Chapter 31

Lu Yu's eyebrows showed a very cold expression: "Sister-in-law Chen, my sister-in-law is fine now."

Jiang Nian quickly agreed and nodded: "Yes, I am fine now. Besides, there are many gossips about widows, so it is better not to meet Comrade Tang Ze."

This sentence made his position clear and also dispelled Chen Fang's idea of ​​bringing Tang Ze and Jiang Nian together.

Chen Fang's face froze for a moment, but soon recovered as before, and smiled: "If you don't want to see me, then don't see me. It's nothing. I just said it casually."

Captain Tang also looked a little embarrassed. He coughed and said to Lu Yu: "Fangzi is just a little worried."

After that, he looked at Jiang Nian: "Don't take it to heart."

Jiang Nian smiled and said nothing. Listening to Lu Yu and Captain Tang talking about some things in the group, Chen Fang seemed to have not given up the idea yet, and asked her indirectly how she had been doing these years, just like checking her household registration.

She finally discovered that everyone here likes to matchmake for others.

Seeing that Jiang Nian was so talkative, Chen Fang asked a few questions and then stopped asking. She had just gone to see Old Song with Old Tang, and heard from Feng Mei that she wanted to tell Old Song's cousin Song Bai about Jiang Nian.

She knew Song Bai. He was in the same regiment with Deputy Regiment Lu in the military district before, and was later transferred to the military sub-district and promoted to deputy regiment commander. He was the youngest son of Old Song's second uncle. He had an older sister, who had married a long time ago, and he was the only son in the family.

At that time, he and Tang Ze had a fight in the military district because the two regiments did not get along, but after the fight, the two were the same as before.

After Captain Tang and Chen Fang went to Jiang Nian's house, Feng Mei lay on the corner of the wall and listened to the conversation in the yard. When she first heard Chen Fang telling Jiang Nian about Tang Ze, she felt that something was wrong. Later, when she heard Captain Tang's words, she suddenly realized that something was wrong.

She shouted at the top of her voice: "Chen Fang, don't undermine me!"

The voice was so loud that Jiang Nian and Chen Fang were startled. Lu Yu and Captain Tang also turned their heads to look at Feng Mei, who was lying on the corner of the wall with only her head sticking out.

Captain Tang muttered in his heart: He is just like a spy.

Xu Yan also heard the noise and leaned over the wall to stick her head out. Seeing Liu Qiang coming over curiously, she waved her hand and whispered, "Go and see Jianwu."

Liu Qiang: ...

Is there anything he can't see?

Chen Fang's personality is more crooked. She was a little embarrassed when she saw Feng Mei. After all, when she went to the old Song's house just now, Feng Mei mentioned it to her and wanted to match Jiang Nian and Song Bai. As a result, she came over to pry Feng Mei's corner.

She really didn't expect Feng Mei to lean over the corner.

"Get out of here!"

Captain Song's voice came from the next yard. Feng Mei turned around and shouted, "Shut up first!"

She turned around and glared at Chen Fang, "You knew I was going to tell Jiang Nian to Song Bai, but you still came to snatch her away. What are you thinking? Chen Fang, I tell you, your man and my man are both captains, and your man can't control me. I'm not afraid of you."

Jiang Nian: ...

She stood up and wanted to persuade Feng Mei and Chen Fang, but she heard Lu Yu's voice.

The deep voice in the past was now covered with a cold and cold feeling.

"My two sisters-in-law, you don't need to worry about my sister-in-law's affairs. Even if she doesn't remarry in this life, I can still support her."

Feng Mei and Chen Fang fell silent at once. Even Captain Song next door and Captain Tang here felt a little uneasy. They had been with Lu Yu the longest and knew his temper well. He was angry when he spoke in this tone.

Although Lu Yu was under the charge of Captain Song, Captain Song was sometimes afraid of him.

Xu Yan saw that something was wrong, so she retracted her neck and pulled Liu Qiang, who was listening against the wall, away.

Captain Song pulled Feng Mei down and yelled at her: "Can you be quiet every day? You are the loudest one in the whole family compound. Go back to the house and take care of the children!"

Feng Mei muttered to Captain Song, tugged at her wrinkled clothes, and then went into the house.

Captain Tang also stood up and said, "It's getting late. I'll go home first."

After that, he waved to Chen Fang behind her back. Chen Fang quickly stood up and smiled stiffly, "Then we'll leave first." After

the two walked out of the house, Captain Tang began to scold Chen Fang, "Look at you, I told you to go home, but you insisted on coming to Lu Yu. Now you've made him angry."

Chen Fang snorted, "I also heard from Feng Mei that she wanted to marry Deputy Captain Lu's sister-in-law to Song Bai, but his sister-in-law is a widow after all, and Song Bai may not like her. I just thought that your brother was alone without his wife, so I wanted to... Tell Tang Ze about Deputy Colonel Lu's sister-in-law. We all know each other well, so it's good to be relatives. You don't think I'm working hard, but you blame me instead."

