Chapter 171: An Yinan-brand Meat Sauce

"I do not hit my wife. On the first day I married you, I said as much, and today I will not lay a finger on you either."

"But, Wang Erhua, pack your things and go back to the village." Liu Tie Zhu slumped onto the bed, his whole body seeming to have lost its drive, as if he had lost his purpose.

His goal was very simple: he just wanted his wife and children to live a good life.

Now, what was he to do?

"Impossible." Wang Erhua's eyes widened, and she looked at Liu Tie Zhu in disbelief.

"It is impossible for me to go back to the village; no one can make me go back," Wang Erhua said firmly.

Once back in the village, there was the annual farming, the annual autumn harvest, and the crops and vegetable garden at home—those were all chores.

She had been at the Camp for over three years and had finally started living a good life; how could she be willing to go back and suffer?

Liu Tie Zhu no longer had the energy to say anything to her. "Do as you see fit. Next month I will give you the basic living expenses; I will save the rest of the money myself."

Every month, in addition to his salary, he received mission subsidies, totaling around sixty yuan.

He would mail ten yuan back to his mother every month and give the rest to Wang Erhua, yet for the past two days, Wang Erhua had been saying, intentionally or not, that the money was not enough.

He wanted to see just where in this household the money was being spent.

"You won't give me money? Who are you going to give the money to? Liu Tie Zhu, are you still a human being? Who are you giving the money to?"

Liu Tie Zhu looked at Wang Erhua in disappointment, pushed away the hand she had used to pull him, and returned to the training ground without looking back.

When Liu Tie Zhu saw Chen Xun, he finally sighed. "Battalion Commander, please help me say sorry to your wife. My woman is too muddled, and I have also neglected my family too much."

Chen Xun patted him on the shoulder; he did not want to express any opinion on other people's family matters.

As for the grudge against his own wife, it had been settled during the afternoon's sparring.

"Alright, want to run two laps?" Chen Xun saw Liu Tie Zhu's dejected appearance and pointed toward the training ground.

Liu Tie Zhu nodded, and the two started from the starting line. "Beep!" The whistle blew, and two figures flew off like the wind.

Because of this incident, the Military District organized a Literacy Class, which every family member was required to attend: three classes per week, two for literacy and one for political education.

The Secretary kept a tight grip on this matter throughout, and not a single family member was allowed to fall behind.

However, An Yinan was an exception; she was a highly educated intellectual, so she did not even need to ask for leave, and her name was not on the list.

"Sister-in-law, there are packages for you, quite a few." An Yinan was jogging around the path; when there were no emergency missions, she started running every morning to strengthen her body.

Now that there was no Back Mountain, a lot of the fun was gone.

The sentry on duty saw An Yinan, quickly saluted, and reported.

An Yinan stopped. "I'll come sign for them."

A full eight packages...

After An Yinan finished signing for all of them, she looked at the pile of packages, and N-number of ways to move them flashed through her mind.

"Sister-in-law, you can wait a moment. We'll be changing shifts soon, and Er Dan and I will bring them over to you," the sentry on duty said with a grin.

They had all eaten the fried dough twists Sister-in-law made, as well as that hot milk tea.

An Yinan smiled. "Then thank you both."

"It's what we should do." The soldier called Er Dan scratched the back of his head.

Three minutes later, the shift change was complete.

Xiaokang and Er Dan were the names of these two soldiers; they were very young, only fifteen or sixteen years old.

"Sister-in-law, you don't need to carry them; we can handle it." Xiaokang hugged one large one and stacked two smaller ones on top.

Er Dan also carried two in one hand, then looked at the last one; it wasn't that he couldn't carry it, but he had no way to hold it.

An Yinan smiled. "Alright, I'm not a rag doll who can't do anything. Let's go."

"You got it." Xiaokang was more lively, while Er Dan was relatively more shy.

The two of them were in the same squad and the same group, and they were very close.

"Why did you two want to join the Military?" The distance between the main gate and Xiao Yuan was not short; as the three of them strolled along, An Yinan asked.

"I eat too much, and my family couldn't afford to feed me, so I came to join the Military," Er Dan said, looking a bit embarrassed.

Xiaokang, however, was a bit more silent, unlike his usual lively self.

"Is it inconvenient to talk about?" An Yinan did not know if Xiaokang had some hidden difficulty, so she simply asked.

"It's not that. It was arranged by my family, letting me come to the Military to get some training," Xiaokang said with a smile, but his voice revealed a bit of helplessness.

An Yinan changed the subject. "I fried some meatballs this morning; you two take some back to the dormitory to eat later."

"Really? That's great! The things Sister-in-law makes are so delicious." Xiaokang returned to his previous lively self, as if the helplessness from just a moment ago had never existed.

The three of them walked back to Xiao Yuan. An Yinan told them to just put the things inside the house, then wrapped three large bags of fried meatballs in oil paper and handed them over. "Take them back and eat them while they're hot."

"You got it! Sister-in-law, we're heading back now." Xiaokang called out to Er Dan, and the two of them ran quickly out of Xiao Yuan.

An Yinan had seen the hands the two used to take the meatballs; they were covered in red and blue chilblains.

In this Northeast Camp, whose hands didn't have chilblains?

Especially the new recruits whose hands hadn't gotten used to the cold yet; their entire hands were swollen like steamed buns, with blue and purple sores on them. An Yinan took note of this in her heart.

She first opened the packages. The new cotton-padded jackets and clothes sent by her Great Aunt were there; her Great Aunt knew the Camp was cold and had bought many items for warmth, including scarves, gloves, and hats.

What her Second Aunt sent were materials, though not translation materials, but some high school textbooks and review exercises. These must have been organized by her Second Aunt; every subject was included, and they were much more detailed than what she could find herself.

There were also the medicinal herbs she had previously asked her Great Uncle to find. To her surprise, there was a large bag of herbs, with the year and name marked on each one.

An Yinan put these things away, then took some air-dried rabbit meat, as well as some flawed fabric and cotton, out from her space. She prepared to make chair cushions and mattress pads. It was just right to use the excuse of having received packages to take these things out; otherwise, she wouldn't dare take them out normally—who told her to live with a scout?

There were still five packages unopened. An Yinan set them aside, planning to unpack them in the afternoon.

Checking the time, she hung the air-dried rabbit meat in the back room, took some dried mushrooms from her space, and used a cured pig leg to make a pot of mushroom meat sauce. The fragrance of the meat sauce drifted out from Xiao Yuan and traveled quite a distance.

Zhang Qian and Chen Xun, who were resting at noon, walked past on the road and were immediately captivated by the overpowering aroma.

"I'll bet my life on it, it's definitely An Yinan making meat sauce." Zhang Qian took a deep breath; it was a mix of meat and mushroom aromas, along with a fierce, savory sauce scent.

This meat sauce, produced by An Yinan, allowed for no rebuttal.