Chapter 26

Small leather shoes

At noon, Sister Wang also came over. "Xiao Chen, I heard that Liu Han's family has some good stuff recently. Let's go and take a look. I heard that Wang Fan's mother found a lot of good stuff at Liu's house yesterday."

The families of the base, such as Chief Engineer Wang's wife and Qian Jinyi's family, who are well-off, always like to go shopping for good stuff. Chen Zili is the team leader, and his salary is OK, but his main income comes from repairing cars for places like Mulan Farm, so his family is also relatively well-off.

As for Sister Wang, just like Chen Lina in her previous life, to put it bluntly, she is born with a desire to shop.

Born on the border, the good stuff from the Soviet Union was unaffordable for the people in the Corps farms, and the situation in the city was even more turbulent, so only the families of the oil bases could consume it.

So Chen Tiantian has a little skirt to wear and a particularly beautiful floral headscarf to wear, and as long as the children don't leave the oil base, no one will say anything.

The little girl is a flower and a pretty one.

Brother Nie Weimin really likes to hang around this colorful butterfly.

Several children ran together, and Chen Tiantian was immediately surrounded in the middle.

However, everyone's focus today was on Liu Xiaohong. She was wearing a pair of red leather shoes with fur inside, which looked really pretty.

However, her clothes were still the same, a tattered cotton coat without even a cover. How should I put it? It was like a foxtail grass planted in a very valuable flowerpot.

It’s not that Chen Lina thinks Liu Xiaohong is not pretty or lovable.

She lived to be over 50 years old without having any children. She was born infertile and treated her dogs as her own children. She loved every child she saw and wanted to play with them. But Liu Xiaohong's behavior was really weird.

As for the Liu family, they don't look like ordinary families in the base.

The drivers of the trucks did not have such good conditions as the leaders. Two families lived in one yard, sharing the kitchen and fire, one family had a big bedroom, and the other had a small bedroom. However, the person living with Liu Han was Xiao Chen, who was still single, so he did not take up much space.

Sun Xiaoai was said to have been the wife of a border officer, but no one knew how she came back from the Tacheng border. Now, after losing her husband for more than a year, she has married Liu Han. Chen Lina heard all this from Sister Wang.

As soon as she saw Chen Lina, she was particularly enthusiastic. "Hey, Xiao Chen, come in and take a look. Is there anything you like in our house?"

"Our base is strictly managed, right? How did you get these things in?" Chen Lina said as she flipped through the items. She actually found a small leather jacket made of otter rabbit skin from the Soviet Union. It had a layer of thick fur inside and the skin was dark green in color, which was particularly beautiful.

"Well, in difficult times, leaders also know that employees are in trouble, and these things on our border are all open. The one I left out was at the Tacheng border, where we met Soviet patrol soldiers. The Soviet soldiers saluted, and they turned around and farted. However, if our soldiers threw money over, the other side would throw something back. The Soviets are rich now, and these things were all thrown over from there."

The Soviet Union was once the most powerful country in the world before it collapsed. It was indeed rich, but it was also because it was too rich that it collapsed after only a few years.

Chen Lina stroked the otter rabbit fur jacket and couldn't let it go. "How much is this?"

Sun Xiaoai said, "It's not expensive, just a hundred yuan."

"It's already very expensive." Chen Lina said, and withdrew her hand.

It's not just expensive, it's astronomically expensive.

The prices of goods in the border areas were originally higher than those in the inland areas. In the era when a pound of meat cost only one yuan, a leather jacket cost 100 yuan, which was the price of a luxury item in later generations.

"Look, Xiao Chen, this coat is covered with a layer of windproof cotton. Wear it so that no one can see what you are wearing inside. It is warm. I am sweating even when I walk in this cold weather." As Liu Xiaoai was about to put the coat on Chen Lina, she said, "Xiao Chen, your skin is so delicate. There are few people with fair skin like you in our border areas."

Chen Lina quickly shook it off and said, "Comrade Xiao Ai, I have a hot body and cannot wear this thing. Please don't put it on me."

Sun Xiaoai said embarrassedly and let go of his hand.

Sister Wang looked around and fell in love with the pair of small leather shoes that Liu Xiaohong was wearing. "How much are these shoes? I want to buy a pair for my daughter."

"Not expensive, just eight bucks."

The small leather shoes cost only eight yuan, and the child's feet are small, so they will basically only last for two seasons. Of course, Sister Wang was reluctant to part with them.

Chen Lina, however, didn't even frown as she bought a pair of small cotton shoes for each of the three children, which cost a total of twenty-four yuan.

You know, big cotton shoes with cloth covers can't withstand the cold in the border areas where the temperature can easily drop to minus 20 or 30 degrees Celsius.

Sandan was in Chen Lina's arms. Nie Weimin and Erdan, who were originally carrying a stick each, threw away the sticks and immediately tried on shoes.

