The regimental headquarters building, the political commissar’s office.
The door was shoved open with a loud bang, sending a gust of cold air sweeping in.
Without even announcing himself, Huo Yunzheng strode inside on his long legs.
“Old Huo, you still know how to show up?” Zhao Gang slammed his enamel mug onto the desk and pointed at Huo Yunzheng’s nose as he launched into a scolding.
“Let’s set aside the matter of catching the spy last night—you did a fine job. But as for that mother and son, you have to give me a definite answer today! If you dare become a heartless Chen Shimei—”
“Smack.”
Two thin sheets of letter paper landed on the office desk.
Zhao Gang’s words caught in his throat. He lowered his head and saw that the top line was written in neat, upright characters: “Marriage Application.”
The date had been filled in as today’s date.
Zhao Gang stared blankly for two seconds before abruptly lifting his head. The anger he had been holding in all morning instantly transformed into wild delight. “You finished writing it?”
Huo Yunzheng pulled out the chair opposite him and sat down, his back straight.
“I truly can’t remember what happened five years ago. But that child looks exactly as if he was carved from the same mold as me, and the timing matches up. Since they’ve come looking for me, I have to take responsibility. I’ve submitted the application report. Sign it.”
“Good, good, good!” Zhao Gang was so delighted that the corners of his mouth nearly reached his ears. He picked up his fountain pen and swiftly signed his name, then, as if that still wasn’t enough, stamped it heavily with a red seal.
After signing, Old Zhao lifted his enamel mug and took a sip of water to calm his excitement.
“Old Huo, you have no idea. Your personal affairs as a ten-thousand-year bachelor have always been a source of anxiety for our military region. The old leaders above call every year to urge us along, and I’ve nearly been cursed bald. But now, look at this—wife, child, and a warm kang bed, all settled in one step! Who would’ve thought that you usually keep so quiet, yet the moment you make a move, you produce a big, chubby son!”
Huo Yunzheng did not respond to that. He tapped his fingers twice on the desktop. “The report’s been approved. What about the house?”
He was currently living in the single men’s dormitory, a ten-square-meter room containing nothing but a bed, a table, and a washbasin stand. There was not even a place to sit.
That mother and son—one so ill that a gust of wind could knock her over, and the other only as tall as his thigh—simply could not live there.
“I prepared one for you ages ago!” Zhao Gang pulled open a drawer, took out a string of brass keys, and tossed them over.
“The last row of the military family compound. That two-story house with its own courtyard used to belong to the old chief of staff. It’s been vacant ever since he was transferred. There’s plenty of space inside. Take them over today and get the place tidied up. Move in first, and if you find you’re short of anything later, have the logistics department supply it.”
Huo Yunzheng closed his hand around the keys and stood. “Also, her body is too weak. I want to exchange my allowance for the logistics department’s allocation of nutritional supplements.”
“Fine, fine, fine. Whatever you say.” Zhao Gang waved his hand, beaming as happily as if he were marrying off his daughter. “Go take care of your business. Don’t leave that mother and son freezing in the infirmary.”
Ten in the morning, the last row of the military family compound.
Several guards dressed in training uniforms were busily cleaning.
Little Li carried half a bucket of water, wiping the windows while winking and gesturing at the companion beside him. “See that? The regimental commander even carried over his own brand-new military quilt. He’s really taking this seriously.”
“Of course he is. A four-year-old son!” another soldier muttered quietly. “Sister-in-law looks like a fairy, but she seems far too frail. I wonder if she can withstand our regimental commander’s temper.”
Huo Yunzheng paid no attention to what the soldiers under him were discussing.
He had just collected several coal stoves and a pile of household necessities from the logistics department. He lit the stoves himself, heating the rooms until they were warm and steaming.
He also went to the cooks and asked for two pounds of fine white flour and several eggs, carefully placing them inside the kitchen cabinet.
Once everything had been settled, he strode to the medical unit.
He pushed open the door to the office of the old military doctor, Li Jianguo.
Old Li was wearing reading glasses as he examined a medical record. When he saw Huo Yunzheng enter, he pointed to the chair opposite him. “Sit.”
“How is she?” Huo Yunzheng did not sit. He stood before the desk and got straight to the point.
Old Li removed his glasses and rubbed his brow. “I’ve practiced medicine for thirty years, and I’ve never seen a pulse like hers. To put it bluntly, that girl’s physical foundation is like a broken sieve riddled with holes. Her qi and blood are exhausted, her meridians damaged, and at any moment she could stop breathing. By all rights, she should have died long ago, but somehow, a surge of wicked fire is holding on around her heart meridian.”
Huo Yunzheng’s brows drew tightly together. “What do you mean?”
“I mean her life is hanging by a thread, but she won’t die. At least, she won’t die for the time being.” Old Li picked up his pen and tapped it against the desk. “From today onward, she can’t be exposed to the cold, she can’t overexert herself, and she absolutely cannot get upset. Her food has to be delicate. Coarse grains and tough dishes are completely off-limits. She needs to eat more soft, easily digested foods that replenish qi and blood. And you, boy—don’t use the same methods on her that you use when leading troops. She’s your wife, not one of your soldiers. With a body like hers, raising your voice could shake her apart.”
Huo Yunzheng remained silent for a long while.
Delicate food.
She could not be exposed to the cold.
She could not be upset.
“I understand.” He answered in a muffled voice, then turned and headed toward the ward.
