Chapter 15

Lin Shu Yin had to go to Sanhe Village next week because her mother said in the letter that she had ten yuan for her, with her brother, Lin Jian she.

Lin Shu Yin didn’t know how to describe her mother. It’s not like she didn’t love her daughter, but not much either. She cried in the letter that she was short of money, and even sent her ten yuan.

Although she nagged a lot about saving money, she did give her the money.

Human emotions are so complex.

Lin Shu Yin thought that their five children were like five fingers to their parents, some long, some short, and their love was also more or less.

Forget it, she didn’t want to think about it anymore. Anyway, she wasn’t their biological child, so she wouldn’t get close to them. It was enough to maintain a superficial relationship.

Lin Shu Yin joined the art troupe in winter. At the end of the year, after the new recruits finished their training and the New Year was over, they participated in a performance.

She felt that the art troupe’s work wasn’t very busy, but her thoughts were completely wrong. Captain Meng Jia told her that their art troupe performed at least one hundred times a year.

There are 365 days in a year, and at least one hundred performances a year, which is almost a performance every three days.

Sure enough, no unit would let you just eat and not work.

“Shu Yin, you’ve learned the horsehead fiddle and the erhu, now choose two more instruments to learn.”

“You have a great musical talent. Now is your chance to learn, take this opportunity to learn several instruments. Don’t waste it. This will also be helpful for your work in the future, understand?” Meng Jia said earnestly.

Lin Shu Yin nodded, “I understand, Captain.”

Meng Jia patted her shoulder, “Go to training. We’re going to perform at the company tomorrow.”

Yes, starting tomorrow, their art troupe would be performing at the companies.

The army they were in was a division, consisting of five brigades. The five brigades consisted of ten regiments, and a regiment consisted of three battalions.

That meant ten regiments were thirty battalions.

A battalion consisted of three companies.

Thirty battalions meant ninety companies.

Their army had about ten thousand people.

Huang Tuan Zhang said that they, the art soldiers, had to sing for one thousand people on stage, and even when they went to the outpost, where a soldier was on duty, they had to sing.

Art soldiers are also soldiers, their mission is to use their singing and dancing to boost morale and spread positive energy.

Lin Shu Yin had been here for more than half a year. Although she had gotten used to the poor life of the 1970s, her mind was always wandering, thinking about this and that, and she hadn’t integrated into the current society.

It wasn’t until she came to the army, to be precise, this year, after the New Year, that she felt settled and completely integrated into the current society. Her mind wasn’t filled with those messy thoughts.

She had finally figured things out.

Since she’s here, she might as well make the best of it. Since she couldn’t go back, she would live well in the present.

Who was the happiest about the company performance? Of course, it was Li Ting, because she would get to see Shen Guan Nan.

Although their art troupe building wasn’t far from Shen Guan Nan’s battalion, they were two different work units, especially the art troupe, which had many girls. Unless they were performing at the companies, the comrades in the army wouldn’t see them.

For the company performance, they would naturally start with the closest company, which was Shen Guan Nan’s battalion.

Song Wei Wei laughed, “Li Ting, you can see Battalion Commander Shen again.”

Li Ting blushed, “What are you talking about? I’m going to perform, not date.”

Although she said that, she was secretly very happy.

But it was a case of unrequited love. Shen Guan Nan was thinking about someone else right now.

After Lin Shu Yin and the others finished their performance, Shen Guan Nan rushed to the backstage. He had planned what to say, but when he saw Lin Shu Yin in person, he forgot everything.

What was he going to say?

“Wow, Li Ting, look, Battalion Commander Shen is here. Is he here to see you?” Song Wei Wei giggled.

This made Li Ting nervous. She smiled,

“No, I don’t think so.”

But her feet were already walking towards Shen Guan Nan.

“Battalion Commander Shen.”

Li Ting greeted him. Shen Guan Nan came back to his senses, “Hmm.”

Li Ting, “Battalion Commander Shen, do you need something?”

Shen Guan Nan nodded, “Yes, I need to talk to your captain about something.”

He didn’t know why he came here either.

“Oh, okay, I’ll call her for you.”

Li Ting felt a little disappointed. She thought Shen Guan Nan was here to see her, but it turned out he had something to do.

Meng Jia walked over, “What do you need?”

Shen Guan Nan remembered why he came. He took out two milk powder tickets from his pocket, “Captain Meng, please help me give these to Comrade Lin Shu Yin.”

“Milk powder tickets?”

“Yes, milk powder tickets.”

He heard Instructor Lu say that she was looking for milk powder tickets, and he happened to have two.

Meng Jia, “Why don’t you give them to her yourself?”

This kid was using her as a messenger, no, a delivery person.

Shen Guan Nan, “I’m a little busy, Sister-in-law, please give them to her for me.”

Meng Jia, “Okay.”

“Next time you have something like this, come yourself, okay?”

How can you ask someone else to deliver a message when you’re chasing a girl?

It’s a good thing she’s a woman. If she were a man and still young, Shu Yin would probably like her.

Shen Guan Nan, “Got it, Sister-in-law.”

He was afraid she would refuse, and if she refused, it would mean she didn’t like him. He didn’t want to know the outcome of this feeling yet, anyway, she hadn’t been in the army for long.

He would worry about it later.

Lin Shu Yin was indeed looking for milk powder tickets, but she was looking for them for Sa Ren, not for herself. Sa Ren’s sister-in-law had given birth, but she didn’t have enough milk, so she needed to feed her baby milk powder.

She asked Captain Meng Jia about it that day, and she got two tickets. Today, Meng Jia gave her two more.

“Shu Yin, these two tickets were brought by Battalion Commander Shen.”

Lin Shu Yin was surprised, “Battalion Commander Shen brought them?”

Meng Jia, “Yes, I mentioned the other day that you were looking for milk powder tickets…”

Lin Shu Yin understood. She did need milk powder tickets, she couldn’t return them, and it wouldn’t be appropriate to return them.

She asked, “Captain, did Battalion Commander Shen say what he wanted in exchange? I have grain tickets, cloth tickets, and cotton tickets.”

Meng Jia, “He didn’t say anything. He just left after giving them to me. Ask him yourself next time.”

Lin Shu Yin nodded, “Okay.”

Milk powder tickets were quite precious. She and Sa Ren exchanged other tickets for milk powder tickets with people in the troupe.

So they couldn’t just take Battalion Commander Shen’s milk powder tickets for free.

Lin Shu Yin decided to ask Shen Guan Nan on Sunday when she had a day off.