That night, Chen Lili and Chen Lina shared a bed.

After all, they were sisters, and seeing how hard Chen Lina had it, Chen Lili couldn’t help but ask a few concerned questions.

For instance, she asked if the children were hard to manage, if they were difficult, and whether her husband had taken precautions during their intimate moments. “Otherwise, with three kids already, if you have another one, even with a car and no worries about food and heating, looking after all these kids would be overwhelming.”

Chen Lina didn’t say a word, falling asleep early, which made Chen Lili quite upset.

Actually, Chen Lina was trying to avoid letting Nie Weimin overhear.

The little guy was sneaky and could hear and remember everything the adults said.

The next morning, Nie Bozhao got up early, determined to set an example for Chen Lina, planning to cook porridge and soup for breakfast.

However, Chen Lili had already woken up earlier than him and was washing rice.

“My sister must be exhausted. We’re guests here, even if it’s just for a day, let me cook the breakfast today,” Chen Lili said. Hard work seemed to run in the family.

Unable to take over the cooking, Nie Bozhao went outside to sweep the yard, thankful that there hadn’t been any snow the day before, so the yard was still relatively clean.

He thought to himself, “Well, sorry, I guess I’ll have to sacrifice myself to set a good example for Xiao Chen.”

However, just as he stepped outside, Chen Lili had already grabbed the broom and swept the yard clean in a few strokes.

By the time the three children got up, Chen Lili had already heated water and was ready to help them wash their faces.

At Chen Lina’s house, besides the youngest, who needed help getting dressed and brushed, the other two children were supposed to brush their own teeth and wash their faces, and even fetch their own water.

Recently, even the sweeping of the floor had fallen to Nie Weimin.

The eldest, Nie Weimin, was more mature and understood that appearances, social interactions, and relationships in life could vary greatly depending on whether it was a day or a year, or even a lifetime.

San Dan, the youngest, was too small to understand.

Er Dan was jumping on the bed and exclaimed, “Auntie is better than Mom! She helped me wash my face!”

This wasn’t all. After spending a day without having to sweep the floor or pick up coal, Er Dan felt like the luckiest kid.

When he heard that his aunt was going to the Mulan Farm, he was upset.

“Auntie, Auntie, can you stay and be our mom?” he asked, running after Chen Lili.

In a relative’s home, being hardworking was a must—an old tradition of the Qinzou people.

Also, since Chen Lili didn’t have children of her own yet, she had a bit of a fondness for kids, maybe even a little vanity, so she teased, “If I’m going to be your mom, what will your real mom do?”

Er Dan innocently responded, “She’s also a mom, and you’re a mom too. You feed us, pick up coal, sweep the floor, and cook. As for my mom… she’ll just eat and then go to the back sand jujube trees to catch sparrows and feed the rabbits. I don’t want her to do chores all the time.”

Chen Lili was having fun teasing the kids, but when she looked up, she saw her sister’s displeased expression.

She suddenly realized, “Lina, I haven’t spoiled the kids, have I?”

“Yes, you have spoiled them. You know, when I taught them to brush their own teeth, I was the bad guy. It took me a long time to get them to fetch coal and do chores by themselves. Sis, you better go to Mulan Farm soon. If you keep spoiling them, they’ll go back to being the way they were before.”

Saying this, Chen Lina turned and walked back into the house.

Since Wang Hongbing didn’t have legal documents, Nie Bozhao went with Fu Yongdong to Mulan Farm.

After all, Chen Lina had recently had a big quarrel with Huang Huacai, and Mulan Farm was filled with bad elements, criminals, and “counter-revolutionaries.”

If any trouble happened, it would be dealt with according to protocol at the mine leadership level.

As Chen Lili and Wang Hongbing were about to leave in the car, Er Dan ran after them for a long while, following the car out of the base before reluctantly returning.

As soon as he entered the door, he tripped and fell on his dirty little bottom, planning to climb onto the clean seat cushions that Chen Lina had just washed.

“Auntie, how is she?” Chen Lina’s voice was cold, taking on a stepmother tone.

Er Dan, unaware, replied cheerfully, “She’s good, really good! I grabbed the tablecloth with my dirty hands after fetching coal, but she didn’t scold me. She just said it’s fine and would clean it herself.”

