“Who’s that? Can’t anyone sleep in peace? Old Nie, hurry up!” Chen Lina thought to herself, annoyed.

It was the middle of the night, and who could have time to be so inconsiderate?

She initially thought it was one of Nie Weimin’s students, coming to see him for an experiment.

When the door creaked, she assumed the student had left.

She rolled around on the bed and said, “Come on, Old Nie, hurry up, your little princess is so hungry and thirsty.”

“Looks like Director Chen has already gone to bed. Is it really appropriate to disturb her at this time?” a deep voice replied with a hint of mockery.

Chen Lina immediately sat up.

Of course, Nie Bozhao had entered the room.

With a look as sharp as if he were going to kill a chicken, he said, “Usually, your voice isn’t so…” so coquettish, so loud, like the water from Honghu Lake.

“Today, everyone was waiting for Director Chen to dance. But you two, quietly slipped away.” Gao, the district leader, sat down on Nie’s chair and patted it. “This chair is really nice.”

“It was made by Old Nie himself,” Chen Lina replied as she brought tea to the two leaders.

Gao, the district leader, studied the chair carefully and said, “I have to admit, Nie Gong really has some great skills.”

Men are naturally lazy.

When Chen Lina arrived, their home was bare, and she had to push him to cut wood from the forest to make chairs and tables.

Now, the house was fully furnished with a complete set of birch wood furniture, all made of solid wood.

If sold in the future, it could fetch a great price.

“Actually, we’re here for you, Comrade Chen,” the district leader added.

“Last year, the grain production at our Mulan farm, just in terms of fine wheat, only supplied the entire mining area for three months.

The rest, we had to rely on District Leader Gao begging and borrowing from here and there. This year, after calculating, we should be able to last through the winter with fine wheat. You’ve contributed a lot to this.”

But even with the winter’s supply, they were still far from self-sufficiency.

At the time, Chen Lina had given the two leaders a plan, promising that within three years, they would achieve self-sufficiency in production.

So, after this year’s autumn harvest, the leaders had come to personally evaluate her work.

Chen Lina stood behind Nie Bozhao.

After a moment, Nie Bozhao stood up and motioned for Chen Lina to sit down, saying, “Alright, you stay here and chat with the leaders. I’ll go boil some water.”

At the critical moment, the family support was really helpful.

With this gesture, he showed that no matter what Chen Lina did, he would always support her fully.

The two leaders exchanged glances, building suspense.

Finally, it was Gao, the district leader, who took Chen Lina’s hand. “There are two more years. Let’s work together to ensure that the miners, farmers, and educated youth in the mining area can have enough to eat. What do you think, Director Chen?”

“I will not fail you.”

Since both the district leader and Nie Bozhao were about to go to Beijing for a meeting with the central government and to see the premier, they had a lot to discuss.

The two of them started talking in earnest.

After a while, Gao, the district leader, sat back and, noticing that the door to Nie Bozhao’s study was locked, approached the door.

There was a piece of paper nailed to it, clearly drawn by the children.

As he looked at it, he could tell the general theme.

It was a drawing of two women—one with fiery red lips, long waves of hair, and a long skirt.

In the eyes of children, she must have been drawn as a great beauty.

The other woman was much shorter, in dull colors, with short hair and a few little arrows in her hair.

There was some writing under the picture, but it was too sloppy to read in the dim light.

Gao, the district leader, was about to take a closer look when—

“Please sit, District Leader, it’s just some random drawings the kids made. I’ll tear it up,” Chen Lina said, walking over and tearing the paper without hesitation.

After the two leaders had sat long enough and finished their tea, they prepared to leave.

As they were heading out, Gao, the district leader, paused and said, “Director Chen, the paper said ‘Defeat He Lan Shan, Mom will win, and step on He Lan Shan a thousand times.'”

“Leader, you must be seeing things. How could that be?” Chen Lina laughed three times to cover her embarrassment.

Yes, the paper was a cheer from the children to help her defeat He Lanshan.

Every time she won, Nie Weimin would draw an arrow on He Lanshan’s head, representing another loss for him.

Time passed quickly.

After finishing the cotton harvest and dividing it up, they also paid the farm’s taxes.

Before anyone knew it, it was already the end of the year, and the children were about to have their winter break.

“Mom, today Xiaohong had dinner at our house again. Why are you making lamb again?”

“Lamb isn’t good?”

“It makes me hot. Look, little San Dan’s lips are covered in blisters.”

Nie Weimin, wearing a leather hat, small leather shoes, and a wool jacket shedding hair, came in after returning from school.

He immediately threw himself into Chen Lina’s arms. “It’s cold, cold. Let me warm my hands in your neck.”

“I’m not cold, hurry up and grab the coal bucket and go collect coal.”

“I got a hundred on my final exam today.”

“Oh? Then you’ll get a scallion and two eggs boiled for you.”

“Really?”

“Stop talking nonsense, hurry up and go collect coal.”

Liu Xiaohong followed him inside and, as soon as she entered, smoothly picked up the coal bucket and went outside to collect the coal balls.

