Chapter 101
Xu Huaisheng smoothly became a student at the military middle school.
Gu Xi and Xu Yuansheng both breathed a sigh of relief, as if after Xu Huaisheng successfully enrolled in school, life had finally settled down and there was nothing to worry about anymore.
After Xu Huaisheng went to school, Gu Xi spent several more days finally finishing the new story and carefully polishing it.
Next, she took the story she had written next door to ask Qiao Hui for help to see if there was anything wrong so that she could correct it in time.
Qiao Hui read it carefully and pointed out several inappropriate words, suggesting that she should revise them.
This kind of correction is more like nitpicking over words.
She said, "Your article is a great improvement over the previous one, but some of your word choices are too bold and not suitable for the present. You should avoid them."
As someone who works with words, she knows that in this special era, some articles really nitpick over word choices, and it's best to avoid that if possible.
Gu Xi looked at the place she pointed out and nodded.
She knew that her past experience with the internet had inevitably influenced her, causing her to unconsciously use some of the writing terminology of the future internet, which was out of step with the times. Now that she was just starting out as a writer, she wasn't very skilled yet, and sometimes she inevitably missed these habits.
That's why she specifically asked Qiao Hui to take a look.
After pointing it out, Qiao Hui looked at several well-written plot points in the text and couldn't help but say, "This text is very well written. I believe the publisher will accept it."
I never expected that she would incorporate writing techniques into her story after I only explained it once, making it even more engaging.
Such learning ability is truly terrifying and enviable.
"Really?" Gu Xi was immediately delighted. She wrote to make money, and if the publisher didn't accept her work, there was nothing she could do.
With Qiao Hui's confirmation, it's likely that she received it; the 60 yuan should be in her hands soon.
I'm so happy!
Qiao Hui saw her smiling with her eyes crinkled, and at that moment she looked like a young girl who had just come of age, which easily softened people's hearts.
She laughed along and said, "Gu Xi, do you know that your writing has one very obvious advantage?"
"Advantages?" Gu Xi was delighted, but asked modestly, "What are they?"
“It’s a kind of self-confidence,” Qiao Hui said confidently. “The characters in your story all have a kind of self-confidence, as if they have unwavering faith in the country, in the future, and in their own ability to change their destiny. Whether it’s Comrade Gu in the previous story or Comrade Ye in this one, they all have a spirit of high morale and self-confidence…”
The characters in the article are imbued with spirit by the author, and Gu Xi's confidence can also be seen from this.
She is very confident that her country will become better in the future, and she is proud of her country. These feelings are reflected in her writing and can be felt by the reader.
Qiao Hui felt that it was precisely this spirit that made the publishing house accept her article, which was truly rare.
A smile appeared in Gu Xi's eyes.
Of course she's confident, because she knows what the future holds, that this special era will end, and that the country will take off in the future.
This is the confidence she can give to her writing.
Thanks to Qiao Hui for her guidance, Gu Xi went back and corrected the inappropriate sentences, then rewrote the article and sent it out.
After sending the letter, there was nothing left to do, and I felt a sense of relief and ease.
Xu Yuansheng asked, "Big sister, what are you planning to write about in your next article?"
This time, she was finally able to see her story before her older sister sent it out. To be honest, she was deeply moved after reading it. She liked it very much and felt that any publisher, unless they were blind, would definitely accept the story.
"I don't know," Gu Xi said casually. "I'll wait until I have some inspiration."
She had just finished writing one story, and as for what to write next, she had no inspiration yet. She decided to take a break and wait until the weather warmed up before writing again. Otherwise, whenever she sat down to write, even by a fire, her hands and feet would become stiff and cold after a while, as if they didn't belong to her.
It was so painful.
Seeing her sitting lazily in front of the fire, roasting and eating apples, Xu Yuansheng stopped asking and instead said, "Big sister, Comrade Ye in your article is really amazing. She only attended a literacy class, but she was able to succeed through her own efforts. I think if I were in her situation, I couldn't do what she did..."
She couldn't maintain the same positive attitude as Comrade Ye amidst so many difficulties; she would only grow angrier, resenting her family's favoritism, the injustice of fate, and the world...
Xu Yuansheng felt that her personality was flawed, too extreme.
If it weren't for her older sister protecting and caring for her, pulling her back from certain behaviors, and letting her know that someone in this family loves her, she might one day, because of her parents' favoritism, have been unable to resist attacking Xu Baosheng, who is treated like a treasure by her parents, and she might have done something completely unimaginable.
Gu Xi said, "No, I believe that if it is Yuan Sheng, you can definitely do it. In my heart, Yuan Sheng has always been very capable."
She truly believed that Xu Yuansheng was inherently someone who refused to accept his fate.
