AYLS – Chapter 123

Although Lin Qiao said she didn’t want to think about Gu Huayuan, she still couldn’t adjust in the first few days. She tossed and turned, unable to sleep, and in the middle of the night, when thirsty, she instinctively called out for Gu Huayuan.

Sometimes, when she woke up startled, she would reach out beside her.

“Habits are terrifying,” Lin Qiao muttered, lying in bed, feeling the cold sweat on her forehead. She felt life was unbearable like this. It had only been a few days since they separated, and she was already uncomfortable—if she were ever to leave this world, how unbearable would that feel?

No, no, she had to change this habit now. She had to make an effort to adapt to a life without Gu Huayuan, to handle it with ease.

Just like back then, when she relied too much on her father, only to be hit hardest when he had an illegitimate child. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have desperately tried to “reminisce bitterly to sweeten memories” and ended up being tricked by Fat Cat here.

Her past experiences had taught her: relying too much on others was a mistake.

Especially on someone like Gu Huayuan, someone destined not to live in the same world as her.

Thinking of this, Lin Qiao felt an inexplicable pang in her nose.

“Fat Cat, sing me a song, one that helps me sleep.”

Fat Cat yawned, took out a microphone, and began: “Leaving you, I’m like a deserter, with nowhere to go, no way to retreat. Fragile tears keep reminding me, the taste of failure exhausts me…”

Lin Qiao: “…Shut up, shut up, I’m going to sleep!”

Determined to adapt to a life without Gu Huayuan, Lin Qiao focused all her energy on work. She used to disapprove of overtime, but now she began insisting on it, not even going home after work.

She spent her after-hours teaching the newly arrived military dependents at the farm. She reasoned that before leaving, she should pass on all the skills she had, even if she thought she didn’t have much to offer.

At first, this was to keep herself busy and avoid thinking about Gu Huayuan. Later, Lin Qiao genuinely threw herself into work because she noticed problems during management.

For large-scale farms, they lacked practical experience.

Previously, she had only studied techniques but had little management training. Back home, the chicken farms were small-scale, and management was relatively casual.

Now, with more people and more chicks, the old management methods were completely unfeasible. Serious problems could easily arise.

Once Lin Qiao realized this, she immediately discussed it with Su Weizhen and the others, suggesting sending someone to the provincial farms for exchange and learning.

She still vividly remembered the smell of the chicken farms. Even though she had raised chickens for a long time, the open space here and the small number of chickens kept the odor manageable. The provincial farms, however, had a mix of all sorts of smells…

Yet she couldn’t avoid it—after all, she was in charge of the chicken farm now.

She let out a sudden, long sigh.

Then she looked at the others.

Li Ermie couldn’t go to study; she had to take care of the child. Su Weizhen also couldn’t go; she had to stay here and keep watch. The other sisters-in-law could be sent if they were educated enough.

Li Yan raised her hand. “I’ll go too. I learn things pretty quickly.”

Lin Qiao cleared her throat. “You need to think this through. That’s a provincial chicken farm—the conditions there are… really tough, even harsher than here.”

Li Yan, now all fired up, said, “I’m not afraid! I don’t mind hardships!”

“…Are you sure? Once you’re there, you can’t cry.”

“I won’t, really won’t. I’ve changed,” Li Yan answered earnestly.

Li Ermei said, “If she wants to go, let her. What hardship? Haven’t we been through enough already?”

Su Weizhen also said, “Yes. The others are all newcomers—they haven’t fully adapted to the work here yet. It’s too early for them to go study. I won’t stay here long, and Ermei has to care for the child. Only Comrade Li Yan is suitable. She really needs to go, otherwise, when we leave, who will take over?”

Lin Qiao thought: if you insist this much, I won’t argue further. “Fine, Li Yan it is.”

After making the decision here, Lin Qiao went to inform the logistics department.

