The 1970s: Military Family Beauty

Jiang Xiaocui quickly tried to coax her: "The doctor said that everything will be fine in two or three days."

"You have no idea!" Jiang Guoqing wasn't afraid of falling. If he got hurt, his mother would comfort him and he would definitely have delicious food. What he was afraid of was that Cai Xiaoqiang would stop playing with him. "I worked so hard to become a member of the advance team. If you beat up our Commander Cai, there will be no one to play with me at school tomorrow!"

Jiang Xiaocui was startled: "Furong, did you hit the leader?"

Jiang Furong laughed so hard her stomach hurt. "Cai Xiaoqiang calls himself Commander Cai? And the people around the Commander are called First Squad Deputy and Second Squad Deputy? What grade is he in? Fourth? Fifth? How can he be a commander like that? No one would even accept him as a soldier!"

Jiang Guoqing said aggrievedly: "He said the fifth grader is the commander."

Jiang Furong said angrily, "There are so many male students in the fifth grade, why should you listen to him just because he says he is the commander?"

"Cai Xiaoqiang knew Platoon Leader Zhao from the Special Operations Company. He said he saw him split a pile of bricks with a single slap." Jiang Guoqing raised his hand to demonstrate. "He also said Platoon Leader Zhao could pierce people with a chopstick, and if anyone disobeyed him, he would tell Platoon Leader Zhao who he had pierced."

Jiang Xiaocui was amazed: "So amazing! Is this true?"

"The trick is real!" Jiang Furong had seen all sorts of amazing people, and these tricks were indeed admirable, but that wasn't the point. The point was that Jiang Guoqing was young and ignorant, and had no ability to discern. She had to make the truth clear to her brother: "Even someone as impressive as Platoon Leader Zhao would pierce the enemy with a hole, earning merit and becoming a hero! Heroes only obey the orders of a true commander!"

Children are naive and easy to deceive. Even a very simple and unreasonable logic can fool a bunch of little kids.

Jiang Guoqing was skeptical: "Really? What if Cai Xiaoqiang doesn't allow others to play with me?"

Jiang Xiaocui coaxed: "If I don't want to play with you, then I won't play with you. Auntie will play with you."

Jiang Guoqing kicked his legs wildly on the back of the bicycle: "No, no, I just want to play with my classmates."

Little boys always want to find friends to play with, and being isolated is not a good thing.

"Be careful! If your foot gets stuck, you have to go back to see a doctor and put on a splint. Have you forgotten?" Jiang Furong reminded Jiang Guoqing not to be willful.

Old-style bicycles do not have designs to prevent foot pinching, so it is very dangerous for children to sit on the back seat.

Jiang Guoqing was almost crying with anger: "I haven't forgotten!"

Although he couldn't remember how painful it was, but thinking of the days when he couldn't play on the ground because of the plaster cast, he still sat down obediently, holding on to the bicycle seat and not daring to move.

Jiang Furong gave him some advice: "If you don't want to play with Cai Xiaoqiang, you can play with others. I see there are a lot of people climbing ropes and hanging on the horizontal bar there."

It would have been fine if he hadn't said anything. But when he did, Jiang Guoqing started to feel aggrieved again: "I can't jump onto the horizontal bar, and they're occupying the parallel bars so I can't play on them. I can only watch from the side. It's boring."

In short, I was left alone.

Jiang Furong thought of someone: "Aren't you playing with Zhang Lei and the others? Is Zhang Lei also playing with Cai Xiaoqiang? I didn't seem to see him just now?"

Jiang Guoqing wrinkled his nose and snorted: "Zhang Lei is going back to his hometown with his parents and has transferred to another school. He didn't come to school today."

Oh, I see.

Jiang Furong looked at Jiang Guoqing with sympathy. This kid had no one to play with him, so he had to become Cai Xiaoqiang's little brother.

When there is no one to coax him outside, he still knows to bow his head. He is indeed a submissive little bear.

When they came out of the hospital, it was already dark. The temperature dropped sharply and a north wind started blowing, making it impossible to open one's eyes. Jiang Furong took off her scarf and put it around Jiang Guoqing to block the wind.

When they arrived at the door of the house, Jiang Xiaocui took Jiang Guoqing off the bicycle and asked him what he wanted to eat.

Hearing the noise, Hu Xiuqing rushed out of her house and asked repeatedly, "Qing, what's going on? Let me see!"

When Hu Xiuqing heard that her son was in the hospital and Jiang Chaohui couldn't explain what was going on, she became very anxious and was about to go to the hospital to look for him.

Jiang Guoqing immediately made an about-face: "Don't touch my face, ouch, ouch, it hurts, I want to eat steamed egg cake."

"How did you get injured? Where did your sister do it?" Hu Xiuqing felt distressed when she saw her son's pig face, and she accused Jiang Furong without any explanation.

Jiang Furong thought about the medicine in her pocket and the note from the doctor about rest. She sneered and asked Jiang Guoqing without explaining, "Hey, Qingqing, do you know where Cai Xiaoqiang lives? I'll go find his parents."

She would not allow such an injustice to happen again.

It’s just a good opportunity to remind Hu Xiuqing about what happened today.

Jiang Guoqing panicked, suddenly fearing his sister would take him to seek justice. He stammered and lied, "I don't know where he lives."

Jiang Furong didn't force him: "Then let him have a good sleep tonight. I will go to school and complain to their teacher tomorrow."

Jiang Guoqing was anxious: "Don't go! Don't go!"

What if Cai Xiaoqiang gets criticized, won’t he become even more aggressive and bring people to bully him afterwards?

Hu Xiuqing asked sharply, "What's going on? Who are you suing?"

"Come in and talk, it's so windy outside." Grandma Jiang stood at the door and called them home for dinner: "The food is still on the table, it will get cold soon."

Hu Xiuqing picked up her son and went into the house.

After pulling off the scarf, the red medicine on Jiang Guoqing's face looked even more frightening under the dim light.

The doctor originally prescribed gentian violet, but Jiang Furong insisted on changing it to mercurochrome, otherwise it would be too creepy to look at.

Jiang Furong spoke first: "Qingqing, tell me who hit you."

Her voice was not loud, but surprisingly calm, and had an inexplicable deterrent power.

Jiang Guoqing didn't dare look at his sister. He leaned against his mother's arms and complained, "Mom, Cai Xiaoqiang kicked me in the butt and made me bite the dirt on my face."

Hu Xiuqing tightened her grip around her son and glared at Jiang Furong, her eyes blazing with anger. "Who is Cai Xiaoqiang? How could you let him kick your brother? How were you watching? You're distracted again, aren't you? You're a piece of crap. You can't even do the smallest things. What else can you do? What else can you do besides eating?"

Jiang Furong's expression grew even colder, and her voice was icy: "Qingqing, who do you think Cai Xiaoqiang listens to?"

Jiang Guoqing shrank his neck and whispered, "I don't know."

"Let's eat first and talk after we finish eating." Grandma Jiang tried to smooth things over: "I'm hungry during the National Day holiday. I'll have a bun quickly. It's a wheat-ear bun. It's good for studying."

Hu Xiuqing glared at Jiang Furong and said angrily, "Don't eat. You can't even take care of your brother, and you still have the nerve to eat?!"

This was Hu Xiuqing's daily way of handling things, but it made Grandma Jiang and Jiang Xiaocui, who were sitting at the table, extremely embarrassed. Such words were simply a slap in their faces and a way of driving them away.