Back To The 80s-Chapter 102 - 101: Potato_1

Three days later, Xiaobei went to the town to collect the photos. Seeing the pictures, she couldn’t help but beam. The photo was only three inches in size and in black and white, but it couldn’t conceal her bright smile. Even though Lu Zhanguo looked serious in the photo, his eyes were filled with a hint of tenderness and indulgence.

Xiaobei, delighted with the photo, decided to go to the market to buy some meat. Unexpectedly, she saw Yuan Tan ahead. Had she not left? Or did she come back again?

Yuan Tan was dressed in bell-bottom jeans and a cinched short-sleeved shirt with a suit collar. Walking in the small town, she was a real head turner.

Xiaobei, out of curiosity, watched Yuan Tan heading towards the bus station for T City. Was she just leaving now? Why hadn’t she been around to bother her and Lu Zhanguo in the past three days?

With a bunch of questions, she went to the market and bought some meat. Only when she saw the potatoes at the market did she remember that Li Fengmei had asked her to buy some. She had completely forgotten. If Lu Zhanguo returned early that evening, they could go to the village together to have a look.

Lu Zhanguo came back at noon, and Xiaobei showed him the photo, bragging, "Look, how good my picture turned out, and how naturally I’m smiling."

Lu Zhanguo nodded, "Looks good." A rare satisfied smile appeared on his face. Having been raised in the army by his grandfather from a young age, he rarely got to experience the warmth of family. Looking at the photo now, he felt a beam of light breaking into his world of dark emotions, making them instantly bright and warm.

Xiaobei handed a photo to Lu Zhanguo, "Here, keep one. Take it out and look at it when you miss me." She laughed gleefully after saying this.

Lu Zhanguo took the photo, put it in a book for safekeeping, and then took a registered letter out of his pocket and gave it to Xiaobei, "It’s a letter from the provincial city."

Xiaobei couldn’t wait to open it. Inside was a bank remittance slip and an invitation.

There were eight hundred yuan on the remittance slip. Xiaobei held up the slip joyfully and said, "I can afford to keep you from now on."

Lu Zhanguo said nothing. This girl was injuring his male pride.

The invitation was for Xiaobei to attend an internal exchange meeting at a publishing house in the provincial city.

Xiaobei thought for a while and asked Lu Zhanguo, "Should I go?"

Lu Zhanguo was pleased with his young wife’s achievements but after some consideration he said, "You decide. It wouldn’t hurt to go and see."

Xiaobei gave her response, "I believe I won’t go. What if Shen Heng looks for me?" Saying this, she put the invitation and remittance receipt away and suggested, "Let’s eat lunch and go to Chenjia Hill to look at the potatoes."

Lu Zhanguo was puzzled, "We always have our ration vehicles collect everything and then distribute to each family, don’t we?"

"Ah, Li Fengmei told me to go to the village to buy potatoes." Xiaobei was certain she hadn’t misheard.

"Let’s ask Lijun." Lu Zhanguo, too, didn’t understand why Li Fengmei had insisted Xiaobei go to the village to buy potatoes.

Upon hearing Xiaobei’s question, Zhang Lijun slapped his forehead and said, "The thing is, our army group always buys in bulk from the Wu Family Trench west of town. Each household in our nearby village, however, has so little land that even producing enough food is an issue. There are even less who grow potatoes and those who do can’t sell their crops. Dadong’s classmate’s family had to pull their child out of school because they couldn’t afford to pay the public grain levy, all due to bad potato sales. So on hearing of this, Fengmei suggested that we buy potatoes solely from Dadong’s classmate’s village this year."

Xiaobei had no idea how difficult life was in rural areas at present. After all, since she arrived, she had been living a comfortable life with no worries about food or clothing.

She turned to Lu Zhanguo and said, "Let’s buy from the village then."

Lu Zhanguo nodded, "We’ll go over and have a look next Sunday then. Chenjia Hill is quite a distance from here. We will need half a day."

Xiaobei, still engrossed with joy over her eight hundred yuan in manuscript fees, forgot to tell Lu Zhanguo about seeing Yuan Tan today.

"When we move to the new residential compound, we should buy a refrigerator and a sofa."

Xiaobei couldn’t stop daydreaming about their life after moving. She felt the TV could come later as she’s not a fan of this era’s TV dramas. However, if they have extra money, they could buy a tape recorder.

"OK," Lu Zhanguo agreed.

"Where is the new compound being built? How come I haven’t seen it?" Xiaobei suddenly realized she hadn’t seen any construction.

"It’s to the west of the guesthouse, but it can only be two stories high," Lu Zhanguo explained.

"Why?"

"Because we are a confidential organization, buildings can’t be more than two stories high," Lu Zhanguo patiently replied.

"As long as our home has a kitchen and a restroom, I’ll be happy. I don’t like the lack of privacy. When I cook, I can smell what others are eating," Xiaobei thought her demands were quite reasonable.

"Yes, the higher-ranking officials will have two-bedroom apartments and the others will have one-bedroom apartments," Lu Zhanguo looked at Xiaobei’s puzzled face and said softly.

"That’s good," Xiaobei couldn’t help but imagine what their new home would look like.

In the afternoon, Xiaobei made dumplings stuffed with eggplant and meat. She invited Zhang Lijun to join them for a meal, then asked Lu Zhanguo, "Should we ask Guo Huaqiang and his wife to join us for dinner? I made quite a lot."

Lu Zhanguo frowned. He was loathing Xiangmin’s company, but considering that he got along well with Guo Huaqiang, he said, "Let me go and see."

When Xiaobei was cooking the dumplings in the corridor, Lu Zhanguo emerged from Guo Huaqiang’s house looking rather gloomy, followed by Guo Huaqiang. Xiangmin hadn’t joined.

Lu Zhanguo also called Zhang Lijun from the doorway. The three of them sat down around the table in the room.

Xiaobei served the pre-made cold dishes, one was mixed three shreds, and the other was mixed cucumber. She brought the boiled dumplings to the table and noticed the three men’s faces all looked gloomy.

After a moment’s thought, she went to fetch the bottle of wine Yuan Tan had brought, gave it to Lu Zhanguo, and washed three wine cups for the men.

Lu Zhanguo raised an eyebrow and poured the wine for the three of them. Xiaobei had a few bites, then said to Lu Zhanguo quietly, "I’ll go to Wang Ping’s house to see how she marinates pickles."

After Xiaobei left, Guo Huaqiang took a sip of his wine and sighed, "Look at your wife, she’s become more and more understanding over time. Why is my wife so senseless? Being pregnant seems to have changed her completely. She’s become paranoid and irritable."

Lu Zhanguo kept silent because he agreed with Guo Huaqiang. Zhang Lijun, however, offered, "All pregnant women are like this. Just bear with it. Things will get better once the baby is born."

"Oh, that’s not easy. She can make a scene at home, but she even asked me to arrange for her brother to come to work in our camp’s logistics department today. I disagreed and she threw a fit at home, throwing things around and cursing. She’s become so unreasonable," complained Guo Huaqiang. He felt Xiangmin used to be a bit snobbish and aloof. But now, her entire outlook on life seemed distorted.

Lu Zhanguo felt sympathetic towards Guo Huaqiang’s situation as he himself had been living in the same turmoil half a year ago. As it was their personal matter, he didn’t attempt to mediate. He raised his wine cup and said, "Come on, let’s drink. Things will get better."

Zhang Lijun poured more wine for the three of them and said, "When a couple is living together, it really takes time to smooth out each other’s edges. Only then can life become comfortable."