Director Jiang said, “You’ve considered this carefully. Arrangements for study can indeed be made. Here’s the plan: our regiment will contact the units. You select the candidates on your side. Be sure to choose advanced comrades who are capable of learning and willing to endure hardship.”

Lin Qiao was delighted by the logistics department’s support and grinned. “We’ll select carefully. Thank you to the organization for supporting us.”

“Of course, we support you. Other regiments are envious of our chicken farm,” Director Jiang smiled. “Once your techniques are mature and the scale expands, we’ll also exchange experiences with other units. Everyone can have meat and eggs.”

This was exactly what Lin Qiao had hoped for, and she nodded excitedly.

“By the way, Comrade Gu Huayuan’s unit has replied. He’s already arrived and started working. You don’t need to worry.”

Hearing news about Gu Huayuan, Lin Qiao’s heart lifted. Her joy showed on her face, though she mumbled, “No, I wasn’t worried. I was just thinking about work.”

“Haha, I know, I know. Go ahead and get busy.”

“Mm.” Lin Qiao dashed out. Back at the farm, she couldn’t help sharing the good news: the regiment would send people to the provincial farm to exchange and study.

They’d select a few technicians and two management personnel. Later, there would be a vote—everyone could vote for the person who worked hard and performed well.

Management personnel going to study needed a basic educational foundation; they couldn’t be illiterate. They also needed strong management skills.

Once the news was announced, the army families at the chicken farm excitedly began discussing who would be most suitable.

At noon, Lin Qiao ate with Su Weizhen, still discussing the matter.

Su Weizhen sighed, “I feel like there’s still so much we need to learn.”

Lin Qiao nodded while eating. “Yeah, but it’s nothing, we just need to study. I knew nothing before either; I learned as I went along. Whatever’s needed, we’ll learn it.”

Then she sighed.

“Why the sigh?” Su Weizhen asked with a smile, taking a bite of her bun.

Lin Qiao chewed and swallowed with effort, then said with some emotion, “If only I’d realized this earlier… what prestigious schools I could have gone to.”

Su Weizhen asked, “Do you want to go to university?”

Lin Qiao wanted to say that she couldn’t now, maybe in the future she could go to a Workers’ and Peasants’ University and get a recommendation. But thinking about what would happen to the Gu family in two years, and how her political background would be affected, she couldn’t help sighing inwardly.

Not knowing her thoughts had gone astray, she smiled. “I don’t want to go, but I will study more, learn from skilled people, and seek guidance from professional teachers in the future.”

Seeing her carefree attitude, Su Weizhen felt somewhat reassured. “Xiao Qiao, no matter what happens in the future, you must stay happy.”

“Of course. I’ve been through enough; I can handle anything,” Lin Qiao thought. After all she had experienced and having lived in this environment for so long, what was there not to be happy about?

Being able to eat delicious food and wear beautiful clothes would be enough to make her happy.

…

To select the people, Lin Qiao organized a vote.

Among management, Li Yan had the highest educational level and earned a spot to study. Sister-in-law Wang had the strongest management skills and earned another spot.

Two management personnel would study, and three technicians were also chosen—people who worked efficiently and learned quickly, like Xiao Ming’s mother, who spoke plainly and worked swiftly.

In total, five people were selected, with Lin Qiao leading them. She would also go to learn and then report back to Su Weizhen. The knowledge would be useful in the future.

Since they were going to the provincial city, everyone was extremely excited, even putting on their new clothes.

Lin Qiao kindly reminded them that although they were going to the provincial farm to study, it wasn’t suitable for wearing nice clothes—they’d get ruined easily.

Everyone waved it off. “We can’t embarrass our unit, right? How bad can it be at a provincial chicken farm? No problem.”

“Yes, yes, traveling far, we have to be careful.”

“Poor family, rich roads—one must be mindful.”

On this matter, everyone was surprisingly in agreement.

Lin Qiao could only let them be.

The regiment arranged a vehicle to take them to the provincial city. On the way, Li Yan laughed and asked, “Is it really that bad?”

