Go back in time and be a chaebol

Chapter 2683 Official Cooperation (Second Update, Please Subscribe)

The clanging sound of the train rolling over the tracks echoed inside the carriage.

Occasionally, the train attendants in the sleeper carriages would glance at one of the carriages where several foreign guests were sitting. Because the attendants had served in the military, they could sense the military aura emanating from the three people as soon as they boarded the train.

Foreigners.

soldier.

The combination of these two identities makes one unconsciously more sensitive.

Could he be a spy?
However, the flight attendant only made this guess in her mind.

After all, they were not only foreign guests, but their accompanying personnel were also comrades from Kunming, including a soldier in uniform.

However, their rank wasn't high enough, so they could only travel in hard sleeper carriages. Therefore, these foreign guests are currently in soft sleeper carriages.

Of course, in this situation, as a train conductor, he had to remain vigilant, since these people looked different from ordinary people.

The train roared along the Jiaoji Railway, and the scenery outside the window gradually changed from rolling hills to open plains, but the people in the carriage paid no attention to the changing scenery outside the window.

They were there, engrossed in their work.

Song Fan looked at the document in his hand, his brows furrowed, his gaze fixed on the document, which was a photocopy.

There are photos, names, addresses, family information, and ancestral home information, but nothing else.

However, more than 30 years ago, their predecessors also searched for them but could not find their family members.

Now, this task has fallen to them: to find the families of the fallen soldiers and deliver the death notices to them.

Zhao Hai, sitting in the opposite bunk, watched all of this. He sighed softly and then said:

"The most difficult person we need to find is Sun Yibang. He joined the army in 1944. He was from Qingdao, Shandong. At the beginning of the War of Resistance against Japan, he fled to the rear area with his parents."

Zhao Hai's voice was soft, tinged with a hint of helplessness:

"The address he originally left was an old house in Chengdu. When the elders went there to find it, they had already moved."

The neighbors said that not long after the victory in the War of Resistance against Japan, they followed the flow of people returning to their hometown of Qingdao. However, they couldn't find them at the address they had left in Qingdao.

Song Fan slowly raised his head and said:

"Yes, many people lost contact in this way. Back then, it was a time of war and chaos. They joined the army in the rear areas, and all they could leave behind were temporary addresses in the local area. After the smoke of war cleared, their families returned to their hometowns one after another."

Li Yunchu, who was sitting by the window, suddenly spoke, her voice sounding somewhat heavy:

"What's worse is that after they return to their hometowns, their original houses may not still be there. During the war, many families sold their houses at low prices before fleeing, or their houses were forcibly occupied. By the time they returned, everything had changed. This is why the death notices were not delivered to the families in time."

"Many people left their addresses, but lost contact due to war and other reasons."

Looking out the window at the rapidly receding scenery, Song Fan's tone was full of regret:

"But in any case, this letter, decades late, carries the endless waiting and longing of a family, alas..."

Looking at the three characters "Sun Yibang," Song Fan's eyes were filled with melancholy as he said:
Do you know who Sun Yibang's comrades-in-arms are?

He added:

"He was even the first search team member to die in Europe, and if he hadn't died, he probably would be now."

"Ah."

Li Yunchu said:
“I heard that after the delivery of death notices was restarted, several leaders called the office to inquire about the progress and offered to provide some information. They have never forgotten, but there were too many obstacles in the past. Now that this work has been restarted, the leaders hope that we can deliver these notices to their families.”

"Ah."

Song Fan nodded and said:
"Therefore, we must complete this mission. Our job is to find the families of these fallen heroes."

He paused, then said:

"They died in a foreign land, and their families miss them day and night. Only by delivering this belated death notice to them can we give them an explanation and offer some comfort to their families."

Silence fell over the carriage, broken only by the clanging of the train against the tracks. Each of the three men was lost in their own thoughts, the documents in their hands feeling as heavy as a thousand pounds; behind each name on them lay decades of waiting.

