When the noodles were ready, Gu Xiaoxi opened her eyes, drawn by the aroma.

Maybe it was the cooking skill she had just acquired, but she felt her senses were much sharper than before!

There were quite a lot of noodles. She only managed to eat half before feeling full.

Lu Jiansen, seeing the look on the girl’s face, naturally took the bowl from her hands and finished the rest of the noodles.

Gu Xiaoxi blushed slightly, but her heart felt warm.

“There’ll be a vehicle heading back to the unit tonight. Do you want to go back too?” Lu Jiansen asked gently.

Without even thinking, Gu Xiaoxi shook her head. “No. I want to go back with you.”

She had already realized—right now was the best time to earn merit points.

There wouldn’t be another opportunity where she could earn so many merit points in a single day!

Lu Jiansen was actually worried the girl wouldn’t be able to handle the physical toll, but seeing that she was unwilling to leave, he gave in.

“Alright. But you need to get a good rest tonight.”

Gu Xiaoxi quickly nodded. “I’ll definitely rest well.”

To prove she’d take good care of herself, while Lu Jiansen was busy, she even went to a nearby villager’s home to borrow a place to take a shower. Then she went to sleep early in the tent he had set up for her.

The next day, afraid she might be too tired, Lu Jiansen arranged for her to stay in the village to help the locals dry the rice harvested the previous day.

At first, Gu Xiaoxi was reluctant. She wanted to help salvage supplies to earn more points.

But seeing that the ones left in the village to dry the rice were all elderly people and children, she changed her mind.

If it rained again, she could collect the rice much faster than they could.

Several other military wives stayed behind as well, including Sister Feng Xia.

The two chatted while flipping and spreading the rice. It was actually quite relaxing.

“Xiaoxi, I heard that many areas in our region had poor harvests this year. Some places even experienced disasters. Food is in short supply. When we get back, you’d better find a way to stock up on grain. Otherwise, it’s going to be a tough winter,” Fengxia whispered to her.

Gu Xiaoxi nodded. “I’ll eat sparingly when we get back!”

Hearing that, Fengxia couldn’t help but laugh. “It’s fine since you don’t have kids. Battalion Commander Lu wouldn’t let you go hungry anyway.”

When Gu Xiaoxi heard her mention kids, she casually asked, “Sister, you’ve been out here for so many days—what about your child at home?”

Fengxia smiled and said, “You’ve never been to my house, so you don’t know. My mother-in-law is home. Sister Guifen’s two kids are also being looked after by her.”

Gu Xiaoxi praised her, “Your mother-in-law is really kind and has great awareness!”

Fengxia laughed heartily. “She’s a kind-hearted person, and she listens to my husband. Since we’re out here for disaster relief, she has to support us.”

As they chatted, their hands didn’t stop moving. Before long, some villagers noticed that the batch of rice they were in charge of was drying especially quickly.

Someone went to touch the grains and then reported it to the village chief.

After checking it himself, the village chief said immediately, “Let’s gather a load and take it to the rice mill for processing.”

Upon hearing that, Gu Xiaoxi quickly stepped forward and asked, “Chief, you want to start collecting them now?”

The chief nodded. “Yes! Most of the villagers’ food was washed away. We’ll mill some first to deal with the emergency.”

“Let’s do it then!” Gu Xiaoxi swiftly started helping collect the rice.

Not long after, a strong villager carried a load of rice off to be milled.

Just as everyone was looking forward to eating freshly milled rice by noon, bad news came.

The village’s old rice milling machine had been soaked in water and was no longer usable!

Gu Xiaoxi was sighing along with the others when suddenly, the word “repair” popped into her mind.

Gu Xiaoxi immediately came to her senses—right, doesn’t she now have the Level 2 Repair skill?

With that thought, she said a quick word to Sister-in-law Feng Xia and ran off to the rice milling site in the village.

When she saw the village chief and a few others sighing as they looked at an old-fashioned rice mill, she cleared her throat and stepped forward. “Village Chief, why don’t I give it a try and see if I can fix it?”

Village Chief Zhao looked at her, puzzled. “You know how to fix it?”

Gu Xiaoxi nodded. “I think I do. My dad used to work at a machinery repair shop, and I grew up watching him fix things. I picked up a lot over time. He even used to say I had a knack for repair work!”

Hearing this and knowing she was a military spouse, the village chief quickly made room. “Alright then, give it a shot!”

“Okay!” Gu Xiaoxi rolled up her sleeves and began inspecting the rice mill.

Though she hadn’t known how to fix it before, the moment she came into contact with the machine, her mind suddenly filled with a wealth of repair knowledge. After shaking the rice mill a bit, she relied purely on instinct and quickly identified the issue.

From start to finish, the entire repair took less than ten minutes.

At first, the village chief doubted that it could be fixed so quickly. But once they tried it, he realized the rice mill wasn’t just working again—it was running better than before.

Now he was truly impressed. He gave her a big thumbs-up. “Incredible! Even better than the guys from the agricultural machinery station.”

The problem was, when the people from the machinery station came to repair things, they charged money, expected meals, and worked slowly!

Gu Xiaoxi smiled modestly. “It wasn’t that hard. The machine had just gotten wet and short-circuited a bit. Easy fix. If there’s anything else around that needs repairing, you can bring it to me! I’m just flipping rice here, nothing urgent to do.”

Just then, a man nearby asked, “Can you fix a tractor?”

The village chief froze for a moment, then remembered—the track-type tractor they borrowed from the neighboring brigade had broken down. The machinery station people had tried twice to repair it but failed. It was still sitting in the village committee’s warehouse!

Before the heavy rain, the village committee had been stressing over this problem, so now he looked at Gu Xiaoxi with eager eyes.

Gu Xiaoxi didn’t make any promises and said tactfully, “How about I take a look first and see if I can fix it?”

The village chief quickly offered, “Sure, sure! I’ll take you over.”

Gu Xiaoxi also asked, “Village Chief, the rice mill was simple and I could use basic tools. Do you have the right tools for fixing a tractor?”

The village chief nodded. “Yes, during the rain, one of the machinery station workers was repairing it here in the village. When he left, he left the tools in the warehouse.”

The warehouse was on higher ground—although it had taken in some water, it wasn’t enough to wash away the tools.

Fifteen minutes later, Gu Xiaoxi laid eyes on the old track-type tractor.

She climbed up and carefully examined it, then nodded to the village chief. “It can be fixed.”

Upon hearing that, the village chief couldn’t hide the grin spreading across his face. He quickly assigned two villagers to help her.

Gu Xiaoxi didn’t hold back either. She directed the villagers to lift and move things, giving them all the physical tasks.

She herself focused solely on the actual repair—unscrewing bolts, tightening components, and clearing out the debris and junk that was affecting the tractor’s function.

She also dealt with the rusted parts.

Then, thinking the tractor’s performance was subpar, she even made a few tweaks to improve it slightly.

She was deeply focused on the repair and didn’t notice that more and more villagers had gathered to watch her work.

In the crowd, a man in military uniform frowned as he watched Gu Xiaoxi bent over the tractor.

“Let’s hope she doesn’t mess it up and make things worse for the village.”

What does a woman know about fixing tractors, anyway?