Chapter 31

Shanghai.
Second Military Medical University.

Even during winter break, the med students were kept busy.

Cao Jingliang had just finished the school’s assigned task: providing free medical consultations to poor farmers in nearby areas.

He hadn’t even made it back to his dorm to rest when he was stopped midway by Xiao Ge, a familiar face from the gate.

His family sending a package wasn’t a surprise.

What surprised him was the size of the package this time—it was the biggest he’d ever received.

The young soldier flashed a big white grin. “Captain Cao, need me to help carry it?”

Because of his three years stationed at a field hospital—and the last year serving as a field medical team leader with numerous military merits—he had been promoted far beyond most. While most university graduates would only reach second lieutenant, Cao Jingliang was already a captain.

He tested the weight and smiled. “Thanks, but I’ve got it.”

As he spoke, he swung the bulky package onto his shoulder in one smooth motion.

Watching him walk off, another soldier nearby said in surprise, “Captain Cao may look slender and clean-cut, but he’s stronger than he looks!”

—

Xiao Ge said, “That package just looks big—it probably doesn’t even weigh fifty jin. Captain Cao is a soldier, after all, and a battlefield veteran at that. Carrying this much is nothing for him.”

The other young soldier nodded. “True, even military doctors are still soldiers. But wow, Captain Cao’s family is really nice—he gets care packages all the time.”

That part made Xiao Ge, far from his own hometown, a little envious.

Cao Jingliang had no idea the gate guards were secretly jealous.

He hoisted the large parcel over his shoulder and strode across the vast campus, heading straight for the dormitory.

After climbing four flights of stairs and finally setting the package down, his breath was only slightly uneven.

Li Xiang, who had been writing a letter, capped his fountain pen, crouched by the package, and urged, “Why’d they send so much this time? Come on, Old Cao—open it up! Bet there’s something tasty inside.”

The two of them had gone from school to the battlefield and back again, rescuing the wounded amid gunfire more times than they could count. They were comrades through life and death—sharing food was practically second nature now.

Cao Jingliang, having steadied his breath, took a small knife from the drawer, crouched down, and carefully cut through the outer hemp rope.

Once that was done, Li Xiang immediately jumped in. “I’ll do the rest.”

Cao Jingliang was happy to let him help.

While Li Xiang opened the parcel, he found two letters and sat down to read them.

Just as he’d guessed, the items were sent jointly by his parents and his little junior.

Most of the clothing was clearly from his parents, while all the foodstuffs came from Aunt Hehua.

One of the letters was from his family. It was filled with amusing anecdotes from the past month or two, and it made Cao Jingliang’s lips curl into a smile. By the end, he even let out a soft laugh.

Li Xiang was in the middle of unwrapping an oil-paper package. Hearing the laugh, he looked up and asked, “What’s so funny?”

Cao Jingliang didn’t look up. “My little junior wrote about something funny that happened at her school.”

Li Xiang asked instinctively, “What happened?”

“Nope. Unwrap your own stuff.”

Fine. Li Xiang knew all too well how much his bro treasured that junior of his. He didn’t push further and continued digging through the food.

He had to admit, Old Cao’s little junior was good to him too. She often included meat in the care packages. Sure, the university’s food was decent, but what young man doesn’t want more meat?

Thinking of the delicious combo of salted meat stir-fried with pickled greens, Li Xiang swallowed hard. “Old Cao, there’s a chunk of salted meat in here—looks like two or three jin. How about we cut it in half and go freeload dinner at the instructor’s place?”

Students weren’t allowed to cook, but visiting faculty for meals? That was fair game.

Cao Jingliang hesitated for a moment before shaking his head. “Take it to your house.”

Li Xiang was a local, living in Shanghai. He didn’t mind going home, but the commute was two to three hours each way. A bit of a hassle.

As if reading his thoughts, Cao Jingliang gave a vague explanation, “Lately the school’s been ramping up political education. I don’t need to spell out the content, right? Now’s not the time to drag the instructor into something.”

Li Xiang had always been a sharp guy. He just hadn’t thought it through. With his friend’s reminder, he quickly caught on.

He didn’t complain. Nodding in tacit understanding, he said, “Okay, let’s head to my place. This afternoon, then? Want to bring all the meat over? We can just come back a few times this week.”

“That’s what I was thinking too,” Cao Jingliang said. “This afternoon it is. Sort out everything that needs to be cooked. As for those jars of preserved food, leave them—we’ll split them up and give one to each of the instructors.”

