Nie Bozhao thought for a moment.

Fine, convincing his sons would be a challenging task, but he decided he would handle it himself.

“So, we’re not actually out of food? It’s just that Mom hid it?” Er Dan rubbed his belly and said, “Dad, I’ve been eating only one bowl a day recently. I’m so hungry that I’ve lost weight.”

“If you lose a little more, it’ll be even better.” Nie Bozhao said.

“Can we give some to Tiantian’s family? Tiantian’s mom just had a baby, and her grandma keeps complaining that she eats too much,” said Nie Weimin.

Before Nie Bozhao could respond, Chen Lina picked up the conversation. “There’s plenty of flour, potatoes, big radishes, and lamb for the entire mining district to get through winter. They won’t go hungry, but their living conditions can’t be improved.”

“Fine, I won’t invite Tiantian over to our house anymore. But make sure to give her one popsicle every week, Mom, okay?” Nie Weimin said earnestly.

Chen Lina agreed because milk supply hadn’t been disrupted.

It seemed like whenever holidays approached, accidents like water infiltration and oil spills happened.

Nie Bozhao had only been home for two days when he heard of an oil spill at Base No. 2 and had to rush over there.

When the snow stopped, Chen Lina also had to return to the farm to oversee the production of winter vegetables.

“Er Dan, why are you up so early?” Seeing a child sitting in the living room early in the morning surprised Chen Lina.

“Mom, I want to go to the farm too,” Er Dan gritted his teeth, battling his homework.

Chen Lina picked up his workbook and looked at it.

She didn’t have the heart to criticize his dog-scratched handwriting because he was so earnest, so she said, “Alright, I’ll take you, but you’re not allowed to fight with the other kids on the farm. And when we’re at your aunt’s house, you can only have one bowl of rice. They don’t have as much food as we do. Got it?”

“Okay, Mom. I can even skip eating today!”

Fine.

But when Chen Lina went to the kitchen to grab steamed buns, she saw that four were missing from the batch she had steamed the night before.

Good heavens, Er Dan really was a bottomless pit.

In winter, farm production usually came to a halt.

This was life at the frontier: after a year of hard work, stock up on cabbage and grains for the winter and stay warm until spring.

However, at Mulan Farm, work didn’t stop like at other farms.

The plastic greenhouses made from soil films and bamboo frames still needed to produce vegetables.

“This soil film is too coarse and too thin. When it freezes, it cracks easily and can’t withstand the cold winds and heavy snow at night. We’ve been sweeping the snow since it started falling, with everyone working in three shifts, two hours each, to save these ten acres of greenhouses. But the remaining five acres were crushed, and all the seedlings froze to death,” said Wang Hongbing as he walked through the snow.

“I’ll visit the plastic factory and ask them to develop a denser, stronger film for us. As for the technical issues, I’ll ask Old Nie to make time to check on the factory. It should be solvable.”

“You’d better hurry. The vegetables we were supposed to deliver to the mining district are gone. In winter, everyone on the farm is counting on these vegetables,” said Wang Hongbing.

Chen Lina, with her three children, walked further into the snowy landscape.

The area around the greenhouses was full of people.

“Dad, you’re already retired. Next year, you’ll be teaching at the base’s elementary school. With the work points Hongbing earns, why not rest at home instead of coming out to sweep snow?”

Seeing her father, with his red, frozen ears, clearing snow from the greenhouse, Chen Lina asked him this.

Her father smiled. “If everyone else is sweeping snow and I’m sleeping, what kind of example is that? It’s such a shame about Professor Qiu Hua’s strawberries. I was hoping to pick some for my grandson when they ripened.” Chen Father said.

Growing seedlings this year meant large-scale production next year.

With the seedlings destroyed, half a year of effort was wasted.

Chen Lina also felt it was a pity.

She looked back and said, “Weimin, Weiguo, put on your gloves and help Grandpa clear the snow.”

Her father quickly interjected, “No need, no need. Why make them sweep snow? Let them go warm up in the greenhouse. My granddaughter is in there too. Go on.”

In the freezing weather, the three children’s toes were already numb.

Of course, they didn’t want to sweep snow.

Hearing that Liu Xiaohong was also in the greenhouse, they eagerly ran inside.

“Dad, you always talk about your grandchild. I thought you meant my kids, but apparently, your only grandchild is Xiaohong and not my three kids?”

“Your elder sister is pregnant. The doctor said her previous malnutrition and emotional stress might have been factors. With better emotions, pregnancy becomes easier. You should visit the hospital too. Maybe some medicine will help, and who knows? You might conceive.” Chen Father said.

