In the name of congratulating Li Lihua's safe return, the Smith family held a grand ball, inviting not only a large number of celebrities from Batavia, but also the Governor's Mansion and the British fleet were invited to attend, the Governor's House sent Mr. Debrey, the secretary of the Governor of Rossblue, and the British fleet sent the first mate of the Old Man Star, Colonel Moraire.

In fact, although the Smith family does not discriminate against Li Lihua's Chinese ancestry, she is just an ordinary child in the family, and there is nothing special about it, the Smith family has never held any activities in her name in the past, and this time it is actually to find an excuse to contact the People's Army and the Zhang family, and it is also to take this opportunity to hold an entertainment event to clear the tension since the war.

Although the People's Army did not attack Batavia during the entire period of protecting overseas Chinese, it still caused a lot of pressure on the residents of Batavia, and during the war, Batavia's foreign activities were completely interrupted, and a state of emergency was once entered, which made the residents fall into a state of extreme panic, and now Java has restored peace, although the Dutch colonial government has signed a treaty of humiliation and humiliation, but it has no impact on the residents of Batavia, so it is necessary to carry out some activities to symbolize that Batavia has returned to its former prosperity and order。 Both the Governor's Palace and the British fleet sent people to participate, also hoping that Batavia would recover as soon as possible.

After Qian Guoyu and Huang Qingping sent Li Lihua to Batavia, they stayed at Zhang Zhijun's house, and went to the Smith family with Zhang Zhijun to attend the ball the next day. Because he was attending a Western-style ball, Zhang Zhijun was wearing a top hat and a tuxedo suit, which was completely dressed in Western-style clothes. Zhang Zhijun is a Chinese who grew up in Java, although he has a very strong sense of belonging to China for a long time, but there are also many Westernized influences in customs and habits, Zhang Zhijun did not shave his hair and braids, and he has both Chinese and Western clothes, and wears different clothes on different occasions. This is not surprising among the Javanese Chinese, after all, Java is a hodgepodge of East and West concentrated area, cultural types, customs and habits are developing in a variety of ways, and fortunately, this time in Java, Qian Guoyu and Huang Qingping both brought their own military uniforms, so he wore military uniforms to participate in this ball.

The three of them took a carriage to the Smith family's manor, and after getting off at the gate, they saw that the carriages were parked on both sides, obviously there were a lot of people coming today, and after the next person reported to the doorman, it didn't take long for a group of people to walk out of the door, led by an old man in his sixties, and his hair was a little gray, Zhang Zhijun hurriedly greeted him, bowed, and said, "Mr. Smith." ”

The old man nodded, returned the salute, and said, "Mr. Zhang, welcome." ”

Zhang Zhijun introduced to Qian Guoyu and Huang Qingping that the old man was George Smith, the current patriarch of the Smith family. After greeting each other, Zhang Zhijun introduced them to a pair of middle-aged men and women next to Smith, who turned out to be Li Lihua's parents, John Smith and Li Xiangmei.

John Smith stepped forward, bowed deeply to the two of them, and said, "Thank you for protecting my daughter from grief in the midst of war, and I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to you as a father." ”

Li Xiangmei also said: "We only have one daughter, Lihua, I can't believe it, if there is no Lihua, what will we become, we really don't know what to thank you for your kindness." ”

Huang Qingping said with a smile: "Sir, madam, to be able to save a family from grief, a father from pain, and a mother from grief, this is our best return." ”

Then George Smith said, "Well, John, we should invite our guests in, and not express your thanks at the gate." ”

John Smith then came to his senses and said, "Yes, uncle. Then he said to Huang Qingping and Qian Guoyu: "I'm sorry, we were rude." ”

George Smith said, "Okay, a few people please come in." ”

Everyone walked into the door of the Smith family, through a courtyard, and came to a hall of more than 200 square meters, at this time there were many people in the hall, not 100 people but more than 80, the men were well-dressed, the women were dressed in a European long skirt, and they were in groups, some of them were talking loudly, some were whispering, and there were more than 10 people to be shuttled between them, sending up wine and food, and there was a band in the corner to play relaxing and soothing music.

Huang Qingping looked left and right and asked, "Where is Lihua?"

