On the morning of January 7th, Zhou Mingyuan and his wife, along with Zhou Qingyue, arrived at Qianchuan Forest Farm in a motorcycle arranged by the bureau.
Zhang Shuzhen was overjoyed to see her in-laws arrive. She specially made dumplings and stir-fried dishes, and also invited Liu Changde and Wang Jiachuan to drink and chat with Zhou Mingyuan.
Zhou Mingyuan took a car back to Songjianghe that afternoon. Wang Chunxiu and her son stayed at the Sheng family's house for three days, helping Zhang Shuzhen take care of Zhou Qinglan and the child.
Wang Chunxiu couldn't take too long off work, so on the morning of January 10th, the forest farm arranged a car for her and her mother to leave.
Even after her in-laws left, Zhang Shuzhen continued to take care of Zhou Qinglan as usual.
Every day, she would cook all sorts of different dishes, wash Zhou Qinglan's blood-stained pants, and wash her grandson's diapers and poop diapers.
Fortunately, Sheng Yunfang and Sheng Yunfei are both grown up and can be of great help. They can lend a hand with things like washing clothes and cooking, so Zhang Shuzhen didn't get too tired.
Hua Hua hasn't shown her face since that incident, but every four or five days, something extra would appear at the Sheng family's gate.
It could be a pig, a deer, or sometimes a roe deer.
When Zhang Shuzhen saw it early in the morning, she knew it was Huahua who had brought it.
"This flower is grateful for our kindness in saving and raising it; it will bring us things in a few days."
Zhang Shuzhen chopped up the venison, made meatballs, and served a large bowl to Zhou Qinglan in the west room.
By the way, I'll also mention to Zhou Qinglan the matter of Little Tiger Huahua.
"Yes, sometimes animals are more grateful than humans. When humans turn their backs on you, they are worse than animals."
Zhou Qinglan echoed this while eating her meatballs.
"Actually, we don't lack food. I'm just happy because Huahua brings us these things, and she can definitely eat her fill herself."
"I was worried before, afraid it was too small, afraid it might be in danger in the deep mountains and forests." Zhang Shuzhen looked out the window and muttered to herself.
The forest farm didn't have plastic sheeting to seal the windows; it was only in late autumn that Zhang Shuzhen and her daughter would cut strips of newspaper and use them to patch the window cracks.
In Northeast China, winters can be extremely cold, with temperatures dropping to minus 20 or 30 degrees Celsius outside. However, when there is warmth inside, beautiful frost patterns form on the windows.
Every household has one of these, as long as it's a glass window.
Frost flowers usually form at night after the curtains are drawn, and they gradually melt away after breakfast and when the sun comes out.
The fire in the west room of the Sheng family burned a lot of fuel, so the frost melted even faster. Around eight o'clock, the thin part of the frost melted, and you could see the outside.
"I wonder which mountain this flower lives on."
It's freezing cold in the dead of winter, wouldn't it be better if it just stayed at our house? Why does it have to go back to the mountains?
I wonder if it knows how to find a cave or something. Ugh, it's such a worry.
After raising it for half a year, she had developed feelings for it. And Hua Hua, that little tiger, was so sensible and cute. How could Zhang Shuzhen easily let go of it?
"Mom, don't worry. Huahua is so intelligent, it's sure to be doing well in the mountains."
It is, after all, wild. How can it stay in our house forever? It's not good for wild animals to get too close to people.
"It's alright. See, it brings us things every few days, which means it's doing well up in the mountain."
Seeing her mother-in-law like this, Zhou Qinglan couldn't help but offer a few words of advice.
"Mom, how many days until the Little New Year? I haven't left the house all day, and I can't even remember what day it is today."
Have you bought any New Year's goods for your family yet?
"My timing is too perfect. The baby was born right on the first day of the twelfth lunar month. There's nothing I can do to help you before the New Year."
While eating venison balls, Zhou Qinglan chatted with her mother-in-law, deliberately changing the subject.
"Oh dear, I almost forgot if you hadn't mentioned it. I've been living in a daze every day."
Sure enough, upon hearing this, Zhang Shuzhen came to her senses.
"Let me see. Today is the 18th, and there are only five days left until the Little New Year. Your dad and the eldest and second eldest sons will come down from the mountain then, and our family will be reunited."
"There's nothing to prepare for the New Year. Our family has everything we need. We already made clothes and such a while ago, didn't we?"
We're missing something, but we'll buy it when the bosses get back.
"You should just focus on recovering after childbirth and taking care of your health. That's the most important thing. You don't need to worry about anything else."
Just then, Zhou Qinglan finished a bowl of meatballs and soup. Zhang Shuzhen took the bowl and took it to the outer room to wash it, and that was the end of the conversation.
People at home are looking forward to the Little New Year so that those who work on the mountain can go home for the holidays. The people working on the mountain feel the same way and are counting down the days.
"Let's all hurry up! There are only a few days left before the holiday. Let's try to finish more than half of this forest before the holiday."
Our production team has done well this year. I asked the production scheduler the other day, and so far, the production of those three production teams is not as good as ours.
We must maintain this momentum. When we bring back an award for advanced work team, everyone will be proud, right?
In the evening, while everyone was resting, Sheng Xiping called everyone together for a short meeting to encourage them.
The educated youth team has a large number of members, and this year they are using a combination of mechanization and animal power, which is much better than carrying logs by hand last year.
In particular, team leader Sheng Xiping performed exceptionally well, with reasonable arrangements in all areas, and the entire team operated in an assembly line fashion, resulting in high work efficiency.
Other work teams, under the arrangement of the site, also sent people to learn from their experience.
But those three work teams were all veterans of the forest farm, and they were quite old-fashioned and rigid. They talked a good game on the surface, but in reality, they still used the old methods to work.
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