In the blink of an eye, it's summer of '74. I'm now a mother of three. My eldest, Mantou, is 5 years old, my second, Baozi, is 3 years old, and my youngest, Doubao, is a little over 1 year old.
All three children are boys, and the third brother kept saying how wonderful it would be if one of them were a girl.
Ever since she became pregnant with her second child, the third brother had been hoping for a daughter, but even after the birth of their third child, they still hadn't gotten one. This worried the third brother to no end, saying, "Why is it so hard for me to have a daughter?"
In recent years, life in the brigade has been very colorful. It's always about someone's child marrying an educated youth, or someone's daughter marrying an educated youth, or two educated youth getting married and moving out of the educated youth compound after being allocated a plot of land by the brigade.
It can be said that more and more educated youth settled down in the production team, and not many educated youth were able to return to the city. Instead, batches of educated youth came to the production brigade.
The villagers in the brigade were already used to it, but the only thing that bothered them was that some families either married educated youth as wives or married their daughters to educated youth.
There was no way I didn't want to see my daughter suffer, so I had to give her some financial support. As for the educated youth who married into my family, well, I guess they'll have to pray for their own good fortune!
If you want to live a good life, you either have to have a son or you have to separate from your family. Ever since Zhou Fangfang from Uncle Zhou's family married Cai, more and more educated youth in the brigade and the educated youth compound have been dating. Once something happens, the family can't stop it no matter what, and in the end they can only agree.
As for how each family lives, it can be said that very few families do not separate. Currently, most families have daughters. As long as a son is born, regardless of the circumstances, the family will separate.
This year, after finishing their work, some villagers in the brigade were building houses for this family or that family. It can be said that the production team is now very lively.
"What? Big brother's coming? You're not mistaken, are you?"
"That's right, my brother even called the military base and told us when he would pick me up."
"Did you say you were coming with your sister-in-law?"
"Some say the whole family is coming."
"Then we need to quickly air out all the bedding and other items."
"No rush. It takes at least three or four days by train from the Northwest to get here."
"That won't do either. Let's get ready quickly! It's been so many years since I've seen my older brother. I wonder how he's doing."
"At least you've met them before."
"You, really, this is like..."
"Isn't this just talk?"
"Prepare the west room; the outer room is for the eldest brother and sister-in-law, and the inner room is for the children."
"good"
It has been almost ten years since I first went to the countryside. Speaking of my eldest brother, he also found his life partner the year I got married to my third brother, but he got married a few months later than me, so his children were relatively younger.
As for what his sister-in-law did for a living, his brother didn't mention much in the letter, only saying that she was also a college student and had been working in Northwest China.
Seeing his description in the letter, my third brother and I could roughly guess what was going on. A female college student working in the Northwest was probably doing scientific research or something similar.
As for photos or anything like that, the older brother didn't give them to him at all.
Another thing is that when Mantou was a little over one year old, Nanjie also got married, and now only Fourth Brother is left. I wonder what kind of wife he found.
"Mianmian, Mianmian, your elder brother and sister-in-law, and your nephew are here."
"Dad's home."
"Oh, Daddy's home."
"Dad~ Dad"
"Dad, come back!"
"Here are steamed buns and dumplings. This is your uncle and aunt. These are your two younger brothers, Pingping and An'an. Quickly greet them."
"Oh, Uncle, Aunt, are you well?"
"Hello, Uncle! Hello, Aunt!"
"Good child, you are like steamed bun."
"yes"
"You are a steamed bun."
"Yes! Uncle, you're amazing!"
"Come on, Mantou, these two little brothers, Baozi, you call them big brothers."
"younger brother"
"elder brother"
"Big Brother"
"Mianmian, let me introduce you. This is your sister-in-law, Song Yingying."
Hello, sister-in-law.
"Hello, this is a steamed bun."
"Yes, Doubao, quickly call her Auntie,"
"Big Mother"
"This child started talking a little later than his two older brothers; he can't speak very well yet."
"It's okay, An'an just speaks a little later than Pingping."
"By the way, it's hot outside, let's come inside and sit down."
"Yes, yes, come in and sit down."
"Put your things in the west room first, they've been packed up already. Let's eat first, then you guys wash up. The train journey must be tiring, so take a nap, and then we can have a proper chat."
"Alright, Mianmian, then I won't stand on ceremony with you."
Don't be so polite.
Shen Dong didn't care. Not to mention that Shen Xi was his own brother, his sister-in-law was also his sister whom he had known since childhood. In his opinion, this was no different from going back to his own home.
But for Song Yingying, this was not her own home after all. Besides, not to mention her husband's younger brother, she was also meeting her sister-in-law for the first time, so she was still a little reserved.
Their visit wasn't just to visit relatives; another important reason was that they wanted to leave their two children here.
It's not that the couple didn't want to keep their child with them, but their circumstances were special and they couldn't.
She was a researcher, and according to the latest instructions from above, she was to go to work in other places with everyone from the research institute, and her husband happened to be a People's Liberation Army comrade who was protecting them.
Therefore, she couldn't bring her two children with her. Even if she wanted to, the place she went to was completely unknown, not only to herself but also to her superiors.
All we knew was that they were going to a place deep in the mountains, with no way to contact the outside world, so we had no choice but to send the child here.
She did want to send the child back to her parents' home, but it's better not to mention her own parents' home.
"Don't worry! There won't be any problems. Not to mention Third Brother, even if you don't want to keep the child after Mianmian knows the reason, she will insist on keeping it."
"But, Dong-ge, putting everything else aside, grain is so precious right now, how can we possibly feed two more children? Besides, even if we buy it on the black market, it will cost a lot of money."
We don't know when we'll be back. This isn't something that can be done in a day or two, or even a month or two, but rather several years, or perhaps even longer.
"No matter how long it takes, we must believe that Mianmian will come back and that our child will be well raised."
As for whether there is enough food, you don't need to worry about that. Putting aside everything else, even in the most difficult years, the four of us didn't go hungry, let alone anyone else.
Or are you worried that your child will suffer here?
"Where else would you not suffer? Wouldn't it be tough to come with us to the mountains?"
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