"That's true, with your strength, your appetite must be bigger than the average person's."
"Yes! That's why many of the older women in the military compounds don't let them practice, saying it's a waste of food."
"Wow, there's such a saying?"
"Yes, but what they don't know is that those who have trained diligently since childhood have better career prospects after joining the army than ordinary people. They are given more challenging missions, and the commendations and promotions they receive are incomparable to those of ordinary soldiers."
"That's true," Chen Enpeng said after thinking for a moment.
As they were talking, they carried the luggage from the cart to the oxcart. Grandpa Huang checked the time and knew the three children had gone straight to the post office and hadn't taken care of anything else, so he said:
"The old man will keep an eye on things for you. If anything happens, hurry up and take care of it. The journey back with this cart of luggage will definitely take longer than the way here. Hurry up and get on it. It used to take an hour to get back today, otherwise it will get dark. There are wolves and bears around here, it's not safe."
"Okay, Grandpa Huang, we'll go right now."
They hurried away after saying that, and then went their separate ways after entering the county town.
Chen Junjie and the others went to the supply and marketing cooperative to handle the transfer of subsidies directly. They would meet up at the state-run restaurant later.
I don't have anything to buy, and besides, this whole truckload of packages will definitely cause a sensation, so I'll just skip it.
"Hello, comrade, I'm here to transfer the subsidy for children of martyrs to the local area."
"Hello, comrade, please give me the information."
"Okay," he said, handing the documents in his hand to the other person.
"Comrade, your documents are complete. You can come to collect your subsidy on the 1st of each month, or on any working day."
"Okay, thank you, comrade. But I'd like to ask, what if something comes up and I can't come to pick it up in time?"
"It's alright, comrade. This subsidy can only be received with the martyr's child certificate and the subsidy certificate. Also, if you have something to do, you can come to collect it next month, or you can come quarterly, that is, once every three months. But you can't delay for too long, understand?"
"Okay, thank you, comrade."
"Here are this month's allowance and receipts. Please take them."
Thank you, comrade.
"You're welcome, it's all about serving the people."
And so I received my first month's subsidy of thirty yuan and some receipts. These receipts were issued according to the quantities previously set in the city, except that things like grain coupons had been replaced with local ones.
Seeing that it was getting late, I hurried to the state-run restaurant. When I arrived, Chen Enpeng and the others hadn't arrived yet. I ordered a bowl of noodles, a serving of braised pork, a serving of vegetables, two steamed buns, and twenty large steamed buns. I asked them to wrap up the large steamed buns so I could take them with me later, and I ate the rest myself. I didn't care whether the others were watching or not, I just ate. When I was almost finished eating, Chen Enpeng and the others returned. I quickly invited them to sit down, and after finishing my last bite, I said, "You two take your time eating here. I'll go wait for you at Grandpa Huang's."
“Okay, you go ahead, we’ll be back in a bit,” Chen Enpeng said.
"Okay, I'm off," he said, taking the bag of buns with him. The money and coupons had already been settled. It only cost less than two yuan in total, but the grain was two jin, and half a jin had coupons.
Seeing Grandpa Huang sitting there, they quickly went over, and seeing that no one was around, they hurriedly gave him two large meat buns, saying, "Grandpa Huang, here you go."
"What are you doing, child? Keep it for yourself."
"Grandpa Huang, there's more here," he said, picking up the bag.
"That won't do either. You're just a little kid. You'll be living alone from now on, so you'll have to be careful with your money."
"Grandpa Huang, it's alright. I receive a monthly allowance now, so I can afford to treat you to a big meat bun."
"What can I say about you, my child?"
"Grandpa Huang, don't worry about eating. We'll need your old buddy a lot more often in the future."
"What's wrong? We might not do anything illegal."
"Grandpa Huang, what are you thinking? I'll be coming to the county town to collect my subsidy about every month, or every two or three months. Also, I'll be receiving packages every month or every few months, and I'll need to trouble you then."
"It's nothing, but it can't be like today, it's too conspicuous."
"Grandpa Huang, look at what you're saying, it's not that exaggerated. It's only been a short while, and you've moved your whole city home here. Don't they say that even a broken home is worth a fortune? I was just afraid that I would lack everything here. When I came, I almost moved all the cabinets and stuff from my house. If Uncle Shen and the others hadn't said that there was too much, I really would have moved it all."
"That's fine then, Grandpa Huang will accept these two steamed buns."
Please accept it.
"Okay, I'll give the steamed buns to the two kids at home later."
I know that Grandpa and Grandma Huang are raising their two grandsons. I heard their parents were also martyrs. The two boys are now eight years old, twins. Perhaps because their mother didn't eat well during pregnancy, or maybe she didn't have enough to eat in the past few years, they look only five or six years old now. Grandparents love children, and there's nothing wrong with that. Once you've given something, you can't control whether it's for them or for the children.
Soon Chen Enpeng and the others returned. We followed the oxcart, walking for a while and then riding for a while, slowly making our way back to the brigade. However, it was already dark when we got back, and there wasn't much of a person outside. When we carried our things back to the team leader's house, they were quite surprised. When they learned that we had brought all our belongings back before going to the countryside, Grandpa Gu was relieved. He knew that this young man was really planning to settle down in the brigade. Seeing that Chen Enpeng and the other two were there, he invited them to have dinner together. He also invited Grandpa Huang, but Grandpa Huang was worried about his family and didn't eat there. He waved and went home.
During the meal, Chen Enpeng brought up the matter of building houses. The team leader agreed, but then said, "Mianmian, I'm afraid it wasn't appropriate to assign you the land yesterday."
"What's wrong, Captain? Can't we cover it up anymore?"
"No, that's not it. The brigade held a meeting today and discussed that if more educated youth are sent to the countryside, building your house separately in that area would cause you unnecessary trouble. We plan to allocate a separate plot of land for you educated youth in the village so you can all build together."
"Uncle Captain, has my house plan changed?"
"There have been some changes, but not major ones. Since both Comrade Chens are here, are you planning to build them separately, or have our brigade build them together? If you build them separately, you'll have to pay for them yourself."
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