1970s: My childhood sweetheart ran away, and I turned around and married the wildest chief.

Qiao Wanqing always knew how to sweet-talk people. "I was just thinking that after all the commotion before, things finally calmed down, and I wanted to live a peaceful life with you from now on. I was worried that some troublemakers might use my past identity to cause trouble for you!"

"I figured the dishes didn't need to be too fancy, and there weren't many kinds, so I should be able to handle it myself, and I didn't think about asking the orderly to come over."

"For someone of your caliber, how many dishes do I need to prepare?"

Different family backgrounds inevitably lead to different lifestyles. Qiao Wanqing's family background was too high. Before marrying her, he knew what kind of life this girl had lived before. He was also worried that after marriage, she would think that she would become more and more extravagant because she had a powerful backer. In the long run, it might really affect him.

But the situation was urgent, and he couldn't bear to leave someone to die.

Now, without him saying much, she could tell that Lu Mingzhou was very happy to be thinking about their future family.

A few years ago, this incident caused the downfall of many people, and some of them still haven't been able to shake off some of their bad habits. They are still secretly continuing their old ways, only tolerating it more on the surface.

It's just that their workplace is strict, preventing that outside influence from fully infiltrating. But recently, for some reason, the situation has become increasingly severe, and the struggle has intensified. Lu Mingzhou has been very cautious lately, but he took a gamble on the Qiao Wanqing matter, and thankfully, he won.

Lu Mingzhou was in a good mood and said with a smile, "These days, extravagance is not fashionable, so there's no need to cook too many dishes. I'll have someone bring back more meat to make braised pork and stir-fry some pork slices with chili peppers. Make it a bit more flavorful to go with their drinks. You can make a larger portion and add some vegetables."

Qiao Wanqing glanced at the corner of her mouth. "That's it?"

Lu Mingzhou gave her a shrewd smile. "Don't we have fish at home? Why don't we add another one? Don't worry about people saying I'm stingy. Being stingy is better than being extravagant. Extravagance is called luxury, but being stingy... at least it shows that I'm frugal and simple."

Qiao Wanqing: "..."

She readily accepted this suggestion. "How about this: I'll make some braised pork, and we still have a big fish at home. Tomorrow I'll go fishing by the river, and we'll make three tables of braised fish. We'll also stir-fry some mushrooms with chili and pork slices, and a few vegetable dishes. What do you think?"

Lu Mingzhou nodded, "Okay, but don't use only white rice for the staple food, add some whole grains."

Qiao Wanqing nodded.

It was 1976 now, and the army was already rationing rice. But when hosting a dinner party, it was still best to keep a low profile. Everyone was on a ration, and if you served all the fine grains for three tables of guests, it would be too ostentatious.

"The purchasing truck will be coming into town tomorrow. I've asked them to bring back plenty of meat and vegetables, so you don't need to worry about the ingredients. Let's set the date for the night after tomorrow, okay?"

Qiao Wanqing nodded, relieved. These days, meat and vegetables are hard to come by. Once the meat and vegetables are sorted out, the rest will be easy.

The next day, the weather was sunny, so Qiao Wanqing didn't go up the mountain again. She stayed home to dry the mushrooms and cleaned the wood ear mushrooms, then dried them as well. The shopping truck didn't return until around 3 p.m., so she had some time to buy a fishhook and go fishing by the river.

With the presence of the spiritual spring water, simply preparing some fish food and adding some spiritual spring water will make fishing much easier; Qiao Wanqing is very experienced in this.

Sure enough, the fish came in quickly. However, today's luck wasn't as good as yesterday's; the fish weren't very big. But Qiao Wanqing didn't mind. She released the very small ones and kept the rest.

Bored, she scattered some fish food by the river. Before long, it attracted a lot of small fish and shrimp. When she saw the small river shrimp, Qiao Wanqing's eyes lit up. She quickly grabbed a rice washing basket and started catching them one by one. These things are really delicious when stir-fried.

Time passed little by little, and since she had brought some food, she didn't need to go home to cook lunch.

Soldiers are always busy, and officers are no exception. Their family compound is part of a large military region. Some barracks are actually quite far from here, but the families are all concentrated here. Officers who live further away can only go home two or three times a week, and their units always send them back together.

Even if their families accompany them to the military, soldiers still cannot go home every day, let alone have meals at home every day.

Lu Mingzhou holds a high position and works here, so he doesn't go home for lunch. Now that he's newly married, he comes home every night. But once the novelty wears off, it will become the norm for him to come home every two or three days.

Once she puts on this uniform, she dedicates most of her time to the country, and her family and husband are destined to be separated for long periods.

After working until 3 p.m., Qiao Wanqing was ready to call it a day and go home, quite satisfied with her work.

There are two large buckets of fish of all sizes and more than two bowls of small river shrimp. Stir-fry them with some chili peppers, and three plates will be enough.

As she returned home laden with fish, she coincidentally ran into Sister Xu again. Sister Xu was carrying a load of firewood when she saw Qiao Wanqing's two large buckets of fish. Her expression changed, and envy was clearly visible.

She glanced at the fish several times, then looked at Qiao Wanqing, her eyes darting back and forth. It was obvious she was waiting for Qiao Wanqing to give her some fish. Thinking about the unpleasantness yesterday and the fact that she had so many fish today, she decided that since she hadn't asked for them directly this time, the other party would take the initiative to give her some so they could make up.

As a result, Qiao Wanqing only glanced at her, didn't say anything, and went straight home.

Sister Xu was stunned for a long time, never expecting Qiao Wanqing to be so arrogant. She felt insulted. Qiao Wanqing looked down on her because she was a military officer's wife. She hated people who were high and mighty.

As soon as she arrived home, a young soldier brought over the groceries. There was meat and vegetables, as well as rice, flour, cooking oil, and even drinks. Qiao Wanqing was very happy to see that everything was prepared. This man was really good; he wasn't a hands-off manager.

The next afternoon, after lunch, Qiao Wanqing began preparations.

The portion of pork was quite generous. They made a large pot of braised pork, but it wasn't all meat; they stewed it with potatoes. The aroma filled the entire residential compound. Luckily, their family lived in the back, not in the densely populated apartment buildings, otherwise, who knows how many children would have been attracted.

Once the braised pork is cooked, it's transferred to a large steel pot and kept warm on the stove. Then, the braised fish is prepared, which takes a bit longer. To ensure the best taste, it can't be finished in one pot, so it has to be done in two batches.

It wasn't until evening that I started cooking rice, and I also stir-fried the remaining vegetables, keeping track of the time.

However, before the people who were eating returned, an uninvited guest arrived in the courtyard. Qiao Wanqing heard the noise and quickly came out to see what was going on. She saw an elderly man in the courtyard, holding the hand of a five or six-year-old boy, heading towards her kitchen door.