Chapter 27: Thin as a Cicada's Wing
The next day, when Qin Ju was cleaning the house, she discovered a large enamel bowl on the windowsill of her bedroom. There were actually a few bright yellow apricots in it. She couldn't help swallowing.
"Grandma, where did these apricots come from?"
"Oh, Baozhu from next door sent it. She heard that we moved in and said she wanted to come over to help with the cleaning this morning. I refused and asked her children to bring a bowl of apricots over. They were so sweet. The fourth child couldn't bear to eat them and said he wanted to save them for you when you come back."
Qin Ju then remembered that, yes, he almost forgot about Zhao Qingsong and Liu Baozhu being neighbors.
As we were talking, Liu Baozhu came again. She was wearing a clean navy blue work suit, with two braids hanging in front of her chest and two red hair ties with flowers on the ends of her hair. "Laidi, you guys are here. You don't know how happy I am."
Liu Baozhu is good-looking, with a pair of big watery eyes that seem to be able to speak, and a face that is whiter and rounder than that of the average rural girl. However, the wind and sand in Lenghe Town are too strong. In just half a year, her exposed skin has become darker and has gained the moistness of a married woman, which is brought to her by a happy married life.
Qin Ju thought to herself that Liu Baozhu was really better than herself, being able to navigate the complexities of a second marriage family with ease and looking radiant.
"What's the matter? Don't you recognize me after not seeing Lai Di for a year?" Qin Ju was observing others, and Liu Baozhu was also observing her. Seeing that her face was still as white as jade and so tender that water could be pinched out of it, a hint of jealousy flashed in Liu Baozhu's eyes.
"Sister Baozhu."
"You, you were as naughty as a boy last year, but you were assigned to our unit and even got a house after being quiet for a year. If you and I hadn't grown up together, I would have suspected that you had become a different person." A house? This was the treatment Zhao Qingsong got after all his years of hard work.
Qin Ju's heart skipped a beat, but she remained calm. After all, she was still the same person, both in body and memory. Did she have X-ray vision or something?
"Is Sister Baozhu not busy?"
"It's not a big deal. The two kids haven't started school yet. They've gone out to play and won't be back until dinner time. My husband often eats out, so I only have to cook for three people every day." She said proudly, stroking her cheeks. "It's windy here, so you need to apply more vanishing cream every day. If you don't have any, I can lend you a bottle. My husband is very considerate and bought me two bottles last month."
Qin Jue responded casually, as if he didn't notice her boasting.
It is her ability that she can win Zhao Qingsong's heart at present, but she does not know whether her name will be on the property certificate in the future, or whether he will secretly get a sterilization.
Liu Baozhu talked again about how Zhao Qingsong paid her wages, bought her new clothes, and took her on a trip to the provincial capital. Seeing that Qin Jue was really unmoved and did not get angry like before, she gritted her teeth and walked away with a twisted waist.
"Laidi, why do I feel like you don't like her as much as before?" Qin Guihua was a little confused.
You know, I have told her thousands of times to stay away from the girl from the Liu family, but the third child just wouldn't listen and treated her as a good friend. Whenever she said it again, she would say something like "If you adults have conflicts, it's your business, and we children should deal with our own affairs", which left her speechless.
Because this is also what she taught her four granddaughters.
"Everyone grows up, and as they grow older they make new friends." It's normal to gradually become estranged.
"Let's not talk about her anymore. Forget about it. I'll pack up my things. Qin Pan will go tell my elder sister to come back for dinner in the evening."
The two old hens were still full of life before they went out, but they were much more listless when they got here. Qin Guihua picked and chose, and reached into the chicken's butt to feel around. She picked out the most lifeless one, thinking that it would not lay eggs in the near future, and sent it to the west. She collected the chicken's blood in a bowl and added some salt. She used chopsticks to wash the chicken's intestines, chicken liver, and gizzards, and chopped the chicken into small pieces, stewing half of it in soup and stir-frying the other half.
Although the stove room has not been built yet, we can just pick up a few stones and build a simple stove so that we can cook the chicken soup first.
These two old hens are really old. They have been carefully cared for for two or three years. The fat on their butts is almost three or four centimeters thick, and the meat is also tough. My grandmother has bad teeth, so I first boil the Qinjiao over high heat, add half a piece of old ginger, then turn to low heat and simmer for at least two hours.
Then go to the grocery store and spend a lot of money to buy a bunch of celery, add the pickled peppers I brought from home, and stir-fry some spicy and sour chicken.
Because there was no soy sauce, the braised chicken was fried with the old soy sauce soup that we brought from home, and some potatoes and carrots were added. Soon the yard was filled with a fragrant aroma.
