Qi Weiguo’s words came out vague and unclear. He did not even dare look directly at Li Zhihuan, his gaze drifting elsewhere instead.
Hearing this, Li Zhihuan stopped walking, turned around, crossed her arms, and sized him up from head to toe.
“What problem?”
Her clear yet probing gaze made Qi Weiguo feel like an elementary school student caught lying by a teacher.
Bracing himself, he forced himself to continue the fabrication.
“The bed… the bed seems a little shaky. It keeps creaking at night.”
He felt this excuse was flawless.
A faulty bed affecting sleep was a major issue for a soldier whose training condition depended on proper rest.
As soon as Li Zhihuan heard this, she frowned immediately.
“The bed is shaky?”
Her expression turned serious, looking exactly like a project manager hearing a report about bugs in the foundational infrastructure.
“When did it start? Which part exactly is unstable? Are the bed legs loose, or is it a problem with the joints connecting the frame?”
The string of professional questions left Qi Weiguo completely dumbfounded.
“I… I’m not really sure. It just creaks whenever I turn over.”
He could only answer vaguely.
“Come on, let’s take a look.”
Without another word, Li Zhihuan marched decisively toward Qi Weiguo’s partitioned room.
Panic rose in Qi Weiguo’s heart as he followed behind her, helplessly watching her push the door open and walk inside.
The room was simple and orderly—a bed, a wardrobe, a desk—everything arranged neatly with the disciplined style of a soldier.
Li Zhihuan walked straight to the bed and, without hesitation, grabbed the frame and shook it hard.
The bed immediately let out a few soft creaking sounds.
“There really is a problem.”
She nodded, then bent down and began inspecting the legs and mortise-and-tenon joints like an experienced repair worker.
Qi Weiguo stood nearby, watching her serious profile while his heart pounded wildly.
This was not how the script was supposed to go!
According to his plan, after he mentioned the bed problem, she should have shown concern. Then he could naturally bring up how poor sleep affected his training, after which he could hint at “squeezing into her room for one night,” smoothly breaking the deadlock of sleeping separately.
But now… why had she gone straight into fixing the bed?
“It’s not a major issue,” Li Zhihuan said after checking everything over. She stood up and dusted off her hands. “The wood probably got damp, and the joints loosened a little. I’ll see if I can find some wooden wedges and reinforce it for you.”
As she spoke, she turned to leave.
“Wait!”
Qi Weiguo panicked and grabbed her wrist.
It was the first time he had ever touched her voluntarily while fully awake.
Her wrist was slender, her skin unbelievably smooth. Through that thin layer of skin, he could even feel the warmth of her pulse beating softly.
A current shot through the place where they touched and instantly spread throughout Qi Weiguo’s entire body.
His face turned bright red in an instant, and his palms became drenched in sweat.
Li Zhihuan stumbled slightly from being pulled and turned back to look at him in surprise.
“What are you doing?”
Her gaze fell onto the wrist he was holding before shifting to his face, now so red it looked ready to bleed.
“Comrade Qi Weiguo, you…”
Before she could finish speaking, Qi Weiguo released her hand like he had been burned and stammered frantically:
“I… I didn’t mean it like that! I mean… I mean…”
Sweat poured from his forehead as his mind went completely blank.
Looking at his overly innocent reaction, and recalling how awkwardly he had claimed earlier that the bed was broken, something suddenly clicked in Li Zhihuan’s mind.
Oh.
Now she understood.
This was not about the bed being broken at all.
The iceberg wanted to “melt.”
After going in such a huge circle, Battalion Commander Qi simply wanted to sleep in the same room as her.
Li Zhihuan found it both amusing and somewhat helpless.
She admitted that Qi Weiguo’s “hardware conditions” were indeed excellent—handsome face, great body, and an abstinent yet dependable aura.
If this were modern times, he would absolutely be the type to make countless young girls scream.
But for her, a former corporate slave whose only dream was to lie flat and live like a salted fish, talking about romance? Developing an intimate relationship?
Too troublesome!
That meant responsibility, emotional investment, and dealing with all kinds of complicated interpersonal relationships.
