Chapter 137
The birth of Yan Fu brought some changes to Qiao Wei’s family.
After Yan Lei was promoted, he had an orderly. The orderly was responsible for handling the leader’s household chores. Now, the cooking and cleaning at home were all done by the orderly.
But Yan Fu was still so young, and Qiao Wei needed to return to work after her maternity leave. She certainly didn’t plan to send Yan Fu to daycare; even if the daycare gave special care to the children of leaders, it would still be quite rough.
So, it was natural for the family to add a nanny specifically to take care of the child.
With a new addition to the family, Yan Lei naturally wrote to his hometown, and naturally, he mentioned the matter of looking for a nanny.
The people in Yan Village certainly had ideas; the sister-in-law and the wives of his younger brothers all wanted to send their sisters or nieces over. Just like how Lin Xixi worked for the Zhao family, when hiring a nanny at this time, the first choice was relatives from the rural hometown, as they felt it was reliable.
Yan Lei mentioned it to Qiao Wei, but Qiao Wei rejected it directly.
“Distance creates beauty, but proximity breeds contempt. If the relatives are in need, you can just help them out. Everyone stays on good terms,” she said. “If you bring someone here, and I’m not satisfied and send them back, I’ll end up holding a grudge. Why bother?”
“I am not like Sister-in-law Zhao; she can get along with Lin Xixi. It’s hard for me to get along with the people from Yan Village.”
“If I treat her as a nanny and make her do a lot of work, she will treat me as a relative, making me seem mean. If I really treat her as a relative, I won’t be able to order her around to do work. What am I doing? Am I looking for someone to come here and act like a young lady?”
“I’ll say it again: if relatives are in need, feel free to help them, but don’t bring them into the house. ‘Distance creates beauty, proximity breeds contempt’ isn’t just a saying.”
What she said made sense, and Yan Lei agreed.
When he returned to his hometown, he actually had the feeling of not being able to talk to or even understand the people there.
Moreover, Qiao Wei had quite high requirements for hygiene and all aspects of life. If the people from the hometown came and were subjected to her requirements, they might really think that she, the aunt, was mean.
It was meant to help relatives, but instead, it ruined their reputation. It wasn’t necessary; it really wasn’t necessary.
Yan Lei wrote a letter to reject the proposal from his hometown.
At this time, there was a department specifically responsible for managing the various chores of cadres’ lives. Yan Lei had them recommend a few people, and after Qiao Wei’s interview, they selected a nanny in her forties.
Qiao Wei took 56 days of maternity leave and returned to work.
Even in this era, the infant mortality rate was still quite high.
Since having a younger sister, Yan Xiang began to study medical books. After finishing what he could read in the Library, he started digging for materials from the Health Bureau.
His father was a division-level cadre, and his mother was the deputy director of the Revolutionary Committee, so he was unimpeded wherever he went.
At the same time, studying medical materials did not delay what he did in the back room of the Library office.
Qiao Wei had also asked what that was, and Yan Xiang said: “A kind of algorithm.”
The word “algorithm” was the limit of what Qiao Wei could understand; if he said any more, even Qiao Wei, the transmigrator, wouldn’t understand.
Children grow fast, and little Yan Fu grew up with the wind, turning one year old in the blink of an eye.
She looked like a little snowball and was extremely cute. Yan Xiang often carried her to Jun Jun’s place to show off.
Sometimes he would also take her to play with Lü Tianze’s children. The second child of Lü Tianze was born shortly after Yan Fu, with only a half-month difference.
Lü Tianze joked: “Let Little Fu marry into my family in the future.”
Yan Xiang said: “That won’t do.”
He picked up Yan Fu and ran away.
He even whispered into Yan Fu’s ear: “We won’t go to their house to play in the future.”
It was the same when they were pregnant; when the mother was heavily pregnant, she didn’t have to do anything at home. She couldn’t bend down, and the father would squat down to help her put on shoes and wash her feet.
But Sister Lin, at Lü Tianze’s house, still had to do a lot of work while heavily pregnant.
Although she was always smiling, as if it were very easy, Yan Xiang had a comparison and had his own scale in his heart.
He couldn’t let Yan Fu marry into the Lü family to do chores.
He even seriously warned his parents: “Fu Fu cannot marry into the Lü family when she grows up. I don’t agree.”
Yan Lei thought his son was bright and clear-eyed: “Right! I don’t agree either.”
