The moonlight was exceptionally bright, and Nie Weimin’s sneaky little eyes glistened.

“Mom, do you want to eat some strawberries? I helped Aunt Anna in the warehouse today, and she gave these to me.”

Ah, the strawberries, smelling of sweat, who knew how long they had been wrapped up.

The little guy offered them, blinking his eyes, looking up at his mother.

Well, trying to win her over after doing something naughty, Nie Weimin had definitely gotten himself into trouble.

When Chen Lina took the strawberry, she didn’t eat it.

Although it was a new variety, and tender, it spoiled quickly.

Clearly, the child didn’t realize how long it had been held in his hand, as the skin had already wrinkled.

Nie Weimin wasn’t as bold as Er Dan.

He himself was a glutton, always eating everything without hesitation.

He wasn’t like San Dan, who would always give food to others.

This child was very clever. If he gave someone a strawberry, he would definitely expect something worth a hundred times more in return.
Except for Chen Tiantian, no one could eat his strawberries without any reason.

“Copper wire transmission is the principle behind the telephone. If I’m right, there must also be a broken cup over there. Tell me, whose is it?” Chen Lina asked.

Well, Nie Weimin finally confessed: “It’s Uncle Nie Guozhu’s.”

“You drilled a hole in Uncle Nie Guozhu’s cup, why?” Chen Lina’s voice involuntarily became sharper.

For the past three days, Er Dan had been challenging Nie Guozhu to a match.

So, he asked Nie Guozhu to throw him into the air.

After a few rounds, the little guy laughed so hard he couldn’t catch his breath and decided he didn’t want to fight anymore.

He just wanted to be thrown into the air by Nie Guozhu.

A little later, San Dan started hitting Nie Guozhu’s buttocks with a stick.

Annoyed, Nie Guozhu broke the stick. The child cried out loudly and ran to Chen Lina to complain: “Mom, I hate him, I hate Uncle, tell him to go away.”

As for Nie Weimin, he was even more jealous than his father.

Of course, he was also the most reserved.

If Chen Lina guessed correctly, tonight was the night Nie Weimin was planning to use his trump card to drive Nie Guozhu away.

“Tell me, who are the ones laying in ambush? And what exactly are you planning to do? Confess and you’ll be treated leniently; resist and you’ll be punished severely. Nie Weimin, if you don’t speak up now, I’ll twist your little ears,” Chen Lina warned.

“There’s really nothing going on. Besides, your cousin has been here for quite a while. Why don’t you drive him away yourself? Don’t you realize he eats more than Er Dan at every meal?” Nie Weimin said, clearly irritated.

“This is a matter between adults, and it’s not as simple as just wanting to drive him away. He came here with an official task, do you understand?”

“Well, I just hate him. I want him to leave.” Nie Weimin said.

“Fine. I don’t care what traps you set. You’ll be the one to deal with it, just like a hunter who sets a trap and ends up falling into it himself. This is what you deserve. Now move forward.” Chen Lina replied.

“Fine, I’ll go, just let me die under the weight, because you don’t love me anyway. Hmph.” The child was stubborn.

Chen Lina stood on the road, watching the small, skinny Nie Weimin walk slowly ahead.

She wasn’t sure what kind of ambush Er Dan and the others had set, but suddenly shouted, “Er Dan, Mom brought you your favorite oat flour sweet paste! Come eat it now.”

After the New Year, Nie Bozhao installed a lamp outside the yard, but the switch was inside the yard.

With a clatter, the light came on, and it sounded like there were lions in the yard, followed by several loud crashing noises.

The sound of logs rolling down the wall followed.

These logs were bought by Nie Bozhao, accumulated over a long period, and were meant to replace the roof since it had been leaking heavily recently.

“Mom, is there really sweet porridge? Can I have the kind with eggs in it?” Carefree Erdan had completely forgotten that he was supposed to be in the middle of a mission.

“Sure, but anyone willing to stack these logs back for me gets the sweet porridge with eggs and brown sugar. If you’re too lazy to move the wood, you can go stand outside the window,” Chen Lina said as she kicked aside a log and walked inside.

“I’ll move the biggest log! Can I have your sweet porridge tonight?” Chen Tiantian, full of energy, asked.

“Of course, there’s some for you, but little girls don’t need to move the logs. Wash your hands and go get me some eggs from the storage room,” Chen Lina said, pinching Tiantian’s little face.

Since Wang Jie had her third child, the little girl had gotten a lot thinner.

Chen Lina had fed her up herself, and when she gained weight, it made her feel guilty, but when she lost it, she felt even more sorry for the girl, since that was all her food.

“I’ll tell you, the logs were all stacked on the wall by Nie Weimin and Erdan. He said that as soon as he calls, Nie Guozhu will come back, and then we’ll smash the logs to crush Nie Guozhu,” said Qian Goudan, acting like a little spy.

If Chen Lina gave him another smile, he’d probably confess more.

“Okay, I got it. Once the logs are moved, wash your hands and we’ll all eat oat sweet porridge,” Chen Lina said.

“Alright, Auntie, you wait. Erdan and I will move them quickly,” Tiantian replied, bouncing off to help.

It was nearly eleven at night, and everyone at the farm was still hungry, including Chen Lina herself.

She put a large pot of oat sweet porridge that Chen Lili had made directly on the stove.

She opened the stove she had left closed since this morning, let it air out, and cleaned out all the ash.

