Chapter 102 Lu Tingxiao Returns to the Military Academy
With Jiang Ruoxi's meticulous care and his family's wholehearted companionship, Lu Tingxiao's injuries recovered at a speed visible to the naked eye. However, time waits for no one, and in the blink of an eye, it was time for Lu Tingxiao to return to the military academy.
Jiang Ruoxi was filled with worry. She knew very well that Lu Tingxiao was passionate and dedicated to his career, and she was afraid that once he returned to the military academy, he would desperately accept missions without regard for his own safety. So, before Lu Tingxiao left, she held her husband's hand, eyes full of worry and concern, and repeatedly gave him instructions.
Lu Tingxiao looked at Jiang Ruoxi's worried face and felt distressed. He gently held her in his arms and solemnly promised that after returning to the military academy, he would not take on too many tasks in the short term, but would calm down and study seriously, and accumulate the valuable experience accumulated from carrying out tasks during this period.
He also vowed to go home to be with her and the children as soon as he had time. After hearing these promises, Jiang Ruoxi's heart finally settled down.
On the day of departure, Jiang Ruoxi got up early and was busy in the kitchen.
She carefully selected various ingredients and filled a large bag with braised meat and vegetables. These were all Lu Tingxiao's favorites. In addition, she also stuffed the meat sauce, hot sauce and dried meat that she had made herself into her luggage.
While Lu Tingxiao was not paying attention, Jiang Ruoxi secretly put another bottle of spiritual spring water in. She knew that this spiritual spring water might come in handy at a critical moment and protect Lu Tingxiao's health.
Lu Tingxiao stood aside, watching Jiang Ruoxi busying around, his heart filled with warmth and reluctance. He walked forward, gently hugged Jiang Ruoxi from behind, and whispered in her ear: "Don't worry, I will take good care of myself and will be back soon!"
Jiang Ruoxi turned around, her eyes slightly red, and she tried hard to hold back her tears and said, "You must keep your word. The children and I are waiting for you at home!"
Lu Tingxiao finally set out on the journey back to the military academy with deep attachment and reluctance to leave Jiang Ruoxi and the children. Watching his back gradually going away, Jiang Ruoxi could no longer hold back her tears.
After Lu Tingxiao left, Jiang Ruoxi quickly returned to her routine of going between school, the braised meat shop, and home.
In school, she devoted herself to her studies. With a solid foundation and unremitting efforts, her grades were always among the best, and she was highly praised by teachers and classmates.
In the braised meat shop, Jiang Ruoxi and Zhang Bin worked together to continuously research new braised food recipes and launched a series of new products that are well-received by customers. The business in the store is becoming more and more prosperous. There is an endless stream of customers coming to buy braised meat every day. The long queues often extend from the store entrance to the corner of the street. Jiang Ruoxi greeted every customer warmly, answered their questions patiently, and always had a warm smile on her face.
Back home, Jiang Ruoxi transformed herself into a gentle and loving mother again. She accompanies the children in doing homework and playing games, tells them interesting stories, and cares about their studies and lives. Under her careful guidance, the children grew up healthily and each one of them was sensible and well-behaved.
Although her life was busy and fulfilling, Jiang Ruoxi was always concerned about Lu Tingxiao. She would often sit alone in the yard in the dead of night, looking at the bright moon in the sky and thinking of Lu Tingxiao.
She would silently repeat his name in her heart, hoping that he would come home more often. Jiang Ruoxi also knew the helplessness of Lu Tingxiao as a soldier. Occasionally, she would take out Lu Tingxiao's photo and stroke it gently, recalling every moment they had spent together. Those beautiful memories were like the twinkling stars in the night sky, illuminating her long wait.
The waiting time seemed to be infinitely stretched, and every minute and every second became extremely torturous. Even though Lu Tingxiao had only been gone for over half a month, to Jiang Ruoxi, it felt like a long half century.
On countless silent nights, she lay in bed, looking at the empty pillow, the unstoppable longing in her heart surging like a tide, completely drowning her.
During the day, she attended classes at school and worked at the braised meat shop. But even though there were people coming and going around her and it was bustling and noisy, her thoughts would always drift to Lu Tingxiao in the military academy, wondering what he was doing at the moment and whether everything was okay.
