"Why are you here?"
"Sister!" Shitou was making a fire and was very happy to see Zhang Xingrong. "Brother Jie Fangjun brought a lot of things here. There's meat, vegetables, rice, and a bag of white noodles!"
Zhang Xingrong turned to look at the tattered dining table. Sure enough, there were quite a few things on it: two cloth bags of food, a pile of eggs, and vegetables. The vegetables included water spinach, garlic sprouts, eggplant, and a bunch of green onions.
"Sister, we'll cook today, just wait and eat!" Lin Zi smiled at her while cutting meat.
"I'll make scallion oil noodles for you!" Liu Tiezhu said happily while kneading the dough.
Zhang Xingrong didn't know what to say for a moment. She looked at the man sitting on the stool picking garlic sprouts and said, "Why did you bring so many things?"
She didn't want to owe them anything. Half a small bag of flour and a small bag of rice would last her for a while. Not to mention the twenty or so eggs. Eggs weren't expensive; you could buy one for just a few cents. The problem was that they were scarce, making them hard to find! It wasn't just eggs; grains and vegetables were all in short supply. Even though the rice and noodles came in small bags, buying them wasn't easy. Even having money and coupons didn't guarantee they'd be available; the supply and marketing cooperatives had to stock them.
Even if the goods are in stock, each person can only buy a fixed amount, and you can't buy as much as you want.
"We're relying on you for our meals these days. I hope you don't mind." Lu Ran replied. Although he didn't want to admit it, Zhang Xingrong had indeed been showing disdain for him recently.
Zhang Xingrong choked again, and after a while, he asked, "Don't your troops have to train and go on missions all the time? It's not a good idea to keep coming here, is it?"
"Sister, you don't have to worry, we are on vacation during this period!"
"Yeah, we haven't had a holiday in several years. Recently, our team took a holiday together!"
Zhang Xingrong: “…”
She wasn't worried, she just didn't want to get close to Lu Ran. The closer she got to him, the harder it would be to forget him.
"Sister, please get out now. We'll be done in a moment."
The small kitchen was packed with people, so she had no choice but to go out and spread the duck-foot millet out to dry. After it dried, she threshed the millet, shelled it, and ground it into powder, which was then ready for use.
After drying the millet, she tinkered with the fence herself.
Last night, Lu Ran finished most of the fence. There was still a little left. She found some sticks and buried them in a row, then tied branches on top and covered them with thatch. This would make the yard more private. She would also find some wildflowers to plant, and it would look beautiful in the future.
Over there, Lu Ran came out after washing the vegetables. Just as he was about to go fix the remaining fence, he saw Zhang Xingrong tinkering with it. He watched her deftly tie the wooden sticks together securely, then tie the branches together. When she was done, she took her knife and walked a short distance out to the open space to start cutting the thatch. It was a strange sight for him.
This woman seems to do everything well.
He put down the wooden basin and went out to tinker with the thatch.
Zhang Xingrong was cutting thatch and didn't want to see Lu Ran coming to help her collect and bundle the thatch.
She pursed her lips for a long time and said, "I can do it myself."
"Hurry up, both of you." Lu Ran said as he picked up the straw and walked back.
On the other side——
Zhang Xingju was chased and beaten by Aunt Changzhu. She finally returned to the Zhang family, but everyone in the Zhang family had gone to work and no one was there.
She remembered what Kong Ruixiang said, and ran to the neighboring Liujia Village to speak ill of Zhang Xingrong.
The people in Liujia Village had heard about Zhang Xingrong's affairs from the brigade before, and they didn't quite believe what Juya said. However, since Juya talked about it so many times, everyone began to doubt it.
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