Fortunately, the wine could be brought in the car; otherwise, Wen Jiajia’s two bottles would have been bought in vain.

After squeezing into the car with great difficulty, Wen Jiajia sadly discovered that there was too much luggage and no place to put it. In the end, Liang Mu helped her carry it.

“Have you brought food?” Director Gao asked, “I’m afraid we won’t be able to get to Linhe until seven or eight o’clock.”

Wen Jiajia really wanted to say: Don’t be afraid.

She always felt that Director Gao had a bad temper.

The same thing happened when they came here. She said there might be a passing car, and the train stopped to give way not long after.

Every night, when Director Gao said a certain bus had passed, it actually did.

The day before yesterday, the wind was strong. When passing by a big tree, Director Gao suddenly said that the tree might fall down. Half a minute later, it really fell.

Wen Jiajia felt sympathetic and hugged the package on her thighs tighter, preparing to arrive at seven or eight o’clock.

The sun was scorching outside the window, but luckily they were sitting on the side where the sun didn’t shine.

Gradually, the sun set, the sky turned purple, and flocks of birds flew in the sunset. As night approached, the train drove into the province, and Wen Jiajia looked at the green mountains outside the window and felt a little familiar.

It was six o’clock, and the lights in the train came on.

Wen Jiajia asked Liang Mu to put the package on her: “You eat first, and I will eat after you finish.”

Liang Mu said, “I’ll go home and eat.”

He had packed a portion of braised pork, so he couldn’t bear to eat it in the car.

“Okay, then you hold it for me for a while.”

Liang Mu nodded: “Put it up.”

Wen Jiajia put the package on him, then took out the lunch box from the bag on the ground with great effort, and then took out chopsticks to eat noodles.

The noodles were so lumpy, but what can be bad to eat in the car? Even the steamed buns tasted delicious.

Wen Jiajia’s noodles were a killer, and they were still cold. Wen Jiajia heard several people around her swallowing their saliva. Director Gao couldn’t help but take out his lunch box and eat his dumplings.

Finally—the train entered Linhe City at 8:10 and stopped at the station at 8:15.

Wen Jiajia came to the platform carrying a small mountain on her back and followed the crowd out of the station.

Director Gao asked her, “How are you going home? Do you want to stay in the factory dormitory for one night?”

Wen Jiajia: “No, my husband will come to pick me up.”

After lunch today, she called the logistics department in the guesthouse and told them that she would be back today and asked them to help pass the message to Wei Dai.

Not long after, Wei Dai called again and said he would come to pick her up. Wen Jiajia was quite curious; how could he pick her up so late at night?

She understood after exiting the station. She saw Wei Dai sitting calmly on the truck. The moment he saw her, he was stunned for a moment, and it was obvious that he was very surprised by her appearance at the moment.

Wei Dai jumped off the truck bed and was stunned: “Why did you buy so many things?”

You must be going to Haishi to purchase goods.

Wen Jiajia: “…Why don’t you come and help!”

Wei Dai ran over and quickly took down the packages that were weighing her down into a hunchback.

It looked big, but it wasn’t heavy at all. No wonder his wife could carry it.

Director Gao and Liang Mu came over. Director Gao looked at Wei Dai curiously and asked, “Is this your husband?”

Wen Jiajia nodded. Without waiting for her to introduce herself, Wei Dai took the initiative to introduce himself. He then shook hands with the two of them and exchanged a few words with them.

Wen Jiajia’s legs ached so much that she really wanted Wei Dai to stop talking and leave quickly. Fortunately, Director Gao was also as tired as a dog, so he left after saying a few words.

Wei Dai made three trips to load all the things into the car, and then he took Wen Jiajia to sit in the front.

The passenger seat was large enough to accommodate two people.

The driver was a member of the army. Wen Jiajia asked, “Are you going to transport something again today?”

The man laughed: “Of course I am. We transported more than ten trucks of coal. Wei Dai stopped me and told me to go back later.”

“Wow! This year’s coal is here.”

“This year, we are not allowed to cut firewood in the nearby villages. If we want to cut firewood, we have to go to Gaojia Village and pay the village office. Gaojia Village is more than ten kilometers away from here. Who will go there just to cut firewood? So we have to transport it again at the end of the year…”

This is new; she didn’t know.

Wen Jiajia turned around and asked Wei Dai: “Really?”

Wei Dai nodded: “The day after you left, the village said that the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry had instructed us to prevent water leakage and stabilize the soil. We can’t continue to cut down trees, fearing that if we cut too much, there will be mudslides.”

This is “bad news” for Wen Jiajia.

Oh my god, her favorite thing to cook in winter is stewing bone soup, chicken and duck soup, pig intestines, and all the hard-to-cook dishes that need to be slowly stewed with a lot of wood…

Moreover, she takes a bath every day, and uses twice as much firewood as other families! If she really switches to coal, not only will the stove still be usable, but the coal expenses alone will be a huge sum every month.

Wei Dai sighed: “There’s nothing I can do.”

He was really lucky. On the day Wen Jiajia left, he had nothing to do. He sat at home and missed his wife a lot, so he took an axe and went to chop wood.

At the end of the day, he carried firewood home five times and even used a wheelbarrow to transport it three times, weighing at least 1,000 kilograms.

