Around five in the evening.
Jiang Lizhu had changed into a light purple floral dress and carried a small cloth bag. Gu Mingyan held their son as they exited the residential compound through the east gate. They wound their way through the alleyways for about twenty minutes before turning onto the main road near the municipal building, finally arriving at the supply and marketing cooperative Jiang Lizhu wanted to visit.
This was the largest cooperative in Su City, with a complete range of goods. As long as you had the ration tickets, you could basically buy anything in stock.
“Comrade, I’d like to buy two cans of adult milk powder and two cans of infant formula suitable for a three-month-old. What brands and prices do you have?” Jiang Lizhu headed straight for the food counter with Gu Mingyan and the baby.
The can of adult milk powder on her desk at home was a gift from Head Nurse Liu’s cousin to help her build up her strength. It was almost finished.
The baby had been breastfed for over three months now. It was time to start supplementing with formula. At least for the coming month, with Gu Mingyan around and formula available, she could get a decent night’s sleep.
The sales assistant at the counter was a middle-aged woman. Her eyes swept over Jiang Lizhu and Gu Mingyan appraisingly before she introduced several types of milk powder as requested.
Using her own money and ration tickets, Jiang Lizhu bought according to her own preferences, directly selecting the two most expensive options.
Gu Mingyan wanted to pay and find his own tickets, but Jiang Lizhu had already handed over the money and tickets.
“I’ll carry them. Don’t worry, I won’t bump the baby,” Gu Mingyan said quickly, taking the net bag containing the four cans of milk powder. This was much heavier than their son.
Before leaving the house, Jiang Lizhu had fastened the ingenious little cloth baby carrier onto Gu Mingyan, securing the little one almost to his chest.
The baby was full of energy now, not making a sound. He held his little round head up, occasionally turning this way and that to look around, perfectly well-behaved.
Gu Mingyan looked at the sales assistant and continued, “Get two more cans of each of these, please.”
“Before coming to Su City, I specifically swapped with some comrades for extra ration tickets,” Gu Mingyan explained quietly to Jiang Lizhu, tilting his head towards her. “These two milk tickets are a congratulatory gift for our son from an old leader of mine.”
The old leader Gu Mingyan referred to was Deputy Division Commander He, a childhood friend of Jiang Lizhu’s father, Jiang Yuanbai, who had already been sent down. Their relationship had been close, but the situation had erupted suddenly, and with “evidence” seeming conclusive, by the time Deputy Division Commander He learned of it, it was too late to intervene.
Deputy Division Commander He believed in Jiang Yuanbai’s character, but he couldn’t resist the tide of the times. At this stage, he could only do what he could to look after his old friend’s children a bit more.
“Then we should buy some return gifts, something for Uncle He,” Jiang Lizhu said, asking the sales assistant for some gift boxes of Su City specialties and pastries that would keep well. When she shipped her luggage to the family quarters later, she could send them along.
Gu Mingyan paid for these along with the money and tickets, and Jiang Lizhu didn’t argue with him over it.
Next, Gu Mingyan bought their son two sets of autumn/winter clothing for toddlers aged one or two. They weren’t very thick, as Gu Mingyan’s marine unit was stationed along the southeastern coast, where winters weren’t very cold.
“Are there any new style dresses suitable for my wife?” Gu Mingyan felt that since he’d bought new clothes for his son, he should also buy some for Jiang Lizhu. He thought both dresses she had worn that day were exceptionally pretty.
“These two rows are all new arrivals. Your wife is beautiful, you can’t go wrong with any choice,” the sales assistant at the clothing counter said, glancing at Jiang Lizhu and offering a sincere compliment.
Moreover, in these times, not many men would buy new clothes for their son and then remember their wife.
“Pick whatever you like,” Gu Mingyan said, giving a slight nod of agreement to the auntie sales assistant before lowering his head to gently persuade Jiang Lizhu, who seemed distinctly uninterested.
“Going back home to see my parents, and for my little sister’s wedding banquet, you’ll need new clothes too. Even if you can’t go back, you can still buy new clothes.”
Jiang Lizhu couldn’t help but laugh at this. She took a step closer to Gu Mingyan and beckoned him with her hand. Gu Mingyan dutifully lowered his head to listen to her whisper.
“You think my dress is pretty? I made these myself. As for the clothes here… it’s not that I won’t buy them, I just really can’t appreciate the style.”
The two baby outfits Gu Mingyan had bought earlier were his gift to their son, and Jiang Lizhu wouldn’t stop that. When it came to herself, however, she didn’t want to waste the money.
“Then let’s buy fabric and make them ourselves instead. We’ll buy plenty; I brought a lot of cloth tickets,” Gu Mingyan said, taking out the cloth tickets wrapped in black cloth and placing them in Jiang Lizhu’s hand.
In all his years in the army, the military had provided for his food, clothing, housing, and travel. He almost never bought new clothes for himself. Previously, the cloth tickets issued to him by the army were partly sent back to his hometown, and the rest were basically lent out to his comrades.
This time, because of Jiang Lizhu’s telegram, it seemed everyone in the unit knew he was married and had a son.
Many of the tickets he brought back were, in fact, among the congratulatory gifts his comrades had proactively “returned.”
Jiang Lizhu quickly counted the numerous tickets Gu Mingyan had pressed into her hand. She couldn’t help but smile. She didn’t refuse his kindness again and nodded. “Alright.”
They moved to the adjacent fabric counter. Jiang Lizhu not only selected materials for herself but also picked out some fabrics suitable for Gu Mingyan and their son to wear.
