Liang Xin, freshly bathed, lay…
At noon, Chief Lu returned.
He brought back a bottle of Maotai.
Hu Fenglian exclaimed in surprise, “Where did you get such fine liquor?”
“From the military district’s internal supply. I bought it.”
Chief Lu looked extremely pleased as he handed the liquor to Hu Fenglian. Taking off his military green cotton coat, he turned to Lu Chongfeng, “Boy, let’s have a drink today, just us two.”
“Have you gone mad?” Hu Fenglian set the bottle on the dining table. “He has to drink two or three doses of traditional medicine every day. He can’t touch alcohol.”
Chief Lu chuckled, “You’re right, I forgot. Xiao Wei, you’ll have a drink with me today.”
When the tangyuan were cooked, they were served according to each person’s preference. The marinated salted chicken was stir-fried in a wok with red peppers, garlic leaves, scallions, and ginger, then simmered with dark soy sauce until the sauce thickened. The salted meat was sliced thin as cicada wings and steamed over rice, emerging translucent and fragrant, tantalizing the appetite.
Liang Xin took a bite of a black sesame tangyuan. The black sesame filling immediately spilled from the white glutinous skin onto her spoon, filling her mouth with rich aroma.
The Maotai was uncorked and poured into glasses, its fragrance permeating the air.
“Boy, you drink water.” Chief Lu raised his glass. “I’m toasting you today, kid.”
“What’s going on today?” Hu Fenglian held a spoon, looking puzzled at Chief Lu. “Why are you so happy?”
Lu Chongfeng raised his water glass, clinking it lower than his father’s, and took a small sip. He glanced at Liang Xin, who was blowing on her hot tangyuan.
Chief Lu sipped half a glass of Maotai, his face instantly reddening from the strong liquor. “This kid got promoted. He’s now a regiment-level officer.”
Hu Fenglian was astonished, “Chongfeng hasn’t even recovered from his illness yet. How can he return to work? Where was he promoted to? Is he going back to his original unit? But wait, shouldn’t Chongfeng continue his studies at the military academy?”
“This kid.” Chief Lu’s face broke into a proud smile. “The Commander-in-Chief himself said that if he weren’t so young, he should be teaching at the military academy.”
Lu Chongfeng raised an eyebrow: “The Commander-in-Chief has better judgment than the Deputy Commander.”
Liang Xin glanced at him before lowering her head to continue eating her tangyuan.
Hu Fenglian was taken aback, “Why would Commander Zhao suddenly mention Chongfeng? Didn’t you say everything Chongfeng said was nonsense? How did he get promoted so suddenly?”
“Don’t ask so many questions.” Chief Lu handed his glass to the guard who wanted to refill it.
The guard looked even happier than Chief Lu: “Most military careers get stuck between battalion-level and deputy regiment-level. You could say the hurdle from battalion to regiment is even harder to clear than from division to army level. Below battalion level are junior officers, but regiment level means leadership cadres!”
Lu Chongfeng continued watching Liang Xin from the corner of his eye without responding.
Chief Lu suddenly patted his son’s shoulder, “Well done. The jump from battalion to deputy regiment nearly cost you your life, and almost ended your entire military career. The Commander-in-Chief specifically quoted Zheng Banqiao’s ‘Bamboo and Rock’ – ‘Tempered through countless trials, standing firm against winds from all directions’ – to praise your character. Today I also want to commend you – you live up to your name Chongfeng (Charge)!”
Xiao Wei happily added, “Your Commander Chen also said young cadres like you should be specially cultivated!”
Liang Xin looked at Lu Chongfeng with laughter in her eyes.
Lu Chongfeng’s previously unresponsive face, which had been praised for quite some time, finally showed a slight lift of his chin. “Zheng Banqiao also said, ‘Bamboo has leaves that bow low, plum blossoms have no upturned faces.’ You all are too ostentatious.”
Chief Lu burst out laughing, “You rascal!”
Hu Fenglian set down her spoon. “After all this talk, where exactly has he been promoted to?”
Chief Lu: “Staff Officer in the Operations Department.”
