Chapter 19

At this time, a few households had already finished their meals, and the aroma really wafted far away. Everyone who smelled it couldn’t help but be surprised.

“This isn’t how it usually smells.”

“Why is the aroma so strong today?”

Everyone sniffed the air and started murmuring among themselves.

Meanwhile, Lu Zhiyao stir-fried some twice-cooked pork and arranged all the dishes on the table. “The house is still missing a few things; we’ll buy them gradually later. You all eat first.”

The two kids nodded when they heard this.

She first served the twice-cooked pork to the kids. After tasting it, the two gave thumbs up and kept praising it.

“The flavor is really amazing!”

“Mom, your pork tastes really great!”

“Everything you cook tastes so good!”

All along, except for the afternoon she first came and cooked some meat, the two little ones had been starving until today. They eagerly grabbed the meat and stuffed their mouths.

Seeing the kids eat so happily, Lu Zhiyao was already thinking about making good use of her space in the future.

To supplement the kids’ nutrition.

They were far too thin and looked like kids who had been abused since childhood.

With careful care, in just a few months, they could grow plump and chubby.

Kids look better when they’re chubby.

Lu Zhiyao smiled as she served them meat. The three of them ate very heartily, then washed the dishes before going back to the room.

After resting a while in the room, seeing that most of the lights around were off, Lu Zhiyao locked the door and took the kids into the space to rest.

They took a bath inside the space.

The two kids bathed in the tub while Lu Zhiyao squeezed some shower gel bubbles for them. The kids played happily with the bubbles.

Lu Zhiyao then organized her thoughts.

Right now, it was basically certain that Bai Shuishui was causing trouble behind the scenes. She would live here with the two kids.

When Mu Qingyuan came back, she would figure out the exact situation.

If Bai Shuishui was truly sabotaging things and causing the original owner and the two kids to misunderstand Mu Qingyuan all along,

Lu Zhiyao wouldn’t be polite to her.

She would make her return all the money she took back then and pay a price for the things she said.

After the kids had finished playing, Lu Zhiyao took them to bed.

The next day.

Lu Zhiyao made breakfast in the space for the two little ones. After they finished eating, they came out.

She had bought some mats at the shop yesterday and set them up casually, just to avoid other military wives noticing anything wrong.

Today she still needed to buy more things.

Although they could live in the space, no one else knew about it, so the house still had to be arranged properly.

Lu Zhiyao wanted to take the two kids shopping, but if she did, she would buy fewer things because she’d have to look after them.

But she couldn’t leave the kids home alone.

Although the military residential area was quite safe, who knew what might happen.

As she pondered, she suddenly realized she could leave the two kids in the space, and if anyone asked, just say the kids were home.

They could accompany her shopping since inside the space they could still see the outside.

Lu Zhiyao thought this was a really good idea.

She left the kids in the space, grabbed her things, and headed out. At the door, she met the neighbor on the left.

“Where are you off to?”

The neighbor was warm and greeted her with a smile. Lu Zhiyao smiled back, “I arrived late yesterday. Today I plan to buy some things and tidy up properly. Yesterday we just slept on mats; we can’t let the kids keep sleeping like that.”

The military wife nodded, “That’s true, you go buy your things first.”

“And your kids?”

The neighbor remembered Lu Zhiyao had two kids.

“They’re still sleeping. When they wake, they’ll play at home and wait for me. I’ll be back soon!”

“When your home is ready, please come visit!”

After saying this, Lu Zhiyao quickly left. The neighbor opened her mouth, wanting to say that Lu Zhiyao could send the kids to play at their house for a while, but then felt their relationship wasn’t quite close enough yet — they’d just met yesterday.

So she didn’t say anything.

Lu Zhiyao took the bus and went to the place where she bought things yesterday. She bought various daily necessities that weren’t available in the shop yesterday afternoon.

With these things, the home would look a bit more put together.

If other military wives came snooping around, the house would look respectable and no one would look down on them.

After buying a bunch of stuff, Lu Zhiyao also saw some delicious candied hawthorns and various cookies and candies at the market.

Thinking the kids would love them, she bought some.

