Chapter 83: Going to the Countryside as Educated Youth in the 1970s 47
[This is a parallel fictional world. Please do not take any similarities between place names and people as they appear.]
In order to know the gossip, Zhang Xiaojia called Xiaoai back and monitored He Jiahui throughout the process. Zhang Xiaojia felt that He Jiahui was a variable.
He Er had already taken Han Zhaodi back.
Jiayi and He Jiahui have been hanging out together every day recently.
He Xinyi was taken to the city by He Jiu, who said that he was going to give Song Jiafu extra lessons.
Zhang Xiaojia's days are still revolving around going to work, going home, and going back home. The Parkinson's patients have seen a significant improvement in their memory, their tremors have been controlled, and they have gone from being bedridden to walking independently. According to Zhang Xiaojia's plan, it is estimated that the condition will be better controlled in two months at most. This time, the Parkinson's patients are mainly treated with drugs and medicated baths, and basically have to soak in the water for more than four hours every day.
Lawless's condition was no longer critical, and she would only need to give him acupuncture in ten days at most.
Zhang Xiaojia suddenly felt free. Looking at the date, it was already August. Zhang Xiaojia planned to stay at He Fei's place for a few days.
Zhang Xiaojia packed her clothes and took some vegetables and kimchi.
"Take your meat and go over."
Xiaoyi's voice suddenly sounded from behind, scaring Zhang Xiaojia.
The meat in Zhang Xiaojia’s own space is enough for her to eat for hundreds of years, so she doesn’t want it!
"Xiao Yi, take good care of the house. I won't bring any meat with me when I go to He Fei's place. I don't want to eat bacon anymore. He Fei's troops will have fresh meat to eat."
"I'll take you there and then I'll be back."
"No, I'm just going to the family compound to tidy up that house. I'll be back in 5 days at most. If you have anything, call He Fei and I'll be back right away."
"Okay."
"Remember when Pangpang comes home, remember to ask her to take a medicinal bath every day. You should also take a medicinal bath, okay?" Zhang Xiaojia instructed.
Xiaoyi waved his hand and sent her away.
Zhang Xiaojia drove a tricycle all the way to the staff quarters. The weather in August was extremely hot. If she didn't have the solar energy converter, she wouldn't be able to bear it. When she arrived in the provincial capital, Zhang Xiaojia put all the chips on her body into the space grid, went to the post office and called He Fei to tell him that she was coming to see him.
On the way to the family compound, I put the furniture made of space grids into the back of the tricycle.
I went to the guardhouse, showed my certificate, and went through smoothly all the way to the last small Western-style building in the last row.
The yard was overgrown with weeds, which gave Zhang Xiaojia a headache. She didn't know how to grow vegetables. At first, Xiaocao helped to grow the vegetables at home, then Yanyan, and finally Xiaoyi.
I opened the iron gate and walked into the small western-style building. I saw that the walls had been painted white. There was only a dining table and chairs on the first floor.
The three rooms on the second floor are equipped with beds, wardrobes, desks and chairs (given by Uncle Zhao). After hanging the curtains, he took out the robot and asked it to clean the rooms on the second floor. There is a bathroom in the master bedroom, but there is no toilet, it is a squat toilet. The logistics soldier built a countertop for her with cement, and built a square basin on the countertop with cement, and then connected the drain pipe. It looks like it can be used to wash face. Zhang Xiaojia took out waterproof glue and sprayed the basin and countertop with waterproof glue, so that there will be no dust and it cannot be seen, but the countertop feels smoother.
The third floor is an attic. We didn’t dare use curtains on the glass windows, so we had to cover them with brown paper to prevent people from looking in.
Then they went to the courtyard on the first floor and moved the furniture from the tricycle into the house, including the sofa, sofa chair, coffee table, and cabinets. With this arrangement, the first floor was ready. Zhang Xiaojia no longer took care of it. He Fei came back and asked him to clean up.
Zhang Xiaojia doesn't mind the weeds in the yard. She can only dream of going out to pull weeds without a solar energy converter.