Liang Xin already knew and wasn’t surprised, slowly eating her last tangyuan while pondering how to deal with Chairman Liu’s bunch of hyper-competitive overachiever activities.
“Operations Department?” Hu Fenglian’s eyes lit up with pleasant surprise, finally happy. “Doesn’t that mean working in the Military Compound? No need to go to the military academy or return to his original unit?”
“This kid turned it down.” Chief Lu’s smile never faded. “Everyone fights tooth and nail to get into the Military Region Headquarters, but not only did this kid get promoted to the headquarters, he was promoted to the core Operations Department of the Military Region Command. Yet he refused, wanting to go down to the troops instead, and take on the most pressure-filled responsibilities. That’s why the Commander-in-Chief and Old Chen from their army think so highly of him.”
Liang Xin’s head snapped up. “Down to the troops?”
Chief Lu: “Yes, transferred to the 16th Army, 11th Division as Chief of the Division Training Section.”
“Generally speaking, the Chief of Training Section is part of the preparatory team for regimental-level cadres.” Xiao Wei said with a smile. “With Chongfeng’s capabilities and talent, it won’t take more than a few years to reach the regimental level position.”
Liang Xin had a bit of sweet black sesame stuck at the corner of her mouth, her expression dazed.
Lu Chongfeng’s breathing unconsciously became tense.
She indeed looked quite affected.
“Liang Xin, you don’t need to worry.” Hu Fenglian had also noticed. “The 16th Army’s 11th Division is in the remote wilderness, where there’s nothing at all. You just stay living at home. If you want to farm or raise pigs, Mom will go to the countryside with you. No need to follow Chongfeng and suffer.”
“Mom, what nonsense are you talking? What remote wilderness.” Lu Chongfeng explained rapidly. “The entire 11th Division has relocated to Jiangkou, with new barracks.”
“Jiangkou?” Hu Fenglian pursed her lips. “Jiangkou is even colder, with both the Yangtze River and the East Sea. Liang Xin shouldn’t go suffer that hardship.”
Lu Chongfeng looked at the silent Liang Xin. “I wasn’t planning to have her come with me anyway.”
The Yangtze River, East Sea, versus farming and raising pigs.
Plus there was still Chairman Liu’s overachiever pressure from behind.
She was quite willing to go suffer in Jiangkou.
But looking at Lu Chongfeng’s unwilling expression…
“…Dad, shall I have a drink with you?”
The entire table was stunned.
Chief Lu: “Drink? Maotai?”
Liang Xin stood up and took a white porcelain cup, holding it out to Xiao Wei’s liquor bottle. “Since Chongfeng can’t drink, I’ll drink with you.”
Lu Chongfeng’s chopsticks froze mid-air. “This is baijiu.”
Liang Xin looked at Xiao Wei: “Brother Wei, please pour.”
Xiao Wei tilted the bottle, filled the cup to the brim, then quickly withdrew his hand.
Liang Xin held the cup with both hands, toasting Chief Lu without words, then raised her head and took a large gulp. After swallowing, her face wasn’t red and her breathing wasn’t labored.
“Clatter.”
One of Lu Chongfeng’s chopsticks fell onto the table.
Hu Fenglian, Chief Lu, and Xiao Wei all stared dumbfounded at Liang Xin.
“Good.” Chief Lu was even happier than when he first entered. “Now I have a drinking companion.”
“Don’t get ahead of yourself!”
Hu Fenglian snatched the Maotai liquor and put it away. “You just recently resolved to quit drinking, and the social connections at home have finally quieted down. If people find out you’ve started drinking again, those coming to your door every day bringing liquor will drive me crazy. Besides, how old are you? Do you think your body is still like it used to be?”
Chief Lu solemnly raised his wine glass, took a small sip, and couldn’t bear to finish it.
Lu Chongfeng studied Liang Xin carefully, not missing a single change in her expression. “How come you drank half a glass of 53-proof Maotai as if it were zero-degree water, without any reaction at all?”
Liang Xin lifted her eyelids and gave him a faint glance.
Her eyes shimmered like rippling water, causing Lu Chongfeng’s breath to hitch.
“Liang Xin, have some food.”
