After the frail beauty went to the countryside, she went crazy with scientific research.

Chapter 268, Episode 0283: Picking Wild Vegetables on the Mountain

Ye Liping naturally knew about her family's situation, so she didn't pry into her feelings. She just smiled and said, "Old Wen owes too many favors."

There are so many, twenty or thirty households, and what's amazing is that they are all in dire poverty.

They either have elderly parents with serious illnesses or disabled family members; you really can't ignore them.

Take a chestnut.

One of Wen Qizheng's earliest squad leaders was killed in Myanmar.

At that time, the old squad leader was already the company commander. Wen Qizheng was transferred to the reconnaissance company because of his exceptionally good eyesight. Therefore, Wen Qizheng did not know the specific circumstances of the old squad leader's sacrifice. Not only did he not know, but everyone else did not know, because the entire company had disappeared.

Yes, the old squad leader and his men couldn't find the bodies, nor could they find out if they had fought the enemy anywhere. They were ordered to ambush, but they never returned without a trace.

No one wanted to label them as sacrificed, especially since so many soldiers had died in that war, information was scarce, and the army was in a hurry to return home from Burma. So the old sergeant and his men were labeled as missing.

There are many, many heroes like the old squad leader!
The troops had initially hoped that these soldiers would be classified as missing, that they were simply unable to return temporarily for some reason, and that they would appear before everyone and say, "Report, we're back!"

No one expected that the term "missing" would become synonymous with "deserter" in some places.

The old squad leader's hometown was like that. Many people from that village went out to fight against the Japanese. Almost all the young people went out at that time, but the old squad leader was the only one who could be defined as missing.

At some point, rumors began to circulate in the village that the old squad leader had run away because he was afraid of dying.

Their son didn't come back and was even called a deserter. The old sergeant's parents were so shocked that they died one after another in less than two years.
The old sergeant's wife was a simple rural woman. But this seemingly honest, useless, and incompetent rural woman, in order to wash away the stain of the old sergeant being a deserter, almost traveled all the way to Beijing on her own two legs.

Before she died, she kept saying that she was going to Beijing to find the leader.

The old squad leader had only one son. While his wife was running around trying to clear his name, his son was also working hard alongside her.

There's a saying that holds true: "A rope always breaks at its weakest point, and misfortune always finds those who are destined for hardship."

The old squad leader's wife died of exhaustion on the way to Beijing. After more than ten years of hard work, they had no money left. The old squad leader's son didn't even have the money to buy his mother a coffin.

With no other option, he found a scenic spot, dug a hole, and buried his mother's body.

On his way down the mountain, perhaps because he was too sad, or too tired, or both, he slipped and tumbled down the path, breaking his leg.

“If he had received immediate treatment, there was still hope for his leg to be cured. But Xiao Li couldn’t even afford a coffin to bury his mother, let alone have the money to treat his leg.”

Ye Liping's eyes still well up with tears when she talks about it now. "And he wasn't discovered until two days after he fell. He had to endure the pain to crawl from the ravine to the road before anyone saw him."

Many military family members present had tears in their eyes as they listened, and at the same time, they felt a surge of anger in their hearts.

As a military family member, I can especially empathize with the mentality of the veteran's wife and children who would risk their lives to clear their husband's name.

They are heroes, not deserters!

They simply sacrificed themselves in places we don't know about, and they are still waiting for us to find them!
No one who is under their protection, even at the cost of their lives, has the right to call them deserters!

Ye Liping wiped away her tears and continued, "When my husband Lao Wen found Xiao Li, he had already returned to the village. It was the old village chief who went to pick him up." The old village chief was a good man and one of the few people in the village who believed that the old sergeant wouldn't desert. He usually took good care of the family. Every time the old sergeant's wife and children went out, he would keep track of the time. If there was no news for a month, he would take a few young men and search in the direction the old sergeant's wife and children had told him before they left.

From that point on, the old squad leader's son never left the village again, partly because his leg was crippled, and partly because he had given up hope.

Proving that the old squad leader sacrificed his life is not an easy task. Not to mention that the people who recorded it back then and the people who are in charge now are no longer the same group, the fact that the old squad leader disappeared not in China makes it almost impossible to find his remains to prove this.

To be honest, you can't just say whatever people say when you're in charge; you need evidence.

Even now, Wen Qizheng hasn't been able to clear the old squad leader's name.

"Tell me, how can we just ignore someone like Xiaoli?"

Everyone nodded in agreement; when faced with such a situation, it's truly impossible to simply ignore it.

The group chatted and the time flew by. Before they knew it, they had arrived at the mountain.

Picking wild vegetables is obviously not something you can do in a group, and wild vegetables don't all grow in one piece so you can pull them up so easily.

So everyone dispersed in twos and threes.

Lin Yuexi has never picked wild vegetables, neither in her past life nor in this one.

Before the apocalypse in her previous life, she spent most of her time in the laboratory. After the apocalypse, the ground stopped growing hair, and there was nothing left to pick.

After arriving in this world, although the 1970s were a time of great hardship, she was lucky and never experienced a drought. She still spent most of her time in the laboratory.

So, like a little shadow, she followed behind Zhang Hongying, her eyes fixed on Zhang Hongxiang's movements, learning what the wild vegetables looked like and how to pick them.

Ye Liping and Zhang Hongying were close, and after everyone dispersed, she habitually walked with Zhang Hongying. Seeing Lin Yuexi's adorable appearance, she couldn't help but burst out laughing.

"Hongying, give me your daughter."

Annoyed, Zhang Hongying raised her hand and slapped her arm. "You wish! Be careful, my old man Leng will make your old man Wen get the first taste of your own medicine."

"You know what, when I used to hear Lao Wen talk about how much the commander loved his daughter, I thought he was just talking nonsense because he was upset that I hadn't given him a daughter. There are people in our team who love their daughters, but none of them are as exaggerated as the commander."

There are people who talk about their daughter all day long, but there really aren't any who would shamelessly solicit gifts from their subordinates to give to their daughter.

Zhang Liping only has two sons. Wen Qizheng had told her that he wanted a daughter, but after having two sons, Zhang Liping didn't want to have any more. Not having a daughter became Wen Qizheng's regret.

Not only did no one mention this regret, but his new boss constantly used his daughter to provoke him, and whenever he had something nice, it would be snatched away, with the excuse, "This is good stuff, my daughter would definitely love it. How can you, as her uncle, take her niece's food?"

Whether it's reasonable or not, it's rightfully his.

After being mistreated by Leng Zhi, Wen Qizheng went home and complained to Ye Liping. However, what he said sounded like children fighting over food, and Ye Liping couldn't believe that the seemingly serious and rigid leader could be the kind of person her husband described.

I don't believe it at all.