Chapter 298: Chapter 298: New Year, Jiang Xue Gets Married, and Redress

When they got home, Zhong Zijun and Cheng Shuying were frying crispy pork bites, filling the house with a delicious aroma. Ji Linhai was cleaning wild pheasants and rabbits under the eaves, while Old Master Ji and Zhong Weiqian chatted as they wrapped dumplings. It was a scene of perfect harmony.

The whole family worked together to prepare a sumptuous dinner. This was their real New Year’s Eve meal.

Before leaving after dinner, Zhong Zijun gave each of the two children a big red envelope—twenty yuan each. This year, everyone had made some money. Just the sale of gastrodia brought in several thousand yuan, and after adding up everything else, Zhong Zijun had saved over three thousand yuan, which made her feel much more secure.

On the first day of the new year, Dabao went to Lin Xiaomeng’s house to pay New Year’s respects and came back with some news:

Apparently, Xu Meiling tried to jump into the river yesterday!

Of course, the river was frozen solid, so there was no water—she couldn’t die from the fall, at most she’d get hurt. In fact, she didn’t really intend to jump; she was just pretending at the riverbank, trying to scare Chen Jianghe into backing down. But she was too heavy and ended up collapsing the patch of earth beneath her, falling straight onto the ice. She hit so hard that she cracked the ice open.

Chen Jianghe couldn’t move her by himself; it took help from bystanders to get her back onto the bank. They said she broke some ribs and was now in the county hospital.

Gu Qinghuan couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for Chen Jianghe. He wasn’t a terrible person—how did he end up with such a troublesome wife? It was enough to make anyone miserable.

Other people’s business was just for listening, not for meddling. Xu Huaian had no intention of getting involved, and was happy to keep things simple.

Liu Guifang came by looking for trouble, but Xu Huaian sent her away with just a few words.

On the fifth day of the new year, Gu Qinghuan took Xu Huaian to Jiang Xue’s wedding banquet. She held two separate celebrations: one at the groom’s home, and another at the commune restaurant, where she invited two tables of friends from Xujiatun.

Lin Xiaomeng came with Xu Huaizhi, and Qiu Shuxia brought her husband Tugen. Zhu Chunlin and Lin Shengnan were there too, along with their son, who became the center of everyone’s attention.

Jiang Xue even invited Chen Jianghe, though Xu Meiling didn’t come—she was still bedridden.

The fact that Jiang Xue could invite Chen Jianghe showed she’d truly moved on. The things that once seemed impossible to get over, the people she thought she’d never forget—with time, they all faded away.

Especially now that Chen Jianghe had lost his former aura and become just another ordinary person. Busy caring for his wife and daughter, he had no time to look after himself and looked sloppy and unkempt—nothing like the Chen Jianghe Jiang Xue remembered.

This meal was a reunion for their group of educated youths. Everyone chatted about life, sharing stories and experiences. In just two short years, it seemed like everything had changed, yet somehow nothing had.

Jiang Xue and Hao Zhigao went around toasting everyone. She wore a new cotton-padded jacket bought by the Hao family, looking radiant and joyful. Hao Zhigao treated her well, thoughtfully picking out food for her, afraid she wouldn’t get enough. He wasn’t much of a talker, but he was considerate and attentive.

After all the twists and turns, Jiang Xue had finally found her true match.

Chen Jianghe looked at everyone’s happiness, feeling that despite starting out ahead of most, he was now the most miserable. He still had family to care for and a young daughter to feed. The more he thought about it, the more painful it became, so he drank in silence. In the end, he got drunk, and Zhu Chunlin had to carry him home.

The family enjoyed a relaxing New Year.

On the tenth day of the first lunar month, Xu Huaian had to return to school. The young couple found it hard to part. Before leaving, as always, he made sure Gu Qinghuan had plenty of firewood and killed two pigs for her to use. Gu Qinghuan, in turn, prepared all kinds of delicious food for him to take: beef jerky, pork slices, spicy rabbit, shredded chicken—all his favorites.

“Huanhuan, I’ll wait for you in Beijing this October. Then our family can finally be together,” Xu Huaian said, pulling her into a tight embrace, his eyes full of reluctance.

“Okay!” A thousand words condensed into that single promise.

With tears in her eyes, Gu Qinghuan saw Xu Huaian off.

Life soon returned to its usual calm.

At the end of February, a letter from afar broke the peace. Mingcheng and Nansheng wrote to say they’d repeatedly reported the Zhong family’s wrongful case to the authorities, hoping it would be taken seriously. At the start of the year, the case had officially entered the review process. Once the facts were confirmed, the Zhong family would be exonerated. They urged everyone to take care and be patient.

As soon as Gu Qinghuan received the letter, she rushed home to show it to Zhong Zijun and her grandparents. The two elders were moved to tears, and Zhong Zijun’s eyes reddened.

It hadn’t been seven days, or even seven months, but seven or eight long years. They had trudged through darkness, enduring and waiting, and finally saw the dawn.

How many seven years does a person get in a lifetime?

