Chapter 25 He's back.
The apology incident was like a stone thrown into a lake, the ripples of which have lingered for a long time.
Unsurprisingly, Li Guodong and Zhou Xiaomei, the couple, replaced all previous topics and became the latest and most popular talk among the military wives in the family compound.
This period was agonizing for Li Guodong, each day feeling like an eternity. In the army, he felt his colleagues' gazes held a mixture of mockery and pity, making him feel like he was sitting on pins and needles. Back in the family compound, the familiar wives of soldiers, though not explicitly saying anything, sent meaningful glances and occasional whispers that stung him like needles. He had initially been a strong contender for promotion, but because of this incident, his chances were completely dashed.
He was seething with anger, but had nowhere to vent it. When he went out, he was constantly being pointed at and talked about, feeling like he was being pricked by thorns; when he returned home, he had to face Zhou Xiaomei's cautious, ingratiating flattery.
In the past, he might have thought his wife was considerate and understanding, but now, knowing the whole story, seeing her acting like this only annoyed him more, and he couldn't suppress the anger in his heart. To avoid seeing her and getting annoyed, he moved into the single dormitory in the regiment.
With the father absent from home for several days, and rumors of Zhou Xiaomei's actions spreading like wildfire, even the children heard a lot of gossip. Li Guodong's eldest son, Li Tuqiang, though only seven years old, was already vaguely aware of the general meaning behind the gossip and no longer respected his stepmother, Zhou Xiaomei, as he had before.
Yuejin and Tenghui are even younger, at the age where they're incredibly energetic and mischievous. Originally, with Li Guodong keeping them in check and their older brother Tuqiang helping to discipline them, they were relatively well-behaved. Now, their father has been missing for days, and their brother is clearly not on their stepmother's side. These two boys are like wild horses, completely out of control at home. If they weren't so young, they'd probably be tearing the roof off the house.
Seeing that Li Guodong still refused to forgive her, Zhou Xiaomei panicked. She desperately tried to win back the children, hoping they would allow her to persuade her husband to change his mind. The children were mischievous, but instead of disciplining them strictly, she indulged them even more, giving them whatever they wanted and protecting them even when they made mistakes. The result was predictable: the house was in constant chaos and turmoil, with hardly a moment of peace.
The Li family next door was in dire straits. Jiang Suining occasionally heard about these developments, but she didn't pay much attention to them.
After eating in the cafeteria for several days in a row, with the same few dishes over and over again, she was really getting tired of it. Unfortunately, she wasn't very good at cooking and wanted to improve her meals, but she didn't know how.
Coincidentally, her colleague Liu Hong invited her to go beachcombing together on the weekend.
Even after autumn arrives, the weather on Nan'ao Island still carries the lingering heat and humidity, but it has lost some of its harshness. The sea breeze, carrying its unique salty and briny scent, brushes against your cheeks, bringing a rare coolness and comfort.
Standing on the fine sand, looking out into the distance, the sea and sky merge into one, vast and boundless.
Jiang Suining took a deep breath of the sea air, feeling a sudden sense of relief. Only then did she realize that during her time on the island, she had rarely had the opportunity to come to the seaside quietly like this and experience the unique grandeur and tranquility of the island.
Liu Hong grew up on an island, and going beachcombing was a daily routine for her. She guessed that Jiang Suining was doing it for the first time, so she thoughtfully prepared all the necessary equipment.
She smiled and took Liu Hong's arm, following the crowd toward the mudflats.
"Judging by how low the tide is today, there should be plenty of stuff!" Liu Hong, with her extensive experience, looked at the undulating, receding waves in the distance and said confidently.
Jiang Suining's heart leaped with joy: That's great! It seems like we're likely to have a successful trip today!
"Xiao Jiang! Liu Hong! Over here! Why are you taking so long!" Li Tianfang's familiar loud voice rang out from not far ahead. She was busy working on the mudflats when she saw them, and immediately straightened up, waving and shouting, "Come on over here! There's plenty of cargo over here!"
Jiang Suining and Liu Hong exchanged a smile, then trudged through the damp sand towards Li Tianfang.
"We've only been here a short while," Li Tianfang followed her gaze and glanced at her haul, her face lighting up with a broad smile. "The tide's high and the water's receded far today, so all the seafood's been unearthed—there's a ton of it! Don't just stand there and watch, get to work!"
After Li Tianfang finished speaking, she suddenly remembered that Jiang Suining was a girl from the mainland and this was her first time seeing this. She immediately said enthusiastically, "Little Jiang, is this your first time going beachcombing? Don't panic, follow me! I'll teach you how to find seafood! There are a lot of tricks to it!"
