Why is my old man so easily scared these days? He insisted on taking a young girl like Xiao Shen to the brigade headquarters alone.

Moreover, it's almost dark now.

Seeing the change in his wife's expression, Gu Chengde realized that he had made a mistake in his consideration.

It's not surprising that he didn't consider that Xiao Shen was a young girl, and that there might be gossip if they were alone together.

This is mainly because Shen Mu Ning is not only of the Fiery Rank, but also possesses formidable personal abilities.

Most of the people in the brigade now have a good impression of her, which is why he overlooked this fact.

He smiled reassuringly at Li Guihua, hoping she would forgive him for the time being.

Li Guihua knew that now was not the time to talk about these things, so she just glared at him and turned her attention back to Shen Mu Ning.

"Xiao Shen, are you going to call your family?"

Li Guihua gestured for Gu Chengde to walk in front, while she followed behind, walking alongside Shen Muning so they could chat.

Previously, I only knew from Gu Chengde's words that they were going to make a phone call.

She thought that these educated youths only had their families to contact by phone, which is why she asked that question.

"Yes, I'm calling my family to let them know I'm safe!" Shen Mu Ning replied simply.

"Then why did you only think of it now..."

It's not strange that she called her family, but what surprised Li Guihua was the timing.

After all, this group of educated youth had been in Xinshan Brigade for almost a month.

The others had already come to the brigade headquarters to borrow a phone after they had settled in.

Only Shen Mu Ning seems to have forgotten about this.

I don't know why, but I suddenly thought of it today?

"I wasn't calling Haishi, I was letting my relatives here know I'm safe."

She never wanted to have anything to do with her second uncle's family again, so how could she possibly call them back?

Besides, she didn't even know the phone number.

"Hmm, hmm?" "What?"

Two voices rang out at the same time, and both Li Guihua and Gu Chengde were unable to digest the news.

The main reason is that they both knew that Xiao Shen's family lived in Haishi.

Even if they have relatives, they should all be in Haishi. How did they suddenly end up here?

After his initial confusion, Gu Chengde said nothing more.

After all, he was just a brigade leader, and he really couldn't control where other people's relatives were.

"Xiao Shen, aren't you from Haishi? How come..."

Only Li Guihua spoke freely and without reservation, directly asking the questions that were on her mind.

Her thinking was simple: if Xiao Shen didn't want to answer, then so be it; if he did want to answer, then it would satisfy Zi's curiosity.

"Well, it was a coincidence. We lost contact during the war, and now I've run into them again."

Although Shen Mu Ning felt there was nothing to hide about the existence of her adoptive grandfather, she didn't need to reveal too much to the outside world.

He then recounted, in a different way, how Sun Wu contacted his family in the city after joining the army.

"I see. Well, Xiao Shen, you're quite lucky."

"However, if they lost contact during wartime, Xiao Shen, you haven't met them, have you? It's already been confirmed, right?"

Li Guihua knew that it was common for relatives to lose contact during times of war.

So when they learned of this, they were first struck by how lucky the two were.

Even after so many years, we still managed to meet again in Lingbei.

However, considering Shen Mu Ning's age, one can tell that this is a relative she hasn't seen for over thirty years.

When she went missing, Xiao Shen's mother was probably just a child.

How could she be sure that it was a relative of her own family, and not someone else impersonating her?

However, she didn't speak too bluntly, lest she offend Shen Mu Ning.

After all, this is her private matter, and there's no need to tell her.

"Don't worry, we have photos of him when he was young at home. I recognized him because he looked familiar, and after asking him about the situation, I was able to recognize him."

I know that Li Guihua said those words not because she was questioning her, but because she was concerned about her and afraid that she had been deceived.

She wasn't so ungrateful as to simply recount the process to put her mind at ease.

"There shouldn't be any problem, but you shouldn't trust relatives you haven't seen in so long too much."

Knowing that Xiao Shen wasn't someone who couldn't distinguish right from wrong, Li Guihua spoke without restraint.

He kept reminding us that you can only know a person's face, not their heart, and that we shouldn't trust him just because he's a relative.

How should Shen Mu Ning respond to this? Should she say that she knows perfectly well and that he wouldn't lie to her?

Of course, even if her adoptive grandfather wanted to deceive her, he would have to have the ability to do so.

Moreover, to harm her, he would need to deploy a large number of cannons and use a dense barrage of explosives.

Therefore, even if Sun Wu had ill intentions towards her, she would not be the one to suffer.

"Aunt Guihua, don't worry, I'm not some naive child anymore, I know what I'm doing."

Although her words reassured Li Guihua, she naively opened up to a relative she had just met.

But it also stirred up her feelings of tenderness and pity for Shen Mu Ning.

After all, it's easy to imagine how difficult it must be for a girl who has lost both parents.

However, Li Guihua did not show this in front of her.

Shen Mu Ning pretended not to notice the heartache in her eyes.

The main reason is that, as an outsider, she only saw the grievances suffered by the original owner through her memories.

She herself inexplicably died and came here, without suffering any of the hardships the original owner had endured.

She has the mindset she has now because she once struggled through the apocalypse.

She was having a hard time accepting Li Guihua's concern.

Fortunately, she also wanted to hide her emotions, so I'll just let her have her way and pretend I didn't notice.

"Xiao Shen, why don't you go and fight it yourself?"

After a moment of silence, the three walked to the brigade headquarters.

It was Gu Chengde's words that broke the somber atmosphere.

"Okay." Shen Mu Ning dialed the number for Yan Bin's office that she had written down.

"Ring ring ring, ring ring ring."

At that moment, in the commander's office of the Jilin Provincial Military Region, the telephone rang.

Sun Wu hesitated for a moment, allowing Yan Bin to answer the phone first.

It wasn't that he didn't want to receive Shen Mu Ning's call; it was mainly because of the previous misunderstanding.

When the phone rang, he would answer it, but it was never his beloved granddaughter calling.

He was now reporting his work progress to Yan Bin, and he didn't want to be Yan Bin's operator anymore.

"Hello."

"Xiao Shen, you've arrived?" But when the phone rang, he hesitated. It was Shen Mu Ning calling!

Sun Wu looked at Yan Bin, who wanted to have a long chat with his granddaughter. If he weren't concerned about his image, he would have snatched the receiver long ago.

Fortunately, Shen Mu Ning didn't keep Sun Wu waiting long and had Yan Bin hand him the phone first.