Reborn as a Tough Army Wife-Chapter 72 - 69: The Hawthorn Picking Incident

Fang Pingying and the others arrived at the hilltop, and surprisingly, there were some women carrying baskets there, seemingly also picking hawthorns.

Among them, Fang Pingying recognized one as Fang’er’s sister-in-law, Li Menghua.

When they saw Fang Pingying and her group, the women were overjoyed and immediately gathered around to chat with Fang Pingying.

They were all acquainted from the village, so Fang Pingying chatted warmly with them.

Fang Pingying even deliberately told Li Menghua, "Sister-in-law, Fang’er must have told you, with your current condition, you can’t eat hawthorns."

"I know, I won’t eat them," Li Menghua said to Fang Pingying with a smile, "I’m just thinking of picking some hawthorns to learn how to make snacks for the family, just like you do."

Fang Pingying paused, but didn’t ask what kind of pastries she was planning to make, and just smiled and responded, "That’s fine, they are both sour and sweet, and not too greasy."

"Yes," Li Menghua suddenly glanced at the other women, pulled Fang Pingying aside, and quietly asked her, "But Pingying, I wanted to ask you, I’ve tried making it several times at home, but it just doesn’t turn out right. The flavor is off, and I can’t make it look like yours."

Unfortunately, these other women were crafty, and they immediately followed, pressing Fang Pingying, "Yes, we’ve tried several times at home too, and just can’t make it work, the taste is off, what exactly do you put in your recipe?"

Now, Fang Pingying understood why Li Menghua and the others were particularly warm to her, they wanted to know the recipe for making hawthorn jam.

These people really treat others as fools, could one actually spread their money-making recipes around haphazardly?

Thus, she smiled softly at them and said, "Ladies, if you really like what I make, you can come to my house anytime to buy it. I guarantee it’s cheaper than what they sell in the town."

Afterward, she stated bluntly, "But I really can’t tell you exactly how it’s made, after all, we make our living from this, we rely on selling it."

Li Menghua, pretending to be very familiar with Fang Pingying, pushed her with a laugh, "Come on, just tell us, we won’t tell anyone, nor are we looking to sell it, just want to make some snacks for ourselves."

"I really can’t tell you," said Fang Pingying, not wanting to continue the tussle, and then she added, "You ladies go ahead and chat, I’ll go pick some more hawthorns over there."

Finishing her sentence, she didn’t say more and walked towards where Luo Zhiyong and his siblings were.

Ignoring the several ladies who were angrily talking behind her back, accusing her of being stingy, Fang Pingying didn’t bother responding.

Only such mean-spirited people would pry into others’ business secrets; honest folks simply wouldn’t ask too much. Like Miss Fang, who often comes in and out of their house, but never asks about these matters.

Even Luo Zhiyong’s second aunt, who says that Qiu Xiu is shrewd, never asks how these items are made; she just comes to take some to eat.

To prevent these people from targeting Luo Honglan and the others, Fang Pingying walked over to where Luo Zhiyong and his sister were picking hawthorns, and specifically cautioned Luo Honglan,

"Hong Lan, you must not tell anyone our hawthorn recipe, not even if mom asks you, you have to say you don’t know, just say that I handle everything, and you’re just helping out."

Luo Honglan isn’t foolish, she quickly nodded, "Sister-in-law, I understand. My mom talks too much and likes to show off. If she knew about this, who knows when she might let it slip."

"Right, as long as you know."

Perhaps because recently many villagers were jealous that Fang Pingying was making money from her business, a lot of hawthorns were picked and many were ruined. In the end, after Fang Pingying and her team had harvested all usable hawthorns from the hills, they only managed to gather three loads of hawthorns.

Fang Pingying estimated that she could make several sales from them, but she needed to go to the county first to buy some more jars.

During these sales, because it was inconvenient to buy jars, Fang Pingying hadn’t made much hawthorn jam, just a few jars per batch to sell.

However, it’s strange, that young girl who bought Fang Pingying’s hawthorn jam last time actually came to buy every batch and she specifically wanted the large jars, complaining that the small ones weren’t enough.

Every batch, Fang Pingying also specifically brought a jar for the young girl, waiting for her to come and pick it up after school.

Now that they had picked more hawthorns, Fang Pingying planned to make some hawthorn jam, thinking about the last hospital visit, where the doctor said that Luo Zhiyong had to have another check-up before joining the army. She might as well wait and go with Luo Zhiyong, and buy jars while they were there.

Hawthorns couldn’t be kept for long after being picked, so Fang Pingying discussed with Luo Zhiyong, "Zhiyong, when do you think we should go back to the hospital? I can also buy jars then."

"My leg is almost healed; I don’t think I need to go to the hospital anymore." They also mentioned saving money for Luo Cuilan’s dowry, and Luo Zhiyong didn’t want to spend extra money, preferring to save some to give to Fang Pingying.

"Nonsense, we can save on other things, but not on this. The doctor told you to go, so we must." Fang Pingying looked at him, blinked, and said with a smile, "Don’t worry about the money. I’ve also earned some these days. We definitely have enough for the leg check-up."

"But that’s the money you earned..." Luo Zhiyong didn’t finish his sentence, seeing the way Fang Pingying looked at him, he gave a faint smile, took back what he was going to say, and changed his tone, "It’s not about worrying over money, I should also be getting my salary soon this month, and you can have it."

Luo Zhiyong had mentioned to Fang Pingying before that no matter how tight the family finances were, they should never use the money she earned. She should keep her earnings for herself so that she could buy whatever she wanted when he wasn’t home.

But Fang Pingying scolded him, arguing that although she wasn’t keen on taking out her earnings to support the entire Luo Family, she and Luo Zhiyong were husband and wife, there was no need to separate things so clearly, that would just mean treating her like an outsider.

Since then, Luo Zhiyong had stopped mentioning it but still refused to let Fang Pingying spend her money.

Seeing that he took back his words on his own, Fang Pingying merely glanced at him annoyed and didn’t say more.

Yet speaking of his salary, she continued, "Right, today’s almost the end of the month, your salary should have been issued by now, right?"

Luo Zhiyong thought about it and said, "It should have been issued, I used to get paid on the 20th when I was in the army. I guess it takes a few days to mail it back since I’m not there, it should arrive in the next couple of days."

After a pause, he added with a smile to Fang Pingying, "Let’s wait a bit more, if it’s still not here in a few days, I’ll call and ask when I’m in town."

Fang Pingying nodded, telling him to handle it as he saw fit.

Coincidentally, as they were discussing finances, they met the leader of their brigade on the way home who brought up his salary matter. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for it or give monthly tickets at Qidian (qidian.com). Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read at m.qidian.com.)