“Da Dan, Da Dan, who made you this little outfit? It looks so smart,” Aunt Ha asked when she saw Nie Weimin run over quickly.

Standing in a grass-green little military uniform, Nie Weimin came to attention and gave a salute, “Reporting, Aunt Ha, my mom specially went to Uru to get the cloth to make these for us.”

Each of the three brothers wore their own set of military uniforms and hats, with a small star stuck on each one.

Their hats were all a little taller than the others.

Anyone who saw them in the base couldn’t help but envy Nie Bozhao’s three sons.

Of course, there was also a sigh for Sun Gong, who would never get to see his own sons looking so lively.

Next door, Qian Goudan was throwing a tantrum, crying and rolling around, complaining that he didn’t have his own little military uniform and wouldn’t even leave the house.

“You’re wearing the little military uniform because you’re going to the farm for the annual social event, right? After you come back, tell Grandma how lively it was, okay?” Aunt Ha laughed.

“Sure! Aunt Ha, if you want to go, I’ll take you with me.”

“No, no, when I was young, I was the Awa’er Guli of our team, but now I’m old, my legs hurt, and I can’t dance anymore.”

Indeed, both the base and the farm were in a joyful mood these days.

The annual social event for all the government departments was about to happen, coinciding with the National Day of October 1st, and with winter approaching, this was seen as the last grand celebration before the cold season.

Everyone was incredibly excited and eager.

Tiantian, wearing her prettiest little dress, ran out of the house, “Da Dan, Da Dan, do you think I look pretty?” She twirled, and her flowered skirt looked beautiful.

“Alright, your mom is coming out soon, let’s go together.” Nie Weimin replied.

Sure enough, soon after, Chen Lina and Nie Bozhao came out.

On this day, everyone, whether from the mining area or the farm, would dress up a little.

No one would criticize each other.

Even the highest-ranking official in the entire base, He Lanshan, the factory director of the plastic factory, would wear lipstick and a skirt, so Chen Lina wore a dress too.

She had saved a long black velvet dress for almost a year, only now feeling brave enough to wear it.

“Comrade Chen looks so beautiful today, like someone out of a movie,” Sister Wang commented from behind the wall. “There will be many leaders at the event today, and in this outfit, you’ll outshine even the women from the cultural troupe.”

She was wearing Chanel lipstick, which had the perfect shade, but without a lip balm base, it wasn’t as plump as it used to be.

In the days of hard struggle, this was already very good.

“Sister Wang, you really aren’t going?”

“No, no, my family is running a car team, and we don’t have the qualifications to join the leaders. Besides, I’m pregnant now,” Wang replied.

In the same military uniform, Weimin looked smart and neat, while Er Dan looked more like the National Army, all round and plump. “Mom, Tiantian wants to go too. We all promised her she could come with us.”

When the car door opened, Tiantian and San Dan were already sitting side by side.

“Auntie, I want to go too.”

“No, Tiantian, Auntie is the host today and has to attend to a lot of leaders. The three of them are already enough for me to take care of. The farm is crowded and there’s a risk of accidents, so you can’t go.”

“Right, Tiantian, come back. You’ll catch a cold if you wear a skirt with no leggings,” Sister Wang added.

The three brothers stood up for Tiantian, their protective instincts kicking in: “No, we promised her. She has to come too.”

“Tiantian, come down, Auntie really can’t take you today,” Chen Lina said firmly as she picked the child up and took her off the car.

Tiantian stood by the roadside, rubbing her eyes and crying, chasing after the car.

Sister Wang tried to pull her back, but couldn’t hold her.

“Comrade Chen, I already promised Tiantian that I’d take her with us,” Nie Weimin said, clearly unhappy.

“You should have thought about this before. I’ll be spending the whole day with the party secretary and district director, inspecting fields. At night, I need to entertain them, and I can’t spare extra time to look after you,” Chen Lina explained.

