The War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression Begins in Songhu

Chapter 515 What to do if your husband is in love? (Happy Autumn Equinox)

(The situation and story of Lao Che's family in this article are entirely fictional and do not represent his actual situation. Please do not overthink it.)
Time: The ninth day of the rest period, a little after six in the morning.

Location: A secluded spot in a leisure park in a certain city.

Old Che sat on a bench, looking at his phone and muttering to himself:

“X County is at least 1,200 to 1,300 kilometers away from here. The toll fees and fuel costs alone would be enough for me to wash my feet several times over.”

He said that, but in his heart, Lao Che still made a decision:
If I have the chance and free time, I must drive to X County; not to get a foot massage, but simply to see my old friends who fought alongside me in the past.

The reason for this is that although Sister Yi did not join the team chat group, Hu Biao still added her on WeChat.

Then, through Hu Biao's remarks in the chat group, everyone learned about some of the latest news about Sister Yi.

For example, thanks to the extravagance of Mr. Nanze, Xufeng, and Lao K, who each gave a foot massage worth 20 yuan, the owner of the foot massage parlor was completely stunned.

The next day, they readily approved Yi Jie's resignation and paid her 73% commission in full.

With this money, Sister Yi returned to her hometown, X County, and first spent over 100,000 yuan to buy a second-hand two-bedroom apartment, finally having a home that truly belonged to her.

With the remaining money, she didn't open a clothing store or a small flower shop, because small flower shops have been difficult to operate in the past two years, with one opening and another closing down.

Instead, they spent another 100,000 yuan to take over a small, affordable foot massage shop.

A foot bath plus massage costs 68 yuan. It's a legitimate business, just a way to earn a little extra money.

Yi Jie was very satisfied with the result and grateful to her team members, so she asked Hu Biao to pass on her message to them:
Everyone is welcome to visit X County when they have time. She will take care of all the food, lodging, and even foot massages.

Three minutes later, feeling somewhat better, Lao Che put away his phone, got up from the bench, took a deep breath, and started running forward again.

As he exercised, his hurdles vest, which had just been dried by his body heat, was soon completely soaked with sweat again; his breathing became heavy, and his legs felt as heavy as lead.

But the old car gritted its teeth and continued to move forward step by step.

There's no way around it! Time is a butcher's knife and pig feed for men.

Logically speaking, Lao Che hasn't been out of the army for very long, but his once strong and fit body has become seriously out of shape. His belly has grown bigger from drinking beer, his waist has thickened, and he has gained a lot of fat.

When I put on my old military uniform again, it was only because of its excellent quality that it didn't tear, but it was still quite tight.

At the same time, he felt that his physical fitness had declined significantly. Back when he was serving in the P;A, he could be considered to have an excellent record of running five kilometers every day.

How's your physical fitness now? Even Lao Che himself is disgusted with it.

During his last crossing, if it weren't for the Japanese soldiers constantly chasing him and a group of children following him, he would have been too embarrassed to complain about the hardship and fatigue.

In other circumstances, the old car would doubt whether it could ultimately persevere.

However, what bothers him most right now is his current weight gain.

If he actually manages to get his hands on a tank during the next time travel, the only proper tank commander in his team will be unable to fit inside due to his size.

Or if they manage to squeeze in, it would severely impair their activities, command, and operations. Wouldn't that be a disaster?
Based on the above concerns, on the very first day back in the modern world, Old Car slept in late.

Starting the next day, I got up before dawn, carried 15 kilograms of weights, and went for a 10-kilometer trail run.

And one hundred sit-ups, push-ups, frog jumps and other exercises.

They also found a relatively secluded spot in the small park to practice some combat skills such as bayonet fighting, grenade throwing, and tactical maneuvers.

After all, he knew that the chances of getting a tank in the next time he traveled through time were really slim; it was more likely that he would still be fighting the Japanese with an old-fashioned bolt-action rifle.

Perhaps it was that mysterious place that gave him an improvement in his physical fitness.

Since Lao Che started exercising, he feels that his improvement rate is quite good.

On the very first day of training, he had to grind his back teeth so hard that he almost broke them just to barely keep up with the training standards.

I've been exercising for a week straight, and today is the day.

The old car, while not exactly effortless, was certainly not strained at all.

The key issue is that the time required to complete the training has been greatly reduced. On the first day, he was exhausted until after 9 a.m. before finally getting home and lying on the sofa for a long time.

Today? At 7:30 in the morning, Lao Che was already carrying a pile of delicious breakfasts home.

Besides his own share, a lot of it was for his wife and children.

The idea was that since my wife is busy making breakfast for the kids every day, and today the kids don't have to go to school, my wife could rest a little longer.

In the time that followed, the family started cooking.

Today's breakfast included smoked chicken French flatbread, crispy hash browns, and egg fritters, all of which the children love, and they ate very happily.

But the daughter-in-law's expression was rather strange.

What did I say? Old Che clearly bought her favorite xiaolongbao (soup dumplings), but she ate them absentmindedly today, only eating a little over half before saying she was full.

