Chapter 128 Double Happiness
When Zhang Yuandong came back, Lin Yue had already prepared the meal.
There were ten dishes on the table, including fish, meat, vegetables and eggs. It was a very rich feast. Xiao Liu and Sun Tao came back with Zhang Yuandong. When Xiao Liu entered the room and saw the table full of dishes, his eyes lit up immediately. He handed the bag in his hand to Lin Yue attentively and said with a smile, "Sister-in-law, this is a first-year gift for my nephew. It's just a little thought. I hope you don't mind it."
Lin Yue looked at Zhang Yuandong and saw that he had no expression. He knew that he could keep the gift and it was not too expensive. He smiled and said, "Since you are here, why do you need to bring anything? You might as well save the money and use it to get married!"
Xiao Liu rubbed his head and took out something from the paper bag. It was a small copper longevity lock with a child and a lotus leaf carved on it, and the words "Children are cute" written on it. He smiled and said, "Hey, it's not worth a few dollars, just for the good meaning."
When Lin Yue was in Xiaotian Village, many people in the village were reluctant to buy a copper lock. Even though life has improved over the past few years, few people still buy one and hang it on their door, fearing that it might be stolen. Compared to other common metals, copper is indeed much more expensive and requires a lot of money. It was very thoughtful of Xiao Liu to buy such a long-life lock.
Sun Tao bumped Zhang Yuandong's arm and joked, "You're quite a clever signalman!"
The gift he gave to Little Mushroom was a model of a Dongfeng car, which was made very realistically. When Lingling and Wanli saw it, their eyes lit up.
Sun Tao teased them, "Hey, this is a birthday gift I bought for your brother, you can't steal it!"
Seeing the disappointment in the two children's eyes, he smiled and took out a big box from behind, which contained a full set of tanks, trucks, fighter planes, and soldier toys. The two siblings shouted happily and ran over.
Sun Tao smiled and said, "Although I bought this for you, Uncle Sun hopes that you can keep it well and give it to your brothers and sisters to play with in the future, okay?"
The toys of the two siblings have always been like this. Toys that they don't want to play with will be kept by their mother and saved for Xiao Mushroom and Sisi to play with when they grow up. They nodded readily and said sweetly, "Remember this, Uncle Sun, don't worry!"
Lin Yue invited everyone to take a seat. Sun Tao smiled and said, "Congratulations to my sister-in-law on the double wedding today. The child is one year old, and our team leader Zhang has also won a prize. My sister-in-law, don't be so secretive. Take out your treasured wine and let us all have fun!"
Xiao Liu pricked up his ears to listen, and nodded when he heard it: "Sister-in-law, what good wine do you have here? Don't be reluctant to give it away. Our regiment was commended by the Ministry of National Defense today, and one of our companies received the Medal of Honor. How can such a good day be complete without wine!"
Lin Yue didn't know that Zhang Yuandong had won a medal this time. She thought it was just a verbal compliment. She was very happy to hear the two say this. Today is Sunday, and the three of them don't need to go to the army in the afternoon. Lin Yue simply took out the sorghum wine and fruit wine she brewed and said with a smile, "I don't have anything to be reluctant about. These are all brewed randomly in my hometown. Since you want to drink, I have enough here!"
She poured wine for everyone and patted Lingling, "Go check on your Aunt Xu and Aunt Wang. Why haven't they come yet? Go check on your Uncle Lu and ask him to come for dinner."
Ling Ling responded loudly, slid off the chair, and ran away quickly.
Soon, everyone arrived. Lingling was holding a small enamel basin filled with milk tea. Wang Tingting and Xu Xiaodi followed closely behind her, guarding her on both sides, fearing that she would accidentally burn herself.
Lu Zhiguo followed behind the group of people, holding a basin in his hand, which was a tea-free version of fruit milk tea specially made for the children and Xu Xiaodi.
Lu Zhiguo felt a little embarrassed. He had thought that it would be enough for his wife to come, and if he came there would be one more person to eat. He didn't expect Lin Yue to let the children call him.
When Zhang Yuandong saw him coming, he patted the chair beside him and called out, "Captain Lu, come over and have a drink with us!"
Lu Zhiguo was a straightforward man. He was only embarrassed for a short while. He responded crisply, put the enamel basin in his hand on a small table next to him, and sat down next to Zhang Yuandong.
Lin Yue poured wine or milk tea into the bowls in front of several people, but there were not so many cups at home, so all the bowls were used. Others did not notice anything, only Lin Yue felt that it was a bit out of place.
Xiao Liu found it very strange that there were brown drinks in front of the lesbians and children. He knew that their leader's wife was very good at cooking, so he wanted to try something new.
Seeing his eager look, Lin Yue smiled and served some to the other men. Sun Tao and the others were fine. Although they found it novel, they didn't like it very much. Unexpectedly, the taste of this milk tea was just right for Xiao Liu. He moved his chair to sit next to the children and said with a cheeky smile, "I'm still young, so I won't drink. I'll just drink this with the children!"
Several people were very happy. He was indeed not that old. He just turned 18 this year. It was reasonable to say that he was still a child. Xu Xiaodi stood up and filled his bowl with milk tea again. She smiled and said, "If you like it so much, drink more. It's just right that there is one less person to compete with us for food!"
Xu Xiaodi and Wang Tingting were busy with this in the kitchen just now. In order to make cakes for Little Mushroom today, Lin Yue ordered a lot of milk and used up the supply for the next few days at once.
The milk in the army was not skimmed, which led to many people not liking to drink it because they thought it tasted too strong. But this was also convenient for Lin Yue, as she only needed to leave it alone to get the cream.