Now, this was her aunt’s house, and from now on, no one would chase her away.

“How did Xiaohong do on the exam?”

Nie Weimin held up two fingers: “Also scored one hundred.”

“Very good, not bad. What about our Nie Weiguo? How many points did he get?”

Nie Weimin sighed with a downcast look: “61!”

“Not bad, sixty is a pass. He passed, anything over that would be a waste. Tonight, I’ll boil eggs for you, two each.”

Since autumn, the farm’s chickens stopped laying eggs.

In the frontier, vegetables were expensive in winter, and eggs were even more expensive.

Right now, the kids needed protein to grow, and one egg was as good as half a pound of meat, but they had to grit their teeth and buy it.

As for eggs, whether scrambled or boiled, even with just a pinch of salt, the kids loved them.

“You’re all lazy! Nie Weimin, Xiaohong is even younger than you, she’s your sister. You always ask her to work while you don’t lift a finger. Aren’t you ashamed?” Chen Lina said.

“I’m not ashamed. My grandma said, work is a woman’s job, it has nothing to do with men.” Nie Weimin replied.

“Such a male chauvinist, treating your daughter like she’s not even human. That’s why your grandma sent you to the forest farm.

Do you know about Arimu Forest Farm? It’s up in the mountains, full of rocks, with wolves all around.

If the wolves attack, they’ll bite your little hands first, then your arms, and sometimes even your nose.” Saying that, Chen Lina pinched Nie Weimin’s nose.

This child had a high nose bridge, and his nose was very prominent, so it was easy to pinch.

“Mom, will the wolves really eat Grandma’s nose?” San Dan was frightened, touching his own nose, feeling a little scared.

“No, Mom was just teasing your brother. Your grandma is fine. Besides, with her fierceness, the wolves wouldn’t dare eat her.”

San Dan was still a bit scared, but he figured that whether his grandma might get eaten by wolves wasn’t important; he was more afraid that he would be eaten by wolves.

“No, Mom, I can’t sleep with Brother tonight. I need to sleep with you. Otherwise, if wolves come, they’ll eat me.”

“Sandan, you’re already four years old, do you know? You’re a big boy now, no more acting like a baby.

Wolves are at the forest farm, not in the base.

And even if there were wolves, I’d protect you. No more talking about sleeping with Mom, okay? Your dad and I are going to have a little sister for you.” Nie Weimin said.

Er Dan rushed into the kitchen, rubbed his little brother’s face with his two chubby, popsicle-like hands, squeezing his round face.

“Nay, Nie Weimin, who told you that Dad and Mom are going to have a little sister? You’re not studying well, why are you always thinking about these useless things?” Chen Lina asked.

“Aunt said so. She said she’s pregnant, and you should be soon, too. If you can’t get pregnant, it’s because Dandan always hogs the kang.” Er Dan replied.

Chen Lina smacked him with a fire poker: “Alright, Nie Weimin’s not eavesdropping anymore, now it’s you again. If you dare eavesdrop on me talking with your aunt again, I’ll deal with you with the fire poker.”

Er Dan rubbed his bottom and yelled, “Not painful, not painful,” before turning around and bumping into Liu Xiaohong, who was carrying a half-full bucket of coal.

“Aunt, I’ll help you with the fire. But are we really eating lamb today?”

“Yes, the farm had a great potato harvest this year. We just got some new flour today, and I’m making hand-pulled noodles with braised lamb. What’s not to like?”

Living in the frontier, there were many ways to cook lamb, but braised lamb was the most complicated to make.

First, you need to blanch it to remove the blood.

After that, it’s deep-fried in a big oil pot.

Then, you have to add color and braise it, which uses a lot of oil and seasoning, but it’s delicious.

Once a big pot is cooked, you freeze it in the little storeroom, and whenever you want to eat it, you can just scoop out a bowl big enough to feed the whole family.

“Xiaohong, go call Nie Weimin here. Tell him to sharpen the chopping knife for me. This knife is so dull, I can’t chop anything.”

“Aunt, I’ll sharpen it for you. He needs to study.”

“You all have the same score of two hundred. Why does he get to study while you work? No, go call him here.”

So, Liu Xiaohong went to call Nie Weimin: “Brother, Aunt wants you to sharpen the knife, she’s going to chop lamb spine. Hurry up.”

“Alright, alright, I’m coming.”

He said he was coming immediately, but he still dragged his feet and took a long time to show up.

He squatted down to look at the knife and said, “No, Comrade Chen, this knife is full of nicks, it’ll be a lot of work to sharpen it.”

“Yeah, we’ve all been waiting for the lamb spine. If you keep slacking off, you’ll be serving firewood sticks instead,” Chen Lina teased.

Nie Weimin immediately started sharpening the knife.

With each stroke, he sharpened it with such precision.

Chen Lina always suspected that he and Nie Bozhao were not like normal people.

However, one thing stronger about Nie Weimin compared to Nie Bozhao was his eyesight.