Normally, one basket of xiaolongbao (soup dumplings) wouldn't be enough for her; she'd want to eat something else.

In addition, while Lao Che was having breakfast, he could clearly sense that his wife was behaving strangely; she was either secretly observing him, but when he looked up at her, she would quickly look away.

They were either looking down, typing rapidly on their phones, chatting animatedly with someone, seemingly having a very lively conversation.

At first, Lao Che didn't care much about this situation and ate and drank as usual.

But then something suddenly occurred to him, and his heart skipped a beat as a terrifying thought surged into his mind:
What a terrible thing! Is this woman chatting with other men, planning to have an affair?

Otherwise, why would she keep secretly observing him? This is clearly a sign of intense guilt, so it's very likely.

A surge of anger welled up in Lao Che's heart, and he immediately wanted to overturn the table; he grabbed his wife by the collar and lifted her up, demanding to know who that man was.

Damn it! She works so hard to earn money to support her family, and the most she ever goes out is to get her feet washed. Apart from that, she has never been ambiguous with other women. How could she be so fair to herself?

However, when he saw his child sitting across from him at the table, happily enjoying his breakfast, his heart softened for some reason.

The main problem is that the child is not at fault. Doing this in front of him would definitely scare him and leave him with some psychological trauma.

With this in mind, Lao Che forcibly suppressed his intention to lash out on the spot.

With her head down, she silently continued eating her breakfast, but what was once a delightful meal now tasted like chewing wax, utterly tasteless.

And so, the old car made a decision in its heart:
As long as he finds out who that man is, I'll beat him so badly he won't eat any vegetables for the next few days...

The opportunity for Lao Che to find out who the man was came much faster than expected.

Around 10 a.m., my wife, who was lying on the sofa scrolling through her phone, suddenly fell asleep with her head tilted to the side.

More importantly, as soon as she let go of her phone, it slid straight to the side of the old driver, who was also sitting on the sofa watching the game.

The children, on the other hand, were doing their homework in their own rooms.

I don't understand why they have so much homework every day when they're only in second or third grade?

After gently calling his wife's name a few times and finding that she was sleeping soundly, Lao Che immediately knew that his chance had come; he picked up his wife's phone and quickly went to the bathroom.

My wife hasn't changed her phone's lock screen password; it's still the one Old Car knows.

So Lao Che easily unlocked his phone, opened WeChat, and quickly figured out the situation; however, after figuring out the situation, he was at a loss for words, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

Because the person who was chatting with his wife wasn't some random man at all, but simply one of her close friends; and Lao Che knew that friend quite well.

As for why he was chatting with his best friend, his wife often secretly glanced at the old car, appearing quite guilty.

His wife thinks he's in love with some unknown woman. Otherwise, why would a rough, thirty-six or thirty-seven-year-old man who's always just stayed home eating and sleeping suddenly start exercising every day?

After returning home, she would often stand on the electronic scale to weigh herself and stand in front of the mirror to see if her belly had shrunk.

He also often has a phone in his hand, chatting animatedly with others, looking very happy.

Considering all of the above, the wife concluded that Lao Che was in love. At such a young age, it was natural for him to chat with his best friend, complain, and seek comfort.

I kept secretly watching him, not because I felt guilty, but simply because I didn't know how to deal with the situation.

After figuring out the situation, Lao Che scratched his head in frustration.

I'm not sure how to explain this to my wife so that I can clearly explain the various situations involved.

He couldn't very well tell his wife that he was exercising so hard every day so that he could run faster after time travel and even crawl into a tank to fight the Japanese, could he?
Fortunately, he didn't spend too long on this and came up with what he considered a perfect solution.
Hand in your homework! Give your wife a proper "homework" assignment.

She could clearly sense his quantity and reserves, but none of it was used outside; since the quantity and reserves hadn't decreased, there was naturally no possibility that he was having an affair.

Men, by their very nature, are decisive and efficient; if they have an idea, they'll do it.

Before starting, however, the old car went to the child's room and greeted the child who was doing homework:
“We haven’t had spicy crayfish in a long time. Go to the store on the left side of the entrance to the community and get a large portion to go. We’ll have it for lunch.”

It's a complete scheme to send the kids out first, and then take the opportunity to hand in their homework.

The old car had already calculated that the round trip would take at least half an hour, plus the time the shop owner would spend processing the spicy crayfish, which was more than enough.

Unfortunately, the child glanced at the blazing sun outside the window and immediately refused:
"Didn't we just eat there last week? I'm not going. If you want to eat there, don't you know to call and order takeout?"

This poor kid, is it a question of whether or not to eat spicy crayfish, or whether or not to order takeout?
He resisted the urge to slap the unfortunate child on the back of the head; Old Che directly used his ultimate move, took out his wallet, and pulled out two hundred.

He said, "If you buy the spicy crayfish, the rest of the money is yours."

The little shop at the entrance of the community has good skills, but the price is quite reasonable. A large portion of spicy crayfish is only 128 yuan.

It's like running an errand once, but you can save as much as 72 yuan.

The unfortunate kid, who had been barely passing math for a long time, was surprisingly good at this kind of accounting; in the blink of an eye, he calculated the errand fee he could get.

