Zhou Wanping sat in her office, she had seen Hu Yi depressed, but it shouldn't be like this. What was going on between Hu Yi and Su Qing? Now that she remembered that he was brought by Su Qing, and recalled the things Su Qing did during the time of the Independent Regiment, she finally realized that he and she must be something special!
A figure walked past the window, and then the office door was pushed open without knocking. A female Eighth Route Army soldier, about eighteen or nineteen years old, with two pigtails hanging in front of her shoulders, an oval face and a cherry mouth, was dazzlingly beautiful, with a natural beauty that could captivate all men. Her clean and tidy gray military uniform made her look even more energetic. After entering the room, she didn't even say hello and went straight to find water.
Zhou Wanping put down the pencil she was playing with and smiled, "My beautiful lady, why are you like this? Are you unhappy again?"
The other party remained silent, drank half a glass of water, and then sat down at the desk, with a sullen face and pouting lips: "Sister Zhou, have you visited me at the Political Office?"
"Yeah. But they said you were transferred?"
"I'm in the Propaganda Department now. I want to be a reporter!"
"Ah? Reporter? Haven't you only been in the Political Work Office for a few days?"
"Don't mention it. I just wanted to avoid that model regiment commander! I told him I didn't agree to his face, but he still kept clinging to me! This time I want to go to the grassroots, the farther the better, but guess what? He actually sent two guards from his regiment, and they followed me wherever I went. I reported it to the leader, and the leader even spoke well of him. He looked like that, but they still praised him for being a handsome man!"
Zhou Wanping's heartless and cheerful laughter rang out in the room.
"Can you please stop laughing? Is there anyone like you? What do you want from me?"
"Uh... yeah, I almost forgot about it when I was so happy! When I was in the independent regiment, I had a good sister named Su Qing. She seems to be under investigation. I want to know what happened to her? Can you find out?"
"Can I ask for you later?"
"Why?"
"Because Director Wang is also pursuing me!"
…
In the yard, several wounded soldiers stared at a ward and grumbled in low voices: "Why is he staying in a ward all by himself?"
"No matter how you look at him, he's a perfect person. He's not injured at all!"
"No injuries? He came to the hospital if he wasn't injured? He's just a coward looking for excuses, right? We've had people like that in our group before!"
"Look at his embarrassed look, it's true! I heard that he seems to be from... the independent group?"
"Hey, Nurse Liu, you're here just in time. Can you kick the fake injured person out of that room?"
Nurse Xiao Liu, who was passing by, stopped and looked at the ward, curling her lips at the wounded: "No! Because he is Sister Zhou's guard and risked his life to save Sister Zhou! If you think the room is too tight, why do you have to live in one room? Why don't you separate? There is no shortage of beds now! I will arrange new beds for you in a while!"
Several wounded soldiers were scolded by Nurse Liu so much that they looked up at the sky and dared not say a word. Not far away, a female Eighth Route Army soldier who was leaving with a sad face also heard this. She stopped for a while and changed her route from the gate to the ward.
…
"Hello, my name is Song Xiaoci."
"I don't know you."
The other party only raised his eyelids once, then continued to organize the equipment on the bed and tightened the belt around his waist, obviously ready to leave. He was so cold that he didn't even answer his name, leaving the person who came in so embarrassed that he didn't know whether to go in or retreat.
"Are you from the Independent Regiment?"
He seemed not to hear and did not answer.
"Are you going back to the group?"
He continued to pack up and took down the rifle hanging on the wall. It was a Zhongzheng rifle, which had been wiped spotlessly clean.
"I'm the propaganda officer, and I wanted to go and see your group. Hey, why aren't you talking?"
He finally raised his head and looked at her expressionlessly for three seconds: "I'm hard of hearing. Sorry." Then he went back to his own business.
"Oh. Um... I interrupted you. Sorry, sorry."
…
"Poor hearing?" Zhou Wanping looked at Song Xiaoci who had returned and suddenly smiled: "There is indeed something wrong with his brain!"
"Sister Zhou, Xiao Liu said he was your guard?"
"I guess so. There are always people trying to get close to me."
"I see him... why... I feel like he's a little different?"
"Nothing's different. It's because you haven't been to the front."
"I want to go and see the Independence Regiment."
"AWOL?"
"I'm going out to collect folk songs!"