It wasn’t just the Zhong family—at the beginning of March, Ji Linhai also received good news. The organization sent a notice: “Regarding the Redress of Comrades Ji Ping and Ji Linhai,” stating that all false accusations made by the “Gang of Four” against Ji Ping, Ji Linhai, and others should be overturned, and their names fully cleared. All those implicated by Ji Ping’s wrongful case would also be exonerated, and the negative impact erased.

The day he received the notice, Ji Linhai remained calm, quietly finishing his work as usual. Only that evening did he go to see Zhong Zijun.

The moment he saw her, he finally broke down. Usually as tough as steel, he cried like a child.

His father, Old Master Ji (Ji Ping), had been the Air Force Deputy Commander in the early days of the People’s Republic. Influenced by his father, Ji Linhai had loved aviation since childhood and was determined to contribute to the development of the country’s air force.

In the 1950s, China’s ability to produce fighter jets was weak—most technology and even many parts had to be imported. Back then, young Ji Linhai visited the Gorky Aircraft Factory in the Soviet Union, where MiG-21s were made, and from then on, he dreamed of developing China’s own fighter jets.

Through his own efforts, he made it happen. In the early 1960s, China’s first single-seat, single-engine supersonic jet fighter, the J-7, went into production. Although it was a copy of the MiG-21F-13, it marked China’s entry into the ranks of countries capable of producing advanced second-generation fighters.

Despite his youth, Ji Linhai served as chief designer and even personally test-flew the J-7. Everyone said he was a “tiger son of a general,” with a bright future ahead.

His achievements didn’t stop there. Besides developing fighter jets, he was later responsible for tactical and technical training test flights for the air force, and often took on combat readiness and high-altitude reconnaissance missions. He led the development of the J-8 fighter, which began in the early 1960s, with the first prototypes completed in 1968.

But then disaster struck, and many people were implicated. The J-8, which should have been finalized and put into production, was delayed for years.

After being labeled a “rightist,” he and his father were thrown into the cowshed to fend for themselves. At first, his father was utterly despondent and tried to end his life several times, but with Ji Linhai’s support, they managed to survive.

For so many years, he’d tried to forget his past, living without dignity, like a beast of burden.

Now, at last, his injustice was redressed. The pain he’d endured was beyond words.

Zhong Zijun, also a victim of the Anti-Rightist Campaign, understood his suffering all too well. Some things could only be felt, not spoken.

Sitting there, it seemed like they were still the same people as before, but only they knew how much had changed, inside and out.

Soon, Ji Linhai and Ji Ping were taken away by officials. The situation in the country was changing rapidly, and there was much work to be done. Ji Linhai left all his savings with Zhong Zijun, asking her to take care of herself.

He promised that once he returned, he’d do everything he could to help her family get redressed too, and when the time came, he’d come for her himself.

Gu Qinghuan was happy for them. Before they left, she hosted a gathering and prepared many things for them to take.

Ji Ping, their honorary “grandfather,” also emptied his pockets, giving all his spare change to Dabao and Beibei. After all, they’d become family.

Dabao and Beibei were reluctant to see Ji Ping and Ji Linhai go.

When the villagers saw an armed squad come to escort the two men from the cowshed, they whispered among themselves:

“Heavens, that big oaf from the cowshed is actually a big shot?”

“And that old guy—they say he’s a high-ranking official too!”

“What a pity! If only we’d cozied up to them before, maybe we’d be riding high now!”

“Dream on! You think you had that kind of foresight?”

Lin Xiaomeng regretted it too. She’d known many in the cowshed were important people who might be rehabilitated, but she hadn’t realized just how influential these two were, or that the state would send such a team to fetch them. If she’d known, she would have tried to get closer.

But so much had changed in this lifetime, and her own path had shifted as well.

Zhong Zijun hid in the crowd, watching Ji Linhai about to leave. He was dressed smartly in his military uniform, his big beard shaved off, revealing his handsome face—he’d kept the beard to hide his good looks. Now, without it, the skin on his face was two different shades, which made people smile.

Without the beard, Ji Linhai looked at least ten years younger, like a man not yet thirty. Zhong Zijun almost didn’t recognize him. She felt a twinge of anxiety; when he’d been scruffy, she felt they were well matched, but now he seemed like a stranger.

For the first time, she felt a sense of inferiority. She was a few years older, with two grown children, while he was unmarried and now reinstated and promoted. The gap between them would only grow.

Ji Linhai looked into the crowd and spotted Zhong Zijun immediately, even though her face was covered. He gave her a gentle wave, then got into the car and left.

Gu Qinghuan noticed Zhong Zijun’s disappointment.

“Mom, are you worried Uncle Ji will forget about you now that he’s gone?”

“No, it’s just… he feels a bit like a stranger now.” She’d once thought they were equals, but now it felt like they belonged to two different worlds.

Gu Qinghuan understood—she was struggling to accept the sudden change.

“Don’t worry, our own bright future isn’t far away. When the time comes, you two will still be well matched, a perfect pair.”

Zhong Zijun stopped dwelling on it. “You’re right. I trust your Uncle Ji.” He wasn’t that kind of person.

She couldn’t stop thinking about the way he’d smiled at her before leaving. After all these years, it was the first time she’d seen his true face.

Some people are like rainbows—you only realize their beauty when you finally meet them."