“Did she wash your hands?” Chen Lina slapped him on the bottom, “See, I even hit you. Do you think she can handle that?”

“I want Auntie to help me wash my face, feed me, and play with me in the sand jujube forest. You never help me with anything,” Er Dan said, feeling truly upset.

Chen Lina wasn’t particularly fond of the children at first.

She just pitied them because they had no one to care for them, their clothes were ragged, and they were bullied.

However, as time went on, she started feeling more responsible for them, though she still maintained a sense of authority.

She had always been reluctant to allow them to become too pampered, especially since she didn’t want to see Nie Bozhao end up like her previous life, dedicating everything to the Republic, becoming highly respected in the oil industry, but ultimately having his life weighed down by the responsibilities of three children.

Although, in her previous life, the intense, indulgent affection shown to her had been because of his guilt over neglecting the children.

Everything was poured into her as a form of compensation.

She had no idea how it happened, but slowly, those three kids had become her responsibility.

Inwardly, she had started to feel for them, but she maintained a strict outward demeanor.

A single sentence was enough to send Er Dan into tears, shouting as he hurried to wash his little hands.

That afternoon, Chen Lina was planning to visit a neighbor, Aunt Ha, next door.

Little Nie Weimin, along with Chen Tiantian and San Dan, were at home feeding the rabbits, refusing to go.

Er Dan, anxious because his mom was angry and worried she might still be upset with him, hurriedly followed behind and asked, “Mom, can I go with you?”

Chen Lina simply replied, “Yes,” and the child, so overjoyed, almost jumped up.

Aunt Ha was busy knitting a skirt for herself.

In their Ha ethnic culture, no matter how cold it got, the women always wore long skirts over woolen leggings, unlike Han women who wore pants.

They exchanged a few words, and Mother Ha kept asking if Chen Lina had any younger sisters.

Clearly, the two sisters’ hard work had caught her eye, and she seemed eager to find a hardworking wife for Ha Gong.

However, Chen Lina wasn’t there for casual conversation.

She said, “Mother Ha, don’t you always feed the horses at night? Have you noticed that behind our family compound, several times around midnight, there are people walking around?”

Mother Ha immediately lowered her voice, “Yes, there are. It’s a man and a woman, right?”

Chen Lina nodded, “Yes.”

“I’m not sure if they’re good or bad people, but I suspect the woman is from Mulan Farm. As for the man, do you know who he is?”

Since both people were wrapped up tightly and the wall was high, Chen Lina had only seen them twice and couldn’t make out their faces, so she couldn’t tell who they were.

“If they’re from the Soviet Union, it’s better to report it to the base early. Xiaoh Chen, should you go or should I go?” Mother Ha asked.

Chen Lina thought for a moment and said, “Let’s watch for another night. If those two appear again tonight, I’ll stop them and ask them clearly.”

You shouldn’t let a bad person slip away, but neither should you wrong an innocent one.

This was a time of upheaval, and Chen Lina, being labeled a “counter-revolutionary,” was cautious about wrongly accusing anyone.

After all, wandering around in the oil base could lead to criminal charges.

Speaking of which, Chen Lili and Wang Hongbing had reached Mulan Farm and were overwhelmed by what they saw.

Wealth—Mulan Farm was truly rich.

Unlike the oil base, where everyone had state-supplied coal for heating, Mulan Farm didn’t have coal.

They had to build their houses from scratch, and since it was too cold to live in them, most people lived in underground dwellings.

They passed by one such underground dwelling and saw large white buns thrown on the roof.

In the middle of winter, a flock of sparrows gathered around, eating the buns.

As they continued walking, they saw other underground dwellings without any buns on top.

“This place is truly rich, but what a waste of the white buns. Throwing them away like that is such a waste,” Chen Lili remarked, feeling upset. “We’ve eaten low-quality flour for six or seven years. The best we had was the 85 flour; most of the time, we had bean flour or millet stalk powder. I never imagined the borderlands could be this wealthy. People are wasting white buns by feeding them to birds.”

The driver, Xiao Chen, responded, “It depends on the person. Those people are all from Zhang County, all surnamed Sun. If you pass by other underground dwellings, you won’t see this.”

Sure enough, as they walked on, they passed other underground dwellings that were clean and free of any buns.