Her tenacity and stubbornness enabled her to rise from a poor family. At a young age, she knew to seek opportunities to learn how to make clothes from an old tailor. Even without her, she was able to take good care of herself and Xu Huaisheng.
Xu Yuansheng smiled and continued, "Comrade Ye's story is indeed very inspiring. I like Comrade Ye very much. After reading it, I feel very motivated and want to work hard to make money!"
Gu Xi was delighted. "Really? That's right, that's exactly what I wanted to achieve by writing stories."
"But, big sister, why don't you give the protagonist a name when you write stories? You just call him Comrade Ye? You didn't call him Comrade Gu in the last story, did you?" Xu Yuansheng squinted at her sister.
Gu Xi stared at the baked apple: "...Hmm, I'm too lazy to think about it. Just call him Comrade Ye."
-
In the evening, Xu Huaisheng returned home after school.
Except for her first day of school, when Gu Xi and Xu Yuansheng picked her up and dropped her off, Xu Huaisheng went to and from school by himself afterwards. She was with many people, including the Miao Cuini sisters, Yu Xiaoyue and Xu Xiaoyin. The girls walked and chatted together, and their relationship grew closer day by day.
Xu Huaisheng and Miao Cuini are now very good friends, just like best friends.
In the evening, Xu Huaisheng returned home chilly, and Gu Xi quickly called her over to warm herself by the fire, asking her how she was doing at school.
"It's great." Xu Huaisheng's smile was light. "The teachers here in the army are better than those back home. They explain some things in great detail, and I can understand them."
Gu Xi nodded, "That's good. If you don't understand, you can ask the teacher after class. Don't be shy. If it's inconvenient for the teacher, you can come to me at home. I know a little bit about it."
Xu Huaisheng looked at her and said, "Big sister, I actually think you speak better than the teacher."
She felt that if her older sister became a teacher, she would be no worse than the teachers in schools. Over the past few months, she had been learning from her older sister, getting used to her teaching methods, and discovered that her older sister was really good at teaching.
Gu Xi smiled and said, "The teachers at your school are all very capable; I can't compare to them."
She inquired and found that most of the teachers in the military junior high school were graduates of teacher training colleges and were hired here. Even those teachers with high school diplomas were older, with more teaching experience. Therefore, the military junior high school rarely recruits teachers from the family compound now.
These teachers are definitely better at teaching than the teachers in rural junior high schools. As long as you study hard, you can learn a lot.
There were only the three sisters at dinner that evening.
Xu Huaisheng couldn't help but ask, "Brother-in-law is doing morning exercises again?"
"No, there's a meeting at the regimental headquarters," Gu Xi said. "We don't need to wait for him. Let's eat first and save some for him."
Xu Yuansheng skillfully set aside a portion of dinner for Shen Mingzheng and kept it warm in a pot.
Having been in the army for so long, they have encountered many times when Shen Mingzheng does not eat at home in the evening. Sometimes he will eat something when he comes back early, and sometimes he has already eaten at the regimental headquarters and does not eat again.
Whether he has eaten or not, we will always save some for him.
Xu Huaisheng, biting her chopsticks, asked, "Is my brother-in-law coming back tonight? If he's not coming back, why don't you come and sleep with us tonight, eldest sister?" She liked sleeping next to her eldest sister; it made her feel safe and secure.
Xu Yuansheng looked over, a hint of hope in his eyes. If his brother-in-law were here, they wouldn't compete with him for his eldest sister's affections; but since he wasn't here...
Gu Xi shook her head. "I don't know."
A little later, Gu Xi had just finished showering when Shen Mingzheng returned.
"Big brother, you're back! Have you eaten yet? I've saved some dinner for you." Gu Xi greeted him, pulling her clothes tighter as she walked into the kitchen to take out the warm food from the pot.
Shen Mingzheng was busy with meetings tonight and hadn't eaten much. He was hungry, so he washed his hands and sat down to eat.
Gu Xi sat down to the side, warming herself by the fire while watching him eat, enjoying the rare time they could spend together.
The Xu sisters wisely returned to their room, not staying to disturb them.
The night was deep, and the lamplight under the eaves cast a soft glow as the two people inside chatted idly.
Gu Xi talked about what she did at home during the day. Now that she's resting and not writing, she does handicrafts. Today she crocheted a woolen shoulder bag that she can carry when she goes out. She also drew a sketch of Xu Yuansheng, which was a bit ugly and almost angered him, but in the end she took the somewhat ugly sketch...
Shen Mingzheng listened silently, and seeing the smile that unconsciously appeared on her face, he felt that it was indeed better for Xu Yuansheng and her sister to come and keep her company than for her to be alone.
As they were going to bed that night, Shen Mingzheng suddenly said, "There's a long-distance training exercise the day after tomorrow, which will last about four to five days."
