svetikya Chapter 275 Northeast and Beijing
Chapter 275 Northeast and Beijing
"We all came here last year." Chen Weidong fiddled with the fire.
Under the light of the fire, Banggeng noticed that although these educated youth were not very old, their faces were already covered with traces of frost. Chen Weidong's knuckles were thick and deformed, Zhao Tiezhu's cotton jacket cuffs were worn to a shine, and Wang Yuanchao had a scar on his forehead that looked like it was cut by a sharp weapon.
"Do you know why we were assigned to Wugoutun?" Liu Jianshe suddenly spoke in a sinister voice, "Because this place is just across a mountain ridge from the labor camp. If you don't do a good job, you can be sent there at any time."
The room suddenly became quiet. Banggeng felt a chill on his back, and the potato in his hand suddenly lost its fragrance.
"Why scare him?" Sun Guoqing kicked Liu Jianshe and turned to Bang Geng and said, "Don't listen to his nonsense. As long as you come to work on time and behave yourself, no one will make things difficult for you."
Banggeng lowered his head and continued to eat his potatoes. The burnt part was bitter and sweet, which reminded him of the time when he was a child and stole the rock candy that Qin Huairu hid on the top of the cabinet. It was so good back then. Even if he made a mistake, he would at most be scolded...
"Get up at four o'clock tomorrow." Chen Weidong stood up and dusted off the dust on his body. "First go to the team headquarters to get an axe, and then go into the mountains."
"Four o'clock?" Bang Geng looked up suddenly, "It's not even daybreak yet!"
Zhao Tiezhu sneered, "By the time you dawdle until dawn, the good firewood will have been snatched away. If you go too late, there won't even be any bark left of the hardwood in Yelanggou."
Late at night, Banggeng lay on the kang, listening to the snoring. The kang was not hot enough, and his feet were still cold. Outside the window, the north wind blew snow particles against the window paper, making a rustling sound like countless insects crawling.
He took out the family photo and looked at it again and again in the moonlight coming through the window. Qin Huairu's smile in the photo was so blurry that it was almost impossible to see clearly. Banggeng suddenly felt his nose sore and quickly stuffed the photo back into his pocket.
"Mom, I will..." He was mad at himself, but he didn't know what to be mad at. In the end, he could only turn over and cover his head with the torn quilt.
After an unknown amount of time, Banggeng was awakened by a rustling sound. He squinted and saw that Chen Weidong and the others were already getting dressed.
"Get up." Zhao Tiezhu kicked his quilt, "If you delay any longer, you won't have breakfast."
Banggeng struggled to get up, his cotton jacket was as cold as iron. As he buttoned up his jacket tremblingly, Chen Weidong threw him a pair of work gloves: "Put them on, or your hands will freeze on the axe in a while."
It was still pitch black outside, with only the lantern hanging at the entrance of the team office on. Banggeng followed the others and walked slowly to the warehouse, where he received a chipped axe.
"That's it?" Bang Geng looked at the tool in his hand with disdain. "Chopping wood? It's more like chopping cotton!"
The custodian, Old Li, sneered, "It's up to you if you want it. This is it, and it's the only one. There's nothing else."
The road into the mountain was much harder than Banggeng had imagined. The snow was not even up to his calves, and every step required a lot of effort. After only half an hour of walking, his cotton pants were soaked through with snow and felt as cold as a knife cutting his flesh.
"We're here." Chen Weidong stopped and pointed to a bare patch of forest. "Let's cut trees here today. Remember, only cut dead trees. If you cut green trees, your work points will be deducted."
Bang Geng followed the others' example and found a dead tree as thick as a bowl and started chopping it. The first blow from the axe made his palms numb, leaving only a white mark on the bark.
"Put more effort on it!" Zhao Tiezhu shouted from a distance, "Are you chopping wood or tickling the tree?"
Banggeng gritted his teeth and swung the axe again, this time with full force. The axe blade got stuck in the gap between the trees, almost causing him to fall.
“Hahaha!” Wang Yuanchao and the others laughed so hard that they fell backwards. “Young masters from the city are just different!”
Bang Geng was so angry that his face turned red. Just as he was about to explode, he suddenly heard a long wolf howl in the distance. The sound was not far away, but it made his hair stand on end.
"It's okay," Chen Weidong said without even looking up. "The wolves in Yelanggou usually don't come this way. Hurry up and chop them down. When you've killed enough, we can go back and eat."
When the sun came out, Bang Geng finally knocked down a tree. His palms were covered with blisters, and the back of his cotton-padded jacket was soaked with sweat. When the wind blew, he was shivering with cold.
“That’s it?” Zhao Tiezhu looked at the crooked pile of firewood and shook his head. “It’s not even worth half a work point.”
On the way back to the village, Banggeng staggered along, dragging a few branches with him. His stomach growled with hunger, and his vision went dark. When he passed a small ditch, his foot slipped and he fell into a snowdrift.
"Get up." Chen Weidong stretched out his hand to pull him up. "If you fall down here, you will freeze to death."
When Banggeng was pulled up, his mouth was full of snow. He spat out some and suddenly found dark red blood mixed in the snow.
"This is..."
"Roe deer blood." Sun Guoqing squatted down to take a look. "A pack of wolves had dinner here last night."
After Banggen went to the countryside, the courtyard seemed to have been relieved of a heavy weight. Although no one said it openly, the atmosphere in the courtyard was obviously much more relaxed.
In the morning, the third uncle Yan Bugui walked around the yard with his hands behind his back, humming the song "Waves of Honghu Lake". Although the tune was off-key, he was in a good mood. The sister-in-law of the Gong family in the front yard hummed along while hanging clothes, and occasionally said to the neighbors passing by: "It's a nice day today!"
At the faucet in the middle courtyard, Xu Damao did not make trouble for the first time, and even took the initiative to get a basin of water for Qin Jingru to wash vegetables. Qin Jingru looked at him in surprise: "Oh, the sun is rising from the west today?"
Xu Damao chuckled and said, "My son's hand is healed now. I'm happy!" In fact, what he was thinking was that the troublemaker Banggeng was finally gone. There was one less time bomb in the yard. How could he not be happy?
Sha Zhu's family is very happy these days. Yu Li gave birth to a big fat girl for him in the spring.
"Oh, my little Peony!" Sha Zhu held his one-month-old daughter in his arms, so happy that his teeth were showing. The little girl was fair-skinned, with big and bright eyes like Yu Li, and her pouting mouth could melt anyone's heart.
"That's a good name." An old man named Yi Zhonghai sat by the bed and teased the child with a smile, "Peony means wealth and good luck!"
Yu Li leaned against the head of the bed. Although her face was still a little pale, her eyes were full of happiness. "Last time, Zhuzi told me the story of him, Jianguo and Rose. At that time, I thought that if I gave birth to a daughter, I would name her Peony."
Sha Zhu scratched his head, a little embarrassed: "That was so many years ago..."
It turned out that when Sha Zhu and Yu Li met for the first time on a blind date, Sha Zhu made up a love story of "Jian Guo and Rose" on the surface of Beihai Lake.
Yu Li knew at the time that he was talking nonsense, but she was amused by his seriousness. Later, when they became familiar with each other, this incident became a joke in the family.
Ever since Mudan was born, the women in the courtyard have been busy.
Aunt Yang from the front yard brought the eggs she had saved, and Gong's sister-in-law tore off a piece of flowered cloth to make a small dress for the girl. Even the stingy third uncle Yan Bugui, who had always been stingy, came to visit for the first time with a bag of brown sugar.