Diary of the Army in the 1970s
Diary of the Army in the 1970s Chapter 30.2

There was nothing in the house that she was dissatisfied with. Wen Jiajia walked around, sitting on the sofa with her legs stretched out and shaking.

Well, wooden sofas are not bad; at least they are durable to sit on.

Wei Dai had to return for leave, and before leaving, he said, “Don’t move your luggage yet; we can sort it out together when I come back.”

Wen Jiajia nodded, but after he left, she couldn’t help but unpack her luggage.

“Chun’er and Xuanxuan, come and help your aunt,” she called towards the yard. The two girls saw the faucet for the first time and were turning it on and off.

“Okay,” they rushed in again.

Wen Jiajia first opened the largest quilt bag but did not take it out for the time being. Instead, she went to the room to put the mattress in place.

Wei Dai had prepared a mattress and placed it in the closet.

The bed was also covered with a straw mat, and there was no dust anywhere on it. It was obvious that all she needed to do was put the mattress on it.

She made the bed and put the quilt on it. Seeing that the sun was shining brightly, she even took the quilt out to dry in the sun.

The sunshine in the yard was really nice. Wei Dai was very foresighted and had installed a few bamboo poles on the right side of the yard to hang clothes and quilts to dry.

Wen Jiajia felt that she had an anxiety about drying her quilts. As long as there was strong sunshine outside, she liked to dry her quilts. There was no other way; if she wanted to get rid of mites, the only solution was to dry them in the sun.

Next came some food.

For example, bacon and sausage, and a jar of pickled fish made by Wei’s parents.

The jars were quite heavy, but they contained more than just pickled fish. They also brought a jar of wine lees, a jar of salted duck eggs, and a jar of pickled vegetables.

God knows how Wei Dai brought these jars of food along the way; this man is too strong.

All the jars were placed in the storage cabinet in the kitchen, which is relatively cool and dry.

Then there were clothes.

Wen Jiajia didn’t have many clothes, but Wen Chun and Wen Xuan had many. Wen Jiajia only kept a few pieces of clothing left by the original owner’s family, and the rest were repurposed to make clothes for Wen Chun and Wen Xuan.

The two sisters needed fairness, each having four sets of summer clothes, three sets of spring and autumn clothes, two sets of winter clothes, two sweaters, and a cotton vest.

The sweaters were made by Wen Jiajia last winter. She gradually obtained wool from Wei Xin, and after several experiments, she finally got 5 kilograms of red medium-thick wool.

Wen Jiajia was so happy that day that she almost couldn’t sleep, and she giggled when she thought of the five-jin sweater.

The next day, when Wen Chun woke up, the first thing she asked was whether a chicken had sneaked into the house last night.

Wen Jiajia was speechless for a while.

Five pounds of wool can only make five sweaters, but Wen Jiajia only has one.

It’s not that she doesn’t knit more sweaters for herself, but the two children will grow up slowly, and then their two sweaters can be taken apart and re-knitted into one, without the need to buy new ones.

Wen Jiajia wanted to synthesize a few more kilograms of white wool. In comparison, she liked white sweaters better.

All the clothes were hung in the closets in the two rooms, freeing up three packages.

The remaining packages mostly contained small items for daily use, some seasonings, and various necessities.

For example, needles and thread, umbrellas, iron pots and cups, soy sauce, rice wine, brown sugar, chopped pepper sauce, and the spices that she had taken the trouble to collect.

Bay leaves, star anise, peppercorns, cinnamon, and even dried chili peppers.

As for dried goods, there were dried black fungus, dried mushrooms, dried bitter paper mulberry cakes, dried shrimp, dried kelp, etc.

She even brought a lot of dried honeysuckle. She needed honeysuckle to help with sore throats. However, Wen Jiajia was not sure whether she could pick honeysuckle here, so after thinking about it, she decided to bring some anyway.

It’s just that honeysuckle is prone to insects and needs to be placed in the sun every now and then.

All these useful items are now in place.

The last package was quite heavy. When it was opened, it was filled with a large basin of lard.

The lard is stored in an enamel pot. While others might use it for a whole year, Wen Jiajia would use it up in at most six months.

In addition to the lard, there were two kilograms of peanut oil, half a kilogram of sesame oil, and two kilograms of rapeseed oil. Wen Jiajia felt that the rapeseed oil squeezed in her hometown was indeed fragrant and very good for making chili oil.

Out here, she wasn’t sure if she could buy two kilograms of oil at one time.

After all, fuel coupons are sometimes useless due to purchase restrictions.

If you buy several kilograms at a time, people queuing behind you might get upset.

As for the kerosene, since the army had electricity, Wen Jiajia left it to Wei’s parents.

After cleaning up everything, Wen Jiajia collapsed on the sofa, exhausted.

When she looked up and saw the hanging electric lights, her heart couldn’t help but jump with joy.

After a few months, they finally had electricity again.

Noon.

Wei Dai was probably busy with something, so he didn’t come back until lunchtime.

He returned with a lunch box and said, “You’re late. This is food from the cafeteria. Let’s eat in the cafeteria today. I’ll try to get someone to bring back some rice and flour in the afternoon.”

The rice and flour hadn’t arrived at the post office yet. It would take at least another two or three days for them to arrive.

Wen Jiajia nodded. She also wanted to try the food in the army.

The food standards in the army are undoubtedly better than those outside.

