Rebirth of Siheyuan: Starting from escaping famine in 42

Li Qingfeng handed his father a cigarette and lit one for himself. When he saw his brother put away the clean dishes, he waved to him and motioned him to come over, saying, "Qingshan, when you get to the army, you must listen to our father more."

Li Qingshan heard this and said in surprise: "Brother, do you agree that I can join the army?"

After hearing this, Li Qingfeng rolled his eyes at his brother and said unhappily, "I don't agree with you joining the army, so you won't go?"

Li Qingshan scratched the back of his head and chuckled, "Hehe!"

Li Qingfeng couldn't bear to see his brother's silly look, and continued to instruct him, saying: "Qingshan, since you are going to join the army and will leave tomorrow, go to the school today to find Lao Liu and ask him to get your high school diploma."

"This way, when you join the team, you will be considered an educated person, which will be beneficial for your future promotion."

"Also, while you are in the army, don't forget to learn knowledge. Take my set of high school books with you when you leave."

"Got it, brother." Li Qingshan nodded and said, "I'll go to school to find Teacher Liu now!"

After saying that, he hurriedly ran out of the house and went straight to school.

Li Qingfeng watched his brother run away, then turned to his father and said, "Dad, go back to Qingshan's room first. I'll get you something good."

Li Chengman asked: "What is this thing, so mysterious?"

"Dad, just go inside and wait." Li Qingfeng came to the main room and saw Li Rong wiping the furniture, so he said to her, "Li Rong, you don't have to wipe it anymore. Take a break. I'm coming over to tell you something."

"Brother Qingfeng, what's the matter?" Wu Lirong put down the rag in her hand, walked up to Li Qingfeng and looked at him.

Li Qingfeng pulled Wu Lirong to the exit of the underground secret room, opened the secret door, and seeing her surprised look, he smiled and said, "Lirong, this is where our family hides food and money. When we run out of food in the future, you can get it from here."

Wu Lirong nodded in surprise and said, "I understand, Brother Qingfeng."

"I'll go down and get some things first." Li Qingfeng went down the secret room, and seeing that Wu Lirong did not follow him down, he took out a small box of dollars, which contained five hundred dollars, and put ten small yellow croakers and two large yellow croakers into the big box and piled it in a corner of the secret room.

He found two almost new Mauser pistols and 200 rounds of bullets from the space, wrapped them in a piece of rag, and left the secret room. Seeing Wu Lirong still waiting at the entrance of the secret room, he smiled and said, "Lirong, go down and take a look. I'm going to talk to my father about something."

"Yeah! Yeah!" Wu Lirong watched Li Qingfeng leave the house, then carefully went down to the secret room. Looking at the piles of food in front of her and a large box in the corner, she immediately opened her mouth in surprise, and covered her mouth with both hands to prevent her surprise from uttering a sound.

Li Qingfeng carried the package and went into his brother's room. He placed the package in front of his father, smiled and made a gesture of invitation to him, then sat aside, lit a cigarette, and waited for his father's questions.

Li Chengman looked at his eldest son's mysterious expression, stretched out his hand to open the package, his eyes suddenly lit up, took out the Mauser pistol and looked at it carefully, then pulled the bolt and measured it, then looked up at Li Qingfeng and asked, "Qingfeng, is this also something you seized before? You are not injured, right?"

Li Qingfeng was very touched by his father's concern. He shook his head and said, "Dad, I'm not hurt."

"Yeah!" Li Chengman knew that his son was not injured, so he stopped caring about him and looked down at the two Mauser pistols on the table. This was the first time he owned a pistol. Only the company-level troops in the team had pistols, and he treated them like treasures and would not let anyone touch them.

He could only watch from a distance before, and never thought that he would have a pistol himself one day. When he returned to the team two days later, he must have envied them to death.

He raised his head and asked, "Qingfeng, where are you grabbing the oil?"

Li Qingfeng shook his head and said, "No."

Li Chengman added: "Find me some kerosene so I can clean the gun and see what's inside. Then find me some tools."

"Oh!" Li Qingfeng took back a bowl of kerosene, put it on the table, and asked, "Dad, what will happen to this gun if it is not cleaned with gun oil for a long time?"

Li Chengman was disassembling a Mauser pistol. When he heard his son's question, he said without raising his head, "If you don't oil the gun for a long time, it will easily rust inside."

"Oh!" Li Qingfeng responded, and then watched attentively every move his father made as he disassembled the Mauser pistol.

Li Qingshan arrived at the school sweating profusely. He walked to the teacher's office and saw Liu Chuanzhi alone inside, so he walked in directly.

Liu Chuanzhi heard the noise, looked up, and found that it was Li Qingshan, so he asked: "It's Qingshan! Aren't you going to ask for leave? Why are you here at school?"

Li Qingshan wiped the sweat off his head with his sleeve and said to Liu Chuanzhi, "Teacher Liu, I'm leaving with my father tomorrow. Can you give me my high school diploma?"

Liu Chuanzhi was surprised when he heard this: "Qingshan, are you going to join the army? Do your father and Qingfeng agree that you can join the army?"

Li Qingshan nodded and said, "Yes!"

Liu Chuanzhi thought about it, stood up and said, "Wait for me in the office for a while." After that, he walked out of the office and disappeared.

A quarter of an hour later, Liu Chuanzhi came back with a graduation certificate, sat back at his desk, and wrote something with a pen.

Passed it to Li Qingshan: "Here."

Li Qingshan took the diploma and looked at it. It said "Outstanding Graduate, Li Qingshan".

Said thank you.

Liu Chuanzhi gave Li Qingshan a few more instructions and then waved his hand to let him go home.

Li Qingshan's eyes were red. He bowed to Liu Chuanzhi, turned around and went home.

 …

Early the next morning.

Li Qingfeng got up early before dawn and left the house without disturbing Wu Lirong.

Coming to the kitchen, Li Qingfeng prepared to cook more food for his father and brother to eat on the way back.

After washing my hands and face, I first cooked a pot of millet porridge and 40 salted duck eggs, leaving some for a few people to eat in the morning, and gave the remaining salted duck eggs to my father to take with him to eat on the road.

While the millet porridge was not ready yet, Li Qingfeng kneaded the dough and steamed a full basket of steamed buns.

Li Qingfeng lit a cigarette and sat by the stove, looking at the fire and thinking about his problems. He didn't even notice his father coming into the kitchen. He only came back to his senses when he heard his father's voice.

Li Qingfeng asked, "Dad, I was just thinking about something. I didn't hear what you said?"

Li Chengman asked, "Qingfeng, I was wondering why you got up so early and cooked so much food." As he spoke, he raised his hand and pointed at the steamer on the stove.

Li Qingfeng handed his father a cigarette and said with a smile: "I just wanted to make more so that you and your brother can eat it on the road!"

Li Chengman heard this and saw that the buns were already in the steamer. It was too late to say anything now, so he nodded and said, "Okay, it's up to you."