his father had a bad background and needed reform, he was still his biological father. If he ignored his biological father, Chen Jianhua would not dare to approach such a cold-blooded Yuan Jing.
He knew that some children would take the initiative to expose their biological parents and draw a clear line with them. Although sometimes he had no choice, it was still disheartening. Chen Jianhua would never make close friends with such people. Who knows if he would expose himself the next moment?
The two of them didn't say anything else. Yuan Jing was writing on the paper with a rustling sound, responding to the sound of the wind outside. Chen Jianhua suddenly became literary and felt that this moment was particularly warm.
After half a month of travel, the letter finally reached Ji's father at Beihai Farm. When Ji's father, Ji Changlin, saw the familiar handwriting on the envelope, his hands trembled with excitement.
He hadn't received a letter from his son for almost half a year. He had been worried about him all this time, wondering if his son was being bullied outside and how he and his brother were doing.
At home, Ji's mother, no, now she should be called Zheng's mother, usually did not say anything bad about Ji's father. She only said that for the safety of the two children, they should not mention Ji's father in front of outsiders to avoid being implicated, and should not write letters to contact him to avoid being caught.
Zheng's mother didn't know that Ji Yuanjing had been secretly writing letters to Ji's father, and every time he sent a letter he had to run to a post office several miles away from home.
This is also related to Ji Yuanjing's status in the Zheng family. Zheng's mother was very considerate and caring towards her stepson. Later, after the birth of her youngest son, she took up half of her energy. Ji Yuanjing, who was stuck in the middle, was a very awkward existence in the Zheng family. After the birth of his youngest sister, he became a redundant person. When he left the Zheng family to join the team in the countryside, Ji Yuanjing was actually relieved, because he always felt like an outsider when staying in the Zheng family.
As for his younger brother, he was taken care of by his mother and father and would not be cold or hungry. Ji Yuanjing could see that Zheng's father truly loved his younger brother as if he were his own son. He had always been grateful to his stepfather from the bottom of his heart for this reason.
Father Ji hurried back to his room, opened the letter and read it carefully, word by word very seriously. Although he knew that he had a younger son, he had never even seen him. When he left, the younger son was still in his mother's belly. Only the eldest son grew up in his love, and he had a particularly deep affection for him. Now on this farm, the letter from his son was his only comfort and hope.
"... Dad, don't worry about me. I'm living well in the production team here. I'm staying at a fellow villager's house now. There's a retired soldier named Jiang Qingshan who's a few years older than me in that villager's house. He took me to the mountains to hunt pheasants and rabbits tonight, and treated me and Chen Jianhua to a big meal in the evening. The food was so delicious that I'm still savoring it. Brother Jiang is very skilled, so I decided to ask Brother Jiang to teach me how to hunt so that I can send some dried meat to Dad in the future to improve my life."
"Brother Jiang's uncle was the old secretary of our production team. He took good care of us educated youth. I felt happy while working, both physically and mentally, which was something I couldn't find in the city."
Ji's father's tears flowed down and he quickly wiped them away with his sleeve, fearing that the tears would fall on the paper and blur the handwriting. He knew that his son wrote this to comfort him as an old father so as not to worry, but the interpersonal relationships revealed between the lines did make him feel more at ease that his son had met a good person.
There were ten yuan and some food coupons in the letter. Ji's father was relieved and distressed, as this must be the money his son saved from his own mouth.
Ji's father memorized almost the entire letter before putting it away and hiding it in a tin box, which he carefully placed in a hole under the head of the bed. Whenever he missed his son, he would take out the letter and read it.
***
Yuan Jing lived a low-key life in the Red Star Production Team. This low-key life was compared to his original self. Because the original self lived in the Youth League Home, he was loved by the female Youth League members and unmarried girls in the village. However, he was introverted and was implicitly excluded by the male Youth League members. Although Chen Jianhua did not participate, he was unable to make friends with the original self because Wang Ling, whom he liked, frequently expressed her affection for him.
Nowadays, Chen Jianhua often goes to the Youth League Home, but Yuan Jing seldom goes there. Unless there is a necessary gathering, he will not go there. He only chats with Lin Dong while working. He keeps a distance from the female educated youth and unmarried girls in the village. In this way, he does not get rejected by the male educated youth. Although their relationship is not very close, the male educated youth still regard him as one of their own.
Whenever Yuan Jing had time, he would run to the back mountain with Jiang Qingshan. Although Jiang Qingshan still spoke very little, the two of them had an increasingly tacit understanding. All the game, except for what they ate themselves, was given to Jiang Qingshan to deal with. On the second day after hunting, Jiang Qingshan would push his bicycle away at about three or four o'clock, and come back before dawn, and then give Yuan Jing's share of the money to him.
When the autumn harvest came, Yuan Jing counted the money in the money box and found that he had saved nearly a hundred yuan, as well as other tickets. Moreover, he had meat to eat regularly. Yuan Jing, who gave the impression of being in poor health, gradually turned rosy. That was Chen Jianhua. Because he ate well and was in great health, he looked better than the other educated youths in the educated youth compound.
Chen Jianhua initially wanted to learn boxing from Jiang Qingshan, but he couldn't get up in the morning after a few days. Not to mention now that autumn has arrived. After a busy day, he falls into a deep sleep as soon as his head touches the pillow. He will never get up until it is almost time to go to work the next day, and he will never remember to practice boxing. In the morning, he just brushes his teeth in a hurry, grabs two steamed sweet potatoes and runs out.
It was Yuan Jing's first time to participate in the autumn harvest, and he was exhausted. He was also assigned to cut the late rice, and his waist had to be bent all the time. His body, which had originally adapted to farm work, began to rebel again.
During the break, Yuan Jing wiped the sweat that had slid down his face with the towel draped over his shoulder. His clothes were covered with a layer of salt foam after a day of wearing them. He picked up the teacup and drank tea in big gulps. Chen Jianhua, who was standing next to him, had a dark red face and grinned, revealing a mouthful of white teeth.
"Yuan Jing, have you heard that after this busy period, the county's cultural center will send movies to the countryside. They will show the movies outdoors. I heard it will be very lively, and people from nearby villages will come to watch. When they show the movies in their villages, some people from our team will also go to watch them. Hehe, I heard that many people will be dating by then."
The following words were told to Yuan Jing in a low voice, which made Yuan Jing laugh. Love is a large-scale blind date opportunity.
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