go home

After the military green jeep left the city and drove along the main road for twenty minutes, we arrived at the Hongqi Commune where the troops were stationed.

Hongqi Commune had seven brigades under its jurisdiction, but the town was not big, with only two main roads crisscrossing each other. The registered population was just over 10,000, most of whom lived in the east where factories were concentrated.

The population in the west is relatively smaller, but all the government agencies are here, and the commune primary and middle schools are also here, so it is not usually deserted.

When the jeep passes by, you can hear the sound of students reading from primary and secondary schools.

After passing the school, drive another three to five minutes and you will reach the military family compound.

It is called a family compound, but in fact it is a concentrated living area, except that the outermost part is surrounded by bricks and tiles. There is a guard post at the main gate, and soldiers are on duty there every day.

The houses in the compound were all built by early officers who had families accompanying them in the army. So even though the army provided them with subsidies, the materials used to build the houses were varied. Some had adobes for doors, some used earth bricks for more generous ones, and some even used wood to build stilt houses.

However, most of the adobe houses were low and not very sturdy. Those who could come to follow the army were of high rank, and their conditions were not too bad accordingly. As batches of residents were replaced, the adobe houses were almost all demolished. The most common ones were brick and tile houses, the only difference being whether the bricks were red bricks or earth bricks.

Ye Min joined the army late and Meng Cheng's rank was not high, so the house they lived in was made of mud bricks. The house was more than ten years old and looked a bit old from the outside.

Fortunately, after the house was allocated, before Ye Min brought Meng Zheng to the army, Meng Cheng had someone repaint the house and replaced the window frames and glass with new ones, so Ye Min didn't think there was anything wrong with the house after moving in.

After being away from home for a week, Ye Min felt a sense of familiarity when she saw the house she had lived in for nearly a year. As soon as the car stopped, she opened the back door and got out with her arms open.

The sun is shining brightly today, and it feels warm on my body. The wind outside is not strong, and it blows gently on my face, which is very comfortable. Ye Min doesn't want to go into the house.

But Meng Cheng had seen many women in confinement after giving birth, and knew that women should not be exposed to the wind during the confinement period. Seeing that she was not moving, he hurriedly said, "Go back to your room and lie down. I'll get the things."

As he spoke, he carried his daughter around the jeep and pulled Ye Min into the yard.

Although their house is old, it is not small. It has three main rooms: the master bedroom on the left, the main room in the middle, and Meng Zheng's room on the right. The total area is nearly 60 square meters.

The main room is slightly larger, with an area of ​​more than 20 square meters, and is divided into a living room and a dining room according to function. The two bedrooms are the same size, with an area of ​​between 15 and 20 square meters. The living environment can be said to be very spacious.

There are front and back yards outside the main building. The front yard is as wide as three rooms, with an area of ​​about 30 to 40 square meters. However, there are two adobe houses on the right side of the yard. The one on the outside is the kitchen, and the one on the inside has been converted into a bathroom, so the remaining area is not that large.

The toilet was in the backyard, because they built it themselves. Meng Cheng knew that Ye Min had never used a rural toilet, so he asked someone to get a toilet bowl installed. The bricks and tiles didn't cost too much, they were made from materials from an old house that collapsed in the family yard, which also made the exterior look ugly, with patches of color here and there.

As for the toilet, as long as it is functional, it's fine. The backyard isn't big anyway, and they don't go there often except to use the toilet, so they can make do with it.

The courtyard wall was also made of adobe and was not high, only reaching Ye Min's knees. After all, this was a military compound and no thief would be so careless as to come here to steal things, so the courtyard wall in the compound was mainly used for decoration and enclosure.

After entering the yard, the two walked a few steps to the door. Meng Cheng let go of Ye Min's hand, took out the key and opened the door.

Although Ye Min stayed in the hospital for a week, Liang Juan opened the window for them to let in air after she came back, so there was no smell after the door was opened.

The bed sheets and quilt covers were put there by Meng Cheng before he left for his mission. He knew that Ye Min loved cleanliness and would change the bed sheets and quilt covers every half a month. He probably thought that it was because she had given birth that they had not been changed for so long. So he said, "Sit for a while. I'll bring the things in first, and then change the bed sheets and quilt covers."

