The Red Era: Living in Seclusion in a Siheyuan as a Boss

Chapter 538: The rich second generation He Qiu's journey to join the army!!!

According to the customs of the old Yanjing people, after the "Beginning of Autumn", it is autumn.

Liu Yuxi's poem "Since ancient times, people have felt sad and lonely when autumn comes. I say that autumn is better than spring."
The meaning is that people have felt sad and lonely every autumn since ancient times, but Liu Zhiye believes that autumn is better than spring and has a high-spirited and positive spirit.

Therefore, every year new students enter school and military conscription mostly begins during this season.

……

The sunlight shines through the mottled leaves and onto the He family’s magnificent hotel lobby.

He Qiu leaned on the sofa bored, surrounded by a group of laughing young people. Amid the smoke, they were squandering their youth.

He Qiu is the only son in the family, and his family’s hotel business is quite big in Dongcheng.

People around him often complimented him that he was the son of a millionaire and that he didn't have to do anything and would have food to eat, luxury cars and beautiful women in the future.

He Qiu lived a life of luxury in this affluent life.

His parents were busy with their business all day and had no time to pay attention to his studies, which resulted in his grades being at the bottom of the class.

After graduating from high school, He Qiu completely let himself go, hanging out with this bunch of bad friends, indulging in a life of decadence and glamour.

He Yuzhu and his wife saw it all and were worried.

They knew very well that if He Qiu continued like this, he would definitely go astray.

He Yuzhu persuaded him, "Son, it doesn't matter if you fail the exam. You can study for another year and take the exam again next year!"

"If you really don't like studying anymore, you can learn to be a chef and run a business from your dad. In a few years, you can take over..."

In recent years, with the gradual opening up of policies, He Yuzhu's restaurant business has grown bigger and bigger, and it has become a well-known brand in Dongcheng District.

But He Qiu didn't want to live a peaceful life like this.

Last September, the autumn conscription was about to begin again.

After learning the news of the conscription, He Qiu, the only son of the He family, was filled with anticipation, thinking that the day had finally come.

He Qiu had always wanted to join the army, but he did not go after the college entrance examination, and he failed the entrance to the police school.

Moreover, he had been holding his breath in his heart and competing with others.

He Qiu felt that the older brothers like Ge Xiaohu and Yi Yuanchao were nothing special, and that he could also make a name for himself if he joined the army.

Whenever He Qiu saw soldiers wearing the "three-dot red" uniform in a movie, he felt like he was possessed.

I wish I could wear the green military uniform and join the People's Liberation Army.

So, when they heard that He Qiu had the idea of ​​joining the army, He Yuzhu and Wang Qiuju agreed wholeheartedly.

In this way, He Qiu also signed up to join the army.

At the age of 18, he enlisted in the army, and in the column of native place on the military registration form, the word "Yanjing" was neatly written.

The next day after receiving the enlistment notice, He Qiu made a special trip to Tianmen.

I took a 3-inch black-and-white photo in front of Tianmen. In the lower right corner of the photo, there are two lines of small words: "Memorial photo of Tianmen, Yanjing. September 1982."

He Qiu pasted the photo neatly in a small album and took it to the army.

However, when he really joined the army, he found that real life in the barracks was quite different from what he had imagined.

The time he first joined the army, especially the three months in the recruit company, seemed like a nightmare to He Qiu.

As soon as they arrived at the army, the company commander gave them a warning.

During the first physical training session, He Qiu was so tired that he vomited his lunch.

It was then that He Qiu realized that being a soldier was not just playing house.

I have to get up before dawn every day, run, do push-ups, and sit-ups. I am tired as a dog after all the work.

I remember one training session where they had to climb over a three-meter-high wall.

When it was He Qiu's turn, he climbed up again and again but just couldn't get up.

His palms were all scratched and blood was dripping down.

The company commander shouted from below: "He Qiu, can you do it?" He Qiu gritted his teeth and said, "Yes!" He used all his strength and finally climbed up.

When he came down from the wall, the company commander patted He Qiu on the shoulder and said, "Not bad, you have a lot of energy."

At that moment, He Qiu felt that his whole body was filled with strength.

In this strictly disciplined place, everything was completely different from his previous life.

He Qiu always lags behind the class and is not good at keeping his room clean. The angular quilt in his hands is like a ball of soft tofu and he can't get it into a standard shape.

During training, He Qiu was even more unable to keep up. It was fine when he was a child, but in recent years he has been used to a life of luxury and his physical fitness cannot keep up, and his movements are always half a beat slower than others.

Therefore, every day was spent under the criticism of the monitor.

