Zhang Hongmei smiled and said, "Yes, my uncle and aunt seem to have a good relationship."
After the two finished eating, Liu Jingze was in charge of cleaning the table and washing the dishes, while Zhang Hongmei cut the tofu into small pieces, put them on two trays outside to freeze, and prepared frozen tofu.
The rest are piled up in a bowl and placed in the kitchen; we need to make spicy tofu tomorrow.
I'll prepare two dishes tomorrow: spicy tofu and cabbage stew with frozen tofu. There's nothing else I have. The staple food will be a mix of sorghum and regular rice. Even if the dishes aren't great, the rice has to be good.
Zhang Hongmei went over the menu for tomorrow's meal with Liu Jingze. Liu Jingze had no objections; these days, only this girl would treat others to a meal, while others would secretly eat their own food.
The next morning, Zhang Hongmei soaked the shredded radish and started the dough rising. At noon, Liu Jianguo came over and they ate steamed buns made with shredded radish and wheat flour.
Soak a small piece of smoked meat, about a pound, and put it in the filling. Now there's meat in it, right?
For breakfast, they made pumpkin and millet porridge, and after the two finished eating, they left a small bowl for Liu Jianguo.
After breakfast, Liu Jingze swept all the areas without snow and then helped Zhang Hongmei carry the firewood into the kitchen.
Anyway, I always had work on hand. It wasn't finished even when Liu Jianguo arrived.
"Brother Jianguo, I've saved some porridge for you. Go and eat it quickly. I'm sitting in the pot; it's not cold yet. There's steamed red pickled vegetables and cucumber pickled vegetables too. Eat whatever you want."
For lunch, we had steamed buns made with shredded radish and smoked pork.
"Then I won't eat breakfast. I'm waiting to eat vegetable buns."
Zhang Hongmei didn't say anything more, but sat under the eaves reading the newspaper. Yesterday, when she went to the post office to pick up the newspaper, Huang Ying still saved them all for her.
After Liu Jingze finished tidying up, he sat down next to Zhang Hongmei with a newspaper and started reading.
Liu Jianguo sat to the side watching the two of them, regretting that he had come so early.
Zhang Hongmei looked up and noticed Liu Jianguo's unease. "Brother Jianguo, why don't you go take a nap? I'll call you for lunch."
"Okay. I'm going back to my dorm to sleep."
"Jianguo, you should sleep here. Otherwise, we'll waste time on the road. Come on, I'll take you back to your room to sleep."
Liu Jingze treated Liu Jianguo like the master of the house, and Zhang Hongmei didn't seem to mind, but Liu Jianguo felt extremely uncomfortable.
Zhang Hongmei suddenly remembered that she hadn't read two letters yet, so she went inside and took them out of her handbag.
I looked at the addresses on the two letters. One was from the capital, and judging from the handwriting, it should be Zhang Shouyi's. The other was from Er Lengzi, and there was no mailing address, but the spider-like handwriting was his.
Opening Zhang Shouyi's letter meant that they should return by the 29th, and then Zhang Hongmei would go to the capital with them. As for the words of concern, Zhang Hongmei ignored them.
Zhang Hongmei smiled. She herself didn't have that much confidence in herself, but everyone around her was full of confidence.
She placed Zhang Shouyi's letter on the bench where Liu Jingze had been sitting, and then opened Er Lengzi's letter. Zhang Hongmei smiled as soon as she saw the beginning.
The letter was full of nostalgia for the village, and of course, what he missed most was Zhang Hongmei's braised pork.
He's now at the border and has already been promoted to platoon leader. Wow, that's a really fast promotion; it hasn't even been two years, and he's already a platoon leader. Thinking about it, he's on the battlefield; if his promotion is too fast, it means it's very dangerous there, and he must have performed a great service.
This is still somewhat understandable, but it inevitably makes me worry about him. Every advantage has its disadvantages; he's really a handful.
When Liu Jingze came out, he saw Zhang Hongmei staring blankly at the letter. He walked over and saw an opened letter on the bench where he had been sitting.
He picked it up, sat down, and glanced at it; his face turned green.
The letter contained much of his longing and concern for Zhang Hongmei, and judging from the handwriting, it was probably written by a man. However, he was still a gentleman and knew not to look at what was improper.
"Hongmei, what's wrong?"
"Oh, this is a letter from Brother Er Lengzi. He's been promoted to platoon leader."
"That's a good thing! What are you doing?"
"Sigh! Promotion is a good thing, but he rose so quickly and has no foundation. He must have worked hard to get it."
"All soldiers are like this, you should understand."
"Understand what? I know the principles, but the people around me on the battlefield must be worried."
"There's no use worrying. Liu Baoguo is quite skilled, so don't worry."
Here, have you read this letter?
“I read it. This is a letter from Zhang Shouyi. He said he wants to come back for the New Year and also wants to take me to the capital.”
Liu Jingze was both surprised and delighted when he heard Zhang Hongmei's words. He was surprised that Zhang Shouyi had written a letter to Zhang Hongmei, but delighted that Zhang Hongmei didn't seem to have any special feelings about Zhang Shouyi's letter.
"Then we can't go together."
"We'll see. I'll call them from the post office tomorrow and tell them not to come. The snow is so heavy, it's not safe on the road."
"Should we make the call now?"
"Is today Sunday? This is his office phone number."
"Oh!" Liu Jingze was in a hurry and his mind was in a mess, so he forgot that it was Sunday.
“Brother Jingze, look at this news, it’s pure nonsense.” Zhang Hongmei handed the newspaper to Liu Jingze.
"Don't worry about these things. Just know that it's an exaggeration. There are always some people like that."
Zhang Hongmei threw the newspaper at Liu Jingze in frustration. It was because of parasites like these that society was regressing.
Liu Jingze smiled at the indignant Zhang Hongmei and said, "You can't do this. There will be more in the future. Try to calm down."
Am I being a bit of a radical youth?
"Angry youth?"
"A cynical youth."
"Hehehe, that's right."
"Get out of here, I don't want to talk to you anymore, I'm going to be angry for a while."
Liu Jingze chuckled. He had never seen such a proud and cute expression before, and it really tickled his heart.
"Okay, okay, I was wrong. I shouldn't have called you an angry young man."
Zhang Hongmei rolled her eyes at Liu Jingze, thinking, "How annoying."
Liu Jingze liked Zhang Hongmei like this, so he kept teasing her to talk.
Zhang Hongmei was utterly speechless at Liu Jingze's perverse sense of humor.
Time passed by as Liu Jingze teased her, and it was already ten o'clock. So Zhang Hongmei got up to cook, and Liu Jingze followed her around happily. These days, Liu Jingze's favorite thing to do was to light the fire for Zhang Hongmei.
The dough had risen. Zhang Hongmei started preparing the filling. Because the smoked meat had been stir-fried, it smelled especially good.
Zhang Hongmei's steamed buns looked especially beautiful. Liu Jingze kept staring at Zhang Hongmei's hands and said, "Hongmei, have I ever told you that the steamed buns you make are so beautiful?"
"I hear you now. What's the use of just looking good? The most important thing is that it tastes good, right?"
"If it looks good, then I'll have the urge to eat it, okay?"
Is that even possible? "Then you should eat more. Actually, I wanted to tell you that you can't judge a book by its cover, and you certainly can't judge an object by its appearance. Maybe something that looks good is poisonous."
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