"Regiment Commander Zhuang, Regiment Commander Zhuang Mingcheng, Regiment Commander Mingcheng..."
"Deputy, deputy regimental commander."
"Deputy Regiment Commander Zhuang? Regiment Commander Zhuang sounds better."
Lu Fangfang stood in front of Zhuang Mingcheng, carefully examining him.
From being promoted from battalion commander to deputy regimental commander, her husband's clothes didn't change much, except that his military uniform looked new.
She reached out and touched it; the fabric was no different from before.
In those days, to ensure fairness, soldiers and officers wore the same uniforms with no obvious differences.
To distinguish them, you can only look at the jacket. Those with four pockets are officers, and those with two pockets are soldiers. As for their specific rank, you can't tell from the uniform.
"Mingcheng, where's that old military uniform you wore this morning?"
"It's with the troupe. I'll bring it back tomorrow."
Zhuang Mingcheng pulled his lover to sit down.
He pulled a wad of cash from his pocket and placed it on the table. "Fangfang, this is my allowance for this month. Apart from the 15 yuan I have to give to the troupe for food, the rest is here."
Lu Fangfang glanced at the money on the table, then at Zhuang Mingcheng, and couldn't help but laugh.
This guy now hands over his salary.
She picked up the money, counted it, and found it to be 103 yuan in total. Adding the 15 yuan for food that Zhuang Mingcheng had, the total came to 118 yuan.
"Is this salary based on the rank of regimental commander?"
Lu Fangfang remembered her husband saying that his salary as a battalion commander was less than 100 yuan.
"I'm now the deputy regimental commander, a level 16 cadre, so my salary will definitely be paid according to the standards for a deputy regimental commander,"
Upon hearing this, Lu Fangfang immediately felt like she had struck gold.
One hundred and three yuan a month, that's one thousand two hundred and thirty-six yuan a year. If you save for ten years without eating or drinking, you'll become a ten-thousand-yuan household.
Clutching a handful of ten-yuan notes, she felt quite pleased with herself.
Looking up at Zhuang Mingcheng, she said with a smile, "Are you sure you don't mind me taking your allowance? Aren't you worried I'll squander it?"
"Comrade Lu Fangfang, you are my lover, I have no worries."
Zhuang Mingcheng gripped his lover's waist, picked her up, and pulled her into his arms.
His wife is a thrifty person; she's not one to spend money recklessly, and he even worries that she'll save up and be reluctant to spend it.
"snort."
Lu Fangfang hugged him back.
After a while, she pulled out two ten-yuan bills and handed them to Zhuang Mingcheng.
“As a commander, you can’t be without money. I’ll keep the rest. If you need money, just let me know.”
Zhuang Mingcheng chuckled and didn't refuse, then casually put it in his pocket.
"Wait, Comrade Zhuang Mingcheng, how many years have you been in the army?"
Lu Fangfang suddenly thought of something.
She sat in her husband's lap, looking at him suspiciously.
"I joined the army after graduating from high school at the age of eighteen, and it's been almost eight years now."
Zhuang Mingcheng spoke with a hint of nostalgia.
He couldn't stand his family back then, so he joined the army in a fit of pique. So many years have passed in the blink of an eye, and now he even has a lover. He never dared to dream of it back then.
"Eight years, you've saved up your allowance for eight years, it shouldn't only be a few hundred, right?"
"Oh, my dear Comrade Lu Fangfang, eight years ago, I wasn't a regimental commander either. My monthly allowance was only six yuan, which was less than my monthly salary now. How much do you expect me to save up to marry my wonderful wife?"
Forehead……
Lu Fangfang thought about it and it seemed to make sense.
She felt a little embarrassed and instinctively snuggled into her husband's arms.
Zhuang Mingcheng rubbed his lover's arm, a smile appearing on his face.
He pulled a handful of coupons from his pocket and stuffed them into his lover's hand. "These are your food coupons, oil coupons, and meat coupons for next month, plus twelve feet of cloth coupons and two jin of sugar coupons for our marriage registration subsidy..."
Lu Fangfang quickly climbed out of his arms.
Looking at the pile of tickets in her hand, she was overjoyed. From now on, she would be a person who received government-subsidized food rations.
He counted the grain coupons and found a total of 25 jin. Although it seemed like a lot, only 7 jin and 5 liang of these 25 jin of grain coupons were for fine grains, while the rest were for coarse grains.
As for the oil coupons, she only had three ounces, but fortunately, she still had half a jar of butter at home, so she wouldn't be short of oil for the time being.
There were too many meat ration coupons; the total was seven taels.
These tickets are her personal quota; as for Zhuang Mingcheng's, they're all in the troupe.
A soldier's food ration is 45 jin per month, which is much higher than hers.
These days, Zhuang Mingcheng often brings food back from the cafeteria, and she takes advantage of her husband quite a bit.
After counting the tickets, Lu Fangfang carefully put them into her pocket.
Grain coupons, oil coupons, meat coupons—these coupons all have expiration dates. She'll have to do a big shopping spree next time she goes to the county.
"By the way, the photos I took in the provincial capital last time have also been sent over."
Zhuang Mingcheng reached into his pocket and took out another yellow envelope.
"Zhuang Mingcheng, how much stuff are you carrying in your pockets? How come there's everything when I touch them?"
Lu Fangfang wasn't in a hurry to read the letter.
Curious, she touched Zhuang Mingcheng's four pockets. Finding nothing else, she regretfully accepted the envelope.
She tore it open little by little and poured out the photos inside the envelope.
Back in the provincial capital, she and Zhuang Mingcheng took a total of twenty-four photos.
The photos developed at the photo studio weren't very big, so she sat in Zhuang Mingcheng's lap and looked at them one by one.
"Huh? Zhuang Mingcheng! This is what you said, that there would be no problem? That the photos would definitely look good? You... what are these photos? They've made my eyes disappear."
Lu Fangfang's mood soured as soon as she saw the first photo.
In the photo, she stands under the statue of the leader in the square, squinting her eyes and smiling like a fool; she looks absolutely awful.
"Pfft."
Zhuang Mingcheng glanced at it secretly and immediately burst out laughing.
This wasn't intentional on his part. He had pressed the shutter at the moment his lover looked her best, as seen through the camera viewfinder.
Perhaps... perhaps the camera's response time is a bit slow...
"Zhuang Mingcheng!"
Lu Fangfang looked at him angrily.
Forehead……
"Let's look at the others, the ones below are sure to be good."
Zhuang Mingcheng hurriedly placed the photo from his lover's hand on the table.
The second photo is a picture of the two of them together in Dongfanghong Square. They are indeed much more serious now, with their heads tilted to each other and smiles on their faces.
"Look, this one looks much better, doesn't it?"
"This was taken by that old man, don't think I've forgotten."
Lu Fangfang muttered to herself, then looked at the remaining few pages.
Zhuang Mingcheng isn't good at photographing people, but he does take very clear pictures of ancient buildings, especially the ancient city of Lanzhou on the banks of the Yellow River, which is quite spectacular.
She got up and took down the picture frames hanging on the north wall. She picked out a few nice ones and put them in the glass frames.
She nodded in satisfaction as she hung it back on the wall.
"Zhuang Mingcheng, look at these good photos, all of them are pictures of you taken by me. You even said you've studied photography, but you're not as good as me, a first-time photographer."
Looking back at the bizarre and unflattering photos of herself on the table, she was so angry that her liver ached.
So many negatives, all wasted.
It's also because cameras of this era were black and white, failing to capture her greatest advantage: her fair skin.
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