Song Wei left with the pocket watch.
Feng Tingxuan waited until everyone was resting at night before opening the envelope.
Inside was a letter written by Song Wei, in which she subtly hinted that over the next two years, some people might gradually be rehabilitated.
Feng Tingxian was thrilled.
Rehabilitation—this was something he had dreamed of day and night.
Although he didn’t know how his niece had found out, he was certain she wasn’t lying to him.
The news left him so excited that he couldn’t calm down for a long time.
After reading the letter, he carefully hid it away, planning to burn it the next day when he had the chance.
As for the photo, it was a picture of three people sitting on the grassland.
It showed him, Song Wei, and Lin Zhen.
The photo had been taken by Hasanmu, with the sunset and grazing herds on the grassland as the backdrop.
Little Boss and the five wolf pups were also in the picture.
Feng Tingxuan looked at his own image in the photo, smiling without a trace of gloom.
His eyes reddened.
After arriving here, he had once felt so hopeless that he thought it might be better to just die. But now, his niece’s arrival felt like it had injected new hope into him.
Song Wei and Lin Zhen woke up at five o’clock the next morning.
They had arrived with one dog.
But they were leaving with five wolf pups and one eagle egg.
The wolf pups didn’t enjoy the same freedom as Little Boss—they were placed in a backpack basket.
While the pups were still asleep and not making any noise, the two of them successfully boarded the train.
Lin Zhen leaned out of the train window to say a final goodbye to his Old Squad Leader.
“Old Squad Leader, you can head back now.”
Yu Wei waved to them.
As the train started moving, the five wolf pups in the backpack basket woke up and began whimpering.
The bottom of the basket was lined with straw, covered by some luggage.
A person sitting nearby heard the noise and curiously peeked over.
They moved the luggage under the bed, and the five wolf pups saw the light again.
Song Wei quickly held them down.
“All of you, be quiet.”
Scolded, the wolf pups were still a little afraid of her and drooped their ears pitifully.
“Be good, just bear with it for a couple of days.”
She patted each of them on the head. The five wolf pups couldn’t be let out to run around freely.
The sleeper berths on trains from the Northwest to other regions weren’t very crowded, and their compartment was quite spacious.
However, a mother and her son were sitting across from them.
The young boy was very curious about the wolf pups, his eyes shining brightly.
“They’re puppies!”
Song Wei smiled and nodded. “We found these dogs. No one would take them, so if we didn’t bring them along, they would’ve starved. Ma’am, are you locals from the Northwest?”
The woman shook her head. “No, my son and I are here to visit family. My husband is stationed here as a soldier.”
Song Wei feigned surprise. “So you’re a military spouse! My partner used to be a soldier too, but he was discharged due to an accident.”
Mentioning military service immediately gave off a sense of security. The woman glanced at Lin Zhen and relaxed, striking up a conversation with Song Wei.
Later, when the train attendant discovered the wolf pups, Song Wei and Lin Zhen were sternly lectured.
But since the pups were already on board, they couldn’t just be thrown off.
After repeatedly promising not to dirty the compartment or disturb other passengers, the attendant finally left.
During mealtime, the five wolf pups were let out briefly to move around.
Lin Zhen went to prepare milk formula, while Song Wei fed them some small pieces of meat.
After eating, the pups were placed back in the backpack basket, where they also relieved themselves.
When necessary, the soiled straw at the bottom would be removed and discarded as garbage, then replaced with fresh straw.
During the day, they tried to play with the five wolf pups as much as possible. The child across from them also seemed to like the pups very much, especially when he saw them shaking hands, standing up on Song Wei’s command, or lying down.
Commands like shaking hands, standing, and lying down were simple instructions Song Wei and Lin Zhen had taught them.
They had been training the pups ever since bringing them back.
Lin Zhen still planned to train these five wolf pups to the standards of military dogs. Once they returned, he would have Wolf One and Wolf Two assist with the training. Their household could practically form a wolf team.
Song Wei’s decision to bring these five wolf pups back wasn’t just a whim.
She knew that in three years, the college entrance exam would be reinstated, ushering in an era of reform and opening-up.
After the reform and opening-up, individual businesses would gradually emerge, making it a prime time to make money and build wealth.
But Song Wei didn’t plan to go into trading.
She had her eyes on the resources of the mountains behind Ping’an Brigade.
There were various nuts, tea leaves, and opportunities for farming.
And the wolf pack would serve as a form of protection for the village.
She planned to lease the mountain area with tea trees to cultivate tea specifically.
She had her own calculations, though these were just rough ideas. She would need to discuss them thoroughly with Lin Zhen after returning.
After three days on the train, the five wolf pups could only move around within the backpack basket. Their spirits dwindled from lively to listless in just those three days.
Fortunately, they finally arrived.
Returning to a familiar place brought a sense of relief to both Song Wei and Lin Zhen.
Not only were the wolf pups uncomfortable, but they were too.
And this was in a sleeper berth—hard seats would have been even more unbearable.
They took a bus back to the town near Ping’an Brigade but didn’t come across any tractors or ox carts heading to the brigade. They had no choice but to walk.
Walking on the small dirt path, they let the five wolf pups out.
The pups trotted eagerly on their short legs, keeping up with the two, their spirits gradually lifting.
Song Wei and Lin Zhen observed them closely. Aside from being listless from being confined on the train, the pups didn’t seem to have any trouble adapting to life outside the grassland.
That was good—as long as they could adapt, they could thrive.
After walking for a while, they suddenly heard someone calling out, accompanied by the rumble of a tractor.
They scooped up the wolf pups and turned to look.
“Lin Zhen, Educated Youth Song!”
The voice was filled with excitement.
Song Wei turned and saw it was their brigade’s tractor, carrying both educated youths and villagers from Ping’an Brigade.
“You’re back! The brigade leader was just talking about you the other day. We didn’t expect to run into you today!”
Naturally, Lin Zhen and Song Wei climbed into the tractor’s trailer with their five wolf pups.
“Wow, how did you bring back five dogs? You traded one for five?”
After the initial excitement, everyone looked curiously at the chubby “puppies” in their arms.
How was Song Wei supposed to explain? That they had killed the pups’ parents and the local brigade didn’t want them, so they had to bring them back?
Lin Zhen said, “We found them on the road. No one wanted them.”
Song Wei: 😊
No one doubted them. Amid the roar of the tractor, everyone chattered about recent events.
The biggest recent news was the reason they had taken the tractor to the city in the first place.
It turned out Ping’an Brigade had been allocated two spots for Worker-Peasant-Soldier University this year.
“Educated Youth Song, you have no idea—they actually started fighting over these two spots.”
There were only two recommended spots, but many people wanted to attend Worker-Peasant-Soldier University.
Among the educated youths, Luo Yecheng was undoubtedly the most vocal.
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