Chapter 69 Daily life in the army.

More than twenty hours of train time passed in a flash. This time, He Susu didn't have to knit a sweater, so she was much more bored. Apart from eating and sleeping, she just chatted with Cheng Shi to pass the time.

Fortunately, the mood on the way home is always wonderful, and I didn’t meet anyone who likes to take advantage like the old lady last time, so it went very smoothly.

At around ten o'clock in the morning on the ninth day of the New Year, the train stopped at the station. He Susu and Cheng Shi got off the train with their packages and walked out of the train station.

Unfortunately, that day was not a ten-year-old day, so naturally there were no military vehicles traveling between the county town and the family compound. Cheng Shi had no choice but to telegraph Li Yang in advance, asking him to help pick up the people.

Fortunately, Li Yang had no tasks in the morning and had just enough time to come and pick them up.

Not long after He Susu and Cheng Shi walked out of the station, they saw the military vehicle parked there waiting. Cheng Shi walked over and said hello: "Li Yang, I'm sorry to bother you again this time."

Li Yang felt bored waiting in the car, so he got off and leaned against the car to get some fresh air. When he saw the person he was waiting for, he smiled and said, "Hello, Brother Cheng and Sister-in-law. You don't have to be so polite. I have nothing to do anyway, so I will definitely help if I can. Hurry up and get in the car."

He Susu and Cheng Shi got into the car, and Cheng Shi and Li Yang were mostly chatting on the way.

They soon arrived at a residential area for families, and He Susu and Cheng Shi got off the car.

Cheng Shi said through the car window: "Li Yang, we just got home and the house is empty. I will invite you to dinner in a few days."

Li Yang didn't refuse this time and agreed readily: "Okay, then Brother Cheng, I won't be polite. See you later."

"See you later."

He Susu and Cheng Shi walked towards home and arrived after a few steps. The road was wet all the way, including the door. Li Yang said it had snowed a few days ago, so it was probably the water that accumulated after the snow melted.

Also, because of the melted snow, the doorway wasn't very dirty even though no one had lived there for more than ten days.

Cheng Shi opened the door and went in. The trees in the yard had lost a lot of leaves, which were blown everywhere by the wind. The vegetable garden was bare, and the bamboo poles for drying clothes were blown to the ground and rolled several times. He picked up the bamboo poles and leaned them against the wall, then went back to tie them up again.

He opened the door wide to ventilate the room. He could see with his naked eyes that there was a layer of dust on the coffee table and dining table. He probably thought that there was dust on other places as well.

Cheng Shi put down the package, opened the doors and windows of his house and room, and immediately took a broom to sweep the floor.

He Susu changed into slippers, took the package of clothes into the room, went to the bathroom to wash her hands, then took out a wet rag and wiped the dining table first.

"I closed the doors and windows before I went out, and I don't know where the dust came from. It turned black when I wiped it with a rag."

Cheng Shi swept the dust from the floor and said, "This dust looks colorless and odorless, but it is everywhere. If there is a lot of it, you can tell it at a glance."

He Susu shook her head, took the black rag to the bathroom, washed it, wrung it dry, and then took it out again to wipe the coffee table and chairs.

The couple cleaned the house briefly, and it looked much cleaner and more comfortable. Seeing that it was getting late, Cheng Shi simply said, "Let's go to the canteen to eat first."

There was no meat or vegetables at home. It was not convenient to go to the county town to buy meat and vegetables after asking Li Yang to drive us back just now. Besides, there would be nothing to buy at the grocery store at that time.

Before they came back, they agreed that they would eat in the canteen for the time being until there was a bus to the county town.

He Susu and Cheng Shi changed their shoes and walked to the cafeteria. At this point, the soldiers who were in training had not yet been disbanded, so there were not many people in the cafeteria. They did not need to queue up and walked directly to the front of the window.

He Susu looked at it and said, "Master, we want a dish of stir-fried pork slices with pickled cabbage and stir-fried pickled cabbage, and eight ounces of rice."

Cheng Shi had no objection. There were only these two dishes in the canteen today. It might be because many soldiers went home for the New Year, so the food in the canteen was also simplified.

The chef who served the food took the plate and quickly prepared it for them. Cheng Shi took it and paid the bill neatly. The two of them took their plates and found a table to sit down and eat.

The food in the canteen is made with very solid ingredients. There is more meat than sauerkraut in the stir-fried pork with sauerkraut. The meat is cut very thinly and tastes salty and a little sour from the sauerkraut, which makes it even more appetizing to rice. The sauerkraut is cut into thin and long pieces and tastes very good.

