Yan Yuanchao returned to the army from Beijing, and in order to achieve something and be transferred to the Beijing headquarters art troupe as soon as possible, to put it bluntly, to be with Wang Jia, he worked particularly hard.

However, unexpectedly, a year later, he injured and fractured his left foot.

That year, while fighting on the front line at Laoshan, Yan Yuanchao underwent surgery at the military district general hospital and then returned to the military district art troupe to recuperate.

After returning from the front line, he also recovered and returned to the division.

Although he felt very close when he met his comrades from the propaganda team a year later, aside from exchanging greetings, most of their topics were related to the Laoshan front line. This made Yan Yuanchao very depressed.

During his recuperation in the military district, Yan Yuanchao seriously contemplated his future, and most of his correspondence with Wang Jia revolved around this topic.

Half a year after returning to the propaganda team of the X Division, Yan Yuanchao formally submitted a transfer application to his leaders.

Since Yan Yuanchao was not married at that time, he could not be transferred to Beijing and could only return to the provincial capital city where he was born and enlisted. He was assigned to work at the provincial dance school, which was also where his mother worked before retirement and where he grew up.

In the mid-1980s, with the pace of reform and opening up, some stars and artists from Hong Kong and Taiwan began to flood into the mainland, and the social atmosphere and the thoughts of young people had changed significantly compared to the 1970s.

Pop music dominated the cities, while traditional local dramas made a comeback in rural towns.

Local art troupes, which used to mainly perform model operas, also began to transform.

The provincial dance school where Yan Yuanchao was located also faced issues with enrollment and the direction of graduates.

As a deputy battalion-level officer transitioning from the army, the school arranged for him to be the deputy director of the dance research office at the sub-section level, with the director being a high-achieving graduate who stayed at the school before the Cultural Revolution.

This director was also Yan Yuanchao's mother's student.

This director often visited his home when he was a student, so Yan Yuanchao was very familiar with him since childhood.

The dance school was a public institution; although the salary was not high, the work was easy and stable.

With insufficient enrollment and a low teaching load, Yan Yuanchao felt quite depressed. After returning from the military, he was young and had no pressure or motivation.

The director noticed that he was not adapting well and often advised him as an older brother. He encouraged him to relax, suggesting he could go out for a walk and not worry about the research office and school matters, as he would help him handle them.

Yan Yuanchao's mother had retired from the school and was in good health. She often went to her elder brother's house to play mahjong and did not need Yan Yuanchao to take care of her. The only concern she had was about Yan Yuanchao's relationship with Wang Jia.

Yan Yuanchao's mother had seen a photo of Wang Jia before, and when Yan Yuanchao transitioned, Wang Jia had also visited their home from Beijing.

Having been a teacher for decades, Yan Yuanchao's mother had seen all kinds of students and had a very good first impression of Wang Jia, who was dignified in appearance, gentle in character, and graceful in demeanor. Compared to the girls in the dance school, she seemed very suitable to be her daughter-in-law.

After her husband passed away, Yan Yuanchao's mother had been single for over twenty years. She paid special attention to Yan Yuanchao's marriage and was very satisfied with Wang Jia, but she still had some concerns about their future life, especially since Wang Jia was from Beijing. Where would her son settle down in the future? However, this was something she kept to herself, as she did not want to dampen her son's enthusiasm.

Yan Yuanchao's mother's worries were not without reason.

First, Wang Jia was a serious university graduate, while Yan Yuanchao's education level was only equivalent to that of a primary school graduate, which was quite a gap.

Second, Yan Yuanchao was six years older than Wang Jia, and he did not work in Beijing. The long-distance relationship was a challenge for both of them, and it was uncertain whether Wang Jia's parents would agree to this marriage.

Third, Yan Yuanchao was an only child and his mother's support as she aged. Yan Yuanchao worried that his mother might be reluctant to leave her hometown and him to go to Beijing, and he had repeatedly emphasized that no matter where he lived in the future, he would take his mother with him.

