Ning Shu hadn’t expected Lu Hong to come for this matter.

She replied, “Thank you, Sister Lu, but I don’t have plans for that at the moment. Firstly, San Bao is still young and can’t walk steadily yet. I have to take care of him. Secondly, we’ve just arrived with the army, and the three children are not familiar with the family housing area. If I’m lucky enough to be recruited into the school and leave the children at home in a strange environment, they will feel lonely and may not be able to integrate here for a long time. So, for now, I want to let the children get familiar with the life here first and don’t plan to find a job. Thank you so much for coming to tell me. I really appreciate it.”

Of course, these were not the real reasons.

The real reason was that Ning Shu didn’t like a nine-to-five job.

She would rather take the children to the fields or go for a walk in the mountains than sit in an office, especially for a teaching position that requires great attention to detail and patience.

Ning Shu knew she wasn’t a patient and attentive person.

She even lacked patience with her own children, sometimes giving up teaching them and leaving it to Lin Guodong.

How could she handle other people’s children?

This kind of job that requires great responsibility was not suitable for her.

Lu Hong didn’t think too much about it.

She didn’t even know if Ning Shu could be recruited.

She just wanted to inform her of this opportunity.

Moreover, whether to accept it or not was Ning Shu’s decision.

Furthermore, what Ning Shu said made sense.

Some people focus on their work, while others focus on their families.

She was someone who focused on her work, but she wouldn’t look down on those who focused on their families.

Everyone was making efforts and sacrifices in their own way.

“Alright, next time when the children are more familiar with the family housing area, if there are other positions available, the notice board in the family housing area will post a notice. You can keep an eye out. This time, I just thought you were new here and didn’t know about these things, so I came to inform you,” Lu Hong said.

“Okay, thank you, Sister Lu.” Ning Shu knew she meant well and accepted her kindness.

After Lu Hong left, the family continued to have lunch.

“Actually, ‘gaifan’ is nothing special, it’s no different from mixed rice. Some people like their rice mixed with soup, which is the same concept as ‘gaifan.’

Lin Guodong didn’t have breakfast in the morning.

When he and the kitchen staff left in the morning, the canteen hadn’t opened yet, so he ate a lot for lunch.

In the end, even the stir-fried pork with celery was gone.

Lin Guodong hadn’t finished eating, so Ning Shu had to fry some eggs with rice and add some greens.

After finishing the meal, Lin Guodong said, “Do you want to go to the nearby village to get familiar with it? You still need to buy furniture, right? Let’s go take a look.”

Speaking of furniture

Ning Shu said, “Didn’t you buy furniture at the place where you bought the wooden basin today? We need to buy things like water buckets, sieves, and baskets. We’re still using the water bucket from Director Zhang’s house, we need to return it soon. By the way, where did you borrow the basket from?”

Lin Guodong explained, “The basket was borrowed from the kitchen staff. I bought the wooden basin at the supply and marketing cooperative. The salesperson said it was made by the common people and sold to the cooperative. There were no water buckets, sieves, or baskets like you said. The supply and marketing cooperative usually buys wooden basins because they sell well.”

There are still many people using wooden basins now.

Other basins are enamel basins, but they require industrial coupons.

How can ordinary households have so many industrial coupons? So the wooden basins without coupons are very popular.

“Then let’s go to the nearby village. Did you buy these eggs from the supply and marketing cooperative too? Did you use egg coupons?” Thinking of the basket of eggs Lin Guodong brought back, probably about thirty of them, Ning Shu was quite happy, knowing that the eggs for the next four or five days were settled.

There are many people in their family, each person needs an egg in the morning, so that’s five eggs.

If they have egg soup or something for lunch, that’s seven eggs a day, so they eat eggs very quickly.

“When the kitchen staff was purchasing eggs, I bought them too, without using coupons.” Lin Guodong said.

But these things are rare too, after all, it’s not possible to go with the kitchen staff every time they need to buy something.

However, from Lin Guodong’s words, Ning Shu understood one thing, that is, to coordinate with the kitchen staff.

This is the last vacation for the family of five after the New Year.

Lin Guodong and Ning Shu walked side by side, with their three children in between them.

In this unfamiliar environment, the three kids did not show any timidity because their dad and mom were with them, giving them unparalleled courage.

After lunch, the family courtyard was particularly lively, even more so than the villages in the countryside.

In the countryside, some houses are close together while others are far apart, but in the family courtyard, the houses are all adjacent to each other.

The alleys between two houses might be so narrow that even a child couldn’t pass through. So, when everyone came out after eating, it was bustling.

Some still had a bamboo toothpick in their mouths, obviously just finished eating with food stuck in their teeth.

“Mrs.Lin, are you going out?” The Yang family had just finished lunch. Yang Pozi carried bowls and chopsticks, accompanied by a woman carrying a basket of vegetables.

They happened to run into the neatly dressed Ning Shu and her family of five.

Yang Pozi’s gaze lingered on the three children for a moment.