After saying that, she was so angry that she raised her hand and pinched Captain Tang's ear: "I worry so much about you, the Tang family, but I still don't get any good results. Deputy Colonel Lu's sister-in-law is fair and beautiful, and has a good temper. Don't I want to leave the good things for your brother?"

Captain Tang grinned in pain, tilted his head and grabbed Chen Fang's hand and said: "Okay, okay, it's my fault, it's all my fault."

He was just unlucky. He shouldn't have brought Chen Fang to talk to Old Song tonight.

After

Captain Tang and the others left, the yard returned to its previous quietness.

Jiang Nian lowered her head to clean up the dishes on the table, but Lu Yu took the lead and took over her job: "You go to bed first."

Watching Lu Yu carrying the dishes to the kitchen, Jiang Nian thought for a while, and finally walked to the door of the kitchen. She leaned her thin shoulders lightly against the door frame, looked at the tall and strong back of the man, pursed her lips, and whispered: "Don't be angry with Sister-in-law Feng, she

just doesn't mean what she says." Lu Yu paused in washing the dishes: "It was Sister-in-law Feng who said some gossip in front of my sister-in-law, right?"

Jiang Nian lowered her head, tugging at her clothes with her fingers. "Sister-in-law Feng is also thinking about my and your reputation."

Lu Yu looked at the bowl in the pot coldly, and the fingers holding the rag tightened a little. Finally, he dropped the rag, turned and looked at Jiang Nian, who was leaning against the door frame, lowering her head and pulling the corner of her clothes, and said in a low and

solemn voice: "Does sister-in-law care too?" Jiang Nian didn't understand what he meant. When she raised her eyes, she met Lu Yu's dark and cold gaze. Her heart skipped a beat, and she rubbed the fingers holding the corner of her clothes hard: "I don't understand what you mean."

She lowered her head, and her eyelashes covered the doubts in her eyes.

She didn't understand what Lu Yu was angry about.

Jiang Nian thought about it and understood. How could her husband be Lu Yu's eldest brother? His eldest brother had only died a few months ago, and Feng Mei and Chen Fang introduced a partner to her in front of Lu Yu, urging her to remarry. It would be strange if he didn't get angry.

So, Jiang Nian raised her head: "I..."

"Sister-in-law also cares about our uncle-sister-in-law status, afraid that if we live together for a long time, people will gossip about us?"

Jiang Nian wanted to say something, but was blocked by Lu Yu's words.

Lu Yu looked at her, his tone still cold: "If sister-in-law is anxious to remarry because she is afraid of gossip, I can move to the dormitory."

Jiang Nian was stunned for a moment, and subconsciously retorted: "I am not in a hurry to remarry, it was sister-in-law Feng who forced me to meet Song Bai, and I didn't know what sister-in-law Chen said tonight at first!"

Her tone was a little aggressive and a little angry.

You can say anything, but you can't misunderstand her!

Who is in a hurry to get married? It

's not like she can't get married, what is she in a hurry? !

Lu Yu was a little surprised that Jiang Nian would be angry. Seeing her angry eyes, the fire in his heart suddenly dissipated: "I'm sorry, I misunderstood my sister-in-law."

He turned around and continued to wash the dishes, still repeating the previous words: "If my sister-in-law thinks that we live together and it will have a bad influence if it gets out, I will move to the dormitory tomorrow."

Jiang Nian was angry at the moment.

Hearing Lu Yu's words, she immediately replied: "I don't think it's bad, but I'm afraid that it will affect you if it gets out. It's not good for you."

Lu Yu's hands that were washing dishes froze for a moment, and a very faint smile appeared on his tightly pursed thin lips.

"Don't worry, sister-in-law, nothing will happen."

Jiang Nian was also holding her breath. To her, this was a case of "sitting at home and having one's own troubles come from the sky". She let out a breath and said, "Your elder brother's body is still warm, I won't think about remarrying, and you don't have to be angry about others introducing me to a partner. I will stay a widow for your elder brother."

After saying that, she turned around and left.

This was the first time that Jiang Nian got angry with Lu Yu face to face since she came here.

The smile on Lu Yu's lips suddenly disappeared, and his relaxed eyebrows were tightly wrinkled. The expression on his face was even colder than before.

Jiang Nian went back to the room and lay on the bed, listening to the footsteps outside and looking at the moonlight outside the window

. Now she calmed down and felt a little annoyed with herself. She relied on Lu Yu for food, clothing and shelter, and Lu Yu was right. He was also right to think about his elder brother. If she was angry, she should be angry with Feng Mei and Chen Fang, not Lu Yu.

Jiang Nian sighed.

Is this called being intrusive?

Hearing the sound of water splashing outside, Jiang Nian pursed her lips, pulled up the quilt to cover her head, and thought about apologizing to Lu Yu tomorrow.

Jiang Nian slept uneasily that night. In the middle of the night, she dreamed that she was back in her home in the new century. Her parents, grandparents were eating in the living room. When they saw her coming back, they pulled her to talk and laugh. It was as if she had returned to the past and nothing had happened.

Jiang Nian leaned in her mother's arms for a long time, listening to the family laughing and talking. Finally, she returned to her own room and saw the chronology book on the table. She rolled over on the bed, picked up the chronology book and flipped through it again, wanting to see if the part after the hero and heroine in the book were about to get married was still blank.

