But Chen Lina wasn’t a beginner.

She kept the tires precisely on the edges of the raised middle, perfectly balanced, without a single deviation.

She was driving at least 80 km/h, gliding over the snow like walking on a tightrope. Her control was steady and fast.

“Xiao Chen, the truck from Wumayi is catching up. You can’t escape now. Get out, get out!” Just as they left the base, the sound of a loud horn rang out.

Then, at least two large trucks appeared on both sides, seemingly trying to force Chen Lina to stop.

“What era is this? Why are we having a car chase?” Chen Lina was shocked.

She thought the border was supposed to have strict management, and these vehicles either belonged to the border defense or the oil base.

The Mulan farm had its own vehicles, but who would dare move them easily?

“Looks like Xiao Chen’s in trouble again. He’s been running back and forth to Mulan farm recently, probably pursuing a sent-down youth. The people from Mulan farm are here to catch someone. They’re too scared to enter the base, so they’ve been waiting outside.”

That explained everything.

“Wei Min, Er Dan, buckle up. Let’s see how Mom shakes off these troublemakers.”

The two kids didn’t know how to fasten their seatbelts, but they sat upright in the back seat.

Nie Bozhao managed to get his belt on, leaning back as the Jeep zoomed out of the base, almost lifting off the ground.

“Mom, Mom, the big trucks are chasing us. Do you think we can outrun them?” Nie Weimin was so excited, he had forgotten he had only recently started calling her Comrade Chen.

Chen Lina glanced in the rearview mirror and sneered. “Don’t be fooled by their big size. When it comes to speed, their engine displacement isn’t as good as ours. Hold on tight, I’ll show you how we lose them.”

In the snow, with the headlights on, snowflakes fell heavily, while two black tire tracks from the trucks could be seen leading towards the refinery.

The truck behind them was closing in, honking loudly, but the little Jeep was speeding along, leaving two huge tracks in the snow as it nearly flew into the air.

“Da Bao, this girl can really drive.”

“It won’t help. If he dares to hurt Anna, I’ll crush him.” The truck behind was driven by Sun Da Bao, the 20-year-old truck driver from Sun Zhuannan’s family.

He was also the head of the Mulan farm security team.

Too many sugar pills hadn’t dulled his abilities.

He might not be good at anything else, but driving was his forte.

The small Jeep was fast, but his truck was faster.

The road, already rough from the oil trucks, wasn’t friendly to small cars.

He was already thinking ahead, waiting for the Jeep to make a sharp turn.

As soon as it braked, he would simply run over it.

After that, the oil base wouldn’t have any more trouble from Xiao Chen.

As for his dad being the director of an auto factory, Sun Dabao didn’t even know what a director was.

As long as he had the steering wheel in his hands, he was the boss of the whole Wumayi area, even more powerful than the district head.

“Captain Sun, there’s a coal mountain ahead, you need to brake, I said brake!” his companion yelled.

Ahead was a sharp curve.

The expected brake didn’t come. Instead, it was a perfect drift.

The front of the car didn’t move, but the rear end kicked up a spray of snow.

The truck, unable to handle the turn, swerved violently, and when the front of the truck slammed into the mountain slope, there was a loud crash, and the rear cargo area slammed into the front.

With a whoosh, the front of the truck toppled, and they had reached the coal mountain.

“Mom, you’re really amazing,” Nie Weimin shouted, then blushed and lowered his head.

“Am I amazing?” Chen Lina asked Erdan.

“I want to do it again,” Er Dan said, thrilled by the feeling during the drift, so excited that he wanted to do a somersault.

Nie Bozhao exclaimed, “Wow, Xiao Chen, you’re a skilled driver.”

It was a sharp 90-degree turn, and at that point, the Jeep couldn’t turn anymore, but as she sped up, she pulled the handbrake.

The front wheels quickly turned, the back wheels lifted, and the car rotated in mid-air, making a perfect U-turn.

