The Life of a Son-in-Law in a Courtyard House

Qi Desheng replied irritably, "Yes, that kid is back."

Hurry up and get a group together, we're leaving in ten minutes. Oh, and get one more person, we need twenty-one people.

We still need to take a car there; there will be twenty truck drivers on board.

I almost forgot about this.

"Okay, understood, stationmaster."

Yang Dalin quickly ran to the dispatch room.

The dispatch room was small, and only Gong Xuemei and Qi Yanhua were inside.

Yang Dalin saw through the window that Gong Xuemei was talking to Qi Yanhua.

Qi Yanhua was listening attentively.

Yang Dalin quietly watched the girl through the window.

It's been half a year since I last saw her, and it seems like Sister Yan has lost some weight.

As if by telepathy, Qi Yanhua suddenly raised her head.

She immediately spotted Yang Dalin quietly watching her from outside the window.

She rubbed her eyes, thinking she had misread it.

After confirming several times that she hadn't misread it, her eyes immediately reddened, and Gong Xuemei also noticed Qi Yanhua's unusual behavior.

Looking up, I saw it was Yang Dalin.

Gong Xuemei stood up and opened the door: "You brat, when did you get back?"

"Hurry up and come inside, it's so cold outside."

This isn't the future. If it were the future, Yang Dalin would have already been embracing Sister Yan.

Yang Dalin walked in with a grin and first greeted Gong Xuemei, "Hello, sister-in-law."

Then he handed a clean handkerchief to Sister Yan.

Qi Yanhua took the handkerchief, wiping her tears as she punched him: "You've been gone for 183 days, without writing a single letter or making a single phone call."

I want to write you a letter, but I don't know where to send it.

Yang Dalin entered the room and, seeing the situation, wanted to pull Qi Yanhua directly into his arms.

But it seemed that because Sister Xuemei was there, Sister Yanhua struggled very hard.

Seeing that the young couple wanted to have a private conversation, Gong Xuemei realized that staying would be in her way, so she cleverly said, "I'm going out for a bit," and slipped out.

Gong Xuemei is afraid of getting a sty.

It's unbearable to look at.

After a while, Qi Yanhua stopped crying and broke free from Yang Dalin's embrace.

Gong Xuemei then came in.

"You little rascal, you've really gone for a long time. You should call your auntie. She comes to our workplace several times a month. She's probably missing you terribly."

There was a telephone in the dispatch room, and Yang Dalin asked, "Sister-in-law, can this phone call reach our street office?"

"Yes, you can do it."

Yang Dalin picked up the phone and dialed the Gulou Subdistrict Office in Nanluoguxiang.

On the other end of the phone was still the same Director Wang.

Yang Dalin exchanged a few pleasantries with her and asked her to call Aunt Qi over.

Aunt Qi came over to answer the phone very quickly.

Aunt Qi, her voice trembling with tears, asked, "Hello, is this... is this Da Linzi?"

Yang Dalin didn't cry when he saw Qi Yanhua crying, but when he heard Aunt Qi crying, he choked up and said, "It's me, Auntie. I'm back. I'm at my workplace. I'll be home in a bit."

"Okay, okay, then I'll take the day off and go home to cook you something delicious."

Before Yang Dalin could finish his phone call, someone suddenly ran in from outside.

It was Captain Wang Fuxiang, who was frantically trying to gather enough people.

Captain Wang grabbed Yang Dalin: "Come on, come quick, Dalin, come with me to help out."

Yang Dalin broke free from him first: "Captain Wang, what's the matter? Why are you in such a hurry? I'm on vacation, I need to go home in a bit."

Captain Wang said, "I didn't say you couldn't go home. Come with me to help out first, and I'll let you go home after we're done."

"What kind of help?"

"I don't know either. The station chief told me to gather twenty people who can drive to go out on a mission. You know, a lot of people from the station have already gone out. We don't have enough people, so the station chief sent me to arrest you."

Upon hearing this, Yang Dalin understood.

We need to find someone to drive the twenty new cars back.

Yang Dalin then said on the phone, "Auntie, I'll be home a little later. Our station chief needs me to do something, and I estimate I'll be busy for two or three hours."

I should be home in a little over three hours, so don't rush home yet. You can ask for leave this afternoon.

"Okay, if you have work to do, then go ahead. Your aunt will take the afternoon off and wait for you at home."

Yang Dalin hung up the phone and before he could even say goodbye to Sister Yan, Captain Wang pulled him outside.

Yang Dalin had no choice but to call out into the house, "Sister Yan, you should also take leave later, okay? I'll come back and we'll go home together."

"Okay, I got it."

……

……

On a dilapidated truck traveling south of Beijing.

Yang Dalin worked as a driver.

Qi Desheng sat in the passenger seat.

The carriage contained nineteen people, old and young, including the driver.

There was no other way; they couldn't gather that many people all at once. So Captain Wang brought together several experienced mechanics from the repair shop, a few trainee drivers who hadn't driven much, and a few officers from the security department who could drive.

Yang Dalin gave Qi Desheng a dissatisfied look: "Brother Sheng, the way you're conscripting people, you've brought in everyone in our station who can drive, young and old."

"You made me miss three hours of my way home, so you'd better give me three days of rest in return."

"Bullshit! Are you a loan shark? If it takes three hours to get home, you're going to have to rest for three more days? You're overthinking it."

"Just hurry up and drive your car."

"Brother Sheng, you should know that these twenty cars were only obtained because of me."

"Okay, okay, I won't forget your contribution. Drive faster, or someone else in the department will steal it from me. Shut your mouth."

Yang Dalin pursed his lips, thinking, "They've really forgotten their matchmaker now that they have a new wife."

Yang Dalin wasn't driving fast to begin with, and the two people in the driver's seat were doing alright.

However, the nineteen people in the carriage were unlucky.

The main problem is that the road is too bumpy.

The experienced drivers inside were almost driven nauseous by Yang Dalin's jolting.

It took Yang Dalin an hour to get there, but he arrived in less than forty minutes by truck.

You can imagine how badly the people behind were jostled around.

We arrived at the entrance of that unknown, nameless little station.

The truck was stopped by many fully armed People's Liberation Army soldiers.

One of the company commanders walked over and asked, "Who are Comrade Yang Dalin and Comrade Qi Desheng?"

Yang Dalin extended his hand and handed him his identification and Qi Desheng's work ID: "I am Yang Dalin, and this is our station chief, Qi Desheng."

The company commander climbed onto the footrest in the driver's cab and carefully examined Yang Dalin and Qi Desheng inside.

Then he said, "Only the two of you can go in."

The rest of you can wait outside.

Yang Dalin thought that the people inside probably hadn't finished counting the machines on the train yet.

The alert has not been lifted.

That makes sense; the machinery on 480 trucks filled dozens of train carriages—it's impossible to inspect them all so quickly.

Moreover, many experts cannot come.

Only a select few absolutely reliable experts can come.

It's estimated that some of the nameplates will need to be removed and replaced.

No Indian script can be retained.

Although Indians also use English, their English is different from that of the British and the American.

They themselves often pronounce the interdental consonant "th" as "t" or "d" (for example, "Thank you" might be pronounced as "Dank you").

It's going to be a real hassle if the machine nameplate on this thing isn't modified.

Yang Dalin and Qi Desheng got off the car.

Yang Dalin patted the back of the truck: "Everyone, get out and wait outside for a while."

take a break."

As soon as Yang Dalin finished speaking, several people jumped down and ran to the roadside to vomit.