“Gu… Representative Gu.” Zhang Chunfang trembled in fear, and Chen Weimin immediately pulled his hand back.
Gu Yanzhou’s gaze was icy, his voice completely devoid of emotion. “Li Man falsified her academic credentials, and Chen Weidong fraudulently obtained military status.
The nature of these offenses is extremely serious they’re already major issues under military discipline inspection. Do you want to go in and keep them company?”
Those words hit like hammer blows. Zhang Chunfang and Chen Weimin’s faces turned deathly pale. They didn’t dare say another word, scrambling to their feet and fleeing with their relatives.
The room instantly fell silent, leaving only the crackling of the candle and a faintly delicate tension between the two.
“Injured?” Gu Yanzhou’s voice suddenly softened, his gaze settling on the dust on her pant leg.
“I’m fine.” She brushed off the dust and looked up at him. “Just got kicked by that little brat. Doesn’t hurt.”
He took off his peaked cap and placed it on the table, revealing the loose strands of hair on his forehead. Shen Zhiwei’s heart skipped a beat for no reason she seemed to have never really looked at him properly in her previous life. So he was… this handsome.
“Representative Gu.” She stepped closer, tilting her head slightly upward. She could clearly see his Adam’s apple bob once. “There are too many people at the guesthouse, and it’s chaotic. I’m still a bit scared.”
She paused, her voice softening in a way she didn’t even notice. “Can I go to your place… to stay for the night? I can sleep on the floor.”
Gu Yanzhou’s hand at his side tightened, a faint blush quickly spreading from the tips of his ears down to his neck.
“There’s a guest room at my place.” His voice was slightly hoarse. “The stove’s burning strong it’s not cold.”
He agreed almost instantly, without even considering discipline or appearances.
That wasn’t like him.
The jeep stopped in the military district’s officers’ compound. Just as he said, Gu Yanzhou’s courtyard was unusually quiet, filled only with the scent of pine.
Shen Zhiwei glanced at the neighboring houses. Aside from his, the others all seemed lively and lived-in.
“The guest room hasn’t been tidied up. You can sleep in the master bedroom first.” He efficiently folded his military overcoat and spread it over the thin bedding. “It gets cold at night this will make it thicker.”
Looking at the coat that still carried his body warmth, the gloom Shen Zhiwei had felt because of the Chen family suddenly dissipated.
“Thank you.”
By candlelight, the atmosphere grew inexplicably warm.
Gu Yanzhou sat at the desk with his back to her. “You sleep. I’ll go over some documents.”
What a block of stone! She’s already borrowing his bed, and he’s really just letting her sleep?
She pouted, unsure what she was feeling.
Spring nights in 1975 were still bitterly cold. Even with the thin blanket and the military coat, it was barely enough to keep warm. She curled up, listening to the soft scratching of his pen at the desk.
After the day’s turmoil, her body was exhausted. She drifted into a hazy sleep, though not very soundly, unconsciously murmuring.
“Cold.”
Gu Yanzhou paused in his writing.
Shen Zhiwei felt someone approach, then heard the sound of a poker stirring the coal. The stove burned brighter again.
She slightly opened her eyes and saw Gu Yanzhou bending over to add coal to the stove. In the firelight, his cold, sharp profile seemed a little gentler. After adding the coal, he didn’t leave he stood by the bed for a moment.
As if to make sure she was warm… or as if he were secretly looking at her. She didn’t dare look too much.
Instead, she snuck a glance past him at the calendar hanging on the wall. A cold date pierced into her mind.
It was these days! Something had happened to her father!
A wave of terror engulfed her. She suddenly sat upright, her back breaking out in a cold sweat.
“Did you have a nightmare?” Gu Yanzhou turned around immediately, his brows slightly furrowed. “Or are you feeling unwell anywhere?” He instinctively reached out his hand, then restrained himself and pulled it back.
“No.”
Shen Zhiwei took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down.
Her father, Shen Guodong, was the chief engineer at the city’s machinery factory. Upright and highly skilled, but it was precisely because of his integrity and refusal to compromise on technical matters that he offended the newly appointed deputy director of the Revolutionary Committee at the factory.
Soon, a work team was sent to their home to ransack it.
Anything of even slight value in the house was taken, not to mention her father’s treasured books and traditional paintings, her mother’s dowry, and even the money her family had saved for her childbirth all of it was swept clean.
Her father was then sent to the harshest farms in the northwest for “reform through labor,” and it was there that his health was destroyed.
It was the following spring that news came he hadn’t survived that winter.
Shen Zhiwei’s gaze fell on the documents spread out before him. The complex mechanical diagrams instantly caught her attention. “Are these schematics for a compact pistol? This design seems to have some issues.”
Gu Yanzhou frowned slightly. This man who remained unshaken even in a military court was momentarily startled by her words. “You can understand them?”
Shen Zhiwei smiled. She really did understand having grown up influenced by her father, she had developed a deep interest in machinery.
“My father is the chief engineer at the city machinery factory. When I was little, he always talked about these things at the dinner table. But my mother is a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner, and compared to machinery, I prefer Chinese medicine.”
“But the books you’re reading are just the basics. If you really want to learn, you can come with me to my home.”
She didn’t mention the impending ransacking, but she did need a strong ally right now.
“There are quite a few notebooks in my father’s study that could help you.”
In Shen Zhiwei’s study were several thick notebooks locked away.
She remembered her father telling her when she was young that those things were important to the country.
Yet it was precisely because of those notebooks that they eventually became the stones used to bring him down.
Bang, bang, bang.
Before Gu Yanzhou could reply, loud knocking sounded at the courtyard gate downstairs.
“Shen Zhiwei, you shameless slut! I’m going to report you to the military for immoral relations between men and women!”
Gu Yanzhou’s expression darkened instantly, his gaze turning frighteningly cold.
He stood up, but instead of opening the door, he first said to Shen Zhiwei in a low voice, “Stay seated. Don’t come out.”
He strode quickly to the courtyard gate, not giving the people outside any chance to continue their insults.
Chen Weimin, drunk, along with a few thugs he had brought, hadn’t even clearly seen who it was before they felt an overwhelming pressure.
“Slandering a military family member and interfering with military affairs there’s solid evidence,” he said calmly.
“I can have all of you handed over to the security office right now. Want to see how many years you’ll get?”
The outside instantly fell silent. The earlier arrogance vanished, replaced only by fearful gasps.
Gu Yanzhou didn’t even bother wasting more words on them. He directly ordered the sentry who had rushed over upon hearing the commotion, “Record their identities. Take them all away for investigation.”
Before the people behind could start shouting, he slammed the door shut with a bang, sealing all the filth outside.
When he returned inside, he saw Shen Zhiwei standing at the doorway, looking at him.
Their eyes met.
“Comrade Shen Zhiwei.”
“Tomorrow, I’ll go with you to your home to get the notebooks. And as for the divorce report, I’ll personally push it through.”
“I’ve got everything under control.”