Hu Fenglian picked up a piece of braised salted chicken and placed it in Liang Xin’s bowl. “Chongfeng, the person you should thank most for your promotion is your mother, because she found you such a wonderful wife. Not only has she stabilized your condition, but she always puts you first in everything, constantly thinking of you. Now she’s even drinking liquor on your behalf. Let me warn you—I only recognize Liang Xin as my daughter-in-law. Don’t think just because you’ve received some praise from the military district chief and got promoted, you can stop taking Liang Xin seriously.”
Lu Chongfeng adjusted his breathing.
It wasn’t that he didn’t take Liang Xin seriously.
It was clearly Liang Xin who didn’t take him seriously.
In the afternoon, Lu Chongfeng carried Liang Xin horizontally into the room.
He gently placed the flushed, unconscious Liang Xin on the bed, bent down to untie her cotton shoe laces, moved her onto the pillow, and tucked her in properly.
Just as he tried to remove the pair of hands from around his neck, Liang Xin’s hands suddenly tightened. Lu Chongfeng’s arms went weak, and he leaned forward, collapsing on top of her.
The soft sensation against his chest made Lu Chongfeng’s breathing instantly grow heavy.
One breath after another sprayed against Liang Xin’s neck.
Liang Xin unconsciously shifted her face.
The scent of jasmine mixed with the aroma of liquor slowly drifted into his nostrils. Lu Chongfeng experienced a dizzying sensation as if he were drunk. He tilted his head and gazed at the peach-blossom face so close to his—long eyelashes casting shadows on her cheeks, her nose bridge straight and slightly upturned, and those cherry lips he had dreamed of countless times, now plump and rosy from the alcohol, naturally pouted in her deep sleep as if waiting…
Lu Chongfeng took a deep breath and, with tremendous willpower, pushed himself up from Liang Xin’s chest. He pulled up the quilt, tucking it tightly around her from the chin down, and stared at her face for a while.
He thought about how these past few days, taking advantage of his need to take medication, she would forget to bring her inner clothes when bathing, and no longer hid her white undergarments inside woolen sweaters when hanging laundry…
When he got up to follow his training schedule in the room, she would lie on the bed, propping her head up with her hand, her just-awakened lazy eyes lingering on his body, slowly looking him up and down…
She wasn’t so well-behaved at night anymore either—when he held her hand as she slept, she would still scratch his palm…
“Be careful.”
Lu Zewei reached out, pointing at Liang Xin’s pink-tinted nose. “I am a man, after all.”
After a long pause, his voice sounded again in the room:
“A very capable man.”
Liang Xin opened her eyes to find it already dark outside. Turning her head, she saw Lu Chongfeng sitting at the desk under the lamp, fully dressed in his military uniform, writing with a pen.
She slowly sat up, immediately feeling dizzy, as if the effects of the alcohol hadn’t faded at all.
She had actually fallen asleep.
Fortunately, it took her a long time to sober up.
“What are you doing?”
Hearing her voice, Lu Chongfeng’s back suddenly stiffened. He hurriedly grabbed a book to cover what was in front of him, nearly knocking over the ink bottle in the process. He quickly reached out to steady it, but a few drops of ink splashed onto the book. He then picked up a blue checkered handkerchief nearby to wipe it, creating a scene of utter chaos before finally turning around unnaturally. “You’re awake. Feeling better?”
Liang Xin lay on her side against his pillow, gazing through the gap between his arms by the light of the kerosene lamp with its glass shade. Beneath a black book cover, she spotted a pink-bound book, her eyes slowly drifting up to his face.
The large hand pressing down on the book was damp with sweat, soon leaving fingerprints on the black cover from the excessive force.
Lu Chongfeng could hear his own breathing and heartbeat. “Would you like some water?”
“An orange.”
Lu Chongfeng glanced at the oranges in the fruit bowl, rose silently from the edge of the writing desk, and deliberately placed another newspaper over the black book cover before bringing an orange to the bedside.
Liang Xin took his pillow and propped it behind her back as a cushion. Accepting the orange, she peeled it slowly, broke off the first segment, and held it out.
Just like usual.
In Lu Chongfeng’s eyes, it was the same gesture used to feed a dog.
