“——Hello, I’m your girlfriend?”

“——Hello, I’m your brother’s girlfriend?”

“Comrade?”

Chen Xu’s eyebrows furrowed slightly, his gaze on Wen Nan becoming sharper.

Wen Nan came to her senses, her fingers awkwardly clutching the cloth bag slung over her shoulder, she said with difficulty, “Camp Commander Chen, I don’t know if you remember me, my name is Wen Nan, my brother’s name is Wen Guo, he’s a soldier in the Xiping City army, my brother introduced me to you, and you promised my brother that as long as I was willing to marry you, you would marry me.”

Chen Xu’s eyebrows knitted together, looking at the outspoken female comrade in front of him. When the sound of a spatula frying vegetables in the kitchen stopped, he said in a deep voice, “Let’s go outside and talk!”

Wen Nan noticed the man’s reaction wasn’t right.

Could it be that the person Wen Guo talked about wasn’t Chen Xu, but Chen Zhou, who had been transferred away?

She followed the man out of the yard. They stood behind a large tree that would take three or four grown men to hug. The man was tall and leggy, with broad shoulders. Wen Nan had to tilt her head to look up at him, immediately feeling inferior in terms of presence.

Chen Xu said, “Comrade, you’ve got the wrong person. I don’t know Wen Guo, nor do I know you, let alone promising anyone to marry his sister—that’s absurd.” He paused, tilting his head towards the yard gate not far away. His grandmother had come out of the yard and was standing outside looking at them. Chen Xu used the tree to shield his figure and continued, “I’m not the person you’re looking for. Think again about who you’re looking for.”

The man turned to leave.

Wen Nan quickly stopped him, “Camp Commander Chen, don’t you have a younger brother named Chen Zhou? If my brother wasn’t talking about you, then it must be your younger brother, Chen Zhou.”

Chen Xu was somewhat surprised that she knew his brother’s name, but still turned to look at her, “My brother has never been to the Xiping City army, and he couldn’t possibly know your brother. You’ve got the wrong person.”

He heard his grandmother asking the neighboring Zhao Camp Commander when his grandson would be back. The woman in front of him still wouldn’t leave. Chen Xu lost his patience, unwilling to tangle with this woman who inexplicably claimed to be his girlfriend. His tone turned cold, “Comrade, don’t come to my house again. If you do, I’ll have the security department ask you to leave.”

After saying this, the man walked out from behind the tree and shouted to the old woman in the distance, “Grandma, I’m back!”

Wen Nan bit her lip, leaned to the side, and peeked out to watch Chen Xu walk to the yard gate and enter the house with his grandmother.

She retracted her gaze, leaning against the tree trunk. The man’s words kept echoing in her mind.

He didn’t know the original owner’s older brother, and Chen Zhou had never been to the Xiping City army. So, did neither of the Chen brothers really know Wen Guo? Did her aunt’s youngest son pass on the wrong information? Perhaps the person Wen Guo introduced wasn’t even in Nanyang City? After all, Wen Guo was in Xiping City, and the Chen family was in Nanyang City. It didn’t make sense.

But she had already come all this way. If she went back, the original owner’s aunt would have an even harder time at home, and her uncle might make a scene.

In the small courtyard, Grandma Chen brought out the meal, smiling and asking, “Xiao Xu, why are you back so late today?”

Chen Xu got up, took the towel hanging on the rope, and wiped the water droplets from his hair. Thinking of the woman who had inexplicably barged into his home earlier, he casually made an excuse, “Something delayed me. Grandma, what did you make for lunch? It smells delicious.”

After hanging the towel on the rope, he went to the small square table, pulled up his pants, sat on the small stool, looked at the pork and vermicelli stew, and smiled slightly, “Grandma, why did you make meat?”

Grandma Chen sighed, “My unfilial grandson went so far away to suffer, I can’t let my grandson suffer anymore.”

The old woman was getting older, and the older she got, the more she hoped her younger generation would stay close. The Chen family was gone, only these two precious grandsons remained. Grandma Chen didn’t want to neglect either of them, wanting to take care of both grandsons. She was becoming increasingly frail, and might pass away any day.

Chen Xu glanced at his grandmother’s worried expression and comforted her, “Dong Hua City is nothing compared to what my parents’ generation endured. He’ll be transferred back in two or three years. He’ll have leave during the New Year, so he can come back. Grandma, don’t worry about him.”

Grandma Chen wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes and pointed to the meat in the dish with her chopsticks, “Alright, eat more. You train so much every day, it takes a lot of energy.”

There was still training in the afternoon. After eating, Chen Xu didn’t stay long and left with Camp Commander Zhao and the neighboring Tuan Commander Du. When Camp Commander Zhao passed by Chen’s small courtyard, he glanced inside. Even Tuan Commander Du looked inside. Seeing only Grandma Chen cleaning up the dishes, Tuan Commander Du asked, “Camp Commander Chen, where’s your relative? My wife said a relative came to your house as soon as she entered, but I didn’t see anyone.”

Camp Commander Zhao added, “Yeah, I heard from Xiaomai that it was your grandmother’s relative, a young girl. Why didn’t we see her?”

