Sweet Nostalgia of the 80s-Chapter 1402: People Go Crazy

An Hao picked up the child and was about to feed him when the child, already full, stubbornly turned his little head away.

"Not hungry?" An Hao said softly. "Come on, be good and eat your meal."

The little fellow glanced at An Hao, but his head refused to rest against her.

Meanwhile, another was crying his heart out.

"Wrong one! Got the wrong one!" An Hao instructed the Qin family to quickly switch the babies, and then both little guys calmed down.

"Right, have the children been named yet?" An Hao asked. After all, they couldn’t always just call them both "little guys," could they?

"Not yet. It’s better if you name them. Dad joined the army when he was very young and went off to war. He never read much. The names he comes up with are always about patriotism or love for China, which mom has vetoed. You are the one who has read the most in our family, the one with the most ’ink in the belly,’ so everyone agrees it’s best for you to choose the names," Qin Jian said as he chased mosquitoes away from the child.

"Well, I have thought of a few names. Our children were born in September, in autumn. How about Ning Qiuchu and Ning Qiushi?"

"They sound too somber. Autumn is desolate; I don’t like that season." Qin Jian remembered what the nurse had told him about the children’s birth.

At that time, a ray of sunlight had spilled over the horizon onto the earth.

"Ning Chaoyang? Ning Chenxi?" Qin Jian felt his son was like the rising sun, brimming with light and hope.

"That’s nice," An Hao nodded, "but doesn’t Chenxi sound a bit like a girl’s name? How about Ning Chenyang, Ning Chenguang? Together, they mean ’sunshine!’"

"Good," Qin Jian agreed readily, "Our family’s brightness and hope."

...........................

After taking a week’s leave, Qin Jian returned to the regiment headquarters.

Today was the routine monthly meeting, and officers above the company level had all gathered in the regiment’s meeting room.

As he entered, the meeting room erupted like a pot boiling over.

"Commander, where have you been this past week? You didn’t show your face even once! This week’s affairs were all overseen by the division commander!"

"To command such respect, it could only be our commander!"

"Hey, hey, hey!" The gregarious and playful company commander loved to show off whenever there was an audience, "Have you guys caught a certain scent on the commander?"

"Scent? What scent?" The simple and honest company commander Tian Niu, taking the other’s words seriously, actually leaned in to sniff, "I don’t smell anything!"

"What do you mean, nothing? Your nose must be blind! Can’t you smell anything!" the company commander chuckled, "Can any of you smell it?"

Everyone else knew what he was implying; they all bowed their heads, trying to suppress their laughter, not daring to make a sound.

Joking was all well and good, but no one would dare joke with the commander to such an extent. Casual teasing among the brothers in private was one thing, but to speak so irreverently about senior officers in a room full of them was going too far.

"Oh, stop beating around the bush," insisted Tian Niu, ever the simpleton, demanding to know the whole story.

"The smell of milk!" the company commander burst into laughter.

Qin Jian’s forehead twitched; this rascal had no sense of time or place and spoke with no shame.

Hearing this, Tian Niu inhaled sharply.

The brazen kid was courting death.

Those who hadn’t spent time under the commander’s command truly didn’t know his methods.