It's better to conquer them than to command the steel torrent

Chapter 177 | Miss Jane's Melancholy

The day before New Year's Day.

The dry, cold northwest wind brought a harsh winter to the south, and the cold wind, carrying moisture from Taihu Lake, shrouded Suzhou in damp cold.

"Xiao Jian, you need to pay more attention to your work. The progress can't be allowed to stagnate again after the holiday."

The leaders of the branch of the Chemistry Institute gently reminded Jian Keqiu to stop slacking off.

"Okay." Jian Keqiu nodded in agreement, then returned to her desk to tidy up before heading straight back to her residence.

Jian Keqiu seemed somewhat absent-minded.

In fact, she has lacked sufficient motivation since joining the company, and can be described as working hard one day and resting the next. This negative state has been intermittent, and the piezoelectric ceramics project she is in charge of is still progressing slowly to this day.

She desperately wanted to get rid of this severe lethargy, but she just couldn't muster the energy.

At first, I hoped that I could achieve something someday, but the more I devoted myself to my work, the more hopeless I felt, and gradually I lost my motivation.

The researchers at the institute all have their own residential area, which consists of four-story buildings with two households per floor. As she walked through the gate to go in, she was stopped.

The postman, who was delivering mail, called out, "Miss Jane from the second floor, right? There's a letter for you. It looks like it's from Hurricane. I just slipped it in for you."

what?
Upon hearing this, Jian Keqiu quickly stepped forward and took an envelope from the mailbox.

Since the Battle of Budapest began, Mr. Shang has not written to me for a long time; it has been about fifty or sixty days.

It would be a lie to say I wasn't worried after being out of contact for so long.

The letter was sent on the 16th, which is about ten days ago, and it was an airmail letter with the embassy's diplomatic postmark.

"Unexpectedly, it seems that guy is also in a hurry, and he even went through the embassy's channels." Jian Keqiu thought to herself.

Mr. Shang's letter was somewhat rambling, filled with a lot of random thoughts, even bordering on verbose, but the genuine feelings expressed in it were evident in his writing.

Jian Keqiu read it very carefully and felt that war was too cruel, causing great suffering and making people miserable.

However, she felt unable to empathize, as if she were reading a history book describing ancient wars and felt moved, but it was difficult for her to understand the personal experience.

At the end of the letter, Mr. Shang said that he would have to find a way to return to China, but the journey would be difficult and would probably require him to travel through many places.

Since the railway to Rijeka (the port) has been cut off by the Romanian army on the southern front, it is impossible to return home directly by ship. You can try going to the Slovania region of the Valland Empire first.

After reading the letter, Jian Keqiu felt much more at ease.

The battle was so brutal that the guy had crawled out of piles of dead bodies, and he couldn't help but feel scared when he thought about it.

However, on the other hand, this may not be a bad thing. With this achievement, he should be promoted one or two ranks and become a senior officer. After that, he will not have to go to the front line, and the risk of casualties will be much lower.

Just two hours later, a car slowly pulled up at the entrance of the residential area, and a male and a female civilian employee from the Suzhou National Defense Army Office got out.

After summoning Jian Keqiu, the captain in the lead informed her in a very somber tone: "Miss Jian, your fiancé, Shang Ke, went missing while on a mission in Hungary. It is presumed that he has most likely died in the line of duty. We will notify you as soon as we have any further information. We apologize..."

The female clerk beside the captain had been watching Jian Keqiu closely, waiting for her to be shocked and heartbroken before rushing forward to support her. But then…

Jian Keqiu widened her eyes slightly and said in confusion, "Missing? Could there be a mistake? I just received his letter, which said that he had escaped safely and the battle was about to end."

Aha?

The group stared at each other, wide-eyed.

The captain took out the notification, leaned closer to examine it carefully, and hesitated before saying, "According to this document, the embassy received the message on December 14th, um, it was from the Hungarian Ministry of Defense."

Jian Keqiu gestured for them to wait a moment, then turned and went back to her residence.

She then took out a letter from Mr. Shang and pointed to the embassy's diplomatic airmail postmark, saying, "He wrote the letter on the 16th, which doesn't match up. There must be a misunderstanding."

Then she added, "He mentioned in his letter that during the battle he led his troops to break out but they were scattered and trapped in enemy-occupied territory for several days before finally returning. I guess the Huns just hastily ruled his temporary disappearance as death in action."

The two office staff members exchanged a glance and were completely dumbfounded.

After a long pause, the captain hesitated before saying, "That makes sense. Anyway, the dates definitely don't match. The distance is too great, and letters would be delayed by many days. Miss Jane, we'll take our leave now. We'll let you know if there's any new information later."

After saying that, the two got into the car and left.

Jian Keqiu was speechless at this misunderstanding. The Hurricane side was far too hasty, rushing to declare someone dead after only a few days.

She muttered a few complaints to herself, then suddenly realized that Mr. Shang's parents would probably receive the same notification.

To avoid giving them a false alarm, she hurriedly went back inside to make a phone call.

The person who answered the phone was the merchant's mother. After learning about the situation, Wei Shuhua said she understood. It was indeed easy for delays and errors to occur in such chaotic cross-border correspondence.

Afterwards, Jian Keqiu casually inquired about the two of them. Wei Shuhua smiled and told her not to worry too much, as life was peaceful and tranquil. As for Shang's father, Shang Yuxiu was still focused on revising his manuscript.

What made Jian Keqiu feel melancholy was that everyone around her was so energetic, while she was the only one who was so listless.
Mr. Shang was diligently performing his duties in a distant foreign land; Mr. Shang's father was dedicated to writing books; and his own father was not idle either, also starting his own business.

After realizing the unexpected effects of xyleneamine, Jian Cheng understood Shang's good intentions and then ambitiously prepared to make a comeback.

Aviation technology is advancing rapidly. Research this year shows that military aircraft—especially fighter jets—are quite sensitive to the fuel-rich combustion performance of gasoline, which can significantly increase the power output of aircraft engines during air combat.

Xyleneamine can improve the purity of gasoline and enhance its combustion performance, so it's easy to imagine how crucial this additive would be in the heat of war.

Therefore, Jian Cheng did not want to waste a single day. In the past few months, he quickly searched for small and medium-sized chemical plants worth taking over and acquired two of them, and began to make preliminary preparations for switching to xyleneamine production.

In Jian Cheng's words, he believed that as soon as the war started, his son-in-law would rise to prominence and, with his son-in-law's protection, he would no longer have to worry about any evil spirits coveting his property.

With everyone around her so engrossed in their careers, Jian Keqiu had no choice but to make up her mind to start working hard after New Year's Day!
Otherwise, it would be too embarrassing if Mr. Shang returned to China and found that the piezoelectric ceramics project was still stagnant.

She was genuinely melancholy.

(End of this chapter)