He could be brothers with Lü Tianze through life and death, but he could absolutely not be in-laws with Lü Tianze.
This matter was non-negotiable; all the men of The Yan Household disagreed.
Qiao Wei: “…”
She was only one year old; were they too anxious about the future?
Lü Tianze had been taking refuge in Xiahekou for four years, and finally, in the year Yan Fu turned one, he was rehabilitated and could return to Beijing.
He drank a big drink with Army Commander Pan, Yan Lei, Regimental Commander Zhao, and Regimental Commander Ma, and everyone shed tears.
He took Lin Xixi and the two children back to Beijing, and everyone went to the train station to see them off.
The men stood together talking, and the women stood together talking.
Lin Xixi had finally waited for this day.
Sister Yang cried: “You have to take good care of yourself.”
She wanted to tell her not to be bullied. Lin Xixi’s marriage was a high climb during a special period, and Sister Yang herself was a rural person, harboring fear for that “big family” in Beijing, always afraid that the Lü family would look down on Lin Xixi after the son was rehabilitated.
City people, didn’t they look down on country folk the most?
But she couldn’t say this; it wouldn’t look good if she did. She could only repeatedly urge Lin Xixi to take good care of herself, and then said: “This place is your maiden home.”
Having a regimental-level cadre family as a maiden home sounded better than having a maiden home in the countryside farming.
Lin Xixi said: “Aunt, don’t worry.”
Using her past life as a reference line, even if she went to Beijing to be a nanny for the Lü family, she had already won compared to her previous life.
What’s more, she had already given birth to two children for Lü Tianze. Every time a child was born, the old lady in Beijing would have people send many things and money.
The old lady’s husband and eldest son had both died, and what she wanted to see most was the Lü family flourishing. Lin Xixi having two children in three years was exactly what she wanted.
With these two children, Lin Xixi knew she wouldn’t have to worry about the rest of her life.
Reborn for a lifetime, she finally lived the life she wanted.
That year, the country organized a unified examination for worker-peasant-soldier students recommended by various provinces. This was also the closest examination to the “Gaokao” during the movement since the abolition of the Gaokao.
Qiao Wei once thought she had remembered the time wrong. In her impression, the restoration of the Gaokao was a timeline much later, which should have been after the great man passed away.
Whenever this happened, she especially wanted to knock on her own head, wondering why she didn’t properly remember those important historical time points. But in reality, most ordinary people were like this about history, knowing a general idea or some important events. As for the specific years, since one doesn’t need to take history exams, who would spend the effort to remember that?
Who knew in advance that they would transmigrate?
Facts proved that Qiao Wei had not remembered wrong; this exam was not the restoration of the Gaokao.
Qiao Wei actually wanted to take advantage of the Gaokao restoration to push Yan Xiang out. In the end, hiding and tucking away couldn’t completely hide him. Qiao Wei wanted to find a suitable opportunity to launch Yan Xiang as a “genius boy”.
Because she knew the environment a small county could provide for Yan Xiang was too limited. Yan Xiang needed a higher-level platform.
Yan Lei gradually knew that his son Yan Xiang was a very “smart” child.
But he didn’t actually have a correct understanding of just how smart Yan Xiang was. Because the height of his cognition was just “genius boy,” while in reality, Yan Xiang’s height transcended dimensions.
Only Qiao Wei, a person from outside this dimension, could understand.
Qiao Wei wanted to be more patient. Anyway, Yan Xiang was only 11 years old; there was no rush, and he could continue to enjoy a carefree childhood.
But winter passed, spring came, and in the year Yan Xiang turned 12, he took a thick stack of paper and asked Qiao Wei about where to go.
“You figured it out?” Qiao Wei was surprised.
Yan Xiang nodded: “Yes!”
“Then this…” Qiao Wei took the papers, filled with dense symbols and formulas, and couldn’t understand them at all. She raised her eyes: “What do you want to do?”
Yan Xiang said: “I hope it can be used in a useful place.”
Qiao Wei asked: “Then you must tell me what field this can be applied to?”
Yan Xiang’s face glowed: “Truth and the sharp edge of the sword!”
Yan Xiang had followed his parents to study communist theory since he was a child, and like his father, he was a firm communist fighter.
In the warm days at the Broadcasting Station when he was young, the book he read until it fell apart was the militia training manual. The background of that book’s existence was national defense, fearlessly confronting nuclear bombs from the Western world, and even rebuilding from the ruins.
Those things quietly took root in the little child’s heart.