This technique was something Nie Bozhao had only ever seen in movies, and those were edited shots.

If he hadn’t seen it in person, he wouldn’t have believed anyone could do it in real life.

She was one with the car; she wasn’t just a driver, she was a born racer.

They drove all the way to Wumayi. Fortunately, the clinic in the mining area of Wumayi had a doctor on duty.

“We don’t have the facilities for blood tests here, but based on my observations, it doesn’t seem like polio. Here’s what we’ll do: after giving him some fever medicine, you wait a bit. If the fever doesn’t subside, you can transfer him to Urumqi. How does that sound?” The doctor, who had been woken in the middle of the night, yawned while speaking.

So, all they could do was wait.

The two older children were wrapped in a thick quilt.

Since there were few patients in the hospital at night, they simply took their own thick new quilts and lay down on the IV room beds.

Er Dan had fallen asleep, but Nie Weimin was still awake, watching his father.

Nie Bozhao was holding San Dan, whose little nose was sniffling, and his face was flushed red from the fever.

“Dad, did you ever hold me like this when I was little?” he suddenly asked.

Nie Bozhao thought for a moment and shook his head. “No.”

“I had a fever too, you know. I remember Grandma prying my mouth open to give me medicine. Where were you back then?”

“Your dad was working.”

“Then why aren’t you working now?” Watching his father hold San Dan, Nie Weimin actually wanted to be held too, feeling that it looked so comforting.

Nie Bozhao suddenly felt a wave of guilt.

How to put it?

Most workaholics like him actually had very poor family environments.

Sun Zhuanman was actually three years older than him, and as the saying goes, “A woman three years older brings gold bricks,” implying that marriage would be happy.

In fact, Sun Zhuanman was a good student in college, steady and reliable, which was a common virtue among rural university students who had made it to higher education.

Later, when the mining area recruited for industrial university positions, Sun Zhuanman was the only female willing to go to Xinjiang.

Naturally, they ended up together.

But before marriage, they worked together toward common goals; after marriage, everything became a mess.

His thoughts and ambitions were clear: the oil base’s slogan—”I dedicate my oil to the motherland, striving to refine 10,000 barrels of oil.”

He dreamed that the Republic would lead the world, and that the oil economy would surpass Western countries in his laboratory.

But Sun Zhuanman wasn’t thinking the same way.

Her hometown in Zhang County was said to be extremely poor.

As a result, she had a strong ambition to make sure her whole family lived better than everyone in the village or her relatives.

She was the first to volunteer for relocation to Xinjiang, practically fighting to get the chance.

She and her mother didn’t act like a mother and daughter, but more like sisters.

Sun Dabo, her son, seemed more like her little brother than a child.

Even after giving birth to Nie Weimin, she still didn’t stop her obsessive love for Sun Dabo.

She placed inexplicable hopes on Sun Dabo, even though he seemed to lack intelligence.

She always believed that he could become the district head of the mining area someday.

As for their three children, because of the chaos at home, Nie Bozhao preferred to stay in the lab rather than come home.

He never held his children, and Sun Zhuanman, always busy, didn’t either.

As for her mother, she’d sometimes strike them openly, other times secretly.

If it weren’t for Chen Lina, Nie Bozhao really couldn’t imagine what would have happened to his children growing up in this chaotic environment.

He was a highly educated scientist from an industrial university, at the forefront of technology.

If his two sons were ever publicly tried or shot, how would he face it?

“Dad, I’m truly ashamed. If you want, you can come here, and I’ll hold you too.”

With a soft snort, like a little piglet, Nie Weimin climbed out from under the quilt, pounced on his father, and nestled his soft little head against him, like a little deer.

In this cold winter, no one knew how long it would take for the child’s fever to subside.

The two older children must be hungry by now.

When Chen Lina came out, she still had money—two hundred yuan, Nie Bozhao’s monthly salary—but there were no bills.

