On the first day of the Lunar New Year, the sky turned pale.
Su Ye woke up to the sound of loud firecrackers. When she woke up, the ground was covered with thick red firecracker debris and the smell of firecrackers was everywhere.
This is the taste of the New Year.
Secretary Ma came to the educated youth dormitory early in the morning and stuffed several big red envelopes into the hands of several young teachers.
Su Ye opened the envelope and was shocked to see that there was actually two yuan in it. It was not easy to get money from the old branch secretary. He was usually a very frugal person and would rather walk twenty or thirty kilometers to save a dollar in bus fare.
The old branch secretary gave red envelopes to Su Ye, He Meimei, Zhou Yi, Teacher He and Niu Cuihua respectively, and the money in the red envelopes alone amounted to ten yuan.
Su Ye joked, "The old secretary got rich this year."
Secretary Ma said cheerfully, "Thanks to Teacher Su, I am getting rich, right?"
They have a large family, with both their son and daughter being able to work. Ma Gensheng was named a labor activist, and received more than 600 yuan in year-end bonuses from the brigade alone. If he saves enough money, he will be able to build a blue brick and cement house next year.
When Su Ye was seeing Secretary Ma off the door, she was suddenly stunned.
A tall and straight figure also stood in the cold wind, he was wearing a pine green outfit, the morning dew wet his clothes and eyebrows. I don't know how long he stood in front of the educated youth dormitory.
Su Ye hurriedly ran to him and asked in surprise: "You didn't send a telegram when you came back, so that's fine? Forget it, why didn't you tell me when you arrived?"
Gu Xiangqian put down his luggage, looked at Su Ye and said softly, "I just arrived."
His voice seemed to be frozen by the wind, becoming deeper and hoarser.
Gu Xiangqian hadn't seen Su Ye for more than a year, and she was still the same, full of energy. She was wearing a pair of black corduroy pants and a pink cotton jacket, and the smile on her face made her look very energetic. She was always afraid of the cold, and she always wrapped herself up thickly in winter.
He Meimei came out with a basin to wash her hands. She was very surprised to see Gu Xiangqian, "Xiangqian is back!"
"Come in and sit down. Su Ye misses you so much!"
Gu Xiangqian smiled slightly, "I received a temporary holiday notice, but something went wrong on the way, so I didn't make it back in time for New Year's Eve."
He wrapped Su Ye with his big, hot palm.
Su Ye looked at Gu Xiangqian carefully. His eyebrows were straight like peaks, and his eyes were bright and energetic. He was full of energy and did not look tired at all after traveling all night. It must have taken him a day and a night to travel from the far northwest to Shanggou Village.
Su Ye asked Gu Xiangqian a lot of questions, and asked him: "Where are you now?"
Gu Xiangqian said, "In Qinghai. Other matters must be kept secret."
Su Ye lost contact with Gu Xiangqian and Professor Ning half a year ago. If she hadn't guessed that they were conducting research on atomic bombs, she would have been unable to sleep or eat.
Su Ye asked again, "Have you received all the things I sent? How come you have lost so much weight? Is your work very hard?"
Gu Xiangqian answered patiently, "I received them all. The bacon and roast chicken you sent me were delicious. I couldn't finish them myself, so I shared some with my colleagues. They all said that your cooking skills are very good. The work is very busy. I have to get up at six o'clock every day and go home in the early morning. It feels like a battle to take a shower. How about you?"
Su Ye couldn't help but feel heartbroken after hearing this. There was a faint dark shadow under Gu Xiangqian's eyes and green stubble appeared on his chin.
She slapped her head and said, "Look at me? I forgot. You must be hungry now. Eat something quickly? Then take a rest."
He Meimei brought out a bowl of duck soup from the woodshed at the right time and placed it on the table. "Liu Gang has prepared it a long time ago. Captain Gu, please eat quickly. Liu Gang's duck noodle soup is really good. The pickles I sent to you before were all made by him."
The hot noodles are sprinkled with green onions, and each noodle is soaked in the essence of old duck. The duck soup is delicious with a hint of sweetness, and a spoonful of red and rich-flavored braised meat is placed on the soup. It makes people wipe their sweat while eating it in the winter, and warms their whole body.
Gu Xiangqian finished the noodles in no time and commented: "It's really good."
Teacher Su's lover was a name everyone had only heard of but never seen. The students had long been curious about him, and they hid outside the house one by one, peeking at Gu Xiangqian inside the house.
He was wearing a pine green military uniform. Even when he was sitting, his shoulders were straight, his back was straight, and his long legs were slightly bent. Just from his back, one could tell that he was a soldier.
