Five years of marriage, always separated [1970s]

Dabao wanted to shut himself up: "Can't you help me just once?"

Geng Zhiye: "Why doesn't your mother allow this or that? Doesn't she have any idea?"

Dabao looked down at himself and realized that he was so short that he could drown if he fell into the kitchen tank. He didn't want to pay attention to his father, who kept saying things that hurt his heart.

Geng Zhiye put Erbao down, gave her a stool, asked her to sit next to Dabao, and then took out the vegetables from the cupboard.

Dabao reminded him that there were clams in the basin under the chopping board.

"Why are you buying clams again?" Geng Zhiye brought out the basin.

Dabao: "Mom only knows a few of the things you taught her. I want a long fish, but mom doesn't know how to cook it."

"Hairtail? They smell delicious when fried. We're running out of oil." Geng Zhiye thought about what other fish he could buy. "Tomorrow I'll buy conches and oysters, and another one—"

Dabao: "Carp!"

"There are too many thorns. You two can't eat it."

“But grandma did it.”

Geng Zhiye: "In winter, crucian carp are fat, and there is little seafood in the capital. Your grandma has no choice. Let's buy shrimp. Has your mother ever cooked?"

Dabao said angrily, "Boiled. Mom said it's delicious. Of course it's delicious if she cooks it."

Geng Zhiye wanted to laugh: "Are you honestly saying that shrimps are not tasty?"

Dabao thought it was not tasty, but strangely, it tasted good even after being boiled in water: "Dad, Mom can't cook."

Geng Zhiye understood what he meant. Ye Fanfan's cooking skills were not good enough to make shrimps taste good even when boiled in plain water. "Fresh ingredients don't need a lot of seasoning. For example, the sea bass that Dad bought before he left home, he didn't put a lot of things in it when steaming it."

Dabao was confused: "The capital is so big, are the ingredients bad?"

Geng Zhiye: "The fish, turtles, shrimps and crabs here take at least three hours from being caught to being served on the table, maybe two hours. The seafood in the capital takes two or three hours to leave Tianjin."

Dabao seemed to understand: "Isn't it because mom's cooking skills have improved?"

Geng Zhiye wondered, "Is mom a good cook? Dad is the head of a regiment and a soldier, and needs to go on patrol aboard a ship for several days. If mom can't cook, what do you eat?"

How could Dabao not understand such a simple truth? "My mom is a good cook, and I am so proud of her."

Geng Zhiye could well imagine Ye Fan's smug look as he took the opportunity to punish Geng Dabao: "You can pretend you don't see it. Eat and drink as you should. Anyway, your mother won't let you go hungry."

"She dares! No one can control her. Ye Fanfan dares to do anything!" Dabao said loudly.

Geng Zhiye fished out the cleaned clams and said, "Unless you pretend to obey me but actually disobey me, your mother won't dare to do that. I know her."

"I know her!"

Geng Zhiye: "She is my wife. We have known each other for seven years. Where were you seven years ago?"

"I——" Seven years ago, Dabao was waiting in line on the Naihe Bridge to be reincarnated. Dabao couldn't say "I", "You helped mom bully me! I will tell grandma, grandpa, grandparents, aunt and uncle!"

Geng Zhiye poured the dirty water into the bucket and started washing the vegetables. "Dabao, it seems that you didn't buy the vegetables at the market?"

"I don't know!" Dabao said without even looking at it.

Children should vent their anger, otherwise they may become estranged from their parents if they hold it in for too long. Geng Zhiye smiled indifferently and said, "Erbao, tell Daddy."

"Don't say it!"

Geng Zhiye: "It seems that they were not bought. Who gave them to me?" The wife of the chief of staff is a worker's child and is not good at growing vegetables. The vegetables at Political Commissar Liao's house have not grown yet. It has been four months since the reinforcement of troops here, and it has been less than three months since the family members moved in. To grow vegetables in such a short time is not only hardworking, but also has to know how to grow them. "Comrade Liu Guihua."

Dabao opened his eyes wide and covered his mouth.

Erbao looked at his brother with a puzzled look on his face, but he didn't say anything.

