Chapter 5

At the crack of dawn the next day, Su Wan was already awake.

She quickly freshened up and planned to hitch a ride with the military truck into the county to buy groceries. Having gone once before, she felt confident going on her own.

But just as she stepped out, she saw Chen Yuan waiting outside for her.

When he saw her approach, he simply said, “Get in.”

The ones driving the supply truck today were still Wang Bin and Xu Weiguo. When they saw her, they both greeted her warmly, “Good morning, sister-in-law!”

“Good morning!” Su Wan gave them a gentle smile. “Sorry to trouble you again today.”

“No trouble at all. We go grocery shopping every day. If you ever need to go out again, or if you want us to bring anything back, just let us know or register at the gate. We’ll wait for you here,” Wang Bin said cheerfully, knowing she was new and wanting to be helpful.

Su Wan thanked him, and after a moment’s thought, added, “If you’re free this afternoon, come by the house for dinner?”

They didn’t immediately agree, saying they’d come if they had time. Su Wan smiled and said okay.

Chen Yuan, as usual, remained silent. He couldn’t stop thinking about how much Su Wan had changed. Even the handwriting she left behind last night — small, graceful calligraphy — surprised him.

He only knew that Su Wan had graduated from high school with mediocre grades. Her parents had spent a lot of effort and money to get her into a regular school. But after that night, it felt like she had become an entirely different person.

Could a girl really change that much after becoming a woman?

Chen Yuan couldn’t figure it out. Meanwhile, Su Wan had no idea what he was thinking.

Even if she did, she wouldn’t explain. She actually liked this new kind of life. Sure, she had thought that night was a dream and thoroughly enjoyed a young man’s body — but since he clearly wasn’t interested, she wasn’t going to throw herself at him.

Once in the county, Su Wan and Chen Yuan bought a few buns to settle their stomachs. Using meat coupons, they bought nine jin of pork. Since it was a large purchase, the butcher threw in some unwanted pork offal. Su Wan accepted it without hesitation, even buying another one yuan’s worth of offal. She smiled and thanked the butcher before leaving.

With no more fish or meat coupons, Chen Yuan took her to the farmers’ market where they bought two bighead fish, twenty eggs, a five-jin chicken, and an eight-jin duck, along with some vegetables, tofu, and seasonings.

Passing the general goods market, they bought ten jin of rice wine, ten jin of cooking oil, fifteen large stainless-steel basins (only nine cents each), a jin of fruit candy, and three jin of sunflower seeds — then rushed back.

Wang Bin and Xu Weiguo instantly noticed the strong smell of offal. Even Chen Yuan found it unpleasant and moved it all to the back of the truck.

Su Wan didn’t follow them. She figured — if there’s a seat, why pretend and squeeze in back?

Back at the compound, they carried all the goods into the house.

The night before, Su Wan had washed her own clothes. When she went to do laundry, she noticed that Chen Yuan had also washed his clothes after bathing. Their clothes hung together, and as the wind blew, the garments mingled — like their lives, now tightly bound together.

Since there was no laundry to do, Su Wan went to check the vegetable garden. She watered it a bit and then returned home.

To her surprise, Chen Yuan was outside washing the pork offal. She didn’t overthink it and just got to work.

She first cleaned the vegetables, washed and tore the mushrooms one by one, peeled all the potatoes and radishes, cleaned the basins thoroughly, and organized everything.

Once the washing was done, she carried the vegetables back into the house.

It was still early, but she didn’t dare slaughter the chicken or duck. Those tasks had to be done by Chen Yuan. So she focused on boiling water instead.

After cleaning the pork offal, Chen Yuan came back and saw Su Wan boiling water.

When they left Datong Village, his mother-in-law had told him Su Wan was afraid of killing animals, and that he should handle the chickens, ducks, and fish when he was home. He didn’t ask questions, just poured the hot water and went out to slaughter the poultry. As for the fish, it could wait until the afternoon.

At noon, Su Wan made a simple stir-fry of greens and pork liver with chili. After eating, they both went back to work.

By around 3 p.m., the ingredients were prepped, and the fish had already been marinated. Su Wan started making the fish head tofu soup. That’s when the wives (the “sister-in-laws”) arrived.

They brought their own stoves and pots, and even brought some vegetables. A few of Chen Yuan’s comrades came too, carrying over three large round tables and stools — borrowed from the canteen.

Sister Wei greeted Chen Yuan briefly and walked straight into the courtyard, calling out to Su Wan, “Xiao Su! Why didn’t you wait for us before starting?”

“Sister Wei!”

Su Wan turned around and greeted the other women with a warm smile. “Sisters, please sit for a bit — there’s still some work to be done…”

The women were all friendly members of the family housing unit. They smiled and said, “It’s fine, we just want to see how you cook. What dish are you working on now?”

“Fish head,” Su Wan replied. “Once it’s fragrant, I’ll make fish head tofu soup. Slow simmering it until the broth turns milky white makes it taste better.”

She expertly stir-fried the fish head, then poured in water, added pepper and tofu, and covered the pot to simmer.

“Xiao Su, let me introduce you to everyone,” said Sister Wei warmly, pulling her along.

She pointed to each woman in turn. “This is Sister Qiu, the political commissar’s wife; this is Sister Zhao, the regimental commander’s wife; this is Sister Wu, the deputy commander’s wife; this is Sister Zhou, the company commander’s wife; and this is Sister He, the deputy company commander’s wife.”

Su Wan greeted each of them and said, “You can all just call me by my name.”

Sister Qiu laughed and took her hand. “Just married and already living on base — must be a bit hard to get used to, huh? Come chat with us in the courtyard more often. It’ll grow on you.”

“Thank you, Sister Qiu. I will,” Su Wan replied sweetly.

Seeing how much she had changed, Sister Qiu didn’t say much more and simply smiled, urging everyone to help with the cooking.

Su Wan was from the south, and though the base was in Guangdong, most of the other wives were northerners used to eating flour-based foods. When they saw Su Wan had only prepared southern-style dishes, they asked, “Xiao Su, no dumplings?”

Su Wan, who’d grown up eating rice, froze for a second. Embarrassed, she said, “Sisters, I don’t have any flour coupons and didn’t know how to buy any.”

They all knew she was from the countryside, so they didn’t say much more.

Sister Qiu chuckled, “Oh, look at me! My husband reminded me this morning to bring over some flour. He said Xiao Su and her husband are southerners and probably won’t make dumplings. And I completely forgot.”

“That’s really kind of you, Sister Qiu. I’ll pay you back for the flour later.”

“Oh, don’t worry about the money. I’ll go get it.”

Sister Qiu had already noticed the large chunk of meat on the table, so she wasn’t worried about not having filling for dumplings. Turning to Sister He, she said, “Chunhua, I remember your family grows chives. Can you bring some over for the dumplings?”

Sister Wu chimed in immediately, “Chunhua probably doesn’t have much left. I’ve got plenty too. I’ll go cut some. Better to use them than let them go to waste.”