Unable to endure the hardships of rural life, she returned home to arrange a marriage with a militar

Shu Yun vented her anger, and on her way back, she smiled and greeted everyone, stunning many people with her radiant smile.

Three or four little boys were sitting in a group under a big tree by the roadside, muttering something to each other. Shu Yun recognized one of the little boys as Gou Dan, the little boy from her neighbor's house.

Gou Dan also saw Shu Yun and immediately stood up guiltily. Shu Yun raised an eyebrow, walked closer, and saw what was gathered around them: a pile of cow dung.

Shu Yun's smile froze slightly, and she took a step back almost imperceptibly. She seemed to have just seen a few flies on the cow dung. How could these children do such a thing!

She cleared her throat. "Go home early, your mom will be coming to see you soon."

"Okay, we'll be right back." Gou Dan said, wiping his little black hands, still covered in cow dung, onto his bottom.

"Go back and wash your hands properly."

Shu Yun left, hoping that if the child's mother saw this tonight, she wouldn't beat up her unruly child.

Back home, Shu Yun hummed a little tune as she neatly arranged the eggs in the basket. A few were cracked, but fortunately, only the shells were broken, and some egg white leaked out, so not much was wasted.

She took out the broken egg and cracked the egg white and yolk, which hadn't yet flowed out, into a bowl.

There are still a few hours until dinner time, but if the eggs aren't processed immediately, they'll be exposed to the air for too long and easily breed bacteria. She needs to think of a way to use up the egg liquid.

As Shu Yun thought about it, she sorted out the kitchenware she had bought that day. When she saw a bag of flour in the cupboard, she had an idea: she wanted to fry some fruit.

Today is the first day she and Gu Jun moved into their new home. Strictly speaking, it can be called their wedding day, so they should cook a lot of dishes to celebrate.

Fried dough sticks, a treat only available during Chinese New Year, can be considered a main dish, right? Just thinking about the crispy and sweet taste of fried dough sticks made Shu Yun's stomach rumble a few times. She hadn't had fried food in a long time and missed it!

Ultimately, it's because Shu Yun has a sweet tooth!

Shu Yun tied her hair up, rolled up her sleeves, poured an appropriate amount of flour into the basin, added the beaten eggs, sugar, oil, and yeast. To enhance the sweetness, Shu Yun specially scooped a spoonful of milk powder into warm water and poured it into the basin as well.

Next, Shu Yun quickly stirred the flour with chopsticks until it resembled cotton wool, then kneaded it into a smooth dough. She covered it with a pot lid and placed it in the sun to ferment.

The dough needed time to ferment, so while waiting, Shu Yun picked up the work that Gu Jun hadn't finished, put on a straw hat and gloves, and carried a small stool to the field to pull weeds.

It rained a few days ago, and the soil was moist. Wild grass sprouted tender little shoots in the soil, which had to be pulled out before the soil could be turned over.

"Sister, what are you doing?"

To allow for ventilation, Shu Yun didn't close the courtyard gate, but she didn't like leaving it wide open, as if there was no privacy at all, so she only left a small gap for airflow.

Right now, four pairs of bright black eyes are peering through the crack in the door, arranged from top to bottom.

Shu Yun: ......

Aren't these the little guys playing with cow dung outside?

Shu Yun waved the weeds in her hand, "Pulling weeds, whose kids are you?"

The boys were young, but they had a natural love of beauty from a young age. When the pretty older sister asked them questions, they were all eager to answer, like they were competing. She would say two sentences, and I would say three. Before long, we almost revealed everything about our families.

“I’m sleeping alone now. My dad said he and my mom are going to have a little sister for me.”

"Stop." Shu Yun stopped in time. She was afraid that if she listened any longer, she would hear about the couple's private affairs and her ears would grow styes.

She changed the subject, "It's getting late, go home early after school, have you finished your homework?"

"It's still early, we'll do it tonight." The child didn't like the homework, and frowned as he tried to console himself, "There's not much homework, I can finish it quickly, no rush."

Shu Yun smiled and, seeing that they were still standing at the door, neither coming in nor leaving, invited, "Would you like to come in and sit for a while?"

"Yes, we'll help you with the chores," Gou Dan said the loudest. Shu Yun couldn't help but chuckle. "You don't need the kids' help. You can just play in the yard."

The children exchanged glances. "Labor is the most glorious thing, and we have plenty of strength." As they spoke, they stretched out their thin arms and tried to exert force, but their arms didn't bulge at all!

Shu Yun couldn't stop them. The children, who were quite young, usually had labor classes at school, and were much more efficient at doing chores than Shu Yun.

Looking at the energetic children, Shu Yun straightened up and wiped her sweat. "Okay, then I'll thank Gou Dan, Da Bao, Tie Niu..." Shu Yun said each child's nickname, and the children felt respected and were quite happy to hear it.

Shu Yun washed her hands, took out some brown sugar from the cupboard, and made a cup of brown sugar water for each of the children. "I saw you playing outside just now. You must be thirsty. Drink some water before you get back to work."

The children were very polite. They thanked Shu Yun one by one before taking the water cups. After taking a sip, their eyes immediately lit up as they looked at Shu Yun and said, "It's sweet."

Shu Yun smiled and said, "Drink up, this is a reward for you coming to help me with the work. You deserve it."

Sugar products are expensive, and children can only eat sugar a few times a year. The children in the family compound are better off, but they still don't eat much sugar.

When drinking the sugar water, every child was very quiet, gulping it down in one go. If their tongues weren't so long, they could have licked the bottom of the cup clean. They looked at the cola with unsatisfied expressions.

Shu Yun couldn't help but say, "I'll pour you some more, there's more."

The children exchanged glances, shook their heads in unison, and refused, saying, "Sister, we're full."

With rewards, the children are highly motivated to work, and they even pull weeds with great enthusiasm.

Seeing that the dough had fermented quite a bit, almost filling the entire bowl, Shu Yun poked it with chopsticks to confirm that it had fermented properly. Then she took it to the cutting board to deflate it, sprinkled black sesame seeds on the dough, and kneaded it into a smooth dough.

Next, roll out the dough with a rolling pin. The thinner you roll it, the crispier it will be after frying. Cut the dough into rectangles of roughly the same size, stack two pieces together, stick the ends together, and make three slits in the middle with a knife. Hold the two sides and roll it towards the slit in the middle. This is how you make the fritter dough.

Shu Yun looked outside and saw that the children were still there. She wiped the water off the pot, heated the oil in it, and held her hand over it to feel the temperature. When it was warm, she put the fruit in to fry.

With a sizzling sound, the dough slowly changed color, turning golden yellow, and the aroma of fried eggs and milk filled the air.

The aroma wafted from the kitchen outwards. Gou Dan stood up, sniffed around, and exclaimed, "It smells so good!" Just as he finished speaking, his stomach growled.

Some of the more greedy ones were already drooling. They slurped something, wiped their mouths, but their eyes were firm, as if they wanted to join the Party, full of courage and righteousness.

"Let's go now that we're done. We're not some freeloaders who came here to mooch off us."

"Tie Niu is right, let's go."

A group of children puffed out their chests, making their red scarves look even brighter.