He immediately snatched the money, scurried away, changed his shoes, and went out.

The moment the door was closed, Lao Che first locked it from the inside, then drew the curtains in the living room; then he grabbed a box of tissues and pounced on the sofa.

Startled awake and still dazed, my wife instinctively asked, "What are you doing, in broad daylight?"

"To hand in the homework, the child has already been sent to the small shop at the entrance of the community to buy a serving of spicy crayfish. He won't be back for at least half an hour," Old Che said fiercely.

"Why go through all that trouble? Just have him go to the supermarket near the door; the time it takes to buy a bag of salt will be enough," the wife said casually.

Old Car: "Holy crap! Who are you looking down on..."

It's unclear whether it's due to the positive effects of his physical condition being improved by some mysterious entity, or because his physical condition has recovered well after a week of training.

Anyway, the old car really made his wife realize that there was absolutely no time to send the kids to the supermarket near the door to buy a bag of salt.

After all that fuss, the door was unlocked, and the curtains were drawn and the windows were opened for ventilation for two minutes before the child returned.

He was carrying a package of crayfish and a bag of snacks.

This means that after buying the crayfish, the guy also went to the supermarket to buy snacks, which took at least 40 minutes, or even longer.

Of course! It doesn't matter how long the unlucky kid's trip took; what matters is that after all this, the old man is sure his wife's misunderstanding has been successfully resolved.

With this smug feeling in his heart, Old Che went to take a bath.

He forgot to turn on the air conditioner, and he ended up sweating all over.

When he came out of the bathroom in the second bedroom with his hair still wet, he found that his wife had also gone to take a shower, but her phone was left on the sofa.

When I opened it casually, I found that this woman had chatted with her best friend for a few more minutes; the topic was: Honey! My husband seems to have broken up with his girlfriend, because he had time to mess with me just now.

If the kids weren't home, Lao Che would probably have given that old woman another good beating.

All she does all day is daydream and have nothing better to do.

******
It was a little after 7 p.m. that evening, but the location had changed to Chengdu, Sichuan Province.

Sporting a freshly styled haircut by Tony, carrying a bouquet of roses, and dressed impeccably, the thug appeared once again at Song Jie's school gate.

More accurately, in the modern world, she is also called Song Jie.

The victim had been eyeing the girl since junior high school, dreaming of marrying her in the future. She was currently a freshman in college, standing at the school gate.

The thugs came here naturally to confess their feelings once again.

This allowed the thug to muster the courage to come here again.

Aside from the fact that during their time travel they encountered Song Jie, who was identical in appearance and temperament, indicating that the two must have a great destiny,

The key was his new partner, Cross, who constantly encouraged him during this period.

The team of time travelers now numbers thirty.

The relationships between everyone were naturally quite good, but due to some shared interests or compatible personalities, they were also divided into several smaller groups with even better relationships.

For example, Mr. Nanze, Xufeng, and Lao K are a group of three who came together because of their shared love of foot washing.

Mo Shuiyan and the wizard are a group of two people who traveled through time at the same time and are interested in DIY equipment manufacturing.

The thug and Cross were not much different in age, and they also had a relationship where the thug entrusted Cross to take care of Song Jie before he died during the last time he traveled through time.

Over time, the two became very close, and after returning to the modern world, they naturally started contacting each other more often in private.

In these private communications, the Cross consistently instilled the following idea:
So what if she has a boyfriend? It's not like they're already married. As long as they don't use any underhanded tactics and compete fairly, they're in the right no matter where they are.

Besides! You and Song Jie have a kind of predestined connection like Hu Biao and Annie from a past life, you can't miss it.

In short, after repeated persuasion from Shizi, the thugs finally took action today.

This time, quite coincidentally, the thug had just reached the school gate when Song Jie came out very intimately with another boy he had seen before.

To the thugs, that kid looked effeminate and was obviously a sissy.

"Damn it! I'm not even afraid of a Japanese company pursuing me, why would I be afraid of competing fairly with a sissy?" After taking a deep breath, the thug told himself this.

Then he took a step forward and called out to the girl who had already taken ten steps: "Song Jie~"

Upon hearing this, Song Jie immediately stopped and turned around. When she saw him, her face immediately showed his familiar gentle smile, which gave the thug even more courage.

Immediately, he prepared to speak up and ask others to give him a chance, hoping they would give him a fair chance.

Just then, that effeminate guy—no, wait!—the handsome young man asked Song Jie, "Sis! Do you know this person?"

Upon hearing this, the thug realized he had misunderstood; Song Jie didn't have a boyfriend, this was just her younger brother.

No wonder the two look quite similar upon closer inspection.

So, as she handed over the flowers, she said, "Song Jie! Happy Autumn Equinox~"

Faced with such a surprising statement, the girl was clearly a little stunned, but she still accepted the flowers and said with a smile, "Happy Beginning of Autumn! Have you eaten yet? If not, come join us."

"Okay, okay!" the thug readily agreed, and for a moment even the night breeze felt gentle...

(End of this chapter)