“Oh, right. I brought lunch back. Why don’t we eat first?” Ji Wanning lifted the lunch boxes in her hand.
“Alright.”
Seeing that Ji Wanning seemed to have accepted what he had said earlier, the usually stern lines of Lu Changzheng’s face softened with a hint of warmth.
“I got two portions. This larger one is yours, and this smaller one is mine.”
Most of the time, Ji Wanning had eaten at the Lin family’s house, and occasionally at the cafeteria, so she had never bought her own lunch box.
This time, she had borrowed two metal lunch boxes from the cafeteria.
She hadn’t arrived particularly early or late, but the woman serving food happened to be Linlin’s mother, one of the children in her class.
She greeted Ji Wanning warmly.
“Teacher Ji, you’re far too skinny. You need to eat more.”
Am I really that skinny? Ji Wanning wondered. I’m not that thin, am I?
Lu Changzheng wasn’t one to stand on ceremony. He opened the larger lunch box before opening Ji Wanning’s smaller one as well.
Both contained the same dishes.
The staple food was sorghum rice and steamed buns. The side dishes were stewed cabbage, cold cucumber salad, and braised radish with pork, which was already considered a very good meal.
Meat was only available once every week or two, and even then it was rationed.
One bowl of sorghum rice cost two liang of grain, five fen, and two liang worth of grain coupons. Ji Wanning had gotten Lu Changzheng a full bowl, while she only took half a bowl, worried she wouldn’t finish it.
There were also three steamed buns. Each bun cost six fen and required two liang of grain coupons.
She took one bun for herself and one for Lu Changzheng.
The stewed cabbage was a vegetable dish costing five fen and required no grain coupons.
The braised radish with pork was more expensive because it contained meat, though there were only a few slices. It cost twenty seven fen, but to everyone, it was already an excellent dish.
Everything was rationed, and no extra servings could be given.
Today just happened to be one of the rare days meat was available. Even with ration coupons, no one could buy more than the allotted amount.
The coarse grain wasn’t particularly pleasant to eat, its rough texture scraping against the throat, but Ji Wanning had grown accustomed to it after living in the countryside and with the Lin family.
Lu Changzheng had always lived simply.
Watching Comrade Ji eat sorghum rice, he silently decided that he needed to exchange for more refined grains in the future.
The steamed buns, however, were plump and round. Once broken open, they were soft and fluffy, and tasted even better dipped into the gravy.
The two of them sat across from each other at the table, each occupying a chair.
The chair suited Ji Wanning’s petite figure just fine.
But for the tall, broad shouldered Lu Changzheng, it was clearly too small.
Especially his long, powerful legs, accentuated by his military trousers and boots, which were forced into an awkward bend instead of stretching comfortably.
Still, Lu Changzheng didn’t mind.
Being able to share a meal with his wife was what mattered most.
Everything else was secondary.
Just as Ji Wanning was about to start eating, she saw a pair of chopsticks reach over.
Several slices of meat were transferred from Lu Changzheng’s lunch box into hers.
“N… no, that’s not necessary. I already have some.”
“It’s alright. I don’t really like meat.”
Ji Wanning paused. Then she sighed inwardly.
With meat so scarce these days, who could possibly dislike eating it?
Warmth spread through her heart.
She knew Lu Changzheng simply wanted to give the meat to her.
Still, she couldn’t accept it.
“No. Your daily training is so intense. You need to eat more meat.”
As she spoke, she tried to move the meat back.
The two of them went back and forth like that.
In the end, Lu Changzheng managed to leave two slices of meat in Ji Wanning’s lunch box.
He refused to give her any more, insisting that he would eat the rest himself.
The two soon began eating.
Ji Wanning quickly discovered that Lu Changzheng ate incredibly fast.
She had barely taken one bite when he had already eaten several mouthfuls.
Despite his speed, he still ate neatly and gracefully.
He belonged to the rare type who could eat both quickly and properly.
Ji Wanning frowned slightly and asked in a quiet voice,
“Don’t you worry about indigestion from eating that fast?”
Lu Changzheng looked up.
His phoenix eyes were deep, and the corners of his thin lips curved faintly.
“No. That’s how we always eat. Besides, training starts not long after we’re done, so we burn it all off very quickly.”
