Chapter Sixteen: Is He Bullying My Niece?

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Xiao Bai.

Everyone in the room froze in place.

Bai Meijian was a senior commander in the neighboring provincial military district. For someone so high-ranking and powerful to be called “Xiao Bai” (Little Bai) was unthinkable.

Bai Meijian furrowed his brows and looked up.

He was about to speak, but upon seeing the other person’s face, he stood dumbfounded.

“Old… old commander…”

Bai Meijian’s voice carried both embarrassment and a hint of reverence.

Xiao Bo, Liu Ping, and Cong Gui also turned to look at the speaker, seeing an elderly man in his sixties with mostly white hair walking over accompanied by two guards.

“Old Sun?”

Xiao Bo and Liu Ping spoke in unison, their faces full of surprise.

“Dad!”

Sun Ting’s face was filled with joy as she quickly walked forward.

The call she made yesterday was to her own father.

Sun Weiguo strode forward with steady steps, showing no sign of the frailty of old age.

“Xiao Bai, oh Xiao Bai, I never expected you to have become such an irresponsible person nowadays. You…”

Sun Weiguo began to scold Bai Meijian, his eyes scanning the surroundings. Suddenly, his gaze froze.

He had seen a face he had longed for day and night, a face he thought he would never see again in this lifetime.

His body trembled violently; his fists clenched tightly, lips trembling uncontrollably, and his eyes instantly turned bloodshot.

“Dad… what’s wrong?”

Sun Ting looked at Sun Weiguo with great concern.

But Sun Weiguo said nothing. Instead, he shrugged off the two guards and walked toward the elderly man who had turned to look at him.

He stopped squarely in front of Ye Yuan, standing upright and firm like a pine tree.

His voice was loud and clear, trembling with emotion.

“Sun Weiguo of the 2nd Company, 3rd Battalion, Independent Regiment, reporting to the regiment commander!”

Everyone was stunned into silence.

Regiment commander?

Their eyes flickered back and forth between Ye Yuan and Sun Weiguo.

Ye Yuan looked up carefully at the man before him. “So it’s Xiao Sun. You’ve grown old like this already…”

Sun Weiguo smiled sheepishly.

This scene was utterly bewildering to everyone.

Before anyone could react, Sun Weiguo suddenly knelt on one knee before Ye Yuan.

“Foster father.”

Those two words rendered everyone’s minds completely blank.

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Ye Yuan was… Sun Weiguo’s foster father?

Ye Yuan reached out a hand and helped Sun Weiguo to his feet. “These days, it’s no longer the era for such old customs.”

Sun Weiguo’s voice choked with emotion. “Commander… I hadn’t heard from you all these years. I thought… I thought…”

“You thought I was dead?”

Ye Yuan smiled. “I haven’t lived enough yet. How could I just die like that?”

“Dad, this…”

Sun Ting felt her mind spinning.

Sun Weiguo grasped her hand tightly, his eyes shining with excitement as he looked at Ye Yuan. “Xiao Ting, remember when I told you the regiment commander who saved your father from a pile of corpses? That’s him — hurry and call him your foster grandpa!”

Sun Ting was also moved.

She hadn’t expected that a simple interview would bring such an incredible discovery!

The man who had rescued her father, then a mere child, from the bodies of her grandparents was none other than Grandpa Ye!

“Foster grandpa!”

Sun Ting spoke quickly.

“Ah.”

Ye Yuan responded softly.

“Old Sun, what’s going on here?”

Xiao Bo stepped forward curiously.

Though Sun Weiguo was much older than Xiao Bo, Liu Ping, and Bai Meijian, he was easygoing, and the younger men got along well with him, speaking informally.

As for Bai Meijian, he dared not be so casual because Sun Weiguo had been his direct superior when he was still in the military.

In fact, Bai Meijian owed his current position largely to Sun Weiguo’s promotion and had always held him in great respect.

“When I was young, my parents died, and it was the old commander who took care of me, teaching me military knowledge,” Sun Weiguo said with deep emotion, tears streaming down his face. “Without the old commander… I would have become a lost soul long ago…”

“Yesterday, my daughter called me, saying a veteran was being bullied and asked for my help. I didn’t know it was the old commander. I never expected…”

His voice choked again, unable to finish a sentence.

Bai Meijian stood there helplessly.

Sun Weiguo then looked at a pale Sun Dehai. “He bullied my niece? Tried to take her kidney?!”

“Old commander… I… Old Zhao…” Bai Meijian stammered, sweating profusely.

“Old Zhao? Hmph! That crippled Zhao wants to stick his hands here? He only wants that person to keep his own dirty deeds hidden,” Sun Weiguo snorted coldly. “But I’m telling you, that person won’t be taken away by you. You’d better get lost before you become an eyesore!”

Bai Meijian broke out in a cold sweat, standing there at a loss.

On one side was his former superior, a benefactor, and on the other was his current boss.

Caught in the middle, he was in a very difficult position.

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Ye Yuan spoke calmly, “Which one is this crippled Zhao?”

Sun Weiguo sneered disdainfully, “Who else but Zhao from the 3rd Company? The one who stole eggs from a villager and you caught him and hung him from a tree as punishment.”

“I had a guess,” Ye Yuan nodded slowly.

Xiao Bo and Liu Ping exchanged a glance, feeling their scalps tingle and their hands trembling uncontrollably.

Sun Weiguo and Old Zhao.

Both were lieutenant generals from the founding years of the nation, far beyond the ranks of today’s lieutenant generals.

They were true military heavyweights!

Although retired now, their influence in the military remained immense.

Yet…

These two military giants were once just soldiers under Ye Yuan’s command?

What kind of rank must Ye Yuan have held?

Considering the era, Ye Yuan would have been a regiment commander, and by the end of the war and the Liberation War, likely a division commander or even a corps commander!

The two men now looked at Ye Yuan as though gazing upon an insurmountable mountain!

“Old Sun.”

Xiao Bo smiled broadly and stepped closer. “Do you know this heroic Ye? Why has no one heard anything about him?”

“You want to know?”

Sun Weiguo cast a sidelong glance at Xiao Bo.

Xiao Bo nodded vigorously.

“I want to know too!”

Sun Weiguo replied gruffly, “The old commander disappeared without a word, as if he vanished from the world. I searched for him for a long time but found nothing. I even came here to retire because this is the old commander’s hometown.”

Then he looked at Ye Yuan. “Old commander, have you been living here all this time? Many old comrades hope to see you again. A few days ago, Big Zhuzi called me, sniffling and crying, saying he dreamt of you.”

Ye Yuan’s expression was filled with nostalgia.

One vivid face after another appeared in his mind.

Sun Weiguo grew more and more upset, frustrated with his own slowness and failure to persist in searching, and finally vented all his anger on Bai Meijian.

“What are you still standing there for? Waiting for me to take you home to eat?”

Sun Weiguo pointed at Bai Meijian with a face full of exasperation.

“You useless fool! When someone tells you to do something, you just do it? If I told you to die, would you die?”