The taste of fried pickled cabbage is almost the same. This time, red pepper is not added to make it lighter. He Susu was not used to it.

The couple quickly finished their meal and walked out of the dining hall to go home.

When passing by the second family quarters and seeing the third brother's house, He Susu said, "Let's go home and rest first, and then go to the third brother's house in the afternoon."

Cheng Shi nodded in agreement.

When he got home, Cheng Shi went into the room and changed the sheets, quilt covers and pillowcases on the bed. He then took out a set of light yellow sheets, quilt covers and pillowcases from the closet and replaced them.

He Susu took the changed bed sheet to the toilet and put it there. When she came back, she couldn't help but sigh, "It's good to have spare bed sheets at home. I can just change to clean ones and go to bed. It doesn't delay anything at all."

Cheng Shi also thought so: "It's really good. I'll wash the sheets after I wake up. Let's go to bed first."

He Susu agreed, took off her coat and lay down on the bed. She felt the mattress was soft and comfortable, and the quilt was extremely warm.

"No wonder they say that there is no place like home. It is so comfortable to sleep in, especially after spending more than 20 hours on the train."

Cheng Shi also felt the same way and said with a smile, "Our home is definitely the most comfortable. We've been running around for a while and it's been tiring. Let's have a good rest."

"Okay." Even though she had slept a lot on the train, He Susu felt a little sleepy lying on the familiar bed, so she closed her eyes and dozed off.

After waking up in the afternoon, the couple drank a glass of water in the living room to sober up, sorted out the packages they brought back, picked out some things to take to He Lianzhou's house.

After knocking on the door, Su Yu came to open it. She was very happy to see them: "Little sister Cheng Shi, you are back. Your brother and I were just calculating the day this morning and you should be back too."

He Susu smiled and nodded: "Hello sister-in-law, we just arrived this morning."

"Come in and sit down." Su Yu called out, "You just came back and why didn't you come to my house for lunch?"

He Susu: "It would be inconvenient to come over if we hadn't told you in advance, so we just went to the canteen to get food, which is very convenient. The house has been dusty since no one has lived there for a long time, so we have been cleaning the house since we came back."

Su Yu nodded: "That's right, we came back two or three days earlier than you, and the house was also dirty and messy and we spent a day cleaning it up. There is still a lot of dust here."

He Lianzhou heard the noise and came out. He was very happy to see his younger sister and Cheng Shi coming back. He hurried to the kitchen to get some tea leaves to make tea for them.

Dabao and Erbao also rushed out and shouted happily: "Aunt and Uncle, you are back!"

"Yes, I just came back this morning." He Susu opened the things she brought over, "Here are kidney beans and pear paste candies. Take whatever you like."

"Brother, sister-in-law, you can also try this kidney bean and pear paste candy, they are both from Shanghai, my mother-in-law bought them for us."

Dabao and Erbao each took a few kidney beans and ate them. They chewed them until they were crunchy and kept saying, "Delicious!"

He Lianzhou: "Just come and sit down, there's no need to bring anything."

He Susu smiled and said, "I was thinking of bringing some Shanghai specialties for you to try."

"Yes, I accept your kindness." Su Yu took a kidney bean and tried it. "This kidney bean tastes really good as a snack."

Dabao and Erbao have already taken the pear paste candy and put it in their mouths and eat it: "This candy is so sweet."

He Susu said: "This pear paste candy can also relieve coughs. It is made from Sichuan Fritillaria. You can try eating more if you have a cough."

Su Yu smiled and responded: "This candy is really good."

He Susu took out the last item: "This is a can of preserved shrimp and radish. My mother-in-law said it tastes very good and can be eaten with porridge in the morning, so I took a can for you to try."

Su Yu smiled and responded: "Little sister, you brought so many things here, we are so lucky to have them."

"There's something delicious, let's try it together." He Susu said.

He Lianzhou tasted the kidney beans and said they were delicious. He made tea for everyone and asked about his younger sister and Cheng Shi’s trip to Shanghai.

Cheng Shi spoke less, and everyone mainly listened to He Susu talking about what happened in Shanghai, especially the scenes she saw when she walked along the pedestrian street and Yu Garden, her experience of eating Western food, and the bustle when she visited overseas Chinese stores.

As for the matter of Cheng Shi's sister-in-law coming to the house and saying some unpleasant things, He Susu didn't say anything. What was past was past, and if she said it out loud, it would make her third brother and his wife angry.

It was almost five o'clock when He Susu and Cheng Shi wanted to leave, but He Lianzhou and Su Yu kept them there: "You don't have meat or vegetables at home, so it's hard to cook. It's better to eat at our place than to go to the canteen. You haven't eaten at our house since the New Year. Don't worry, we bought more meat and vegetables when we came back, so there's enough for you to eat."

