Chapter 63 After the fried rice candy, I will spend more time with Sister-in-law Zhou Lu.
Qin Xiangxiang brewed several jars of bayberry wine and also made bayberry soup. The bayberries in the soup tasted even better after being chilled. Li Jianzhi told her not to eat too much, fearing that she would catch a cold.
This chubby kid is lucky; he can eat them one after another, munching away.
On the sewing machine in the bedroom was an unfinished children's dress, which Qin Xiangxiang had specially made for Liu Xiaoyun's daughter. She had added lace trim, as little girls look even prettier in dresses with lace trim.
Qin Xiangxiang loves making these beautiful "objects" by hand, whether it's making pretty clothes, knitting beautiful woven items, or even making them look beautiful when her hands are flying across the piano.
She envied Liu Xiaoyun for having a daughter, who could make so many pretty little things for her: little dresses, little socks, little scarves, little hair ties... Qin Xiangxiang decided that she would make several little dresses for the baby in her belly in advance, so that even if she gave birth to a naughty boy, he would wear dresses for a few days.
As the weather gets hotter, it's time to turn on the fan. Qin Xiangxiang has a habit of making fermented rice wine when summer arrives. She often cooks mung bean porridge and makes osmanthus-flavored fermented rice balls because she doesn't have a good appetite in the summer.
She was pregnant and couldn't eat fermented rice wine, so she made fermented rice wine with glutinous rice in advance, so that she could make osmanthus-flavored fermented rice wine dumplings for the men in her family when they returned home.
"Little Fatty, come and work. Mom will make you some fermented rice wine in a couple of days."
Upon hearing about the delicious food, Little Fatty immediately exclaimed, "Mommy, I'm coming!"
"You sweep the floor outside clean, and Mom will do it herself in the room."
"But Daddy said that Little Fatty Warrior has to take care of Mommy."
Qin Xiangxiang smiled and said, "Okay, you can go in and sweep the floor later."
Qin Xiangxiang is not a very diligent person, but she loves cleanliness. Li Jianzhi is even more clean than her. This guy is also particularly good at housekeeping. According to him, he has been in the army for more than ten years. From the time he entered the military academy for military training, he has always been the top student in the dormitory and a model of housekeeping.
He said if the housekeeping wasn't up to standard, he'd throw the blankets in the toilet—something Qin Xiangxiang didn't believe. Blankets were such precious things; who would be willing to throw them away?
It is said that this guy has been a military training instructor for many years and is quite good at teaching people how to do housekeeping. Even Little Fatty has been influenced by him to the point that the table in the room is arranged neatly.
They sweep the floor and wipe the tables quickly and cleanly. They live on the second floor, where there isn't much dust, so cleaning once every day or two, or every two or three days, is enough.
When Li Jianzhi returns, he sweeps the ceiling where cobwebs might grow.
There were still quite a few bamboo stalks left in the living room. The man said he would make bamboo crafts with his son when he got back, such as bamboo water features and bamboo wind chimes. Qin Xiangxiang also got the idea and asked someone to pick a lot of palm leaves to make heart-shaped fans, or boil and dry them, then sew scraps of cloth onto them to make palm leaf fans.
She makes detachable collars for people and has a lot of leftover fabric scraps at home, which she can use to make palm-leaf fans. She sends them back to her parents so they can also experience the fans made by their daughter.
"Xiao Qin, are you home? We have some good news at home, so we brought you some candy." Zhou Lu's voice came from outside.
Qin Xiang went to open the door for Zhou Lu. Zhou Lu, who was standing outside, was holding a stack of fried rice candy and had a big smile on her face: "These rice candies are homemade. Take them and give them to the children."
Standing next to Zhou Lu was a woman who was about 1.67 meters tall. She had a ponytail, a square face, thin legs, and a big belly. She was a very sturdy woman. When she smiled, she had a very honest and simple smile. She stretched her mouth to her ears, revealing two rows of white teeth. She looked kind and approachable.
This is Zhuang Xiaoman, who lent Zhou Lu's family a huge sum of five hundred yuan. She has a simple and honest air about her.
"This is Zhuang Xiaoman. People from our hometown sent us money. This time, our family has finally managed to scrape together enough money to pay back the five hundred yuan we owed Xiaoman. We've had this debt for several years, and I haven't been able to sleep peacefully day or night. Last year, when I was in confinement after giving birth, Xiaoman even came to take care of me. Thinking about the money I owe her, I feel so guilty."
"Even if I have to borrow money, I will pay back the money I owe her!" After giving this speech to Qin Xiangxiang at her doorstep, Zhou Lu grabbed Zhuang Xiaoman's hand and said, "Xiaoman, you are such a good person! I will be grateful to you for the rest of my life!"
Zhuang Xiaoman smiled honestly: "Don't say that. Just pay me back. I've benefited from this over the past few years. I don't know how many things I've eaten at your house. I haven't lost out at all."
"Not at all, Xiaoman, you're just being a good person and getting good fortune in return."
Zhou Lu shouted, "I borrowed money from someone, and I will definitely pay it back."
Zhuang Xiaoman grinned from ear to ear: "I'm so lucky to have lent you money. I've brought Zhuangtou to your house countless times in the past two years to eat and drink for free. I'm the one who's so fortunate."
...