When he was a little older, he sat in his father’s lap, looking up and listening to his mother giving speeches on stage to some older brothers and sisters.
She said that dignity lies only on the edge of the sword, and truth lies only within the range of the cannons.
At that time, it wasn’t just his father who was shocked.
From a very, very young age, he knew what he wanted most.
Qiao Wei was silent for a long time.
This broke her plan to disguise Yan Xiang as an ordinary genius boy, send him to university to enter a higher education platform, and find an opportunity to exert his abilities.
She also didn’t expect that the path Yan Xiang wanted to take was Truth and the Sword.
But she knew that whether it was the real world or this dimensional world, the country needed Truth and the Sword.
She didn’t know if there were super-dimensional people like Yan Xiang in the real world, but she knew that if Yan Xiang, a super-dimensional talent, were released in this low-dimensional world, it might cause this world to deviate from the historical trajectory of her original world.
As a small, weak butterfly, she had no ability to estimate how big a storm could be stirred up across the ocean.
Qiao Wei did not give Yan Xiang an answer immediately.
Yan Xiang was not in a hurry either. Besides immersing himself in the ocean of knowledge, he also had his own life. The days passed as usual.
After this algorithm was created, he stopped going to the Library.
There were actually no books of value to him in that Library long ago. At first, it was because his mother worked there; later, it was because he was used to the environment there, and before the algorithm was created, he didn’t want to move.
He was actually already a big child and could have traveled between Xiahekou District and the old county area by himself; he didn’t need to wait for his mother to go home together every day.
So when he created this algorithm, he also told Uncle Zheng at the Library that the room inside the office didn’t need to be kept for him anymore.
He probably wouldn’t come again.
Uncle Zheng’s nose turned red. Aunt Little Wu also had red eyes. Aunt Shen muttered that she should retire too and go home to hold her grandchildren.
They watched him grow up, silently guarding him all the way.
But there is no banquet in the world that does not end. When children grow up, they all have to leave home and leave their parents.
After struggling for many days, Qiao Wei chose to discuss it with Yan Lei.
Because Yan Xiang was not just her child, he was their child together. Now that things had come to this, she had to tell Yan Lei and let him understand what they were about to face so that he could make a decision with her.
Yan Lei felt a bit unbelievable after hearing what Qiao Wei said.
“You mean, Xiangxiang… is more than a genius?” he asked, “Is that what you mean?”
Qiao Wei nodded.
Yan Lei held his chin and looked at Yan Xiang.
Yan Xiang curled his lips—Dad looking like this was really quite interesting.
Yan Lei knocked on his head: “Be serious!”
So what if he’s a genius? No matter how much of a genius, he’s still my son. The son dares to mock his father; have you rebelled?
“So what exactly are you struggling with?” Yan Lei asked Qiao Wei.
Qiao Wei held that thick stack of paper in her hand: “This thing… according to what Yan Xiang said, then the place it should go to most is the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense.”
The Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, China’s National Defense Science, Technology and Industry Commission. At this time, the chairman of this commission was the one who worked on the Two Bombs, One Satellite project.
Yan Xiang’s thing could probably only be understood if it were sent to that place.
Yan Lei asked: “And then?”
Qiao Wei was silent for a long time before saying: “And then, Xiangxiang might leave us.”
Yan Lei didn’t understand: “Why?”
Qiao Wei said: “According to what Xiangxiang said, this thing is applied to that kind of field; he will definitely be taken away. You know, in places we can’t see, there are many people silently contributing to the country. Ten, twenty years without a trace, without a name. Some even have family members who think they are dead.”
For example, the father of our country’s submarines did not return home for thirty years.
His family didn’t even know what he was doing. It wasn’t until later that he sent a magazine to his family, and his mother studied it carefully that she understood what her son was doing.
Qiao Wei’s hesitation was that once this thing was sent out, Yan Xiang might disappear from their lives.
Leaving his parents, his sister, and becoming a nameless person to do earth-shattering things.
Greatness is certainly great, but for the family, it is too painful.
Yan Lei felt it was too exaggerated. Although he really couldn’t understand that stack of paper at all, and because he didn’t understand, he felt awe, but he still felt Qiao Wei was exaggerating.
“How can you be sure?” he questioned, “Even if Xiangxiang is really very smart. How can you be sure this thing of his is definitely useful?”
Qiao Wei raised her eyes.
Because I am a transmigrator.
Because I have a God’s-eye view.
