Chapter 120: Fighting Doubt

Bai Zihan didn't hesitate to come in and search Lizhan's luggage bag.

"During your trip back home, your sister-in-law must have brought you a lot of delicious food! Let me see..."

When Lizhan kicked him, he quickly dodged with a smile, saying unconvincedly: "I just looked at it, I didn't say I wanted to eat it! You stingy guy!"

Lizhan smiled and took out the brined pig's trotters and other brined foods from the luggage bag.

Bai Zihan's eyes lit up and he said with a smile: "Hey! Halved pig's trotters! Lizhan, I find that your life in your hometown is better than ours in Beijing. Here are four pig's trotters! There is meat in every trotter!"

Li Zhan said with a smile: "There are also these brine, pork head, pork ears and so on. Go to the cafeteria and let them heat them up. I will give the brothers an extra meal tonight!"

Bai Zihan smiled and said, "Okay! I will make sure to tell my brothers that this was made by my sister-in-law!"

Lizhan kicked him again: "Delicious food can't stop you from eating! Hurry up! Come back when you're done, I still have something to ask you!"

Bai Zihan dodged and continued to joke fearlessly: "It hasn't even entered your mouth yet, how can you stop it? Alas! It's true that you become stupider after you marry a wife..."

Not long after, Bai Zihan returned with a hot pig's trotter. He saluted informally and said with a smile, "Reporting to the battalion commander, the instructions have been conveyed! If you have any questions, I will answer them without hesitation!"

Li Zhan glanced at the pig's trotter in his hand and said helplessly: "Why don't you let others have it when you've already eaten it?"

Bai Zihan argued, "Don't you know that there are too many monks and too little porridge? Your men are all a bunch of hungry wolves! I was spotted as soon as I left your room! If it weren't for my good skills, I wouldn't have been able to escort you to the cafeteria! You even asked me to wait for dinner, but I'm afraid it's all gone by now! But don't worry, I grabbed two of these pig's trotters, and I've already sent one to Captain Fu for you!"

Lizhan had no choice but to follow his lead, while asking, "Let me ask you, when I was injured and hospitalized in the early spring of last year, did you write a letter back to my hometown?"

Bai Zihan paused while chewing the pig's trotter. He looked up at Li Zhan with a guilty conscience and pretended to be confused: "What...what letter?"

This... couldn't have been exposed? This shouldn't be the case. If the people in his hometown were deceived by him, why did they still marry him? Wouldn't that mean they were harming the girl even though they knew it was wrong?

But... it's possible that they would do something like that to get more money in order to compete with their relatives back home!

Li Zhan saw his reaction and knew that it was probably written before, so he scolded him, "Don't play tricks on me! It's the letter saying that I was injured and couldn't do that to men!"

Bai Zihan wiped the sweat off his face, chuckled twice, and said, "Captain, Captain, don't be angry! I... I'm actually doing this for your own good!"

"For my own good?" Lizhan narrowed his eyes dangerously and moved the joints of his fingers, looking as if he was going to teach someone a lesson.

Bai Zihan held the pig's trotter and retreated guiltily, begging for mercy: "Boss! I was wrong, isn't that okay? Weren't we... angry at that time?"

Lizhan frowned: "We?"

Isn't it that only one person knows about this?

Bai Zihan opened his mouth and decided to confess:

"Well... a few company-level officers and I came up with a plan... Weren't you shot in the chest that time? It was very serious! We sent a telegram to your hometown to inform you of your critical condition, thinking that someone might come to check on you.

As a result, the visitor did not come, but a letter came, saying that you are old enough, and it is a good time to marry a wife to celebrate the injury, and you will get better. They also asked indirectly how much the pension would be if you died, and whether it would be more if you married a wife with a family. They also directly asked you to send more money back as a betrothal gift...

We brothers were so angry that we wrote a letter back on your behalf, saying that you were injured and couldn't get married, and asked them to give up the idea! We thought that we would not recognize the arranged wife from your hometown as your sister-in-law anyway, so even if there were some gossips from your hometown, that would be even better - ahem! I mean... no matter how bad your family is, they wouldn't tell anyone about this, right? Otherwise, why did your sister-in-law marry here later?"

