Free Web NovelChapter 368: Chapter 299: Join the Party!
The following day.
At the East Turbine Factory, two flagpoles stood at the front: the Party flag on the left, the national flag on the right.
Corps Captain Luo stood before the ranks and, with a solemn and serious voice that echoed all around, said,
"Comrades, revisiting the Party oath in difficult circumstances is an excellent tradition of our Party!
Our revolutionary ancestors dedicated their whole lives to the Party’s principles with unyielding faith and steadfast commitment!
Today, in this highly challenging environment, one hundred and eight soldiers, sixty-two Party members, and provisional Party members of the whole corps, are leading sixteen new comrades to take the Party oath!"
After speaking, he turned towards the proudly flying flags and shouted loudly,
"First item, sing ’The Internationale’!
Arise, ye who refuse to be slaves!"
The voices from below rose in unison:
"Arise, ye who refuse to be slaves!
"Arise, all ye who are heavy with misery!
"The blood within our veins is boiling!
"Struggle for truth...
"The Internationale," with a total of six verses, is usually sung in China with the first, second, and sixth verses, starting with "Arise, ye who refuse to be slaves," "There has never been any savior," and "Who created the human world? It’s us, the working masses."
Today, there was no sound system, no accompaniment, and it was clear that Corps Captain Luo was not accustomed to singing. Although his voice was loud, the tune was unsteady.
Fortunately, the song was meant to be belted out.
For someone of Corps Captain Luo’s rank to lead the singing personally was a first for them all, but today, under these two flags, whether it was the Division Commander, company commanders, or other cadres and soldiers, they all seemed insignificant.
The Corps Captain Luo standing at the front was just an ordinary Party member.
After the song ended, Corps Captain Luo faced the Party flag, raised his right hand, and roared,
"I swear!"
"I swear!" the crowd echoed in unison. freёwebnovel.com
"I voluntarily join the Chinese Communist Party!"
"I voluntarily join the Chinese Communist Party!"
"Uphold the Party’s Principles! Abide by the Party’s constitution!"
"Uphold the Party’s Principles! Abide by the Party’s constitution!"
With every phrase Corps Captain Luo recited, the crowd below bellowed the line back.
Fang Huai, standing among the other one hundred and seven people, felt indescribable excitement.
His reason for joining the Party was actually quite simple.
Beyond those minor thoughts about personal promotion qualifications, from today onwards, he would be able to proudly declare, "I’m a Party member, I’ll go first!"
The profession of firefighting coexists with disaster. Ordinary people are kept outside the disaster area marked by a red line, while soldiers are inside. But when it comes to charging into the innermost layer, one cannot avoid uttering this phrase.
I’m a Party member, I’ll go first.
From today on, I too am a Party member.
Qualifications.
Those who lack a sense of honor cannot imagine that, even in times of peace, giving one’s life requires qualifications.
Just like that phrase during the wildfire in Beibei, Chongqing, "I’m a Party member, I’ve been a soldier, I participated in the 2008 Earthquake Disaster Relief!"
Fang Huai, who did not hesitate to step forward in disaster after disaster, honed himself into a Military Merit Medal.
"Fulfill the duties of a Party member! Carry out the Party’s decisions! Strictly observe Party discipline! Guard Party secrets! Be loyal to the Party! Work actively! Strive for communism for a lifetime! Be ready to sacrifice everything for The Party and The People at any time! Never betray the Party!"
"Be ready to sacrifice everything for The Party and The People at any time! Never betray the Party!"
In the end, Fang Huai shouted these words once more with all his might.
...
Fang Huai’s last few days in Sichuan were more difficult than he had imagined.
During these days, he and six female volunteers and staff members were caring for 97 children. freewёbnoνel.com
Originally there were over 120, several were taken away by other public welfare organizations to local welfare homes; a few age-appropriate ones were taken by acrobatic troupes as apprentices; most were taken into custody by relatives who came for them.
The policy had been issued: starting from December, orphans would receive a monthly financial support of 600 yuan until they reach the age of 18 or are adopted.
