A stunning beauty arrived on the island; she invented everything from childcare to babysitting.

“Xu Pengfei, if you still want the plane, don’t bring your friends here and bother me and your aunt,” Zhao Xuemei said.

"Roger that!"

Xu Pengfei saluted his mother and then called out to everyone, "Comrades, in order for our plane to be built as soon as possible, we can't continue to disturb the engineers here. Come with me, let's go play with this little plane first."

A group of children ran off again, taking a cloud with them.

Before leaving, Xiao Nier came over and hugged Anning, stuffing all the things in her pocket into her hands: "Mom, please put them away for me."

In just that short time, her purse was stuffed with a whole bunch of things by those kids: slingshots, marbles, smooth pebbles, and some snacks that were all dirty.

Although it looks tattered and worn, it should be a very precious thing for those children.

She was unsure of what to do.

Zhao Xuemei noticed An Ning's helplessness and smiled, "It's alright, that's how those kids are. These things aren't valuable, you can just leave them aside. Your little girl can keep whatever she likes, and I'll have Pengfei return the rest to them."

“Okay,” An Ning agreed. “Just now, your Pengfei really does have a talent for management.”

Zhao Xuemei's face lit up with a smile: "Oh well, he can only be the leader of the kids, since none of them can beat him."

Xu Pengfei wasn't the tallest or strongest among the group of children, but none of them could beat him, which made An Ning a little curious about his father.

Two days after arriving at the military base, Xu Pengfei's father had not yet shown up. Zhao Xuemei usually ate meals on her own with the child.

However, An Ning was curious, but she didn't ask directly.

The two chatted for a while, then continued building the airplane.

The frame is almost complete. Since a layer of cardboard will be pasted on the outside, Anning didn't consider its aesthetics. As long as it's sturdy enough and won't fall apart easily, that's fine.

If we finish building the framework today, we can put the cardboard on it tomorrow.

Not long after, a group of military wives also came over together.

"Oh my, Xuemei, I didn't believe it when my Zhenguo told me you were building an airplane! I didn't expect you to actually do it so well."

The woman who spoke was about thirty years old, with a square face and a wide forehead. An Ning had seen her before when she came and went; she must live in the same row as her, but they had never spoken.

"This isn't my achievement; it was all done by Anning. I just lent a hand," Zhao Xuemei said.

As soon as Zhao Xuemei spoke, the other person followed her lead and steered the conversation toward An Ning: "Oh! I heard yesterday that a new family member has moved into our compound. So, you're An Ning, aren't you? Why didn't your husband come to greet you when you came to live with your husband?"

The other military spouses also waited curiously for Anning's reply.

An Ning said, "He went on a mission and hasn't come back yet."

"You've come at a really bad time," someone said. "They might not be back for a month or two after they leave. Why didn't they make arrangements before coming?"

“Something came up at home, so I came to see him.”

Anning didn't want to say much to them, but these military wives were completely oblivious to their own limitations and kept pressing for answers.

Or rather, that's their real purpose for coming.

"Take care of things yourselves first. By the time these soldiers get back, it'll be too late!"

"What's your husband's name? Maybe he went with my husband. My husband hasn't been back for a long time either."

"Speaking of which, when did you get your military dependent visa? How come we didn't hear a thing? But you're lucky, you were allocated a bungalow as soon as you arrived, and a lot of people are eyeing that house!"

Anning really didn't want to talk to them much, so she only answered the questions she wanted to answer and pushed all the other things away.

"I wasn't living with the military; my superiors arranged for me to stay here."

“I don’t know him. He said my husband was one of his soldiers.”

"They didn't say anything, they just told me to stay here for now."

She really didn't want to get involved in the infighting in these family compounds; she should have known better than to wait for people at the military base.

Unfortunately, her letter of introduction had already been taken by the regimental commander, so she couldn't leave the army to find a place to stay nearby.

"Alright, alright, you people are asking questions like you're checking a family tree. Anning doesn't know how to answer anymore. I don't think she knows anything herself. I've been telling her a lot of things these past few days! If you have nothing else to do, hurry up and leave. We need to continue building the airplane."

Zhao Xuemei noticed An Ning's displeasure and spoke up to shoo her away.

The military wives had already obtained the information they wanted most, so they didn't press for more details. Instead, they followed Zhao Xuemei's advice and made an excuse to leave.

They spoke again when they were some distance away.

"From what I heard from her, she moved in under the procedures for visiting relatives, which means that Xiuying still has a chance!"

"Was she brought here by Commander Li's orderly? Her husband is probably related to Commander Li, otherwise why would he have arranged for her to stay in the quarters for battalion-level officers?"

"It's a pity I don't know her man's name, otherwise I could have asked around."

"Go tell Xiuying the good news first; she's been so worried these past few days."

……

After the person left, Zhao Xuemei, understanding the situation, did not continue to ask Anning about her family situation, but instead invited her to take the plane together.

At first, she just thought it was a toy, but now she's genuinely interested in the airplane.

Having been with the military for so long, she often saw planes taking off from the military base, but she had never seen one as cool as the one Anning drew on paper.

With their combined efforts and subsequent repairs, a paper airplane with a wooden frame was finally completed.

Anning was designed based on the most advanced fighter jets before the apocalypse. It has a flat fuselage, a streamlined shape, a cockpit canopy that can be opened and closed, and also features a tail fin and cannons mounted under the fuselage.

She installed a small mechanism inside the cannon barrel; by pressing a button, the paper cannonball inside could be fired. Afterward, the cannonball could be put back in, and the cannon could be used again.

Anning originally wanted to use some paint to color it, but considering that the paints of this era were too harmful to the human body, she simply used watercolors to draw a national flag on the plane to satisfy the children's patriotism.

Little Ni and Xu Pengfei were so proud of their new toys.

The two sat together in the airplane, pedaling it around the family quarters. They attracted the attention of not only the families in the area, but even the soldiers in the army heard that a new military wife had built a toy airplane out of cardboard and wood, and they all made excuses to come and see it.

Among them, Yan Fei, who had met An Ning, immediately became a hot commodity in the eyes of his comrades.

For no other reason than that the toy airplane, even though it couldn't fly and wasn't painted, was undeniably cool!

It's even cooler than the most advanced fighter jets in the United States, not to mention the few precious pieces of junk in their military.

If it weren't for the fact that it was a child's toy, they would all want to snatch it and play with it.

This matter quickly reached the ears of Regiment Commander Li, who then summoned Yan Fei to inquire about the situation.

Yan Fei answered honestly, "That toy airplane was made by Company Commander Song's family for her child. It's just an empty shell. The child can sit inside and move by kicking with her legs. It has a steering wheel that can turn the direction, and it even has paper bullets that can be launched. It's much better looking than our planes, and it's very popular! Not only do kids like to play with it, but I've heard several brothers say they want to make one for themselves when they have time."

After learning about the so-called "airplane," the smile on Commander Li's face never disappeared.

"Great! The descendants of our soldiers should be instilled with this kind of strong military ideology. One day, toy airplanes will truly soar through the sky!"

With a sigh, he added, "By the way, could you have someone go to Song Wenyuan's hometown to go through the approval process for family members accompanying military personnel? Just say it was my suggestion. He's already reached the required rank; once he returns from his mission, it will be approved immediately."

"Yes!"