“I’d rather live twenty years less, but I must conquer the big oil field.”

“Ten thousand wells drilled, twenty thousand tons of oil produced.”

With the sound of triumphant songs echoing, Nie Bozhao sat in a Dongfeng truck, heading from the base to Oil Well No. 2.

As oil production surged, the issue of underground water infiltration had always been critical.

Nie Bozhao was now the hope of the entire oil field.

He led a research team to solve this problem.

In addition to working at the base every day, Nie Bozhao often had to go down the oil wells for field investigations and to extract nutrients for experiments.

“Nie, when you were in Hongyan Province’s capital, you asked the staff to send the documents about your new wife, Chen Lina. The Red Rock Women’s Normal University she attended has sent over her file,” as soon as he left the base gate, Chief Engineer Wang called him into the office.

Early in the morning, not only was Chief Engineer Wang there, but also Party Secretary A from the Umai Mine Area, who surprisingly was present.

The document about Chen Lina was marked with an urgent telegram, indicating they had been studying it for a while.

“This young comrade, Chen, listed Russian as her interest during college, and even hosted Russian scholars in high school. Does Engineer Nie know this?” said Party Secretary A, taking a deep drag on his cigarette.

The cadres at the oil base were all heavy smokers, and among them, Nie Bozhao was almost like a breath of fresh air.

There are fifty-six ethnic groups in China, and forty-five of them are in the border areas.

Party Secretary A was from a minority group and one of the first to come to Umai to develop the oil fields.

“I know. However, she grew up during the period of Sino-Soviet cooperation. ‘How the Steel Was Tempered,’ ‘Katyusha’—those were all popular across our country back then. She’s very smart, and it’s not surprising that she knows those things.”

“Nie, the problem you’re tackling now is the biggest challenge for the entire oil field. But recently, there have been border tensions, and the leader has been criticizing the political direction of the Soviet Union. You know about this, and we must pay special attention to this issue. Do you think your new wife can be sent back?” Party Secretary A hesitated.

“Enough, old leader, what do you think? The situation above is changing, but can we keep up? A few years ago, the Soviet Union was still our big brother, and my daughter even named herself Zhuoya just to follow the trend. Now the name’s become a joke. When my daughter walks around, people laugh at it.

When Engineer Sun passed away, he asked Nie to swear not to marry for fifteen years. You were there too, and you saw him, a lonely old widower, wandering around in a daze.

Although Engineer Sun has passed away, we privately think this situation wasn’t right. But now he’s finally remarried, and his wife is from his hometown.

The little girl just has a broad range of interests, and I don’t think it’s a problem. Since we live close by, I’ll keep an eye on her and make her a key monitoring target for the mine. How does that sound?” Chief Engineer Wang, hearing Party Secretary A speak, wasn’t happy.

“Nie, you’re the one with the highest political awareness and the highest cultural level in the entire oil field. We’ll follow your lead,” Party Secretary A said with a smile.

Nie Bozhao smiled, took the cigarette from Party Secretary A, and said, “If you want me to be worry-free, then Comrade Chen must help me take care of the children. So I’m confident. If anything happens, I’ll take responsibility. You can rest assured.”

On the other hand, Chen Lina, who had received thirty yuan, returned home still without a word.

The small accountant, Nie Weimin, appointed by the base, followed her around like a little tail.

“What should we have for lunch?” The little fellow was probably hungry and licked his lips as he asked.

Chen Lina had to clear the snow from the yard first, and the two little ones played in the warm room.

Nie Weimin, wearing her floral cotton jacket, trailed behind her like a little tail: “Now that you have money, that money is ours.”

“I do have money, but we need vouchers to buy things, and your family has nothing right now. Haven’t you heard the saying, ‘A clever woman can’t cook a meal without rice’?”

The little courtyard was really nice—there was a vegetable garden at the back, and the front was quite spacious, with a road right outside.

But aside from a few withered grapevines by the wall, there was nothing else.

It was truly poor.

She swept all the snow into the backyard vegetable garden, and the three children were starving, especially Er Dan, who kept shouting, “Mom, I’m hungry.”

