Back To The 80s-Chapter 487 - 498: Persuasion_1

Gu Xiaobei looked at Mo Wang and laughed, "Seems like it! As long as Mo Wang doesn’t bring me a boyfriend, I can accept anything."

Lu Zhanguo didn’t quite understand, "What boyfriend?"

Gu Xiaobei quickly tried to change the subject: "Let’s eat, afterwards we will play ’Eagle chasing chicks’."

...

Lu Zhanguo had been busy recently with the new recruit training. Many of the new recruits had come from the south and were not used to the severe cold of the Northwest. Plus, the intense daily training had led to some recruits feeling resentful, and some even considering desertion.

Every year there would be recruits like this, so every year at this time, it was always the busiest and most exhausting for Lu Zhanguo. He had to take care of the new recruit’s feelings and prevent these seventeen-eighteen-year-old boys from giving up.

Zhong Zhi looked at Lu Zhanguo, who was leaning back in a chair, deep in thought, and couldn’t help but complain: "This year’s recruits can’t handle the training at all. They catch colds every two or three days. They might as well go back to farming at this rate."

Lu Zhanguo suddenly opened his eyes, a sharp light flashing in his eyes. Looking at Zhong Zhi, he said: "You were also a new recruit once, have you forgotten how you adjusted? They were all novices before they came here. Suddenly they are in our special forces and have to undertake intensive training. Of course, their bodies will need time to adjust."

Zhong Zhi was about to retort when a report from outside interrupted him.

Wu Guanghan came in and said: "Commander, this is next week’s training plan." As he spoke, he handed a stack of documents to Lu Zhanguo. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Zhong Zhi took the chance to excuse himself and leave. When it came to training, he was pretty firm in his own philosophy - that new recruits should be trained hard until they cried out for their parents and quit. Unlike Lu Zhanguo, who was always asking for gradual progression. How could they ever see quick results with that approach?

Lu Zhanguo took the papers and quickly scanned them. The military documents always had ’People’s Liberation Army **** Unit’ printed at the top.

While Lu Zhanguo was looking at the papers, Wu Guanghan said: "Commander, our training and the second squad’s methods are completely contradictory. Are we perhaps moving too slow?"

Lu Zhanguo knew this was just Zhong Zhi acting arrogantly again. He frowned and said: "We can discuss this at a meeting later. Just continue the training as planned."

Wu Guanghan nodded and was about to leave when Lu Zhanguo stopped him: "Bring Chunling to my house for dinner tonight. My wife is making dumplings for you."

"Sure, I’ll head off then." Wu Guanghan nodded and left.

Lu Zhanguo then lowered his head to read Wu Guanghan’s plan thoroughly. He decided to let Zhong Zhi take another hard hit and see if he would finally learn his lesson.

Gu Xiaobei, together with Xiaopang and Mo Wang, was making dumplings at home, thinking about how to persuade Wu Guanghan when he arrived.

Xiaopang and Mo Wang were playing in the living room. Since Mo Wang often behaved like a big brother, letting his sister have her way most of the time, there were usually no conflicts between the two children, unless it involved something Mo Wang really liked and didn’t want to give to Xiaopang.

Xiaopang was a very astute little girl. After a few struggles with Mo Wang, she realized she couldn’t beat her brother and had changed her tactics, sweetly saying, "Brother, can I play with this?"

Mo Wang was playing with a paper frog folded by their dad and shook his head.

Xiaopang, who had already torn up her own paper frog, began to pester Mo Wang for his: "Brother, can we swap toys? Let’s swap, OK?" she said, trying to persuade him with her cloth doll.

Mo Wang thought seriously for a bit and then shook his head: "No, I don’t want the doll."

Xiaopang looked at her own cloth doll, which was quite decent except for a missing arm. Feeling a bit frustrated, she thought, ’I spoke nicely and he still won’t swap,’ and prepared to implement plan B. She pouted and blinked her eyes, welling up with tears. Then, she opened her mouth and started crying loudly.

Mo Wang, looking at his sister who was able to turn on the waterworks so easily, could only hand over the paper frog to Xiaopang. After all, his dad had said that boys should never make their sister cry.

Gu Xiaobei, peering from the kitchen door, shook her head and chuckled. Xiaopang’s tactic of coaxing and then crying really had Mo Wang defeated. Every time, Mo Wang would compromise helplessly.

By the time Lu Zhanguo returned, Gu Xiaobei had already wrapped more than a hundred dumplings, and the two children - each with a ball of dough - were happily playing on the coffee table, leaving her undisturbed.

"Are Guanghan and Chunling coming?" Gu Xiaobei asked.

"Yes, Guanghan went to get Chunling. They’ll be here shortly," Lu Zhanguo said, getting ready to wash up and help Gu Xiaobei.

Xiaopang ran over, hugging her father’s legs and excitedly called out, "Daddy, play! Daddy, play with me."

Gu Xiaobei stood in the kitchen doorway and smiled: "Alright, you go play with them. I can manage the rest of the dumplings by myself, there aren’t many left."

Just when the dumplings were almost ready, Wu Guanghan and Ge Chunling arrived, with Guanghan’s face looking grave.

Seeing this, Gu Xiaobei wondered if they had had a quarrel. She called Chunling into the kitchen to help wrap the remaining dumplings.

"What happened? Why didn’t you bring Xiaobao?" Gu Xiaobei asked while rolling out dumpling wrappers.

Ge Chunling pouted and replied, "This morning, when Guanghan left, he said he wouldn’t be home for dinner. Who knew he would suddenly come home tonight? My mother-in-law had made a cabbage porridge, just sprinkled in some flour, added bread bits and served it up for Xiaobao. We were just eating it when Guanghan came back. He saw our meal and said, ’This is too thin, can you even feel full?’. My mother-in-law inadvertently said, ’We usually eat like this, we’re used to it and it doesn’t make us hungry.’ Guanghan didn’t say much more, just called me to your house for dinner. On the way, he asked me about it and I told him everything. That’s why he’s so angry now."

Gu Xiaobei laughed: "This happened at just the right time. How come Xiaobao didn’t come along?"

"Xiaobao has just learned to walk and he’s pretty restless, always running around. I thought it might be inconvenient to bring him since we’ll be discussing things." Chunling replied.

During dinner, Wu Guanghan took a couple of swigs of wine and couldn’t help but grumble: "I really didn’t think my mom could be like this. Every time I eat at home, we have noodles or bread. I thought our life was pretty good. As long as we can be full even with no meat, it’s fine. But today, I found out when I’m not at home, this is what they eat."

Lu Zhanguo was helping Xiaopang cool down her dumplings. Hearing what Guanghan said, he cut straight to the point: "This just shows you don’t pay enough attention to your family. It’s great to be devoted to your work, but you should also care about your home. Looking at you, I bet you’ve never bought food or been in the kitchen once. How else would you have no idea about these things?"

Gu Xiaobei silently applauded her husband a thousand times in her heart. He was absolutely right. This was all due to Wu Guanghan’s lack of concern for everything at home, which allowed the Wu family to do as they pleased.

Wu Guanghan felt his face grow hot at Lu Zhanguo’s words. He had indeed never handled any household matters before. All he did was cuddle his son when he returned home. After meals, he would immediately leave his bowl and take his son to lie down on the large heated brick bed. In his view, it was only natural for women to do the housework.