Chapter 73

Fortunately, there was a heavy rain on the first day, so the original plan to go to the sea for research was cancelled.

Otherwise, Xu Wen, who was late and suffered from back and leg pain, would definitely go on the expedition in anger.

There's no point getting angry though, I can't find anyone.

With such a heavy rainstorm, the camp has poor drainage, and the rising sea water will flood into the tents, and it may even rain heavily outside while it is drizzling inside.

The soldiers were assigned tasks according to their companies. Some rescued the tents, some rescued the new camp construction site, and some came to dig trenches near the wooden house to prevent water accumulation.

Xu Wen couldn't help much, he could only stay at home and not cause trouble.

In such weather, we can't generate electricity and can't use fans. Fortunately, it's not too hot because of the rain, just a little humid.

Especially on the first floor, the cushions on the sofas looked like they were about to be squeezed out of water.

There was still a layer of fine water droplets on the waterproof floor, and it was not comfortable to stay inside the room door.

In addition to fighting the flood, everyone on the island also took out any containers that could hold water at home and placed them outside to collect rainwater.

Xu Wen also took out the buckets and basins in his house and placed them under the eaves.

In fact, although fresh water resources are still scarce on the island, the problem of daily water use is not that big of a problem because the freshwater lake on the island has been detoxified. It is not drinkable for the time being, but it is still fine for washing face, brushing teeth and washing clothes.

Fetching water is simply a habit that everyone has developed during the past six months on the island.

Dongsheng couldn't go out to play, so he leaned against the window and kept saying he was bored.

Xu Wen told him a story for a while and helped him learn a few words.

Being born in winter, my concentration time is limited.

If you keep studying, the effect will be halved.

Seeing that it was still early, Xu Wen thought that it was a rare opportunity to have time to cook and make dumplings.

Northerners love to eat, and although the journey is long, Xu Wen knows that he likes it too.

In the north, the main fillings for dumplings are cabbage, leek, fennel, shepherd's purse, etc.

There is none on these islands, but leeks are planted, but it is not yet harvest season.

But there are water chestnuts on the island, and there is a place called horse hoof.

This can be chopped up and mixed with meat filling to make dumplings, which is also very fragrant.

The rain had just lightened a bit, so Xu Wen and Dong Sheng went out wearing their homemade raincoats.

The conditions on the island were very limited. Raincoats were obviously not enough, and plastic bags were not popular yet, let alone anything to wear on the body. However, there were woven bags similar to fertilizer bags and snakeskin bags.

Xu Wen found two strips, and along the sealed side, he took one corner and stuffed it into the other corner, and a minimalist long triangle raincoat was made.

Dongsheng was small and could be wrapped up almost completely. For Xu Wen, it was just enough to cover his head and half of his body.

Xu Wen took Dongsheng to the kitchen and asked for a small piece of pork belly. He then took Dongsheng to pick some water chestnuts.

Peel the skin, leave a little to eat raw, and chop the rest into fine pieces.

Dongsheng held the bowl and ate the water chestnut slices cut by Xu Wen with sugar, and did not forget to feed Xu Wen a few slices from time to time.

After Xu Wen finished kneading the dough and mixing the filling, Dongsheng sat down properly and took the rolling pin to help: "Mom, let me help you roll the dough."

"Okay! Thank you, Dongsheng."

Xu Wen rolled out some dough first before returning the rolling pin to Dongsheng.

Dongsheng doesn’t actually know how to roll out dough, but his movements look pretty similar.

Press the small dough pieces that Xu Wen has cut into small round cake shapes.

Hold the rolling pin with both hands and roll it vertically twice to make the dough into long strips, then roll it horizontally twice to make an irregular square.

Dongsheng spent a long time rolling out a strange dumpling wrapper. He excitedly held it up and showed it to Xu Wenxian: "Mom, look! Is the dumpling wrapper I rolled good?"

This action not only shows that the dumpling skin has an odd shape, but also that it is uneven in thickness and is slightly translucent in some places.

