Even if he were able to foresee how tough it will be, the young major in front of him definitely knew this. Uncle Chen patted his shoulder heavily, and to encourage him, he said, “Persistence is one of the attitudes a soldier should have. Major, you’re doing really well.”
“Not only will I do things nicely, I will also be so subtle… that she’ll treat me as a comrade who can walk by her side for the rest of our lives, a comrade who has a ‘double identity.’” Xia Jinyuan had a smile on his face; his gaze landed at a distance where the teaching block was situated.
The classroom was brightly lit inside. Ye Jian was unaware that someone was waiting for her outside, until a boy approached her from behind with a mathematics question. She then had a sudden realization that just because she was preoccupied with the baseless conjecture “would Captain Xia come find me by scaling a wall”… she had smiled for half of the evening’s self-study period!
Since class was important, she realized that she shouldn’t be thinking about things that were not related to her studies! Even Captain Xia included!
Very quickly, Ye Jian, who had snapped out of it, started getting herself together. By the second half of the evening self-study period, she had completely calmed down. She had stopped letting her imagination run wild, and stopped thinking about Major Xia, who had disturbed her inner peace by accident.
The bell signalling the end of evening self-study period rang. The school grounds previously quiet, now became a boiling cauldron of voices within seconds. Ye Jian hugged the revision material to her chest and walked towards the direction of the dormitory building. Alongside her were An Jiaxin and four other girls from the dorm.
When they were walking by the Swan Lake, Ye Jian spotted a familiar-looking silhouette flitting across the misty light of the streetlamp, causing her to choke on the breath she had in her trachea whilst mid-speech, and she began coughing.
Although he had only flitted among the shadows under the light, Ye Jian was certain of what she saw… it was Major Xia, the person because of whom she was unable to study properly in the first half of the self-study period.
Xia Jinyuan…, he… he was really inside the school compound! Did he really scale the wall!
Thinking about that possibility, Ye Jian’s coughing worsened.
“You were fine a moment ago, why did you start coughing? Did you catch a cold?” An Jiaxin asked nervously, “My mom had prepared medicine for cold. When we get back to the dorms, you should drink some of it. Yesterday, you didn’t come back the whole night. Could it be that you were catching bugs last night?”
Ye Jian, who had barely managed to slow down her coughs, was now flustered because of her words. Her heart was beating very hard in her chest. Last night, she slept with Captain Xia… in a hotel, and almost hit him.
She hurriedly replied, “I’m okay, I’m okay. It’s just that I wasn’t paying attention while speaking and just choked on air. Oh, right, I have a book of revision materials that I wanted to read tonight that I forgot to get. You girls should return without me, I’ll catch up with you girls later.”
“Okay, okay, hurry up! I’m going to boil some water for you. When you’re back, you’ll need to shower straight away,” An Jiaxin realized that her voice sounded fine. She was usually carefree, so she didn’t think too much about it. She furrowed her eyebrows and reminded her, “You should come back early, don’t be so engrossed in your studies that you lose track of time again.”
With that said, she tugged on the girls living in the dorm with her while talking about something interesting.
During night time, not many students strolled around by the Swan Lake, unless they were in a secret relationship. Only they would risk being discovered by the teachers on patrol and being shined on by flashlights, and hide in a corner by the lake, feeding the mosquitoes while murmuring sweet talk.
Ye Jian clearly didn’t think too much about it. But when she saw a flashlight beam suddenly sweep across her from the shadows, she was surprised that her heart skipped a beat. Even her scalp was tensed up at that moment.
“What are you afraid of?” Xia Jinyuan, who stood in the darkness, spoke in a gruff voice. He was standing at a fair distance away from her, so his voice seemed a little unusual.
The voice, which was lower as compared to how sounded during the day, seemed to have acquired the midnight charms of the night colors. His voice was deep but rich in attraction that could make one’s face and ears red, as if a lover was whispering in her ears, waiting for him to say endearing words that were much sweeter.
