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Psst! We're moving!
Before five in the morning, the sky was still dark, with a few faint stars twinkling.
Lu Zhou wiped down the three cars parked outside with dry towels. The sandstorm last night had left a layer of yellow dust on the car windows.
As five o’clock approached, people gradually came downstairs, yawning incessantly. Only Lin Hu seemed fine; he was used to driving at night and didn’t have high demands for his routine.
The morning light was cool.
The sky was a complete, unbroken expanse, not a single bit devoured, tightly encompassing the earth, thoroughly enveloped.
On the table were roasted buns (baozi) and naan for everyone, along with coarse tea.
Lu Zhou finished with the cars, then checked the fuel tanks one by one. He went inside to wash his hands, and Qin Zheng called him over for breakfast.
He acknowledged her, took two roasted buns, lifted the rolling shutter door, and went back out. After eating the two buns, he had a cup of warm coarse tea.
The owner squatted by a sink, washing a basket of tender lamb trotters. He poked his head in and said to Lu Zhou, “Your woman isn’t up yet, aren’t you going to call her?”
The people here were simple and rough, and their words were also blunt, not understanding the genteel ways of the city. @Jingjiang Literature City
Lu Zhou glanced at his watch, exhaling a puff of white air: “Wait a little longer.”
Shen Yihuan came downstairs right on time, at 4:58 AM, with a clatter, the sound of her pulling her suitcase out.
Everyone looked over at the sound, their eyes almost popping out.
She wore a dark blue long dress, with an ethnic flair, two thin straps hooked over her fair shoulders, deeply defined collarbones, and prominent shoulder blades on her back.
A shawl draped over her head, her long black hair cascaded out, slightly messy, falling by her face, which only made her skin appear even fairer.
She wore no makeup, only bright red lipstick, likely applied in a rush because she woke up late.
But her natural beauty was so striking that it gave her a cool, pretty appearance.
Not fully awake, her face looked tired and weary, her eyes barely open. Her slender figure, carrying a large 26-inch suitcase, stood on the second floor, making them worry she might fall.
“Photographer Shen, I’ll carry that down for you,” a man from the team said.
He ran up the stairs, and just as he was about to grab it, he suddenly felt a gaze on his back.
He turned his head and saw Lu Zhou looking at him. Just as his gaze was about to follow, Lu Zhou, as if nothing had happened, stood up and walked towards them, his expression normal.
He took three steps of the stairs in one stride, reached out, and took the suitcase from Shen Yihuan’s hand.
A flat “I’ll take it.”
The man involuntarily withdrew his hand, as if his heart had been pricked by an ice shard.
The suitcase was easily carried downstairs. Shen Yihuan, still half-asleep, didn’t notice the scene that had just unfolded in front of her. She just walked downstairs expressionlessly, but the others saw it clearly.
That possessiveness was truly something else.
And yet, the tall and imposing Captain Lu had an aloof face, the contrast between the two was even more intriguing.
Lu Zhou: “Everyone’s here, let’s get in the cars and go.”
The owner gave Lu Zhou a small square of cloth and gestured with his chin towards Shen Yihuan, who was squinting and leaning against the car door: “Breakfast for her, and two bottles of yogurt.”
Lu Zhou took it and thanked him.
The owner: “Hey, we owe you guys a lot over the years. They’re also here to promote Xinjiang, so don’t mention thanks.”
________________________________________
Lu Zhou looked at Shen Yihuan, who was standing by his car of her own accord, and his heart softened.
He put the breakfast in her hand. Shen Yihuan looked up; the roasted bun was wrapped in a cloth, and she didn’t understand what it was.
“Breakfast,” he said.
“Don’t want to eat,” Shen Yihuan mumbled.
Lu Zhou frowned.
She rubbed her eyes: “Just want to sleep.”
He chuckled softly.
The man’s voice was already low, even more so when he laughed. His otherwise defined and stern features softened with that laugh.
It was an unforgettable sight.
