Early the next morning, Yun Shui packed her luggage and boarded the company shuttle, ready to move into the unified staff dormitory.
The staff dormitory wasn't large—about the same size as her rented place, though it had an extra balcony. Yun Shui carried her things through the door, then used Swift-Delivery to order a slew of daily necessities. After busying herself through an entire weekend, she finally managed to get settled, more or less.
She was exhausted. She still had work tomorrow, and her mind was so restless and troubled that she ended up dreaming of things from long ago.
In the dream, she was at military training.
A nightmare.
Yun Shui had done her undergraduate studies at Capital Polytechnic University—a school that was decent enough. Not quite top-tier, but the kind of name you could drop without being scorned by parents with a mild case of academic snobbery. The campus was a bit out of the way, with no bustling shopping districts nearby; going shopping meant traveling quite a distance.
Right next to Polytechnic stood The Alliance's most elite military academy.
Both the Military Academy and Polytechnic University had their origins in the flagship programs of Capital University—they originally belonged to the same comprehensive institution before gradually splitting off into separate schools.
The relationship between the two schools was close, especially between Polytechnic's Mecha Mechanical Engineering program and the Military Academy's Combat Command Department.
When Yun Shui started her freshman year and underwent military training, her drill instructor was an active-duty soldier who had graduated from Capital Military Academy.
She'd been drilled half to death, scared witless, and trained into a daze. She'd endured the "Sunny Day" that the broadcasting station seniors had dedicated over the loudspeakers, and had barely managed to tough it out to the end—only for an accident to happen on the very last day, during the final drill demonstration.
The formations were marching in goose-step one by one. She happened to be on the right side of the center of her formation, and her row was still at the edge of the field doing final preparations, not yet officially started.
Yun Shui was adjusting her uniform and fixing her cap when she noticed her shoelace had come undone.
She bent down to tie it, and suddenly felt something was off.
There was a sound of some animal panting urgently.
She looked up—and found herself staring straight into a pair of vicious dog eyes, right in front of her face!
There were stray dogs on campus. Quite a lot of them, actually. Fed plump and round by the students, they were usually chubby and adorable.
But this one—who knew if it was some new dog that had just wandered in—was gaunt and bony, tall and large-framed, with its wild aggression still intact.
No one knew where it had crawled out from.
By the time Yun Shui snapped back to her senses, she was already screaming and sprinting!
She was, in fact, absolutely terrified of dogs—the kind of fear that was like the story of Lord Ye and his love of dragons. She could think some dogs looked cute, but the moment she faced a large dog with a fierce gaze, or one of those deceptively gentle-looking but enormous breeds, she couldn't help but be afraid. Perhaps it was because, when she was very young, she'd seen news reports about wolfdogs attacking children—the pixelated crime scene photos had left a lasting shadow on her psyche.
The incident happened so suddenly that she found herself, frightened and panicked, being chased by the dog like a whirlwind of chaos, sprinting out of the field under the drill instructor's stunned gaze and onto the campus's long avenue lined with plane trees.
You're never supposed to run when you encounter a dog—it will truly chase you without mercy.
Yun Shui was scared out of her wits, chased by the stray dog down an entire street.
The one-person-one-dog race was evenly matched: the human was at peak physical condition from daily training drills, while the dog had the natural advantage of four legs and was wildly excited to boot.
Yun Shui had no idea what she was doing anymore. Her mind was completely blank as she darted wildly through the alleyways, tripping once along the way. Truly at her wit's end, she leaped desperately and wrapped her arms around a tree.
She didn't know how to climb trees.
But human potential is limitless.
With that single leap, she left the ground, then quickly scrambled her hands and feet against the ridged bark of the trunk in complete disarray.
Thank heavens—it was a tree that was easy to climb.
She was utterly terrified, pressing herself against the tree like a madwoman, ignoring the scrapes on her body as she truly managed to grip the trunk above. She pushed with all her strength, her arms trembling with fear as she reached upward.
She squeezed herself trembling onto a thick branch, hugging the trunk tightly, terrified of falling.
The huge dog barked furiously beneath the tree, circling in agitation, lunging at the trunk with its front paws, watching with predatory intent.
Yun Shui's heart pounded wildly. Her legs had turned to jelly, sweat beaded on her forehead, her ears rang incessantly, and her vision blurred. After the adrenaline surge, her entire body was wracked with the nausea of post-terror. She gasped for breath as if she couldn't get enough air.
