I was reborn after my cousin stole my life.

Chapter 6: Marrying Jiang Zhou means a lifetime of happiness

"Uncle Wu, I've finished writing it. Please take a look." Yuan Xiu handed over the written explanation.

Wu Dajun nodded after reading it. "It's written very clearly." The thought of another job opening in the commune filled him with excitement. He took out an inkpad. "Put your fingerprint here."

After pressing her handprint, Yuan Xiu rubbed the red clay stain on her fingers and said, "Uncle Wu, I'd like to ask you for a favor."

Wu Dajun was very satisfied with the result he wanted and said with a smile, "Don't be so polite with Uncle Wu, just tell me, Uncle Wu will definitely help if I can."

Yuan Xiu: "I want to rent out two rooms in my house to the brigade free of charge."

These words truly surprised Wu Dajun. "Why?"

"I want to rent out my house to the brigade to resettle educated youth."

Yuan Xiu smiled and said, "I know that the city arranges for educated youth to go to the countryside every year. Over the years, hundreds of educated youth have been placed in our commune. Our brigade alone has more than a dozen educated youth, and there may be more later. The conditions in the brigade are limited, and the educated youth live in cramped conditions. Even now, some educated youth are still placed in the homes of villagers, which is definitely inconvenient. Over time, conflicts are bound to arise. I was thinking that after I leave, two rooms in my house will be empty, so I might as well use them for the educated youth to live in. Also, after I leave, it will only be my grandparents at home. They are getting old, and I am really worried about them. If there are more young people in the house, they can help me take care of them."

She lowered her head somewhat shyly as she spoke, "Actually, I also had my own selfish motives."

"What you're calling selfishness is selfless!" Wu Dajun said, pleased with the outcome. "I'm just worried your grandparents won't agree."

Yuan Xiu took out the house deed. "These two rooms belong to me. I can decide whether to rent the house to the brigade. My grandparents will definitely not want outsiders in the house at first, but they will understand after a while. As a member of the brigade, it is not good to leave the house empty and watch the educated youth have nowhere to live."

Wu Dajun looked at Yuan Xiu and nodded: "You're like your father, very enlightened!"

Yuan Xiu didn't want to be a highly conscious person. The reason she gave the house to the brigade for free was simply because she didn't want it to fall into the hands of the old couple and Yuan Xinmin's family. Selling it now was unrealistic, and she didn't have time to find a buyer, and it wasn't even certain that the transfer of ownership would be completed. As for the old couple, even if they made a fuss, they couldn't win against the brigade and commune cadres, or the fellow villagers whose homes were occupied by educated youth.

Yuan Xiu felt better if she could annoy them a little.

Wu Dajun personally saw Yuan Xiu off onto the bus bound for the county town.

He not only provided Yuan Xiu with the letters of introduction needed for transportation and hotel stays, but also issued a certificate proving that she was Yuan Xiu and that the person who had gone to the army was Yuan Juan. He also left the commune's phone number so that the army could verify the information.

Before getting on the bus, Wu Dajun reminded Yuan Xiu, "Don't lose contact after we arrive."

Yuan Xiu naturally expressed her gratitude once again.

Just before stepping onto the bus, Yuan Xiu's gaze swept over Yuan Xinmin as he emerged from the supply and marketing cooperative's gate. She gave him a deep look, then boarded the bus at the ticket seller's urging. The bus door closed behind her with a creaking, decaying sound.

By the time Yuan Xinmin looked over, the bus had already departed with half a busload of passengers to the next stop. He didn't notice the people on the bus, but he did see Wu Dajun standing with his hands behind his back under the Huangguoshu tree.

In the past, he would have shamelessly run up to him and call him Director Wu, but now...

Yuan Xinmin chuckled, revealing a set of yellow teeth stained black by cheap cigarette smoke.

……

Yuan Juan has been staying at the guesthouse for three days.

She hadn't seen Jiang Zhou in the past three days. Knowing that she was Jiang Zhou's fiancée, the military leaders arranged for her to stay in a guesthouse, saying that Jiang Zhou had gone on a mission and would not be back for a few days, and asked her to wait patiently.

She waited for three days.

These three days felt like an eternity to Yuan Juan.