New cotton-padded clothes and new cotton-padded leather shoes. As soon as they put them on, the two children immediately felt that their toes, which had always been frozen, were now incredibly warm.

In this situation, it’s a matter of comparing who is richer and who is poorer.

When Sun Xiaoai saw Chen Lina swiping out three big reunion tickets, her eyes lit up. "My brother-in-law's salary is still higher. Look at the big reunion tickets that Xiao Chen took out. They are brand new and you can hear the swiping sound. My brother-in-law's monthly salary is probably more than 200, right?"

"I don't know the details. You have to ask him himself." Chen Lina smiled, took the six yuan change from Sun Xiaoai, and prepared to go home to cook.

Sun Xiaoai chased out again and said, "Xiao Chen, do you want some good stuff?"

"What good stuff?" Chen Lina smelled the woman's fragrant scent. Women, after all, like cosmetics, so Chen Lina could tell at once that this was the smell of cologne, and that was the perfume used by men. This woman was really strange, she actually used men's perfume.

"Sewing machine, I'll sell it to you for sixty yuan." Sun Xiaoai said.

Chen Lina shook her head decisively. "We have plenty of clothes at home. We don't need to sew new clothes. We don't need that thing. Forget it."

After walking for a long time, Chen Lina didn't see the two brothers. She turned around and saw the two children jumping on the road like fighting chickens.

"Why don't you walk faster? I have to hurry home to cook for you." said Chen Lina.

Nie Weimin jumped on his tiptoes, sweating profusely. "The ground is dirty."

"Then take off your shoes and walk with them in your arms."

It was just a joke, but Erdan actually started to take off his shoes. Chen Lina quickly said, "Okay, okay, don't worry about your feet getting frozen, just walk carefully."

"What should I do if my shoes are dirty?" Nie Weimin cleaned them up cutely.

"If it gets dirty, just wipe it yourself," said Chen Lina.

Nie Weimin was unhappy. "Are you going to clean Sandan'er's shoes yourself?"

A pair of small shoes the size of a palm costs eight yuan. If his grandmother knew about this, she would probably take the shoes off Sandan's feet immediately and put them up as a sacrifice.

Moreover, in fact, this mother is very lazy. His grandmother has never let him carry coal or firewood, but she keeps asking him to carry coal and firewood for her every day. What if he carries coal, won’t his little leather shoes get dirty?

Chen Lina said, "He doesn't walk much, so if his shoes get dirty, I will of course clean them for him, but you two have to clean yours yourselves. What? Do you still want to be lazy?"

Nie Weimin ran away on tiptoe.

Erdan was also curious for a moment. When he saw his brother running away, he didn't care whether his shoes would get dirty from stepping on the snow, and he ran away like a little Hot Wheels.

When he came back in the evening, smelling the delicious food, Nie Bozhao ran to the kitchen.

"You said there was no more cooking oil, but I smell it and it still smells like cooking oil."

Chen Lina was stewing a large lamb chop, and she said, "I exchanged it with Xiao Chen for an unopened box of vanishing cream."

"Why, you met Xiao Chen, why didn't you tell me?" Nie Bozhao still remembered that in the first two days after he came, Xiao Chen wanted to enter the house, but she didn't let him.

Chen Lina said, "He is a single man who never cooks and keeps a lot of cleaning oil. When we meet, he always says that I smell good. Well, he just likes vanishing cream. I exchange vanishing cream for cleaning oil, right?"

Nie Bozhao thought to himself, he said you smell good, maybe he thinks the vanishing cream smells good.

But Xiao Chen is just that kind of person, he is always attentive to everyone he meets.

He must have been very depressed to get a bottle of vanishing cream for no reason, since he didn't use it himself. Haha, her way of shutting people up is rare.

Braised lamb leg. Meat is the staple food here. There is nothing fresh about it. The main thing is her garlic sprouts and scallions, which are all grown by herself. They are not like the garlic sprouts bought from the Umay Supply and Marketing Cooperative, which are too old and have a fishy smell and a pungent aroma.

She fried a plate of freshly grown Chinese cabbage with cooking oil and added vinegar. The cabbage tasted sour and fragrant. The steamed buns were soft and fluffy. They were just out of the steamer and were still hot. Erdan took the opportunity to grab one and took big bites of it.

This little guy can eat two of these hot steamed buns at a time.

Seeing his eldest son squatting at his feet, polishing his little leather shoes, Nie Bozhao was shocked again. "Why did you buy them leather shoes? Didn't his grandmother say that boys have a bad temper and can't wear little leather shoes?"

"You have a bad temper. Are you happy about having frostbite?" Really, Chen Lina has never seen a man with such no life experience.

"Chen Lina, can you stop making fun of me? Can you talk without saying anything? Are you a machine gun? Why can't you just talk to me properly?"

