Chapter 119: Looking More And More Alike
Chang An had dark skin, from working in the fields year-round, making him look five or six years older than his peers.
But even so, when Chang An was with these people, no one could tell he had just come from the rural area to the city.
Looking more closely at his features, Lu Qiaoge suddenly recalled Deputy Director Lin’s father from the inspection team last night, that Old Lin in charge of aviation.
The mute looked just like Old Lin.
No wonder she had found Old Lin so familiar last night.
Uncontrollably, Lu Qiaoge’s thoughts began to wander.
Deputy Director Lin was not yet thirty, part of the younger generation in leadership.
Old Lin seemed to be in his early fifties, while Chang An was a few years younger than Deputy Director Lin, twenty-six this year, and he was the Chang family’s adopted son, though no one knew where he had been brought from.
Once her thoughts opened up, Lu Qiaoge looked at Chang An and saw him more and more like Old Lin.
But he didn’t resemble Deputy Director Lin, though Deputy Director Lin didn’t resemble Old Lin either.
Chang An was sensitive and noticed Lu Qiaoge’s gaze. He quickly handed the permit he was holding to Zhou Li, rubbing his hands nervously on his clothes—his palms were all sweaty.
He had grown up in hunger and abuse, shouldering half an adult’s workload at eight, earning full work points like an adult by twelve.
Yet in the Chang family, he still never had enough to eat.
Often they would give him a cornbread bun and tell him to get lost to the woodshed and stop being an eyesore to the family.
His days were filled with beatings and starvation; as for the cursing, he didn’t take it to heart at all.
He survived to adulthood because from age twelve, he could find food for himself.
He grew tall and strong. His adoptive mother would tell everyone that the Chang family had raised him so well—if not for them, he would have died long ago.
He was an unwanted bastard, owing the Chang family too much kindness.
He worked desperately to repay them.
But in the dead of night, he often wondered why his biological parents had abandoned him. Was it really as his adoptive mother said, that they couldn’t afford to raise him and had thrown him away?
But now he had a home, a wife who didn’t mind that he was a mute, and a son who called him father.
He had escaped that family and followed his wife into the military factory.
His current life was one he had traded his life for.
He couldn’t lose it, and certainly couldn’t let it affect Lili.
Thinking of this, Chang An grew even more anxious and looked at the permit again. He was holding it gently, without dirtying or damaging it.
But why was Comrade Lu looking at him like that?
Was it because he was a mute, so the food factory didn’t want him?
Comrade Lu was kind-hearted, so she was too embarrassed to tell him to leave?
If they didn’t want him here, did that mean he had nowhere left to go?
In Chang An’s extreme anxiety, Lu Qiaoge spoke, her voice very gentle.
“Older Brother Chang, the neighborhood committee plans to open a night school soon. You can sign up then, from primary school to junior high, and we’ll try to offer high school courses too, even issue graduation certificates to those who finish. Older Brother Chang, you were just held back—you’re really very smart.”
Chang An was stunned.
His eyes grew hot. So it wasn’t about chasing him away.
He finally breathed a sigh of relief and gave Lu Qiaoge a childlike smile. When fine lines formed at the corners of his eyes, they wonderfully overlapped with the face of Deputy Director Lin’s father from the inspection team yesterday.
Lu Qiaoge felt that none of the surprises life gave her were without reason.
Perhaps there really was a connection.
Zhou Li had no idea what Lu Qiaoge had been thinking just now. She said joyfully, “Qiao Ge, can I go too?”
Lu Qiaoge nodded. “Of course you can. I’m going too—my junior high education is incomplete, so I need to finish it.”
Meng Qingshan carefully placed the permit in the food factory’s tidied office.
Lu Qiaoge had them follow her to the factory’s infrastructure section to pick up cement and lime.
She took out a slip of paper and had Lu Qiaoling and Du Shuang go to the department store to find Mu Dan and have her help collect white cotton cloth.
Wei Dong, Tie Zhu, Xiu Yan, and a few others went to clean the hygiene in the areas the service station was responsible for.
With all these arrangements, everything was in perfect order.
Since the inspection team was also coming Saturday morning for a visit and express condolences, the hygiene inspection was scheduled for the afternoon.
Lu Qiaoge sent Tao Tao to the Swan Hotel in the provincial city where the inspection team was staying—the best hotel in the provincial city—to find an old man named Lin and see if there was any useful news.
She herself went to find Qin Hengzhi.
Aside from that one time asking Qin Hengzhi if he wanted to watch the performance or attend the dance party, this was Lu Qiaoge’s second time going to the military representative office.
This time, the feeling was slightly different from last time.
How to describe it? It seemed a bit more solemn.
The sentries at the doorway stood as straight as poplar trees.
They must have been rigorously trained by Qin Hengzhi.
Since she had contacted him in advance, Qin Hengzhi had returned from the factory department and was waiting for Lu Qiaoge in the office.
Lu Qiaoge had originally planned to tell Qin Hengzhi during their date.
But Qin Hengzhi had been extremely busy these past few days, with no time to meet her in the evenings.
He had the calico cat deliver messages.
He had made a small cloth bag for the calico cat; the gold bracelet it brought back last time had been carried that way.
Qin Hengzhi said the calico cat’s speed was terrifyingly fast.
No naughty kid could catch it—that was impossible.
Lu Qiaoge firmly believed this.
So it was very convenient for passing messages.
But this time, Lu Qiaoge hadn’t used the calico cat; she had called on the telephone.
Talking here was the safest.
Qin Hengzhi was wearing a crisp white shirt today, but green military trousers below, with a black belt at the waist, sleeves rolled to the elbows, revealing wheat-colored forearms.
Sunlight streamed through the glass window, lending a touch of gentleness to that handsome, otherworldly face.
Lu Qiaoge’s gaze swept ambiguously over his waist and body. Without mentioning that face, just this figure—it was truly outstanding.
Qin Hengzhi had no idea what his little partner was secretly thinking.
With a smile in his eyes, he poured Lu Qiaoge a cup of cool tea, then happily washed a basin of cherries and said to her, “Cherries from the mountains, picked this morning. I was going to bring them to you tonight, but they’re perfect to eat now.”
Qin Hengzhi placed the white porcelain plate of cherries on the coffee table and sat down beside her.
Lu Qiaoge picked up a bright red fruit and bit into it, juice staining her lips a glossy crimson.
Qin Hengzhi’s throat bobbed slightly. He felt Qiao Ge’s lip color was three shades more vivid than the cherries in the plate.
While eating, Lu Qiaoge asked curiously, “Where did you pick them? They’re so small. But so sweet.”
Qin Hengzhi’s voice was gentle. “Deep mountains, wild cherries—they ripen late, but the sunlight there is good, so they’re very sweet.”
He paused and said, “There’s a birch forest over there. In autumn, the leaves are all golden.”
Seeing Lu Qiaoge smiling brightly, he continued, “We can pick a good time to go play at the five-colored mountain to the north. There’s a winding river at the foot of the mountain, crystal clear, with lots of pretty pebbles on the shore, a beach, plenty of birch trees along the bank, and wild fruit trees across the river—this cherry was picked there.”
Lu Qiaoge’s eyes sparkled. “Just the two of us?”
