Chapter 115: Chatting and Buying Food

Lin Yue and Xu Xiaodi used to be just friends, but they became close friends recently because of a meal. Xu Xiaodi is only two years older than Lin Yue, and they get along very well.

She had no job since she came to the army, and she didn't like to go out and socialize with others. She was almost bored to death. After getting familiar with Lin Yue, she would often come to Lin Yue's house to sit for a while. Every time she saw Lin Yue's children, she would unconsciously think of the one in her belly, and she didn't know what it would look like when it was born.

Recently, she has become obsessed with sewing clothes for the baby in her belly, and she comes to Lin Yue every day to ask for advice on how to sew baby clothes. Lin Yue is not shy about it, and even takes out the small clothes he made for several children in the past for her to learn from.

Xu Xiaodi was frugal and didn't have much cloth to make clothes for her children. Early in the morning, Xu Xiaodi came to find Lin Yue and wanted to go to the market with her to buy vegetables. She heard people say that the supply and marketing cooperative had a new batch of pure cotton cloth, which was very soft. In fact, buying vegetables was fake, and she wanted to go to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy cloth.

Lin Yue did not expose her. He quickly tied Sisi to his chest and put Little Mushroom in the large backpack at the door. He then put it on his back and turned to call Wanli and Lingling: "Hurry up. I'll wait for you for two minutes. If you're fast enough, I can take you to school today."

The two siblings stuffed their mouths with food and rushed over in a hurry. Seeing this, Lin Yue said, "Go drink some water. Your mouths are so full, you can't run!"

The two of them chuckled twice, then turned back to drink water.

As soon as they reached the staircase, they met Wang Tingting. She greeted Lin Yue with a tired look on her face and walked towards home. Lin Yue stopped her and asked, "You just got off the night shift! Have you had breakfast?"

Wang Tingting shook her head. She had fair skin, but her dark circles were particularly noticeable when she stayed up late. Seeing her like that, Lin Yue kindly said, "I made porridge and eggs this morning. Eat some before you rest." As he said that, he winked at Lingling.

Lingling got the hint and ran home in a flash. Not long after, she came back with a tray. On it were not only millet porridge and eggs, but also a bowl of milk. She was very thoughtful.

Wang Tingting is tall and pretty. She was trained as an arts soldier when she was young, but later she chose to be a nurse when she grew up, so her temperament is naturally different. Lingling and Wanli both like beautiful people and things, so they liked Wang Tingting from the first time they saw her.

Wanli was more reserved and didn't dare to say it out loud. But Lingling was different. Every time she saw her, her mouth was as sweet as honey. She held the tray in front of Wang Tingting and said like she was presenting a treasure: "Auntie Tingting, this is the milk my mother ordered. My mother said that drinking milk is good for the body, so I poured you a glass!"

The two children liked her, and remembering that after Liu Jianhua divorced, he no longer asked them to call him "Auntie" but "Auntie", saying that this was more intimate, they spontaneously called Wang Tingting "Auntie" when they first met. Lin Yue thought that she and Zhang Yuandong had known each other for many years, and Commander Wang was Zhang Yuandong's old superior, so she thought there was nothing wrong with calling her that, and simply let them do it.

Wang Tingting touched Lingling's head and felt her heart melt. She took the plate and said with a smile, "Our Lingling is really sensible. Auntie loves you so much!"

Seeing that her complexion was not good, Lin Yue asked with concern: "You are working too hard on this night shift. Are you still busy at night?"

"Everything else is fine, but Zhang Lai Di is so annoying. She asked us to change the baby's diaper and feed the baby. I had no time to rest the whole night."

Xu Xiaodi was a little puzzled. "It's been a while since she gave birth, why is she still in the hospital? Does she have to stay in the hospital for so long after giving birth?" Because she was pregnant, she began to pay attention to these things.