“Comrade Chen, we have instant noodles to eat. Uncle Xiao brought a few packets of instant noodles, and Aunt Yao put them away,” Nie Weimin the little adult wanna be remembered.

For some reason, the three children were especially hungry, and it wasn’t even noon yet when their stomachs growled.

“Don’t go to relatives when you’re poor, and don’t enter the carrot field when you’re hungry. Who told you to eat so many carrots this morning?” Chen Lina smiled and responded.

After sweeping the yard clean, she took off her old gloves, placed her hands on her hips, and looked around.

She thought, “Now this feels like a home.”

“Alright, we’ll have instant noodles for lunch, but not the way they serve it on the train. Today, Mom will make something better for you.”

It wasn’t much, really.

Xiao Gong brought three packs of instant noodles.

She added some cabbage leaves and threw in the leftover tomato from yesterday.

After boiling it all together, one bowl for each of the kids, and to them, it smelled wonderful.

“Comrade, I live to your left. I wonder if I can come in?” At this moment, a middle-aged woman wearing a headscarf and a skirt stood at the door.

Chen Lina immediately asked Nie Weimin, “Comrade Nie, who is this?”

“She’s a Kazakh woman, we call her ‘Mother Ha,’ but my grandmother doesn’t talk to her,” Nie Weimin said straightforwardly.

“Why not?”

Nie Weimin turned red and didn’t answer.

The truth was, because of a neighborhood dispute, Huang Huacai, who was often sneaking into Ha Mama’s yard in the middle of the night to steal grapes, onions, and even big cabbages stacked against the wall, had caused problems.

Sometimes, they would even secretly dig coal from Ha Mama’s yard.

In the base, coal was vital for heating in the winter, and every family’s coal was important.

One night, Ha Mama’s son, Ha Gong, caught Huang Huacai red-handed and beat him a few times, and the grudge had grown from there.

Ha Mama could speak a bit of Chinese, though not fluently, but she was able to communicate.

She gave Chen Lina two small bok choy plants, which were rare in the border region, and three eggs: “We’re neighbors, let’s be good friends!”

“Thank you, Ha Mama! We’re friends now. Fifty-six ethnic groups, fifty-six flowers, Han and Kazakh people are one big family!” Chen Lina was delighted.

With those two small bok choy plants and three eggs, she made a big pot of instant noodles.

The three kids each took a bowl and scrambled to grab their portions.

San Dan, the smallest, ran the slowest.

Standing on a stool, he started picking out noodles for himself.

“Comrade Chen, aren’t you going to eat?” Nie Weimin asked.

Though he was wary, he hadn’t forgotten the person who made the food was still busy.

It was truly a lot to do.

The kitchen needed cleaning, seeds had to be scattered into the large basin, and there were still the messy grapevines scattered around the yard that Chen Lina wasn’t sure what to do with.

“Oh, I’m not hungry, you all eat first,” Chen Lina said.

San Dan suddenly jumped up and wrapped her little arms around the enameled basin: “Then we’ll wait until Mom comes back and eat.”

This little one, still unclear in speech, had big round eyes and a very kind nature.

“Mom still has leftover pancakes from this morning. This whole pot of noodles is for you three. Make sure you eat all the eggs,” Chen Lina said.

Er Dan quickly shoved San Dan’s hands aside and started digging into his bowl.

Chen Lina reheated the leftover pancakes from this morning, made herself a bowl of lamb soup, and grabbed a cleaver as she went out the door, thinking about how to deal with the grapevine in the corner of the yard.

Ha Mama, tall and strong, wearing a skirt, was in the next yard.

When she saw Chen Lina struggling with the vines, she came over to help.

“These branches need to be buried, bury them,” Ha Mama gestured as she spoke.

Chen Lina was puzzled: “Why bury them?”

“To grow, to grow grapes next year, sweet ones!” Ha Mama explained.

Chen Lina remembered that when she had traveled to Turpan in her past life, the tour guide had mentioned that grapevines had to be buried for the winter so that when the frame was set up the next year, the grapes would grow.

If the vines were left exposed, they would freeze and die, and even if they grew some new buds, the grapes wouldn’t be sweet.

