Today was Thursday, so Monday was only three days away.
“Okay.” She agreed.
Twenty minutes later, the cook finished preparing the dishes.
He called out to Li Yanfeng from the serving window, and Li Yanfeng got up to bring the food over.
The cook had made stir-fried green beans with pork belly and minced pork stir-fried with tofu. There was also some of the wild greens left over.
There was no rice today, only steamed buns and cornmeal buns.
People here rarely ate rice. It was relatively scarce and expensive, and not many people could afford to eat it regularly.
“Eat. There are only steamed buns and cornmeal buns. Have more of the dishes.”
“This afternoon, we’ll buy some rice at the supply and marketing cooperative.”
Li Yanfeng knew she was used to eating rice.
“Mm.” Lu Xinran nodded. She really was hungry.
She picked up a steamed bun, while Li Yanfeng put some meat into her bowl.
Soldiers normally ate very quickly, but now, to take care of Lu Xinran, he had slowed down not only his walking pace but even his eating.
After leaving the cafeteria, they headed straight to the supply and marketing cooperative.
This time, Li Yanfeng was more thoughtful. He had Lu Xinran go home and wait while he returned to the barracks to borrow a vehicle. That would make things much faster.
Lu Xinran thought that after they finished shopping today, she could take the opportunity to secretly bring some things out of her space that evening.
Li Yanfeng was probably very busy normally and wouldn’t spend much time at home. She would have plenty of opportunities to take things out later.
With a vehicle, they reached the supply and marketing cooperative very quickly. It wasn’t particularly far away to begin with.
The supply and marketing cooperative was quite large. It was a single-story building with a red star emblem above the entrance. On either side of the three large characters reading “Supply and Marketing Cooperative” were three five-pointed stars.
Outside the cooperative, beneath the eaves on both sides of the entrance, there were many sacks and bamboo baskets filled with goods, mainly various kinds of vegetables.
Potatoes, onions, radishes, and other vegetables that could be stored for a while.
The supply and marketing cooperative was where villagers from the surrounding production brigades came to buy things, so there were plenty of people there every day.
When Lu Xinran went inside, she saw that the cooperative really did carry quite a wide variety of goods.
Pots, bowls, utensils, household products, toilet paper, and all sorts of other things were available. They also sold grain, pork, chickens, and ducks.
Behind the counter were two female sales clerks, with a group of women gathered around them.
“Sister Hu, have you gotten any scarce goods lately? Give us some, will you?” one of the women asked with a smile.
The sales clerk known as Sister Hu rolled her eyes.
Then she said sarcastically, “Where do you think we can get so many scarce goods? Do you think this is a department store in a big city? You should be grateful that we have anything to use at all.”
“Didn’t you say a batch of tooth powder came in a couple of days ago?”
“Who said that? I certainly didn’t. Don’t make things up.”
“What about Snow Cream? You said that was coming too.”
“No, no. You remembered wrong. Even if it’s coming, it won’t be here yet.”
“You people still aren’t satisfied that you can buy these things here! Go on, go on. Stop crowding around here.”
The sales clerk waved them away impatiently.
Lu Xinran happened to glance over.
The sales clerk looked somewhat similar to Hu Lijuan, the woman who had come to watch the commotion at her house earlier and tried to drive a wedge between her and Li Yanfeng.
Could they be related?
She didn’t think much of it and began shopping with Li Yanfeng.
They bought twenty pounds of rice, twenty pounds of white flour, and ten pounds of cornmeal for their staple foods.
They also bought seasonings—oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar—as well as a rice jar and various containers.
Household necessities included toilet paper, toothbrushes, washbasins, buckets, and clotheslines.
They also bought some potatoes, onions, radishes, and Chinese cabbage.
They were going to have dinner at Xu Aihua’s house that evening.
There were no vegetables sold in the family compound, so everyone had to go to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy them. It was manageable in cold weather, but during the hot season, they had to make frequent trips.
