Chronicle of the 70s-Chapter 349 - 336: Strange Woman (Part 2)
Three days later, Leng Qing arrived at noon. When she planned to clean up the house, she found that all the rooms were already tidied up, not only habitable but comfortably so. Her bedding was made, and the curtains were all hung. Seeing Hu Zi asleep from exhaustion, she thought it was his doing. After all, moving houses is very exhausting, and she never thought it was Li Xianglu, who had the Midas touch, who had sorted everything out.
The fridge was new, and after Li Xianglu cleaned it, it was left to cool for a day before being used. Hu Zi also installed the television because the two kids were fussing to watch cartoons.
Old Li, in the cool of the morning, had dug out the vegetable garden beneath the yard. He planted some spinach, green bamboo shoots, Chinese cabbage, and some carrots, otherwise, having vegetables at home would have been an issue.
After Leng Qing arrived, Li Xianglu began to sort out their food rationing situation. Their household registrations hadn’t been relocated, which was something the Lu Family helped with. Otherwise, normally when relocating to the countryside, the household registration and food rationing need to be transferred together.
Li Xianglu planned for the two children to return to the capital for school when they turned seven, so she didn’t want their registrations to be transferred around. This would make it more difficult to eventually settle in the capital, and she didn’t want the hassle of moving back and forth.
Over here, the food rationing issue was resolved swiftly, especially since the Relationship Department changed their demeanor the moment they saw Qin Xi’s name, and the process was expedited very quickly right on the spot.
Qin Xi finally arrived on July 3rd. Seeing the orderly courtyard and the two kids chasing each other, she instantly felt settled.
Because of Qin Xi’s arrival, that evening, Li Xianglu made a whole basket of chive and pork dumplings. The couple next door, also from the County Committee, gave them a bunch of chives that were very fresh. Li Xianglu, seeing the couple’s natural demeanor and nice appearance, accepted them.
As the family gathered for dinner, Qin Xi mentioned that Xu Wu had already returned, and Su Yan might come back not at the year’s end but in October, as there was someone pulling out of the company there, and Xu Wu took over directly, which simplified things a lot.
Li Xianglu playfully complained, "Now Xu Wu won’t have time to come back."
Before Qin Xi could respond, the two children, their eyes lighting up, shouted, "Uncle!" 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚
Li Xianglu, amused, added a cold dumpling to each of the kids’ bowls before following up with, "Yes, uncle is back."
The two kids immediately nodded excitedly, calling out for their uncle again.
Qin Xi, sounding somewhat jealous, said, "Look at this, just a bit of work for your brother, and not only are you sympathetic, but both sons keep calling ’uncle this, uncle that’."
Li Xianglu, wide-eyed, pinched Qin Xi’s waist without any restraints, and only released when he grimaced in pain.
Old Li, having had his fill, looked at his granddaughter still behaving this way, and with some resignation, took his bowl of soup to drink it on the side.
Leng Qing felt somewhat envious of their relationship. The couple had been married for a long time and reportedly had known each other since their teens. Now that Li Xianglu was 25, that made it a decade, and they still got along like one person, unlike her and Li Jianqing, where she always felt there was a barrier.
Actually, on the surface, they were both fine, just too polite. She wanted to change that, but Li Jianqing seemed unwilling to change; the two of them were somewhat like polite strangers.
However, everyone else was unaware, thinking everything was fine. That day, when Iro left the country, she noticed that Li Jianqing’s spirits were low; he looked deflated, and in the evening when she saw that she was alone, she went out only to find her husband smoking in the living room.
Li Jianqing does not smoke.
It’s not that she was overthinking; it was impossible not to overthink. Their situation together was quite special, it was her who took the initiative, and he initially agreed as a temporary arrangement, but they ended up getting married. Shouldn’t they put everything aside and start afresh?
Leng Qing felt somewhat lost. If there were no comparisons, she might have thought that this was what marriage was like, but not considering Li Xianglu for now, just think about Lu Anna and Qin Zhen.
Both also lived separately in different places, but Qin Zhen knew how to apply for his wife to join him at the military base, whereas Li Jianqing had never thought of that. He only applied after he learned that Qin Zhen had done so.
Speaking of a few days ago at the military base guesthouse, if Li Xianglu hadn’t suggested that Li Jianqing take her out, he probably wouldn’t think of using the remaining days to spend more time with his wife.
Nevertheless, she didn’t want to give up, she wanted to try and change the current situation, to let Li Jianqing understand her, to make their marriage come alive.
However, Li Xianglu was not aware of the actual situation between Leng Qing and Li Jianqing, still thinking that they were fine. Meanwhile, it was time for her to report to work. Li Xianglu, on Monday morning, got dressed, took the kids to their grandfather, and left with Qin Xi.
Li Xianglu was sitting behind Qin Xi on his bicycle. Qin Xi’s County Committee building was just diagonally opposite to Li Xianglu’s bank, about a seven or eight-minute walk away.
After all, there was only one bank in the county, definitely located in the best area of the town, and after dropping Li Xianglu off, Qin Xi said he might not come back at noon, fearing that he would have lunch at the canteen and then meet some people.
The bank was not yet open, so Li Xianglu walked towards the bank’s back entrance; all banks generally have a back door, but just as she got there, an old man stopped her. Seeing Li Xianglu dressed in a white short-sleeved shirt, black trousers, black leather shoes, and carrying a black bag, clearly not an idler, after confirming her purpose, he smiled and said, "You are Director Li, huh? I didn’t expect you to be so young."
Li Xianglu’s mouth twitched slightly. Yes, so young indeed. She exchanged a few words with the old man and then was led by him towards the back offices when she was suddenly interrupted by a voice.
"Hey, hey, what are you doing, why are you just coming in?" Li Xianglu found the voice oddly familiar, and just as she turned her head, she heard the voice say, "Is it you?"
Li Xianglu also saw clearly the person, a girl who was the nonsensical one at their house the day they just moved in.
Li Xianglu stopped in her tracks, merely glanced faintly, and did not speak. Seeing Li Xianglu unmoved, the girl immediately grimaced and turned to the old man, saying, "Old Li, why are you letting just anyone in? Do you even know where this is? This is a bank. If something goes missing, who will be responsible?"
Old Li wanted to speak, just about to open his mouth, but Li Xianglu waved her hand, then sized up the girl’s attire; still those black leather shoes, black trousers, only the floral shirt had changed to a decent white, and still with two large braids. After observing her, Li Xianglu then said, "Comrade, even if I came here, you should politely ask what I need, not suspect people of being thieves. Is this how your bank treats people who come for services?"
