Chapter 119: The more I look, the more he looks like him

Chang An's skin was dark because he had been working in the fields all year round, making him look five or six years older than his peers.

But even so, with these people, one couldn't tell he had just arrived in the city from the countryside.

Looking closely at his facial features, Lu Qiao suddenly remembered the father of Deputy Factory Director Lin in the inspection team last night, that Lin Lao who was in charge of aviation.

The mute looks so much like Lin Lao.

No wonder she felt Lin Lao was so familiar last night.

Uncontrollably, Lu Qiao's thoughts began to wander.

Deputy Factory Director Lin was under thirty, also considered the younger generation of the leadership layer.

Lin Lao seemed to be in his early fifties, while Chang An was a few years younger than Deputy Factory Director Lin, twenty-six years old this year. He was also an adopted son of the Chang family, but it was unknown where he was picked up from.

After her thoughts were opened, Lu Qiao looked at Chang An and the more she looked, the more he looked like Lin Lao.

But he didn't look like Deputy Factory Director Lin, but Deputy Factory Director Lin didn't look like Lin Lao either.

Chang An was sensitive. Sensing Lu Qiao's gaze, he hurriedly handed the permit he was holding to Zhou Li, rubbing his hands on his clothes nervously. At this moment, his palms were full of sweat.

He grew up in hunger and abuse. He was half a labor force at eight and earned full work points like an adult at twelve.

But in the Chang family, he still couldn't get enough to eat.

Often, they would give him a corn bun and tell him to get to the woodshed and not be an eyesore to that family.

His days were nothing but beatings and hunger; as for the verbal abuse, he didn't take it to heart at all.

He was able to grow up because from the age of twelve, he could get food for himself.

He grew up, was very tall, and had strength. His foster mother would tell everyone that the Chang family had raised him so well, and without the Chang family, he would have died long ago.

He was a wild seed that no one wanted, and he owed the Chang family too much kindness.

He worked desperately to repay them.

But in the middle of the night, he often wondered why his biological parents didn't want him. Was it really as his foster mother said, that the family couldn't afford to raise him and threw him away?

But now he had a home, a wife who didn't despise him for being a mute, and a son who called him Dad.

He had also broken away from that family and followed his wife into the military factory.

The life now was something he had exchanged his life for.

He couldn't lose it, and even more so, he couldn't affect Lili.

Thinking of this, Chang An became even more anxious. He looked at the permit again; he only held it lightly. He didn't get it dirty or break it.

But why was Comrade Lu looking at him like that?

Could it be because he was a mute, so the food factory didn't want him anymore?

Comrade Lu was kind-hearted, so she was embarrassed to speak up and drive people away?

If this place didn't want him, would he have nowhere else to go?

In Chang An's extreme anxiety, Lu Qiao spoke, her voice very gentle.

"Brother Chang, in a while, the neighborhood office is preparing to open a night school. At that time, you can sign up to study, from elementary school to junior high, striving to supplement the high school curriculum for you, and striving to issue graduation certificates to graduating students. Brother Chang, you were just delayed; you are really very smart."

Chang An was stunned.

His eyes were hot; so she wasn't going to drive him away.

Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief, showing a childlike smile to Lu Qiao. When the fine lines at the corners of his eyes folded, they miraculously overlapped with the face of Deputy Factory Director Lin's father in the inspection team yesterday.

Lu Qiao felt that the surprises life gave her were not without reason.

Who knows, maybe there really was a connection.

Zhou Li didn't know what Lu Qiao was thinking just now. She said happily: "Qiao, can I go too?"

Lu Qiao nodded: "Of course you can. I'm going too. My junior high education is incomplete; I have to finish it."

Meng Qingshan carefully placed the permit in the office they had cleaned up for the food factory.

Lu Qiao let them go with the factory's infrastructure department to pull cement and lime.

She also took out a slip and let Lu Qiao Ling and Du Shuang go to the department store to find Mu Dan, asking her to help collect white cotton cloth.

Wei Dong, Tiezhu, and Xiuyan went to clean up the hygiene of the area the service station was responsible for.

Arranging everything along the way, it was truly orderly.

Because the inspection team would also come to offer condolences on Saturday morning, the hygiene inspection was scheduled for the afternoon.

Lu Qiao asked Tao Tao to go to the Swan Hotel in the provincial capital where the inspection team was staying—also the best hotel in the provincial capital—to find an old man surnamed Lin and see if there was any useful news.

She went to find Qin Hengzhi.

Except for that time when she asked Qin Hengzhi if he wanted to watch a performance or attend a dance, it was Lu Qiao's second time going to the military representative office.

Going this time felt a bit different from last time.

How to describe it? It seemed a bit more solemn.

The sentries standing at the door all had postures as straight as poplar trees.

Thinking about it, they should have been strictly trained by Qin Hengzhi.

Because they had contacted in advance, Qin Hengzhi returned from the factory and waited for Lu Qiao in the office.

Lu Qiao originally wanted to wait until their date to tell Qin Hengzhi.

But Qin Hengzhi had been super busy these few days and didn't have time to date her at night.

He always let the tabby cat bring messages.

He made a small cloth bag for the tabby cat; the gold bracelet the tabby cat brought back last time was brought back like that.

Qin Hengzhi said the tabby cat's speed was terrifyingly fast.

It was impossible for naughty boys to catch it.

Lu Qiao believed this deeply.

So it was very convenient for passing messages.

But this time Lu Qiao didn't use the tabby cat to pass a message; she made a phone call.

Talking here was the safest.

Qin Hengzhi was wearing a crisp white shirt today, but below were green military trousers, a black belt around his waist, and his cuffs were rolled up to his elbows, revealing his wheat-colored forearms.

Sunlight shone in through the glass window, making that handsome and otherworldly face show a bit of gentleness.

Lu Qiao, however, scanned his waist ambiguously. Not to mention that face, just talking about this figure, it was truly super great.

Qin Hengzhi had no idea his little partner had such dark thoughts.

His brows and eyes were smiling. He poured a cup of herbal tea for Lu Qiao, then went to wash a basin of cherries, and said to Lu Qiao: "Cherries from the mountains, picked this morning. I wanted to send them to you tonight, but eating them now is just right."

Qin Hengzhi placed the white porcelain plate containing the cherries on the coffee table, and he sat down afterward.

Lu Qiao picked up a vermilion fruit and took a bite, the juice staining her lips bright.

Qin Hengzhi's Adam's apple moved; he only felt that Qiao's lip color was three parts brighter than the cherries in the plate.

Lu Qiao asked curiously while eating: "Where did you pick them? They are so small. But so sweet."

Qin Hengzhi's voice carried gentleness: "Deep in the mountains, they are wild cherries, ripening late, but the sunlight there is good, so they are very sweet."

He paused and said: "There is a birch forest over there; in autumn, the leaves are all golden."

He looked at Lu Qiao smiling, and then continued: "We can choose a good time to go to Wuhua Mountain in the north to play. At the foot of the mountain, there is a winding river, the kind that is clear to the bottom. There are many beautiful stones on the shore, there is a beach, there are many birch trees on the shore, and there are many wild fruit trees on the other side of the river. These cherries were picked there."

Lu Qiao's eyes were sparkling: "Just the two of us?" ===== CHAPTER 120 =====