I walked out of the noisy theater and came to the yard on the side. The early spring sun was hanging high in the air. In the pure sky, the spotless blue shone with spotless blue, I gathered my work clothes and cotton coats together, squinted my eyes, sat in the sunlight on the steps in front of the door, took out the half of the "cloud dragon" smoke I had just sucked, and scratched a match, and re-ignited the fire.

The voice of the one-armed hero came from the theater clearly. I took a puff of cigarettes and felt a sense of loss in my heart. I suddenly remembered another deputy platoon leader, Peng Dazhuang, who had begun to blur in my mind. If this stout man is still alive, he should be qualified to attend such a speech. It will not only bring honor to himself, but also change his family's life. Unfortunately, he was silent forever. In addition to his family members who were suffering from heart, I don't know how many people would remember him? The cigarette roll was about to burn out, and I took a deep breath, spitting out several smoke rings long, and looked at the smoke rings with empty eyes and turned into wisps of gossip, drifting away in the air.

Suddenly, someone patted my shoulder and pulled me back from my suspended thoughts. I raised my head and saw a handsome man's face.

"..." I opened my mouth instinctively, but the words were stubborn again when they were on my lips. Should I still call the master? I was a little hesitant for a moment.

"Can you smoke?" The master put his hands in his pocket and leaned over to look at me.

"Oh, let's have fun..." I avoided the master's gaze, threw away the cigarette butt in my hand, twisted it with my feet a few times, and stood up.

The master swept my whole body and then spoke slowly again, "I met at Wolong Lake last year. You guy has changed a lot. You have grown taller and matured."

The master did not seem unfamiliar, and his praise made me feel a little embarrassed.

"How are you doing recently? Is the production in the factory okay?" The master ignored my embarrassment and continued to ask casually.

"It's nothing, I'm still working hard anyway." I originally wanted to say that I had returned to the security class, but I felt it was not good, so I didn't say it anymore. I just answered the next question, "The situation in the factory is not very good. We started spinning chemical fiber cotton. It was the old monkey... Oh, Director Hou got it from the south."

"Now, our reform is making great strides and we must break the original planned economic model, so these are understandable." The master's eyes became a little deeper, with the leader's far-sightedness. He took a deep breath, paused, and then continued, "Reform requires pain and sacrifice, which is necessary."

"But, should we bear this pain? Is it necessary to sacrifice us? Is it necessary to sacrifice our people?" I don't have a deep understanding, so I don't quite understand what the master means.

"It's not just you, but actually... we all have sacrificed." The master's eyes looked ahead and his eyes became blurred.

I don’t know what sacrifice the master said. For lower-level employees like us, it is really difficult to understand their efforts in this change.

The master was not arguing with me and looked back: "Wu Ping, do you still remember Yuan Yuan?"

"Yuan Yuan..." The master's sudden question made me feel a little nervous.

"This little girl is very fun. She still cares about you. If I see you this time, I will definitely say hello to you on behalf of her." A smile floated across Lu Yu's eyes, "You don't know yet. She is already the secretary of the Youth League Committee of the Municipal Power Supply Bureau."

"She...she is also the secretary?" I was shocked again, and I was speechless for a moment.

The master did not understand my doubts: "What? Do you look down on others' progress? Girls can't be cadres? Can women bear half of the sky? You are not old and your mind is quite feudal."

After hearing what the master said, I became nervous: "I don't mean that. She made progress and she should be expected to be the secretary. Why would I... be fussy?"

"You..." Seeing my anxious look, the master smiled comfortably, "Actually, you can also make rapid progress. I once said that you are stupid, but it seems that you still haven't realized it, but you are still stupid..."

I didn't refute and laughed with him.

The master slowly held his smile, smiled for a moment, and then spoke softly: "She... Yinhong, how are she?"

"Yin Hong?" I was a little surprised and didn't know how to answer for a moment, "You... are you talking about Sister Hong? She... is pretty good, her son is over one year old."

The master's eyes drifted a little, hesitated for a moment, and then asked: "I heard that her lover died on the front line? Tell her that if you encounter any difficulties, you can come to me..."

"She is really good now, her life is stable and her life is very happy." I raised my face, looked at the slightly blue face of the master, and replied in a low voice.

"You... can you inform her for help? Say I want to see her." The master turned his face and stared at a newly sprouted metasequoia tree in the yard, saying in a low tone.

"She..." I didn't expect the master to ask such a question, and I couldn't help but feel a little panicked, "She probably doesn't want others to disturb her life."

"If you go and notify me, I will say I want to see her, and I must see her." The master's tone became quick, and the stubbornness flashed between his eyebrows.

As soon as the master's words ended, a burst of warm applause came from the theater, and the report of the one-armed hero's deeds was over.

"Next——, we invite Comrade Lu Yu, deputy secretary of the Municipal Youth League Committee, to speak, everyone welcomes you!"

"Wow——" Before Cui Laopao's high-pitched voice fell, thunderous applause sounded again.

The master didn't say anything else. When he turned around and left, he habitually stretched out his right hand and prepared to shake hands and say goodbye to me. I was not used to this official etiquette, because in the workshop, everyone patted each other's shoulders or punched each other in the chest. Just when I was confused, the theater was already in chaos. The master pulled his hand back a little unhappy and turned to the steps behind him. He walked steadily without any panic. The well-crafted wool windbreaker on his body was bulging up by the wind and flew up on both sides of his body, like a pair of gray wings that were about to fly in the air.

"Master—" I shouted at his back, but the master disappeared into the dark door opening without looking back.

After listening to the report, after coming back at noon, I was thinking about the master’s instructions for the whole afternoon. I didn’t know if I should tell Sister Hong and how to tell her. That night, we returned to the guesthouse, had a meal and after we packed up, I went to bed, leaned on the head of the bed, looked at Sister Hong who was washing, and finally made up my mind and hesitated to tell me about the daytime meeting with the master.

Sister Hong suddenly raised her head, and her eyes flashed with two sharp lights: "What did he say to you?"

"He asked you something without saying anything." I said lightly.

"What are you asking me about? Have you... talked about Xiaozhuang?" Sister Hong obviously didn't believe me, and looked at me fiercely like an arrow-hit mother beast.

"No." I felt guilty and quickly responded, "No, he just wanted to see you tomorrow."

"What did he do when he sees me? We have nothing to do anymore." Sister Hong said so, then withdrew her gaze and replied fiercely.

"The master has no idea, he just wants to ask you what difficulties he has and he wants to help you." I thought of the realistic questions and then persuaded me.

"Wu Ping, you and Lu Yu are master-apprentice relationships. How much affection do you have? This is your own business. However, the matter between me and Lu Yu has been settled. Don't talk to him about me again in the future, let alone Xiaozhuang's affairs. I hope you can remember it!" Sister Hong was like a female leopard protecting her calf, with her eyes full of fangs and claws, which made people feel scared when they saw it.

Sister Hong packed up, went to the bed silently, turned over and squeezed into Xiaozhuang's quilt. When I was salivating and wanted to get in, she kicked me out. This was the first time Sister Hong got so angry at me. My heart was beating, and I suddenly felt a little scared.

In the darkness, I stared at my back with my eyes, wondering if I had done something stupid. I felt that Sister Hong was not asleep either, and she must have been thinking about the absurdity and impermanence of a person's fate in the dark.

There is no sleep in the spring night, the moonlight is bleak, and the quiet surroundings are a bit trembling. Even the barks of dogs from the villages far outside the wall can be clearly heard.
Chapter completed!