Lin Qiao said, “You’ll see when we get there—it’s not an exaggeration.”

When they arrived at the chicken farm, Li Yan finally understood what “not an exaggeration” really meant.

She hadn’t felt nauseous for a long time, but this time she really couldn’t hold it in. In front of everyone, she covered her mouth and ran to the side, vomiting violently.

Lin Qiao put on her mask. “I told you so, but you just wouldn’t believe me.”

Since this was organized through the regiment, the farm also took it seriously. The deputy director of the farm personally came to welcome them and arrange their learning positions.

The other technicians were assigned to work inside the farm, while Lin Qiao, Sister-in-law Wang, and Li Yan followed several directors to learn.

Lin Qiao also ran into Director Zhang, who had helped her before. When he asked about Gu Huayuan, he felt quite regretful upon hearing that Gu Huayuan had been transferred.

Hearing that Lin Qiao had stayed behind to take care of the chickens instead of following Gu Huayuan, he admired her dedication to poultry farming and asked if she wanted to come work at the farm.

Lin Qiao quickly shook her head. “There are plenty of skilled people here. They don’t need me. Our regiment has just started raising chickens and lacks technical staff, so I have to stay.”

“Hahaha, you’re right. We won’t compete for talent with the army, then. I’ll just wish you success in your poultry work.”

After arrangements were made, Lin Qiao and Sister-in-law Wang went to meet Deputy Director Yang, who had just received them.

Since they weren’t idle during this visit, the logistics department suggested that the farm raise some of their chicks to see how the survival rate would turn out.

The chicks previously sent to the production team had a very high survival rate. The army thought that Lin Qiao’s farm had a very different flock, so now they wanted to see if the same results would occur in a large-scale farm.

Deputy Director Yang was aware of this. Looking at the lively, hopping chicks, he could hardly believe it. “When we contacted you by phone, the logistics department told us that the breed at your farm is very special, with a very high survival rate and very low losses.”

Lin Qiao nodded. “Yes, the success rate for each batch can exceed ninety percent.”

Hearing this figure, Deputy Director Yang was astonished. “Is that really true?”

He knew that their farm suffered significant losses in their flocks every year. Poultry farming wasn’t particularly extensive there, because the losses were so high—disease could wipe out a batch in no time.

Of course, veterinary medicine existed, but it was expensive.

“Weren’t your chicks originally selected from our farm?”

Lin Qiao cleared her throat and said yes. She hadn’t expected to get such suitable chicks.

Deputy Director Yang felt that this was almost unbelievably lucky. Over the years, their farm had never managed to select an outstanding breed… or maybe they had, but because the numbers were too small, they were lost in the massive flock and treated as ordinary chickens.

Of course, the truth could only be verified in practice.

Deputy Director Yang had the farming department number the ten chicks and mix them with other chicks, observing their growth daily and reporting their progress monthly.

Although he had doubts, he was also hopeful—hopeful that it was all true.

After leaving Deputy Director Yang’s office, Sister-in-law Wang looked around in awe. “Xiao Qiao, this place is huge! I wish our farm could be this big someday.”

Lin Qiao said, “We’ll take it slowly. That day will come.”

“Yeah, hopefully. But Xiao Qiao, you really went through hardships. I still feel uncomfortable with this place, and I just started. When we apply fertilizer it stinks too, but that only lasts a little while. But this environment…”

Lin Qiao touched her head. “I thought it was tough at first too. But then I realized, I can leave if I want, while others work here day after day, year after year. Isn’t that harder than what I’m doing? So I got used to it.”

Sister-in-law Wang smiled. “You’re right. Everyone’s willingness to endure hardship is what made this place grow. By the way, I wonder if Comrade Li Yan is adjusting well—she seemed to be vomiting quite badly.”

Lin Qiao waved her hand. “It’s fine. She’ll get used to it. That’s exactly how I went through it. The first few days, I couldn’t even eat.”