Hongqi Brigade is located in a remote mountain village in the northwest. The harvest is poor, and it is located in the mountains, far away from the commune and county. The villagers often go hungry, and no outsiders are willing to marry into the village. The villagers cannot leave, and outsiders are unwilling to come in. Over time, this has gradually fostered a tough and fierce local culture.
Since Gu Changhe and Wang Dahua arrived here, they've been doing the hardest work and eating the least amount of food every day. This is only because their superiors ordered them not to die; otherwise, they probably wouldn't be alive now. Even so, they are often bullied by the village's young men and pelted with stones by the children.
"Attention, villagers! Attention, villagers! We have received a notice from higher authorities that we are to conduct class education for Gu Changhe and Wang Dahua, who have been sent down to the countryside. Please assemble at the threshing ground."
Upon hearing the broadcast, Wang Dahua shuddered and tightly gripped Gu Changhe's sleeve, saying, "Husband, what are we going to do? Why are we being lectured again?"
Gu Changhe tugged at Wang Dahua's sleeve twice before finally pulling it out, then raised his foot and kicked Wang Dahua hard.
Wang Dahua was kicked to the ground, and Gu Changhe himself collapsed to the ground from exhaustion. "It's all your fault. If you hadn't gone to take someone else's child, we would have ended up like this."
"Now you know you're blaming me? Wasn't it you who suggested we torture Tie Niu back then? If it weren't for your idea, how could we have treated Tie Niu badly? If we had treated Tie Niu better, even now that things have been exposed, Tie Niu wouldn't have abandoned us."
Seeing that Gu Changhe was pushing all the blame onto her, Wang Dahua roared angrily.
"This is all your fault. You took someone else's child without consulting me. I thought it was your child with some random man. Of course I didn't like that child. I was kind of you not to strangle him."
Gu Changhe didn't tell Wang Dahua that he really did try to take action back then, but he gave up in the end because he was afraid of being shot. It's strange, though, that Gu Nanxun never spent time alone with him again after that. Thinking about it now, the boy probably still remembers it!
"We should have strangled him back then. If we had, none of this would have happened. It's all your fault, you jinx! Who told you to bring that jinx here?"
As he spoke, Gu Changhe got up and kicked Wang Dahua again.
"Gu Changhe, I'll fight you to the death!" Enraged by Gu Changhe's kick, Wang Dahua got up from the ground and pounced on him, and the two started fighting instantly.
"Gu Changhe, you're a coward. You're spineless and malicious, and now you're trying to pin everything on me."
While scratching Gu Changhe's face, Wang Dahua spat a mouthful of yellow phlegm onto Gu Changhe's face.
Gu Changhe was stunned for a moment after being spat on. He then grabbed Wang Dahua's hair, threw it to the ground, and began punching and kicking her.
When the officers from the brigade arrived, the two were locked in a fierce fight. The officers exchanged bewildered glances, watched for a while, and then, with a look of disdain, separated them.
"Alright, stop fighting now, you'll get what's coming to you later."
The two were taken to the threshing ground, where the villagers, their faces flushed, waited eagerly.
As usual, the captain announced the two men's crimes and emphasized, "The rules are the same as always: no physical violence, and certainly no kicking."
Although they couldn't use their hands or feet, the villagers of Hongqi Brigade had their own methods. Stones, dirt, grass, manure, branches, and even saliva were all their weapons. These were what they frequently used on the two men. The villagers of their village might not be good at other things, but they were very skilled at this.
Gu Changhe and Wang Dahua were tormented by the crowd all afternoon before they were finally dragged back to the cowshed. The two lay on the ground of the cowshed, so hungry that they were dizzy and didn't even have the strength to curse.
"..."
On Lin Qing's side, the hunting team returned from the mountain that evening. Thankfully, no one was injured, but their catch was meager. Besides some pheasants and small rabbits, they only had one roe deer.
Unbeknownst to Lin Qing, Gu Nanxun had wiped out both the wild boar herd and the sheep herd. This angered a tiger on the mountain, whose winter food supply was intended for him. He hadn't expected that his food would be gone while he was taking a nap.
The tiger went berserk, scaring all the small animals in the mountains into hiding. This is why another team of winter hunters failed to hunt any animals. However, they were lucky not to encounter the mad tiger.
However, on the other hand, if they really run into a tiger, with Chunxia and the others around, Lin Qing might be able to get another tiger skin.
The snow in Chaoyang Brigade continued to fall for more than 20 days. Lin Qing and Gu Nanxun did not go out during these 20 days. They stayed at home every day to study and cultivate. They not only studied high school knowledge, but Gu Nanxun also learned some knowledge about electronics and digital devices. He never forgot his promise to Lin Qing to make the mobile phone ahead of schedule.
"Brother Nanxun, what are you doing?" That morning, Lin Qing had just come out of the space when she saw Gu Nanxun in the living room, tapping and banging on some wood. So she walked up and asked out of curiosity.
Gu Nanxun patted the wood shavings off his hand, took out a wet wipe from his spatial storage to clean his hands, and then helped Lin Qing to sit down at the kang table. "Have you washed up? I'll get you some food."
"Brother Nanxun, you don't need to be so careful, I'm fine!" Lin Qing couldn't help but laugh as she looked at Gu Nanxun's cautious manner. Ever since her belly started to grow, Gu Nanxun had been very careful, even waking up several times at night.
Gu Nanxun reached out and touched Lin Qing's hair. "You're in your late pregnancy, so you have to be careful."
"It's only been 5 months, so her belly isn't that big yet. It will get really big when she's 8 or 9 months pregnant."
Lin Qing said with a laugh that she was only five months pregnant with Nanxun's baby, and that she was just worrying too much.
"Don't be afraid, Qingqing, I will take good care of you!" Gu Nanxun patted Lin Qing's head comfortingly. He had read in a book that many pregnant women in their late stages of pregnancy would be afraid and anxious, and he was worried that his Qingqing would be afraid too.
After Gu Nanxun finished speaking, he took out the food he had left for Lin Qing from his spatial storage and placed it on the kang table.
"Don't worry, Brother Nanxun, I'm not afraid. With you here, I'm not afraid of anything!" Lin Qing said while taking a sip of the fragrant and sweet millet porridge.
Gu Nanxun stopped working and just watched Lin Qing from the side, occasionally putting some food on her plate.
"Brother Nanxun, what were you doing just now?" Lin Qing, who had just finished breakfast served by Gu Nanxun, remembered what she had just witnessed and asked again.
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