In 1959, what's wrong with me pedaling a tricycle?

Li Xiuping nodded repeatedly and said, "Yes, I'll go and cook you some porridge right away."

Wang Xingguo kissed her on the cheek, and Li Xiuping ran off to cook porridge for him.

Wang Xingguo sat on a stool, fanning his sleeping son.

Before I knew it, my son was almost nine months old.

Looking at the little guy, Wang Xingguo was in an exceptionally good mood. All the hard work seemed worthwhile.

Without children, he could never understand the feeling of wanting to pluck the stars and the moon from the sky.

Now that he has his own child, he understands that feeling—the desire to give him the best of everything in the world.

Of course, this feeling might disappear when the child grows up and becomes mischievous.

After all, which boy didn't get a spanking when he was little for being naughty or making mistakes?

While washing Wang Xingguo's clothes, Li Xiuping said to him, "Xingguo, your brother is really unlucky. His unit couldn't get the equipment back, so they sent it all to the countryside to help with drought relief. He has to carry water to irrigate the fields every day, and it's really tiring for him."

Wang Xingguo exclaimed in surprise, "How could it be arranged like this?"

Li Xiuping explained, "It's said that the drought is too severe. You're often away on business trips, so you might not know, but it hasn't rained at all in Beijing for the past few months. Winter wheat production has decreased significantly. It's only because our clan mainly grows vegetables that the losses would be huge."

Wang Xingguo frowned and said, "Although the clan mainly grows vegetables, if grain production decreases, they won't be able to get much grain subsidy from the commune. This year will probably be tough."

Wang Xingguo could only hope that the clan still had some grain reserves; otherwise, the winter would be very difficult.

Over the past few months, he has managed to grow another batch of grain in his space. Although the quantity is not large, it is sufficient for emergencies.

But since he couldn't return to his clan, he naturally couldn't secretly bring the grain back.

He said to Li Xiuping, "Honey, I'll only stay home for two days. After resting for two days, I need to go back to my unit to wait for my mission. Is there anything we're missing at home? I'll try to get it for us in the next couple of days."

Li Xiuping, abandoning her laundry, ran out of the bathroom with a surprised look on her face and asked, puzzled, "Honey, why is it only a two-day holiday this time?"

Wang Xingguo explained, "Because it was an emergency mission last time, we still had to do our regular work right away, so we had to shorten our rest time."

She was definitely unhappy, but these days, dedication is what matters. Li Xiuping could do nothing about it after hearing what Wang Xingguo said.

The rice porridge is cooked. The cold dishes and stir-fried cured meat with chili peppers go very well with it. The chili peppers here are not spicy. Although they look like chili peppers, they actually taste a little sweet after being stir-fried.

Li Xiuping, who usually doesn't eat much cured meat, cooked a lot of it today and kept urging Wang Xingguo to eat more.

Seeing how thin her beloved husband is now, she, as his wife, feels heartbroken.

Wang Xingguo had no choice; he had food but it was inconvenient for him to steal it.

There's not much chance to sneak food. For example, with meat, if he eats it, even if he's hiding in the toilet, everyone can smell it...

The same goes for the dried meat. He didn't want to be so generous as to share everything with his partner, Commander Yang, but since Yang was just watching him eat, it wouldn't be right not to share.

He had to share his drinks with the other person.

They were out of eggs again. Wang Xingguo knew Li Xiuping; she was a kind woman, and she must have given them to the other malnourished people in the compound.

After thinking for a while, he went out and brought back two wooden buckets, one containing chicken and duck eggs and the other containing a dozen or so fish, covered with burlap sacks.

He kept the fish in a large water tank in the kitchen, and the chicken and duck eggs weighed seventeen or eighteen pounds.

Li Xiuping was both surprised and delighted to see so many chicken and duck eggs.

Wang Xingguo said to her, "Honey, this mission will probably take another half a month. Don't give away all the things. You need to take care of the family's health. I want to ask you for a second child soon, so that our son can have a little sister."

Li Xiuping nodded and said, "Don't worry, honey. I only helped out when I found that some people were severely malnourished. I didn't dare to neglect my family."

Wang Xingguo yawned, said something to Li Xiuping, and went back to his room to catch up on sleep.

After sorting and putting away the chicken and duck eggs, Li Xiuping pushed her son's crib back to the room. Looking at Wang Xingguo, who was fast asleep, she fanned him with a fan, then her son, then herself, and then her son again, repeating this cycle, adhering to what she saw as fairness...

When everyone returned in the evening, Wang Xingguo also got up to have dinner with them.

Looking at his older brother, who was tanned very dark, he said happily, "That's great, I'm no longer the darkest one in our family."

Wang Xingbang rubbed his shoulders and said, "Getting tanned is fine, but carrying water every day has chafed my shoulders raw. It's really been a lot of suffering."

Wang Xingning asked, "Brother, how much longer are you going to fetch water?"

After thinking for a moment, Wang Xingbang replied, "I'm afraid we'll have to work until mid-September, because our new machines won't be back until then."

Wang Xingguo asked, "Brother, is it just organizing unemployed people to support drought relief?"

"No, many soldiers also came to fetch water, and the neighborhood office also organized volunteers. There were quite a few people. In the production brigade we went to alone, there were more than two hundred people who came to help fetch water."

The family chatted idly as they finished their rather sumptuous dinner.

In the past, this wouldn't have been considered a large meal, but tonight we had cured pork, fried eggs, and fish soup made with two crucian carp, which is quite a feast for this time of year.

The family was enjoying the cool air at the doorway, with the two children babbling away. Wang Cheng'an was already calling out "Dad" and "Mom" on his own initiative.

He doesn't call him "Second Uncle" yet, but he already recognizes people and knows that Wang Xingguo is a close friend. He will laugh happily when Wang Xingguo teases him.

Wang Jianhua can only pronounce "baba" and "mama". Anyone who teases him might utter these syllables. He doesn't have the corresponding understanding yet and can only pronounce these syllables indiscriminately.

Everyone knew that Wang Xingguo had returned, so many people came to the gate. Director Zhao even picked some cucumbers from the public vegetable garden and handed them to Wang Xingguo to try.

Others didn't receive this treatment; after the harvest of fruits and vegetables in the compound, they had to be distributed among everyone in turns.

Apart from a few persimmon trees and grapevines, the rest of the courtyard was planted with corn, cucumbers, tomatoes, green beans, eggplants, and potatoes.

These are crops that everyone has discussed and agreed upon, which have relatively high yields and are easy to distribute, such as scallions and cilantro. Everyone has planted some in the corners and edges of the plots, and whoever plants them owns them; there will be no forced division.

While eating a cucumber, Wang Xingguo asked, "Uncle, are you now mobilizing volunteers every day to help with the drought relief?"

Director Zhao shook his head and said, "Mobilize them my foot! Everyone's starving, and you want them to do manual labor? People will talk behind our backs. I'm not going to deal with this. Let Deputy Director Wang handle it. Whoever wants to go can go, and I won't interfere too much if they don't want to."