Lin Qingping and Gu Juncheng

Chapter 17 The Torch Lighted in My Heart

Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be some unknown person carrying a torch, walking back and forth at the village entrance; it was a tiny figure...

As she drew closer, the little figure suddenly ran towards her, holding a torch.

It's Zhiyuan!

"Zhiyuan! What are you doing here?" She quickly went to greet him.

“It’s getting dark, why aren’t you back yet…” Zhiyuan held the torch high to light the way in front of her.

Lin Qingping then remembered what she had told the child: she was afraid of the dark...

Suddenly, she felt as if a part of her heart had been illuminated by a torch, bright and warm...

Some people, really, can shine like the sun if you only show them a little kindness.

"Thank you, Zhiyuan, let's go home." She took the torch from Zhiyuan's hand, took his hand, and led her second sister, striding towards home.

When her in-laws saw that she had brought her younger sister back, they just treated her as a relative who was coming to stay for a while, which is common in the countryside. They didn't say anything, and even heated up the food that had been left for Lin Qingping and added two scrambled eggs for them to eat.

After finally settling down for the night, Lin Qingping saw that her younger sister was asleep. She carefully put away the document with her mother's fingerprint on it and then sat down to write a letter to Gu Juncheng, explaining the situation of the day.

She wrote down the title neatly: Juncheng.

Looking at the two words on the letter, she felt both familiar and unfamiliar.

It seems she never wrote his name...

After a moment of stunned silence, she began to write, without a single lie. She clearly explained in the letter that she had spent 500 yuan, and added that the matter was urgent and she hadn't discussed such a large sum of money with him.

At the end of the letter, he still gave a word of advice: Please be careful.

The next day, she took the letter she had written to the brigade and asked the party secretary to mail it for her.

When the Party Secretary saw that the letter was being sent to the military, he readily agreed.

She thought it would be a long time before she received his reply, but a few days later, Xiao Wang from the brigade ran over to call her to answer the phone, saying that Chengzi was calling from the army.

She ran after him, wondering what his purpose was in calling, and whether he would blame her.

After all, 500 yuan was a significant portion of the money he gave her.

There was only one telephone in the whole village, and the signal was very bad. She tried to answer it for a long time before his voice came through.

"Hello." A low voice replied.

"Juncheng!" she called out anxiously, her voice crisp and clear.

"Don't worry, I received your letter. Don't feel pressured. The money is for you to spend. Just make the arrangements. Let your second sister stay at home in peace and not feel burdened. I will write to Mom and Dad to explain."

He spoke quickly, but each word was clear and forceful, as if he were speaking right next to her ear.

"Okay, fine..." Suddenly, I felt my eyes getting hot.

I actually guessed he would say that, he's such a good person, but hearing him say it in person is still different.

He seemed about to hang up after finishing his story when Lin Qingping quickly said, "Juncheng, can I visit you at the military base? I want to go see you!"

"What are you doing here? Don't come here..."

The signal is starting to get a little unclear.

"Is...is it not allowed?" She wasn't quite sure either.

"No, you..."

Lin Qingping paced around the brigade office with the phone in her hand, but couldn't get a signal back. Finally, the call dropped, leaving only a dial tone.

Lin Qingping hung up the phone helplessly and went home listlessly.

When I got home, I found that we had guests.

She wasn't a guest, but her sister-in-law, Gu Juncheng's older sister, Gu Youlian.

Gu Juncheng was the second son in his family. He had an older sister who married into the next village and had a daughter.

Lin Qingping didn't pay attention to the Gu family in her previous life, nor did she ever call her sister-in-law "elder sister." After Gu Juncheng's sacrifice, she left the Gu family and was not very clear about her sister-in-law's later fate.

Gu Youlian was leading her daughter, Xiaomai, around Lin Qingping's second sister's new clothes, talking animatedly, "Your sister must have bought them for you at a department store. Department stores sell them for exorbitant prices. Let me tell you, we can buy them at the factory price, which is incredibly cheap. Look at me, and look at what Xiaomai is wearing. She bought them for at least half the price."

As Lin Qingping listened, a sudden inspiration struck her.

"Big sister, what do you mean by factory price?" Lin Qingping asked quickly.

As soon as Gu Youlian saw her return, she immediately grabbed her and asked, "Did you buy this at a department store? I compared them, and the exact same items cost half the price. Look at mine, it's just a different color."

Gu Youlian's face was filled with pride in her husband's abilities.

"Big sister, I want to go and see. Can you and brother-in-law take me to see it?" Lin Qingping, who had been listless, suddenly perked up.

Gu Youlian was naturally willing; wasn't this the perfect opportunity to show off her man's abilities?

You know, in the past, her husband, Dugen, was always said to be lazy, didn't like to work, and was always out having fun, and couldn't stand up for himself.

One was anxious and the other loved to show off, so the two immediately decided to go find the clothes at the factory price the next day. When the older sister went back, Lin Qingping even stuffed a handful of candy into her niece Xiaomai's hand.

The next morning, Lin Qingping set off as promised, taking her second sister with her to meet her eldest sister's husband.

Dugen was tall and thin, with a fair complexion. He was definitely not cut out for farm work. It was said that his ancestors were peddlers, so he probably inherited that gene and loved to travel around the world, exploring every corner of the country.

“It’s a clothing factory in another county. The warehouse is full of clothes. I can take you to see it, but it’s far away. Aren’t you afraid?” Du Gen asked.

"Let's go, let's go and come back soon!" Lin Qingping was a little impatient.

“Okay!” Dugan readily agreed.

It was indeed very far; they set off early in the morning and didn't arrive until the afternoon.

However, Lin Qingping overestimated Du Gen's abilities. Du Gen only knew the warehouse manager at the factory. To buy so many goods from the warehouse, he would need to meet with the person in charge of the garment factory.

After much flattery, the warehouse manager finally agreed to take them to see the sales manager.

This was the first time the sales manager had encountered something like this. "Our clothes are only supplied to department stores and shopping malls, not sold to individuals."

Who would buy clothes from the factory instead of going to a shopping mall?

To open one's mouth is to refuse.

“What if I buy a hundred items, or even more?” Lin Qingping declared emphatically.

But it frightened Gu Youlian and her husband, as well as her second sister.

Gu Youlian was already desperately tugging at her clothes.

The sales manager almost mistook her for a fraudster.

"Section Chief, we'll exchange money for goods, and we can finalize the deal today. Where would I lie to you?" Lin Qingping threw out the money directly—a thick wad of ten-yuan bills. "I need to buy autumn and winter clothes."

The sales manager hesitated for a long time before finally taking them to the warehouse. "These are all for autumn and winter. Take a look and see what styles you want. Tell me when you've chosen."

No sample garments available, go to the warehouse to choose...

Does anyone do business like this?

But Lin Qingping didn't care and plunged into the warehouse.