“But Liu Xiaohong is at my aunt’s place. She can help take care of us,” Weimin suggested.

“Little Nie, let me tell you seriously, she’s three months younger than you, and she’s your little sister. You should be the one to take care of her.”

The three brothers weren’t happy.

Even though Liu Xiaohong was at her aunt’s, she couldn’t compare to Tiantian, who lived next door and was more mischievous.

Could she really help Weimin protect his brothers, catch small fish, or feed the rabbits?

Both of them were great, and everyone could play together, right?

The three kids were still unhappy, but the adults were too preoccupied with their own concerns.

“Old Nie, Nie Gong, Nie the great engineer, you know what you need to do, right? Stay with the leaders, especially Secretary A and Director Gao.

They control the funds, so you need to help persuade them to get us machines next year—seeders, harvesters—those things would drastically reduce our labor costs.”

“But both Secretary A and Director Gao are ready to dance with you.

Shouldn’t you ask for the machines while dancing? Don’t you think that will be more effective?” Nie Bozhao replied with a grin.

“Yes, that’s the trouble with being beautiful,” Chen Lina sighed. “People don’t understand.”

She wanted others to see her abilities, but most people only saw her looks.

It was frustrating.

“I’m the director in charge of production. Today, my priority is to ensure the farm’s property is secure while hosting hundreds of visitors.

As for dancing, I really don’t have time for that, but I do hope you can outshine He Min and prevent him from taking credit for the farm’s accomplishments.”

“So, if I help you with this, will we sing a song about the liberated farmers next time?” Nie Bozhao teased.

“You can’t say that in front of the kids,” Chen Lina scolded.

“They won’t understand anyway,” Nie Bozhao quipped back.

Chen Lina gave him a look.

He was charming, humorous, and considerate, but now he was being clueless.

He should be the one taking initiative.

Meanwhile, the stressed Nie Gong realized that indulging in his sex life hadn’t eased his anxiety.

He felt like he was degrading, indulging in base desires, but he didn’t know what to do about it.

Should he reduce it to once every half month?

Nie Bozhao was starting to feel like he might forget he was once a distinguished revolutionary soldier.

“Weimin, why aren’t you getting out of the car?” When they arrived at the farm, the car stopped in front of Chen Lili’s house, and Weimin started to act up again.

“I’m not in the mood. You guys go ahead,” he said.

“Come on, Weimin, hurry up! I can smell the wheat pancakes your aunt made. You love those. Come down,” Chen Lina coaxed.

“No.”

“Then I’ll lock the car,” she said, slamming the car door shut.

The old red flag car could still be opened from the inside, but most people didn’t know that trick.

Nie Weimin sat in the car, watching as Er Dan and San Dan scrambled like little chicks into their ground nests.

Liu Xiaohong was also dressed in a flowered skirt and little leather shoes, her hair tied up in numerous braids, fluttering like a little butterfly as she came out.

“Weimin, why aren’t you coming down? Come play with us!”

Nie Weimin wasn’t too concerned about his image in front of others, but when it came to Liu Xiaohong, he cared a lot.

As soon as she called out, he didn’t want to come out.

“Let Weimin out! It’s such a happy day, why keep him locked in the car?”

When Nie Bozhao saw Chen Lina holding the car keys and walking without any intention of letting his son out, he was puzzled. “Does this mean you’re really going to keep him locked in the car the whole day?”

“Well, your son knows that car as well as you do, so he can open the door and get out himself.

Besides, don’t you think he’s been a little too proud and self-satisfied lately?”

“I think he’s fine.”

“He’s a first-grader, but he can solve third-grade math problems.

According to his Chinese teacher, he can recognize at least 2,000 characters and read any book fluently without needing a dictionary.

But old Nie, in school, the teachers praise him, and at the base, everyone from the officers to your colleagues praise him too.

He’s still the king of the kids at the base.

This can easily give him a sense of superiority, thinking he’s the best in the world.

