After finally serving food to the noisy group of young soldiers who kept calling her “Sister-in-law,” Qin Yue’e looked at the empty serving trays. There wasn’t even a drop of soup left.
She let out a quiet breath of relief and closed the serving window.
Auntie Liu came over from behind.
“Xiao Qin, how is it? Getting used to the work? Don’t underestimate kitchen work. It may look simple, but working around the stove all day is exhausting!”
Qin Yue’e smiled.
“I don’t really find it tiring. I was used to doing this kind of work back home.”
There was just one thing she found strange.
After all, Qin Yue’e had come from a later era, so she didn’t have much understanding of how poor this period was.
In her mind, shouldn’t the army have some of the best food?
Normally, there should at least be meat once a week!
But judging from what she’d seen today, it had clearly been more than a week since the soldiers had eaten meat.
All three dishes today were vegetables. The only difference was that one of them had been stir-fried with the broth from the braised pork they had prepared that morning, giving it just a hint of meaty flavor.
There wasn’t even a single scrap of meat in it.
Yet that was the first dish the soldiers had completely emptied.
Looking at the soldiers outside eating as though they wanted to scrape every last grain of food from their lunchboxes, Qin Yue’e couldn’t help turning to Auntie Liu.
“Auntie Liu, is it just me, or does the food here seem so little that the soldiers can barely get full?”
The moment she heard this, Auntie Liu sighed.
“Xiao Qin, people outside the unit always think soldiers eat meat at every meal. But even Captain Liu eats the same food as us! It’s sweet potato leaves and sweet potato vines meal after meal. Sometimes I feel sorry for these soldiers too, but there’s nothing we can do.”
She pointed toward Xiao Dong, who was helping clean up nearby.
“Look at Xiao Dong. Every time he goes shopping, he visits the villagers at the foot of the mountain one household at a time. But the villagers aren’t well-off either. Even if we offer money and grain coupons, most production teams don’t have much food to spare.”
“And pork is even more difficult! A production team only slaughters a pig once a year, and they need to apply for permission first. After the pig is slaughtered, part of the meat has to be turned over. The villagers barely have enough left for themselves. How could our unit take their food away?”
Qin Yue’e’s heart trembled.
If that was the case, then perhaps the eggs she and the children had eaten yesterday were among the best things the unit could afford to give them.
“What if we buy some chickens and ducks from the villagers?” she cautiously asked.
Auntie Liu waved her hand helplessly.
“The villagers only keep a few chickens and ducks. If they raise too many, they’ll be reported! Whenever there’s a wedding or funeral in the family, they rely on those few animals. How could we ask them to sell them to us?”
Her voice was filled with helplessness, and Qin Yue’e couldn’t help sighing as well.
In the mountains, chickens and ducks were among the easiest animals to raise.
If she could get some chicks and ducklings, raise them herself, then the soldiers could have meat later on.
These young men were in the prime of their lives. How could they possibly stay full eating sweet potato vines every day?
As she thought about it, Qin Yue’e’s mind began working rapidly.
Suddenly, she remembered that on the way here, she seemed to have vaguely heard the calls of wild ducks somewhere nearby.
She hadn’t been sure at the time because she had been so hungry that she could barely keep her eyes open.
But if she had some free time in the afternoon, perhaps she could go take a look.
Maybe she’d find some wild chicken eggs.
And if she couldn’t find those, she could at least catch a rabbit.
Rabbit meat might make you thinner the more you ate it, but at least it was still meat!
“Xiao Qin, what’s wrong? Are you tired?”
Auntie Liu gave her a gentle push.
Qin Yue’e came back to her senses and quickly smiled.
“No, I was just thinking about the children.”
“Aww, you’ve been raising those two children yourself since they were little, haven’t you? Of course you’d feel that way. That’s how women are when they’re separated from their children for the first time.”
Auntie Liu glanced at the nearly cleaned kitchen and nudged Qin Yue’e.
“Alright, I think we’re pretty much done here. Hurry home.”
Qin Yue’e had something on her mind, so she didn’t bother being polite.
“Alright. I’ll leave first today. I’ll come earlier tomorrow to help!”
She walked out carrying a lunchbox filled with some leftover sweet-potato porridge from the kitchen.
The moment she stepped outside the mess hall, a tall figure followed behind her.
Qin Yue’e didn’t even need to turn around to know who it was.
She immediately quickened her pace.
Huo Guangji frowned when he saw her suddenly walking faster.
What’s wrong with this woman? Why does she hate me so much?
He reached up and rubbed his nose, which still hurt from when she’d slammed the serving window earlier.
Then he strode forward and grabbed Qin Yue’e by the wrist.
The moment his hand closed around it, his heart jolted.
How can she be this thin?
Her wrist wasn’t even as wide as two of his fingers.
Just holding it made him feel a strange ache in his heart.
“Captain Huo, what do you want?”
Qin Yue’e asked without emotion.
She stared at the hand gripping her wrist.
His palm was large, his fingers bony and well-defined, and his skin rough from years of military training. She knew without even trying that she wouldn’t be able to pull free.
So she didn’t waste her strength.
Instead, she coldly asked,
“Is this how Captain Huo treats his own wife? By putting his hands on her in public?”
Whoosh!
His hand immediately released her wrist.
For a brief moment, there was a flash of panic on Huo Guangji’s face, but he quickly composed himself.
“You misunderstood. I only wanted to give you the provisions and meal coupons from logistics.”
He pulled out a handful of meal coupons from his pocket.
They were messy and wrinkled, obviously stuffed into his pocket without much care.
Qin Yue’e frowned instinctively.
But these were the meal coupons that would feed her and the children in the future, so she reached out and took them, putting them into her pocket.
“Anything else? If not, I’ll be going.”
She didn’t want to stay another moment.
But Huo Guangji reached into his pocket again.
This time, he pulled out an old-fashioned cloth money pouch. It had been sewn by hand, with a bit of dark-red embroidery along the side. The pattern was too faint to make out.
He opened the pouch and pulled out a roll of cash.
He counted it roughly.
There was probably a little over ten yuan.
Without another word, he stuffed all of it into Qin Yue’e’s hand.
“The company commander told me you’re short of money. This is all I have on me. Take it. And don’t go running to the company commander to complain about me whenever something happens.”
What?
Qin Yue’e’s face was full of confusion.
When had she ever gone to Captain Liu to complain about him?
Then she remembered how Huo Guangji had shown up at her room last night with such a dark expression.
She understood immediately.
So that’s why he got scolded by Captain Liu last night!
And now he was blaming her for it?
What a huge accusation.
She wasn’t going to carry that burden.
“Captain Huo, instead of suspecting that I complained about you, why don’t you reflect on your own behavior?”
She stared directly at him.
“Think about whether you’ve done anything so outrageous, heartless, or unreasonable that even Captain Liu couldn’t stand watching it anymore!”
With that, Qin Yue’e took the money from Huo Guangji’s hand and turned around.
What kind of fool would refuse money when it’s being handed to them?
Besides, this was money she deserved in the first place.