"Jiao Jiao, I’ll be away for a few days. Be careful."
"Go ahead, I’ll handle everything." Zhou Jiao, holding her son, saw Zhang Guoqing off and walked around the yard, noticing there weren’t any rats at ho.
Early in the morning, the broadcast began promoting the dangers of flies, mosquitoes, rats, and sparrows, fortunately also ntioning so hygiene and epidemic prevention thods.
She had morized this science knowledge by now. Thinking it over, she decided to check on the neighbors, just in case of any mishaps.
"Jiao Jiao, every household has a task. Are you okay handling it alone?" Aunt Wang next door stood at the gate, looking at her worriedly.
"No problem, look, Aunt Wang and the others are coming over. I’ll see what they have to say first."
The street committee’s Aunt Wang and others were notifying households for inspections at this mont.
A few days ago, after newspapers reported activities being launched everywhere, every street and grassroots unit in the county town began taking action earnestly.
For the past two days, posters promoting the campaign could be seen everywhere on the streets, and the bulletin boards ca up with various ideas, filled with all kinds of content.
At the county town’s temporary command center, Zhang Guoqing had been imrsed in busy work for three consecutive days — the entire unit was on duty around the clock without breaks. He was too occupied to attend to matters at ho, following Zhao Dashan and Zuo Lin to register and coordinate personnel.
The health committee staff started promoting safety and hygiene across different areas from dawn, urging people to maintain cleanliness and bathe frequently, not just to eliminate flies, mosquitoes, rats, and sparrows, but also to eradicate lice and fleas.
Over the days, the whole city, young and old, were eager and ready, responding in droves. Every household was busy eradicating lice and fleas or checking for rat holes.
After cleaning their interiors, people climbed trees and rooftops while children waved flags below. The elders cooperated by beating gongs, iron pans, iron buckets, and lunch boxes—anything that made noise—and shouted loudly.
The poor sparrows had never seen such a spectacle, flying haphazardly with no place to land, eventually falling exhausted, eliciting waves of cheers and shouts from the crowd.
In the open fields and wastelands of the suburbs, haystacks were piled, and people resorted to various thods to catch sparrows as they descended, such as starting wildfires, shouting, and beating drums. The dense forests were engulfed in smoke, and every weakened sparrow and crow was bagged, with sparrow eggs on the trees emptied clean.
Every evening, the street committee began organizing a uniform mosquito fumigation. At the command, every household closed their doors to exterminate mosquitoes and guarded rat holes.
Through the smoke, scurrying rats on the streets were killed wherever they were seen. Groups of schoolchildren out on holiday eagerly searched for rats and pests around house corners, street sides, and public toilets. For a ti, dead rats and flies beca treasures, and cries of surprise and joy echoed from all corners.
After three days, the results of this vigorous campaign ca out, and the tasks were handed over to the health committee. Once the temporary command center was dissolved, Zhang Guoqing hurried ho.
Any task for his wife was manageable—except for the rats—he reckoned there was no way to complete the task at ho, unsure of how things had been at ho these past days.
As night fell, many students, still in groups, chased the few surviving sparrows in the trees along the road, terrifying the poor sparrows so much that they soon fell to the ground.
This sight delighted the children, causing them to leap with joy. Compared to the other three pests, people preferred to deal with sparrows—as they could be braised, stewed, or barbecued; small as they were, they were still at dishes.
Once he reached the yard, Zhang Guoqing imdiately called out for Zhou Jiao, inspecting the house worriedly, but everything seed as usual. He felt slightly relieved and headed towards the lit kitchen.
Hearing his voice, Zhou Jiao, after checking on her sleeping son, dared not respond loudly. She rushed out of the kitchen smiling and pulled him inside cheerfully.
Learning that Zhang Guoqing had a three-day leave including the weekend, she happily held onto him tightly.
In the kitchen, Ping’an slept soundly in the cradle.
Staring greedily at his child, Zhang Guoqing asked, "How co he’s still sleeping at this hour? How have you and the child been these past days? Leave our family’s task to ."
Zhou Jiao laughed, "You’ve underestimated . With Ziwen and the others helping, we’ve completed our task marvelously. Ping’an has been thrilled these days—refusing to sleep and wanting to watch people on the rooftops. These three days, while I fumigated for mosquitoes, he stayed outside with Aunt Wang and the others. Don’t worry, everything’s great at ho."
Zhang Guoqing helped her bring the dishes and set the table. The dinner consisted of just one vegetarian dish, a bowl of soup, and sweet potato rice. Before he could ask, he saw her take out two at dishes and a pot of white rice from space.
"You didn’t live on this while I was gone, did you?" he asked knowingly with a smile, montarily worried.
Zhou Jiao shook her head with a smile. How could that be? Soone ca over every day these past few days. She kept the door open for people to co in easily. To keep secrets, she didn’t dare cook openly, so the at dishes were kept out in the open.
After dinner, they tidied up the kitchen and hurried to the bedroom with their child.
After washing up, Zhou Jiao, observing him suppressing his sleepiness, guessed he hadn’t rested well in days. Each day he ca ho he was in a hurry. She quickly told him to sleep with their child, anything they could discuss tomorrow. She still wanted to wait for her elder sister, Zhang ili.
These days, Mr. Zhang and Mother Zhang were also busy with pest eradication in the village, unable to co by.
Knowing that Zhang Guoqing was working overti, Zhang ili visited three tis daily, if Zhou Jiao guessed right, she would visit tonight to see her brother.
Zhang Guoqing shook his head. Now that he was finally ho, he wouldn’t miss the chance to be with his wife.
Since he started working, if it wasn’t governnt business, it was studying, plus the chaos from their son. The two of them had long since had a proper personal chat.
Seeing Ping’an sleeping soundly on the kang, Zhang Guoqing layered two quilts to form a wall outside, watching his son’s sleeping posture, amused, before bringing Zhou Jiao back to the study outside.
In the study, Zhang Guoqing made two cups of tea and set up the chess pieces. The couple sat on the kang playing chess and chatting about daily life. Apart from going back ho on weekends to clean their backyard, the couple mostly stayed at ho. Now, they were planning where the family should go the next day.
Suddenly, they heard Zhang ili’s shouting from outside, compelling them to abandon the conversation. Zhou Jiao quickly had Zhang Guoqing check if their son was awake, as she rushed out to welco Zhang ili inside.
For this elder sister, the couple—especially Zhou Jiao—always respected her greatly.
An elder sister is like a mother, and Zhang ili was a typical example. No matter how old Zhang Guoqing was, whether he had a family, she always regarded the couple as children, always concerned about them. It was this elder sister, after all, who made them feel even more for her.
In recent tis, she had visibly lost a lot of weight, and her bedridden mother-in-law had recently been discharged to stay at her ho. Yet, the burden of resources and manpower still fell entirely on Zhang ili and her husband.
After seeing that Zhang Guoqing was alright, Zhang ili left quickly, knowing he was doing well at work and would have a three-day vacation starting tomorrow.
This left the couple, bewildered and amused, gazing at her departing silhouette in a daze.
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