Geng Zhiye smiled and asked, "Do you want to know how Dad guessed it?"

Dabao wanted to know, but didn't want to give in.

There was no need to make a big deal about a four-year-old kid. Geng Zhiye continued, "Your mother had no friends when she first arrived here. There were only a handful of people who brought her food, and they were probably the ones waiting to pump water. Among those people, only Liu Guihua had been in the countryside before she joined the army. Ninety-nine percent of people in the countryside can farm."

Dabao was not convinced: "Sister Miaomiao has vegetables at home."

"They haven't grown up yet. These vegetables are this long without the roots, and this tall with the roots." Geng Zhiye gestured on the ground, "Geng Dabao, Daddy is going to teach you another lesson. What should you say?"

Geng Dabao: "You are my father, you, you——"

"Should I teach you?"

Geng Dabao nodded: "Yes! And, what my uncle said, I forgot." He said the last three words with great regret.

Geng Zhiye: "Do I have an obligation to give you guidance?"

Dabao's eyes lit up: "Dad knows?"

"I understand everything your uncle understands, and I also understand things he doesn't understand." Geng Zhiye opened the cupboard again, "Rice or noodles?"

Dabao: "Eat steamed buns!"

It seems that his son really doesn't like rice. Geng Zhiye asked: "Has Fanfan ever made egg fried rice?"

Dabao and Erbao shook their heads at the same time: "Fanfan can't do that!"

Ye Fan came in: "What can't I do?"

Dabao: "If dad doesn't teach you, can you make tofu fish?"

Ye Fan wanted to sew his little mouth shut. He was only four years old, but he could chatter more than a forty-year-old.

"I can knit sweaters. Can your dad?"

Dabao shook his head: "Dad didn't say he could."

Ye Fan was stunned for a moment: "Geng Zhiye, go to the hospital and find someone who is obedient."

Dabao asked curiously, "Didn't I pick it up from the garbage dump?"

Ye Fan was so angry that her body was shaking. Geng Zhiye subconsciously helped her up, and Ye Fan froze for a moment, obviously not expecting him to do so. Geng Zhiye realized that she was pretending, and was angry and amused: "Stand still."

"Geng Dabao can't be kept anymore."

Geng Zhiye took out the steamed buns and said, "Let me ask you first, did you talk nonsense to him again?"

Dabao nodded: "Dad, when you were not at home, Mom lied to me and my sister every day. Yesterday she said Erbao and I were found from the garbage dump. The day before yesterday she said she found it at the train station. She also said someone gave it to her. Mom, I want a younger brother, please go and find one for me."

Ye Fan is so annoyed.

"Geng Dabao, aren't you tired of talking so much?"

Dabao is not tired, Dabao is thirsty. But his mother does not allow him to pour water by himself, so he tells his father that he is thirsty.

Ye Fan: "Hold it!"

"What are you talking about?" Geng Zhiye pulled her and said, "Heat up the steamed buns." He waved at the two children and said, "Follow me."

Dabao and Erbao followed him to the living room.

The two thermoses were under the coffee table. Geng Zhiye moved them to the dining table against the wall. "Fan Fan, don't put the thermoses under the coffee table in the future. It's easy to be kicked over."

"Got it." Ye Fan didn't need to worry about such trivial matters in the past. "Is there anything else I need to pay attention to?"

Geng Zhiye looked around and said, "Be careful not to let Dabao and Erbao touch the scissors and kitchen knives."

Dabao: “I won’t touch it!”

Erbao nodded: "Cut your hand!"

Geng Zhiye: "You two are both good kids. Do you want some milk powder?"

Dabao went back to the room, opened his small cabinet and took out a box of milk powder: "Mom said I can't drink too much."

"Fanfan is worried that you and Erbao are not hungry because you drank too much. If you want to be as tall as mom and dad, you need to eat more food, vegetables and meat. Dabao, do you know why mom likes to cook fish and shrimp?"

Dabao nodded: "Because there is meat. But I want to eat it. I want to eat braised chicken."

Erbao added loudly: "Roast duck!"