Jiang Nian turned to that page and was surprised to find that it was no longer blank, but had two more pages of content. However, it was not about the hero and heroine getting married, but a completely different plot. The hero and heroine went in opposite directions in the book.

The heroine, Sun Ying, did get married, but she did not marry the hero.

Jiang Nian was stunned for a moment, and then turned to the previous plot, and found that the handwriting in the previous seemed to have faded, and there were signs that it would disappear.

What was going on?

Jiang Nian flipped through the pages one by one. As soon as he turned a page, the handwriting became lighter. When he turned to the last two pages with words, only the two pages where the heroine, Sun Ying, got married had the clearest handwriting.

Could it be that the hero and heroine did not get married?

Then who was the man that Sun Ying married?

Jiang Nian thought of Wu Youshan, who was beside Sun Ying. He and Sun Ying grew up together and were childhood sweethearts. Could it be that she married Wu Youshan?

The horn sounded, and Jiang Nian's dream instantly dissipated like smoke.

Her eyelashes trembled a few times, and she opened her eyes and looked at the old-fashioned windows. She had an illusion that she was in another world.

It was written in that book that Sun Ying got married. Since she didn't marry the male protagonist, who did she marry? So from the beginning, the male protagonist in this book didn't have a CP at all? Or did the plot change because of her intervention?

Jiang Nian heard footsteps outside, got up, put on her clothes, walked to the mirror hanging on the wall, combed her hair, looked at herself in the mirror, her eyes were a little red and swollen.

She reached out and touched it, could it be that she cried in her dream last night?

"Sister-in-law."

Lu Yu's voice came from outside.

Jiang Nian: "I'm here."

She opened the door and walked out of the house. Lu Yu brought breakfast and put it on the table in the yard. It was a little cold in the morning, so Jiang Nian put on a thin cotton coat. The fabric of the coat was a rare lotus pink color nowadays. She was too lazy to braid her hair, so she just tied a bun casually, revealing a part of her fair and slender neck.

Lu Yu looked up and saw Jiang Nian's fair face, with a pair of bright eyes that were a little red.

Thinking of the soft sobbing he heard from his sister-in-law's room last night, he pursed his lips slightly, and his voice was much slower and softer than last night: "It's time to eat."

Jiang Nian: "Well, I'll go wash my face and brush my teeth."

She trotted to the well, without thinking too much, and pressed the well water up. As soon as she put her hand in, she shivered because of the cold.

"Don't use cold water, it will freeze."

Lu Yu came over with a hot kettle, added some hot water to the basin, tested the water temperature, and said, "Okay."

Jiang Nian thought about what happened yesterday when she was angry with Lu Yu, and still felt a little uncomfortable. She lowered her head and whispered, "Thank you."

She squatted down and quickly washed her face, then brushed her teeth and sat at the table.

The dinner table was as quiet as usual. Jiang Nian looked at the egg custard that Lu Yu had specially steamed for her. After hesitating for a moment, she got up and went to the kitchen to get an empty bowl and spoon, and gave half a bowl of egg custard to Lu Yu. Looking at the man's puzzled eyes, she clenched the spoon: "You eat some too."

It was rare for her to see Lu Yu eat egg custard, so he gave it all to her.

Lu Yu smiled and said, "Yeah."

Jiang Nian ate a few bites of food, secretly looked up at Lu Yu, thinking about how to apologize. She was struggling for a long time and couldn't think of how to start. But Lu Yu noticed that his sister-in-law looked at him frequently, so he raised his gaze and asked, "Sister-in

-law, do you have anything to say?" Jiang Nian pursed her lips, raised her head and whispered, "I shouldn't have been angry with you last night. I'm sorry."

After that, she buried her head and ate her meal in small bites.

Lu Yu said, "I don't take it to heart, but sister-in-law, don't think too much. I was angry last night not for what you think."

Jiang Nian was stunned for a moment: "What do you mean?"

"I don't want you to be a widow for my elder brother."

Lu Yu finished the bowl in one breath, put down his chopsticks and stood up: "I'll go to the team first."

Looking at Lu Yu's back as he left the house, Jiang Nian gradually came back to her senses.

She smiled, picked up the bowl and ate several mouthfuls of egg custard.

As long as Lu Yu was not angry, it would be fine.

As for being a widow or not, she didn't care, anyway, she didn't plan to remarry.

After breakfast, Feng Mei came over and as soon as she entered the room, she complained about Chen Fang trying to steal her away. She said to Jiang Nian, "Can you agree to let Chen Fang go and meet Tang Ze? Tang Ze is also a second marriage. Although he has no children at home, he is also a "widower"...

She suddenly stopped talking.

Feng Mei just realized that Jiang Nian was also a widow. She smiled awkwardly: "That's not what I meant. I just think Tang Ze is not worthy of you. Look how good-looking you are. Standing with Tang Ze, you look like a couple."

Jiang Nian: ...

