Chapter 16
Continue the night talk
But that's what happened.
After Sun Zhuan'an and Nie Bozhao got married, they went to the oil base because Mulan Farm was not far away and Sun Zhuan's parents had many children.
It was the time of the great famine, and in order to avoid starvation, the whole family moved to the nearby Mulan Farm.
Sun Zhuanan is a career-oriented woman. If she takes care of her work, she cannot take care of her family.
In short, they quarreled a lot, but since they both had to go to work, they had to ask my mother-in-law to take care of the children.
And grandmother had a bad temper. Not only did she not cook properly, she also couldn't take good care of children. When Nie Weimin was only one year old, she would already quarrel with him.
For this reason, Nie Bozhao thought about having only one child, but who knew that Erdan would be born out of nowhere.
After Erdan gave birth, he was always very cautious and always used condoms during intercourse, but not long after, he had Sandan again.
Less than a year after Sandan was born, Nie Bozhao returned home by chance and found that his mother-in-law was secretly poking holes in condoms.
Because of this, he had a big fight with Sun Zhuan'an.
Sun Zhuan'an was not supposed to accompany the engineers to the base that day, but he left in a rage. As it turned out, the driver was a novice and did not pay attention to the crosswind in the desert. The car overturned and fell into a pit of sand.
Then, Sun's mother led several of her daughters and sons-in-law, her beloved eldest son Sun Dabao, and a group of fellow villagers from Mulan Farm to besiege Nie Bozhao and the base. In the end, not only did they take away Sun Zhuan'an's pension, but they also took away the monthly allowances for the three children.
It was also for this reason that Nie Bozhao had to send his three children back to his hometown, because he and his mother-in-law were now enemies.
"The quilts in that house, Sun Zhuannan's clothes, shoes, and even the pots and pans, were all taken away by the Sun family?" asked Chen Lina.
"yes."
The house was cleaned more thoroughly than the Homecoming Corps. If it weren't for the large bloody words, Chen Lina would never have believed that a woman had ever lived in this house.
"These three children are not the offspring of a boy, you gave birth to them all by yourself?"
"Comrade Xiao Chen, how can you say that?"
"Since it wasn't you who caused it all by yourself, even if Sun Zhuan'an died, she is still their mother. Besides, why should my mother-in-law take away the pension given by the base? These three children are freezing next to each other and they can't even afford a pair of cotton clothes?" Chen Lina asked back.
"Well, wasn't it the time of the revolution? The chief engineer was afraid that the people on the farm would cause trouble and hinder our production, so he agreed to give the money to my mother-in-law... oh no, my ex-mother-in-law. I'm afraid I'll have to discuss with the general industry and commerce about how to transfer it back," said Nie Bozhao.
Chen Lina thought about it and licked an orange slice. "Okay, don't worry about it. I'll take care of it."
"You?" Nie Bozhao raised his eyebrows, seeing how happily she ate, and licked his dry lips, as if he didn't believe it.
"As for me, Nie Bozhao, let's be frank in advance. I raise the children and manage the household, and you earn your salary for me to spend. If something embarrassing happens, you don't have to help me, but just don't help your ex-mother-in-law. If you want to help her, I will take the letter of introduction and leave immediately." Chen Lina said as she was wiping an apple with an eraser. It was a big apple, but she rubbed it into mud in a blink of an eye.
This time, Nie Bozhao didn't dare to say anything.
Taking the initiative to ask for help, he said, "If you have anything else to do, just tell me and I'll do it."
Chen Lina pointed outside and said, "It's freezing cold now. I finally dug up half a bathtub of soil and planned to plant some garlic sprouts and vegetables, but the bathtub is too big for me to move in. You move it in and put it in the living room. I'll plant some greenhouse vegetables for us."
A huge broken bathtub was piled under a pile of debris in the backyard and was found by Chen Lina. It is now too late to repair it.
But she also wanted to eat vegetables urgently, so she added some soil and water, and there should be enough green vegetables and garlic sprouts for the winter.
Nie Bozhao went out and saw that the bathtub was too big for him to move. He finally ran to the next door and called Xiao Chen, who was searching for radio stations with a small antenna on his shoulder. Together they moved the big basin into the living room.