Li Xiang had no objections. He pulled out a coarse cloth bag from under his bed and began packing the meat while asking, “I heard the instructor might come talk to you soon. You really don’t want to stay at the school? With your record, it’s totally possible.”

Cao Jingliang had finished reading the letters but hadn’t put them away. He skimmed over them again carefully and replied without even lifting his head, “You know my goal.”

Those words made Li Xiang pause. He suddenly had no interest in packing food.

He grabbed a stool and sat down, his expression serious as he stared at the man across from him holding the letter.

After all the years of war, the once-youthful, radiant boy still hadn’t lost his gentle, jade-like grace.

But Li Xiang knew that beneath that gentle exterior was a will as tough as steel.

Even so, as a friend, he couldn’t help but oppose the decision. “You really plan to go support the frontier? Don’t you know that means at least five years—maybe even ten? By the time you come back, you might be in your thirties.”

Seeing that his friend was genuinely angry, Cao Jingliang sighed inwardly and calmly met his gaze. “Old Li, someone has to do it. You know how short-staffed the border regions are when it comes to medical professionals.”

He saw that Li Xiang was about to protest again, so he continued:

“I’ve been studying medicine since I was three. That’s twenty years. Maybe it doesn’t matter where I practice—but to people with no doctors, no help, no hope… having even one trained physician could change everything. Isn’t that why we studied medicine in the first place?”

Li Xiang still couldn’t agree. “I admit, you have a point. But what about your career? Your family? Your future marriage? If you insist on going, all of that has to take a back seat. You know better than anyone that once you’re stationed out there, it’s goodbye to home—unless you get transferred back, you won’t see your family for years. Are you really okay with that?”

Cao Jingliang’s chest tightened. Born into a loving family, after being apart for so many years, how could he bear it? So…
“So, I’m only going for five years.”

Five years? The words that had been on Li Xiang’s tongue got stuck. After a moment of silence, he asked,
“You’re definitely going?”

“It’s necessary.”

“Alright then.” His brother was stubborn; Li Xiang knew he couldn’t change his mind. So he changed tactics,
“Look on the bright side — with that frontier experience, when you come back, maybe you can get promoted directly to department head.”

Although a promotion wasn’t why Cao Jingliang was going, he wouldn’t refuse such an honor. He smiled,
“Thanks for the good luck wish.”

Seeing his shameless grin, Li Xiang relaxed a bit and crouched back down to organize the package.
“Originally, my cousin Lingling wanted to introduce you to her cousin. I’ve met the girl; she’s pretty, a student at the Normal University. But maybe forget it, don’t want to waste a good girl on you.”

Without waiting for a reaction, he went on,
“This time I won’t go with you. Lingling and I agreed that after we graduate, we’ll get married. It’d be bad to just dump her right after.”

Yes, the “older” 25-year-old future Doctor Li was being driven crazy by family pushing for marriage.

Cao Jingliang understood well, so he never counted on his brother for that. Smiling, he took off his military uniform and put on the cotton jacket his mother had sent, joking,
“Don’t worry, you’ll still get a big red envelope.”

As for blind dates, ever since he turned 20, he’d lost count of how many offers he’d received.

Sometimes even on the bus, strangers would try to set him up. Cao Jingliang had become immune and ignored all the nagging.

Li Xiang didn’t mind either, focused solely on the red envelope.
“Of course! You’ve got money, so I’m not letting that go!”

“Bro, have mercy. At least save some money for my little junior’s milk powder.”

Li Xiang laughed heartily,
“Your little junior’s already a teen, right? Why are you still buying milk powder for her? Does she like that?”

Mentioning the mischievous little junior, a smile lit Cao Jingliang’s eyes.
“She’ll be 15 after the New Year, only 160 cm tall, still drinking milk powder hoping to grow taller.”

Li Xiang didn’t get it.
“At that age, 160 cm isn’t short, right? Even if she stops growing, that height is fine.”

Cao Jingliang also thought the petite junior must be cute, but…
“Her foster mother is almost 1.8 meters tall.”

“Whoa…” Li Xiang, who was 173 cm, was jealous. Looking at his brother’s 185 cm, he was even more envious.
“What do you Northerners eat to grow so tall?”

Cao Jingliang shrugged.
“Not everyone’s tall. There are short ones too.”

“I know, I know. You mean your little junior.”

