Yu Qing bit her lip. “I didn’t buy anything. Wouldn’t it be inappropriate to just move into Commander Huo’s grandfather’s house like this? Maybe we should go to the mall now and buy something for the old man.”
“There’s no one at home.”
“Huh?”
Yu Qing blinked, pausing for a moment before understanding the meaning behind Wen Ci’s words. She then boldly surveyed the layout of the courtyard.
When her gaze fell on the pavilion in the yard, she finally understood why Wen Ci had insisted on building a pavilion in the courtyard of the northwest military compound. It was because she had seen this one first.
The pavilion before her was larger and more luxurious, with a stone-carved chessboard in the middle. The seats on either side could accommodate five or six people for cooling off.
Wen Ci said, “I’ll shower upstairs. You can use the one downstairs.”
“There are two bathrooms?!”
Wen Ci led her inside, and seeing the clean living room, she smiled brightly. “We’re in luck. We don’t have to clean after showering.”
Most of the furniture in the house was made of solid wood, exuding a sense of Chinese opulence. But in the 1980s, this was quite normal. Foreign furniture had just entered the market, while Chinese furniture still retained its unique, old-fashioned aesthetic.
Half an hour later, Wen Ci came out after her shower, drying her damp hair with a towel. She carried a lounge chair to the middle of the courtyard, where the sunlight was just right.
Hearing the water stop running downstairs, Wen Ci lazily leaned back in the chair, basking in the sunlight. She called out to Yu Qing, “Qingqing, come out and sunbathe for a bit before resting.”
A moment later, Yu Qing emerged from the downstairs bathroom holding a hairdryer. She asked curiously, “Is this the legendary hairdryer that can dry hair?”
As a native of the northwest, she had never seen such advanced gadgets.
After becoming a doctor in the northwest military region, she had heard people talk about how rapidly the south was developing. They said you didn’t have to wait for your hair to air-dry anymore—a hairdryer could do it in minutes.
Wen Ci, reclining in her chair, glanced at the hairdryer in Yu Qing’s hand. It had a protruding part at the end that looked like a small top. After studying it for a moment, she nodded. “It should be a hairdryer.”
She hadn’t used a 1980s hairdryer either.
She was judging based on its appearance.
Yu Qing didn’t use the hairdryer. Instead, she brought out another lounge chair and placed it in the courtyard. The surroundings were quiet and peaceful, with the occasional fragrance of flowers and plants wafting through the air.
Meanwhile, at the Jiang family home.
Su Guilan sat restlessly on the sofa, occasionally standing up to look out the door. When she heard the sound of the courtyard gate opening, her face instantly lit up with a smile.
“You’re back…”
Before she could finish her sentence, she noticed that only her son had returned. Frowning, she asked, “Why didn’t your sister come back with you?”
“She didn’t want to.”
“Why?”
Jiang Chen walked over to his mother in a few strides. His voice was calm and indifferent as he spoke, “Mom, I advise you to stop being so sentimental. Wen—”
He was about to say “Wen Ci,” but seeing his mother’s expression change, he corrected himself, “Jiang Ci, even though she’s your biological daughter, you didn’t raise her. You brought her back just to make her a substitute bride.
If it were you, would you come back?”
“Is Huo Jingyuan not good enough for her?”
Hearing this, Jiang Chen snorted. From a family background perspective, marrying into the Huo family was a step up. But after the old commander passed away, the Jiang family had someone look into Huo Jingyuan’s situation.
They found out that Huo Jingyuan was serving as a low-ranking soldier in the northwest and was even disabled.
They wanted to ignore the marriage arrangement.
Later, Huo Jingyuan wrote from the northwest, hoping to fulfill the engagement agreed upon years ago. Coupled with Jiang Ye’s threat to go on a hunger strike, they decided to bring their biological daughter back as a substitute.
Who would have thought that Huo Jingyuan wasn’t disabled at all? He was the youngest and most outstanding officer in the northwest. Such a person could easily rise to a high position in the future.
“It’s just that Jiang Ci got lucky. Otherwise, the choices you made would have been like picking her up from the ground and then throwing her straight into hell.”
Jiang Chen’s words seemed to pierce Su Guilan’s heart. She pointed at him, her finger trembling with anger. “Get out! You get out too!”
Jiang Chen shrugged indifferently. “Fine, I’ll go.”
A few years ago, he had reached the age where he could get a house assigned by his workplace. But he had always found the assigned houses too small, so he stayed at the Jiang family home. Now that the only source of joy in the house was gone, whether he stayed or not didn’t matter.
·
Around noon.
Xue Li finally managed to get his parents’ permission to leave the house.
He borrowed his cousin’s off-road vehicle when he left. His cousin was the director of the military hospital, and his car had been registered with the military, allowing it to move freely in and out of the compound.
As he drove into the Beijing military compound, Xue Li suddenly realized he didn’t know where his sister-in-law and Yu Qing were staying. Were they at the Jiang family home or Old Commander Huo’s house?
Suddenly, he saw his brother-in-law storming out of one of the courtyards. He quickly turned the car around, but his brother-in-law’s figure had already disappeared.
Xue Li blinked in confusion, muttering to himself, “Did they have a fight?!”
After getting out of the car, Xue Li lingered at the gate for a while. Seeing a woman who looked like his sister-in-law inside, he knocked on the door and asked, “Auntie, is my sister-in-law here?”
Su Guilan was still seething with anger, but upon hearing Xue Li’s voice, she calmed herself and asked, “Who are you?”
“I’m Huo Jingyuan, Commander Huo’s subordinate.”
Su Guilan nodded slightly.
The young man before her was likely a member of the northwest military sent to provide protection.
Su Guilan asked, “What do you need?”
“I’m looking for Dr. Yu, who came back with my sister-in-law.”
Su Guilan suddenly thought of something and smiled. “A Ci isn’t staying at home. She’s at Old Commander Huo’s house. Should I take you there?”
This way, she would have an excuse to see her biological daughter.
“Thank you, Auntie!”
Xue Li opened the back door for her.
Su Guilan’s gaze fell on the license plate. She remembered clearly the license plate numbers registered with the military that allowed free movement. “Isn’t this Director Xue’s car?”
“He’s my cousin.”
“Then your father is…?”
Xue Li replied, “Xue Zeping.”
Hearing this, Su Guilan looked at Xue Li with a bit more admiration and smiled. “So you’re the eldest son of the Xue family who joined the military.”
Xue Li scratched the back of his head sheepishly.
The two compounds weren’t far apart. With Su Guilan’s directions, they arrived in just a few minutes.
Usually, no one would disturb this house. The gate to the courtyard wasn’t locked, and one could open it from the outside by reaching in.
“Is this the place?”
“Yes.”
A trace of unease flashed in Su Guilan’s eyes. Recalling what her son had said earlier, she suddenly stopped in her tracks, hesitant to go further.
“What’s wrong, Auntie?” Xue Li asked with concern.
“Nothing… nothing.”
Xue Li didn’t think much of it. Through the iron gate, he saw the two lounge chairs in the middle of the courtyard and excitedly called out, “Sister-in-law, I’m here to pick up Dr. Yu!”
He had just returned home that morning and was about to take a shower. Ten minutes after he finished, several young women unexpectedly showed up at his house, claiming they were there for a blind date.
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