Xiang Lan said enviously, "I didn't expect you to be able to store so much grain. Sigh, I didn't believe Aunt Ma at first and didn't plan to buy any. By the time I saw the situation was bad, it was too late to buy any more."
A military wife nearby chimed in, "My family didn't buy any either. During that time, my husband was away on a mission. When he came back and wanted to exchange some, no one had any food left."
Rong Lianhu also sighed: "Who says otherwise? I wasn't worried at first, but seeing how anxious my wife was, I exchanged for a little bit of grain, just to appease her. Later, when I saw that the situation was not good, I realized that I couldn't exchange for more, so I only managed to save up this little bit of coarse grain."
Seeing that Rong Lianhu was carrying grain, Xiang Lan asked directly, "Where is Battalion Commander Rong planning to go with so much grain?"
The longing in her eyes was so obvious that Rong Lianhu quickly complained, "Several letters came from my hometown asking for food. I thought that no matter what, there are more opportunities to go up the mountain in the countryside, and it would be easier to find something to eat than in the army, so I didn't send any."
He changed his tone and sighed, "Who knew our brigade leader would write to say that my elder brother's family had taken the old man's food rations, and the old man was about to die, so he asked me to send him some food. So, I took out all the food in my house and am preparing to send it away in a little while."
The military wife, who had been silent until now, exclaimed in shock: "How could there be such unfilial descendants?"
This woman was known throughout the compound as a dutiful daughter-in-law. Her husband was Zhang Weidong, the company commander of the second company of the third battalion. Her name was Ma Juhua.
The reason she is considered a dutiful daughter-in-law is because when she came to join the army two years ago, she did so without her mother-in-law's knowledge.
Her mother-in-law had been paralyzed in her lower limbs for many years, and she had been taking care of her very well. She was even commended by the military when she came to the army.
Rong Lianhu also got to know her because of this. She was a truly kind-hearted person. Fu Ya said that her mother-in-law would praise her to everyone she met. However, her mother-in-law died of a cerebral hemorrhage not long after she came to the army. She is now being trained by Xiang Lan and is preparing to join the Women's Committee.
Rong Lianhu was just hearing what she wanted to hear, and said sadly, "Alas, my wife has a grudge against the elderly, but for my sake, she still made me send all the grain back home."
Xiang Lan frowned. She knew that Rong Lianhu and his two children had been abused in their hometown. She didn't expect Fu Ya to be able to put aside her grievances and send the food back. Wasn't that a saint?
She asked, "Don't you leave any food for the children? The cafeteria food is all bland and watery now, it's not filling at all."
Rong Lianhu nodded: "I left twenty catties of cornmeal and ten catties of wheat flour."
He was so straightforward that he revealed everything about his family. Xiang Lan shook her head, disapproving of his behavior, but didn't say it aloud.
Ma Juhua, however, thought Rong Lianhu was filial and praised him, saying, "Commander Rong is filial, and Doctor Fu is also a person who understands the bigger picture."
Upon hearing this, Rong Lianhu's hair stood on end. He quickly thanked him and then made an excuse that he had to return to his unit later, and hurried away.
Xiang Lan also felt a chill run down her spine. She suddenly realized that this person's filial piety might be blind obedience, and he might even impose his own code of conduct on others.
After mentally removing Ma Juhua's name from the list of candidates for the Women's Committee, she casually strolled around and, finding no one spreading rumors or causing trouble, hurriedly went home with the two military wives.
Rong Lianhu achieved his goal and brought the food to the post office.
However, when he sent the grain, he didn't write the names of Old Man Rong and his wife directly, nor did he write who was from his elder brother's family. Instead, he wrote "Wang Dazhu forwarded to Rong Defa for receipt."
They also attached a letter, addressed to Wang Dazhu, which stated that this was all the food stored in the house and asked them to plan how to use it.
After sending the grain, he felt a great weight lifted from his shoulders and rode his bicycle back to his unit.
Meanwhile, Qing Xuanzi was walking with Rong Jiaojiao through the mountains leading to Bing City, in the opposite direction from Anyang Town.
The early spring sunlight filtered through the sparse leaves, casting dappled patterns on them.
Rong Jiaojiao sat in the cloth bag in front of Qing Xuanzi, looking around curiously, occasionally using her divine sense to pull a few fallen leaves into her hand, giggling incessantly.
Suddenly, Rong Jiaojiao stretched out her hand to their left front: "Seven, seven~~"
Qing Xuanzi was overjoyed. Could it be that Jiaojiao always feels like she wants to eat good medicinal herbs whenever she encounters them?
He tentatively asked, "What would Jiaojiao like to eat?"
Rong Jiaojiao couldn't answer him; she just eagerly reached out her hand in that direction.
She got anxious, and more words started coming out of her mouth.
It clawed and kicked, shouting, "Seven, seven, Father Xi, seven, seven~~"
Qing Xuanzi walked fifteen or sixteen meters in the direction her hand was pointing, and found nothing except a dead tree stump about seven or eight meters ahead.
Ke Rongjiao's eyes were indeed fixed on the direction of the tree stump, and he was quite certain of that.
Qing Xuanzi mentally calculated the distance; Rong Jiaojiao's sensing distance for the spiritual medicine had increased by several meters this time.
He couldn't help but wonder, "I wonder if her increased ability comes from the growth of her spiritual consciousness or her physical strength?"
He did not approach, but instead used his divine sense to carefully sense the area. Apart from discovering that it was a hollow, dead tree, he did not find any medicinal herbs.
But Rong Jiaojiao was still urgently reaching out her hand. Qing Xuanzi frowned and decided to go and check on her himself.
After putting Rong Jiaojiao down, he placed a talisman on her to immobilize her and set up a protective barrier before walking towards the withered tree.
Upon arriving at the dead tree, we discovered that it had been dead for many years, its trunk covered with the marks of time and moss.
He gathered his spiritual power in his palm and slapped it onto the withered tree. The tree shattered, revealing its hollow interior.
However, there was no trace of any medicinal herbs inside, only some dry branches and fallen leaves.
Qing Xuanzi was somewhat puzzled. He probed the inside of the withered tree with his divine sense again, but found that his divine sense was blocked by a strange force and he could not probe further.
He frowned, thinking to himself, "This withered tree is strange. Could it be able to block divine sense?"
He carefully observed the internal structure of the dead tree and discovered that his divine sense could not penetrate the texture of the tree.
This is interesting. One's own divine sense can even penetrate the texture of stones, let alone trees.
Qing Xuanzi had a sudden thought: perhaps this type of dead tree has a natural ability to block divine sense from probing.
"It seems this withered tree is not simple either," Qing Xuanzi muttered to himself.
He decided to search carefully to see if he could find any hidden elixirs or other useful items.
He cleaned away the fragments of the dead tree one by one, and gently touched the inner wall of the hollow part with his fingers, trying to sense the spiritual energy fluctuations within.
I still couldn't sense anything, but then I saw a grain of rice-sized, white, translucent crystal among the debris.
I picked it up and examined it. It looked like jade but wasn't. I tried to sense it with my divine sense, but I couldn't detect anything.
He drew out a wisp of spiritual energy from within his body to test it, and in the next instant, a surge of pure spiritual energy flowed out from the crystal.
Qing Xuanzi was slightly taken aback, then a look of surprise flashed in his eyes.
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