After entering the data room, Xiao Zhang asked Wen Jiajia to stay aside. After searching for a while, he found information about the sixth workshop.

He was a bit of a germaphobe^[1]term used to describe a person who has an excessive fear of germs and contamination., so he didn’t take it and just asked Wen Jiajia to come and move it.

“That’s all, don’t touch anything else,” he emphasized.

Wen Jiajia: “Don’t worry, I know my limits.”

She grunted as she moved the materials. The pile of materials was half her height.

She will have to wait until the end of time to see this!

Wen Jiajia scratched her head in distress. There was nothing she could do. In the end, she could only deposit some of them with Xiao Zhang and move those from 1952 to 1958 back to the office first.

She felt that she would have to spend the next month on these materials. No wonder Director Xue had only assigned her some simple tasks recently.

——

The bayberry season is completely over, and it is time to drink bayberry wine.

In the hot summer, only ice can cool you down.

For some reason this year, the weather is exceptionally hot. It is said that the average temperature in July is two degrees higher than the average temperature in the same period last year.

Wen Jiajia wanted to soak in the water, thinking about that popsicle all day long.

When the weather gets hot, the popsicle factory starts working.

The popsicle factory is close by. Every day they bring boxes of popsicles to the nearby villages to sell, and Wen Jiajia never misses a batch.

At first, she could eat three a day, but Wei Dai found out and from then on she could only eat one.

Just one!

Wen Jiajia didn’t know how many times she had cursed the informer in her heart. It was because of the lack of two popsicles that she had such a miserable summer.

Wei Dai no longer said any nonsense about how one will feel cooler if he calms down. He realized that his wife was really afraid of heat.

So he found some free time, went to the mountains to cut some bamboo, and made a large bamboo bed that was big enough for four people to lie down, and it was retractable.

It was the end of July when the bamboo bed was completed. In this hot summer season, Wen Jiajia finally slept on a bamboo bed that could bring her some coolness.

One night, after dinner, Wei Dai took Wen Chun, Wen Xuan, and several neighborhood children out to catch cicadas.

Wen Jiajia could only watch them leave. She had taken a shower too early and couldn’t go with them.

She had heard from Wei’s father that Wei Dai was the leader among the children when he was young.

Wen Jiajia felt that even though he was grown up, he had never seen anyone else take a group of children out to catch cicadas like he did.

There are not many trees in the army compound, and excluding the forest area, there are even fewer trees in the family compound.

So, not long after catching the cicadas, the group returned home. Looking at the more than ten cicadas in the bamboo basket, Wen Jiajia was silent for a moment, then took the oil can back to the cupboard.

“That’s all? You can grill them and eat them yourself. The total value of them is not even enough for one spoonful of my oil,” Wen Jiajia said, speechless. “Why did you bring back more than ten of them?”

Wei Dai didn’t expect to fail in this matter. He sighed and said, “It’s all the fault of these kids. They were so noisy that they scared away all the cicadas.”

“Who told you to take them with you?” Wen Jiajia snorted and scraped the remaining charcoal in the stove. “Let’s roast them. There’s still some charcoal. We don’t have to burn more.”

A few cicadas were thrown into the charcoal fire, and the family of four gathered around the stove, savoring the tempting aroma.

“Does it smell good?” Wei Dai asked.

Wen Jiajia nodded vigorously: “It smells good!”

There were exactly twelve pieces, three for each person, and they were eaten with chili powder, making their fingers lick.

“It’s really memorable,” Wen Jiajia sighed. “Let’s go to the mountain to explore sometime.”

Wei Dai laughed and said, “You’re not afraid of mosquitoes anymore.”

Wen Jiajia: “I’m afraid of mosquitoes… That’s right!”

She suddenly remembered, ran to the room, opened her backpack, and took out the mosquito net.

“I bought a mosquito net today,” Wen Jiajia said, running back outside. “Wei Dai, come and install it.”

The hotter the weather, the more mosquitoes there were.

So these days, not only did she suffer from the summer heat, but she also had to endure mosquito bites.

