Chapter 4: Applying for a House to Get Married?

Before he could make a move, the people in the logistics department had already spotted him.

They immediately greeted him with smiles.

"We’ve had a house prepared for you for a long time. Battalion Commander Lu, come and take a look. See what kind you like."

Little Zhang from the logistics department walked out with a smile, holding a layout map of the family quarters. "There have been a lot of marriages lately, and quite a few people applying for housing."

"As it happens, there’s still space in the building below Battalion Commander Zhao’s. Battalion Commander Lu, would you like to apply for the one below his?"

Little Zhang explained.

He knew that Lu Changzheng and Zhao Jianguo were on good terms, so he suggested he apply for the unit below Zhao Jianguo’s.

The "tube-style" apartment buildings, which had two rooms and a living room, were available for those at the battalion commander level to apply for.

Lu Changzheng’s gaze swept over the layout map of the family quarters, and he pointed toward the first phase of the housing area.

"Are these courtyards unoccupied?"

"Eh? Nowadays, everyone wants to live in the tube-style buildings—upstairs and downstairs, with electric lights and telephones. Who would still want to live in these mud-walled courtyards?"

Little Zhang worked in logistics, and every housing application report passed through his hands. He saw that most people were applying to live in the newly built three-story tube-style buildings.

Not many people were willing to live in the mud-walled courtyards built ten years ago.

Lu Changzheng pursed his thin lips, nodded, and pointed casually at one of the courtyards.

"I’ll apply for this one."

"Ah? Battalion Commander Lu, you don't want to live in the tube-style building? Shouldn't you discuss it with your wife first?"

Little Zhang felt completely bewildered and deeply shocked by Lu Changzheng’s behavior.

Why would anyone not want to live in a clean, modern building and choose to live in this mud-walled courtyard instead?

Although the mud-walled courtyard was a bit more spacious, it was, after all, made of adobe. Not only would dirt constantly fall from the walls after living there for a while, but mice digging holes and spiders spinning webs were common occurrences.

How could Battalion Commander Lu be so shortsighted?

Little Zhang wanted to persuade him further, but Lu Changzheng had already made up his mind.

"Let’s just take this courtyard. Leave the tube-style apartments for other comrades who need them."

He didn't know how to settle Jiang Tang yet, so he could only apply for a house first to let her move in.

Of course, he didn't choose the courtyard to intentionally make Jiang Tang live in poor conditions.

It was just that the courtyard was much more spacious than the tube-style apartments. Although it didn't have upstairs-downstairs layouts or white-washed walls, it had a front and back yard, which made it convenient for growing vegetables or raising chickens.

If they had children, there would be more room for them to run around in the yard than in a tube-style apartment...

Suddenly realizing he was thinking too far ahead, Lu Changzheng quickly pulled back his thoughts, signed the papers at Little Zhang’s desk, and collected the keys.

Inside the guesthouse.

Jiang Tang was sleeping very soundly on the bed. Having been a ginseng root for hundreds of years, she had always slept standing up.

Now that she could finally lie down, she naturally drifted into a deep sleep very quickly.

In her deep sleep, she had a dream.

She seemed to see a storybook, and in it, there was a person also named Jiang Tang. She grew up pampered by her grandparents and parents.

Later, the family suffered a great tragedy; her grandparents lost their lives, her parents divorced, and her father took her and her brother from the city back to their hometown, settling down in the town.

After a few years of peace in the town, her father fell ill from overwork and passed away not long after.

He left behind only thirteen-year-old Jiang Tang and eighteen-year-old brother Jiang Dawu.

The siblings relied on each other for three years.

Although these three years were very bitter, Jiang Tang was still happy because her brother loved her very much.

He scrimped and saved to send her to school.

But all this beauty changed after her brother brought his wife into the home.

That year, Jiang Tang was sixteen.

Her sister-in-law made her drop out of school while she was in her first year of high school and forced her to work in the fields every day to earn work points.

The following year, her little nephew was born. Her sister-in-law used the excuse that the child needed a room, so she made Jiang Tang move out of her original room and into the kitchen.

Little Jiang Tang slept for two years in a "room" partitioned off with wood in the back of the kitchen.

On June 18th, she had just turned nineteen.

Her sister-in-law took her to meet a man—a widower with a limp and three daughters. It was said that the man promised to give two hundred yuan as a bride price to marry Jiang Tang.

Her sister-in-law was tempted.

She had just given birth to her second child; the first was a son, and the second was also a son. There would be many places in the future where the family would need money.

"Marrying off" the sister-in-law who was eating for free at home for two hundred yuan was the most cost-effective deal.

She agreed without a second thought, not even discussing it with Jiang Dawu or Jiang Tang, and made the decision for Jiang Tang’s life event all by herself...

Jiang Tang wanted to see what happened next, but suddenly a thunderclap exploded in the sky, dragging her forcibly out of the dream.

A torrential downpour fell from the sky, and the world was soon shrouded in a curtain of rain.

Lightning flashed and thunder roared, striking continuously.

Jiang Tang, who had been lying on the bed, rolled off the bed wrapped in her quilt the moment the first bolt of lightning struck, crawling under the bed.

She huddled under the bed, shivering in her quilt.

She kept muttering, "Buddha, please don't be offended, Buddha, please don't be offended. I didn't mean to possess a human body; it was all a coincidence, just a coincidence."

When she was a ginseng root, although she had eight hundred years of cultivation, she had never harmed a single flower or a blade of grass!

Jiang Tang hid under the bed, crying softly while wrapped in her quilt.

The next day.

Before the sky was even bright, Lu Changzheng brought meat buns to the guesthouse. He stood at the door of Jiang Tang’s room, raised his hand to knock, but then remembered that he had closed the door when he left last night.

Maybe Jiang Tang hadn't locked it?

To verify his thought, he placed his hand on the door and pushed gently, only to find that the door was indeed unlocked.

Lu Changzheng...

Opening the door, the person who should have been on the bed was nowhere to be seen, and Lu Changzheng’s heart skipped a beat.

The first thought that popped into his head was whether she had been kidnapped by human traffickers.

But then he realized, no, this was inside the military compound; there was no such thing as human traffickers here.

So where did she go?

Lu Changzheng calmed himself and saw a palm-sized piece of quilt peeking out from under the bed.

He walked over, bent down to look under the bed, and sure enough, he found the person who had wrapped herself into a silkworm cocoon with the quilt.

She seemed to be trapped by something, or perhaps she was in pain? She kept making whimpering sounds from inside the quilt.

The sound made one feel a bit flushed.

Lu Changzheng lowered his eyes to look at the floor, pondered for a moment, and then reached out to tap the iron bed frame.

"Comrade Jiang Tang, Comrade Jiang Tang."

Jiang Tang, who was being struck by lightning in her dream, suddenly heard someone speaking. Amidst the sky-filling thunderstorm, the sun had actually appeared.

The head covered by the quilt slowly poked out from the bedding. Through the gaps in her hanging black hair, the exposed skin looked white and glowing.

She sniffed with her nose; she seemed to smell the fragrance of food!

Lu Changzheng’s lips curled up.

"I bought meat buns. Do you want to eat them while they're hot, or get up after you've had enough sleep?"

"Meat buns?"

Jiang Tang, who was clutching the quilt, opened her eyes in a flash, threw off the quilt, and sat up in one motion.

"Little..."

Before the word "heart" could be spoken, she heard a loud *bang*.

The moment Jiang Tang stood up, Lu Changzheng had actually lifted the single iron bed with both hands and held it high in the air!