I was reborn after my cousin stole my life.

Chapter 4: Foreign Aid

"Director Wu."

Wu Dajun had just entered the commune with his briefcase when he heard someone calling him. He squinted and saw a person squatting in the dimly lit doorway at the commune's main gate.

"Is it... Yuan Xiu?"

"it's me."

Yuan Xiu stood up, leaning against the wall. She had been waiting there for an hour.

Wu Dajun laughed, taking out his keys as he beckoned Yuan Xiu to follow him. "Don't call me Director anymore, just call me Uncle. Didn't you often call me that when we were kids? Why are you acting so distant with Uncle Wu now that we're grown up?"

Yuan Xiu then called out "Uncle Wu" again.

Wu Dajun led Yuan Xiu to the office door, opened it, and gestured for her to sit down. He poured her a glass of water and placed it in front of her. "Is something wrong?"

Seeing the luggage Yuan Xiu was carrying, he realized that her coming to find him was no simple matter; this girl must have encountered some trouble.

"Just tell me what's wrong. Don't be so polite with your uncle. Even without the relationship between you, me, and your father, as the commune director, I will still take care of what I'm responsible for, and I certainly won't let you suffer any injustice."

Yuan Xiu held the water glass tightly in both hands. "Uncle Wu, I need to go to the military base to see my fiancé. Could you please help me get a letter of introduction?" She emphasized the word "military base."

Wu Dajun secretly breathed a sigh of relief. "So that's what it was about. Okay, I'll open it for you right away."

He sat down at his desk, took a piece of white paper from the drawer, placed an old newspaper underneath it, then took out a pen, filled it with ink, and made two strokes on the old newspaper. "Which military unit is your fiancé in? Give me his exact address..."

As Wu Dajun asked, he looked up at Yuan Xiu and was startled by what he saw. "Hey! Why are you crying, child?"

Yuan Xiu lowered her head, tears streaming down her face, crying bitterly. "Uncle Wu, I don't know which unit my fiancé is in. All I have here is the address and phone number left by his parents, and I don't even know if the phone can still be reached."

Wu Dajun shook his head and laughed, "You silly child, what's there to cry about with such a small problem? As long as you have an address, there's nothing to worry about. We'll be able to get in touch eventually. But you shouldn't just go like this. You should write a letter first and ask them to send you your fiancé's military address. That way, you won't have to travel back and forth all by yourself. Now that I think about it, I shouldn't have written this letter of introduction for you. You're still so young, I really can't rest easy about you."

Yuan Xiu sniffed. "I wrote it, and they sent a letter over there."

Wu Dajun frowned. "Then why don't you have the unit's address?" Could it be that they didn't want to?

Yuan Xiu's hands were tightly gripping the hem of her clothes, her face full of struggle. Just when Wu Dajun thought the man was going to break his promise and return the letter—"My...my uncle intercepted the letter and had his daughter Yuan Juan take it to the army."

Wu Dajun didn't understand at first, "What? Why did your uncle intercept the letter? And why did he let his daughter..."

The next moment, it dawned on me!

"What is Yuan Xinmin trying to do?"

Wu Dajun frowned, still harboring a sliver of doubt. "Yuan Xiu, how did you know? Could there be some misunderstanding?"

Yuan Xiu's eyes were red. "I overheard it by accident. I didn't believe it at first, but Yuan Juan set off a few days ago, saying she was going to visit relatives. Uncle Wu, you know that neither the Yuan family nor my aunt's family would have any relatives from out of town."

Wu Dajun nodded. That's true. He had a fairly close relationship with the Yuan family, so he knew about this.

Yuan Xiu continued, "My cousin might already be in the army. I don't know what to do. Even if I go to my uncle now, he won't admit it or give me the address of the army. I'm thinking that no matter what, I should go and ask him. This is a marriage arranged for me by my father when he was alive. I don't want him to be restless in the afterlife."

"That's how it should be."

Wu Dajun had also heard about Yuan Xiu's marriage. The groom's family and Lao Yuan were comrades-in-arms, and they said they had a life-or-death bond. So after they learned that Lao Yuan's wife had given birth to a daughter, they arranged a marriage between their son and Lao Yuan's daughter. When Lao Yuan was alive, he often talked about it, saying that he had found a good family for his daughter's future.

The fact that Lao Yuan said this means that the man's conditions and character are not bad.

If this is true, then Yuan Xinmin is truly a scoundrel!

Without Lao Yuan, he wouldn't have gotten his job at the supply and marketing cooperative.

Thinking about the work at the supply and marketing cooperative, Wu Dajun's eyes flashed, and he said angrily, "I really didn't expect Yuan Xinmin to do such a thing! You can never judge a book by its cover! If you hadn't been so young, you would have been the one doing the work at the supply and marketing cooperative. All these years, I thought he treated you very well, like his own daughter. I never expected this!"

Yuan Xiu scoffed inwardly. She got her father's job, the whole family moved to town, and she was left in the countryside to take care of the old couple. Was that what she called being good to her?

If they truly treated her like their own daughter, they wouldn't have refused to leave her a meal every time she came to town to deliver grain.

Uncle Wu's home is not far from the supply and marketing cooperative's staff quarters. Yuan Xiu can't see what kind of people Yuan Juan's family is, so how could Wu Dajun, the director of the supply and marketing cooperative, not see it?

People come and go. Even if she had a good relationship with her father back then, it's all in the past. As an orphan, who would stand up for her if there were no benefits for her?

Even family members can't be trusted, let alone outsiders.

Yuan Xiu lowered her head and sighed deeply: "Uncle Wu, I don't want to say much about what my uncle did. Now I just want to fulfill my father's last wish. Even if the outcome is bad, I will accept it. Please help me write a letter of introduction, Uncle Wu."

As she spoke, she took out an old envelope from her pocket and handed it over.

Wu Dajun took the envelope and looked at the address on it. This address was clearly not from the military, but rather the address of a factory's residential compound. "Didn't you say you left a phone number? Give me the phone number, I'll call and see if I can get through."

At this moment, he was even more enthusiastic than Yuan Xiu. "Silly child, this matter can't be handled carelessly. If you slowly go to this address, your cousin will probably have already broken off the marriage certificate. You're young and haven't thought things through. Uncle Wu will help you!"

Yuan Xiu pursed her lips, opened the envelope, took out the letter, and pointed out a phone number at the end of the letter to Wu Dajun.