After hearing these words, Li Zhan was silent for a while.

Before he left, Li Jie secretly asked him about that matter and told him about the letter, but he didn't know the details.

Bai Zihan looked at Lizhan, and he still felt angry when he thought about it now: "Boss, we are really mad at you! You said that you sent almost all of your allowance back to your family for so many years, so that those who wanted to get married could get married and those who wanted to have children could have children. In the end, you got such a serious injury, and you didn't say a word of concern. You even hoped that you would die and get a lot of those pensions! What kind of person are you!

And...if you really want to punish us, we have nothing to blame, it's just...our Master Fu also acquiesced to this. Anyway, if it happens again, we will still do the same thing!"

Li Zhan was actually very moved after hearing this.

These brothers really wanted good for him, although their method... hurt the enemy by 1,000 and hurt themselves - no, it was just hurting him by 800, but their original intention was good.

"Fu Tuan?" Li Zhan had a headache.

Why is Brother Fu also making trouble...

Bai Zihan said, "That's right! I took the letter to post it, but it was seized by Fu Tuan on the spot. After he opened the letter and read the contents, he returned it to me without saying anything. If that's not tacit consent, what is that?"

As he was talking, a deep and dignified voice suddenly came from outside the door: "Bai Zihan, what are you doing behind my back?"

Li Zhan and Bai Zihan looked back and saw that the person coming was none other than Fu Beifa.

The two men immediately stood at attention and saluted, saying solemnly, "Captain!"

"Take a rest." Fu Beifa said, and then looked at Li Zhan and said, "Now that we are back in the team, take a good rest tonight. We have been assigned a new mission, and we will set out early tomorrow morning!"

"Yes!" Lizhan stood at attention again and answered seriously with a frown on his face.

Fu Beifa nodded, then turned to leave. After thinking for a moment, he turned back and said, "Your wife's braised pig's trotters are really good. You are in for a treat!"

When Li Zhan heard his wife being praised, he immediately grinned and said, "Thank you for the compliment, Captain!"

Fu Beifa glared at him and said, "I'm not exaggerating, look how happy you are!"

After Fu Beifa left, Bai Zihan smiled and said, "Look, I'm making up for my mistake, right? My sister-in-law was even praised by the captain!"

Li Zhan turned around and glared at him: "Making amends for your mistakes? You wish! Do you know that the whole commune knows about the rumors about me? Even your sister-in-law misunderstood! Forget about hurrying tomorrow. When this mission is over, you wait, a ten-kilometer cross-country run, no discussion!"

Bai Zihan had a bitter look on his face. He suddenly remembered something and asked in a mean way, "Even my sister-in-law misunderstood me? Boss, you won't tell me that you and my sister-in-law haven't consummated your marriage yet..."

"Get out!" Li Zhan kicked him before he could finish.

Bai Zihan successfully dodged again and said with a smile: "That's not enough! How could our boss not have captured my sister-in-law by now!"

Bai Zihan opened the door and went out, and several people rushed in.

Li Zhan: "..."

"Hehe! Battalion Commander, we just wanted to say that sister-in-law's cooking skills are really good!" Several people said flatteringly, and then ran away in a flash.

Bai Zihan was about to run away, but Li Zhan suddenly remembered something and called out to him, "Old Bai!"

Bai Zihan had no choice but to come back.

Li Zhan did not mention the letter again, but asked, "Lao Bai, when I was injured a few years ago, you went to pick up your sister-in-law to visit me in Beijing. Did you tell her on the way that I was injured in Tianyun Mountain?"

Bai Zihan was stunned for a moment, then he recalled it carefully and shook his head affirmatively: "No! I should have just said it was on a barren mountain. Our mission is confidential, I can't just tell anyone the location. Otherwise, I won't tell Master Fang. If my daughter hears it, it will hurt both me and others, right?!"

Lizhan's brows wrinkled slightly.

Bai Zihan didn’t say, so how did his wife know about Tianyun Mountain?