He put one arm around the young girl’s slender waist to open the car door for her. After she got in, he brushed the stray hairs from her face with his index finger and placed the breakfast next to her.
“Sleep a bit more, eat when you wake up.”
The morning breeze brushed her face. Shen Yihuan couldn’t open her eyes, only vaguely sensing a hint of delicate tenderness in his words.
It gave her an illusion of traveling back in time to high school.
________________________________________
She was finally woken up by the increasingly bright and glaring sunlight.
She propped herself up with both hands. Something slid off her shoulder; she looked at it, it was a jacket.
She turned her head to see Lu Zhou driving. Hearing her movement, he reached out his right hand and picked up something by her leg: “Eat breakfast.”
Shen Yihuan took it. It was already cold and hard, like a brick.
She frowned: “What is this?”
“Roasted bun.”
“Oh.”
She nodded, took a bite, then let out a soft “ugh,” chewing it like cardboard and swallowing the small mouthful: “You tricked me, the one I ate yesterday wasn’t this bad.”
“It’s cold.”
“Then I don’t want to eat it.” She put it back.
Lu Zhou gave her a faint glance: “Don’t waste it.”
“It’s hard, I can’t even bite it,” Shen Yihuan ignored him, holding her yogurt and drinking it.
“There are no pastry shops nearby. Meals will be served uniformly at the military camp mess hall, you’ll get hungry.”
Shen Yihuan looked out the car window and realized they were already in the desert, with yellow sand everywhere. The rolling sand dunes were smoothed by the hot wind, as if they had been sifted by a giant sieve.
There was nothing but the vast expanse.
She was intently watching the scenery when Lu Zhou already held the roasted bun and offered it to her mouth.
“I don’t want to eat,” she frowned.
Lu Zhou: “Just one more bite.”
She had no choice; she didn’t want to make Lu Zhou angry, so she took a dry, tiny bite.
Lu Zhou said “one more bite” meant exactly that, no matter how small her bite was.
He decisively withdrew his hand and put the half-eaten roasted bun into his own mouth.
Shen Yihuan: “?”
Noticing her surprised gaze, Lu Zhou said, “This is a remote and quite poor area. Don’t waste things. It’s even more important not to do so in the military camp; take only what you can eat.”
Realizing she had been presumptuous, Shen Yihuan felt a little embarrassed.
Then she remembered that day at her high school alma mater, Lu Zhou’s plate of food had also been completely cleaned.
Not wasting seemed to be ingrained in him.
As for her, if she didn’t like a dish, she would leave it all. She would open a pack of twenty-something lollipops and only eat a few, throwing the rest away.
________________________________________
The car drove for over three hours, finally approaching its destination.
The military base gradually appeared before their eyes. Outside was a wide iron gate, surrounded by high walls, with two men in military uniforms standing on either side, their backs straight, one hand holding a gun, the other performing a standard salute.
From afar, one could see the national flag, the Five-star Red Flag, flying high in the center.
The sky was vast and the land stretched far, an indescribable grand and magnificent sight.
Just as Shen Yihuan picked up her camera, Lu Zhou pressed it down.
He said, “Don’t just take pictures randomly here. Someone will come soon to tell you the permissible areas for activity, then you can take pictures.”
Shen Yihuan put away her camera.
“Your ID card, please,” Lu Zhou said.
Lu Zhou got out of the car and heard the two soldiers standing at attention on either side loudly shout “Captain Lu.” He tapped on the windows of the two SUVs behind, collecting their IDs and work permits.
Then he walked to the guard post, exchanged a few words with the person inside, and the iron gate in front slowly opened.
Lu Zhou got back in the car and led the two cars behind him into the military camp gate.
In front of the foremost building, a man was already standing, appearing to be in his fifties, exuding an inherent authority. He wore a dark green military uniform and saluted them.
Shen Yihuan was completely bewildered.
Qin Zheng got out of the car, ran up the steps, and respectfully shook his hand. They were too far to hear what they were saying.
“Who is that?” Shen Yihuan asked Lu Zhou.