Xu Wen nodded and praised him: "Great! It's great that Dongsheng can roll the dough so well on his first try! You will get better and better in the future! Come, mom will teach you a better way to roll the dough."

Xu Wen patted the flour off his hands, walked around the table, held Dongsheng's hand and taught him.

"Look, we hold the dumpling wrapper in one hand and the rolling pin in the other, and just press the edge of the dumpling wrapper, turning it like this! Oh! Look, we have rolled out a beautiful dumpling wrapper, right?"

"Wow!" Dongsheng exclaimed, feeling a great sense of accomplishment.

Xu Wen taught him how to roll out two more dumpling wrappers, then let go and said, "Come on, try it yourself."

She straightened up and turned around, and saw that Lu Yuanzheng had come back at some point and was standing at the door, leaning against the door panel and looking at her and her son.

Xu Wen saw that Lu Yuanzheng's raincoat hanging on the door panel had dripped a lot of water onto the ground, and it seemed that he had been back for some time.

"When did you come back? And you didn't say anything?"

Lu Yuanzheng stood up, walked over, and untied Xu Wen's apron from his waist: "I just arrived and saw you teaching Dongsheng how to roll dough, so I stole your advice. Come, let me try rolling dough, how about that?"

Xu Wen held onto her apron and refused to give it to him. "You've been busy all day. Sit there and take a rest. I'll do it."

He already knew how to do it, and he even learned it from others! It sounds like a true story.

"That won't work!" Lu Yuanzheng disagreed. "If you don't let me come, how can I enjoy the treatment of Teacher Xu teaching me how to roll out the dumpling skin?"

Xu asked: "..."

Aren't you ashamed of talking about being sour with a serious face and being jealous of your son?

Lu Yuanzheng tied the apron around his waist.

Dongsheng finished rolling out another dumpling wrapper and turned around to show off: "Dad, Mom, do you think the wrapper I rolled this time is good?"

The dough he rolled this time is indeed much more beautiful than last time!

Xu Wen and Lu Yuanzheng praised Dongsheng generously.

"Good! It's getting better and better, Dongsheng is awesome!"

"Well, there is still room for improvement! Come on, our family's dumpling skins will depend on you in the future!"

Xu asked: "..."

Is there anyone who would cheat his son like this?

Pian Dongsheng was really proud of it and nodded vigorously: "Okay!"

Lu Yuanzheng stretched out his hand to Dongsheng, "Come, let me try rolling one too, to see who rolls the dough better between you two."

Dongsheng was in high spirits and didn't want to give it to him.

Xu Wen went to the kitchen and took out a large rolling pin and gave it to Lu Yuanzheng, "What are you fighting with the child for? Use this."

Lu Yuanzheng took it reluctantly: "This is for rolling out cakes."

In Wei Zhuang, almost every household has several rolling pins of different lengths, thicknesses and sizes.

The short one is used to roll out dumpling skins, the medium-length one is used to roll out pancake skins, and the longest rolling pin is almost one meter long and is used to roll out soup noodles.

When Lu Yuanzheng was preparing furniture and supplies, he also prepared a set in the kitchen of the wooden house.

Dongsheng was very happy to see that he didn't have to give up his rolling pin. He jumped twice on the spot and said, "Great! Great! Dad, let's have a competition to see who can roll the dumpling wrapper better?"

"Okay! Don't cry if you lose."

Dongsheng raised his neck proudly, "I'm a man, I won't cry!"

Xu Wen smiled and shook his head: "The two of you are at most three years old together, no more!"

Dongsheng tilted his head and thought for a while, "Mom, that's not right! If you don't count dad, I'm already four and a half years old!"

Xu asked: "..."

Lu Yuanzheng handed the freshly rolled dumpling wrapper to Xu Wen, then took his hand back and tapped Dongsheng on the head, "Silly boy! Your mother said I was childish! As for you, you are childish to begin with."

Dongsheng touched his head, uttered an "oh", and looked at Lu Yuanzheng suspiciously. He didn't understand why his father was more childish than him. He was obviously an adult.

