Chapter 32

Wrap

Spring rolls are of course the best dish to go with porridge.

But in this border area, there is rice, but no ground rice noodles.

Chen Lina herself is very picky about food. She has to eat whatever she wants. If she can't have it, she will be very upset.

So, she used flour to make powder, and followed the same method as making steamed buns. She first washed off the fascia inside, then spread it on a small flat aluminum pan and soaked it in water. When it came out, it became a thin spring cake, but it was thinner than the spring cake made from flour, and tasted very much like a spring roll.

After a while, she called out and three children ran in immediately, followed by Chen Tiantian, who was wearing a pink cotton-padded jacket and pink cloth shoes. But her hair was messy. People call her a yellow-haired girl. When little girls are young, it seems that their hair is always messy.

"Auntie Chen, are the wraps really delicious?" The little girl bit her lip, a little unconvinced.

It seems that the main dishes are easy to prepare, but the snacks are quite troublesome to prepare.

There is actually no shortage of tomatoes in the border area. The base issues a lot of vegetable coupons, but there are only a few kinds of vegetables. The most common ones are tomatoes, potatoes, and cabbage.

She spread the tomato sauce on the thin spring pancakes that had just been rolled out, and added a few green bean sprouts that she had grown in a thermos, and shredded and fried Chinese cabbage. Each pancake was only the size of a palm, and she could eat it in one bite. It was delicious with porridge.

Xiao Chen ate one in one gulp, raised his thumb, and said, "It would be even more delicious if there was also roast duck."

There was also roast duck. The most distributed animal at the base this year was lamb. Even the beef was thirty pounds less than in previous years. The families had no meat to eat. The oil workers went hunting rabbits all over the mountains and fields as soon as they got off work. There were only four chickens, let alone ducks.

Chen Lina didn't say anything. She wrapped one for Sandaner and fed it into his mouth. Seeing him chewing it, she also wrapped one for herself.

"Sister-in-law has education and diploma, but after arriving at the base, does she have no intention of working?" Xiao Chen asked after taking a big sip of porridge.

Chen Lina shook her head. "Not yet. But what are your plans?"

"Most of the families in our base came with the employees. They have little education and are unable to work. Xiao Chen, you are different. You are a college student. Have you ever thought about bringing glory to our mining area and adding strength to our work of building the frontier?"

As expected of the young master of a car factory owner, listen to how tactfully Xiao Chen said this.

Chen Lina laughed and said, "Is it because my family members are very dissatisfied with me and are complaining that I am wasting the base's resources?"

With Nie Bozhao's salary and the support of her three children, she drove in and out of the mining area in her only sedan all day long. The staff and cadres at the base didn't say anything because they knew the significance of Nie Bozhao's scientific research results.

But the short-sighted family members are not like that.

In their opinion, we are all family members. You have only been here for a few days, so why are you receiving such preferential treatment?

And isn’t all this owned by the deceased Sun Gong?

"Since you are here, it must be because the family members at the base are making a lot of noise and complaining to the leaders every day and they can't hold it back anymore, right?" Chen Lina asked.

"Our Chief Engineer Wang has thought it through. There are two positions in the mine now. One is in the finance office, and we are short of a cashier. You can go and take up the job. The other is that our mine is going to set up a vocational primary school soon, and the chief engineer wants you to be a teacher. The position is up to you to choose. What do you think?" Xiao Chen replied.

As long as she has a job and is a part of the base, her family members won't make any more noise.

Chen Lina laughed when she heard this and said, "I don't like either of these two positions."

Sitting and counting money, which is not yours, will make your legs thicker. Don't do that.

She doesn't want to teach children to eat chalk dust.

"What can I do? It's not easy for the Republic to train a college student. You can't just waste your talent like this." What I mean is, you can't just stay at home and eat idle meals.

Chen Lina said, "Okay, go back and tell Chief Engineer Wang that Chen Lina will not use his car for nothing and will do a job that everyone in the base will be convinced of. If I can't do that, I will return the car."

Xiao Chen ate several wraps and drank a bowl of hot porridge. Then he stood up, patting his belly, and prepared to leave.

"Hand over the Soviet revisionists. Immediately. Hand over the Soviet revisionists hiding in the oil base."

There were bursts of shouting coming from the loudspeaker outside. Because of the amplifier, Chen Lina had to listen to it several times before she understood that the base was probably undergoing repairs.

In a blink of an eye, Sister Wang came to the door, picked up Chen Tiantian and left. "Sun Dabao, it's Sun Dabao who's here. Isn't he the leader of the gang at Mulan Farm? I don't know who has offended them. Come on, Tiantian, hurry up and go home with me. Don't let Sun Dabao make a fuss. It would be bad if he steps on the child and hurts him."

As the saying goes, the arrogant are afraid of the stupid, and the stupid are afraid of the desperate.

