Chapter Eighteen: The Wish

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“Zhuzhu, it must have been so hard traveling all this way by train. Your father and I ought to have gone to your home in person to ask for your hand and arranged a proper wedding celebration. We have wronged you, dear child!”

When the train arrived in the capital, an elegant, refined couple with extraordinary bearing came forward to greet her the moment she stepped off. Zhou Manqiao beamed as she took Jiang Jingzhu’s hand. They had been waiting eagerly for this girl to arrive!

As for their son, he was simply invisible in his parents’ eyes.

“We could never have imagined what sort of girl that rascal Yin Zhen might marry. But now that we’ve seen you, Jingzhu, we feel that it had to be a girl just like you!”

Nothing they had imagined could have been better.

“Dad, Mom, please forgive me for not coming to pay my respects. Instead, I’ve made you come all the way here to meet me!” It should have been she and Yin Zhen returning home to visit them.

Remembering how readily Yin Zhen had changed the way he addressed them, Jiang Jingzhu paused briefly, then generously changed her own forms of address as well.

“Oh, oh! Old Yin, hurry and get the red envelopes out! They’re from both of us!” Zhou Manqiao called to Yin Ke. Each of them pulled a thick red envelope from a pocket and pressed it into Jiang Jingzhu’s hands. They had prepared them long ago!

What blessings had their family accumulated to deserve this? Their son, the impossible rascal who seemed capable of taking to the skies, had actually brought home such a poised, graceful, intelligent, and lovely girl as their daughter-in-law. Their ancestors must have done a great deal of good!

“Good girl. I’ve always read about you in the letters, but at last I get to meet you in person!” Yin Ke’s normally stern face could not keep the smile from lifting the corners of his eyes. That wretched boy Yin Zhen had finally done something that pleased him immensely.

When he and his wife had exchanged letters with Jiang’s parents, he had often envied them for having such a sweet and endearing daughter. Now that this flower had fallen into his own family, he was overjoyed.

“We have soda, fruit, milk candies, and chocolate. What would you like? We put hot salt-water bottles in the bags with the soda and fruit. Everything is still warm!”

She had no shortage of saline bottles at the hospital. Filled with hot water and slipped into knitted wool covers, they made excellent heat-retaining bags.

Young women had to be careful not to catch a chill. The weather in April was not yet warm, so they had kept everything heated lest her stomach become cold.

“We know you’re all fond of my wife, but this place is full of people and terribly noisy. Why not go somewhere else and sit down properly while you talk?”

“If your mouth has nothing pleasant to say, then keep it shut!” Zhou Manqiao casually stepped on her own rascal of a son. She drew a deep breath. She could not lose her temper, could not scold him, and certainly could not ruin the good impression she had made on her daughter-in-law.

That stiff, unromantic fool! How could a delicate young woman be treated like one of his own kind? If they were not warm enough and frightened the girl away, they would like to see where he intended to find another wife!

If not for a fortunate twist of fate, he would never have had the luck to marry her.

“Come on, come on. The car is outside. Your father and I will take you home so you can see where we live and have a proper meal. We’ll bring you back to catch your train tonight. Your train leaves at ten fifteen, so there’s plenty of time!”

Zhou Manqiao was radiant with happiness. She took Jiang Jingzhu’s hand and led her outside with unrestrained affection.

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They had calculated the timing carefully and asked the head chef at the canteen to prepare a meal at home, so the children could eat well and rest before returning to catch their train.

When they set out again, it was another pitch-black night. This time they would spend nearly forty hours on the train—two nights and a full day. If everything went smoothly and there were no delays, they would not reach the terminal station in Guangzhou until around eleven the morning of the third day.

That was only because the trains had been sped up this year. Otherwise, the journey would have taken nearly sixty hours—two days and three nights.

Before they left, Yin Ke and Zhou Manqiao repeatedly offered earnest reminders.

“Yin Zhen is easy to look after. Zhuzhu, just take good care of yourself. If there’s anything you lack, or anything that’s difficult to buy over there, call home and tell us. Mom will mail it to you!”

While they were still able to care for their child, they wanted to do everything they could for her.