When he was younger, it was fine because competition was mainly limited to studying, but when he gets older and enters society, there will be many things that will humble him.

Many good students in school fail to succeed in society simply because they can’t handle blows to their pride.”

“So what’s your point?”

“Childhood needs some appropriate setbacks to help them understand that there are many things in the world that they can’t accomplish with just willpower. It helps build resilience.” Chen Lina said.

“You’ve got quite the handle on educating kids, Comrade Chen.” Nie Bozhao playfully replied.

“Not at all. Since he’s not my own, I don’t mind disciplining him.” Chen Lina answered.

Though she said she didn’t mind, when she saw Chen Lili, she immediately said, “My eldest son is still in the car. He’ll probably sneak out by himself soon. Don’t laugh at him when he does. And remember, he loves oil cakes and apples. Leave him a crispy, sweet one and don’t give him a soft one.”

“Alright, you’d better go now. If you don’t, no one will know you’re the farm director. Everyone will think there’s only Secretary He around here,” Chen Lili said, pushing her sister away.

The sun slowly rose, and every place in the farm was decorated with wildflowers picked from the fields.

Each house was swept clean.

The farm children, wearing new clothes and eating candy from the farm’s warehouse, ran around excitedly.

Some even caught woodpeckers to play with, watching how they pecked at wood.

Tap-tap-tap, the little woodpecker was so cute.

Nie Weimin had wanted one for a long time.

Now, the candies weren’t just white rabbit candy or shrimp-flavored snacks; there were big corn flower candies, golden monkey meat floss candies, panda milk candies, and orange fruit hard candies.

When they bought these things, San Dan had gone with Chen Lina.

On the way back, they gave one meat floss candy to Nie Weimin and Er Dan.

That’s when they realized that candy could taste like meat as well as sweetness.

It was delicious—really delicious.

But his parents didn’t respect him.

He promised Tiantian he would bring her, but didn’t keep his word, so he was angry and refused to get out of the car.

He reached for the lock, but then withdrew his hand.

He felt like his parents must be watching him from somewhere and wouldn’t just leave him locked in the car.

Alright, when Mom comes back to talk to him, he would be willing to get out.

Sigh, how impatient he was.

But the noise outside was growing louder, especially from the children.

When they heard the leaders were inspecting the warehouse with the farm director and the secretary, they all ran to see.

Liu Xiaohong, holding hands with San Dan, came running out, clearly planning to join the crowd.

In a sudden impulse, Nie Weimin unlocked the car and ran out. “Liu Xiaohong, over there are all adults. Most of them are just shaking hands for photos or dancing ballroom dances. What’s so interesting? You’re not allowed to go.”

“Then what do you think we should do?” Liu Xiaohong replied.

“First, bring me a pancake.” Nie Weimin demanded.

“Do you want an apple? It’s a new variety, they say it’s called ‘Guoguang No. 1.’ There’s only one per family,” Liu Xiaohong said, waving the big apple in her hand.

Nie Weimin took it, took a big bite, and the fruit was crunchy and sweet, its juice filling his mouth.

He thought for a moment, grabbed a kitchen knife from the counter, and sliced the apple into four pieces.

He gave one piece to Liu Xiaohong and one to San Dan, then asked, “Er Dan, do you want an apple?”

Er Dan didn’t care about apples.

He had traded three candies for a woodpecker and was busy feeding it bugs.

Liu Xiaohong took the apple and, hearing the music playing in the distance, started imitating the young intellectuals’ steps and began dancing around Er Dan.

“Hey, why don’t we go watch the adults dance?” Nie Weimin said to Liu Xiaohong.

“But you said it wasn’t interesting.”

Nie Weimin didn’t answer.

How should he put it?

He had thought that watching adults dance was boring, but now, with the familiar rhythm and music, it suddenly seemed interesting.

Liu Xiaohong’s flowered skirt was so beautiful.

It would look even better dancing to the music.