Su Ye has no hobby of hiding gold bars, but he can't resist the attraction of these shiny little things.
The small yellow croaker was about an inch long, flat in the middle and round at both ends. It might have been played with and rubbed so often that it became rounder. The words engraved on it were already blurred. She rubbed them again and again before putting them back into the box.
During the Republic of China period, wars were raging and the currency depreciated rapidly. Only gold was the most stable currency in circulation. Therefore, people who have some savings nowadays like to save in small yellow croakers. Houses nowadays are probably not as valuable as small yellow croakers. Three or four small yellow croakers can be exchanged for a small courtyard house in Beijing. This is also the reason why Su Ye did not hoard houses.
So... How could Su Ye accept such a precious small yellow croaker
One can tell at first glance that this thing is probably a wedding souvenir for Professor Ning and his wife. She sends some food to the Ning family from time to time because Professor Ning is a rare national treasure-level scientist, and she admires him so much that she helps him out.
Before the gold bars had even warmed up, Su Ye sent them back.
The Ning family had just finished eating and drinking, and hadn't wiped the oil off their mouths yet, when Ning's mother saw Su Ye rushing over and stuffing something into her hands. Su Ye took out a gold bar with a smile and waved at her.
"One is enough. It's either a necklace or a watch. People who don't know would think it's a dowry for me. Aunt Ning, you should keep it for Xingdou's wife!"
After saying this, Su Ye left in a hurry.
Mother Ning sighed heavily: "This child!"
Su Ye returned these things to her, which showed that she was not a person who valued money. Although Ning's mother was slandering Su Ye, she could not hide the subtle smile in the corner of her eyes.
Grandma Zhou smiled and said, "Xiao Su is just that kind of person. Don't underestimate her. Don't think you can get rid of her by giving her some money."
As for money, the family is not short of it, so how can the daughter-in-law of the Gu family be short of money? When giving gifts to people, you still have to give them what they like. Zhou Honghan thought for a long time before giving Su Ye a house. In the future, the couple will have children, and the single dormitory will not be able to accommodate them.
Mother Ning didn't have as many twists and turns as Zhou Honghan. She stroked the little yellow croaker and figured out something in her mind. She said quickly, "Xiao Su is right. Isn't our family still lacking a daughter to add to the dowry?"
Grandma Zhou saw that she didn't mean to be joking and was stunned for a long time and couldn't speak.
…
On the other side, Gu Xiangqian smelled a strong fragrance before he returned home. He thought of something and smiled inadvertently.
The young soldier following behind him was stunned by this smile. Is this still the serious leader he knew
Sure enough, when Gu Xiangqian returned home, he saw steaming meat on the dining table and half a roast duck was still warming in the stove in the house.
The rosy roast duck meat was sliced and placed on a plate. The two roast duck legs had to be cut off as a whole. They were fat, thick and large, and the crispy, glowing red skin looked like glaze in the sun, as beautiful as if it was covered with a layer of beeswax.
The young soldier who was traveling with Gu Xiangqian saw the table full of delicious and sumptuous food and rubbed his eyes subconsciously.
I was shocked and envious. I thought it was crazy that Gu Lian had meat to eat during the field training, but I didn't expect that he could also eat roast duck meat in private!
If it weren't for the constant reminders from his hungry stomach, the young soldier would have thought he was having an illusion. In this lean season, it was really not easy to eat some meat, but how could it be so common for Gu Lian to eat meat every day
In addition to the tempting roast duck on the table, there was also an agate-colored braised pork and a plate of crispy cucumber shreds. The room was filled with the delicious aroma of food, which easily made people feel good and happy.
Gu Xiangqian was also stunned when he opened the door. Although he thought that his wife must have cooked something delicious, he never expected that she made roast duck at home.
He coughed lightly, then calmly took a document from the room and handed it to his subordinate.
It happened that Su Ye had just returned from Ning's house and bumped into the two of them. The young soldier immediately stood at attention and saluted, calling her sister-in-law.
Su Ye said with a smile, "Now that you're back, why don't you invite someone in to sit down?"
The young soldier's eyes lit up when he saw the woman in Gu Lian's family.
Everyone had heard that Gu Lian's wife came from the countryside and was good-looking, but no one had expected her to be so fair and pretty. She was tall and slender, and although she wore clothes similar to others, they looked good on her and made her look indescribably comfortable.
Gu Xiangqian glanced at his subordinate and said, "No need. I have something else to do later. Just take the things and leave."
Su Ye took out a document from the room and handed it to the young soldier. He then skillfully wrapped a few slices of duck meat in oil paper and handed them to the young soldier. "Take it home and eat it slowly."
