Chapter 75
“It’s Xie Houlin,” Lu Manman said, “He’s so annoying. He’s just someone from the Supply and Marketing Cooperative, what does it have to do with him what happens in our Town Committee? Right, right? Ugh, it has absolutely nothing to do with him. And yet, he had to carry his bowl across the street just to come ask me. We live two streets apart, for heaven’s sake.”
“Xie Houlin?” Qiao Wei rubbed her temples, having a vague memory associated with the name, “I remember he is… Propaganda Section Xie Houshan’s…?”
“Younger brother,” Lu Tianming said, “His own younger brother.”
“Oh.”
Lu Manman said: “Yes, he said he heard it from his brother. He was just curious.”
Xie Houlin was curious: Was there really such a vicious flower stuck in old cow dung? And was it the new broadcaster who just arrived in town and speaks in perfect Mandarin?
The mutation of the rumor was actually quite logical.
The point of misunderstanding was that Section Chief Xie and Station Chief Lu both assumed that a regimental-level cadre must be old. Others assumed the same.
Therefore, the new flower of the Broadcasting Station had married an old cadre.
Since he was old, he must have been married, right? It was impossible for him to have remained unmarried.
Therefore, the flower of the Broadcasting Station had married an old, twice-married cadre.
Why would a perfectly good young girl marry an old man?
So, Qiao Wei from the Broadcasting Station must have a very poor family and couldn’t make ends meet.
Since he was a twice-married old cadre, surely there must be children from the previous marriage, right?
And so, Qiao Wei ended up with stepchildren.
Then, as the rumor spread from person to person, the number of stepchildren began to iterate, finally reaching five.
And what about the little boy who followed her to work?
Oh, that one was her own. The only biological one.
Since there was an only biological child, there must be a conflict of interest with the children from before, right?
The most sensational part was that the first five were all girls, who were underfed, poorly clothed, and beaten and scolded daily by their stepmother.
Finally.
“They said your family situation is difficult, so to live a good life, you married a widowed old cadre with a high salary. He left behind five daughters who are living miserably and pitifully under your care. Xiangxiang is your only biological child, and a boy at that, whom you cherish like the apple of your eye, so you don’t send him to daycare but keep him by your side to watch him every day.”
You have to say, this description was logically smooth and seamless.
Hu Sui laughed out loud.
Qiao Wei was speechless: “Do you believe it?”
Lu Manman swore an oath: “I absolutely do not believe it! You are not that kind of person!”
People carry their own energy.
Some lean towards warm, some towards cold, some upright, some filthy.
As for Qiao Wei, she was vibrant and warm.
She seemed to have no dissatisfaction with life and lived happily every day.
Even when she entered the office, she brought her own sunshine effect, instantly brightening up the corners of the room with a swish.
“Sigh, these gossips.” Station Chief Lu tried to smooth things over, comforting Qiao Wei, “Don’t get angry with them, it’s not worth it, not worth it.”
The main thing was that this kind of rumor had even reached the Logistics Department, so the radiation area must be quite large. You couldn’t go find them one by one to clarify or argue.
You might just end up making yourself sick.
Qiao Wei was still so young; surely she would be angry, right?
Who knew that Qiao Wei only felt speechless: “It’s really… people are just too idle.”
“Not angry?” Station Chief Lu asked cautiously.
Qiao Wei rubbed her temples: “I can’t bring myself to be angry about this.”
Station Chief Lu quickly said: “Exactly, we are all revolutionary comrades, we must have this kind of broad-mindedness.”
Qiao Wei told Yan Lei about this in the evening.
“The masses’ imagination is truly rich,” she sighed, “Still, it’s because they’re idle.”
Yan Lei glanced at her expression and asked: “You’re not angry?”
Qiao Wei yawned: “Getting angry over this isn’t worth making myself sick; I’m afraid of giving myself breast hyperplasia.”
Sleep, sleep.
Yan Lei refused to let her sleep.
He shook her awake: “Why aren’t you angry?”
Qiao Wei: “…”
Qiao Wei’s focus was on the country’s political trends, the turmoil of the situation, and how people adapt to the times to survive without being crushed by the torrent of history.
As for the trivial gossip of comfortable office personnel in an era of underdeveloped communication, it couldn’t even compare to the darkest depths of human nature she had seen in the hospital.
Qiao Wei didn’t take it to heart at all.
