Chapter 165: Wedding Candy
Once the soldiers left, Sheng Wanyan locked both the front door and the main courtyard gate to give herself some privacy while she finished organizing their home.
She didn’t plan on stuffing her new custom sofa cushions with pure cotton batting; in her experience, pure cotton cushions quickly lost their resilience and flattened out under constant use. Instead, she quietly pulled a set of pre-made cushion inserts from her pocket dimension and slipped them inside her newly sewn covers.
Truthfully, she preferred the high-density foam pads of the future, which were the gold standard for solid wood furniture. But since foam was non-existent in the 1970s, she had to settle for thick, pre-stuffed cotton-blend pads. Fortunately, she had stored plenty of them in her space, saving her the immense hassle of fabricating them from scratch. She had no desire to manufacture extra labor for herself when a flawless, foolproof shortcut was sitting right in her dimension.
With the main sofa sorted, she realized she had some idle time, so she decided to sew custom cushions for their two backyard lounge chairs as well.
Once all the pads were placed onto the log-style wooden frames, the entire living room took on a beautifully cohesive, rustic look. Wanyan then arranged their shoes neatly onto the entryway rack and stocked the kitchen cupboard with fresh sugar and eggs.
During his brief breaks, Gu Tingxiao had even managed to build two custom bamboo racks for the kitchen. Wanyan mounted one directly over the brick stove to hold her daily cooking essentials and placed the other inside the pantry for extra organization. By the time the house felt properly put together, it was already past four o’clock in the afternoon.
Next, she grabbed a wooden bucket to water the backyard garden. Although the vegetable seeds had just been planted today, the soil required careful, steady moisture to encourage germination. She still hadn’t visited their private garden plot near the apartments, so she resolved to walk over with Tingxiao later that evening.
While it didn’t look like she had performed any heavy cleaning, the hidden, continuous chores of setting up a new household had consumed almost her entire day. After a brief rest, Wanyan stepped back into the kitchen to prepare dinner. Once they ate, she and Tingxiao would head out to distribute their wedding candies to the neighbors.
Cooking for a household of two was a simple affair. She decided to leave the two live fish swimming in the yard bucket for now; she would slaughter one for the housewarming feast in a couple of days and keep the other for later in the week. With the scorching summer heat, she needed to prioritize cooking the fresh pork fat and meat before it could spoil.
For their staple tonight, she opted for steamed buns made from refined white flour. After eating rice for several consecutive meals, she knew they couldn’t afford to look any more extravagant to the neighbors. Personally, she detested eating coarse grains for her main meals; whenever she tried to substitute refined flour with coarse cornmeal or sorghum, she would invariably end up raiding her kitchen for a late-night snack.
Wanyan decided to make a local variation of roujiamo, slicing the fluffy white buns down the center and stuffing them generously with a savory savory stir-fry of minced pork and green peppers. She steamed three massive buns in total. She felt completely stuffed after finishing just one, leaving the remaining two for Gu Tingxiao’s massive appetite.
Just as she plated the food, the courtyard gate creaked open. Gu Tingxiao walked in, his eyes lighting up the moment he spotted the newly completed sofa. He strode over and sank into the cushions.
He had never sat on a couch so incredibly soft and supportive. He couldn’t help but marvel at his wife’s ingenuity; her mind was always bursting with the most brilliant, unique ideas. And more importantly, they actually worked beautifully.
Wanyan carried the dinner tray into the living room, watching his delighted expression with amusement. “Well? Is it comfortable?”
Gu Tingxiao looked up at her and nodded vigorously. He had truly never experienced such comfort. “Wife, your craftsmanship is incredible.”
“Stop flattering me. Go wash your hands so we can eat,” she laughed.
“Alright.”
Tingxiao reluctantly hoisted himself up from the cushions, throwing a lingering, envious glance at the matching single armchairs nearby. If sitting on this sofa felt this magnificent, wouldn’t stretching out on a full-sized mattress feel divine? Their brick kang was notoriously stiff; if he could secure a soft mattress like this for their bedroom, his wife would undoubtedly sleep much more soundly. He wasn’t sure if they had enough cotton coupons left, but he resolved to trade for more from his comrades so Wanyan could sew a thick mattress pad.
If Sheng Wanyan had known what was running through his mind, she would have praised him as a natural-born entrepreneur. His ability to immediately adapt an idea and look for the next upgrade was a rare trait.