In fact, his mother never worried about this last point because her two brothers, Yan Yuanchao's uncles, lived in this city, and there was no need for Yan Yuanchao to stay by her side. This was just a reflection of her son's filial attitude.

Feeling bored at school, Yan Yuanchao often ran to Beijing.

Aside from Wang Jia, he had many comrades in Beijing, especially old comrades from the military district art troupe during that decade.

Sometimes he stayed in a hotel near the art museum in Beijing, and other times he stayed in the guesthouse within the military compound.

His romantic relationship with Wang Jia was very stable, and the concern his mother had about Wang Jia's parents possibly disagreeing was also something Yan Yuanchao worried about himself.

Unexpectedly, when he visited Wang Jia's home for the first time, he found her parents to be particularly kind and amiable.

Wang Jia's parents were both senior engineers at a research institute under a certain industrial ministry of the state. Wang Jia's grandfather passed away early, and her 90-year-old grandmother of White Russian descent also lived with them. At Wang Jia's home, Yan Yuanchao met this Russian grandmother who grew up in Harbin and spoke fluent Northeast dialect.

Wang Jia had told him before that her grandmother came from a noble family in Tsarist Russia and that her family fled to Northeast China during the October Revolution. This was quite common at that time, and they later settled in China.

Wang Jia's grandfather worked as a clerk in her grandmother's shop when he was young and later married her grandmother. Because her grandmother's family was relatively well-off, Wang Jia's father received a good education from a young age and went to university.

Wang Jia's father had bluer eyes, a high nose, and slightly yellow curly hair. Wang Jia's grandfather and mother were both pure Chinese, and by the third generation, Wang Jia and her sister's Russian features, aside from the blue eyes, were no longer very obvious unless looked at closely.

Wang Jia's parents did not interfere with their youngest daughter's relationship with Yan Yuanchao. As both were senior engineers and intellectuals, their personalities were particularly gentle and open-minded. The good family environment allowed their two daughters to be very independent and well-educated from a young age, which made them very reassured. As parents, they also respected their daughter's choices.

For a year or two, Yan Yuanchao handed over his salary to cover the railway and accommodation expenses in Beijing.

One afternoon in December 1986, Yan Yuanchao returned by train from Beijing and met a neighbor from his childhood downstairs the dormitory of the provincial dance school. They were of similar age and had grown up together, so they were very familiar with each other. However, while Yan Yuanchao went to the military art troupe, his neighbor went to the provincial song and dance troupe.

After Yan Yuanchao transitioned back, the two often met and chatted in the courtyard.

This neighbor, surnamed Lei, had a father who was the director of the school's teaching office and gave him a resounding name at birth: Lei Tiezhu.

Tiezhu's mother was a makeup teacher at the school, and before giving birth to Lei Tiezhu, she had hoped for a daughter but unexpectedly had a son. So, she raised him like a daughter, dressing him in floral clothes and applying lipstick.

This Tiezhu grew up in the dance school and loved to wear women's ballet shoes and practiced dancing on tiptoes. He was quite good at it and was admitted to the provincial song and dance troupe's student class at a young age.

Tiezhu could not become a leading actor in the provincial song and dance troupe, so after a few years as a supporting actor, he stopped dancing and was transferred to the office of the song and dance troupe as a clerk, where he became quite capable.

In the 1970s, tickets for the model opera performances by the provincial song and dance troupe were hard to come by, and Tiezhu was responsible for delivering tickets to relevant departments, which helped him build many connections.

He was quick-witted, emotionally intelligent, and had a great rapport with people.

When Lei Tiezhu saw Yan Yuanchao, he was very excited: "Brother Yuanchao, you’re back! I went to your house to look for you three times; otherwise, I would have gone to Beijing to find you!"

Yan Yuanchao was quite puzzled: "What’s going on? You seem so anxious."

Tiezhu said, "Let’s go, first come to my house and sit for a while. I have something important to tell you."

He pulled Yan Yuanchao to his home.

The content they discussed was another major event in Yan Yuanchao's life!