After seeing that the two of them were resting with their things, Liu Mengmeng grabbed her usual shopping basket, her ration book, and left home. Luckily, she hadn't used this month's rations yet, and she still had some meat coupons left. She was afraid that if she went to check now, the ration station would have already sold out.
Sure enough, when Liu Mengmeng arrived at the supply point, most of the items had already been picked out. She could only pick out some other vegetables and such based on her supply book, and then carried these things to the street office.
Upon arriving at the subdistrict office, Liu Mengmeng went straight inside to find her youngest son, Liu Ming'an. Everyone who saw Liu Mengmeng greeted her.
"Sister Liu, what brings you here today? Are you here to see Ming'an? He's busy inside, please come in."
As Liu Mengmeng greeted her former colleagues, she walked inside. As soon as she entered, she saw a handsome man sitting behind a table. He was Liu Mengmeng's youngest son. Because he and Feng Mingyue were twins, they looked extremely similar. However, the man's features appeared delicate and feminine, while his features made him look like a handsome young gentleman.
Feng Ming'an was hunched over the table filling out some forms. His job at the street office was easy; he only occasionally dealt with some neighborhood relations and helped people fill out household registration forms. Feng Ming'an had nothing to do today, so he organized some forms. He noticed that some of the forms were damp, so he took them out and rewrote them. As he was writing, he suddenly felt a darkness in front of him. He looked up and saw his mother standing in front of him with her shopping basket.
Seeing this, Feng Ming'an quickly stood up and asked Liu Mengmeng to sit down and talk to him.
"Mom, what are you doing here? And why are you carrying a shopping basket? Aren't there still vegetables at home?"
"Hey, isn't this your older brother and younger cousin coming to our house? I just wanted to see what vegetables we have so I could buy some to take back with me."
When Feng Ming'an heard his mother say that his older brother and cousin, who should be in the army, had come to his house, he was a little puzzled, but he didn't ask. They were both from a family of veteran cadres, and he knew that these two must have come here for some special reason and to visit their family. Feng Ming'an knew why his mother had come to see him at this time.
So Feng Ming'an stood up and told his colleagues that he needed his mother to help him with some work, as he had to go out for a bit. Everyone smiled knowingly and understood what Feng Ming'an was going to do. After Feng Ming'an left, Liu Mengmeng sat down to rest. When her former colleagues saw her sitting there, they all came over to her and asked about her eldest son.
They asked Liu Mengmeng if it was her eldest son who brought his wife back to visit them, since they knew that Liu Menglin had been changing tickets around recently. Later, when Liu Mengmeng returned and distributed wedding candy to neighbors, relatives, and friends, Liu Ming'an also brought wedding candy to distribute to everyone. At that time, everyone knew that Liu Mengmeng's eldest daughter-in-law came from a working-class family and was now working as an educated youth in Liu Mengmeng's hometown.
When Liu Mengmeng heard everyone's questions, she knew they thought her eldest son had brought his wife back to visit them. She smiled and shook her head to say that wasn't the case. Her eldest son was just passing through and would be taking the train back to his unit the next morning.
When Feng Ming'an returned carrying a cloth bag, he saw his mother sitting there chatting and laughing with the older women he worked with. He couldn't help but smile, shake his head, and walk over to hand the cloth bag to his mother.
"Mom, this is something I got from a friend. Why don't you take it home and cook it for lunch? Do you want me to go home now and help you?"
"I don't need you. You just go to work and have lunch when you get off work. I can manage on my own at home. Besides, your older brother and the others are sleeping at home. If I'm really too busy, I can call them."
When Feng Ming'an heard his mother say this, he nodded. Liu Mengmeng then got up from the stool, picked up the small bag that Feng Ming'an had brought back and the vegetable basket she had brought herself, and walked towards home.
When they got home, Liu Mengmeng opened the cloth bag and found that in addition to a piece of fine pork belly, there was also a slaughtered chicken. She knew that her youngest son had stolen it from his friend, and it must have been the chicken that the friend had prepared for lunch.
However, Liu Mengmeng didn't mind, since her youngest son and his friend had a history of exchanging gifts. Last time, she had brought a lot of mushrooms and dried chicken and rabbit from their hometown and given them to his friend.
Liu Mengmeng looked at the pork belly and the chicken, then looked through the dishes at home, preparing to make braised pork, chicken stew with mushrooms, and a dried rabbit she had brought back from Liujiatun, which she planned to make a stir-fried spicy rabbit. She also planned to cook some vegetables that she had bought a couple of days ago.
When Liu Mengmeng opened the door and came in, Liu Mingfeng and Feng Minghao were already awake. However, neither of them came out at this time. Feng Minghao planned to come out and help when his mother started preparing the meal. Liu Mingfeng planned to wait until his aunt called him to eat before getting up. After all, if he got up too early, his aunt might push him back into bed, and even if he said he was perfectly healthy, Liu Mengmeng wouldn't believe him.
So when Liu Mengmeng started chopping the rabbit in the kitchen, Feng Minghao got up and went to help his mother. Seeing Feng Minghao get up, Liu Mengmeng lowered her movements and quietly asked him...
"Why are you up? Did I wake you up? Where's your cousin? Is he awake too?"
"No, he's still sleeping. How did you prepare all these good things? Mom, when you went out to buy groceries, shouldn't there be no good food left? Where did this come from?"
"Aren't you just spouting nonsense? By the time I went to buy groceries, there wasn't much left. Your brother managed to get it."
Feng Minghao thought about his younger brother and wasn't surprised by his abilities. Back then, there was a lot of competition between his two younger brothers about who should go to the countryside. It wasn't that they both wanted the other to go, but rather that they were both afraid the other would suffer in the countryside and both wanted to go themselves. In the end, it was the younger sister who was more assertive and went directly to the educated youth office to register. Later, they found out that the younger sister wasn't the only one who went to register that day; the younger brother, Feng Ming'an, also went. It's just that the younger sister was one step ahead.
Feng Minghao had always had this idea that if it had been his younger brother who went to the countryside back then, his younger brother would definitely have found someone he liked and whose parents wouldn't object to him marrying him.
Although Feng Minghao was confident in his younger brother's character and knew that even if he had the chance to come back in the future, he would not abandon his wife, he was still glad that his brother had not gone to the countryside. This way, he wouldn't have to put his mother and his future sister-in-law in a difficult position. However, Feng Minghao was also furious when he remembered what his mother had said about his sister finding a partner in the countryside.
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