"Public grain increase? Can’t hold it in?" Guo Luo, still a young girl, didn’t understand what these words meant; she was just quietly muttering in confusion.
Several older ones strained to hold back their laughter, not letting it out.
"Qin Jian, you’re too frivolous! Didn’t you just finish an exercise? You’re so tired and you still have the mind to think about that kind of stuff?" An Hao’s voice came over, soft and slyly coy.
It wasn’t just the men who were getting restless, but the women as well.
Qin Jian was about to speak when An Hao’s voice came through again, "Tell me, is it because you saw the female soldiers in the army all looking spirited and dashing that you felt itchy inside?"
This comment caused a group of female soldiers to blush quietly.
"I swear I didn’t." Qin Jian firmly denied, "I don’t even know what the other women soldiers look like. In my eyes, there’s only you, my wife."
"That’s more like it." An Hao laughed joyfully, "Wait for me, I’ll be on the train with Shuangshuang first thing tomorrow morning, and we’ll arrive by five in the evening the day after tomorrow. Don’t forget to come pick us up."
"Okay." Qin Jian smiled, "Then take care on your way. I’ll be waiting for you to come over tomorrow night..."
"Mm." An Hao’s lips curved up, "Tomorrow night, you’ll get a feast."
The call ended, and the faces of the female soldiers were flushed with excitement.
It seems that in the future, one must not eavesdrop on the Chief of Staff’s calls so casually; it’s too thrilling, their little hearts can’t take it.
However, listening to this call wasn’t in vain. Zhang Yanli learned that the Chief of Staff was married and deeply in love with his wife, which promptly extinguished her little crush.
................................
The next day, Ning Yibin and his wife took An Hao and Gu Shuangshuang to the train station, and after a myriad of reminders, they left only after watching the train pull away.
Because it was a long journey, both of them had purchased sleeping berths, and for the sake of convenience, they bought two lower bunks in the same carriage.
After getting on the train, An Hao and Gu Shuangshuang put away their belongings, took off their shoes, climbed into their bunks, and began to chat while enjoying the scenery.
Two stops later, one passenger in their carriage got off, and a woman got on.
In her hand, she held a child about seven or eight years old, and her shoulder was laden with miscellaneous things.
The woman appeared to be in her late thirties, dark and plump, wearing a short-sleeved printed shirt, black pants, and the black cloth shoes commonly worn by people in the villages.
At a glance, she looked like a housewife who toiled at home year-round.
The child she was leading was quite thin, looking around timidly after boarding the train.
She had purchased a middle bunk and seemed worried about the space once she arrived. To save money, she and her son had only bought one ticket.
She had never taken a train for all these years. This was her first time taking a train to visit her relatives in the army. Upon hearing it was a sleeping berth, she had imagined it would be quite spacious, only to be surprised at how cramped it actually was.
"Erxiu, you go up first," she said to the child who was a boy, yet had a girl’s name.
Erxiu, upon hearing this, stepped onto Gu Shuangshuang’s bunk without taking his shoes off, attempting to climb up.
"Hey, take off your shoes first. How can you step onto my bunk without taking them off?" Gu Shuangshuang quickly stopped him.
Erxiu, having never left home and always sheltered, was a bit flustered by the rebuke.
The woman was protective of her child. Seeing her son being scolded, she immediately didn’t like it: "Is this bunk yours? What’s the big deal if he steps on it?"