Everyone was having a hard time at that time. When the children smelled the fragrance, they all came over and did not go into the house. Instead, they stood in the large yard in front of the door, sniffing and swallowing their saliva in the wind.
"Wow! It smells so good!"
"There's soy sauce and meat!"
"Quick, let me smell it, is it beef or mutton?"
"Zhao Haiyang, has your family made anything delicious?" A group of children were sweating from playing and could not move as soon as they ran to the row of houses.
Zhao Haiyang sniffed. This doesn't look like Aunt Baozhu's cooking. Aunt Baozhu's favorite dishes are stir-fried shredded potatoes with peppers, stir-fried tofu with peppers, or stir-fried carrots with garlic...
"Brother, brother, I want to eat meat..." A little girl of three or four years old beside him pulled Zhao Haiyang's sleeve and shook him violently, tears, snot and saliva flying all over the place, and her two braids were messed up like a chicken's nest.
Zhao Haiyang sighed, "Haiyan, be obedient, and we can eat meat when dad comes back."
Zhao Qingsong sent two-thirds of his salary back to his hometown every month. His wife and children lived on just a dozen yuan for living expenses, which was even more difficult than that of an average family. In addition, Liu Baozhu had to buy her face cream and new clothes from time to time, so the money left for food was even less. The brother and sister had not eaten meat for a long time.
Zhao Haiyan pursed her lips and ran to the door of Qin's house crying. She looked at the big iron pot sizzling with oil and didn't move anymore.
"Good boy, Haiyan, let's go home."
"No, I want meat."
Zhao Haiyang was already feeling ashamed. Seeing so many children watching, his sister looked the shabbiest. His face turned red. "In a few days, we will be able to eat a rooster that is even bigger than this. Go home quickly and stop looking at it."
"I won't!" Haiyan stared at the golden and sauced chicken pieces and swallowed hard.
Of course Qin Ju also saw them, after all, they were her own children who were raised with great difficulty, but she didn't even move an eye. Why should she give her flesh to those ungrateful little bastards!
Zhao Haiyan stared at it eagerly for a while, then called "Auntie" weakly a few times. She remembered that her mother had taught her that if she wanted to eat popsicles or have a hair ornament, she just had to look at her father so pitifully, and her father would definitely buy them for her. Why didn't this rule work for this auntie?
"It's time to get off work. Come in and sit for a while. The food will be ready soon." He Liansheng walked to the door of his house in work clothes. He didn't even go in and went straight to Qin's house. He was holding four bottles of soda in his hands. The orange-yellow liquid was shaking in the transparent glass bottles, as if it could create tiny bubbles. Not only did the children swallow their saliva, but even Qin Ju could hardly hold it back.
Soon, the chicken offal was stir-fried, and Qin Ailan came, holding a few apples and red dates in her hands. "I prepared the rice over there first, watched Mr. Chen eat, and then washed and cleaned up before coming here."
"That's how it should be. I and your two sisters will take care of the household affairs, and you can just come back and eat the ready-made food."
"Mr. Chen asked me to carry the fruit. It's hard to buy it here."
After a while, five people got on the kang, sat cross-legged, placed the dishes on the second-hand kang table, and started eating with corn cakes.
Qin Guihua was persuaded to take a sip of four bottles of soda and said it was too spicy. Ai Lan also refused, "Xiao He, have one. You young people like to drink this."
"I usually drink it, so let Qin Ju and Qin Pan drink it."
Qin Pan looked at her grandmother shyly, not knowing whether she could accept it. She had never tasted anything so good in Hongxing County, not in her entire life.
Qin Jue was sweating profusely from cooking, but he didn't bother to be polite with them. He took a big gulp and said, "Drink it, drink it. After all, it's your brother-in-law who paid for it."
He Liansheng didn't know why, but he always felt that there was something wrong with the way Comrade Xiao Qin looked at him. However, he didn't care to think too much about it because the braised chicken was so delicious!
Qin Guihua had bad teeth, so she could only eat the chicken in clear soup slowly. Her three granddaughters were very filial and gave her all the boneless meat. She thought she could just pick up a few pieces of chicken neck to nibble on, but she ended up eating the most meat at the end of the meal.
The old lady's heart felt as sweet as if she had drunk honey.
The Zhao family next door was not so harmonious. Liu Baozhu coughed while cooking spicy fried meat. The meat was sent back by Zhao Qingsong through the little warrior. It was a rare opportunity to eat it, so she must make it specially for Zhao Qingsong's favorite flavor. Zhao Haiyang and Zhao Haiyan were sneezing as soon as they entered the house. "Aunt Baozhu, what are you doing?"
