Chapter 79
August 30th arrived. It was the officially designated day for the mosquito extermination campaign, and the whole town was mobilized.
Actually, it wasn’t just Xiahekou Town. This matter was spearheaded by Lin City, and all the counties and towns under Lin City’s jurisdiction participated. The scale was astonishing.
According to the Health Bureau’s instructions, they were to do the indoors first, then the outdoors.
At eight o’clock in the evening, the air raid siren sounded in the town.
The windows of the houses were closed tightly. Yan Lei had long since moved the cast-iron small coal stove into the center of the main room, leaving a small gap in the air intake so the coal briquettes would burn slowly.
Hearing the air raid siren, Yan Lei opened the small paper packet and sprinkled the medicinal powder provided by the neighborhood committee into the stove fire. Then, he quickly left the room and closed the door tightly.
“Is there smoke yet?”
In the courtyard, Qiao Wei wanted to press against the door crack to look, but was grabbed by the back of her collar by Yan Lei and pulled back: “Go watch from the window. Don’t inhale the smoke.”
Qiao Wei turned around, took a handkerchief that had been prepared earlier, wet it with water, and wrung it out until it was semi-dry: “Let’s cover our noses; it’s safer.”
In this era, many things were done too simply and crudely. The medicinal powder being burned was for killing insects, and since it could kill insects, it was certainly harmful to the human body.
The family of three covered their mouths and noses with wet handkerchiefs.
Yan Lei held Yan Xiang and looked inside through the glass window.
“There’s smoke, there’s smoke!” Yan Xiang said, “Mom, look.”
Qiao Wei saw it; white smoke filled the entire room.
At this moment, not only residential families, but government agencies, hospitals, schools, restaurants, and shops all had designated personnel on duty, burning the medicinal powder and closing doors and windows to fumigate and kill mosquitoes and flies indoors.
After half an hour of fumigation, Yan Lei had Qiao Wei and Yan Xiang retreat to the courtyard gate, and he opened the doors and windows.
The medicinal smoke drifted out from the doors and windows, gradually disappearing into the air.
After waiting a little while, the family of three entered the room. Yan Lei used a thick rag to cushion his hand and moved the small coal stove from the room to the courtyard. The three of them each took a cattail-leaf fan and fanned vigorously, trying as much as possible to fan the residual medicinal smoke out of the house.
Yan Lei checked his watch: “It’s almost nine o’clock.”
They closed the doors and windows again.
At nine, the air raid siren sounded again. Yan Lei sprinkled the second packet of medicinal powder into the coal stove in the courtyard, then immediately went into the room and closed the door.
White smoke diffused throughout the courtyard.
On the streets, a smoking point was set up every 20 square meters. Special personnel were arranged to light the outdoor fumigation.
Soon, the streets were filled with curling white smoke and looming figures; it was late at night, and it had the atmosphere of a horror movie.
Qiao Wei, after all, had never seen mosquito extermination like this and couldn’t help but be a bit skeptical: “Is it really effective?”
Yan Lei laughed: “This is all what you promoted on the big loudspeaker. Everyone is following your arrangements.”
“Hey, it’s not me,” Qiao Wei said. “I’m just a mouthpiece; this is all the arrangement of the City Health Bureau.”
Although it was already autumn, the doors and windows couldn’t stay closed like this. After all, the room had been fumigated for the past hour.
Qiao Wei was worried about residual medicinal smoke in the room, so once the white smoke outside had burned out, she hurriedly opened the doors and windows to ventilate.
That night, many towns across several counties in the city spent the time this way.
“Thinking about it, it’s really amazing,” Qiao Wei said while lying in bed at night.
Yan Lei: “Hmm?”
“So many people were mobilized at the same time to do the exact same thing in a uniform manner,” Qiao Wei said. “And they aren’t even soldiers; they’re just ordinary commoners.”
And this was in an era where communication basically relied on shouting. After the initial publicity and mobilization, people across different regions could actually take unified action at the same time.