Soon, the porridge started bubbling.

At that point, she added some more water.

Since there were many kids, of course, she added more water.

She was a bit generous with the sugar and even cracked a few eggs into the pot. That way, she could use up the month’s sugar quota.

“What’s with Weimin? Has he transformed into a little soldier, standing guard for you?” Nie Bozhao came in, with Nie Guozhu right behind him.

“Yes, your son had a sudden idea today to stand guard for me,” Chen Lina replied.

It was late at night, the kids were hungry, and of course, the adults were too.

Nie Bozhao entered the kitchen and said, “Comrade Chen, it’s not that I’m stingy, but if your cousin eats any more, our family will go bankrupt. Has his wife come yet?”

Chen Lina smiled: “Who knows?”

The revolutionary work team from Hongyan had actually already arrived at the mining area, and Gong Hongxing was probably doing everything she could to mobilize the workers and cadres to join her revolutionary squad.

Truthfully, Chen Lina also wondered if Gong Hongxing had the ability to turn the workers and cadres in the mining area.

After all, she was the “Awa’er Guli” of the entire mining area, and many men dreamed of dancing with her, talking about life and ideals. It wouldn’t be easy to get them to fight against her.

“Would you like some baked buns? You can each have one,” Chen Lina said, opening the cupboard to find only yesterday’s lamb buns left.

The lamb had been marinated and was finely chopped, easy to cook.

The carrots, too, had just been harvested from the farm.

In February, the seeds were sown, and by March, they were ready to be harvested.

It only took three people to sow and harvest five acres of carrots.

When the people of the Wumayi mining area saw the fresh carrots still with their tops attached, they all went wild.

Once, when Gao Dayong met Chen Lina in the mining area, he loudly sang a song called “Awa’er Guli” in the street for her.

After reheating the porridge, she cracked a couple of eggs into a frying pan with a little oil and slowly began to bake the leftover buns from yesterday.

Soon, the buns with golden brown bottoms were ready.

A large plate of fragrant baked buns was placed on the table.

Erdan quickly grabbed one, and was about to give Tiantian one too.

Nie Bozhao was quick to snatch one for San Dan, and when he saw Qian Goudan hadn’t managed to grab one, he silently passed his own bun to him, gently ruffling his head. “Eat up.”

Qian Goudan quickly took a sip of the sweet porridge and sincerely said, “Uncle, your food smells really good.”

In fact, in an era of material abundance, while every household had plenty of food in their refrigerators that could spoil, eating at someone else’s house wasn’t easy.

You had to bring a gift and formally visit to be invited to a meal.

But in this era of scarcity, adults generally only ate enough to get by, but kids had the most opportunities to eat at neighbors’ homes.

No matter how poor a family was, if there was something good to eat, they would invite all the neighborhood children to join in.

This was simply because they had all experienced hunger and knew the value of food, and kids could eat like there was no bottomless pit in their stomachs.

“Tiantian you really aren’t going to eat?” Chen Lina said, splitting one of the buns in half, giving one half to Tiantian and the other to Erdan.

But she hadn’t seen Nie Weimin around. When she went to check, she found that he had quietly snuck into the kitchen and was washing the dishes.

“I think, maybe I’m not worthy of eating because in your eyes, I’m a bad person who committed a terrible crime,” he said miserably, holding a cloth in his hand, and tears—more like saliva—were on his face.

Chen Lina rubbed his head: “With those big logs, I’m not even going to ask if you hurt yourselves while moving them. But if you really hurt Nie Guozhu, aren’t we going to have to pay for his medical bills?”

“We have the support money, so let’s take it all out and use it for his medical treatment.” No doubt, the boss was quite generous—after beating someone up, he even arranged to cover their medical expenses, a full reimbursement for the treatment.

“Kid, when the mining area set the support fee for you, it was one cent for a tube of toothpaste. Now, a tube costs three cents, but your support fee is still thirty yuan. As prices keep rising, your thirty yuan is going to be worth less and less.”

“I know, this is called inflation. It was mentioned in Das Kapital,” the young one replied.

“Fine, you’ve got all the knowledge, but tell me, do you think a few sticks of wood can chase him away?”

“Then tell me the truth, why did he come here?” Nie Weimin asked.

“He wants to shut down your father’s lab, start a revolution on our farm, and even wants to stop all the government agencies in the mining area and send them to labor camps. In their eyes, that’s what revolution looks like. Ultimately, if they succeed in destroying the entire operation of the mining area, they’ll have won.”

“Is it that serious?” Little Nie Weimin started to take the matter more seriously.

At first, the little guy had thought Nie Guozhu’s arrival was just a typical case of jealousy or rivalry.

“Alright, kid, your job is to eat, sleep, and grow taller, not to read too many books. Go out and play more. By the way, that phone of yours—you invented it well, but didn’t you steal the copper wire from Uncle Xiao? You’d better return it, or I’m afraid he’ll spank you tomorrow.”

“Alright, but Little Chen, do you really have a way to drive Nie Guozhu away?” Little Nie Weimin asked again.

“Getting rid of him isn’t the problem. The real issue is, even if he leaves, Hongyan will send another revolutionary team, and we’ll still have to deal with them. The most important thing is to change his views about the mining area, the farm, and his ideas on revolution.”

“Do you have a way to do that?”

“I don’t,” Chen Lina shook her head regretfully.