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“Fengnian’s wife, you really suffered today. That Zhang Lianhua is a true menace—completely impossible to reason with. Talk sense to her, and she tunes you out. Insult her, and she shrugs it off. Punish her, and she’s utterly fearless. We really don’t know what to do with her. Her husband, Commander Yang, is currently out on a mission. When he returns, I’ll have a serious talk with him about her.”
Commander Hu felt genuinely sorry for Liu Shuning. But honestly, he didn’t know how to deal with Zhang Lianhua either. Commander Yang had contributed greatly to the army, so he couldn’t be too harsh.
“Commander Hu, you don’t need to blame yourself. I already got my revenge earlier.” Liu Shuning never let herself suffer a loss. Zhang Lianhua’s foul mouth? Oh, she had plenty of ways to handle that. If she dared to run her mouth again, she’d let her try gargling with sewage.
“Alright then, I’ll head home. I still have a meeting later.”
Commander Hu felt reassured knowing Liu Shuning hadn’t been wronged in the end. He’d promised Lu Fengnian he’d look after her—but who’d have thought she’d already been bullied on just the second day?
——
Aunt Yang and Monkey helped Liu Shuning move all the furniture inside and get it arranged before they left. Aunt Yang had to hurry home to cook dinner, and Monkey had to return the vehicle to the logistics department.
Once Liu Shuning was alone at home with Ruibao, she finally had time to explore her new house.
The previously empty space was now filled with furniture.
In the living room, a dining table set was placed in the corner near the door. A sofa and coffee table occupied the central area.
There were rooms on either side of the living room. Both had heated brick beds (kang). The master bedroom also had a wooden bed and a wardrobe.
Winters in the northeast were too cold for wooden beds, so they were only suitable for summer. In winter, everyone slept on the heated kang.
“Mommy, I’m sleepy.” Ruibao had been so excited all day that he hadn’t napped. Now, he was clearly getting drowsy.
“Hold on a bit, let me make the bed,” Liu Shuning said, hurrying to fetch bedding and a straw mat from the storage room. She spread the mat on the kang, laid down the cotton quilt, and put on the sheets and duvet cover.
All the bedding had been prepared in advance by Lu Fengnian—who knew where he’d gotten it from?
After coaxing Ruibao to sleep, Liu Shuning continued tidying up the house.
She put away two thick cotton coats, three light jackets, five shirts, five black wool sweaters, two cloth dresses, about ten pairs of black pants, and a stack of pure cotton socks in the wardrobe.
The package she’d mailed hadn’t arrived yet, and her suitcase could barely fit this much anyway. She didn’t dare leave too many things out.
While Ruibao napped, she even made a trip to the guesthouse to check out and retrieve the last of her belongings.
Ruibao woke up to the smell of delicious food. Even in his dream, he thought he’d smelled braised pork.
“Mommy, are we having braised pork tonight?” he asked, rubbing his eyes and stumbling into the kitchen.
“Yes we are! Our Ruibao has such a sharp nose. Come over and try it—see if it’s too bland.” Liu Shuning fed him a piece of the braised pork.
“Mommy’s braised pork is amazing—it’s even better than what they serve in the state-run restaurant,” Ruibao said, his eyes narrowing in delight.
“Then eat lots if you like it.”
The system secretly cursed Liu Shuning in the background for being shameless. That braised pork was a system reward! How could she take credit for cooking it herself? The meat she bought earlier hadn’t even been cooked yet—it was still stored in the system space!
Achoo! Liu Shuning suddenly sneezed.
“System, were you badmouthing me just now?”
【I wasn’t. Host, maybe you caught a cold.】
The system sounded a bit guilty. Had she actually sensed that it had been talking behind her back?
“Caught a cold? Impossible. I’m in perfect health. You must have been badmouthing me. What else could cause a sudden sneeze?”
【Host, you haven’t checked in today.】
“Alright, alright, I’ll check in now.”
【Check-in successful. Host has received a Magical Pig-Slaughtering Knife.】
“What kind of lazy reward is that? Are you broke or what? Can’t afford proper supplies anymore?”
Liu Shuning was very dissatisfied with the system lately. It used to give her all sorts of amazing things—now it’s just a butcher’s knife?
If the system appeared in front of her right now, she would’ve sliced it into pieces with that knife.
【This knife can kill a pig in one blow. Host can use it to hunt wild boars.】
The system felt very wronged. This was an extremely valuable reward! Its host was like a pig who couldn’t appreciate fine grain.
“Is that so? Then I’ll test it out tomorrow to see if it’s really that good.”
Liu Shuning stored the pig-slaying knife in the system’s space, planning to test it out in a few days.
That night, while lying in bed, she kept thinking about going wild boar hunting. If the knife was really that powerful, she could have plenty of meat—and even trade some for other supplies.
Meanwhile, Lu Fengnian was at the Sino-Russian border.
His mission this time was to escort a team of experts home.
This team specialized in machine tools. They had studied in Russia for two years and were now returning with their research results.
“Eagle, the expert team is two days late. Could something have happened?”
“We can’t cross the border into Russia. We can only wait here.”
“Maybe we should sneak across. Just waiting here feels wrong.”
“No. That’s too risky. We have to stick to the plan. If anything goes wrong, we might not just fail to receive the experts—we could blow our cover.”
Lu Fengnian—code name: Eagle—frowned and firmly rejected the suggestion.
“Then what do we do?”
“We wait.”
They waited two more days on the border before the expert team finally arrived.
Once they picked them up, Lu Fengnian and his team quickly began their return trip.
He felt uneasy about leaving his newlywed wife alone at home. Was she managing alright?
Contrary to his worries, Liu Shuning was adapting perfectly well in the family compound.
In the past two days, she had chopped about ten suitable bamboo stalks from the back hills.
She planned to use the bamboo to weave frames and baskets—the baskets would be used for planting vegetables.
Now that the weather was getting cold, growing vegetables outside wouldn’t work. To have fresh greens in the winter, she would grow hardy leafy greens indoors in baskets.
Liu Shuning had decent crafting skills. In her past life, she often made little bamboo crafts to pass the time.
Weaving a few baskets was easy for her. The tricky part was the frame. Without iron nails, the bamboo structures weren’t very stable.
Thankfully, she’d received a bunch of useful items from her recent daily check-ins.
Ten boxes of tissues, ten boxes of sanitary pads, two bolts of black cotton fabric, ten pounds of egg biscuits, ten servings of rice noodle rolls, ten boxes of meatballs, a book on postnatal care for sows, a complete weaving manual, and a complete planting guide.
Out of all these goodies, what she liked best was the weaving manual. Once winter fully set in, she planned to study it thoroughly—learning weaving was a great skill to have.