She had finally escaped one exhausting rat race. She had no desire to jump into another sweet trap called “love.”
“Mutual cooperation, maintain distance.”
Those were the eight principles she had set for herself.
Looking at the helpless man in front of her, whose ears were red enough to steam, Li Zhihuan sighed inwardly.
She could not let him continue “overthinking” like this. She needed to find a way to cut the problem off at its root once and for all.
Night fell.
Qi Weiguo tossed and turned restlessly in his room, unable to sit still.
His hints during the day had failed, but he refused to give up.
He decided that tonight, he would take direct action.
Late at night, when everything was quiet, he secretly sat down heavily on his bed with force.
A sharp crack echoed through the room.
Accompanied by the muffled sound of splintering wood, one corner of the bed frame finally collapsed for real.
A surge of joy rose in Qi Weiguo’s heart.
Now he finally had a perfectly valid reason!
Carrying his pillow and neatly folded military blanket, he sneaked out of his room like a thief and arrived at Li Zhihuan’s door.
He could hear steady breathing coming from inside—she was already asleep.
He raised his hand, heart pounding wildly, just about to knock.
But the door suddenly creaked open from the inside.
Li Zhihuan stood there in her pajamas, sleepy-eyed and messy-haired, obvious annoyance written across her face from being disturbed.
“What are you doing? Why aren’t you sleeping in the middle of the night?”
Her voice carried the soft hoarseness of someone who had just woken up, gentle and lazy. To Qi Weiguo, it brushed against his ears like feathers, making the tip of his heart itch.
Holding his blanket, Qi Weiguo stood at the doorway like a giant dog that had done something wrong. He lowered his head and spoke in a muffled voice.
“My… my bed collapsed.”
Li Zhihuan’s gaze moved past him and landed on the crooked bed inside his room.
She fell silent.
Qi Weiguo’s heart leapt into his throat as he nervously awaited her “verdict.”
What would she say?
Would she make him sleep on the floor, or… soften enough to let him into her room?
The air seemed to freeze.
Just as Qi Weiguo felt his heartbeat was about to stop, Li Zhihuan finally moved.
She yawned, rubbed her eyes, then spoke in a tone that clearly said why make such a fuss over something this small?
“If it collapsed, then it collapsed. What’s the big deal?”
“Wait five minutes.”
After saying that, she turned around, grabbed a coat from the corner, slipped it on, shuffled into her shoes, and walked straight out of the house toward the courtyard gate.
Qi Weiguo stood there alone with his blanket in his arms, completely dumbfounded.
She… where was she going?
Five minutes later, just as Qi Weiguo’s thoughts were running wild, the courtyard gate opened again.
Li Zhihuan returned.
Behind her was Xiao Li, the drowsy orderly from Political Commissar Wang’s household next door.
And on Xiao Li’s shoulder was unmistakably a… folded camp bed.
Li Zhihuan directed Xiao Li efficiently, and within moments, the camp bed was set up neatly in the empty space in the living room.
She even thoughtfully brought out a thin blanket from her own room and spread it over the camp bed.
After finishing everything, she clapped her hands and lifted her chin toward the stunned Qi Weiguo.
“There, problem solved.”
“It’s a little simple, but it’s sturdier than your broken bed. Make do with it tonight. Tomorrow I’ll get someone from logistics to replace your bed board.”
After giving her instructions, she yawned again and waved her hand.
“Alright, go to sleep early. I’m exhausted.”
With that, she turned around, returned to her room, and shut the door with a bang.
The entire process had been smooth, decisive, and incredibly efficient—full of the high-level crisis-solving skills of an overworked employee.
In the living room, only Qi Weiguo remained, clutching his pillow and blanket as he stood beside the brand-new camp bed, thoroughly disheveled in the night breeze.
He looked at the camp bed radiating cold indifference, then glanced at the tightly shut bedroom door that blocked off all warmth and softness.
A crushing sense of defeat swept through his entire body.
His carefully planned “ice-breaking operation” had been utterly destroyed… by a single camp bed.