But she couldn’t explain this to Yan Lei, so she could only say: “Getting angry affects the endocrine system, that is, the body’s hormones. Endocrine disorders in women can induce many diseases. Breast nodules, which can develop into breast cancer, uterine fibroids, which can develop into uterine cancer…”
Qiao Wei was just spouting nonsense.
“So, old sayings used to say that a person with a narrow mind dies early. Or that a person was angered to death. In fact, it’s highly likely that emotions affected the endocrine system, inducing some disease, leading to an early death.”
“So, there’s no need, no need. People didn’t run up to my face and say it, so should I go from office to office to explain to people?”
“Sleep, sleep, stop bothering me. If you bother me again, I’ll bite you.”
Qiao Wei slept.
Her sleep schedule was too stable now; she practically lived by the sunrise and sunset, getting tired when it was time and waking up when it was time.
But Yan Lei couldn’t sleep; he hugged his arms and leaned against the wall, angry.
Qiao Wei thought she was the only one who should be angry about this rumor.
She didn’t realize there was actually a point in this rumor that made Yan Lei very unhappy.
Although “Qiao Wei’s husband is an old man who doesn’t deserve her” was a misunderstanding by those people, they did clearly express their regret and lament over “a flower stuck in cow dung.”
They thought he didn’t deserve her.
Little did they know, this was precisely Yan Lei’s only deep-seated insecurity.
As the male lead of this chrono-novel, when Yan Lei faced the original female lead Lin Xixi, he was virtually flawless and charming from head to toe.
But that was actually because his only weakness, his deep-seated inferiority, was only for Qiao Weiwei.
Now, it was towards Qiao Wei.
Should I go from office to office to explain to people?
Yan Lei glanced at the sleeping Qiao Wei.
She was sleeping on her side, giving him her back.
He leaned over and kissed her shoulder blades, gently stroked her arm, watched her for a while, and extended a finger to gently poke her cheek.
You just have too thin a skin.
Hmph.
The mosquito eradication was set for August 30th, six days away.
This was led by the city, with the counties, towns, and communes acting in unison.
This was a big operation.
The powder had already been distributed to the counties, and then from the counties to the towns and communes below.
Xiahekou Town also became busy; just distributing the powder kept people so busy they were running off their feet.
There were medicine distribution points at several street intersections in town, and residents lined up by household to receive the powder.
For public entities, it also had to be distributed to schools, clinics, restaurants, and various public units and shops.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, they distributed medicine for two whole days before it was basically in place for the entire town, both public and private.
They were just waiting to act together when the time came.
If it were in later generations, Qiao Wei probably couldn’t imagine that an activity to eliminate mosquitoes and flies would make the small-town residents so enthusiastic, as if they were holding the Olympic Games.
But this era was just like that.
Collective activities were always lively, exciting, and full of anticipation.
Thursday was already the 26th.
Two vehicles arrived at the entrance of the Town Committee, a jeep and a truck.
Old Xu in the guard room didn’t sit in the room looking out the small window as usual; as soon as he heard the sound of cars coming from afar, he came out of the guard room to look, and seeing the two military-green vehicles coming this way, he shouted into the gate: “Xiao Wang, go notify everyone quickly, the comrades from the Military Unit have arrived!”
The young clerk inside the gate quickly went to notify the leaders.
The wheels stopped.
There was no need to look for parking spaces.
The only cars you could see in town were the bus at the entrance of the town and the vehicles from the Military Unit.
The Town Committee didn’t even have a car.
They could park anywhere, as long as they didn’t block the path where people walked.
Several young and strong men in military uniforms got down from the truck.
Two of them had white armbands pinned on their military uniform sleeves, printed with red crosses.
The front and back doors of the jeep opened, and three soldiers jumped out from the back; one look at their age and you knew they were cadres.
Old Xu was just about to go up to meet them, when the passenger door was pushed open, long legs stepped directly onto the ground, and an officer climbed out and stood straight.
His shoulders and back were broad, his legs were long, and his height was a head taller than the others, completely filling out his military uniform.
He adjusted his hat and lifted his face.
The brim of his hat pressed against his long eyebrows, his nose bridge was straight, and his heroic face was sharp and angular.
But he was just too young.
Both young and fierce.
Old Xu in the guard room didn’t dare to underestimate him at all.
Anyone who could have such a fierce aura, there was no need to guess, must have been on the battlefield.
The Military Unit was not like local government units where one could muddle through; every cadre in the military had scars on their bodies, having passed through hail of bullets and waded through mountains of corpses and seas of blood to achieve today’s rank.
At this time, there were no singing and dancing generals.
Military achievements were solid, hard-earned merits.