"Okay." Ye Min nodded, stretched out her hand to him and said, "Give An An to me."

Meng Cheng responded, handed the girl to Ye Min, and went out to call Meng Zheng to help move the luggage.

When staying in the hospital, Ye Min always felt that she lacked this and that, but when she packed up, there was really a lot of things. An An's things alone filled two large bags.

Together with her, Meng Cheng and Meng Zheng's things, as well as washbasins, toothbrushes, thermoses and other miscellaneous items, Meng Cheng and his son and the driver worked together to move all the things in.

After moving the things, Meng Cheng gave the driver a pack of cigarettes. Actually, he should have left him a sip of water, but they had just returned and there was no such condition.

After sharing the cigarette and sending the people away, Meng Cheng came back to make the bed.

He worked quickly and made the bed in less than ten minutes. He then moved the crib under the window to the side of the big bed and asked, "Where is An An's quilt?"

When Ye Min was pregnant, they made a lot of preparations to welcome the new life.

Meng Cheng bought the wood and made the crib himself. Ye Min collected cotton and sewed a mattress and quilt for his daughter.

"It's on top of the closet inside." Ye Min pointed to the closet closer to the window.

Meng Cheng went over, opened the cupboard, took out the mattress, spread it directly on the child's bed, then took out the quilt and covered it. He felt the thickness and asked, "Is it a bit too thick?"

"It's cold at night, and the child can't catch a cold. Let's leave it like this for now. When the temperature rises completely, we'll change her into something thinner." Ye Min put An An in the crib, supported her upper body with her left hand, and stretched out her right hand, saying, "There's a small pillow in there, bring it over as well."

"I'll get it!" Before Meng Cheng turned around, Meng Zheng ran in and asked in a chattering voice, "What do you want?"

"The pillow. The pink one."

Meng Zheng uttered "oh" twice, and jumped to the closet, but he didn't see the pillow. He asked in confusion, "Where is it?"

Meng Cheng couldn't bear to watch, so he walked over and took down the pillow from the top layer. The little guy saw it and shouted, "Give it to me, I'll give it to mom!"

"Here you go."

After getting the pillow, Meng Zheng grabbed it, ran to Ye Min and said, "Mom, give it to me!"

Ye Min stuffed the pillow under the girl's head and covered her with a small quilt. Seeing this, Meng Zheng took two steps forward, leaned over the child's bed, looked down at his sister and asked, "Sister's bed is so small, and the quilt is also small."

"She is small." Ye Min said.

"Oh, yeah." Meng Zheng suddenly realized, "How long will she sleep in the crib?"

"Sleep till next year."

"So where will she sleep next year?"

"We'll see next year. Maybe he'll continue to sleep in a crib, or maybe he'll sleep with his parents."

Meng Zheng said, "Can I sleep with Mom and Dad at night?"

"Don't want to sleep alone?"

The boy chuckled: "I haven't slept with my parents for a long time."

In fact, their family stayed in the same ward these few nights, but Ye Min slept with An An and Meng Cheng slept with Meng Zheng.

Meng Zheng said he wanted to sleep with his parents, and the focus was on his mother rather than his father, so he automatically ignored the days in the hospital.

Ye Min couldn't help but laugh: "Okay, let's sleep together tonight."

…

Because Ye Min had to stay in confinement after childbirth and could not see the wind, work hard, or touch cold water, the cleaning work fell on Meng Cheng. But Meng Cheng had no one to do the work, so he called him out under the pretext of training Meng Zheng.

So the neighbors in the compound heard the noise and knew that Ye Min had returned from the hospital. They came to visit him and saw the father and son working as soon as they entered the yard.

It was not uncommon for Meng Cheng to do housework. He was considered one of the more diligent men in the compound and usually did a lot of housework.

Meng Zheng was only three years old, and he was not as tall as the broom. When the aunts and uncles saw him sweeping the ground with a broom, they were all amused and teased him, asking, "Little Feng Kite, why are you so diligent today?"

Meng Zheng said while sweeping the floor: "Dad said that Mom had given birth to a little sister and needed to have a good rest. There was a lot of work to do at home and he couldn't do it alone, so he asked me to help."