The China Poverty Alleviation Foundation had also urgently launched an orphan support program to provide additional financial aid.
Relatives could receive the support, but adoptive parents could not.
The Civil Affairs Department did organize meetings between parents who had lost their children and the orphans. Although it was not explicitly stated, they hoped to promote adoptions, as these families would be more likely to understand each other’s hardships.
However, non-relatives willing to adopt orphans from disaster-stricken families were almost non-existent.
Most families that had lost children could not accept adopting new ones just after their own children’s death; the children themselves didn’t want to leave their kin either, preferring even distant relatives over complete strangers.
The public outcry for adoption was incredibly high.
Even before the children had reached various welfare homes, tens of thousands of inquiries came in, expressing a desire to adopt.
Of course, the Civil Affairs Department couldn’t let just anyone adopt the children, so they put forth many strict requirements, such as the age of the adopter, their economic situation, whether they have a criminal record, limits on the number of children they already have, no serious infectious diseases, and single men adopting female children must have an age difference of over 40 years, etc.
A whole set of conditions excluded most people.
Furthermore, the initial goodwill of many people cooled after a few days.
Many people who want to adopt do so with the idea of raising a child for the sake of support in old age. The adoption mentality is mostly to adopt a child between 0 to 3 years old, one who has no memory yet.
This mindset resulted in older children and those with disabilities rarely getting adopted.
Moreover, the momentary impulse of goodwill is hard to sustain, and a second abandonment only brings greater harm to the children, which is why the government set so many conditions.
Under these conditions, the 97 poor orphans will gradually be sent to various welfare homes after the Civil Affairs Department completes its assignments.
Orphans don’t just include the very young ones.
Any child up to the age of eighteen is considered an orphan.
Fang Huai truly experienced how difficult it is to manage a child going through a rebellious phase.
At any given moment, they were ready to head out. When asked where they were headed, the reply was always the same two words: "Something came up."
And around him, the six girls caring for the children, their voices hoarse from shouting.
Initially, Fang Huai thought he had been sent here to spend time alone with Yang Shaoqing and to court her, but after spending a morning there, he realized he had been brought in to play Sun Wukong.
To listen to the six female Monk Tangs chanting sutras.
"Good, eat a little more, okay?"
"xxx, don’t run around!"
"What do you want to do when you grow up?"
"What is your wish?"
Six goddesses were constantly trying to communicate with the children, firstly to ensure they ate well, and secondly to get them talking, to prevent them from bottling up their feelings.
But to little avail.
The chatter was so incessant that Fang Huai found it more annoying than the loud rumbling of two excavators right by his ear when he was rescuing people in the rubble.
The younger children were crying, fussing, or screaming nonsensically.
The older ones, having cried enough in the ten days following the earthquake, were now in a state of world-weariness.
"What’s the point of life? There’s no point."
"I have no wishes, really."
If asked too much, they would even start yelling,"I don’t want to have wishes! Why must I have wishes?!"
And there were some real pieces of work.
"Sister, you’re so pretty. My wish is for you to be my girlfriend."
A 10-year-old boy said this to Yang Shaoqing.
Hearing this made Fang Huai’s rage meter—worthy of a three-star super move in The King of Fighters—max out, as he turned and glared at Yang Shaoqing.
Don’t you dare agree!
You can’t morally kidnap me, even if we’re talking about a child from the disaster area!
Surprisingly, Yang Shaoqing patted the child’s head and began to patiently paint the picture:
"Boys need to be strong and knowledgeable to protect girls. If you want to be someone’s boyfriend, you need to grow up strong, eat well, and then in the future, lots of pretty girls will like you. Is that okay?"
The child wasn’t buying the pie in the sky, repeatedly saying "no," but Yang Shaoqing smiled and pulled out her trump card: an elementary school language textbook.
After flipping through a few pages, she said:
"Then, first, listen to your sister telling you the stories of ’Learning to Play Chess’ and ’Two Children Debate the Sun,’ okay?"
She proceeded to forcefully hold him down for a lecture.
