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“Not going after him?” Gu Minghui stood behind her, a look of schadenfreude on his face.
“Chase my ass,” Shen Yihuan retorted stubbornly.
She thought to herself, anyway, she was going to Xinjiang in a few days, so she could coax him then.
They called Qiu Ruru, and she arrived shortly. The hotpot takeout had already been delivered, steam was rising from the small hotpot, and the secret seasonings emitted waves of enticing aroma.
“Didn’t your mom scold you?” Qiu Ruru asked, chewing a large bite of meat.
“Didn’t scold me,” Shen Yihuan smirked, “Just a slap, straightforward.”
Qiu Ruru and Gu Minghui both paused, looking up at her.
Shen Yihuan waved her hand indifferently, picking up a grape and popping it into her mouth: “It’s nothing serious, after applying ice water yesterday, you can’t even see it anymore.”
“Your mom really is something, why did she hit you?” Qiu Ruru sighed.
“She’s waiting for me to make enough money for her to live comfortably for the rest of her life, of course she’s angry when she hears I’m leaving.”
“Doesn’t she have your stepfather now?”
Shen Yihuan pulled out her phone, found Lu Zhou’s chat box, paused her finger, and typed: Are you angry?
Then she added: “Stepfathers aren’t always reliable, she still wants me to find a rich husband soon.”
Shen Yihuan glanced at Gu Minghui, raising an eyebrow: “My dad probably came looking for you after something happened to him.”
She knew Shen Yihuan had a good relationship with the young master of the Gu family, so she wanted to marry Shen Yihuan into the Gu family to help them through their current difficulties.
“You’re quite clever.” Gu Minghui smiled, raised his glass and tapped the table, clinking glasses with the two of them, “I was abroad at that time. What do you say, if you’re willing, your Young Master Gu will go to your house to propose now.”
Shen Yihuan rolled her eyes, ignoring his joke, and leaned back in her chair, continuing to text Lu Zhou. @Jingjiang Literature City
Cherry: Are you jealous?
Cherry: Gu Minghui and I really don’t have that kind of relationship, Ruru is here too.
Cherry: When’s your flight? I’ll come see you off.
Cherry: Gege QAQ
No replies.
Shen Yihuan pouted, holding her phone she stood up: “You guys eat, I’m going to the restroom.”
She dialed Lu Zhou’s number and held it to her ear.
After a series of rings, it was finally answered with a faint, “Hello?”
Shen Yihuan: “Why did you leave just now?”
No response.
She changed her question: “Why did you come to find me just now?”
“Nothing.”
“Tsk.” Shen Yihuan muttered, leaning against the door panel, “Lu Zhou, you still like me, otherwise why would you be so jealous?”
Just as she thought Lu Zhou wasn’t going to answer again, his voice came from her ear, he said.
“Yesterday’s candy, do you still want it?”
Shen Yihuan was startled, her heart suddenly fluttered: “Where are you?”
“Come down.”
________________________________________
“Cherry, where are you going!”
She left a quick “I’m going downstairs” and rushed out the door.
Two hours had passed since Lu Zhou left, and he was still there.
She ran out of the elevator, shuffled out of the apartment building in her slippers, looked around but couldn’t find Lu Zhou.
She took out her phone, but before she could dial the number.
Lu Zhou’s voice sounded from behind her: “Shen Yihuan.”
She turned around.
The sun was strong today, one side was bright and warm sunlight, and Lu Zhou stood in the shadow of the eaves.
His slightly lighter pupils were clearly illuminated.
“Here.”
He raised his hand and shoved a bag into Shen Yihuan’s hand, inside were several bags of lollipops.
“I’m leaving,” he said.
Shen Yihuan was momentarily stunned, and by the time she reacted, Lu Zhou had already walked far away.
His shoulders were broad, and as the wind blew, his shoulder blades showed through his thin short-sleeved shirt, like a verdant peak.