Su Ye sent Gu Xiangqian to catch up on his sleep.
Gu Xiangqian rushed back to Shanggou Village from the northwest on the 29th day of the lunar year. His flight was delayed and he had to wait at the airport for a day and a night. Now he was exhausted and fell asleep as soon as his head touched the pillow.
Su Ye held her face and looked at the man sleeping on the bed. His eyelashes were stretched and thick like a small fan. Since he was transferred from City B to the northwest, his letters have become much less frequent, and he only sends a letter every few months. He didn't come back last Spring Festival, and Su Ye found that she had gotten used to spending the Spring Festival with him.
I hope to celebrate New Year with him every year, watch him paste window decorations, buy New Year's goods with him, and eat New Year's Eve dinner together.
But she had only been in this era for two years, and had only celebrated three Spring Festivals, only one of which was with Gu Xiangqian.
It was already three o'clock in the afternoon when Gu Xiangqian woke up again. He found that Su Ye was missing, so he went to find some work for himself. He wanted to chop wood, but found that the firewood in the dormitory was already piled high, filling up the whole room; he wanted to cook, but the kitchen was full of dishes, the pot was full of white rice, and on the table there was already prepared taro braised pork, a fried whole fish, braised pork in a pot, a whole pot of old duck soup, and a whole chicken. Vermicelli was placed in a bucket and soaked until soft; the noodles on the ground filled the basket.
The ten large vats in the granary were filled with white rice and flour, and the underground warehouse was filled with yellow corn, potatoes, and sweet potatoes, exuding a fragrance of cereals. In the summer of the year before last, when Gu Xiangqian came to the educated youth dormitory, there was nothing here. In just one and a half years, a lot of changes have taken place here.
Gu Xiangqian wanted to wash clothes for Su Ye, but when he looked up, he found that her clothes had been washed and hung out to dry. Finally, he had to go back to the house and tidy up the room for her.
Every piece of clothing was neatly folded, and the quilt was folded into a tofu block. Halfway through folding the clothes, he heard the bustling noise outside. After asking, he learned that these villagers heard that Su Ye would not go home for the New Year, so they specially sent some food to her home.
He thought she had a good year.
Gu Xiangqian felt relieved.
…
Su Ye followed the group to visit the poor and lonely elderly people in the village as planned, and gave them rice, eggs, meat and cooking oil from house to house. Zhou Yi was going to attend a meeting in the province in the early spring and needed some photos as materials.
On this day, a provincial newspaper sent a reporter to the village for an interview. The reporter had been to Shanggou Village several times and jokingly said, "I am familiar with the roads here."
This experimental village is really doing well. Provincial newspapers come to the village every other day. They have a very important task this year, which is to report on Shanggou Village.
This village is going to become a model village for many southern provinces, with a high level of productivity and good living conditions. The reporter from the provincial capital didn't quite believe it at first, but after the trip, he was filled with admiration.
There are several families in Shanggou Village who are glorious military families. Their children died on the battlefield many years ago. In addition to the 10 yuan allowance from the government every month, the village also gives them 5 yuan per person per month as a living allowance for food, meat and eggs. In the past, Shanggou Village did not have the conditions to do these things, but now that they have the conditions, they can also consider the elderly care issue.
Ma Gensheng distributed gifts to them, and everyone was moved to tears. After visiting the elderly in the village, Ma Gensheng went door to door to ask the children about their studies.
There was a family whose three children all dropped out of school. He said angrily: "If you have any difficulties, please report them to the village. How can you not study? We will provide subsidies if you are admitted to university. You have to study no matter how difficult it is, otherwise you will be blind."
"Bring them to school in the spring. If there's one less, I'll deduct your work points!"
Zhou Yi wrote down the name of the householder and jokingly said, "If one person is missing, two work points will be deducted for each day. If three are missing, six points will be deducted."
The reporter thought that this was the true way of doing things, ensuring that the elderly had a place to live and the young were well cared for.
In the evening, the group returned to the dormitory. Su Ye found that the educated youth dormitory was very lively, and Gu Xiangqian was sitting among a group of people, chatting with them patiently.
The villagers brought fish, meat, peppers, vegetables and winter melons grown in their own plots to Suye. Some villagers brought fashionable goods bought from the department store, such as clam oil and soap. Unexpectedly, Suye was not there, but a handsome young man.
When Su Ye first went to the countryside, Gu Xiangqian came to Shanggou Village and became familiar to the villagers, who recognized him.
