Wu Qiaoqiao and Liu Mingfeng busied themselves in the kitchen, and finally, just as everyone was about to finish work, the food was almost ready. However, some dishes still needed to be stewed in the pot, such as the pheasant and chestnut stewed chicken they had brought back from the mountain.

However, no matter how much preparation was done, the food was served after everyone finished work, washed up, and came over to eat together. At this time, the wives of Liu Ercheng and Liu Sanqian, who were following behind, also brought over the dishes. It turned out that Liu Ercheng and Liu Sanqian had already told their families when Feng Minghao and the others called them to eat that someone in their family had finished work in advance to prepare some things, since so many people could not rely entirely on Liu Mingfeng and the others for food.

When they arrived, they brought not only vegetables but also bags of grain. Even Tan Jing and his grandfather, who arrived later, brought bags with some vegetables.

Seeing this, Liu Mingfeng and the others didn't say anything more. They knew it was the elders' good intention, so they invited everyone to sit down and eat.

This time, because it was another family meal, we were divided into two tables: one for the children and one for the adults. The daughter-in-law was taking care of the children and was at the children's table.

The men ate their food and drank the rice wine and sweet potato wine they had traded with the villagers, while casually discussing Tan Jing and Feng Mingyue. Over the meal, they decided to hold an engagement banquet for the couple after the busy farming season. As for marriage, they said it would have to wait, since both were still quite young, especially Feng Mingyue, who was only 18. Old Master Tan agreed, knowing full well that his Jingzi marrying Mingyue was a huge stroke of luck for his family. The men continued to tease and joke with Feng Mingyue and Tan Jing, making the two men blush and bury their faces in their rice bowls, too embarrassed to even pick up any food.

After the children had finished eating, their wives took them outside to play and digest their food. During this time, Liu Mingfeng and the others discussed the possibility of taking the college entrance exam. For example, Wu Aiguo, Liu Ercheng's youngest daughter-in-law, was excited upon hearing the news. However, after looking at her youngest son in her arms, her excitement cooled.

Seeing his wife's expression, Liu Ercheng's youngest son, Liu Daniu, sitting next to her, knew that she was happy to hear about the college entrance exam, but also worried about their youngest son and was undecided. So Liu Daniu patted his wife's hand and said with a smile.

"Honey, go ahead and take the exam if you want. Don't worry about home. We've got you covered, Mom and Dad."

Wu Aiguo looked at her husband. Although he was from the countryside and only had a junior high school education, he treated her extremely well. Her family was a patriarchal one, and she shouldn't have been sent to the countryside. After graduating from high school, Wu Aiguo had already found a job in a factory thanks to her good grades and connections with her teachers. However, her parents, because her younger brother was going to the countryside, secretly enrolled her without her knowledge. It was only when a classmate's family member worked at the educated youth office that they saw Wu Aiguo's name and mentioned it to her classmate. Because of their relationship, the classmate alerted Wu Aiguo, and that's how Wu Aiguo found out what her parents had done.

At that time, Wu Aiguo felt utterly hopeless. She knew her parents favored sons over daughters, but she never imagined they would do such a thing. So, the day before she was to be sent to the countryside, she went to the factory and sold the job to the classmate who had told her the news. Before selling it to her classmate, she explained her family's situation. Fortunately, her classmate's family had connections and wasn't afraid of her parents causing trouble. After she went to the countryside, the letters she received from her parents were all abusive. They even said that if she didn't send the money from selling the job back to buy a job for her younger brother, they would disown her. From then on, she never wrote home again and never received any news from home. Even when she was about to get married, she wrote home but received no reply. After that, there was no contact.

After working on the farm for two years, Wu Aiguo met Liu Daniu and learned about his parents' character through their interactions. She then married him. Hearing her husband say this now, Wu Aiguo couldn't help but shed tears. She wiped her eyes, feeling incredibly fortunate that she had made that choice.

"You big fool, you're so carefree? Aren't you afraid that I'll be like some people, praising someone and then never coming back?"

Liu Daniu didn't say anything, but chuckled and scratched the back of his head. At this moment, Zhou Cuihua, who had walked behind them, came up behind Wu Aiguo and patted her head.

"Silly girl, we know you're not like that when you say such things. Don't worry, study hard and do your best on the exam. Once you pass, Mom will take care of your child."

Looking at her kind mother-in-law standing behind her and her father-in-law sitting at the table smoking a pipe, silently but smiling at her, Wu Aiguo couldn't help but bury her head in Zhou Cuihua's arms. Although she hadn't met good parents, she had met good in-laws. Wu Aiguo said that meeting Liu Daniu was probably the greatest luck of her life.

Seeing the situation at Liu Ercheng's house, no one said anything more. Then Liu Mingfeng and Feng Minghao took out the two sets of textbooks they had found in Beijing, along with the set Feng Minghao had found at the scrap yard earlier that day, and put them all on the table. They gave these three sets of books to Wu Aiguo and Feng Mingran, the two siblings. Zhao Xiuxiang and Liu Erchen noticed that Liu Mingfeng hadn't left any for Wu Qiaoqiao and the others, so Zhao Xiuxiang spoke up.

"Aren't you going to leave a set for Qiaoqiao and Yuwei? Aren't they also high school graduates? They'll take the college entrance exam after hearing the news. Are you saying they won't take the exam? Is it because you disagree? This won't do."

Hearing Zhao Xiuxiang's accusations, Liu Mingfeng and Feng Minghao gave wry smiles. It wasn't that they didn't want to leave any room for the two of them; it was that neither of them had even considered taking the college entrance exam. Take Wu Qiaoqiao, for example. She was used to being wild in the apocalypse, and they both knew that after the college entrance exam, going to university meant being assigned a job by the government. How could Wu Qiaoqiao possibly stand working a conventional job?

Lin Yuwei decided against taking the college entrance exam because she knew she would have to work after graduating from university. In her previous life, she had only lived a few years of cautious living before becoming an empress or empress dowager—truly second only to the emperor, with everyone obeying her. She couldn't bear the thought of working as a subservient servant. However, Lin Yuwei hadn't given up on university. She had already learned from Liu Mingfeng and Wu Qiaoqiao that adult education was an option, so she decided to take the entrance exam later when it became available.