________________________________________
It was already night when they arrived in Xinjiang, the sky was dark. After leaving the airport, they drove towards the military camp. Lu Zhou was driving, his teammate He Min was in the passenger seat, and the aid doctor He Can was in the back seat.
“Dr. He, we’re from the same family name,” He Min said, turning his head to He Can in the back.
He Can: “Yes, what a coincidence.”
“Dr. He, why did you decide to come to Xinjiang as a doctor? It’s rare for a young woman like you to decide to come here.”
He Can glanced at Lu Zhou, smiled, “I think it’s great. You’re also young, and I admire your dedication to staying here.”
Lu Zhou held a cigarette in his mouth, but didn’t light it out of consideration for the women present. He held the steering wheel with one hand, his gaze fixed on the road ahead.
He Can looked at his profile, the man’s jawline was tight, smooth, strong, and firm, his eyes deep. He exuded an extremely masculine and captivating aura. What woman wouldn’t like him?
She subtly curved her lips and turned to look out the window.
This was Xinjiang, and they were still heading west.
A straight road, two lanes, with a white line along the edge extending into the unseen distance ahead.
On both sides were grasslands, not very green, more yellowish. Outside, the weather was hot, with a sandy hot wind that felt a bit stinging on the face. Looking further, one could vaguely see snow lines on the mountain peaks, towering into the clouds.
It was a scenery completely unlike anything seen in the city.
Lu Zhou rolled up the window on her side. He Can turned to look at him.
Lu Zhou turned on the air conditioning and said, “Further ahead is the desert, the temperature will be even higher. Dr. He, please rest for a while, it’s still a few hours to the base.”
“Will you get tired driving? Or maybe I can take over later?” He Can’s voice was gentle.
Lu Zhou: “It’s fine.”
After several hours on the plane, He Can was indeed tired. After looking out the window for a while, she fell asleep.
He Min looked back, then lowered his voice and asked Lu Zhou: “Lu Team, what does this Dr. He mean to you?”
Lu Zhou glanced at him: “Don’t talk nonsense.”
“I’m serious, she followed you all the way here. Why else? Giving up a good job at a big city hospital to come here? That takes a lot of courage.”
Lu Zhou: “Don’t flatter me, do you think she came to aid Xinjiang because of me?”
He Min rephrased: “Then what do you think of Dr. He?”
Lu Zhou didn’t answer, followed by the notification sound of a text message. He Min patted his pants: “Hey, where’s my phone?”
He finally found his phone in his back pocket.
He opened it, a WeChat message.
Cherry: Gege, have you arrived in Xinjiang?
He Min: “...”
Their phones were the same model, and neither had a lock screen set, so there was no external difference.
He glanced at Lu Zhou and handed him the phone: “Lu Team, yours.”
Lu Zhou’s expression barely changed when he saw the message.
He Min: “Should I reply for you?”
“No need to reply.”
He didn’t know what Shen Yihuan was up to again, calling him ‘Gege’ so sweetly.
She used to call him that before, but often it carried a different meaning, and whenever she did, Lu Zhou’s scalp would tingle.
“Cherry...” He Min mumbled the WeChat name, then suddenly realized, “Lu Team, that tattoo of yours, is it her?”
Lu Zhou glanced at him.
“Hmm.”
________________________________________
Shen Yihuan’s preliminary preparations for her work in Xinjiang dragged on for three days. She returned to her studio to pack the equipment she would need for the trip.
“Teacher Shen, this is for you.”
It was the new colleague who was originally scheduled to go to Xinjiang, holding a box of chocolates.
“What’s wrong?” Shen Yihuan smiled.
“Thank you for letting me have this job this time...” the girl’s voice was soft.
“It’s just a change of work assignment,” Shen Yihuan took two chocolates, “Thank you, eat the rest yourself, my teeth hurt lately.”
After packing up, she met with the TV station’s program crew and photographers and headed to the airport together.
Shen Yihuan shook hands and greeted them one by one. Everyone was older than her and took good care of her along the way.
When the plane took off and the feeling of weightlessness gradually spread, Shen Yihuan suddenly felt a sense of relief.
