They arrived at the grocery store quickly. Cheng Baidong put Tiantian down on the ground and handed the soy sauce bottle to the clerk: "Fill it with soy sauce."
The soy sauce in the side dish section is sold in bulk, packaged in a large white barrel.
The sales clerk took the soy sauce bottle from Cheng Bodong, unscrewed the cap, put the funnel into the bottle, and then used a long-handled spoon, nearly half a meter long, to scoop out a full spoonful of soy sauce and pour it into the funnel.
A bottle of soy sauce was filled with just two spoonfuls.
She handed the full soy sauce bottle back to Cheng Baidong, saying, "Eighty cents."
"Here's a dollar." Cheng Bodong took out a dollar and handed it to her. "You can have the remaining two cents for fruit candy."
The sales clerk grunted and placed the tray of candies in front of Cheng Baidong: "Five candies for one cent, help yourself."
"Sweetie, you choose."
Cheng Baidong carried Tiantian to the counter.
After choosing the candy, Cheng Baidong picked Tiantian up from the counter and let her walk on her own.
He carried a soy sauce bottle in one hand and held Tian Tian's hand in the other as he walked out. As soon as he stepped outside, he ran into Sun Shuyi.
Sun Shuyi's face lit up with surprise, and she said with a big smile, "Director Cheng, what a coincidence, just here to buy soy sauce?"
Cheng Baidong gave a slight, indifferent nod: "I have things to do at home, so I'll be leaving now."
“Let’s go together, it’s on the way.” Sun Shuyi stopped buying anything and followed closely beside the two of them, frequently trying to make conversation.
Cheng Baidong's brows furrowed in annoyance. After giving a few perfunctory replies, he noticed that Sun Shuyi seemed oblivious to his intentions and tried to probe his work hours.
"Director Cheng, what time do you start work in the morning? I haven't seen you come to the cafeteria for breakfast these past few days."
"My wife prepares breakfast; we don't eat at the cafeteria."
As they were talking, the two reached a fork in the road. Cheng Baidong, annoyed that Tian Tian's legs were too short and she was walking too slowly, simply bent down and picked her up again. He said to Sun Shuyi, "I'm sorry, my wife is very strict. I need to keep my distance from female comrades. Unless necessary, I hope you won't come to talk to me again to avoid misunderstandings."
Cheng Baidong apologized verbally, but his face showed no remorse.
Sun Shuyi's expression froze.
Cheng Baidong's words were undoubtedly a slap in the face to her.
Her face flushed and paled in turns. She forced a smile and tried to salvage the situation: "Well, Fang Qiao is being too petty. We're just ordinary colleagues. We bumped into each other on the street and exchanged a few words. There's nothing wrong with that, is there?"
"That's for the best."
After saying that, Cheng Baidong carried Tian Tian and strode away.
Sun Shuyi stood still, biting her lip tightly, her eyes revealing a strong sense of unwillingness.
We brought the soy sauce home, and dinner was ready in no time.
Fang Qiao steamed locust flower rice. Fresh locust flowers were washed and drained, then mixed with a little cooking oil and dry flour until there was no dry powder. The mixture was then steamed over high heat for eight minutes, and the locust flower rice was ready.
After taking it out of the pan, shake it to separate the pieces, add some salt and garlic juice, and mix it all together. The taste is absolutely amazing!
Unlike Chen Guizhi's family, where only Chen Guizhi herself likes to eat locust flowers, everyone in Fang Qiao's family likes the taste of locust flowers. Even Tian Tian ate a small bowl of locust flower rice.
After dinner, Fang Qiao washed the wild strawberries she had picked from the mountain and divided them equally among themselves, three strawberries each.
Sweetie tasted it first, smacked her lips, and said, "It's a little sour."
Xiaojing couldn't handle sour tastes, so she hesitated, holding the strawberry, somewhat reluctant to put it in her mouth.
Fang Qiao took a bite of the strawberry in her hand, tasted it, and thought it was alright, not too sour.
"It's a little bit sour, but not too sour. Why don't you try it?"
"Really?" Xiaojing was still a little scared.
"Really, why would I lie to you?" Fang Qiao said, stuffing the rest of the strawberries into her mouth.
Xiao Jing saw that Fang Qiao's expression hadn't changed at all, and only then did she believe that the strawberries weren't too sour.
She tentatively took a small bite, but as soon as the strawberry entered her mouth, she grimaced from the sourness, her face contorting in pain.
"Ouch..." She squinted, taking a while to recover: "Sister-in-law, you call this not sour?"
"Uh..." Fang Qiao felt a little embarrassed for misleading Xiao Jing: "Maybe yours is just a bit sour?"
"Maybe." But Xiaojing was too scared to eat it now because of the sour taste.
"I'm not eating any more, you can have these two."
She gave the remaining two, one to Fang Qiao and one to Tian Tian.
Fang Qiao ate the food in two bites, finding the sourness acceptable and within a tolerable range.
May Day is just around the corner; the days will get longer and the nights shorter.
Cheng Baidong extended his lunch break, although it was only half an hour longer, he could still occasionally steal a moment to lie down.
Weekends offer even more time; the family of three can snuggle together and sleep until 3 p.m.
Lying in bed, Fang Qiao patted An'an's little bottom to lull her to sleep while asking Cheng Baidong, "The security at the gate is being stricter. Has something happened at the factory?"
"Not yet," Cheng Baidong replied. "However, I received some bad news. Be careful when you go out to buy groceries these days. If any suspicious people talk to you, try not to engage with them."
Fang Qiao nodded: "Okay, I understand."
As the weather gradually warmed up, Cheng Baidong was able to cool down using his spiritual energy. Although Fang Qiao hadn't yet reached the point where she could control her spiritual energy to cool down, she didn't feel hot sleeping next to Cheng Baidong.
She closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.
Suddenly remembering something, she opened her eyes again: "Oh right, this morning when I went to Heshan to pick locust flowers with Sister Guizhi, I think I saw someone on the distant ridge looking towards their pharmaceutical factory with binoculars."
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