The well was about a ten-minute walk from their home.
Sister-in-law Wang carried her buckets while Xiang Wanwan walked beside her. The two chatted and laughed as they made their way forward.
When they reached the well, quite a few people were already lining up to draw water. Seeing them arrive, the crowd began whispering among themselves.
“Hey, who’s that girl? She’s really pretty.”
“I heard she’s Chief Lu’s wife. She just arrived yesterday.”
“Then who’s the one next to her?”
“Oh, she’s impressive. She’s Commander Chen’s wife from his hometown. She just arrived yesterday and forced Nurse Li away. They’re already divorced, yet she still came to pester Commander Chen!”
“She must regret it now! Look at her yellow-faced housewife appearance—how could she compare to Nurse Li!”
……
Xiang Wanwan hadn’t expected yesterday’s incident to spread so quickly.
And it had spread in such an ugly way?
So everyone here already believed that Chen De was divorced and had gotten together with Nurse Li!
Standing beside her, Sister-in-law Wang clenched her fists so tightly that her knuckles turned pale.
She was clearly the legal wife!
Yet now she had become the shameless third party who ruined someone else’s relationship!
How could she possibly accept that?
She looked at Xiang Wanwan, her eyes filled with confusion, her hands trembling slightly.
She looked utterly helpless.
“Wanwan, I… what should I do?”
Xiang Wanwan held her hand, patted it gently twice, and comforted her. “Sister-in-law, you’re the legal wife. Show the dignity of the original spouse. Don’t back down just because of these rumors.”
“Let everyone see who the real mistress actually is!”
Seeing the encouragement in Xiang Wanwan’s eyes, Sister-in-law Wang felt a bit more strength return.
She straightened her back, picked up her buckets, and walked forward.
Xiang Wanwan glanced at the gossiping women nearby and deliberately joked with Sister-in-law Wang:
“Sister-in-law, I heard that people who love gossiping while alive get their tongues pulled out by King Yama after they die, right?”
Sister-in-law Wang immediately caught on and deliberately raised her voice.
“That’s right! We’ve got stories like that back in our hometown!”
“There was an old woman in our village who loved spreading gossip when she was alive. Guess what happened? On the day of her burial, there was a torrential downpour. The people carrying the coffin slipped, and the coffin fell open. Her body rolled out, and her entire tongue was sticking out. Everyone said King Yama had pulled out her tongue, so even in hell she wouldn’t be able to say another word or pass messages back to her family!”
After saying that, Sister-in-law Wang gave the women nearby a meaningful look.
That glance made them feel their scalps go numb. Thinking of the story she had just told, their bodies couldn’t help but tremble.
Immediately after, they hurriedly lifted their buckets and fled.
Xiang Wanwan gave Sister-in-law Wang a thumbs-up.
Brilliant!
As long as Chen De hadn’t publicly admitted that he and Sister-in-law Wang weren’t divorced, anything those people said just sounded like baseless slander.
So it was better to scare them first and make them rein it in.
After carrying the water back, Sister-in-law Wang invited Xiang Wanwan to eat at her place again. Xiang Wanwan felt it wasn’t good to keep eating at someone else’s home, so she declined.
She planned to cook lunch herself.
The original owner of the body had been a capitalist heiress who couldn’t cook, but Xiang Wanwan herself actually could. As a modern-day workhorse renting on her own, it wasn’t possible to eat takeout every day.
So she had forced herself to develop solid cooking skills!
However, the moment she entered the kitchen, she remembered—there was no rice and no vegetables at home.
Even the cleverest cook can’t make a meal without rice!
Xiang Wanwan rummaged through the drawer, took out some money along with meat coupons and grain coupons, and prepared to go out and buy supplies.
But just as she reached the door, Lu Jingnian came back.
She looked at him in surprise. “Why are you back? It’s not time to get off work yet, is it?”
“I brought back some rice, flour, and vegetables for you.”
Only then did Xiang Wanwan notice the items in his hands.
She hadn’t expected him to be so thoughtful!
“I was just about to go buy some. You already got them first.”
Seeing her expression, Lu Jingnian guessed she didn’t yet understand the island’s rules, so he patiently explained,
“There are no shops here, and you can’t buy daily necessities.”
Xiang Wanwan was utterly shocked.
What?
No shops? Can’t buy anything?
Then how did he get all this?
Seeing her clueless expression, like an innocent little girl, Lu Jingnian chuckled softly.
“All supplies on the island are shipped in from outside. You can collect them from logistics once a month. Everyone here lives off external supplies.”
Xiang Wanwan instantly felt as if the sky had collapsed.
