Early the next morning, she quickly crawled out of the quilt without Chu Dai calling her.

After a quick wash, Chu Dai packed all the clothes that needed to be packed. Chu Dai had four sets of military uniforms, and because he was going to be transferred to the navy after being stationed on the island, he had to take all these clothes back to the Southern Military Region.

After packing, she found that there were three big bags. Since she didn't have to carry them, Gu Qingqing was relieved.

"Qingqing, are you ready?" Chu Dai pushed the door open from outside. Gu Qingqing turned around and was stunned when she saw the man's outfit.

He wore a black woolen trench coat, a white cotton shirt and black trousers, and three-jointed black leather shoes issued by the army.

Chu Dai was originally tall and thin, and seeing him like this made Gu Qingqing's heart beat faster.

The man raised his hand to check the time, revealing a section of his white wrist bone.

It was half past five, and Fugui still had half an hour to go to the market to do some shopping, so he took them with him.

The man raised his eyes and saw her staring at him in a trance. He chuckled, "This is the outfit I wore when I first came to the Corps. I didn't expect that I can still wear it after several years."

He bought two woolen coats from a state-owned clothing factory.

Gu Qinglie shouted yesterday that there were only military uniforms in his closet, and it would be too conspicuous to go home wearing a military uniform, so he stole one from him.

"Looks good!" Gu Qingqing looked at the man's handsome face and tall figure, and praised sincerely: "He's better looking than my elder brother."

Chu Dai rubbed her head, picked up the bag with his big hands, and said, "Let's go."

He carried two bags and Gu Qingqing carried the lighter one. The moment he closed the door, Gu Qingqing realized that he was really going to leave.

Gu Qinglie lived next to them. He didn't mention anything. In his words, "I'm just going back for a vacation and will be back in a few days. Don't make such a fuss."

Taking the army green bag from Gu Qingqing, he kept muttering, "You two are dawdling. If you're any later, not only will we miss breakfast, but we'll have to walk to the station after the rest of the buses leave."

"Here I am." Gu Qingqing put her hands on her head, tucked into the collar of her cotton-padded jacket, and walked slowly in front across the playground to the cafeteria.

Two men in black woolen coats walked beside her, one on each side. Unlike Gu Qinglie who was chattering away, Chu Dai silently looked at every corner of the regiment, walking at a moderate pace.

After eating vegetable and lean meat porridge in the cafeteria, Yu Fugui brought them three aluminum lunch boxes. "Each lunch box contains two dishes and one rice, stewed potatoes, pork ribs, and stir-fried pork with peppers. After you finish eating, you can buy more on the train. It's cold today, so it's not easy to bring more for you..."

While he was talking, he was also working quickly to put the three aluminum lunch boxes into the cotton bag that Sun Shufen had specially sewn for her, and then took three pairs of chopsticks from the side and put them in.

Gu Qinglie put his hand on Yu Fugui and held his shoulder: "The food on the train is not as delicious as what you cook. It's said that you are so good to us and considerate of us. I will be back for ten days or so. Don't miss me. When the time comes, I will ask my aunt to make some soybean paste from your hometown and bring it to you."

"Then don't forget it." Yu Fugui looked up and bumped into a pair of smiling eyes. Chu Dai nodded slightly to him. He raised his hand and wiped the corners of his eyes with his sleeve, then took out two boxes of Daqianmen from his pocket: "Captain Chu, this is the last time I will buy cigarettes for you. You have been in hiding for more than half a month and only have these two boxes. You can buy them yourself in the future."

Chu Dai took the cigarette, and suddenly he couldn't speak, as if something was stuck in his throat. After a long time, he punched Yu Fugui's shoulder and said, "Thank you, Lao Yu."

Thank you for your care over the past two years.

Like a brother and a friend.

"It's no big deal." Yu Fugui calmed down and said, "Hey, dear, uncle has packed a sack of dried sweet potatoes for you and threw it in the car. When you get off the car, let your brother carry it for you."

"Okay, thank you Uncle Yu!" Gu Qingqing's eyes were red.

Sun Shufen's warm fingertips circled her neck, wrapping a red scarf around and around, "This is the scarf that Auntie promised you. This red wool is not easy to find."

Gu Qingqing suddenly threw herself into her arms, hugged her slightly plump waist, lowered her head and said in a muffled voice: "Thank you, auntie. After we get off the island, we will come to see you and uncle, as well as Xiaotu and Xiaoxu when we have time."

"Okay, my dear, don't forget it." Sun Shufen gently stroked her smooth hair and sighed, "Don't cry. Look, you came to the military corps and brought back a handsome son-in-law for the Gu family. Your father and mother would be so happy if they knew about it."

Gu Qingqing nodded, glanced sympathetically at Chu Dai who was talking to Zhao Ze next to her, and burst into laughter.

Zhao Ze didn't have the heart to be sentimental. He handed him two pairs of woolen gloves and said, "Ah Nian didn't come because she was cold. She knitted these for you two overnight. I told you to knit them for yourself. You are a grown man and you are used to going through wind and rain. Why do you need gloves?"

"Thank my sister-in-law for me." Chu Dai accepted it and said, "See you at Baisha Island."

"See you at White Sand Island."

A soldier from the kitchen squad came over and said, "Old squad leader, the car is ready." He glanced at Gu Qingqing and felt a little reluctant, but there was nothing he could do.

"Okay, stop wasting time and get in the car. If lunch is late, I will be the one to be punished."

