Du Jiayi believed that the company commander was not lying to her. It seemed that Xia Jinyuan was indeed not in this post but in another post.
So she immediately smiled dignifiedly, “I’m sorry to trouble you, company commander. Xia Jinyuan and I are old acquaintances. He has never contacted his mother after serving the military. I was entrusted by his mother to inquire about his whereabouts. I’m sorry to trouble you.”
Company Commander Feng had already learned about the situation from Instructor Gao. Knowing that Du Jiayi was an okay girl, he smiled and said, “No worries, unfortunately, I can’t help you, Captain Du.”
She was a polite person, and she could also risk danger to ask about the officer. Company Commander Feng, who had a good impression of her, was willing to help her, “How about this, Captain Du, you write a letter, and I will ask some people to inquire about it each post. And if there is news, I will send a letter to the Thirty Mile Barracks. What do you think?”
When Qin Xiu heard Du Jiayi’s overjoyed answer, “That would be the best,” he twitched his lips and smiled.
She is looking for Xia Jinyuan so anxiously, eh? It seems that this Du family’s daughter is fond of Xia Jinyuan. The two families had always been head to head. Xia Jinyuan was also a determined person; perhaps Du Jiayi would face some bumps.
Of course, this was none of his concerns.
He was more concerned about giving Mrs. Qin a word. The girl she liked and wanted her to be her daughter-in-law already had someone else in her heart. And he shall not be the wicked person and ruin the Du Family’s precious daughter’s good news.
Given the Qin family’s family-style, they sure wouldn’t want bad rumors from the daughter-in-law they fancied. However, the first one to not allow it wouldn’t be Mrs. Qin, but the family’s old man who was still alive and well.
The Qin family had always been strict. In the early years of war, the Qin family went abroad to avoid chaos. After returning to the country, old man Qin was not easily fooled by the younger generations; he wouldn’t want to ruin the Qin family’s foundation.
By the time his grandchildren could stand on their own two feet, it would inevitably be tough for old man Qin to keep the family upright. Therefore, even if the Qin family returned to the prosperous age before the war, the family-style was still strict. Any bit of exception would make the family’s old man angry.
If someone in the grandchildren’s generation came back marrying a woman who had a bad reputation, it was possible that he would remove her name from the family.
The voice outside gradually became soft. Then, he heard Du Jiayi faintly ask, “How are Reporter Qin and his colleague?” At this moment, Qin Xiu knew that she was just finding excuses with Company Commander Feng and the others.
He didn’t believe that Company Commander Feng would tell Du Jiayi truthfully. This matter was related to the country’s secrets; he didn’t believe that the company commander would make such a big mistake.
The footsteps and the conversation gradually moved away until the surrounding returned calmly again. Qin Xiu, who was lying flat, closed his eyes again. With a smile at the corner of his mouth, he resolved another worry and fell asleep after a while.
The coal-burning stove exuded some heat and gave out an unpleasant odor, but Qin Xiu slept until dawn.
On the second day, Qin Xiu started what he should do as a reporter, interviewing company commanders, platoon leaders, and comrades, and then climbed up to the high-altitude sentinel together with the company commanders. It took Qin Xiu two days to finish all of this.
In the meantime, Du Jiayi kept finding excuses to see his manuscript several times, but she was rejected. In the end, her face was so dark that it didn’t get any better even until they returned to camp thirty miles away.
Xia Jinyuan, about three hundred kilometers away from the Thirty Mile Barracks, only knew that Du Jiayi was inquiring about his whereabouts, on the fourth day when Qin Xiu and the others returned to Beijing. At the same time, she also inquired about which unit Ye Jian belonged to and other information just to find out her identity.