"That would be great! Sister Tianfang is a well-known expert at beachcombing in our factory!" Liu Hong originally wanted to bring Jiang Suining along, but seeing that Li Tianfang had spoken up and that she was Jiang Suining's mentor in the factory with seniority, she didn't want to argue anymore. She smiled, looked around, and then chose a direction to go to a less crowded area.
Jiang Suining was eager to try, the techniques from the beachcombing videos she had watched swirling in her mind, and she couldn't wait to put them into practice. But Li Tianfang offered to share her experience, and firstly, she didn't want to refuse her mentor's kindness, and secondly, she was afraid that she was just "armchair theorizing" and would make many mistakes when actually doing it. So she suppressed her eagerness and humbly learned from her.
At this time, groups of three or five people had already gathered on the mudflats, all bending over and looking down, intently searching for seafood.
Li Tianfang, with her extensive experience, headed straight for a muddy and damp area: "There are lots of clams here! Let me teach you how to identify their pores first."
She pointed to the inconspicuous little holes on the beach: "See these? These are the kind where the holes are slightly raised and the sand is a bit darker in color. Nine times out of ten, there's something hidden underneath!" As she spoke, she deftly dug down with her specially made little shovel, and with a pry, several clams with beautiful shell patterns and plump size were revealed, slightly opening and closing on the sand.
Jiang Suining followed her example and searched carefully. She finally found a small hole and carefully dug it down with a shovel, but found nothing.
"Don't rush! You have to look carefully!" Li Tianfang patiently pointed to another small hole next to her and taught her, "Look, this kind of hole can't be too big or too small, about the size of a grain of rice to a soybean is best. The opening of the hole should be relatively regular, and most importantly, look at the edge of this hole," she then pointed to another even more inconspicuous small hole next to her and gestured for Jiang Suining to look carefully, "See? There are some very fine, outward-spreading sand patterns around it, like water ripples. If there are these patterns, the bottom basically can't escape!"
Jiang Suining leaned closer for a closer look and indeed found a ring of extremely fine, radiating lines around the small hole. She couldn't help but exclaim, "There's so much to learn here! Master, you're truly amazing!"
"Oh, what skill do I have? I learned it all from the old fishermen on the island. You just naturally get the hang of it after a while." Li Tianfang was a little embarrassed by the praise and said with a smile, "You haven't been here long. If you live on this island for seven or eight years, I guarantee you'll know more than I do!"
"Then I'll try again!" Encouraged, Jiang Suining searched more carefully following Li Tianfang's instructions, found her target, and dug down with her shovel. Sure enough, she dug up four or five more in a row, each one yielding a harvest! Looking at the increasing number of clams in her bamboo basket, she couldn't stop smiling.
“I see there are quite a few of these small holes around here. Let’s split up and look for them; it’ll be more efficient,” Li Tianfang suggested, seeing that Jiang Suining had already grasped the basics. “I’ll teach you how to identify other seafood later!”
“Okay!” Jiang Suining was more than happy to agree. She looked around, chose a direction, and said, “Then I’ll go that way.”
"Go ahead! Don't go too far!" Li Tianfang called out to remind them, "And whatever you do, don't go into the deep water near the beach! The tide hasn't completely receded yet, and it might start rising again at any time, so be careful!"
"Understood, Master!" Jiang Suining replied and eagerly went to find seafood.
After some time, Jiang Suining's bamboo basket was filled with twenty or thirty clams of varying sizes and colors when she heard someone calling her from behind. Turning around, she saw Li Tianfang walking towards her.
Jiang Suining hurriedly picked up her basket and went to meet Li Tianfang. Li Tianfang's bamboo basket was almost full. In addition to clams, there were also several brightly colored starfish, a few conch shells, and a few small crabs crawling around in the basket.
"Master, you're amazing!" Jiang Suining praised sincerely.
Li Tianfang also noticed her basket of haul and was quite surprised: "Wow! You've got quite a lot too! You've collected so much on your first time beachcombing, that's impressive! Much better than me! The first time I came with others, I worked for half a day and only collected a few empty shells and a bunch of seaweed!"
"That's because you taught me well, Master! You grasped the key points accurately!" Jiang Suining didn't forget to give him a compliment.
Li Tianfang was indeed very pleased, her face beaming with joy. Looking at the increasing number of people surging onto the mudflats, she suggested, "With so many people, and having collected almost everything, let's go check out the rocky area over there. The good stuff there is different from what we have here!"