These death notices should have been delivered to those people decades ago, but due to various circumstances, they have only now restarted this work.

The question is, will we be able to find them?
No one was confident, but everyone was very clear that this was a task they had to complete, no matter how long it took.

After an unknown amount of time, a gentle female voice came over the train's loudspeaker, announcing that the train was about to arrive at Jiaozhou Railway Station.

Song Fan and his two companions immediately got up and packed their belongings, while their two escorts were already waiting for them outside the carriage.

The train gradually slowed down and finally came to a smooth stop at the platform.

As soon as they stepped out of the carriage, the two people accompanying them led the way. A short distance away, two more men quickly approached. The middle-aged man in the lead first met with the two accompanying leaders, and after a brief exchange, he turned his gaze to Song Fan and his companion, extending his hand and saying:
"Gentlemen, welcome to Jiaozhou. I am Wang Xin from the Municipal Overseas Chinese Affairs Office, and this is Xu Shengli from the Public Security Bureau, Comrade Xu."

He turned to the young man in police uniform beside him to introduce him, and after the introduction, he said:
“We have been waiting for you since we received the notification. Xiao Xu and I will cooperate with you in the whole process and do our best to help you find the families of the martyrs.”

Although he didn't know why his superiors had given him this task, finding relatives was, after all, his job.

It's the same no matter who you help find their relatives.

And so the search team began its work. At the same time, more than a dozen other teams were also working simultaneously in various locations.

What is the most difficult thing about finding a person?
They searched for useful information from fragmented pieces of information and eventually located their relatives. The first people they searched for were Sun Yibang's family. As soon as they checked into the hotel, Song Fan and his team listed out the clues and pinned them to a whiteboard with magnetic nails.

While they were analyzing the whereabouts of his parents and relatives, Xu Shengli, who had been sitting next to them, looked at the information on the chart and turned to Wang Xin, saying:

"Section Chief Wang, what's so difficult about this? It's not difficult at all!"

Xu Shengli's words prompted Wang Xin to speak:

"Comrade Xu, please don't talk nonsense, this is a big deal..."

Hearing what Section Chief Wang and Officer Xu said, Song Fan replied:
"Officer Xu, do you have any good suggestions? You can share them." Xu Shengli, whose name had been called, looked at the photos and clues on the wall and said:

"Finding them isn't difficult. If the main lead goes cold, we'll look for them in the side lines, just like how we used to catch spies. If the main lead doesn't work, we'll start from the periphery..."

Before he could finish speaking, the comrade in military uniform sitting on the other side of the conference room coughed. Xu Shengli then realized he had said too much and quickly cut to the chase, saying:
"His father taught at Lixian Middle School before the War of Resistance. Although they did not continue teaching at Lixian Middle School after returning to Jiaozhou, did they have any old friends or acquaintances at the school? Did they not keep in touch with each other?"

Pointing to the names written on the whiteboard, Xu Shengli said:

"Besides this breakthrough, there's also their ancestral home. If there are no clues here, we can go to their hometown to investigate. A person can't live without friends and relatives, right? If we don't have enough manpower, we can ask the local government for cooperation."

Actually, they had considered starting from the outside, but that involved some other issues. Song Fan cautiously asked:
"Is there any problem with doing it this way?"

The reason they were so cautious was that the manpower and resources required for the other party to make a move exceeded their expectations.

Originally, they only hoped that the other party could provide some assistance in areas such as household registration, and more importantly, conduct a direct investigation.

But now the officer is telling them bluntly that they can use all other means to find those people.

This was clearly a bit beyond their expectations. After all, it involves legal issues, privacy concerns, and other aspects.

"What's the problem? The higher-ups said they will fully cooperate with your work and do everything possible to find their families."

As Wang Xin spoke, he turned to look at the two accompanying persons from Chuncheng and asked:
"Two leaders, am I right?"

