Five years of marriage, always separated [1970s]

Ye Fan glanced at Geng Zhiye and said, "Do I need you to say that?"

"Tell this to your father-in-law when you see him later." Ye Fan said.

Geng Zhiye: "You want to be a widow, but I don't want to die. But it's all thanks to my wife. Otherwise, the island would be full of wild vegetables and insects, and the fishermen wouldn't bother to take care of the chickens and ducks if they couldn't sell them. Without extra eggs, the vegetable market wouldn't have the courage to cancel the rationing."

Ye Fan: "Let's go."

Geng Zhiye put the dishes and steamed buns on the dining table in the living room and went to wash his hands. He ran into Dabao and Geng Zhiye slapped him on the head. Dabao was so angry that he wanted to kick his father again: "Why don't you rub your sister's hair?"

Geng Zhiye: "Erbao is short, I need to bend down."

Erbao was so angry that he glared at his father and went into the house to complain: "Mom, Dad said I can't grow tall."

Dabao, who was about to complain, almost bit his tongue. How come his sister is even more nonsense than him?

Ye Fan: "Dad said you are short, you can say he is a big fool. If he says nonsense, then you are wrong. Geng Erbao, mom is not deaf."

Erbao tugged at his mother's clothes and said, "Don't knit gloves for Daddy."

Ye Fan nodded.

Erbao was very satisfied. When he heard footsteps, he turned back and said, "Dad, you don't have gloves."

Geng Zhiye: "I don't have thread gloves, but I have cotton gloves."

Erbao suddenly turned to his mother and asked, "Did you do this?"
Ye Fan stuffed a piece of fish into her mouth: "Your father's company gave it to you. I can't even make cotton-padded jackets for both of you, how can I make gloves for him? I'm not a tailor."

Erbao asked curiously, "Does the tailor make gloves?"

Ye Fan: "You can do it even if you're not a tailor. But your mother doesn't have time to learn. She has to work and take care of you two."

Dabao said, "I gave my old gloves to my sister."

Erbao nodded: "Mom, I wear my brother's, please don't make me a new one."

Ye Fanxin said, based on what you said, Mom should also knit you a new pair of gloves: "Mom won't tire herself out. Eat. If you don't, let your dad eat it all."

Geng Zhiye was waiting for the three of them. Hearing that, he immediately picked up the chopsticks and picked up a large piece of fish. Dabao and Erbao were very anxious, taking a bite of steamed bun and a bite of fish, fearing that if they were slow, their father would eat it all. In fact, when the brother and sister were busy eating, Geng Zhiye slowed down and checked from time to time to see if there were any bones in the fish meat that Dabao and Erbao had picked up.

The brother and sister were too young to understand how cunning their parents were.

After drinking the egg soup, the brother and sister both burped.

Ye Fan wiped Erbao's mouth and told her to go play with her brother.

It was still early to go to bed, and it was cold outside. Ye Fan didn't want to go out, so he took a handful of wool and looked at Geng Zhiye: "Can you help me untangle it?"

Geng Zhiye: "Who helped you tie that ball on the bench?"

Ye Fan: "I'm holding on to Dabao."

"Go find your son!"

Ye Fan threw the wool at him: "Do you want to get tangled?"

Geng Zhiye: "Let me see where Erbao has gone. He is not afraid of getting sick in such a cold day."

Ye Fan held him back: "They are running around and they don't feel cold. Captain Geng, please help."

Geng Zhiye turned around and asked, "Captain Geng? It's not a soldier's duty to help you wind wool."

Ye Fan was helpless: "What's her father?"

"Didn't they piss me off to death?"

Ye Fanqi laughed: "Don't be so stingy——"

"Am I stingy?"

"I'm stingy!" Ye Fan said helplessly, "Sir?"

Geng Zhiye couldn't help but smile.

Ye Fan couldn't help but complain in his heart, you are really great! But he still had to shout: "Brother Geng, Brother Ye, can you be kind?"

"That's all?" Geng Zhiye raised his eyebrows.

Ye Fan let go: "No?"

A man should stop when he sees the opportunity, otherwise he will be stuck in the house and have to stay in the guest room at night. Geng Zhiye put his arm around her shoulders and said, "Madam has said so, so we must do it. How do we get rid of it? Please give me some advice, Madam."