Looking at the faces of the people standing on the roadside, it was clear that they were not well-fed, their faces gaunt and pale.

At Mulan Farm, the relocated people were grouped by their county of origin.

People from the same county lived together, while the intellectuals (known as “zhi qing”) had separate housing.

To prevent Huang Huacai from causing a scene, Nie Bozhao left Fu Yongdong behind to help settle Wang Hongbing and his wife, while he headed back to the base in his Red Flag sedan.

Fu Yongdong’s task was to help Chen Lili and Wang Hongbing settle in and get their household registration and supplies.

Fu Yongdong had a way of getting things done because Wang Hongbing was an “illegal” (black household). He carved a seal from a carrot, wrote a recommendation letter by hand, and claimed Wang Hongbing was from Zhang County.

Sure enough, when the warehouse management saw that Wang Hongbing was from Zhang County, they not only gave him plenty of labor protection supplies but also prepared to assign them to the underground dwellings for people from Zhang County.

Chen Lili absolutely refused, repeatedly pleading, and the warehouse management finally agreed to place them among people from Qingshui County.

Although the two counties were not far apart, the people from Qingshui were honest and kind-hearted, while the people from Zhang County were known for being difficult, aggressive, and cliquish. Therefore, the two counties didn’t get along.

The warehouse management staff said with a meaningful look, “Comrade Wang Hongbing, once you’re here, you need to draw a clear line. Qingshui and Zhang County are enemies. It’s black or white, no gray area.”

Wang Hongbing smiled but didn’t say anything, handing the staff a cigarette.

After receiving their thick cotton quilts, shovels, plows, and other supplies, they were assigned to a dilapidated underground dwelling.

When Wang Hongbing entered and lay down on the quilt that Chen Lili had just spread, he sighed, “Lili, finally home. I heard the neighbors are from Qingshui too. Can you borrow an iron pot from them while I rest?”

Chen Lili nodded and quietly went out to borrow the pot.

After getting the pot, she boiled water to clean the house, and just as she was about to rest and unpack her things, she heard Wang Hongbing say, “Hurry up, that lamb last night made my stomach picky. I want lamb again. There’s half a lamb and some fine noodles; can you stew some lamb and bake some flatbreads?”

“Are you just going to sleep like that?” Happiness comes from comparison.

When Chen Lili was on her way to Umayi, she had thought, “It’ll be great if I get a nice bowl of noodles or lamb every now and then.”

But now, seeing her sister living in a smooth, cement-road neighborhood with tall poplar and sand date trees, and her place heated with half a cartload of coal—while she herself was stuck in this underground dwelling with bare walls—she couldn’t help but feel upset.

If there was going to be an outburst, it would definitely come from Wang Hongbing: “Nie Gong is a senior engineer at the oil base, yet he sweeps the floor and washes the dishes at home. And you—you’re a capitalist roader who should be paraded through the streets! I brought you here with great effort, and now you lie around while I have to cook!”

The new broom swished and struck, causing Wang Hongbing to panic and leap up: “Oh, Chen Lili, you must be regretting not coming with Nie Bozhao back then, aren’t you?”

“Yes, I do regret it, but not because I didn’t come with Nie Gong—it’s because you, Wang Hongbing, are inconsiderate.”

With that, she started crying.

When Wang Hongbing had been crippled, Chen Lili had carried him all the way.

Now, realizing she had been a little harsh, she limped to the kitchen to chop lamb and cook it.

He chuckled and remarked, “You know, if Sun Zhuangnan hadn’t died, he’d definitely have become the district chief. As for Lao Nie, I have a feeling your sister, Lina, can’t handle him.

You don’t know, he volunteered to stay here in the frontier for research. If he’d gone to Hongyan Province or Beijing, countless women would have flocked to him. If they’d known he’d lost his wife, you’d have seen even more women chasing him here.”

Chen Lili didn’t mind this.

To her, it seemed her sister had handled Nie Gong well.

After all, Chen Lina was more strategic and capable than she was.

If she wanted to marry someone, it wouldn’t have taken much effort—no need for matchmakers.

She just quietly handled the matter and got the marriage done.

Chen Lili thought that Chen Lina’s life, aside from the trouble of managing the children, was pretty smooth.

Feeling a little aggrieved, Chen Lili mentioned some things her sister had helped her with.