And just like usual, Lu Chongfeng bent down to take it with his mouth.
This time, however, she didn’t let go.
Lu Chongfeng, holding half the orange segment between his lips, lifted his gaze to her, his long eyelashes fluttering.
With the orange already half-bitten and unable to fall, Liang Xin released her index finger, pressed it against his upper lip, and slowly traced its perfect curve.
Lu Chongfeng’s arms were taut like drawn bows, braced against the bed. His Adam’s apple moved as he swallowed the faint scent of orange, remaining completely still under Liang Xin’s touch.
Liang Xin used her thumb to push the orange segment between his lips. As the orange disappeared into his mouth, her index finger moved from the seam of his upper lip to the tip of his nose, giving a light press. Lu Chongfeng’s lips, which had just closed tightly, parted again, revealing the intact orange segment.
“Why aren’t you eating it?”
Liang Xin’s fingertip glided over the peak of his lip, settling on his lower lip, gently stroking the nearly invisible lines. “Is the orange sweet or sour?”
So she wanted him to taste it for her?
Lu Chongfeng bit into the orange. A drop of juice splashed onto Liang Xin’s fingertip. Instinctively, he sucked on the pad of her index finger, drawing the drop into his mouth. “Sweet, not sour.”
The sucked finger sent a tingling numbness shooting from her arm straight to her heart.
Liang Xin finally looked up, meeting his pitch-black eyes.
Lu Chongfeng chewed the orange. “It really is sweet.”
Liang Xin: “…”
She handed the remaining orange to him, threw off the covers, and got out of bed. Shedding her padded jacket, she opened the wardrobe door, took out fresh clothes and a sun-dried white bath towel, and left the room.
Lu Chongfeng stood up after her. “Are you hungry? Should I go down and make you a bowl of sweet fermented rice soup with poached egg and small glutinous rice balls?”
His answer was the sound of the bathroom door closing.
When Liang Xin came out, the room was empty.
The books on the writing desk had been tidied away. The orange she had peeled earlier, missing one segment, lay with its peel on the bedside table.
Liang Xin let out a sigh and stood before the wardrobe mirror.
Her snow-white cheeks bloomed with peach-blossom pink, her jade-like bones and icy grace exuding elegance and charm.
She frowned slightly. “Is he blind?”
Considering Lu Chongfeng’s comprehension skills.
Had her earlier hints been too subtle? Maybe the meaning wasn’t clear enough.
Liang Xin tugged at the collar of her woolen sweater, which reached her collarbone, and glanced at the white bath towel draped over the chair back.
She hesitated for a moment.
Then she thought of Chairman Liu’s determination to mold her into a model worker and a March 8th Pace-setter.
And her mother-in-law’s enthusiasm about taking her to farm and feed pigs.
In the end, she picked up the bath towel.
Lu Zewei pushed open the door, holding a bowl of sweet fermented rice soup with poached egg and small glutinous rice balls.
The fermented rice in the bowl sloshed.
Even though he steadied it hastily, a few drops spilled onto the floor.
The bowl that hadn’t felt hot before suddenly burned in his hands.
On the bed, Liang Xin lay clean and fresh in his quilt, her body wrapped only in a bath towel.
Amidst the crimson satin and golden-threaded peony blossoms, her cheeks were like peach blossoms, her collarbones delicate, her fragrant shoulders slender yet rounded, with subtle fullness hinted beneath.
The kerosene lamp’s light flickered upon her collarbones, casting a lustrous, dazzling whiteness that made even the white bath towel appear dull against her snow-like skin.
This was too much.
Lu Zewei struggled to regulate his chaotic breathing, but could no longer control the blood raging through his veins.
“Come here.”
Liang Xin issued a clear command.
Lu Zewei tightly gripped the porcelain bowl, his sweaty palms causing it to slip, forcing him to hold it with both hands as he approached Liang Xin. Not daring to let his eyes wander, he fixed his gaze high upon the black hair atop her head.
Liang Xin: “Where are you looking?”
“Nowhere.”
Liang Xin extended her hand, “Give it to me.”
Lu Chongfeng swallowed several times, slightly lowering his head to glimpse a profound depth from his elevated position.