Ye Fan: "Just use your hands to stretch out the string. I'll wrap it into a ball here."

Geng Zhiye unrolled the yarn: "Why does it look familiar?"

Ye Fan: "I'll tear your sweater apart and make a new one someday. Gloves made with this yarn aren't warm enough. But they're just right for Dabao and Erbao to wear now. Wear cotton gloves in December. The ones I brought from home at the beginning of this year can last for two years."

Geng Zhiye: "Did Aunt Yu do it?"

Ye Fan nodded: "I make it for Huihui every year. She said that the little girl likes new things, so she must have one if others have them. Xiaoqin said that Aunt Yu didn't make it when she was a child?"

Geng Zhiye thought about it carefully: "Aunt Yu often gave money to her mother, and she also secretly gave her mother the things that dad gave her. The old lady might have been afraid that dad would be angry, so she rushed to do all the work during the time she was taking care of Xiaoqin, just like an old maid. One time, my eldest brother came back and saw that dad and Aunt Yu were not helping, so he caught them and scolded them, saying that they had forgotten their origins only a few years after the establishment of the country, and really regarded themselves as high-ranking officials and their wives. It seems that since then, the old lady has been doing sewing and mending. Aunt Yu and dad are responsible for washing and cleaning. When they are not at home, I cook when I come home early from school. Sometimes Aunt Yu's sisters-in-law and brothers-in-law come to the city to help us take apart and wash quilts."

Ye Fan knew that Yu Wentao's mother had stayed in the Geng family for a long time, but he didn't know this was going on: "No wonder Aunt Yu is afraid of my eldest brother. It turns out that he even scolds his own father."

"The boss always criticizes everyone," Geng Zhiye said. "When I first arrived here, I wrote a letter saying that I was a border guard, not a local tyrant. What's so great about this island that I should care about? In his eyes, big eels and crabs are so expensive that you can't buy them even with money, and fishermen don't even want to eat them."

Ye Fan asked: "Do you dare to say this in front of your elder brother?"

Geng Zhiye nodded: "Why not? He can't beat me now." He sat next to her and said, "I don't argue with him not because I'm afraid of him, but because I respect the elderly. For example, I respect my father-in-law, mother-in-law and brother-in-law."

Ye Fan nodded: "I understand, you don't respect my sister-in-law!"

"You're just nitpicking." Geng Zhiye looked at the thread in his hand. "It's so cold. If you ask me, I'll weave it during the day."

Ye Fan: "I won't weave tonight."

"Then can you knit me a pair? You have knitted for me before."

Ye Fan turned to him: "Are you sure?"

Geng Zhiye: "I'm sure! Are you talking about the scarf we had before we got married? My mother-in-law kept asking you to knit it for me."

Ye Fan was shocked: "You...why are you asking about this?"

Geng Zhiye smiled and shook his head.

"My mother said that?" Ye Fan asked, "What does she think?"

Geng Zhiye: "You are good in every way in your mother's eyes. My mother-in-law must want to say that you cherish Ye Fanfan, but she can't say it directly, so she said that you only knitted a scarf for me."

Ye Fan: "I would have forgotten if you hadn't mentioned it. Who knitted this sweater I just tore apart?"

"Xiaoqin knitted the two sleeves." Geng Zhiye couldn't help laughing. "Xiaoqin said so herself. When she saw the sweater I was wearing, she asked if it fit and whether the sleeves were too small. And the woolen trousers, were they knitted by you two too?"

Ye Fan rolled his eyes at him and couldn't help muttering, "Why are these people around me so talkative?"

Geng Zhiye leaned towards her: "Ye Fanfan, Ye Fanfan, Ye Fanfan——"

"Reciting sutras?" Ye Fan was very annoyed. "Just weave, okay?"

Geng Zhiye sighed: "It's so reluctant."

Ye Fan glared at him: "Not finished yet?"

"It's over!" Geng Zhiye sat up straight. When Ye Fan finished winding the yarn, he went out to call the two children back to wash their faces and feet.

Dabao was finally able to join in the activities for the older kids. He was having so much fun that he asked his annoying dad to go play with mom.