They circled around the mining hospital, but there were no shops open, and they even encountered several patrol teams.

Chen Lina’s background wasn’t good, and in places like this mining area, status was crucial.

So, she avoided the patrols and didn’t dare to walk around too much.

She went back to the hospital.

It was already dawn, but if you looked at the watch, it was only a little past five.

But that’s how it was in the borderlands—there was a two-hour time difference compared to the mainland.

Here, it gets light at five in the morning, and it’s still light at eight at night, with short nights and long days.

Even in winter, when summer comes, it only gets dark for about eight hours.

In the time it takes to blink, it’s already light again.

She wandered around, thinking about what to feed the kids in the morning.

After all, if they had to go to Urumqi, the three children couldn’t be left hungry.

Chen Lina threw open Xiao Chen’s trunk, and wow, what a display of capitalist corruption—this was a real eye-opener for her.

Egg noodles, big cans of milk powder, and coconut candies that were unheard of in this area.

But the strangest thing was a package of mooncakes wrapped in red paper.

These were also rationed, but even in a place like the mining area, they were only distributed during the Mid-Autumn Festival, usually just four or five for a family.

In Xiao Chen’s trunk, there were ten wrapped in red paper.

“Comrade Chen, I don’t want an injection.” When Chen Lina brought in a small metal box, Nie Weimin, scared, crawled under the bed.

“Injection, Old Yao is getting an injection, I don’t want an injection!” Er Dan, also frightened, woke up crying.

“What’s the big deal about an injection? Smell this?” Chen Lina said, opening the metal box, and a strong smell of egg noodles filled the air.

Er Dan did a somersault and immediately ran over, his nose close to the box. “Mom is so nice, she’s giving us noodles.”

“This is junk food, it will spoil your appetite, but it won’t help you grow. There are mooncakes here too, one for each of you.”

When the kids saw the mooncakes, they were even more excited, reaching out to grab them.

“These are Uncle Xiao Chen’s things. I gave him the money for them, but he may not agree, so if you eat them now, you’ll have to apologize to him when you see him, understand?” Chen Lina made sure the children knew that food doesn’t come for free, and they should understand where it came from.

“Now, go wash your hands.”

Finally, the older two knew the importance of hygiene.

They rushed out of the room to find a place to wash.

Nie Bozhao, holding the child, felt his arms getting sore and tired.

When Chen Lina took over, he handed the child to her and sighed, “I’m exhausted, my arms are stiff.”

“Old Nie, your kid only weighs 16 pounds, seriously malnourished, and holding him is tiring?”

“I did a 30-kilometer march the day before yesterday, and yesterday I was busy building firewalls and burning them. I’ve been at it all day, was thinking…”

Thinking of finally getting married, at least ending his widower life.

But he hadn’t expected she would still want love.

Nie Bozhao really didn’t understand—what was love?

“Alright, have a cup of coffee. I found it in Xiao Chen’s trunk, and I’ll settle the cost with ration tickets. Just pay him back.” As she spoke, Chen Lina pointed to a small enamel cup. “That’s for you.”

A small enamel mug, steam rising from it.

Actually, Nie Bozhao had already smelled the rich aroma.

She had made him coffee.

This Comrade Chen, who could drive and drift like a pro, had grown up in Qisi Village.

Aside from the year she went to college, she hadn’t been anywhere else.

In college, the only soldier she had met was Nie Guozhu.

The notion that she might be a Soviet spy didn’t seem realistic.

So now, he needed to investigate Nie Guozhu’s background and identity.

After all, Hongyan was close to the border, and the military district was controlled by the large army district from Hongyan’s provincial capital.

If there were any Soviet spies, they would likely be hidden within the military district.

As for Chen Lina, she could handle the kids and work.

The moment Nie Bozhao agreed to marry her, he had accepted her as part of his family.

With his contributions to the oil industry, if he wanted to protect her, he could.