Lu Zhanguo kept walking in front, his eyes turned only to see Gu Xiaobei slipping and sliding her way, with her little face full of determination. If this had been the case before, she would have whined non-stop.
Lu Zhanguo walked to Gu Xiaobei and said, "Let me carry you, it's still more than ten miles to go." Hearing the distance, Xiaobei nodded enthusiastically, "Okay, okay.".
As Lu Zhanguo turned and bent over Gu Xiaobei had already jumped onto his back, her arms hugging Yi's neck. Lu Zhanguo stiffened a second as he felt the soft touch on his back, as he lifted Xiaobei and steeled himself to the coming journey. With her arms around Lu Zhanguo's neck, Gu Xiaobei was feeling quite pleased with herself and impulsively whispered into Lu's ear "Lu Zhanguo, let's stop fighting and live a good life".
Lu Zhanguo's lips tightened but he didn't make a sound, though inside he felt a bitter pang. Wanting to find a wife and live a good life wasn't it what he desired? But right now, his life was a joke among the inhabitants of his home. Why was Gu Xiaobei suddenly talking about settling down today? What about tomorrow?
Seeing that Lu Zhanguo was silent, Gu Xiaobei also felt somewhat dejected and figured it would be better to take things slow. It was unlikely that such a rigid man could change all at once.
In the silence, they arrived at the front gate of the military camp by evening. Gu Xiaobei didn't have the heart to ask Lu Zhanguo to carry her anymore and requested that she be allowed to walk by herself. Lu Zhanguo didn't protest and together they entered the camp gate and walked to their residences. Along the way, everyone greeted Lu Zhanguo and flat out ignored Gu Xiaobei. She couldn't help but touch her nose and sigh at what a terrible impression the former owner must have made.
Upon entering the home, since it was evening mealtime, there were not many people around which spared Gu Xiaobei some awkwardness.
The families lived in a simple two-story building. There was no central heating, and each family was to survive by burning coal. A floor house accommodated about a dozen families. Oak strip flooring was widely used in the living areas of the homes, which lacked furniture. The outer room had a single bed and wooden wardrobe leaned up against the wall, next to the bed was an Eight Immortal Table with several square stools.
Lu Zhanguo walked straight into the inner room, put down his things and said, "You rest first, I'll start the fire." Gu Xiaobei nodded. It appeared that the inner room was where the previous inhabitant used to live. There were pink floral curtains, a double bed covered in pink linen with a matching pink blanket, next to the bed was a large wooden wardrobe and in front of the window was a vanity table. All of which was out of place in this simple room. A small table was against the firewall side, and on it were some dirty dishes. It looked like the previous owner and Lu Zhanguo used to eat separately. This thought made her chuckle.
As the house was cold, she didn't dare take off her coat. So she tidied up, thinking as soon as she got her footing, she would definitely get rid of all that disgusting pink stuff.
She heard the sound of the front door open and saw Lu Zhanguo carrying a bright red piece of coal into the room to light the stove. Watching him start the fire made her rather optimistic about her ability to do this kind of work.
Lu Zhanguo went to the wash basin to clean his hands, then turned and asked Gu Xiaobei, "What do you feel like eating tonight?"
As Gu Xiaobei was still going over the fire-starting steps in her mind, she was caught off guard by his question. She put the bowl down on the Eight Immortal Table and replied, "Anything would do, how about I cook?" Although she didn't have any particular trait or skill after her time travel, Gu Xiaobei was confident in her cooking skills.
Lu Zhanguo looked at Gu Xiaobei, seemingly incredulous. In the past, all Gu Xiaobei would do was make a simple bowl of food and retreat to her room. Seeing her offering to cook was quite a surprise. Gu Xiaobei muttered a curse to the previous owner under her breath and said with some embarrassment, "My cooking is edible." Lu Zhanguo nodded and said "Alright".
While they were talking, the stove warmed the room making it less cold. Gu Xiaobei took off her coat, including her red sweater, and put on a black turtle neck she had found. She pulled her hair up into a bun.
Walking out of the inner room she saw Lu Zhanguo wearing a green shirt and about to knead the dough. 'Aren't you cold?' she wondered. For his part, seeing Gu Xiaobei in a black sweater and her hair in a bun, Lu Zhanguo thought she looked refreshingly young.
When she saw Lu Zhanguo knead the dough, she said. "Want to eat noodles? I can do it." Then it hit her, she didn't know how to roll out the dough. She gave a sheepish grin, "You could roll the dough and I could make the sauce, that way it'll be faster. Lu Zhanguo looked at her now relaxed demeanor, his face also relaxed a bit and he replied with a nod of agreement.
Gu Xiaobei went out to the hallway and took a pot from their side of the communal kitchen. Looking into their bag of vegetables, all she found was a potato and two carrots. There were also half a cabbage wrapped in a newspaper on the top of their cupboard. 'What can I cook with this?' she wondered and finally decided on making noodle soup.
She remembered there was a plate of sprouting garlic on the windowsill of her room. The original owner had grown it as a flowering plant. 'No matter,' she thought, 'I'll eat it today. '
With that decided, she took a carrot, a potato, and half of the cabbage and went to the public water room at the end of the corridor. As she entered the room, there were three or four military wives already there washing their dishes, who immediately fell silent upon her entrance. She gave them a slight smile and went on with washing her vegetables. When she left, she heard their chatter resume. She muttered a silent reprimand to the previous host.
Upon entering the room, she saw Lu Zhanguo rolling out the dough. His sleeves rolled up to reveal his firm, dark forearms. She couldn't help but be a little dazed by his biceps. She then moved to the space opposite him and began to cut the potato and carrot into small pieces, about a square centimeter in size and did the same with the cabbage.
Xiaobei then went back into her room to get a small bunch of garlic sprouts, cutting them into one-centimeter long sections. She brought the cut vegetables outside; fortunately, the stove used gas so it was less of a hassle. She heated the pot, added a bit of oil, and when it was hot enough she threw in the carrots and potato. After sautéing them for a while, she added some bean paste, dried chili segments, and the cabbage. She then added some water. When the vegetables were almost cooked, she added the garlic sprouts, and the room instantly filled with a pleasant aroma.
After dishing out the stir-fried vegetables, she washed the pot, refilled it with water, and then moved the vegetables back into the kitchen. By that time, Lu Zhanguo had finished rolling out the noodles. The noodles were so evenly cut that they looked like machine-made ones, leaving Gu Xiaobei impressed. "You're so good at this, you should be in charge of making noodles in the future." After saying this, she felt like she was treating him too much like a friend and laughed a little awkwardly. Lu Zhanguo, on the other hand, felt a throb in his chest at the sight of Gu Xiaobei's pleased look. He replied without thinking, "Alright".