A troop was marching mightily along the roadside, headed by a jeep followed by a number of large trucks driving up.
Bystanders were all turning their heads to watch.
An Hao also stopped in her tracks and looked back, a thought flashing through her mind when she saw the jeep ahead, "Could it be that Qin Jian has returned?"
As she was pondering this, her sleeve was tugged.
An Hao turned her head and saw Shen Zhihua with her lips pursed, looking at her with an expression that seemed to contain some kind of emotion that An Hao couldn’t quite make out.
"Stay closer to the curb, don’t get hit by the vehicles!" Shen Zhihua pulled her over to the side, instinctively stepping in front of her to shield her from the dust kicked up by the passing cars.
From the jeep, Jiang Ying was looking out the window in all directions. At that moment, the breeze was gentle and the weather had warmed up; small green grass and colorful flowers were sprouting on both sides of the road.
The grayish town was gradually taking on color, with pink peach and green willow blossoms, and the vibrant branches of Xinghua peered out over the walls.
Jiang Ying was delighted by the sight and turned to Qin Jian, who was resting with his eyes closed in the seat, saying, "Your hometown is quite beautiful; the scenery has a pastoral charm."
Qin Jian slowly opened his eyes and glanced outside the window, "This is originally a mountain village, what pastoral or not."
"Our family is from the plains. We never get to see this kind of view." Jiang Ying sighed, although the town seemed slow to develop and somewhat backward, the scenery was indeed beautiful.
Qin Jian sat up straight and reached over to close the glass on Jiang Ying’s side, "You’re not afraid of eating dust. When we get to our village, I’ll show you what it means to be nestled by mountains and rivers."
Their village was next to a large mountain, and following the village road north would lead into deep mountain forests with rugged and uneven mountain paths.
Indeed, the place had beautiful mountains and water, but the difficulty was in the roads’ poor conditions, and the slow development of the local economy meant that electricity and communication equipment were not widespread. In this part of the country, travelling usually meant walking, and communicating often required shouting.
Moreover, at night, many villages still did not have electricity, and many people lived by the light of kerosene lamps.
Hearing Qin Jian say this, Jiang Ying’s heart suddenly bloomed with joy, "You have no idea; my ambition is to travel through all the beautiful mountains and rivers of our country. What’s the point of always staying in the design institute? Just being able to get out and about makes my heart happy."
Qin Jian hummed indifferently, his thoughts flying once again to that bright and pretty face. He tried to gather his mind and close his eyes, but her voice and smile kept swaying before him.
Shaking him until his heart wavered uncontrollably, Qin Jian helplessly curved his lips and opened his eyes.
His gaze fell on a few people standing by the roadside not far from the window, with a boy in the lead. The boy looked to be about seventeen or eighteen and seemed somewhat familiar to him.
It was as if he had seen him somewhere before.
Qin Jian’s mind flashed with a figure; he vaguely remembered the boy who had accompanied An Hao to the city to buy books that day.
They had stood quite far from the roadside at the time, but he had noted the boy’s appearance; it was the boy not far away.
Behind him stood someone obscured, dressed like a girl—could it be An Hao?
Just as Qin Jian was about to lean closer to the window to see, Jiang Ying suddenly turned around and said to him, "I almost forgot, isn’t your sister-in-law in this village too? You guys can have a reunion!"