Following dinner, Wanyan opened their bedroom cabinet and retrieved the five large bags of assorted candies she had purchased in the city. She arranged them neatly into a handheld basket, which Tingxiao immediately carried as they stepped out to greet the neighborhood.
“Wife, look over there. That’s our private plot,” Tingxiao pointed out as they walked toward the multi-story apartment buildings.
Their assigned garden plot sat right in the middle of the line, flanked by Political Commissar Xie’s family plot on the left and Deputy Battalion Commander Wang’s on the right. Tingxiao had already turned the soil over completely, leaving a clean, dark bed of earth ready for her to sow the seeds.
A glance at their neighbors’ plots revealed that Aunt Xie was cultivating winter cabbage, while Yang Wanshu was growing radishes—both sturdy, hardy crops meant for long-term winter storage. In this northern region, the winter snow could easily pile up past a grown man’s waist. If a household failed to hoard a massive surplus of root vegetables ahead of time, venturing out for food became impossible, leaving them to freeze and starve.
The families living in the modern tube buildings actually suffered the worst during the winter months. Because their apartments lacked traditional heated kangs or private root cellars, they had no physical space to store bulk provisions even if they had the funds to buy them.
Wanyan suddenly paused, a thought striking her. Her brother and sister-in-law were currently assigned to one of those apartment flats.
Sheng Wanyan: “…” Won’t they absolutely freeze or starve to death once winter hits?
What she didn’t realize was that Sheng Wanze and Pan Yue had already endured those exact harsh conditions the previous winter and were already drafting an application to transfer out. Now that Pan Yue was pregnant and the Sheng elders were planning a move to the base, remaining in a cramped apartment flat was out of the question; the elderly couple would never survive the damp, unheated rooms. Wanze intended to submit his request for a freestanding courtyard house the moment he officially reported back for duty, ensuring they would have a functional brick kang to beat the freeze.
Securing a courtyard house wouldn’t be a difficult battle. In this era, almost everyone coveted the modern prestige of the multi-story apartment buildings, leaving the traditional courtyards largely ignored. By volunteering to vacate a highly desirable two-bedroom flat in the main building, Wanze was actually doing the logistics department a massive favor, and the base command would gladly approve the trade.
Wanyan and Gu Tingxiao decided to start their rounds from the very top floor of the tube building, knocking on doors systematically as they worked their way down.
Whenever a apartment door swung open to reveal Gu Tingxiao standing there in full uniform with a stern, unreadable expression, his subordinates would instinctively snap their heels together and stand at attention. Wanyan took one look at her husband’s rigid, silent posture and realized he wasn’t going to utter a single casual word to his men.
“Good evening, Captain! Hello, sister-in-law!”
“Mmh,” Tingxiao grunted automatically, and then the conversation died right there.
Wanyan let out a quiet sigh, realizing the social burden was going to fall entirely on her shoulders. If she left the candy distribution to Gu Tingxiao, the poor soldiers would be standing at rigid attention in their doorways all night.
“Hello, everyone. My name is Sheng Wanyan, and I’m Gu Tingxiao’s wife,” she introduced herself with a warm, easy smile.
At the sound of her words, a subtle grin tugged at the corners of Tingxiao’s mouth, though he quickly forced his lips back into a strict line to maintain his fierce commander persona in front of his squad. His wife. She just called herself Gu Tingxiao’s wife.
“We just settled into the compound yesterday, so we brought over some wedding candy to share our joy,” Wanyan continued gracefully. “Please accept a few sweets for the household.”
“Thank you so much, sister-in-law! Congratulations on the wedding, and may you two be blessed with a healthy baby soon!”
Hearing the soldier’s remarkably tactful blessings, the coldness on Gu Tingxiao’s face softened perceptibly. “Thank you for the kind words,” he murmured. “Take these to sweeten the children’s mouths.”
Wanyan counted out exactly ten pieces of candy and placed them into the hands of the soldier’s wife. To ensure absolute fairness across the compound, every single household received the exact same portion—no more, no less.
“Thank you, Captain! Have a good evening, sister-in-law!” the soldier bellowed enthusiastically.
His booming voice echoed so loudly down the narrow concrete corridor that it practically vibrated through the entire building. Wanyan could only smile and nod as they moved to the next door, silently marveling at the sheer volume of these military men.
