From Shijiazhuang to Cangzhou, with no expressway and intermittent national highways, it took until 7 or 8 pm to reach the small county town under Cangzhou.

During the several hours of driving in the afternoon, Cui Mei learned to drive thanks to her superb acting skills. If it weren't for the darkness and difficult roads, Xiao Jiu would have liked to try it too.

By 7 or 8 p.m., the streets and alleys are basically pitch black. Even in small county towns with electricity, there are only a few houses with lights on, let alone streetlights. There are only streetlights every 10 or 20 meters on the main road, and the bulbs are dim and cannot illuminate a large area.

Occasionally, a shadowy figure would pass by, which would always elicit barking from the dogs of the residents on the street. Especially since it was still cold that day, even sitting in the car, one's limbs were freezing.

After driving around two or three times, we finally found a guesthouse that looked decent. Most importantly, the guesthouse had a small kitchen where we could cook our own meals.

The state-run restaurant was already closing at this time, and there wasn't much food left to eat; they had basically run out of ingredients.

The chef at the guesthouse had already gone off duty; it was too cold, so Xiao Jiu decided to make her own wine.

The staff only provided her with some oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, two jin of flour, some cabbage and radishes, and charged her two jin of grain coupons and two mao (0.2 yuan).

It wasn't much more than I expected.

The two jin of flour wasn't pure white flour; it was mixed with sweet potato and sorghum flour, and some of it was black.

I didn't use the small bottle of liquor, so I stored it in my space and then took out two pounds of noodles.

Four eggs and two sausages.

When it's cold, everyone wants to eat something hot.

After the oil is hot, stir-fry the finely shredded cabbage, chop the garlic sprouts in the pan for flavor, and add the diced cured meat to simmer. Since it's just for home consumption, I don't care about the color, aroma, or taste; as long as it doesn't taste bad, it's fine.

After stir-frying the vegetables, add water, bring the water to a boil, add the noodles, and once the noodles are cooked, sprinkle with chopped garlic sprouts and cilantro for added aroma.

Then she borrowed another small pot to start frying eggs. The oil they gave her was only enough to fry the pot. The oil she used to fry the eggs was something she made in her own space. She fried one egg for each person and poured it directly into the noodle pot. Finally, she didn't forget to rinse the oily pot with hot soup so that all the soup could be poured into the noodle pot. Not a single drop of oil was wasted.

When her older siblings came downstairs, they were all surprised to see the noodles that Xiaojiu had made.

"That's great, there's also sausage and eggs."

"Yeah, we paid for it. Eat it quickly, or it will affect the taste."

The four of them were starving, and after finishing a bowl of hot noodle soup, they couldn't help but let out a satisfied sigh.

Moreover, there was enough noodles; the two sisters each ate one and a half bowls, and the two brothers each ate two bowls. The four of them finished the whole pot of noodles, soup and all.

After dinner, the two boys stayed behind to clean up, while Cui Mei and Xiao Jiu went upstairs to rest.

"I've checked the room and cleaned it again. There's hot water in it, so take a shower first. Don't go to sleep yet, you just ate."

The two sisters were talking as they went upstairs when two middle-aged men came downstairs. They instinctively stepped aside to let them pass, but when the two men saw their faces, they stopped and started talking in a lewd tone.

"Hey, girl, you look beautiful! What brings you here? Want to grab a drink with us?"

These words made the two sisters frown simultaneously. The man next to them probably noticed their displeasure and, not wanting to cause trouble, tugged at the clothes of the man next to them.

“Mr. An, they have been waiting for a long time, we need to get there as soon as possible.”

When the man looked up, Xiao Jiu and Cui Mei's gazes suddenly sharpened, because this man actually had a distinctive Japanese mustache.

Xiao Jiu instinctively reached out to step forward, but was pulled back by Cui Mei behind her. The two sisters glared unfriendly at the Chinese person next to the Japanese.

The man felt inexplicably uneasy under their gazes. Just as Mr. An was about to say something, the two brothers who had finished their work in the kitchen walked over, tidying their sleeves and talking. They looked up and saw the four people facing each other, and subconsciously asked a question.

"What's wrong?"

The two men standing on the steps turned around at the sound and met the two tall, upright-looking brothers. They instinctively looked away.

As they hurriedly left, they stopped abruptly when they saw the military vehicle parked in the yard.

"Did they just arrive?"

"It should be; I didn't see this car this afternoon."

"Keep a close eye on them and see if they're coming for us."

"Yes, Mr. An."

On the other side, Zhou Xing and Zhou Yue also sensed that something was wrong.

"What happened to those two?"

Xiao Jiu stared in the direction the other person had left, her tone unfriendly.

"He's Japanese, the short guy with the Japanese mustache."

Compared to the two brothers who are over 1.8 meters tall, Mr. An, who is only a little over 1.6 meters tall, is just a dwarf.

Cui Mei also said with certainty, "The tone is very Japanese, the beard is a characteristic feature, and bowing is instinctive."

When they left, that Japanese guy actually nodded slightly to them and politely left. I really wanted to laugh at him.

Out of professional instinct, Zhou Xing immediately nodded to Zhou Yue and went to the front hall, intending to find out the other party's identity from the receptionist.

If they come back normally, they will likely use their real identity openly; if they come back abnormally, they will use a pseudonym.

Zhou Yue didn't want the two of them to get involved: "Come on, I'll take you back to your rooms. Don't worry about this kind of thing."

That being said, Xiao Jiu felt that encountering the Japanese was really bad luck.

Unbeknownst to the two sisters, after they went into the space to rest, the two brothers next to them did not sleep all night. One stayed behind to keep watch, while the other went out to contact the relevant person in charge.

The next day at breakfast, the two brothers didn't show up. To make matters worse, the sisters ran into that Japanese man again. What's even more infuriating is that he actually had the audacity to come over and share a table with them.

"I'm sorry, our people haven't arrived yet, so I'm afraid it's not possible."

Cui Mei refused outright, and even subtly kicked the chair he was about to sit on when he moved to the side.

Whether he was genuinely unaware or pretending not to, he fell down, spilling all the food from his plate onto himself.

In a fit of rage, he blurted out "Baka!" in his native tongue. As if confirming something, Cui Mei took the opportunity to support him while using the force to stab something into the back of his neck.

By the time the staff came to help clean up, Xiao Jiu and Tang Cuimei had already packed up their meals and even brought two extra portions back to their dormitory.

"Sis, did you do something?"

Xiao Jiu is so clever; she guessed that Tang Cuimei wouldn't be so kind as to help that Japanese soldier.

Cui Mei didn't deny it, and silently mouthed a single syllable at her.

Sure enough, not long after, cries for help came from the cafeteria downstairs.

"Doctor! Is there a doctor? Come quick! He seems to be having a heart attack and can't breathe. Is there a doctor? Someone come quick!"