Zhao Lili was very happy to receive a call from Pan Jun notifying her about a small gathering with old comrades in the evening. First, her old comrade Dong Xiaoxue, who used to share a dormitory with her, was finally found, and second, she was currently troubled about what to have for dinner.
It was very convenient to take the subway Line 2 from her residence to Chongwenmen.
Zhao Lili did not enlist from Beijing; her father was an old soldier who participated in the revolution during the Anti-Japanese War. In 1975, when he was the political commissar of a certain field army's logistics department, he finally agreed to his only daughter's persistent request to join the army, just like her two brothers, and sent her to the brother unit, the X Division.
When she first enlisted, she had just turned sixteen. Growing up in the military camp with her parents and experiencing the transfers between the southern and northern regions, the happiest part of being a soldier for her was that she had finally grown up like her two brothers.
Zhao Lili enlisted together with seven local female middle school students specially recruited by the X Division's propaganda team, and naturally, she was assigned to the division's propaganda team. However, she had no artistic talents whatsoever; in middle school, she was selected by the physical education teacher to practice sprinting for the school's track and field team.
But she spoke Mandarin well, had a good appearance with a slender figure, and was quite pretty. She really resembled the few female soldiers who danced in the propaganda team.
Every male and female soldier in the propaganda team had artistic talents, and Zhao Lili practiced every day, working on tongue twisters, splits, and learning to read music and sing.
However, lacking artistic talent in her bones, no matter how hard she practiced, it didn't work out.
She could only play minor roles in group performances, serving as a chorus member or an extra in programs like "The Long March Song" and "The Honghu Red Guards."
She also assisted the veteran who served as the makeup artist.
Thus, she worked in the division's propaganda team for three years.
The X Division and her father's G Division were brother units, and many leaders here had been old comrades with her father.
These old comrades often invited Zhao Lili to their homes for meals during holidays, and she was quite familiar with the families of these leaders from the X Division, especially the children of a few families who were like siblings to her.
Yang Lei, the son of Deputy Division Commander Yang from the X Division, was a company commander in the communications battalion. Once, when he returned home for a visit and encountered Zhao Lili dining at her home, he was three years older than her. He also knew Zhao Lili's older brother, who worked in the military's direct agency. During the meal, the two became increasingly close in conversation, and Aunt Wang, the wife of Deputy Division Commander Yang, thought that Zhao Lili could really be a daughter-in-law for their family.
After finishing her meal, Zhao Lili returned to the propaganda team, and Aunt Wang mentioned this to her son Yang Lei, who also agreed. From then on, Yang Lei took the initiative to pursue Zhao Lili further.
Zhao Lili was completely unaware of what the deputy division commander's wife and son were discussing. Girls who grew up in military camps often had straightforward and generous personalities, which was even more pronounced in Zhao Lili.
Before joining the army, while studying at a local middle school, in the 1970s, male and female classmates rarely spoke to each other, which was particularly feudal and made them afraid of being laughed at by other classmates. However, Zhao Lili and a few other military children were not like that.
After leaving Deputy Division Commander Yang's house that day, Yang Lei often strolled around the propaganda team dormitory, looking for opportunities to "accidentally" run into Zhao Lili.
Zhao Lili saw Yang Lei several times at the military service center and the auditorium, and she never thought of it in any other way, just nodding and greeting him like she would with the children of other leaders in the division.
Before Yang Lei returned to the army, he was still infatuated, caught in unrequited love.
Yang Lei's mother, who had known Zhao Lili's mother for a long time, directly made a phone call to clarify the matter.
Of course, Zhao Lili's mother was happy to hear this, but she also knew her daughter was quite stubborn, so she said she would find an opportunity to see what her daughter meant.
A month later, Zhao Lili's mother passed through the city where the X Division was located on her way to the provincial capital, so she came to visit her daughter and also stopped by to see a few of her husband's old comrades.
In the room of the division's guesthouse, she chatted with her daughter, asking about her health and work, and finally asked if her daughter had a boyfriend.
Zhao Lili: Mom, are you really confused or pretending to be? I'm still a soldier, and soldiers can't date in the army.
Her mother said: I understand, you have grown up. Once you decide on such matters, you must inform me first. Mom has to keep an eye on this; it's not a small matter.
Then she added: Our family will be moving to XX City, where the military headquarters is located. Your father is about to be transferred from the G Division to the military logistics department, first as deputy director, preparing to take over the ministerial position that will be vacated next year. A month ago, military leaders and the military region spoke to him, and the formal appointment was issued the day before yesterday. I just finished my business in the provincial capital and am rushing back. I stopped by to see you; I will leave tomorrow.
Looking at her mother, who had come to visit her in a dusty state, and hearing what her mother had just said, Zhao Lili nodded repeatedly.
After her mother left the X Division, Yang Lei's mother received an ambiguous response from Zhao Lili's mother, indicating that Zhao Lili felt she was too young and that being a soldier made it inconvenient to date.
However, Yang Lei's pursuit of Zhao Lili continued.
He wrote a letter every week and sometimes called to chat. When he returned to his parents' home from the army, he either went to the military service center to seek a chance encounter or found a few children of division leaders on weekends and invited Zhao Lili to join them for meals and conversations.
In 1978, during her third year of service, after the Spring Festival, Zhao Lili was transferred to work at the division's political department broadcasting station, also managing the division's library, and by the end of the year, she was promoted to a squad-level cadre.
This was due to her own efforts, but behind it were also the influences of Yang Lei's parents and other uncles and aunts.
After her promotion, she was transferred from the broadcasting station to work as an officer in the division's cultural section. In the dormitory for female cadres at the division, she shared a room with Dong Xiaoxue, who had just been specially recruited into the propaganda team, so the two became particularly familiar.
At that time, Zhao Lili and Yang Lei's romantic relationship had already been established. Yang Lei was admitted to the Shijiazhuang Infantry School, and they agreed to get married after Yang Lei graduated.
In 1982, Zhao Lili's father was transferred from the position of minister of the military logistics department to a second-level department at the General Logistics Department of the People's Liberation Army in Beijing, and Zhao Lili's mother also moved the family to the courtyard of the General Logistics Department in Beijing.
In 1983, Yang Lei graduated from the Shijiazhuang Infantry School and was assigned to work at a certain branch of the military in Beijing. Soon after, he married Zhao Lili. At the end of the same year, Zhao Lili was transferred from the X Division to a hospital in Beijing's general logistics system, where she worked in the electronic education room.