She was sweating all over and was scorching hot. She took out a towel to wash her face and wiped off the sweat. Zhang Xiaojia took the certificate and planned to go to the logistics department to ask them to pave the front and back yards with cement. She would come three days a month at most. She was busy and He Fei was even busier. They had no time to grow vegetables. Forget it!
The soldiers in the logistics department had never received such work. Even the director of this army and his family grew vegetables in the yard. The wife of the commander of the first division didn't know how to grow vegetables, but she still planted onions, leeks and garlic.
The soldier later said, "Please wait a moment, I will ask the squad leader."
The soldier ran to the squad leader and reported, saying, "Squad leader, the future wife of the Ninth Division Commander wants to cement the entire front and back yards. Didn't the Army Commander say that the family compound should be self-sufficient in vegetables? Will you cement it?"
After hearing this, the squad leader frowned and said, "I'll go and talk to him."
The squad leader came up to Zhang Xiaojia, saluted him, and said, "The commander gave a speech at the family compound last year, saying that it would be best for the family compound to utilize the vegetable garden and achieve self-sufficiency in vegetables."
Zhang Xiaojia didn't get angry after hearing this. If she lived here, she would definitely grow her own vegetables. She also understood them. Zhang Xiaojia patiently explained, "I understand what you mean, but I don't live here. I only come here 4 or 5 days a month at most. If I'm not here, He Fei will definitely not come back. He Fei lives in the military dormitory. So, can these vegetables go 25 days a month without watering?"
After hearing Zhang Xiaojia's explanation, the squad leader replied straightforwardly, "I understand. We will come back tomorrow to lay cement for you."
"Thanks."
Having grown up in a compound, Zhang Xiaojia naturally has a good impression of it. The furniture is provided by the barracks, the light bulbs are provided by hand, and the rice, flour, potatoes and apples are supplied in bulk in the autumn. It has become a habit for him to contact the logistics department for renovations of the house. As long as the logistics department does not agree to the changes, you cannot modify it privately because it is a public house.
The family compound is divided into many areas according to the direction. The living areas are the East District and the South District. The West District is a school and hospital, where the children of the army go to school and receive medical treatment, from kindergarten to high school. The North District has daily necessities and a large supply and marketing cooperative, which provides life support for the family compound, from food to clothing.
This compound can handle everything from eating, drinking, defecating, urinating, sleeping, seeing a doctor, to going to school. Everything in the compound is a self-contained system.
She was an outlier among the children in the compound. She was not sociable and had never played with the other children in the compound since she was a child. She had few friends and often went to Grandpa Feng's house to learn about Chinese medicine. Grandpa Feng took her to the mountains to collect herbs. She was basically not in the compound during summer and winter vacations. She occasionally went to Aunt Leng's house and more often went to Grandpa Feng's workplace. She had few friends in the compound. Her father was very capable and had always been at the top, so basically no children dared to mess with her.
Zhang Xiaojia came to the supply and marketing cooperative and saw a lot of candies, even chocolate. Ping An and Pang Pang both liked White Rabbit candies and chocolate, so Zhang Xiaojia bought 3 kilograms of them directly and used up all the candy tickets.
Zhang Xiaojia was not very interested in the others. Suddenly, she saw many family members rushing to a stall. Zhang Xiaojia joined in the queue. When it was almost her turn, she saw clearly that they were seafood, including dried shrimps, dried kelp, dried sea fish, and salted hairtail.
Zhang Xiaojia took out He Fei's supply book, handed it to the salesperson, and said, "Comrade, I want shrimp, kelp, and dried sea fish."
The salesperson saw the supply book and asked, "Do you want all of them?"
"Yes, install it and get it from the notebook."
The salesperson took away most of the dried shrimp and packed up the full ten kilograms of shrimp. Just as he was about to pack the dried kelp, Zhang Xiaojia felt the resentful eyes behind him and quickly stopped him, saying, "Excuse me, I only need one kilogram of dried kelp. Give me five kilograms of sea fish."
The resentment behind her suddenly lessened. He Fei had never used the supply book, so if she was finished, most of the people behind her would be gone.
A middle-aged woman behind her called out to her, "He Fei's wife, come and help He Fei buy supplies today. These seafood are good and can be kept for a long time. They won't go bad when He Fei wants to eat them."