Including the firewood at home, they had 2,000 kilograms, which was enough for this year. They could talk about next year, next year.

The car shakily arrived at the army unit. After being away for a few days, Wen Jiajia saw that there was no change in the army.

Before going home, Wen Jiajia gave the driver a portion of shengjian ^[1]a type of fried dumpling.. Being young and shy, he could not refuse, so he took it and ate one on the spot, praising its deliciousness.

Wen Jiajia said, “It will taste better if it’s heated up!”

But they said, “Don’t heat it up. Once the smell comes out, it will be eaten up by those gluttons!” Then they hurriedly ate another one, fearing that it would be snatched away when they returned to the dormitory.

Those who live in the dormitory are different from those who live in the family compound. Almost all of them eat together.

It was already nine o’clock when they got home. Wen Chun and Wen Xuan were still awake. The two girls were comforting each other.

Wen Chun patted her sister and shouted, “Don’t be afraid.”

Wen Xuan hugged her sister and said, “No ghost, no ghost.”

When they heard the noise at the door, they first shrank into the quilt. When they heard their aunt’s voice, they lifted the quilt and both jumped out of bed.

“Auntie!”

“Auntie!”

“Ahhhhh——” Both girls screamed, opened the door with a bang, and jumped up and down around Wen Jiajia.

The word “Auntie” in their mouths was like a tight hoop around her neck, giving Wen Jiajia a headache.

“Hey, hey, hey!” She made a pause gesture. “Don’t shout at night. The neighbors are already asleep. Be children with a sense of public morality.”

Wen Chun and Wen Xuan were grinning and finally stopped shouting. Instead, they hugged Wen Jiajia’s thighs, one on each side, and refused to let go no matter what she said.

Until Wei Dai said, “Would you like to come and see your hair flowers?”

The two sisters finally let go of Wen Jiajia’s legs and hurried to see the flowers.

Wen Jiajia had bought them red headbands; they were exactly the same, so there was no need to fight over them. Both of them were very satisfied.

“It would be great if it were daybreak soon. Then I could take the flowers out and show them to Feifei and the others!” Wen Xuan said, holding two flowers in her hands with delight.

Wen Jiajia laughed, “Go back to your room and sleep. When you close your eyes and open them again, it will be dawn.”

When their aunt came back, the two sisters were very obedient. They put on their hair flowers and went back to their room to sleep, completely forgetting about eating.

Wen Jiajia asked Wei Dai, “You didn’t have dinner?”

“No.”

“I knew it!” He must have been waiting for her for a long time. Wen Jiajia left a portion of shengjian for him, “You can heat it up in the pot yourself… You can eat it directly, but I strongly recommend that you heat it up before eating.”

She left one portion and gave it to Teacher Shen and Sister Bao.

It was just after nine o’clock, and although the electricity was out, Teacher Shen must not have gone to bed yet. Wen Jiajia just saw that the light in her room was on.

Sure enough, Teacher Shen came out not long after she knocked on the door. “Jia Jia, I knew it was you who came back.”

Wen Jiajia laughed twice, “Did you hear Wen Chun and Wen Xuan yelling?”

“Really? Xiao Yi heard it and even got up to play with you, but I slapped him back.”

Wen Jiajia handed her the fried dumplings and said, “Come to my house tomorrow to pick up the clothes. I haven’t packed them yet.”

“Okay! This is Shengjian. When I was in college, a classmate of mine always talked about Shengjian. I have to try it.”

Wen Jiajia immediately recommended, “It’s delicious, and even better when heated. It’s best to eat it today because I don’t know if it will go bad if left until tomorrow.”

“Okay, Xie Yang is at home.”

Wen Jiajia said, “Then you go in, I’ll give the other half to Bao.”

Having said that, she walked towards Sister Bao’s house.

Sister Bao wasn’t asleep either. She was busy working on the web buttons. Wen Jiajia knew that she usually didn’t go to bed until 10 o’clock.

“Jia Jia! You’re back.” Sister Bao hurriedly pulled her in. “You must have just arrived.”

“It’s a midnight snack for you,” Wen Jiajia said, handing her the shengjian. “Yes, I just got home.”

Bao Jie was busy with her career now and rarely went out. She used to know everything, but now she knows less gossip than she did.

Wen Jiajia entered the house mainly to see the net-button flowers.

“So beautiful!” Wen Jiajia exclaimed. It was really beautiful, especially under the kerosene lamp.

She was presumptuous to compare it with cross-stitch. This thing is obviously much more beautiful than the old-fashioned cross-stitch.

“Right! I’ll make one for you when I have time!”

“Really?”

“Lying to you is a dog^[2]Idiomatic expression used to emphasize honesty..”

Sister Bao stuffed a shengjian into her mouth and said, “We had dinner at around four o’clock. I’m hungry when I smell it.”

After chewing it twice, her eyes lit up, “It’s really delicious. No wonder you took it home on the train.”

“Isn’t it?” Wen Jiajia was very happy that people liked Amway’s products. “I made it at noon. It might go bad if I leave it out tomorrow.”

When Sister Bao heard this, she said, “Oh, then I have to make them shout.”

That’s what parents do: the best food should be left for the children. Even if Bao thinks it’s delicious, she only eats half of it.