In his opinion, she needed to have her own child too.

“Fine, Dad. I’ll keep an eye on your strawberries. If Xiaohong eats them and my kids don’t, I won’t acknowledge you as my father anymore,” said Chen Lina as she turned and entered the greenhouse.

Though it was freezing outside, with everyone’s ears stiff from the cold, the greenhouse absorbed heat.

Once the sun shone, it felt like spring inside.

Rows of cucumbers, well-watered, grew long and straight.

Cauliflower and zucchini were much larger than those grown in the open.

The rows stretched endlessly into the distance.

“Want some? Pick one each,” said Professor Tian with a smile.

“Really? We can eat them?” Er Dan was thrilled. “If I’d known, I wouldn’t have eaten so many steamed buns this morning.”

Wearing a red cotton jacket made by Chen’s mother for the New Year, Liu Xiaohong laughed and ran out from between the grapevines. “Of course you can eat them. I’ll pick one for you.”

“Xiaohong, you’re a child, yes, but you’re also the farm manager’s child. Be mindful. Pick one cucumber and share it among everyone,” said Professor Tian.

“Okay, Auntie, I know!” Liu Xiaohong picked a cucumber and waved to the three kids. “Come on, let’s eat under the grapevines.”

“By the way, a few days ago, someone from Hongyan wrote to Yili to check my files,” Professor Tian said to Chen Lina as they walked through the greenhouse.

Meanwhile, Chen Lina carefully picked straight, healthy cucumbers and placed them in her basket.

“How’s the situation in Ili?”

“Of course, they said I was reassigned to the Umai oil field farm. At the time, I thought that was the end of it. But a couple of days ago, the mining district notified me and said I need to go there to give a report—explain how I came here, what I’ve been doing at the Mulan farm, and describe my work in detail.”

“Sounds like someone has their eye on you,” Chen Lina said.

“By coincidence, Qiu Hua and several other old comrades who came from Beijing also received the same notice—they’re supposed to go to the mining district and give reports too.”

Well, this must be the last struggle of those bad elements before the dawn.

They’ve finally set their sights on these old professors.

After picking a half-basket of cucumbers, Chen Lina said, “You can’t go to give that report. If you go, you probably won’t come back. I’ll go instead, and you can focus on production.”

“Comrade Chen, to be honest, if it weren’t for you, we old folks might not have made it this far. But I also worry that you’re always stepping up for us, and you could get dragged into trouble. After all, your father has said that his family background isn’t great either.” Professor Tian said.

If it weren’t for the protection of the leaders in the mining district, Chen Lina would have been criticized too.

At this point, if she stepped in again for the old experts, everyone was naturally worried about her.

“Professor Tian, I promise I’ll be fine, and you’ll be able to get through this safely. Don’t worry.”

If we’re talking about the previous life of Chen Lina, she would’ve chosen to focus on herself.

But in this life, with a pair of leather shoes bought by the Prime Minister still in her wardrobe, she felt that even if she couldn’t change the world, she had to do everything in her power to help.

The grapevine was full of moisture, warm and damp.

The kids, dressed like little cotton balls, were sweating profusely.

“Brother, these cucumbers are really delicious.” They wouldn’t have been considered fresh in summer, but because it’s winter, they tasted even better.

“Er Dan, if you want more, I’ll secretly pick another one for you,” Liu Xiaohong said.

Nie Weimin grabbed her arm and said, “What Mom says goes. No more eating.”

However, he was quite interested in Liu Xiaohong’s harmonica: “I’ve heard my dad sing this song too. I remember the sheet music. Who did you learn it from?”

“This is ‘In That Distant Place,’ Grandpa Tian taught me,” Liu Xiaohong said, handing the harmonica to Nie Weimin. “Since you remember the sheet music, why don’t you play it for me?”

“Ugh, gross, your saliva,” Nie Weimin said, clearly disgusted.

But Er Dan didn’t mind and immediately snatched it, eager to play: “Come on, let me play it, I’ll blow it for us.”

“Forget it, I’ll play it.” Nie Weimin was quick and snatched it back.

There was still Liu Xiaohong’s saliva on the harmonica.

He gave her a disdainful look, but the little girl, with her big eyes and flushed cheeks like the red sun, made him pause.

He didn’t think to wipe it off, just blew into it.

At first, he tested a few notes.

The kid couldn’t read sheet music and had no sense of music.

But relying on his understanding of the seven notes, he quickly began playing quite competently.

They went to Chen Lili’s house for lunch.

