Back To The 80s-Chapter 326 - 336: Induction_1
Lu Aiguo said without any care in the world: "Let them gawk. She is already the laughingstock of the entire yard, everyone knows. If there’s any shame left to be lost, it’s long gone."
Lu Ruixue was completely taken aback. Knowing her third brother was a proud man, this kind of remark indicated that there was really no hope of him forgiving her.
Lu Aiguo said to Gu Xiaobei: "Sister-in-law, let’s go home and leave her here to lose face."
Gu Xiaobei looked at her somewhat lame-minded little aunt, sighed in her heart, and entered the gate, carrying Xiaopang.
Lu Aiguo followed inside, closing the big gate heavily. Lu Ruixue was about to follow in but was scared off by Lu Aiguo’s glare. The leg that she had already stepped forward was taken back, and she stood in her original place crying.
Wen Xiuqing had already brought Mo Wang into the house. The sound of Lu Ruixue’s crying made her feel very uncomfortable and guilty. If it weren’t for her own indifference, Lu Ruixue wouldn’t have turned out like this.
Upon entering and seeing the look on Wen Xiuqing’s face, Lu Aiguo comforted, "Mom, you don’t need to worry, this time we have to straighten out her attitude."
Seeing the awkward atmosphere in the living room, Gu Xiaobei, holding Xiaopang, went to the kitchen.
In the kitchen, Fang Jing was helping Aunt Li chop filling for the dumplings for New Year’s Eve. Seeing Gu Xiaobei, she sneered, "Ruixue is causing a commotion again, you see how twisted her temper is."
Aunt Li was chopping meat, upon hearing this, she stopped the knife in her hand and said, "Ruixue wasn’t like this before she got married. She was stubborn back then, but she had the discernment of right from wrong. Now that she’s with Chen Dajun, she’s become crooked too."
Fang Jing muttered, "Beauty truly lies in the eye of the beholder. Everyone knows Chen Dajun is a ne’er-do-well, and yet Ruixue is fawning over him. She’s just asking for trouble."
Gu Xiaobei wasn’t interested in discussing their younger sister-in-law. Looking at the half-bowl of meat filling that Fang Jing was chopping, she asked in surprise: "How many dumplings are you planning on making?"
Aunt Li laughed and said: "For New Year’s Eve, the first day of the year, and the day of the fifth lantern festival, there are dumplings to be made. The New Year is late this year, so I dare not prepare too many ingredients."
Xiaopang looked at them curiously while his eyes blinked due to the sound of chopping dumpling filling. Fang Jing laughed, "You two had better get going. I haven’t seen my second brother since this morning. Why did he leave the little princess at home today?"
"He said he had something to do with Shen Heng," said Gu Xiaobei curiously. Last night before she went to bed, she felt that Lu Zhanguo was preoccupied. After breakfast this morning, he said he had something to do with Shen Heng and hurriedly left.
Lu Zhanguo went to see Shen Heng, planning to visit Jin Jiadong’s grave in the Martyrs’ Cemetery.
On the way, they took the bus and listened to the cheerful broadcast reporting the outstanding achievements made in the tide of reform in various places over the past year. The sweet-voiced announcer was playing: Born on Jinggang Mountain, raised on Nanniwan, fought on several front lines, cultivated wastelands in heaven, report on the 359 Brigade.
Comrade Ji Xiangdong, the head of the third corps of the 124th Regiment of X Province’s Shule River Farm, is leading all the soldiers in the corps to carry forward the spirit of the 359 Brigade: Despite the hardship, cultivating frontiers and farmlands. After the former brigade commander advocated for growing paddy while washing out the salt and revolving water with dryland farming, Comrade Ji Xiangdong proposed implementing comprehensive management of water bodies, fields, forests, and roads. Within three years, the once barren land has turned into a Jiangnan outside of the Great Wall.
Upon hearing the broadcast, Lu Zhanguo felt a strange feeling in his heart for some reason, but he couldn’t figure out why.