Geng Zhiye shook his head: "There is no roast duck or braised chicken here. But you can ask Fanfan to take you to the fishing village." He returned the milk powder to Dabao, and Dabao was sent back to the house. Geng Zhiye took the two children back to the kitchen, "Fanfan, although we can't trade privately, we can barter."

Ye Fan understood immediately: "I will go find the commune secretary tomorrow."

Geng Zhiye almost bit his tongue: "That's not what I meant."

"Don't worry about it. I have more experience in this matter than you do. I guarantee that no one can find fault with me." Ye Fan looked at the two children. "Just now I heard you two arguing outside. What were you saying about me?"

Dabao took a sip of the milk powder and passed it to his sister: "Drink it quickly."

Geng Zhiye shook his head and smiled: "Why are there so many people here today? Didn't you invite them?"

Ye Fan went out with a bucket to pump water for cooking, and happened to meet Liao Miaomiao who was taking her younger brother and sister to play with Dabao and Erbao. The little girl was kind-hearted and wanted to help Ye Fan pump water. Ye Fan said that he could come to her house to pump water in the future.

As the sun sets in the west, many military wives come out to fetch water. Liao Miaomiao's mother Zhuang Qiuyue is one of them. Liao Miaomiao waves to her mother. Liu Guihua, who lives behind Geng's house, sees this scene as she passes by the door. No one calls her, and she is embarrassed to come in, so she asks the wife of the chief of staff on the other side of Geng's house if there is any water in the jar.

Liu Guihua was talking to people in the next yard at the door of Geng's house. Her voice was so loud that it sounded like she had a loud speaker installed. Ye Fan could hear everything clearly in the yard. He couldn't pretend to be blind so he asked them to come to his house to pump water. Zhuang Qiuyue was the only one in the yard, so the others were embarrassed. There were more people, and the embarrassment also had its own company - there were seven or eight military wives and a group of children.

When Geng Zhiye got home, several people had already finished pressing the buttons and went home.

Liu Guihua thought that Geng's family's water was private and she would feel guilty taking it away, so she planned to give Ye Fan a bunch of vegetables she grew herself.

Liu Guihua used a pressurized well for the first time, and thought that it would be dried up if many people drew water from a well. Her family needed four more buckets of water, and she was impatient and had no patience to draw water bit by bit, so she used a sickle to cut off a bunch of vegetables.

Geng Zhiye couldn't help but interrupt Ye Fan when he heard him say this: "No wonder this bunch of vegetables has no roots. Oh, that's not right, how do you know she's worried about the water in the pressurized well running dry?"

Dabao: "Aunt Guihua said so. Aunt Guihua kept saying there was still water."

Geng Zhiye looked at Ye Fan: "What are you talking about?"

Ye Fan rolled his eyes at him: "How can I say she is noisy in front of so many people? Miao Miao said she has a loud voice and makes a lot of noise every day."

Dabao nodded: "Aunt Zhuang doesn't allow Sister Miaomiao to say it."

Ye Fan: "What else do you want to say?"

"No one else. Is Dad going to tell Aunt Guihua?"

Geng Zhiye shook his head: "But you can't tell me. Because walls have ears. Fanfan, light the pot and I'll cook."

Liu Guihua's dishes were very tender. Ye Fan asked Geng Zhiye to boil them in clear water, including the clams.

Dabao stood up angrily and said, "Mom!"

Ye Fan was startled: "Fuck - what's wrong with you?"

Geng Zhiye asked his son to sit down: "Why are you in such a hurry? I am cooking. If mom says to boil it, I will boil it."

Dabao looked at him sideways, and his expression was exactly the same as Ye Fan's sometimes. Geng Zhiye couldn't help but laugh: "Dad promises that it will be different from what Mom makes." Ye Fan understood: "So you don't want to eat boiled food? Geng Dabao, you ungrateful kid, I want to keep the original flavor of the ingredients."

Dabao didn't understand: "You can only talk if you can't do it."

Ye Fan choked: "Want to rebel? Why haven't I seen you picky about food before? Geng Da——"

"Frustrating!" Geng Zhiye interrupted, "How many times have you cooked before? How old are you? How old is Dabao?"

