Song Tingyue had never imagined that five minutes could feel so unbearably long.
As a highly disciplined soldier with impeccable professional training, he possessed an almost uncanny sense of time.
Yet now, with his eyes closed as he silently counted the seconds, he opened them after what he was certain had been a minute—
Only thirty seconds had passed.
Frowning, he refused to believe it and tried again.
This time was even more absurd.
What felt like a full minute had only been twenty seconds.
“…Damn.”
He muttered the curse under his breath.
He’d been wrong twice in a row, and by such a ridiculous margin. Back in the army, blindfolded time-counting drills had been one of his strongest skills. He’d never once lost.
The only explanation was that the clock was broken.
Even so, he obediently waited according to the clock on the wall.
Unfortunately, the little girl in his arms wasn’t nearly as patient.
Having her arm held in place for so long, she began twisting and squirming in protest.
“Don’t move, Ningning. Just a little longer.”
But someone delirious with fever wasn’t about to listen.
Her eyes remained shut as she murmured in her sleep,
“Brother… Brother… Don’t leave me…”
The spoiled, clingy tone tugged painfully at old memories.
She really had burned herself silly.
In reality, she’d become distant and polite, carefully calling him by name.
Yet in her dreams, it was “Brother” over and over again, without pause.
The corners of Song Tingyue’s lips lifted into a faint smile.
“You little ancestor…” he chuckled softly. “Who’d dare abandon you? If anything, I’m the one who’s always been abandoned by you.”
The smile faded almost immediately.
Seeing her like this, an indescribable ache welled up inside him.
Wasn’t this all because he’d left her alone at the family quarters?
He’d thought she’d be more comfortable sleeping by herself.
Besides, after being hauled in for a dressing-down, he’d spent the entire night rewriting the training report and hadn’t had a chance to close his eyes.
“This time… your brother was wrong.”
His voice was quiet.
“From now on, I’ll do my best to come back to the family quarters at night more often, alright?”
Whether she heard him or not, he continued speaking.
“If you don’t object, I’ll take that as a yes.”
“Even if you dislike it, too bad.”
The thermometer read 39.1°C (102.4°F).
By the time Xu Kaicheng pushed the door open again, Wen Jianing’s clothes had already been carefully put back in place.
Even the wrinkles in her skirt had been smoothed flat, the hem neatly covering her knees.
After listening to her heart and lungs with his stethoscope, Xu Kaicheng glanced at Song Tingyue.
The attentive expression on the man’s face…
Anyone who didn’t know better would’ve thought he was holding his own daughter.
Taking advantage of Wen Jianing mumbling in her sleep, Xu Kaicheng finally managed to use a tongue depressor to pry her mouth open enough to shine a flashlight inside.
“Her tonsils are a little red. Looks like it’s just a cold from getting chilled—not serious.”
He packed a few tablets into a small paper packet and handed it over.
“Paracetamol. One tablet, three times a day, after meals. Once the fever comes down, stop taking it. Don’t overdo it.”
Song Tingyue accepted the medicine and nodded.
“Anything else I should watch for?”
He’d always been exceptionally healthy.
He could dive into an icy lake in the middle of winter and swim laps without catching so much as a sniffle.
He’d never experienced a fever himself and had no idea how to care for one.
“High fevers tend to come and go,” Xu Kaicheng explained. “Stay with her tonight. Wipe her down with warm water to help cool her off, and keep an eye on her for three days. If the fever doesn’t break, bring her back and we’ll start IV fluids.”
As he spoke, Xu Kaicheng narrowed his eyes until they became thin slits.
Through those slits, he looked Song Tingyue up and down several times.
Is this really the Song Tingyue I know?
The rough, no-nonsense soldier was actually writing the doctor’s instructions directly onto the medicine packet.
One arm held the unconscious girl securely.
The other gripped a pen as he awkwardly leaned over the desk to write.
The posture looked incredibly inconvenient.
“Tsk, tsk…”
Xu Kaicheng was genuinely impressed.
“If you’ve got something to say, spit it out. Otherwise, shut up.”
Song Tingyue tossed the pen aside and slipped the medicine packet into his trouser pocket.
“This isn’t right. Something’s definitely not right.”
The more Xu Kaicheng thought about it, the stranger it seemed.
“You spend every day buried in the army. You skip every social mixer. Whenever the division commander arranges a blind date for you, you never show up.”
“Then all of a sudden…”
“You quietly produce a wife.”
“And judging from the way you’re treating her, she’s obviously not just any wife.”
Leaning closer, he lowered his voice.
