Year 1979: Eating meat with my wife and children

"Platoon Leader Li, is that you?"

Hearing the call from afar, Li Xiangdong, who was about to turn around and leave, stopped in his tracks.

He turned around and saw an eleven or twelve-year-old boy, dressed in patched clothes, carrying a bamboo basket on his back and holding a sickle, running quickly toward him.

As the little boy drew closer to him, memories deep within Li Xiangdong's mind slowly surfaced.

That familiar address reminded him of those passionate years!

"Little slug?"

"Hey!"

When Little Snotty saw Li Xiangdong again, he was very excited. "Uncle Li, didn't you go back to the city? Why are you back again?"

Li Xiangdong quickly walked towards him, explaining as he went, "Have you forgotten this is your aunt's family home? I'm back to visit relatives. What are you doing here cutting pig feed?"

“All the good pig feed in our village has been taken over by others. Zhoujia Village doesn’t bully outsiders, so I came here.”

The little snotty girl walked up to Li Xiangdong, and as she spoke, her eyes reddened, and tears streamed down her face. "Uncle Li, I've missed you so much."

Li Xiangdong patted his head and said, "Why are you crying? You're a little adult now. Aren't you afraid people will laugh at you? Come on, Uncle Li will treat you to lunch today."

The little snotty bug sniffed, wiped away its tears, and shook its head, saying, "No need, I need to go home for dinner after I finish cutting pig feed."

"Why are you being so polite with me? There will be meat to eat later."

Li Xiangdong grabbed him and left, not giving the little snotty boy a chance to argue.

He remembered that Xiao Bina's family was poor, and he would usually carry a cornbread with him at noon, saying that he would go home to eat after cutting pig feed. It was nothing more than the saying "a poor family's child matures early."

This is just a little bit of modesty in the little slug's heart.

The two walked towards Zhou's father, chatting and laughing. Ever since Li Xiangdong saw the little slug, he felt a great sense of kinship.

When he first went to the countryside to cut pig feed, Little Slug was by his side. This little guy stayed with him until the second to last time he cut pig feed before returning to the city.

The last time he went by himself, he almost fed the village's pigs to death...

In any case, Little Snotty is a true witness to Li Xiangdong's struggle against nature after he went to the countryside!

Mr. Zhou stood there, smoking, watching Li Xiangdong lead a child who was as thin as a stick over. He looked at his son-in-law and asked in confusion, "Who is this child?"

Li Xiangdong explained to his father-in-law with a smile, "This is a kid from the village next door where I went to work. His name is Little Snot. He came to our village to cut pig feed, and I was planning to take him to our house for lunch."

He patted the little snotty boy on the back of the head and introduced him, "This is my father-in-law, you can call him Grandpa Zhou."

The little slug politely greeted, "Hello, Grandpa Zhou."

"Oh, hello, hello."

Mr. Zhou smiled and nodded, then looked at his son-in-law again and asked, "Why did he call you Platoon Leader Li? Did you serve as a militiaman when you went to the countryside? I don't remember doing that."

Li Xiangdong was pondering how to put it.

The little slug said, "Uncle Li was the first platoon leader of the grass-cutting vanguard platoon in our village."

"Cough cough~"

Mr. Zhou almost choked to death on a puff of smoke in his mouth. His son-in-law was really full of tricks every day.

"This is a title I gave myself; I was just joking around with them."

Li Xiangdong offered an awkward explanation and quickly patted his father-in-law on the back to help him catch his breath.

"Okay, okay, you don't need to take any more pictures of me."

Zhou's father hunched over for a moment, then straightened up and looked at the little snot-nosed boy, asking, "After your Uncle Li returned to the city, who will be the platoon leader in your grass-cutting platoon?"

"Grandpa Zhou, we are the Vanguard Grass-Cutting Platoon."

Little Snot corrected Zhou's father's statement and continued, "Our Vanguard Grass-Cutting Platoon only has a deputy platoon leader now, but Uncle Li will always be our platoon leader."

"Really?"

Mr. Zhou became interested.

It's a makeshift group formed out of sheer absurdity, and apart from his son-in-law, the members are probably all kids; adults wouldn't be so shameless.

Yet this small group, which can hardly be considered a faction, actually idolizes their son-in-law so much.

He asked curiously, "Why are you doing this?"

Little Slug tilted his head back and said, "No reason why, it's just that Uncle Li is good to us. Everyone in our Vanguard Grass-Cutting Platoon misses Uncle Li."

Mr. Zhou turned to his son-in-law, "Dongzi, tell me about it?"

"I don't know why. Maybe it's because we've spent so much time together that they've developed feelings for me."

Li Xiangdong gave his father-in-law a perfunctory reply. He couldn't very well say that several of the children who cut pig feed with him had received favors from him.

When he went to the countryside, the neighboring village was very poor. Some children in the village couldn't even afford a set of clothes. If they caught a cold, their families could afford a penny or two, but if they got a more serious illness, there was no other way but to tough it out.

Coupled with the tense and fearful environment at the time, the women who worked with them had long been numb, but he, a passionate young man, couldn't bring himself to harden his heart.

During his time in the countryside, Li Xiangdong went home many times to ask for money. It wasn't all his fault; he was always surrounded by a group of children, and he even appointed himself platoon leader. So what would happen if his young comrades got sick and their families didn't have money? He could only go home and trick Li's father into giving him money.

So, although he was notorious in the countryside for being unable to lift heavy objects, he also had a good reputation; otherwise, how could he have spent so many years cutting pig feed in the countryside?

Did he really think the village officials were incapable of curing his laziness?

Why would someone actively introduce a wife to him after he came of age?

Aren't those matchmakers worried about being gossiped about behind their backs or getting their hands on in a sack while walking at night?

So what if his family lives in the city? How long can his parents take care of him?

At that time, the slogan for sending educated youth to the countryside was to take root in rural areas, and no one expected that these educated youth would one day return to the city.

So, Li Xiangdong was just a lazy street urchin before, not a bad person.

...

...

There were two people when they went out, but there were three on the way back.

Li Xiangdong carried the little slug's basket on his back and swung the sickle a couple of times. Sure enough, muscle memory was powerful; he felt his feel for it had returned.

"Uncle Li, did Xiaohai come back with you and Auntie?"

"He's back. He's playing in the river at the village entrance with his two cousins. You'll see him when it's time to eat."

"Hmm, is my sister back yet?"

"I'm back too."

"Uncle Li, could you come back to the village with me after lunch? Chou Dan and the others miss you terribly."

"I'll let it go this time. I'll come visit you guys next time Uncle Li comes."

For the little slugs, it had only been a little over a month since they last saw each other, but for Li Xiangdong, it had been a very, very long time.

He couldn't possibly go to see his comrades-in-arms empty-handed, could he?

It would be better if they met again next time he brought more food.

Listening to their conversation, Zhou's father interjected, asking, "What did your Uncle Li teach you when he was a platoon leader?"

"Uncle Li told us that we must always maintain our revolutionary enthusiasm."

"Any more?"

"Be willing to sacrifice in battle."

"Any more?"

"And...and another thing is that we are told not to peep at girls when they go to the toilet or take a shower. If we are caught, we must cover our faces when we run away."

Upon hearing this, Zhou's father paused for a moment, then raised his foot and kicked Li Xiangdong beside him...