Gu Qingqing quickly sat down and stuffed the roasted sweet potato into Sun Shufen's mouth, "Auntie, eat this!"
She ate the rice in big mouthfuls.
Sun Shufen looked at the hot sweet potato in her hand, peeled off the skin and found it was golden and slightly burnt. But only this kind of roasted sweet potato is fragrant.
She squinted her eyes, looked at Gu Qingqing, and said, "Tsk, this is what Captain Chu heated up for you." Sweet potatoes cannot be baked in a short time.
"Yes." Gu Qingqing smiled sweetly, biting beans: "He gets up early, but I can't get up."
"You are suitable to marry him," Sun Shufen also laughed, "You two eat in the cafeteria, you don't have to cook, unlike other families, who have to take care of the meals for the in-laws after marriage. When I first married your uncle Yu, I had to get up at dawn to cook, and I was worried about how to share an egg among a family of ten people."
Gu Qingqing was a little surprised: "One egg for ten people? Auntie, how did you divide it in the end?"
"I made some egg drops and added half a pot of water." Speaking of this, Sun Shufen couldn't help laughing, with tears welling up in the corners of her eyes.
It was really hard at that time. The whole family had to tighten their belts to make ends meet. The family ate up the tasteless egg drop soup without leaving a single drop. At that time, the satisfaction was real satisfaction.
During the holidays, relatives would come over with half a bag of salted fish and the whole family would look forward to it. When guests came to pay New Year's greetings, we would cook and eat it. That was the only thing we looked forward to at that time.
Now the grain production in their Hanjiagou is still very average, barely enough to fill their stomachs. I heard that Qingqing's second aunt Han Lianxin often brings grain home.
The Gu family is well-known for their kindness in the surrounding area. Even the people in their Hanjiagou praise them, saying that Han Lianxin married into a good family. In this day and age, her in-laws don't say anything when she sends food to her parents' home during festivals. It's really rare.
Gu Qingqing was also very happy: "When I was a child, my family was short of food. Grandma raised two chickens and gave me all the eggs without collecting them. My brothers ate sweet potatoes. Later, when there was enough food, she raised a dozen more chickens, and my brothers were able to eat eggs."
Her uncle and brothers were not much older than her, but they kept all the good things for her and were reluctant to eat anything themselves.
When her cousin Gu Xiong was fourteen or fifteen years old, he would go to the mountains to chop firewood and bring her a bag of wild fruits made of leaves. They were the kind of red and purple nuts that were so sweet that their teeth were all black after eating them.
Although her porridge was watery when she was a child, her childhood memories are not of the famine years, but of the care and love from her older brothers.
Sun Shufen knew how the Gu family treated her from the way Gu Qinglie treated this girl as if she were the apple of his eye. Her little rabbit was not so lucky because she was a girl and was often bullied by her grandmother and aunt. Fortunately, the girl was broad-minded and didn't care.
She sighed, thinking that Xiaotu and Xiaoxu would always be with her and Laoyu in the future, and they would never be disappointed.
"Qingqing," she remembered something, "you will be packing your luggage soon. Auntie knitted a scarf for you and Captain Chu. I will go get it later."
"Ah? Thank you, auntie!" Gu Qingqing smiled.
She had seen scarves in the tailor shop with beautiful patterns, but she didn't expect that her aunt could also knit scarves.
"But let me tell you first, I don't have that many patterns. I just knit with wool and it's thick. Don't be disappointed when you see it later."
"How could that be?" Gu Qingqing put down her chopsticks, took Sun Shufen's arm and said coquettishly: "Auntie loves me the most, I really can't bear to leave you and Uncle Yu. The braised pork made by Uncle Yu is soft and crispy, and I will definitely miss it when I go to the island in the future!"
"Our little sweetheart, Qingqing, I'll tell your uncle Yu later to follow our meal standards and make you a bowl of braised pork!"
Gu Qingqing nodded repeatedly, thinking that she would give Xiaotu and the others more candies when the time comes.
She still didn't want to refuse her uncle and aunt's kindness.
After dinner, I chatted with Sun Shufen for a while. Sun Shufen went to the cafeteria with her aluminum lunch box and told Yu Fugui about opening a small stove for her.
Gu Qingqing stayed in the house and didn't want to go out. Thinking that she would leave tomorrow, she was still reluctant to leave the warm house. Before leaving, she even blocked the vent of the coal stove.
The cold wind blew against her face like a knife. The way she hunched her head formed a sharp contrast with the soldiers walking in a line beside her with straight postures and orderly steps.
Gu Qinglie, the team leader, almost couldn't help laughing out loud when he saw his sister's cowardly look, but fortunately he managed to hold himself back in the end.
Some soldiers couldn't help laughing, their shoulders shaking. Gu Qinglie shouted, "What are you laughing at? Be serious and be ready within ten kilometers."
Seeing that the soldiers had straightened their bodies, he added: "She will leave tomorrow, so give her some face." At least don't laugh in front of her.
The soldiers were completely overwhelmed.
Gu Qinglie showed a row of small white teeth, "Very good, fifteen kilometers."
Gu Qingqing really didn't expect that after being ridiculed by Goudan, she would be exploited further.
She glared hatefully at the person who was leading the way, put her hands in her pockets, tucked her head into the collar of her cotton-padded jacket, and walked slowly towards the pig farm. When Old Zhu took a closer look, he thought it was the boss of their village who was leisurely coming over.
"Qingqing, it's not that cold." Hot air kept coming out of Lao Zhu's mouth as he spoke. Gu Qingqing found a windless place to stand.