The three months of recruit training were truly miserable.

But even so, He Qiu also deeply felt the responsibility of being a soldier.

No one will pamper you in the military camp. The discipline is very strict, which made He Qiu learn what rules are.

If you follow a regular schedule every day, your body will become stronger.

Day after day of training filled He Qiu with strength.

One night, He Qiu was lying in bed and suddenly thought of things at home.

I thought of my parents and the locust flowers.

He Qiu took out the photo that Chun Huaihuahua gave him and looked at it in the faint moonlight.

Chunhua in the photo was smiling so brightly, but now, she no longer belonged to him.

He Qiu stuffed the photo back under the pillow and wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes.

He Qiu secretly swore in his heart that he must be a good soldier and impress everyone.

One year of military service completely changed He Qiu.

Later, when He Qiu went home to visit his family, his parents couldn't believe their eyes when they saw him working actively.

Is this still the same lazy, second-rate guy from before?

On New Year’s Eve last year, the new recruits were training as usual. It snowed that day and the north wind was blowing. The snowflakes hit their faces and got into their necks, making their bodies shiver involuntarily.

Although He Qiu and his friends were wearing leather boots, cotton coats, leather hats and leather gloves, their hands and feet were still frozen, painful and numb after standing outside for a long time.

In the evening, I went to the restaurant to make dumplings, but my fingers couldn't bend and I couldn't hold the dumpling skins firmly. After the dumplings were cooked that day, many of them broke.

When I returned to the dormitory, it was already dark. The 10 new recruits and 1 veteran squad leader were sitting at the head of the bed chatting.

As they chatted, they talked about their hometowns and the Chinese New Year. They spoke less and less, and their voices became lower and lower, until finally they were silent.

New recruits love to miss home, especially during the Chinese New Year. He Qiu is no exception. Sitting there, his mind is full of scenes of celebrating the Chinese New Year at home: pasting couplets, hanging lanterns, making dumplings, setting off fireworks, visiting relatives and friends, and being too busy to stay idle the whole day.

Thinking of my family and my hometown Yanjing, I took out my small photo album from the drawer under the bed and looked through the photos one by one: my father, my mother, and the neighbors in the courtyard seemed to all appear in front of me.

When I saw the photos of myself in front of Tianmen, tears welled up in my eyes.

He Qiu was watching intently, and the squad leader had walked up to him without him noticing, and exclaimed in surprise: "Tianmen, Tianmen."

Then, he picked up He Qiu's photo album and stared at it for a long time, his eyes full of anticipation and envy.

When the comrades heard what the squad leader said, they gathered around and scrambled to look through the photo album. When they saw the photo of He Qiu and Tiananmen Square, they all praised it.

One of the comrades sang with deep emotion: "The majestic Tianmen, the magnificent square, the place that people of all ethnic groups sincerely admire..."

When He Qiu heard this, he couldn't help laughing. Isn't this the well-known song called "The Majestic Tianmen"?

Many more comrades said: "I have never been to Yanjing since I was a child. When I go to Yanjing, I must go to Tianmen Square and take a photo in front of Tianmen."

Having said this, they turned their eyes to He Qiu, and their gazes were also full of expectation and envy.

In an instant, He Qiu no longer missed home, and his heart was filled with pride and honor.

After experiencing that moment on the night of New Year's Eve, He Qiu suddenly felt a heavy responsibility on his shoulders, because he was a soldier of Yanjing, he had taken photos with Tianmen, and he must not bring shame to Yanjing.

From then on, He Qiu always took the lead in military training and daily life. After serving in the army for one year, he was commended by the army twice.

He Qiu felt that this place in Northeast China was really cold!
At first he really couldn't adapt to life here.

He Qiu and his company are stationed in a forest in the Changbai Mountains in the northeast, where the temperature in winter is generally minus 20 to 30 degrees Celsius.

Thick cotton-padded clothes and trousers, cotton-flannel military caps, sheepskin gloves, big-toed shoes, and sheepskin military coats are the characteristics of their Northeast military camp equipment. The food, accommodation, and transportation conditions in the Northeast military camp are relatively difficult.

But comrades from all over the country gradually fell in love with the serious and clean environment of the Northeast Military Camp.

In this era of scarce resources, the troops stationed in the mountains faced difficult living conditions.

It is difficult for new soldiers who have just arrived at the Northeast Military Camp to adapt to the harsh environment.

There is also a doggerel circulating:
"I came to the barracks with great enthusiasm,

Difficulty adapting to harsh environments;
It is difficult to eat three meals a day.

I regret coming to the military camp."