When he pushed open the ward door, the room was quiet.
Tushan Yao leaned against the pillow, half of her long hair loose around her. In her hand, she toyed with the broken wooden hairpin of unknown material.
Xiaobao was lying at the side of the bed, clutching a red apple with a chunk missing from it and practicing his teeth.
When he saw Huo Yunzheng enter, Xiaobao immediately hid the apple behind his back and straightened up smartly. “Dad!”
Huo Yunzheng walked to the bedside, his gaze falling on Tushan Yao’s pale, bloodless face.
After a night of rest, she still looked as weak as a drifting wraith, but the lazy, unconcerned look in her eyes had not diminished in the slightest.
“The house has been assigned. The political commissar approved the marriage application too.” Huo Yunzheng lowered his voice considerably, presumably remembering Old Li’s warning and afraid that he might shake her apart. “Tomorrow, I’ll go into town to get an introduction letter, and we’ll register our marriage.”
Tushan Yao lifted her eyelids and glanced at him. “That fast?”
“That’s a soldier’s way of doing things. No dragging things out.” Huo Yunzheng picked up the military overcoat at the foot of the bed. “Get up. Come home with me to the military family compound.”
Tushan Yao did not move.
She only lowered her gaze to herself and let out a soft sigh.
There was a hook in that sigh, winding itself around him in fine, dense threads.
“I can’t walk.” She raised her eyes. The outer corners of her foxlike eyes curved slightly upward, and her gaze shimmered with entirely undisguised self-righteousness. “Regimental Commander Huo, I’m dizzy, my legs are weak, and I can’t catch my breath. How exactly do you plan to get me there?”
Xiaobao immediately furrowed his brows in support, his little face wrinkling up like a steamed bun. “Dad, Mom really can’t walk. Before, when she was at home, she had to vomit blood after walking only two steps.”
The vein at Huo Yunzheng’s temple twitched twice.
The military family compound was more than half a kilometer from here, and the north wind was blowing outside today.
He looked at the heavy military overcoat, then at the woman curled beneath the quilt.
Without another word, he reached out and scooped her up, quilt and all, into his arms.
Tushan Yao was lifted into the air without the slightest warning.
She instinctively cried out and reached up to wrap her arms around the man’s neck.
The instant their skin touched, that overwhelmingly domineering pure-yang energy surged madly through her palm and poured into her parched meridians.
Comfortable.
Far too comfortable.
It was like soaking in a scalding hot spring in the dead of winter.
Tushan Yao narrowed her eyes in pleasure and took advantage of the moment to bury her face in the broad hollow of his neck.
The tip of her nose brushed across the hard line of his jaw, while her warm breath fell without restraint against his artery.
Every muscle in Huo Yunzheng’s body instantly tensed like a sheet of iron.
He could even feel several loose strands of the woman’s hair stirring mischievously against his neck.
The tingling sensation seeped down from the surface of his skin, penetrating all the way to his heart.
“Stop rubbing against me,” he warned through clenched teeth.
“I’m cold, Regimental Commander Huo.” Not only did Tushan Yao refuse to stop, she burrowed even deeper into his arms. Her fingertips drifted, seemingly carelessly, along the edge of his collar at the back of his neck. “You’re so warm. What’s wrong with letting me lean against you for a while?”
Huo Yunzheng closed his eyes and drew a deep breath.
He strode outside, while Xiaobao followed closely behind on his short legs, still clutching the red apple with a bite taken out of it.
They made their way to the military family compound.
It was lunchtime, and the wives of the officers and soldiers were coming and going with basins and baskets of vegetables in their hands.
Then they suddenly saw the usually cold-faced, demon-king-like Regimental Commander Huo carrying a woman wrapped tightly in a quilt, with a miniature version of himself following behind.
The air throughout the entire military family compound froze.
Sister-in-law Wang was washing cabbages by the water basin when her hand slipped, and half a cabbage fell into the drainage ditch.
“Oh my goodness, is that Regimental Commander Huo?”
“Who’s the woman he’s carrying? Why does she look a little familiar?”
“Who else could it be? The news spread last night. She’s his wife, the one who traveled a thousand miles to find her husband and came right to his door!”
All kinds of inquisitive, curious gazes swept over them like radar.
Huo Yunzheng kept his eyes straight ahead, his jawline drawn taut. Without saying a word, he passed through the crowd and went directly to the two-story house in the last row.
He pushed open the courtyard gate, crossed the main room, and carried her straight into the master bedroom, placing her steadily on the wooden bed covered with a brand-new military quilt.
The room was warm from the coal stove that had just been lit.
Tushan Yao poked her head out of the quilt and looked around the spacious, brightly lit room.
Not bad. It was full of yang energy.
The man’s scent was everywhere, much stronger than in that shabby infirmary.
Huo Yunzheng tucked the edge of the quilt around her. His movements were somewhat stiff. “Lie down for now. I’m going to the mess hall to get food.”
Just as he was about to turn around, an icy hand suddenly caught him by the wrist.
Tushan Yao slowly straightened up. Her narrow, foxlike eyes stared directly at him, a trace of slyness flashing in their depths.
“Regimental Commander Huo.”
“What is it?” Huo Yunzheng’s breath caught.
Tushan Yao’s gaze swept around the room, and her voice floated lightly through the air.
“This is the master bedroom. Where are you sleeping tonight?”