“Want some?” Qin Zheng, who was sitting next to her, handed over a bottle of sunscreen.
Shen Yihuan: “No, thank you.”
“Put some on, the UV rays there are very strong. Many girls don’t want to go because they’re afraid of getting tanned.”
So Shen Yihuan took it and thanked her.
She thought to herself, Lu Zhou has been here for so long, and he doesn’t seem to have gotten tanned at all. But he was like that when he was in school; after military training, he didn’t get tan at all, while Shen Yihuan’s arms got subtly uneven skin tones, but it went back to normal in less than half a month.
She wore a loose, silk wide-leg pants, with a large, Western-style shawl draped over her shoulders, and only applied sunscreen to her exposed skin.
After a short nap, the plane landed.
Stepping out of the airport with her suitcase, she was immediately hit by the unique dry and intense heat of the Northwest. It wasn’t muggy; it was a thoroughly dry heat that wasn’t particularly uncomfortable, but rather brought a straightforward sense of comfort.
She had set foot on the land where Lu Zhou had lived for many years.
Shen Yihuan squinted, raising her chin, feeling the wind here.
“Little Shen, give me your suitcase, we’re about to leave.” The driver responsible for the itinerary here was a middle-aged man, with a scruffy beard, lean and strong, with wheat-colored skin, named Lin Hu.
All the large and small luggage was loaded into an SUV, and the photography equipment was carefully placed as well. The others sat in the first SUV, and the two cars drove parallel.
Qin Zheng, the general director this time, was sitting in the passenger seat introducing the upcoming itinerary to everyone. The shooting would proceed from north to south, focusing not only on food but also on scenery and culture.
The TV station had a cooperation agreement with the local tourism authority, which would not only facilitate their shooting but also require them to promote tourism.
@Jingjiang Literature City
So, this food special was their most important segment.
Shen Yihuan was not from the TV station, only playing an auxiliary role. She listened idly, her eyes gazing out the window.
Everywhere, as far as the eye could see, were endless grasslands. The sky was a clear blue. Two cars sped down the straight highway, with grasslands beside them, and even camels could be seen.
It truly was beautiful.
Xinjiang is vast, and the landscapes of Northern and Southern Xinjiang are completely different.
She still didn’t know where Lu Zhou was, nor had she figured out how to tell him she had come to Xinjiang.
She lowered her head, fiddling with her phone, replying to messages from Qiu Ruru and Gu Minghui. Then she opened Lu Zhou’s chat; the last message was still her asking Lu Zhou if he had arrived in Xinjiang, which he hadn’t replied to.
He was incredibly fierce.
...
The car drove for an unknown amount of time before suddenly stalling. The car jolted, and everyone lurched forward due to inertia.
Shen Yihuan hit her forehead on the back of the seat in front, rubbing her head as she sat up and leaned forward to look.
Others also complained, “What’s going on? Why did it suddenly stall?”
The driver frowned, “Not sure, I’ll get out and check.”
As soon as he opened the car door, a damp wave of heat surged into the car, which had been cooled by the air conditioning. The alternating cold and hot air was irritating.
Shen Yihuan took out her sunglasses, putting them on with one hand, and draped the shawl over her head, tying it under her chin.
A few strands of hair escaped, hanging down on both sides of her face, the ends curled, perfectly framing her chin. In a moment, the driver poked his head back in, looking upset: “The battery’s dead.”
“Should we get some power from the battery of the car behind?” someone asked.
The driver frowned and looked distressed: “I didn’t bring jumper cables.”
“Then what do we do? I didn’t see a single car on this road!”
“Why didn’t they check the car properly beforehand? Now what, who knows how long we’ll be stuck here!”
...
Some began to complain.
The weather was hot, and it had been several hours of tiring travel. Everyone was already exhausted. There were filming arrangements for tomorrow, and they just wanted to get back to the hotel early to have a good rest.
The driver’s temper also flared: “I just checked the car yesterday, go yell at the repair shop people!”