She felt that a large part of her bad temper was due to mosquitoes. If she could keep them away, she might be able to sleep better.

Wei Dai took the mosquito net from her hand and looked it over: “Three… no, wait, four?”

Wen Jiajia nodded matter-of-factly: “Yes. We have one for our room, and Chun’er and Xuanxuan each have one. Every day when they wake up, their legs are covered with mosquito bites.”

Wei Dai was curious: “What about the remaining one?”

Wen Jiajia pointed to the bamboo bed in the yard, demonstrated with her hands, and asked Wei Dai: “Can you use bamboo sticks to make a frame to prop up the mosquito net, like a table cover, and then cover it on the bamboo bed? That way, we can sleep in the yard at night!”

Wei Dai laughed: “You’ve been buying these four mosquito nets for a long time, right? Did the department store let you buy four at once?”

Wen Jiajia’s heart was troubled when she mentioned this, and she said unhappily, “Yes, I haggled with the salesperson for almost an hour before he sold them to me. After I bought them, an old man scolded me, saying I was a ‘female locust.'”

The old man also came to the department store to buy a mosquito net. Wen Jiajia wanted to buy more, but the salesperson was afraid there wouldn’t be enough, so she haggled for an hour.

She wanted to pick a good one, so she asked the salesperson to take out each mosquito net and check for holes.

In the end, the salesperson was not annoyed by Wen Jiajia but was irritated by the old man first.

The salesperson rummaged through the mosquito nets that the old man had checked, found four that met the specifications, and stuffed them into Wen Jiajia’s hands, which made the old man so angry that he cursed while leaning on his crutches.

The salesperson couldn’t escape, and neither could Wen Jiajia. However, both were afraid the old man might fall, so they didn’t dare to talk back too much. Wen Jiajia felt very uncomfortable.

Wei Dai said, “If you meet such a man, just run away. Don’t argue with him.”

“I’m not stupid. If he falls, it’s my fault.”

Wen Jiajia snorted and laughed. The police station and even the Revolutionary Committee were afraid of this white-haired old man.

There were still a few small bamboo sticks left at home, so Wei Dai went to the utility room to get them. Tonight, the moonlight was bright, so he measured and sawed them.

Wei Dai didn’t know how he managed to fix the bamboo sticks without using any nails.

The fixed bamboo frames were installed at the four corners of the bamboo bed. Wei Dai felt it would shake, so he reinforced it.

After he finished, Wen Jiajia tested it by shaking it, and it was indeed much more stable. As long as there was no strong wind, the mosquito net frame would not fall down.

With the bamboo frame installed and the mosquito net spread over it, Wen Jiajia was the first to rush in and check for any mosquitoes inside.

After the examination, she lay down on the bamboo bed and sighed, “It’s so comfortable.”

Above her head was the vast, starry sky, dazzling and mysterious. All around was empty, and when the wind blew, it carried away all the heat from her body.

Even if she heard the buzzing of mosquitoes, she was not afraid and didn’t even think it was noisy, knowing that the mosquito net kept them out.

Wen Jiajia could occasionally see twinkling lights outside the yard. Those were fireflies unique to the countryside on summer nights.

Because the lights under the eaves were still on, they didn’t dare to fly in. After nine o’clock, when the lights went out, they would fly into the yard, attracted by the many flowers planted there.

Wei Dai went to the room to install the mosquito net there.

The bed in the room had its own wooden frame, so there was no need for bamboo sticks.

After installing the mosquito net, Wei Dai swept the mugwort ashes from the two rooms and went to the yard with a pillow and a thin quilt.

Wen Jiajia was playing with Wen Chun and Wen Xuan on the bamboo bed. She rubbed their hair until it looked like a mess.

Wei Dai threw the pillow and quilt onto the bed and said to her, “Come and help Chun’er and Xuanxuan comb their hair tomorrow.”

Wen Jiajia was reluctant but couldn’t say it directly. She only said, “They don’t want me to comb their hair.”

Wei Dai complained in his heart that it was because his wife always combed their hair too gently, making it painful, and the two children must have been unhappy because of it.