Ji Wanning nodded.
Alright… that actually makes some sense.
What Ji Wanning didn’t know was that while she was looking at him, Lu Changzheng continued eating, quietly stealing glances at her from the corner of his eye.
Was Comrade Ji just… worried about me?
Sure enough…
Having a wife really was different.
As he continued observing her, he soon noticed something.
Ji Wanning stared at the cold cucumber salad in her lunch box with a deeply furrowed brow.
Biting her lip as though preparing herself for a great sacrifice, she reached out with her chopsticks to pick up a slice of cucumber.
“Comrade Ji.”
Lu Changzheng suddenly called out.
“Hm?”
“I like cucumbers. I don’t think I have enough in mine. Could you give me yours?”
“I know it’s not really appropriate to ask, but…”
Before he could finish, Ji Wanning immediately replied,
“Of course! Of course! I’ll give them to you right now.”
She visibly relaxed.
“Is it alright if I use my chopsticks to transfer them?”
“That’s fine.”
Relieved, Ji Wanning hurriedly picked up every piece of cucumber from her lunch box and placed them into Lu Changzheng’s.
Even her previously gloomy expression brightened immediately now that she no longer had to eat cucumbers.
No one knew that Ji Wanning could eat almost any vegetable.
The only exception was cucumber.
She always felt cucumbers had an unpleasant smell.
Whatever it was, she simply couldn’t stand them.
At that moment, Ji Wanning thought marrying Lu Changzheng really had been the perfect choice.
She disliked cucumbers.
He liked cucumbers.
In the future, she could simply give all her cucumbers to Comrade Lu.
He probably won’t mind, right?
Thinking that, Ji Wanning secretly looked up at him.
When she saw him calmly eating the cucumbers she had given him, albeit a little more slowly than before, without showing the slightest hint of dislike, she quietly let out a sigh of relief.
She couldn’t help thinking that perhaps it was fate that had brought her and Comrade Lu together.
Even their eating habits complemented one another so perfectly.
Meanwhile, Lu Changzheng could sense Ji Wanning secretly watching him from the corner of his eye.
He didn’t say anything.
He simply continued eating quietly.
Yet, somehow, when it came to the cucumbers Ji Wanning had placed into his lunch box…
He deliberately slowed down.
Those cucumbers had been transferred using Comrade Ji’s chopsticks.
The same chopsticks she had already used.
Then… doesn’t that mean…
Doesn’t eating these cucumbers count as… indirectly kissing Comrade Ji?
The thought made his throat bob.
Even the breath he exhaled seemed scorching hot.
The very next second, he choked on his food and burst into coughing.
Ji Wanning immediately reached over to pat his shoulder, her face full of concern.
“How did you choke? I told you to eat more slowly. If you keep eating like that, you’ll really end up with indigestion.”
Lu Changzheng, who knew exactly why he had choked, was speechless.
After lunch, Lu Changzheng had to return to training, while Ji Wanning needed to head back to work at the kindergarten.
“I’ll bring you some honeycomb coal briquettes this evening. If you need anything else, just tell me,” Lu Changzheng said.
“Then just help me get some honeycomb coal briquettes. I can buy everything else myself at the supply and marketing cooperative.”
Lu Changzheng actually wanted to take care of everything for her.
But since Comrade Ji had said so, he couldn’t insist.
“Then… I’m off to training.”
Although he said the words, his legs seemed rooted to the ground, refusing to move.
Only when Ji Wanning tilted her head and looked at him curiously did Lu Changzheng reluctantly force himself to take a few steps forward.
After only a few steps, he turned back once more.
“If there’s ever anything you need help with, you have to tell me. I’ll always be here.”
The man’s solemn and earnest words made Ji Wanning instinctively unable to argue.
“Alright! I understand.”
“Then I’m leaving.”
At last, Lu Changzheng took one long, lingering look at Ji Wanning before breaking into a run and quickly disappearing.
Watching his tall, broad back recede into the distance, Ji Wanning suddenly felt that the gloom weighing on her heart over the past two days had finally been swept away.
It was as though her life had become filled with sunshine once more.
After quietly tidying herself up, Ji Wanning headed to the kindergarten.
But just as she reached the entrance, a man walked toward her, his eyes burning with anger…