“Sure!” Jiang Suining was more than willing. She affectionately linked arms with Li Tianfang, and the two chatted and laughed as they walked toward the area of black reefs.
“These small stone crabs love to hide in the crevices of rocks or on the back of stones,” Li Tianfang said, as she picked up a small stone.
Sure enough, several crabs, no bigger than a fingernail, scurried about in panic under the rock. She quickly pressed down on the shell of one of them with her finger, gesturing for Jiang Suining to look. "Look," she said, "this is a stone crab. Don't let its small size and lack of meat fool you; it's incredibly delicious. Take it home and use it to make soup, porridge, or even chop it up and stir-fry it with chili peppers—it's absolutely amazing!"
Jiang Suining followed suit and found a rock, flipping it over with force, only to find nothing underneath but a puddle of seawater.
"Don't rush," Li Tianfang comforted her. "There's a trick to turning over stones. You can't get too close. You have to be light and quick, and use a clever flick of your wrist to lift them up quickly, so as not to startle the creatures underneath. They can run very fast."
Jiang Suining nodded, tiptoed forward a few steps, squatted down, spotted a stone with some moss growing on its edge, took a deep breath, pinched the edge with her hand, and suddenly lifted it up! She didn't see a crab, but saw a dark shadow flash in the shallow puddle under the stone, and a soft, sucker-like thing quickly retreated into the crevice, startling her.
"Hey! It's okay! It's an octopus!" Li Tianfang reacted quickly, reaching out almost the instant the rock was lifted. She precisely grabbed the octopus that was trying to burrow deeper into the crevice, deftly lifted it up, and tossed it directly into Jiang Suining's bamboo basket. "You're lucky! This thing is rarer than crabs, the meat is tender, and it's more expensive! We can have a nice dish tonight!"
"Master, this is what you caught, you can have it!" Jiang Suining looked at the octopus wriggling in the basket and wanted to take it out and put it back in Li Tianfang's basket.
"You only found it under the rocks because you were lucky! I can't take it!" Li Tianfang said, pulling her bamboo basket behind her back while grabbing Jiang Suining's wrist and insisting on putting the octopus back into her basket. "Besides, your master has been going to the beach for so many years and has caught plenty of these. We're so tired of eating them at home! Take it back and try it! Stir-fry it with chives, or blanch it and then make a cold salad. It's really delicious!"
Jiang Suining declined again, but seeing Li Tianfang's firm attitude, she had no choice but to give up, though her heart was warmed. Actually, she had eaten this kind of thing quite a lot at the night market barbecue stalls before she transmigrated into the book, so it wasn't particularly rare. However, at this moment, she felt more regret for not being able to catch it herself, and gratitude for Li Tianfang's care.
"Sister Tianfang! Xiao Jiang! Come and see!" Not far away, Liu Hong stood on a large rock, waving and shouting excitedly at them, "There are so many oysters on these rocks! They're quite big!"
Upon hearing this, the two quickly rolled up their trousers and waded through the clear seawater. Sure enough, they saw that the seaward-facing side of the reef was densely covered with many grayish, irregularly shaped oysters.
Liu Hong was skillfully prying them off with a specially made iron pry bar with a hook.
"You have to use a bit of skill to pry this thing off," Li Tianfang explained to Jiang Suining as she took out her tools. "Find the gap, put all your strength into it, and then twist your wrist, and the whole thing will come off. If you use too much force, the shell will break easily; if you use too little, you won't be able to pry it off, and the broken shells will get mixed into the meat and you won't be able to eat it."
Jiang Suining first carefully watched Liu Hong and Li Tianfang demonstrate before trying it herself. At first, she couldn't get the hang of it and only managed to pry off fragments after several attempts, making her sweat with frustration. With Li Tianfang's further guidance, she adjusted the angle and force, and finally, with a soft "snap," she successfully pried off a whole, heavy oyster!
"I did it!" she exclaimed, holding up her prize with delight.
Liu Hong took it directly, skillfully pried open the shell with the sharp end of the rivet, revealing the plump, juicy oyster meat inside, and handed it to Jiang Suining: "Here, have a taste! It's the original flavor, so fresh it'll make your eyebrows fall off!"
Jiang Suining hesitated for a moment, looking at the still slightly trembling oyster meat, before finally taking it, closing her eyes, and tilting her head back to pour it into her mouth. Instantly, an intensely salty and fresh flavor, like concentrated essence of seawater, exploded in her mouth, cool and smooth, with an indescribable sweetness. Her eyes widened in surprise, and she nodded repeatedly, "Mmm! It's so fresh!"