Only at close range did he notice her skin was white tinged with pink—the lingering hue from her recent bath, not yet fully faded, seemingly still emitting faint steam. As he drew nearer, the moisture quickly coated him in sweat.
Lu Chongfeng raised his face toward the adjacent wall, slowly lowering his hands to place the bowl on the bedside table.
Even the wall wasn’t as pale as her.
Liang Xin picked up the bowl, taking the white porcelain spoon to stir the fermented rice with small glutinous balls. “Did you take your medicine?”
“Yes.”
Lu Chongfeng’s palms damp with sweat, he reached for a handkerchief and clenched it tightly.
“What’s wrong with your quilt?”
“Nothing.”
“…If nothing’s wrong, then why… why are you sleeping over here?”
Liang Xin ate one small glutinous ball, chewing slowly without responding.
Lu Chongfeng stole a glance at her face before immediately looking away.
Unprecedentedly vivid in his mind emerged the first black-and-white woodblock print he’d seen of a man peeping at a neighbor’s woman bathing.
Lu Chongfeng cursed inwardly, why was he thinking of that pair again.
He was legitimate.
Looking was legitimate!
Yet Lu Chongfeng didn’t dare look—that single glance had nearly made his blood vessels explode.
What might happen if he looked again?
“Is marriage good?”
Facing the wall, Lu Chongfeng replied, “Yes.”
“What’s good about it?”
“…You’re good, so marriage is good.”
Liang Xin set down the half-eaten bowl. “What’s written in that book?”
Lu Chongfeng: “…Things for adults. Children wouldn’t understand.”
Liang Xin: “…”
“You married a child?”
“Things for men. Women wouldn’t understand.”
“Bring it here for me to see.”
Lu Chongfeng’s voice tightened, “You’re still drunk. Go to sleep.”
Suddenly, his collar button was grabbed. Before Lu Chongfeng could react, he was pulled down.
Liang Xin flipped over and pinned him against the quilt, landing on his chest.
Instinctively, Lu Chongfeng reached to steady her waist and back, but his touch met cool, smooth skin. His hand against her slender back instantly clenched into a fist.
Liang Xin, wrapped in her white bath towel, pressed against his green military uniform. “Invalid.”
Lu Chongfeng’s tightly clenched jaw loosened defiantly. “I’m better now.”
“Oh?”
Sitting up on his uniform’s hem, Liang Xin leaned sideways to retrieve a partially eaten orange from the bedside table, slipping it beneath his uniform.
Lu Chongfeng’s abdominal muscles instantly tightened. As the cool orange slowly rolled upward, his arms and feet tensed in unison, transforming him into a piece of scorching steel.
The missing segment made the orange soft as a cloud, yet its gentle slide could effortlessly vibrate the impenetrable steel, causing even Liang Xin’s hair strands to tremble.
Wrapped in a white bath towel, Liang Xin resembled a doctor in a white coat. The orange in her hand was like a stethoscope, probing beneath the military uniform and white shirt inch by inch. “Does it hurt here?”
Lu Chongfeng’s temples were beaded with sweat, his fists clenched against Liang Xin’s back to prevent her from falling. Gritting his teeth, he shook his head.
The orange glided more smoothly over his sweat-slicked skin, traversing from his abdominal muscles to the left side of his chest. “Does your heart still hurt?”
Lu Chongfeng’s Adam’s apple bobbed, but he remained silent.
“Does it hurt here?”
Liang Xin leaned down, pressing her ear against his heart. “What kind of pain is it?”
Her full, soft chest pressed against him. The veins on Lu Chongfeng’s neck bulged, his clenched fists loosening and tightening again, the blood vessels on his knuckles standing out prominently.
“You’re burning up.”
Liang Xin’s left hand, exposed outside his shirt, crept up to his chin and rested against his lower lip again. “Open your mouth. I need to take your temperature.”
As Lu Chongfeng wondered how she planned to measure it, he had already obediently opened his mouth.
The next second, slender fingers slipped inside like a small snake.
Lu Chongfeng’s heart constricted violently, and he clenched his teeth around her fingers.