The sugar in grapes comes from the nutrients absorbed from the earth over the winter.

Without hesitation, she grabbed a hoe, and with Ha Mama, they bundled and buried the grapevines.

Ha Mama, with her strength, managed to break through the frozen soil with the hoe, and together with some coal ash from the corner of the wall, they successfully buried the vines.

When they got back inside, the two younger children had already gone to sleep, but Nie Weimin was still awake.

He looked like a little guard, completely on alert, his eyes locked on Chen Lina.

“Why doesn’t your mother like Ha Mama?” Chen Lina asked.

“Ha Gong and my grandmother had a fight, and Ha Mama always watches our house from the wall,” Nie Weimin said.

“So, neighbors have disagreements, but why does your grandmother fighting with someone have anything to do with you or with me? I’ve decided to be friends with her from now on. If you don’t want to meet her, you don’t have to come out when she visits. As for me, I’m friends with Chen Tiantian’s mother, and making friends is my personal choice. You can’t control that,” Chen Lina said.

“You can be friends with Aunt Chen, but not with Ha Mama. I have to control this because I don’t like her,” Nie Weimin stubbornly insisted, his face turning red with anger.

“Then forget it. I won’t be friends with Tiantian’s mom either. Let’s just shut the door and not have any friends. We’ll live our own lives,” Chen Lina teased him.

Nie Weimin was clearly scared: “No, Aunt Chen will give us tomatoes and apples.”

“Ha Mama gave us eggs, and it made your belly round!”

“But she fought with my mom. I remember, they almost fought.”

Chen Lina thought to herself, “Ah, this little one has quite a temper. It seems that Nie Weimin’s dislike for Ha Mama is mostly due to his grandmother’s influence.”

After thinking for a moment, Chen Lina said, “Alright then, I’ll give you a handful of walnuts I brought from my hometown. You can return the favor to Aunt Ha, and also give a handful of peanuts to Chen Tiantian’s mom. Once that’s done, we’ll close the door and live our own lives without making any more friends.”

Nie Weimin thought for a moment, took the walnuts, and ran off in a hurry.

It was just a little past three in the afternoon, and to his surprise, Nie Bozhao had already returned.

Seeing his son wearing a floral cotton jacket running out, he asked Chen Lina, “Where is he going?”

“He’s returning favors. He said that from now on, he won’t have any dealings with Aunt Ha.” Chen Lina replied with a smile.

Though they were neighbors, it was Nie Weimin’s first time visiting next door.

The relationship between the two families hadn’t been good, and he hesitated for a long time before entering their yard.

“Da Dan, come in, come in.” Aunt Ha(Ha Mama) greeted him with a warm, kind smile, unlike what his grandmother always said about her being an evil old witch.

She took the walnuts, smiled for a while, and then spoke to him in her dialect, giving him two bags of raisins.

Aunt Ha was so enthusiastic that it made Nie Weimin blush with embarrassment.

Being a shy child, Nie Weimin didn’t manage to say anything about severing ties, so he quietly returned home.

He wasn’t keeping any secrets though.

When he came back, he immediately gave the raisins to Chen Lina, “Comrade Chen, these are from Aunt Ha.”

Chen Lina carefully stored the raisins, along with the walnuts and peanuts.

They’d be good for making porridge in the future.

It was better than having plain porridge every day.

“Are we out of noodles? What are we having for dinner?” Nie Bozhao asked.

Chen Lina gave him a side-eye, “The three packs of instant noodles are finished, but there’s still some lamb. If you can’t find anything else, we’ll have lamb tonight. Oh, and there’s also some radish and cabbage—enough to fill us up.”

Though people from the mainland liked lamb, they couldn’t eat it like the native border people, such as the Kazakhs, who could have it three times a day.

Nie Bozhao chuckled and pulled something from behind his back.

It was a big, plump wild rabbit.

“Forget about lamb. If we can’t have it tonight, how about you stew this wild rabbit?” Nie Bozhao placed the rabbit on the chopping board, holding its ears.

“Wild rabbit?” Er Dan began crying, “Rabbit, we can’t eat rabbit.”