“On the entire planet, apart from us, there is almost no other country that could do this.”
Yan Lei chuckled in the darkness: “Of course.”
With pride.
Facts proved that this large-scale fumigation was truly effective.
The next evening, the family was cooling off in the courtyard, and there was no need to light mosquito coils at all. The flies were gone, and even some annoying small flying insects were gone.
Yan Lei said: “The sewers and ditches we are responsible for have been sprinkled with medicinal powder, and the cellar wells have been fumigated. We can have a comfortable autumn this year.”
The day after next was September 1st. While buying groceries at the market, Qiao Wei found some aunties and sisters to chat with, interviewing them about their feelings regarding this mosquito fumigation and the effectiveness of the fumigation at home. She turned around and wrote a report, reporting the effectiveness of this major mobilization for mosquito extermination. She also did some publicity and mobilization in advance for the subsequent arrangement of digging up fly pupae in winter.
Lu Manman didn’t write manuscripts anymore.
Writing manuscripts had always been very painful for her; a manuscript that took a few minutes to read would take her two or three days of struggling to write.
Qiao Wei relieved her of that. Qiao Wei wrote everything very fluently; she would assign a task, and the next day, the results would be reported to her.
Lu Manman lamented: “I really should have gone to high school.”
Lu Manman had only finished junior high school.
Qiao Wei didn’t actually understand; Lu Manman was the daughter of the director of the Supply and Marketing Cooperative, why stop studying after finishing junior high?
“Because I started working, of course,” Lu Manman also didn’t understand Qiao Wei’s confusion. “Isn’t the point of studying just to get a job? Why keep studying once you have a job?”
That was true, Qiao Wei suddenly realized.
College students were a rarity, one-in-a-ten-thousand talents.
Ordinary people at most only finished high school. The ultimate goal of studying in high school was still to get a good job.
Since her family could arrange such a good job as a broadcaster for Lu Manman, in their view, there was indeed no need to continue studying.
Not only could she earn three years of salary early, but her seniority would be longer in the future, and her pension would be higher.
The original owner left high school early, also to take over her father’s job and work in the factory. Because if you didn’t take over the position, the vacant spot would be taken by someone else. If you wanted to enter the factory later, there might not be a position. Or if there was a position, the personal connection might have cooled, and it might not be given to you.
Unfortunately, she got in but couldn’t persist, so she gave up that position and chose marriage.
But Qiao Wei was extremely fortunate.
If she had really transmigrated and found herself working in a factory, bitter and tiring, not only would Qiao Weiwei not have been able to endure it, Qiao Wei guessed she wouldn’t have been able to either.
Because Qiao Wei wrote manuscripts for Lu Manman, following her evolution from “Qiao Wei” to “Weiwei,” she had now evolved into “Sister Wei.”
Lu Manman brought snacks every day, secretly slipping them to her.
Many of them weren’t even sold in the Supply and Marketing Cooperative.
She gave them secretly, and Qiao Wei accepted them secretly.
As long as the broadcasts were on time, Station Chief Lu didn’t care who actually wrote the manuscripts.
Moreover, the quality of what Qiao Wei wrote was better than before.
She would moderately use some better and more precise vocabulary, describing things more vividly and stirring up more enthusiasm.
But she didn’t show off her literary talent, making people feel she was cultured without feeling they couldn’t understand it.
The Broadcasting Station achieved results, and both Station Chief Lu and Section Chief Xie looked good in front of the leaders.
A trend of whitewashing walls arose in the old residential area. Every household started painting.
This matter was quickly known by the leaders of the Military District.
The old area was not like the military Residential Compound, where houses and facilities were new. The old area always had a sense of being dilapidated. Everyone wanted to live in red-brick, tiled-roof houses, but resources were limited; some moved in, and some were left behind.
As the saying goes, “worry not about scarcity, but about inequality,” so many family members living in the old area inevitably had complaints.
The leaders praised this trend of whitewashing at the meeting, considering it a manifestation of being hygienic and having a spirited mental outlook.