Liao Miaomiao learned new knowledge for the day, and after dinner she didn't want to read and chatted with little sisters of the same age outside. Hearing Dabao's words, Liao Miaomiao subconsciously looked at Geng Zhiye, and saw that he turned back home without saying a word: "Dabao, your father went to find help."

Geng Dabao said loudly: "My father has no help."

Liao Miaomiao: "Where's your mother?"

Dabao, who was fighting a cock with his legs bent, stopped, hesitated for a second, and grabbed his sister: "Let's go home."

When they got to the yard, Ye Fan came out of the house. Dabao gently pushed Erbao, and Erbao ran over and hugged her mother's legs: "Mom, I'm sleepy."

Ye Fan snorted twice: "What a coincidence! Mom wants to teach your brother English words and ask Dad to teach you Russian. Since you are sleepy, then Mom and Dad will watch you two sleep."

Erbao turned around to look for his brother, what should he do?

Dabao: "Mom wants to teach me. I can learn for half an hour."

After exercise, their brains were excited, so Ye Fan asked them to study for half an hour. When they were mentally tired, he washed their faces and brushed their teeth, tucked them into bed, and they fell asleep in ten minutes.

Geng Zhiye pointed at his son's sleeping face and said, "You're annoying me every day!"

Ye Fan grabbed his hand and said, "What are you doing? Are you trying to comfort me when I'm crying?"

"He's still crying at this age?" Geng Zhiye curled his lips.

Ye Fan dragged him out and gently closed the door: "How old is Dabao? He will be seven years old in the twelfth lunar month. Can you light a fire when you are seven? Dabao can light a fire, and he can also brush his own shoes and wash his socks."

Geng Zhiye sneered: "You can't even wash your face, and you're still washing your socks?"

"..." Geng Dabao didn't wash his face properly because he wanted to play in the morning and thought it was a waste of time to wash his face seriously. The reason why he brushed his shoes and washed his socks was because he saw her washing clothes. Dabao wanted to help instead of playing, so he could rub and brush patiently. Ye Fan asked: "Can you stop teasing him and praise him more?"

Geng Zhiye: "You are enough for me."

Ye Fan: "Then don't blame him and Erbao for being mad at you."

Geng Zhiye shook his head: "Just don't make me angry on purpose."

Ye Fan pushed him away: "Get out of the way!"

Geng Zhiye went to the kitchen to fetch hot water, and they both soaked their feet.

The next weekend, Ye Fan took Dabao and Erbao to the mountain to pick oranges.

In the past, orange trees grew wildly on the mountain, and the oranges they produced were both sweet and sour. Last year and this year, agricultural experts carefully instructed members to add fertilizer and prune the trees, and the trees that could not be saved were directly cut down, so that the fruits in the past two years have been more than before, and there is no need to worry about eating sour or bitter oranges.

Ye Fan picked out some ugly ones and put them in Erbao's bag. Erbao said in disgust: "Mom, I don't want this. It's broken!" He took it out and stuffed it into her hand, "Give it to Dad."

Ye Fan wanted to laugh: "You really love your dad. You know why it doesn't look good?"

Dabao: "It was eaten by bugs. The orange peel is thick and they didn't bite it."

Ye Fan asked again: "Are insects smart? For example, in our vegetable garden, do they eat whatever is fresh and tender?"

Dabao suddenly realized: "This kind of orange is sweet?"

Ye Fan shook his head, "Not necessarily. It depends on the growing environment. If these oranges face the sun, they should grow well, but they don't, which means something is affecting them. Look at the orange peel, it's golden yellow, which means it's been exposed to enough sun." He broke one open, "Sure enough, it's sweet." He stuffed two orange halves into Dabao and Erbao's mouths, "Although it's said that appearance reflects the heart, and people with ugly faces are not good people, but it's not so absolute. Good-looking people may also be big liars. They took advantage of your love for them to trick you away and sell you off."

The two children nodded thoughtfully.

Liao Miaomiao was picking oranges behind the mother and her two children. When she heard this, she whispered to her mother, "Can Dabao and Erbao understand?"

Zhuang Qiuyue: "You don't understand now, but you will understand in two years when you grow up." She looked at Ye Fan and saw her continue to cut oranges. "People are good at teaching children. I just know how to remind you not to be cheated."

