Transmigration: Flirted with My Childhood Sweetheart
Chapter 155 - 154: The Mountain is High, the Road is Long

Chapter 155: Chapter 154: The Mountain is High, the Road is Long

Lan County is nearly three hundred kilometers from the provincial city, which future high-speed trains will cover in an hour, but now requires about four hours.

Su Yuncheng made up the bed, then turned around to see Lin Nianhe still holding the egg, perfectly round without even a tooth mark on it.

He asked, "Don’t you feel well?"

Lin Nianhe came back to her senses and shook her head, "No, it’s just that you... are so thoughtful."

Her gaze was exceptionally sincere.

Su Yuncheng: "..."

He coughed softly, turned his head away from Lin Nianhe, and just nodded towards the bed he made up: "Go sit over there, eat something, take a nap, and we’ll soon be there."

"Okay." Lin Nianhe went over and nibbled at the egg in small bites.

Due to limited time, Su Yuncheng bought an early train ticket. Luckily, Lin Nianhe had gotten used to getting up early lately; otherwise, there was a good chance she’d miss the train.

Catching a glimpse of the still dark sky, Lin Nianhe took a sip of warm milk and casually asked, "Brother Yuncheng, are you going home for the New Year?"

"It depends," Su Yuncheng said truthfully, "It depends on whether I have duties then."

The tasks he’s in charge of allow him to loiter all day when it’s quiet, but when it gets busy, he barely has time to return home all year.

In general, New Year’s is always his busiest time.

Su Yuncheng didn’t share this general situation with Lin Nianhe, perhaps because he secretly hoped that this year, he wouldn’t be busy and could go back home with her for New Year’s.

"Um..." Lin Nianhe gazed out the window, frowning slightly, "For the New Year, I want to go home early, but it seems like the leave for family visits isn’t enough."

"When do you want to go back?" Su Yuncheng asked.

"In early January," she replied, somewhat helplessly.

Chinese New Year’s Eve this year falls on January 30th, and Lin Nianhe intends to arrive in Beijing no later than January 7th.

The length of the family visit leave varies from place to place, the longest being one and a half months, and the shortest being just over ten days. Due to geographical constraints, educated youths in Lan County are granted thirty days of leave. Taking into account the travel time, Lin Nianhe’s leave is far from enough.

She has compelling reasons to rush back, so she needs to think of a solution.

If she can’t think of one, she’ll ask him.

Su Yuncheng saw her furrowed brows and felt a pang in his heart.

In this era, the mountains are high and the roads are long.

Separated by thousands of miles, voices can’t reach, tears can’t be seen.

"Do you miss home?" His voice was a bit hoarse, not very loud, careful and tentative.

Lin Nianhe didn’t expect the conversation to take this turn and hummed a response, nodding.

It could only be said that she missed home.

This ready-made reason was very plausible.

He didn’t continue on the topic of family visit leave; probably, there was nothing he could do.

So Lin Nianhe thought.

Seeing her nod, Su Yuncheng frowned harder.

Many people had told him about missing home in the past.

New recruits spoke of missing their parents, comrades missed their wives, and occasionally, superior officers would mention their family under the full moon of Mid-Autumn Festival, saying they had returned to their hometown a couple of years ago, and their child didn’t recognize them, only the uniform, thinking he was recruiting soldiers, wanting to follow him.

Su Yuncheng always managed to dismiss their homesickness by the simplest of means.

Make the new soldiers train extra until they had no time to miss their parents;

Get the comrades drunk, drunk enough that they stop dwelling on missing their wives;

For his superiors... Just reciting a pile of work was enough to keep their minds off missing their children during the holidays.

Now, Lin Nianhe is telling him she misses home, and he doesn’t know what to do.

He tried to recall what it was like to miss home at seventeen or eighteen... No real feelings, as he was in Beijing Military District then. Whenever a bit of homesickness sprouted, his father would show up in time and find various ways to make him never want to go back home again in his life.