Indeed, people must have expectations for life to actively and proactively manage their own lives.
By painting the houses clean and beautiful as if they were new, the resentment of the family members in the old area could also be lessened.
Since the leaders praised it, the person in charge of logistics slapped his forehead and arranged for people to paint the walls of the old area houses facing the street as well.
Just as Qiao Wei feared.
After they whitewashed the outer walls of many people’s courtyards, they painted large red slogans on them.
The outer wall of Qiao Wei’s courtyard was also whitewashed and painted with large red slogans.
Qiao Wei had a bad premonition from the moment the outer wall of the courtyard was whitewashed, and sure enough, the bad premonition came true.
Returning from work the next day, the white wall was dry, and the red slogans were already painted on.
Qiao Wei stood with her hands on her hips, looking at the two sides of her courtyard gate—
Left side: If people do not offend me, I will not offend them.
Right side: If people offend me, I will definitely offend them.
Qiao Wei: “…”
Outside Regimental Commander Zhao’s courtyard wall was: We must liberate Taiwan!
Outside Regimental Commander Ma’s courtyard wall was: The Chinese people are not to be trifled with!
Outside Battalion Commander Xue’s courtyard wall was: Arm our minds with Mao XX thought!
There was no way around this.
One reason was that the atmosphere of the era was just like this.
Another reason was that the houses they lived in now were the property of the Military Unit and did not belong to them personally. They were just family dormitories.
Fortunately, it was just the outside of the courtyard wall; there wasn’t any inside the courtyard, so it wasn’t too hard to bear.
And no one thought it was bad.
Sister Yang even felt that white walls looked clean, and red characters were auspicious; it was truly both clean and auspicious, how nice. With the alleyway tidied up like this, it looked much neater.
Qiao Wei: “…”
Not to mention, Qiao Wei looked left and right, and after looking at it for a while, she actually felt that these two sentences outside her own courtyard gate had a sense of domineering aura.
It was quite suitable for Yan Lei.
After the grand mosquito extermination campaign ended, Qiao Wei was suddenly commended.
It turned out that the city was collecting publicity manuscripts for this mosquito extermination for selection, and a manuscript she wrote was submitted by Section Chief Xie to the County Propaganda Committee, and the County Propaganda Committee then sent it to the City Propaganda Committee.
In this manuscript, Qiao Wei started from mosquito extermination, with the focus on the people’s collectivism, obedience, and cohesion. Later, she elevated the value, summarizing from the mosquito extermination to the words outside Regimental Commander Ma’s courtyard wall—The Chinese people are not to be trifled with—and then continued to elevate it, extending it to the words outside Regimental Commander Zhao’s courtyard wall—We must liberate Taiwan!
The comment given by the city leaders was: Seeing the big from the small, with the country and borders in mind.
The leader said to those around him: “This comrade who drafted this has a big picture perspective.”
This manuscript was broadcast by the city, the county rebroadcast the city’s broadcast, and the town rebroadcast the county’s broadcast.
The townspeople cracked melon seeds and wondered: “Wasn’t this broadcast last week?”
This was the Broadcasting Station’s trick for delaying manuscripts. When nothing happened, one manuscript could be broadcast for a week, repeated every day.
Even listening to the radio had become one of the townspeople’s entertainment activities, so they were very clear about this pattern.
Occasionally, there would even be a situation where the previous week’s manuscript continued to be broadcast for the first two days of the second week, and everyone would know: “Director Lu’s Manman can’t write it again.”
Since that Broadcaster Qiao arrived, there had never been such a situation again.
“This is a rebroadcast; this is the county rebroadcasting the city’s broadcast,” someone who understood explained to everyone.
When the broadcast ended, Lu Manman’s voice sounded: “… Drafted by Comrade Qiao Wei from the Broadcasting Station of our town’s Propaganda Section… won the first prize in this city’s publicity selection… bringing honor and a banner of merit to Xiahekou Town.”
Everyone suddenly realized, so that was it; this Broadcaster Qiao was so amazing!