The food in the army is very ordinary. Except for the improved food during festivals, most of the time, they just eat simple meals.

The staple food of He Qiu and his family is called "two-rice rice", which is rice steamed by mixing rice and sorghum rice together.

The vegetables eaten in Northeast military camps in winter are mostly the "old three".

Store cabbage, potatoes and radishes in the vegetable cellar before winter.

During the long winter, we cannot do without these three vegetables for every meal, and there are very limited ways to improve the food conditions.

These days, the food standard for soldiers in the Northeast Army was 0.62 yuan per person per day.

Usually there are more coarse grains and less refined grains, and very few vegetables and meat.

In addition to the normal three meals a day, most companies only arrange two meals on Sundays, with the morning meal starting at 9:30 and the afternoon meal starting at 4:.

The main reason is to give the kitchen staff more rest time.

To improve the food during holidays, people usually make dumplings. The kitchen squad will distribute flour and dumpling stuffing to the class in advance. The soldiers in the class will make dumplings together and then cook them in the pot in the kitchen of the kitchen squad.

It is a living habit and tradition for soldiers in the class to make and eat dumplings together.

Many newly enlisted soldiers were very impressed by the living habits in the Northeast Military Camp when they first arrived. Over time, they made up a rhyme about the "Four Weird Things" in the Northeast Military Camp:
"There is no inside or outside in a quilt.

Washed the hat and blew it up in the sun.
Let's have a song contest before dinner.
Eating while standing helps digestion.”

This jingle also reflects some actual conditions in the Northeast military camps.

For example, "the quilt has no distinction between inside and outside" is because the quilts that soldiers cover are all green on both sides, and there is no distinction between the inside and the outside of the quilt.

"Blow the hat and dry it in the sun" is because soldiers need to dry their hats quickly after washing them in the summer.

The soldiers put their mouths into the small opening of the hat lining and blew hard until the hat and the lining were blown apart into a ball shape. They then hung the hat on a clothesline to dry in the sun. The hat swayed in the wind like a ball.

"Singing competition before meals" is because the army's meal time is strictly standardized. Teams often gather in advance and line up at the canteen door to wait, which usually takes 3 to 5 minutes. During this waiting time, the soldiers are organized to sing a few songs.

For example: "We Are Soldiers", "Returning from Target Practice" and "March of the People's Liberation Army", etc., these are "a song before meals".

"Eating while standing helps digestion faster" is because some company canteens only provide each class with a simple round dining table and there are no conditions to provide benches.

It is true that soldiers ate while standing around the table, but it was not a common phenomenon in military camps in Northeast China.

The officers and soldiers in the military camps all come from all over the country. In particular, when the southern soldiers came to the Northeast, they heard and saw the living habits of the people in the Northeast, which were even more strange. Based on the "Four Strange Things in the Military Camp", they compiled the "Four Strange Things in the Northeast":
The windows are papered on the outside.

Hang the child up.

The well was blown outside the wall by the wind.
The girl was smoking a big pipe.

The windows are pasted with paper on the outside because the climate in Northeast China is cold and most windows are double-glazed. Paper is pasted on the gaps in the outer windows to prevent the cold wind from blowing into the house.

The reason why children are hung up to coax them is that in every family in Northeast China where there are children, a cradle is usually tied from the roof beam.
Put the baby in the cradle, rock it gently, and hum a low tune. The baby will fall asleep quickly in the cradle.

The well was blown outside the wall by the wind because every family in the rural Northeast has a well in their yard, and the walls of the yard are all fences.
The northeast wind is very strong, and it often blows down the fences and even blows them to the doorsteps. The courtyard wall is blown to the doorsteps, and the well seems to be outside the wall.

The girl holds a big pipe because most girls from Northeast China are bold and outspoken.
It is not uncommon for Northeastern girls to compete with men in drinking from larger bowls, eating meat with larger mouthfuls, and smoking through a pipe.

The winter in Northeast China is very cold.

Zhang Deming became He Qiu's squad leader. He and He Qiu's hometown were very close, and his strong local accent made him feel very familiar.

Squad leader Zhang often said: "The military camp is like a touchstone that can remove the impurities in you." He set an example and set strict requirements, so that He Qiu gradually understood the responsibilities and obligations of a soldier.

I still remember the first time he was on guard duty, He Qiu was lazy and wanted to lean against the sentry box, but Squad Leader Zhang stood straight beside him without saying a word and stood with him in the cold wind.

At that moment, He Qiu was overwhelmed with ashamed.

From then on, he began to study seriously and train actively, transforming from a "problem teenager" into a qualified soldier.

