Zhao Nan took the train for two days and one night to return to the army. When Zheng Bin heard the news of his return, he immediately came over to visit, “Old Zhao, you are finally back! How is it? Do you see the girl?”

Zhao Nan responded to him casually. Before he had time to sit down, he went out again.

“Hey, where are you going?” Zheng Bin chased out the door.

“Go to the political department to find the director.”

“What do you want the director for?” Zheng Bin asked again.

Zhao Nan quickly turned around a corner and he was no longer visible. Only the voice came from afar, “Reporting to the army.”

Zheng Bin staggered and almost fell, “Old Zhao! You are too fast!”

When Zhao Nan came back from the Political Department, Zheng Bin came again. He did not hear the gossip he wanted and he was itching.

“Quickly tell me, is the younger sister the girl from last time?”

“It’s her.” Zhao Nan got a little hot from running, took off his coat, and put it on the back of the chair.

Zheng Bin patted him on the shoulder, “You are so lucky. Hey, this sweater has never been worn by you before. Is it new? Or was it made by Auntie??”

Zhao Nan looked up at him, and said word by word: “My wife knitted it.”

Zheng Bin was stunned for a while. Then, he lifted the hem of his coat, pulled out a sweater inside, and shouted: “What are you showing off? You! Just your wife knitting sweaters for you, my wife won’t knit? Look at me, look at me, the sweaters I wear are all knitted by your sister-in-law. I’ve been wearing them for several years, have you ever seen me show off?”

Zhao Nan took a close look at his sweater, then on his own, shook his head and said, “Yours ugly, mine is beautiful.”

“…” Zheng Bin took a deep breath, but still could not bear it, and suddenly broke out: “Old Zhao! You are so shameless, Old Zhao!”

Zhao Nan ignored him. He had to think carefully about how to arrange the house assigned to him by the army. It did not matter if he lived alone in the past. Now he can not be too casual.

He is busy decorating the house. And in his house, everyone is also not idle.

The fields on the farm have been plowed, watered, and the seeds have been raised. In the past two days, the early rice has started to be transplanted.

Almost all members of the brigade have gone to the field. Among the five adults in the Zhao family, only one needs to stay at home to do housework. In previous years, this person was mostly Li Xiaoe, because Zhao Xiaobo was still young two years ago and needed her care. This year, Jiang Rui was added.

Compared with planting rice seedlings in the ground, although the housework is trivial, it must be a lot easier. Jiang Rui took the initiative to say: “Sister-in-law must take care of Xiaobo, let me go.”

Li Xiaoe really did not want to go to the ground. Not only was the wind blowing and the sun, but she had to bend her waist all day and her back would be broken when she came back at night. However, what she is tired of, others must be tired of when they do it. Jiang Rui took the initiative to take things down, but she had to be polite, so she quickly said: “Xiaobo is so big, no one needs to watch it for a long time. I’ll go.”

Jiang Rui smiled and said, “It’s not a good thing. My sister-in-law has to fight with me. Why don’t we go together and let Mom cook for us?”

Before Zhang Liyun spoke, Li Xiaoe hurriedly agreed: “This is a good idea. Let Mom cook. We will all have good food.”

“What’s so good?” Zhang Liyun was very happy in her heart, but her face was fierce: “I don’t want to serve you. The two of you don’t have to fight. Let’s take turns every day. I must go, don’t look at my age. You young people are born with soft hands and you may not be faster than me when you work.”

“Mom is not old at all. When we go out, people say that we are like sisters.” Li Xiaoe said with a smile.

“Nonsense,” Zhang Liyun scolded with a smile, “I and you are sisters, is it possible that your man has to call you Auntie?”

Li Xiaoe blushed and everyone in the family laughed.

The next day, Jiang Rui went to the field first.

She has never done rice transplanting before. But this kind of work is not difficult and it will be done after seeing others plant it a few times.

As Li Xiaoe said, the most tiring thing about transplanting rice seedlings is the waist. People often stand up and take a break after working for a while. Jiang Rui’s body is getting fairer and more delicate day by day. She looks soft and weak, but her physical fitness has already been tempered by spiritual energy to be very tough. It can hardly be measured by ordinary people’s standards and she does not feel tired.

Zhang Liyun was in the land next to her. At first, it was interesting to see her daughter-in-law with a stern look. After seeing it a few times, she suddenly found that she did not seem to have rested.

Working in the brigade, the work points are calculated according to the number of days. In a day, there are so many people doing more, and so many people doing less. Some slippery people will learn to be lazy to do their jobs. According to them, they are working for the public anyway, and those who are not lazy are stupid.

Although Zhang Liyun can not understand such people, she doesn’t want her daughter-in-law to suffer too much. When the time comes, she will be exhausted and her body is her own. So she whispered to Jiang Rui, “Baoqin, take a break and drink some water.”

“Mom, I’m not tired.” Jiang Rui turned her head to look at her and planted a few more seedlings without stopping.

“You silly child.” Zhang Liyun suppressed her voice again, “You are not tired now, you may cry at night. Wash your hands quickly, Mom is thirsty, go and get our kettle.”

“Okay.” Jiang Rui put down the seedlings on her hands, washed her hands in the field, and went to get the teapot on the ridge of the field. After Zhang Liyun finished drinking the tea, she sent it back.

