Chapter 38.1

When she saw her come out, Lin Hui immediately smiled and took two steps forward, intending to link arms with her. However, Yin Xiaoman subtly sidestepped and avoided her.

A hint of embarrassment appeared on Lin Hui’s face, but she still smiled and said: “Sister-in-law, you might not remember me. I am Lin Hui, Secretary Lin. We met at the train station before.”

Yin Xiaoman nodded: “Is there something you need?”

Her tone was noticeably cold.

Lin Hui seemed as if she couldn’t understand it at all. She still smiled and pointed to Liu Chuang, who was standing to the side, patiently explaining: “This is Section Chief Liu from Province C, Assistant to Engineer Ning. The team asked me to bring him here to meet with Engineer Ning.”

Upon hearing this, Yin Xiaoman nodded. She did not mention that she already knew Liu Chuang or continue the conversation to ask more questions.

Instead, she just stood at the door, unmoving, showing no intention of inviting them in.

Lin Hui’s smile finally began to falter.

She withdrew her smile, and her voice became more distant.

“We heard that Engineer Ning and Old Hua are staying at your house together, so we brought Section Chief Liu here to familiarize him with the place. Tomorrow, once the grain ration is approved, we’ll have the little soldier bring it over to you. Section Chief Liu is a cadre at the division level. In addition to the regular food standard, the team will also specially approve five pounds of fine grain and one pound of oil. How much can he eat? You could also use it to supplement your household.”

Although her words sounded somewhat cordial, the implication was clearly patronizing, almost as if offering charity.

Even Wang Jun, who had been standing quietly to the side, showed an expression of surprise upon hearing this.

Yin Xiaoman immediately turned cold.

She ignored Lin Hui and turned to Wang Jun. “Squad Leader Wang, who is this person? Why is she rushing to deliver grain to someone’s house? Does she have a screw loose? Get her out of my doorway, and take her to find Liu Chang. If she’s sick one day, she might start biting whoever she comes across.”

She said this as she turned to close the door.

“You!” Lin Hui was instantly infuriated, her face turning pale.

After all, she was the pride of the team, someone who was always flattered wherever she went. Now, she was being likened to a mad dog by a rural woman.

When had she ever been humiliated like this?

She felt like she was about to explode!

She stepped forward, ready to argue with Yin Xiaoman, but Liu Chuang, who had been standing quietly to the side earlier, blocking the role of leadership, quickly stepped in and stopped her.

Liu Chuang reached out and pulled Lin Hui aside, then swiftly grabbed the gate, preventing Yin Xiaoman from closing it.

He forced a smile and said to her: “Comrade Xiaoyin, have you forgotten me? I’m Old Liu. We sat on the train together before! The thing is, you know I’m Engineer Ning’s assistant, and wherever Engineer Ning goes, I have to follow. He and Old Hua are staying at your house, so naturally, I have to come along.”

Although Liu Chuang didn’t have a good impression of this rural woman, he wasn’t stupid.

While he hadn’t eaten the food she cooked during the train ride, seeing Engineer Ning’s attitude towards her, it was clear the food couldn’t be bad.

Moreover, the meal standards for Engineer Ning and Old Hua were undoubtedly much higher than those for him, a section-level cadre.

With them around, even if this woman was a little greedy or stingy, she couldn’t be lacking in food, and it would definitely be better than the food from the big canteen.

So of course, he had to come along.

Unable to close the door due to him holding onto it, Yin Xiaoman was thoroughly annoyed.

She certainly wouldn’t argue with an outsider, so she turned to Wang Jun instead: “Squad Leader Wang, I need to ask, when did it become a rule that outsiders have to be received by the families?”

Engineer Ning and Old Hua came to my house for meals because I treated them as guests. Does that mean from now on, anyone can just come over to my house to eat because of this?

What is my house, the camp’s canteen? Am I your Kitchen Unit’s helper? How much have you paid me?”

Wang Jun, who was already very familiar with Yin Xiaoman, had always seen her as a very gentle person. He had never seen her this angry before.

He was immediately taken aback, breaking into a sweat.

He quickly put down the grain he had been carrying and waved his hands in a hurry to reassure her: “Sister-in-law, it’s not like that! I didn’t bring them here! I just ran into them at the intersection. They asked a few questions, and they insisted on coming along. I didn’t know what was going on!”

He then hurriedly turned to Lin Hui: “Secretary Lin, the camp has a rule that outsiders need to register at the camp office first. If they haven’t registered, they can’t wander around. You’re taking this Comrade Liu all over the place. What if the guards catch you?”

Without paying any attention to the grain on the ground, he reached out to pull Liu Chuang, who was still holding onto the door. “You two should come with me to the camp office. If you need anything, talk to our leadership.”

As he spoke, he dragged the two of them away.

Yin Xiaoman didn’t bother picking up the grain at the door; she just shut it.

She thought that by rejecting Liu Chuang like this, the two elders should have reacted in some way, at the very least Shen Qingyun would come back and ask her something. However, by the time work ended in the evening, none of them had returned.

