CH 31

For those who serve as soldiers in the army, because they can't go home all year-round, the longing for their family accumulates, and the letters sent from home often become their only consolation.

Every time someone receives a letter, they become the envy of others. In the past, Lin Yuefei was the one who walked with the wind. (envied by others.)

His eldest son is already twelve years old and has studied in elementary school for several years, as he knows a lot of characters, he ghostwrites for his mother. Lin Yuefei and his wife have a good relationship. They are young couples who support each other. For more than ten years, if it were not for the elderly in the family to take care of, his family members would have joined the army a long time ago.

Lin Yuefei's letter from his home is one letter a month. For this reason, he often wailed in front of others, boasting every day how much his wife missed him and couldn't do without him.

But recently, he felt that his superiority was threatened. The problem lies with Old Wei.

In the past, Old Wei only had one letter for two or three months. Like everyone else in the army, it was not prominent at all and had no sense of existence. But after returning home this year, he doesn’t know what’s wrong. Old Wei started writing letters within two days of returning to the army, and then received letters, then wrote letters, and received letters again. The frequency was as high and even surpass that of Lin Yuefei!

What was even more dangerous is, Old Wei not only receives letters, he also receives packages!

Lin Yuefei was holding the mail that he had just received from Mengang in his hand. The flat and thin letter on his left hand was his, and the bulging package on his right hand was Wei Jianwei.

Comparing the two sides, the gap is obvious.

Lin Yuefei felt for the first time that he had experienced the sorrowful mood of his other comrades-in-arms while they watched him receive letters.

When Wei Jianwei was unpacking, Lin Yuefei was in his office, dauntingly not leaving.

"Old Wei, what did your younger brother and sister send you? Such a big bag, when I held it, it's quite weighty."

Wei Jianwei did not answer. Although it wasn't the two letters he expected, the package was enough to make up for the regret. He unhurriedly opened it, and he was obviously happy.

The first thing that caught his eye was a greased paper bag with a letter underneath. He put the paper bag aside, opened the letter, and a photo slid out along with the paper.

Unexpectedly, there was a photo, Wei Jianwei paused before picking it up.

It was a group photo of the mother and son. The child had to stand on the bench because of his short height, he held his mother with one hand and smiled brightly at the camera. He Xiaoyun stood behind him and also looked at the camera, with curled eyes and a small smile on her mouth.

"Let me take a look!" Lin Yuefei suddenly took the photo away.

"Oh, aren't these your wife and son?"

In fact, in Lin Yuefei's opinion, it's not enough to describe the people in the photo as good-looking. Old Wei's wife is simply more beautiful than the ladies of the art troupe who came to perform before. However, to avoid old Wei's jealousy, he swallowed all his compliments back in his stomach.

Lin Yuefei took the photo and walked out, "I will show it to Lao Wang."

How could Wei Jianwei let him do it? With a few steps to catch up, he caught Lin Yuefei at the door and took the photo back.

"Hey, hey! Let go, let go!" Lin Yuefei called out in pain, "I'm just gonna share your photo around, but you almost broke my hand."

"That helps you improve your memory." Wei Jianwei knows the people who want to see the photos of his family members. If Lin Yuefei really showed the photo out, ghosts know when will the photo return to him. 

Wei Jianwei took a few more glances and put the photo back in the drawer where he usually kept the files, and locked it, then untied the oil paper bag and read the letter while eating dried peaches.

Lin Yuefei was jealous. He walked over and picked a dried peach, and chewed it in his mouth. It tasted sweet and sour, the taste was not bad, so he took another one.

When he got the third one, his hand was slapped away, and Wei Jianwei said coldly: "If you want to eat, ask your family to make it yourself."

The peaches themselves have a lot of moisture. The ten or twenty catties of peaches picked by He Xiaoyun were peeled and pitted and dried, there's not much left as He Xiaoyun left half of it for Wei Yuanhang, so there's not much left in Wei Jianwei's hands. 

"You're so stingy!" Lin Yuefei stared and wanted to grab a peach again, but after weighing his strength, he really had no chance of winning. The hand that had been twisted behind him was still aching, so he had to give up.

But Lin Yuefei was greedy, thinking about it, he wrote back to his family, saying that he wanted to eat dried peaches.

Of course, when his son read this to his wife aloud later, his wife complained, look at this weather! It's not time to pick peaches!

Not only was Wei Jianwei stingy with his dried peaches, but Wei Yuanhang’s the same. No one else in the family would rob him. However, Wei Jianhua recently had a summer vacation. In terms of greediness, he and his nephew are on the same level.

"Grandma, Uncle grabbed my peaches!" These days, there are frequent complaints at home similar to this.

Wang Chunhua: "How old are you? Are you not embarrassed?!"

Wei Jianhua was aggrieved, "But the second brother can also eat something like this."

"The dried peaches were made by your second sister-in-law. If you have the ability, you can also find a wife to bring back and let her make you dried peaches." Wang Chunhua said.

Thinking about it carefully, Wei Jianhua is nineteen years old this year, and it's possible to get married at this age in the countryside.

Wei Jianhua blocked his mother and turned away, he proceeded to coax his little nephew.

He Xiaoyun also reasoned with the child: "You still have so many, can't you give some to your young uncle? He often plays with you."

Wei Yuanhang was holding a tin biscuit box with dried peaches inside. "I already gave Uncle one. But he still wants a lot more!"

This petty kid, she was embarrassed to know that only one is given. He Xiaoyun regrets it. If she had known, she would have divided the peaches into three parts. Unfortunately, she didn't think much about it at that time. 

Like a dragon guarding the gold treasures, Wei Yuanhang was holding his biscuit box, and every time Wei Jianhua came to coax him, he would give him one. If the other party took more while he wasn't paying attention, he will immediately call his grandma out loud.

With these two playful treasures, the house is not lonely at all.

<>

In the military camp more than a thousand kilometers away from Qingshuihe. One morning, Wei Jianwei found that his peaches were getting scarce. Although they were not much before, he could feel it when he picked them up with his hands, someone was eating them.

People who can come in and out of his office will know that he has something to eat and will be covetous of his food. Wei Jianwei can't think of any criminal except Lin Yuefei.

Wei Jianwei asked Lin Yuefei to 'learn from each other' to settle the account.

So, that morning, all those who were idle in the camp gathered to watch the excitement. A battalion commander was passing by, he grabbed a soldier and asked, "What are they doing here?"

The little soldier saluted and said excitedly: "Report, the second battalion commander and the third battalion commander are going to learn from each other. They're on the training ground!"

"Lao Lin and Lao Wei?" The battalion commander glared, "Is Lao Lin crazy? What did Lao Lin do?"

"This..." The soldier scratched his head, "Report! I heard that the family of the third battalion commander sent him food and it was stolen(eaten) by the second battalion commander!"

Old Wei's family...

The battalion commander touched his chin. Someone sent some food to Old Wei?

He sent the soldier away, "Go ahead, I'll go to the third battalion commander's office, please keep quiet."

Seeing that Lao Lin is going to be beaten up, it's better to go to Lao Wei's place to eat the food, anyway, he won't be coming back soon.

"...Huh?" The soldier was stunned, unable to react.

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