"If you're not cold, why are you wearing such thick clothes? You even put so much straw under the pig's cushion. You're almost covering your precious pig with a quilt." Gu Qingqing stamped her feet to keep warm.
"Why are you still trying to bully people, kid? You used to be so sweet before you married Captain Chu. Why are you like this now?" Old Zhu shook his head and went to the inner room to pour her a cup of hot water.
"Why did you think of coming here to see your Uncle Zhu today? I haven't seen you come here since the weather got cold."
"I'm going back now. I came to see you." Gu Qingqing held the enamel cup and her body immediately warmed up. She smiled and said, "It will be difficult for you to see me next time. I don't know when you can go."
Old Zhu was rake-ing up pig manure. When he heard her words, he couldn't help but feel a sore nose. "Hey, isn't your brother still here? Come and see us when you get off the island. You got married in the Corps, and the Corps is your natal family. More than 2,000 of your uncles and brothers are all here. Don't forget about us when you leave the Corps."
"How could that be!" Gu Qingqing felt like crying because of what he said. "When Chu Dai has a day off, we will come down to the island to see you. Didn't you say you wanted to eat the moldy tofu from your hometown? We will bring it to you then."
"Come, come, come. You have to remember this." Old Zhu held the rake and continued to dig out the pig manure. Although he felt reluctant in his heart, he couldn't say it out loud.
Qingqing is such a nice girl. Usually, Mr. Zhu is the only one in charge of the pig farm and has no one to talk to. But this girl comes to him every few days to ask for pig manure to fertilize the vegetable field and also chats with him.
When thinking about the girl going to such a harsh place as the island, Lao Zhu sighed and just hoped that the child would have a better life in the future.
After talking with Lao Zhu for a long time, Gu Qingqing felt relieved. Although she had only been in the Corps for three or four months, she felt that she had been here for a long, long time.
After leaving the pig farm, she went to the quartermaster department.
Zhang Chao was sitting by the coal stove eating melon seeds. Seeing her coming, he greeted her warmly: "Come and sit down. It's cold outside, isn't it? The temperature in the Corps drops at the end of the year. After the New Year, it will be sunny every day again."
"It's cold."
As soon as Gu Qingqing sat down, Zhang Chao grabbed a handful of melon seeds and peanuts from the plate and said, "I, your uncle Zhang, am just an idler. I live a comfortable life here. Unlike my comrades who have to go to war and train in the cold winter, I have a break at the end of this year, so I can have a good year."
He was a civilian and did not participate in the fighting. He just had to take stock of the military supplies. His allowance was not as much as that of the soldiers, and was even less than that of Yu Fugui, the quartermaster. However, he was very satisfied.
Originally, he could have worked as a leisurely clerk in the southern military district, but later he thought, it would be better to come to the border town. He didn't know how to fight, but he had a good mouth, and buying cotton cloth and other things to take care of the soldiers' living needs was worthy of the military uniform.
He had a lot of snacks, including melon seeds and peanuts, as well as dried sweet potatoes that he got from Yu Fugui.
These are the sweet potatoes that Yu Fugui peeled when Gu Qingqing just arrived.
The sun was very strong at that time, and the sweet potatoes were dried and hard, and I couldn't bite them no matter how hard I tried.
Gu Qingqing's teeth suddenly ached: "Uncle Zhang, don't eat the sweet potatoes. I can't bite them. I'll just eat melon seeds and peanuts."
Zhang Chao smiled and said, "You don't know how to eat it." He put all the dried sweet potatoes next to the coal stove, and they became soft immediately after being baked.
Hand it to Gu Qingqing: "Try it?"
Gu Qingqing hesitated, but finally reached out to take it and bit the tip. She said "eh" -
"I can really bite it now!" The girl's eyes were clear and her black pupils were like those of a deer.
Zhang Chao patted the dust off his hands, sat back, and squinted at her: "Your uncle Zhang, besides studying military supplies, is also studying food. You have to go to Lao Yu's place later, right? Just after lunch, I asked Lao Yu for some dried sweet potatoes to take away. He has plenty."
Yu Fugui's dried sweet potatoes were a slow-selling product, but the soldiers were all straightforward people. They took the dried sweet potatoes and just bit them. They broke them with their teeth but the sweet potatoes did not move at all. From then on, no one asked about his dried sweet potatoes anymore.
"Great!" Gu Qingqing put the peanuts and melon seeds in her left hand into her pocket, and put the dried sweet potatoes in her right hand into her mouth.
Seeing her taking out handful after handful, Zhang Chao was amused: "You are not shy."
He simply poured the remaining melon seeds and peanuts into her pocket and said, "I'm very poor and don't have much to give you. These are just right for you to take on the train. It will be hard to sit for a whole day and night."
He had also taken the green train from the south to the Corps. His home was in the southernmost part of the country, and it took three days and three nights to travel north. Now he is afraid of green trains.
"Uncle Zhang," Gu Qingqing said as she roasted some sweet potatoes by the fire, tilting her head and looking at him with a smile, "Thank you for taking care of me over the past few months."
On her wedding day, Zhang Chao cut many dishes, even though he looked a little ugly. Later, Uncle Yu told her that Zhang Chao had never touched a knife before.
She is the only one who has this treatment.
"Silly child," Zhang Chao was stunned for a moment, and waved his hand casually: "I can eat vegetables every day now, it's all thanks to you, so let's just thank each other."
Gu Qingqing burst into laughter at this novel statement.
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