She felt incredibly uneasy, both afraid of seeing Jiang Zhou and afraid of not seeing him at all.

She took out a small mirror from her bag and looked at herself intently. In order to look more like Yuan Xiu, she cut the same bangs as Yuan Xiu and braided her hair in the same way. Yuan Xiu liked to braid her hair from the top of her head down, one strand after another, so she did the same.

She gave up her favorite red hair tie and replaced it with a rubber band wrapped with black yarn, just like Yuan Xiu's.

She didn't even wear her favorite scarf, for fear of looking unlike Yuan Xiu.

Even the clothes she was wearing were exactly the same as the ones Yuan Xiu wore on the day the photo was taken.

In that case, Jiangzhou definitely wouldn't be able to tell the difference, right?

You definitely wouldn't recognize him!

Yuan Juan asked herself quietly.

Just then, there was a series of knocks on the door, followed by a woman's voice: "Yuan Xiu, are you inside?"

Yuan Juan quickly stood up to open the door and warmly welcomed the person in, "Sister Chunmei."

The woman whom Yuan Juan called Sister-in-law Chunmei was about twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old. She was a military wife who had accompanied her husband to the army. Her husband, Li Shan, and Jiang Zhou were good comrades-in-arms. As soon as Yuan Juan arrived, Sister-in-law Chunmei warmly took on the task of taking care of Yuan Juan, taking her to the canteen to eat, and helping her get familiar with the environment of the family area. In the past few days, she had also talked to Yuan Juan a lot about Jiang Zhou.

"Hey sis, we have news from Jiangzhou! They say he'll be back the day after tomorrow."

Yuan Juan's smile froze. "The day after tomorrow."

"Yes, the day after tomorrow." Sister Chunmei chuckled. "Aren't you excited? You'll finally see her in person."

Yuan Juan didn't know if she was happy or not, but she felt even more flustered.

"Oh dear! We've all been young, so I know what you young girls are thinking. Are you feeling nervous right now? It's okay, everyone feels this way. When I went on a blind date with my husband, I was so nervous that I couldn't sleep all night. When I saw him the next day, my face turned red instantly, and I couldn't even speak. I just felt that his eyes were so bright, and they made me feel uneasy."

Sister Chunmei teased, "You're so pretty, like a flower bud. If Jiangzhou saw you, he'd be thrilled! Oh dear! You're blushing."

Yuan Juan blushed and gently pushed her away, "Sister Chunmei, you shouldn't tease people like that."

Chunmei laughed even harder, "Alright, I won't tease you anymore, you young girls are so shy."

She glanced at the clothes Yuan Juan was wearing. "When Jiang Zhou comes back, wear the new clothes I gave you before. He'll be happy to see them. I even went to the city with him to help him choose those clothes. He's a grown man, and all he picked were blue or gray, not bright at all. He even said he bought you some fabric and sent it to you so you could make them yourself. I told him that the girl might be coming over soon, and she wouldn't have time to make clothes. It would be more convenient to buy a ready-made dress at a department store. And I was right."

Yuan Juan had originally intended to wear the dress she was wearing, but upon hearing this, she nodded and said, "Thank you, sister-in-law. That dress is so beautiful, I almost don't want to wear it."

"Of course it's good. Jiang Zhou is not stingy at all. The outfit he bought for you cost over forty yuan! He said it was high-end stuff from Haicheng."

Yuan Juan was shocked by the price of the clothes. When she received the package, her father said that the clothes looked expensive. She and her mother even guessed how much they had cost, both guessing that it was probably twenty yuan. They didn't expect that they hadn't even guessed half the price of the clothes.

Her father worked at the supply and marketing cooperative, earning only thirty yuan a month.

At this moment, Yuan Juan felt that she had made the right decision to come. If she could spend more than forty yuan to give her a set of clothes, what else could she not be willing to give her?

Jiang Zhou is still a battalion-level officer. According to her father, his monthly salary is at least 80 or 90 yuan, not including other subsidies. Most importantly, he is still so young, and his future prospects are limitless. Even if he is transferred to civilian work in the future, his rank will not be low.

If she could marry Jiang Zhou, she could enjoy a lifetime of happiness!