The delicate fingertips were gently held between his lips and teeth.
Liang Xin brought her lips close to his ear, which was already flushed crimson, and whispered, “Hold the thermometer for fifteen minutes.”
Lu Chongfeng obeyed, keeping still.
But the thermometer grew restless, moving between his teeth as if chasing something.
When her fingertip touched his tongue,
Lu Chongfeng’s spine trembled. He instinctively swallowed, then heard a soft hiss from the person in his arms and immediately relaxed his jaw.
He looked down to check her finger but instead saw the pressed snow-white curves.
His clenched fists could no longer maintain control, loosening to press against her cool, smooth skin.
Just as the heat in his chest began to subside, she pressed against his collar button, pushing him into the peony bushes.
Liang Xin raised her slender, pale finger—now bearing faint tooth marks on its pink pad—and narrowed her eyes. “You bit me?”
Lu Chongfeng couldn’t make a sound, his chest heaving rapidly, drenched in sweat.
“You’re quite likable when you’re silent.”
Liang Xin put her finger in her mouth and sucked.
Lu Chongfeng’s eyes instantly caught fire, fixed intently on her rosy lips.
That thermometer had just been warmed by his mouth and hadn’t cooled down before acquiring new heat between her lips. If she moved the stethoscope from his heart and pressed this thermometer there instead, it would surely shatter from overheating within seconds.
Releasing her hand from his chest, Liang Xin leaned close to his sweat-dampened ear. “In your books, are there roles for patients and doctors?”
“……”
Liang Xin grabbed his wet black hair, turning his face toward hers. Her fingers gently traced his burning lips again. “Answer me.”
Panting heavily, Lu Chongfeng replied, “No.”
“Then what is there?”
“……Warrior guardians…… and a princess.”
Liang Xin’s hand brushed against the sweat on his face as she whispered, “What do they do……”
Suddenly, Lu Chongfeng lifted his head and captured her lips.
His soaked hair fell across Liang Xin’s eyelids. She closed her eyes and parted her lips slightly.
Lu Chongfeng wrapped his arms tightly around Liang Xin’s slender back.
She buried herself against his chest, resting on his firm torso as they continued biting each other’s lips.
Several minutes passed.
Liang Xin lifted her long lashes, gazing closely at the small mole beneath his eyes. Her tongue tingled with anticipation, yet he only knew how to bite his lips—from the corners to the cupid’s bow, then to the lower lip. In his haste, an overwhelming innocence radiated from him. Even when she initially parted her lips, he merely pressed closer, nibbling the tender flesh between their lips and teeth, unaware of how to proceed further.
Lu Chongfeng held Liang Xin tightly, heartbeat pressed against heartbeat, the taste of liquor lingering between their lips and teeth. The corners of his eyes were flushed red, as if intoxicated by this very act.
The crushed orange seeped from the inner white shirt through the military uniform jacket, lending the snowdrifts a citrus fragrance.
Then another kind of thermometer slipped in.
Yet it felt less like a thermometer and more like the tongue depressor a doctor uses to examine one’s throat.
The tongue depressor in a doctor’s hand is a thin wooden strip with rounded ends, pressing down with an discomfort that radiates from within.
But when the soft, sweet tongue depressor touched his tongue, Lu Chongfeng’s eyes flew open, his heart softening while his spine tingled.
Lu Zewei’s dark, smoldering eyes burned with twin flames as he watched Liang Xin’s long, fan-like lashes droop. Provoked beyond control, his fingertips pressed shallow dimples into the shoulders and back, his calloused palms leaving red marks on the snow-white skin.
His palm lines seemed to carve deep into the bone, leaving their imprint.
Liang Xin bit the corner of his mouth, slowly opening his eyes.
When their lips parted, blood stained his mouth.
In his uncontrollable excitement, he had bitten too hard and broken the skin.
Liang Xin shifted downward, his glistening eyes filled with speechless exasperation as he gazed at Lu Chongfeng—body taut as iron, drenched in sweat, lips stained with blood.
All that reading had been for nothing.
With a surge of resolve, Liang Xin tugged open the wrapped corner of the bath towel. The white towel instantly slid down along the curves of his body.