As Gu Tiezhu started to pick up his chopsticks, at Zhang Cuifen's strong request, the whole family served themselves some soup first. The soup base was rich and fragrant with pork bones and delicious cuttlefish. Gu Qingqing also served herself an egg.

During this period of time, the family has saved a lot of eggs, including the eggs and duck eggs given to them when they went to their grandparents' homes to deliver tofu. Zhang Cuifen plans to save them for another ten days and bring them all to the island to eat.

Seeing her relaxed and contented look, Chu Dai also picked up the bowl to drink soup, listening to the Gu family laughing and talking about interesting things in the village.

The food was plentiful tonight, and the charcoal fire under the table was also bright and hot. It wasn't cold at all in the main room. Gu Qinglie even sweated while eating, and took off his cotton coat and hung it on the back of the chair.

Gu Tiezhu drank some wine and chatted with Chu Yuan, looking at the whole family from time to time, feeling extremely happy.

Although Gu Qingqing was only concerned about eating, she was afraid that the man would feel restrained, so she would occasionally pick up food for him with her chopsticks.

"Brother." She lowered her voice, "You are too thin, eat more."

Chu Dai hummed and smiled, "Okay."

After dinner, Shi Rushuang and her sisters-in-law cleaned up the dishes, while Gu Qinglie and his friends put the tables, chairs and benches back against the wall. There was a place in the main room where they could warm themselves by the fire, so Gu Qingqing brought in some firewood, lit it, and began to stay up all night.

She leaned on Chu Dai, the firewood gradually became stronger, and she felt a little sleepy.

Chu Zhao took out a deck of poker cards from his luggage and helped a few men play cards.

In this day and age, having a deck of poker cards is something that people envy, but Gu Qingqing was not interested. Chu Dai was drawing cards beside her but was too lazy to even look at them. He thought about taking a nap and then waking up to play with Zhao Yu and Qin Li.

At around nine o'clock in the evening, Gu Qingqing rubbed her eyes and rubbed the man's arm, casually glanced at the cards in his hand, and stood up to go out.

"Where are you going?" Chu Dai turned around and looked at her.

"Do you want some water?"

"No, help me get two candies from the house." Chu Dai let her hold his shoulders and stood up, adding playfully, "Wife."

Gu Qingqing responded and pressed her hands on his shoulders even harder.

Chu Zhao's little actions did not escape their eyes. He joked, "It's different to have a wife. There are also people helping to get candy. How can you not faint, Old Chu, look at how proud he is."

Gu Canyang glanced at him indifferently and said nothing.

Chu Zhao found it boring and complained to Gu Qinglie: "Do you think it's hard for a man like your brother to find a wife? Look at Old Chu, although he has a bad temper, he's good at talking, unlike your brother who doesn't care about anything."

Gu Qinglie glanced at his brother's cold expression and thought to himself, "Brother, I have no grudge against you, why do you want to harm me?" "Hurry up and play your cards. Play for a while and then go set off firecrackers. You will be back to the military area in a few days. Relax now."

At this point, Chu Zhao became depressed: "I will go back on the tenth day of the first lunar month. The training will be more difficult in the new year. We don't see any female comrades in the Air Force Group Army all year round..."

After listening to him chattering, Chu Dai finally understood why he and Gu Qinglie hit it off at first sight.

These two people were nagging together.

Gu Qingqing went to the kitchen to pour a cup of hot water, then leaned against the stove to listen to her grandma, mother, and two aunts chatting about family matters. After listening for a while, she put down the cup and went back to the house.

She hadn't had time to see the new clothes her brother brought back from the tailor shop, but now she was impatient to see them.

Turning on the light bulb, she looked at the two large cloth bags on the bed, rubbed her hands and opened them.

There were two white Dacron shirts, the same style as Chu Dai's, a black tweed coat, also made for women based on his clothes, a dark red corduroy jacket and two pairs of trousers.

What she was most looking forward to was the satin quilt cover with dragon and phoenix patterns. When she opened it, it felt very smooth in her hands, and there were a hundred little dolls embroidered on it.

Now I know why it is called Baizisuan.

She felt the slippery satin in her hands was a little hot, so she folded it carefully and put it back in the cabinet beside the bed.

She put the rest of the clothes back into the closet, opened the box, and saw the White Rabbit milk candies and crispy candies in the bag. She hesitated for a while, went out for a walk, and when she came back, she had a wooden snack box with many compartments in her hand.

I grabbed a little bit of each candy and put it in. There was still a bag that was not opened. When I opened it, it was filled with chocolate with liqueur filling.

These candies were bought by Chu Dai and his father, who were planning to use them as wedding candies. She didn't open them much, and even the little kids in the village came over and grabbed a handful.

Now that it’s Chinese New Year, we can take it out and eat it together.

It was already past ten o'clock when she returned to the main room. The men were playing poker with cigarettes as chips. The box of Da Qianmen in Chu Dai's pocket had been mostly scattered, while Gu Canyang had a dozen cigarettes piled up in front of the table. When the game ended, he just pushed them away and didn't take any.

Gu Qingqing put down the snack box in her hand, grabbed a White Rabbit candy, opened it and stuffed it into the man's mouth, "I have to go out for a while, you stay at home and play with your brothers?"

Chu Dai didn't know why she spoke to him as if he was a child. Did he still need to be coaxed when he was so old?

I couldn't help but laugh: "Okay, I'll stay at home with my brothers. You go ahead, I'll wait for you to come back."

After hearing this, Chu Zhao leaned on Gu Qinglie's shoulder and laughed.

Gu Qingqing also frowned, put two handfuls of candy in her pocket and went out to find Zhao Yu.