She didn't know which corner of the campus this was. There was no one else around—only a vicious dog that circled below, refusing to leave.
Yun Shui was eighteen then, a fresh recruit just entering university, utterly despairing, filled with the terror of the sky falling.
What now?
What about the military training performance review? What if she got points deducted and her training score was too low to graduate?
It felt like she'd also twisted her ankle.
What if this dog never leaves? What if the moment I climb down, it pounces and bites me? What if I die of rabies?
The plane tree was lush and dense, its canopy blotting out the sky. The scorching sun blazed overhead, cicadas chirred like rain, the vicious dog barked relentlessly, and faintly, from far away, she could hear the music of a military parade playing.
Her fragile young heart crumbled in that moment—like a small, light, brittle shrimp cracker that shatters at the slightest touch. Amidst her anxiety and despair, she couldn't help but cry.
She had just finished her college entrance exams and hadn't even gotten to enjoy herself yet. How could she die? How could she fail a course?
Her heart was ashes, her spirit utterly lost.
Grief-stricken beyond words!
That was when Jiang Xie arrived.
This was the first time Yun Shui ever saw him.
Through the lush green leaves of the plane tree, she saw him wearing an ordinary trench coat, tall and broad-shouldered, with an extremely thin shirt beneath. Sunlight spilled across his immaculate collar, buttoned all the way up with meticulous precision, revealing a stretch of fair, upright neck. His bearing was cold and composed, his posture sharp and towering like a drawn blade.
At that time, he had not yet independently commanded a fleet—he was only just beginning to distinguish himself within his ranks. Having temporarily concluded a patrol and entered a brief period of rest, they were conducting a routine exchange visit with the Mecha department of the Polytechnic University. Because a military parade happened to be underway, the group stood at the edge of the parade grounds, chatting as they watched. They had only meant to glance over and leave, but then they spotted a soldier in camouflage frantically fleeing from a dog.
The soldier's drill instructor happened to be a junior acquaintance of Jiang Xie's. Worried about the student's safety, he had begged several people to help search.
Jiang Xie had been a step behind in the pursuit. The sprawling campus had many people searching in different directions, but outside the alley lay a knocked-over bamboo basket for collecting fallen leaves—that was how he had traced his way here.
Lucky break.
He looked quite formidable. The vicious dog under the tree was a master at reading the wind and trimming its sails—a veritable coward among canines. The moment it caught sight of his cold eyes, the air pressure plummeted to something terrifying. The bully of a dog let out a low growl from its throat, but after only a brief standoff, it slunk away with its tail between its legs.
Jiang Xie raised his head casually. "It's gone. Come down."
The figure in the tree was still trembling violently. Jiang Xie frowned, watching the student curl into a tight ball, the ponytail tied at the back of her head shaking in small, jerky movements.
It was a girl.
Jiang Xie paused, his voice still carrying no warmth. "Are you hurt?"
Yun Shui nodded dazedly.
Jiang Xie: "Come down. We're going to the hospital."
Yun Shui wanted to go down too, but having narrowly escaped with her life, her legs had completely turned to jelly. Her heart wouldn't stop pounding, her head was spinning, and she whispered, "I—I don't think I can get down."
Jiang Xie's expression was flat. "Just come down. You won't fall. I'll catch you."
From up in the tree, Yun Shui let out a small, hissing whimper of pain. "Thank you. I'm sorry. Um, my legs are numb—can you wait a few minutes? Just a few minutes… I'm sorry."
Jiang Xie: "…"
The wind drifted through the treetops. Little birds chirped, but because there was a person in the tree, they kept their distance, perching on a neighboring branch with their heads tilted.
Yun Shui felt the prickling numbness gradually subside. She wrapped both arms tightly around the branch and stretched her foot down to find a foothold.
She had climbed fairly high, and this height was genuinely terrifying. It wasn't a question of whether he could catch her—she was more afraid of directly crushing this kind gentleman to death.
In the end, she hugged the trunk tightly and shimmied down, her movements clumsy and unsightly. She felt a bit embarrassed. She was only wearing a short-sleeved camouflage uniform, and her arms scraped painfully against the bark as she descended.
Jiang Xie simply watched her inch her way down, and by the time she was finally about to reach the ground, he was almost tempted to applaud her.
