Regarding her ex-husband, Chen Lina had a prejudice against Nie Guozhu, perhaps because she knew him too well. Naturally, she didn’t want to spend time or energy trying to convince him.

Looking at Nie Guozhu with his naive expression, his eyes glued to Nie Bozhao, it was clear that he had been brainwashed by his wife, Gong Hongxing.

She took care of his meals and looked after him, but didn’t want to say a word more to him.

Chen Lina was responsible for brainwashing the reporters from Beijing, while dealing with Nie Guozhu, a wooden-headed person, was Nie Bozhao’s problem, and she didn’t care about it.

“But his feet really stink, Comrade Chen, can you get my dad to hurry up and kick him out? I haven’t been able to sleep well for days,” Little Nie Weimin suddenly started to play the weak card.

Chen Lina couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

She was thinking that it was precisely because Nie Guozhu’s feet stank and his snoring was so loud that she and he had barely slept together in their previous marriage, eventually sleeping in separate rooms.

“Teacher, still not asleep?” Nie Bozhao’s student, Zhu Hailiang, walked straight into the yard.

When he saw the lights on in the Nie family house and the kids gathered around the table, he didn’t knock and just entered.

“Little Chen, still got some sweet porridge? Serve a bowl to Little Zhu.”

“There’s a little left in the pot. Little Zhu, come eat,” Chen Lina warmly greeted, directly bringing the pot over to show him.

“No, no, it’s okay. Tomorrow’s the weekend, we’re all supposed to go to the farm to work, I just wanted to ask for a leave,” Zhu Hailiang said.

“Leave? For what?” Nie Bozhao frowned. “The farm is busy with spring planting. We need to plant two hundred acres of wheat. What could be more important than that?”

“Well, I need to ask for a leave to visit my second aunt. She works in the mining area,” Zhu Hailiang replied.

“I see. Gong Hongxing wants to recruit him,” Chen Lina said once she lay down on the kang.

“Oh, why?” Nie Bozhao asked casually.

Chen Lina bit her finger thoughtfully. “Do you know Wu Qiong from the cultural troupe? She’s Gao Dayong’s wife. She also came from Hongyan, and the Armed Forces Department belongs to the Hongyan military district as well. I once looked through the files, and Zhu Hailiang’s mother’s surname is Wu. Wu Qiong must still be mad at me for that watch. When you put the pieces together, can you see the connection?”

“Nie Guozhu’s such a naive guy, how did he marry such a capable wife?”

“Don’t worry, if Wu Qiong dares to do anything, Gao Dayong will shoot her. I’m his goddess after all.”

“Little Chen, are you happy that other men admire you?”

With that, she flipped onto his lap, teasing him further.

“Alright, turn off the light. I’m afraid that if I keep looking at the goddess, I’ll have nightmares tonight.”

“What, are you planning another round tonight? Old Nie, Marx and Lenin are watching you on the wall. It’s already midnight, and we have to go plant the spring crops at five tomorrow morning.”

“You sleep, I’ll go in. This doesn’t go against my belief in Marxism-Leninism. Anyway, you’re just a saline-alkali land, planting won’t help.”

“Hmm, wait for it. What if I get pregnant one day? That will scare you to death.”

Sure enough, Nie Bozhao was so frightened that he didn’t dare to move for a while.

“By the way, Uncle Nie, have you ever eaten rat meat?”

Nie Guozhu was sleeping soundly, snoring away.

Suddenly, his eyelids were pried open, and he stared for a while at the three bright-eyed kids around him.

He shook his head. “Never eaten it,” then rolled over and continued snoring.

“My mom really likes eating rat meat, especially house rats. She says that if you wrap them in red clay and roast them under the stove, it’s the best breakfast in the world,” the little one said, probably just having brushed his teeth, his breath minty.

“Your mom likes to eat rat meat?” Nie Guozhu couldn’t remember Chen Lina having this particular taste.

“Rats, that sounds so disgusting.”

“The rats in the frontier are fat and big, and their meat is really tasty. Plus, we have lots and lots of rats in our little storage room. My dad often stays up all night to catch rats for my mom to eat,” said Er Dan, with his round head and big eyes.

He raised his chubby fingers, gesturing as he spoke.

The younger the child, the more convincing they seemed to be.

So, Old Nie really stayed up all night catching rats to feed Chen Lina?

Nie Guozhu, who had been sitting up straight with a quick motion, exclaimed: “How do you catch them? Do you have rat traps in your house?”

A broom was seriously handed to him by Erdan. “My dad always uses this to catch them,” Erdan said solemnly.

Great.

That night, the whole place had been full of noise, with banging and clattering, keeping Chen Lina awake.

In the morning, she woke up to find the kitchen floor covered in rats, and Nie Guozhu was all fired up, ready to roast them for dinner.

She grabbed a fire poker, preparing to go scold Nie Weimin, but then she found the little guy being surprisingly well-behaved.

He was standing in the sunlight, tutoring Erdan and Tiantian on their homework.

What a good child—studying well and caring for his younger brothers.

Nie Weimin let out a soft laugh and cast a shy glance at Chen Lina, as if asking: “Come on, would you really hit me?”

Gong Hongxing, the leader of the revolutionary work team, had wheat-colored skin and short hair like Liu Hulan.

She was tall and quite fat.