Reading newspapers, listening to heroic stories, helping comrades clean their rooms... these little changes made He Qiu glad that he joined the army.

With the arrival of spring, the Lunar New Year of the Rat is about to arrive.

Reunion, joy, peace and happiness are the most refreshing flavors of the festival, the best wishes for each other, and the softest watch in people's hearts.

For ordinary people, the flavor of the New Year is the lights in every home, and the Spring Festival is a time for family reunions.

But for soldiers, there are more implications here——

The atmosphere of the New Year in the military camp is full of perseverance. "Three hundred and sixty days a year, most of the time I am on horseback with my sword in hand."

Often, the closer it gets to holidays, the more we must not relax our combat readiness duty.

Because, in a soldier's dictionary, there are only two states: "fighting" and "preparing for war".

While families are reunited, soldiers are busy preparing for war.

Holidays and vacations are just a punctuation or an interlude in the narrative of “preparing for war.”

There is a sense of rush in the New Year atmosphere in the military camp.

I boarded the train back home to visit my parents and spend time with my wife and children.

Like countless people who spend a lot of time away from home, home is the end of the journey for many soldiers.

But the soldiers are rushing to the frontline with a more distant goal in mind, which is the patriotic sentiment of "taking up arms to defend the country", the unremitting pursuit of being able to fight and win battles, and the dedicated responsibility to build a world-class military in an all-round way.

The New Year in the military camp is the highest-level ceremony among the 365 days for soldiers guarding the border!
The peak of the New Year atmosphere is of course New Year’s Eve. The barracks and outposts are clean and bright, and there are laughter and joy inside and outside the house.

The big red lanterns were hung high, the beautiful spring couplets were posted up, the sumptuous banquet food was served, and the classes sat around the table.

The soldiers seemed to be rushing to a feast, or to be bidding farewell to the past, forgetting their troubles, opening their arms and welcoming beauty in this extremely grand way. This is the so-called "saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new."

The two rows of poplar trees on the roadside of the camp appear particularly tall and upright as the loud song "I am a Soldier" echoes.

The tree trunks are decorated with small colored lights and camouflage lanterns handmade by comrades, making the busy plateau military camp full of the festive atmosphere of the New Year.

Posting couplets at the entrance of companies and battalions is an old tradition in the army. The company's clerk and armorer is a "little scholar" who is good at calligraphy and painting.

On the day before New Year's Eve, He Qiu and his friends would use the time after returning from training or after watching the news in the evening to write couplets.

After preparing the simple "Four Treasures of the Study", they solemnly invited the "little scholar" to visit the company.

When the powerful running script "The first pilot company of a strong army, brave and hard-working men" was written on the big red paper, there was applause from the company.

The smell of the New Year rose from the oil pan in the canteen and drifted to the camp, and the fragrance permeated the sky above the border town.

The faint fragrance can be smelled from a long distance away, making people salivate. The fragrance guides the patrolling officers and soldiers on the way back to the camp, and they don't want to stop for a moment.

Eating dumplings during the Chinese New Year is a "New Year custom" of the border defense company.

There are three sources of dumplings. One is that everyone makes them by themselves in the kitchen by using basins to hold the fillings and wine bottles to roll out the dough. The other is that they are sent to them by the wives of soldiers who come to the team temporarily.

The third group was sent by comrades-in-arms, parents, relatives and friends who lived not far from home.

On New Year's Eve, He Qiu and his friends still followed the daily routine and started eating on time. The kitchen staff cooked dumplings together, so they didn't need dipping sauces such as mashed garlic and vinegar.

When the dinner started, every comrade's hands holding the dumplings would tremble at the same time, and tears would well up in their eyes before the dumplings even reached their mouths.

The comrades with better self-control swallowed their tears the moment they took a bite of the dumplings, while the more emotional comrades cried loudly and finished eating the dumplings without knowing what the filling was.

This is the authentic New Year atmosphere in the military camp.

…………

As the two brothers Zhong Xingguo and Zhong Xingwang became successful, their parents moved to the town and opened a small restaurant, and also installed a telephone at home.

"Mom! This year I can go home to visit my family during the Spring Festival. I have good news to tell you two. It's me..."

The call from his son came suddenly. Zhong Xingguo's mother wiped her hands with her apron while listening to the call. She was stunned on the spot. After a long while, she came to her senses and shouted to the kitchen: "Old man, my son is coming back for the New Year, and he brought his girlfriend with him!"

Zhong Xingguo's father was studying how to make a good soup. When he heard this, his hands shook and he almost put salt in the soup instead of sugar.

However, surprises aside, welcoming the future daughter-in-law is not an easy task.

(End of this chapter)