However, her arms and legs are injured now, so she can't do it even if she wants to. She should wait until her injuries are healed.
On the tenth day of the lunar year, every household was busy preparing dinner. Smoke rose from the kitchen, aromas wafted in the air, and the sound of sizzling oil could be heard from the alley from time to time. Children were hanging around the legs of their parents in the kitchen, having food stuffed into their mouths and then being shoved out.
The streets and alleys are full of laughter and joy, full of vitality.
All the state-owned hotels were closed, and Han Jingchen and Jiang Ye finally had nowhere to buy cash, so they could only cook for themselves.
Pei Manning was there teaching them how to cook.
This New Year too, those who couldn’t go home gathered together to have New Year’s Eve dinner.
Han Jingchen and Jiang Ye had a lot of tickets for the Wuhua Gate, as well as special tickets for the Spring Festival. If they kept them, they would expire, so they simply bought a lot of ingredients and even caught a live fish.
"This is a lot. Is it enough?" When adding salt, Han Jingchen turned around and asked Pei Manning again.
Pei Manning took a look and said, "Stop it, put in a little more."
Han Jingchen obediently scooped another spoonful with his spoon: "So much?"
"More, go back half way."
"..." Han Jingchen resigned himself to his fate and poured half a spoonful of salt back into the salt jar before sprinkling it into the chicken soup.
Jiang Ye was washing vegetables with cold water nearby, watching with great interest. When their brother Chen usually trained them, he trained them like grandsons, but now they were being "trained" by the coquettish Comrade Pei.
People worked together to make many dishes, including a chicken soup, a sweet and sour fish, a braised pork, a scrambled egg with leeks, and a vegetarian stir-fried lotus root slices, which were considered a very sumptuous New Year's Eve dinner in that era.
The chicken soup is delicious, the sweet and sour fish is sweet and sour, the fish meat is tender, not to mention the braised pork, which melts in the water, is fat but not greasy, and fills your mouth with the aroma of meat...
"Burp~" After dinner, Jiang Ye touched his stomach contentedly, his mouth full of oil. After all, the dishes prepared by Comrade 놋 Pei were the most delicious!
In comparison, the dishes they made before were simply pig food.
After resting enough, Jiang Ye said, "Comrade Pei, Brother Chen will return to the camp tomorrow, but don't worry, Brother Chen has asked Sister Xu next door to take care of you."
Pei Manning was stunned: "So soon? Isn't tomorrow the first day of the Chinese New Year?"
"Well, we have to go back and let the others rest." People like them are considered lucky, at least they get to "go home" to celebrate the New Year, while some comrades still celebrate the New Year in the barracks.
The next afternoon, Han Jingchen and Jiang Ye returned to the unit.
As soon as the two of them left, Pei Manning suddenly felt that the place was empty.
The yard was empty, the kitchen was empty, the main room was empty, and it was so quiet and deserted that she was not used to it.
However, she was relieved. At least she didn't have to worry about exposing her true self.
While they stayed here, she didn't dare to take out even a drop of stream water from the Xumi Realm, nor did she dare to let the injury on her hand heal too quickly, especially since Han Jingchen had a sharp eye, a good memory, and amazing insight.
She is really a mountain of empty treasures that cannot be used!
"Mister Pei?" At about six o'clock, Mrs. Xu came in with a basket and said, "I'll bring you dinner."
These few days, she didn't dare to visit Pei Manning's brother after she knew he had come back. Although the two families were neighbors, she didn't dare to say a word to anyone before.
After all, the officer had a serious face and looked very unapproachable, which was frightening to look at.
Moreover, after returning home, Sister Li was too embarrassed to publicize Li Jianrong's shameful deeds, so Sister Xu also just learned that Pei Manning was injured.
"Sister-in-law has been busy preparing New Year's goods these days, so no one has come to visit. Is your injury healed? I heard that your elbow is dislocated. You have to take care of it, otherwise it will easily dislocate again in the future."
Pei Manning said gratefully: "Thank you, Sister Xu, please help me."
Mrs. Xu took out the food from the basket and said, "What's the trouble? It's just a matter of convenience. Besides, your brother has given us food and some cash."
Speaking of this, Mrs. Xu felt a little embarrassed. It was natural for neighbors to help each other, but everyone's rations were fixed and they couldn't save much, so they took over Pei Manning's rations.
But the military comrades were given more food, so they were still taking advantage.
As for the money, she planned to keep it all to buy things for Pei Manning. She heard that Pei Manning's leg was also injured and she couldn't go out.
Pei Manning wanted to ask Han Jingchen how much he gave her, but she was afraid that asking this would make Mrs. Xu suspicious.
She changed the subject and said, "Sister Xu, I don't know if what Brother gave you is enough. If it's not enough, you must tell me, and don't give me money in private."
"It's more than enough. There are ten kilograms of rice, some vegetable oil, meat coupons, egg coupons, and miscellaneous coupons. You have such a good appetite, it's enough to feed two children."
Pei Manning: “…”
On her page, in the column for Han Jingchen, the number of accounts is really increasing.