Wan Siqin came over with a basket: "Me too. I even went to a girls' school for a few years." Zhuang Qiuyue was startled, "You—are here?"

Wan Siqin used to dislike socializing with people, hated people's gossip, and did not do her work all day. Liu Guihua, who did not do her work, sold duck and goose feathers for 80 yuan, and Wan Siqin envied her and had to change her view of others.

Wan Siqin was not as outgoing as Liu Guihua. She was too embarrassed to say that she heard the oranges were sweet this year so she came to pick some to taste, so she said that her children saw Miaomiao and Dabao going up the mountain and wanted to go up too.

Zhuang Qiuyue: "My younger sister also saw Dabao going up the mountain and wanted to go up. Let's help them pick them first, and then pick out the ones that don't look good, and there will be enough for us to eat."

Wan Siqin couldn't help but ask, "Didn't Accountant Ye say that ugly ones are also sweet?"

Zhuang Qiuyue: "People in the north don't understand. Besides, if you buy it to visit relatives, they would rather have something that looks good but doesn't taste good."

When harvesting oranges last year, Wan Siqin saw Zhuang Qiuyue bringing back a lot of them, and she was still grumbling in her heart, thinking that she had the nerve to do that since they had grown them with great effort. At this moment, Wan Siqin felt a little uncomfortable, worried that Zhuang Qiuyue would see that she had once disliked her greed. "I'll go over there and take a look." She pointed to the tree in the distance.

Zhuang Qiuyue nodded: "Miaomiao and I are enough here."

Liao Miaomiao climbed up the tree: "Mom, you answer it from below."

Dabao looked back and said, "Mom, I'll go pick it from the tree!"

Ye Fan pushed him back: "You have to climb up the tree to be as tall as me, I can just reach out and pick them, why would you do that?" He cut off a few, "Basket!"

Dabao pulled the basket over angrily and said, "Mom, don't be so fierce. It won't look good if you are fierce."

Ye Fan: "Does being fierce have anything to do with being good-looking?"

Dabao nodded: "It's hideous, so ugly."

Ye Fan asked curiously: "Where did you see the idiom?"

Dabao: "Is it not okay for me to be studious?"

Ye Fan was too lazy to talk nonsense with him and asked him to watch Erbao. Dabao wanted to say no, but when he turned around, his sister was gone. Dabao was very panicked and was about to call his mother, but Erbao came out from behind a member. Dabao breathed a sigh of relief, went over to grab Erbao and scolded him: "Don't run around!"

Erbao saw that he was very angry and handed the orange to him: "Brother, I found it for you."

"It's useless. I should find a rope to tie your hands together with mine." Dabao said with his eyes wide open, "If you run around again, I'll lock you up at home."

Ye Fanxin said, you are so good at talking, but I don't usually see you being obedient. "Dabao, ask your sister if she is tired. If she is tired, sit down and rest for a while."

Dabao looks at his sister, is she tired?
Erbao nodded. Dabao found a place with lots of leaves and sat down with his sister to eat oranges.

Ye Fan cut six baskets and was sweating all over. Then she took a bag of crooked melons and cracked dates and led Dabao and Erbao down the mountain. When they saw Su Yuanhang coming to the scale with a notebook, Ye Fan asked Dabao and Erbao to wait for a moment while she talked to Su Yuanhang.

The member who was weighing himself said, "You guys talk first."

Ye Fan walked over and said, "It's not a big deal. Su Yuanhang, pick a train car first. You go with us when we ship out the oranges tomorrow. Go to the city and call the Shencheng Supply and Marketing Cooperative to ask if they want oranges. Ask Su Yuncheng and Su Duofu to bring 20 kilograms with them and let the people from the Shencheng Supply and Marketing Cooperative taste them at the station."

Su Yuanhang: "There aren't enough to sell in the capital, so why are you selling it to Shanghai?"

Ye Fan asked the members: "Is the harvest better this year than last year?"

The member nodded.