Qin Zheng calmed everyone: “Let’s all cool down, there’s nothing we can do about this. I’ll contact the local person in charge to see if they can send a car over. Brother Lin Hu, you should get back in the car too, don’t get heatstroke.”
After she finished speaking, she called the person in charge, explaining the current situation clearly and logically.
Shen Yihuan leaned against the car window, then suddenly chuckled softly, sending a message to Lu Zhou.
Cherry: I’ve arrived in Xinjiang, but the car ran out of power halfway. Do you know what to do?
________________________________________
“At ease!”
“Attention!”
“Dismissed!”
Inside the military camp’s training ground, five neat rows of soldiers stood, all wearing the same military trousers, black belts, and bare-chested. Their muscles were bulging and developed, with defined muscle blocks on their chests, abdomens, and backs, all sweaty, and of wheat or bronze complexion.
Only the man standing at the very front, facing the lined-up men, had the fairest skin. He wore a black tank top, and a vibrant splash of color extended from under the tank top on his back.
It was a cherry vine.
It was a seemingly soft image, yet on him, it exuded a wildness.
“Lu Team, Commander Feng is looking for you!”
Lu Zhou turned around and saw Commander Feng standing at the entrance of the training ground. He was in his fifties, but his spirit was better than some twenty-year-olds.
He ran over, stood at attention in front of the commander, and saluted, his movements sharp and forceful.
“Commander Feng.”
“I’ve received news that a TV station will be coming to film.”
“Yes.”
“Just now, they called and said their car battery died. Send someone to deal with it for them. The temperature drops quickly at night; don’t let them freeze.”
Lu Zhou acknowledged with a “yes,” saluted again, then turned and shouted towards the training ground: “He Min!”
“Aye!” He was competing in pull-ups with someone, heard the call, jumped down from the bar, and ran over, “Commander, Lu Team.”
Lu Zhou finished explaining the task to him and tossed the keys into his hand: “Get them settled into the hotel, don’t let anything go wrong. If it’s late, you can report back to duty tomorrow morning.”
He Min took the keys and walked out.
Not a single wasted word or complaint.
This was a requirement for them as soldiers: absolute obedience to orders.
Lu Zhou picked up his military jacket and returned to his room, preparing to take a shower. Picking up his phone, which was charging on his bedside, he saw the unread message from Shen Yihuan.
He froze, then instinctively rushed out, straight to the garage.
“He Min!”
“Huh?” He had just opened the car door.
“I’ll go, you stay,” he said.
“What’s wrong?”
Lu Zhou said directly, “If I’m not back by six tomorrow, you lead the training.”
________________________________________
The coolness left by the car’s air conditioning finally ran out. At sunset, it was slightly cooler outside the car than inside, and the temperature was incomparable to that of midday.
The day-night temperature difference was extreme.
A wide black camera strap hung around Shen Yihuan’s neck. She sat on the ground, leaning against a car wheel. Her back was a bit hot, but she was too lazy to move.
She just sat there taking photos.
Compared to the others who were getting impatient, she seemed too relaxed.
She was not a person who followed plans; she was completely spontaneous. When she saw the beautiful scenery here on the plane, she couldn’t wait to take photos. This unexpected delay just suited her perfectly.
“Why aren’t they here yet?”
“Exactly, it’s getting dark and it’s going to get cold. We don’t have blankets in the car, we’ll freeze to death.”
Qin Zheng said, “They should be here soon. The locations here are spread out, so it takes time to get here.”
As she spoke, a black dot suddenly appeared at the distant end of the highway. Looking closer, it was approaching at an accelerating speed.
“Hey, isn’t that it!”
Shen Yihuan turned at the sound, raised her camera to focus, and watched the Land Rover in her lens get closer and closer, speeding towards them, then stopping steadily in front of them.
The car door opened.
A long leg emerged, military boots, camouflage pants.
Whoa.
Shen Yihuan subtly raised her eyebrows.
It wasn’t until the man got out of the car that she completely froze.
