Chapter 24

Seeing so many people appear at once, Qiao Baozhu was stunned for a moment, then greeted everyone with a smile.

After some greetings and introductions, Qiao Baozhu finally figured out the identities of these people.

Shen Xiao is the battalion commander of the third battalion, and instructor Duan is the instructor of the third battalion. His wife is Zhang Cuilian, and the couple came here when the regiment was first established and lived in room 1.

The wife of Captain Song in Yard No. 47 is named Ji Hehua. The couple are childhood sweethearts and came from Yangzhou.

Wu Meili from Yard 21, her husband Jiang Sen and Captain Song are all Shen Xiao’s subordinates.

Zheng Xinxin’s husband works in the automotive company and has a good relationship with Shen Xiao.

Zhang Cuilian was the oldest and had lived in the family compound the longest. She took Qiao Baozhu’s hand and explained with a smile.

“Before the mission last night, Captain Shen came to me on purpose. He said that you two would get married today and he would definitely not be able to make it back. Your marriage has been full of twists and turns, and he was afraid that you would be discouraged and not want to marry him.”

Qiao Baozhu looked at Zhang Cuilian in surprise, thinking that what she said was too fake.

Shen Xiao changed the wedding room, the Qiao family changed the bride, and the groom couldn’t come on the wedding day. Their marriage was indeed full of twists and turns.

But when these words came out of Zhang Cuilian’s mouth, it sounded as if Shen Xiao was afraid that she would run away.

“Captain Shen asked a few of us to come and accompany you when you get married.”

Qiao Baozhu blushed and lowered her head shyly: “Thank you, sisters-in-law. I won’t be polite to you now.”

Anyway, Shen Xiao was thoughtful and specially found his trusted wife to accompany her. Qiao Baozhu accepted his kindness and would take this opportunity to ask several family members about the situation in the family compound.

The things sent by the family members are all useful at the moment.

Wu Meili brought a rabbit, which she peeled, cut into pieces and stir-fried with chili peppers. Zhang Cuilian brought two large catfish, each weighing 11 or 12 pounds. Zheng Xinxin and her husband were both from Harbin, and brought Russian bread. Ji Hehua was from Yangzhou, and brought homemade salted duck. Aunt Qian, our neighbor next door, cut a bunch of leeks from the field and picked a basket of vegetables and sent them over.

With everyone’s help, plus the pork bought by Qiao Changhai, the feast was complete.

“This pork is obviously pulled from a slaughterhouse. It’s fresh and good. It’s even stamped with a blue stamp.”

Sister Wu is tall, about 1.75 meters tall, with broad shoulders and a round waist. She carried half a pig into the kitchen by herself, holding two kitchen knives, and quickly unloaded the pork in less than a few minutes.

Qiao Baozhu admired and praised: “Sister Wu, do you work in the cafeteria? You unloaded half a pig so easily, you are amazing.”

Zhang Cuilian laughed and patted Qiao Baozhu on the shoulder: “You don’t understand since you just arrived. Our Wu Meili is really great. People say that women hold up half the sky, and you, Sister Wu, can hold up the whole sky yourself.”

Zheng Xinxin leaned over to Qiao Baozhu’s ear and explained, “Almost every family in our compound raises pigs. At the end of the year, they all ask Sister Wu to help them slaughter the pigs and remove the meat.”

Qiao Baozhu nodded in understanding. So that’s how it is. This Sister Wu is really strong.

Qiao Changhai not only bought half a leg of meat, but also a lot of shanks and a pair of large intestines.

When a daughter gets married, she always invites relatives and friends to dinner. Half of these things are prepared for the day of the wedding. If they are left at Qiao’s house, they will be eaten up by his brothers in less than an hour. It is better to leave them at his daughter’s house, which will save her face.

“We can’t eat all the old meat. Let’s cook a pot of braised pork, roast the large intestine, stew the shank bones, and keep the rest for yourselves.”

When Sister Wu arrived, she became the person in charge of the kitchen. Everyone followed her instructions and worked accordingly.

They borrowed a dining table from Aunt Qian’s house next door, and added two dining tables, one new and one old, from Qiao Baozhu’s house, so they set up three tables: one for male guests, one for female guests, and one for both males and females.

The table was laid with shiny braised pork with potatoes, stir-fried large intestine with chili peppers, stewed ribs, spicy stir-fried rabbit meat, braised large crucian carp, pork chops with beans, stir-fried leeks and duck eggs, stir-fried cabbage with black fungus, cold tomatoes, and black fungus mixed with cucumbers.

Huang Xing ran to the service center and bought ten kilograms of loose white.

As the matchmaker, Liu Meilan stood up and said a few polite words, and then the dinner began!

“Eat your food, eat your food. Everyone has worked hard on the journey today. Eat more, you’re welcome!”

Qiao Changhai smiled and invited the six drivers to eat, while his apprentice Huang Xing poured wine for everyone.

At Qiao Baozhu’s table, there were seven people: matchmaker Liu Meilan, Shen Xiao’s second aunt Zhang Guifen, Zhang Cuilian, Wu Meili, Zheng Xinxin, and Ji Hehua.

Zhang Guifen’s two sons, Gao Liman, three female educated youth who were attending their wedding, and Bao Huihua formed a table for seven people.

Qiao Changhai is the father of the bride, Liu Meilan is the matchmaker, and the groom’s second aunt is in charge, and the party is very lively with toasts and conversations.

As for Bao Huihua, she was the elder but she didn’t speak. None of the six young people spoke, and they were not polite to each other. The men at the table had just finished a glass of white wine, and the plates at their table were all gone.

“Burp… It smells so good. The last time I ate meat like this was during the Chinese New Year.”

Gao Liman burped and patted her belly contentedly. After eating a bellyful of meat, she was so sleepy that her eyelids drooped.

She stood up and walked around the yard to digest her food. Suddenly she saw a row of children standing outside the fence.

Gao Liman walked quickly to Qiao Baozhu’s table, pointed outside and asked several family members with a smile: “Whose child is that standing outside? Invite him in so we can have a bite together!”

Qiao Baozhu and others looked in the direction of the sound and saw seven or eight children clinging to the fence and drooling.

“They weren’t from our family. They were kids from the neighborhood. They must have smelled the meat and came running over.”

Zhang Cuilian smiled and picked up the bowl and chopsticks, added a bowl of braised pork, walked to the fence, and gave each child a piece of braised pork.

“This is given to you by the bride. When Captain Shen comes back, he will invite your parents to a feast. You will all go with your parents then. Now I’ll give you some meat, and you can all go home.”

The living conditions of the children in the family compound were much better than those of ordinary families, but they could not eat meat every day. Some children who had eaten meat were even more reluctant to leave. They shouted loudly, asking for wedding candy.

Qiao Baozhu went into the house, grabbed two handfuls of fruit candies, and distributed them to the children one by one. The little guys ran away contentedly.

Some children ate the candies and ran to show off to others, while others ran back home to share them with their family members.

As Wei Fang, who had skipped school and was going home, entered Yard No. 13, she saw Li Yan’s grandson holding a piece of fruit candy and licking it.

“Ga Yazi, where did you get the candy?”

Ga Yazi was just over one year old, she couldn’t walk or speak yet, so she couldn’t give her an answer at all.

Wei Fang squinted her triangular eyes and looked around, but when she found no one around, she quickly snatched the candy from Gayazi’s hand and put it into her mouth.

Ga Yazi howled loudly…