Ye Fan: "We will return the same amount to the capital last year. We will sell the extra lotus seeds and oranges to the Shanghai Supply and Marketing Cooperative. The capital is too far away from us, so we still need to have a good relationship with Shanghai in the long run. If the people in the garment factory eat our oranges and lotus seeds and think of us, they will definitely come to our door next year to buy duck and goose feathers. Also, if we can gather enough bayberries or loquats that cannot be transported over long distances to a truck, it will be cost-effective to transport them to Shanghai."

The member couldn't help but say, "Yuanhang, Accountant Ye is right. Shanghai citizens have money. Take loquats and bayberries, for example. They can be picked in the afternoon, loaded onto trucks at night, and sold the next morning. If they are shipped to the capital, they will definitely go bad after sitting in the trucks for a day and a night."

Ye Fan: "But this kind of thing won't last long. We still need to have a factory and develop our own characteristics. For example, we can produce canned fish. Dried shrimp, seaweed, dried eel, etc., one or two pieces per pound. The cost is increased a little, and people will buy it for relatives even if it is sold at a higher price. Now most people buy it back to eat at home."

Su Yuanhang couldn't help but say: "We don't have any money."

Ye Fan: "Next year, find an opportunity and file a report asking the higher-ups to return all the money we have paid in the past few years."

The member's heart skipped a beat and he said hurriedly, "Accountant Ye, no--you, please think about this again. It's hard to spit out something you've already eaten. Don't let the money go away and you get fired. We've saved some money in the past few years, so there's no need to rush."

A member carrying oranges also said, "Accountant Ye, every family has some extra money now. Even if no one buys our products next year, we won't starve. It won't be a problem if we build the factory in two years."

Ye Fanxin said that if the factory building was not built before the reform and opening up, and then the higher-ups asked for money, the higher-ups would definitely ask the members to find a solution themselves. "I just said it casually. I didn't say I would file a report after the New Year. Maybe it will be the end of next year. I see how scared you are." Ye Fan smiled and shook his head, "Get busy. Erbao is sleepy, I'll go home first."

After Ye Fan walked away, several members advised Su Yuanhang: "It's good now."

Su Yuanhang: "Accountant Ye is very cautious and it's right to listen to her. Besides, Accountant Ye is not someone who can be fired just because someone wants to."

The members thought that Accountant Ye's father and brother were very capable. However, the county magistrate was not as good as the current one. Several members still asked Su Yuanhang to persuade Ye Fan. If he couldn't persuade him, they would ask Su Duofu. He used to do business and knew a lot. He also agreed that the factory building could be built.

Su Duofu certainly agreed to build a factory. The food factory is not going far now unless it makes money for a few years. Ye Fan will definitely be transferred with Geng Zhiye in a few years. She wants to build a factory now, completely for the long-term consideration of the islanders.

After Su Duofu and Su Yuncheng returned from the capital, Ye Fan distributed the money and asked Su Yuanhang to prepare a truckload of oranges, lotus seeds and seafood to be sent to Shanghai.

After the goods were shipped out, Ye Fan took advantage of the fact that Dabao and Erbao were in school and didn't need to be taken care of. She rode her scooter and took Su Duofu and Su Yuncheng to the Five-Star Brigade in the middle of Hengshan Island. "This brigade doesn't have a dock, unlike the Lotus Brigade, which has lotus roots, and it doesn't grow fruits like the brigades in the south. We'll set up a factory here later."

Su Duofu: "There is plenty of water here, so we can raise chickens, ducks and geese. Chicken and duck eggs can be made into preserved eggs or salted eggs, and duck and goose feathers can be sold."

Ye Fan: "The supply and marketing cooperative on the shore wants live chickens, ducks and geese. Are the members willing to kill ducks and geese every few days to collect their feathers?"

Su Duofu shook his head: "Before August 15th, the comrades from the supply and marketing cooperative complained to me that if they were not worried about someone reporting them, they would live. If they can't sell all the goods in one day, they don't have to worry about them going bad."

Ye Fan: "There seems to be some mountains here, what are they growing on the mountains?"

Su Yuncheng: "I've been here before. They used to be wild bayberries. They were very big, bigger than quail eggs, but very sour."

Ye Fan: "Don't we have agricultural experts? Why don't we use them now? Wait until they return to the city to hire them? Will they be willing to come back? Do you have loquats? The biggest problem with Hengshan Island is that it has no special features. Su Yuncheng, why did I accept you at that time?"