Was the person in charge of Xinjiang this time actually Lu Zhou?
She was still holding her camera, stunned, only seeing through the lens that Lu Zhou glanced in her direction, looking down on her, then quickly and casually moved his gaze away.
He extended his hand towards Qin Zheng, shaking it.
His voice was deep, immediately evoking the feeling of the vast desert.
“Hello, I am Lu Zhou, captain of the Xinjiang Military Region Border Defense Team.”
Everyone else was also stunned. Not many women came for this work, but the aura around Lu Zhou was forged by years of sand and wind here, even the men from the city were impressed.
Inside, he wore a black tank top, covered by an unbuttoned military jacket, revealing a section of his broad shoulders.
You could see the slightly taut muscles on his chest, his eyes were like lacquer, his features sharp, and his shiny military boots elongated his legs, with a high-cinched belt outlining a narrow waist and hips.
Qin Zheng also introduced herself and then said: “Captain Lu, could you help us see if it’s better to tow the car or what?”
“Towing wastes fuel, and resources are limited, don’t waste them,” he said.
Lu Zhou propped open the hood of the car, used a stand to hold it open, checked it, then took out jumper cables from his own car and connected the positive and negative terminals.
He wasn’t wearing gloves, and when he connected them, a small spark shot out, landing right on his fingertip.
He only frowned, wiped his hand on his pants, and finished dealing with it very quickly, taking no more than ten minutes in total.
“You try again,” he said to the driver.
The driver shifted into neutral and stepped on the gas, and indeed, it was already fixed.
Everyone cheered, and Qin Zheng thanked him: “Thank you so much, I didn’t expect it to be fixed so quickly. Thank you for coming all this way.”
Lu Zhou: “No problem, if you need anything these next few days, you can contact me directly.”
Qin Zheng: “If you’re not in a hurry to go back to the military camp, we’d like to treat you to a meal.”
“I’ll take you back to the hotel before I go back,” Lu Zhou said, “In Xinjiang, it should be my treat.”
Qin Zheng smiled and didn’t decline the offer, nodding, “Okay, then let’s get going quickly, so we don’t delay you.”
After speaking, she waved to the people behind her: “Everyone, hurry up and get in the car, we’re going back to the hotel first!”
Shen Yihuan had just stood up when Lu Zhou bypassed everyone and walked directly towards her.
His imposing aura made everyone instinctively make way for him.
He grabbed her by the collar and pulled her aside, like he was carrying a little chick, to an empty spot on the other side.
Shen Yihuan had been squatting for too long, her feet were unsteady, and she stumbled into his arms. Lu Zhou reached out to steady her, then quickly pulled his hands back, putting them in his pockets.
“What are you doing here?” It was clearly an accusatory tone.
Everyone around looked at each other, surprised that someone in their team was so discreet, even knowing such a high-ranking captain. Looking at his insignia, he was a lieutenant colonel at a young age, with limitless potential.
“Work.” Shen Yihuan held up her camera and shook it.
“Work or trouble?”
She was defiant: “Can I only cause trouble?”
“Why didn’t you say anything before?”
“You didn’t reply to my messages, so how could I tell you?” Shen Yihuan glared at him.
“Go back after work. This isn’t the place for you to stay.”
“If you can stay, why can’t I?”
Lu Zhou ignored her, turned back to the crowd, automatically blocking out their gossipy expressions: “Everyone get in the car, let’s go, I’ll lead the way.”
Then he glanced at them again; apart from Qin Zheng, they were all men.
He said to Shen Yihuan, “You ride in my car.”
If it had been before, Shen Yihuan would have happily gone, but Lu Zhou’s actions just now had made her quite unhappy; it was embarrassing in front of her new colleagues. @Jingjiang Literature City
She frowned, trying to shake off his hand: “I don’t want to!”
Lu Zhou’s grip was strong; he held her wrist tightly, twisting it to restrain her, and his face darkened.
“Shen Yihuan, don’t make me angry.”
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