Dabao nodded: "Mom is bullying the weak!"

"Stop talking!" Geng Zhiye glared at his son. "I've seen brothers and sisters quarreling at the first sign of trouble, but I've never seen a mother and son quarreling every day. Are you very proud of winning the quarrel? Dabao, are you happy just because you made your mother sick?"

Dabao blinked his eyes. His mother was so powerful, how could he make her sick?

Geng Zhiye choked when he saw this. Dabao didn't have the ability to do this. Ye Fan didn't tolerate him. He was so angry that he had to hit Dabao a few times to vent his anger.

Erbao stood up, took his brother's hand, and then took his mother's hand: "Shake hands, good friends."

Ye Fan and Dabao were stunned.

Geng Zhiye laughed out loud: "Look how well behaved Erbao is. You two should learn from him."

Erbao nodded: "Fanfan, Dabao, learn from me!"

"Think beautifully!"

The mother and son had a tacit understanding. She pulled her hand back and glared at Erbao.

Erbao looked at his father helplessly. Erbao also tried his best.

Geng Zhiye sighed, "You should calm down too. Fanfan, put two pieces of firewood, Dabao, watch the fire."

Ye became annoyed: "What am I doing?"

"I'll make a sauce for you to watch." Geng Zhiye handed her a head of garlic, "Use this sauce when you boil it in water. I saw sesame oil in the cupboard. Did you buy it these days?"

Ye Fan nodded: "It's for the two of them to make steamed egg custard. It's even more expensive than in the capital."

Geng Zhiye: "Everything that needs to be shipped from the shore is expensive. Dabao, doesn't your mother love you?"

Dabao shook his head: "I didn't say that mom doesn't love me. Mom, can you not be angry with me?"

Ye Fan: "Can you not be angry with me?"

Well, the conversation broke down again. Geng Zhiye was helpless but wanted to laugh: "You two should just say less." Seeing Ye Fan struggling to peel garlic, Geng Zhiye took it and flattened it with a knife, then handed it to Ye Fan. Ye Fan suddenly realized: "No wonder Comrade Tao Chunlan always flattens the garlic first."

Dabao saw that his mother didn't understand: "Dad, are you better at cooking than Mom?"

Geng Zhiye: "Your mother used to be weak, so your grandparents didn't dare to ask her to work. When I was a child, your aunt was young and needed someone to take care of her. Your grandmother couldn't cook, your grandfather was busy with work, and your eldest uncle lived in the university dormitory, so either I or your second uncle would do it."

Dabao looked at his mother and said, "But mom is fine."

Geng Zhiye nodded: "It's fine now. When she was your and Erbao's age, she often went to the hospital."

Dabao looked suspicious.

Geng Zhiye: "You can ask grandma for confirmation."

Having said that, Dabao couldn't help but believe it: "Fanfan, let's make peace."

Ye Fan rolled his eyes at him, fished out the clams, cleaned the pot, poured water to blanch the vegetables.

Dabao spread his hands and looked at his father, you saw it all.

Geng Zhiye: "Look, if we don't talk, there won't be any quarrel."

"Dad, I don't blame you for helping Fanfan."

Geng Zhiye didn't respond: "Is there still fire under the pot?"

Dabao stuffed a small wooden stick into his pocket: "There are only a few pieces of firewood left."

Ye Fan took the opportunity to say to Geng Zhiye: "Miao Miao's mother asked me to go up the mountain with her to collect firewood. But what will they do when I'm not at home?"

Geng Zhiye asked Dabao: "The door is locked from the outside, and you and Erbao are playing in the yard?"

Dabao nodded: "Mom will be back soon."

Geng Zhiye: "Dad will be back at noon."

"Okay!" Dabao turned to Ye Fan and asked, "Am I obedient?"

Ye Fan ignored him. Geng Zhiye praised him for being obedient, and then told Ye Fan that he had given the kitchen staff a few dozen yuan, and they would deliver coal and stoves in the next few days. Once he finished making the coal briquettes, he wouldn't have to worry about running out of firewood at home.

"When will the toilet be built? The bricks and cement have been delivered." Ye Fan asked.

