Chapter Thirteen: The Unbelievable
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“Jiang Jingzhu, from Jinhehui County, eighteen years old, unmarried, no criminal record, no bad habits. A student of Haining Military and Naval Engineering, Class of 1963. One meter seventy tall. Her parents work for the Red Star Production Corps. The youngest child in the family, with two older brothers and an eldest sister. After marriage, I can guarantee that I will remain faithful, actively contribute to building our household, and do my best not to hold anyone back!”
“Yin Zhen, a native of the capital, twenty-six this year, unmarried, no criminal record. Graduated from Jinling Military Academy and currently serving with the Naval Aviation Corps, Tenth Regiment, at regimental level. I receive a thirteenth-grade salary of 177 yuan, plus various ration coupons. One meter eighty-eight tall. I am presently stationed in Qiongzhou and can apply for family housing at the base. My father serves in the military, and my mother is a military doctor. If necessary, they can offer support in building our little family.
“After marriage, I will hand over all my wages and savings. You will have the final say over household expenses, and I can take care of all the housework when I am home! I will certainly remain faithful to our marriage and follow your orders!”
“Then we have an agreement. I look forward to working with you!”
Their values aligned, their features were striking, their principles steady, their identities honorable, and their futures promising. Their families were already acquainted. This might be the most rational choice either of them would encounter at this stage—or even in their entire lives.
He was the one.
“A pleasure to join hands with you!”
She was elegant and graceful, politically sound, spirited and progressive, rational and intelligent. To have met such a fine partner was his good fortune.
A fair, slender woman’s hand clasped a long, powerful man’s hand. It was the beginning of a brilliant life spent walking together.
At a naval office somewhere in the south.
A private telephone rang. The iron-blooded middle-aged man seated behind the desk did not even glance at it before snatching up the receiver and pressing it to his ear.
“This is Xiao Yong. Who’s calling?”
“Yin Zhen of the Tenth Regiment reporting!”
“It’s only a test flight. Don’t tell me you’ve gotten yourself into another mess and need me to clean up after you.” The pen in Xiao Yong’s hand paused, and his thick brows shot upward.
“Can’t you wish me well for once?”
“Hah… You should at least give me something worth wishing you well for! Damn it, what sin did I commit to end up with a steel chestnut like you? The frequency with which you cause trouble is just as extraordinary as your other talents!”
Thinking of the young man’s mother—his old sister-in-arms—and his father, his old comrade, who had saved Xiao Yong’s life countless times during the war, he swallowed the sharper curse on his tongue.
“How many times have you scared my heart half to death?” A few more incidents like that, and he really would lose years off his life. How would he ever answer to his old comrade then?
“Today’s good news. I’m solving one of your greatest problems for you.”
“Go on, then. I’ll have to listen with both ears to hear what you call good news.”
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“Ahem…” On the other end of the line, Yin Zhen had borrowed a hospital telephone with his identification papers. He cleared his throat and stood at attention.
“Reporting, sir. I intend to marry. Please expedite the approval of my application and the transfer of her records!”
“Pfft—you intend to… get married?”
Xiao Yong sprayed out his hot tea and stared wide-eyed in disbelief.
If someone had held a blade to his neck, he would have sworn he would not have blinked. He was genuinely stunned today. Had the sun risen in the west? Was red rain falling from the heavens?
This boy was getting married? Had he heard correctly?
He was finally getting married?
The colt that was forever trying to bolt into the sky had finally agreed to wear a bridle!
Tsk, tsk. What fearless young woman had managed to tame this reckless, unrestrained fellow? He would have to award her a medal for valor himself!
Before leaving to carry out this test-flight mission, the boy had not even had the shadow of a sweetheart. Now he had leapt straight to marriage. What kind of scheme was the little rascal plotting this time?
“Who is she? Is she doing this willingly? You’re sure you didn’t abduct her or force her into it?”
He could not help imagining the worst.
“Listen to you! Can’t you think better of me for once? Haven’t I brought you enough glory? Old Xiao, search your conscience. Is it impossible that she values me for my own merits? My wife adores me!”
At the thought of the words my wife, even Yin Zhen’s iron heart softened by a few degrees. From this day forward, he too would be a man with a wife!
