It just happened to be daily mail collection time, and the letters had just arrived from the station, piled up on the table.
Ma Ji pointed to a subordinate: “Zhao Engineer’s letters don’t need inspection. You go through them quickly.”
Chen Mianmian followed and began reading letter by letter as the guards flipped through them.
She found one from the Quancheng State Guesthouse addressed to Director Jiang and picked it up: “This must be from Zhao Engineer.”
The guard looked at the recipient and said, “No, sister-in-law, this is from Canteen Director Jiang.”
Chen Mianmian put it back, “I must have misread.”
Actually, she hadn’t.
The letter she wanted was that one.
Because Lin Yan wanted to commit suicide by lying on the tracks, and the reason was pressure from the Xu siblings.
They wouldn’t target Lin Yan alone without going after her as well.
They couldn’t enter the base but could write letters to acquaintances spreading gossip and ruining her reputation.
Looking for Zhao Lingcheng’s letter was just an excuse; she was truly after Xu Xiaomei’s letters.
The letter Director Jiang sent to Jiang Xia was clearly written by Xu Xiaomei.
Chen Mianmian was an ordinary person and had no right to interfere with others’ mail or seize letters.
But she could anticipate her opponent’s moves and prepare a counterattack.
Jiang Xia was already suspicious of her—if she got a letter, she would surely gossip wildly.
But letters had to be manually read and reviewed, which took three days.
Jiang Xia wouldn’t get the letter until the day after tomorrow.
That gave her time—she planned to confront Jiang Xia all at once and deal with her gossiping and nagging.
There was an urgent matter—
Chen Mianmian had to turn around her reputation at the base.
In this era, it was easy enough; she just needed to do a good deed or learn from Lei Feng.
But what good deed?
The kindergarten was right next to the Security Section.
As she walked slowly past, she caught sight of Shuai Shuai roughly pushing Miao Miao down.
Outraged, Chen Mianmian shouted, “Where are the teachers? Shuai Shuai is bullying someone again!”
A teacher came out of the classroom, but Shuai Shuai jumped in, “Teacher, Miao Miao grabbed my things first!”
He raised a plastic bottle and said, “She took my toy first!”
Another teacher explained to Chen Mianmian, “Sister-in-law, Shuai Shuai was hit because someone took his toy.”
Miao Miao was held by a teacher, looking wronged, “I, I didn’t.”
But little Shuai Shuai shouted, “You did! You took my toy!”
The bottle was a rather unique red plastic bottle with an English label—a rare item at this time.
Teachers wouldn’t deal too much with small quarrels among children.
They just separated the two and left it at that.
After a while, Shuai Shuai would probably hit Miao Miao again.
But today, as if heaven were helping Chen Mianmian, she carefully looked at the bottle and snatched it away.
Shuai Shuai panicked, “That was from my uncle! You blind brat, give it back, hurry!”
Chen Mianmian pointed at Shuai Shuai, “Your uncle made a huge mistake and will soon be executed. How dare you act so arrogantly toward me?”
The two teachers were a bit startled and asked in unison, “Sister-in-law, what’s going on?”
Ma Ji, hearing the commotion, came over.
Thinking Chen Mianmian was just losing her temper like before, he advised, “Xiao Chen, you’re pregnant. Take care of yourself and don’t get angry. Besides, Shuai Shuai’s father is a martyr. He’s a poor child—let’s be kinder to him.”
Chen Mianmian put Shuai Shuai aside and raised the plastic bottle: “Jiang De works on the farm. Did he spray pesticides today?”
Strictly speaking, it couldn’t be called a farm because the base currently only had three acres of cultivable land, all vegetables.
Seeing Ma Ji nod, Chen Mianmian pointed at the bottle again: “He sprayed the wrong chemical. The vegetables will all die.”
Ma Ji sniffed the faint smell of pesticide in the air and shouted at his men, “Stop all farming work immediately, hurry!”
He didn’t understand how she knew, so he took the bottle and asked, “How do you know?”
Little Shuai Shuai interrupted, “My uncle washed this bottle clean before giving it to me.”
Ma Ji realized Chen Mianmian had noticed something off about the pesticide bottle.
But taking the bottle and seeing the English on it, which he couldn’t read, he said, “It can’t be that bad, right?”
Chen Mianmian said, “It’s very bad. We probably won’t see fresh vegetables for two months.”
The two female teachers gasped and asked, “Why?”
This was the Great Northwest.
Currently, not only was logistics underdeveloped, there were no greenhouse technologies either.
From last September to this May, people could only eat two types of vegetables: potatoes and cabbage.
The earliest fresh vegetables only ripened in May.