"Stir-fried pork with spicy peppers." Liu Baozhu put the dish into the bowl, turned around and found that the clean clothes she had just put on in the morning were so dirty that she couldn't even see her nose or eyes. She immediately became furious.
"Are you two out to dig out shit? You're giving me work to do every day."
The brother and sister secretly made faces behind her back.
"You don't need water to wash clothes or your face? You just do that all day long. You don't help me with housework at all. You just cause me trouble and bring me bad luck!"
There was a shortage of water here, and they had to go to the cold river two miles away to fetch water for daily use. She was reluctant to scoop half a bucket of water for washing her face, and she had to carry a basin full of clothes two miles away for washing clothes. Was it easy for her, a female comrade? If it were normal times, she would definitely not change their clothes. It didn't matter if they were dirty, since they weren't wearing her clothes anyway. But today, Zhao Qingsong said he was coming back for dinner, so she could only change their clothes into clean clothes while swearing at them.
She was lucky. Just after she changed her clothes, Zhao Qingsong pushed the door open and asked, "Is the child naughty again?"
"No, no, the ocean petrel is very sensible."
Zhao Qingsong looked at the dirty clothes on the ground, said nothing, and didn't pick them up. He walked around, got on the kang, kicked off his shoes, and lay down.
Liu Baozhu bit her lip in grievance and could only bend down to pick up the clothes and put them in the basin at the door. She didn't have time to wash them today and could only put them aside for tomorrow. The key point was that the children's clothes were stained with urine, saliva and snot. Not only would they be difficult to wash after drying overnight, they also smelled particularly bad. When she thought about having to walk such a long way to wash them again, she felt even more depressed.
She didn't know what was wrong, but her life just became a way she didn't like.
Zhao Qingsong was observant and naturally noticed her unhappiness, but he was tired after a day's work and had no time to help. What a joke. In this whole family area, which man would wash clothes for the children? Family members came to the army to take care of the children!
*
Let’s talk about He Liansheng. Just as he was about to leave after get off work, Master Zhang came over and handed him a small paper box in a mysterious manner.
"Take it, I know you need it."
He Liansheng was confused, and when he saw the words clearly, his face turned red.
"But don't be like me, having a baby early and living alone for two years." He lowered his voice, as if talking to an underground worker, "This is a foreign product, from the Soviet Union. You can't buy it outside. I heard it's as thin as a cicada's wing."
If He Liansheng hadn’t had good hearing, he wouldn’t have been able to hear the last four words.
The two grown men blushed at these four words and scattered like birds and beasts.
Xiao He has really been looking for this thing recently. Since he hasn't decided whether to have a child or not, he has to take good contraception measures. Even though he is very anxious sometimes, he still has to hold back until he has the tool.
At night, the young couple was lying on the kang and saw Qin Jue lying on his stomach flipping through the book "Human Anatomy". He became interested and tilted his head to read it.
As soon as I saw it, I felt hot again. She was actually looking at the reproductive system!
Qin Ju had already seen his restlessness tonight, and deliberately asked: "What a pity, these are just words and pictures. If I could experience it in person, I would definitely learn a lot..."
"Let me be your model." He suddenly said in a hoarse voice.
…
The summer wind was cool, but the wind that blew into their house was hot, so hot that neither of them could wear any clothes.
They just slept directly on the big red earthen kang, moving from one end to the other and then back again, like two pieces of white snow, showing nowhere on the spring land, having fun happily... It felt wonderful until she felt the pain.
This innocent old boy loved to read novels when he was bored in his previous life, but his presbyopia prevented him from looking at his phone for a long time, so he liked to listen to novels while doing handicrafts. One time, he heard the hero and heroine doing that thing. By the way, young people of that era called this thing "driving."
When she heard that the hero and heroine actually drove for four or five hours for the first time and almost never turned off the engine, she didn't care about being embarrassed, but scolded the author for writing nonsense, saying that the author must have never actually driven a car, otherwise how could he be so inhumane.
The most exaggerated thing she had heard of in real life was 45 minutes of non-stop sex. Both parties were exhausted and fell asleep in the end. It was not as tender as described in novels, with the man helping to wash and wipe, and the heroine's slightest unintentional action seducing the hero in this way or that way...
At that time, he just opened the door with his key and came in. He didn't know how long he listened at the door. He casually asked, "Is forty-five minutes too short?"
She almost laughed at that time. An old man who could say such a thing must still be a teenager.
"What are you laughing at?" the man asked a little dissatisfied.
How could Qin Ju say that he had always been an innocent old boy in his previous life? "I won't tell you."
He Liansheng didn't know what was going on. He really liked the way she didn't talk properly. She was like a delicate and spicy chili pepper. Just by looking at her, his brain would automatically secrete saliva. If he took a bite, it would be so spicy that it would hurt his heart... Well, he did that.