Chen Lina had opened several large woven bags for her, and with a “ha” sound, Chen Lili immediately covered her mouth.

First, there was a small iron pot that was said to require one hundred work points to exchange for at the farm.

Inside it were neatly arranged bowls and chopsticks, and in the bowls, small packets of seasoning wrapped in oilcloth bags and a jar of cooking oil.

Below that was a ten-kilo cotton quilt, which would have taken three hundred work points to earn at the Mulan farm.

That meant, if one worked every day for a month with full points, they’d still only be able to earn enough to exchange for it.

Next was the clothing and shoes for her and Wang Hongbing, along with several pairs of wool socks, which she didn’t even know how Chen Lina had managed to weave.

These items, based on work points, would have taken Chen Lili and Wang Hongbing nearly half a year to earn.

If they were measured in money, it would be at least three hundred yuan.

Her sister never complained and had quietly prepared all these for her.

….

At the oil base, Chen Lina was cooking.

Yesterday’s roasted lamb leg had been delicious, and Nie Weimin was still thinking about it.

Today, he was pestering her to make it again.

However, Er Dan didn’t want any more.

He had eaten too much lamb the day before and was now craving “lazy dumplings.”

“Besides lazy dumplings, do you want anything else, Er Dan? Today, Mom will make it just for you.”

You had to give kids a treat after a punishment, or they wouldn’t like you.

For Chen Lina, it was a must that the kids loved her, even if she didn’t always show love to them.

Er Dan thought for a moment and suddenly recalled something: “I want to eat the dish that the cadres made when they came to the village—big noodles, big slices of meat, with wood ear mushrooms and eggs, all eaten with steamed buns. It was so delicious.”

The “cadres’ dish” or “kill-pig dish” had been made by Huang Guilan to treat the visiting cadres at Old Nie’s house.

Er Dan had been craving it for a while.

Chen Lina waved her hand. “That’s not possible. Didn’t you notice there are people from several different ethnic groups living next door? They respect our customs, and we should respect theirs. Right now, we can only eat lamb, not pork.”

“Why can’t we eat pork, Comrade Chen?” Nie Weimin asked curiously.

Chen Lina didn’t know how to explain. “Well, we’ll have to wait for another day. If we go to Mulan Farm, I’ll make it for you. But here, since Aunt Ha is next door, we can’t eat it. It’s out of respect for their customs.”

In fact, such dietary restrictions regarding pork were common in certain ethnic groups, especially before the reform and opening-up.

But after that, these taboos became less significant.

Chen Lina wasn’t blindly following customs, but she was careful not to provoke ethnic conflicts.

“But Dad wants to eat it too,” Nie Weimin said, licking his lips. “He always says that when we go back to our hometown, we’ll have the cadres’ dish, but when we actually went, there was none, not even a bit.”

When it came to the “cadres’ dish,” it had to be made with pork to get the right flavor.

What could be done if there was no pork?

Chen Lina thought for a while, then went outside to grab a frozen piece of lean beef.

She pounded it with a knife to break up the fibers, added star anise powder and starch to marinate it, then mixed in rehydrated vermicelli and wood ear mushrooms, and two scrambled eggs before frying it up.

She sniffed the dish herself—yep, it smelled just like the authentic “cadres’ dish.”

When the Red Flag car stopped outside the yard, Nie Bozhao immediately smelled the familiar scent of star anise and cinnamon, which made him feel something was off.

As soon as they entered the house, they didn’t want to disturb Chen Lina or the kids, so they placed everything in the study.

After coming out of the study, the food was ready.

Feeling nostalgic, Nie Bozhao tried a bite and said, “This is pork, isn’t it? The Kazakhs over at the back don’t have this kind of thing. Comrade Chen, did you find a Han Chinese businessman to get this?”

“Try again?” Chen Lina said as she handed him another piece of meat.

He chewed a couple of times and said, “It really is pork.”

How should he describe it?

It reminded him of a dish his mother made when he was a child—before they sold him for fifty yuan, she had bought some pork on credit, along with noodles, an egg, and a few slices of wood ear mushrooms.

That was the taste of the dish.

At the time, Nie Bozhao had been so happy eating it.

Little did he know, after he was sold, the fifty yuan was used to pay off the debt his mother owed for that meal.