“Just like that?”

As Liu Qingdi led the old woman away, the officer who had gone to investigate their identity asked the interrogating officer.

“We’re not the Red Guards. Black market dealings aren’t our responsibility. Besides, the Red Guards already caused so much suffering. Why add to it? Also, since the meat buns weren’t sold, it means the black market deal didn’t go through. It’s tough for ordinary people to make a living,” the interrogating officer sighed.

The questioning officer chuckled, “Speaking of meat buns without tickets, I’d love to buy some myself.”

“Go on, does your family lack meat? Isn’t your wife working at the meat processing plant?” The interrogating officer gave a kick. It was quite cheeky of him.

“Haha… I see that the situation with private businesses has loosened up a bit. Maybe it will be like before.”

“That means there will be more places to eat. You know, it’s always crowded at the state-run restaurants. If private businesses are allowed, who would still go to those crowded places?”

“Exactly. There are fewer raids on black market dealings now. The Red Guards have hidden away, and many people who were wronged by them have returned, fearing retaliation. Even we officers suffered from the Red Guards. They were like rats in the wall back then.”

Fortunately, they had survived.

The once-feared Red Guards no longer dared to make a fuss.

At the Compound

Ning Shu was eating the breakfast bought by the children while listening to their account of the old woman’s incident.

“Mom, weren’t we awesome? We caught a trafficker, and both the police officers and the guards praised us,” Erbao said proudly.

Ning Shu nodded in agreement, “Yes, it’s good to have that kind of vigilance. You should keep it up in the future. Whenever you encounter something, you should seek help from adults or police officers.”

However, she wondered if they were unlucky. Did they still have that “cannon fodder” trait? It shouldn’t be the case.

The plot lines she remembered had passed, and the rules of the story should be gone.

They shouldn’t be cannon fodder anymore.

Nevertheless, it was good that the three children were vigilant.

When out and about, it’s important to be alert; otherwise, it might be too late when society teaches them to be cautious.

“Hehe…”

“Mom, we have a fishing trip with the little comrades from the compound this afternoon,” Yibao mentioned about their appointment with Yu Chengci.

He also talked about the team competition.

The reason for not agreeing at the time wasn’t due to their fishing skills being inadequate; it was just his polite way of saying so.

In reality, Yibao was assessing the other party, worried that their skills might not be up to par and might impact their own performance.

But Yibao, being smart, took the blame on himself in his explanation.

“Wow…” Ning Shu was surprised, “You’re doing well, making new friends right after arriving. Keep it up! I’ll prepare some food for you to share with the little comrades and others who have been friendly. If someone invites you to a group activity, you should show your gratitude. Mutual respect and friendship need to be maintained.”

The first social interaction for the three children needed to be handled carefully.

It was an opportunity for them to integrate into the small community of the compound.

When the mother said she was going to cook, Er Bao immediately asked, “Mom, what are you making? I’ll help you with the fire, and you should save some for me later.”

Yi Bao added, “Mom, I’ll help too.”

San Bao saw his older brothers taking over the tasks and decided to compete for attention, “I’ll give you a massage after you’re done cooking.”

“You don’t need to help. Go and get the fishing gear ready,” their mother replied.

The three brothers quickly went to check on the fishing rods, which were kept in a room on the first floor, used temporarily as a storage space.

They planned to move the clutter to the backyard room once it was finished.

Meanwhile, Ning Shu thought about what to prepare for the afternoon to take with the kids.

She considered making dough twists with a bit of sugar, which kids usually like, and cutting up some fruit.

Eating fruit while enjoying the warm sunlight and fishing sounded perfect.

However, she needed to decide which fruits to prepare.

They had freshly harvested sugarcane from this winter, so she planned to prepare a box of that.

To avoid carrying too much with the tractor on their return to the capital, she hadn’t taken fruit from the app recently.

Now that the kids were older, it wouldn’t be right to suddenly produce fruit at home without a reason.

She needed a way to explain where the fruit came from, maybe claiming she bought it herself.

With these thoughts, Ning Shu got out the flour to make dough and looked at the app for supplies.

Seeing the many items already purchased, she felt an urge to use them all.

She chose pears and grapes to prepare: cutting up the pears and washing the grapes to pack them in a box for the kids.

Although they also had watermelons and sugar tangerines, and she liked them more, they weren’t suitable for this season.

“Mom… Mom…” The three brothers ran up to her.

