Quick Wear: Cousin, Come to the Bowl Quickly

The deal went even more smoothly than expected, and on the third day after the two men visited the Ivans, Ivanov delivered the contract.

The southbound train soon carried the first batch of lightweight rifles and bullets toward Shanghai. If all went well, the remaining supplies should be delivered in about a month.

A wave of heat, accompanied by blinding light, hit them in the face, causing them to squint at the same time.

Almost subconsciously, Shen Jingyuan took a half step to the left, trying to shield her from the glaring sunlight with his own body. At the same time, Lin Xi also tilted her head to the right and raised her hand to her forehead, as if she wanted to shield him as well.

The two moved in such perfect unison that neither of them could actually avoid the other's movements.

Then, with a soft "bang," their foreheads touched perfectly.

"puff!"

After a brief moment of stunned silence, someone's lips twitched first, a smile spreading from Lin Xi's eyes to Shen Jingyuan's lips, eventually turning into two soft laughs that almost simultaneously escaped their lips.

The emptiness and bewilderment that had arisen in my heart due to the temporary postponement of my important task seemed to dissipate quietly in the sweltering air with that soft laugh.

With the most important matter settled, another thing that had been on their minds all along, something they had tacitly avoided mentioning, could no longer be suppressed.

Lin Xi began to seize every spare moment to inquire about her brother Lin Min's whereabouts in Fengtian City.

Back then, Lin Min secretly ran away to the northern battlefield without telling his family.

He concealed his identity and infiltrated the army, and no one in the army knew his true identity until he died on the battlefield.

Later, the battle ended in a disastrous defeat, and the troops retreated in panic. The corpses scattered all over the mountains and fields were left uncollected, and his remains disappeared without a trace.

All the Lin family received were a few scattered relics that Commander Lin later painstakingly searched for and obtained from the veterans who had miraculously survived.

Not being able to see Lin Min one last time, and not being able to find a place to bury him, has become a hidden wound in the hearts of the Lin family that can never be healed.

But precisely because she didn't see that cold, lifeless body with her own eyes, compared to her parents who were immersed in grief, Lin Xi harbored a subtle thought deep in her heart that she herself was unwilling to delve into.

Since there is no conclusive evidence... is there even a one in ten thousand chance that my brother is actually still alive?

After all, she later heard many rumors from Commander Lin's subordinates that the army had suffered a crushing defeat and many soldiers had gone missing during the rout. Some may have deserted, while others may have been caught up by pursuers and lost their lives...

Although she was convinced in her heart that Lin Min was not the kind of spineless coward who would be afraid of death, who would go to their death if they could survive? So Lin Xi would rather Lin Min had deserted back then and survived.

As for the anomalies of why Lin Min had been missing for more than ten years without returning home or sending any news back to the Lin Mansion if he had really survived, she selectively ignored them.

Therefore, while waiting for Ivanov's second shipment, Lin Xi relied on the scattered information she had gathered to travel back and forth between Fengtian and several surrounding villages and towns to inquire about the situation of that great battle.

However, due to the passage of time and the authorities' reluctance to discuss the defeat, many official records have been destroyed.

On the other hand, due to the language barrier, she often struggles to gesture for a long time, only to be met with the other person shaking their head blankly or muttering a few words of indistinct dialect.

Occasionally, she would encounter an elderly man who seemed to know something, puffing on his pipe, squinting as he recalled for a long time, but the sighs he let out made her heart sink.

"That battle... it was terrible, truly terrible. So many young men died, some of them barely taller than a gun barrel... alas, what a pity." Beyond that, it was difficult to glean any more useful words.

Shen Jingyuan silently took in all her anxiety over the past few days, and the disappointment after each hopeful but ultimately unfulfilled attempt.

He didn't say anything, but secretly used several hidden informants he had laid before heading north to help investigate. However, the feedback was fragmented, contradictory, or simply disappeared without a trace.

Even in these seemingly peaceful times, countless people disappear without a trace, let alone in the chaos of war, where the fate of a lowly soldier is like salt scattered into the sea, long since lost to time.

As an observer, he actually saw things more clearly than Lin Xi. Over the years, although Commander Lin didn't say it, she had never given up searching for news of her son, but in the end, she always returned empty-handed.

Moreover, even if Lin Min were truly alive, how could he not have returned to Shanghai for over a decade, or even sent a single word to his family?

As a soldier who had fought on the battlefield, he was well aware of the cruelty of war. People who seemed invincible and could move mountains and fill seas when they gathered together could actually be easily killed by a bullet only an inch long or a grenade that landed lightly next to them.

Even he, who spent most of his time sitting in the rear of the battlefield and coordinating the overall situation except when he first entered the army, could not guarantee 100% that the shells would not fall around him in the next second. How much more so Lin Min, who was no different from thousands of ordinary soldiers after the title of Commander Lin's son was concealed?

