Su Yuanyuan packed up her things. She put a few sets of old clothes belonging to herself and the children into her bag and carried it with her. The children’s little bags contained two wowo-tou and a water bottle, so they could fill their stomachs if they got hungry later.
After leaving the space, Su Yuanyuan took the children to the guesthouse front desk to check out.
“Comrade, could I ask where the nearest military compound is?” Su Yuanyuan carefully put away the deposit that had been returned to her and took the opportunity to ask the receptionist.
The receptionist was a young girl with two braids. She shook her head apologetically.
“Sorry, I’m not really sure. But it should be quite far from the station. I’ve lived around here for several years and never noticed a military compound nearby.”
The railway station was in the city center, while military compounds were generally located in the outskirts, so they would not usually be close to downtown.
Su Yuanyuan had a headache.
She led the two children out of the guesthouse. In front of them was a wide road.
Only a few cars occasionally passed by. Cars were not yet common at this time, and the roads in Jingbei had not started experiencing traffic jams either.
The wind blew against her face, leaving her skin feeling a little dry.
There was a vegetable market not far ahead. There were not many people around at this time, and several vendors were sitting together chatting.
Su Yuanyuan walked over and asked gently with a smile, “Auntie, Uncle, do you know how to get to the nearest military compound?”
Lu Zheng’an had been doing very well since joining the army. He was capable and had already risen to the rank of battalion commander.
As long as she could find any military compound, even if it was not the one where Lu Zheng’an was stationed, she could give them his name and ask for directions.
Su Yuanyuan figured that asking for the nearest one would save them some trouble. She hated making the children run around with her. It was too tiring for them.
The vendors sitting together looked up and saw a fair, delicate little face.
She was truly pretty and fresh-looking, just very thin. The two children accompanying her were thin as well. She was not carrying much, and her clothes had been washed so many times that they had faded white.
The sight made her look rather pitiful.
“I don’t know. I haven’t heard of any military compound nearby. Oh my, Comrade, why did you come to Jingbei alone with two children? Where’s your family?”
The vegetable vendor had a loud voice, and everyone else turned to look.
“Grandpa and Grandma at home wouldn’t give us food. We were going to starve to death, so we came out to find Daddy,” Lu Mingzhu explained matter-of-factly.
As a little girl, she was even thinner than her brother. Her voice was sweet and childish, making her particularly heartbreaking to hear.
How old could such a young child be? Surely she wouldn’t lie.
Looking at how thin the mother and her two children were, anyone could guess what kind of life they had been living.
The aunt who had asked the question felt a little awkward. She had not expected to touch upon someone’s painful past.
She took two radishes and stuffed them into the mother’s hands.
“Jingbei is huge, and the place is hard to find. These are radishes I grew myself. They’re sweet. Take them home and try them.”
Su Yuanyuan felt a little embarrassed and thanked the aunt with the children.
She was still in a hurry to find someone and did not have time to chat, so after saying goodbye to the woman, she went around asking other people.
None of them knew.
Those who had heard of military compounds said they were very far away, but they did not know the exact locations.
By noon, even though it was already autumn, the sun was still blazing.
Su Yuanyuan rarely went outside normally, and her skin was delicate. Her cheeks had already turned red from the sun as she walked around asking for directions.
Lu Mingzhu and Lu Siyuan also tried stopping passersby and asking whether they knew where the military compound was.
But ordinary people generally only traveled around the areas near their homes, workplaces, or places where they bought groceries.
Transportation at this time was nowhere near as developed as it would be in the modern era. Most people only went to places they could reach by bicycle.
After asking around, they still could not find anyone who knew the exact location of the military compound.
Those who knew roughly where it was said it was extremely far away.
If she simply cast a wide net and searched without knowing where she was going, taking a bus to the outskirts would take nearly half a day. If she went to the wrong place, missing even one bus on the return journey would be troublesome.
Su Yuanyuan was exhausted and parched.
When she saw the children’s faces covered in sweat, she felt sorry for them and quickly led them beneath the shade of a tree.
She wiped the sweat from their faces and hurriedly had them drink some water.
Children could get heatstroke in weather like this. It was not impossible.
The two children had been obediently following Su Yuanyuan this entire time. She herself was barely managing. If the children suffered heatstroke too, she would really have her hands full.
Lu Siyuan hugged his army-green water bottle and gulped down water.
Even the way he drank was unbelievably adorable.
His eyes darted around before suddenly fixing on one particular spot.
Lu Siyuan handed the water bottle back to Su Yuanyuan and told her to drink too.
After she finished, he took her hand and pointed toward the police station.
“Mommy, we can go find the police officers. Maybe they can help us find Daddy.”
Su Yuanyuan took a big gulp of water and her eyes lit up when she saw the police station.
Of course!
She had not noticed the police station when they came out earlier.
She could simply ask the police to help her find him.
The military and the police had some connections with each other. Surely this would be much faster than aimlessly wandering the streets looking for the compound.
“Come on, hold Mommy’s hand tightly.”
Su Yuanyuan hung the water bottle on the child’s bag and led the two little ones into the police station.
It was noon, so there were not many people inside.
The dry wind outside blew into the station, while the sun outside was blazing hot.
Just then, the police officer on duty saw a thin woman walking in while holding the hands of two skinny children.
They did not have much luggage. There was only one patched-up bag, and it was very worn.
The officer hurried over.
“Comrade, what kind of help do you need? If you want to report something, you’ll need to fill out some information over here first.”
Su Yuanyuan saw the reflection of the three of them in the glass window and realized how shabby they looked.
She knew the officer had misunderstood.
After arriving at the police station, Su Yuanyuan felt much more at ease. She asked the two little ones to sit in the waiting area nearby.
“Officer, I’m not here to report anything. I’m here to find someone.”
She put her bag on the floor.
“Who are you looking for? Come over here and let this comrade register your information.”
The officer greeted the female officer behind the counter.
Su Yuanyuan reached into her bag and searched for something as she explained, “My husband is a battalion commander in the Jingbei Military Region. His name is Lu Zheng’an. The children and I have just arrived, and we don’t know exactly which military compound he’s stationed at. I’m sorry to trouble you.”
The police officer’s hand holding the pen and paper paused.
He instinctively glanced at Su Yuanyuan and then at the two children sitting to the side.
As a people’s police officer, his duty was to serve the people. Technically, such a look was somewhat impolite.
But he was genuinely shocked.
Su Yuanyuan and the two children were dressed in very old clothes, some of them even slightly torn. They looked like they had been living an extremely difficult life.
No matter how he looked at it, she did not resemble a battalion commander’s wife.
“We have the address and direct telephone number for the Jingbei Military Region. We can help you contact them, but first you’ll need to show us the relevant identification documents or an introduction letter.”
The police station and the military occasionally conducted joint training exercises or cooperated on missions, so they had direct telephone lines connecting them.
Su Yuanyuan took a piece of cloth folded neatly from her worn-out bag.
When the original owner had crossed over, she had carefully kept all these important documents wrapped inside this piece of cloth.
The cloth was very clean. It was obvious that these things were extremely important to the original owner.
Su Yuanyuan felt a little heavy-hearted for a moment, but she still efficiently handed the relevant documents to the officer.
“This is the marriage certificate for me and my husband. And this is his military enlistment certificate.”
Of course, Su Yuanyuan did not have an introduction letter.
But these two documents were more than enough.
The police officer took one look at the stamp on the certificate and immediately recognized which military compound it belonged to.
The frail woman standing before him was actually the battalion commander’s wife.
Although he still found it somewhat hard to believe, he nevertheless wrote down the exact address and handed it to Su Yuanyuan.