"Why didn't I talk to you nicely? It's because you have too little life experience. Look at the life you live." For an engineer who earns 300 yuan a month to be able to live with nothing at home is really amazing.

"I didn't beg you to come. You insisted on coming here. Otherwise, I would never have planned to remarry." Nie Bozhao's voice became weaker and weaker.

"Dad did. Didn't he take me to meet Aunt Ai?" Nie Weimin spoke again.

Nie Bozhao stopped immediately and said, "Wei Min, how can you talk like that?"

Chen Lina found it interesting. A plate of newly sprouted greens, which had not even grown any tendons, were brought to the table with vinegar and oil. She smiled as she watched Nie Weimin dig and dig, and asked, "Tell me, what's going on with Auntie Ai?"

"Protect the people!" Nie Bozhao shook his head but did not try to stop him because the kid had already started talking.

"When my mother first left, we went to the farm and Auntie Ai gave me candy."

"Okay, Lao Nie, didn't you say you wouldn't get married for fifteen years? As soon as Sun Gong died, you were in a hurry to find yourself a wife, and a distant sister-in-law from your mother's side. Ha, you are quite interesting."

"That's not the case."

"Tell me what's going on."

"She said she wanted to help me raise a child, and everyone in Sun's family agreed, but I felt that the two of us might not be suitable."

How should I put it? When it comes to taking care of their own children, any man would definitely think that his wife's family should be better.

Moreover, Huang Huacai also said that if Sun Xiaoai helped him raise the children and did not get married for the time being, she could agree to it, but she would definitely not agree to it if she wanted someone else.

Huang Huacai didn't want to give up engineer Nie Bozhao, and of course she also wanted to promote her own daughter Sun Duoyu, but Nie Bozhao refused to accept her, so she changed the name to her cousin Sun Xiaoai.

But ever since Nie Bozhao's grandson was born as a boy, he would tremble whenever he heard the word "grandson" and would never accept it. Only then was the matter over.

But he didn't expect that Sun Xiaoai would marry a truck driver like Liu Han.

Comrade Xiao Chen was very calm. After finishing his meal, he removed the roots of the Chinese cabbages in the big basin and planted a new crop of rapeseed. Even if they were just vegetables, they had to be eaten in different ways.

The three children played on the same kang, and they were very good playmates. Nie Weimin was always a policeman, Erdan was always a thief, and Sandan followed behind his two brothers with his mouth drooling for a long time.

Sometimes they are accomplices of the thief, sometimes they are companions of the police. The three children are having a lot of fun.

However, Chen Lina thinks that it would be better to have two more girls, but she cannot give birth, which is really a pity!

Nie Bozhao came out after washing the dishes. Even though the house was so noisy, he still felt it was a little too quiet and thought about it for a long time.

Yes, it’s Chen Lina. She is so quiet today, as quiet as when she was pretending to be stupid.

"I can also explain Sun Xiaoai's matter." Nie Bozhao said, feeling uneasy.

Under the light, a twenty-year-old girl stood up from the big bathtub with a smile on her face.

Nie Bozhao had experienced how jealous women could be in this kind of matter.

For example, he himself was born into a red family, his adoptive parents were both cadres, and he was handsome and tall. There were many female classmates with excellent family backgrounds and extraordinary charm who would pursue him openly or secretly.

Besides, he is easy-going by nature. Even if it is not a pursuit between a man and a woman, we are college classmates and we will always talk about ideals and life.

It was fine before his last marriage. His son didn't care about these things and encouraged him to interact with female classmates.

But once you get married, things are different.

She would check his letters at any time, and whenever a female classmate wrote to her, she would immediately get angry, look unhappy, and find reasons to quarrel with him.

Because she was three years older than him, she always felt that he would like those young and pretty female classmates of the same age as him more.

But she would invite female classmates to the border to visit them and see how they lived as a couple, and she would entertain them warmly.

Of course, in front of their classmates, they were a like-minded couple, a pair of ideal models who worked hard in the frontier and dedicated their youth to the motherland. At all times, their hands were held together.

However, once the female classmates left, the torture began.

Did he look at his female classmates and smile at them for every word they said to them? Did he think they were prettier?

Every drop and every point would become a reason for her to doubt that he didn't love her.

The days passed just like the weather in the desert: cold in the morning and gauze in the afternoon, a thrilling combination of ice and fire.

Therefore, Nie Bozhao was very scared at the moment, fearing that he would have another quarrel with his new wife and it would never end.

The girl under the lamp raised her eyebrows and smiled sweetly, "What's there to explain? With a woman as good as me, I am confident that you, Nie Bozhao, will never fall in love with anyone else."

How big a face does one have to have to be so confident!

"Well, can I go to the big bedroom tonight?"

The small bedroom was really cold, and each household had a limited amount of coal per month. For his own sake, Nie Bozhao didn't need to build another fire wall.

"Don't even think about it until you realize your own mistakes."

Bang, the bedroom door closed again.