She held the contract and stepped into the kitchen.
“I agree to all of it.”
Just then, Jiang Xia happened to pass by.
“Lingcheng, you just finished overtime and now you’re washing dishes again?”
She added, “You’re the only grandson left by my aunt, working so hard every day—how can you still wash dishes?”
Zhao Lingcheng’s grandmother was a well-educated lady from a wealthy family who had studied abroad and ended up in Yan’an.
Jiang Xia’s father was the little cousin of that lady, just an ordinary person.
Because he was diligent and sensible, he had been following Zhao Jun all along.
The emperor isn’t in a hurry, but the eunuch is.
Zhao Lingcheng himself didn’t mind washing dishes, but Jiang Xia was anxious.
Zhao Lingcheng said, “Shuai Shuai’s father knows how to deal with people in life and death matters. Tengger Desert, Badain Jaran, and Maowusu are all within the search area. We will definitely find him.”
No one should take pleasure in another’s suffering.
But looking at Jiang Xia, who tried and failed to stir up trouble, Chen Mianmian almost laughed out loud.
Her husband was still missing, yet she fussed over so many irrelevant things.
Chen Mianmian smiled, “Aunt, it’s uncomfortable outside. Come inside, sit at my dining table and listen.”
Jiang Xia pressed on but then left.
Noticing someone was eavesdropping, Zhao Lingcheng closed the door between the living room and kitchen.
Washing his hands clean, he took out moisturizer from the cabinet and carefully rubbed it in.
Then he said, “There’s one more thing I didn’t write down, just a verbal agreement. Wei Cuiyun will occasionally come to the Base for work reasons, but during these two years, you can’t meet him.”
He added, “I know you like him, but it’s a matter of discipline. I can’t protect you.”
The female supporting character at the Base had always been a dazzlingly bizarre and singular flower.
Zhao Lingcheng hated the notoriety but was constantly judged because of his ex-wife’s behavior.
Though she was eccentric, she never broke discipline—and at the Base, discipline violations meant prison.
Actually, the female supporting character had fallen for Wei Section Chief at first sight.
Because he was that rugged Northwestern type, even blowing his nose sounded like a loud donkey bray.
His roughness was like the Loess Plateau, giving her physiological security.
Because she liked him, she cared for his mother, wiping away messes diligently.
But once the mother passed away, he divorced her.
Chen Mianmian agreed decisively, “If I see Wei Cuiyun one more time, I’ll be a little dog.”
Zhao Lingcheng took the 250 yuan from her hand and counted out fifty.
“This month’s pay.”
Chen Mianmian was stunned.
“Fifty yuan a month?”
He also gave her twenty yuan in special supply coupons.
“I’ll have Aunt Jiang accompany you to shop first. Diapers must be fine cotton gauze, bedding finely woven cotton. I’ll find a baby bed and wool mattress. Also, buy yourself some clothes…”
She truly stripped him bare, returning home empty-handed.
Chen Mianmian took the money and said, “Don’t worry, even if I send a penny to my maternal home, I’ll still be a little dog.”
But Zhao Lingcheng didn’t catch her humor and went out.
Footsteps came up the stairs as Huang Lin and Zeng Yunrui, a couple, carried a baby bed downstairs.
Chen Mianmian didn’t exchange greetings with the couple, and Zhao Lingcheng, after a single nod, entered her home.
He pointed across the street and said, “If you need anything, ask Ma Ji. He’s the Security Section Chief and can contact me immediately. I still have to work overtime. See you.”
The couple didn’t chat with the hostess either; after Zhao Lingcheng left, they followed.
Huang Lin saw him carrying a briefcase and hurried after him with a smile. “
Chief Engineer, still staying at the guesthouse tonight?”
Zhao Lingcheng said, “Working overtime.”
Huang Lin asked again, “When are you going to Quancheng? Help me buy something.”
Zhao Lingcheng stopped just at the unit gate.
“Work first. Yunrui, don’t you have to work overtime too?”
Zeng Yunrui quickly replied, “Yes, yes, I’m coming soon.”
Huang Lin’s request to bring something was fake; she really wanted to gauge Zhao Lingcheng’s attitude.
Because the Base’s security office didn’t have marriage registration authority, people had to go to Quancheng to register marriage.
Sharing a glance with Zeng Yunrui, she was puzzled about the Chief Engineer’s situation.
Of course, the daughter of a leader couldn’t be introduced anymore.
Zhao Lingcheng personally coming to collect the baby bed meant he acknowledged the child in his ex-wife’s belly was his.