"Ok!"

The middle-aged man adjusted his glasses and said:

"Fully cooperate, this is an order from higher up! Use any means that can help in finding the person."

With the superior's layout in place, everything became incredibly simple.

Soon, they went straight to Lixian Middle School. After explaining their purpose, the school principal thought for a moment and then said:
"In that case, we need to check the list first to see which teachers from before the War of Resistance have been retained until now. So many years have passed, it's not easy to find them."

Hearing the principal say this, Xu Shengli asked:
"Are the staff files still there? Get the files of all the staff who have been teaching at the school since before and after liberation, and check their social relationships. Maybe we'll find some clues."

Because everyone's social relationships had been repeatedly verified, as long as there was a connection between them, they would naturally appear in the network of relationships. So the group started looking through those files.

When they saw the incredibly detailed materials in the file, Song Fan and the others were all stunned, because even as soldiers, they did not have such detailed files.

After all, this includes not only their resumes, but also layers of social networks, from relatives to colleagues, and even friends.

"This, this is also..."

Just as Li Yunchu was about to say something, someone said:

"Found him, Fang Luochen. He mentioned Sun Xiuqi in his colleague relationships."

Where is Fang Luochen?

"You mean Teacher Fang?"

The principal said:

"He was just transferred to teach English at the university a few months ago. Universities are now offering English courses, and there's a shortage of English teachers. Because he studied in the UK, he was transferred to the university..."

Soon, they found several other teachers who had interacted with Sun Xiuqi, Sun Yibang's father, in those files. Except for two who had passed away, the whereabouts of the others were also found.

So they immediately split into two groups, each searching for clues. Song Fan and Xu Shengli went to the university to visit Fang Luochen, but when they found him, he saw them and, after hearing their purpose, simply shook his head and said:
"I'm sorry, comrades, I haven't been in contact with Lao Sun for many years. His family fled to the rear before the country fell, and we've lost touch for so many years."

His answer made Song Fan frown, and Xu Shengli's expression also turned somewhat unpleasant. He said:

"Professor Fang, to tell you the truth, this is a foreign guest who has come from abroad. He has information about the whereabouts of Mr. Sun Xiuqi's son."

"You mean Yibang! He, he's still alive."

In a single sentence, the thread was leaked.

After all, if they really had no connection, how could they possibly know about Sun Yibang?

Xu Shengli merely snorted at this, glanced at the other party, and said nothing.

Even so, the gaze cast upon him by the scenery still made Fang Luochen somewhat uneasy.

Seeing this, Song Fan quickly said:

"Mr. Fang, I'm so sorry I didn't identify myself earlier?"
I am Song Fan from the Casualties and Veterans Affairs Office of the SEA Department of Defense. I am here to find Mr. Sun Xiuqi and inform him of the whereabouts of his son, Sergeant Sun Yibang of the Allied Search and Rescue Team…”

Although Song Fan hadn't finished speaking, Fang Luochen could still discern the other party's intentions from his words; after all, the word "casualties" said it all. Fang Luochen's lips trembled slightly as he said:

"You, you mean, Yibang, is really, really dead..."

As he spoke, he sighed again, his expression somewhat forlorn, and then he shook his head and said:

"Poor old Sun, he waited half his life, but in the end he still didn't get to see it... He had a hard time, waiting for so many years, but in the end he still didn't get to see it."

When he said those words, everyone understood that he definitely knew where the other person was.

Song Fan asked somewhat anxiously, "Professor Fang, where is Mr. Sun now?"

Then he added:

"We came here to find him and tell him about his son. Please help us by providing his contact address."

Fang Luochen thought for a moment and said:

“I have an address here, go there and look for them, it’s their family.”

Oh, and Yibang's wife and children too. If they hadn't moved, they should still be there. I really don't know how they'll react when they hear this news...

After saying that, he let out another long sigh...

(End of this chapter)