George Smith smiled: "She is in the dressing room, several people should know that it takes a long time for a young girl to put on makeup, and she is the protagonist of today, and she wants to show her best side, so please forgive her for her faux pas." ”

Huang Qingping smiled: "Mr. Smith, we can understand. ”

George Smith owed again, and said, "Ms. Huang, thank you for your generosity, and please forgive me for having to entertain other guests, and I can't accompany you." Then he turned to his nephew and said, "John, you have entertained our guests well." ”

After George Smith left, Mr. and Mrs. John Smith brought everyone to their seats to chat, and called the waiters to bring good food and wine, and entertained everyone. And Li Xiangmei sat for a while, then got up to say goodbye and went to see her daughter's makeup. However, most of the people present at this time knew Zhang Zhijun, so there were constantly people who went over to greet the cold noise, Zhang Zhijun introduced them to Huang Qingping and Qian Guoyu one by one, and some people specially wanted to meet Huang Qingping and Qian Guoyu to see if they could have a relationship.

However, although there were a lot of people who came to talk, the atmosphere was quite harmonious, so that no one dared to challenge Huang Qingping and Qian Guoyu, although the People's Army fought a lot of battles in Java and killed a lot of people, but it was mainly against the indigenous tribes, and did not attack the city of Batavia, although the last battle was against the Dutch coalition army, but the main soldiers were basically local natives, so the damage to the Europeans, because they were businessmen, did not cause much damage, and the Dutch colonial government lost a lot of money and gave up a lot of interests, but the Smith family is British, of course, they will not care about these。

And Bi Jing here is a ball, and the people who come are all trying to be lively, naturally no one will pick on others on this occasion, because this is not only rude, but also does not give the Smith family face, so even if someone is hostile to the People's Army, they will not show it on this occasion, at most they just ignore them. But the most important thing is the strength of the KPA itself, after all, the KPA is still stationed on the farm, who dares to pick the KPA at this time.

But Huang Qingping and Qian Guoyu's exchanges and answers with everyone were also very decent, that is, they did not act as a victor, nor were they overly modest and tolerant, neither humble nor arrogant, so they also won the praise of many people.

At this time, Li Xiangmei came to the side of a group of them again, and said with a smile: "Lihua is about to come out, if any of you want to invite her to dance......" pointed in the direction of a gatehouse, "Just hurry to the gate over there and wait, otherwise others will be preempted." ”

Everyone looked in the direction of her finger, and saw that there were more than 10 gorgeously dressed young men gathered on the periphery of the gatehouse, all of them looking eagerly, obviously waiting for Li Lihua to come out. Although Li Lihua is just an ordinary child in the Smith family, after all, she is an official member of the family, and she is young and well-educated, and her appearance is outstanding, so she is very sought-after among young men in Java.

Huang Qingping looked at Qian Guoyu, and seeing that he seemed a little indifferent, she pulled him aside and said, "Xiao Qian, aren't you going to ask Lihua to dance?"

Qian Guoyu shook his head and said, "I won't join in the fun." ”

Huang Qingping said: "Don't blame me for not reminding you, although I haven't been with Lihua for a long time, I can see that she is a good girl, and I think she has a good impression of you, if you miss this opportunity, it will be difficult to find." ”

Although Huang Qingping is a woman, she is much older than Qian Guoyu, and the military street is also one level higher, and her social experience and experience are much stronger than Qian Guoyu, so she can pose as an eldest sister in front of Qian Guoyu.

Qian Guoyu smiled bitterly and said, "Doctor Huang, we are all about to leave Java, what can we do?"

Huang Qingping said: "So you are worried about this, I can tell you a secret, but you don't just tell Commander Luo, the night before yesterday, Commander Luo came to me, Qingdao came to give instructions, leave 4 people in Java, 3 soldiers and 1 medical personnel, Commander Luo asked me to arrange medical personnel, but also told me that the regiment headquarters has been discussed and decided, and the 3 soldiers left behind are 3 deputy battalion commanders, isn't there you? It is estimated that you will stay in Java for at least 1 or 2 years, so there is still a chance." ”

When Qian Guoyu heard this, his heart couldn't move. To say that he has not been moved by Li Lihua, of course it is impossible, Qian Guoyu is 26 years old this year, which is the age to talk about marriage, but due to the special status of soldiers, there is no experience of falling in love in the old time and space, and in this time and space, although there are now many travelers who have found a partner, and some have more than one, but the proportion of crossing soldiers getting married is not high, after all, soldiers are not like ordinary travelers, the contact area is still a little smaller, and some people hold the principle of preferring lack to excess, giving up some opportunities, and only a very small number of people like Luo Yue have found a suitable candidate to marry early。

And Li Lihua's age, appearance, and education are the most suitable marriage objects for a time-traveler in this era, of course, her family background may be a little troublesome, but it is not a big obstacle. It's just that Qian Guoyu always feels that he is just a hurried passerby in Java, and Li Lihua will not have results, but if he can stay in Java for 1 or 2 years, of course it will be different, although it cannot be said that he has the certainty of absolute success, but at least there is a great opportunity.