The little soldier held the duck meat in his hand and felt the heavy friendship. His green face suddenly turned red. He still felt unreal until he left the Gu family. My sister-in-law has a good temper!
Is it really as difficult to get along with as rumored
Su Ye looked at Gu Xiangqian for a few seconds. He was wearing a neat pine green suit with his sleeves rolled up to his arms. It was very hot and beads of sweat kept flowing down his forehead, making his eyebrows and eyes more dazzling. It made people feel dry.
She had just returned from the Ning family. Along the way, she saw many soldiers and officers returning from field training. They were all tanned as dark as coal, except Gu Xiangqian, who did not get tanned and still had a healthy light wheat color.
"You stink of sweat. Go take a shower first, and then come over for dinner." Su Ye leaned in and sniffed, then said with disgust.
She took out a handkerchief and wiped the sweat from Gu Xiangqian's forehead.
Gu Xiangqian lowered his head to help his wife wipe the scalp, and after a while he stroked Su Ye's hair, "Thank you."
Gu Xiangqian took a quick shower and came out to eat while still steaming wet.
The training conditions were tough and harsh these days. With only dry food in the army, Gu Xiangqian seemed to have been hungry for a long time. He took two or three bites of rice and finished a bowl of rice in the blink of an eye. After finishing one bowl, he filled two more bowls. The rice was packed tightly. After eating, he felt alive again.
Gu Xiangqian ate his food slowly and leisurely, finally acting like he was eating seriously.
How can dry food be as delicious as the fragrant and soft rice at home? And the braised pork stewed by hand is even more delicious than the meat of the gods.
The duck skin is crispy and crunchy, sweet and delicious, and the thin layer of fat under the skin tastes particularly fragrant. The duck meat is tender but not fishy, and fat but not greasy.
The taste may be better than the gold medal roast duck made by the master chef of Jufu Restaurant. The meat is fresh and delicious, with a unique flavor that cannot be found anywhere else. Gu Xiangqian finished his meal and squinted his eyes in satisfaction.
"Delicious!" Gu Xiangqian praised without hesitation.
Su Ye supported his chin with both hands and said with a smile: "I caught two ducks yesterday, and there is still half left. If you are not full, there is more over there."
The rumor that "the wild duck was chasing Su Ye" spread faster than human legs. Gu Xiangqian heard about it before he returned to the compound. A smile appeared in his eyes whenever he thought of it.
"I'm full. How can I not be full after eating so much?"
"Go wash the dishes when you're full." Su Ye urged Gu Xiangqian to do the housework.
Gu Xiangqian was not vague either. He picked up the bowl and went to the sink to wash it. After washing the bowl, he frowned, picked up the broom and cleaned the house. Before he left, the house was tidy and everything was in its proper place. After he came back, the house seemed to be covered with dust and was in a mess.
While correcting homework, Su Ye secretly admired the man's muscles.
Gu Xiangqian was wearing a white vest, revealing his light-brown arms. His muscles, which had been trained over the years, were evenly proportioned and had beautiful lines. His honey-colored skin was full of primitive power under the sunlight.
Su Ye admired it for a while, and then the doorbell rang.
It turned out that it was Fang Xiulian who came.
When she heard that Su Ye had made roast duck, she couldn't wait to come to Su Ye's house.
"Sister-in-law, I have something to give you." She took out a piece of material from her bag and handed it to Su Ye with a smile.
Fang Xiulian introduced in a fashionable way: "This is Dacron. Don't underestimate it. It is an imported product from abroad and is very popular among young people in Shanghai. I cut one piece of the two pieces of material to make a shirt for Maogang. Maogang is about the same size as Brother Xiangqian, so this piece of material is just enough to make clothes for Brother Xiangqian."
Fang Xiulian raised the Dacron in her hand and said excitedly.
Su Ye had heard of "Dacron" because it was wear-resistant, strong, easy to wash, and not prone to wrinkles, and was deeply loved by the people. Because it was imported, the price was not cheap at all. One piece of Dacron could be made into several cotton shirts.
Recently, it was even reported in the newspapers. With the decline in grain production this year, cotton production is also inevitably declining, so China has increased its imports of Dacron. A state-owned store in Shanghai just put Dacron on the shelves, but because there were too many people coming to buy it, the store's glass windows were broken and many people were injured.
In City C, it was impossible to get Dacron even if you wanted to. As soon as people heard that it was available, they didn't even have time to queue up, and it was sold out in a flash. However, no matter how popular it was, Su Ye never queued up.
But…isn’t Dacron just ordinary polyester? This cheap fabric that is everywhere in the new century, an industrial chemical fiber product extracted from petroleum, is not breathable and does not keep warm. Su Ye did not follow this fashionable trend because he did not want to be a sucker.
