Ye Zhifan and Deputy Chief of Staff Du were drinking wine and eating fancy dishes while chatting happily. The person who was talking to Xia Yiwei turned his head and glanced at the table. He nodded lightly, and with a faint voice, he said, “Okay, Secretary Xia, don’t worry, I will contact you again if there’s any updates.”
Xia Yiwei looked up at the man who was still playing chess with the old man in the tea room. She let out a low “hmm” and hung up.
She really didn’t know what medicine the old man was sold to in the gourd. Usually, when he played chess to relieve his boredom, he would just play once a week. However, after the New Year’s Eve dinner, the old gramp suddenly asked Hou Zi to accompany him to play chess.
What surprised her even more, was Hou Zi, a stubborn fellow, actually had such good patience to accompany the old gramp to play so many rounds.
The old gramp played chess on silent; he would not talk to him all morning after fighting,… but he could still bear it.
And made this man who always wanted to find something to do when he had just one minute of free time, accompany him to play chess after dinner, and continued to eat again after chess. Even after the game ended, they couldn’t speak…
Xia Yiwei glanced at the man who was sitting cross-legged and then at the old white-haired gramp. Forget it; she would rather go talk to the old grandma.
The Xia Family was considered a big family. The old gramp, Xia Yunkui, was born in a prominent family, and his ancestors were officials for generations.
The old grandma, Su Rong, was the city’s most famous young lady from a scholarly family. Although her ancestors were not as good as the Xia Family, at that time, the women in the Su Family were very popular.
The old grandma had four sons and one daughter. Except for Xia Yiwei’s father, Grandma Su’s second son Xia Anbang, who died in the line of duty, the other three sons and one daughter were all promising.
Every Chinese New Year, the old quiet Xia house was the busiest, and the juniors in the family rushed back to spend a lively reunion year with the old grandpa and old grandma.
But there were also those who couldn’t come back, such as Xia Jinyuan. Most of the juniors were in the army. They were scattered all over the country, and it was normal not to see them at all in all seasons.
For the Xia Family, it was normal not to see each other for several years.
When Xia Yiwei came over, Xia Lingxiao, the eldest brother of the same generation, mentioned Old Six, that was, Xia Jinyuan, “I think I have not seen Old Six for four years. Coming back this year, I thought I could meet with him. I want to see how our family’s famous brat is doing, but hey, I guess there is no chance.”
“Big brother, you haven’t seen Old Six for four years? Same here.” An older, energetic man peeled an orange and said emotionally, “That year, when Old Six told me he wanted to apply to the military academy, I was shocked. Our little brat wants to join the military? This is a big matter in the Xia Family!”
The one who was speaking was Xia Jinyuan’s third brother, who was engaged in missile research and development and was a military engineering scientific research engineer working somewhere Northwest in the country.
After being transferred to Northwest for four years, he did not return home for four years and did not even call home for four years. Until a missile was successfully developed and put into mass production, he had one month of family leave.
Xia Jinyuan’s eldest brother also joined the military camp. He was the eldest son of uncle Xia Anguo. He was 41 years old this year and was now the commander of a brigade.
Du Kaiwei, the eldest son of the Deputy Chief of Staff Du, was not entirely dealt with by the fourth child of the Xia Family. Xia Yiwei’s elder brother Xia Yuzheng was 36 years old this year and was also serving in a brigade in the Nanguang Military Region. But he was of higher rank than Du Kaiwei; he was ranked, colonel.
Fortunately, those who were celebrating the New Year were all dressed in casual clothes. Otherwise, a house of military uniforms and a house of military ranks was quite scary.