Watching the child sitting on a bench at the edge of the tent, his eyes gradually closing,
Fang Huai was struck by inspiration; he scoured the campsite, found two textbooks for elementary and middle school mathematics, and handed them to Yang Shaoqing.
Language arts is nothing, math is the real cure for insomnia.
Because Yang Shaoqing was constantly teaching the children, they started calling her Teacher Yang.
But then, a new trouble arose.
When the children had issues, they would come to her.
A primary teacher equals Uncle Justice.
Solving cases, handling civil disputes.
Someone’s money was stolen.
Someone’s head got a bump from a small stone.
Someone’s socks were taken while they were undressing to sleep in the tent, to be later found in a pile of sand, used by everyone as a beanbag...
When Yang Shaoqing couldn’t cope, she would seek out Fang Huai.
Eventually, running out of options, Fang Huai taught her a mantra:"Alright, teacher knows, go play."
Each day went on like this, tormenting them until 10 o’clock at night, by which time Fang Huai’s eyelids were twitching.
During earthquake rescue, he could go without sleep for two or three days, but taking care of children, he couldn’t last even one day without sleep.
...
May 25th, in the morning.
After enjoying breakfast.
Hanwang now had breakfast available.
Some of the people who had grieved were picking up their old trades again, using the increasingly abundant supplies to start cooking on the main street, making noodles and rice noodles for the soldiers and cadres.
Before the new town was built, they used their labor and wisdom to bring the abandoned city back to life with cooking smoke.
In fact, many of them were still eager to "rescue" the city because, before the earthquake, it had been so prosperous, making people so happy.
Zhang Zhongting and Fang Huai had rice noodles and then walked on a gravel path outside the camp.
"Time to leave," said Zhang Zhongting, looking around to imprint the city in his memory.
Fang Huai didn’t speak, just nodded.
Zhang Zhongting picked up a small stone from the ground, weighed it, and pocketed it.
"How did you feel taking care of those kids these days?"
Fang Huai smiled and shook his head, saying, "Not great, it’s annoying, noisy; I had the intention to change them, but no one listens to me. I finally surrendered. Educating children really isn’t an overnight task, much harder than rescue work."
"How many things in the world are simple? The three innate roles of a man—son, husband, father—to perform any of these roles well, it takes a lifetime. Your sense of family responsibility is still lacking. I wanted you to take care of those kids hoping it would inspire you."
Zhang Zhongting said this, then sighed deeply and changed the subject:
"Regarding the Military Merit Medal, I’ve already inquired. This time, the department will award you First Class Merit. The order will probably be issued after the rescue work officially ends in June. The award ceremony should be held after the Olympics, in BJ collectively."
"With the national focus on the Olympics, many things need to slow down, don’t rush it. When I received this First Class Merit, it was after fighting the Qing Town wildfire for 10 days in 1999, nearly losing my life, and it still took a full half year for the approval to come through."
Fang Huai listened and shook his head,"I’m not in a hurry, I’ll follow the organization’s arrangement. But after the Olympics... the award ceremony won’t coincide with the National Grand Martial Arts Competition, will it?"
Zhang Zhongting waved his hand,"It most likely won’t. And even if it does, it doesn’t matter. It’s just a morning or an afternoon affair. This year’s competition is in Tianjin, which is very close to BJ. The committee will adjust your schedule if necessary. Ideally, you could attend the award ceremony while you’re there for the competition; it’s such a long way, it saves you the back-and-forth."
Fang Huai nodded perfunctorily, though internally he scoffed.
If it weren’t for the rush to come back to save you, I wouldn’t be in such a hurry. I wouldn’t mind waiting there at my leisure.
Seeing him like that, Zhang Zhongting clicked his tongue.
"I’m talking business, get serious! It’s not easy to get First Class Merit. You have to be careful in everything you do! You represent an image of honor!"
Fang Huai rolled his eyes,"Yes, yes, I heard you. I’ll just wait in BJ then, and come back for the banquet after getting the medal."
Zhang Zhongting glared,"What banquet? A First Class Merit is prestigious, but you’re not allowed to have a celebration!"
Fang Huai laughed lightly.