In this era, everyone looked pale and thin, so a plump girl like her was rare. She had a large frame, but in the Hongyan military district, she was considered a beauty.

After several days of work in the mining area with no progress, today, she finally found Wu Qiong, the leader of the troupe.

Wu Qiong, who was thin and small, sat beside her and asked seriously, “Are you sure that Chen Lina is a ‘stinky old nine’ or a Soviet revisionist?”

In this era, becoming the deputy leader of the cultural troupe meant Wu Qiong was not someone to be underestimated.

She was also a very cautious person.

Those who plot against others are eventually plotted against themselves, and without full confidence, Wu Qiong didn’t want to get involved in any revolutionary activities.

“The file was taken from the Women’s Normal University. It’s confirmed she came to your Wumayi mining area, but after I’ve been here for five days, I still haven’t gotten any of the old professors’ files or Chen Lina’s file. Secretary A said I should ask Director Gao, but he said his office caught fire and all the files were burned. Do you believe that?”

Wu Qiong and Helan Mountain were good friends, so if Gao Feng’s office had indeed caught fire, she would’ve known.

“There’s something fishy here. The whole mining area is clearly resisting passively and not cooperating with our Hongyan Revolutionary Work Team,” Gong Hongxing slapped her thigh.

Wu Qiong thought for a moment, then said cautiously, “Alright, my nephew will be here soon. You can ask him. He works in Nie Gong’s laboratory, so he should know more than we do.”

Zhu Hailiang came to visit his aunt, but not having anything decent to bring, he entered holding a rabbit.

The armed department wasn’t like other units that were crowded into small buildings. They had requisitioned the large courtyard of the former big landlord, Reba, so it was spacious.

Wu Qiong lived in the back courtyard, while Minister Gao lived in the front courtyard.

“Ha, good fellow, Hailiang, did you hunt this rabbit yourself?” Gao Dayong had just gotten up and was brushing his teeth outside. Seeing the fat rabbit in Zhu Hailiang’s hands, he gave him a thumbs-up.

“No, my teacher shot it,” Zhu Hailiang replied.

“Old Nie’s marksmanship is getting better. Scattershot, and yet he only hit the throat. The shot didn’t even scatter. That old engineer must practice shooting every day, right?” Gao Dayong took the rabbit and began examining it.

“We’re doing experiments, and when it comes to measuring results, we have to go to three decimal places. We look at the pictures as one phase after another, which is different from your approach,” Zhu Hailiang explained.

Because Nie Gong’s shooting was so accurate, his eyesight could pick out the smallest details, even down to individual pixels. Could anyone compare?

“So, Hailiang, why aren’t you working on the farm on this weekend?” Gao Dayong wiped the toothpaste foam off his lips.

“Well, Aunt said the Hongyan team came and wanted to know more about my teacher and his wife,” Zhu Hailiang said. As soon as he finished speaking, Gao Dayong’s face changed.

“Leader, are you home?” He then led Zhu Hailiang into the back courtyard.

“Hey, Lao Gao, you haven’t left yet?” Wu Qiong was somewhat afraid.

When she saw Gong Hongxing there too, her face immediately dropped, and she no longer referred to him as “Leader.” “Wu Qiong, you have guests at home, and you didn’t notify me?”

Gong Hongxing stood up and shook hands with Minister Gao. “Comrade Gao Dayong, your Wumayi mining area has always been the least active in revolutionary work. I’ve visited for a few days, and not only is everyone avoiding talking about the revolution, but they even call Chen Lina ‘Awal Guli.’

Do you know what ‘Awal Guli’ means? In Uyghur, it refers to a pure flower. Of course, this isn’t important. What matters is that the song Awal Guli sings is a love story between a soldier and a Uyghur girl.

Whether it’s Awal Guli or the soldier, they’re both red and professional revolutionary descendants. How can a dismissed ‘stinky old nine’ like Chen Lina be compared to descendants of revolutionary families?”

“Bullshit. The legend of Awal Guli originates from the Ming Dynasty. Do you know what the Ming Dynasty was? It was the era of feudal autocracy. You want to topple it, trampling it underfoot. Gong Hongxing, you’ve got problems with your thinking. How dare you tell me that feudal autocracy is ‘red and professional’?” Gao Dayong retorted directly.

“Then calling her Awal Guli means she’s the leftover of feudalism.”

“Shut your mouth, you dirty dog. Pure flowers are what they use to decorate Tiananmen Square on National Day to honor the heroes. If you think flowers are remnants of feudalism, why didn’t you trample on the flowers in front of Tiananmen and the People’s Heroes Monument during the military parade?”

“We’ve conducted investigations, and we’ve found that the people in your entire mining area don’t respect the leader. You’ve even elevated Chen Lina to a higher position. This kind of thinking, if it reaches Beijing, it’s a huge counter-revolutionary issue. It’s disrespect for the leader.”

“If you can achieve mass production on the farm in one year, next year you’ll be my Awa’er Guli, my Ashima, the dream lover of mine. Want me to sing a song for you?”

“Old Gao, you’re just being unreasonable. You’ve completely lost the noble character and qualities that an international communist should have. I heard that in order to dance with Chen Lina, you’ve been challenging people left and right. You’re decadent, you’re corrupt, and you’re not fit to be an international communist.”