Someone shouted, "Hey, isn't this Teacher Su's lover?"
Gu Xiangqian was immediately surrounded by a group of villagers. He had never dealt with such a warm and enthusiastic scene before. The villagers of Shanggou Village were so warm and enthusiastic. When they heard that he was Teacher Su's lover, someone quickly peeled an apple and handed it to him, someone brought two boiled eggs for Gu Xiangqian to eat, someone stuffed a piece of braised pork for him, and some simply cut a chicken leg and handed it to him.
Gu Xiangqian simply sat down, chatted with them about family matters, and asked them some questions about Su Ye.
When talking about Teacher Su, the villagers of Shanggou Village can't stop talking.
One person said how Su Ye bought two mu of land and planted sweet potatoes all over the county this year; another said that Su Ye took students to the port city and sold tea to distribute food and eggs to them; someone else said that Su Ye bought a tractor for the village, which made Shanggou Village a big hit during the autumn harvest, and several nearby villages were envious. She turned Shanggou Village from a poor village into a wealthy village...
As Gu Xiangqian listened, the corners of his mouth unconsciously raised.
After chatting for more than an hour, everyone saw Su Ye coming back and said enthusiastically: "Teacher Su, you are finally back!"
"I heard that you guys are not going home this year, so we're here to serve you some more food. Teacher Xiao He, Teacher Da He, Teacher Zhou, you guys, please eat more."
"Teacher Su's lover is very energetic, has a good temper, and is strong. Teacher Su is so lucky!"
As long as Gu Xiangqian stands in front of everyone, everyone will understand that Teacher Su is the one who deserves such a person.
He is handsome, tall, young and promising. Even if he is placed in a crowd, he can be spotted at a glance.
The gifts from the villagers were not worth much, but just a token of their appreciation. He Meimei accepted the vegetables, fruits, peppers, wild delicacies and dried goods they needed, but declined the expensive pork, fish and commodities, asking them to take them home for their own use.
He Meimei couldn't refuse the kindness, so she smiled and said, "You are so polite. We don't need anything in our dormitory, so take everything back!"
The newspaper reporter saw this scene and took photos in a hurry. He was shocked. This village is really rich. During the Spring Festival, people can bring pork to their relatives and friends! It's OK for the village cadres to visit the families of martyrs and bring pork to their homes. Even any villager can bring pork to give away.
Su Ye introduced Gu Xiangqian and said, "This is a reporter from a provincial newspaper. He came to our village to report. When spring comes, you will probably see our village in the newspaper."
"Would you like to take a look around our village? It has changed a lot from before."
Even the village is called "our village", which shows that Su Ye likes it from the bottom of his heart.
Gu Xiangqian smiled and said, "I couldn't ask for more."
After a year and a half, Shanggou Village has undergone earth-shaking changes. Gu Xiangqian saw the experimental fields, "Fengshi No. 1 001 Experimental Field", "Fengshi No. 2 001 Experimental Field", and the No. 2 experimental fields from 001 to 020. Riding a bicycle on the village road, it takes ten minutes to visit all the experimental fields.
The long winter has passed. Although Gu Xiangqian can only see the bare fields, he can imagine how green and lush they will be in spring, and how fruitful the harvest will be in autumn.
Su Ye took him up the mountain to see the pig farm. The members in charge of taking care of and feeding the pigs were carrying pig manure and distributing it to the pigs.
The piglets were pink and tender, and the adult pigs were white, tender and shiny. They ate their food with a grunt. The weather was cold, so the members made straw pig nests for them to keep them warm and reinforced the pig farm to prevent wind and frost. Gu looked forward and roughly counted them. There were no less than a hundred adult pigs, and the piglets were too numerous to count at once.
Su Ye took him to see a chicken farm, where he spent half an hour collecting eggs from the chicken coop and put them in the egg house.
"We supply these eggs to government agencies, city and county supply and marketing cooperatives, with a supply of 300 kilograms per month. Maybe in the future the supply and marketing cooperatives in City C will be able to buy eggs produced in our village. Sweet potatoes are even more powerful. After the spring, we will try to promote them nationwide."
"By the way, our village has built a fruit juice factory. I'll take you back to the dormitory to drink fruit juice later."
Gu Xiangqian commented: "Your village is amazing."
He recalled that Su Ye came here a year and a half ago, looking at the rolling hills in the distance, her eyes full of eagerness. She told him that her dream was here.
Gu Xiangqian recalled the happy and satisfied smiling faces of the villagers, and suddenly understood the significance of Su Ye going to the countryside.