After saying that, Division Commander Niu let out a long sigh.
“To be honest, this whole matter is partly because of me. What they really want to target is the Yacheng Garrison.”
The power struggles among the higher-ups had grown increasingly fierce.
Although Director Xu usually paid little attention to politics, she had picked up bits and pieces from the phone calls her husband often received—calls that usually ended with him cursing loudly.
The moment she heard it involved the garrison, her temper flared.
“Every blade of grass here was built by us.”
“When we first arrived, there was no water, no food, and we’d spend months patrolling out at sea. What did they say back then? ‘No money. Figure it out yourselves.'”
“When foreign ships came to provoke us, Qingchuan and his men dared to ram them with fishing boats. Those people lost their nerve, but Qingchuan and his soldiers never did.”
“The only reason this place is so secure today is because the men of the garrison have been risking their lives to defend it.”
“And now? Now that the garrison has become stronger and they can’t squeeze their own people in, they’ve started playing dirty tricks—even using someone else’s marriage as leverage?”
She jabbed a finger at her husband.
“I’m telling you, Old Niu, Xiao Shen refused the ginseng today. She asked for only this one favor.”
“I don’t care whether she’s the descendant of a capitalist family. She’s still one of our own Chinese people, and she’s never done anything to betray this country.”
“A girl as wonderful as Xiao Shen marrying Qingchuan is a blessing for our military.”
“If you can’t even make such a simple request happen, then I’ll just have Amei recognize Xiao Shen as her godmother. That way, she’ll be tied to our family.”
Director Xu had already thought it through.
If Xiao Shen officially became her granddaughter’s godmother, then anyone wanting to make trouble for her would have to think twice.
Division Commander Niu widened his eyes after hearing his wife’s speech.
“Why are you getting so worked up?”
“Qingchuan is one of my best officers. If you ask me, she’s the lucky one to be marrying him.”
“Besides, Qingchuan rarely asks me for anything. How could I possibly fail him?”
Director Xu finally let out a sigh of relief and glared at him playfully.
“Then why did you scare me by saying all that? I almost thought the marriage couldn’t happen.”
Division Commander Niu chuckled.
“They wanted to make an issue out of her background, so I called them and gave them a good dressing-down.”
“If they refused to approve it, I told them they could first return all the money the Shen family donated during the war.”
“They still tried to argue, so I said if that wasn’t enough, we’d ask the Premier himself to judge who’s right.”
“My goodness!”
Director Xu nearly jumped in fright.
“You can’t bring something this trivial before the Premier!”
Division Commander Niu shook his newspaper.
“You think I don’t know that?”
“I was just bluffing them.”
“They’ve already softened their stance. I reckon the marriage application will be approved within a few days.”
“And…”
“I’ve already told Guard Xiao Lin to inform the next supply ship.”
“Our military is about to celebrate a wedding.”
“If they won’t accept your ginseng, then they can at least accept the five pigs I’m giving them!”
Director Xu beamed with delight and was just about to praise him when she suddenly sprang to her feet.
“Five pigs aren’t enough!”
“We also need chickens, ducks, and fish!”
“Oh dear, I’d better go find Xiao Lin and tell him to call back and add more!”
Watching his wife hurry out the door, Division Commander Niu simply shook his head.
As he continued reading the newspaper, he absentmindedly sang an aria from Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy.
Naturally, the dishes Shen Niao cooked received unanimous praise once again.
Zhang Cuihua’s three sons buried their heads in their bowls and barely looked up while eating.
After everyone had eaten their fill, Shen Niao left as usual.
Wu Qingchuan still had work to do. He escorted her back to the guesthouse before returning to the military base.
Back in her room, Shen Niao first went to the communal washroom to bathe.
Afterward, she returned to her room and entered her dimensional space.
Her space upgraded rather slowly and was still only Level Three.
Fortunately, most of the spaces she had linked to weren’t much higher either. Only the alchemist’s space had reached Level Five.
Director Xu’s insistence on giving her the ancient ginseng had given Shen Niao an idea.
She wanted to search for dimensional spaces connected to primitive worlds or ancient times to see if she could stockpile rare medicinal herbs like old ginseng.
The older those herbs became, the more valuable they’d be in the future.
The signal in her dimensional space was still unstable.
After searching the Ancient and Primitive categories for quite some time, only one connection finally appeared under Ancient Times.
Its owner was called Jiang Xiaohe.
When she opened the inventory panel, all she saw were stones, a chipped bowl, and a little cricket woven from grass.
Shen Niao guessed the owner was probably a child.
She searched several more times but couldn’t find any other spaces.
She wasn’t in a hurry.
Just as she was about to leave the space and meditate, the teardrop-shaped notification icon suddenly lit up.
Opening it, she saw that Jiang Xiaohe had requested to exchange a grass cricket for one potato.
Whenever two spaces became linked, each owner’s inventory would appear on the other’s panel, allowing either side to initiate trades.
Shen Niao’s inventory contained all sorts of random odds and ends—things she’d tossed in simply because she hadn’t known what might be useful for trading.
She hadn’t expected someone to want a potato.
Just one potato.
Looking at the bright green little grass cricket on the screen, she had to admit it was quite skillfully made.
She casually accepted the trade.
One potato disappeared from her inventory.
A woven grass cricket appeared in her hand.
It was fairly well-crafted.
But for Shen Niao, it was nothing more than a toy. After fiddling with it for a moment, she lost interest.
In another world…
Jiang Xiaohe carefully carried the potato back to his home.
Calling it a home was generous.
It was little more than a drafty grass hut.
Hearing him return, a weak voice came from the straw bed inside.
“Brother… is that you?”
Jiang Xiaohe answered softly,
“Yes.”
“I’m back.”
“I found something to eat.”
“R-Really?”
“That’s wonderful.”
“B-Big Brother, you’re amazing…”
Before she could finish, a violent fit of coughing overtook her.
Jiang Xiaohe rushed over, helped his little sister sit up, then poured some water into a bowl and carefully fed it to her.
After drinking, the flush from coughing still lingered on her cheeks, but she managed a sweet smile.
“Thank you, Big Brother.”
Jiang Xiaohe fought back his tears.
Before their mother died, she had made him promise to take good care of his little sister.
Turning away, he said in a muffled voice,
“I… I’ll go cook.”
He had only obtained the dimensional space a few days earlier.
At first, he had thought he’d encountered a ghost.
Later, he realized that only he could enter the space.
While randomly pressing buttons, he discovered that it could trade with other dimensional spaces.
But after searching for days, all the items in the other inventories were things he couldn’t recognize, let alone eat.
Besides, the search function often failed to find any spaces at all.
Jiang Xiaohe didn’t ask for much.
He only wanted enough food to keep his little sister alive.
Just as he had begun believing the space was useless…
A new connection appeared.
He eagerly opened the other person’s inventory.
Food.
So much food.
There was even meat.
Unfortunately, he had nothing valuable to exchange.
After gathering all his courage, he offered the grass cricket he had woven in exchange for one food item called a potato.
His mother had taught him to read a little before she died.
According to the description, it was edible.
That night, Jiang Xiaohe and his little sister shared the single potato.
After enduring famine for so long, it was the first time either of them had felt truly full.
Potatoes were filling, soft, and fragrant.
Even without salt, they tasted delicious.
That night, the siblings fell asleep with full stomachs.
In his dreams, Jiang Xiaohe decided that tomorrow he would weave lots and lots of little grass crickets…
…and trade them for lots and lots of potatoes.