Ying Mingcheng was stunned when he heard that she couldn't cook. He blinked for a long time and asked, "That's it?"

"Well, I can't cook." Mu Huaixi didn't hear what he said at all. She was talking about cooking, but not entirely about cooking. She just wanted to tell herself and Ying Mingcheng that even after getting married, she didn't want to be confined to the family.

Her feelings were expressed obscurely, and her determination was made silently, but Ying Mingcheng didn't notice. He just chuckled and said, "It's okay. If you can't do it, then don't do it. I can do it, that's all."

"Can you cook?" Mu Huaixi looked up at him in surprise. There are very few men who can cook these days, even rarer than pandas in a zoo.

"Yes, my specialty is also braised pork. I'll show you my skills when I get a chance." Ying Mingcheng looked at her with some pity. His cooking skills were taught by his grandmother since he was a child. To make delicious Shanghainese dishes, one must be willing to use oil and seasonings, but the Mu family obviously did not have the conditions.

"Although it's not as good as grandma's, it tastes pretty good too," Ying Mingcheng smiled and helped her with some food. "You'll be in for a real treat when you return to Shengjing. If you're with the army, there's a canteen there too. The chef cooks pretty good dishes too, so you won't have any problem filling your stomach."

“…”

Seeing her complicated expression, Ying Mingcheng deliberately teased her, "Well, I just asked you something. If you have anything else you want to know, you can ask me."

"I will definitely answer honestly and tell you everything I know!"

"......" Mu Huaixi couldn't believe that what she was worried about was not a problem at all in Ying Mingcheng's mind. Only then did she realize that the difference between them was not just age. It seemed that in Ying Mingcheng's view, three meals a day was not all of the day. It was either to fill the stomach or to enjoy delicious food.

She pursed her lips, her expression quickly turning cold, and she looked up at Ying Mingcheng who was smiling, "How much did it cost to take a photo with the panda just now?"

"Huh? Ah..." Ying Mingcheng was even more stunned than she was just now. He nodded hesitantly for a long time before telling the truth, "I spent twenty yuan taking pictures with the panda."

This was a considerable expense, but Ying Mingcheng felt it was worth it. He could see that Mu Huaixi particularly liked pandas, and he was very happy to make the little girl happy.

"Twenty," Mu Huaixi nodded, without commenting on the price of this "luxury item." Instead, he took out Ying Mingcheng's wallet and said, "But didn't you say you handed over all the money? Where did the twenty come from?"

Ying Mingcheng was so angry that he almost laughed. He never expected that the little girl was waiting for him here. He raised his hand and put it down again. In the end, he could only smile bitterly and point at the air, defeated by her proudly raised nose.

Ying Mingcheng shook his head helplessly. He took out the last twenty or so dollars from his pocket and said, "I was thinking of treating you to a boat trip and dinner. It's not good to let you pay for a date, right?"

Mu Huaixi pursed her lips, smoothed out the small bills and put them away, then glanced at the somewhat indignant Deputy Battalion Commander Ying and said, "You said you would let me manage the money from now on."

"Yes, yes, I said it," Ying Mingcheng nodded repeatedly, but he felt happy in his heart. Mu Huaixi was exactly like the little squirrel, showing his claws at him, but did not notice that he was getting closer and closer to him.

Mu Huaixi put away the money and tilted her head slightly to look at Ying Mingcheng, "Do you know how to tell if a man and a woman who go to a restaurant are dating or already married?"

"How to tell the difference?" Although Ying Mingcheng had received a lot of training, he knew very little about this matter. He had almost never eaten out alone with a woman, so he really couldn't explain it.

Mu Huaixi smiled proudly, "When it's time to pay, if the man rushes to pay, they're probably dating, and if the woman pays, they're probably a couple!"

"This..." Ying Mingcheng was speechless when he first heard it, but after thinking about it carefully, he felt that it made sense. However, he still felt that Xiao Xi's words had more to say, so he simply nodded and said, "I was wrong. You don't have the awareness of a married person. You should pay the bill tonight."

He originally wanted to embarrass Xiao Xi, but he didn't expect her to nod readily and act as if it was a matter of course. He could only shake his head helplessly.

Mu Huaixi is not shy about talking about money. Who doesn't deal with money when living at home?

The relationship between her and Ying Mingcheng was not very deep. Since the other party trusted her and was willing to hand over the family's small treasury to her, she had to live up to this trust.

Mu Huaixi took out the stack of bills from her wallet again. "Here's what I thought about these bills: we can buy bicycles and radios, which we can use in the mountains. As for the sewing machine, forget about it. I don't know how to make clothes, and it will just sit there gathering dust. We can exchange them for money to buy other things."

"Okay, I'll leave it all to you," Ying Mingcheng nodded readily, and added, "Leave the ticket exchange to Xiao Gao, you don't have to go."

Mu Huaixi nodded. She knew that Ying Mingcheng didn't want her to go to the black market. It just so happened that they were in the military area, and maybe someone else needed her. Xiao Gao was always well-informed, so this matter could be entrusted to him.

"I heard from Xiao Gao that there's a shortage of medical care and medicine in the mountains. Besides the money for daily necessities, I want to buy some Chinese medicinal herbs to bring back," Mu Huaixi continued. Ying Mingcheng couldn't be the only one earning money at home. Although she wasn't a true Chinese medicine practitioner yet, she had her own familiar and handy ointment formulas that were perfect for selling in the mountains.

"Okay," Ying Mingcheng nodded again, "As for medicinal herbs, you can ask Xiao Gao to take you to the Dongmen Market. There are several Chinese medicine halls there."

"Do you trust me so much?" Mu Huaixi couldn't help asking. In fact, she wanted to ask this question after giving acupuncture to Boss Wang. She was just a girl from the countryside. Although the Mu family was a family of traditional Chinese medicine, she had only learned from her grandfather and had not received any systematic education, nor did anyone endorse her.

How could he have trusted her and let her give him an acupuncture injection? Now he was so bold as to ask her to buy herbs. What if she lost money?

"We are husband and wife, in the same boat. If I don't believe you, who will you believe?" Ying Mingcheng said with a smile, but he remembered the first time he saw Xiaoxi in the mourning hall. She was hugging Grandpa Mu's portrait and crying, and she promised her grandfather that she would become a good doctor in the future and pass on the Mu family's medical skills.

Anyone who wants to become a doctor and inherit the Mu family's medical skills must also inherit Grandpa Mu's medical benevolence and must be a good girl.

As for Mu Huaixi's suggestion of buying medicinal herbs to make medicine, he had other ideas, but he couldn't tell her before he was sure, so as not to disappoint her. He planned to talk to the group leader that night to see if he could arrange a job for the girl.

Ying Mingcheng didn't promise anything, but just told her to buy less herbs first, "The organization may have other plans for you."