Nie Bozhao had damaged his eyes from reading too much when he was young, and due to poor nutrition and insufficient lighting at night, he had developed nearsightedness.

Now, when it came to military training or shooting practice, he had to rely on glasses.

But Nie Weimin’s eyesight was nothing short of amazing.

One day, Chen Lina took him to the farm, and from a distance, she saw a vast field of snow-white cotton, with nothing but one lone tree standing in the middle of the field.

To Chen Lina, the tree looked like just a shadow, but Nie Weimin insisted that there was a bird on the tree, and it seemed to be injured.

Children have a natural affection for birds, after all.

Chen Lina rode her bike, taking him quite far to the tree.

Sure enough, she found an injured kestrel hanging from the tree, shot in the leg by birdshot.

The kestrel was a nationally protected species.

Although at the time there wasn’t much talk about protecting animals, in the future, such a bird could sell for hundreds of thousands.

When they sent the kestrel to the health center for surgery, Chen Lina took the opportunity to test Nie Weimin’s eyesight.

According to the doctor, the machine they used couldn’t even measure his vision, not because his eyesight was bad, but because it was so incredibly good.

At that moment, Chen Lina realized that when she had decided to adopt Liu Xiaohong, Nie Weimin had used nothing but his naked eyes to spot the injuries on Liu Xiaohong’s body when she was close to Song’s wife, despite the cool shirt.

“Nie Weimin, you didn’t just stare at things you shouldn’t, did you? Like looking at places you shouldn’t look on someone’s body?” Chen Lina instinctively covered her chest. “Young man, I didn’t realize your eyes were capable of such crimes.”

Nie Weimin jumped up in outrage, “I was looking through that woman’s shirt. It was a cool, woven fabric, and there were gaps in the stitching, do you understand? If I spent my days staring at other people’s clothes, wouldn’t I be a pervert?”

Alright, to protect his eyes, Chen Lina couldn’t let him bury himself in books all day.

“Xiaohong, your mom is pregnant now and can’t take care of you. If you don’t want to go back to the farm, why not just stay at my place?” Chen Lina asked Liu Xiaohong as she chopped lamb.

Er Dan quickly ran over and said, “The farm is too cold. Xiaohong definitely doesn’t want to go back.”

San Dan also chimed in, “Yeah, the farm only has big potatoes and cabbage, but we have lamb! Plus, mom’s big bath tub is full of vegetables. We have vegetables to eat!”

Now that they had plastic sheeting for greenhouses, the vegetables were growing even better, especially since they had good seeds.

Chen Lina was growing tender vegetables like oilseed lettuce, bok choy, and vegetable hearts—these could grow well with just water.

In the middle of winter, paired with lamb, it made for a dish the kids loved.

“Yeah, if it’s the winter break, don’t go back to the farm. Just stay at my house,” Chen Lina said.

“No, my mom is pregnant and has severe reactions. I need to go take care of her,” Liu Xiaohong immediately shook her head.

When Nie Bozhao returned that evening and smelled the delicious food, he exclaimed, “Oh my, it’s been ages since I’ve had hand-pulled noodles.”

“Mm, so you’ve brought it back again. How’s work been lately?”

After the secret visit by the British and American heads of state to the Republic in July, the Sino-Soviet situation had eased significantly, and the oil industry was finally being given more attention by the central government.

However, with the influx of British and American travelers and the increased presence in the border areas, Nie Bozhao’s research lab was fully closed off.

Though it was close to home, he had barely returned recently.

Most of his meals were taken care of at the lab, and Nie Bozhao occasionally skipped dinner at home, as it became unbearable to stay away from work.

The soft, fluffy potato flour noodles, mixed with lamb and fried then stewed potatoes, were delicious.

In the past, the farm’s potato yield was so low that there wasn’t even enough to eat, let alone make noodles.

But this year, the potato harvest was abundant, and every family at the farm had dozens of pounds of hand-pulled noodles.

“Dad, Sister Xiaohong is here today, you can’t hit me!” Er Dan was unusually quick to help.

As soon as his dad entered, he quickly brought over hot water.

The cold wind howled outside, and with the New Year approaching, it looked like snow was on the way.

“I can tell you didn’t do well on your exam.” Nie Bozhao guessed.

“Teacher said that Er Dan’s head is full of mashed potatoes and called his little head a pig’s head,” San Dan often ran to school, tiptoeing outside the window to watch her brothers in class.

The way the teacher scolded Er Dan was endless.

Both Chen Lina and Nie Bozhao, who were good students from a young age, couldn’t understand how Er Dan had ended up like this.

“Alright, stop clinging to your dad’s legs, no, don’t take off his socks either. Er Dan, alright, thank you for bringing your dad his slippers, but none of this will change the outcome. Now tell me, how many points did you get in the end?” Chen Lina asked.

With two perfect scores in the family, no one dared to speak.

Chen Lina came in with a big bowl of steaming braised lamb and said, “Alright, Er Dan, go get us a bowl. If you didn’t do well, work a little harder. If there are no tears, remember to put some in your eyes from the kitchen, your dad won’t hit you tonight.”