Su Yuncheng thought: "You say I'm young, can I stay up all day and all night?"

Ye Fan looked at Su Duofu.

Su Duofu: "I have done business and I know how to deal with people?"

Ye Fan: "This is your specialty. If we can grow seedless oranges, loquats with small drupes and sweet bayberries as big as ping-pong balls, who would want to run a food factory? Just sit at home and wait to collect the money!"

They had never seen a seedless orange tree, nor had they seen a bayberry as big as a ping-pong ball. They looked at each other, and Su Duofu said, "Accountant Ye, dreams are not just fantasies."

Ye Fan: "Did you believe that a sack of duck feathers could be sold for dozens of dollars?"

Su Duofu had only seen duck feathers traded for sugar. If anyone told him that a pound of duck feathers could be sold for 10 to 20 yuan, he would say that person was dreaming.

Ye Fan: "So let's give it a try." Seeing the river not far away, "Can't lotus roots be grown here?"

Su Yuncheng asked the captain of the Five-Star Brigade: "Some places are very deep. During a typhoon and heavy rain, the lotus leaves can be submerged. Draining the water into the sea is a huge undertaking. It would take many years to dig the pit manually. It's not worth it."

Ye Fan walked over and it looked like a big lake. She finally understood why such a big island had so few people. It turned out that there was not much arable land. "Let's go into the village and take a look." Ye Fan said.

The village was similar to other brigades, with houses scattered here and there, some built against the mountain, some built beside the water. Anyway, it was different from the villages in the north that were lined up in rows.

After looking around, there was nothing special. Ye Fan walked out from the other end of the village and stopped when he passed the small bridge. The single-hole bluestone bridge was very Jiangnan style. "The bridge is quite old, right?"

Su Duofu: "It was here when I was a kid. It was probably built in the late Qing Dynasty."

Ye Fan: "To the north is a lake, to the south is a river, and the river leads to the sea?"

Su Yuncheng shook his head: "In fact, it was just a ditch before. It's not clear where it leads to, but it definitely doesn't lead to the sea. People used to get water from the river. How can we drink water if it leads to the sea?"

Ye Fan forgot that the sea water was salty. "Let's go." Suddenly, an idea flashed in his mind. He didn't know if it was feasible. "Su Yuncheng, you seem to know a lot about the Five-Star Brigade?"

Su Yuncheng: "I have a junior high school classmate who is from here. In the past, I didn't have to fight for work points during the winter and summer vacations, so I often went to play with him."

Ye Fan pointed to the endless lake in the north and said, "You said some places are very deep, does that mean some places are very shallow?"

In the past, Su Yuncheng and his classmates caught eels, crabs, water chestnuts, and rice in the lake: "It was actually very shallow before. My classmates told me that when villagers needed soil to build houses, they would come here to dig. When it rained, the soil on the edge would be washed into the water. Gradually, the lake widened, and the areas with more silt were shallow, while the areas with less silt were deeper."

Ye Fan: "If, next year, rice is planted and everyone except those who go out to sea to fish is idle, and the captain of the Five-Star Brigade asks everyone to dig a lake, will the members be willing?"

Su Duofu and Su Yuncheng didn't understand why this happened and were full of confusion.

Ye Fan squatted down by the road and drew a circle on the ground: "If this is the lake in front of us, we can dig out the silt and not transport it out, but pile it in a shallower place above the water surface to grow things. Rice is definitely not an option, but we can grow taro or sweet potatoes."

Su Yuncheng frowned: "This is just a little more land?"

Ye Fan stood up and said, "One mu of land can yield several hundred kilograms of sweet potatoes. It is enough for the whole family to eat for dozens of days." Looking at the calm lake, "We can't wait for God to give us food."

Su Yuncheng agreed with this and nodded.

Su Duofu couldn't help thinking that if Ye Fan was someone else, he would be gone in a few years, so there would be no need to do this. "Can other low-lying areas be repaired in this way?" Su Duofu asked.

Ye Fan: "Like the Lotus Brigade, it's not necessary if we can grow things."

