Lu Yang and his group entered the gate and saw Song Qing still shoveling snow. They shyly called her "sister-in-law" and then tried to take the shovel from her hands.

"No need, no need, I'll shovel it myself. Your battalion commander sent you here to help build the wall. Thank you for your help during this time. Once this place is tidied up, your wife will treat you to something delicious."

The group was a little embarrassed, and Song Fuming, who was the bolder one, scratched his head.

"No trouble at all, let us do it." After saying that, he took the shovel. With only this one tool, the others couldn't find a suitable one and stood there somewhat at a loss.

One person went to push the wooden cart over, and Song Fuming shoveled snow directly into it.

Noticing their unease and Lu Yang's absence, Song Qing decided to go find him and ask what he wanted them to do. Unexpectedly, as soon as she stepped outside, she saw Lu Yang standing there, seemingly holding something in his hand, while Wang Minggui hurriedly left not far away.

"What's he doing here again?"

Lu Yang spread his hands out, and Song Qing was speechless when she saw the stack of large unison bills. In her opinion, this matter was over, and she was satisfied with the result for the time being, but that did not mean she was willing to have more contact with Wang Minggui's family.

What's the big deal about giving money? This turns into a transaction, and if someone sees it, it'll be a sure piece of evidence against us.

"I'll return it to him tomorrow."

"Let's clean the house first today. We can't cook right now, so if they come to help, we can only get some food from the cafeteria to serve them. After we've cleaned up, we'll invite them over for dinner."

Lu Yang nodded. This feeling was somewhat novel. Suddenly, someone was discussing with him how to maintain interpersonal relationships. Now they were a team, and they would do more things together in the future.

"I don't have many tickets with me right now, I'll go back and get some for you later."

"No need, I still have tickets on me," Lu Yang said hurriedly.

Lu Yang certainly had food coupons on him. The army didn't issue national food coupons often; they were only issued when there was a mission. He sent all the remaining national food coupons home, keeping the ones that couldn't be used in Xin'an.

Moreover, he started accumulating food coupons a few months ago, and has accumulated quite a lot over this period.

Song Qing also knew about this matter. She suddenly remembered that the grain ration had not been transferred when she was shoveling snow. Lu Yang should have mentioned this to her a few days ago, and also mentioned that he still had a lot of grain coupons.

She should still have some money, but it was more than 10 years ago, and her memory was hazy. She had forgotten the exact amount. She wanted to see if Lu Yang would give her that money and food coupons in the future, or if he wanted to save money on his own.

However, she had no right to bring it up and could only rely on Lu Yang's own conscience, since she herself had more than a thousand yuan in her hands.

After thinking it over carefully, Song Qing realized that it was reasonable for Lu Yang to have saved money as well. It seemed that she would have to subtly encourage him to spend more money in the future.

————

Lu Yang's four men in the courtyard exchanged furtive glances after seeing Song Qing leave.

"Sister-in-law is so beautiful."

"That's right, our battalion commander is also good-looking. He's the most handsome among all the battalion commanders."

"Of course, even knowing he was married, as he strolled from the family quarters all the way here, countless wives stared at his face."

Just as they were about to laugh, they turned their gazes and saw An'an standing at the entrance of the main room, staring at them curiously. They all stopped laughing. Song Fuming cleared his throat and called out to An'an in what he thought was a gentle voice, but which actually gave everyone goosebumps.

"Hello, are you Battalion Commander Lu's daughter?"

Good heavens, their Battalion Commander Lu is so lucky! He's good-looking, married a good wife, and even his daughter is so cute. The fair-skinned little girl with two little pigtails stood at the door of the main room, her bright eyes staring at them. Song Fuming felt his heart melt.

An'an nodded, still looking at them curiously, when Song Qing came in from outside. "An'an, these are your uncles, quickly greet them."

An'an didn't say anything, glanced at them and then looked at Song Qing. At this moment, Lu Yang also came in from outside.

"Mom, lots of people like to look at Dad's face." A clear voice echoed throughout the yard, and the four people choked on their saliva and coughed.

"Ah, Battalion Commander, we..."

Although their battalion commander is good-looking, he is not often mentioned by people.

Because I know he doesn't like people talking about his appearance, and besides, the intensity of his training of his subordinates is so high that people can't even notice his appearance. They're all trained to the point of exhaustion that just thinking about his face gives me nightmares every night.

Furthermore, it was rather strange for a group of grown men to suddenly start talking about the battalion commander's face, and they all became embarrassed.

"Battalion Commander, this cart is full of snow, I'll push it out first." Liu Qi hurriedly interrupted them and went over to push the wooden cart.

"Yes, yes, let's go empty it first," the others chimed in, and the four of them pushed a wooden cart out the door.

Song Qing was not surprised. It was common knowledge in their compound that Lu Yang was good-looking. When people mentioned Lu's son who had joined the army, everyone said that he was a handsome young man with a good future in the army. Many people thought about marrying their daughters to him.

"Don't get too close later, you know? People might bump into you."

An'an nodded, picked up the stick, and ran into the house.

Lu Yang, who was standing there, felt a little dissatisfied. Was it because good-looking people were more immune to other people's appearances? The mother and daughter were good-looking, so they treated him just as ordinary and didn't think he was particularly good-looking.

When Song Fuming and the others returned with the wooden cart, Lu Yang had already found a large wooden stick and was looking at the large vats with several bundles of rope.