Lu Jiansen took the cloth bag from the little girl’s hand and spread out the money inside to air it and dry off the moisture.

Seeing that everyone was staring, he turned to the villagers and said, “Go call your village chief! Let’s see whose money this is.”

“Okay… okay!” A villager came to his senses and ran off immediately.

Lu Jiansen had his team lay out the money to dry. After counting it, they found there was a total of 1,231 yuan—a substantial sum, far more than what an average household would have.

So, he assigned two soldiers to guard the area and went back to handling other matters.

Naturally, Gu Xiaoxi didn’t just stand around either. She left the clothes she had picked up in her basket to dry there as well, then grabbed her basket and continued scavenging!

By the time the village chief of Shilong Village and the commune secretary rushed over, they were so moved by the sight of the pile of fully dried money and half-dried clothes that they teared up.

After understanding the situation, they found Lu Jiansen. “Battalion Commander Lu, we really can’t thank you enough! If it’s truly 1,231 yuan, then that’s the payment from our commune’s supply and marketing cooperative. We never imagined it could be recovered. We’re grateful to the People’s Liberation Army!”

Lu Jiansen nodded. “Since the ownership has been confirmed, you can take the money back. As for the pile of clothes and other recovered items, let the village chief handle it.”

“Yes, yes! Thank you, thank you!” The village chief couldn’t stop expressing his gratitude.

Before leaving with the items, the commune secretary and village chief made a point to thank Gu Xiaoxi personally.

Gu Xiaoxi was genuinely happy to have been able to help.

She thought her good luck for the day had run its course. But after the village chief and the others had left, she was surprised to receive 10 merit points. Even more unexpectedly, the skill store refreshed with a new skill: Appraisal (cost: 10 merit points).

Gu Xiaoxi was stunned!

Why would a Waste Purification Specialist need an appraisal skill? Was she supposed to find treasures in trash heaps?

After she spent all her merit points to learn the skill, a special message echoed in her mind: “A Waste Purification Specialist must have the ability to assess the value of items, along with sufficient survival and self-defense skills.”

Gu Xiaoxi rubbed her suddenly aching temples. So, all the skills that had appeared in the skill store before were actually meant to help her survive and protect herself!

Thinking about it that way, it all started to make sense.

With the added ability from Appraisal, she noticed her eyesight had improved—not only were things clearer at a distance, but she could also see much farther than before.

Then, for some reason, she spotted a green glow coming from a distant mountain hollow.

The glow was clear, and oddly beautiful.

She rubbed her eyes and checked again—sure enough, she hadn’t been seeing things. So she walked over.

When she got there, she found that it wasn’t just one glowing stone, but several of them—some big, some small.

She took a deep breath, then squatted down pretending to rest and tossed a small glowing stone into the Old Goods Storage.

The next second, her eyes widened.

She never imagined that such an unremarkable stone would produce a bright, vivid piece of jade in the New Products Display Hall.

So all these glowing stones were raw jadeite?

She didn’t hesitate anymore and threw all the glowing stones, regardless of size, into the Old Goods Storage one by one.

As expected, after impurity removal, they all turned into stunning pieces of jade.

Although the Trade-in System allowed her to cut the whole jade into smaller pieces, she chose not to do so.

Later on, she continued to find more items here and there. Just by casually using the exchange function over the past couple of days, her accumulated points had reached 420. But she was still a long way off from the next level!

She thought that, when the opportunity came, it would be best to go to the recycling station and buy the books the old man had collected.

At noon, the First Battalion set up camp outside Shilong Village and started cooking. Gu Xiaoxi was assigned by Lu Jiansen to rest off to the side.

Not long after, the Fourth Battalion also arrived in Shilong Village.

When the officer leading the Fourth Battalion, Mo Desheng, saw that Gu Xiaoxi was the only woman in the First Battalion and was sitting next to Lu Jiansen, he sneered with thinly veiled sarcasm.

“Battalion Commander Lu even brings his wife along on missions. Truly can’t bear to be apart in the newlywed phase, huh?”

Gu Xiaoxi immediately felt annoyed upon hearing the snide remark.

Lu Jiansen gently reassured her, “Don’t waste your energy getting mad at someone who doesn’t know better. His wife is lazy and afraid of hard work, didn’t even come to help with the disaster relief. No need to lower yourself to his level.”

Although Lu Jiansen’s tone was calm, every word hit where it hurt. Gu Xiaoxi suddenly felt much better.

“Mm, I won’t bother with irrelevant people.”

Mo Desheng was furious and just about to argue when the village chief of Shilong Village came over holding a wild rabbit.

“Battalion Commander Lu, one of the young men in our village caught this. There are too many of us, and it’s hard to divide it. So the village decided to give it to you, to thank your soldiers—and especially your wife—for helping the commune recover so much money and avoid a huge loss. We’re really grateful!”

Lu Jiansen glanced at his little girl and politely declined. “That’s not necessary. This is just what we should do.”

“It’s just a rabbit. I know your army has rules—soldiers don’t take a single needle or thread from the people—but this rabbit is a gift specifically for your wife. Us rural folk believe in repaying kindness. You can’t refuse!”

With that, the village chief insisted on leaving the rabbit behind and quickly ran off.

Mo Desheng’s face fell. Frustration welled up inside him.

Lu Jiansen’s wife even found money today?

Why was her luck so damn good?

Gu Xiaoxi, on the other hand, was craving some spicy rabbit. She whispered to Lu Jiansen, “How about we eat it? This afternoon we’ll help the village recover more losses, do more work.”

A trace of a smile flashed in Lu Jiansen’s eyes. He nodded indulgently, “Okay!”

The little girl’s eyes sparkled—clearly she was craving rabbit meat!

“Then I’ll skin the rabbit, and you cook?” Gu Xiaoxi had her eyes on the rabbit skin and wanted to try her master-level knife skills again, so she found herself a task.

Lu Jiansen originally planned to do it himself, but seeing her so eager, he nodded. “Alright. Be careful not to cut yourself.”

As he spoke, he handed her a military dagger.

Gu Xiaoxi’s eyes lit up at the sight of the knife. It looked really sharp!

She carried the already-dead rabbit off to the side and began skinning it.

Mo Desheng was about to leave, but out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of Gu Xiaoxi’s skilled skinning technique—and his eyes darkened again.

Gu Xiaoxi ignored everyone else completely and carefully worked on skinning the rabbit.

Master-level knife skills were no joke. By the time she was done, the rabbit skin was completely intact and perfect—without even a trace of grease or leftover flesh.

Even Lu Jiansen was a bit impressed!

His little girl really was obedient and outstanding!

The other soldiers all looked on with genuine admiration—and it truly was admiration.