Chapter 32 Two Strange People
"If you want to talk about strange things, hasn't Secretary Meng been acting weird lately?" Seeing that Gu Qiuyue didn't respond, Sun Juan seamlessly switched the topic to another "oddball" in the office.
She pouted, imitating Meng Hui's expression of keeping strangers away. "Although he wasn't very enthusiastic before, now? He's completely silent, especially when it comes to Lin Xiu. That look in his eyes... Tsk, so complicated, so heavy and cold, as if he owes a debt that he can't repay for eight lifetimes!"
Sun Juan glanced around to confirm that no one else was in the office. Then she leaned close to Gu Qiuyue's ear mysteriously and poured out the secret she had heard: "Hey, guess what? I heard that Lin Xiu's wife was a former comrade-in-arms of Secretary Meng. They were close friends who risked their lives together. What a pity..."
She sighed heavily, her tone tinged with sorrow. "I heard that while carrying out some life-threatening mission, he was trying to protect Officer Meng, who was still a soldier at the time. He died. Before he died, he entrusted his newly married, helpless daughter-in-law to Officer Meng..."
Sun Juan shook her head, her expression both understanding and sympathetic. "How could Secretary Meng not feel uneasy? Seeing his wife, the one his comrades risked their lives to save, now has such a... well... easily defeated personality. This burden on him is a thousand pounds heavy. It's strange that he can be happy!"
After get off work, Gu Qiuyue was walking on the way home, with Sun Juan's words about "comrades entrusting their children to her" weighing heavily on her heart. She could understand the guilt and responsibility weighing on Meng Hui's shoulders, like an invisible shackle.
However, Lin Xiu's eyes, instantly filled with immense fear, were by no means what a simple, timid "country girl" in need of protection could possess. The fear was too real, too intense, pointing to a secret that was far deeper and more dangerous than "knowing a few foreign words."
Behind Meng Hui's mountain-like silence, is it protection, or... a more complex, even scrutinizing, surveillance?
"Hey, did you see that? The one who just passed by, thank you, Deputy Captain!"
"I see it! I see it! Wow, it's really changed!"
Passing by the drying yard, the muted chatter of several military wives who were doing needlework in the sun drifted into Gu Qiuyue's ears.
"That face before, tsk tsk, was so cold it could have scraped off two ounces of frost. When he glanced at me, my naughty boy wouldn't dare to say a word. But now, just now, when he passed by the small playground, he actually stopped to watch the kids playing ball? Am I seeing things?"
"More than that! Yesterday, the chain of the tricycle of the logistics guy Lao Zhang fell off, and he was tinkering with it with his butt sticking out. Guess what? Deputy Regiment Xie walked over without saying a word and installed it for him in no time. Lao Zhang's mouth was so wide open at that time that an egg could fit in it." Another voice was full of exaggeration.
"If you ask me, it's the Gu family who's really capable!" A third voice laughed. "What do you call it? Even steel can be softened by repeated tempering. Even icebergs can be melted by repeated warming. Although words are still precious now, don't you feel... well, more lively? Like... a living person?"
There was a good-natured laugh.
Gu Qiuyue's lips curled up unconsciously, and the depression in her heart was slightly diluted by the warm discussion. Those fragmented words clearly outlined the changes that had taken place in Xie Shiyu, which even he himself might not have fully noticed, and made her heart feel a secret sweetness and a solid warmth.
When I opened the door, a familiar smell mixed with a faint smell of motor oil came in.
In the living room, Xie Shiyu was facing the door, slightly hunched over, concentrating on an old "Red Star" radio on the coffee table.
His brows were habitually slightly furrowed, and his slender and powerful fingers held a tiny screwdriver. His movements were serious, completely different from the killing on the battlefield. There were several tiny screws and parts scattered around.
"Are you back?" He didn't even raise his head, and his low voice carried a sense of homely relaxation.
"Yeah." Gu Qiuyue put down her bag, poured a glass of water, walked over to sit next to him, and naturally picked up a soft cloth to wipe the outer shell of the disassembled parts. "Whose radio is this?"
"I don't know. Old Zhang from the logistics department gave it to me. He said it just had a minor problem and could be used after a repair." Xie Shiyu looked up at her and said, "It looks quite new to me... If you don't like the old one, I'll return it now and buy a new one in the city someday."
"It's okay. This looks quite new. If you can fix it, use it first." Gu Qiuyue didn't really like listening to the radio, so she didn't care. She shared the gossip she had heard with Xie Shiyu in a light voice, "Do you know about Meng Hui, who works in the same office with me?"
"What's wrong with him?" Xie Shiyu asked following her words.
"Sister Sun said that Secretary Meng was also a soldier before. Later, he suffered irreversible injuries on the battlefield and retired to work as a civilian?" Gu Qiuyue asked with a gossipy look on her face.
Xie Shiyu's fingers gripping the screwdriver paused ever so slightly when he heard the word "irreversible," so fast it seemed like an illusion. Without looking up, he simply said, "Well, that battle was brutal. Almost everyone in their group who made it back alive was injured. Meng Hui was seriously injured, so he had to switch to a civilian position."
"Then Lin Xiu's lover died in that battle? And he entrusted Lin Xiu to Secretary Meng?" Gu Qiuyue looked at Xie Shiyu's somewhat gloomy face carefully.
The relaxed atmosphere around Xie Shiyu stagnated. His eyes fell on the complex internal structure of the radio, and his expression became more profound. A faint word "Hmm" escaped from his nose.
Gu Qiuyue saw this and knew that this topic was too serious. She smiled and joked, "I even heard the sisters-in-law praising you on the way. They said that Deputy Commander Xie has become more down-to-earth and more down-to-earth now. He is completely different before and after marriage."
Xie Shiyu finally raised his head. The warm yellow light fell on his angular profile, softening his usual coldness. He looked at Gu Qiuyue and, for the first time in his life, actually responded to the teasing: "Before... it wasn't necessary."
After saying that, he lowered his head again and picked up the copper wire clumsily. However, Gu Qiuyue noticed with her sharp eyes that the base of his ears seemed to be stained with a very light, barely noticeable blush.
In the end, the not-so-old radio still failed to make any sound. Xie Shiyu put down his tools in annoyance, looked at the pile of parts, and frowned habitually again.
Gu Qiuyue couldn't help but chuckle and took the screwdriver from his hand: "Okay, we both have to go to work and won't be able to use this thing for a while. If we don't have it, then forget it. We can just buy a new one when we want to use it in the future." She gathered the scattered parts into a small wooden box and temporarily placed it on the low cabinet in the corner of the living room together with the dumb radio.
The next afternoon, not long after Gu Qiuyue returned to the office, Director Zhao came to find Gu Qiuyuexin and asked her to go to the commander's office. "The commander wants to see you about something," Zhao said to her.
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