Zhao Yu was chatting with her mother Qian Guihua in the kitchen. "Mother, the person Qingqing found is very good-looking. I will also look for someone according to this standard in the future."

Qian Guihua was eating hot pot, and she laughed after hearing what her daughter said: "Zhao Yu, we can't judge people by appearance. Look at Zhang Bufan from the Zhang family. He looks like a decent person, but he often steals things."

"Mother, Uncle Bufan has changed his ways," Zhao Yu reminded her in a low voice.

Qian Guihua narrowed her eyes, "Xiao Yu, tell me the truth, are you attracted to any of the educated youth? Apart from the boys from the Gu family, the three educated youth are the best looking in the village."

"No way!" Zhao Yu retorted, "I just said casually that I want to find someone good-looking like Qingqing. Why are you imagining nonsense?"

"Really?" Qian Guihua was half-believing and half-doubting: "Mother didn't mean anything else. Those male educated youth were pretty good. They were efficient and had no faults. It's just that they have to go back to the city sooner or later and can't stay in our village for long. If you're far away, men's hearts will change easily and they may never come back."

"Look at Qingqing. Her husband is going to live on the island, but she is following him eagerly. If you find an educated youth, either take him back to the city or let him stay in the village. I think those educated youth are careless and I'm afraid they can't stay in our Datunzi Village."

Zhao Yu was overwhelmed when he heard this. "Mother, I really didn't mean that."

Qian Guihua laughed, "Okay, okay, okay, isn't Qingqing calling you outside? Hurry up, there's no need to heat the pot, you're not needed here, you two sisters should just have a good time together."

She had only recently become suspicious. Ever since the young lady took over the job of Qingqing's recorder, she had become closer and closer to that group of educated youth. In addition, the young lady was of marriageable age, and the male educated youths were handsome and had good temperaments, with the bookish air of cultured people. She was afraid that the young lady would fall into their trap if she had contact with them for too long.

But it's just a suspicion. If the girl really likes her, there's no way she can tell.

Because the Gu family treated Gu Qingqing as their baby, the adults in Datunzi Village and Dagouzi Village all liked their daughters very much. There was some preference for boys over girls, but it was not as serious as in other production teams.

Gu Qingqing called Zhao Yu several times at the gate before he came out of the kitchen. She complained, "It's too cold, Xiao Yu, please walk faster."

"I'm coming, don't worry, I'll go back to the house and change into a pair of cotton shoes." Zhao Yu was wearing cloth shoes. It wasn't cold even when he was warming himself by the fire in the kitchen. If he really wanted to go out and play, he would have to wear cotton shoes to keep warm.

After waiting for about five minutes, she finally came out. Gu Qingqing had a black scarf woven by Aunt Yu for Chu Dai around her neck. Her own red scarf was stuffed at the bottom of the box and she was too lazy to look through it.

My head was almost tucked into the collar of my cotton coat, but fortunately I had a scarf around it.

Seeing her like this, Zhao Yu couldn't help but laugh at her: "The coldest time has passed, it's already the beginning of spring, why are you still so afraid of the cold?"

Gu Qingqing walked beside her and headed towards the Qin family: "It's a late spring cold. What were you and Aunt Zhao talking about in the kitchen? You were mumbling to each other and I didn't see you come out for a long time."

"I said I wanted to find a man as good-looking as your Chu Dai," Zhao Yu did not hide from her: "My mother thought I had a crush on an educated youth in the team, and she thought there was no hope. She was afraid that he would not want me after returning to the city."

Gu Qingqing was surprised: "So do you like it?"

Zhao Yu hesitated for a long time and couldn't explain it clearly, but Gu Qingqing almost understood it.

She laughed: "Which one? Brother Meng Nan? Or Zhang Qing or Yu Chengfeng?"

"Oh, I don't really like her," Zhao Yu said, twisting the thread with his fingers in his pocket. "I just think she's okay. She's pretty and has a nice personality."

Gu Qingqing understood: "Brother Meng Nan."

Zhao Yu grinned: "How did you guess that?"

"The one with a good personality is Brother Mengnan, who is gentle and polite. Brother Zhangqing is actually a bit distant, and he is carefree," Gu Qingqing said, "Aunt Zhao doesn't object, right?"

"Not really, she's just worried." Zhao Yu walked next to Gu Qingqing and asked, "How did you have the courage to chase after the troops?"

Gu Qingqing blinked and said, "Because he is handsome."

Seeing Zhao Yu was about to hit her, Gu Qingqing smiled and said truthfully: "Because I know that my brother must have paved the way for me, otherwise he would not let me pass."

She later asked Gu Qinglie about this matter. Goudan did not do nothing. He also has his own trustworthy qualities.

When he thought Chu Dai was a good person and his sister would definitely like him, he would intentionally or unintentionally mention his sister in front of Chu Dai, mentioning some of the embarrassing things that happened in her childhood and some trivial things after she grew up.

With her brother's support, she was able to act more efficiently.

She herself felt that the breakthrough might be because the man gradually became attracted to Chu Dai after donating blood to him. She had never asked him about this, so she was not sure.

Zhao Yu scratched his head and said, "That's difficult for me. I heard from Sun Yuanyuan that Meng Nan's parents are both workers in the city. His family conditions are quite good. When he returns to the city, his family will definitely arrange a marriage for him with a city girl."

"You're not bad either." Gu Qingqing looked at her with a smile, her dark eyes bright and clear in the night: "If you are sure you like her, then test it out and see if Brother Meng Nan has any feelings for you."

"It's a pity that I have to go to the southern military region and land on the island in a few days, so I can't help you." She said regretfully.