Instead, Gao Chong brought the grain back and also conveyed Shen Qingyun’s message. He said that tonight, he and Engineer Ning would be working overtime, and asked her to prepare some convenient dry food for Gao Chong to bring over.

He specifically told her not to worry about it getting cold, as it could be eaten directly. 

It was clear they had made preparations to stay up late.

Coincidentally, that evening, she had made cornmeal flatbreads. So, she simply blanched some greens and clams in water, tossed them in a cold salad, and drizzled them with Sichuan pepper oil. She also packed a bowl of pickled vegetables from lunch.

Although Shen Qingyun had asked for food that wouldn’t get cold, the seaside weather at night was always damp and chilly.

Yin Xiaoman thought for a moment and decided to make a tomato egg drop soup, which she poured into a thermos to send with Gao Chong.

That night, Yin Xiaoman had no idea what time Shen Qingyun came back, but the next morning, she was woken up by him.

When she felt someone patting her face, she was startled. Upon seeing that it was Shen Qingyun, she felt even more flustered.

She immediately sat up from the bed. “What’s going on? What happened?”

This was the first time the man had entered their bedroom while she was asleep. At that moment, Yin Xiaoman had no other thoughts, just one: something big must have happened!

Seeing her obviously frightened reaction, Shen Qingyun gave her an apologetic look.

“Did I scare you? Don’t be afraid, it’s nothing serious.”

As he spoke, he instinctively glanced at Erniu, who was still fast asleep, and lowered his voice: “I just came to let you know, I have to go for training for a while. I need to leave now, and I’ll be back around the end of the month.”

Today was the 3rd, so he would be gone for nearly a month.

Yin Xiaoman’s grogginess vanished immediately, and she was wide awake.

“Where are you going? What are you going to do? Why is it so sudden?” She couldn’t shake the feeling that this had something to do with Liu Chuang coming yesterday, and her worry started to grow.

“Don’t ask so many questions.”

Shen Qingyun’s tone had a hint of laughter.

He rubbed the top of her head with his hand, smiling as he explained: “There’s a confidentiality order, so I can’t say, but it’s all good, so don’t worry.”

Although the outside world was still not fully lit, under the dim light, Yin Xiaoman could still see that there seemed to be starlight in his eyes.

The excitement and joy were almost impossible to suppress.

Her heart eased a little as well.

She nodded. “Alright, then. Go ahead and be safe.”

She was about to get up. “I’ll get you something to eat.”

“No need.” Shen Qingyun stopped her with a hand. “I’m leaving soon, there’s no time.”

At this point, it seemed like he had just remembered something, and he added: “You don’t need to worry about Section Chief Liu. I’ve arranged everything. He can eat in the canteen. But for Engineer Ning and Old Hua, you still need to take good care of them. Both of them are national heroes, we have to look after them well.”

Yin Xiaoman nodded again.

Shen Qingyun suddenly sighed, bent down, and hugged her tightly, rubbing his face in her hair. “Xiaoman, you don’t know how happy I am right now! But I can’t tell you why. Just take care of yourself while I’m gone, and wait for me to come back.”

He then gave her a firm kiss on the top of her head, patted her face, and turned to stride toward the door.

Watching his back, Yin Xiaoman felt a bit of his excitement rub off on her. She, too, became cheerful and found that her sleepiness was gone.

She got up and walked around for a bit, only to realize that no wonder he hadn’t let her get up yet—it was barely past five in the morning, and the wake-up call hadn’t even sounded.

With nothing else to do, she returned to bed.

She had intended to just lie down for a moment and maybe get a little more rest, but to her surprise, she actually fell back asleep.

Not only did she fall asleep, but she also had a dream.

It was more like a memory, as in the dream, she remained fully conscious. She knew she was immersed in the memories of the original person, and the scenes she was witnessing had all happened before.

In the dream, a group of people stormed into the old house. Now, they were standing in the yard, pointing at her and saying a lot of things.

There was no sound in the dream, but she could feel how terrified the original person must have been.

Immediately after, those people started smashing the windows with tools. Before long, the doors, windows, stove, tables, and chairs were all destroyed. Even the land in front and behind the house was dug up, with numerous pits scattered across the area.

In addition to that, they uprooted the trees in the backyard, and even the dried well, which had long since run out of water, wasn’t spared—they set it on fire.

The original owner didn’t dare to resist. After being beaten by those people, she could only hide in a corner of a small room with Da Bao and Erniu, desperately covering their mouths, too afraid to even cry out loud.

The terrifying faces of those people kept flashing before her eyes, back and forth…

Yin Xiaoman was immediately jolted awake by the nightmare.

She sat up, breathing heavily, her heart pounding so wildly that it made it hard to breathe.

Yin Xiaoman sat in bed, stunned and dazed for a long time, unable to understand why she was having such a dream now.

The scenes in the dream were something she vaguely remembered seeing when she first arrived in this world. However, her life had become steadily more peaceful, and she hadn’t thought about them in a long, long time.

Yin Xiaoman wiped the cold sweat from her forehead, then got out of bed.