“I’m not getting a girlfriend. Women are such a hassle—they’re always making demands,” Zhou Lin said with disdain.
“Don’t go eating your words later,” Lu Ning said with a smile. “I’ll remember what you said today. Why don’t you say it again so I can record it? That way you can’t deny it later. What should we bet on?”
Zhou Lin said, “You’re so childish. Are you sure you’re really eighteen? You didn’t lie about your age, did you?”
“How could I lie about it? I graduated from the journalism school at Yangcheng University and started working at the Yangcheng Evening News in my senior year. By this year, I’d been a reporter for three years. I even spent a year as a war correspondent in Country Y.”
“Really? You were a war correspondent in Country Y?” Zhou Lin asked, taken aback.
His eyes lit up with excitement. “Did you meet any peacekeeping forces soldiers? Are they really handsome?”
Lu Ning saw the stars shining in Zhou Lin’s eyes. “Are you interested in the peacekeeping forces?”
Zhou Lin smiled, looking utterly innocent.
He had a lovely smile, his eyes curving like crescent moons.
He nodded vigorously. “Yeah! So, did you meet them or not?”
“Of course I did. I didn’t just meet them—I interviewed them, too. I even have the WeChat contacts of a few peacekeeping soldiers on my phone. But I don’t usually dare bother them. I’m afraid it might interfere with their missions.”
Zhou Lin could tell Lu Ning didn’t look as if she were lying, so he pressed on. “Were the soldiers you knew from our country? How old were they? Where were they deployed from? And how long do their missions usually last?”
Lu Ning patiently answered Zhou Lin’s questions one by one.
“There were soldiers from all kinds of countries, but the ones I interviewed were from ours. As for their ages, they varied, though most were in their twenties or thirties. And mission lengths vary.”
Zhou Lin was full of envy. “I wish I could join the peacekeeping forces, too.”
“Why do you want to join them?”
“To protect world peace,” Zhou Lin answered without hesitation. Then he realized what he’d said.
“Don’t tell my family about this, especially my brother. Just pretend I never brought it up.”
Lu Ning was puzzled. “Why not?”
“Just don’t tell them, okay? My brother’s coming back. Let’s drop it.” Zhou Lin looked toward the milk-tea shop.
Lu Ning changed the subject. “Hey, why do you hate Luo Xiaoyun so much? It’s not just because she likes your brother, is it?”
“That woman’s shameless. She goes around telling people that the three of us brothers are all in love with her and fight among ourselves over her. One of my classmates heard her saying it. I’ve already warned her: if she spreads those rumors again, I’ll smash her mouth in,” Zhou Lin replied angrily.
Lu Ning was shocked. “You didn’t tell your family?”
Zhou Lin said, “No. They wouldn’t believe me even if I did. Luo Xiaoyun’s such a phony—she’s a total green tea.”
Lu Ning burst out laughing. “You even know what a ‘green tea’ is?”
Zhou Lin said, “Of course I do.”
Zhou Lie came back carrying the milk tea.
He opened the car door and got in, then handed one of the two cups to Lu Ning and the other to Zhou Lin.
After fastening his seat belt, he continued driving.
Lu Ning and Zhou Lin silently picked up their straws and drank.
After a couple of sips, Lu Ning thought for a moment, then held her milk tea up to Zhou Lie’s mouth. “Here, have a drink and wet your throat.”
It was scorching outside, and he’d been waiting for the milk tea for so long. Lu Ning felt bad about it.
Zhou Lie glanced at her, then lowered his head and took a sip. “There. You drink it.”
Zhou Lin stared at him in disbelief. “Brother, aren’t you always saying you hate other people’s spit? Why are you drinking after her?”
Zhou Lie said, “Because she’s my wife. You’re just a kid—mind your own business and shut up.”
Lu Ning’s face grew hot. She bit down on her straw and quietly drank her milk tea.
Last night’s heart-fluttering, embarrassing intimacies with Zhou Lie came unbidden to mind again.
She thought, What’s sharing a cup of milk tea compared with that? They’d done much more intimate things.
Still, they ought to be a little more careful in front of a child.
Although Zhou Lin was already in his final year of high school, he still seemed rather childish. But it was perfectly normal for boys to mature later than girls.
Twenty minutes later, they arrived at the clinic run by Father Xia.
It was in another urban village in the city.
It was midday, and there were no patients in the clinic, only Father Xia, Mother Xia, and two nurses.
Lu Ning insisted on getting out of the car and walking by herself. She wouldn’t let Zhou Lie carry her.
The three of them walked into the clinic together. Zhou Lie’s tall, handsome appearance immediately caught the two nurses’ attention.
Xia Weihong and his wife, Wu Lizhen, came out to greet them.
“Ningning, Alie, Zhou Lin, you’re here! It’s so hot outside, isn’t it? Come in and enjoy the air-conditioning,” Xia Weihong said with a beaming smile.
“Dad, Mom, we drove here. There’s air-conditioning in the car, too, so we weren’t hot,” Lu Ning replied.
“Dad, Mom,” Zhou Lie greeted his parents-in-law, then nudged his younger brother.
Zhou Lin quickly greeted them. “Hello, Uncle and Auntie.”
“Hello, Zhou Lin. Besides the fever, are you having any other symptoms?” Wu Lizhen asked with concern.
“Let the boy sit down first, then ask him,” Xia Weihong chided his wife. He beckoned to Zhou Lin. “Come sit over here, Xiaolin. Let me take a look. Does your throat hurt?”
Zhou Lin sat down opposite Xia Weihong. “It doesn’t hurt, Uncle, but my voice is a little hoarse, and I have a headache.”
“Open your mouth.” Xia Weihong picked up a small flashlight and examined Zhou Lin’s throat.
The two nurses sidled up to Wu Lizhen to gossip.
Li Fei asked, “Aunt Zhen, is that handsome guy your son-in-law? Is he really a police officer? He’s so handsome!”
Chen Yuanyuan’s attention was on Lu Ning. “Aunt Zhen, that girl looks barely eighteen. Is she really your daughter? She does look a bit like you, but the ages don’t seem to add up.”
Wu Lizhen said proudly, “Ningning takes after my mother. My mother had a baby face, too. I take after my father more.”
“Oh, I see. But your daughter and son-in-law look like a perfect match,” Chen Yuanyuan praised.
She thought Lu Ning was far prettier than Xia Yuwei, and that Lu Ning looked much better standing beside Zhou Lie.
Wu Lizhen also thought her daughter and son-in-law made a wonderful couple. She looked at the two young people with a smile, happier than words could say.
She and Li Ying had been high school classmates, but lost touch after graduating.
They didn’t meet again until recently, when they both returned to their school for its anniversary celebration.
Though they hadn’t been in touch for decades, once they started talking, it felt as if they were old friends. So they added each other on WeChat.
When they learned that both of them had children who were looking for partners, they did everything they could to bring the two young people together.
But things didn’t go smoothly.
Xia Yuwei was very pleased with Zhou Lie’s looks, but she looked down on his job.
She thought there was no future in being a police officer and that he earned too little—not even enough in a month to buy a designer handbag.
She worked at a cosmetics counter in a shopping mall and had seen plenty of rich people. She was determined to change her lot in life, struggling at the bottom, by marrying into a better family.
Zhou Lie, meanwhile, had a very poor impression of Xia Yuwei’s materialism. He made it clear to his mother that he refused the match.
But Li Ying told him to think about the family’s circumstances. It was rare for the Xia family not to look down on his father’s situation and to be willing to let their daughter marry into the Zhou family.
She also said that Xia Weihong and Wu Lizhen were both good people, so surely the daughter they’d raised couldn’t be bad.
She insisted that Zhou Lie marry Xia Yuwei.
But no one had expected the police to suddenly show up at the Xia family’s home and tell them that Xia Yuwei and Lu Ning had been switched at birth in the hospital.