He felt something was wrong last night, and today he suddenly realized that it was this place that was wrong.

Bai Zihan looked at his expression and couldn't help asking, "Why are you asking about this all of a sudden?"

Li Zhan came back to his senses and said with a smile, "Nothing. I just suddenly remembered it and asked casually."

Bai Zihan did not delve into it and continued, "Speaking of Master Fang, I heard that his whole family went to the Northwest Military Region, and Fang Yunrou also seemed to have gone to the countryside in Xinshi to join the production team. Also, isn't the position of Master vacant? I heard that our Captain Fu is going to be promoted soon. It seems that you will take over his position..."

When Li Zhan heard this, he whispered, "Don't talk nonsense!"

Bai Zihan smiled and said, "Okay! As long as I haven't been officially appointed, you can just say I'm talking nonsense. But, think about it, boss, if you are promoted to the regimental level, can't you bring your sister-in-law to accompany the army? Otherwise, she will have trouble sleeping alone in the future... Hey, hey! Stop kicking me! Can't I just stop talking nonsense?..."

*

Xia Juanjuan certainly didn't know that Li Zhan had already suspected her because of her momentary slip of the tongue.

The next morning, she sent her three kids out to play and stayed at home alone. Then she entered the space and moved directly to the house she had bought in the county town.

Li Zhan had been at home all this time. Except for occasionally coming out of the space to pick up those things, she had never gone in, let alone using the space to come to the county town.

The house had been empty for more than ten days, and Xia Juanjuan felt it was a bit deserted.

Grandma Luo half-sold and half-gave the house to her because she actually wanted to keep some popularity in the house. From this perspective, she is actually not very qualified as the new owner.

Xia Juanjuan rolled up her sleeves and started cleaning the house, yard and inside. She also took out cotton quilts and other things from the space and spread them in the bedroom on the second floor. She also replaced the worn-out curtains and tablecloths with new ones.

She was probably the only person here in such a short time, so she wasn't afraid of being asked where these things came from.

After simply packing up, Xia Juanjuan went out to the place where she had an agreement with Liu from the textile factory.

Almost two weeks have passed since the delivery before the New Year, and it is exactly the agreed time.

She went over first, took out the coarse grains and fine grains, meat, eggs, etc. from the space, put them away one by one, and waited.

After a while, Liu Caigou came over with a few people pulling a cart.

This time I ordered half a pig's flesh, three hundred eggs, and more than a hundred kilograms of coarse and fine grains, and the revenue was still about four or five hundred yuan.

After loading the car, Liu Caigou asked, "Xiao Dong, can you get some glutinous rice flour and black sesame seeds? Oh, and peanuts, red beans, sugar, etc. Isn't the Lantern Festival coming soon? The canteen wants to make some glutinous rice balls for everyone to eat."

For the convenience of addressing, Xia Juanjuan used the fake surname that she had told Yan Haotian before.

Xia Juanjuan was stunned for a moment. She had completely forgotten about this.

"It should be possible to get it. But the sugar is a little difficult. Then Brother Liu, I will come again the day after tomorrow and bring it to you?"

Her space was full of fine sugar, so it was a bit dangerous to sell it. And sugar couldn't be grown directly in the space, so if she sold a little, she would have less, so she didn't really want to sell it.

"Thank you so much! I'll think of a solution myself."

After bidding farewell to Liu Caigou, Xia Juanjuan returned to the house again, and then returned home through the space. On the third day, she went to the county town again and gave Liu Caigou glutinous rice flour, black sesame, red beans and the like.

After I came back, I calculated the time and realized that it would be the fifteenth day of the first lunar month in two or three days.

Xia Juanjuan also took out the ingredients from the space and planned to make some glutinous rice balls to eat. At the same time, she couldn't help but regret why she didn't think of this a few days ago. If she had made it a few days ago, Li Zhan could have eaten it at home...

Just as I was regretting my decision, Xiao Wen came in and said, "Mom, the postman has come to the village and said there's a telegram from my fourth uncle and he wants you to go get it!"