Shen Heng exclaimed: "This Ji Xiangdong is really talented, many people wouldn’t want to go to such a harsh place where there are only two seasons a year, with heavy snow in winter and sandstorms in the summer. It’s amazing that he can achieve such results."
Lu Zhanguo nodded in agreement. He had been to the Shule River and knew how harsh the environment was. To be able to persevere in such a tough natural environment, you have to be both resilient and intelligent.
The broadcast continued to play: "... Comrade Ji Xiangdong, male, 32 years old, Han nationality, Communist Party member ..."
Shen Heng exclaimed in surprise: "I didn’t expect him to be so young. I thought he was an old man in his forties or fifties."
Lu Zhanguo felt that every time he heard the name Ji Xiangdong, the strange feeling in his heart became stronger. He thought it was probably because the name Ji Xiangdong was similar to his older brother’s name, Xiangdong.
The bus arrived at their stop, and Lu Zhanguo and Shen Heng got off the bus, so they didn’t hear the later part of the broadcast: ...The national model workers will come to Beijing to attend the model workers commendation meeting. Some of the model workers will appear on the stage of this year’s Spring Festival Gala.
Someone had been at Jin Jiadong’s gravestone earlier and had left a bottle of liquor and a plate of osmanthus cake there.
Lu Zhanguo casually lifted his gaze towards the alley’s end, where a tall figure slowly disappeared among the green pines and cypresses in the distance. He suddenly felt a sense of familiarity.
"It seems a comrade-in-arms has come one step ahead of us," Shen Heng interrupted Lu Zhanguo’s absent-mindedness.
Returning to his senses, Lu Zhanguo looked at the unburned ashes in front of the monument and said, "In a blink of an eye, six years have passed. Time really flies."
Shen Heng crouched down and lit the yellow paper they had brought. He sighed, "Brother Jin, Originally, I should have been too ashamed to come see you. I lost Jin Cheng, I failed you." As Shen Heng spoke, his eyes moistened.
"However, there is good news. Your child with Sister Xuerong is still alive, ten years old now, named Jiujiu, and looks very beautiful. Aunt Jin said he looks like Sister Xuerong...but rest assured, we will definitely watch Jiujiu grow up. It’s been said that Sister Xuerong is still alive, we will certainly try to find her." Shen Heng kept babbling on.
Lu Zhanguo frowned standing on the side, feeling an indescribable taste in his heart. After Shen Heng stood up, he then crouched down to open the bottle of wine, slowly pouring it out in front of the grave.
After they left the Martyrs’ Cemetery, Shen Heng proposed, "Let’s take a walk, I feel very upset."
Lu Zhanguo had no objections, and they slowly started to walk towards home. Shen Heng couldn’t help but recall, "So many things happened as if it were just yesterday. Do you remember? It was on this road that we stopped Jin Cheng."
How could Lu Zhanguo forget? That stubborn boy, wiping away his tears, but not willing to give up.
"Time flies so fast. Now I just hope we can find Sister Xuerong so that they can reunite with their mother and daughter. I would feel a lot more at ease facing Brother Jin." Shen Heng sighed.
.........
Bai Xiaolan was finally unbanned. After her wheedling and coaxing, Zhou Siping agreed to let her go out for a stroll on the condition that she doesn’t pick a fight or meddle in other people’s affairs. Even if someone was about to get killed right under her nose, she had to find another way around it.
Bai Xiaolan kept nodding in agreement, promising everything. Anyway, once out of the house and faced with a situation, she knew she can’t control her temper. As the saying goes, a general in the field does not follow direct orders from the king.
Bai Xiaolan initially wanted to hang out with Gu Xiaobei, but then realized that tomorrow is Chinese New Year’s Eve which meant she must be busy at home. Instead of causing more chaos, she decided to take the bus to the city to see if the ice in Houhai has melted and whether she could still go ice skating.
Bai Xiaolan originally planned to go to Houhai, but she fell asleep on the bus and missed her stop, so she just went to Ditan instead.
Practicing qi gong was very popular at that time. Even in the cold weather, many people laid on the ground in public parks, collecting energy from the earth.
