"Comrade Hai Mei, relax, relax, don't be nervous."
Zhu Haiming, still on horseback, took a deep breath and said, "Comrade Xiao Ting, I think I should get off."
Seeing the big black horse snorting incessantly, she couldn't stand it and quickly scrambled down in fright.
"You're such a coward. We're a cavalry regiment. How can we not ride horses?"
Xiao Ting rolled her eyes, grabbed the saddle, and mounted the horse.
"Beautiful, so beautiful, Comrade Xiao Ting, don't move, I'm going to take a picture of you."
Zhu Haiming picked up the Seagull camera hanging around her neck and aimed it at Da Heima and Xiao Ting.
"Don't take a bad picture of me."
Xiao Ting gripped the reins with her left hand and held the whip high above her head with her right, striking a dashing pose.
"Click".
Zhu Haiming pressed the shutter button.
Xiao Ting quickly jumped down and walked up to Zhu Haiming, asking hurriedly, "How did you do? You didn't make me look bad, did you?"
"Everything's fine, Comrade Xiao Ting. Don't worry, I'll personally deliver the photos to you once they're developed."
Zhu Haiming grinned broadly, then raised her camera and pointed it at Xiao Ting. "Comrade Xiao, you're standing in front of the snow-capped mountain, let me take another picture of you, hmm? Lu Fangfang?"
She paused, holding her camera, and saw Lu Fangfang and Wang Shufen not far away.
Xiao Ting glanced back, then pursed her lips. "They're both going up the mountain to dig for caterpillar fungus. Don't worry about them. Hai Mei, how's my pose?"
"Cordyceps?"
"That's good, that's good."
Zhu Haiming absentmindedly pressed the shutter, then looked at Lu Fangfang.
She knew about cordyceps; her father used to eat it often for health maintenance. She never expected it was dug up from this snowy mountain.
After thinking for a moment, she picked up her camera and walked over curiously.
"snort."
Xiao Ting rolled her eyes, feeling displeased.
She mounted the big black horse and slapped its rump hard.
"Neigh..."
The big black horse neighed and immediately galloped off.
...
"Sister-in-law Shufen, Xiao Lu, what a coincidence... Oh?"
Zhu Haiming looked at Lu Fangfang's stomach and her mood immediately soured.
However, the thought that the two of them were not yet married made her feel smug.
“Comrade Xiao Lu, you and Comrade Zhuang were really careless. You've made a mistake. I need to report this to the regiment. You're both unmarried…”
Meow~
A sharp leopard cry rang out, and a furry head popped out from Lu Fangfang's clothes.
"Unmarried what?"
Lu Fangfang looked at her with a half-smile.
"Click~"
Zhu Haiming took out her camera and snapped a picture. "Comrade Xiao Lu, the cat is quite cute. I'll give it to you once I've developed the photos."
"Hmph, you'd better watch your step in the future. Others aren't as easy to talk to as I am."
Lu Fangfang opened her mouth, but couldn't say a word of refusal.
Looking at the camera in Zhu Haiming's hand, she couldn't be more envious.
Seeing the little red horse beside her neighing, Lu Fangfang quickly put Xiao Hua's head back in and then comforted the little red horse.
Even a young beast is still a beast, and the little red horse is very sensitive to the scent of the little flower.
"Sister-in-law Shufen, Xiao Lu, I heard you went to the mountains to dig for caterpillar fungus?"
Zhu Haiming strode over.
Seeing that the two were carrying bulging cloth bags, she didn't stand on ceremony and simply opened them to take a look.
Wang Shufen was generous; she reached into her cloth bag, took out a cordyceps, and handed it to Zhu Haiming.
"I dug this up, Hai Mei, can you take a picture of it for me too? I'll send it back to my hometown so my parents can see where I am."
Zhu Haiming held the cordyceps without saying a word.
She had eaten this before when she was in Shanghai, but she had never seen one this big.
Her eyes darted around, and she said with a smile, "Sister-in-law Shufen, I can take ten pictures of you, but what are you going to do with all this cordyceps? You can't possibly eat it all."
"Oh, I sold them to the state-run pharmacy in the city to make money."
Zhu Haiming's heart skipped a beat, and she continued, "Sister-in-law Shufen, since you're selling it for money, why don't you just sell it to me? I'll buy it at the original price. What do you think? It'll save you the trouble of going to the city to sell it."
Before Wang Shufen could reply, Lu Fangfang strode over and shielded Shufen behind her.
“Comrade Zhu Haiming, when we sell to state-run pharmacies, it’s to support national development. But when we sell to you, it’s speculation and profiteering. Don’t say things like that again.”
She turned back and shook her head slightly at Sister Shufen.
"That's right, I want to support national development."
Zhu Haiming looked at Lu Fangfang, and the corner of her mouth twitched slightly.
She felt that she and Lu Fangfang were simply incompatible.
Taking a deep breath, she tentatively asked, "Sister-in-law, how about you give me the cordyceps and I give you some money in return? It's definitely not speculation, it's a mutual gift."
"Oh, right, I have some coupons here, sister-in-law. If you don't want money, you can have coupons. Meat coupons, bicycle coupons, cloth coupons, industrial coupons, I have them all."
Wang Shufen's mouth was slightly open; she almost agreed.
She desperately wanted the meat ticket and the bicycle ticket.
Lu Fangfang quickly reached out and grabbed her.
"I...I don't want to, Comrade Zhu Haiming. I'm a decent person. Don't tempt me. If you say anything more, I'll turn on you."
Zhu Haiming: "..."
Hearing this, she almost laughed out of anger.
She really wanted to help the two of them, but she didn't expect them to be such old-fashioned people who even brought up speculation and profiteering.
"Alright, Sister-in-law Shufen, then I won't say anything. It's just caterpillar fungus, right? There are so many women in our compound, surely some of them want to dig some up. I'll just go and dig some up myself, hmph!"
Zhu Haiming uttered a harsh remark, then turned and strode away.
...
"Girl, this..."
"Sister Shufen, don't worry, digging for caterpillar fungus is too hard, she can't stand it."
Lu Fangfang touched her cheek. The ultraviolet rays on the mountain were too strong. In just a few days, she, who was naturally fair-skinned, had become quite tanned.
It was cold and windy on the snow, and kneeling for so long was uncomfortable. Women with jobs wouldn't come up here, and women without jobs wouldn't do this kind of work either.
"The mountain is huge, so we're not afraid of them digging it up."
"That's true."
Wang Shufen felt a little relieved. She looked at the camera around Zhu Haiming's neck with some regret. It seemed she would have to go to the county to take the photo.
"Sister Shufen, you have to be careful, don't get too close to Zhu Haiming."
Lu Fangfang looked around, then leaned close to Wang Shufen's ear and whispered about Zhu Haiming's ticket scalping.
"Is that so?"
Lu Fangfang nodded.
"If Zhu Haiming weren't also a member of our group, I would really like to buy some tickets."
Wang Shufen touched the cloth bag slung over her shoulder, feeling somewhat regretful.
She wasn't stupid; she knew that if this matter were exposed, she would be implicated.
She doesn't care, but it would be bad if the men in her family were involved, as it would affect their future as heads of the household.
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