The sewing machine by the window facing the corridor at home was one of the betrothal gifts Gu Mingyan had bought for the original Jiang Lizhu. He simply thought that since others bought one when marrying a wife, he should too.
Jiang Lizhu had once been the quintessential daughter of a wealthy family. In any era, she would be considered multi-talented – proficient in piano, dance, painting, and cooking. Having studied art-related fields for many years, her aesthetic sense was excellent.
So far, her interest in tinkering with this old-fashioned sewing machine was strong. Most of the forty or fifty cloth diapers Gu Mingyan had seen earlier were from her initial practice attempts.
As she gradually figured out how the sewing machine worked, she started altering the original Jiang Lizhu’s old clothes. Now, she could make genuinely new clothes for herself and her son.
The light purple dress she was wearing was one of her most satisfying creations to date. It conformed to the conservative mores of the era while subtly accentuating her figure and temperament.
“There are still quite a few cloth tickets left. Do you want to buy some for your parents and younger sister? Do you know their heights and weights?” Jiang Lizhu sorted through the cloth tickets in Gu Mingyan’s wallet, looking at him questioningly.
Her understanding of Gu Mingyan’s family came entirely from that time-travel stepmother novel. In that book, the female lead’s mother-in-law and sisters-in-law were not easy to get along with, constantly wary and dismissive of the stepmother protagonist.
In the book, the woman the mother-in-law initially wanted to introduce to Gu Mingyan wasn’t the novel’s female lead, but an older female educated youth in the village. However, before Gu Mingyan could reply, that educated youth encountered trouble, and the introduction fell through.
At that time, the already-reborn female lead was remarkably bold and resourceful. First, she decisively divorced and kicked out her scumbag husband. Then, through the already-married Gu Xiaomei, she obtained a marriage introduction letter written in the tone of the Gu family. Armed with this letter, she went directly to Gu Mingyan’s military unit.
Leveraging her rebirth advantage, she “coincidentally” provided assistance in the operation to rescue Gu Mingyan’s kidnapped son. Through several subsequent encounters, she found a breakthrough with her future stepson and successfully became Gu Mingyan’s second wife.
In the book, the Gu family mother-in-law held a grudge against the stepmother female lead for forging the letter. Fearing she was superficially bright but fundamentally dishonest, and might abuse her long-suffering, hard-won grandson, she specifically followed them to the military base, subjecting the female lead to considerable torment.
Ultimately, the reborn female lead’s halo was stronger; she successfully sent the difficult mother-in-law back to the countryside, achieving a temporary victory.
From Jiang Lizhu’s perspective, now having transmigrated into the book, the mother-in-law who was so difficult and troublesome for the female lead was one of the people who loved her son most in the story. She naturally felt a bit more favorably inclined toward that mother-in-law. Just a bit, though.
If they did meet, and that mother-in-law tried to pull the same tricks on her as she did on the stepmother lead, she could turn hostile immediately.
“I know our parents’ measurements. As for Little Sister… she should be a bit taller than you. You have good taste, just choose whatever you think is suitable,” Gu Mingyan said. For his parents and elders back home, he usually just sent money and tickets directly, letting them decide what they wanted to buy.
But this trip home had a different significance. If Jiang Lizhu and their son accompanied him, whether or not they brought gifts, and what kind, would carry entirely different meaning.
In the countryside, whether a mother-in-law was considered a good person had no bearing on whether she might mistreat her daughter-in-law. Gu Mingyan wouldn’t swear by his own parents’ behavior either.
Moreover, people change. His last visit home had been three years ago. Originally, after completing a personal task for a leader in Su City last year, he was supposed to continue on his way home to visit family.
But plans changed… He was “schemed” by Jiang Lizhu and had to take responsibility for his leader’s old friend’s daughter. He waited in Su City for the marriage report to be approved, got the marriage certificate with Jiang Lizhu, and also traveled to a neighboring city for tasks.
As a result, his leave time was just barely enough, nowhere near sufficient to continue home for a family visit.
When they next contacted each other before the Spring Festival, Jiang Lizhu again refused to join him at the military base or accompany him home, and wouldn’t explain why. Feeling frustrated and helpless, Gu Mingyan voluntarily took on missions. After that came frequent training and assignments, right up until he received Jiang Lizhu’s special telegram.
However, returning home for his little sister’s wedding banquet was something he had promised his parents at the beginning of the year. Whether Jiang Lizhu accompanied him or not, he would make the trip home.
But if Jiang Lizhu hadn’t sent that telegram to the military base, Gu Mingyan would probably have just telegraphed to ask if she wanted to accompany him home. If she agreed, he would have changed his route to pass through Su City before continuing home.
If Jiang Lizhu still refused, chances were high Gu Mingyan wouldn’t make a special trip to Su City at all…
Gu Mingyan suddenly felt a shiver of fear. If not for Jiang Lizhu’s current “initiative,” her growth and willingness to let go of the past, he truly didn’t know when he would have discovered he had a son.
Jiang Lizhu quickly selected a relatively formal set of autumn clothing for Gu Mingyan’s parents based on the measurements he provided. Suitable for formal occasions like the wedding banquet, they could also have a cotton-padded jacket or military coat layered over them in winter.
For Gu Mingyan’s younger sister, whose exact height was unknown, Jiang Lizhu bought a loose-fitting blouse that would flatter any figure. She added a pair of mandarin duck-patterned pillowcases, appropriate for a newlywed couple, as a wedding gift.
As for other gifts to bring for brothers, nephews, and nieces, Gu Mingyan could come back and buy those himself later.