It has to be said that the initiative to work and the offer of food, so early in the morning, made Jian Dan very happy.

Yesterday it was dark, so she only walked around the house briefly. Now that it's bright outside and she has nothing else to do, she decided to take a thorough walk around the yard.

The courtyard is quite large, and you can see signs of construction from the outside; it is indeed very new, and the stones on the walls are all new.

The front yard wasn't big and was very simple. There were two small rooms on the left and right of the main house, and a small hut connected to the west side of the room. It was a toilet, and it had a flush system. She didn't understand the principle behind it, but this surprised her.

The room closest to this end of the woodshed is the bathroom.

The rest of the open space was also rammed. Under the window of the room on the west side, there was a square frame made of several wooden planks.

She pursed her lips slightly, a ripple of emotion stirring within her.

The layout of the entire yard is almost the same as that of the simpler one. After passing the main house, the backyard wall encloses a large open space. There are no weeds or pebbles in sight, and it is obvious that it has been leveled. Although it is not the planting season, it is still very well maintained.

Between the storage room on the east side and the backyard, there was a well, and the handle was carefully wrapped with a soft cloth so that it wouldn't be too cold to touch even in this weather.

The well platform was neatly paved with blue bricks, and in front of it was a long, narrow pool made of cement, about two meters long, which was enough for washing clothes or vegetables.

At the end of the pond, there is a sloping hole leading down to a long ditch, through which used wastewater flows directly into the vegetable garden in the backyard.

This type of well is not found here, but it is simple to see in rural areas in later generations. It is easy to use and much safer than the deep wells that are common now.

Even if we simply say it ourselves, this well platform is more meticulous than she is.

After going around in circles, he still went into the lower room where things were stored. Although it was said that he was in charge, it was impossible for Jian Dan to really do nothing.

The large pieces of furniture have already been placed in the room, and now almost everything left is food—grains, vegetables, and meat—which takes up quite a few sacks and baskets.

She had just searched the house carefully, but there was no cellar. The lower room wasn't sealed either. It was okay for now, but if the temperature dropped further and it snowed, it would definitely freeze. The meat was fine, but the vegetables that were sensitive to freezing would have to find a place to store them inside the house.

Take out the ones that aren't afraid of the cold and put them separately in the basket, setting them aside.

I found a wide plank in the woodshed, nailed together two simple wide benches with some tools, and placed all kinds of coarse and fine grains against the wall. The messy floor immediately became much tidier.

As for meat, they kept venison, two ribs of wild boar, and two large pieces of pork belly, plus the pig's trotters they had deliberately saved, so they wouldn't be short of food for the time being.

She was busy, not yet finding a suitable place to put the preserved vegetables, and it was soon noon. Before she could cook, someone who had gone to work rushed back and snatched the work from her hands.

"Give it to me, give it to me, you can rest for a while,"

She's always relied on herself these past few years, and being treated like this so suddenly is a bit unsettling.

"Cooking isn't tiring, I can do it,"

"I don't need you,"

Qin Qinghuai didn't even take off his coat; he simply pushed the person out of the kitchen with his arm across his shoulder.

"I'm home, so you don't need to do these chores. Go out and see if there's anything else in the house that doesn't look right, and I'll tidy it up later."

Jian Dan was pushed out with her hands still wet, and before she knew it, someone stole a kiss from her.

"Huh? You?"

"Sweetie, go and rest. Leave this to me. We'll talk after we eat."

After being coaxed like that, Jian Dan lost all will to argue. She touched her flushed face, turned around and went back to her room.

Let him do it, let's see how long he can keep it up.

When Jian Dan mentioned needing to find a place to store the preserved vegetables, Qin Qinghuai waved his hand.

"I didn't expect you to have stored so much food; I had overlooked this before."

"Don't worry, I found Xiao Yi and Zheng Aiguo, and the few of us dug a cellar in two nights."

"ah?"

Previously, Liu Weimin had hired people to do the work on the small courtyard, mostly using the foundation of the old house. Jian Dan hadn't personally witnessed the progress of this project, but he always felt it couldn't be as simple as just digging holes.

"You guys even know this? Weren't you raised in the capital? Why are you learning this?"

Qin Qinghuai placed a piece of food on his plate and smiled,

“I really don’t know how, but yesterday Zheng Aiguo said that if we need to dig a cellar, we should ask him, he’s good at it.”

"...Okay then,"

It's easy to be happy when someone is worried, but she's also seen villagers building houses or needing help with household chores.

"If you work at night, does that mean you have to provide dinner? How many dishes do you need to cook?"

Qin Qinghuai instinctively wanted to refuse. Qin Yi was his subordinate, so there was no need to be polite. Zheng Aiguo was his bodyguard, and he could make up for the extra work later.

"By the way, should we treat everyone? Like your boss or something?"

The highest-ranking leader on the border is also a regimental commander, just like the garrison. However, in reality, the garrison has been allocating resources to the border side for many years, whether it be honors, supplies, or benefits.

If judged by actual jurisdiction or by years of accumulated military merit, one would be two to three ranks higher than others of the same level.

Everyone knows that this area is under the jurisdiction of the garrison.

The commander here is Lin Zhong, a former soldier under Lin Zhengde. He is nicknamed "Big Hammer Lin" and made a name for himself on the northern border with his big hammer, making the other side very wary of him.

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