With potatoes, by the autumn of 1961, after four harvests, there were about 1000 jin of fresh sweet potatoes. About 2000 jin of sweet potatoes were rotten when they were harvested, so I dried them into sweet potato jerky, which was probably less than 300 jin.
There were about 600 jin of potatoes, of which about 100 jin were spoiled. I've been steaming them together for the past two years. Seeing that there was really no room to store them, I ended up putting all the seasonings and other things from my storage space on my bed in the study, since I don't sleep there much anyway. Plus, this year we've used up a lot of grain, dried vegetables, pumpkins, and even the food we bought before, and we've eaten about half of the fruit we bought before. There's still a lot of space left, so I put the sweet potatoes and potatoes in the warehouse.
During those three most difficult years, the Shen family was undoubtedly the most famous in the military compound. They were not the kind of family that would skimp on their daughter's food just to give their son an extra bite to eat.
Instead, it started in 1959 when the eldest brother, Shen Dong, was admitted to a military academy, and in 1960 when Shen Nan was admitted to a military medical college, and in 1961 when the third son of the Shen family, Shen Xi, was also admitted to a military academy, which surprised everyone. For three consecutive years, the Shen family produced a college student.
This put a lot of pressure on the fourth brother. In order to catch up with his older siblings, he studied diligently in 1959, even hanging his head from the rafters and pricking his thigh with an awl, and finished learning the first and second years of junior high school in just one year. He also successfully entered the first year of senior high school in 1960.
Just as that family was still wondering how the Shen family had produced three university graduates, they heard:
"My goodness, is the fourth son of the Shen family also taking the college entrance exam and going to university next year?"
When everyone heard Wang Xiue's words, they didn't know whether to be surprised or jealous. There was no way to compare with her. It was already good enough that their family could produce one college student, while hers might produce four, and each of them would be a few years younger than their own children when they entered college. How could they compare?
After Nan Nan was admitted to the military academy's medical school in 1960, her mother took the initiative to speak with the hospital leaders and asked them to personally tutor and teach Nan Nan before she went to the school to register.
After everyone learned that Sister Shen Nan was Aunt Zhou's daughter, they all vied to teach her. When Sister Nan went to school, the teacher discovered that although Shen Nan was only 16 years old this year, not even 15 years old yet, she was the fastest and best learner among all the students, and also the most hardworking. Moreover, her technique had a familiar feel to it.
"Chen Nan, the professor wants to see you in his office," the class monitor said.
"Oh, okay, class monitor, thank you," Shen Nan said with a smile. Before the start of the semester, her family had told her not to talk too much about family matters, to be low-key, and to do more and talk less.
"Report"
"Please come in."
"Professor, you wanted to see me?"
"Chen Nan, I see you're quite familiar with some aspects of surgical treatment."
"Professor?" Shen Nan didn't understand.
"Shen Nan, don't be nervous. I saw in your file that your mother is a nurse at the military hospital, right?"
"Yes"
"General nursing care and bandaging are all done by nurses, but some procedures are different. Each doctor has their own set of familiar procedures. Your technique seems to resemble someone else's. I wonder if Shen Nan knows Dr. Liu Linjuan from the military hospital?"
Shen Nan never expected anyone to mention her master, but not knowing why the professor wanted to talk about her master, she didn't answer immediately. Instead, she waited for the professor to ask. The old man, seeing the child before him, who was only fifteen or sixteen years old but already possessed such profound knowledge of theorems, thought she must know them, and directly said, "
I was fortunate enough to witness Dr. Liu perform surgery. Although she wasn't formally trained, few could compare to her in the field of cardiac surgery. I admire her greatly. In our college...
We would like to invite Dr. Liu to come and give a lecture on cardiac surgery to you students when you have time. Therefore, could you please write a letter to Dr. Liu in your name beforehand to ask her if that's possible?
"This, Professor, I..."
"Just mention it to Dr. Liu; whether she comes or not is none of your business."
After receiving Nan Jie's letter, Mom thought about it and agreed, but the school and the college needed to discuss it first, and then they would talk about other things.
Sixty years ago, the demotion of officers didn't affect my father and Uncle Shen. In fact, they were promoted two ranks and are now deputy division-level officers, with a monthly salary of 210 yuan plus a living allowance of 52.2 yuan, totaling 262.2 yuan a month. Because of this, many women in the army said to their husbands that they were not as good as my father and Uncle Shen, since they hadn't been demoted but had been promoted.
Even if you're envious, there's nothing you can do, right? They earned it with their lives. In the past two years, due to food shortages, many people haven't had enough to eat, so how could they have the strength to take on missions? My dad and Uncle Shen took on all of them, and they all completed them successfully.
My mother's rank has also been promoted; she's now at level six, equivalent to a bureau chief, and receives a monthly allowance of 175 yuan. Adding her military service allowance of 43.75 yuan, her monthly allowance totals 218.75 yuan.
Aunt Zhou is now a company commander, with a monthly salary of 95 yuan, plus a military service allowance of 28.5 yuan, which makes her 123.5 yuan a month.
After receiving her mother's letter, Nan went to see the professor. The professor was very happy to hear this and quickly went to the school leaders to make arrangements. This was very important for their training of military doctors specializing in cardiac surgery. There was a lot of related work involved, such as how much subsidy to provide, what kind of benefits to offer, what kind of title to assign, and so on.
In 1961, my mother was officially hired as an associate professor at the military academy's medical school, where she also taught classes. Her monthly salary was 241 yuan. This was not because my mother lacked formal education, but because of her medical skills. Moreover, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, my mother had earned her undergraduate degree as an auditor at the medical school.
With this salary, it was natural for her to mentor students. In 1961, a military academy medical student was assigned to the surgical department of a military hospital and was mentored by her for his internship.
So, Mom's monthly salary is actually higher than Dad's; she now earns 441 yuan a month. Only Aunt Zhou and Uncle Shen know this in the military compound.
I'm in the second year of junior high school this year, and I'm 10 years old. Even though those were the three most difficult years, I'm still doing better than most people. I'm already 1.4 meters tall, which is quite tall for my age, so I can go out of the military compound by myself. Now there's a bus route to the military compound. My older brother, my third brother, and my fourth brother all prepared the firewood for the winter during the summer.
Besides, school has been in session for over a month now, and there's not much left to carry home from the mountain. Also, taking advantage of the current situation...
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