At night, Nie Bozhao went back to sleep in the small bedroom.
"Why, Comrade Lao Nie, am I the White Bone Demon? Do you have to go to the next door and freeze yourself to death?" Chen Lina asked after washing her face and applying cold cream on it.
Nie Bozhao was shivering from the cold, but when he sat up he said righteously, "I'm not cold, I really am not cold, go and sleep with the children."
"You probably suspect that I'm a Soviet spy. Just think about it. What if I send out your coordinates? Soviet helicopters are circling in the sky every day. Aren't you afraid that I will send out the coordinates of the base?
When they come and bomb, with a bang, they will blow up a nodding machine, or even an oil well. How much damage will it cause? What if they accidentally blow up your refinery..."
Nie Bozhao immediately started to argue, "Comrade Xiao Chen, you can eat whatever you want but you can't talk nonsense. I beg you to shut up and go to sleep."
"What if I refuse?"
"You made a Soviet pen pal in high school, and you also received a Russian delegation. You can even accurately identify the model of Xiao Chen's car. Now you can even use military terms like coordinates. I can keep it a secret for you, but you can only say it at home. When you go out, you must be careful about your words and actions."
Chen Lina was also joking. Seeing Nie Bozhao's serious face, she knew his temper. Although he looked like an old cadre, he was not likely to scare people. She quickly said, "Okay, I was just joking. Are you trying to scare me?"
"Although the oil fields are well protected, there have been increasing frictions along the Sino-Soviet border recently. Border troops may conduct political reviews at any time and monitor radio transmissions. It's okay for you to listen to something.
But don’t play with the radio, it’s always being monitored. If the coordinates are really monitored and the border guards find the oil field, everyone will have a hard time.”
"Is it that exaggerated? I was just joking." Chen Lina was really a little scared.
She had lived in the mainland all her life and had experienced all kinds of hardships, so she thought the oil fields would be a pure land. She never expected that the oil fields would be so strict?
"Okay, border troops generally won't come, but I'll be there to support them even if they do." Seeing that Chen Lina was pretty frightened, Nie Bozhao felt a little bit reluctant.
"You? Do you doubt me too?" Chen Lina smiled. She saw the man blushing.
Well, he would secretly hide oranges for her and even blush. This man is quite interesting.
"I know why you are here, just stop making trouble." said Nie Bozhao.
For now, he has not decided whether to tell her the whereabouts of her pen pal. After all, she is so focused that she probably thinks that her pen pal is still alive.
This is fine, let her take care of the child for him first.
Chen Lina almost died of laughter when she saw how seriously he spoke, with the righteous and calm demeanor of an old revolutionary cadre.
She guessed that he thought of her as Su Xiu's spy, but he was reluctant to send her away. Chen Lina immediately imagined a "Beauty Trap" in her mind.
Well, she is a beautiful spy, and he is a righteous and stern border officer who would never be tempted by death.
"Let's sleep together, I won't eat you." Chen Lina said.
"Are you mashing an apple to eat it tomorrow morning?" Nie Bozhao turned it over, looking more curious than Erdan.
She is just like the snail girl. Even though she has nothing in her house, she can still create delicious food.
"Well, tomorrow morning, I'll conjure up a big bowl of apples for you." Chen Lina said with a smile. She ignored him and went to sleep.
Nie Bozhao was so cold that he went through many ideological struggles and finally quietly went back to the big kang in the middle of the night. After all, there were three children between them. If he didn't touch her, wouldn't that be enough?
Unlike Sun Zhuannan, whose name contains the word "男", her personality is also like that of a man. She never puts any ointment on her face even in the cold winter. When he was on a business trip, he bought her expensive cold cream, which she gave to her younger sisters.
Chen Lina always applies tea lotion before going to bed every night. After just a few days at the base, her skin has become even whiter than before.
Although he worked intensively all day, it still took Nie Bozhao a long time to fall asleep.
The next morning, Xiao Chen showed up at Nie Bozhao's door on time and came to have a free meal.