“What’s the matter?” Ning Shu came back to reality.

“Mom, we don’t have any fish bait. We want to check the market for any fish guts or something similar that can be used as bait. We’ll also see if we can find some fresh corn kernels. If we can’t find anything, we’ll dig for earthworms,” Yi Bao said.

Ning Shu agreed: “Okay, you can go. If you find fish at the market, you can buy a few and we’ll handle the fish guts ourselves.”

Er Bao said, “If we buy fish and then go fishing, we might end up with too many fish.”

Yi Bao replied, “There probably won’t be any fish left at this time; they’re usually sold out by now.”

San Bao joked, “Second Brother, your stomach is like a bottomless pit. No matter how many fish we get, you’ll eat them all.”

“Haha…” Er Bao laughed, “That’s true.”

Yi Bao said, “Alright, Mom, we’re heading to the market.”

“Be careful,” Ning Shu said.

“Got it,” the three brothers replied, carrying the small baskets they had been using for seven years.

They had bought these baskets when they were five years old from the Moon Bay Production Brigade, and they were still using them.

The quality of this basket is really good.

Ning Shu sent them to the gate, and as she watched them leave the compound, she couldn’t help but smile.

It felt like everything was going smoothly, as if heaven was helping her.

She hurried back to the kitchen and took out two sacks of pears and two baskets of grapes from the app.

The pears were bought in 10-pound bags, and she had bought two bags.

The grapes were bought in 3-pound baskets, and she also got two baskets.

Ning Shu didn’t buy too much at once to avoid having too much to take out at one time.

She only restocked after she used what she had.

Looking at the pears and grapes, Ning Shu washed a bunch of grapes first, eating as she washed.

By the time the grapes were clean, she had eaten half of them.

Next, Ning Shu washed two more bunches of grapes, packing one portion into a lunch box.

That’s one fruit portion prepared.

She then took a piece of sugarcane from the storage room, went to the yard, and slowly peeled it.

The sugarcane had to be cut into small sections, about four to five centimeters long each.

This way, one piece of sugarcane could be divided into many sections, preventing any shortage when distributing among the children.

It was the morning rush hour, and since their house wasn’t in a corner, there were people walking around outside the compound.

It seemed to be more lively here than in the residential compound.

Ning Shu’s hands were small, so peeling the sugarcane was slow, and cutting it into small sections took time.

By the time she finished processing one piece of sugarcane, she had filled four lunch boxes.

Ning Shu was very satisfied.

Eating sugarcane should be satisfying in one go; having just a few pieces was not satisfying at all.

After preparing the sugarcane, Ning Shu took out a cabbage, washed and chopped it.

She had already prepared the dough, so they would have cabbage and bacon dumplings for lunch.

Since Lin Guodong wouldn’t be back for lunch, she didn’t need to cook too much.

With the cabbage washed, Ning Shu looked at the time and began making fried dough twists.

The three children arrived at the vegetable market.

At this time, the market wasn’t very crowded.

To get the best produce, people usually arrived very early, around five or six in the morning.

Now that breakfast was over, few people were buying vegetables, and even if they did, there were no vegetables left for them.

However, while the meat was all gone, there were still some vegetables available.

The three children first went to check the meat section.

The meat display was clean and empty, cleaner than their faces.

Erbao noticed a middle-aged man sitting at the meat counter and asked, “Uncle, do you have any discarded fish or pig offal?”

Erbao honestly explained, “We’re going fishing and want to use it as bait.”

Yibao added, “Uncle, we don’t need a lot, just a small piece. We can pay for it.” They planned to cut the small piece into fine strips like noodles, which could be used for several fishing trips.

The middle-aged man, realizing they needed only a small amount, joked, “You don’t need to pay. Just bring me a fish if you catch any.” He then bent down and cut a small piece of pig intestine from the barrel.

It was really just a small piece, about five centimeters long, barely enough for a bite and wouldn’t fetch even a penny if sold.

The man was also bored; it wasn’t time to leave work yet, so he was in the mood to joke around with the three children.

He had saved this pig intestines for himself, and giving them a piece wouldn’t cause any trouble.

Mainly, the three children were well-behaved and sweet-talking, which made him more willing to give.

“Thank you, Uncle. We’ll bring you a fish if we catch any,” Yibao said politely.

The man chuckled, “I was just joking with you.”

“Goodbye, Uncle!”