If delayed by two months, it would be July.
Everyone was from the south, and half a year without fresh vegetables was hard to endure.
Jiang De worked in the Logistics Section and was the farm manager.
He arrived quickly, carrying a sprayer: “Ma Ke, what’s the matter?”
Chen Mianmian held up the plastic bottle: “Do you know what kind of pesticide this is? You sprayed it randomly?”
Jiang De misunderstood and said, “Xiao Chen, the outside world talks about rightists, but the base doesn’t deal with that.”
He pulled out a notebook: “This pesticide was imported from Cuba specifically to guarantee vegetable supplies for the special military branches. Look, here’s an expert-translated manual.”
Ma Ji nodded, and so did the two kindergarten teachers.
Huang Lin, the kindergarten director, came over smiling: “Xiao Chen, are you trying to start a revolution at the base?”
Before the contract was finalized, Chen Mianmian was cautious and considerate of the families.
But today was different.
She had convinced Zhao Lingcheng, and she never tolerated bad temper.
She snapped back, “Your kids are playing with pesticide bottles. A little carelessness could poison them to death, and you’re joking about revolution?”
Huang Lin was speechless and asked, “You? You can read English?”
That was unlucky.
Chen Mianmian said, “I’m a Red Specialized student. I learn about the enemy to defeat the enemy, and I study English for the people.”
Though the base didn’t preach revolution, foreign languages and entertainment were strictly forbidden.
However, every morning, the capital sent newspapers from around the world for the engineers in military industry to consult.
After all, military industry wasn’t about isolated development; engineers needed to keep up with international military advancements.
Jiang De, like his sister Jiang Xia, disliked Chen Mianmian and hoped she’d leave.
He thought she blamed him for letting the kids play with the pesticide bottle and wanted to start a revolution.
But Chen Mianmian held up the bottle: “This is weed killer, but you sprayed it on vegetables?”
Even as a logistics soldier, Jiang De wouldn’t act on impulse.
He flipped through the notebook: “No, no, this is an insecticide.”
Ma Ji pointed as a guard brought over an English-Chinese dictionary.
Because he had to check various letters, he knew some English.
Flipping through the dictionary, he said, “Killer means killer, weed, weed—damn it, weeds!”
He continued, “It really is a weed killer.”
Jiang De’s legs went weak: “It’s over, it’s over. My water celery, baby bok choy, chives, scallions, cucumbers…”
Spraying weed killer on the veggies was basically cutting off their roots, killing them all.
Ma Ji tore into him, “How the hell could you mess this up?”
Though Chen Mianmian didn’t know agriculture, supporting characters had been farming since the agricultural communes were established and had experience.
Though she’d only eaten potatoes for a week, she was already close to breaking down and didn’t want the vegetables to suffer.
She yelled, “Dump the pesticide, replace it with clean water, and wash the vegetables!”
Jiang De was almost unable to walk: “If the pesticide seeps into the soil…”
Chen Mianmian pushed him, “Weed killer only targets leaves. What does the soil have to do with it? Hurry up.”
Ma Ji said, “The farm only has five workers. It’s not enough. Hurry, get five more from the Security Battalion to help.”
He shouted, “Quick, or next month we’ll still have only potatoes and cabbage. You’ll starve!”
Watching them leave, he was both furious and surprised: “Xiao Chen, you actually know English?”
Chen Mianmian couldn’t break character: “To defeat the enemy, you must understand the enemy. I’m a proud Red Specialized student.”
Suddenly Huang Lin became good-natured, smiling, “Xiao Chen, come inside.”
Though the bourgeoisie knowing English was reactionary, Red Specialized students were different—they learned about the enemy to defeat the enemy.
Chen Mianmian’s boldness even intimidated Huang Lin a little.
Chen Mianmian and Ma Ji then went into the kindergarten together.
Huang Lin still found it incredible and asked, “You really learned English at a Red Specialized School?”
Chen Mianmian didn’t answer immediately.
Instead, she knelt down and held up Miao Miao’s little hand.
Zhan Zhan blew his toy horn and whispered, “Miao Miao is a wild child!”
But Chen Mianmian responded, “I want to praise little Miao Miao because today she performed a heroic deed.”
She raised Miao Miao’s hand again, “The farm sprayed the wrong pesticide and almost killed the vegetables the children most look forward to eating—the greens and cucumbers. But little Miao Miao saved them.”
It was like popping champagne halfway through, but it worked well.
The children quietly looked at Miao Miao, a little confused and a little afraid.
Huang Lin said just in time, “The kindergarten director will commend little Ding Miao and give her a red flower award.”