Chen Xu: …

He didn’t expect that the woman had just left, and the neighbors already knew about it.

He said, “She must have gotten the wrong person. My grandmother doesn’t have any relatives left.”

Camp Commander Zhao said, “Maybe she really got the wrong person. If there were relatives, how could it be three years without any visits?”

On the way, they ran into the regiment commander and camp commander of the second regiment. Five or six people went to the army together. From the family quarters to the army, they had to pass a three-way intersection. One road led to the family quarters, one was a stone bridge leading to Xinghua Village, and the other led to the army. In the distance, Chen Xu saw a woman squatting beside the stone bridge, wearing a white shirt with yellow small flowers，her sleeves rolled up halfway, revealing a slender arm.

She was hugging her knees, her chin resting on her knees, gazing at them from afar.

This was the strange woman who had come to his house at noon.

Wen Nan also saw Chen Xu among the soldiers. The man was tall, his military uniform short-sleeved and tucked into his pants, his legs straight and long. Between steps, one could vaguely see the outline of his lean abdominal muscles under his clothes.

Wen Nan smiled, stood up, and waved to him. But the man simply gave her a cold glance and turned to walk towards the army with the other soldiers.

Wen Nan: …

She went back to sit by the river, took a  steamed cornbread from her cloth bag, and chewed it dryly. When she was tired of chewing, she took out her military water bottle and drank some water to wash it down. The  steamed cornbread in this era were made of coarse grains, a bit rough on the throat, and tasteless.

Wen Nan sat by the river until evening, drowsy. Finally, she saw soldiers walking back from the army one after another. She stood up and stared at each passing soldier. After several groups of soldiers passed, she finally saw Chen Xu walking at the back.

Wen Nan mustered her courage and quickly ran out to stop him as he approached the stone bridge. But when she met the man’s suddenly furrowed brows and icy eyes, Wen Nan became nervous and forgot her prepared words.

Chen Xu didn’t expect this woman to be waiting here. He said coldly, “Comrade, if you continue to harass me, I’ll call the security department.”

Hearing the words “security department,” Wen Nan was still a little scared.

She hesitated for a long time before lowering her arms. But as the man walked past her, she shamelessly followed him.

Camp Commander Chen walked, she walked. Camp Commander Chen stopped, she stopped.

Chen Xu completely lost his patience, turned around, stared at her coldly, and said in a deep voice, “Fine, if you’re so willing to follow, then come with me to the security department!”

Seeing that Camp Commander Chen was really angry, Wen Nan nervously clutched the strap of her cloth bag and said firmly, “What I said is true, I’m not lying.”

She looked into the man’s dark, cold eyes and continued, “My brother was in the Huayang County army in Xiping City. He died on a mission last month. My brother’s comrades found a letter he left while sorting through his belongings, and they called to tell me about it. Camp Commander, if you don’t believe me, just call my brother’s unit and ask, then you’ll know.”

She had thought about it earlier. Making up lies wouldn’t work as well as telling the truth. Maybe Camp Commander Chen would really call and help her find out who the person her brother introduced was, what unit they were in, and their name.

When Chen Xu heard about her brother’s death, his expression paused for a moment, and his stern, cold tone softened slightly, “Which regiment and battalion was your brother in?”

Wen Nan said, “He was in the fourth regiment, the third company of the seventh battalion. His name was Wen Guo, born in Xiashui Village, the third brigade of Chaoyang Commune, Linmen County, Yunmin City.”

Chen Xu was silent for a moment, then nodded to Wen Nan, signaling her to follow, “Wait for me behind the tree from this noon, I’ll call and find you.”

With his words, Wen Nan’s hanging heart finally settled.

She smiled, “Okay.”

Then she turned and ran towards the family quarters.

Chen Xu watched Wen Nan’s receding figure and turned towards the army.

She could accurately state her deceased brother’s identity in the army and confidently ask him to call and check. It was probably true. But no matter how true it was, it had nothing to do with Chen Zhou.

Chen Zhou had been with him since childhood and hadn’t gone out after coming to the Nanyang City army, so he couldn’t possibly know Wen Guo from the Xiping army.

The night was dark, but luckily, every household in the family quarters had old-fashioned warm yellow light bulbs, providing a little light.

It was mid-April, and it was still a little cold at night. Wen Nan took off the cloth backpack from her shoulder and took out a navy blue short jacket to put on. She looked at the rows of mud houses and gates in the family quarters, listening to the chirping of crickets, once again experiencing the quiet and peaceful atmosphere of the countryside at night shown in the video.

Footsteps came from afar. Wen Nan poked her head out and glanced.

Two women were walking side by side. It was a bit dark at night, so she couldn’t see them clearly, only their general outlines. One had shoulder-length hair, and the other had her hair tied up. When they got closer, Wen Nan saw that the woman with shoulder-length hair was holding the arm of the woman with her hair tied up. Both of their faces were not good. The woman with her hair tied up touched her flat stomach, “I don’t know if it will work. If it doesn’t, I’m done. How can I hold my head up in my husband’s family? With my mother-in-law’s bad temper, she might even divorce Lao Kang.”