Chapter 65 The underground nest
As everyone was pondering their own thoughts, Wang Haiquan, with a stern face, demanded, "What are you all doing here in XJ? You're giving up at the first sign of trouble? You haven't even started yet and you're already behaving like this. I'm truly disappointed in you. I thought you were all bright, passionate, and ambitious young people!"
Wang Hai is usually all smiles and speaks very kindly to everyone, but now he puts on a stern face and reprimands people, looking quite authoritative.
They all lowered their heads.
Among the fleeing personnel across from them, who looked dejected after their failed escape attempt, someone said, "Sigh, they only get to work for a few months, but we're stuck at the grassroots company level for a long, indefinite period. It's really infuriating to compare ourselves to others."
Wang Haiquan wouldn't allow the people on the other side to say such discouraging things anymore. As the director of the political and political departments of the Commerce Department, he was very good at doing ideological work with people.
Every year, people from various regiments attempt to escape, but no one ever succeeds.
It's getting dark soon if we don't go back now; it's not appropriate to do ideological work here.
Wang Haiquan's subsequent barrage of words, a mix of threats and stern warnings, finally made the dejected "deserters" stand up in resignation.
No more people could be squeezed into the back of the two trucks. Wang Haiquan was afraid that these people would continue to escape after the trucks left, so he arranged for half of the people in each truck to get off and send the escapees back first. The rest of the people waited where they were, and the trucks would return to pick them all up.
Watching the two cars disappear into the horizon of the scorched yellow earth, Song Lubai and her group sat on the yellow hill, looking at their surroundings.
After what just happened, everyone is bound to be talking about it.
"Look at this place, it's no exaggeration to say that it's barren."
Song Lubai pointed to the plants that were only ankle-high not far away and said, "Aren't there grasses over there? And quite a few thorny ones too."
There was so little green vegetation that it blended into the environment, appearing bare and quite different from the countryside in Henan Province.
"Those people just now all looked pale and thin. They were all starving. I think the place we're going to is called something like Lavati."
"So what? We only need a few months of labor training, it's not like we're doing manual labor all the time."
"Why did we sign up in the first place? Director Wang is right. Our awareness was too low. How many tens of thousands of acres of wasteland did those soldiers in the movie reclaim in ten years? They put in so much effort to turn wasteland into fertile fields. We watched the movie and signed up with the intention of contributing to the construction of the frontier. How could we be so scared by a mere few months of physical labor?"
"No, it's not about the labor. The main problem is why Director Wang didn't mention it when we signed up, and why he didn't mention it along the way. He just brought us here without saying a word. Shouldn't he have informed us in advance so we could be mentally prepared?"
"Exactly. If he had said so, we would have still signed up. We wouldn't have been scared off by those people and given up. It's not that we lack awareness. We're all high school graduates. Did we go through high school just to find another place to do farm work? Is that all our value is?"
“If Director Wang doesn’t explain things clearly, I’m afraid he’s still lying to us.”
Everyone was unhappy that Director Wang had kept this from them.
They clearly mustered up a lot of courage to sign up to support the border regions. They left their homes and came here not only to find a way out for themselves, but also to contribute their value to the development of the border areas.
After everyone expressed their dissatisfaction, they fell silent.
The desert sunset in front of us was simply too magnificent.
The sky was a clear, deep blue, and the setting sun painted the horizon blood-red. The clouds were brilliant and fiery, and the afterglow spread across the earth. The distant sand grains and the red clouds on the horizon reflected each other, shimmering with dazzling golden light that was so bright it was hard for people to open their eyes. It was a beauty that was breathtaking and mesmerizing.
The artsy young man in the group, mesmerized, exclaimed, "The desert sunset is vast and boundless. Blazing flames illuminate the scene, and the dust of the world seems to rise. To witness such a magnificent sight is enough to make the trip worthwhile. I would love to live in such a beautiful place forever."
The temperature was not scorching, and a gentle breeze caressed everyone's faces, bathing them in a golden glow. Sitting here at this moment could even be described as pleasant.
Bathed in the glow of the setting sun and caressed by the gentle breeze, no one wanted to dwell on the unpleasant past.
The car that was supposed to pick them up didn't arrive until the sun had sunk halfway below the horizon.
The car drove for another half hour or so. The sun had completely sunk below the horizon, and the sky was a deep, dark blue. Everyone got out of the car, bitten by mosquitoes.
"Where's the house? If there's no house, are they sleeping on the ground? There are so many mosquitoes at night, really! Why are they all eating outside? Is there only one shed here?"
Wang Haiquan shook his head: "You're just spitting air with your eyes open? Isn't that a house over there?"
The group searched with their eyes wide open in the dim light, but found no buildings above the horizon other than the shed.
"Where? Where? Why can't we see it?"
Wang Haiquan led everyone to a dark, downward-facing cave entrance. When the curtain was pulled back, a faint candlelight shone through.
"Who is it? Don't lift the curtain, or the mosquitoes will keep me up all night."
The people above were deeply shocked.
No one expected that their living quarters would be underground.
Wang Haiquan turned around and smiled at everyone, saying, "These are dugouts. We dug several extra to welcome you. Six of you will share one dugout. Please make your own arrangements. After you've chosen and put your things away, come out and eat."
There were countless dugouts of all sizes around, but because of the dim light, it was impossible to see exactly how many there were.
In the dim candlelight, Song Lubai and several other female comrades went down into the same dugout.
The cloth curtain hanging at the door was clearly made of recycled fabric, and its only function was to keep mosquitoes out.
The underground houses were beyond everyone's comprehension.
The candlelight illuminated the small underground space.
At the very back was a bed. The bed was neither made of wood nor iron, but rather made from materials found on the spot, created by digging a hole in the ground.
There was also an earthen table not far from the bed.
Everyone was amazed by the simple furnishings inside.
Before they could even exchange information, they heard someone outside urging the newcomers to eat, so everyone hurriedly put their cloth bags away.
Song Lubai's group consisted of 71 people, and the line for food was quite long.
When the lid of the large pot was lifted, a fragrant aroma wafted out, which displeased the "old-timers" of the 25th Company.
"Why do they get to eat meat as soon as they arrive? That's not fair. We need to eat meat too."
The person serving the food said loudly, "Didn't we also prepare meat for you when you first arrived? They are newcomers, and according to tradition, they have to eat meat for their first meal."
There were quite a few disgruntled murmurs around, but the uncle serving the food called out, "Don't worry, we bought a lot of meat this time, so everyone's meals will have meat in them tomorrow."
Hearing this, the "old people" were finally satisfied, and most of them smacked their lips as they smelled the aroma and went down to their dugouts.
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