Chapter 136: Chapter 136: Pen Pal
“You better not go to my dad, if he finds out I asked you to buy me a bicycle, he’ll break my damn legs!” Zhao Xiaogui said, shaking his head.
Calling his own legs ‘dog legs’… my cousin sure isn’t one for details.
There should be plenty of factory coupons in the army; most soldiers don’t actually use them all.
I should be able to get quite a few from Huo Shiqian.
Thinking of this, she suddenly realized that her attitude towards their correspondence had subtly changed over this period.
At least, in her heart, she had started to see Huo Shiqian as someone she could “reach out to.”
“Sis, what’s going on with you?” Zhao Xiaogui waved his hand in front of her, prompting her to refocus.
“It’s nothing,” Xia Chuyi calmly replied as if the daydreaming person hadn’t been her.
“Let’s go, we still need to catch our ride,” she said, smoothly bypassing the previous subject.
Before heading back, they passed by the post office. Xia Chuyi went in to collect her mail and took the opportunity to inform the postal worker that her shop would be closed for a while. She asked that, if any mail came for her, to have it collected by the village post, and she would pick it up from there.
After finishing all this, the siblings, with their big and small parcels, finally caught their ride back to Heshan Village.
On the ride, Zhao Xiaogui cautiously said to her, “Sis, you’ve been acting all secretive lately, getting and sending letters…”
She knew her cousin couldn’t be kept in the dark about the letters, but she had no intention of spilling the details.
“Mind your own business, kid,” Xia Chuyi sternly told her cousin with a righteous look on her face.
Her cousin looked at her, wanting to say something but stopped.
She calmly stared straight ahead, pretending not to notice her cousin’s unease.
The more suspicious someone was, the more composed one had to appear.
“Sis… I accidentally caught a glimpse of the postmark on the letter… it’s from the army… Sis, you’re not, you couldn’t be still writing to He Qing, could you?” his hesitant voice came.
Xia Chuyi’s expression fell apart, and the corner of her mouth twitched.
“You’re thinking too much… it’s not He Qing,” she said to him with a bit of resignation.
She had only been thinking about keeping Huo Shiqian a secret, but her cousin had jumped to the conclusion it was He Qing.
Why on earth would she still be in contact with such a scumbag?
“He’s a pen pal,” Xia Chuyi declared, resorting to the excuse she had prepared in advance.
“Pen pal?” he repeated.
“Mhm, pen pal,” she confirmed with a nod, “I met a soldier from the liberation army by chance during my last family visit, and we got along well, so we started writing letters.”
She explained the situation with the letters, with a mix of truth and fiction.
At this time, having pen pals was quite popular, so her explanation was believable.
He seemed convinced after hearing her explanation, “Really? A comrade from the liberation army?”
She nodded and confirmed, “Yes.”
Xia Chuyi’s composed demeanor completely persuaded her cousin.
“That’s fantastic!” Like his uncle, her cousin was an army fan too. He was delighted to hear her pen pal was from the liberation army and eagerly asked, “So, sis, what does this comrade from the liberation army look like? Is he tall? Handsome? Does he rank higher than He Qing? Does he have a good family background? Good education? Does he like you?”
Why didn’t she remember her cousin from the past life being such a chatterbox?
In her memory, he was just like a mischievous monkey.
“We’re just pen pals,” Xia Chuyi said helplessly.
“Right, pen pals! And writing to each other could lead to being boy and girlfriend!” he exclaimed.
What to do, her hand started itching again.
“Or are you saying, sis, that you don’t even pen pal?”