Chapter 187
Danish Cookies
oilfield middle school.
Principal Chai was giving evening self-study lessons to the senior class when he saw someone waving from outside the window.
"Su Dong, young man, what brings you here?" After the evening self-study class, Principal Chai came out and shook Su Xiangdong's hand.
Su Xiangdong was still wearing his blue work clothes. He lit a cigarette and said, "I came here with Deng Dongya's delegation. How come he didn't come to see you, since you and he were classmates?"
"That night, the leader of the mining area invited us to dinner. When I went in, I saw a table full of wine. I got angry and passed out. I heard that he was drunk and had gastric bleeding. He is still lying in the hospital. Why, did you follow him here?"
Dong Xiangdong took a puff of cigarette and said, "In Daqing, the leaders are superficial and none of them are willing to do real work. I quit and plan to work on my own. I came here to investigate and see if the border is a place where I can show my talents."
Su Xiangdong is a native of Shanghai. His great-grandfather was sent abroad by Li Hongzhang to study, and was among the first batch of overseas students.
After returning, they built industries and opened factories under the Beiyang Navy. From the Republic of China to before liberation, they were the largest tax payers in Shanghai. After liberation, everything was nationalized. Of course, the first ten years were a devastating disaster for them.
Only Su Xiangdong managed to survive in Daqing alone.
He had been brought up with Western manners since childhood. Although he looked rough on the outside, he was a gentleman at heart. If there was such a thing as aristocracy in the Republic, he was the only one who was qualified to be called one.
While smoking, he pointed at the children who were doing morning exercises and said, "High school students have such a tight schedule, and you don't let them go back to the dormitory after evening self-study. Why do they still have to do morning exercises?"
"Morality, will, physical fitness, aesthetics and labor are all indispensable. If you don't exercise your body, how can you all become nerds?" Principal Chai trained these students like soldiers. During the half-hour running time after evening self-study, everyone was sweating profusely.
Su Dong looked at the children running past him, one by one.
Among the children in the first grade of high school, in the last row, there is a tall one, with two deep big eyes, thick eyebrows like swords, thin and tall. His skin is not like the other children. It has a healthy highland red, delicate and fair hair, and a crew cut close to his scalp. He looks very energetic.
"That one, must be Nie Weimin, he looks so much like his father." Su Xiangdong said.
He looks handsome and energetic. There are only two words to describe him: spirit.
Principal Chai was quite proud. "Yes, at least for now, he is the child in the first grade class that I have the most hope for."
"Just like his father, he has a good brain, but he is a nerd like his father. It is better for him not to read books. I look down on such children." Su Xiangdong said deliberately.
Principal Chai doesn't think so. "If you think he's a nerd, you're totally wrong. I'm telling you, watch carefully. He'll be gone after running around here. Do you believe it?"
At night, there was only one big searchlight on the playground, so the children's shadows could not be seen clearly. But when he looked carefully, Nie Weimin was gone when he looked around again.
"Where did this kid go?" Su Xiangdong asked.
Principal Chai led Su Xiangdong to jog to the end of the playground. He pointed to the girls' dormitory and said, "One lap is 800 meters, and the other end of the playground is 300 meters away from the girls' dormitory. Did you see that he ran from behind the pine tree, entered the girls' dormitory and came back, just in time for another lap."
"This guy broke into the girls' dormitory. He is very brave. He must have done this more than once or twice, and no one has ever caught him," said Su Xiangdong.
"At this time, the dormitory manager of the girls' dormitory would leave for five minutes to get hot water for the girls, so he was able to get in. This was one reason. Secondly, he only went in during morning exercises and never set foot there at other times.
Moreover, when they were doing exercise, the teacher who accompanied them was too old to run fast, so he ran a little slower than them. Only now, in the third lap, he would run at the front of the team, and he was in the last row, the last one, so no one could find him. "
A lawless person like Su Xiangdong absolutely did not dare to enter restricted areas like the girls' dormitory when he was in high school. After all, if a boy entered a girls' dormitory, he would be treated as a hooligan and expelled.
"Principal Chai, what you hate most is students falling in love too early. Don't you want to arrest him for this kind of hooligan behavior?"
Principal Chai crossed his arms, feeling helpless. "First, what he did did not affect his studies. Second, I know that he was just giving something to a girl, and he doesn't do this every day. Today, his mother gave him a box of cookies brought by Deng Dongya. The reason why he went to the girls' dormitory should be to give cookies to a girl."
And there are only two girls in the first grade class.
One of them is shorter, with a round baby face. She is the daughter of District Chief Gao of the autonomous region, Gao Xiaobing. Although her name is "bing", she looks very sweet, just like a little girl.
The other one was quite tall, and her facial features could not be clearly seen in the dark, but judging from her figure, she was undoubtedly a girl with a good temperament.
Su Xiangdong suddenly became interested. "Kids nowadays always like to pass notes or something. You can't hide this from your eyes. Who does Nie Weimin like to pass notes to?"
Principal Chai and his friend from Shanghai would gossip a little. "The short one has a good family background. Boys, for now, are more interested in the daughters of high-ranking officials. So the short one received more notes. As for the tall one, although she is pretty, her family background is not good. I haven't seen anyone pass her notes."
"So, Nie Weimin risked being caught as a hooligan to deliver cookies to the short guy?"
"The girls' dormitory is a forbidden area for everyone except the dormitory manager and the female instructors, so I don't know either." Principal Chai spread his hands and said, "Let's go to the office and have some tea. To be honest, do you have any intention of coming to the mining area? I have to tell you that whether a place can develop and whether a person can make a career in a place is inseparable from a person's own ability and has a great relationship with the leadership of that place. I am a teacher. I don't want to do anything else except teaching, but I think this place is a place where I can show my talents, so, taking advantage of the new policy, have you considered coming here to make a career?"
Su Xiangdong said firmly, "Yes, very, very much. Moreover, Nie Weimin is a real talent."
A child who is bold, contemptuous, and capable of defying the law is perfect for being his subordinate.
After the students finish their morning exercises, it’s time to go back to the dormitory.
Because of the discrimination of Principal Chai and because there were not many good girls in the mining area, there were only two girls in the first grade of Oilfield Middle School. Gao Xiaobing was just like her mother, strong-willed and heartless. She kept chattering about the boy she hated even more. If the boy came to copy her homework today, she would go into the dormitory with Liu Xiaohong.
When Liu Xiaohong saw that her pillowcase was folded diagonally, her heart skipped a beat.
"Let's go and get some water," said Gao Xiaobing.
"You go first, I'll be there soon." Liu Xiaohong said, reaching her hand under the pillow and touching a hard iron box. She immediately retracted her hand as if it had been bitten by a bug.
After Gao Xiaobing went out, she took out an iron box and opened it. Inside were cookies that had been opened individually and exuded a cheese aroma.
In the district government's family compound, Mr. Nie and Miss Chen were still testing each other's souls to see who was more handsome.
"Need I say more? In my eyes, you are more handsome than anyone else. No one can compare to you, my laborer," said Chen Lina.
"Okay, let's drive quickly and go to bed." Mr. Nie was very happy at first, but after Chen Lina finished answering, he became unhappy again.
"What's wrong? Don't you believe it? I didn't lie to you. Deng Dongya is just a little more humorous and funnier than you. In my eyes, there is no other man except you." Chen Lina said hurriedly.
She felt that what she said was sincere enough. What did this person want to do by acting like this?
"Xiao Chen." The worker paused and said, "If someone wants to lie, you can tell from her heartbeat, voice, and skin changes. Why, seeing that Deng Dongya insisted on working even though he was so sick, not visiting private patients, not wasting his classmates' feelings, and sticking to principles, you really admire him, right?"
Alas, many people think that to get along with a woman, all you have to do is please her. But in fact, a woman like Chen Lina appreciates a man who is more capable than herself.
Chen Lina got up early in the morning. The female workers at the wool defense factory had not yet gone to work, so she hurried out to buy groceries.
She sprained her waist a little and it hurt when she walked. She had to stop and rub her waist from time to time.
The person who lived next door to her was Xiaofang from the office. Seeing that the worker was brushing his teeth outside, she said to Xiaoqin from the same dormitory, "Xiaoqin, look at our secretary's family. They are so handsome."
"Yes, he is really handsome. But I was really scared when he came to ask for the door panels last night," said Xiaoqin.
Xiaofang snorted, "Don't mention it. He'll probably be angry."
The bed board in the woolen textile factory was thin to begin with, and the laborious movements were not very intense. After only a few strokes, the bed board collapsed with a click, and Chen Lina was stuck in the broken bed board.
The laborer dragged her out, and since he heard there were two beds next door, he went over and borrowed one.
When they were young, they were very reserved and would choose the right time before having sex. But as they got older, they became more and more promiscuous and would have sex every day.
The two girls next door were scared.
"I have to say one more thing, our worker is really handsome." Xiaofang said while combing her hair in front of the mirror.
As a result, the laborer passed by, wiped the foam from his mouth with a towel and said, "Only dishonest people talk about other people's appearance!"
The two girls looked at each other, and he had already opened the dormitory door and walked in.
Chen Lina made some dumplings with mutton filling, and used the hot dough to bake a few thin and soft lasagna. She then sent the worker home to get two loaves of bread that she had baked yesterday.
There were many borrowed beehive coal stoves, one for heating milk and another for cooking porridge.
In short, she made such a sumptuous breakfast today that all the girls in the dormitory area were attracted to the secretary's dormitory.
Of course, these were prepared for Deng Dongya.
Deng Dongya had a terrible stomachache and almost didn't sleep all night. He was lying in a hospital bed.
"Leader, there's another call from Beijing, urging you to go to Hongyan," said Director Zhao.
Deng Dongya was unhappy. "Is it Mr. Chen? What is the relationship between him and Ma Xiaofang? Why does he keep calling me and urging me?"
Director Zhao spread his hands and said nothing.
Just then, the worker came in with Chen Lina, carrying his lunch box.
Deng Dongya had a terrible stomachache, but he still stood up and shook hands with the worker.
The Shanghai Automobile Factory is now facing a very severe transformation. There are not many people in China who understand automobiles, but Nie Gong can be regarded as a pioneer in automobile research and development. Why? Because his expertise is petroleum, and petroleum is made for automobiles.
Deng Dongya had to trouble Nian Gong for many things regarding the Shanghai Automobile Factory, so of course he had to force himself to chat with him.
Nie Gong shook hands with him, patted him on the shoulder, and went out again.
Let Miss Chen sit down and chat alone with the man she admires. This is a huge thing that a worker must have.
"Mutton dumplings. I don't have an appetite for this now." Deng Dongya said after opening the lunch box.
Chen Lina brought over the porridge, which was white porridge she cooked herself. However, the rice in the border areas was different from that in the inland areas. The new varieties of rice were particularly oily, with a layer of milk skin on the surface.
When Deng Dongya smelled the porridge cooked in a small pot, he said, "How about I have a couple of sips of porridge?"
"Don't worry about not being able to finish the food. Just have a few bites of each. I have many children at home, and they can finish everything after school at noon," said Chen Lina.
Deng Dongya then tried to drink a few mouthfuls of porridge. There was also milk in it. The milk in the border areas was different from that in the inland areas. At least it was not diluted with water. It smelled like milk.
He then drank another half glass of milk in one go.
After a while, my stomach gradually felt queasy, and I no longer had that heart-wrenching feeling as if it was being squeezed by a large hand.
So he picked up the dumplings again, and Chen Lina brought over the plate of condiments.
"I'm not jealous."
"This is soy sauce. I knew that you southerners don't like to dip cakes in vinegar. Besides, your stomach now can't eat anything too spicy." Chen Lina said.
The dumplings are small and can be eaten in one bite. There is not much meat in them, but they are full of juice and are still hot.
Deng Dongya said that he would not eat, but he ate half of his lunch box before he put down his chopsticks. "To be honest, I want to try your Thousand Layer Pancake, but if I eat more, I will die."
"You are still a patient. We have a meeting this afternoon. You should lie down and have a good sleep. However, I don't know if you know anything about the seed base on our border."
Deng Dongya didn't know what Chen Lina wanted to say, so he stopped and looked at her.
She said, "Our entire border has had a new policy since 1976 to help some European and American countries breed seeds, and these seeds have been genetically recombined. This is not the problem, but this kind of breeding.
The other party has to pay our farm, but the farm does not receive any payment. The payment is embezzled by some people. Another point is that the other party's seeds are different from our Mulan Farm seeds. They do not have the characteristics of species. Because the other party's seeds have a high yield, farmers will completely abandon their original old seeds and use their seeds.
But gradually, as a major agricultural country, we have no seeds of our own and can only rely on imported seeds. Do you understand what this means?"
Although Deng Dongya knew nothing about agriculture, this was a very obvious truth.
He said, "Our seeds have become extinct, and our food has been controlled from the source."
"The seed war has been going on all the time. It is the norm, just like two countries at war, you fire a shot and I fire a shot back. However, some people use this as a tough policy to suppress others. Dongya, do you think it is serious to exterminate the seeds of a nation? And if you turn paid compensation into unpaid compensation, where does the money go?"
Deng Dongya did not say a word at the time, but sat on the bed for a long time. Despite the doctors' continued efforts, he insisted on being discharged from the hospital.
Sitting on the bedside table in the hotel, he picked up the phone and called someone.
Well, one for Nie Gong and one for Deng Dongya, one up and one down, just two phone calls.
Ma Xiaofang may not think it's a big deal at the moment, but the background she is so proud of will probably collapse soon.
It’s the same old saying, if you don’t do it, you won’t die.
It's already afternoon in the blink of an eye.
Deng Dongya sat in the back of the car on the way to the district government and said, "Chen Lina, use your eloquence to convince our inspection team. To be honest, I have a big prejudice against your place because I was forced to drink. But if you can convince the twelve people I bring, I am still willing to set up the Shanghai Garment Factory here."