When Hu Hongying saw Li Yanfeng, she was startled.
She had never seen him come to the supply and marketing cooperative to shop before. Why had he come today?
“Comrade, could you please help me check everything out?” Lu Xinran said calmly as she stood at the counter.
Hu Hongying looked at her, and for some reason, an inexplicable hostility immediately appeared in her eyes.
How could this woman’s skin be so fair and flawless? Even the clothes she wore were different.
She was obviously a girl from the city!
“Sure,” the other sales clerk immediately answered.
They had come back from their meal and were taking inventory. Seeing how much the couple had bought, they couldn’t help feeling surprised.
“You—you bought all this?” Hu Hongying asked in astonishment.
“Yes. We just moved,” Lu Xinran replied casually.
Li Yanfeng stood beside Lu Xinran, looking straight ahead as he waited for them to finish counting everything so he could carry it out to the vehicle.
“Then wait a moment.”
The other sales clerk, Xiao Zhao, began checking the items with Lu Xinran.
Hu Hongying was responsible for recording the purchases.
“Comrade, once you’ve finished recording the items, can I start carrying them outside?” Lu Xinran asked.
“Yes,” Xiao Zhao replied.
“Then please record the rice and flour first. We’ll take those outside first.”
“Okay.”
Li Yanfeng stood right beside her. His presence was imposing, and his expression looked fierce, so the sales clerks were exceptionally polite.
“Yanfeng, take these out to the vehicle first. I’ll bring the rest out with you in a moment,” Lu Xinran said gently.
“Okay.”
As Li Yanfeng carried the rice and flour outside, Hu Hongying curiously asked, “Comrade, that officer just now is your—”
“He’s my husband,” Lu Xinran admitted openly and naturally.
“He looks so fierce. You’re not afraid of him at all?”
Hu Hongying didn’t believe she could really not be afraid. She was convinced the woman had to be pretending.
“You’ve misunderstood. My husband isn’t fierce at all, and I’m not afraid of him. He’s a very good person. He treats me very well too.”
When Li Yanfeng came back inside, he happened to hear Lu Xinran defending him.
Her voice was gentle and pleasant, neither timid nor aggressive, yet filled with conviction. She never needed to raise her voice to prove that she was right.
Including what had happened at the family cafeteria earlier, this was already the second time today.
He was deeply moved.
Hu Hongying hadn’t expected him to come back so quickly. Worried that he had heard her badmouthing him just now, she felt extremely guilty and didn’t dare look at him.
But Hu Hongying was clearly giving herself too much credit.
Li Yanfeng didn’t pay her the slightest attention. He didn’t even spare her a proper glance.
The sales clerks then sped up the checkout, wanting to get Li Yanfeng out of there as quickly as possible. With him standing around, the other military wives were too intimidated to shop.
Lu Xinran asked them for a plastic bag and began putting the smaller items inside one by one.
Her movements weren’t fast. She took her time, but everything was arranged neatly and systematically.
Li Yanfeng didn’t rush her either. He wasn’t in a hurry, and he didn’t want to disrupt her rhythm.
She took her time putting things away, and he followed her pace. But Lu Xinran actually had her own rhythm, so he wasn’t really slowing down.
By the time they carried everything outside, another ten minutes had passed.
After they left, Hu Hongying finally complained irritably.
“Look at that woman. She works so slowly. She’s such a drag!”
“You can tell at a glance that she doesn’t know how to work!”
“And that regiment commander can actually put up with it? How strange…”
Xiao Zhao glanced at her and said with a smile, “Well, she’s pretty, isn’t she? And she wasn’t even that slow.”
“Hmph. What good is being pretty? Can you eat beauty?”
“If she were back in my hometown, a woman like her couldn’t even earn half a work point in a day.”
“You marry a wife to work and live your life together, not to put her on a pedestal and pamper her!”
The more Hu Hongying talked, the angrier she became.
“Little Hu, why are you so worked up? Do you know that officer?”