What handsome boys! Why don’t they have one in their family? She wasn’t greedy; one would be enough.

“Auntie, have you had lunch? We’re going out to see if there are any carpenters nearby. We just moved here and need to buy some things like baskets and buckets. It’s not good to keep borrowing from others.” Ning Shu said.

“Yes, I know where to go. After leaving the barracks, turn right on the main road. There’s a Moon Bay production brigade. They make furniture there. The furniture from their brigade is purchased by the Supply and Marketing Cooperative and the department store. You can go and take a look.” As an elder in the family courtyard, Yang Pozi was very familiar with this.

When she mentioned this, Yang Pozi approached Ning Shu and whispered, “If you need furniture, find the cadres of their brigade. If you want to exchange for eggs or meat, find their villagers. Eggs are 60 cents per pound without tickets, and chicken meat is 1 yuan per pound without tickets. You can also use tickets to exchange.”

Ning Shu’s eyes lit up. “Thank you, Auntie.” This was a big help to her.

Yang Pozi waved her hand. “The family members are one family, united for everyone’s sake.”

Don’t be fooled by her cultured words now; in fact, Yang Pozi couldn’t read.

The only sentence she knew was this one.

Ning Shu praised, “Auntie, your consciousness is really high. These two sentences are particularly impressive.”

For Yang Pozi, Ning Shu didn’t deliberately try to get close to her, but she did harbor some goodwill.

The reason was simple, whether it was in the plot where she took care of Yibao and Erbao, or in her natural hostility towards the Ning Qin family.

Yang Pozi never went to school.

If someone praised her intelligence, she might think the person was being sarcastic.

But if someone praised her for being insightful and speaking with depth, she would definitely acknowledge it.

As a military spouse, with her son being an officer, she was particularly insightful.

As for speaking with depth… “I didn’t say that. It was our political commissar’s wife who said it. She speaks with a lot of reasoning, but in a way that makes you really want to learn.”

“If Auntie listened and learned, it also shows that she is eager to learn.” If Ning Shu was willing, compliments like these would surely make people very happy.

Indeed, Yang Pozi’s mouth never stopped. “Oh, look at what Ning said… I won’t disturb you anymore; we’ll go wash our things too.”

“Okay.” Ning Shu smiled and walked away with her family.

As for the people around Yang Pozi, since she didn’t introduce them, Ning Shu didn’t ask.

As they walked away, Yang Pozi’s smile immediately faded.

She turned to her daughter-in-law and frowned, unable to resist scolding, “Why is your mouth so clumsy? Can’t you greet people when you see them? She’s the company commander’s wife. Do you still need her to greet you? No one would give birth like you, no one would speak like you, and no one would be as good-looking as you. I really don’t know why I agreed to let you in back then.”

Yang Pozi’s daughter-in-law was named Zhao Huan.

Zhao Huan and Yang Pozi were from the same village.

In the tumultuous years before the new country was established, Zhao Huan’s family members passed away one by one, leaving only her.

As a young girl at that time, she didn’t know how to survive, and she survived with a lot of help from Yang Pozi.

When Yang Zhenhua was about to join the army, Yang Pozi was worried about her son and afraid he wouldn’t return.

So, before her son went to the army, she had the two of them get married and set up a bridal chamber.

Later, when Yang Zhenhua was promoted and family members were allowed to follow the army, the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law came over with their granddaughter.

Yang Pozi’s interest in Zhao Huan was quite simple.

Firstly, their family conditions were poor at the time, so it wasn’t easy to find a daughter-in-law for her son.

Zhao Huan was an orphan with no one to rely on in the future, so wouldn’t she wholeheartedly be good to the Yang family? Moreover, even if they argued, Zhao Huan was alone and couldn’t match their family.

Furthermore, Zhao Huan was a servant girl raised from a young age, so her heart would be with the Yang family.

Not only did this save on the dowry, but she was also treated like a daughter.

Listening to her mother-in-law’s impolite words, Zhao Huan just smiled without any cunning.

She was grateful to her mother-in-law. Although her mother-in-law spoke harshly and scolded her, she never laid a hand on her.

She hadn’t borne a son, which disappointed her mother-in-law, but she had always been helping her stay healthy.

This not only saved the children but also her mother-in-law.

Although her mother-in-law said having granddaughters was a loss, she still sent them to school when they were in the army.

So, Zhao Huan was mostly grateful to her mother-in-law.

Even when her husband became successful, her mother-in-law didn’t make him divorce and remarry.

“I… I see you’re having a good time talking to Lin Guodong’s wife, so I didn’t disturb you.” Zhao Huan’s voice was soft and weak.

However, if one were to think she was a weak woman because of this, they would be wrong.

She was only weak in front of her mother-in-law; in front of outsiders, she was not weak at all.

After all, she was raised by Yang Pozi.

In terms of character, she hadn’t learned a full hundred percent from Yang Pozi, but she had learned about sixty percent.

It’s just that she appeared weak in front of Yang Pozi because she was completely grateful for her.