After Lu Tingxiao returned to the military academy, he immediately began to review his mission experience. He carefully sorted out the insights and experiences gained from carrying out missions during this period, and with his outstanding insight and profound military qualities, he gradually summed up a set of experiences with unique personal characteristics.
In his opinion, if this set of experience can be further improved and delivered to the troops, it will definitely provide powerful guidance for comrades in the performance of future missions, thereby more effectively protecting the lives of soldiers.
Thinking of this, Lu Tingxiao was filled with a sense of mission. He studied day and night, consulted a large amount of information, and continuously optimized this set of experience, not missing any details.
On the other hand, Jiang Ruoxi did not stop exploring life despite her intensive studies. As she looked at the increasingly prosperous braised meat shop, a bigger idea emerged in her mind - to expand the scale of business. She knows that if she wants to stand out in the fiercely competitive market, she must continue to innovate.
So, Jiang Ruoxi plunged into the research of various types of food. Whenever it was a day off, Jiang Ruoxi would get up early, go into the kitchen, and try to combine various ingredients and seasonings with Aunt Chen and Aunt Lan to create new dishes.
Sometimes, in order to find a perfect taste, she would repeatedly experiment with Aunt Chen and Aunt Lan dozens of times, striving for perfection in every aspect from ingredient selection, cooking techniques to seasoning ratios. In the process of researching new delicacies, Aunt Chen and Aunt Lan gave Jiang Ruoxi unlimited help.
During this process, Jiang Ruoxi encountered many difficulties. The research and development of new dishes is not always smooth sailing. Some of the dishes taste unsatisfactory, and some of the production processes are too complicated to achieve mass production. But she never had the thought of giving up. Whenever she encountered setbacks, she would think of Lu Tingxiao's perseverance and persistence in the face of difficulties in the army, which gave her endless motivation. She began to ask people around her for advice, read a lot of food books, and participated in some cooking exchange activities to learn from others' experiences and skills.
After countless attempts and improvements, Jiang Ruoxi finally developed several unique new products.
There are spicy and delicious braised noodles with chewy and smooth noodles, paired with rich and mellow marinade and tender and juicy braised meat, which is unforgettable; there are also braised pork sandwiches with crispy outside and tender inside, with chopped braised meat sandwiched in the crispy steamed bun skin, and then poured with a spoonful of special marinade. Take a bite and you will feel full of happiness.
As soon as these new products were launched, they were warmly welcomed by customers. The braised meat shop's business became more and more popular, and the originally slightly crowded store was often packed with customers.
As the business became more and more prosperous, Jiang Ruoxi realized that the existing store could no longer meet the demand. She began to look for a suitable store and prepared to move the braised meat shop to a larger venue. At the same time, she redesigned the decoration and layout of the store to create a more comfortable and warm dining environment.
In the process of looking for a shop, Jiang Ruoxi also encountered many setbacks. The rent of some shops was too high, and the geographical location of some shops was not ideal. But she always maintained an optimistic and positive attitude, constantly screening and comparing, firmly believing that she would be able to find the most suitable store.
Finding a suitable store is like looking for a needle in the ocean, difficult and full of unknowns. What Jiang Ruoxi is thinking about is that the shop next to her own braised meat shop can be rented out or sold. After all, expanding business in a familiar place has many conveniences, both in terms of maintaining old customers and controlling operating costs.
But the shop had always been closed and empty, and she couldn't even find out who the landlord was. In desperation, Jiang Ruoxi could only settle for the second best and embarked on a difficult journey of searching everywhere, just to find a store that was bigger and more suitable than the current braised meat shop.
Sometimes we have to admit that luck is indeed a key link to success. Just when Jiang Ruoxi was worried about the store and had no appetite, Lu Tingxiao's childhood friends Sun Zhijun, He Minghui, Xu Chengzhi and Gao Jiye came to the braised meat shop.
While enjoying the delicious braised pork rice, they chatted lively with Jiang Ruoxi. Upon learning that Jiang Ruoxi was worried about finding a suitable store to expand her braised meat shop, He Minghui's eyes lit up and he slapped his thigh and said, "I know the landlord of the store next to yours!"