Pearl Pearl. What a lovely name.
“Jiang Jingzhu—the youngest daughter of Jiang Baoshan and Tong Shufen, veteran revolutionaries who fought the War of Resistance and the Liberation. Formerly a student in the Class of 1963 at Haining Military and Naval Engineering. A prodigy who entered university at fifteen. Approve the application and transfer her records as quickly as possible. Someone on the local side is trying to harm my wife.
“My wife is a university student, and an excellent one at that. I’m bringing our country a highly qualified talent, too. Old Xiao, take this seriously and get her a place at the research institute!”
At worst, he would take on a few extra assignments later and achieve a few more accomplishments to bring glory to Old Xiao.
“Damn it, all you do every day is bring me trouble. You’d better behave yourself. Don’t go making a mess on the local side. This isn’t a joke. I really must have owed you in a past life. I’ll write the application for you now and have her records transferred overnight. Finish your mission promptly, and bring your wife to meet me!”
In the end, Xiao Yong could not resist grumbling out a string of instructions. With one hand, he yanked a sheet of paper from the stack. He really was indebted to this scoundrel. Even getting married required Xiao Yong to write the application for him. Look at how pleased with himself he sounded!
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It was not as if no one else had ever taken a wife. This old bachelor had finally found himself one and was so proud he looked as if his ancestral house had caught fire!
Before this, whenever Xiao Yong sent him to a matchmaking gathering, he fled faster than a mouse from a cat, as though the event were meant to ruin his life. Now look at him, acting all eager. Serves him right!
If the situation were not urgent, if something were not happening on the other side and Xiao Yong were not afraid that this boy would lose both the girl and the marriage, he would have deliberately held up the application. He would have made him revise it three times over, just to teach him what it meant to be truly frantic.
Still, the arrogant brat had actually found himself a good one—a university student, no less! Someone from Ninggong. The political review would be straightforward. She came from a family with a military-industrial background, and anyone capable of entering Haining Military Engineering had already undergone a thorough background check. Add in the fact that she was from a veteran revolutionary family, and there was even less to worry about.
Xiao Yong immediately contacted the local authorities. Once they completed a careful second review, the records could be transferred directly. If he did not move quickly, the boy would create an even greater headache for him.
“Understood. When have I ever acted recklessly?”
What a long-winded old man. Was Yin Zhen really such an untrustworthy comrade? They were underestimating him.
At most, once the night was dark and the wind high, with the snowy roads treacherous, he might make a few scoundrels lie quietly in bed for several days. They must not interfere with his grand wedding celebration.
“Follow orders!”
Xiao Yong issued the command again. Did the brat think he had not heard the muttering beneath his breath?
Though he was far beyond reach, Xiao Yong knew that the boy was never reckless. He always planned before acting, and his abilities were first-rate—so good that he could often emerge without a speck of dust on him. But even that would not do now. One disturbance could set everything in motion. Baseless accusations and fabricated charges were nothing new. The boy had survived the battlefield; he could not be ruined by such a stifling injustice.
He was fiercely protective of his own. This trusted subordinate, this beloved officer, was someone he would watch over himself.
“Complete your mission, and I’ll give you a week’s leave to arrange the wedding properly. Don’t let that girl suffer any grievances! I’ll approve the housing along with it. Have logistics furnish it according to regulations. She isn’t one of your soldiers, so watch how you speak to her and show her some respect. Don’t go around wearing that grim face and frightening her!”
He could not stop issuing reminders. A week was the absolute limit of what he could grant. After all, the boy was exceptionally capable, and in the current situation they could not do without their ace of aces, their patrol and defense specialist.
If the fellow shot down one more enemy aircraft, Xiao Yong would not merely write applications for him—he would gladly work like an ox and horse at his command.
As for a position at the research institute, Xiao Yong would wait until the boy brought the girl over and meet her in person before discussing it. He could not satisfy every one of the brat’s demands, or the boy would grow even more insufferably smug.
Many years later, Xiao Yong would always regard the decisive speed with which he had acted that day as one of the proudest achievements of his life. He would be deeply grateful that his old comrade and his wife had given Yin Zhen such a handsome face—his most valuable capital.
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