But it didn't matter. He saw Lu Yuanzheng was about to roll out another dumpling wrapper, and he yelled, "Dad, you can't cheat! I'll count to one, one, three, and we'll start together!"

Seeing this scene, Xu Wen suddenly understood why Lu Yuanzheng was smiling like that while leaning against the door just now.

He watched the mother and son making dumplings, which should be the same as she was watching the father and son playing at this moment.

I feel so warm and I really hope that time will stop here.

Home.

One word, three people.

Just making lunch together can make me happy.

The research team stayed on the island for more than a month before leaving.

Before leaving, Academician Liu repeatedly expressed regret that Xu Wen's talent would be buried on the island.

Xu Wen knew that he had no other intentions, he just valued his talent.

"Thank you, Academician Liu. However, everyone has different ambitions. Maybe I have no future, so I just want to be with my family."

Academician Liu waved his hands and said, "Putting family first is not a sign of failure. I can't say that it is right for you to give up a better future and live on the island, but it is definitely not wrong to put family first. Besides, you are not really just hanging around on this island. Look at how much benefit you have brought to the warriors. This is also a manifestation of your talent. I just think you should have a bigger stage. But don't worry, haven't you graduated from college yet? When you graduate from college and have stayed on the island for long, come find me!"

"Okay! Thank you."

Song Xueqin came to the island in person to pick up the research team.

He called Xu Wen aside and asked her, "Wen Wen, what's going on? Is there a chance?"

Xu Wen shook his head and nodded, "I think it's possible, but you also know that this involves many aspects, and they haven't given a clear answer as to whether it can succeed. Although there are still big technical difficulties, we also want to find a solution. In theory, it should be possible as long as the equipment is in place."

Song Xueqin nodded and breathed a sigh of relief: "Finally there is some hope."

Of course, they all knew that even if the theoretical technical problems were solved, there would still be problems in practical application. Even if all the problems were solved, the funds for purchasing the equipment had to be reported and applied for at various levels, and the whole process would take a long time, so there was no time to rush.

After listening to this, Song Xueqin understood what was going on and happily led his team away.

As soon as they set out, they started to prepare for moving their camp as the journey was long.

The requirements for houses in the barracks are lower than those for family buildings, as long as they can be lived in.

As soon as the construction was finished, everyone moved in.

The soldiers were busy moving, and since there was nothing to do during the long journey, it was like taking a day off, so they took Xu Wen and Dong Sheng to explore the island.

In fact, for an island this small, I have been to all the places I could visit in the past six months and there is nothing worth exploring.

So the main purpose is not to play, but to explore the way.

Explore areas suitable for paving roads.

Food, clothing, housing and transportation.

The housing problem was solved temporarily. The wooden house might not last long on this island, but it would definitely not be a problem for the next three to five years.

As for the food problem, we can get by temporarily by relying on supplies and the food provided by the kitchen team.

There are still clothes and things to do.

Officers and soldiers have uniforms, and their families can go to the central island to buy clothes if they are short of clothes.

Although it’s not very convenient, I don’t change my clothes very often and I don’t go out very often in a year.

It’s not a difficult problem for now.

Only one row left.

In order to travel on the island, apart from other things, several roads must be built from the shore to the wooden houses and camps.

Otherwise, let alone riding a bicycle, people can't even walk on rainy days. One step is deep and the other is shallow, and you get covered in mud and water, which affects your speed.

It would be a big loss if the enemy attacks on a rainy day.

It is also very laborious for the supply ship to stop and pick up the cargo every time.

When large ships came and could not dock, they would swim to the side of the ship, carry the cargo and then swim back.

Light items are fine, but heavy items are a bit difficult. The main problem is that not everything is waterproof.

So we have to build a port.

The Lu Yuanzheng family of three was trying to figure out how to build a suitable road.

