Song Xuezhi went into the kitchen, first dropping dumplings into the pot to boil, then quickly cooking a bowl of noodles.
Considering it was for him, she even secretly added two eggs into it.
“Chief, your noodles are ready.” She brought out a large bowl of noodles.
As for the other guards, they were given dumplings and were all eating happily.
Li Chengyuan lowered his head and looked at the noodles in the bowl, slightly stunned—the portion was a bit too large.
He picked up a chopstick of noodles. Green onions floated on the clear broth, shimmering with fine light, and the noodles lay neatly in the amber-colored soup base. It looked, smelled, and surely tasted good.
He lowered his eyes and bit off a mouthful of noodles, his Adam’s apple moving twice as he swallowed.
Song Xuezhi stood nearby, a little nervous, and asked, “How is it? Does it suit your taste?”
“Not bad.” Li Chengyuan said calmly, taking out a handkerchief and wiping his mouth. His eating speed was fast, clearly trained by years in the military, but not rude. Soon, he had finished the entire large bowl of noodles, not even leaving a drop of soup.
The guards beside him also praised the cabbage and pork dumplings.
“As expected of a state-run restaurant—much better than what our battalion’s kitchen makes!”
But in truth, northern dumplings, as long as the ingredients are good, are rarely bad.
Li Chengyuan thought they simply hadn’t eaten her noodles.
This was the best bowl of plain noodles he had ever eaten in his life.
“Your cooking skills—I think you could be a chef,” Li Chengyuan said in a low voice. “The army’s logistics kitchen is short-staffed right now. Do you want to try?”
“I… I don’t think I can,” Song Xuezhi quickly waved her hands.
The guards were very surprised.
This was the first time they had seen their commander personally introduce someone to a job…
The mess hall really was short-staffed, but it was for chefs who cooked for the leadership. It was a coveted position that many people outside would fight to get into. And the commander just offered it so casually?
Looking at the girl’s striking beauty, they seemed to suddenly understand something.
After thinking for a moment, one of them smiled and said, “Comrade, if you get in, you’d be cooking for the leadership team.”
The pay and benefits would definitely be good.
Song Xuezhi was tempted for a moment, but still shook her head.
Working in the military came with many restrictions, and besides, she might end up seeing Zhou Weidong every day.
She didn’t want to keep entangling herself with him.
Better to save up her first pot of gold and start a small business later.
Li Chengyuan didn’t insist after seeing her refusal.
It was just a casual suggestion.
After that, he began frequently dining at this state-run restaurant.
……
Unable to withstand Song Hongmei’s repeated troublemaking every few days, the organization decided to hold a meeting to determine the marriage status of battalion commander Zhou Weidong and his fiancée.
Later, Song Xuezhi learned that the real person in charge of trivial matters like military marriages was the political commissar.
Her previous visit to Commander Lu and Li Chengyuan had essentially been skipping ranks to the top leadership, who did not directly handle such matters but passed instructions down.
In the end, it was still handled by lower-level officials.
That day, Zhou Weidong went to seek help from Political Commissar Wang, who decided to give him another chance.
It was also because Zhou Weidong was indeed an outstanding talent.
In just a few years, he had been sent on special military missions and completed them exceptionally well, which allowed him to rise quickly.
For talents like him, the organization had a responsibility to resolve his personal marriage issues.
That was also why Political Commissar Wang hoped Zhou Weidong could reconcile with his fiancée of three years.
“Alright, the organization will give you three days of leave,” Political Commissar Wang said after a moment of thought. “Your mother-in-law is here as well. Go buy some things, apologize, and try to win her over. Resolve the conflict within these few days and get married as soon as possible. That way, your rear base will be stable, and we can safely assign you future missions.”
Zhou Weidong immediately understood the implication.
He needed to get married in order to have better opportunities for promotion.
That was normal. In the military, dangerous missions were generally not assigned to unmarried personnel, in case they died without leaving heirs and their families caused trouble.
For soldiers, the country is home, but having a family strengthens the nation.
“Guaranteed to complete the mission!” Zhou Weidong snapped his feet together and gave a standard military salute.
After receiving the approved leave request, he immediately went to a nearby market to buy pastries and fruit. Due to limited funds, he could only pick through discounted produce from small vendors.
“Comrade, do you have anything more intact? These are too damaged… they can’t be gifted,” he frowned while selecting.
“Who are you buying them for?” the vendor asked.
“My mother-in-law…”
The vendor rolled his eyes so hard they almost turned inside out.
If it weren’t for his military uniform, he wouldn’t have bothered serving him.
“If you’re giving it away, don’t buy the cheap stuff. Over there are better oranges—just a few cents more.”
But Zhou Weidong still chose the bruised fruit.
After receiving the money, the vendor watched his tall figure leave with disdain, muttering in his heart that a man like this giving such things to his mother-in-law was asking to be scolded.