Jiang Ruoxi's originally dull eyes were instantly full of brilliance, and her surprise was beyond words. This was like someone giving her a pillow when she was sleepy! She couldn't suppress her excitement and asked hurriedly, "Minghui, could you please arrange a meeting with the landlord and ask him whether the house is for rent or sale?"
He Minghui agreed generously and said considerately, "Ruoxi, don't worry. Whether it's renting or selling, there shouldn't be any problem. This landlord is my old neighbor. He was demoted during the special period and his house was taken back. After he was rehabilitated, his house was returned, and several shops on this street were among them. My old neighbor is old and has no energy to do business. He originally planned to sell these shops and keep them for his retirement, but he has never found a suitable person to take over!"
Hearing this, Jiang Ruoxi felt relieved and said gratefully, "Minghui, thank you so much. If it weren't for you, I don't know how long I would have to struggle!"
He Minghui smiled and waved his hands: "We are all friends, it's too formal to say these things. Tingxiao is not at home, we will definitely help you in any way we can!"
A few days later, He Minghui brought good news. He successfully made an appointment with the landlord, and the two parties agreed to meet at the braised meat shop to discuss in detail. On the day of the meeting, Jiang Ruoxi cleaned the store early and also prepared tea and snacks.
The landlord was an amiable old man. After some greetings, he got down to business. Jiang Ruoxi sincerely expressed her needs for a store and her plans for running a braised meat shop. After listening to her, the landlord admired this hardworking and capable girl very much.
After some friendly negotiations, the landlord expressed his preference for selling the shop, and the price was within Jiang Ruoxi's budget. Jiang Ruoxi was secretly delighted, but still carefully asked questions about the property rights, follow-up procedures, etc. The landlord patiently answered them one by one and promised to fully cooperate in handling related matters. After both parties finalized their general intentions, they agreed to find a time to sign the contract as soon as possible.
After seeing the landlord off, Jiang Ruoxi breathed a sigh of relief, her heart finally at ease. She immediately wrote a letter to tell Lu Tingxiao the good news, describing the incident in detail, with joy evident between the lines.
Not long after, she received a reply from Lu Tingxiao, which was full of praise and encouragement for her. He also reminded her that there were many things to do later, so she must take care of her health and consult her childhood friends at any time if she encountered any problems.
In the following days, with the help of He Minghui and others, Jiang Ruoxi was busy preparing for the handover and decoration of the store. She found a professional decoration team to carefully design the store according to her own ideas. In order to save costs and ensure the quality of decoration, she would find time every day to go to the site in person and communicate details with the decoration workers. From selecting decoration materials to planning the store layout, she personally took care of every step and did not dare to slack off in the slightest.
During the busy preparation process, Jiang Ruoxi did not neglect the daily operation of the braised meat shop. She and her employees worked together to ensure the normal operation of the store, and took advantage of this time to optimize and upgrade new products. At the same time, Jiang Ruoxi asked Lu's father and Jiang's father to find some veterans with good character as employees for her, and also specially recruited two aunties who specialized in helping in the kitchen and washing dishes to make full preparations for the opening of the new store.
As Jiang Ruoxi watched the new store gradually take shape, her heart was filled with anticipation. She seemed to have seen the future prosperity of the braised meat shop, and she firmly believed that with her own efforts, she would be able to make this business better and better, and make Lu Tingxiao, who was far away, proud of her.
At the same time, Lu Tingxiao also made significant progress in his research at the military academy. His set of experience has been basically perfected and has been verified through many simulations, with significant results. The military leaders spoke highly of his achievements and decided to pilot them in some tasks. After hearing the news, Lu Tingxiao felt both excited and nervous. He hoped that this set of experience could really play a role and ensure the safety of his comrades.
During their busy days, Jiang Ruoxi and Lu Tingxiao could only express their thoughts and concerns for each other through letters and occasional phone calls. Every time they receive a letter from each other, they will treat it as a treasure and read it over and over again. Every word in the letter seems to carry the warmth of the other party and warm each other's hearts.
In her letters, Jiang Ruoxi would share the latest developments in the braised meat shop and tell interesting stories about her children; while Lu Tingxiao would express his longing for his family and share bits and pieces of life in the military academy. These letters became their spiritual support during the long waiting time, supporting them to move forward bravely.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