He spoke in a serious manner, and the aunties and aunties were all melted by his cuteness. One said: "Little Fengzheng is so cute!"

The one asked: "Are you tired, little kite? Do you need auntie's help?"

Meng Zheng...is indeed very tired.

At that time, brooms were all made of plants, and the material was very strong. In addition, the broom in his hand was bought by Ye Min years later, and there was no sweeping blade on the bottom, so it felt a little heavy in his hand.

He was short and could only sweep a small area near his feet at a time. It took him more than ten minutes to sweep the main room of more than 20 square meters, and only one-third of the area was left.

Hearing that someone was willing to help him, he couldn't help but feel a little tempted, but he finally refused the other party undecidedly, saying, "My mother said that I should do my own things and not always ask others for help."

The people who came with him were all amused and stopped insisting on helping him sweep the floor. They went into the master bedroom one after another.

The soldiers in the army come from all corners of the country, and the wives of the soldiers all came to Donghe County with their men, and they also come from different places.

Customs vary from place to place. For example, if a neighbor has a baby, whether or not to bring anything when visiting, and what to bring, all have different rules.

In order to live in harmony, the wives of soldiers in the compound gradually formed a tacit understanding in their daily interactions.

Several military wives who came to visit Ye Min this time brought something with them. However, the things they brought were not expensive. They could be a few eggs or a bag of brown sugar, all for Ye Min to replenish her body.

Of course, not every military wife will bring gifts to visit when they have a baby. It mainly depends on how close the relationship is.

Because of this, Ye Min felt quite surprised when she saw them, and at the same time, she felt a little touched.

Her family was not poor. Although her father was a soldier when she was still young, her mother was a doctor and was respected wherever she went. Not long after the liberation, she was arranged to work in a hospital.

After my father changed his job, he was assigned to a machine tool factory. His position was not low, he was a cadre, and later he was promoted to the position of factory director.

But Ye Min's mother passed away when she was ten years old. Her stepmother was sweet on the outside but bitter on the inside, and her father didn't pay much attention to her as a daughter, so after she was ten years old, she was almost invisible in the family.

Many people think that children are innocent, but they can be very cruel. The daughter brought by her stepmother is only two years younger than her, and her circle of friends overlaps a lot. Although she is her biological daughter, she is not treated as well as the stepdaughter at home. When the children in the vocational college see her, they naturally prefer to get close to the stepdaughter. Gradually, she has no friends and is occasionally bullied.

Because of these experiences, she found it difficult to open up to others and was more passive in interpersonal relationships, resulting in her having few friends around her.

After joining the army, apart from Liang Juan, with whom she interacted more frequently because they were neighbors, the other people she interacted with more often were her colleagues at the health center.

As for the military wives who came to visit her in a group, although their homes were not far away, they did not interact much except saying hello when they met.

Ye Min had always thought of them as distant neighbors, but she never expected them to come and visit her with gifts in their hands. Her eyes turned red as she said, "Thank you all for coming to see me."

"Hey! We are all neighbors." The military wife named Yang Mei waved her hands and smiled, bending down to look at An An, "Is this your daughter? The little girl is really pretty."

"Yes, this little girl is really smart. She picked out the good-looking parts of her parents." Another military wife named Zhu Liyun agreed and asked, "Have you chosen a name for the child?"

"Yes, the nickname is An An, and the full name is Meng Xi."

Yang Mei looked up and asked, "Which xi?"

“The xi in xi xi rang rang,” Ye Min explained, “means bright.”

Before An An was born, Ye Min and Meng Cheng had actually chosen several names for her. Among them, her favorite was the character "Yu", which she thought had a good meaning and could be used for both boys and girls.

But through the bullet screen, she knew that in the original novel, Li Wenxiu's daughter was named Meng Yu, and later changed her surname to Xu Yu. She always felt uncomfortable when she thought about it, so she gave up the original names.

She named her daughter Xi because in the original novel, her daughter was treated harshly in her childhood, and when she grew up she was married to a domestic violence man, and spent the first half of her life in misery and gloom.

So in this life, she hopes her daughter can have a bright future.