He Susu and Cheng Shi had no choice but to stay, and everyone gathered at He Lianzhou's house to have their first reunion dinner in the army after the New Year.

After sitting for a while after dinner, the couple said goodbye to He Lianzhou and his friends, went downstairs and walked back home.

The sheets and quilt covers that I washed before going out in the afternoon were still hanging in the yard. Because there was no sun, they were not dry yet even in the cold wind, so they could only be put away tomorrow.

Cheng Shi looked at the bare vegetable garden and said, "I will renovate this land in the spring and plant vegetables again."

He Susu naturally agreed.

By the time they took turns taking a shower and doing laundry, it was already time to go to bed.

He Susu just felt comfortable lying on the comfy bed, while Cheng Shi was quite interested in hugging her and kissing her non-stop.

At his mother's house, because his room was right next to his father-in-law's and mother-in-law's room, he was afraid that the noise would be heard by them, and the bed was too crowded, so he endured it. When he arrived in Shanghai, he did have sex once, but it was not enough.

Young couples are at the age of full of vigor and passion, and their love is as deep as water, so no matter how close they are, it is not enough.

Cheng Shi was very energetic at this time, and his tricks were more varied than usual. He Susu was so engrossed in it that she didn't know what year it was. After it was over, she fell into a deep sleep and didn't care about anything else.

When she woke up the next day, it was already noon. The sun was out that day, a rare sight, and it shone in through the window, warm and gentle.

After washing up, He Susu went to the kitchen to check and reheat the porridge in the pot. Although there was no meat or vegetables at home, there was still rice. She asked Cheng Shi to cook porridge in the morning last night, intending to eat it with the shrimp and preserved radish.

After the porridge was heated, she filled a bowl and took it to the dining table and sat down. The can of shrimp and preserved radish on the table had been opened. It seemed that Cheng Shi had eaten a lot of it in the morning.

He Susu took a clean spoon, scooped two spoonfuls of shrimp and preserved radish, poured them on the white porridge, and started eating.

The preserved radish is cut into very small pieces and pickled, giving it the original sweetness of white radish, a salty and fragrant taste, and a lot of oil.

Shrimp meat is actually small shrimps, so small that you can't tell them apart unless you look closely, but it also gives the pickled radish a bit more seafood flavor. It is indeed delicious as my mother-in-law said, and it is also very enjoyable to drink with white porridge.

With shrimp and preserved radish to eat, He Susu drank two bowls of porridge in a row before taking the dishes and chopsticks into the kitchen to wash them in the sink.

She also had a lot of free time at home because there was no meat or vegetables for lunch or dinner, so she had to go to the canteen to get them and she didn't have to prepare any food.

Maybe it was because there were people living in the house that it looked different from the outside. He Susu entertained Mrs. Wu, Mrs. Ye and Mrs. Fang in the morning, and entertained Mrs. Shao after waking up in the afternoon.

These sisters-in-law are very warm and welcoming. I haven’t seen them for the Chinese New Year, but now I meet them and chat with them about everything.

First, she was concerned about He Susu's return to her parents' home, and kept praising Captain Cheng for being a nice person and accompanying his wife to her parents' home for the New Year. They had not been back to their parents' home for the New Year since they got married. When she heard that He Susu and Cheng Shi had also returned to her in-laws' home, she worriedly asked her whether she got along well with her in-laws and whether there were any conflicts.

He Susu naturally praised her in-laws for being easy to get along with and being very kind to her. When she came back, she even bought some food for them. She took out some kidney beans for her sisters-in-law to eat.

When my sisters-in-law heard that the beans were a rare snack in Shanghai, they ate them and praised their deliciousness. We became even more excited while eating the beans and chatting.

After showing concern for He Susu, they began to share gossip about what happened in the family compound during the New Year.

A certain mother-in-law came to the army to celebrate the New Year with lots of bags, and started a fight with her daughter-in-law on the first day of the New Year; a certain daughter-in-law didn't treat her daughter as a human being, and made her wear such thin clothes in the middle of winter and wash clothes with cold water; a certain little rascal fought and injured another child, and the parents brought the child to the door to seek justice and paid a lot of medical expenses, and also caused his father to be scolded by the political commissar.

He Susu loved to listen to gossip when she had nothing to do. She seldom interacted with people in the family compound and didn't know much, so she relied on listening to these sisters-in-law to learn more about the family compound.

So He Susu entertained these sisters-in-law in the morning and afternoon, and she ate a full pound of kidney beans while chatting with them.