“Wow, now from cooking to washing the dishes, it’s all on your mom,” Chen Lina said.

Chen Lili was sitting on the bed, wrapped in a thick blanket, eating tomatoes dipped in sugar.

Seeing this, Chen Lina got upset: “Sister, I’m the farm director, and Brother-in-law is the deputy farm director. We don’t want the members and young intellectuals to steal food.

As a family member, you should lead by example. Winter vegetables like tomatoes and cucumbers are meant for breeding, not for eating.

The yield isn’t high, and they all need to be handed over to the mining district, which will allocate them to the truly outstanding workers who’ve made remarkable contributions at various posts. How could you eat them first?”

“Goodness, Lina, it’s just a position as farm director. Are you planning to cut ties with your family now?” Chen Lili, who was pregnant, said in a much firmer voice than before.

“It’s not that we’re cutting off ties with our own family, but this is just how things are now. White flour and napa cabbage won’t kill anyone; in fact, they’re nutritious. Tomatoes are great, but if you eat just one, and someone with ill intentions reports it to the mining district, both my brother-in-law and I could lose our jobs. Now tell me, what’s more important, our jobs or a single tomato?” Chen Lina replied.

“Alright, Lina, that tomato was grown by your dad in the small greenhouse he built himself behind our dugout. There were only three tomatoes in total. What’s wrong with your sister eating one today? First, Hongbing scolded her, and now you’re at it too. Oh, so just because you’re in leadership, the whole family can’t even eat a bit of homegrown produce?” This was meant to appease her, of course. Lin’s Grandmother said.

Every family had their own small plot of land, and Chen Lina obviously knew exactly what was grown in theirs.

She might have let it go if it were just her sister, but even her mother couldn’t understand her position.

That really upset Chen Lina.

Still, she never argued with her mother, so she stayed silent and sullen.

Unexpectedly, Nie Weimin, who had been playing tug-of-war over a harmonica with Liu Xiaohong, suddenly chimed in, “Grandma, my mom said that when she was pregnant with me, the thing she ate the most was napa cabbage and lamb. Especially lamb brains—she ate one sheep’s head a day. As for cucumbers and tomatoes, she didn’t have any at all.”

“Really?” Chen Lili immediately tossed the tomato aside. “Weimin, tell me more. What else did your mom do when she was pregnant with you?”

Sun Zhuannan and Huang Huacai had always told Nie Weimin countless stories about their heroic exploits during pregnancy.

Whether those stories were exaggerated or not, Nie Weimin wasn’t sure.

But he was certain that his tall, serious-looking mother really was a formidable woman.

“She said she worked all the way up until the day before giving birth. When she went into labor, she ran with my dad to the mining district clinic. It only took her ten minutes to give birth to me, and afterward, she carried me home herself.”

What a true powerhouse.

And that wasn’t even the end of it.

Like Nie Bozhao, Nie Weimin was born with a strikingly handsome and sincere yet stern face.

It was the kind of face that could make even a lie exude a professional air.

With his looks, when he gets older, if he were to go on TV to sell those fake nutritional supplements to gullible old ladies—dressed in a white coat and wearing glasses—he’d probably have a 100% success rate at convincing them.

“When my mom was pregnant with Er Dan, things weren’t as tough anymore. She had plenty of nutritional supplements and fresh vegetables. Since she didn’t like eating sheep’s heads, she didn’t have even one, and that’s how Er Dan was born.”

Er Dan nodded earnestly, feeling that his brother must be bragging about him. He puffed out his chest and said, “That’s why I’m the best!”

“Mom, I can’t just lie around. Are there any snow-clearing tasks outside? I’ll go do them. Also, I won’t eat this tomato either. How about you make a big pot of lamb, cabbage, and vermicelli stew for all of us? And have Hongbing bring over a few more sheep’s heads for me to eat.” Chen Lili said.

With that, Chen Lili put on her shoes, got out of bed, grabbed a broom, and went outside to clear snow as well.

After lunch, as they emerged from the dugout, Chen Lina was checking the children’s seatbelts.

She tapped Nie Weimin’s forehead and said, “Show-off!”

Nie Weimin grinned proudly. “What can I do? I’m just so outstanding.”

“But Mom, where are we going now?” Seeing that they weren’t taking the road to the mining district, Nie Weimin grew curious.

“We’re going to Base No. 2 to pick up your dad. It’s almost New Year’s, and we need to bring the God of Wealth home. I also need him to help us protect those old professors on the farm.”

And with that, as the car sped off, the mission to protect the elderly professors officially began.