“Take the watch with you for now. When a new style comes out, Mom will buy you one. As for a bicycle, have Yin Zhen get one as soon as you arrive. It must be a ladies’ bicycle. The standard twenty-eight-inch roadster is too heavy, so don’t worry about sparing Yin Zhen.”

...

Toot, toot...

Amid the long, clear blast of the ship’s whistle, the harbor drew nearer.

As the land came into view in the distance, Jiang Jingzhu’s spirits soared. She felt even lighter than she had when changing from winter clothes in the north to spring clothes in the south.

After several days of traveling without pause, even with sleeper berths all the way, there had been very little room to move. She was still made of flesh and blood, after all. For most of the journey, Jiang Jingzhu had sat cross-legged on her bunk, working through calculations in her mind until her entire body had stiffened.

And now came another thirty-two-hour ferry ride. At present, the main means of transportation from Guangzhou to Qiongzhou Island was still the ferry. The wind and waves were far from calm; with the vessel rocking and swaying, even people who normally did not suffer from seasickness began to feel ill.

She had actually seen and experienced the Red Guard Eight with her own eyes!

The vessel’s primitive facilities and painfully slow speed were almost unbearably moving.

At long last, they had arrived!

From personal experience, she now understood how difficult traveling was in this era.

From one vehicle to another, then onto a ferry—five days and five nights, journeying thousands of miles. Even Jiang Jingzhu, who did not consider herself delicate, who was in reasonably good physical condition, and who had scientific calculations to occupy her mind, could not help feeling worn down.

Build airplanes. Build airplanes! Once she had taken care of the urgent defense needs, she would roll up her sleeves and build large aircraft!

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She deeply yearned for the speed of travel in the later generations.

Before they reached the shore, Yin Zhen closed the naval vessel book in his hands, carefully returned it to his wife, and put it back into her shoulder bag. Seeing her occupied with calculations throughout the journey, she had worried that he might be bored and given him the book to pass the time. It was packed with practical knowledge, and after three days of reading, he felt that he had broadened his horizons considerably.

“Zhuzhu, hang on just a little longer. At most another two hours, and we’ll reach the base!” Their base was still more than two hundred kilometers away. He would drive as fast as he could and get her there in the shortest possible time.

Yin Zhen felt deeply guilty. The distance from north to south was enormous, and the journey had put his newlywed wife through far too much hardship.

Jiang Jingzhu waved her hand. This had been her choice; there was nothing to apologize for and nothing to regret. She simply needed more exercise.

“Old Yin! Old Yin!”

They had barely taken a few steps onto the pier when a distant voice called out.

“So this is your sister-in-law? Welcome, welcome!”

The voice quickly drew closer. Before long, a man in his thirties, dressed in a naval-gray uniform, approached them and greeted them warmly. He was upright and spirited, with the same commanding air as Yin Zhen.

“Su Mingzhong, our regiment’s political commissar.” Yin Zhen introduced him to Jiang Jingzhu, then raised an eyebrow at the newcomer. “Why are you here?”

Was the regiment really so idle now? With Yin Zhen away, the esteemed political commissar had abandoned his post instead of holding down the fort and had actually come to meet a ship?

“Ahem... Xie Jun is keeping an eye on things at the regiment!”

Could he really say that he was the regiment’s perennial bachelor king, and that when Old Yin had gone north on assignment, he had somehow returned married—with a wife in tow? When they first heard the news, everyone had nearly had their eyes pop out of their heads.

Who would not be curious about what sort of girl could capture the heart of this celestial eagle, this falcon who roamed the open blue sky?

All the officers of roughly the same rank, along with several battalion commanders, had wanted to be the first to come and get a look. He had merely been lucky enough to seize the opportunity.

“Hello. Thank you for coming to meet us, Comrade Su,” Jiang Jingzhu said politely.

Su Mingzhong cast a teasing glance at Yin Zhen and winked.

What a lucky fellow Old Yin was!

His wife had a fine figure, a beautiful appearance, and a bright, capable mind. He had even heard that she was a university student. Tsk, tsk—talented and beautiful, and somehow Old Yin had managed to get both!

With the girl’s education, she would surely be able to choose a good position once she found work. Combined with Old Yin’s salary, the family could comfortably raise several children in the future. It was enough to make anyone envious.

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