After her mother passed away, she took over the two shops under her mother's dowry, one cake shop and one rouge shop, and managed them well, although not making a fortune, they were thriving.
Now that I have come to this place, I have fallen into such a state of bankruptcy...
I don't know when Shanghai Fine Arts Publishing House will respond.
Perhaps because she kept saying this every day, on the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, the art publishing house finally sent her a reply letter, which included a remittance slip in addition to the letter.
A full forty-four yuan!
When the messenger called at the door, Mrs. Xu was delivering breakfast to Pei Manning. She said to Pei Manning mysteriously, "Sister Pei, let me tell you, it's that Li in our courtyard..."
"No. 20, Yanzi Lane. Is Comrade Pei Manning at home? Do you have your letter or remittance slip?"
Mrs. Xu was interrupted and was stunned for a moment. She heard that there was a remittance slip and hurriedly helped Pei Manning out. This was money!
"Yes, yes, I'm here!"
The courier rode a bicycle, carrying a military green canvas bag on his back. He stood on one foot and handed the remittance slip to Pei Manning: "Comrade, please sign it."
After signing, he took the letter back to the yard.
"Oh my god, what is this? It's so much money." Mrs. Xu picked up the remittance slip and looked at it in the sun again and again. It was real!
Pei Manning opened the letter and read it slowly.
"Comrade Pei, first of all, the editorial department of the publishing house has recently received your submission. Your paintings, "Records of Mountains" and "Soldiers", have been reviewed by the relevant departments of the publishing house and have been selected as the 12th and 17th volumes of the Long March story series.
The publishing house has already mailed the royalties via a remittance slip as agreed.
Secondly, your series of works "Dingdang's Thousand Questions" has lively painting style, interesting stories, and is both entertaining and educational. The creativity is relatively novel, but the stories lack coherence and systematicity. The publishing house hopes that you will come to Shanghai Fine Arts Publishing House between May 1st and May 10th to discuss the subsequent themes with our editorial department and make systematic plans and arrangements for the entire series.
In this regard, the publisher will bear part of your food, accommodation and travel expenses during this period.
If you are busy with work and have other arrangements during this period and cannot come to the publishing house, you can contact the editorial department to negotiate another time.
Please also attach the documents and letter confirming your secondment to this job."
Pei Manning couldn't help but smile after reading it. Although she drew four stories and only two were selected, she was already very satisfied.
After all, this means that she has a bright and huge source of income.
"Sister Pei, what is this? A document seconding you to Shanghai?" Mrs. Xu asked in surprise.
She had never been far away from home in her life. Hushang? When she heard the name, she thought of the girls from Hushang in the movies, all of them pretty and well-dressed. One of her cousin's relatives was in Hushang. It was said that the supply of everything there was more abundant than in other places, and the clothing patterns and materials were more numerous than in other places.
Pei Manning took the other two pieces of paper and looked at them. One was a secondment document, and the other was a letter of certification, both of which were signed and stamped.
"Mrs. Xu, do you know how to withdraw the money on this remittance slip?"
Mrs. Xu didn't find it strange when she asked this, because some people had never received a remittance slip in their lives.
"It's easy. Go to the street office to get a letter of credit, then take the letter of credit and sign for the remittance at the post office. But... can you walk? Or I can take you there."
Pei Manning didn't plan to take it out for the time being: "No need, Sister Xu, just prepare it in two days when my brother comes back."
She had been using stream water and herbs from the Xumi Realm to apply compresses to her wounds these past few days. Except for her elbow, everything else was almost healed. To be on the safe side, Pei Man Ning still bandaged it up to avoid arousing suspicion.
She has no problem going out to the post office alone now.
However, she had to let Han Jingchen know the source of the huge income, otherwise he would have to investigate again.
"Okay, then you must keep this remittance slip well. It will be troublesome if you lose it." Mrs. Xu reminded him worriedly. After all, it was 44 yuan, which was almost two months' salary for her.
The Pei family girl was quite calm, but as a bystander her heart was pounding!
Pei Manning put away her things and then remembered what Mrs. Xu had just said.
"Yes, Mrs. Xu, what did you want to say just now?"
"Oh," Mrs. Xu remembered, she looked up at her yard, lowered her voice, and said with great joy: "I'm telling you, it's the Li family in our yard, don't they always use the lower body to look at people? They have a cousin who is the deputy director of the Revolutionary Committee, you know about this, right?"
Pei Manning: “I know.”
They even had a grudge against each other.
However, Han Jingchen and Jiang Ye acted decisively that day and quickly sent Li Jianrong to the Public Security Bureau. The Li family was too embarrassed to tell anyone because not many people knew the inside story.
"I heard that their distant cousin is not doing anything," Mrs. Xu lowered her voice, "He was recently reported for investigation, and the leadership team above is now looking for evidence against him."
This time, Deputy Director Ma was determined to bring down the Li family completely and not give them any chance to turn the tables and retaliate. That was why he dragged on for so long and tried his best to collect evidence in order to make the charges heavier.
Pei Manning was stunned. "Then how will we deal with them?"
Mrs. Xu said, "Who knows? Let's see what evidence we can find in the end."