The kids were happy and bounced with joy when they saw their mom buy them treats inside the space.

After buying so many things, Lu Zhiyao had to make two trips to carry everything onto the bus.

“Little sister, you just arrived, right?”

Seeing how hard she struggled, a military wife reached out to help.

She helped Lu Zhiyao load everything onto the bus.

This military wife was tall and sturdy, with thick eyebrows and big eyes, somewhat plump — considered a fortunate look in this era because people said being plump meant a good life.

Lu Zhiyao nodded after seeing her friendly face, “Yes, I just arrived at the military residential area yesterday. My home is missing things, so I’m out buying.”

“Ah, with so much stuff you definitely can’t carry it all back. I’ll help you!”

“I’ll bring your things to your doorstep.”

“Where do you live?”

This military wife was talkative and soon chatted with Lu Zhiyao. After she gave her address, she slapped her thigh.

“We live quite close. We’re on the second floor of that nearby building.”

“I’ll help you bring your things back later.”

This military wife was so warm that Lu Zhiyao couldn’t refuse and agreed.

She even learned the woman’s name: Huang Meimei.

She was enthusiastic and straightforward. Lu Zhiyao found her easy to get along with, so they chatted all the way back.

With Huang Meimei’s help, Lu Zhiyao was able to bring everything home smoothly.

A few military wives who had been gossiping in the courtyard yesterday saw this but said nothing.

Because these were all necessary purchases. If she didn’t buy them, the place wouldn’t look like a real home.

Everyone knew the house had been allocated, but they couldn’t help but feel that a woman raising two kids alone wouldn’t be comfortable without some tidying up.

Huang Meimei helped Lu Zhiyao bring everything to the door.

“I’m heading back now. Later I’ll come by to see if you need any help.” Huang Meimei was sensible — it was best not to follow inside while she cleaned up.

Lu Zhiyao nodded, thanked her, carried the things inside, and brought the two kids out of the space.

“Want to try a candied hawthorn first?”

Lu Zhiyao held up the bright red candied hawthorn coated with sugar syrup, looking very appetizing.

The kids swallowed their saliva.

They really wanted some, but the younger one looked up and said, “Mom, let’s tidy up the house first.”

“Yes,” the older one quickly added, “We should help you tidy, then we can eat the candied hawthorn together.”

Seeing the kids so sensible, Lu Zhiyao patted their heads and tidied the house with them.

Just casually tidying, a couple of hours passed.

When they finished, Lu Zhiyao lay down on the made bed.

She had done a rough clean yesterday afternoon, but today she redid everything and put out some little things to make the home look cozier.

The storage room was cleaned spotless.

That morning, when buying things, she saw someone selling seeds and bought some, planning to get some soil from the backyard tomorrow to plant green onions and garlic in the front yard.

Though the vegetables already grew in the space, she wanted to save to the extreme and show others.

So everyone would have a clear idea later.

In a place like the military residential area, gossip was unavoidable. Lu Zhiyao knew they were probably gossiping about her.

But it didn’t matter.

Having gone through so much in her past life, she didn’t care about others’ talk. As long as her life was good, she didn’t mind what others said.

More or less like that popular online saying at the time:

“Walk your own path, and let others talk.”

But these things still needed to be done little by little in the future.

For now, just arrange the house so everyone sees they could live there.

After finishing everything, the three of them shared a string of candied hawthorn.

Lu Zhiyao put a little snack and some sunflower seeds in the cabinet and stored the rest in the space, so the kids could get some whenever they wanted.

But she reminded them to eat less.

The two kids nodded, ate a bit of breakfast, and Lu Zhiyao planned to take them to buy vegetables.

While buying vegetables, she also bought some meat and a fish.

Seeing Lu Zhiyao carrying so many things back, two military wives greeted her.

“Are you going back to cook?”

Lu Zhiyao nodded. So far, she only knew Huang Meimei. She’d met a few other military wives a couple of times but couldn’t remember their names.

But she greeted warmly when spoken to.

“Yesterday afternoon you cooked meat at your place, right? Your cooking is amazing — the aroma spread all the way to us!”