Geng Zhiye: "The moon was bright in the middle of the month. The political commissar, the chief of staff and I finished building the roof in one or two hours. After we finished building ours, we helped the other two families build theirs."

Ye Fan remembered that day he faintly heard Political Commissar Liao exclaim "There's a typhoon" and asked, "Didn't Political Commissar Liao grow up by the sea?"

"My hometown has mountains but no sea. I grew up by the lake. I used to serve in the army in the southwest. The chief of staff is from Bincheng in the north, and so is his wife. If you don't know how to cook the seafood you bought, you can ask them." Geng Zhiye poured the juice on the clams and left some for the vegetables.

Dabao took his sister to the living room to pull out the table and benches.

Geng Zhiye heard the noise and glanced towards the living room, whispering, "Dabao is so sensible."

"He's just too sensible." Ye Fan couldn't help but mutter, "He treats himself like an adult every day. He doesn't act like a child at all."

Geng Zhiye laughed: "Don't be ungrateful. There are many kinds of people. Besides, if I ask you to hold me or pee and play in the mud every day, will you be satisfied?"

Ye Fan imagined it and shuddered.

Geng Zhiye handed her two dishes: "Help Dabao and Erbao wash their hands. I'll take out the steamed buns. Don't come in."

Ye Fan took them to the water pump, pumped water with one hand and held Dabao's hand with the other to wash his hands, wiped Dabao clean, and then washed Erbao. The hand washing water flowed down the hook into the vegetable field.

Geng Zhiye came out to look for the mother and her two children and saw vegetables planted in the field between the water well and the fence: "Did you plant these?"

Ye Fan: "Miao Miao's mom helped me plant it. I plan to plant all the land in the east in the next few days."

"Take your time. Dabao and Erbao are still young, and I'm often not at home, so it doesn't cost much to buy them food." Geng Zhiye picked up Dabao, Ye Fan picked up Erbao, and the family went back to the house to eat.

After dinner, Geng Zhiye cleaned the kitchen and boiled some water.

The family washed and used up all the firewood. For the first time, Geng Zhiye realized that he had to make coal briquettes quickly. But before that, there was one more thing. Geng Zhiye coaxed the two children to sleep, and went to the bedroom to hand the letter to Ye Fan.

Ye Fan looked at the wrinkles on the letter and said, "I thought you didn't plan to give it to me."

Geng Zhiye was shocked: "How did you know???"

As Ye Fan opened the envelope, he said, "You bent over to cook and the envelope popped out of your trouser pocket. We just left home, your father wouldn't be in such a hurry to write to you. Aunt Yu or Xiao Qin would send a telegram if they have something to do. You don't need to come back to open the letters from your friends and comrades. Eliminating these impossibilities, there is only one possibility left."

Geng Zhiye lifted the quilt and sat over: "I'm afraid my mother-in-law will miss you and ask you to go back."

"She is ignorant, and my sister-in-law and my father won't let her do whatever she wants."

Geng Zhiye: "What does the letter say?"

Ye Fan frowned: "It seems that what I said has come true."

Geng Zhiye took it and wrote at the beginning that she was worried that Ye Fan could not sew quilts, so she sent them two new quilts. Geng Zhiye was not surprised at all. Ye Fan was 80 years old, and in the eyes of Comrade Tao Chunlan, she was also a little girl who needed her care.

In the middle, he expressed his longing for Dabao and Erbao. He said that when Dabao and Erbao were not at home, the house was so quiet that even the sound of words echoed. Geng Zhiye thought that Geng Dabao could become a judge in the future. The plaintiff, the defendant and the lawyer were speechless because of him. The efficiency of judging cases was greatly improved, which would definitely save the country a lot of manpower, material and financial resources.

Seeing the three words "Chen Xiaohui", Geng Zhiye raised his eyebrows and turned to Ye Fan.

Ye Fan: "Did you see it?"

"Chen Xiaohui goes back to her room right after work and won't come out for dinner unless you ask her to? My mother-in-law suspects that she is like a nanny? Isn't that an exaggeration? You used to -"

Ye Fan nodded: "I didn't do much laundry or cooking, but when Comrade Tao Chunlan was washing clothes, I pressed the water, and when she was cooking, I handed her the spatula. When she was washing the dishes and the pots, I chatted with her."