If Chen Lina is being silly, then Sun Dabao is a born reckless person who even snatches milk from his nephews. His mother has made him a lawless person. With a sister like Sun Zhuanan, who is a veteran figure and is also the security captain of Mulan Farm, ordinary people really can't control him.

Xiao Chen's face turned pale instantly, and his hands began to tremble. "Oh no, he must be here to find Anna. What should I do?"

When Chen Lina heard this, she pointed at Xiao Chen's nose and said, "Okay, you're the one who always sneaks into the base from the back wall in the middle of the night and lets people out during the day, right?"

Nie Bozhao was also angry. "Xiao Gong, what period is it now? How dare you bring a woman from Mulan Farm into the base?"

"Who is Anna? Is she the prostitute you were fooling around with in Mulan Farm? If she is, find a way to get her out as soon as possible. Don't let those revolutionaries come in and destroy our production."

Xiao Chen said, "Anna is not a prostitute, she is my girlfriend."

It turns out that Anna is also a Shanghai girl, and her father was a university student who studied in the Soviet Union during the Sino-Soviet cooperation. However, how happy she was when she was a child, how miserable she is now.

When her father went to Xinjiang, she followed him. She was doing OK in Tacheng, but last year her father passed away and she was sent down to the countryside. An eighteen-year-old girl, she went to Mulan Farm with the educated youth.

To say that Anna is just ordinary is fine.

Like Chen Lina, she is smart, generous, lively, a good dancer and has a beautiful voice. She quickly became popular among the young men in Mulan Farm.

However, a farm is also a world of its own.

After all, the educated youth were sent down to work, so of course they had to accept the management of the organization.

The real uncrowned king in Mulan Farm is Sun Dabao, the captain of the security team and the fleet.

Sun Dabao has been trying to woo Anna in various ways, but Anna loves Xiao Chen and cannot be with him because of her current identity as Su Xiu.

After being rejected several times, Sun Dabao abused his power for personal gain and drove Anna to a sand pit 20 kilometers outside Mulan Farm in the name of Su Xiu, and made her follow a group of male educated youth to dig drainage ditches.

In the winter, the land on the frontier was frozen. When you dug with a pickaxe, ice chips would appear on the ground. Your hands would be broken, but you couldn't dig anything out. It was very hard work. And the caves where men and women lived together made the situation even more chaotic.

Anna got frostbite a few days ago, and both of her feet were so swollen that she couldn't walk. She had no other choice but to ask Xiao Chen for help.

Xiao Chen used cigarettes and wine to prepare the educated youth who were digging the drainage trench together, and asked them to help cover up. The educated youth then sent Anna to the base. Xiao Chen asked Chen Lina for vanishing cream, of course, also for Anna.

Of course the educated youth tried to hide the truth and let her rest at the base. Only when the farm officials came to inspect the work would they let Xiao Chen send her out.

This has been going on for a long time. Who would have thought that last night Sun Dabao brought the security team to the camp for a surprise check, but did not find Anna. So, after interrogating a few educated youth, he chased her to the base.

"Anna, is her father's name An Heshan?" Chen Lina always felt that the name sounded familiar.

Xiao Chen said, "Our two families are old friends, and An Heshan is my uncle."

It turned out to be the teacher's daughter. Although she had never seen Anna before, Chen Lina knew her name, and she immediately said, "Okay, go and see if Anna has gone out. If not, I will take care of this matter."

When she was about to leave, Nie Bozhao stopped her and asked, "Xiao Chen, do you really want to get involved in this?"

"She's my pen pal's daughter, I can't just ignore her. Besides, your brother-in-law, Sun Dabao, chased our car a few nights ago. He's now the bully of Mulan Farm. Do you think I can just sit back and do nothing?"

Nie Bozhao said, "No."

A good girl like Anna has a tragic fate, and she certainly shouldn't suffer such injustice.

"So you want to come forward yourself?" Chen Lina asked again.

Nie Bozhao certainly had no feelings for the Sun family. No, it should be said that he got a headache whenever the topic of their existence was brought up.

However, he is a scientific researcher, and it is impossible for him to quarrel with others.

As for Sun Zhuannan, as the only female cadre who sacrificed her life on the base, she stood there like a monument. If he really wanted to go out and say a few words, Sun Dabao would immediately scold him for being ungrateful.

"If it doesn't work, just push the matter over to the mining area and let Secretary A or District Chief Gao handle it," said Nie Bozhao.

Chen Lina smiled and thought, oh man, an old lady like Day Huacai can be passed around because it's very boring to get involved with her.

But Sun Dabao can't do that.

After all, Sun Dabao wanted to cause harm to the employees and villagers of Mulan Farm. In fact, even if Sun Dabao didn't come to cause trouble, Chen Lina would have wanted to deal with him a long time ago.

The passionate educated youth came to the frontier with the confidence and enthusiasm to change the frontier, to turn the desert into a granary, and to give the green mountains a new look.

Most of them will dedicate their entire lives to the frontier.

