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

The next day, after the morning meeting, Wang Xingguo did some work and arrived at Li Zhong's office at ten o'clock.

Li Zhong asked, somewhat surprised, "Why are you always coming here? I'm getting a headache just seeing you. Is something wrong again?"

Wang Xingguo smiled, then went straight to the point: "Grandpa Li, how's Grandpa Lin doing?"

Li Zhong paused for a moment, then replied, "Not bad, the recovery is going quite well. Why did you suddenly ask about this?"

Wang Xingguo didn't hide anything and said directly, "I feel something is wrong. Grandpa Lin won't let us visit him, and the children say he's been lying in bed all day. This is really abnormal."

Li Zhong frowned and made a shushing gesture.

He lowered his voice and said, "Don't make wild guesses. Your Grandpa Lin is fine; he just had surgery and needs to rest. Not letting you visit is the best arrangement. If people find out he had surgery and can't work, some of his work won't be possible, understand?"

Wang Xingguo's pupils contracted sharply, and he could hardly believe his ears. He had undergone surgery?

Seeing Wang Xingguo's reaction, Li Zhong could only continue to explain in a low voice: "He used to have shrapnel left in his body. At that time, we didn't have the means to remove it. Now we have such surgical experts. If the shrapnel isn't removed, your Grandpa Lin will live for at most five more years. If it's removed and he recovers well, he might live for another ten or twenty years."

He used to be reluctant to risk surgery because the risks were too high; the success rate was only fifty percent, and he wasn't one to gamble. But now it's different. He wants to take a gamble with death. If he wins, he can live a few more years to teach your children. If he loses, well, there's nothing he can do; he'll just consider it an earlier opportunity to join his fallen comrades.

Wang Xingguo was stunned for a long time before he managed to say with difficulty, "So, Grandpa Lin's health has actually been very poor all along?"

Li Zhong nodded and said, "That's right. He's a very strong-willed person, and he kept pushing himself. Plus, the work here is too important. He wouldn't give up until he saw victory. But as he made breakthroughs in technology and success was just around the corner, he lost his nerve, his body collapsed, and then he went to gamble with the King of Hell."

Honestly, he's had terrible luck his whole life. He even thought he was too lucky and might not be able to beat the King of Hell. Luckily, he won the gamble. Now he just needs some more rest, and he'll fully recover his health. Living to be over eighty years old will definitely be no problem.

…………

After leaving Li Zhong's office, Wang Xingguo lit a cigarette and returned to the materials transportation department.

He had considered many possibilities, but he never expected this to be the case.

Grandpa Li talked about many things, and Wang Xingguo finally understood a lot.

However, Wang Xingguo believed Grandpa Li's words and thought that Grandpa Lin should be fine, since he had already recovered after the surgery.

The reason for taking the children out to eat was that the old man had recovered enough to eat and missed the children, so he took them over for a meal.

Just as Wang Xingguo and the others could hardly have deep feelings for Grandpa Lin, Grandpa Lin felt the same way about them. He only loved his adopted daughter, Wang Yongzhen, and therefore extended his affection to them as well.

But Wang Jianhua and the others were different. The way they called him "great-grandfather" warmed his heart, so he was especially close to and fond of Wang Chengan and the others.

At his age and status, it's hard for anything to move him anymore. However, even the coldest heart has a soft spot, and these little children are his weakness. He can't bear to leave this world before he can see them grow up.

After listening to Li Zhong's call, the old leader was silent for a moment, then said to Li Zhong, "I know about this. I don't want others to see me looking weak, so they don't need to come to visit. Niannian seems to have lost some weight. Is your logistics department really that poor? Can't you provide some welfare subsidies?"

Li Zhong smiled helplessly and replied, "Are you speaking as a leader or as an old comrade-in-arms?"

The old leader chuckled lightly, then replied, "I'm speaking as the child's great-grandfather; is that alright?"

Li Zhong replied, "Old Lin, you're such a stubborn mule. But I really want to make fun of you now, hahaha, kids need to grow taller, they definitely need to lose weight. You want your child to always have a chubby face, how is that possible!"

The old leader was speechless. He hadn't taken care of children for many years and was indeed lacking in this kind of knowledge.

So the little girl didn't lose weight, she just grew taller...

When Wang Xingguo got home from get off work that evening and they had dinner together, he told him that Grandpa Lin was fine, just recuperating and didn't want to be disturbed.

Li Xiuping asked, somewhat puzzled, "Why? It's not a big deal to recuperate, why won't they even let me visit?"

After thinking for a moment, Wang Xingguo said, "It's probably not that he's afraid of disturbing people, but rather that he's in poor health and doesn't want to see anyone. Anyway, there's really nothing going on over there. Once he's rested for a few months, maybe he can come here to visit the children on his own."

Wang Xingbang nodded and said, "That makes sense. If I'm sick, I don't want Cheng'an and the others to see me looking sickly, because that would affect my image and authority in their eyes."

To be honest, everyone thought what Wang Xingbang said made a lot of sense, and it seemed like everything made sense.

Shen Qingqing then spoke up: "Today I heard from an older woman that there's a young man in their alley who signed up to answer the call to go to the countryside and mountains. Apparently, he's going to a state-run farm in Ningxia. I don't think that's very reliable."

Actually, the practice of going to the countryside and mountains has existed since 55, but it was not on a large scale and was always done on a voluntary basis.

Many young people choose to go to the countryside or the mountains because they cannot continue their education or find jobs.

In general, it was better to go to the countryside and mountains at the beginning, because the places we went to were state-run farms or production and construction corps.

Unable to find work in the city, and with no money or connections at home, this was a way out for him. State-run farms and production and construction corps provided food and lodging, and wages, which was much better than the situation of the "Old Three Classes" (referring to students who graduated from high school in the late 1960s and 1966) as educated youth in communes.

These days, with so many kids, one salary can't support so many people, so it's better to go out and try your luck.

Urban graduates are now facing difficulties in finding employment, so pilot programs have begun to promote rural relocation programs. Every year, about 200,000 unemployed young people across the country are organized to go to rural areas.

It's called "going to the countryside and going to the mountains" now, but it will be changed to "going to the mountains and going to the countryside" in the future.

Wang Xingguo looked at Wang Xingmin and said, "Fourth brother, you should study hard and try to get into a vocational school. Don't talk about your third sister. She's not stupid, but her studies are so bad."