Su Duofu groaned for a moment and said, "I have dealt with the captain of the Five-Star Brigade. I will talk to him when I meet him at the end of the year. If he disagrees, I will tell him what you said?"

Ye Fan nodded: "Okay. Get in the car. Going back to the food factory or home?"

The car was at the food factory, and Su Duofu and Su Yuncheng were going back to the factory. Halfway through the journey, Su Yuncheng realized that the factory site had not been determined: "Accountant Ye, where should we open the factory?"

Ye Fan: "At the foot of the mountain on the side of the road. Go back and ask Captain Geng to report and blow up a piece of land to build the factory. We cannot requisition arable land. It will be inconvenient to build it in the village, and after a long time, people may think that Hengshan Food Factory is a five-star brigade. I can't leave you with a lot of hidden dangers in just a few years here."

Su Duofu finally realized the gap between people.

In the past ten years, Su Duofu had felt resentful when his boat was confiscated. At this moment, Su Duofu felt relieved - he was not the only one whose boat was confiscated, and it happened all over the country. Others could face it calmly, so why couldn't he? He complained about himself every day, and he couldn't live a good life and couldn't teach his children well.

The next day, Su Duofu rode Su Yuanhang's 28-bar bicycle to the Wuxing Brigade and asked him if he could mobilize the members to dig the lake. Before the New Year, they would use boats to mark out the shallowest part of the lake with bamboo, and then start work after the Qingming Festival when the weather warms up.

The captain of the Five-Star Brigade was not at home yesterday. When he came back and heard that Accountant Ye had come, he was very upset. After Su Duofu finished speaking, he asked, "What is Accountant Ye's idea?"

Su Duofu: "Since you have guessed it, I won't say much. Accountant Ye will be gone in a few years. Whether we are good or bad has nothing to do with him, but he is still willing to worry about us. He must sincerely hope that we can live a prosperous life and realize modernization as soon as possible."

The captain of the Five Star Brigade nodded: "It's okay if you don't know what's good for you, but you can't blame them for being too troublesome."

Su Duofu: "Then you arrange it, don't mention Accountant Ye? The lazy guys in your team will definitely have objections."

The five-star captain is nearly fifty years old and has plenty of life experience, so he knows how to make arrangements.

The members have always envied other brigades for having docks, large ships, and agricultural experts planting fruit trees. They have been drooling over the fruits they have shipped these days, and if they are asked to tidy up the land now so that they can have more food next year, they will definitely be willing.

The next day, the Five Star Brigade asked all members to go to the lake for a meeting.

The young members thought it was unnecessary, but the older people were afraid of being hungry and supported the team leader regardless of having too much land.

Finally, the minority obeyed the majority, and the team leader led the team to cut thin bamboos and rowed a small boat to mark the shallowest place. Throughout the winter, the members talked about how to reinforce the mud pile when they had free time, and they were worried that the silt would not be suitable for growing crops.

Then again, how do you know if you don’t try?

After the New Year, the Five-Star Brigade packed up the iron wire and wooden barrel boats and prepared to dig the lake two months later. Geng Zhiye, Political Commissar Liao and the Chief of Staff took turns leading the 20-member farming and breeding team to the martyrs' cemetery to raise the mounds, build steps, reinforce the surrounding area, plant trees where they should be planted, and weed where they should be weeded. By the end of March of the Gregorian calendar, the martyrs' cemetery, where hundreds of people were buried, was completely renovated, like a thatched hut turned into a large tiled house. The members of the cooperative couldn't help but lighten their steps when passing by.

On April 3rd, the weekend, Geng Zhiye took Ye Fan over and asked, "How was it?"

Ye Fan: "This is more dignified. It used to be just a pile of dirt. After a long time, we don't know who is buried underneath. By the way, it's Qingming Festival the day after tomorrow, right? Tell the school tomorrow and ask the teachers to take the students to visit the graves."

Geng Zhiye: "I just cleaned it."

Ye Fan: "Patriotic education!"

Geng Zhiye nodded: "Yes, sir!"

Ye Fan pinched him and said, "It's okay to be unruly."

Geng Zhiye: "My comrades who have never met me won't mind. Let's go. Dabao and Erbao can't be found, so we should go play something they don't dare to play normally."

(End of this chapter)