Nie Weimin, still in his rebellious phase, didn’t care.

After all, there were plenty of them in the Gobi Desert.

He wasn’t bothered: “Let’s eat it. Dad, next time bring a live one back, and we can play with it before eating.”

“Rabbits dig holes, so we can’t keep them.” Nie Bozhao firmly refused his son’s request.

Chen Lina took the wild rabbit and pointed outside, “Do you see that pile of ash? Mix it with the snow and sprinkle it evenly over the vegetable garden. It will make great fertilizer in the spring. Our garden will grow lush. Now, let me stew the rabbit.”

“Comrade Chen, do you need me to help skin the rabbit?” The wild rabbit had been shot with a single shot, its innards still inside, and its fur untouched.

In the past, when Engineer Sun and Huang Huacai were around, these chores would all fall to Nie Bozhao.

If he didn’t do it, Huang Huacai would throw the rabbit meat and fur into a pot and cook it, which would make it smell terrible.

Once, when he went down to the oil wells, he caught two large fish and brought them back for cooking.

Huang Huacai didn’t bother to gut them and just stewed them.

The stench was awful, and she’d hit Nie Weimin on the head to make him eat.

If he didn’t eat, she’d punch him.

After that, Nie Bozhao developed a strong aversion to cooking.

Even though he was an engineer at the oil base, he had to cook for himself at home.

Chen Lina took the rabbit, a knife in her hand, and left the yard.

After wandering around for a while, she came back, and the rabbit was skinned and gutted.

The fur was already gone.

Only then did she boil water in a big pot and blanch the rabbit.

After that, she added a few small hazel mushrooms she found in the kitchen and threw them into the pot with the whole rabbit.

The moment the pot started boiling, the savory smell filled the air, and Er Dan couldn’t stop salivating.

“Mom, when can we eat the rabbit?”

“This big fat rabbit has tender meat. It won’t take long.”

“Can I taste it first?”

“No, look at your round belly. If you eat more, you’ll turn into a little chubby boy.” Chen Lina teased, patting his chubby little butt.

Er Dan patted his round belly and cried out, “Dad, Aunt Yao is so good, her food smells so delicious.”

“They still call you Aunt Yao? Do you want me to teach them a lesson?” Nie Bozhao, still sprinkling ash in the backyard, asked.

Chen Lina smiled, “No need. Aunt Yao isn’t always scolding. These two older ones will be troublemakers when they grow up, and they’ll need strict discipline. But if I become Aunt Yao, at least your son will stay on the right path.”

Nie Bozhao stopped shoveling dirt and said, “Comrade Chen, why do I feel like you’re talking strangely? What do you mean by them being troublemakers? I think they’re just fine.”

“Doesn’t your family’s Engineer Sun have a bad temper? And your mother-in-law doesn’t have the best reputation. The whole family likely offended everyone in the compound before they left, right?” Chen Lina switched topics, not wanting to hurt Nie Bozhao’s feelings too soon.

Men, after all, are sensitive about their reputations.

Nie Bozhao felt uneasy and said, “You’re exaggerating.”

“In these residential compounds, everyone knows each other. There are a few families who are really close and help each other. You haven’t had a single visitor at your door for years. Is that exaggeration?”

“How did you figure that out? Did anyone from our neighborhood gossip about us?” Nie Bozhao was stunned.

This Comrade Chen must be really perceptive—she seemed to be learning all his secrets in just a day.

“Wang Jie from Engineer Chen’s family lives on the left, and Aunt Ha from the oil company lives on the right. They’re the closest families. I’ve been here and didn’t even dare to step into your house. How could anyone else come? Aunt Ha is still storing so many raisins. Look at her grapevines and then at your yard’s withered branches. If you were really close, how come your grapes grow there but you can’t even taste a sweet one?”

Nie Bozhao, with his thick eyebrows and big eyes, smiled but didn’t say anything.

Her keen observations made him think that this young Comrade Chen must have been well-trained by her pen pal over the years.

Of course, it was also due to her own intelligence, but it was a pity. If she knew what had happened to her pen pal, she would probably be very upset.

Well, for now, it was best to keep it a secret.