Chapter 289: Chapter 288: A Sackful of Letters from Readers, a Border Soldier’s Gift Slaps Hard!

The woman’s cries were like a switch.

“Ring ring ring”

All the phones in the editorial office started ringing wildly at the same time.

The young editors scrambled to answer the calls.

“Hello, Renminhua Newspaper…yes, it’s the latest issue…”

“You want to subscribe too? An entire company? A hundred copies?”

“What? You’re the union chairman of the textile factory? You say this painting touches the hearts of your female workers?”

“Hello, hello? Speak louder, can’t hear you! You’re on the train? You’re an official on a business trip? Alright, alright, we’ll definitely keep this column going!”

The entire editorial office turned into a bustling marketplace.

All the voices converged into one sentence.

“That painting is fantastic!”

Ma Zhenhua sat in the corner, his back straight as a rod.

The tea in front of him had already gone cold.

Every “fantastic” felt like a slap across his face.

His open notebook was originally filled with critical words about “Patches on the Military Uniform.”

“Low class”, “promoting suffering”, “petty bourgeois sentiment”.

But now, in the room full of praises, these words seemed so ridiculous.

A young editor hung up the phone and excitedly ran towards Sun Ping.

“Editor-in-chief! The printing factory called! This issue has already sold out crazily! They’re asking if we should print more!”

Sun Ping heavily placed the enamel cup in his hand onto the table.

“Print more!”

He glanced at Ma Zhenhua, whose face was green.

“Double the print!”

Ma Zhenhua suddenly stood up.

The chair slid back with a piercing scraping sound.

Without saying a word, he grabbed his briefcase and stormed out, slamming the door behind him.

Sun Ping looked at the door that had been slammed loudly and only said two words.

“Too small.”

“Vision, too small.”

…

The next morning, at the military district compound.

A green postal truck, unusually, did not stop at the post office entrance but drove directly to the small building where the Gu Family lived.

The door opened, and the postman Xiao Li jumped down and ran straight to the back compartment.

He alone huffed and puffed dragging down a huge burlap sack from the truck.

Then, he dragged down another one.

The two sacks, bulging, looked like small mountains piled on the ground.

“Excuse me, is this Lin Wan Yi’s home?”

Xiao Li shouted at the top of his lungs, sweat covered his forehead.

Sister in law Liu and the others, who were stitching shoes under the large locust tree, let their needles and threads “plop” to the ground.

All their chatting stopped.

They looked at the two sacks as if they had seen some monsters.

Gu Lan stuck her head out from the house.

“Yes, my sister-in-law is home, do you have something for her?”

Xiao Li pointed to the sacks on the ground, gasping for breath.

“Mr. Gu, these… these are all letters sent to Lin Wan Yi!”

“From yesterday afternoon till this morning, they haven’t stopped! The mailboxes at our post office are stuffed full, so we had to use sacks to send them over!”

“Please sign for them!”

The entire courtyard fell into a dead silence.

Sister in law Liu’s mouth hung open for quite some time without closing.

“Oh my heavens…”

“How many letters could that be…”

The few military wives who had spoken cynically before blushed with embarrassment, wishing they could find a hole to crawl into.

These weren’t just letters.

It was support from people all over the world, delivered in the most direct way, right in front of them!

Gu Lan and the driver used all their strength to drag the two sacks into the living room.

Once the sacks were opened, snow-white envelopes surged out like a tide, instantly covering half of the living room floor.

The two little kids, Gu An and Gu Ning, curiously crawled over, rolling around in the pile of letters, laughing giddily.

Lin Wan Yi was stunned too.

She crouched down and casually picked up an envelope.

The return address on the envelope was “Hongxing Machinery Factory.”

She opened the letter.

“Dear ’Yi Yi’, I am a mother of a child and a female worker in a workshop. My husband is not around, I raise the child alone and take care of the elderly. I used to feel very bitter and useless. But after seeing your painting, I realized that every day’s mending and washing is also a battle. Thank you for showing me my value.”

Lin Wan Yi picked up the second letter.

“Teacher Yi Yi, I am a high school student. My dad is a soldier, I used to feel my mom was annoying and nagging, always saving and scrimping. After seeing your painting, I realized how tough she’s had it. Yesterday, I washed the dishes for her for the first time.”

Lin Wan Yi opened letter after letter.

Some were from soldiers, some from workers, some from officials, some from students…

Every letter was a story.

Every letter said “Thank you.”

Gu Lan was next to her, unwrapping the package while crying and laughing at the same time.

“Sister-in-law! You’ve made it! You really have!”

