Xu Xiangsi turned around and saw, oh, isn’t that the woman on the boat who loves to eat candy?
She swayed her hips and quickly approached, her eyes darting between the military jeep and Long Peiye.
“Are you two heading to the military base?” She smiled, but her eyes gleamed with shrewdness. “I’m also going to visit my family at the military base. I don’t know this place well, and I don’t know how to get around. Could you… give me a ride?”
Before Xu Xiangsi could speak, Long Peiye frowned almost imperceptibly, clearly not liking this overly familiar attitude.
Xu Xiangsi, on the other hand, was decisive and efficient.
She looked the woman up and down, a half-smile playing on her lips.
“Sorry, we’re not going to the military base. You’ll have to find your own transportation.”
After saying that, she opened the car door and got in without giving him a second glance.
Long Peiye nodded slightly to the woman and then got into the passenger seat.
The young soldier quickly started the vehicle.
The jeep sputtered and sputtered, puffing out a cloud of blue smoke as its tires rolled over the concrete of the dock and sped away.
The fashionable woman, left standing there, looked at the car’s rear end, and the smile on her face instantly vanished.
“Pah!” She spat in the direction the car had left.
“What the hell! They’re already in a military vehicle, and they still say they’re not going to the army? What a load of rubbish! Selfish and petty! They have no spirit of mutual assistance at all!”
She grew angrier the more she thought about it, and stomped her foot.
“Once I get to the army, I’m going to give them a piece of my mind and show them what kind of person he is!”
The woman thought bitterly, looking around as she began to ponder how to get to the army.
The jeep bumped along the potholed dirt road.
Xu Xiangsi held onto the car window with one hand and protected her small suitcase with the other, her eyes curiously looking out the window.
This island is completely different from Shanghai.
Everywhere you look, there are lush subtropical plants, and the air is filled with a salty and refreshing smell.
“Hey, Long Peiye.” She turned to look at Long Peiye, “Are there a lot of factories on this island…?”
Long Peiye recalled for a moment: “If I really want to say, there are quite a few.”
“You’ve just been transferred here and don’t know anyone, so don’t let anyone bully you,” Xu Xiangsi said in a tone like an older sister.
She also reached out and patted Long Peiye’s shoulder lightly across the seat.
“If anyone bullies you, just tell me! I’ll stand up for you!”
She raised her chin, a hint of smugness on her face, the same kind she had when she scared people on the boat.
Long Peiye’s lips curled up slightly, revealing a barely perceptible smile, his voice tinged with barely suppressed amusement: “Then thank you in advance?”
This girl, does she really think she’s her guardian angel?
Xu Xiangsi didn’t catch the teasing in his tone and thought he was genuinely grateful, so she nodded in satisfaction.
As the car continued driving, Xu Xiangsi sensed something was wrong.
The scenery along this road doesn’t look like a road leading to any factory or farm at all.
The jeep quickly passed an area surrounded by high barbed wire, with armed sentries standing guard at the entrance.
“A military camp?” Xu Xiangsi muttered to herself.
Before she could think it through, the jeep made a turn and plunged into a neat-looking courtyard next to the military camp.
The words “Military Family Compound” are hung at the entrance of the courtyard.
The car wound its way through the yard before finally coming to a steady stop in front of a small courtyard.
Although the house is simple, it doesn’t look like the kind of house that an ordinary factory worker would be allocated.
Xu Xiangsi got out of the car and frowned as she looked at the secluded courtyard in front of her.
She was about to ask Long Peiye what was going on and what he was up to.
The young soldier who had been driving silently had jumped out of the driver’s seat.
He strode up to Long Peiye, snapped his knees together, and gave a crisp military salute, his voice booming and full of energy: “Battalion Commander! I’m heading back to camp now!”
Long Peiye waved his hand casually: “Okay, go ahead.”
The young soldier saluted again, then turned and ran away.
As soon as Long Peiye turned around, he met Xu Xiangsi’s eyes, which were filled with question marks—no, exclamation marks.
“Battalion Commander? Camp? Long Peiye, you…you…who exactly are you?!”
Xu Xiangsi felt that her brain was not working properly.
Looking at her expression, which looked like she had seen a ghost, Long Peiye finally couldn’t help but chuckle.
He walked up to Xu Xiangsi, stopped, and put on an expression that he had never seen before, somewhere between serious and playful.
“I forgot to give a formal self-introduction. Comrade Xu Xiangsi,” he nodded slightly, his voice clear and steady, “I am Long Peiye, the battalion commander of the 1st Battalion, 2nd Regiment, 3rd Army stationed on Yun Kong Island.”
Xu Xiangsi blinked, then blinked again, and it took her a long time to find her voice.
Long Peiye had a faint smile on his lips as he reached out and pushed open the wooden door of the small courtyard beside him, making a soft creaking sound.
“Is it possible,” he turned to the side, gesturing for her to come in, his voice carrying a hint of barely perceptible mockery, “that you’ve chosen the wrong person from the very beginning?”
Xu Xiangsi felt a buzzing sound in her head, as if she had been hit hard by something!
Her eyes widened as she stared at Long Peiye in disbelief: “So…so that day at the state-run restaurant, you weren’t there for a blind date at all?!”
Long Peiye nodded frankly, his tone calm and even: “Yes, I arranged to have dinner there with my comrades.”
Xu Xiangsi almost choked on her breath, her cheeks instantly turning bright red, not from embarrassment, but from anger!
“Long Peiye!” she shouted through gritted teeth, “So I’ve… lost a fake husband that I could easily buy off with money and vouchers at any time?!”
She lost out big time!
Upon hearing this, Long Peiye raised an eyebrow slightly, a hint of amusement flashing in his eyes: “Oh? Am I not obedient enough to you?”