Xu Wen pointed to several paths that were trampled by the disciples going back and forth between the shore and the camp during this period. "I've heard of a big park before. It had no paths at first. Later, as more and more tourists walked, the grass became trampled into paths. Then they rebuilt the paths according to the paths that were trampled. Because people often take the closest or most comfortable paths."

Lu Yuanzheng touched his chin and nodded, "That makes sense. But, we usually go from the beach to home, and this one road is not enough. We need to build several more roads on this island. In the future, this island will not only be guarded by soldiers, so it must be built to be suitable for civilians to live in. If we want to keep people here, we have to let them see hope here. For example, they can support themselves by farming, and they can catch fish by going out to sea. In addition, this island is not big enough. Once the roads are built and the food and electricity are solved, we should reclaim land."

"What? Land reclamation?" Xu Wen looked at Lu Yuanzheng in surprise, wondering if he had heard it wrong.

Lu Yuanzheng nodded, shielded his eyes with one hand and looked into the distance, then pointed at a fluttering red flag and asked Xu, "Can you see those red flags?"

Although Xu Wen had good eyesight, it still took him some effort to find the red flag he mentioned. It was too far away and actually looked like just a few small red dots.

"In fact, those are not islands at all, but just a few reefs, coral reefs or reefs. That's why it's hard to see them."

Dongsheng raised his hand: "Dad, what is a reef?"

“It’s the rocks in the ocean that are close to the water surface.”

“Then why raise the red flag?”

Xu Wen speculated: "Is it to prevent ships from colliding?"

Lu Yuanzheng shook his head, "Not only are we afraid of a collision with our ships, but mainly because both coral reefs and submerged reefs are part of our territory. Wherever the red flag is, that is where our territory is. We will never allow the enemy to enter the coastline."

This is the biggest mission and responsibility of these people guarding these islands.

Xu Wen listened to Lu Yuanzheng's calm but powerful words, looked at the red dot in the distance again, and felt a little proud for no reason.

It is for the long journey and for the increasingly powerful motherland.

She knew how prosperous this place would be in the future.

Dongsheng didn't really understand what was being said, but he had grown up in the compound and had been influenced by it. Patriotism was ingrained in his bones, so he raised his fist as a matter of course: "If the enemy dares to come, beat them hard! Charge!"

Rushing to the beach with fists clenched.

Xu Wen laughed and warned him: "Be careful not to fall."

Dongsheng was rushing to fight the "enemy" when he saw a small crab. He immediately forgot about the enemy, grabbed the crab and shouted to Xu Wen: "Mom, shall we eat crabs tonight?"

"Then you have to catch more. One is not enough. If you catch too many, I'll fry them for you to eat in the evening."

"Okay." Dongsheng agreed happily and went to look for crabs.

Xu Wen saw Dongsheng wandering around the safe zone, found a place to sit under the shade of a tree, and asked Lu Yuanzheng: "The last time I went to the regiment headquarters with you for a meeting, I found that there were many battalion commanders. About a dozen or ten. But in fact, most islands don't need so many officers and soldiers. For example, our Rainbow Island is only this small, and even if there are occasional enemy attacks, it won't be large-scale. From a civilian's point of view, it's a bit of a waste for you to have a battalion of hundreds of soldiers stationed on this palm-sized island. So do you have other tasks?"

After Xu Wen finished speaking, he quickly added: "I just asked casually. If it's confidential, just pretend I didn't ask."

As a military wife, I do have this awareness.

Sometimes I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

The couple chatted, and Lu Yuanzheng would say, "I can't say that."

At first, I felt awkward asking questions, but later I got used to it, and later on I could roughly guess what I could ask and what I couldn’t.

“You can say it this time.” Lu Yuanzheng took two steps and stood again, just blocking the door between Yangguang and Xu Wen. “As you can see, our mission is to ensure the safety of the island. The next step is to build the island. After we work together to ensure the basic life on the island, other units will begin to move in one after another. Not brother units, but for example, construction planning units. In short, the people responsible for building the island will go to the island one after another.