The taste was indeed amazing, but Jiang Suining only tried one and refused to eat it raw. Considering hygiene and potential parasite issues, she decided to take it home and cook it before enjoying it.
The three women split up and busied themselves in the rocky area, their shovels clanging against the rocks. Soon, their bamboo baskets were filled with plump oysters. Not yet satisfied, they returned to the beach to search for other kinds of seafood.
"Hey! Over here! There's a clam hole over here!" Li Tianfang exclaimed as if she had discovered a new continent, grabbing Jiang Suining who was about to walk away.
Jiang Suining turned around and looked down, and sure enough, she saw many small holes, about the thickness of chopsticks, on the beach. Some of these holes even occasionally spewed out tiny jets of water. She immediately remembered the method of using salt to force out razor clams from the video, and couldn't help but pat the basket with some regret: "What a pity, I should have brought the salt with me."
"Add salt? Why go through all that trouble to catch razor clams!" Li Tianfang said, taking a small, toothed iron rake from the basket. "Watch me do it."
Jiang Suining hadn't expected there was a way to catch razor clams without using salt, so she watched Li Tianfang demonstrate. She saw Li Tianfang use a rake to vigorously rak the mudflats where there were razor clam holes, turning over the sand and soil. Sure enough, several startled razor clams were brought out of the sand, revealing half of their tender white shells.
"Quick! If you don't have a rake, use a shovel! Quickly dig around them! If you're too slow, they'll shrink back and run away!" Li Tianfang said, throwing down the rake and picking up the shovel to demonstrate. In a few quick movements, she dug through the sand and accurately flipped out a razor clam that was trying to burrow deeper, then quickly picked it up and threw it into the basket.
Jiang Suining watched and learned, then grabbed a small shovel, found a hole, and quickly dug, imitating her. Sure enough, after a few tries, she successfully caught several plump, wriggling razor clams! Watching them squirt water into the basket, she couldn't stop smiling.
Seeing her excited expression, Li Tianfang laughed and said, "How was it? Was beachcombing fun?"
"This is so interesting!" Jiang Suining's face was filled with a satisfied and happy smile. She thought to herself: I've watched countless videos online, but the feeling of discovering and reaping the rewards myself is a completely different experience! It's full of surprises and a sense of accomplishment!
The three women split up, each searching for their favorite seafood on the vast mudflats. Jiang Suining gradually mastered more tricks and her eyesight became more and more accurate. She not only caught more razor clams, but also unexpectedly discovered several blackish-purple sea urchins covered in spiky thorns hidden in a dense seaweed patch.
When Li Tianfang saw the sea urchins in her bamboo basket, she exclaimed with delight, "Oh my! This is a rare find! The taste is incredibly sweet and fresh! You can eat it raw after splitting it open, or scoop it out and steam it with eggs—it's absolutely delicious! You have a really good eye; I've been beachcombing for so many years, and I've rarely been able to catch this stuff!"
Jiang Suining chuckled inwardly, thanking those beachcombing video tutorials for showing her which areas to look for.
Their bamboo baskets grew fuller and heavier. Jiang Suining discovered a patch of thriving kelp in a crevice of a rock in deeper water; its leaves were thick, robust, and dark brown. It took her some effort to gather enough for one meal, which she then rolled up and put into her basket.
"Oh, you found some seaweed! I heard the other day that the supply and marketing cooperative seems to be buying this stuff." Liu Hong glanced at the seaweed in her basket and said casually.
"Why buy this stuff? It doesn't taste good, it smells fishy, and it used to be used to feed pigs or as fertilizer," Li Tianfang asked, puzzled.
“I heard that in many places, people have contracted a disease that makes their necks very thick, it’s called… goiter? They say that eating more seaweed can prevent it,” Liu Hong shared the news she had heard. “The supply and marketing cooperative probably collects them and transports them to those places.”
Goiter? Jiang Suining was taken aback for a moment, then realized what she meant. After a brief silence, she asked in the simplest terms possible, "Is it called 'endemic thyroiditis'? People usually call it 'big neck disease'?"
Liu Hong and Li Tianfang both looked at Jiang Suining with some surprise. They didn't expect that a girl from the mainland would even know such an obscure disease name.
Jiang Suining quickly made an excuse to explain: "Some people in my hometown village have had it before, so I know a little about it."