He always felt that his wife did it on purpose.

Feeling a little guilty, Wen Jiajia lay on the pillow and stared intently at the stars again.

Such a beautiful starry sky would become less and less visible with time. Even if they hid in the countryside in the future, the starry sky they saw would not be as clear and bright as it is now.

Soon, Wei Dai joined her.

The bamboo bed was big enough and sturdy enough, and after the power went out, the world seemed to become quiet.

The pitch-black night finally swallowed up this place that still relied on artificial lights. After a while, Wen Jiajia didn’t want to stay outside anymore and poked Wei Dai: “Let’s go back inside.”

Wei Dai laughed at her: “Didn’t you want to sleep outside?”

Wen Jiajia replied, “…I changed my mind. I got distracted. What if a weasel comes? I’m not scared for myself, but I have two children to think about.”

Wei Dai thought, What would happen if you just admitted you were scared?

In fact, the two children were almost asleep. They were carefree and soon fell asleep, listening to the rustling of leaves and the gurgling of water, which created high-quality white noise.

They were still drowsy when Wei Dai carried them to their room, and they fell asleep as soon as they touched the pillow.

When he returned to the yard, no one was there.

Wei Dai chuckled, collected the mosquito net, folded up the bamboo bed, and went back inside.

Sure enough, Wen Jiajia was already lying on the bed with her eyes closed, looking as if she had fallen asleep.

“Tomorrow is the weekend, why are you going to bed so early today?” Wei Dai leaned over and whispered in her ear.

Wen Jiajia was tickled and kept moving away: “I’m sleepy.”

She pushed Wei Dai away and changed the subject: “By the way, when I came back today, I saw that the west side of the army seemed to be reclaiming land.”

Wei Dai said, “Yes, they are building a farm there.”

Wen Jiajia was surprised and said, “It’s finally starting, but it’s so slow. I thought they would start immediately after you mentioned it last time.”

Wei Dai squeezed her hand and said, “That’s actually pretty fast.”

Wen Jiajia was not impressed by the efficiency. She sighed: “How long will it take before we can drink milk? Oh no, it’s goat milk.”

Wei Dai said, “You know what, There seems to be cow’s milk as well. I heard they are raising a few cows.”

There have been a lot of children born in the army in recent years. The hospital says that many children are malnourished, and the logistics department needs to consider these children more.

Wen Jiajia exclaimed, “This is really a big deal. They even had cows. Cow’s milk tastes better than goat’s milk.”

In fact, the efficiency of the troops is still very high. They started to open up the land in July and began construction in August.

Wen Jiajia passes by there every day on her way to and from work. Although it is far away, she occasionally rides her bike over to take a look.

The farm is being built on the other side of the river, downwind.

The area is not large; currently, it is only about two acres. The outline of the building could be seen by the end of August.

There has been a big quarrel in the family compound recently over the issue of job vacancies at the breeding farm. Wen Jiajia is enjoying watching the drama and wishes she could go and watch it every day with some sunflower seeds in her pocket.

Wei Dai also likes to watch, but he doesn’t want to go and see it himself, so he can only ask Wen Jiajia.

“Whose family is quarreling today?”

Wen Jiajia was heating up the food. When she saw him coming back from training, she quickly shared with him, “It was the two families on the right side of the second floor of Building No. 1 in the family compound. I’m not familiar with these two families, but they were cursing very fiercely. They seemed to be related. Sometimes they cursed in dialect when they got too excited, and I couldn’t understand them.”

Wei Dai understood: “The two families are not related. The two aunts are from the same village, and one introduced the other. You should be talking about the Gao family and the Chen family.”

Wen Jiajia actually doesn’t care whose family it is, she just likes to watch the drama.

The family compound is actually a small society, and disputes are inevitable.

But the matter soon died down. Why? Because the superiors were coming to inspect, and the troops were on high alert.

There was no need to notify anyone, and no one dared to cause trouble at this time. Even Wen Jiajia’s daily bicycle riding speed slowed down a lot.

***

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