So all the money and meat coupons and grain coupons she had prepared before coming were useless?
Her dream of eating meat freely was impossible now!
Why hadn’t he told her earlier?
If he had, she would’ve stocked up more food in her space.
She stared at the items in Lu Jingnian’s hands and asked word by word,
“So… this is our food for the entire month?”
Lu Jingnian nodded.
“Then what about your canteen? Can we eat there?”
“The canteen only opens one day a week.”
Xiang Wanwan was completely despairing.
She felt like she had arrived on a disguised deserted island.
Surrounded by the sea, relying solely on external supplies to survive!
“So for lunch, will you cook yourself, or should I bring food back from the canteen?”
“Bring it back.”
Saving one meal was still saving something. With this little food, there was no way it could last a whole month.
Lu Jingnian smiled silently at her decisive answer.
He’d see later whether she’d like it or not.
He placed all the supplies he’d brought back on the table in the living room, then looked at Xiang Wanwan and said gently,
“Alright, I’ll head back now.”
After Lu Jingnian left, Xiang Wanwan stared at the food on the table, lost in thought.
No way.
She had to grow some food herself!
The yard was quite large anyway. She could plant some potatoes, sweet potatoes, or something—at least add a dish.
Otherwise, relying on just this much food meant carefully rationing everything every month.
If she had known following the army would be like this, she wouldn’t have come!
Near noon, Lu Jingnian came back again.
He brought two dishes from the canteen—one meat, one vegetable.
Xiang Wanwan picked up a piece of meat and put it into her mouth. Her expression changed instantly.
It was awful!
Why did the meat taste bitter?
Seeing her face scrunch up in discomfort, Lu Jingnian found it amusing.
He put down his bowl and chopsticks and said, “If you can’t eat it, just spit it out.”
Hearing this, Xiang Wanwan felt as if she’d been granted amnesty. She immediately rushed to the bathroom, spat out the meat, and rinsed her mouth.
When she returned to the table, she stared at the two dishes, not daring to eat again.
“Is the food in your canteen always like this?”
Lu Jingnian nodded.
When he had first arrived, he couldn’t eat it either, but over time, he got used to it.
It tasted bad, sure, but at least it filled the stomach.
Xiang Wanwan sighed.
What pitiful people!
These were soldiers stationed on the island—why couldn’t they at least be given a decent cook?
Such terrible food, and they dared serve it to officers.
Xiang Wanwan pressed down on Lu Jingnian’s hand. “Wait a moment. I’ll make you a dish.”
She immediately stood up and went into the kitchen, rummaging through the supplies Lu Jingnian had brought back and pulling out two eggs and two tomatoes.
After chopping the tomatoes and beating the eggs, she hesitated again when she looked at the stove.
“Lu Jingnian, come in and help me start the fire.”
The man in the living room immediately came in, sat in front of the stove, and skillfully started the fire.
Xiang Wanwan was a little surprised.
She hadn’t expected him to be so capable in daily life.
Before long, she finished cooking a plate of tomato scrambled eggs.
She brought it to the table and picked up a bite herself.
Mm, not bad! Looks like her skills hadn’t regressed.
She looked at Lu Jingnian. The man still hadn’t moved his chopsticks—was he worried it wouldn’t taste good?
Xiang Wanwan used her own chopsticks to pick up a piece and placed it into his bowl.
“Try it?”
Lu Jingnian glanced at her, then picked up his chopsticks and put the food into his mouth.
His eyes lit up instantly, but he forced himself to stay calm and said slowly, “Not bad. Very tasty.”
He hadn’t expected a capitalist heiress like her to know how to cook.
And it actually tasted good!
He picked up some food for Xiang Wanwan as well and smiled at her. “You eat too.”
Just like that, the two of them quickly finished the entire plate of tomato scrambled eggs.
As for the two dishes from the canteen, Lu Jingnian ate them all as well so they wouldn’t go to waste.
Xiang Wanwan stared at the empty plates, shocked.
Did Lu Jingnian have such a big appetite?
With just this much food every month, could it really be enough for him?
It seemed that planting vegetables needed to be put on the agenda as soon as possible.
She looked at Lu Jingnian and asked tentatively,
“Can you help me get some vegetable seeds? I want to plant some vegetables in the yard.”
Hearing this, Lu Jingnian was stunned for a moment.
Plant vegetables?
She even knew how to grow vegetables?
“Alright. I’ll ask at the logistics department.”
Although Xiang Wanwan didn’t get a direct answer, she was still quite happy that Lu Jingnian hadn’t rejected her outright.
After the meal, Lu Jingnian very consciously washed the dishes, cleaned up the kitchen, and only then went out to work.