"Oh, I see." Gu Xi crawled into the quilt and said calmly, "I know. I'll go find Yuan Sheng and the others to sleep together the night after tomorrow. They even asked me today when we could sleep together."
Shen Mingzheng: "..."
Shen Mingzheng pulled her into his arms with a helpless expression and gave her a tight hug.
I feel like my wife goes to sleep with her two younger sisters whenever I'm not around. Am I kind of like someone who sleeps with her? Anyone would do.
**
Upon learning that Shen Mingzheng was not there, Xu Yuansheng and her sister were indeed very happy and cheerfully called Gu Xi over, and the three sisters squeezed into one bed together.
However, in the morning, because Xu Yuansheng had to get up early to make breakfast and Xu Huaisheng had to go to school, Gu Xi was left alone in bed. As the warmth in the bed gradually dissipated, she could only reluctantly get up.
I didn't get enough sleep, so I wasn't feeling well and felt listless all morning.
Seeing this, Xu Yuansheng and her sister got up the next morning and refilled two hot water bottles, stuffing them into the bed so that Gu Xi could continue to sleep warmly.
Sure enough, with the hot water bottle, Gu Xi was able to sleep until dawn.
After the first month of the lunar calendar, the weather finally got less cold.
Spring has already arrived, and many people are taking advantage of the good weather to pick wild vegetables in the countryside. The tender wild vegetables in spring are the most delicious.
On a weekend, Gu Xi invited Ye Fenghua, Xia Xiuxiu, and others to pick wild vegetables in the suburbs.
Accompanying them was a group of children who didn't have to go to school on weekends. Even the youngest, Gu Tuantuan, carried a small basket, held Yu Xiaoyue's hand, and skipped and hopped along with the group.
Once outside, they saw people digging for wild vegetables everywhere along the riverbank and in the forest.
There were family members of military personnel and villagers living nearby.
Upon arrival, the children ran off with great joy. It was less a matter of digging for wild vegetables and more a matter of going on a picnic and enjoying the spring scenery.
Ye Fenghua called out, "Cuini, Cuiyu, take good care of your younger sisters."
The two Miao sisters both responded.
After instructing the children, Ye Fenghua turned to look at Gu Xi and saw that she and Xu Yuansheng were digging for shepherd's purse. The two sisters were very efficient and their digging posture was also very standard, which made Ye Fenghua pause for a moment.
Xu Yuansheng is one thing, but Gu Xi seems to do this all the time?
Gu Xi quickly filled most of a basket with wild vegetables, saying to Xu Yuansheng, "Today we're having shepherd's purse dumplings. We still have some leftover pork cracklings from the New Year, which we can use for the filling. Tomorrow we'll have wild vegetable buns, stir-fried with braised pork—they'll be so delicious..."
Xu Yuansheng's mouth watered at the thought of wild vegetables stir-fried with meat; it was indeed delicious.
Ye Fenghua smiled and said, "This is the best thing to eat in spring, it's so fresh and tender. I'm going to pick a lot today and take it to the county town tomorrow. I heard that the people in the town also like this, so I'll take a lot of it to them..."
I'll bring some to the cook at the paper mill who taught her to cook. I heard he used to like it too, but he's too old and his legs aren't strong enough to keep going out.
Upon hearing this, Gu Xi said, "Sister-in-law, let's pick some more for you too."
Anyway, since they live here, it's very convenient for them to pick wild vegetables, unlike Ye Fenghua who can only come back on weekends and has to give them away, so she has to pick more.
Gu Xi was quick and picked a lot of wild vegetables.
When she handed the wild vegetables she had picked to Ye Fenghua, Ye Fenghua thought she had just picked them randomly, but when she looked at them, she realized they were all edible.
"Oh my, these wild vegetables taste really good," she praised. "I thought you wouldn't recognize them, but I'm right. I remember there used to be a wife who came from the city, and she didn't know much about wild vegetables and got a lot wrong."
Gu Xi smiled slightly, "I recognize them all. I used to pick them all often when I was in the countryside."
"Why?"
“We used to go pick wild vegetables together with my older sister,” Xu Yuansheng explained casually.
Ye Fenghua didn't think much of it, assuming that Gu Xi, this city girl, often went back to her rural hometown when she was young and picked wild vegetables with her sisters there, and that's what she learned from that time.
She had no doubt that Gu Xi grew up in the countryside. The main reason was that the current Gu Xi was fair-skinned and beautiful, spoke fluent Mandarin, and didn't look like a country person at all.
Xu Yuansheng couldn't help but glance at Ye Fenghua. She knew that everyone in the family compound thought her sister was from the city and didn't know that her sister had lived in the countryside for fifteen years. Explaining it would be too troublesome and would reopen her wounds.
Those in the know all unanimously avoided the topic.
Although I'm already quite familiar with Ye Fenghua, there's no need to specifically bring these things up.
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