Like an inexplicably intense solo endurance cross-country with heavy loads, or the allowance that was taken away before it even warmed his pocket, or the banging on the table declaring he never had this son, bombing him to death...

So, Su Yuncheng often couldn’t understand why they would miss home.

Perhaps it was because their fathers were mostly normal.

Su Yuncheng pondered for a long time, then took out a white rabbit candy.

"How about I tell you about my time at war?" He awkwardly steered the conversation elsewhere.

Lin Nianhe turned her head back, saw his face strained with nervousness.

She pursed her lips and gently laughed, put down her teacup, and took the candy.

She peeled off the candy wrapper, popped the candy in her mouth, nodded to show she was interested.

"That year, I was accidentally captured by the enemy headquarters. Guards were tight, and it was just me, then..."

Lin Nianhe’s eyes gradually widened.

He arrived at Lan County two years ago, that meant he was also only eighteen or nineteen when he was alone in enemy territory.

Lin Nianhe thought about what she and those around her were like at eighteen or nineteen in her previous life...

She furrowed her brows, feeling pained for him.

Su Yuncheng’s story had just begun, when a middle-aged man carrying a teacup on his way to get hot water stopped by their sleeping spot.

"Su Yuncheng?"

The man’s voice, slightly tinged with surprise, interrupted Su Yuncheng’s story.

Su Yuncheng followed the voice, recognized the person and immediately got up.

He didn’t salute, but stood at attention.

"Sun..." Su Yuncheng swallowed down the habitual address, changed his words, "Uncle."

"Good lad." Sun Bo clapped Su Yuncheng’s shoulder, his laugh hearty, "I heard about that thing you did the other day, well done! Clean and sharp!"

Su Yuncheng replied indifferently: "It was my duty, no big deal."

Sun Bo laughed, then caught sight of Lin Nianhe.

His eyes lit up even more, and pointed at Lin Nianhe, "Is this your girl?"

Su Yuncheng’s ears reddened, he coughed softly twice, and said, "Her name is Lin Nianhe."

He neither confirmed nor denied.

"Uncle Sun, hello." Lin Nianhe had already stood up, and selectively ignored Sun Bo’s question, obediently standing there, greeting Sun Bo with a radiant smile.

"Ah, ah, hello to you." Sun Bo was almost as if afraid the "Uncle" might drop to the ground, his response exceptionally brisk.

Su Yuncheng listened to Sun Bo’s spring-like voice, feeling very uncomfortable.

He still preferred the rough voice of the man who would stand on a stool and bellow curses.

"Lin Nianhe, Lin..." Sun Bo did not catch Su Yuncheng’s look, he pondered over Lin Nianhe’s name for a bit and asked, "How is Lin Huaizhou related to you?"

"Lin Huaizhou is my brother," Lin Nianhe responded.

"Huaizhou, Nianhe, that’s right, I remember back in the day Old Master Lin gave these names..." Sun Bo was very satisfied with his memory, immediately marking the granddaughter of his old superior as one of his own, and started inquiring, "You’re here... did you also go to the countryside?"

"Yes, at Ten Miles Team in Lan County."

Lin Nianhe knew this man must have ties with her family, smoothly activating her mode to face the elders, acting so obedient it was almost out of character.

Sun Bo looked at the tender and soft young lady, his voice unconsciously softened a lot while speaking, "Are you adapting to the new environment? How is the commune? Are you getting enough to eat?"

Lin Nianhe felt helpless, but still had to play this question-and-answer game with him.

In fact, she wanted to continue listening to Su Yuncheng’s story, to know what kind of inhumane experiences he had been through in the enemy’s camp.

But Sun Bo didn’t seem to feel the same way, he chatted with Lin Nianhe intermittently for over ten minutes until his attention shifted back to Su Yuncheng.

Sun Bo saw that Su Yuncheng’s face was tense, seemingly tormented by the current situation.

After pondering for a while, Sun Bo got it and said to him, "Yuncheng, come with me for a moment, I have something I need to talk to you about."

Su Yuncheng: "..."