Hearing her say that, the two didn't pay much attention. "Can this thing really cure diseases?" Li Tianfang was still skeptical.
It's prevention, not treatment, Jiang Suining corrected herself in her mind, but fearing that saying too much would lead to mistakes, she didn't dare to explain further.
"It should be possible, right? Otherwise, why would the supply and marketing cooperative spend money to buy it? It can't be a lie." Although Liu Hong also had some doubts, she felt that since it was a government purchase, there must be some reason for it. "I heard that in the past few days, many fishermen have gone to sea specifically to collect seaweed."
"Can't seaweed be cultivated artificially like crops?" Jiang Suining looked at the heavy seaweed in her hand and suddenly thought of the booming seaweed farming industry in modern times, and asked casually.
Li Tianfang found it somewhat amusing: "Seaweed? Do you need to grow it? There's plenty in the sea, isn't there? You can just scoop some up and eat more than you can eat!"
“Going into the water to fish is risky, especially when the weather is bad,” Jiang Suining continued, “If we find a suitable place in the nearshore area and enclose it like farmland for aquaculture, fishermen won’t have to risk going to the open sea. If managed well, the yield might even increase significantly.” What she said was almost common sense in modern times.
Li Tianfang was stunned and blinked: "This thing can be raised like rice? How do you raise it? I've never heard of that!"
Jiang Suining realized that in the 1970s, the technology of artificial seaweed cultivation might not have been widespread or had not yet reached this remote island. Fearing that it would arouse suspicion, she vaguely said, "I think I read about it in a book before, saying that some coastal areas had already started to experiment with it, but I don't know if it has succeeded or not."
***
The three women, exhausted from their search, found a shady rock to sit on and rest, taking stock of their spoils.
Jiang Suining rummaged through her bamboo basket: various clams filled half the basket, there were more than twenty plump razor clams, about ten small stone crabs, the only octopus curled up at the bottom, five spiky sea urchins, a roll of thick kelp, and two starfish as souvenirs.
"I didn't realize it when I was picking them up, but now that I look at them, there are so many!" Jiang Suining began to worry. "How can we possibly finish all of this?"
Li Tianfang chuckled and said, "Silly girl, these things look like a huge pile, but the shells and thorns take up the bulk. Once they're cooked, you can only get a small bowl of edible meat. You can just taste the freshness and that's it! Do you think you can eat this for days?"
“Exactly, exactly,” Liu Hong chimed in, listing the ingredients like a treasure trove of knowledge. “The clams need to be soaked in salt water to remove the sand. Once they’re clean, they’re perfect for soup, or stir-fried with chili peppers—perfect with rice! The razor clams are best steamed to preserve their original flavor; the stone crabs may have little meat, but they’re amazing in porridge or crab paste; the octopus can be blanched, sliced, and tossed with scallions, ginger, and garlic—crisp, tender, and refreshing; and the sea urchin steamed with egg—the taste is so good, even a god wouldn’t trade it for it!”
Li Tianfang wholeheartedly agreed with Liu Hong's words: "My husband loves it when I stir-fry razor clams with chili peppers. He says they're both fresh and spicy, making them the perfect snack to go with drinks!"
“And then there’s the kelp,” Liu Hong continued, “there are so many ways to cook it. You can stew it with pork ribs, braise it with dried shrimp and tofu, or shred it and stir-fry it with bean sprouts and carrot shreds. It’s all delicious! It’s just a bit troublesome to prepare it beforehand. You have to wash it carefully and scrub it several times, otherwise it will have a strong fishy smell.”
Jiang Suining listened attentively, and couldn't help but think of the previous topic about goiter. After thinking for a moment, she said, "Since there are so many ways to eat kelp and it can prevent goiter, if we can really achieve large-scale artificial cultivation, not only can we coastal people eat it regularly, but we can also supply large quantities to supply and marketing cooperatives and sell it to iodine-deficient inland areas. This would not only create economic benefits for the country and increase fishermen's income, but also benefit the health of the people. Wouldn't that be a win-win situation?"
Li Tianfang waved his hand dismissively: "The idea is good, but who among us seaside people lacks this stuff? We can just pick some from the rocks in front of and behind our houses and that's enough to eat. It's practically worthless. It's not worth the effort to grow it!"
"What if we could process it a bit?" Jiang Suining's thoughts wandered, recalling the dazzling array of seafood products in modern supermarkets. "For example, we could make it into ready-to-eat seasoned kelp strips or individually packaged marinated kelp knots, which would be convenient for transportation and storage. I remember we could also extract something called 'alginate' from kelp, which has a wide range of uses. It can be used as a stabilizer in the food industry, in medicine to make bandages and capsules, and even in some cosmetics..."