Wang Tingting gets angry when she talks about this. "She should have been discharged long ago. What her family did is really disgusting. When her mother-in-law saw that she gave birth to a daughter, she bought a ticket to go back to her hometown within three days. Now Zhang Lai Di has no one to take care of her, so she refuses to leave the hospital and insists on going home after the confinement period!"

Xu Xiaodi took a moment to think about it and sighed, "It's not easy to have such a mother-in-law. Didn't she come to the army to take care of her pregnant daughter-in-law? Why didn't she take care of her after she gave birth to a daughter?"

"You are so kind, you are still sympathizing with others! How pitiful do you think she is? She gave birth to three daughters before, and sent them back to her hometown before they were one year old. None of them stayed with her! Look at her son, he is so precious, there is no other child as spoiled as him in the whole family! You didn't see that she hasn't even finished her confinement, but she is asking every day when she can get pregnant again. In her own words, the baby in her belly should have been a son, but she doesn't know how it turned into a girl. She has to get pregnant again and bring her son back! She has even chosen a name for him, Liu Guangzong!"

Seeing Xu Xiaodi's eyes wide open with a look of disbelief, she snorted, "You stay at home all day and never go out. You've been in the family compound for two years and you still don't know these things. You're really careless!"

Wang Tingting works in the hospital and hears the most gossip. Although she is usually cold and doesn't care about anyone, you will know that she has a powerful mouth once you get to know her. Lin Yue tried to smooth things over and said, "Okay, stop talking about this here, it's not good if someone hears it!" They were standing on the stairs and it was easy for someone to overhear what they were saying.

Wang Tingting grew up with her temper. Even when she lived in a small western-style building, she was always flattered by others. It was only after she started working in the hospital that she suffered a lot of bullying. But that was work, she had no choice. There was no one in the family building that she was afraid of. She said nonchalantly, "What are you afraid of? What I said is the truth. Can't people talk about what I did?"

But her voice was still much quieter. She approached the two and said, "Her mother-in-law didn't go back to her hometown just for this. On the day Zhang Lai Di gave birth, her baby son fell into the river, and the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law had a big fight. It is said that when she was giving birth, others cried out in pain, but she cried out for that old man. The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law had a complete falling out, and her mother-in-law naturally didn't want to take care of her during the confinement period! Oh, by the way, did her family say anything when you rescued her family's Qiang Zong?"

Lin Yue shook her head, "She just gave birth, and her family was in a mess, so she didn't have time to come." She saw that the child was surrounded by a group of people as soon as he came ashore, but no one cared about Zhang Jian, so she took Zhang Jian to the hospital. But she didn't expect that something like that would happen in his family, and no one thought of taking the child for a checkup. Fortunately, the child was in good health and didn't hear that he was sick.

Wang Tingting pouted, "Of course not. Zhang Lai Di was about to give birth, so it's OK that she couldn't come. But Aunt Liu only came to the hospital once. She was so busy that she didn't even come to thank you. She even said how much she treasured her eldest grandson!"

Lin Yue didn't save people for the sake of gratitude, but her family's behavior was really disgusting. Wang Tingting stood up for her, and she didn't want to pretend to be superior. She smiled and said, "Let's wait and see. When Captain Liu comes back and Zhang Lai Di is out of confinement, we'll see what his family's attitude is."

After talking with Wang Tingting for a while, they arrived at the market a little late, and there was only a little meat left. Fortunately, it was still relatively fresh, enough for today's cooking. Lin Yue handed the salesperson money and meat coupons, and bought two more pounds of pork bones without coupons.

Holding the scattered meat tickets given back by the salesperson, Xu Xiaodi muttered a few words to herself. She liked to eat fatty meat, but the rest was all lean meat, and she always felt that she had made a loss.

Lin Yue didn't think that this was a bad thing for her. On the contrary, he felt that she was more lively and active than before.

