Chapter 116

Child labor

That night, Nie Gong, Xiao Nie, and the reporter slept all night. Chen Lina ran to the small bedroom to play with Erdan and Sandan.

"Mom, let me smell your fragrance." Sandan squeezed into Chen Lina's arms.

"It's hot and tiring. Let's go to the side."

"Mom, I also want to smell your fragrance and hug you."

"Erdan, did you wash your feet tonight?"

"I washed it, Mom, with soap."

Chen Lina turned Erdan's head over and smelled it. It stinks.

Then I touched the crotch of his pants and asked, "Have you not washed your pants recently?"

"I washed it. I rubbed it myself."

"No, both of you get up. I'll teach you how to wash your trouser legs." Chen Lina pulled the two children up and took out a basin specially used for washing trouser legs from the small storeroom.

The two of them just sprinkled some laundry detergent and almost opened the car.

"No, Erdan, you can't just rub it like that, it won't clean it at all, use your strength, come on, rub it."

"Okay, Mom." Because his mother was watching him, Erdan started to rub it with all his might. After rubbing for a while, the water in the basin turned black.

"Remember, wash your underwear like this from now on. Otherwise, it won't get clean and will always be smelly. Who's child would like a friend with a smelly body? Not only the children, but the teachers won't like it either."

"Is it because I stink that Xiaohong and Tiantian don't want to play with me?" Erdan asked.

"Really?"

Erdan rubbed the dough even harder.

The next morning, when everyone was still asleep, Erdan suddenly yelled and rushed into the small bedroom, "Mom, Mom, my underwear is on fire, my underwear is on fire."

"What did you do to make you look like this?" Chen Lina was confused, and Sandaner rubbed his eyes. "Brother, what's wrong with you?"

"It's on fire, Mom. I washed my underwear too clean yesterday and it caught fire."

Chen Lina smelled the strong smell of Fengyoujing, pulled Erdan over, pulled down his pants and smelled them, and said, "What did you spray on there? It smells so strong?"

"Didn't you say that others don't play with me because they think I stink?"

"So you sprayed it with toilet water, you little fool, wash it off quickly."

Erdan said with a bitter face, "Mom, isn't that perfume?"

Nie Weimin, who came later, laughed out loud, "Silly, mom doesn't have any perfume at all. That's floral water, for insect repellent."

Spray toilet water on underwear?

But on weekends, the children have to go to the farm.

Qian Gou'er was knocking on the door early in the morning with a big stick in his hand. "Nie Weimin, come on, let's go and release the seedlings together. We can earn work points and exchange them for glass balls. Let's go."

"Stop making noise, we haven't eaten yet." Nie Weimin only glanced at the crack of the door and saw a group of children gathered outside.

"Hey, show us what your foreign devils eat for breakfast?"

"It's not like you haven't eaten egg pancakes before." Nie Weimin was very proud and pushed the door open, refusing to let go.

"Foreigners are eating egg pancakes. How novel! Open the door quickly and let us see." Qian Goudan took the lead and pushed the door open. Xiao Jinbao, Xiao Doudou, Xiao Gousheng'er and others all rushed in.

The foreigner was sitting at the dining table in Lao Nie's house, eating the egg buckwheat pancakes that Chen Lina had prepared in the morning, and the usual cold dishes of Chinese cabbage and shredded potatoes. He didn't know how to use chopsticks, so he used a spoon to roll the vegetables in. In the eyes of the children, his mouth was really big.

"This foreigner can't use chopsticks?"

"Yes, I have to use a spoon for everything, and I eat a lot," said Erdan.

In short, having a guest at home is a disaster for Erdan. They always have a strangely good appetite. This foreign guy's belly is already very big, but he still keeps eating.

After looking around for a while and not seeing Tiantian, he asked Xiao Jinbao, "What's wrong with your sister? She hasn't been out lately. It's the weekend, doesn't she want to go to the farm to play?"

Xiao Jinbao said mysteriously, "She is injured and has been bleeding recently."

This scared Nie Weimin. When he knocked on the door next door, Wang Jie said, "Weimin, Tiantian is in a bad mood recently. You two can go out and play by yourselves. She won't come out."

Sometimes he was not feeling well and sometimes he was in a bad mood. Nie Weimin wondered what happened to Chen Tiantian, the girl who used to climb trees and play in mud with him when they were little.

