Chapter 70

“After dinner, Shi Tingyu took out her illustrated book ‘Loyal Dog’ that she had drawn and showed it to Lu Weiguo.

‘Weiguo, help me take a look and see if there’s anything inappropriate.’

Lu Weiguo took the stack of papers and looked at the drawings, slightly surprised as he raised his eyebrows, ‘Wife, this is… a comic book series?’

‘It could be considered that,’ Shi Tingyu felt ‘colorful picture book’ might be more fitting, but such terminology might not exist now.

‘Help me take a look. If there’s nothing inappropriate, I’ll send it to a publishing house to see. Otherwise, it’s not very interesting to stay home every day during this summer.’

Listening to his wife’s words, Lu Weiguo started out reviewing it, originally just to screen it, but as he looked, he became somewhat fascinated.

Shi Tingyu’s drawings were done in watercolor, with bright colors. Each picture was beautiful, making him feel that even without a thrilling story, the drawings alone could captivate people.

Moreover, the stories she depicted were far from ordinary.

Fortunately, there weren’t many stories in the first one, so they were quickly reviewed.

Shi Tingyu nervously asked, ‘How is it?’

Lu Weiguo replied with two words, ‘Looks good.’

Shi Tingyu was a bit helpless, ‘I meant, are there any taboos?’

Lu Weiguo cleared his throat, ‘Generally, there shouldn’t be.’

As he spoke, he reexamined it, this time without being influenced by the plot, carefully checking, and eventually pointed out three places where the wording was somewhat inappropriate.

Shi Tingyu checked and agreed they could be changed, so she sat back down at the table.

She changed the wording of the story but didn’t need to alter the drawings.

After confirming everything was fine, Shi Tingyu put everything away, ready to send it out tomorrow.

Nowadays, there are various forms of comic series.

Like line drawings, sketches, watercolors, woodcuts, and so on.

Watercolor comic series are considered relatively upscale.

During this special period, the comic industry was originally stagnant, only starting to pick up again since July 1st.

Shi Tingyu didn’t plan to submit to local publishers but was preparing to submit to publishers in Beijing.

As a publisher in Beijing, if they could successfully publish later, they would definitely have the largest distribution in Beijing, and perhaps there would be other gains.

Seeing his wife finish her important task, Lu Weiguo picked her up, ‘Wife, the important work is done; let’s do something else.’

Shi Tingyu glared at him angrily, ‘I haven’t even washed up yet.’

Lu Weiguo paused in his attempt to lay her on the bed, turned in another direction, and headed towards the bathroom, ‘It’s okay, I’ll help you.’

Before long, ambiguous sounds could be heard from the bathroom.

For the first time not in bed, feeling novel and thrilling, Lu Weiguo seemed to have opened the door to a new world and tirelessly explored it.

Shi Tingyu felt like a leaf on a boat, floating and sinking, completely carried away by him.

Finally, exhausted to the point where she didn’t want to move a finger, she slumped into bed and fell asleep.

Lu Weiguo stroked her smooth hair, reflecting on himself; perhaps he had been too indulgent tonight.

But… he couldn’t resist.

The next morning, Lu Weiguo still went to the cafeteria to fetch breakfast.

Feng Wei looked at Lu Weiguo strangely as he prepared to leave after picking up breakfast, stopping him, ‘Why have you been going to the cafeteria these days? Is your little sister sick?’

Based on previous experience, even if Lu Weiguo went to the cafeteria, he’d usually just grab some buns. This time, he got a full meal, which was unlike his usual style.

Lu Weiguo’s eyes flickered, feeling a bit uneasy but not showing it on his face, and replied casually, ‘Stop watching me all the time; it’s weird.’

Feng Wei almost reached out to grab him by the neck and give him a hug.

‘Who am I doing this for?’

Lu Weiguo hurried off, not wanting to continue the topic with him, ‘My wife is waiting for my breakfast. I’m off.’

Feng Wei saw his expression and confirmed it probably wasn’t because something happened to Shi Tingyu, so he let it go.

Recently, people from the Cultural Troupe had been coming over, and the animals below had become restless, so he was quite busy.

On his way back, Lu Weiguo began reflecting on himself again.

This frequency almost rivaled the Three Provinces. But, introspection was introspection; when he looked back, he was still going strong unless his wife called a halt.

But he found that his wife seemed to enjoy it too. If both were happy, why couldn’t they?

So, after two rounds of introspection, he convinced himself again.

After Lu Weiguo finished breakfast and went to work, Shi Tingyu neatly organized the manuscripts she planned to submit and packed them into a bag, ready to go to the post office.

This time, she met Jiang Yun on the supply truck.

Seeing Shi Tingyu board, Jiang Yun moved closer to her.

She was relatively familiar in this truck, at least more so than those whose names she didn’t even know.

Being close together, the two naturally began chatting.

It was during this time that Shi Tingyu learned that Jiang Yun worked at the town’s textile factory.

There was only one textile factory in town, where Feng Instructor’s wife, Mrs. Feng, worked.

As she was about to get off, Jiang Yun added, ‘If you ever need fabric in the future, you can tell me. Our factory has defective fabrics circulating internally, nothing major, and can be used as normal.’

Shi Tingyu thanked her, ‘If I need it in the future, I’ll definitely trouble you.’

“She could tell Jiang Yun was sincere, so she responded in kind.

Jiang Yun thought, ‘Just a little trouble for me, so my conscience can be at ease.’

But she heard that Lu Weiguo seemed to treat her well, which was somewhat comforting.

Shi Tingyu found the address of Jingshi Fine Arts Publishing House on the inside cover of a comic book, so she didn’t have to worry about not knowing the address.

There weren’t many people at the post office at this time, so Shi Tingyu bought stamps and sent her manuscript.

After leaving the post office, she went to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy some meat for an additional meal.

Then she went to the flower and bird market and bought some hollyhock seeds, peach and orange tree seedlings. However, hollyhocks are usually planted in spring or autumn. She could plant them in the space now and expects to harvest a batch of seeds in autumn.

She also initially planted fruit trees in the space and wanted to see if the space would upgrade by then.

Plus, planting them meant free fruit to eat.

After buying almost everything she needed, Shi Tingyu found a secluded spot and took out the wild honey she had collected earlier.

She carried only a small amount of meat and a jar of wild honey in her hands.

Sitting back on the supply truck, Shi Tingyu sighed, feeling that this trip was really not easy.

Lu Weiguo had mentioned before that there might be a supply and marketing cooperative opening near the camp. She hoped it would open soon so that it would be convenient to buy essential goods later.

On the other hand, the beef jerky Shi Tingyu made earlier had also arrived at the Qianxi Brigade.

The village’s loudspeaker announced the names of several people who had received letters, and finally, the announcer saw a large package addressed to the Captain.

The loudspeaker was in the brigade headquarters, so the announcer did not continue broadcasting but directly sent the package to the Captain.

“Captain, here’s a package for your family.”