"You are the chief clerk now. Everyone depends on you for their livelihood. Who dares to punish you..." Gu Qinglie followed him out carrying his bag.

Gu Qingqing came to Chu Dai's side and asked Zhao Ze softly, "Brother Zhao, is Sister An Nian okay?"

"It's nothing, I just have a slight cold." Zhao Ze thought about it and decided to tell her the good news: "Anian is pregnant, two months."

Gu Qingqing was dumbfounded.

She subconsciously glanced at Chu Dai. Could it be that he was the one they had heard that night?

Chu Dai glanced at her meaningfully, stretched out his long arm behind his ear, hooked Zhao Ze's shoulders, and whispered in his ear: "Did you give me all the box of condoms as a gift? Didn't you keep some for yourself?"

Zhao Ze remembered what he had told him that day to restrain himself, otherwise there would be no female military doctors on the island to deliver babies. He coughed lightly and said, "I can't help myself. Let nature take its course."

Chu Dai sneered.

A red military truck drove slowly out of the barracks. Yu Fugui and the young soldier driving the truck sat in the front, while Gu Qingqing was sandwiched between two men and three others sat in the back.

Thinking of something, she suddenly rolled down the window, almost lying on Chu Dai, and waved to the sentries on duty: "Brothers, I'm leaving! Take care of yourselves! Be safe!"

The soldiers on sentry duty looked ahead with firm eyes, and remained as still as a mountain even after the vehicles went away.

Gu Qingqing didn't close the window either. She held on to the window with both hands and looked at the sparse trees receding outside the window.

The wheels kicked up fine sand, and she felt uncomfortable.

Chu Dai reached out and gently stroked her back, saying with certainty: "We will come back."

"Right," Gu Qinglie didn't know how the girl had such deep feelings for him even though she had only been in the Corps for three or four months. He thought about it and thought that it might be because the people in the Corps were just like her, with pure emotions and cheerful personalities. "Brother is still here. You two came to visit your relatives after you got off the island. But it's rare for a couple to come to the Corps to visit your brother's relatives."

As he spoke, Gu Qinglie himself laughed.

"Look," Yu Fugui looked out the window at the hillside and rubbed his eyes uncertainly, "Is that the regiment commander and the political commissar?"

Chu Dai was stunned for a moment, and the girl in his arms climbed up from him, straightened her body and looked in the direction Yu Fugui pointed.

On the barren hillside, two men in neat military uniforms stood there. Guan Xun was feeling melancholy: "Although I always worry that the old commander's only son will be destroyed in my hands, but now that he is leaving the Corps, I really feel a bit bad."

Political Commissar Xu raised his hand and patted his shoulder, comforting him: "Don't speak dirty words. He is here for the motherland's border defense, and he went to the island for the motherland's coastal defense. You should be proud of him."

"Young man, you are still as charming as you were in your youth." He still remembers clearly the wild and sharp energy Chu Dai displayed when he first arrived at the Corps.

After Bai Yan died, he finally calmed down.

When the vehicle passed the bottom of the hill, Chu Dai changed his lazy look of leaning on the seat, stood up straight, and saluted towards the hillside.

Guan Xun was stunned, his expression serious, and he raised his hand to return the greeting.

When the car drove away, he suddenly laughed and cursed: "This kid..."

Yu Fugui directly asked someone to drive the car to the entrance of the railway station, and he and Gu Qinglie carried the sweet potato chips in by holding the two ends of the sack.

Chu Dai went to buy three tickets. When Gu Qingqing came, she came from the inland central city of Yancheng, and the one-way ticket was 7.52 yuan. Now they were going to the southern military region, and the ticket price was 9.53 yuan. Chu Dai gave a total of 28.59 yuan.

You have to know that the monthly salary of a first-level worker in a steel factory is only 36 yuan. The station ticket seller couldn't help but take a few more glances at the handsome man in front of him.

Yu Fugui sent them into the train carriage. When the passengers saw the military uniform he was wearing, they automatically made way for them to pass. People nowadays have great respect for the military, not to mention the soldiers of the Construction Corps guarding the border.

"Thank you, everyone. Thank you for your help." Yu Fugui greeted the passengers with a smile along the way, found the seats shown on their tickets, and helped them put away their luggage.

He straightened up and said, "I really have to go now, but we will meet again someday. No matter where we serve in the army, we will always be comrades-in-arms."

Chu Dai took out the big front door he had given him from his pocket, opened it, tapped it twice between his fingers, and handed it to him.

Yu Fugui was stunned for a moment, then he reacted, took a cigarette and put it in his mouth.

Chu Dai took out a matchbox, lit a cigarette, and held the flame in his palm. Yu Fugui lowered his head, lit the cigarette and took a deep breath.

"Comrades forever!" Yu Fugui exhaled a puff of smoke and grinned.

"Yes," Chu Dai said, "we will always be comrades-in-arms."

Yu Fugui got off the car and they returned to their seats.

Gu Qingqing sat by the window, Chu Dai sat next to her, and Gu Qinglie sat opposite her.

Fifteen minutes beyond the scheduled departure time, the train whistle sounded and a thick cloud of black smoke rose into the sky.

The boiler room was busy adding coal slag, and the carriage was still filled with the pungent smell of coal smoke that we had when we first arrived.

Gu Qingqing lay on Chu Dai's shoulder, smelling the refreshing soap scent on his body, and felt drowsy.