The Du family was planting rice seedlings in the field opposite them. When Wang Tonghua saw Jiang Rui walking up the ridge, she stopped what she was doing and called her.

“Why is it you, where is their eldest daughter-in-law?”

Jiang Rui wiped her face with a towel around her neck, “Sister-in-law is cooking at home. We will take turns and she will go to the field tomorrow.”

Wang Tonghua’s expression was a little better now. She thought that the Zhao family looked at Du Baoqin as being cute and bullying, so they were partial to the eldest daughter-in-law. She glanced around at the corner of her eye and saw no one was looking over, she whispered: “Be smart, don’t always rush to work.”

“I see, Mom, don’t worry.” Jiang Rui smiled.

Wang Tonghua muttered, “Why hasn’t Ah Nan sent a letter yet? If you go with him earlier, you won’t have to work.”

“It should be soon.” Zhao Nan walked for nearly a month, but Jiang Rui was not in a hurry.

The two of them did not take a long rest and they separated after a few words.

A few days later, the captain of the team suddenly came to Zhao’s house with a few people. They turned out to be comrades from the county. Because Zhao Nan applied for family members to join the army, they came to do the review and asked a lot of questions.

After a while, the notice of permission to join the army finally came down, and just as the spring plowing was over, Jiang Rui started to pack her bags.

Zhang Liyun specially called Zhao Bei back and asked him to carry 30 catties of grain. With the letter of introduction issued by the commune, he went to the grain station to exchange for the national food stamp.

If there were no food stamps, rural people could hardly move and would not dare to leave their hometowns.

Jiang Rui said goodbye to the two families. She sent a telegram to Zhao Nan, explaining that she would arrive someday, and got on the train.

Before departure, whether it was Zhang Liyun or Wang Tonghua, they had explained to her many times, asking her to collect the money and food stamps. They told her again and again not to listen to strangers easily, and not to walk with strangers. After the train arrives at the station, you must wait until the troops come to pick you up. In short, neither of them can rest assured of her.

No wonder they are worried. She is alone as a woman. She is beautiful and she is conspicuous wherever she goes. Fortunately, these days, most people are enthusiastic and honest. When someone came to talk to her, she would say a few words politely. If someone asked in-depth, she just smiled and did not talk, and others would understand and stop bothering her.

After bumping on the train for forty hours, she finally reached her destination. Jiang Rui walked down the carriage with the flow of people and looked around the platform. But she did not find a familiar figure, nor did she feel Zhao Nan’s breath. Just as she was wondering if he was late, she heard a voice behind her hesitantly ask, “Excuse me, are you Comrade Du Baoqin?”

She turned around and two soldiers were standing in front of her. The one who took the lead, looked around 30, with a thin face and a smile on his face, and looked very kind.

Jiang Rui smiled: “Hello, I am Du Baoqin. May I ask who you are?”

Zheng Bin breathed a sigh of relief. To be honest, when he saw Old Zhao’s lover just now, he did not dare to recognize it. When he saw the photo before, he was surprised. There are few such fair and beautiful girls in the countryside. Who knows that the real person is even more amazing. No wonder Old Zhao is like that.

“My name is Zheng Bin. Just call me Old Zheng. I am Comrade Zhao Nan’s comrade-in-arms. He has something to do and can not leave. He asked me to pick up Comrade Baoqin.”

“Then I will trouble you.” The smile on Jiang Rui’s face became more obvious.

This is not a place to talk. Zheng Bin told the truth after getting into the car. It turned out that Zhao Nan couldn’t leave because of something, but that he couldn’t walk at all now. He was injured while performing a mission a while ago and now he is in the hospital.

“Is it serious?” Jiang Rui frowned.

Zheng Bin hurriedly said: “It’s not life-threatening, it’s just a leg injury. But it may be difficult to move for a month or two. Xiao Du, this is Old Zhao.” He gave a thumbs up. “For this mission, the army has decided to award him a second-class meritorious service. He didn’t know that you came today. Several of us saw your telegram sent to the army a few days ago. We discussed it in private and decided to pick you up without telling Old Zhao. Then go to the hospital to surprise him, what do you think? By the way, are you tired? Otherwise, I will take you to the guest house to rest first?”

Jiang Rui shook her head, “No, let’s go to see him directly, sorry for the inconvenience.”

Zheng Bin waved his hand, “Don’t you, you. You see, Old Zhao and others called me Old Zheng, and I called you Xiao Du. Xiao Du, you can just call me Old Zheng, otherwise, I will be happier if you call me Brother Zheng.”

“Brother Zheng.” Jiang Rui chuckled.

“Hey!” Zheng Bin responded happily. But thought in his heart, Old Zhao’s wife called him brother, doesn’t it mean that Old Zhao called him brother as well? Hey, this is so cheap. He could not wait to see what kind of expression would appear on that dead man’s face when Old Zhao suddenly saw his wife appearing in front of him.

*****

The author has something to say:

PS: One cub mentioned that military marriages need to be reported. Yes, military marriages are not that simple. They have to go through strict political review and military approval. The family members are also in the military. But for the plot needs, I put all those processes, everyone just pretends to have that process~

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