Zhang Xiaojia smiled and said, "That's right. Meat and the like, by the time He Fei wants to eat it, it will probably have gone bad."
"Wait a moment, I'll buy some food later. I can put it on your tricycle and we can go home together."
"Okay, no problem." Zhang Xiaojia is not stupid. After the middle-aged woman said that they would go home together, the resentment behind her disappeared immediately. The fact that she could call He Fei's name directly meant that her husband's official position must be higher than He Fei's.
"He Fei's wife, just call me Aunt Qin. Come on, accompany me to buy food," Aunt Qin said with a bright smile.
Zhang Xiaojia likes to interact with people like this, and also said, "Aunt Qin, just call me Xiaojia."
When we arrived at the grain station, we saw Aunt Qin bought 50 kilograms of sweet potatoes, 50 kilograms of potatoes, and 100 kilograms of flour. Zhang Xiaojia was very strong and loaded the grain into the tricycle with one hand.
Along the way, Zhang Xiaojia learned that Aunt Qin's husband was the Chief of the General Staff and that Aunt Qin's father-in-law was the old man. She realized that they would not have any bad intentions towards her, and the two of them got along very happily.
Along the way, Aunt Qin introduced Zhang Xiaojia to the compound, as well as some social etiquette, and implicitly asked Zhang Xiaojia to join the army.
She wouldn't come! Although the living conditions here were good, her every move was under the eyes of a group of people. She loved freedom and couldn't stand being restricted.
Zhang Xiaojia declined Aunt Qin's invitation to dinner and went straight home.
Zhang Xiaojia was sweating all over and wanted to cook, but when she came to the kitchen, she thought, forget it! She was lazy and decided to wait for the robot to clean!
I went straight up to the second floor, lay on the bed, fanned myself, and fell asleep in a daze.
The slamming sound of the iron door woke Zhang Xiaojia up. Zhang Xiaojia walked to the window and saw several women knocking on the door outside. Zhang Xiaojia had no choice but to go out and open the door.
Zhang Xiaojia was in a bad mood when she woke up, and asked coldly, "What's the matter?"
The leading woman, with disheveled hair, questioned, "You're going to pave this compound with cement, but not grow vegetables?"
Looking at their attitudes, Zhang Xiaojia knew that they felt sorry for not growing vegetables in the yard. Looking at their clothes, he knew that their conditions were not bad, at least similar to He Fei's official position.
Zhang Xiaojia nodded and said, "I don't live here. It's a waste to grow vegetables."
"No, we can't waste the land. The commander said we need to be self-sufficient in vegetables. If you don't grow vegetables, you can give them to others to grow."
"That's right! If you don't grow vegetables, others can do it! And you can eat them after they're grown."
Zhang Xiaojia said sarcastically, "Your house is so big, could you please give it to the parents of the soldiers below to live in?"
"How can they be the same? Look around here, which family doesn't grow their own vegetables? If they don't, they give them to others to grow. The Third Division Commander and the Fifth Division Political Commissar both gave their yards to others to grow vegetables. Not only can they eat them themselves, but they can also give them to the people who grow them. It's a win-win situation."
After hearing this, Zhang Xiaojia felt that this was the most annoying thing about the army. She just didn't like the courtyard being open. In the He family, she just wanted to survive and do good deeds, so she had to open the courtyard and run a clinic. Now when she came to the army, every courtyard was open. What could she do?
Zhang Xiaojia resigned herself to her fate and said, "Aunts, can we discuss this? You can grow vegetables, that's fine, but when I come four or five days a month, can you please not come to the compound? Even if you must come, can you please keep quiet and not speak too loudly? I need to do my work, so please stay quiet, okay?"
The leading woman laughed and said, "Don't worry, we are all very quiet people."
"Yes, yes, we won't disturb you."
"Yeah! We spoke quietly."
Zhang Xiaojia rolled his eyes inwardly. Haha~ What a joke! This volume is called a low voice.
Zhang Xiaojia said, "Aunts, please go to the logistics department and tell them that they won't be laying cement anymore."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com