"Go and call him over."
"But he..."
"Don't worry. Tell him I'm looking for him. I don't think he dares not to hear me!"
…
Song Xiaoci was originally a student from a wealthy family. With her patriotic enthusiasm and young rebellious heart, she traveled thousands of miles to join the Eighth Route Army. However, young people always fail to consider the gap between reality and ideals. She thought that what she learned and knew could be of great use, but she found that what she could do was extremely limited. She wanted to take pictures but had no camera. She wanted to direct a play but no one wanted to be an actor. She wanted to organize sports activities but had no equipment. There were people who wrote better than her, but she was not as eloquent as them. There were even more people with louder voices than her. She was even worse than them in terms of strength, and she had no other professional skills. In the end, she could only help organize documents and pretended not to hear her colleagues' comments that she was too high-brow and unrealistic.
She was not happy because of her beauty, on the contrary, this natural beauty turned her into a vase. She could be transferred to any place she wanted, and the organization was very tolerant. They only guaranteed that someone would come to her house to propose marriage the next day.
Song Xiaoci was unwilling to give up. No one knew how much she wanted to prove herself. In her eyes, Dr. Zhou was the most perfect embodiment of value and the female role model she envied. That cold soldier with a special temperament stood so straight in front of Zhou Wanping and saluted so majestically that it seemed as if one could smell the scent of a blood oath. Song Xiaoci was stunned. They were simply not from the same world as her.
The mountain road was long and the soldier said nothing, like a dark cloud in the sky; what was even more hateful was that the two guards sent by the admirer actually followed her all the way, saying that the order from the regiment commander was to follow and protect her until she agreed to marry, which almost made Song Xiaoci faint on the spot. The soldier walked alone in front, ignoring all this, and even when Song Xiaoci's feet were rubbed with blisters from walking, he didn't even look back, showing no sympathy for her.
They didn't know how far they had walked or how long they had walked, but they seemed to have entered a new territory. This was not the Independent Regiment, but the roadside soldiers began to salute them. At first, Song Xiaoci thought that the soldiers were being enthusiastic towards her, but after careful observation, she realized that the target of the soldiers' salutes was Wuyun who was walking in front, and he was returning the salute.
Later, they arrived at a place called Niujia Village. It was here that Song Xiaoci learned that Dr. Zhou's guard was the ninth company commander of the independent regiment, and he was not the soldier that Zhou Wanping had mentioned; there was also a company commander in Niujia Village, named Wang Peng, who was so enthusiastic about their group that he almost beat drums and gongs; the ninth company commander, who did not want to stop for long along the way, actually rested for a whole night in Niujia Village without hesitation.
When they set out on the next day, the two shameless 'flower protectors' did not show up for some reason, and the group of people traveling together actually became a platoon of more than 30 people. The company commander Wang Peng, who was seeing them off at the village entrance, held Song Xiaoci's delicate hand and could not bear to let go. He said with great sorrow: "Hu Yi is so ignorant! He is a bastard!" Then he pointed to an empty stretcher carried by the soldiers and said: "Secretary Song, don't walk, sit down! I have given them a death order. If you don't sit down, you can't leave my Niujia Village! Be sure to stop by my place when you go back!" Song Xiaoci was so moved that she almost cried, and she couldn't refuse.
The platoon leader who was accompanying them was called Chen Chong. He was clearly affiliated with Wang Peng's company, but for some reason he followed the orders of the ninth company commander in all matters along the way.
Later, they passed by a ruined village on a hillside. They had never seen such desolate ruins and bloodstains were still visible. Song Xiaoci looked at them without blinking and asked the soldier how far the independent regiment was. The soldier said that they were almost at the wine station.
…
Under a big tree in the middle of the open space, there were two spectators standing blankly, one big and one small. The big one was holding a broken teacup and had half a stubble on his face, while the small one had a unique high ponytail and half a shaved face. Across the open space, they stared blankly at the soldiers of Chen Chong's platoon helping the beautiful scenery sitting on a stretcher to the door of the ninth company's room.
The elder one stared intently and muttered: "What... is going on?"
The younger one stared intently and muttered, "I... braided my hair wrong!"
What is freedom? Sometimes, freedom is when you crawl from one pit into another, bigger pit, and jump for joy at the spaciousness...