There should be a lot of vegetables in autumn, but due to geographical reasons, many local vegetables are already off the market. Before Xu Xiaodi was pregnant, she only ate cheap vegetables such as cabbage, radish and pickled vegetables all year round. The meat coupons would be invalid after they expired, so she exchanged them all for money and grain coupons, and rarely kept them for herself. But now that she is pregnant, she thinks more, fearing that she will not eat well and hurt the baby in her belly.

She was very picky, complaining that the taro was not good or the beans were too old. When she got to the end and Lin Yue had already bought his own food, her eyes lit up, and she pulled Lin Yue's sleeve and pointed to the front, "Look, there's tofu pudding over there! The shrimp tofu pudding soup you made last time was really delicious. I've been thinking about it for several days. Can you make this again today?"

"No wonder you took so long to choose, it turns out you were after this." Seeing Xu Xiaodi was embarrassed, Lin Yue smiled and said, "What's there to be embarrassed about? Pregnant women have strange tastes. Yours is still normal. When I was pregnant with Xiao Mushroom, I wanted to eat oranges in the middle of summer. I couldn't sleep at night because of the cravings. I drooled every day and had a bad temper."

Xu Xiaodi had no experience of pregnancy, so she liked to hear other people talk about these things. She asked, "What happened next? Did you eat oranges?"

"That's impossible. Where I come from, you can't even buy oranges in the winter, let alone in the summer. Department stores do sell canned oranges, but they don't taste the same."

That was the only thing she wanted to eat but couldn't, so the memory is still fresh.

Xu Xiaodi nodded with emotion, and then said shyly: "I just wanted to say that I also wanted to buy some fruits, but the fruits in the market are not as good as yours. I don't know where you picked them from."

Lin Yue smiled and said, "I also think that the quality of the fruits today is not as good as the previous few days. But I still have some at home. If you want to eat some, I'll get you some later."

Xu Xiaodi nodded: "I'll give you money later, and I'll buy it for you!"

In this day and age, the price of fruit is almost catching up with that of meat, so Lin Yue didn't refuse her and agreed readily.

There were no department stores near the military area, only supply and marketing cooperatives. When the two of them arrived at the supply and marketing cooperative, the cloth counter was already crowded with people, which showed that they were selling cloth without tickets. Xu Xiaodi was pregnant and did not dare to squeeze in, so she was very anxious.

In fact, Lin Yue was also very anxious. She had many children, and she could use the old coarse cloth she wove herself for her daily outer clothes, but the old coarse cloth was not durable and could not be used for underwear, so her family's annual cloth coupons were not enough to cover expenses. She was also very excited every time she came across defective cloth that did not require coupons.

The two of them were so anxious outside that they were jumping for airs. Lin Yue simply put down Little Mushroom who was sitting in the basket watching the excitement, and untied Sisi who was tied to his chest and stuffed her to Xu Xiaodi, asking her to look after the two children, and then he jumped in.

Sisi is young, and although she has grown a lot recently, she has only been carefully fed for about 20 days, and has not yet recovered. She is still much smaller than other children of the same age, so there is no need to worry about hurting Xu Xiaodi. Little Mushroom is even more so. He stood up by holding on to the basket and wanted to see the excitement outside, but the basket was too light and he almost fell out. He was so scared that he sat quietly in the basket and dared not move anymore.

At this critical moment, no one would obediently line up. The people surrounding the counter were all women of all ages, and no one would let anyone pass. Lin Yue squeezed in with great effort and found that the fabrics sold inside were indeed defective fabrics, and they happened to be pure white cotton fabrics. There were two salesmen standing inside the counter, and they were already busy and sweating, but there were still many people.

A salesperson looked at the remaining defective cloth on the counter and shouted to the crowd, "There is not much defective cloth left. Now you can buy five feet of defective cloth for every one foot of cloth you buy. Anyone who is interested can come to me to get a number!"

Lin Yue was the first to raise his hand: "I want it! I want two meters of cloth!"

As soon as she said this, everyone looked in her direction. In recent years, more cloth coupons were issued than in previous years, but she wanted so many. This was enough to buy enough cloth for the whole family for a whole year!