But it’s not that great, considering that most people are facing financial difficulties nowadays. Eating too well might give others an excuse to complain.

Besides, there’s no condition to eat too well.

Even if you have money and tickets to buy meat, you still need a place to buy it.

She opened the lunch box and found fried tofu and stir-fried meat with shredded potatoes.

This was pretty good. Wen Chun and Wen Xuan ate with big mouthfuls and enjoyed the food.

Moving was really busy, even though Wei Dai had already finished cleaning a few days ago.

Wen Jiajia needed to wipe the furniture again with a cloth because, upon closer inspection, she could still see a thin layer of dust on it.

Then there was the need to wash the dishes.

Wei Dai had prepared a lot of bowls, chopsticks, and spoons and put them in the kitchen cabinet, but he hadn’t washed them. He thought he could just wash them when needed. However, Wen Jiajia couldn’t stand this. She had to wash the bowls and chopsticks first, then dry them until there was no moisture left before putting them away.

When needed in the future, she could just rinse them with water.

In the evening, the things Wei Dai had asked someone to buy arrived.

Wen Jiajia underestimated the army. She never thought that the army also served as a logistics company. The logistics department sent a car to the city every week, and family members could tell them what they wanted to buy and ask them to bring it back.

Today happened to be the day when the weekly car entered the city. Wei Dai took Wen Jiajia to the logistics department to move things. It took them two trips to finish.

“Wei Dai, is this your wife?” someone asked on the road.

Wei Dai smiled and said, “Yes, my wife Wen Jia. She just came here. Aunt, please help me take care of her.”

This person was obviously an acquaintance; otherwise, Wei Dai wouldn’t have asked him to take care of her.

Wen Jiajia greeted her generously. After the aunt left, Wei Dai said, “She is Lan Hongying, the wife of Teacher Gao. She is also in charge of the families in the family compound. If you encounter any problems, you can find her. She has a good temper and is a very nice person.”

Wen Jiajia glanced at her back and said she would take note of it.

When they met other people on the way, Wei Dai greeted them one by one and introduced Wen Jiajia to them.

If they were familiar with each other, they chatted a little more.

If they were not familiar, they would generally go their separate ways after the introduction. This also allowed Wen Jiajia to get a rough idea of Wei Dai’s network of relationships.

“I didn’t expect you to be so popular,” Wen Jiajia said.

The closer they got to Beishan, the fewer people there were. Wei Dai secretly held her hand, and their clasped hands swayed in the air.

Wei Dai said, “No, I can do carpentry, cement work, and electrical work. I don’t do that for nothing.”

“…”

That’s great. Technical talents are welcome everywhere.

When they were almost home, Wen Chun and Wen Xuan were rolling around and playing in the open space at the door with two unfamiliar boys next to them.

“Those are the children of the Xie family next door. One is five years old and the other is only two years old. Both the Xie couple have good tempers,” Wei Dai reminded after remembering something. “Oh, Xie Jin, that’s the father of the two children. His wife is a rare college student in the family compound. She is now teaching in the military primary school. She usually likes people to call her Teacher Shen, not Sister Xie.”

Wen Jiajia’s eyes widened. “College student? Teaching?”

Or primary school? This is quite impressive.

Today’s college students are of very high quality.

Especially since the Workers’, Peasants’, and Soldiers’ University only recruited students in 1970, the first batch of students has not yet graduated. Teacher Shen must be a genuine high-level intellectual talent.

Wei Dai saw her confusion and said softly, “Teacher Shen’s family background is not good.”

Wen Jiajia understood.

In this situation, joining the army is actually not bad.

After all, you can make trouble anywhere except in the army.

“Aunt, uncle!”

The two girls saw them and ran over with smiles on their faces.

Wen Jiajia muttered, “Fortunately, the grass is thick enough; otherwise, their clothes would have been dirty.” She felt that the two sisters hadn’t been disciplined for a while and were starting to act naughty again.

“You guys go play,” Wei Dai said, picking grass off Wen Chun and Wen Xuan’s heads and throwing it on the ground. “I’ll call you when it’s time to eat. Don’t go too far.”

There is a lake next to the troops.

The two children who had made new friends didn’t want to go home. They just said “Hey” and went off to play again.

When they got home, Wen Jiajia had to sort out the things they had just bought.

Wen Jiajia was exhausted from opening packages today, until she saw the desk lamp in one of the packages. Then she became excited.

“You bought a lamp!”

Wen Jiajia stood up in surprise and went to the kitchen to find Wei Dai. Wei Dai was thinking about how to hang the newly bought kitchen knives on the knife rack.

It was a pity that Wen Jiajia didn’t bring her own kitchen knife. While you could bring kitchen knives on the train, Wen Jiajia saw that Wei’s kitchen knife had a chip in it. Having eaten many meals with him, she felt sorry for it and left her kitchen knife with Wei’s father.

Later, Wei Chengcai stuffed two dollars and an industrial ticket into her pocket, insisting that she accept them.

Wei Dai came back to his senses. “Yes, you read a lot. Although we have electric lights at home, the house is high and the light is dim at night. If there is no desk lamp, your eyes might be damaged.”

Wen Jiajia gave Wei Dai three kisses, which confused him again. He said dazedly, “I also bought you some books and past issues of newspapers.”

After saying that, he looked at Wen Jiajia with anticipation.

How many more kisses should he expect?

However, Wen Jiajia exclaimed “Wow,” turned around, and ran to open the package, ignoring him.

***

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