Just then, a bizarre-looking insect burst out of the tree trunk without warning! Yun Shui nearly lost her soul in fright. She screamed but clung to the trunk for dear life, terrified of falling. Her head buzzed, and the tears that had dried up began to well again. She froze completely—until, suddenly, a pair of hands clamped firmly around her waist and peeled her off the trunk with a force that brooked no resistance.
Suspended midair by her waist, Yun Shui: "!??"
Jiang Xie carried her from behind and stepped back several paces, away from the terrifying little bug. She caught a very fresh, clean scent—like laundry detergent or fabric softener.
In just an instant, she was set down on her feet. The hands at her waist withdrew quickly, but the iron-vise grip seemed to linger on her body, along with the warmth of his body heat transmitted through the thin fabric of her clothes.
Her mind completely short-circuited.
"Stand steady." Jiang Xie gripped her arm, applying gentle pressure. "I'm letting go."
The next moment, Yun Shui's whole body crumpled downward like a slippery strip of wide rice noodle.
She stammered, "I—I twisted my ankle."
Jiang Xie: "…"
The girl really seemed to have been scared out of her wits. Even with sunscreen and a hat, she was still a bit sunburned. The corners of her eyes were completely red, tear tracks messily streaked across her face, and fresh tears still brimmed in her eyes, ready to spill at any moment. She looked utterly drenched and glistening.
Her palms were dusty and gray. Because she usually wore a jacket during daily training, her arms were actually very pale in the sunlight, which made the scattered scrapes and scratches stand out all the more starkly.
Because her hands were dirty, Jiang Xie took out a handkerchief and perfunctorily wiped a few tears from her face before somewhat disdainfully pressing the handkerchief into her palm. Then he hooked his arms around her calves, scooped her up, and carried her horizontally to a bench.
Jiang Xie looked down at her. "Is the campus clinic nearby? Do you know where we are? Is there a shuttle bus?"
Yun Shui shook her head. She was as new as a student could possibly be—hadn't yet worn the campus familiar underfoot, couldn't tell east from west, and usually just followed her navigation. On top of that, her communicator was in her jacket pocket, which she'd left behind on the training field.
Jiang Xie nodded, then left.
The whole exchange lasted less than thirty seconds, and Yun Shui never snapped out of it. It was only now that her sluggish heartbeat began to surge, and she thought, "I'm done for."
As an utterly unremarkable freshman whose life experience was still stuck in the dreary days of high school, she had just been subjected, with no mercy whatsoever, to that clichéd trope of a hero saving a damsel in distress. It hit her without warning, left her defenseless, and threw her into complete disarray.
Her eyesight had always been excellent. She watched as that man walked all the way to a fruit shop in the distance, said something to the owner, and began hauling crates of fruit off a flatbed cart one by one. Then he dragged the little cart back toward her.
He was tall, with handsome, sharp features, and he looked utterly out of place with that dusty, clattering cart. Yun Shui couldn't help but laugh.
The man came back, took off his trench coat, laid it on the cart, and then moved Yun Shui onto it.
Yun Shui wanted to say that her military training camouflage was filthy—they sat directly on the ground during breaks and didn't need anything to cushion them. But before the words could leave her mouth, it was already too late.
He wore a badge for an exchange visiting scholar program, yet even so, he had no scholarly air about him whatsoever. Instead, he was cold and hard as a pine. His muscles filled out the lines of his shirt, solid and straight. When he bent over, the badge hung right before Yun Shui's eyes, and on it was written his name: Jiang Xie.
Yun Shui was dragged along on the cart like a piece of delivery, clattering all the way.
It was tense, embarrassing, and absurd all at once.
Yun Shui remembered how the plane tree leaves had blotted out the sky that day, and how everyone passing by on the shaded path couldn't help but stare at her. She felt utterly mortified. Fortunately, everyone she knew was still on the training field for the parade ceremony—embarrassing as it was, no one recognized her.
The breeze was gentle, and the cicadas were loud.
She stole glances at Jiang Xie's back, and even as she was wheeled all the way from the accessible walkway into the campus clinic, she never worked up the courage to ask for his contact information. The doctor applied medicine to her wounds, Jiang Xie watched for a few seconds, and then he truly left.
At that moment, she really felt like a mess. No matter how wildly her heart pounded, she was too ashamed to speak up, and could only repeat a dry "thank you" as she watched him go.
For the next four full years of college, no matter where Yun Shui walked on campus, she never once got even a brush of a shoulder passing by him.