Chapter 36 A Village Girl in the 1970s

Having lived in this small mountain village for so many years, Yao Yunzhen was also curious about the outside world.

Although she was reluctant to leave her parents and relatives, she wanted to go out and see the world.

The Yao family naturally didn't say anything.

In their minds, since Yao Yunzhen had married him, it was only right for her to follow him.

"The time is too tight, we need to get started quickly."

Miao Cuilan hurriedly began packing.

Various mountain products, her homemade chili sauce, pickled vegetables, dried vegetables, sweet potato starch... and so on.

Seeing that it was piling up into a small mountain, Yao Yunzhen quickly said, "That's enough, Mom, we can't carry any more."

Her mother seems determined to empty the house; there are only two of them with four hands!

Xie Jingyue also said, "Yes, Mom, we have everything we need, and we have a canteen, so we don't need to prepare so much."

Miao Cuilan had no choice but to give up regretfully, and under Yao Yunzhen's strong insistence, she took out most of the items.

Although the two had already registered their marriage, it was clearly inappropriate for Xie Jingyue to stay at Yao's house. Seeing that it was getting late, he had no choice but to return to the county dejectedly.

The next day, he only stayed at Yao's house for a short while before returning to the county with Yao Yunzhen's letter of introduction, intending to use his connections to buy two sleeper tickets.

Although two days and one night is not a long time, he knew how miserable it was to sit in a hard sleeper.

How could Xie Jingyue let Yao Yunzhen suffer like this?

Early on the third day, Xie Jingyue arrived at the Yao family home and picked up Yao Yunzhen to go to the county.

Yao Sheng and Miao Cuilan originally wanted to give them a ride, but there wasn't enough room on the bicycle, so they had to give up.

Xie Jingyue drove Yao Yunzhen to Anyuan County, left the bicycle at his aunt's house, and then headed to the station.

At Yao Yunzhen's insistence, Miao Cuilan only packed one bag of things, which Xie Jingyue carried on his back, allowing Yao Yunzhen to move around more easily.

When they arrived at the train station, Xie Jingyue struggled with his conscience for a moment, but finally quietly reached out and took Yao Yunzhen's hand.

Yao Yunzhen looked up at him.

Xie Jingyue, her ears turning red, said, "There are too many people here, I'm afraid I'll get lost."

If your ears weren't still red, I would have believed you.

Seeing that he was looking straight ahead and very serious, Yao Yunzhen rolled her eyes and scratched his palm with her finger.

Xie Jingyue's hand suddenly tightened, then loosened slightly.

“Zhenzhen, stop fooling around…”

Yao Yunzhen's every move captivated him and dominated his mind and body. He tried his best to restrain himself every minute and every second he spent with her.

But this restraint is fragile; it can easily break the balance and cause him to crumble.

Yao Yunzhen looked at him, her eyes filled with innocence.

"I didn't make a scene."

Xie Jingyue glanced at it only once before hurriedly looking away.

"……Um."

He dared not say more, nor look more, using all his self-control to suppress the volcano about to erupt in his heart.

Seeing that her face and neck were flushed, Yao Yunzhen curled the corners of her lips, stopped acting up, and obediently let Xie Jingyue lead her away.

Yao Yunzhen had never ridden a train before. At first, she was very interested and curious, but after a few hours, that curiosity disappeared, and she only felt bored and tormented.

Although they were sleeper berths, there were quite a few people; the berths were almost full.

Despite limited space and conditions, there were still various unpleasant odors in the carriage.

Seeing the listless Yao Yunzhen, Xie Jingyue felt heartbroken, but he had no better way to help her than to take even better care of her.

Her excessive thoughtfulness drew stares from the others in the cubicle.

Men scorned it, women envied it.

Faced with these strange looks, Xie Jingyue continued to do as he pleased, and Yao Yunzhen accepted it all without a care in the world.

After two days and one night of rapid travel, the train finally arrived in Huaixin City.

It was already past six o'clock in the evening, but fortunately, the summer days are long and the sky still had some light.

Yao Yunzhen asked, "Are we going to stay at the guesthouse for the night?"

"No need, someone is coming to pick us up. We'll go straight to our base."

Xie Jingyue explained, "A vehicle travels to and from the garrison every day to transport supplies and also gives rides to the families of soldiers going to and from the garrison. I made arrangements in advance to have the vehicle going back today wait for us."

Yao Yunzhen nodded and walked hand in hand with Xie Jingyue out of the station.

"Old Xie, over here."

As soon as they stepped out of the station, a man in military uniform waved to them from afar.

Yao Yunzhen looked curiously in the direction of the sound.

Because of the distance, she couldn't see the other person's face clearly, but she could tell that the person was tall, with broad shoulders and long legs, not much different from Xie Jingyue.

Suddenly, Yao Yunzhen felt Xie Jingyue tighten his grip on her hand.

She turned to look at him, only to see that his expression was unusually unpleasant.

"What’s wrong with you?"

Xie Jingyue looked away and forced a smile.

"No, it's nothing."

Yao Yunzhen seemed thoughtful: "That person was calling you, right? Is there some kind of conflict between you two?"

"No, it's just a bit of a surprise. I didn't expect it to be him picking us up."

Xie Jingyue's expression returned to normal, but his other hand clenched quietly, revealing his inner turmoil.

"Hey, I'm calling you, why aren't you saying anything?"

As they were talking, the man in the distance ran up quickly and punched Xie Jingyue in the shoulder.

Xie Jingyue twitched the corner of his mouth: "Didn't hear it."

Yao Yunzhen then got a clear look at the person who had come in.

This was a handsome man with a straight posture and a vibrant spirit, with sharp eyebrows and bright eyes, his gaze full of brilliance.

He had a playful smile on his face, and when he felt Yao Yunzhen's gaze, he looked over curiously.

Lu Jiaxing's gaze lingered on Yao Yunzhen's mask for a moment before he noticed her incredibly beautiful eyes.

His heart skipped a beat, and he instinctively dared not look directly at the camera.

He subtly lowered his gaze slightly and took the initiative to greet them:

"This must be your sister-in-law, right? I'm Xie Jingyue's good brother, Lu Jiaxing. You can just call me Jiaxing."

Xie Jingyue was a few months older than Lu Jiaxing, so he addressed Yao Yunzhen as his sister-in-law.

Xie Jingyue used his shoulder to push the man away, blocking his view, and said coldly:

What are you doing here?

He never expected to run into Lu Jiaxing here.

Although Xie Jingyue and Yao Yunzhen had registered their marriage, he was not at peace with himself.

He was especially afraid of Yao Yunzhen and Lu Jiaxing running into each other.

After all, they were the real engaged couple.

So he had already planned to keep the two of them apart as much as possible and reduce their contact, but he never expected that the two of them would meet so unexpectedly as soon as they got off the train.

Xie Jingyue's mind was in turmoil, and he couldn't help but become wary.

Lu Jiaxing was already used to Xie Jingyue's aloof personality and didn't take it to heart. He shrugged.

"I knew you were coming back today, so I specially switched shifts to pick you up. How about that? Pretty thoughtful, right?"

"Alright, since that's the case, let's get going."

Xie Jingyue pulled Yao Yunzhen and prepared to leave.