So, in the next hour and a half, Qin Jue truly experienced what it meant that 45 minutes was too little. Old He really wasn't kidding! This guy was like a tractor with full horsepower, and he really proved what he said!
At the same time, she had only one feeling in her heart - this earthen kang was so good and solid. Except for the occasional sound that could not be held back, even if it was so intense that she could see her afterimage, she did not hear a single "squeak".
She didn't remember what time she fell asleep at night. When she woke up, it was bright outside. She felt as if she had been run over by a tractor, not to mention the things on her body that did not belong to her.
He Liansheng was obedient. He prepared the bath water early, brought it into the house, placed the towel and soap within her reach, and closed the door as soon as he walked out.
After washing up, Qin Ju went out with the introduction letter and employment letter and went straight to the health center.
The health center of Factory 412 is a bit far from the family area, and it takes seven or eight minutes to walk there. But fortunately, there are many poplar trees planted on both sides of the road, so if you walk in the shade, it is not hot.
The health room and the factory office logistics and security departments are in the same building, and it is on the most convenient first floor. She first found the director's office and knocked on the door.
"Come in."
The director is Qian Fusheng, a middle-aged man in his early fifties, with a bald head and a pair of black-rimmed glasses that make him look very stable. "Welcome, welcome, Comrade Xiao Qin is a senior talent sent to us by the Provincial Health Department. The health of our factory employees and their families will be guaranteed in the future."
Qin Ju knew that this was definitely a polite remark. She knew Director Qian was a good person. She had worked with him for many years in her previous life and he had helped her a lot. "Director Qian, you are too polite. I just graduated from school and have no clinical experience. You are my teacher. I will need your advice in the future."
Qian Fusheng laughed: "No problem."
Comrade Qin is really good. She is not arrogant at all. I originally thought that she would be proud and proud because she was appointed by the Provincial Health Department, but I didn't expect her to be so humble.
Leaders, no matter whether they are big or small, like to lead humble subordinates.
"Since you have passed the theoretical assessment, you should be able to see patients independently. I wonder what area Comrade Qin specializes in? I will be able to make adjustments then."
Including Xiao Qin, there are now three doctors and three nurses in the institute, plus the director Qian Fusheng, a total of seven people. Everyone has his or her own fixed position, a surgeon, an internist, and two nurses are also assigned to them. The remaining one is responsible for miscellaneous tasks such as financial affairs and getting medicines.
Qin Jue adhered to the principle of not offending anyone when he first arrived, but he must not disrupt the balance of the department as soon as he arrived. "I am mainly a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner. If there are no doctors in this field in the institute, how about I practice traditional Chinese medicine?"
Qian Fusheng frowned. What...is the Chinese medicine doctor doing here?
He was trained in orthodox western medicine, and what he learned, used, and believed in was western medicine. In his mind, Chinese medicine was just about setting bones and bones, but that was physical work, and she, a little girl, couldn't do it.
"I have studied Chinese medicine for several years with my master. The conditions here are limited, and there are limited Western medicines and equipment. If Chinese medicine can make up for the deficiency, it will not be in vain for my master's years of teaching."
"Yeah, that's right. Comrade Xiao Qin has thought of it very carefully." The factory is surrounded by wasteland, but not far away there are farmlands reclaimed by soldiers from the military settlement, as well as cattle and sheep on the hillsides, so we can indeed use local materials.
"One convenient thing about traditional Chinese medicine is that many medicinal materials can be obtained locally, unlike Western medicine, which has to be refined. We are quite far away from the pharmaceutical factory, and we only go to get medicine once every two months. Many medicines are indeed in short supply." Qian Fusheng touched his chin, looking very worried, as the latest batch of antibiotics had run out.
Pioneer mycin and penicillin are both in-demand products, so he has to invite Director Li of the pharmaceutical factory to dinner to see if he can give them priority in supply.
Qin Ju probably knew what he was worried about, but she really couldn't help at the moment. The pharmaceutical manufacturing level of Shilan Province could not catch up with the coastal areas, and there was no way she could do anything about the shortage of medicines. She could only hope for the development of the scientific and technological level of the whole society.
Because she arrived the latest, her office was in the innermost room. The room was only about 5 or 6 square meters and was furnished with an old wooden table, a chair and a bench.
Fortunately, before she left, Aunt Cui Wu gave her a pulse pillow that she had sewn herself. The white gauze was filled with buckwheat, forming a soft and full rectangle, which looked quite nice when placed on the desk.
I cleaned the bathroom in the morning and walked home along Huyang Trail at noon. I found that my grandma had already prepared a meal of steamed buns with the leftover braised chicken from last night.
First day at new job, what a great job!
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