They walked through the darkened apartment building, and gradually, lively voices could be heard. A simple electric light was luxuriously hung from a tall bamboo pole.
“This is the market, where people usually come to buy vegetables. The supply and marketing cooperative is right next to it.”
Qianxing looked around. There were quite a few people gathered around the market, men and women, old and young alike.
“It’s already dark. Are there still so many people coming to buy groceries? I thought people usually bought things in the morning.”
“The soldiers at the base get up at five in the morning for training and finish at five-thirty in the evening. They only have some time at night to spend with their families or go out for a stroll, so this place is also considered a place for leisure and entertainment.”
“Don’t they have additional training at night?”
A trace of amusement flashed through Huo Yuan’s eyes. “The higher-ups said everyone should get enough rest at night so they’ll have more energy for training during the day.”
“The higher-ups are truly wise and mighty.”
Qianxing raised her eyebrows, grabbed Huo Yuan’s hand, and pulled him into the market.
“By the way, what kind of dishes do you like?”
Huo Yuan’s attention was still focused on their joined hands. Only when she suddenly asked the question did he come back to his senses.
“I… can eat anything. I’m not picky.”
After saying that, he saw Qianxing narrow her eyes, looking quite dissatisfied.
He coughed lightly. “If I really have to name something, meat. We don’t get to eat much meat in the mess hall.”
After Qianxing asked about the dishes served at the mess hall, she couldn’t help but frown deeply.
Every day, it was basically potatoes, cabbage, and radishes rotated in different combinations. As for meat, either it was stir-fried together with potatoes, where you needed good eyesight just to find it, or it was cooked into a huge pot of soup, where you could only smell the faintest trace of meat before swallowing it down.
Even an ordinary woman like her would have a hard time putting up with food like this, let alone soldiers who trained hard every single day.
Qianxing once again felt just how difficult the living conditions were here. They were practically no better than those of ordinary people in Great Xia.
“How much do you earn each month? Can you afford meat?”
“I’m a regular battalion commander. I earn ninety yuan a month. I can afford it, but the meat supply is limited. It’s delivered once every Sunday, and each person is limited to buying one jin.”
Normally, even for families willing to spend money, one jin of meat was about what one person would consume in a week. For larger families, such as those who had brought their mothers to live with them, each person would get even less.
“That’s nowhere near enough. Even I couldn’t make it through a week with that much meat,” Qianxing muttered.
Huo Yuan couldn’t help laughing. “Every Sunday, you can submit a request to leave the base and go to the state-run restaurant in the nearby town for a meal. You can add some oil and meat to your diet.”
Qianxing stared at him for a moment before grinning. “Everyone says you’re cold-faced, but you’re not cold at all.”
Huo Yuan’s smile faded somewhat. “I just don’t like smiling. It doesn’t mean I don’t know how.”
What was there to smile about when he had to deal with that group of soldiers whose skin was thicker than the city walls every day?
“Fine. Then smile at me more.”
Qianxing reached out and pinched the flesh at both corners of his mouth, pulling them upward. “A handsome man should smile more.”
Without the stern tension he had during training, Huo Yuan’s long lashes hung half-lowered as he casually looked at her. With the corners of his lips gently lifted, a smile appeared on his face, like ice and snow melting away.
After staring at him for a while, she changed her mind.
“You don’t have to smile too much. What if you end up charming someone else? Just smile at me when we’re at home.”
The next moment, Qianxing met Huo Yuan’s slightly narrowed eyes.
She knew that expression too well. It was exactly the same face her master made whenever he was about to teach her a lesson.
“Nothing!”
Qianxing immediately let go of his face and backed away several steps, grinning as she darted into the market.
“Hurry, hurry! Stop fooling around, or everyone else will buy all the vegetables!”
Who was fooling around?
Huo Yuan watched Qianxing darting around, looking everywhere without a moment’s rest, and helplessly shook his head.
She was too mischievous, just like an energetic cat.
Thinking this, he still squeezed into the crowd, caught Qianxing’s hand as she kept looking back, and silently shielded her from the crush of people.
Qianxing stared at his broad back and curved her lips.
Not only could this man smile, he was gentle too.
After a fierce scramble, Qianxing managed to buy all the remaining vegetables in the market. Vegetables didn’t require ration coupons, after all.
It was March now, so even if she bought them and kept them at home, they wouldn’t wilt quickly.
“How many people are we inviting to eat?” Qianxing shook the hand he was firmly holding.
Our home…
Huo Yuan repeated the words silently in his heart.
His tongue seemed to linger against his teeth as he savored the intimacy contained in that way of referring to their home.
He liked that phrase.
Before Huo Yuan could come back to his senses, Qianxing was already fretting.
“No matter how many people there are, our table isn’t big enough, we don’t have enough stools, and there aren’t any extra bowls or chopsticks. It seems like we need to buy everything.”
“Fengshou can lend us those things. I’ll have them bring some bowls and chopsticks over as well.”
“As for the people, there’s the regiment commander, deputy regiment commander, political commissar, chief of staff, deputy battalion commander, and Fengshou and his wife. The political commissar and chief of staff may not come.”
“We should count their families too. Then let’s prepare enough food for twenty people and split them into two tables.”
Qianxing quickly worked everything out.
She had prepared banquets for two tables before. When the master chefs taught her their skills, they often had her follow them to different estates to help prepare large banquets.
This wasn’t difficult.
The difficult part was… there weren’t enough ingredients!
Even a master chef would have a hard time turning potatoes, cabbage, and radishes into a grand banquet.
Life really isn’t easy.
Qianxing sighed.
However, before she could even finish that sigh, Huo Yuan pulled her toward the right side of the vegetable market.
It turned out that quite a few people were sitting outside, each with baskets of various sizes in front of them, filled with all sorts of miscellaneous things.
“Private individuals can sell things too?”
Before coming here, Qianxing had heard the brigade leader say that private trading wasn’t allowed at this time.
Huo Yuan explained, “They can’t conduct business, but they’re only trading things they have at home that they don’t need. There are very few items, and they aren’t specifically procuring them or producing them in large quantities, so this doesn’t count as conducting business.”
He lifted his chin, signaling for Qianxing to see if there was anything useful.
Qianxing walked around and actually found quite a few good things.
“River snails, loaches, fish, mushrooms… I want all of these.”
Qianxing pointed things out while Huo Yuan took care of the payment.
Before long, the two of them—though mainly Huo Yuan—were carrying two hands full of bamboo baskets as they headed home.
There were no bamboo baskets at home, so the baskets Huo Yuan was carrying had been bought from the women selling things.
When they got home, Huo Yuan didn’t need Qianxing to tell him what to do. He found an unused vat and put all the live creatures in it together.
Qianxing had been busy all day and felt exhausted. She wanted to lie down on the bed and rest for a moment.
Before her head even touched the pillow, however, a powerful force pulled her away.
Then two words came from above her head:
“Take a bath.”
Qianxing: “?”
Then, in her dazed state, she remembered that Huo Yuan had a cleanliness obsession.
“I’ll heat the water for you.”
It was March. Huo Yuan could take a cold shower, but he knew that the delicate Song Qianxing definitely couldn’t.
“You sit here first.”
Qianxing watched as Huo Yuan carried the kettle they used for pouring tea over to the coal stove and placed it on top. He then crouched down and began lighting the fire.
“…”
With that little bit of water, it would probably be dawn by the time it finished boiling.
Helpless, Qianxing walked over to Huo Yuan and pulled him back into the room.
Before Huo Yuan could ask what she was doing, she suddenly vanished from where she stood.