“Comrades from the Military Unit have arrived! Please come in, please come in.”
Old Xu enthusiastically led them in, “Our leaders greeted us long ago, saying to invite the comrades from the Military Unit in as soon as they arrived.”
Although he was enthusiastic, he didn’t know which one of the four cadres was the leader.
At the turn of spring and summer this year, the country abolished the military rank system that had been implemented since the founding of the People’s Republic and changed to new uniforms.
The new uniforms returned to basics, imitating the appearance of the Red Army era, with only a red star on the hat and two red collar patches on the collar, all green with three pieces of red.
This is what was later sung in songs: “A red star worn on the head, revolutionary red flags hung on both sides.”
There were no shoulder straps or military ranks.
The entire army was unified, from the marshal to the little soldier, everyone wore the same thing.
Therefore, it was impossible to distinguish who had a higher rank and who had a lower rank from the uniforms.
One only knew that those who got down from the truck were most likely soldiers, and those who got down from the car were definitely cadres.
In this era, only a very small number of people had come into contact with small cars.
Ordinary people didn’t even see them on a daily basis, let alone touch them.
They didn’t understand how the seating in a car should be arranged according to rank.
Old Xu only saw that among the three people who jumped down from the back of the car, there was a red-faced person who looked the oldest, so when he spoke, he was actually addressing that person.
He defaulted to him as the leader.
But as soon as the comrades from the Military Unit followed him into the Town Committee compound, Old Xu knew he had made a mistake.
It was actually the youngest one walking in front, with the three older-looking ones behind him.
The youngest one was the leader this time.
After walking a few steps, the young officer with a fierce aura asked as if casually: “Are the people from the Broadcasting Station here today?”
Old Xu thought it was about work; the Broadcasting Station was responsible for propaganda tasks and was indeed quite important in such a big event.
He quickly nodded: “They are all here, everyone is at their posts.”
“Is Qiao Wei there?” the young officer asked.
Old Xu was stunned for a moment: “Huh?”
“Do you know her?” the young officer turned his head to ask him, “Qiao Wei, she works as a broadcaster at the Broadcasting Station.”
“Yes, yes. Who doesn’t know Qiao Wei.”
Indeed, who didn’t know Qiao Wei now?
Even the people in town almost all knew Qiao Wei.
To the townspeople, this new broadcaster spoke such standard Mandarin, who wouldn’t know her?
Otherwise, why would Xie Houlin be able to carry his bowl and stroll two streets over to gossip?
And for the people in the Town Committee compound, that girl in a white shirt and green military pants, simple and unadorned yet naturally clear and beautiful, who hadn’t secretly taken a few extra looks at her?
“Qiao Wei? She’s here, she’s definitely here. She’s a broadcaster, she’s on duty at this time.” Old Xu said.
“That’s good.” The young officer smiled, revealing a mouthful of white teeth, “After I finish my business later, I’ll go find her.”
“Oh, oh, okay…” Old Xu didn’t know why this officer was looking for Qiao Wei.
That girl Qiao Wei had a smile on her face every day and shone all over.
No one could see her and not like her.
It’s just a pity… she married an old man for the sake of survival.
Old Xu stole a glance at the officer, who was young and handsome.
Oh, this…
“Comrade, do you know Qiao Wei too?”
In the distance, a group of people could already be seen coming.
The leaders of the Town Committee were coming to meet them.
In the lead was Secretary Gao, and half a step behind was Town Mayor Xie.
Others followed behind.
“She is my wife.”
Old Xu was gazing at the approaching leaders, and suddenly hearing such a sentence, he couldn’t react for a moment: “Huh?”
“Qiao Wei,” the young officer adjusted his military cap, his eyes glancing over, “She is my wife.”
“You know Yan Xiang too, right? He is my son.”
After he finished speaking, he increased his pace and met the people coming from the opposite side.
The soldiers stopped, stood at attention, and saluted.
The person leading the Town Committee leaders stood at attention and returned the salute.
His posture was equally upright, and one look told you he was a veteran.
The officer reached out: “Secretary Gao?”
“It’s me.” Secretary Gao also reached out, “Comrade, how should I address you?”
The men’s hands clasped.
“821st Division, 17th Regiment Commander, my name is Yan Lei.”
“So it’s you! I’ve heard of you! Welcome, welcome!” Secretary Gao shook his hand enthusiastically, “Thank you so much, the Military Unit is supporting us with a whole regiment of people.”
“It’s my duty,” Yan Lei nodded, “Serving the people is our responsibility.”
