Sheng Xiping threw down those words and turned to wash his hands, completely ignoring the mournful look in his younger brother's eyes behind him.
On the other side, Zhang Shuzhen suppressed a laugh, pushed open the door to the west room, and called her second and third sons out to eat.
"Hey, you two, stop reading. It's so late and the light's not even bright. You'll ruin your eyes if you keep reading."
Upon hearing their mother's call, Sheng Xi'an and Sheng Xikang put down their books, came out of the west room, and went to the east room for dinner.
On the kang (heated brick bed) in the east room, there was a rectangular kang table.
The head of the family, Sheng Liancheng, sat at the innermost part of the kang (a heated brick bed), with his wife Zhang Shuzhen to his left and their two daughters to his right.
The eldest son, Sheng Xitai, was to Sheng Liancheng's right, followed by Sheng Xiping, Sheng Xi'an, and Sheng Xikang.
Sheng Liancheng was from Shandong, and his hometown was in Dancheng. The Sheng family had little land and many children, so life was difficult for them.
In 1950, a relative of the Sheng family worked at the Sanchazi Forestry Bureau and said that life there was good.
Sheng Liancheng took the money his mother had scraped together and borrowed from various sources, and traveled to Northeast China.
Upon arriving in Northeast China, they were indeed recruited and assigned to work at a forest farm under the Linjiang Forestry Bureau.
Linjiang Forestry Bureau is the earliest forestry enterprise developed in this area. Its predecessor was the Linjiang branch of Tonghua Lihua Forestry Company during the Japanese occupation.
After the fall of the Japanese, it was renamed the Linjiang Branch of the Andong Forestry Bureau in 1948, and later renamed the Linjiang Branch of the Liaodong Forestry Bureau.
In 1953 it was renamed Linjiang Forestry Bureau, and in 1961 it was renamed Linjiang Forestry Bureau.
Forestry development in those years involved simultaneous construction and production, expanding inland along the forest railway.
The same applies to forestry workers; wherever the logging area is, that's where they work.
Once this work area is finished, we move on to the next one.
Sheng Liancheng moved from Linjiang Bureau to Dashahe Forest Farm, then to Manjiang Forest Farm, then to Shuguang Forest Farm in 1963, and finally to Qianchuan Forest Farm in 1965.
Qianchuan Forest Farm is very close to the Changbai Mountain Nature Reserve. It was developed the latest and has abundant forest resources, making it the largest forest farm on the northern route.
Sheng Liancheng has worked on the forestry front for many years, starting as a forest clearing worker and later as a tractor assistant, chainsaw operator, and tractor driver.
Now, he is the foreman of the second work team of the forest farm, and also serves as the director of the small repair shop, which is quite impressive.
Zhang Shuzhen and Sheng Liancheng were from the same place. It should be said that a large proportion of forestry workers married women from their hometowns.
There's nothing we can do. The forest areas in Northeast China are vast and sparsely populated, and these workers rarely see a woman all year round.
They all took advantage of the opportunity to visit their hometowns to find a wife, bring her from their hometown, settle down, and have children.
In those days, any young person who returned to their hometown after working outside in a "rehabilitation cloth" work uniform was the focus of everyone's attention.
Regardless of height, weight, or appearance, as long as a worker earns a wage and receives government rations, he can bring home a tall, beautiful wife when he returns to his hometown.
Sheng Liancheng had been working in Northeast China for four years and finally managed to find some time to go back to his hometown to visit his parents and relatives.
As soon as the old lady of the Sheng family saw her son return, she quickly began to arrange a marriage for him.
Through an introduction, he met Zhang Shuzhen.
The two hit it off immediately upon meeting. Sheng Liancheng bought a sheep for the Zhang family and gave them several tens of yuan, which was considered their engagement.
A few days later, the two went to the village to get their marriage certificate and got married in the new house that Sheng Liancheng had built for his parents with the money he sent back.
Not long after their marriage, the couple returned to Northeast China.
From then on, Zhang Shuzhen, like other young wives, followed her husband to settle down in the forest area of Northeast China, where she had children and took care of household chores.
Sheng Liancheng and his wife had four sons and two daughters.
Neither of them was very educated; they just wanted their child to be safe, sound, and healthy.
It just so happens that the children in this generation are named according to the character "Xi," so the first three are named Sheng Xiping, Sheng Xi'an, and Sheng Xikang.
In those days, children were born very frequently. After three sons were born in succession, Zhang Shuzhen became pregnant again, and when she gave birth, it turned out to be two daughters.
My daughter's name was chosen by her elementary school teacher, and it wasn't named according to the "Xi" character.
The child was born in spring, a time when peaches and plums are in full bloom.
So the teacher named the two girls Sheng Yunfang and Sheng Yunfei.
Finally, when the youngest son was born, someone else gave him the name Sheng Xitai.
With this, all four brothers of the Sheng family are now safe and healthy.
Looking at the family of eight in front of him, Sheng Xiping's memories of his past life churned in his mind, and he was overwhelmed with emotion.
"Second brother, how's school lately? Is studying tiring?"
Sheng Xiping took a deep breath to calm herself down, then picked up some food with her chopsticks and put it in her younger brother's bowl.
"Brother, studying is quite interesting, not tiring at all."
Sheng Xi'an looked up, smiled at his brother, and then lowered his head to continue eating.
In early June, there weren't actually many vegetables available to eat.
Dandelion, shepherd's purse, celery, Chinese cabbage, and wild vegetables are all out of season. What we have left are the common houseplants like bok choy, radishes, garland chrysanthemum, and spinach.
On the Sheng family's dining table, there was a small bowl of pickled chrysanthemum greens and a small bowl of stewed bok choy with tofu.
There were also some radishes, radish greens, lettuce, scallions, and a bowl of homemade soybean paste—that was about it.
At least the stewed bok choy and tofu had some lard and oil residue in it, which was basically leftover oil residue from rendering oil, so it tasted quite delicious.
That oil stain was from winter when Sheng Xiping followed his master into the mountains to kill a black bear, and they got a lot of fatty meat from it.
The food and oil supplies for employees and their families are all provided by the rationing system. With eight people in a family, the limited amount of oil provided each month is simply not enough for them to do anything.
Zhang Shuzhen was meticulous in her daily life. She couldn't bear to let the children eat even a few pieces of oil residue, so she mixed them directly with oil and put them in a jar to save for cooking.
Sheng Xitai, that little glutton, loved to sneakily take chopsticks and pick out bits of oil from the oil jar to eat when no one was home.
In spring, these vegetables all need oil and moisture, and since the children are growing, Zhang Shuzhen has to carefully consider how to cook them.
The jar of oil was almost empty and had a lot of oil stains, so I added a few extra pieces to the braised bok choy and tofu tonight.
Ignoring the old man's longing gaze, Sheng Xiping placed the last piece of oily food into Sheng Xi'an's bowl.
"Eat more. Your eyes are tired from reading and studying, so you must eat something oily."
"Okay, okay, thanks, bro."
The taciturn and inarticulate Sheng Xi'an could only nod repeatedly and then continue eating with her head down.
Sheng Xiping looked at his second son and couldn't help but sigh.
Sheng Xi'an loved reading and studying, and her grades were always excellent during her school years.
When the college entrance examination was reinstated in 1977, Sheng Xi'an also registered and actually got into Tonghua Normal School.
Logically speaking, Sheng Liancheng came from a poor background and had been recognized as an advanced model worker several times over many years of work, so there shouldn't be any problems.
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