They endured the severe frostbite and ate the dry grains that were full of ice residue. In the middle of winter, they dug trenches on the frozen ground to drain the alkaline soil. This was because the soil in the border areas contained too much alkalinity and was not suitable for growing crops. They had to irrigate the soil constantly to drain the alkalinity out of the soil. It was a very hard but meaningful job.

Because this work can turn the vast desert, which has not been able to grow food for thousands of years, into fertile farmland.

The food produced in the border areas will be enough to feed most people in the republic in the future.

Regardless of anything else, Chen Lina felt that she could let down anything except the passion of the educated youth. She had to cure Sun Dabao herself.

However, she first had to find out whether Anna had been taken away by Sun Dabao.

Xiao Chen immediately went out to inquire about the matter.

"Chen Lina, Sun Dabao has been at Mulan Farm for eight years. He started out as a wheat picker and later became the captain of the security team. I'm afraid your quarrelsome tactics won't work on him."

Chen Lina smiled and said, "Comrade Lao Nie, do you think I only know how to play tricks?"

"It's fine to show off, as long as you don't do it in front of me."

When Nie Bozhao thought of her holding a kitchen knife and looking like she had been exposed to high voltage electricity, he was scared from the bottom of his heart.

Chen Lina thought to herself, what should I do? You were very rich in your previous life, and I am not poor either. Although I don’t have as much money as you, everyone has to call me Mr. Chen. But it’s never been like this. For a pound of sugar and two pounds of milk, I have to pick up a kitchen knife and fight with someone.

Now that’s a big deal. The last time she fought with her grandson’s mother with an axe, her image as a little princess was completely gone.

"Well, I'll stop you, Sun Dabao. You can't lock the door of your small bedroom anymore. I can go out and come in as I please. Your house is bare, and only the books have not been moved away. I can choose not to read, but I can't stop learning." Chen Lina said.

"You can come into the small bedroom at night. You can come with me."

"Forget it, you should just keep the door locked." If he wanted to sleep with her, there was no door.

Anna hasn't been captured yet. Not only the security guards at Mulan Farm, but also the security guards at the base are looking for her everywhere.

When Hamma was feeding the horses, she saw a young girl hiding in the corner of the stable. She immediately called Chen Lina across the wall, "Xiao Chen, Xiao Chen, I think I found the girl that the farm people are looking for."

Chen Lina chuckled, signaling her to keep her voice down, and immediately went to the next room.

You know what, Anna and Chen Lina look really similar.

But Anna is extremely thin and her skin is particularly pale.

Some people seem to have skin that only turns red when exposed to the sun, but never turns dark. Anna's skin is like this.

I don't know if her hair was permed or just naturally curly, it was a light brown color, but in any case, it was very beautiful. Chen Lina concluded at a glance that her mother was either a minority or a Soviet.

"My name is Chen Lina. Have you heard of me?" Chen Lina asked straight to the point.

Sitting on the spice-smelling sofa in Hammam's house, Anna nodded. She looked extremely neurotic. Although she was very thin, her hands were covered with frozen ulcers, which were horribly swollen.

She was wearing Xiao Chen's canvas shoes, but probably because her feet were swollen, she couldn't wear them anymore.

"My father told me that he has a little pen pal who loves dancing and his favorite dance is 'Moscow Evenings'," said Anna.

Chen Lina then said, "You are different from other educated youth. They just went to the countryside to work. You have a problem with your class background. You know that. Now I want to keep you in the base. Do you want to?"

Anna nodded vigorously.

The current oil base can be said to be a pure land. Who doesn't want to come in?

However, the review of family members is so strict that basically five generations of innocence must be guaranteed. The workers in the base are either very hardworking or have mastered core technologies. There is no idle person.

The reason why Chen Lina, a lowly person, was able to get in was because everyone from Chief Engineer Wang to Secretary A were protecting her.

"Yes, can I really enter the base?" Anna asked cautiously in a low voice.

"For now, I can only keep you in the base temporarily. If you want to stay for a long time, I have to think of other ways." Chen Lina said.

In order to find a solution, she returned home.

"Laonie, Lao Nie." She called outside.

"What's wrong again?" Nie Bozhao asked impatiently from behind the window.

"I need you to do me a favor."

"What help? I won't help." Nie Bozhao said directly.

"Help!" Mom, she's acting like a spoiled brat again.

"If you sleep in the little bedroom with me at night, I'll help you. I don't know how much coal I've spent, and I have to pay for the ashes. Chen Lina, there are two walls of fire now. Try to light them yourself."

"Forget it, I'll find someone else."

When she was about to leave, Nie Bozhao called out again, "Just tell me what you need help with, I'll help you."

As the saying goes, an old dog can remember things that last a thousand years, and a young dog can remember things that last ten thousand years.

Nie Bozhao knew Chen Lina very well. She said nothing now, but she was saving the interest. When Sun Dabao's matter was over, she would torture him to death.

So, even though I was angry that she didn't come into the cubicle at night, I still had to help her.