Today, Chen Lina used the little rice left to make porridge. It was still a soft, boiled bun, which was fine. In the middle was a large plate of covered radish slices. Erdan rushed over like a little tiger, picked up a slice with his chopsticks, and was about to eat the steamed bun when he heard Chen Lina say, "Erdan, we have guests at home."
Nie Weimin washed his face and brushed his teeth cleanly today. He was a quiet and gentle young man. He walked up to Xiao Chen and extended his hand to invite him, "Uncle Xiao, please have dinner."
Xiao Chen stretched out a hand from his woolen coat and said, "Comrade Chen, here are a few packets of egg instant noodles. Keep them for the children."
Nie Weimin exclaimed, but Erdan didn't even look at the instant noodles. He ate the pickled radish with the hot steamed bun and said, "Mom, it tastes like apple."
Cut a large carrot into slices, add salt water and sugar to season it, then marinate it with apple juice overnight. In the morning, it will taste like apples.
This big radish with apple flavor successfully defeated instant noodles and became the favorite of the three children.
After Nie Bozhao and Xiao Chen left, Chen Lina tied her big cotton coat on her back, put it on her back, and dragged Erdan along. Nie Weimin followed behind her awkwardly, and the three of them went out together.
Today, she was determined to get back the pensions for her three children.
When I was in the monastery, I met Sister Wang. She said, "Comrade Chen, your method is really good. One egg, slowly baked over a low heat, and today I ate two rolls."
A little girl stood next to Sister Wang and called out sweetly, "Hello, Auntie Chen."
A group of children gathered around, chattering and calling out "Hello, Auntie."
Of course, the review process for admitting people to the oil base is extremely strict, and the children haven't seen outsiders for a long time.
Besides, since they just got married, they must give out wedding candies.
Chen Lina did not lie. She put a handful of candies in her pocket and gave one candy to each person. The children couldn't wait to open the candy wrappers and lick the candies one by one.
At this time, there was only one little girl with dirty sleeves and snot all over her face, hiding in a corner. She didn't grab the candy, but followed everyone and picked up the candy wrappers that everyone threw away. Chen Lina came over and gave her a White Rabbit and a peanut cookie. The little girl sniffed her snot, said thank you auntie, turned around and ran away.
A very pretty little girl with big eyes, very beautiful. Chen Lina somehow felt that she looked familiar.
"That was the daughter of our Mr. Liu. She had a fever, and her mother was worried and went out to find medicine for her. In the cold weather, she got lost in the snowy desert and froze to death. A child without a mother is like a weed, so pitiful." Sister Wang said.
Chen Lina took a look and said, "How pitiful."
But that’s exactly what happened to the three Nie Weimin brothers when they were in their hometown. Because they had no mother, they were always bullied.
Just take Nie Bozhao as an example. He hasn't married for fifteen years, and Sun Zhuannan's mother is so powerful and a shrew. How miserable would the three children have lived in this oil base without her?
No wonder the two children went astray.
Not far from the monastic area is the office building of the oil base. Of course, although the entire oil field does not belong to the military, it is also under militarized management, and the security personnel patrolling outside are all armed with live ammunition.
When we got to the gatehouse of the office building, Chen Lina smiled and said, "I am the wife of Nie Gong. I heard that our base will be distributing wages these two days, and the maintenance money for these children should also be coming in. Comrade, can I go in and take a look?"
Chen Lina asked Sister Wang, and she came to ask for it because the base was about to pay wages.
Although Nie Bozhao did not have any other position at the base, he was an engineer. He was usually humble and looked gentle and handsome. When the guard heard that she was his lover, he looked at her a few more times.
"Today we are issuing it to our unit, and tomorrow the accountant will go to Umayyad to go out of town. If you are really in a hurry, hurry up." The guard said as he let Chen Lina in.
When she arrived at the accounting office, Chen Lina saw that there were two accountants, a man and a woman, and the woman was a little younger.
But when he saw that she had a family and children, he specifically looked for this woman and asked, "Comrade, I am the wife of a worker. Has the child support for these three children been paid today?"
After all, everyone in the base knew each other. The two accountants looked at each other, and the female accountant asked, "What's your name, comrade?"
"My last name is Chen."
