Su Meihua came over with some things and followed her gaze to the footprints in the yard. "Are you missing Commander Lu?"

I never expected that Yu Yao, who seems so independent, would be so clingy to Commander Lu in private.

“It wasn’t Lu Ze’s footprints. I heard a noise in the yard just now and thought it was you. I came out to check, but I didn’t see anyone.”

"Not Commander Lu's footprints?" Upon closer inspection, Su Meihua realized that they indeed did not belong to Commander Lu.

The left footprint was slightly smaller than the right, clearly indicating an uneven foot size, while Commander Lu's feet were both normal.

"It's not even dawn yet. If they needed to find you, they wouldn't have run away as soon as they heard you come out. Could it be a thief? Yu Yao, has anything been stolen from your house?"

Yu Yao had carefully checked the footprints when she first discovered them, and confirmed that "nothing was missing."

Su Meihua said, "It's also possible that you came out before you could steal anything. Although everyone in the old family compound knows each other and shouldn't do such petty theft, you can't judge a book by its cover. It's not impossible that you might run into some unscrupulous people who see that Commander Lu isn't home and try to steal something. We should all be more careful from now on and keep a closer eye on things."

Yu Yao thought Sister Meihua made sense and nodded. "Let's go inside first. Tell the young soldiers on guard duty to keep an eye out for us."

Su Meihua nodded and took the vegetables and meat into the house.

Yu Yao then noticed that Su Meihua was carrying a basket of fresh vegetables, including bok choy, lettuce, and some other seasonal vegetables, all of which she hadn't grown in her own plot of land.

"Sister-in-law Meihua, why did you bring so many dishes?"

"It's alright, I picked a lot today, so I brought some over for you. My vegetables are very fresh and delicious. If you and Commander Lu like them after you finish eating, feel free to pick some more."

Hearing her say that, Yu Yao thought of the thriving vegetable garden she had just seen, and without refusing, she smiled and said, "Then I won't stand on ceremony. I have some in my garden, so Sister Meihua can pick as much as she wants."

The plot of land is small, and the types of vegetables grown are limited. When people want to eat vegetables, they take turns picking them from each other's plots. Today you pick mine, tomorrow I pick yours.

Su Meihua brought quite a bit of minced meat, which, along with wood ear mushrooms and lettuce, made enough filling for a large plate.

Su Meihua started the fire, while Yu Yao began stir-frying the meat filling. The two divided the work, and they finished making all the rice batter in a small bowl, producing a total of more than a dozen rice noodle rolls.

Yu Yao placed the prepared rice noodle rolls on the octagonal table. Su Meihua led Lei Xiaojun, who had just washed his face, over. As soon as they entered the room, they smelled the aroma.

Lei Xiaojun sniffed and leaned closer to Yu Yao. "Aunt Yu, your rice noodle rolls smell so good."

At this point, he glanced at Su Meihua and whispered, "It tastes better than my mom's."

Su Meihua slapped him on the head with her other hand, pretending to be angry, and said, "You brat, your mother cooks for you every day, and you still complain that my cooking is bad? Do you think everyone has the same cooking skills as your Aunt Yu?"

Lei Xiaojun pouted, unconvinced, "Then none of the other aunties cook as badly as you."

Su Meihua was furious. "You're lucky to have anything to eat. Eat up, and I'll take you to the government primary school after you finish."

雷小军生怕被揍，挨着郁瑶坐，“还是郁阿姨好。郁阿姨，等我长大了，就娶你做媳妇。”

“That won’t do.” Yu Yao shook her head.

Lei Xiaojun was dumbfounded, seemingly not expecting Aunt Yu to refuse, and his face was full of sadness. "Why?"

Su Meihua shoved the rice noodle roll into Lei Xiaojun's hand. "That's because Aunt Yu is Commander Lu's wife, of course. If you want to marry her, can you beat your Uncle Lu?"

Lei Xiaojun thought about the tall Lu Ze, then shook his head with his head drooping, "I can't beat him now, but when I grow up to be as tall as Uncle Lu, I'll definitely be able to beat him."

Yu Yao smiled and said, "Your Uncle Lu is not only good at fighting, but also at studying. Since you don't like school, you can't compare to him in academics."

Lei Xiaojun became anxious. "Aunt Yu, I just didn't like reading before, but now I like reading. I'm sure I'll be better at reading than Uncle Lu."

"Okay, okay, Xiaojun likes to read, so hurry up and eat, then you can go to read." Yu Yao was amused by his childlike words.

Lei Xiaojun hummed in agreement and buried his head in eating rice noodle rolls.

Seeing how much she liked children, Su Meihua asked, "You and Commander Lu have been married for more than half a year now. When are you planning to have a child?"

Yu Yao was stumped by the question. Lu Ze didn't know if he was capable in that area, saying it was too early to have a child.

However, this was Lu Ze's secret, and he couldn't tell Su Meihua. So she made up an excuse, "I'm quite busy at the food factory right now, and I don't plan to have children for the time being."

After breakfast, Su Meihua took Lei Xiaojun to school, and Yu Yao went to work.

Three days have passed since Lu Ze left, and neither Commander Lei nor he has returned.

Yu Yao went to and from get off work as usual every day. At noon that day, she and Fang Qiaoqiao were having lunch when they heard a commotion outside the pre-processing workshop, where a large group of young female workers had gathered.

When the two went over to take a look, they realized that it was people from the border post and the island troops who had arrived.

Upon hearing that it was the island troops, Yu Yao assumed it was Lu Ze and put down her aluminum lunchbox before heading over.

When they arrived, they realized that it was Commander Lei's men who had come, not Lu Ze.

Outside the pre-processing workshop, the crowd was abuzz with various opinions, some expressing sympathy and others gloating.

"Have you heard? Wan Xiaozhen from the pretreatment workshop and Zhou Qiang, the purchasing director from the main factory, have been arrested."

"What? You've been arrested? Do you know what you did wrong?"

"It seems they were colluding with smuggling gangs, passing messages to them or something, which led to the border patrol finding them."

"She'd be in jail for this, and in serious cases, she might even be executed. She was bragging to me the other day about buying an imported Plum Blossom watch, but it turns out she didn't buy it at all; it was smuggled."

Yu Yao and Fang Qiaoqiao stood in the crowd watching.

Wan Xiaozhen, with her hair disheveled and handcuffs on her hands, was led out of the pre-processing workshop by two uniformed comrades.

Upon seeing Yu Yao, Wan Xiaozhen immediately lowered her head.

Watching Wan Xiaozhen being led away, Fang Qiaoqiao couldn't help but sigh, "How could she be so bold? She's a smuggler."

"It's alright, it's alright, everyone get back to your posts." Director Li said with a serious expression, working with Zhao Shengli to maintain order and disperse the crowd.

Yu Yao and Fang Qiaoqiao turned to leave, but were suddenly called back.

"Company Commander Song?"

Song Yiming grinned and greeted Yu Yao, "Hello, sister-in-law. Commander Lu said if he sees you, he should pass on a message."

"What did you say?"

Song Yiming glanced at Fang Qiaoqiao, who immediately understood. "Lunch break is almost over, I'm leaving now. Ayao, you two can continue your conversation."

Yu Yao nodded in acknowledgment, "Don't wait for me today, our workshop needs to work overtime."

Fang Qiaoqiao waved her hand to indicate that she understood.

"There's no one here now, Company Commander Song, what do you say?"