Unfolding the letter paper, what caught her eye was a bright five-star red flag, drawn in crayon, with four rows of houses beside it.
Having visited the school before, Jiang Si recognized it at a glance—it was the newly built military district Hope Primary School from last year.
"Who sent it?" Huo Tingzhou asked casually, seeing her staring intently at the letter.
"The military district Hope Primary School."
Hearing it was from the military district Hope Primary School, Huo Tingzhou immediately stopped sorting the parcels. They leaned their heads together to continue reading.
The letter was long, and from the handwriting, it seemed not to be written by just one person.
Seeing the opening line, "To our most beloved Sister Jiang Si," Huo Tingzhou couldn't help but smile.
But as they read on, both couldn't help but frown.
It was only through the letter that Jiang Si learned Division Commander Yao had actually publicized her donation to build the Hope Primary School.
When she made the donation, fearing it might affect her life, Jiang Si had explicitly stated that she did not want anyone else to know about her funding the military district school.
Now that it had suddenly come out, she wasn't exactly angry, just rather surprised. "How could Division Commander Yao..."
Huo Tingzhou pondered for a moment. "This probably has to do with a criticism meeting held at the military district school during the National Day period."
"A criticism meeting?" Jiang Si turned her head. "Criticizing who?"
Seeing Huo Tingzhou hesitate, she suddenly had an epiphany and pointed at herself. "Could it be... criticizing me?"
Huo Tingzhou nodded. "Yes."
Hearing this, Jiang Si laughed in disbelief. This was truly a case of disaster falling from the sky while sitting quietly at home!
She hadn't returned to Qiongzhou Island for a year, yet she could still be dragged out as a negative example for criticism?
"No wonder Teacher Hu was so determined to transfer, even willing to give up everything on the island."
In fact, it wasn't just Jiang Si. During that period, any family in the residential compound with slightly problematic class backgrounds had their children ostracized at school.
At that time, Huo Tingzhou and the others had been busy preparing for the military skills competition. Division Commander Yao and Political Commissar Li, afraid these unsavory matters would affect their competition morale, had suppressed the news and didn't mention it.
But this incident had still infuriated them greatly.
As Division Commander Yao put it, Jiang Si had already done more than enough for the Fourth Division.
They didn't expect these people to be grateful, but such ungrateful behavior—cursing the benefactor after receiving the favor—was better not done!
They hadn't spoken up before, fearing it would disturb Jiang Si's peaceful life. Now that the couple had been transferred back to the capital, the division leaders had nothing left to worry about.
That was precisely why today's letter had been sent.
But merely doing this was far from enough. To serve as a warning to others, the division headquarters still took some strong measures.
These people had previously promoted a set model at the school—learning from workers, peasants, and soldiers. Shouldn't the teachers then take the lead in setting an example?
Thus, not long after National Day,
these individuals were directly assigned by a division headquarters transfer order to a nearby farm for labor practice.
The farm was never short of farm work.
Expanding factory buildings needed people, farm breeding needed people, harvesting in the fields still needed people!
After a few days of farm work, backs aching so much they couldn't straighten up, people naturally became more compliant.
But that wasn't the most frightening part.
Huo Tingzhou asked, "Remember the special canned food I mentioned to you a while ago?"
That's right, it was the three-snake soup canned food.
In this era, there was no false advertising; the ingredients were genuine.
Just imagining the scene, Jiang Si immediately got goosebumps all over. "They weren't made to handle those, were they?"
Huo Tingzhou nodded.
Unsurprisingly, these people were also terrified.
It was said that several of them fainted on the spot as soon as they were led into the processing workshop.
After this incident, this group finally quieted down and behaved for a while.
After hearing this, Jiang Si wasn't sure what expression to make for a moment, though it was certainly satisfying.
"What about the school now..."
"Back to the old routine," Huo Tingzhou said with a helpless tone. "These people stirred up trouble at the school for almost a year. Many students have developed an aversion to studying."
Of course, this was also related to the broader social environment of the time.
In this era, people generally believed that mastering math and science was not as good as having a powerful father.
Fortunately, this recent promotion of officers had elevated many young officers. After New Year's Day, many new military wives would arrive on the island.
The division headquarters planned to recruit a portion of these new military wives to bolster the teaching staff.
That was the gist of the matter. Huo Tingzhou told Jiang Si everything exactly as it happened.
What he hadn't expected was that the wives in the residential compound would pool together so many things to send over.
Jiang Si was also deeply moved by this.
When she donated money to fund the school, she had never expected any return.
But at this moment, because of these local specialties from all over the country and this simple, unadorned letter of thanks, Jiang Si instead experienced the satisfaction and happiness of "the fragrance always stays in the hand that gives the rose."
Looking at the items covering the floor, Jiang Si smiled.
The next day, she and Huo Tingzhou went to a stationery store and bought two large boxes of pencils and squared practice notebooks for handwriting.
For no other reason than the sentence at the end of the thank-you letter: "Sister, we will definitely study hard and live up to your expectations!"
After packing and sending these items, Jiang Si also took the opportunity to browse the third floor, where large items were sold.
For their move this time, Eldest Brother, Second Brother, and Fourth Brother had all prepared gifts in advance.
Saying it was to add celebratory cheer to the new home.
In a few days, Eldest Brother and his family would also be coming to the capital. As courtesy demands reciprocity, she needed to prepare a return gift as well.
After some careful selection, Jiang Si settled on a radio.
Eldest Brother and Eldest Sister-in-law were busy with work and probably didn't have time to listen to such things usually. This one was for Father Lu and Mother Lu.
She didn't choose one with overly complex functions. The elderly mainly listened to news or model operas; overly complicated ones would instead not be favored.
Second Sister-in-law and Fourth Younger Sister-in-Law were quite busy at their workplaces, and it was hard for them to take leave. So they had given Jiang Si money and ration coupons early on, asking her to help choose two items for them.
...
After a heavy snowfall, the weather gradually turned cold.
However, on the day Father Lu and Mother Lu arrived in the capital, the entire Huo family turned out, going to the train station early to meet them.
Around the same time last year, they had welcomed Eldest Brother, his wife, and their two adorable grandchildren here.
A year later, the family's excitement was no less than before.
As soon as Father Lu and Mother Lu followed the crowd out of the station exit, they saw the large family eagerly waiting outside.
But the children reacted even faster.
"Daddy!" Ruirui and Yaoyao, sharp-eyed, spotted Lu Zhankai in the crowd at a glance.
They dashed over gleefully, crashing into his arms like two little cannonballs.
The children had good memories and were polite.
After hugging their father tightly, they looked up with sweet little faces and called out, "Grandpa! Grandma!"
Then, without any prompting from the adults,
they turned to the uncles and aunts one by one, greeting each in turn.
"So good!" Mother Huo was overjoyed, grinning from ear to ear. Knowing the children loved sugar-coated haws, she had specially bought several sticks before setting out.
After distributing the candied haws to the two children.
Father Huo and Mother Huo quickly stepped forward and grasped the hands of Father Lu and Mother Lu. "Eldest brother, eldest sister, you must have had a tiring journey."
Father Lu and Mother Lu hastily waved their hands. Their children missed them and had brought them to the capital city to live out their retirement.
They were overjoyed; a little fatigue was nothing.
"Dear sister, the train was over two hours late, making you wait for so long. We're truly sorry..."
As Mother Lu began to speak, Mother Huo warmly took her hand and interjected, "Eldest sister, please don't be so formal! We are family, and family shouldn't speak like strangers. No matter how long we wait, it's only right!"