Thinking back, the best time was when we were kids. Tiantian was so well-behaved and naughty back then.

Sandan sat next to the foreigner and played with the things he brought.

All the children crowded around the dining table. Qian Goudan saw Sandan was very quick with a cube and kept twisting it around. He asked, "Dandan, what is this thing for? Why are you twisting it around?"

The foreigner wiped his mouth with a handkerchief, pointed at it and said, "This is the Rubik's Cube. I brought it from Hungary when I visited. Who among you knows how to play it? Want to try it?"

"Hey, this foreigner can speak our language, how strange." Qian Goudan said.

Sandan reminded him, "You should call me uncle, Uncle Edward."

Nie Weimin asked in detail yesterday. Edward is already 50 years old. At his age, it is not appropriate to call him grandpa, but he should be called uncle.

Qian Goudan snatched it from Sandan and took a closer look. It was just a fist-sized square with different colors on all four sides: red, yellow, blue, and white. He twisted it a few times, and the colors were all messed up, with some blue and some white.

He twisted it twice but couldn't get it back, so he threw it to Sandan and said, "What's the point of playing with this thing? Play with it yourself."

Sandan took the Rubik's Cube and with just a few pulls, he had restored all six sides to the same color.

"How many minutes did it take this time?" Edward asked him.

Sandaner thought for a moment and raised two fingers. "Twenty minutes."

Edward gave a thumbs up and sighed, "Cool!" Then the hostess of the house, Miss Chen, smiled and said, "Mr. Edward, where are you going today?"

Edward shook his head and said, "Ms. Chen, I can see that you are trying hard to show us foreigners a country that is happy, strong, and where the people live and work in peace and contentment.

But what I want to say is that you don't understand how most people in this world live.

So, whatever you want, I am an expert on China and won’t change my opinion because of this. Besides, I must say that your cooking is very delicious.”

"I know what your life is like, Coke, French fries and burgers, popcorn, and endless soap operas and cartoons. In your opinion, that is happiness, prosperity and wealth."

Looking at kids like Sandan and Nie Weimin, it’s no wonder that foreigners think they are kind and compassionate.

They didn't have any decent toys. In addition to going to school, they had to do a lot of work on the farm. As for extracurricular books, they were even more pitiful.

During the Chinese New Year, there are one or two movies shown, and the children are so excited that they can’t sleep for days and nights.

Relatively speaking, the Nie Weimin brothers are the children of the best-off family in this base.

"Ms. Chen, childhood is the happiest time for children. You shouldn't use labor to deprive them of their happiness. They should play to their heart's content instead of doing farm work." Edward measured Sandan's height with his hand and added, "However, in China, exploitation of child labor should be a thing of the past. When I was in Shanghai, I saw too many child laborers."

Chen Lina put her hands on her hips, hearing his sarcasm, and said, "Okay, Mr. Edward, if you don't want to go to the farm, just walk around. We should go to work."

The family was going out, all wearing big straw hats made of wheat straw, one for each person. Before Sandan left, he handed a restored Rubik's Cube to Edward and said, "Ten minutes, I've finished it."

"You are such a little genius," said Edward.

He had never seen anyone who could solve the Rubik's Cube so quickly, let alone a child who had only been exposed to the Rubik's Cube a few times.

Sandan licked the tip of his tongue, but he didn't realize that he was a genius. He just thought that if Uncle Edward could play with him again, he would be confident that he could get back together faster this time.

Staff from the autonomous region government were waiting outside. They arranged another interview route for Edward and were going to take him to see the Workers' Cultural Center in the mining area and the No. 6 Base that was being developed in the mining area. The No. 6 Base was a super project and it was also a way to show the strength of the autonomous region to foreigners.

Who would have thought that seeing a group of children happily jumping on the tractor and heading to the farm, Edward thought for a moment and said to the autonomous region staff, "Let's go to the farm too."

"The farm is nothing special, Mr. Edward. The comrades from the mining area's cultural troupe have arranged a grand performance of The Red Detachment of Women for you. You can go and see it after you go to Base No. 6."

Edward frowned and shook his head. "No, no, let's go to the farm. I want to know more about how the farmers in your farm work."

"Strictly speaking, they are not farmers. They are agricultural workers, which is different from real farmers."

"Then I'll go and see how the agricultural workers work, okay?" Edward said in a firm tone.

Well, he is fifty years old this year. When Shanghai was still a concession, he lived in Shanghai with his father who was a priest. He was really deeply impressed by child labor.

He has been to the Republic countless times, from before liberation to after liberation. Of course, from the "Yellow Scourge" to the "Red Tide", he has written a large number of articles introducing the Republic. He can be said to be an authoritative China expert in the United States, but I have never seen a person who can call on child laborers as righteously as Chen Lina.

This time, he chose a theme for himself, which was the failure of a "Cixi"-like female farmer who seemed fanatical about power in educating her children.

The education of a mother determines the future of her children. And the future of her children determines the future direction of the Republic. Therefore, the mother of this farmer seems to be just a simple individual.

However, women like her in the Republic are the ones who truly hold the future of the Republic in their hands.

On Child Labor and Her Chinese Mother

This is the title of the report on Edward's trip to the border.

It's a busy time on the farm.

Although a large number of educated youth returned to the cities, many also stayed behind.

Especially the female educated youth, who have grown older, have formed families and settled down on the farm. There are nearly ten families, and there are also relocated households who moved to the border areas with their families because they read in the newspapers. It is not enough to fill up the nests of the educated youths, and now they have to keep digging new ones.

Although people are no longer arguing about revolution, they are again arguing about the line and policy.

Today they have one policy, and tomorrow they have another policy. Today they say it is reasonable for the members to get rich, and tomorrow they say that raising pigs is also the tail of capitalism and must be cut off.

In short, production must be carried out and the policy must be followed.

For example, Sun Duoyu recently raised a pig. According to the people's commune, pigs can produce economic value, which is the tail of capitalism.

So recently many people have come from the mining areas, specifically looking for ways to cut off the tail of capitalism.

There was no other choice, so Sun Duoyu named the pig Dahua and adopted it as his sister.

Just now, someone came to her house and wanted to take away her pig. She got anxious and said, "This is obviously my sister. How can it be a pig? You are mistaken. This is my sister. I won't sell her."

"Sun Duoyu, what are you looking at? It's clearly a pig. What sister? Are you saying that the baby you give birth to will be as ugly as this pig?" The person who came was Deng Daqing, an old chef who had retired from a state-owned hotel in the mining area. He no longer cooked, but was responsible for cutting tails.

"Even if you say I am a pig, I will admit that I am a pig. Either you take me away with you, or you leave my sister behind." Sun Dayu held the little black pig and refused to give in.

"Aunt, what's wrong with you?" At this moment, Nie Weimin jumped off the tractor and walked up to ask.

"Hello, young master of the farm manager's family. Hello, hello. I am Deng Daqing. Hello, young master."

"There are all kinds of people in this farm now. They even call you a capitalist name like Young Master. I just want to ask you, are you here to work on the farm?" Nie Weimin asked back.

Deng Daqing looked around, smiled, waved his hand and said, "No, no, I probably said something wrong. Okay, I'll go somewhere else, you guys take your time."

Sun Duoyu has three older nephews, and they all have a good relationship with her now.

Patting the fat pig's butt, she said, "You all love to eat pork, so I'll raise it and slaughter it for the New Year. Can you come to my house to eat meat this New Year?"

Sun Duoyu was originally very sloppy, until Chen Lina came, and then she taught her how to take a bath and wash her buttocks every day, and gave her underwear and underwear, so that this old lady gradually became clean.

Out of love for their mother, the Nie Weimin brothers were willing to work with her whenever they came to the farm, and all the work points they earned would be counted in her name, so that they could help her exchange more labor insurance and flour.

"Auntie, what are you going to do today? Let us help you." Nie Weimin said as he picked up the hoe.

Sun Duoyu said, "Director Chen has given me the entire Xishan Xiangyang plot of land. He said that as long as I can replenish the cotton in that plot of land in any time, I will get 30 work points."

"Wow, thirty, Auntie, let's help you together. We can finish them in one day, how about that?"

"Erdan, I'll give you both of these pig thighs in the future."

"Okay, Auntie, let's go."

This is actually a disguised form of encouraging labor.

The farmers were not as enthusiastic as the educated youth, who were not willing to work hard after being encouraged. Especially those farmers who had just come from the inland areas, they were very lazy. They went to the fields day after day, but they did not produce any results, let alone production.

Anyway, as long as you get ten work points, you can still have food to eat. Whoever works hard, wouldn’t that be stupid?

In response to this situation, Chen Lina implemented the household contracting system.

Each family has a piece of land and is assigned work points. It takes you several days to finish the work. In short, finish early and go home early. If you are lazy, you will slack off and will not earn any extra work points.

On the other side, Liu Xiaohong gathered a group of little girls and followed Director Chen to go out to work.

Today, she went to work with Director Chen and went to the agricultural greenhouse with Uncle Tian.

Professor Tian Jin is one of the experts who stayed on the farm after his rehabilitation.

"Professor Tian, ​​reporter Guo has repeatedly sent me telegrams asking me to persuade you to go back, but you just won't go back to Beijing. You should know that you are not even fifty years old yet. In my opinion, you are really not old. Agricultural University has already resumed classes, so go back and continue teaching."

"Xiao Chen, after eighteen years of transformation, my knowledge level has seriously regressed. If I continue to be a professor, I have the qualifications, but I don't have the ability, which is equivalent to being a dead body eating for nothing. On the contrary, breeding and raising seedlings in the desert is more meaningful to me. Don't persuade me, I will not leave."

"Reporter Guo said that your house in the capital has been returned to you. Is it empty?"

"Only vulgar people would move just for a house. In comparison, I prefer a cave that is warm in winter and cool in summer."

Mr. Tian then asked with a smile, "What about you, Xiao Chen? Do you really want to settle down in the frontier? Many people must have asked you this question. I think if you can have a broader world, your career will be more outstanding than it is now."

"Lao Nie's laboratory cannot be moved. A few days ago, I heard Secretary Ah and his colleagues discuss that they should immediately select a site and build a new office building, even if the funds are sufficient. The current office building may be used entirely as Lao Nie's laboratory. You know, many large instruments and equipment are invaluable, and they will be useless if moved once. He can only use them here, so how can we move?"

"But it's a pity for you to waste your youth in this Gobi Desert." Mr. Tian felt even more sorry for Chen Lina.

"Look, Mr. Tian, ​​in terms of transportation, we are not far from Umay. The national highway is now well built, and there will be expressways in the future. The railway will soon go directly to Umay. We have cotton and wool. What we lack now is deep processing and turning it into a large cloth factory and a major supply area for greenhouse vegetables in the entire republic. Umay will be more prosperous and developed than Umay in the future. Don't worry, wherever I, Chen Lina, am, there is a metropolis."

Tian Jin certainly couldn't imagine that this desert oasis would become a metropolis. He smiled and shook his head, but also said, "As long as I'm alive, I will do my best."

"Mr. Tian, ​​have you ever thought about your personal problems? Since you are not leaving, I can find a way to apply for a house for you at the base. We need someone of similar age on our farm. You are not really that old. Just talk to me and I will find a way to solve it for you. How about it?" Chen Lina asked this question seriously.

Mr. Tian smiled and waved his hands, "Forget it, forget it. I'm almost fifty years old, half buried in the ground, let's not talk about this."

"Aunt, these are the sweet peppers we have newly cultivated. Grandpa Tian said that they are hybridized with tomatoes. I guess they will taste sweet when they are grown." Liu Xiaohong's hands are very quick. She dug a hole with a shovel and the seedlings were planted.

In the greenhouse at the end of April, it was so hot that people were sweating profusely. Of course, for vegetables, with groundwater, sufficient light and heat, this kind of cultivation can really double the output.

"Bell pepper, I've eaten this a long time ago. Hurry and plant it. When it grows, cook it with curry and beef. It's so delicious." said Miss Chen.

"Be careful, don't step on the seedlings." Liu Xiaohong was holding a basin and walking on tiptoe in the vegetable field. Suddenly, she heard someone shout "Hi". She turned around and saw a foreigner with blond hair taking a picture of her.

She quickly tilted her head, smiled and raised the small shovel in her hand. Of course, she thought she was very beautiful.

Who knows, what if this photo of the foreigner was sent to another country?

The little girls in that country, wearing beautiful flowery dresses, holding dolls in their arms and eating chocolates, would think that she was the poorest, most pitiful and most helpless child laborer in the world.