The reasoning is laid out there calmly and clearly.

But looking at Lin Xi's almost obsessive, desperately hopeful eyes, Shen Jingyuan, who was always calm and objective and never deceived himself, never cruelly shattered her illusory hope.

He simply stayed silently by her side, clearing away any oversights she might have made while she rushed around, and dealing with any unsavory tails following behind her.

As she returned home disappointed time and time again, staring blankly at the twilight outside the window, a glass of lukewarm water, cooled to just the right temperature, was gently placed beside her.

Seeing Lin Xi almost risking her life to investigate Lin Min's whereabouts, Shen Jingyuan felt a tightness in his chest, though he couldn't explain why.

One afternoon, after another fruitless search for information, the two dejectedly entered an old teahouse on the street to rest.

The teahouse was noisy with people laughing, singing, and discussing business. The two chose a relatively quiet corner by the window and sat down, each lost in their own thoughts, and remained silent for a while.

"Shen Jingyuan, tell me, is my brother really...?"

After a long while, Lin Xi's somewhat muffled voice suddenly rang out and reached Shen Jingyuan's ears.

Shen Jingyuan's gaze shifted from the bustling street scene outside the window to the opposite side.

Lin Xi held the teacup, her eyelashes lowered, her long, thick lashes casting a small, tired shadow beneath her eyelids. The remaining steam in the cup blurred her beautiful face, but could not conceal the loneliness and bewilderment emanating from her.

"No, it won't happen." Hearing the disappointment in her voice, Shen Jingyuan pursed his lips, his throat felt a little dry, and his chest felt tight, but he still managed a reassuring smile, reached out and pressed the back of her hand, and comforted her.

"Don't overthink it. There are still a few secondhand bookstores and archives we haven't had a chance to ask yet. My informant is also searching. Just wait a little longer, and we should have definite news soon..."

"But we've been searching for so many days, and there's still no news..."

Lin Xi's voice grew softer and softer, filled with a deep sense of helplessness. Shen Jingyuan's gentle comfort and the warm touch from the back of his hand became the last straw that broke her spirit.

The anxiety, the constant running around, the cycle of hope being ignited and extinguished, and the deep-seated fear of the outcome of "not being able to find it" all had nowhere to hide in the face of his gentleness.

Her eyelashes trembled, and the tears she had been holding back burst forth like beads from a broken string, gushing from her eyes and splashing into the tea in front of her, creating ripples.

"How... how can we not find him?" she choked, her voice broken. "He was such a big man, if he was alive, we should find him, if he was dead... we should find his body! There should be something left behind, but why... why is it as if he just vanished from the world... The north is so big and so cold... where am I supposed to look for him?"

As Shen Jingyuan watched her sob, her shoulders trembling and her voice broken, he felt his heart clench. He stood up abruptly, walked quickly to her side, and awkwardly reached out to wipe the tears from her face.

But Lin Xi's tears flowed like a burst dam, and no matter how much she wiped them away, they wouldn't stop.

"Don't cry, Xixi, don't cry..." His voice was a little tight, but it carried a self-deceiving certainty, "Your brother is definitely still alive. We'll search slowly and find him eventually."

As he spoke, he closed his eyes, as if he had made up his mind, and said in a deep voice, "Once this mission is completed and we return to Shanghai, I will report back to the commander and immediately come back with you to search! If we can't find him in one year, we'll do it in two years, and if we can't find him in two years, we'll do it in ten years... We will eventually find him."

Upon hearing this, Lin Xi was taken aback at first, then buried her head in his arms, crying even more bitterly, her voice choked with sobs.

“I…I don’t necessarily need him to be alive. Even if he is really…really gone, I can at least see him. Even if it’s just a handful of soil or a bone, I’ll take him back home…The winters in the north are so cold. How…how can he be left all alone here?”

As she cried, she suddenly raised her head, her eyes brimming with tears, and looked at Shen Jingyuan with a hint of gritted teeth in her voice.

“Even if… even if my brother really died in battle, he was a martyr who sacrificed his life for his country! A hero! Why… why isn’t there even a decent record of him?! Those government officials all gave me the runaround and claimed to know nothing! If this were in Shanghai, if my father were here… he…”

At this point, her body stiffened abruptly, and her words came to an abrupt halt.

Yes, this is not Shanghai, and she is not the powerful Miss Lin who can rely on her father's influence to do whatever she wants. She is just an ordinary person who has to be careful and encounter setbacks everywhere even when searching for traces of her relatives.

Realizing this, a huge sense of loss and helplessness instantly overwhelmed her, causing her eyes to redden and her tears to flow even more fiercely.

Shen Jingyuan's breath hitched, and he tightened his grip on her hand, about to speak to comfort her—

"Snapped!"