The sun is shining today. Jiang Nian took out the quilt in the room to dry it in the sun. He glanced at Feng Mei who was standing on the other side of the rope and said, "Sister-in-law Feng, I have no plans to remarry. Don't mention Deputy Colonel Song in front of me. He is an unmarried young man with a bad family. "The environment is good and the conditions are good. There are many good girls who will marry him. Besides, you just want to wait for Deputy Tuan Song to come back and match us up. Have you ever thought about whether Deputy Tuan Song is willing?"

Seeing that Feng Mei wanted to retort, Jiang Nian blocked her mouth again: "You are not Deputy Tuan Song, how do you know what he thinks? What if Deputy Tuan Song has a partner there? If you do this, won't you offend Deputy Tuan Song's partner? In the end, Deputy Tuan Song may even blame you."

Feng Mei stopped talking immediately after these few words.

If Jiang Nian hadn't said these, she really wouldn't have thought that if Song Bai really had a partner there, and his partner knew that she, the sister-in-law, had helped Song Bai find a partner behind her back, not to mention Song Bai, maybe even the second uncle's family would blame her.

Feng Mei sighed: "Hey, look at my brain, I really haven't thought about it that much, thank goodness you reminded me."

Seeing that she had completely given up the idea, Jiang Nian didn't mention it anymore. He chatted with Feng Mei for a while. It was almost noon when Feng Mei went back to make lunch. Jiang Nian tidied up the vegetable garden and went to make lunch. The weather was getting colder and colder

.

In the blink of an eye, it was mid-December. Counting the days, it would be the Chinese New Year in more than a month.

Jiang Nian didn't expect that she would live in this era for half a year.

Since Lu Yu brought the embroidery to Ge Mei last time, there has been no news from there. She didn't know if she didn't embroider it well, and Ge Mei couldn't say anything, so she didn't look for her to cooperate again.

Of course, these are just her guesses.

Jiang Nian also didn't think about going to the state-owned embroidery shop in the city to look for Ge Mei. In her eyes, if the business can succeed, it will succeed. If it doesn't, it won't be forced.

The weather has changed drastically in the past few days. It's so cold that your ears will freeze when you go out. Before the weather gets cold, Jiang Nian picked all the vegetables in her private plot and the yard. She made pickles of cabbage, cowpeas and other pickled vegetables, and put some potatoes and radishes in the vegetable cellar dug by Lu Yu. She went to the kitchen to get some eggplant slices that she had cut and dried before, and made some fried eggplant and scallion corn cakes for lunch.

Jiang Nian opened the cupboard and took a look. She and Lu Yu were the only ones at home. There was still a lot of rice and flour left from the last purchase. Lu Yu basically ate corn cakes, so she ate white flour steamed buns. The porridge was thicker than other people's, so there was still a lot of flour. Lu Yu

didn't come back after lunch was ready. There were still some sparks in the stove, so Jiang Nian put two sweet potatoes in it.

She walked out of the stove, listened to the whistling cold wind, and rubbed her arms.

It looked like it was going to snow that day.

At noon, Lu Yu didn't come back. Jiang Nian kept the rice in the pot, took out the baked sweet potatoes with an iron hook, put them on the ground to cool, and took them out when they were not hot. She peeled off the sweet potato skin little by little and ate the hot white flesh inside.

It tasted sweet, but it was a bit choking.

"It's snowing, it's snowing--"

Jiang Nian heard Song Xiangdong's voice next door, and Song Xianghong also shouted happily: "Mom, mom, look, it's snowing."

Feng Mei said in a loud voice: "It's snowing, why are you making so much noise?"

Jiang Nian smiled, she felt that living in such a small courtyard, if the noise was a little loud, the neighbors could hear it, and sometimes there was no privacy at all.

She stood up and walked to the window, looking at the snowflakes floating outside. Jiang Nian blew a breath of hot air on the window, then drew a little rabbit with her finger. After finishing the drawing, she couldn't help laughing.

How childish.

The snow was very heavy and continued until the evening. A thick layer of snow had accumulated on the ground. Jiang Nian walked into the yard wearing a cotton-padded jacket she made herself. The snow was already above her ankles. She quickly ran to the wall, scraped the snow off the wooden pier with her toes, and lay on the wall enduring the cold: "Sister-in-law Feng."

Feng Mei heard the voice, ran to the yard and saw a head sticking out. Jiang Nian: "What's wrong?"

Jiang Nian shrank her neck in fear: "Has Captain Song come back?"

Feng Mei said: "No, he probably went to rescue again. Look at how heavy the snow is here. The snow in the county town and the countryside at the foot of the mountain to the north is probably even heavier. They must have left in a hurry and didn't care to come back."

Jiang Nian didn't know that there was a rescue plot in the book.

She didn't quite understand, so she asked again: "Where to the north?"

Feng Mei brushed off the snow that had fallen from her eyelashes, stamped her feet because of the cold, and pointed in the north: "The mountain you see when you wake up every day is the poorest small county town, Lecheng County, at the foot of the mountain. There are several communes not far from the small county town. There are quite a few people from the third and fourth brigades in the communes, and there are also many educated youth who have gone to the countryside. Every year when there is heavy rain or heavy snow, people living at the foot of the mountain will suffer. They are close to the mountain, and it snows so heavily over here, but the snow over there is even heavier."