Cao Jingliang: “…”

“Hey, since you’ve decided to go to the frontier after graduation next year, why not go home this winter break? It’s been six years, hasn’t it?”

“It has,” Cao Jingliang replied. The first three years he couldn’t come back because he was at the frontlines; the last three years, he accelerated his studies by skipping a grade.

Plus, all his holidays were filled with school-assigned rescue missions, so it had been six years.

Thinking of this, he took off the new cotton jacket, smoothed out the wrinkles, and sighed,
“If I could find the time, I’d definitely go home.”

Afraid he couldn’t make time, Li Xiang couldn’t say anything more. He stood and patted his brother’s shoulder to comfort him.

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Approaching the New Year

Every household was busily bustling with preparations.

On the 25th day of the twelfth lunar month, the entire village began its annual sweeping and cleaning.

Mother and daughter naturally joined in. After breakfast, they wrapped themselves in coarse patchwork aprons and picked up long bamboo brooms tied with red cloth to start their thorough cleaning.

Half an hour later, the village secretary called a meeting for the village cadres, leaving only Xu Wanchun to continue cleaning.

Holding her arm up for so long was exhausting; her arms were sore and heavy.

Luckily, Mother returned quickly.

Just as Xu Wanchun finished cleaning the main hall and was about to move to the bedroom, her mother returned.

When the mother took off her hat and scarf, her gloomy expression made Xu Wanchun’s heart skip a beat.
“Did something happen?”

Xu Hehua hung up her thick coat and, putting on her apron, sighed,
“Nothing much. Xu Wang… that elderly welfare recipient in the village, was caught burning joss paper in his house last night.”

In the past two years, the campaign against “Four Olds” had banned burning paper offerings.

But after thousands of years of ancestral worship ingrained deeply in their bones, many people still secretly made offerings. Most who discovered it looked the other way.

Xu Hehua’s pale face suggested it wasn’t just Xu Wang who was reported—she was probably more worried about not being able to make offerings for Tiedan Ge.

Xu Wanchun, guessing the situation, didn’t say much to comfort her. Instead, she asked,
“What will happen to Uncle Xu Wang?”

Upon hearing this, Xu Hehua’s face brightened a little.
“No big deal. He was verbally reprimanded and sent home. But this afternoon, Mom will be joining the other cadres to go visit and spread awareness in the village.”

“For this matter?”

“Mm, the publicity still has to be done.” As for whether the villagers secretly pay lip service but do the opposite, she couldn’t care less.

After tying the dust cloth on her head, looking at her daughter who followed her to the bedroom to help, Xu Hehua urged her, “Go on, go on. Aren’t your arms sore? Take a rest, let me do it.”

It was indeed quite tiring. Xu Wanchun planned to rest a bit more, so she moved a stool and sat at the bedroom door, rubbing her arms while chatting with her mother, “The old secretary just said a few words and let him go. He won’t get someone to mess with us behind our backs, right?”

Xu Hehua chuckled, “You’re overthinking. How could Uncle Jingjun let something like this slip through?”

Well, as long as there were no bad consequences, Xu Wanchun didn’t press further and changed the subject:
“Just now the teacher’s wife came by and invited us to have lunch at her place. Grandma Wu made sauerkraut dumplings.”

Thinking of Grandma Wu’s exquisite cooking, she couldn’t help but swallow her saliva.

Over the years, the two families had almost become one when it came to food.

Sometimes when the Cao couple were too lazy to cook, they would come over here.

So Xu Hehua readily agreed…

Evening.

As dusk fell,

Xu Hehua, who had been out all day, finally returned home, braving the biting cold.

She soaked her feet in the ginger water her daughter brought, then drank a big bowl of ginger and jujube tea before feeling her frozen body slowly come back to life.

Xu Hehua patted her daughter’s head warmly, “Why is my little Taohua so good to me?”

“Because I’m your little cotton-padded jacket.”

“Yes, yes, yes, Taohua is definitely mama’s most intimate little cotton jacket!”

Seeing her mother smile, Xu Wanchun felt happy too. She stood up, teasing, “There’s an even more intimate one,” and ran back to her room.

When she came out again, she carried a bamboo basket.

Xu Hehua was curious: “What’s that?”

Xu Wanchun lifted the cloth covering it, revealing a basket full of paper folded ingots, proudly offering, “Mom, tonight let’s burn all these for big brother, so he can have a good New Year too!”

Suddenly, big tears welled up and spilled out of Xu Hehua’s eyes…

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