Cheng's mother bought two pounds of string beans for them to take back. She gave one pound to her third sister-in-law yesterday, and ate one pound today. She finished it all.

He Susu felt annoyed after she realized what was happening. Although most of the kidney beans were eaten by her sisters-in-law, she ate quite a bit of them as well. She was afraid that she would get a sore throat from eating too much, so she quickly exchanged a pound of chrysanthemums from the shopping system to make tea with them, hoping to reduce her sore throat.

Anyway, Cheng Shi didn’t know if there were any chrysanthemums left at home. There were some dried goods in the wall cabinet, but he didn’t look at them carefully.

Speaking of which, He Susu hasn't redeemed anything from the shopping system for a long time.

During this period, whether she was at her parents' home or at her husband's home, she was always with Cheng Shi, and they went shopping together. She couldn't find any chance to redeem items from the shopping system, and it seemed there was no need to do so.

Of course, she didn't do much work during this period, except washing her own clothes every day. She just saved some diligence points in this way, but the income was not much.

After drinking a whole cup of chrysanthemum water and making another cup with boiling hot water and letting it cool down, He Susu simply opened the shopping system screen and started looking at it.

She didn't know if there was really a nearby recommendation function, but she saw that the things in the front row included kidney beans, which she had eaten a little too much today, as well as pear paste candy and shrimp and preserved radish, which meant that she could redeem them anytime she wanted to eat them.

Of course, she wouldn't rashly take out something that is only available in the Shanghai stock market.

In addition, after buying the sanitary napkins she liked in the department store that day, He Susu went back and looked in the shopping system and found that the same sanitary napkins were available there and could be directly exchanged.

It’s just that she had never noticed such good things before. There are thousands of products in the shopping system, so naturally it wouldn’t be inexplicably placed at the forefront for her to see.

She discovered that in the shopping system, only the things she wanted or had come across in real life would be automatically placed at the front for her to grab, and the rest depended entirely on luck.

He Susu planned to wait until the ten packs of sanitary napkins she bought were used up, and then use the excuse to ask her mother-in-law to see if she could buy some more and send them over. Then she would exchange some from the shopping system and mix them in. After all, they were personal items that only she, the user, knew about, so she didn't have to worry about being exposed.

She was bored at the moment and was browsing through the various commodities. She kept looking at the dazzling array and temporarily marked the ones she wanted to exchange, intending to pick them up when she returned to the county town.

Soon the day to go to the county town arrived.

He Susu set out after breakfast and waited for a while at a boarding point in the family quarters. When the bus came, she lined up to get on and found the seat where her third sister-in-law was and sat down next to her.

Seeing that several sisters-in-law couldn't find a seat and had to stand all the way, she sighed in a low voice: "Thank you, Third Sister-in-law. If it weren't for you, I would definitely not be able to find a seat."

"Don't be polite, it's just a matter of convenience." Su Yu said with a smile, "After eating in the canteen for a few days, you can finally go to the county town to buy vegetables and cook for yourself when you come back."

"Yeah, I'm a bit tired of going to the cafeteria these days." He Susu said.

For breakfast, she had her own rice and cooked some porridge with shrimp and preserved radish. For lunch, she would go to the canteen in advance to get it. When Cheng Shi got out of training late at noon and waited for him to arrive at the canteen, all the good meat and vegetables had been taken. For dinner, she would go to the canteen at a certain time and get her food and wait for it. Cheng Shi would come to the canteen after training to eat with her, and then they would walk home.

This way you save the trouble of washing dishes.

As they were chatting and laughing, the car stopped in the county town. He Susu and Su Yu got off the car and went straight to the grocery store.

As soon as they entered the store, they started to choose things.

He Susu bought two pieces of tofu, a handful of bean curd sheets, a large salted salmon, a handful of pickled vegetables, some onions, ginger, and garlic, three pounds of sweet potatoes and two pounds of cornmeal, and three pounds of millet for cover, as well as some spices such as tangerine peel, star anise, and bay leaves.

She bought a lot, and Su Yu also bought a lot. While waiting in line to pay, she couldn't help but mutter, "There's less supply in winter. Every time I come here, I feel a little overwhelmed and I just buy the same few things over and over again."

He Susu couldn't help but nodded: "That's right, I feel like the supply seems to be even less after the New Year."

The people queuing in front and behind were also talking about these things, but the staff didn't care about them. They quickly weighed and collected money from people. If anyone asked when more supplies would be available, they would impatiently reply that they didn't know.

He Susu and Su Yu came out with half-full backpacks and went straight to the slaughterhouse.

