After breakfast, the convoy prepared to depart for the regiment. Just as Wen Wan stepped onto the truck, she suddenly remembered something and quickly turned around.
“Commander Li, I need to make a phone call home first—to let my family know I’ve arrived safely!”
Li Zhan nodded and said to the others, “We’ll wait another ten minutes.”
Li Hua curled her lips and muttered under her breath, “Always making a fuss.” Then, rolling her eyes, she called out loudly, “Then I wanna call my mother too!”
One of the young soldiers burst into laughter. “Comrade Li, your village doesn’t even have telephone poles. If you make that call, it’ll probably reach your mother by next spring!”
Another soldier chimed in, “Comrade Wen came here all alone. You came with your whole family in one piece—you’ve obviously arrived safely.”
The group burst into laughter, leaving Li Hua pouting with nothing to say.
Wen Wan hurried into the post office and placed a long-distance call to the Wen residence. Long-distance calls couldn’t be connected directly in those days and had to go through an operator. More than ten minutes later, the return call finally came through.
Xiao Tao answered.
The moment she heard Wen Wan’s voice, she burst into tears.
“Comrade Wen! Are you alright? Master talks about you every day! Oh, and let me tell you—Xu Mingzhe, that shameless bastard, has been arrested! I heard his sister is going to be sent away too…”
“I’m fine,” Wen Wan said softly, glancing around at the people nearby. “Tell Father not to worry. Take good care of yourselves. There are too many people around for me to say more.”
After hanging up, she stepped out of the post office.
A cold gust of wind swept across the street, carrying sand with it.
She instinctively narrowed her eyes.
Then she caught a faint smell.
It was the sickening odor of rotting flesh mixed with the sharp scent of chemicals.
Her entire body tensed.
She whipped around and saw a hunched-over woman shuffling down the road. The woman wore a filthy headscarf and cradled a swaddled infant in her arms.
The baby was unnaturally quiet.
The hairs on Wen Wan’s neck stood on end.
She sprinted back to the convoy and grabbed Li Zhan by the arm.
“I just saw a woman. There’s something wrong with her!”
Li Zhan’s expression turned icy in an instant.
He immediately signaled to two soldiers.
Without a word, they quietly moved to surround the woman from both sides.
Seeing Li Zhan lead men after the woman, Li Hua pursed her lips.
“Comrade Wen, you’re way too jumpy. What could possibly happen while making one phone call? Plenty of people carry babies around on the street!”
Wen Wan ignored her, keeping her eyes fixed on the alley.
A short while later, Li Zhan and the soldiers returned with the “woman” in custody.
With one rough tug, they ripped off the filthy headscarf—
revealing the face of a man.
In his arms was an unconscious infant.
Li Hua’s eyes widened so much they looked ready to pop out. Her mouth hung open wide enough to fit an egg.
Li Zhan instructed everyone to wait while he and the soldiers escorted the disguised man to the local military headquarters.
Inside the interrogation room, the suspect refused to say a single word, no matter how he was questioned.
Then a communications officer rushed in.
“Report! We just received word from a local farmer! The child entrusted to his care by a senior commander has disappeared!”
Li Zhan’s eyes sharpened.
He seized the man by the collar.
“Where is the child?!”
The man remained silent.
Even without a confession, everyone had already figured it out.
The baby he was carrying was the commander’s missing child.
After examining the infant, the military doctor finally sighed in relief.
“The child was only given a sleeping drug. He’s fine.”
Li Zhan felt a chill run down his spine.
If Wen Wan hadn’t noticed something was wrong, the child would likely have been smuggled out of the country.
The remaining matters were handed over to the local military authorities, and the convoy resumed its journey.
Li Hua eagerly squeezed beside Wen Wan, her eyes sparkling.
“Comrade Wen, how on earth did you figure out that person was an enemy agent? Even a bloodhound isn’t as sharp as your nose!”
Bai Ge shot her an exasperated look from the back seat.
“Li Hua, watch your mouth.”
Li Hua grinned sheepishly, completely unbothered. She dug another apple out of her pocket, broke it in half, and handed one piece to Wen Wan.
“Here! Eat an apple! Your nose is even better than Big Yellow, the watchdog back home!”
One of the young soldiers turned around from the front seat, his face full of admiration.
“Comrade Wen, could you teach us that skill? Then we could just sniff out enemy agents during missions!”
Amused, Wen Wan shook her head.
“My sense of smell is something I was born with. I also studied traditional perfume making before, so I’m especially sensitive to scents.”
The moment Li Hua heard the words “perfume making,” she slapped her thigh.
“Goodness! Perfume making? Where did you learn that? I wanna learn too!”
Counting on her fingers, she started calculating.
“If I could sniff out enemy agents too, maybe I’d earn enough merit to become a female officer!”
From the front passenger seat, Li Zhan glanced back and calmly said,
“That takes talent. You don’t have it.”
Li Hua protested immediately.
“Commander Li! How do you know I don’t have talent? Everyone in my village says my pickled cabbage smells wonderful!”
The entire truck erupted in laughter.
Wen Wan secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Fortunately, Li Zhan had interrupted the conversation. Otherwise, it would have been difficult to explain how she had learned perfume making overseas.
Looking at the half apple Li Hua had given her, she hesitated before lightly tapping Li Zhan on the shoulder.
“Here.”
She spoke softly as she held out the apple.
Li Zhan turned around.
Their eyes met in the swaying light inside the truck.
He reached for the apple, and his rough fingertips brushed against hers, briefly enveloping her slender fingers before pulling away.
The apple was gone, but the warmth of that fleeting touch lingered on her skin.
The tips of Wen Wan’s ears flushed red.
She quickly withdrew her hand and lowered her head, pretending to straighten her clothes.
Inside the truck, Li Hua was still chattering excitedly with Bai Ge about perfume making, while the young soldiers sang badly out of tune.
No one noticed that, with his back to everyone else, Li Zhan took a bite of the apple.
As his Adam’s apple bobbed, the corners of his lips lifted into the faintest smile.
The convoy continued northwest.
Outside the windows, the barren Gobi Desert gradually gave way to vast, open grasslands.
Towering snow-capped mountains rose in the distance, their white peaks glittering brilliantly beneath the sun.
Wen Wan leaned against the window, unable to take her eyes off the breathtaking scenery.
Wildflowers dotted the emerald meadows, herds of cattle and sheep grazed lazily, and white yurts stood scattered across the grasslands like giant mushrooms.
“It’s so beautiful…”
she murmured, already beginning to look forward to the life awaiting her.
When the convoy passed through a grove of wild apricot trees, Li Hua was the first to jump off the truck.
“Look! The apricots are ripe!”
The soldiers cheered as they rushed into the grove.
Bai Ge pulled Wen Wan along to pick fruit.
Golden apricots hung heavily from every branch.
One bite filled her mouth with sweet and tangy juice.
As Li Hua stuffed her pockets full of fruit, she mumbled,
“Pick more! I’ll make dried apricots when we get back!”
Laughing, Wen Wan held the branches steady for her while sunlight filtered through the leaves, casting dappled patterns across them both.
Around noon the next day, the convoy finally arrived at the Third Regiment’s base.
Bai Ge warmly took Wen Wan’s hand.
“Commander Li hasn’t been assigned married quarters yet. Stay at my place for now.”
Wen Wan nodded gratefully.
“Thank you, Sister Bai.”
Li Zhan handed her luggage over and spoke quietly,
“I’m going to submit our marriage application. It won’t take long.”
His voice was calm and low, yet it made the tips of Wen Wan’s ears burn red.