“I heard she’s from Shanghai. Supposedly she’s the daughter of the owner of… what was it… Baoli? Baosheng? Anyway, some textile mill.”
“You’ve been buried out here in the desert all these years. Where’d you even meet someone like that?”
“And another thing—when exactly did the two of you fall in love? We’ve worked together for years. You barely even take your vacation leave. When did you have time to date?”
“Don’t tell me it’s some childhood sweetheart story.”
“You’re a rugged northerner. She’s a southern girl. You couldn’t be farther apart.”
Only then did Song Tingyue answer.
His tone remained perfectly calm.
“What?”
“Running a background check on me?”
“When did my private life become something I have to report to you?”
“Should I write you a daily report too? Include how many mouthfuls of food I ate and how many times I used the toilet so you can review that while you’re at it?”
Xu Kaicheng choked.
“Hey, I was just concerned about you…”
“Fine, fine. I won’t ask anymore.”
“It’s not like you were going to say anything pleasant anyway.”
Song Tingyue ignored the hollow concern.
Instead, he focused on something else.
“Where did you hear that her father owns Baosheng Textile Mill?”
“Isn’t that what everyone’s saying?” Xu Kaicheng replied.
“I also heard the mill’s pretty famous in Shanghai. Hundreds of workers.”
“When the public-private partnership campaign started, it was among the first factories taken over.”
“The factory became state-owned, and the owner was dragged into several public criticism meetings.”
“I heard some workers even came forward accusing him of withholding wages and exploiting apprentices. They supposedly recorded every incident in notebooks…”
He paused before cautiously looking at Song Tingyue.
“If your little wife hadn’t come here…”
“I’m afraid she’d have suffered quite a bit because of all that.”
There was something Xu Kaicheng hadn’t voiced aloud.
But Song Tingyue saw it clearly enough.
His friend’s eyes were full of confusion.
He simply couldn’t understand why Song Tingyue would marry someone with such a politically dangerous background.
She was practically a live grenade.
“Withholding wages?”
“Exploiting apprentices?”
Song Tingyue let out a cold, humorless laugh.
His tongue swept slowly across his back teeth as the muscles in his jaw tightened.
“Funny.”
“Why haven’t I heard any of that?”
“When exactly did workers come forward with accusations?”
“Who witnessed it personally?”
“Or was it published in a newspaper?”
The rapid-fire questions left Xu Kaicheng speechless.
Come to think of it…
He’d never actually seen any proof.
After all, the northwest was thousands of miles from Shanghai.
No one here could verify any of it.
Most people simply heard something once.
Then repeated it.
Eventually, rumor became fact.
Xu Kaicheng looked stunned.
“So… someone’s making it all up?”
“But the stories are so detailed…”
“Who’d spread rumors like that?”
“Your wife’s only just arrived. Could she already have made enemies?”
She already carried the label of being from a capitalist family—that much was undeniable.
If stories about her father exploiting workers were added on top of that…
Her family’s name would be completely ruined.
Everything Xu Kaicheng realized in that moment had already occurred to Song Tingyue.
Someone was deliberately trying to smear them.
His face darkened completely.
Barely restrained anger seeped into his voice.
“Whoever’s behind this had better pray they never fall into my hands.”
“And you.”
“You’ve spent more years with your nose in books than most people.”
“Is that all your education taught you?”
“Following the crowd and spreading rumors?”
“Those books might as well have gone to the damn dogs.”
A chill ran down Xu Kaicheng’s spine.
He immediately raised both hands in surrender.
“I—I didn’t spread a single word!”
“I was asking you to confirm it!”
The people starting the rumors probably never imagined just how fiercely Song Tingyue cherished his wife.
Xu Kaicheng had seen him angry before.
It was terrifying.
With Wen Jianing needing her medicine and the rumors weighing heavily on his mind, Song Tingyue wasted not a single extra second at the clinic.
As he headed for the door, Xu Kaicheng hurriedly called after him.
“Hey, wait!”
“What happened to your forehead?”
“That cut needs stitches!”
Song Tingyue didn’t even slow down.
“Why’s that your business?”
“It looks pretty deep. It’d be a shame to leave a scar on a face as handsome as yours.”
“Want me to give you some scar cream?”
Song Tingyue snorted and lifted his chin carelessly.
“If a man’s face doesn’t have a couple of battle scars…”
“Can he still call himself a man?”
With that, he turned and walked out, Wen Jianing secure in his arms.
Xu Kaicheng stared after him speechlessly.
He couldn’t help thinking—
If that exact same wound had been on the little girl instead…
The man who’d just called scars “badges of honor” would probably have torn the clinic off its hinges in panic.