Seeing his wife and children suffering in front of him, Pei Songbai naturally felt bad too.
"The train should arrive in about two more hours," Pei Songbai answered Xia Wenhua's question, but he didn't put her at ease, because he added, "Once we get to the city, we'll have to transfer trains, and it will probably take three or four hours to get to our accommodation."
Xia Wenhua stared blankly at the rising sun outside the window: "So another day is about to end, and we won't get to our camp until almost night?"
Having received Pei Songbai's affirmative answer, she immediately curled herself up into a ball on the sleeper berth.
The convenience brought by technological development will not reappear in the short term, and she will have to continue to endure this era. She still has a long way to go in terms of mental preparation!
Seeing that Xia Wenhua wasn't in a good mood, Pei Songbai became much more cautious in his subsequent actions.
He had finally convinced his wife to come with him to the army, and his wonderful life was just around the corner. He didn't want anything to change.
Xia Wenhua simply couldn't adapt to this era where going out meant enduring hardship. Even though Pei Songbai had made many efforts to make things easier for them, many things were still beyond their control due to the constraints of the times.
She didn't make things difficult for Pei Songbai. She was already secretly happy to have regained a young and healthy body, and she could only overcome the remaining difficulties.
Xia Wenhua clenched her fists, encouraging herself while also comforting her two little ones: "Xiao Chen and Xiao Guang, just bear with it a little longer, we'll be home soon. When we get home, Mom will cook something delicious for you!"
Her worries about the two little ones were unnecessary. Children never know what it means to be tired. Even if they were listless and didn't want to move in the car, they would be full of energy again as soon as they got out of the car, looking around.
Xia Wenhua had to use all her strength to hold back the two runaway wild horses, and for a moment she didn't realize that someone was approaching.
"Commander Pei!"
Pei Songbai's orderly had already received a call saying that his regimental commander was coming to join the army with his sister-in-law, and that he would come to pick them up when it was about time.
Along the way, knowing that he had come out to pick up Pei Songbai, he was teased by all the military wives, and his ears were practically callous from hearing it.
It's no wonder that people are so concerned about Pei Songbai's upcoming family reunion. After all, Pei Songbai is handsome and young, and since he was promoted to regimental commander last year, countless older women have wanted to arrange marriages for him.
But when they asked around, they were told that she had already gotten married.
Once a battalion commander gets married, he can accompany his wife to the military base. In this military camp, all military wives who are of a certain rank who can accompany their husbands come to the base, except for very few cases such as having elderly family members who need care.
Pei Songbai isn't an only child, and he doesn't need to leave his wife in his hometown to take care of the elderly. If he has children, he can just bring them with him to the army. The couple is married but doesn't live together; who knows what kind of dirty secrets they might have?
After Pei Songbai was promoted to regimental commander, he officially entered the ranks of the young talents in the garrison. Having been watched for so long, his situation had long been thoroughly investigated by others.
Finally, everyone came to a conclusion: Pei's sister-in-law must not have come to accompany the army because she came from a rural area, was not good-looking, had a bad relationship with Pei, and was afraid of not being able to get along with the other sisters-in-law.
It's impossible to know who first spread this idea, but it has now become a universally accepted reason.
Before leaving home, orderly Wang Weiguo was given instructions the whole way. He, who never participated in the conversations of the wives, was curious about how ugly their regimental commander's wife could be. Unexpectedly, Xia Wenhua gave him a shocking opening.
Who on earth said their commander's wife was ugly? She's clearly as beautiful as a fairy. If this is considered ugly, then everyone else might as well give up on life.
Pei Songbai, a grown man, had no time to listen to the gossip in the family compound, so he was unaware that people were speculating about his family behind his back, even giving them the label of being ugly and not daring to accompany him to the army.
He didn't notice Wang Weiguo's strange expression at that moment. Instead, he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the man arrive and quickly waved to Wang Weiguo.
"Xiao Wang, come quick."
Wang Weiguo walked over, picked up the luggage that was on the ground, and grinned at Xia Wenhua.
"Hello, sister-in-law, I'm Wang Weiguo, the regimental commander's orderly. If you need any help at the garrison, just come to me!"
Wang Weiguo is only nineteen years old this year. As a new recruit who has only been here for a year, he exudes youthful energy.
Xia Wenhua greeted Wang Weiguo naturally, and the whole family followed Wang Weiguo to the car.
Their garrison only had one division, with a total of only two or three vehicles. Usually, they were only available when someone needed them and happened to come across one.
Wang Weiguo was a man of good manners. Ever since Pei Songbai called to say he was bringing his wife to join the army, he had been going there to report for duty every day. He had made arrangements with the logistics staff in advance and eventually drove over.
Pei Songbai was surprised that the kid actually drove the car over, and he immediately laughed, not forgetting to turn around and explain to Xia Wenhua.
“We live a bit far from the county seat. Usually, we can only get here by bicycle or on foot, either with the logistics procurement vehicle or by following it. With this vehicle, it won’t take three or four hours; we can get there in just over an hour.”
Xia Wenhua had heard that their base was far away, so she was prepared. She didn't expect Wang Weiguo to drive here, which saved her a lot of time. She instantly felt hopeful about life and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the car in front of her.
In other words, cars were relatively scarce in the 1960s, and Pei Songbai's base was not large, so there weren't many resources available. Things should get better in a few years.
Xia Wenhua was really tired, but seeing Wang Weiguo drive up to pick her up, she knew the journey home wouldn't be so difficult, and she was able to think about other things.
"Pei Songbai, have you prepared all the daily necessities for the house?"
"What is it?" Pei Songbai looked up blankly, then quickly said after thinking for a moment, "I've prepared the bed and bedding, you can sleep at home."
Xia Wenhua sighed and asked, "There's only a bed and mattress. What about the rest? Rice, flour, oil, vegetables, and cooking utensils? Have you prepared all of that?"
The answer is naturally no.
There's a small supply and marketing cooperative near the station where you can buy rice, flour, oil, and vegetables, but you really have to buy cookware and such in the city.
Even though Pei Songbai had long wanted a home and applied for a house after getting his marriage certificate with the original owner, hoping that the original owner would be in a good mood and could stay there for a while, he really hadn't prepared any of the most commonly used things in daily life.
Fortunately, Xia Wenhua had asked beforehand, so there was no need to rush back now. In order for the family of four to be able to stay in the army, they would have to buy more things.
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