Jiang Nian understood.

There are many brigades in the communes at the bottom of the mountain. There are several brigades in one commune, not to mention several communes. In addition, there are educated youth who went to the countryside. If there is a snowstorm, the casualties are really hard to estimate.

This era is very poor. If it were in the new century, maybe we could go to other places to take shelter when we encounter a snowstorm, but where can the people here go?

Every household earned work points by working for the commune, and they were only given a little food at the end of the year. If they worked well, the food they received by the end of the year was just enough to fill their stomachs. If they worked poorly, they had to go up the mountain to dig wild vegetables. Now it was snowing heavily, and there were no wild vegetables. It was difficult to fill their stomachs, not to mention finding another place to stay.

Jiang Nian jumped off the wooden block and glanced at the dark night in the north. Normally, she could see the outline of the mountain when she woke up in the morning, but now all she could see was the vast snow.

She ran to the door and patted the snow off her head, stomped her feet before going into the house, took off her shoes and got into the quilt. She was shivering with cold when she went out of the yard. Jiang Nian didn't dare to think about how cold it would be for Lu Yu and the others to go to the bottom of the mountain for rescue.

Looking at the snowflakes outside the window, Jiang Nian felt that she was extremely lucky.

If she had not met Lu Yu when she traveled through time, or if she had not followed Lu Yu to the army, she might have had to rely on digging wild vegetables to fill her stomach in the countryside. Where could she have had meat and candy to eat in the past few months.

Don't even think about it.

The more Jiang Nian thought about it, the more she felt that she owed Lu Yu a lot.

She sneezed, crawled into the quilt, and gradually fell asleep. She slept until the next day, and Lu Yu didn't come back.

It snowed outside all night and should have stopped around dawn. Jiang Nian stayed in the quilt for a long time before he finally crawled out with difficulty, put on his cotton coat and walked out of the yard. The snow was heavy, and its thickness reached Jiang Nian's ankles. He stepped into the snow with one foot, making a crunching sound. The snow also seeped into his shoes through the openings, wetting his socks, feeling icy and cold.

Jiang Nian ran to the eaves again, rubbed her hands, endured the biting cold, went to the second room in the east, got a shovel and shoveled the snow. After shoveling a few times, her hands were frozen cold and red. She rubbed her hands, put them on her collar to warm them, and waited until her fingers were warm before continuing to shovel snow.

The small yard looked small before, but now it seems big and difficult to shovel snow.

The snow and mud mixed together in the places where the snow was shoveled, forming a mud pit. Jiang Nian's shoes were surrounded by a circle of mud. She shoveled from the door to the stove room, trying to shovel a path, but she was frozen halfway through the shoveling, so she ran back to the house, took off her shoes, and crawled into the quilt to warm up.

She felt that it was great that Lu Yu was there.

But in her heart, she knew that the suffering and cold that Lu Yu would suffer was not what she could imagine.

Jiang Nian warmed her feet and hands, put on her damp and cold cotton shoes again, went out with the shovel and shoveled to the door of the kitchen, finally shoveled out a small path, ran into the kitchen and added water to the pot, then made a fire and sat in front of the stove to warm herself.

Her fingers were numb and painful from the freezing, so she started to make breakfast after she recovered. She

still had the corn cakes steamed last night, and she didn't want to cook since she was alone, so she made some egg soup, heated up the corn cakes, and had breakfast with pickled vegetables.

After dinner, Jiang Nian warmed himself up, and continued to shovel snow from the door to the courtyard with a shovel. After shoveling for a while, he ran to the stove to warm himself. In this way, he finally shoveled out a path.

There were several footsteps outside, the sound of snow crunching, and Xu Yan's voice.

"Fortunately, there was a snowstorm last year. This year, Liu Qiang applied to the higher authorities in advance, so he was able to approve you to live here for a few days. Otherwise, you would have frozen to death at home."

From Xu Yan's voice, she didn't seem very happy.

A middle-aged woman's voice came from outside: "What are you talking about? What do you mean we are freezing to death at home? I am your stepmother, and you are cursing us like this? Otherwise, it was us, Liu Qiang, who married you, and you think you have a good life now?"

Jiang Nian:...

Is this the best relative of Liu Qiang's family?

Xu Yan was furious and said with a completely cold face: "I am Liu Qiang's wife, we are a couple, his family is my family, and you are outsiders. Otherwise, if Liu Qiang asked me to pick you up outside, I would not go out. You are just his second uncle and stepmother, not his biological parents."

After that, she left without looking back.

Jiang Nian took a look through the crack of the door. It was a middle-aged couple, with a teenage daughter and a boy who looked about ten years old. The daughter must have a hard time at home. She was carrying a cloth bag on her body, and the middle-aged man was also carrying several cloth bags in his hands. Only the boy was carried on the middle-aged woman's back.

The boy was so old, but he was like a piece of waste.

Jiang Nian took a look and went back to the house. She felt that before the couple left, Xu Yan's family had a hard time.

As she expected, there were always quarrels of varying sizes in Xu Yan's family these two days. The middle-aged woman had a loud voice. Jiang Nian thought Xu Yan would lose, but Xu Yan was even more powerful. With a loud voice, she directly covered the middle-aged woman's voice.

Lu Yu had been gone for two days and had not returned. Jiang Nian went to ask Feng Mei. Feng Mei said that the snow was heavier this time than last year. The bottom of the mountain was far from the troops, and the car could not go. They could only walk. It would take a whole day and night to walk, not to mention that it was snowing heavily, and the snowy road was even more difficult to walk.

Jiang Nian made some sweet potato noodles with sweet potato flour at noon, and ate some salted vegetables. When she was alone, she really made do with what she could, as long as she was not hungry. After dinner, she went back to the house, took out the military green jacket she had bought before, and continued to make a new century and style windbreaker for Lu Yu.

In

the afternoon, the snow began to fall again.

After washing the pots and bowls, Xu Yan took out a sweet potato from the stove, covered it with a rag and brought it into the house. Because Liu Qiang's second uncle and second aunt came over, Liu Jianye and Liu Jianwu slept with Xu Yan, and the remaining two rooms were occupied by them.

Liu Qiang's second uncle was called Liu Erzhu. He lived in the third brigade in a small commune next to Lecheng County. His house had only two rooms, which were collapsed by the thick snow. The family had no place to live, so they first went to Liu Qiang instead of to Liu Qiang's parents because the two families were too far away, one in the south and the other in the north. Liu Qiang's father's generation was too poor. The old lady gave birth to five sons, and the old couple were in poor health and could not support them, let alone find wives for their children.

So they kept Liu Qiang's father with them, and the remaining four sons, the second and third sons were recruited as live-in sons-in-law, so that the girl's family would have a capable man, more work points each year, and their daughters would not have to marry out. Some families were willing to do so, but the fourth son was given to someone else in exchange for a bag of food.

Liu Qiang's second uncle married into the Gu family of the Third Brigade and became a live-in son-in-law, which happened to be closer to here.

They stayed at Liu Qiang's place during the heavy snow last year. The family of four destroyed many of Liu's family's things. Originally, Liu Qiang didn't want them to come, but Liu Qiang's grandmother felt sorry for her son who spent so much money, so she asked Liu Qiang to take care of his second uncle's family.

Liu Qiang's second mother Gu Xia bent over and pressed against the window. She saw Xu Yan going to the next room with a pair of hot sweet potatoes and snorted coldly: "Look how stingy she is. She just roasted a sweet potato, why didn't she think of us?"

Gu Shan jumped on the bed: "Mom, my sister-in-law's house is so big, much bigger than ours."

Gu Xia glared at him and cursed at Liu Erzhu unhappily: "It's all your fault. If it weren't for your laziness, would my mother have separated us out? Look at the house we lived in after we were separated out. It's so shabby. How nice it was for me to live in my mother's house!"

Gu Xia felt resentful when she mentioned this.

When Liu Erzhu first came to their house, he did all kinds of work. His mother, father, and eldest brother all thought that they had found a good son-in-law. Later, she gave birth to a daughter, who took Liu Erzhu's surname and was called Liu Li. Later, when she gave birth to a son, Gu Shan, the whole family insisted that the son must also have the surname Gu. Since then, Liu Erzhu was not good at anything and ate more than others. The family couldn't stand it, so they separated their family and gave them the two shabby houses they had before. They couldn't live in them when it rained or snowed.

The last time it rained heavily, it was summer, so they made do with it for two days, but now it's winter, so they can't make do with it, otherwise it would be freezing.

Liu Erzhu ignored Gu Xia and sat at the head of the bed talking to his daughter.

Gu Shan jumped out of bed barefoot and ran to Gu Xia, grabbing her arm and shaking her: "Mom, you just said there are roasted sweet potatoes? Where are they? I want to eat roasted sweet potatoes, too. We eat pickled vegetables every day at home, and I haven't eaten roasted sweet potatoes for half a year."

Liu Li heard her brother's voice, looked up and said nothing.

Liu Erzhu ignored her, but Gu Xia got angry all of a sudden, turned around and kicked Liu Erzhu twice: "Your son wants to eat roasted sweet potatoes, are you deaf?"

Liu Erzhu glanced at the mud spots on his trousers and said unhappily: "This is someone else's family, not ours. We eat and drink their food, how can we have the face to compete with two children for roasted sweet potatoes?"

"What are you talking about?"

Gu Xia poked Liu Erzhu on the forehead angrily: "Look at how cowardly you are. This is your nephew's home. Who is Xu Yan? She has to call you second uncle. How can she not give you a sweet potato if you want it?"

Liu Erzhu felt that Gu Xia was unreasonable. After he moved into the Gu family, he found that everyone in the Gu family was unreasonable. A grown man who had been bullied by this family over the years lived like a grandson and couldn't even raise his head.

Seeing Liu Erzhu keeping his head down and not saying anything, Gu Xia suddenly got angry again and started to curse in the room, her voice was very loud. Liu Jianwu from the next door was eating roasted sweet potatoes and said to Xu Yan in a milky voice: "Mom, the second grandma is so noisy."

Liu Jianye also nodded in agreement. They quarreled every day last year, and it was the same this year.

Xu Yan said: "Ignore them. After eating the roasted sweet potatoes, mom will take you to Aunt Jiang's house to play."

When the two children heard this, they nodded happily: "We like Aunt Jiang the most."

After the children finished eating the roasted sweet potatoes, Xu Yan wiped their hands and took them out. When they left, she locked the door of her house. She hid a few peach cakes and money and bills in her house. The Gu family was not a good person, so Xu Yan was worried.

Seeing Xu Yan leaving with the children, Gu Xia made a snort and led Gu Shan out: "Mom just saw a small bag of white flour in the cupboard. Mom will make you some white noodles. They are so delicious." Gu

Shan swallowed his saliva greedily when he heard that he could eat white noodles. He had never eaten white noodles since he was a child. He only ate corn flour and sweet potato flour. There was a kid older than him in the team who had eaten white noodles and boasted about it in front of him every day, which almost made him sick.

Liu Li also swallowed her saliva. She looked at Liu Erzhu. Liu Erzhu said, "Do you want to eat?"

Liu Li pursed her lips, nodded, and shook her head and said, "We can't touch the things of my sister-in-law's house."

Liu Erzhu said, "If you want to eat, wait until your mother makes it, and your father will shamelessly ask for a bowl for you."

The snow was getting heavier at this time. Xu Yan led the two children to knock on the door of Jiang Nian's house.

The brazier in Jiang Nian's house was a little warm. Liu Jianye and Liu Jianwu sat on the bench and played obediently. Xu Yan helped to put a few dry firewood in the brazier, and moved forward with her butt on the bench, and began to complain about Gu Xia's family.

Speaking of what Gu Xia had done in the past two years, Xu Yan was so angry that she almost jumped up.

Jiang Nian had no impression of Gu Xia's family, because they were not mentioned at all in the plot of the book. She could not care about these things, nor was she too lazy to care. If she did not care well, she would get into trouble. So she listened to Xu Yan complaining all afternoon. When it was getting dark, Xu Yan took the two children back home.

Jiang Nian went out and closed the gate. The snow on the ground fell again. When she stepped on it, the mud stuck to the soles of her shoes. She had to stomp her feet again when she walked under the eaves.

She was just about to go to the kitchen to cook dinner when she heard Xu Yan's family quarreling again.

From their quarrel, we can probably tell that it was Gu Xia who secretly took the white flour that Xu Yan hid in the cabinet. There was not much white flour, just a small cloth bag. The four of them ate a meal of white noodles and ate half of the flour in one go.

How could Xu Yan not feel bad?

She bought this flour especially for Liu Jianye and Liu Jianwu. She and Liu Qiang were reluctant to eat a bite, and they ate cornmeal. As a result, Gu Xia ate half of the flour in one go.

Jiang Nian finished cooking, but the quarrel was still going on at Xu Yan's house. After a while, the sound of Liu Jianwu crying was heard. Xu Yan shouted, "Gu Shan, you dare to hit my son?!"

Gu Xia yelled, "What do you want to do? You still want to hit my son?"

Jiang Nian knew something was wrong and was still hesitating whether to go over and bring Liu Jianye and Liu Jianwu over to settle down first. Then he heard footsteps outside the door, followed by Feng Mei's scolding, "Why the hell are you running into our family yard to make trouble? Battalion Commander Liu was kind enough to take you in, and you took advantage of his absence and your family of four bullied their three children at home?!"

Feng Mei had a loud voice and was very imposing, which also attracted other military wives.

Gu Xia started to get scared when she saw this. Liu Erzhu was a person who always took advantage of others. After Xu Yan found out that the flour was missing, he started to apologize. Who knew that Gu Xia would be like a family member. Not only did he not admit his fault, but he also quarreled with Xu Yan.

Liu Erzhu was thick-skinned, but he was not tolerant enough to be pointed at by the military wives. He hid in the house, and Liu Li also ran in with her neck shrunk. Seeing this, Gu Xia said to Xu Yan, "We have eaten it all, and you want us to return it. At worst, we will spit it out and return it to you."

After that, she took Gu Shan back to the house.

Xu Yan was so angry that her face turned pale. Feng Mei persuaded her for a while and then left. After everyone left, Xu Yan ran into the kitchen, took the remaining white flour and a bowl of rice to her room and locked them up. Then she picked up Liu Jianwu and said, "Don't cry. Wait for your father to come back and tell him that Gu Shan beat you."

Liu Jianwu cried and wiped his tears. Liu Jianye pursed his lips and didn't say anything. When he passed the window of that room, he turned his head and glared at Gu Shan who was lying on the window and making faces at him.

The snow stopped at midnight. The snow was not heavy this time, but the snow at the bottom of the mountain was much heavier than here.

Lu Yu had been gone for ten days. Jiang Nian stayed at home alone, staring at the gray and cold sky every day. Every now and then, she could hear quarrels coming from Xu Yan's house. Feng Mei would come over and talk to her when she had nothing to do.