"Comrade Xiao Chen, the situation regarding the maintenance of these three children is as follows. All along, our unit has agreed that we will send a car to Umay tomorrow and send the money to Loulan Farm by registered mail.
But it’s for Huang Huacai, the mother of Sun Zhuan’s male Sun Gong. If you want to transfer the money to you, I’m afraid you have to discuss this with Huang Huacai and Nie Gong first, after all…”
After all, Sun's mother was a very fierce person. After Sun Zhuan'an died, the experts and family members from Beijing were not as fierce as her. Even now, people at the base are still trembling with fear when they hear about her.
"We are in the same base, comrade, and I'm sure you all know the situation in my family. As for the upbringing of three children, I think they should make the decision themselves. Look at them now. They can't even afford a cotton coat in the middle of winter. I'm not greedy for that little money, but I have to buy cotton coats for the three children."
Chen Lina dressed up deliberately to look tacky today, wearing only a half-new floral cotton jacket, while the two children were dressed neatly.
But Nie Weimin was wearing a long cotton-padded coat for women, which belonged to Chen Lina. It was so long that it almost dragged on the ground. The wind blew through the coat, and the child was so cold that his nose was running.
The two accountants looked at each other, both feeling a little embarrassed.
Chen Lina was also straightforward, "How about this, if Sun Gong's mother can't get paid and comes to make trouble, you can ask her to come to me and Nie Gong, and I will take care of it."
The two accountants were still in a dilemma. "How about we ask the leader for instructions?"
So the female accountant went to ask her leader for instructions.
Chen Lina came out with her three children and waited in the corridor.
"You think you're the only one who's vicious? My grandmother is really vicious, huh." Nie Weimin said angrily, "We definitely can't get that money."
"Comrade Xiao Nie, if you want to get the money, your attitude is very important. Let me ask you, do you want to eat vegetables, do you want to wear a new cotton-padded jacket and go out to play? Also, we sleep on the same big kang. You are an adult now, and you know how to be shy. Don't you want a separate room of your own?" Chen Lina asked back.
Nie Weimin looked at the ugly woman's cotton coat on himself, and thought about how Chen Tiantian would laugh at him, and he wished he could take it off and throw it away immediately.
But as for rolling on the kang, why did he think it was quite nice to quietly listen to his father and Chen Lina chatting at night?
He turned his head away and stopped talking.
After a while, the accountant came back.
After discussing in a low voice for a while with the male accountant, they solemnly invited Chen Lina in.
The male accountant cleared his throat and said formally, "Our President Wang said that the child support is for the three children, and the children's opinions are the most important. Now I want to ask, Dadan, Erdan and Sandan, who would you like to get your child support?"
The two children were used to calling Chen Lina, especially Erdan, whose voice was so loud and clear, "Mom, ask mom to get us something delicious."
"It's a big egg. Who should take it?" the male accountant asked Nie Weimin.
He hated being called "Big Egg" the most. His face flushed and he held it in for a long time before he said, "I want to manage it myself. If my grandmother takes it, she will only give it to my second aunt, third aunt, fourth aunt, fifth aunt, and my uncle."
The two accountants burst into laughter, and Chen Lina also laughed out loud, "Comrade Xiao Nie, let me ask you, how many aunts do you have?"
"Okay, the minority must obey the majority. Let Comrade Xiao Chen take charge of it first. However, how did she spend the money? Did she spend it on the children? Comrade Xiao Nie, you can check her accounts when the time comes. Is that okay?" The male accountant laughed and said.
Obviously, they also hope that after Sun Gong's death, the monthly support money can fall on the three children.
It can be said that it was effortless and Chen Lina got the thirty yuan for this month.
However, when she was leaving, the female accountant rushed out and said to Chen Lina, "Comrade Chen, I have to give you a psychological warning in advance. Sun Gong himself is very powerful, and her mother is even more powerful. If she doesn't receive the registered mail and the money this month, she will definitely make trouble. You should be prepared in advance."
Chen Lina had money in her pocket and her child in her hand, but she was really laughing in her heart. As the saying goes, if glass is hard to remove, there is a diamond drill to cure it. I am that diamond drill, specializing in curing shrews...