Gradually we will withdraw construction from the island and only be responsible for protecting the safety of the island and its residents.

Each island is now garrisoned with several times the number of troops, in addition to preventing large-scale island attacks, mainly for the future.

Building an island in the future is a long process. In addition to improving the island’s living facilities, the most important thing is to expand the territory.”

"Is this what you call land reclamation?"

Lu Yuanzheng nodded, and his eyes turned to the almost unrecognizable red flags. "Those reefs that can only support one or two people, or even haven't even emerged from the sea, will gradually be filled into islands, connected to the archipelago, and become islands that can be lived in."

He paused. "For us, there will never be peace. We must always be on alert. Soldiers have already sacrificed their lives in those places where red flags are raised."

"Ah?" Xu Wen's eyes widened.

There were occasional attacks on Rainbow Island, but the warriors had not suffered any casualties. In addition, she had always been protected in a safe zone, so she always felt that the real war was far away.

Lu Yuanzheng's eyes were still fixed on the distance. "It's impossible to send many people to guard those reef islands now, so they built stilt houses, with one or two soldiers guarding them at a time. There was a storm, and the supply ship was late for two days, so the soldiers on the reef islands were gone."

"Why? Starved to death?"

Lu Yuanzheng shook his head and said word by word: "I won't see him alive, and I won't see his body dead."

Xu Wen pondered this sentence carefully. It meant that they did not die of starvation, nor were they washed away by the sea. Otherwise, with these warriors' good swimming skills, they would never disappear so quietly.

There was only one possibility: a surprise attack.

Xu Wen understood, "So we only need to fill in the direction of the main island? In this way, when the islands are connected, we can all guard the island together and there will be no such danger."

She thought, that's not easy. This place is more than ten kilometers away from the main island. How long will it take to fill it up?

But no matter how difficult it is, we have to do it.

Peace does not extend to borders, and not an inch of our territory can be given up.

Even though they know that the reef is not safe, soldiers will continue to go there to fill in the vacancies until the reef becomes a real island and can accommodate more people.

Who knew that Lu Yuanzheng shook his head and pointed to the boundless sea in the opposite direction, "The islands are being filled toward us, but we have to fill forward. Every extra inch of land will extend the coastline, so we have to fill it no matter how difficult it is."

Xu asked: "..."

She stood up suddenly, her eyes sweeping across the sea that was too far to see the end. That was the direction of the high seas. She couldn't believe it and said, "Is this really land reclamation in the literal sense?"

Land reclamation is the process of expanding land area through artificial construction.

The journey is long and arduous. "So the road ahead is long and arduous. In fact, it is very likely that we will stay on this island forever."

As he said this, Lu Yuanzheng carefully observed Xu Wen's expression.

Xu Wen said "Oh".

Lu Yuanzheng was a little nervous, not knowing whether to comfort Xu Wen or himself, and said, "Of course it may not be for a lifetime. Maybe I will be transferred, or I will change my job."

Xu Wen nodded but said nothing.

"Unhappy?"

Xu Wen shook his head and nodded: "Of course I will feel unhappy to some extent. After all, this doesn't sound like a happy thing. Who would like to live like Yugong moving mountains? However, you have to live your life yourself. At worst, we can try to make the life on the island catch up with the life on the mainland as soon as possible, or even better than the life on the mainland.

Maybe we can build an airport here in the future, and then we can go wherever we want without any worries. People on the mainland may all rush to visit the island.”

The journey was long and I didn't know whether I should breathe a sigh of relief or hold it in my arms.

I was relieved that Xu Wen was not angry and still insisted on staying with me.

She said this because she felt that land reclamation was already a headache, and now she was going to build an airport?

After a long time, Lu Yuanzheng smiled.

This worry had been in his heart for a long time, but he could not find the right time to tell her, or he was afraid to tell her.

No one wants to endure the long and endless boring days, but there are always people who endure them.

Xu Wen looked at him and smiled.