Until New Year's Day, she finally got news about Lu Yu.

It was Feng Mei who told her that Zhu Jun came back last night and left again. Captain Song asked Zhu Jun to tell Feng Mei that they were fine. According to Feng Mei, Lu Yu also asked Zhu Jun to tell her that everything was fine over there.

Jiang Nian's heart, which had been hanging for more than half a month, finally settled down.

Ever since Lu Yu left, she has been worried about him. Xu Cheng was injured during the snow disaster rescue and ended up paralyzed. She breathed a sigh of relief and said with a smile, "I'm glad he's okay."

She added a few dry firewood to the brazier and asked, "Sister Feng, when will they be back?"

Feng Mei rubbed her scalp with a needle, thought for a while and said, "It took them more than 20 days to come back last year, so they should be back in the next few days."

After that, she looked at Jiang Nian, who was hanging his head and not talking, and said after a moment of hesitation, "Are you worried about the same thing as Deputy Regiment Commander Lu and Battalion Commander Xu?"

Jiang Nian: ...

Can we stop talking nonsense?

Knowing that Lu Yu and his friends would be back in a few days, Jiang Nian felt much better. She got up early and shoveled the snow in the yard into a big pile. She shoveled the snow stained by mud into a pile and made a snowman with the clean snow.

Jiang Nian blew hot air from her hands, put the rolled snowman head on her body, put a red scarf she knitted last month on it, and inserted two thin sticks on its head, and two small black dots from the burnt firewood as eyes, and finally inserted a dried red pepper into its head as a red nose.

She ran into the house and warmed her hands on the brazier, then went to the stove room to prepare the dough and steam some corn and white flour buns. There was some glutinous rice left over from last time, so she planned to make some glutinous rice cakes. In the afternoon, Song Xiangdong came over with a bowl of hot cornmeal dough in his hands, his face was frozen red, and white steam came out of his mouth when he spoke.

"Aunt Jiang, this is what my mother made. She said she wanted you to have a taste."

Jiang Nian took the bowl and held it in her hands. Her palms were warm. She said to Song Xiangdong, "Thank you."

Song Xiangdong smiled embarrassedly, "You're welcome."

Then he ran out of the house, and then thought of something else. He turned back and continued, "Aunt Jiang, I'll come over to get the bowl later."

Jiang Nian smiled and said, "Okay."

After Song Xiangdong left, Jiang Nian used chopsticks to stir the cornmeal dough, poured chili water and vinegar on it, and she stirred it and tasted it. It was sour and spicy, and it tasted pretty good. Jiang Nian knew this way of eating. Basically, the older generation in the north can make it.

Grandpa and grandma sometimes make it, but they always use white flour.

When it was getting dark, Song Xiangdong came to get a bowl. Jiang Nian put a few pieces of glutinous rice cakes in it. Song Xiangdong's eyes widened in surprise. He pinched a small piece and ate it. The sweet taste immediately filled his lips and teeth, fragrant and sweet.

Jiang Nian smiled and said, "Is it delicious?"

Song Xiangdong nodded happily, "It's very delicious. Thank you, Aunt Jiang. I'll take it back and let my mother and Xiang Hong taste it."

Jiang Nian smiled, turned around, put the steamed bread and glutinous rice cakes away, washed his hands, and went back to the room to lie down.

Feng Mei only said that Lu Yu and the others would be back in a few days, but she didn't know the exact day.

The wind started to blow outside again. Jiang Nian could hear the whistling wind even when she was covered in the quilt. She fell into a daze and woke up from the cold in the middle of the night. When she opened her eyes, she found herself rolling to the edge of the bed again. The quilt was inside the bed, and only a corner of her body was covered. She shivered from the cold and pulled the quilt over herself tightly.

The wind outside seemed to be stronger. Jiang Nian was about to continue sleeping when she suddenly heard coughs in the wind.

It sounded like Lu Yu's voice.

Could it be that he is back? !

Jiang Nian quickly put on her cotton jacket and cotton pants, and walked to the door in the dark in her cotton shoes. She grabbed the door frame and pulled it open a little. She saw a tall and slender figure in the dark courtyard. The man walked into the kitchen, and then the light in the kitchen came on.

Needless to say, Lu Yu climbed over the wall again.

She wrapped her cotton jacket tightly, closed the door, and ran to the kitchen. She hadn't seen him for more than 20 days. When she saw Lu Yu tonight, she felt an indescribable sense of steadiness and security in her heart. She ran to the door of the kitchen and bumped into Lu Yu who closed the cabinet and turned around. @Infinite good articles,

all in Jinjiang Literature City Jiang Nian's eyes were full of joy, and her voice was crisp and pleasant: "You are finally back."

Lu Yu was startled, looking at Jiang Nian at the door. She was wearing her hair, with a few strands of hair on her face, which made her face even whiter and more beautiful, especially when she smiled, revealing her white teeth, and her eyes seemed to hide bright stars.

His heart skipped a beat for no reason, and a gentle smile appeared in his dark eyes: "Well, you are back."