Fang Xiulian poked her head into the house. Su Ye thought that Gu Xiangqian was working in only a sweatshirt and shorts. She didn't want to show this vivid scene to others, so she could only invite her to the living room.
"Wait, stop running around. Brother Xiang just mopped the floor..." Su Ye swiftly went back to the kitchen, cut the roast duck meat, wrapped it in oil paper and handed it to Fang Xiu Lian.
She smiled and said, "Thank you for the Dacron. If it weren't for you, I don't know when I would be able to wear this kind of foreign goods!"
Fang Xiulian has been living a comfortable life recently. Her cousin helped her solve her food problem. Not only does she have enough food to eat, but she also has pork every now and then.
She whispered to Su Ye, "It's a small matter! Sister-in-law, I recently found a way to buy food. Rice is two yuan a pound, and flour is three yuan. If you are short of food, I can give you some."
Su Ye almost choked when she heard the familiar grain price. This turned out to be the grain she sold to Ms. Fang.
Buy your own food? Don't be too frivolous. She managed to keep her expression tight and said with a smile, "Thank you, Xiulian. We have enough food for now. If it's not enough, we will ask you for some. You should be careful when buying food on the black market."
Fang Xiulian's eyes rolled around. She wanted to talk to Su Ye about some gossip about food, but seeing that he looked so righteous, it was not the right time to chat about gossip. So she swallowed back what she wanted to say and gave up the idea completely.
"Okay, sister-in-law, thank you for the roast duck!"
Su Ye sent Fang Xiulian away, took the "Dacron" into the house, put it on the desk, and started to correct his homework for a while.
Gu Xiangqian finished mopping the floor and found Su Ye in a daze. He stood beside her and watched her for a long time, but she didn't notice.
Su Ye suddenly raised his head and found Gu Xiangqian, and smiled at him: "Xiangqian, Xiulian just gave us a piece of Dacron, the material is very fashionable. Maogang also has a Dacron shirt like this, I'll ask the tailor to make one for you?"
Su Ye looked at the "Dacron" in his hand, and couldn't help feeling a little emotional. It was just an ordinary cheap cloth, but it was so popular in this era of material scarcity.
In the past six months, Su Ye has suffered a lot from the difficulty of "having clothes to wear". Thinking about the fact that this was China, which was once the world's number one producer of chemical fibers, and thinking about the difficulties of having clothes to wear in China nowadays, it turns out that China is so backward now.
It’s a pity that Su Ye doesn’t understand the production of chemical fibers, otherwise he would definitely try to figure it out.
Gu Xiangqian listened to his wife's words and said without hesitation: "No, I have enough clothes to wear. I will keep this piece of material for the tailor to make clothes for you."
As soon as he finished speaking, he opened the closet to sort it out and saw that it was filled with white and blue shirts and black pants for women. He had made several sets of the same style. I'm afraid that if he changed his clothes every day, no one would notice. Gu Xiangqian was silent for a moment and picked up a few clothes from the closet to wash.
Su Ye hadn't finished correcting her homework yet, but the house had already been tidied up by the man and looked brand new, with the floor so bright that you could see a person's reflection in it.
After finishing his work, Gu Xiangqian leisurely took a high school mathematics book from his desk and asked Su Ye: "You are about to take your graduation exam. Are you nervous? Do you need my help?"
Although Gu Xiangqian was not as good as Zhou Honghan and Professor Ning, he had also studied abroad. He flipped through the book and said nonchalantly, "Actually, my science is pretty good."
After saying that, Su Ye ignored him. Gu Xiangqian was flipping through the book, intending to test her, but he paused and fell silent.
There was a lesson plan inside the book, which was filled with various derivations, classic question types and variations, and the analysis was very clear. Su Ye didn't look like a candidate, but more like a teacher preparing a review for the candidates.
Gu Xiangqian flipped through her notes and read through them carefully, then looked down at her. The pair of dark, bright eyes on her oval face became brighter with concentration. She was holding a pen and carefully correcting the students' test papers, meticulously scoring an 85.
Su Ye knew that Gu Xiangqian was very good, and "he was OK in science" was a very modest statement. He was a student of the Academy of Military Sciences, and later worked under Professor Ning. If you asked him the result of multiplying a two-digit number by a three-digit number, he could calculate it quickly.
Compared to this kind of natural cheater, Su Ye is still a steady, hardworking worker.
She twirled the pen and said jokingly, "No need. Why use a butcher knife to kill a chicken? But there are some things I don't know how to do, so I would like to ask you for help."
Su Ye hooked her eyes and looked forward to Gu Xiangqian, and when he lowered his head and put his ear close to hers, she kissed him.
"Well, it's been so long, have you thought about it?"