Li Jianmin suppressed his smile and explained seriously, "My family has very strict traditions. My grandfather absolutely forbade anyone from using backdoors. Even though my parents did receive support from the government and were offered relatively good positions, that was the extent of their care. They were able to move up in the ranks because they were truly capable. My two older brothers, on the other hand, didn't receive any support; they both joined the army through the normal procedures. My sister also relied on her own abilities to get admitted to the newspaper."
Yao Xiuli opened her mouth wide, not knowing what to say.
Li Jianmin looked at Yao Xiuli's silly look, smiled, and lifted her chin up, closing her mouth. He continued, "So, my grandfather would never allow my younger sister and I to use the backdoor to get a job in a certain unit unless we passed the exam on our own..."
"But when I just graduated from high school and hadn't had time to find a job, the country called on students to go to the countryside. We have five children, and one had to go. My older brothers and sisters couldn't go."
"Then the only ones left were me and my younger sister, who had just graduated from junior high school. She was still young at the time, and if I hadn't come, she would have come. I'm a man and it's okay for me to endure a little hardship, but my younger sister is a girl..."
Yao Xiuli understood, nodded slowly, and said softly, "Indeed, my younger sister is a girl, and she really shouldn't go to the countryside to suffer."
After a pause, Yao Xiuli became nervous again, "Then, will my parents..."
Before she could finish her words, Li Jianmin interrupted her and quickly comforted her, "Believe me, I like you so much, and my parents must like you too."
Yao Xiuli blushed when she heard that and looked around. Fortunately, sleeper berths were not available for purchase, so there were not many people in the carriage. However, she still whispered uncomfortably.
"Can you be more serious..."
Li Jianmin looked at Yao Xiuli's shy look and laughed heartily. To be honest, when they first got married, he didn't really like her that much. He could only say that he didn't hate her, and that she was okay and they could get along.
For him, he would have to marry sooner or later anyway, so who would he marry? Rather than marrying a stranger he had only met once or twice, it would be better to marry Yao Xiuli. At least he knew her, and she was always praised by the aunties in the team, so marrying her would be a good choice...
But he didn't expect that as time passed, he discovered many shining points in Yao Xiuli. Those shining points kept attracting him, making him like her more and more, and becoming more and more inseparable from her...
Time passed quickly, and the school had already been open for half a month. The two children who came back from school that day put their backpacks on the table in the main hall, and ran out while shouting at Old Mrs. Chu in the yard.
"Grandma, we're going out..."
Mrs. Chu was holding something in her hand. She was stunned when she heard this and quickly called out, "Xinxin, Pingping, have you finished your homework? What are you going to do?"
Xinxin stopped and looked back at Mrs. Chu, "Grandma, Pingping and I have finished our homework. We have an appointment with our classmates to play hopscotch together..."
When Mrs. Chu heard Xinxin say she had finished her homework, she nodded and said, "Then go ahead. Don't run too far."
Xinxin held Pingping in one hand, waved with the other, and ran out the door, calling, "Grandma, let's play at the entrance of the brigade office."
Lele, who had been standing obediently beside Mrs. Chu, could no longer stand still when she saw her brothers and sisters were going out to play. She shouted in the direction Xinxin was running, "Sister, Lele is going... Sister... Lele is going..."
It’s a pity that Xinxin didn’t hear it and had already pulled Pingping out of the yard.
Old Mrs. Chu hurriedly pulled her back and said, "Le Le, if you don't go, your brothers and sisters will play with other children their own age. Why don't you accompany grandma to feed the rabbits?"
Lele pouted and wanted to say no, but remembering that her parents always told her to listen to her grandmother, she nodded reluctantly.
Old Madam Chu patted her head lovingly, "Be good, Lele. After you feed the rabbits, I'll pick some crabapples for you, okay?"
Lele tilted his head and asked in a baby voice, "Grandpa?"
Mrs. Chu nodded and said, "Yes, just go to your great-grandfather's house to pick them."
There are grapes, plums, pears, two peach trees and an apple tree planted in Chu Tian's yard, but there is no crabapple tree. However, it doesn't matter if there is no crabapple tree. People like Chu Jun's family, Uncle Chu's family and Second Uncle Chu's family all have them planted, and even Chu Min's family has one. So when the children want to eat, they will go to their houses to ask for a few to eat and play with.
"Chu Yaxin, come quickly, I just finished drawing the grid..."
"Hey, I'll be right there."
When Xinxin, Pingping and several other children from the Chu family ran to the open space in front of the brigade office, many other children had also arrived, including Hu Xiaohua, who had the best relationship with Xinxin.
"Pingping, just play around here with Xinquan and the others. Don't go too far..."
Pingping responded obediently, "Sister, I understand..."
Xinxin watched Pingping, the boys from the Chu family, and the boys from the team run to the side to play with sandbags, and she ignored him.
On a piece of wasteland far away from the brigade, Captain Sun was sweating profusely while making adobe bricks. Suddenly, he heard someone calling him. Turning around, he saw Chu Tian wiping the sweat from his head and walking towards him.
"Captain..."
"Chu Tian? What's the matter?"
Chu Tian smiled and said, "Nothing, I just wanted to say that the farm has been built. I was wondering if we should start building the fence as well."
Captain Sun nodded and said, "Build it! The adobe bricks are almost ready. We can build the wall tomorrow."
Chu Tian looked at the large area of adobe bricks on the wasteland and said, "Well, once it's built, should we move all the rabbits from each household over here?"
Captain Sun shook his head. "No, the autumn harvest is almost here. If we move them in now, we'll have to find someone to take care of them. That's too much trouble."
"Wait until the autumn harvest is over!"
Chu Tian nodded, "Yes, there are quite a lot of rabbits from every household that have been moved here, and one or two people can't keep up with them..."
Captain Sun nodded. "Isn't that right? We've agreed that we'll have one person from each household in our team, and we'll split into five groups based on the situation. Each group will come here to take care of the rabbits for a week."
Chu Tian reminded, "Captain, we not only need to take care of it, but this place is remote, and we also need to leave someone to stay here at night to watch over it."
"Well, although there may not be people who rob openly, there is always the possibility of people stealing from the inside..."
Captain Sun smiled and said, "We have already thought about this issue."
Chu Tian thought so too. After all, Captain Sun had been the captain for more than ten years, and he must have considered many aspects of the things he did.
"By the way, Captain, have you forgotten that our team is still run by educated youth?"
“They are considered one household…”
Captain Sun was stunned for a moment, then hesitated and said, "There are only two female educated youths in the educated youth center now. The rest are either married or married into other families. This..."
Chu Tian smiled and said, "Then you see, one more person doesn't make much, one less person doesn't make much either."
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