Qin Xiangxiang watched the two of them talk back and forth with a blank expression, thinking to herself, "If you hadn't borrowed another thousand yuan from Zhuang Xiaoman, I would have believed your lies."
"Little Fatty, come and eat some fried rice candy."
Little Fatty: "Mommy, I'm here!"
Little Fatty was overjoyed. He came to the military compound with his dad. The best thing about it was that the aunties in the compound were so generous. There were so many generous aunties and children.
After saying goodbye to Qin Xiangxiang's home, Zhou Lu took Zhuang Xiaoman up to the third floor and knocked on Zhao Yangyang's door. Zhao Yangyang's family had just moved in and were making plans with Chen Ruifeng and his wife, including buying furniture and setting a date to cook a warm and lively family meal.
I heard that the family dinner hosted by Li Jianzhi and his wife downstairs two months ago was very well received. Chen Ruifeng also decided to host a better one so that everyone could have a good time and not lose to Li Jianzhi.
"Sister-in-law Zhou Lu, you're being too generous!" Zhao Yangyang's goodwill towards Zhou Lu increased dramatically as soon as she saw her go upstairs to deliver candy.
Zhou Lu whispered, "Yangyang, you're a new family member, and from a big city like Shanghai. You can't compare to others. I give everyone else fried rice candy, but I'll give you a handful of rice dumpling candy separately."
The triangular rice dumpling candy, with rose petals floating inside, looked quite beautiful. Zhao Yangyang was overjoyed to see the candy and, upon hearing from Zhou Lu that it was an extra, special treat for her, was delighted with this special gift.
After Zhou Lu left, Zhao Yangyang ate the zongzi candy in her mouth, finding it sweet and fragrant. She said to her newlywed husband Chen Ruifeng, "I think Zhou Lu on the second floor is the nicest and most generous person in our building."
Chen Ruifeng nodded: "You have a good eye. I heard that many people in the hospital like her and say that she is generous."
“That’s right.” Zhao Yangyang muttered under her breath, “The day we moved in, Sister-in-law Zhou Lu brought over some chocolate beans! Isn’t Chief of Staff Zhang on the second floor your friend? His wife is so stingy, she only brought over some rotten dried beans, how could she be so generous?”
"And Qin Xiangxiang didn't give anything as a gift, what a stingy person."
Chen Ruifeng's eyes flickered. He became sensitive as soon as he heard anything related to Li Jianzhi. "Let me tell you a joke in secret. I was just flattering Li Jianzhi by saying that his wife is virtuous. I heard that during her first month in the family compound, she and her husband ate wild vegetables and cornbread."
"Pfft—isn't that ironic? She has absolutely no sense of money management. The two of them bought cameras as soon as they arrived and spent all their money. They can only afford to eat cornbread now, and they're too embarrassed to ask others for money. You'd better watch out for her family coming to you to borrow money in the future." Chen Ruifeng found this amusing. Li Jianzhi, who usually acts like a high-and-mighty flower, married such a wife. Tsk tsk, there'll be plenty of laughs when they live in the same building.
"I think this guy just married a drama queen."
Zhao Yangyang: "????!!!" She felt like she was about to vomit blood.
Zhao Yangyang originally thought that Chen Ruifeng's praise of Qin Xiangxiang as virtuous and his suggestion that she learn from Qin Xiangxiang was a way of putting her in a tough spot and teaching her to be a virtuous woman. It turned out that this guy was just being sarcastic.
Chen Ruifeng was jealous of Li Jianzhi and couldn't help but pay attention to him. In particular, he was heartbroken to see Li Jianzhi becoming more and more outstanding at work, being valued by his superiors, and being included in the list of key talents to be cultivated.
He felt threatened, and seeing that the other party's wife from Shanghai had come with the army, he also became obsessed with finding a wife from Shanghai.
"This Qin Xiangxiang and her husband Li Jianzhi, don't be fooled by his upright appearance and always serious face, he is actually a very ambitious and scheming man."
Zhao Yangyang: "A very scheming man?"
"Yes, let me tell you. Now that we've been promoted to this level, and if we want to rise further, family harmony is very important. As the saying goes, 'If you can't sweep one's own house, how can you sweep the world?' Leaders prefer to promote men with harmonious family relationships and no wives who hold them back. Only then can they trust that a man can focus all his energy on his work, and only then can they feel at ease entrusting him with key positions."
"If he has a lot of problems at home, who would feel comfortable entrusting him with an important position?"
"Reaching the regimental level is a watershed moment. Many people can only go as far as regimental-level cadres and can't go any further. It's very difficult to rise any higher."
Chen Ruifeng: "So Li Jianzhi is a very scheming man. He always praises his wife with a thick skin, just to create the illusion of a harmonious family relationship in front of his superiors."
"His wife sent a telegram a few months ago saying she wanted a divorce, but now she's praising him as a model virtuous wife. Isn't that ridiculous? They're just burying their heads in the sand. They'll be laughing at their family sooner or later."
Zhao Yangyang was stunned: "Oh, I see."
"Luckily you explained these things to me clearly, otherwise I still wouldn't understand. The intricacies of this matter are too complicated. I think Sister-in-law Zhou Lu is a good person."
"I'll spend more time with Sister-in-law Zhou Lu from now on."
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