"Sigh," Li Chu sighed helplessly.
"I'm fine, why are you more upset than me? Do you expect me to comfort you?" Jiang Cheng said cheerfully.
"I never imagined that we would all change so much after more than ten years apart," Li Chu suddenly said with a touch of emotion.
"More than ten years is not a short time. Our country has undergone such great changes, let alone people like us."
"Hey, Xiao Chu, you're married now, right? Do you have kids?"
Li Chu smiled when this was mentioned: "I got married a long time ago, and my children are almost two years old, a boy and a girl."
"Good lad, you're really something. When can I meet your sister-in-law and the kids?"
"I definitely need to see him. You're free today, right, Cheng-ge?"
"Nothing much going on today? Why are you taking me to your house?"
"There's no rush to go to my house. After get off work this afternoon, take me to see Lily first."
Jiang Cheng nodded: "No problem, she will definitely be happy to see you. She said she wanted to see you when she came over before the New Year. If it weren't for meeting you with Director Liu that day, we don't know when we would have been able to meet again."
"I haven't even asked you yet, how come you were assigned to this place after your recovery, so far away?"
"Well, when I was discharged from the army, my superior asked me which unit I wanted to go to. I casually said that I had never been to the capital before. As a result, my superior assigned me here. He was a comrade-in-arms of one of my leaders in my current unit," Jiang Cheng explained.
Demobilized soldiers are usually assigned to return to their place of origin; cross-regional assignments are rare.
When Jiang Cheng first arrived and settled in, he tried to find his childhood friend, but unfortunately, because Li Chu and Li Qin's files were confidential and his rank was not high enough, he was unable to find him.
They met by chance that day. Her current appearance is quite different from when she was a child, and Jiang Cheng didn't dare to recognize her at the time.
After returning home, I thought about it for two days before tentatively asking Director Liu, and only then did I confirm that the person I met that day was indeed my childhood friend.
I've been busy these past few days and haven't had time to go to the hospital. Today, I brought Director Liu here for a meeting, and it was Director Liu who told me that Li Chu was on duty here today, so I finally came looking for him.
The two chatted happily. They were childhood playmates who had been separated by vast distances. It was truly a rare treat to meet again.
Jiang Cheng ate lunch with Li Chu in the cafeteria. Director Liu had meetings all day, and Jiang Cheng had informed Director Liu that he would be at Li Chu's place, so he wasn't worried about the leader not being able to find him.
"Xiao Chu, I never thought you would actually become a doctor. It seems you've always remembered what you said when you were little."
After dinner, the two strolled under the shade of trees by the lake. Jiang Cheng suddenly remembered Li Chu's time as a doctor.
"Absolutely. A man should keep his word."
"You said you'd marry my sister when you were little, but I haven't seen you do it," Jiang Cheng teased.
Li Chu shook his head with a wry smile: "Brother Cheng, let's not bring up those childhood jokes anymore. How could we have known what getting a wife really meant back then?"
Jiang Cheng glanced at Li Chu with a complicated expression. If his father hadn't taken the whole family to the south for work, Li Chu might have been his brother-in-law, and his sister wouldn't have suffered so much.
But what's the point of bringing this up now that things have come to this?
"By the way, Brother Cheng, what has Lily been doing since she came to Beijing?"
Jiang Cheng gave a wry smile: "What else can I do? Just stay home and look after the child. I just started working here and haven't gotten her household registration transferred yet."
How old is her child?
"The little girl is already six years old. She's very talkative and a good girl, but she's stuck with such a scumbag father."
Li Chu nodded without saying anything. He planned to go over and see after get off work, and he would definitely help if he could.
As he returned to the duty room near the start of his shift, Jiang Cheng didn't follow him. The two had already agreed that Li Chu would wait for him at the main gate after get off work.
Jiang Cheng had to wait for the leaders to finish their meeting and send the person back before he could come over.
Li Chu first called the hospital and told his wife that he would be home late that night.
After get off work, he went to the cafeteria to buy some food to take with him, otherwise he would definitely not have any food if he went with Jiang Cheng.
Jiang Cheng ran over after waiting at the door for less than half an hour.
Li Chu asked Jiang Cheng to ride the bike and take him to their rented house.
The area where Jiang Cheng rented was also a traditional courtyard house, but compared to where Li Chu and his family lived, it appeared much dirtier and more chaotic.
The alley is only wide enough for a bicycle, and there are makeshift houses built illegally with wooden planks everywhere, making it look messy and chaotic.
Many families even cook in the passageway, blocking the way.
I wandered around in these maze-like narrow passages for quite a while.
"Brother Cheng, we're not here yet?"
"We'll be there soon, just around the corner."
"My goodness, if I came here alone, I would never find the place even if I wandered around for ages."
"It's already good that I was able to rent this place. If it weren't for the help from my colleagues in the bureau, I wouldn't have been able to rent a place at all."
It's really hard to rent a house right now. The problem is, where can we find one? We don't even have enough space for our own families, so how can we possibly have extra rooms to rent out?
Forget about the neighborhood committee; there are countless people queuing up for apartments there.
Finally, they reached the corner Jiang Cheng had mentioned. As soon as they turned the corner, they heard a little girl's voice calling out, "Uncle, you're finally back! I'm so hungry!"
"Hey, Uncle, where did you get a bicycle?"
Li Chu looked up and saw a little girl running up to Jiang Cheng.
Jiang Cheng said his niece was six years old, but the little girl in front of him was so thin and small that she really didn't look six.
However, the pigtails on her head and the girl's appearance seemed to take Li Chu back to his childhood.
Jiang Cheng parked the car against the wall, squatted down, picked up the little girl, and turned around: "Nannan, this is your uncle's friend. You should call him your little uncle."
The little girl looked at Li Chu timidly, hesitated for a moment, and then said, "Hello, Uncle! My name is Nannan, and I'm six years old." Her soft, sweet voice almost melted Li Chu's heart.
He walked up to her with a smile, took out a few pieces of candy from his pocket and handed them over: "My sweet girl, here, take these candies."
Nannan glanced at the candy in Li Chu's hand, then turned to look at her uncle. Seeing her uncle nod, she happily took it, saying, "Thank you, Uncle."
"You're welcome!"
"Nannan, has your uncle come back yet?" A woman's voice came from that moment.
"Mom, you're back. Uncle is here with another uncle."
Nannan struggled to get down from Jiang Cheng's arms and ran home.
"Let's go inside. I won't tell Lily your name later. Let's see if she still recognizes you."
Chapter 199 Miscellaneous
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