She was rummaging through a pile of letters when she suddenly pulled out a hard brown paper package.

“Hey? What’s this? It’s so hard?”

The package didn’t have a detailed address, only “Western Border, Red Flag Post” written on it.

The handwriting was bold, written with a carbon pen.

Lin Wan Yi took it and carefully opened it.

Inside was a neatly folded letter, the paper very coarse.

Underneath the letter was a small object wrapped in red cloth.

She unfolded the letter first.

“To our most beloved family member—’Yi Yi’ Comrade:”

“We are soldiers stationed at the Western Border defense line. It’s windy and tough here, but we are not afraid. What we fear most is our family not understanding us.”

“Even more fearful is us suffering at the front line while our families suffer more behind, without being understood.”

“Everyone at our post saw your painting. As the newspaper passed around, many cried while looking at it.”

“Not from sadness, but joy.”

“We feel that the country we defend understands us. The people we protect care for our wives.”

“We don’t have much to thank you with. This is leftover shell casings from target practice, which we ground ourselves. It’s not worth much, just a token of appreciation from the brothers.”

“We’ve named it the ’Military Wife Medal of Honor.’”

“The first one must belong to you.”

The letter ended with dozens of crooked signatures.

Li Daniu, Zhang Tiezhu, Wang Jianjun…

Lin Wan Yi’s hands were trembling.

She slowly opened the piece of red cloth.

A “medal” made by polishing the base of a brass shell casing lay quietly in the center of the red cloth.

It had no shine and was somewhat rough, with a crooked five-pointed star engraved on it.

But it was hotter than any gold or silver jewel.

Heavier than anything else.

Gu Yanshen had returned at an unknown point and was standing behind her.

He said nothing.

He just reached out and picked up the “medal” from the red cloth.

His fingers, calloused from years of holding a gun,

The tiny shell medal in his palm felt like a ball of fire.

…

Military District Command Headquarters, Meeting Room.

Gu Zhen Guo was presiding over a combat readiness meeting.

The atmosphere was solemn.

“Regarding the defense deployment in Area No. 2, my opinion is…”

As he spoke, he retrieved documents from his briefcase.

First, he took out a map.

Then he pulled out a folded issue of .

Realizing his mistake, he hesitated for a moment before casually placing the magazine on the corner of the table.

Sitting across from him, his old comrade, the Military District Chief of Staff Old Wang, keenly noticed the familiar section title on the magazine.

“Hold on, Old Gu.”

Old Wang interrupted, pointing at the magazine, “A commander like you reads this?”

Gu Zhen Guo coughed, pretending to be indifferent as he moved the magazine closer to himself.

“Oh, just skimming through.”

Old Wang wouldn’t let it go, snatching it up and spreading it open.

“’A Person’s “Battlefield”’! By ’Yi Yi’! Old Gu, you’ve been hiding this well! The whole military district is saying that this ’Yi Yi’ is your daughter-in-law, is that true?”

The other leaders in the meeting room also leaned in.

Gu Zhen Guo couldn’t maintain his composure with a face red with embarrassment, yet not able to get angry, he could only feign seriousness.

“Young and uninspired scribbling, not suitable for formal settings.”

“Not suitable for formal settings?” another Deputy Commander chuckled, “Old Gu, that’s very modest of you! My granddaughter saw this painting and now insists on washing her mom’s feet every day!”

“Exactly! This painting has even reached the General Political Department! Everyone says it’s well done, full of genuine emotion! Makes our military family proud!”

“Old Gu, your daughter-in-law is the gem of our military district!”

Amidst a chorus of compliments, Gu Zhen Guo modestly deflected with, “Not at all,” though his mouth was practically split with a grin.

Throughout his life, he received countless praises.

Yet none compared to the delight he felt hearing others praise his daughter-in-law.

Just then.

The meeting room door was pushed open with a “bang.”

Gu Zhen Guo’s secretary, Xiao Zhang, rushed in with a worried look, forgetting to even announce himself.

“Chief!”

Gu Zhen Guo’s face darkened: “What’s the matter with you looking so flustered!”

Xiao Zhang ran up to him, lowered his voice, but it was still shaking uncontrollably.

“Chief… Something bad has happened…”

“The Propaganda Department just forwarded an urgent document…”

Xiao Zhang’s lips were trembling.

“It’s regarding… regarding your daughter-in-law Lin Wan Yi, comrade.”

“Someone submitted a report accusing her of ’ideological errors,’ and it went straight to… straight to the desk of the General Political Chief!”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep