Chapter 304 Blind Date

Old Chen is dead, and Wei Zhao still has to raise her three children.

She had composed herself on the train journey, not wanting her child to suffer along with her.

Children have short memories, and they will ask about their father from time to time. One day, they will realize what happened, but they will certainly not be as sad.

The bubbling steam from the pot made Wei Zhao sweat profusely. She served Song Lubai a bowl of soup and asked Chen Shaohua to go to the office to call Wei Yang back for dinner.

Song Lubai hurriedly replied, "He went to a meeting at the division headquarters. He'll either be back tonight or tomorrow."

Wei Zhao was surprised; she hadn't heard Wei Yang mention it that morning.

"Okay, let's not wait for him, let's eat by ourselves."

Seeing that Wei Zhao was about to take the bowl into the house, Song Lubai said, "I'll go call her."

What's the point of eating indoors every day? You'll have to go out and meet people sooner or later. You might as well start exercising today.

If Chen Yu continues to stay home every day for a long time, the neighbors will definitely start gossiping.

Wei Zhao also felt that he was too easy to talk to by Chen Yu, so he did not stop Song Lubai.

Song Lubai pushed open the door and went in, and saw Chen Yu sitting on the edge of the bed flipping through a book.

She asked, "Chen Yu, what year of college are you in?"

Chen Yu closed the book, lowered her head, and said, "I should have been a sophomore in college."

Song Lubai laughed and said, "I envy you for being able to get into university. Unlike me, I had diarrhea for two days during the exam and failed in the end."

Chen Yu looked up in surprise, "Who hurt you?"

Song Lubai said, "The man my mother remarried is already dead."

Chen Yu was even more surprised. She wanted to ask more, but felt it was inappropriate.

Song Lubai said, "Let's go out for lunch. We'll have fish soup for lunch today. There are benches in the yard, and the lighting is good."

She turned and left after she finished speaking.

After hesitating for a moment, Chen Yu stood up.

Once outside and into the courtyard, there were several bowls of fish soup on the table, and a plate of multigrain pancakes in the middle of the table.

Chen Yu sat on a stool, picked up a flatbread, and blew on the fish soup.

Song Lubai took a sip and found it to be indeed delicious. She praised, "Sister, your cooking skills have improved. I don't even know how to make fish soup yet."

She wasn't very good at cooking chicken or fish because she didn't have any ingredients to work with.

Wei Zhao was secretly pleased. "The dried fish I brought back can last for two more meals. We'll eat it again during the Mid-Autumn Festival."

She looked at Chen Yu and asked, "How does it taste?"

Chen Yu nodded and said, "It's delicious."

Song Lubai looked at her and said, "You look like a cultured person. When school starts, you can go to school and become a teacher. And Shaohua and the others, they can't just stay at home playing every day. They still need to study."

"Chen Yu, you're a college student, you can teach them in the future."

Wei Zhao chimed in, "I think that's a good idea. If we don't study soon, we'll become an idiot. We should have someone send us a few sets of books."

She sent all the books for elementary, middle, and high school, and told them to start learning. She refused to believe that things would continue like this forever, because those half-baked people would eventually be eliminated by society.

Chen Jingwen, who didn't want to study, pouted and said, "We're not idiots."

Wei Zhao snorted, "What's the difference between you and an idiot? You only know how to eat and play."

The fish soup was delicious and perfectly seasoned, with a slightly sour taste from the vinegar. The yellow croaker had a delicate texture and very few bones. Because it was dried and then soaked, it was also very chewy.

After sweating profusely from drinking soup, Chen Shaohua washed the dishes, while Song Lubai took the gray rehab cloth she had brought back at noon into the bathroom.

Holes were punched in the cloth, and the thread was threaded through the cloth and tied to the wooden stick.

Song Lubai was inside, while Chen Yu was helping out from outside.

Once the cloth was tied up, there wasn't a single gap in the bathroom.

Song Lubai originally wanted to use the regeneration cloth as a curtain to hang at the door, but the regeneration cloth was too light and would sway in the wind, making her feel unsafe to take a bath inside. After thinking about it, she decided to cut the felt in half and hang it on the door.

A wooden stick was placed across the door. She sewed a meter-wide strip of felt onto it and then sewed the edges shut, so that one only needed to lift one side to enter.

The bathroom still looked rudimentary, but at midday, all the neighbors treated it like a bicycle and gathered around to admire it.

For most people, whether or not they take a shower is not important, and there's not much to be particular about hygiene. But since the group leader's family has one, everyone is itching to have one too, thinking that having a shower room is a cool thing to do.

After finishing her work, Song Lubai prepared to go and check on the vegetable planting class.

She glanced at Chen Yu and asked, "You're free at home, do you want to come along?"

Chen Yu glanced at Wei Zhao, who said, "If you're not going with Xiao Song, you can come with us to pick mushrooms in the woods later."

After thinking it over, Chen Yu decided to go with Song Lubai.

Wei Zhao knew that Chen Yu used to feel uncomfortable around her, so it was understandable that he wouldn't be close to her now.

Although the germination rate in the vegetable garden was not high, the ground was covered in green as far as the eye could see.

There wasn't much work to be done in the vegetable garden these past few days, so Squad Leader Cao, following the instructions of the regiment, sent the vegetable-growing team to clear land in nearby fields.

The farm has plenty of land, though.

The vegetables in the vegetable planting team have all grown, and they won't need so many people anymore. Squad Leader Cao can only listen to the regiment and lead everyone to clear the wasteland.

Chen Yu saw a heavily pregnant woman among a group of women turning over the soil and felt that she was working really hard.

The capital and this place seem to be two different worlds.

Although most people in the capital are not wealthy, they are much better off than those in Xinjiang province.

How much do they earn per month?

Song Lubai said, "The new educated youth who came this year are paid three yuan a month. They eat communal meals and their accommodations are arranged by the farm."

Food and lodging are free; they only receive three yuan a month.

As far as she knew, the educated youth who came to the 16th Regiment received three yuan a month in their first year, which was two yuan less than in Shicheng.

Looking at the newly built sheds and mud houses, and at the women who were covered in sweat but still using tools to turn the soil, Chen Yu was overwhelmed with shock.

So this is what places outside the capital are like!

Song Lubai had done farm work in the 25th Company and knew how tiring it was. She didn't want to do it, and she didn't want the women in the vegetable planting team to feel resentful if they saw her not working. So she took Chen Yu to sit by the ditch piled with soil.

"There's a woodland area over there too; we'll go mushroom picking later. Oh, I forgot to ask, what did you study before?"

Chen Yu looked at the grass at her feet and said, "I studied fine arts."

Fearing that Song Lubai might ask more questions, Chen Yu took the initiative to say, "Let's go pick mushrooms."

The two walked a bit further away, into the territory of the Good Seed Company.

This season is indeed good for mushroom picking, and the two of them had quite a harvest. The sky became overcast, and worried about rain, so they didn't go any further and returned to the vegetable planting team's camp around 7:00.

Inside the camp, Squad Leader Cao and two other men were unloading grain into the warehouse.

Squad Leader Cao was all smiles as he unloaded this year's new grain.

Song Lubai spoke with Squad Leader Cao for a while, then raised her chin, looked down at the cooking shed, and asked, "What's going on with those two?"

Squad Leader Cao lowered his voice and said, "I had them meet once before, and they were both quite satisfied."