"If she doesn't want to go back to the Ye family, she can stay in Shencheng. As long as my father-in-law and mother-in-law are determined, my mother-in-law would have told her to do whatever she wants when Chen Xiaohui said she was just coming to visit." Ye Fan told Geng Zhiye that Chen Xiaohui didn't mean what she said, "She wanted both sides, but my mother-in-law didn't say anything."

Ye Fan: "On the day we came, she knew to use the car to carry the package, and waited until we got on the bus before leaving. It seems that she didn't treat herself as a young lady. Is there a misunderstanding? People tend to think about random things when they are suddenly free. Besides, my mother originally had a problem with Chen Xiaohui because of her attitude. Write a letter to Xiaoqin and ask her what's going on."

Geng Zhiye nodded: "I'll write it right away."

The next morning, Geng Zhiye received a letter from his sister.

Political Commissar Liao handed over the next month's schedule: "Look at it after work, take a look at this first."

Geng Zhiye glanced at it and shook his head: "You, the Chief of Staff and I will each lead a battalion commander for one week."

"Where's Deputy Commander Niu? He got upset when we didn't let him on duty, and he blamed us for looking down on him. When it comes to on-the-spot command, the Chief of Staff and I combined are no match for him."

Geng Zhiye: "He has more military medals than me. When I just graduated from military school and arrived at the front, he was the company commander. But how come I am the commander and he is the deputy commander?"

Political Commissar Liao said without hesitation: "Impulsive!"

"When we are on patrol and we encounter bald people, they want to deliberately provoke us. What do you think Lao Niu will do?"

Fuck him! Deputy Regiment Commander Niu's catchphrase popped up in Political Commissar Liao's mind. The same thing happened to the three of them, holding a loudspeaker and cursing at each other. Although it was cowardly, he had to do it with his current strength.

"Then you explain it to him?"

Geng Zhiye put the letter in his pocket, took the patrol watch, and crossed out the three words "Niu Dayong". "It's true that Lao Niu is here because of his bad temper, but he is easy to coax. When we board the ship, you said that someone has to stay at home. When we are on duty, you said that if we are upside down day and night, it will be a big problem if we can't think straight when encountering an emergency. Someone must stay awake all the time."

Political Commissar Liao: "Why is it him?"

"He's experienced and in great physical condition. I feel at ease with him around. Besides, why didn't you let him be on duty during the New Year holidays?"

Political Commissar Liao had a complicated expression. All officers had to stand guard during the New Year and other holidays.

"It's just sophistry!"

Geng Zhiye refused to give in: "You can't say it. Take him with you on patrol, or ask the chief of staff to take him with you."

Political Commissar Liao scratched his nose and suggested in a low voice: "Actually, we don't need to board the ship."

Geng Zhiye couldn't help but exclaimed: "Are you still seasick?"

"Who said I was seasick?" Political Commissar Liao asked hurriedly.

The door of the office was pushed open, and Deputy Captain Niu strode in: "I'm talking to you! You grew up by the lake."

"The lakeside is different from the sea!" Political Commissar Liao defended himself loudly, but unfortunately his arguments were not convincing enough.

Geng Zhiye calmly stood up and hooked his arm around Deputy Captain Niu's shoulder, like they were good brothers: "Ignore him. He's still stubborn even when he's on the table. You came just in time, we were discussing the shifts. Lao Liao wanted you to lead the team alone, but I don't think that's possible. You should patrol with him and tell him to adapt as soon as possible. I don't trust him to lead the team."

Deputy Captain Niu looked at the duty roster and saw his name was crossed out. "The captain is really considerate. I am also worried. He gets dizzy when he encounters waves. He was sold to the hometown of Jiaobenji. He must have thought he met a fellow villager."

"Who are you calling a little devil?!" Political Commissar Liao slammed the table and said angrily, "You just listened to him. He will sell you out later, and you will have to thank him happily."

(End of this chapter)