Chapter 69

On Sunday, Yan Lei indeed took Yan Xiang to the countryside in Xiao Zhang’s jeep.

Qiao Wei went to the radio station to work alone on time.

Most of the departments in the town government compound were empty, with only a few departments having someone on duty. It was exceptionally quiet.

It was Qiao Wei’s first independent broadcast.

Once again, the residents of the town heard the extremely standard Mandarin accent.

Especially during the afternoon’s autonomous broadcasting, it was all done by the local radio station’s announcer.

The script was nothing special, but the standard Mandarin was rare.

“Did someone from Beijing come?” The residents of the town asked while fanning themselves and swatting mosquitoes.

From then on, everyone knew that the radio station had a new announcer with a particularly standard Mandarin accent.

Qiao Wei finished broadcasting and locked the door of the broadcasting room, preparing to go home. Before she left the town government compound, halfway there, she was suddenly stopped by someone calling out, “Comrade, Comrade?”

Qiao Wei turned around.

The one calling her was a middle-aged man in his forties, with a strong and upright posture.

Seeing her so young, the man paused for a moment and asked, “Comrade, do you have any business?”

Qiao Wei was puzzled, “Huh?”

The man said, “Today is Sunday, everyone is resting, and only a few departments have someone on duty. If you have something, please come back on Monday.”

Qiao Wei understood.

Because it was Sunday, the compound was basically empty. Qiao Wei was wearing her set of plain cloth clothes and a pair of handmade sandals. The sandals were made of indigo cloth, matching the color of the cloth strips on her shirt and straw hat.

Not only were they good-looking, but also extremely comfortable.

However, from behind, with the indigo on top and the original color at the bottom, at first glance, it was easy to mistake her for an old native woman.

Auntie Ba’er had worn the same color combination as her.

“No,” Qiao Wei smiled, “I’m a broadcaster at the radio station, and today I’m on duty.”

The middle-aged man suddenly realized, “Oh, was it you who broadcasted just now?”

“Yes.”

The middle-aged man looked her up and down, somewhat surprised, “Are you from Beijing?”

At this time, locals usually thought that only people from Beijing could speak Mandarin so well. Because only the Central People’s Broadcasting Station could have such a standard accent, which came from Beijing.

Although the man spoke casually, there was an air of authority about him. He had a bit of an aura similar to Mr. Pan’s.

Although Qiao Wei didn’t know who he was exactly, she guessed he was a leader.

She quickly came up with a smooth lie, “No, I’m from Lin City. My family is a working-class family. I followed my father to listen to the radio broadcasts from the city since I was a child and learned Mandarin very well.”

“From Lin City… How did you end up in Xiahekou?” The middle-aged man looked at her attire, all in plain cloth, and even the shoes were not the trendy plastic sandals but cloth sandals with hand-woven soles. “…Is there any difficulty at home?”

Qiao Wei couldn’t help but chuckle.

“No, I’m married, and I’m a military spouse. I came here with the military. It was also arranged by the military district for me to work at the radio station.”

Upon hearing that she was a military spouse, the middle-aged man knew she probably didn’t have any financial difficulties.

Upon closer inspection, although she was dressed in self-woven cloth, her gestures were graceful and confident. She didn’t seem to mind her attire at all, but rather enjoyed it.

He had misunderstood.

Well, plain cloth was indeed more comfortable than rough cloth.

He had the same thought.

With a good impression of Qiao Wei, the middle-aged man kindly said, “I see. You’ve finished broadcasting, right? Go home early.”

“Okay,” Qiao Wei said, “Are you on duty too? You should also go home early. I’ll leave first.”

Her voice was clear and vibrant. As she turned to leave, her footsteps had a rhythm, as if she were humming a song.

The middle-aged man smiled.

This young comrade was not bad.

Yan Lei had left with Yan Xiang early in the morning, and he returned earlier than Qiao Wei in the afternoon.

“Mom!” As soon as she saw Qiao Wei, Yan Xiang rushed over, “I saw so many things today!”

The child’s face was filled with a joyful smile, and the words turned into reality, abstraction turned into concreteness, making their little face shine.

“Mom, I saw some vegetables in an old man’s field. The leaves were turning yellow, so I told him he needed to add nitrogen fertilizer. He didn’t believe me and just laughed.”

“Then dad came over and told him the same thing about adding nitrogen fertilizer, and then he believed it.”

“Mom, why don’t people believe me? Why?”

Yan Xiang’s eyes were full of questions.

Clearly, what he and Dad told the other person was the same thing because they had read the same book. Why did people only believe Dad and not him?

“Because Xiang Xiang is still a child. People don’t believe that children can know more than adults.”

“Everyone thinks that the older you are, the more trustworthy you are. So when people get sick and go to the hospital, they prefer to see those old granny or grandpa doctors with white beards. If it’s a young aunt or uncle doctor, many people are not willing because they worry that they are too young and won’t be able to treat the illness.”

Yan Xiang was surprised, “Even when they grow up to be uncles and aunts?”

“Yes,” Qiao Wei explained, “When you grow up to be an uncle or aunt, the former uncles and aunts will become grandparents. They still see you and think you’re very young.”

“I see,” Yan Xiang nodded.

“In the future, if you see anything, you can come and tell Mom,” Qiao Wei said, “Others may not believe you, but Mom believes you.”

Yan Xiang became happy, “Okay!”

Yan Lei walked out of the kitchen with a basin, “Come and have some melon.”

It was unclear what variety of melon it was, probably an unimproved primitive variety. Not very sweet, but fragrant.

“It’s from a fellow villager,” Yan Lei said.

