Having known Ge Lai for so many years, Gao Jiaxing understood Ge Lai quite well; he knew Ge Lai cared about the Red Star Production Team and couldn’t bring himself to believe that Ge Lai would steal food from the team.
"Gao Jiaxing, after so many years of knowing Ge Lai, you wouldn’t have thought he was this kind of person, right?" someone asked.
Gao Jiaxing nodded. "Have any of you seen Xia Xiao?" He didn’t want to keep discussing Ge Lai with everyone and was intent on finding Xia Xiao.
"Xia Xiao? I saw her going to the team headquarters with Yang Xuehua earlier."
"I saw them looking for Secretary Li."
Then someone said, "Secretary Li went home for the New Year."
"When did that happen? We didn’t hear about it, and none of us saw Secretary Li leave the team."
"As soon as Ge Lai left, Secretary Li left too; the team leader knows about this."
"I’ll go look for Xia Xiao. You guys keep talking," Gao Jiaxing said as he started to walk away.
"Hey, Gao Jiaxing, what’s your relationship with Xia Xiao?" someone shouted towards Gao Jiaxing’s departing figure, but he was already too far away.
At that moment, everyone began guessing noisily. At the He Family’s side, Li Shengmei had just received a letter from He Xuegang and immediately came out. Upon hearing everyone talking about Gao Jiaxing, she scoffed, "He’s only been a soldier for two years; what’s that worth? My Bingzi just sent a letter back; he’s been promoted to deputy platoon leader."
Li Shengmei was quite proud, boasting around. Just then, Zheng Xianghong came out of her house and overheard Li Shengmei bragging about He Xuebing’s promotion to deputy platoon leader. It wasn’t a big deal, but the way Li Shengmei was putting down her son to praise her own bothered Zheng Xianghong.
Moreover, her son was a platoon leader while Li Shengmei’s son was a deputy platoon leader, so Zheng Xianghong loudly said, "Oh, your Bingzi became a deputy platoon leader? Congratulations, my Jiaxing has also become a platoon leader."
"Gao Jiaxing becoming a platoon leader, how is that possible?" Li Shengmei was the first to disbelieve.
Zheng Xianghong replied, "It’s true, Guoqiang noticed it from Jiaxing’s epaulettes."
If Guoqiang noticed it, then it must be true. Li Shengmei’s face fell at once, clearly unhappy. She huffed, muttered "What’s so great about that?" and walked away.
Zheng Xianghong chuckled to herself, thinking it wasn’t such a big deal, but still better than her son.
Not bringing up everyone questioning about Gao Jiaxing to Zheng Xianghong, Li Shengmei rushed home, not having entered the house yet when she called out, "Hongjun!"
"What’s the rush?" He Hongjun asked.
"Hongjun, Gao Jiaxing is back. I just heard from Zheng Xianghong that Gao Jiaxing has become a platoon leader, that’s half a rank higher than our Bingzi."
Li Shengmei was disheartened, having thought it was something to brag about but instead got publicly humiliated by Zheng Xianghong.
"Didn’t Xuegang mention it in his letter, too? You ran out before finishing it," He Hongjun remarked, giving her a look before tossing the letter to her, "Read it yourself."
Li Shengmei took the letter, this time reading it carefully from start to finish, and just at the end, she read about Gao Jiaxing’s promotion to platoon leader, then snapped, "How is it possible that Gao Jiaxing, who joined the army just two years ago, surpassed our Bingzi and Xuegang? That’s impossible."
"What’s impossible about that? It was an assessment in the Dragon Training Corps, your son’s home ground. He lost, he lost; though getting promoted is still good. But you don’t need to go out and tell everyone, adding to the embarrassment," He Hongjun knew what Li Shengmei had just done by looking at her.
However, when Li Shengmei had stormed out, He Hongjun hadn’t reacted in time, so he couldn’t stop her from embarrassing herself.
Continuing, He Hongjun said, "I’ve always known that Gao Jiaxing was different since we were kids. We all practiced martial arts from a young age, but Gao Jiaxing’s physical condition was superior to Xuegang’s, Bingzi’s, and Jiazhi’s. He has always been strong as an ox, a natural-born soldier. It’s just that Guoqiang previously didn’t let Gao Jiaxing join the army, so I never mentioned it. Now that Gao Jiaxing has joined, with his skills and smarts, he won’t fall behind."
Li Shengmei was unwilling to accept this, "Should we just let him overshadow our Xuegang and Bingzi?"
Previously, she had wanted to visit He Xuegang in the army, but He Xuegang had written back saying his training was intense and had not allowed Dong Meihua to visit, so Dong Meihua didn’t go.
Having read the letter from He Xuegang, Dong Meihua quietly returned to her room. By comparison, her man was the least useful, not only inferior to Gao Jiaxing but also to her own brother.
She was now thinking that Gao Jiaxing had become a platoon leader ahead of the He brothers, and when Xia Xiao was with Gao Jiaxing, that would only make her more smug.
Dong Meihua cursed He Xuegang in her mind for being useless, making her get stepped on by Xia Xiao again.
Meanwhile, Xia Xiao and Yang Xuehua were walking around the production team when they heard Xia Jing’s shout. Turning around, they saw Xia Jing running towards them. "Sister, Sister Gao Jiaxing’s elder brother came looking for you at the dormitory, saying Gao Jiaxing is back and wants you to visit."
"Then, Sister Xuehua, you and my sister go back. We won’t look for Secretary Li anymore." Xia Xiao felt deflated at this point.
"Alright then, I’ll go back to the dormitory with Xiao Jing. You go to the team leader’s home."
Yang Xuehua and Xia Jing left immediately, and Xia Xiao headed towards the Gao family.
"Educated Youth Xia, how about we go register?" Gao Jiaxing smiled slightly as he spoke.
"Without a proposal, I won’t go," Xia Xiao pouted unconsciously, feeling a bit haughty at the moment.
"Comrade Xia Xiao, would you marry me?" Gao Jiaxing asked earnestly, pulling out a certificate from his chest and handing it to Xia Xiao.
Xia Xiao looked at it; it was Gao Jiaxing’s assessment results and a marriage report. Just as she was about to say something, a crowd had already gathered around, and Xia Xiao didn’t want to do this in public.
"Brother Gao, people are coming. Let’s go," said Xia Xiao.