Chapter 79

On August 30th, the designated day for the mosquito eradication campaign, the entire town was mobilized.

In fact, it wasn’t just the entire town of Xiahekou; this initiative was led by Lin City, and all the counties and towns under Lin City’s jurisdiction participated. The scale of this campaign was staggering.

According to the instructions from the Health Bureau, indoor areas were treated first, followed by outdoor areas.

At eight o’clock in the evening, the town sounded the air raid siren.

The windows of the houses were tightly shut. Yan Lei had already moved the small cast iron coal stove into the center of the living room and left a small gap for ventilation. The coal burned slowly.

Upon hearing the air raid siren, Yan Lei opened a small packet and sprinkled the powdered medicine provided by the street office into the stove. Then he quickly left the house and closed the door.

“Is the smoke rising?”

In the yard, Qiao Wei wanted to peek through the crack in the door but was pulled back by Yan Lei, who grabbed the back of her collar. “Look through the window. Don’t breathe in the smoke.”

Qiao Wei turned around and took the wet handkerchief she had prepared earlier, dampening it slightly. “We’d better cover our noses and mouths; it’s safer.”

Many things in this era were done too crudely and brutally. The medicine being burned was insecticidal, so it definitely harmed the human body as well.

The family of three covered their mouths and noses with wet handkerchiefs.

Yan Lei held Yan Xiang and looked inside through the glass window.

“There’s smoke, there’s smoke!” Yan Xiang exclaimed. “Mom, look!”

Qiao Wei saw it; white smoke filled the entire house.

At this moment, not only residential households but also government offices, hospitals, schools, restaurants, and shops all had designated personnel on duty to burn the medicine and close doors and windows to fumigate and kill mosquitoes and flies indoors.

After half an hour of smoking, Yan Lei asked Qiao Wei and Yan Xiang to step back to the gate of the courtyard, then he opened the doors and windows.

The smoke from the medicine dispersed from the doors and windows, gradually disappearing into the air.

After waiting for a while, the family of three entered the house. Yan Lei, using a thick cloth to protect his hands, moved the small coal stove from the house to the courtyard. The three of them fanned vigorously with palm-leaf fans, trying to drive out the remaining smoke as much as possible.

Yan Lei glanced at his watch. “It’s almost nine o’clock.”

They closed the doors and windows again.

At nine o’clock, the air raid siren sounded again. Yan Lei sprinkled the second packet of medicine into the coal stove in the courtyard and then quickly closed the door.

White smoke spread throughout the courtyard.

On the streets, smoking points were set up every 20 square meters, with designated personnel responsible for igniting the outdoor smoke.

Soon, white smoke billowed on the streets, and shadows of people were seen, creating an atmosphere akin to a horror movie in the late evening.

Qiao Wei, who had never seen mosquito eradication like this before, couldn’t help but be skeptical. “Does it really work?”

Yan Lei chuckled. “This is all your promotion on the loudspeaker. Everyone listened to your arrangements.”

“Oh, it’s not just me,” Qiao Wei said. “I’m just the mouthpiece. This is all arranged by the Municipal Health Bureau.”

Although it was already autumn, the windows and doors couldn’t be kept closed like this, especially after the house had been fumigated an hour earlier.

Qiao Wei was worried that there might still be residual smoke in the house. As soon as the smoke outside dissipated, she hurriedly opened all the doors and windows to ventilate.

That night, many towns in the city and surrounding counties experienced the same process.

“Just think about it; it’s really amazing,” Qiao Wei said as she lay in bed at night.

“Hmm?” Yan Lei responded.

“So many people were mobilized to do the same thing in a unified manner at the same time,” Qiao Wei said. “And they’re not even soldiers; they’re ordinary people.”

Moreover, this was in an era where communication relied mostly on shouting. After the previous round of propaganda and mobilization, people from different regions could act uniformly at the same time.

“There are hardly any other countries on the entire planet that can achieve this,” Yan Lei scoffed in the darkness.

With pride.

The facts proved that this large-scale fumigation campaign was indeed effective.

The next evening, the family enjoyed the cool breeze in the courtyard without the need for mosquito coils. The flies were gone, and even some annoying little flying insects had disappeared.

“We’ve sprayed the sewage pipes and ditches, and fumigated the wells,” Yan Lei said. “We can enjoy a comfortable autumn from today onwards.”

The following day was September 1st. While Qiao Wei was buying groceries at the market, she chatted with some of the older ladies and interviewed them about their feelings regarding the mosquito fumigation campaign and the effects of fumigating their homes. She then wrote a report, reporting on the effectiveness of the large-scale fumigation campaign and making early arrangements for the follow-up campaign to eradicate fly larvae in the winter.

Lu Manman no longer writes articles.

She had always found writing articles very painful. It took her two or three days to write an article that could be read in a few minutes.

Qiao Wei liberated her. Qiao Wei wrote smoothly regardless of the topic. She assigned tasks to Lu Manman, who would report back the next day with the results.

Lu Manman sighed, “I should have gone to high school.”

Lu Manman only completed junior high school.

Qiao Wei was actually puzzled. Lu Manman was the daughter of the head of the Supply and Marketing Cooperative, so why did she stop studying after junior high?

“Because I started working,” Lu Manman didn’t understand Qiao Wei’s lack of understanding either. “Isn’t studying for the sake of work? Once you have a job, why bother studying anymore?”

That made sense, Qiao Wei suddenly realized.

University students were rare, one in a thousand talents.

Ordinary people usually only completed high school. The ultimate goal of studying in high school was to secure a good job.

Since Lu Manman’s family could arrange such a good job as a broadcaster for her, in their view, there was simply no need for her to continue her education.