How did someone like this even manage to get married?
Standing under the weathered wall of the residential building, Zhou Weidong looked up at the seventh-floor window with a blue cloth curtain, his throat tightening.
The smell of fried chili drifted through the stairwell as he heard the clatter of basins upstairs. Song Xuezhi was coming home from work and greeting people in the corridor.
He had only learned that afternoon that she had actually found a job—at the state-run restaurant near the army gate, as a waitress.
This slightly eased his earlier guilt over transferring her cultural troupe position to Zhou Yuwei, and strengthened his belief in their relationship.
If she truly didn’t want to be with him anymore, would she still be working nearby?
She must still want to be with him.
He knew it—she couldn’t leave him.
“Make way!” An old man carrying a coal stove brushed past him, and only then did Zhou Weidong realize he had been standing there for ten minutes. He took a deep breath and stepped onto the first stair.
At that moment, a sharp shout exploded above him.
“Zhou! How dare you come here again!”
Song Hongmei rushed down carrying a basin of dirty laundry water, ready to splash it on him.
“Auntie…” Zhou Weidong instinctively stepped back but was still hit. Ice-cold water drenched him completely, leaving him soaked and miserable.
As neighbors began to gather, he said helplessly, “Auntie, can you calm down and let me go upstairs to talk?”
“Heh, let me see what nonsense you’re spouting.”
She turned and went upstairs.
Zhou Weidong followed, entering the room and closing the door behind him.
“Xuezhi, Auntie… I brought you food,” he said carefully, placing the bag on the table.
Song Hongmei glanced at it and sneered, “Such rotten stuff—you picked it from the market trash, didn’t you?”
“A decent battalion commander living like a beggar.”
Zhou Weidong wiped the water from his face, feeling humiliated and aggrieved.
In the military, he was full of pride, but here he was treated as worthless.
“Xuezhi,” he said hoarsely, “I want to explain again about the cultural troupe position. Yuwei…”
“Smack!”
A rotten orange hit him on the head.
“Explain? Why didn’t you explain when you gave away her position?” she shouted angrily. “My daughter gave up a decent supply job and now works here as a waitress, hands soaked and wrinkled every day, and you bring rotten fruit!”
Zhou Weidong instinctively looked at her hands—they really were not as delicate as before.
But once she married him, she couldn’t always remain untouched by hardship.
She should adapt now.
“These oranges are for the neighbors,” he said, bending down to pick up the dirty fruit. “Xuezhi’s gift is here.”
He took out a finely crafted rosewood box from his inner pocket.
Song Xuezhi’s eyelashes trembled. Three years ago, he had given her a similar box containing a bullet-casing ring, saying he would replace it with a gold one when he had enough money—but he always said “wait a little longer.”
“Open it,” he said, pushing it forward.
She opened it and found an old glass jade bangle.
She had no idea where he got it—probably from a scrap market.
She accepted it bluntly. “I’ll count this as payment—two yuan.”
That was already a discounted price.
Who knew if this broken bangle was even worth two yuan.
“Xuezhi!” Zhou Weidong’s face darkened.
He had already lowered himself repeatedly, why was she still refusing to give him any dignity?
“Payment?” Song Hongmei said suspiciously. “What payment? Did he owe you money?”
“Nothing, Mom. Just consider it repayment for what he owes me,” Song Xuezhi quickly deflected, then pushed Zhou Weidong out the door.
“Don’t come again!” she lowered her voice. “Have you gotten the money I asked for?”
Zhou Weidong looked at her, his eyes flickering.
“If I give you the money back, will you agree to marry me?”
“Dream on!” she slapped him hard.
A bright red handprint appeared on his handsome face.
He sucked in a sharp breath, staring at her sharply. “Have you lost your mind? Stop this!”
“If you don’t marry me, where can you go?”
“Back home? Don’t joke—there’s no room for you there. Your brother is getting married, there’s nowhere for you to live.”
Every word struck like a hammer.
In an instant, her blood ran cold.
She suddenly realized he had always known her circumstances, known she had nowhere to go if she left him.
He had relied on that.
But she had once believed he was her support.
Now she realized that outside him, the world wasn’t even raining.
At that moment, Song Hongmei rushed out like a madwoman, swinging a stick at him.
“Do you think my daughter can’t survive without you? Even if I divorce, she’ll still have a place to live!”
“My daughter has plenty of suitors in Su City! Even the commander—cough!”
Song Xuezhi quickly stopped her.
“Stop talking nonsense!”
As for you! Look at yourself in the mirror!
Zhou Weidong’s face turned livid with anger.
Unable to endure the humiliation any longer, he turned and left.
“I’ll come again another day!”
From downstairs, Aunt Wang spat melon seed shells and said coldly, “Trying to marry someone while dragging along a useless sister-in-law.”