Her voice trailed off as she spoke, noticing that Li Tianfang and Liu Hong were staring at her with wide eyes, looking blank and confused, clearly not understanding what she was saying at all.
"Xiao Jiang, what are you talking about all this time? Industry and medicine, I don't understand a word of it!" Li Tianfang couldn't help but laugh, feeling that this girl's ideas were wildly imaginative.
Liu Hong seemed to be deep in thought, as if something had touched her: "I think I did hear someone mention something similar a few days ago."
Jiang Suining looked at Liu Hong in surprise: "Where did you hear that from?"
Liu Hong recalled carefully: "It was at the supply and marketing cooperative. That day, I went to buy soap and overheard a young man who looked quite energetic chatting with an old fisherman who was delivering seaweed. The young man suggested to the old man that he could try to cultivate seaweed in a suitable bay, and that he could provide some technical guidance. However, the old man did not agree, waving his hand and saying that this stuff was not worth much, and that it was better to just go to sea and catch it."
Jiang Suining's eyes lit up, and she asked, "Is that young man an employee of the supply and marketing cooperative?"
"I don't think so, do I?" Liu Hong tried hard to recall, then shook her head. "I often go to the supply and marketing cooperative, and I've never seen him before."
"Why are you asking about this?" Li Tianfang looked at Jiang Suining with confusion. "Don't tell me you're actually thinking about growing seaweed?"
"I'm just curious and want to find out more." Jiang Suining simply thought the idea was good.
Liu Hong also became interested: "If the supply and marketing cooperative really buys it in the long term, it means that the country needs this stuff. Maybe it will really work to develop artificial kelp farming."
"Can you call it the same if an individual is engaged in seaweed cultivation?" Li Tianfang's face darkened slightly, and her tone became serious. "If you're not careful, you might be accused of 'speculation and profiteering'!"
The words "speculation and profiteering" carried immense weight in this era. Jiang Suining's heart skipped a beat, realizing she had touched a sensitive spot, and she quickly stopped discussing it.
As the sun gradually set in the west, it dyed the sea a golden-red hue.
Three women, carrying full bamboo baskets and smelling the sea breeze and the joy of their harvest, set off on their way home.
Jiang Suining followed behind Li Tianfang and Liu Hong, listening to their discussion about how to cook the seafood that evening, but her thoughts involuntarily drifted back to the artificial cultivation of kelp. This sudden thought, like a seed, quietly took root in her heart.
"What are you thinking about? You're not even watching where you're going!" Li Tianfang noticed her distraction and gently nudged her with her arm.
Jiang Suining snapped back to reality, suppressed her thoughts, smiled, and offered the most plausible excuse: "I wasn't thinking about anything, I was just wondering how to make the kelp and pork rib stew you and Liu Hong were talking about so that it wouldn't be fishy and would still be flavorful."
Upon hearing this, Liu Hong immediately began to explain in detail, from how to soak and clean the kelp, to how to blanch the pork ribs, how to control the heat when stewing, and which seasonings to add to remove the fishy smell and enhance the flavor... Finally, she sincerely invited her, "Why don't you come to my house tonight, and I'll cook for you to try!"
Jiang Suining had something on her mind and was afraid of troubling others, so she politely declined.
The three parted ways at the intersection and went their separate ways home.
Jiang Suining carried the heavy bamboo basket, thinking about how she could treat herself well that evening, and her steps became lighter. However, before she even reached her doorstep, she saw a wisp of faint, bluish-gray smoke rising from the chimney of her kitchen roof.
Her heart skipped a beat, her steps faltered, and then a huge, indescribable ecstasy overwhelmed her like a tidal wave!
Lu Ye! It must be Lu Ye who's back!
During the days Lu Ye was away from home, she naturally missed him often. However, her days were filled with busy work and the trivialities of life, and that longing seemed to be hidden very deeply, very faintly, so faintly that she herself sometimes didn't even notice it. But until now, seeing the smoke rising from the chimney, a symbol of "him at home," all the suppressed emotions surged forth like a flood bursting its banks! Only then did she clearly realize how much she missed him! She missed his steady figure, his gentle eyes, the warmth of his embrace…
She could no longer contain herself and almost ran, carrying her bamboo basket, rushing towards the small home where smoke was rising from the chimney and where the person she longed for was.
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