Chapter 204

Shi Tingyu saw that one of them was Liu Caixia, the wife of Li Dongsheng, the company Captain of the 723 Regiment.

Before Lu Weiguo was promoted to battalion Captain, he was a company Captain under the 723 Regiment. Li Dongsheng was transferred to replace Chen Qiang as company Captain after Chen Qiang was promoted to deputy regimental Captain.

Last Chinese New Year, they were invited to dinner at Li Dongsheng’s home.

Although the two families didn’t interact much, they still nodded and exchanged greetings when they met.

Shi Tingyu called out, “Sister-in-law Li!”

Liu Caixia stopped her bike upon hearing this, with her two companions also halting.

Smiling, Shi Tingyu approached and said, “Sister-in-law Li, are you also here shopping for the New Year?”

Shi Tingyu was attractive, and when she genuinely wanted to strike up a conversation, she could make people feel warmly welcomed.

The other two women were somewhat surprised. Captain Lu’s wife was quite famous in their family area, and in their eyes, Shi Tingyu seemed like a rare beauty from a high place, unexpectedly approachable.

Using her spatial scanning ability, Shi Tingyu noticed that when Sister-in-law Li and her group stopped, the two people who had been following them also stopped.

When Sister-in-law Li and Shi Tingyu approached, she said, “I bought most of the New Year goods a while ago. I’m just here to finish up and get what I missed earlier.”

Liu Caixia was tactful. Seeing Shi Tingyu and her mother pushing their bicycles with quite a bit of stuff, she offered, “My bike has space. If you can’t fit everything on yours, you can put some on mine.”

She then glanced at her neighbors Qian and Zhuang, whose bikes also had some spare room. “Qian and Zhuang, your bikes could take some too.”

Shi Tingyu gratefully replied, “That would be a big help. Otherwise, we wouldn’t know when we’d get home.”

Qian and Zhuang quickly said, “No problem. We’re all from the same neighborhood; helping each other is nothing.”

And so, Liu Caixia and the other two women took some of Shi Tingyu and her mother’s belongings onto their bikes, lightening the load significantly.

Shi Tingyu’s mother glanced at her daughter. Normally, Shi Tingyu was the least willing to interact with unfamiliar people, so today was quite unusual. However, she didn’t comment at the moment.

With fewer things, Shi Tingyu and her mother could ride their bikes now. They followed Sister-in-law Li and her group back.

Considering Shi Tingyu’s pregnancy, they didn’t ride fast.

Shi Tingyu discreetly glanced back and noticed two men in dark blue clothes staring fixedly in their direction from a distance.

However, they were far enough away that she couldn’t make out their faces.

Shi Tingyu remained vigilant with her spatial scan. After riding for a while, the trackers disappeared from her scan.

She breathed a sigh of relief inwardly.

The journey passed quickly with laughter and chatter among the women, and soon they arrived at the family housing area.

The women kindly helped Shi Tingyu and her mother carry their things inside.

After putting everything down, they were about to leave when Shi Tingyu stopped them.

“Wait a moment, sisters. Let me pull out some vegetables from my garden for you to take home and try.”

Shi Tingyu had planted seasonal vegetables that were thriving due to her careful watering, blending naturally into the environment.

Liu Caixia wasn’t aware of this, but Qian and Zhuang knew about Captain Lu’s family vegetables.

They were pleasantly surprised and a bit embarrassed, saying, “How can we accept this? It’s not easy to grow vegetables in winter.”

Shi Tingyu pointed to the vegetables in her garden, “You can see, I have plenty of vegetables in my yard. There’s no way I can finish them all.”

This made the two women stop declining.

They were careful not to take too much and didn’t touch the varieties that were less abundant.

Seeing this, Shi Tingyu’s mother picked some other vegetables and handed them to the women.

The two women expressed their thanks.

Shi Tingyu saw that Sister-in-law Li didn’t move and urged, “Sister-in-law Li, see what you’d like to eat. Otherwise, I’ll pick some for you.”

Sister-in-law Li wouldn’t let a pregnant woman do the work, so she casually picked some of her favorite vegetables.

As the three women left, they felt somewhat embarrassed. Qian said, “Teacher Shi, you’re too kind.”

Shi Tingyu just smiled and replied, “A few vegetables are nothing.”

Once the three had left, Shi Tingyu and her mother carried their things into the main hall and sat down.

Her mother asked, “What happened today? You seemed off.”

Feeling that the threat had passed, Shi Tingyu didn’t hide anything. It was important to be cautious now, as they didn’t yet know if they were after her or her mother.

Her mother, hearing about the trackers on their way back, was drenched in cold sweat. “You! How could you not tell me about such a big thing?”

Shi Tingyu placated her by holding her mother’s hand. “Mom, I was about to tell you. It just happened that we met Sister-in-law Li and the others. I was afraid they would ride past, so I forgot to tell you in my hurry.”

Her mother sighed in relief. “Thank goodness we ran into Sister-in-law Li and the others. Otherwise, the two of us could have been in danger.”

Thinking for a moment, her mother added, “Next time, let’s not go out. If we have to, we should wait until Weiguo has time off. I’d feel more at ease if he could accompany us.”

Shi Tingyu quickly agreed. They were lucky this time; next time, she’d wait until Weiguo could join them.

Thinking about the trackers, Shi Tingyu wondered aloud, “I wonder if they were after me or you.”

Her mother furrowed her brows; she had a feeling this incident was likely aimed at her.

She hadn’t forgotten that she and Old Shi still had a crucial set of research data. Now that the verdict had been overturned, the focus was on advancing this project.

Verification of the data was critical now; any mishap could delay the update of the camp’s weapons.

After such an incident, her mother didn’t rush home. Together with Shi Tingyu, they sorted and organized their purchases until Weiguo returned.

The family housing area was close to the research institute’s family building, with frequent military personnel movements nearby, so her mother wasn’t worried about safety.

When she returned home, she mentioned the incident to her father, who pondered for a moment before saying, “I’ll report this to the institute tomorrow.”

In their line of work, such matters shouldn’t be concealed. They had undergone many security courses.

On the other hand, upon learning of the incident, Lu Weiguo was also shaken. He reached out and hugged his wife, saying, “Next time, I’ll accompany you.”

Previously, his wife was quite capable, but now, pregnant, her combat abilities were significantly reduced.

Lu Weiguo shared his mother-in-law’s view that the incident was likely aimed at her. After all, Shi Tingyu’s previous work had not involved any danger. As for the portrait incident, he was confident that the cleanup by the secret service was thorough and there would be no leaks.

However, things were not so peaceful on his in-laws’ side.