The supply from the slaughterhouse was also less after the year, so fewer pigs were killed and less pork was sold. He Susu ordered two pounds of pork, two pig trotters, two pounds of spare ribs and a piece of pork belly, and Su Yu also bought a lot.

After leaving the slaughterhouse, Su Yu wanted to go to the department store to buy some things, and He Susu only needed to go to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy some insecticides. She simply said, "Sister-in-law, I'll wait for you at the door of the supply and marketing cooperative then."

"Okay, I'll go first." Su Yu walked towards the department store.

He Susu went back to the supply and marketing cooperative, went to the counter selling farm tools and asked the salesperson to buy some pesticides.

It was only yesterday that she discovered that there were many small insects growing on the roots of the peach and osmanthus trees in the yard. She didn't know how they survived in such a cold weather. In order to prevent these insects from continuing to grow and spread, she thought of buying some insecticide to kill them.

She was quite quick in buying things this time. She stood at the door of the supply and marketing cooperative and waited for a long time before the military wives came back one after another. Then Su Yu came back and the two of them could chat to pass the time.

At a certain time, a car came to take people back to the army. After getting off the car, He Susu went home and went straight into the kitchen to pack up the things she had bought.

She also took out the items she had redeemed earlier from the shopping system. She poured five kilograms of rice into the rice bucket, put oil into the oil pot, filled up the soy sauce, added half a cup of salt, and took out twenty eggs. Then she took out two kilograms of mutton and two mutton shanks. The shopping system had a discount of buying one kilogram of mutton and giving one mutton shank for free.

As for vegetables, the only ones available in such a cold weather were pickled ones. Instead of buying pickled vegetables from the grocery store, He Susu directly exchanged five kilograms of pickled spicy cabbage and two kilograms of pickled radish cubes from the shopping system.

After cleaning up, He Susu began to prepare lunch.

She directly took out a pound of mutton, cut it into pieces, washed it, and put it in the pot with onion, ginger and garlic, then added water and wolfberry and red dates to cook it first.

There was no way to have white radish at the moment, so she naturally cooked white radish and mutton soup. She planned to add the chopped tofu into the soup when it was ready, to add some flavor.

Then He Susu cut some more meat slices and planned to stir-fry the spicy cabbage when Cheng Shi came back. She washed the rice first and put it in the pot to cook.

When Cheng Shi came back from training, he was surprised to see mutton soup being cooked in the kitchen: "They actually have mutton for sale today."

He Susu nodded calmly: "Yes, I saw there was mutton for sale so I bought two kilograms, and also bought two mutton shank bones, which still had some mutton on them, so they'll be delicious when I come back to make soup."

She hasn't eaten mutton this winter and hasn't had the chance to redeem it from the shopping system. Now she finally got it back and cooked it.

"Drinking mutton soup warms your body, it's quite good." Cheng Shi nodded, rolled up his sleeves and started cooking.

Because the mutton soup took a short time to cook, the couple ate it with the spicy cabbage fried with the meat slices.

After finishing the meal, each of us went to get a bowl of mutton soup. The tofu was tender and fragrant, and the soup was full of mutton flavor and sweetness from wolfberry and red dates. It was warm and refreshing to drink, and the whole body felt warm. The mutton cubes cooked in this way were also delicious, very fresh and soft.

Cheng Shizhi nodded: "It's really good to cook mutton soup like this. It will taste better if we cook it for a while before dinner."

He Susu was also very satisfied after drinking the mutton soup: "Okay, then I will cook it for another half an hour this afternoon."

After the couple had lunch, Cheng Shi washed the dishes and then they went back to their room to rest.

There was nothing to do in the afternoon, so He Susu started preparing dinner when she saw that it was almost time.

She put a whole pot of mutton soup on the coal stove and turned on the fire to heat it. She then took out a pig's trotter, washed it and cut it into pieces. After the mutton soup was heated, she added oil to a wok and fried the broken bean curd sheets until fragrant. She then blanched the pig's trotter, and then stewed the trotter, bean curd sheets and peanuts with spices.

After Cheng Shi comes back from training, we can stir-fry some vegetables and have dinner.

The pig's trotters stewed with bean curd and peanuts are fragrant. The pig's trotters are stewed until soft and sticky, with a bit of glue texture when bitten, and salty and tasty. The bean curd is also cooked soft and soft, with a strong taste of soy products. The peanuts have a slightly burnt aroma and are soft and tasty when bitten.

The soup stewed in this way is poured over white rice, which is slightly oily and especially delicious.

He Susu and Cheng Shi were very satisfied with the meal, and then they had a bowl of mutton soup to warm up their bodies. They felt so refreshed.

The couple's life is really enjoyable.