She used the remaining milk to make some milk tea. After tasting it, Xu Xiaodi and Wang Tingting fell in love with the taste. Because it was easy to make, the two simply took on the job. The two were quite innovative. Seeing that Lin Yue made a tea-free version of fruit milk tea, they also tried it and have been working on it in the kitchen until now.
After a few people laughed for a while, they started to eat. Xiao Liu was sweet-mouthed, and after getting familiar with Lin Yue, he began to be habitually sloppy. Every time he picked up a dish, he would praise Lin Yue, "Sister-in-law, your cooking skills are so good, our team leader is so lucky! I don't know how you can be so skillful to make such delicious food. Compared with you, the food in the cafeteria is not edible!"
Lin Yue laughed so hard. Xiao Liu was humorous. She didn't feel embarrassed when he praised her. Instead, she found it funny. She said with a smile, "That's because you haven't tasted the food cooked by a person with real skills. There are many sisters-in-law in our village who can cook. One of them used to work in a state-owned hotel. I learned from them."
This was not a lie. Liu Jianhua had indeed worked as a waiter in a state-owned hotel before getting married, and Wang Xiuxiang's cooking was indeed delicious. Lin Yue said this with full of confidence, without feeling guilty at all.
Xu Xiaodi nodded aside. She also found it strange before. How could Lin Yue, who used to live in the countryside with such poor living conditions, cook so many dishes? Now it turned out that there was a chef from a state-owned hotel in their village. No wonder.
Lin Yue's words soon spread throughout the family compound, along with the rumor that their family had to exchange a lot of oil coupons every month and that the reason her cooking tasted so good was because she used a lot of oil.
This is true. Lin Yue does use a lot of oil when cooking. She controls the amount in front of others, using more than others, but not too much. However, she has a reputation in the family compound as someone who doesn't know how to live. Especially since she has been here for only a month, Zhang Yuandong has already exchanged oil coupons twice, which further confirms this statement.
But Lin Yue didn't care what others said. Zhang Yuandong's salary was high, more than 140 yuan a month, plus various benefits, so it was no problem to support their family. It didn't matter if people said they didn't know how to live, as long as they lived well.
After dinner, when everyone had left, Zhang Yuandong talked to Lin Yue about today's meeting. However, he did not talk about the honorary title awarded to their group, but something else.
"At the meeting today, the chief praised you and Liu Xiaolian for saving people that day. Although he didn't say it explicitly, it seems that he knows about what happened some time ago and he even found another excuse to punish Liu Zhiquan. I guess the couple should be able to come today."
"No way, it's been so long since you had the meeting, it's already afternoon, and Zhang Lai Di is still in confinement, they can't come!"
Zhang Yuandong shook his head. "I know Liu Zhiquan well. He has many little tricks, but he knows the importance of things. He hasn't come yet because he is afraid of being embarrassed. He should come at the latest in the evening."
Lin Yue nodded, but she started to worry again. It didn't matter to her whether they apologized or not, she didn't want to argue with them at all, but they insisted on coming over in the evening. She also made a birthday cake for her child, and wanted to eat it in the evening when there were no outsiders around, but she must not delay it because of them.
As expected, the two men chose the time after dinner to knock on Lin Yue's door.
Lin Yue's family had just finished a cake and the children were still licking the cream on the plates reluctantly when the couple arrived.
Liu Zhi was very embarrassed. He apologized as soon as he entered the door, but he kept putting the blame on Aunt Liu and Zhang Lai Di.
"Sister-in-law, I'm so sorry. I heard that you saved my Xiaoqiang, and I was so grateful. But you know, our army has been so busy recently, and I haven't found the time to come and thank you. I thought my mother had come a long time ago, but who would have thought that the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law had a quarrel and forgot about it! Sister-in-law, you are our family's benefactor, and our whole family is grateful to you, but you don't know how to do things, and look at what you have done!"
Both of them are older than Lin Yue and Zhang Yuandong. However, the title of "sister-in-law" does not necessarily refer to age alone in the army. Zhang Yuandong's position is higher than Liu Zhiquan, so he can't call Lin Yue "sister-in-law". Calling her sister-in-law is a respectful title.
The corners of Lin Yue's mouth twitched a few times, which was considered as a response to his words.
Liu Zhiquan pushed his wife's arm and asked her to express her opinion. Zhang Lai Di would not be out of confinement for a few more days. She originally wanted to use the confinement as an excuse to not come, but who knew that Liu Zhiquan had to drag her along. She was very unhappy in her heart.
Being urged by Liu Zhiquan, she spoke reluctantly: "I'm sorry, I originally wanted to come and thank you as soon as I was out of confinement. I was at home all day to recuperate after the confinement, and I didn't hear the rumors outside. I don't know how the rumors spread like this. I guess someone must have misunderstood you!"
The arc of Lin Yue's smile got wider. She wanted to say a few polite words and act generous, but after hearing what these two people said, she really didn't know how to respond.
Liu Zhiquan was not afraid of embarrassment and said a lot of good things. The point was that their whole family was very grateful to Lin Yue, including the baby who was not even a month old. They all took Lin Yue's kindness to heart. It was just that there were some misunderstandings in the middle, but that was not their intention. They had never slandered Lin Yue in front of anyone.
Zhang Yuandong was a little impatient, so he interrupted Liu Zhiquan's endless chatter and said, "Stay with sincerity, you can leave now."
Liu Zhiquan quickly put the things down. Lin Yue took a look and saw that the gift was perfunctory. Zhang Yuandong also frowned and said, "I need a sparring partner for training. Can you accompany me for a week?"
As soon as Liu Zhiquan heard this, he knew that Captain Zhang wanted to punish him. Zhang Yuandong's physical fitness was recognized by the whole army. If he was allowed to practice with him, it would be like killing him! His legs went limp and he almost fell to the ground.