Not only could she earn three years’ worth of salary early, but with more years of work experience, she would also receive a higher retirement pension.

The original owner of this body had dropped out of high school, also to take over his father’s job in the factory. Because if you didn’t take over, someone else would take your position. In the future, even if you wanted to enter the factory, you might not get a position. Or if there was a position available, the personal connections might have cooled, and you might not get it.

Unfortunately, she entered but couldn’t stick with it, choosing marriage instead.

But Qiao Wei was extremely grateful.

If she had truly crossed over and found herself working in a factory, tired and exhausted, not only would Qiao Wei not be able to endure it, but Qiao Wei herself would probably not be able to endure it either.

Because Qiao Wei wrote articles on behalf of Lu Manman, transitioning from “Qiao Wei” to “Weiwei,” she had now evolved into “Sister Wei.”

Every day, Lu Manman would bring some snacks, sneakily passing them to her.

Many of them were not available at the Supply and Marketing Cooperative.

She passed them quietly, and Qiao Wei quietly accepted them.

As long as the radio broadcasted on time, Chief Lu didn’t care who wrote the articles.

Moreover, the quality of the articles written by Qiao Wei was better than before.

She would use more precise and better vocabulary, describing things vividly and stirring up more enthusiasm.

Yet, she didn’t show off her writing skills, making people feel educated while still understanding what was being said.

The achievements of the radio station were recognized, and both Chief Lu and Chief Xie had gained recognition from their superiors.

A wave of whitewashing homes swept through the old family quarters. Every household began whitewashing their homes.

This matter was soon known to the leaders of the military district.

Unlike the military family compound, where the houses and facilities were new, the old family quarters always had a sense of dilapidation. Everyone wanted to live in houses made of red bricks and big tiles, but resources were limited, and some people got in while others were left behind.

As the saying goes, it’s not about lack but about inequality. Many families living in the old quarters inevitably had grievances.

The leaders praised the trend of whitewashing homes, seeing it as an expression of cleanliness and high spirits.

Indeed, people needed to have hope in life in order to actively manage their lives.

By whitewashing their houses to be clean and bright like new, the grievances of the families in the old quarters could also be alleviated.

After the leaders praised the initiative, the logistics supervisor suddenly had an idea and arranged for people to paint the walls facing the streets of the old district.

Just as Qiao Wei had feared.

After whitewashing the outer walls of many houses, they painted large red slogans on them.

The outer wall of Qiao Wei’s courtyard was also whitewashed and painted with large red slogans.

Qiao Wei had a bad feeling when she saw the outer wall of her courtyard being whitewashed, and her premonition came true.

When she returned from work the next day, the whitewashed walls had dried, and the red slogans had been painted.

Qiao Wei stood with her hands on her hips, looking at both sides of her courtyard gate—

Left side: “If others don’t provoke me, I won’t provoke them.”

Right side: “If others provoke me, I will definitely retaliate.”

Qiao Wei: “…”

At Captain Zhao’s house, the slogans were: “We must liberate Taiwan!”

At Captain Ma’s house, the slogans were: “The Chinese people are not to be trifled with!”

At Captain Xue’s house, the slogans were: “Arm our minds with Mao Zedong Thought!”

There was no way around it.

Firstly, it was because that was the trend of the times.

Secondly, because the houses they now lived in were military properties and did not belong to them personally. They were just family dormitories.

Fortunately, it was only the outer walls of the courtyard being painted, not inside the courtyard, so it wasn’t too uncomfortable.

And no one felt it was a bad thing.

Sister Yang even thought that the whitewashed walls looked clean, and the red slogans were auspicious, so it was really nice. The whole alley looked much neater now.

Qiao Wei: “…”

Surprisingly, after looking left and right for a while, Qiao Wei actually felt that the two slogans outside her courtyard had a bit of a domineering vibe to them.

It suited Yan Lei quite well.

After the grand mosquito eradication campaign ended, Qiao Wei suddenly received praise.

It turned out that the city was collecting propaganda articles about the mosquito eradication campaign for evaluation. A piece she wrote was submitted by Chief Xie to the county propaganda committee, which then sent it to the city propaganda committee.

In this article, Qiao Wei started from the mosquito eradication campaign, focusing on the collective nature, obedience, and cohesion of the people. Then, she elevated the values, summarizing from the mosquito eradication to the slogan painted on Captain Ma’s outer wall—”The Chinese people are not to be trifled with,” and then further elevated it, extending to the slogan painted on Captain Zhao’s outer wall—”We must liberate Taiwan!”

The comment from the city leaders was: “Seeing the big from the small, with a heart for the national territory.”

The leaders said to the people around them, “The comrade who wrote this article has a broad vision.”

This article was broadcasted in the city, then rebroadcasted in the county, and then in the town.

The townspeople, munching on melon seeds, wondered, “Didn’t they broadcast this last week?”

This was the broadcasting station’s tactic of stretching out articles. When nothing was happening, they could repeat the same article for a whole week.

Even listening to the radio had become one of the townspeople’s entertainment activities, so they were very aware of this pattern.

Occasionally, there would even be cases where they continued to broadcast last week’s article for the first two days of the new week, and everyone would know, “Ms. Lu’s daughter, Manman, couldn’t come up with a new one again.”

However, this situation hadn’t occurred since Qiao Wei, the radio announcer, arrived.

“It’s a rebroadcast, it’s the county rebroadcasting the city’s broadcast,” someone explained to everyone.

When the broadcast ended, Lu Manman’s voice came on: “This article was written by Qiao Wei, a comrade from our town’s propaganda department broadcasting station… and has won the first prize in the city’s propaganda evaluation… bringing honor and a flag to Xiahekou Town.”

Everyone suddenly realized. So that’s how it was. This Qiao announcer was really something.