She stood up and hugged Lu Yuanzheng's waist, looking at Dongsheng playing on the beach, and said to Lu Yuanzheng: "In my last life, I saw a sentence on the Internet: "There is no such thing as a quiet life, but someone is carrying the burden for you!" At that time, I just thought this sentence was very touching. Now that I am the family member of "carrying the burden", I know how much suffering and tiredness are hidden in this sentence.

You and other warriors are working hard for this country and all the people. As your wife, I can't just abandon you and run away from here. We agreed that you protect the country and I protect you."

Lu Yuanzheng's Adam's apple rolled, and without saying anything he lowered his head and kissed Xu Wen's lips.

It doesn’t matter where the future is or what we do, what matters is being together.

1978 was the first year when the college entrance examination was officially resumed. The competition was so difficult that even those who were as far away as the island had heard about it.

It is said that the test questions are much more difficult than last year.

Although the number of admissions is 130,000 more than last year, there are also more candidates.

There are 6.1 million candidates, and the admission rate is 7%.

But Wang Ying is not among these 7%.

Communication on the island was inconvenient, and Wang Ying had been waiting anxiously, but even when school was about to start, she still hadn't received the admission letter.

Every time a supply ship arrived, they would rush forward and wait eagerly.

There are special people on the islands who are responsible for transferring letters from the mainland.

Rainbow Island was the farthest away, so the messenger could only go ashore on the supply ship to deliver the letter.

Xu Wen estimated that the letter from home should have arrived, so he took Dongsheng to the beach to wait.

The beaches here, including the offshore areas, have been cleaned up very well.

When you have nothing to do, you can pick up some shells, catch some fish or crabs, and you will always get a surprise.

When the mother and son arrived, many warriors had already surrounded the beach.

There is no rush at work now. It is a hot summer, so the working hours have been shortened a lot to prevent the soldiers from suffering from heat stroke.

They were on this isolated island, bored day after day, and they were looking forward to the letter from home to ease their homesickness.

Among the crowd, Wang Ying is the most eye-catching.

She was standing near the front, and no one wanted to stand next to her.

So she was standing at the front, with others surrounding her in layers behind her.

However, as soon as the postman came ashore, everyone stopped caring about keeping their distance and surrounded him.

"Is there a letter for me?"

"Are there any for me?"

"Are there any for me?"

The postman always does this every time he comes. He's used to it and keeps repeating in vain: "Don't crowd! Don't rush! There are those whose names I call out, and there are none for those whose names I don't call out."

"Liu Dazhuang, your letter!"

"Li San, your letter!"

"Liu Xiaogen..."

Every time the postman read out a name, there would be a cheer from the crowd, which would be drowned out by the groans of others.

The number of letters in his hand dwindled, and his sighs of disappointment grew louder.

"Sister-in-law Xu Wen, here's your letter." The postman smiled and handed the last letter to Xu Wen.

Xu Wen is a celebrity in the archipelago. Even if people don’t know her, they have heard of her name.

She is the only college student military wife in the archipelago.

It was also Xu Wen who instructed the postman, saying that everyone was homesick and that the letters should be given to them first, and she would be the last one in line.

She is not in that hurry.

Xu Wen thanked him and took the letter.

"As usual! I'll wait for you for three hours. If you need to send a letter, you can give it to me now. If you need a reply, hurry up and go back to write it."

The crowd dispersed, leaving only the distraught Wang Ying who still wanted to ask the postman: "Comrade, can you see if there is a letter from Wang Ying? It should be the acceptance letter."

The postman also knew Wang Ying, mainly because she asked similar questions every time.

He shook his head. "Sister-in-law, really not. I checked before coming here."

Wang Ying was so anxious that she stepped forward and grabbed the postman's hand, "Please, take another look, is it leaking?"

The postman shook his head, snatched his hand back, and took two steps back. "Sister-in-law, calm down. I know you've been waiting, so every time I receive a letter from the land, I have to check it again and again. If there's really nothing, you..."

Xu Wen knew what the postman had not finished saying. He wanted to say that Wang Ying had failed the exam.