Such a pity—a good man, yet still Chen Mianmian’s.
The couple exchanged looks and snorted, then went upstairs.
Back to Chen Mianmian, Ma Ji arrived soon to get her family visit pass.
After receiving it, he handed her two green envelopes.
“Telegrams. Want me to read them for you?”
Ordinary letters came in white envelopes, telegrams in green.
Chen Mianmian smiled, “No need. I can read.”
The first was from the Red Flag Brigade’s Third Commune, sender: Chen Huan Di.
Just five words: Mother dying, come home quickly.
Chen Mianmian was startled. Was Wang Ximei dying now?
But she immediately recalled that over these two years, she had received more than ten urgent telegrams about Wang Ximei’s critical illness.
Every time, the female supporting character frantically rushed home with large bags, but nothing ever happened.
The other telegram was from the Quancheng Railway Section. Chen Mianmian wondered if it was from Wei Section Chief.
Reviewing her memories, she had an intuition that the relationship between Xu Xiaomei and Wei Section Chief wasn’t entirely proper.
Xu Cigang was to be executed in the autumn, so maybe she was colluding with Wei Section Chief?
Anyway, after signing the contract and registering the marriage, Chen Mianmian could give birth to Niuniu smoothly.
It was time to settle accounts and collect the money for buying her life.
But opening the telegram, she felt a bit disappointed.
It was a notification, informing Zhao Lingcheng that a rightist named Lin Yan had attempted to lie down on the tracks to commit suicide, disrupting railway operations, and was warned.
He would be detained for one week.
If he tried suicide again, trains would no longer stop but run him over directly.
Chen Mianmian had never met Lin Yan but had heard of him—he was the most notorious bad element at the Red Flag Reform Farm.
Yet he was also Zhao Lingcheng’s regular visit when he had free time; his uncle.
Of course, she had to deliver this telegram to Zhao Lingcheng immediately.
Science relied entirely on rigor; space and air strikes had no room for luck, only strength.
Being able to do aerospace strike research meant Zhao Lingcheng was extremely meticulous.
Moreover, due to the divorce, he had already been investigated once, under the old man’s direct orders.
His diaries and personal letters had all been taken by the Political Office and examined repeatedly.
All his female friends had been summoned for questioning, causing them unnecessary trouble.
Because of the divorce, Zhao Lingcheng had been stripped bare, losing dignity and privacy.
Not wanting more scrutiny, after negotiating with his ex-wife, he frankly told the old man he would remarry for the child, for two years.
If it was a boy, rougher, he would raise him; if a girl, then the ex-wife would take custody, and he would pay support.
Zhao Lingcheng naturally thought this was fine since he had grown up without parents anyway.
Also, influenced by the revolution and Red Guards outside, the Base children especially liked to fight.
If it was a girl, too weak and passive, just taking beatings—it was better for her to be with her mother.
After finishing, Zhao Lingcheng added, “You can’t demand strictness at work and expect me to be a good husband. Little Chen and I don’t get along. She should find a man more suited for her. Isn’t liberation supposed to mean freedom in marriage? Why interfere in my marriage?”
In his office, alone, he spoke openly.
He continued, “You started the revolution to fight fascism, right? But you’re arbitrary, tyrannical, and dictatorial. You control my life like chess pieces and monitor my thoughts. Don’t you realize you’re the real fascist?”
This time, Zhao Jun Laoye didn’t roar back; he had no reason to.
He remained silent for a long while.
Zhao Lingcheng thought he had hung up.
But just as he was about to hang up, the old man softly said, I’ve told you before, my little sister was clever since childhood.
She’d just lean outside the school window and then teach me to read at home.
But when mother cooked, only father and I ate the thick porridge; she ate thin porridge.
I grew tall and strong, but she was thin as a string on a clay pot, the wind could blow her away.
In a year of great disaster, our parents sold her to a peddler for a hundred jin of millet.
I followed the Hexi Corridor down to Hanzhong and found her.
She was only thirteen, already pregnant.
When she saw me, she recognized me and recited ‘Heaven and Earth Mysterious Yellow and the Universe’s Wild Vastness’ from memory.
Her body was covered with wounds from her in-laws and that man.
But she didn’t hate me.
She even stole millet stacks from home for me.
So small, able to recite ancient texts from memory—did she die in childbirth?
Lost her life?
“I am arbitrary, tyrannical, and dictatorial. She is my daughter, and she must stay!”