“The bricklayers are all set,” he said, “We paid the deposit, and they’ll come over next Sunday to start.”

Qiao Wei asked, “Can they finish it in a day?”

Yan Lei said, “If you’re building adobe houses, definitely not. But if you’re just plastering mud on the outside walls, it’s no problem.”

The two of them ate the fragrant melon and looked at the outer wall of their house.

The main foundation of this house was a traditional stone house, with a distinctive local style.

It used to be very beautiful. Unfortunately, it was damaged during the war, and later the military district resettled military dependents in this area. When it was repaired, the materials used to fix the collapsed parts were all sorts of miscellaneous materials.

There were rocks, worn-out blue bricks from who knows where, and a small amount of red bricks.

Even the rocks were different from the original stone bricks.

This made the exterior wall of the house look like it had been chewed on by dogs.

It would be best if everything could be changed to stones. But that’s not possible, the project is too big and costly.

Qiao Wei settled for the next best thing and chose to beautify the facade with a simulated adobe house method.

Actually, Yan Lei felt that the word “beautify” was open to debate.

But Qiao Wei had previously had a big conflict with him over the house, leading to a long cold war between them. Now, she was full of sunshine and smiles, saying she wanted to “beautify” it. He wouldn’t object even if she wanted to plaster mud or cow dung on it.

He deferred to her.

Sister Yang brought over a plate of peanuts and said, “We fried some peanuts at home, here, have some.”

Qiao Wei and Yan Lei offered her some melon to eat.

Sister Yang didn’t stand on ceremony and happily ate.

“I went to the compound this afternoon, I timed it perfectly,” she said. “As soon as you started broadcasting, I told them, ‘This is the Yan family’s, listen quickly.'”

In an era with little entertainment, even trivial matters could become significant.

Sister Yang didn’t have much education and didn’t even have the entertainment of reading books, so she was even more enthusiastic about this.

Qiao Wei laughed heartily.

“With your Mandarin, what’s the difference between you and CCTV?” Sister Yang praised Qiao Wei to Yan Lei, “If I hadn’t said anything, they would have thought you were rebroadcasting CCTV.”

She nibbled on two slices of melon and then left.

Yan Lei held the melon and asked, “When did your Mandarin become so good?”

Qiao Wei looked up.

Yan Lei was staring at her, looking puzzled.

“It’s always been good,” Qiao Wei smiled and said, “But usually, I don’t need to use such an official tone, otherwise, I’ll sound like I’m pretending to be someone I’m not.”

“That’s true,” Yan Lei nodded in understanding, finishing the remaining half of the melon in his hand.

Qiao Wei took the empty basin to the hand-pumped well to wash it.

Yan Lei lifted his eyes and watched her back.

On Monday, Qiao Wei wore a white shirt and green army pants again.

She wasn’t punctual; this work schedule was very lenient for her. She would always bring Yan Xiang out a bit early, so they didn’t have to rush, and they could leisurely walk to work.

So she usually arrived a bit earlier than the punctual time.

But today, Lu Manman also arrived a bit earlier.

As soon as she entered the room, she called out to Qiao Wei, “Quick, look at me!”

Everyone looked up and burst into laughter.

It turned out that Lu Manman was also wearing a white shirt and green army pants today.

“Do I look good? Do I look good?” she asked, eagerly seeking approval.

Her hair was long, and today she tied it into two low ponytails. The style had a nostalgic feel to it.

Qiao Wei praised her, “Looks great!”

Lu Manman smiled and linked arms with her, “Last week when I saw you wearing it, I thought it looked great, so I quickly had my dad go get me a pair of pants. I bought the white shirt myself from the county town, look, it’s the same as yours. Did you also buy yours from the county town?”

Qiao Wei said, “Yes.”

At that time, people didn’t have the concept of “matching outfits”; quite the opposite, when they saw someone wearing something nice, their first thought was, “I want to buy the same thing.”

“Huh, you two standing together look like two female soldiers,” Lu Tianming joked.

Chief Lu, however, praised them, “Looks good, in high spirits.”

Hu Sui wondered, “Qiao Wei, don’t you get tired of looking at military uniforms every day and wear them yourself? I find washing military uniforms so annoying, the fabric is so sturdy, it’s exhausting to wash.”

Qiao Wei sincerely said, “I love uniforms.”

A straightforward truth.

XP was there, too.

Lu Tianming was a bit moved, “Me too. I originally wanted to join the army. My mom cried as if the sky was falling and forced me not to. That was also during the war. But they wouldn’t let new recruits join. My mom just couldn’t accept it. In the end, she pressured me to go to the county to attend training classes and learn some skills. Sigh…”

“That was my idea for Fourteen Aunt,” Chief Lu said, “Think about it, with your physique, you couldn’t even handle the training for the militia. Can you handle the rigorous training in the army? You want to join the army so badly, first run ten kilometers with a heavy load and let me see.”

“…Actually, I quite like sitting in the office,” Lu Tianming said.

“Tsk.” Chief Lu picked up his file and pen. “I’m off to a meeting.”

“You two, stop admiring yourselves, it’s you two, Qiao, Man, get to work.”

The two girls in white shirts happily went to the broadcasting room.

Yesterday, Sunday, Qiao Wei had successfully broadcasted alone, and Chief Lu and the others had heard it through the speakers.

Starting from yesterday, it was a new round, and Qiao Wei would be broadcasting for the next seven days.

As Chief Lu walked to the meeting, he started broadcasting, and Qiao Wei’s articulate Mandarin sounded really pleasant.

Humming a tune, Chief Lu went to the meeting room.