“General Feng, the commander here.”
“Your superior?”
“Something like that.”
He buttoned up his camouflage jacket all the way to the top, reaching his Adam’s apple, making him look rigid, serious, and ascetic.
Shen Yihuan couldn’t help but swallow.
“Get out of the car,” Lu Zhou said.
He also walked up the steps, stood next to Qin Zheng, and after saluting Commander Feng, reported what happened yesterday. Commander Feng: “Good, He Min is helping you train the team, you go.” “Okay.” Lu Zhou descended the steps.
He glanced at Shen Yihuan, paused, and stood in front of her.
“I’m going to train. If you need me, I’ll be at the training ground over there.”
Shen Yihuan smiled at him and said, “Mmm.”
________________________________________
Soon, someone came to guide them and introduce the military camp, explaining which areas were freely accessible, which had time restrictions, and which were off-limits to outsiders.
“Everyone will be staying in the military camp these days, in unified dormitories. Men will be four to a room, and the two women will share one. If you have any questions during your stay here, you can ask me or our comrades in the team, and we will all help you. Additionally, everyone needs to cooperate with the rules of our military camp; please do not approach prohibited areas, and everyone must strictly follow the regulations I just mentioned.”
Qin Zheng: “That’s a given, don’t worry, we won’t break any rules.”
“Also, any photos or videos you take in the military camp must be reviewed before publication.”
“Okay, understood,” Qin Zheng nodded.
After a few more words, the person left, and they split up to begin filming.
Shen Yihuan and Qin Zheng went to the military camp mess hall first.
The mess hall was empty, as it wasn’t mealtime yet.
They hadn’t seen any soldiers on their way there, and Shen Yihuan remembered what Lu Zhou had just told her, guessing that the soldiers were probably at the training ground now.
Several elderly men stood at the food service windows in the mess hall.
Qin Zheng deployed, discussed, and communicated with them, then set up tripods and cameras. The prepared questions were refined, and a man from the team, a broadcasting professional, conducted the interviews.
Shen Yihuan stood outside the camera’s range, taking photos of them.
After taking pictures of the people, she went to photograph the food that had already been laid out.
Compared to what they ate last night, it was clearly not in the same league. These were the most common mess hall dishes: clear soup with preserved vegetables and egg drops, shredded potatoes, scrambled eggs with tomatoes, minced meat with eggplant, and similar fare.
She felt absolutely no appetite for it.
Then she remembered that Lu Zhou had been enduring the cold northwest winds and eating these kinds of things for years, and she felt a pang of discomfort.
“Little girl, where are you from?” the woman standing at the food window asked her.
Shen Yihuan said, “Beijing.”
“The capital! That’s so far, I haven’t even been out of Northern Xinjiang,” the woman laughed, her face creasing with wrinkles. She then asked, “Are you hungry? Do you want me to serve you some food early?”
“Lu Zhou said you have fixed meal times, and you can’t eat at other times?”
“Lu Zhou?” The woman paused.
Shen Yihuan nodded: “Yes.”
The woman thought for a moment before realizing: “You mean Captain Lu, right?”
Here, they all called him Captain Lu, and it was rare to hear someone call him by his full name, so it took her a moment to react.
“Yes.”
“Normally, since you’re not military personnel, serving you a plate of food early wouldn’t be a big deal. But Captain Lu himself said no, so never mind,” the woman said, looking up at the clock. “It’ll be soon, just over an hour until mealtime.”
“...”
Actually, she wasn’t that hungry.
Shen Yihuan finished taking photos and checking them one by one. The interview there also concluded, and they temporarily wrapped up work.
Qin Zheng took her arm: “Come on, let’s go explore a bit more.”
The kitchen steps were quite high, offering a view of the vast wilderness outside.
This was the only building visible as far as the eye could see in this land.
These people, they were stationed right here.
Border defense, guarding.
She began to understand the differences in Lu Zhou since they reunited—things that belonged to this place: the vast desert, the heroic spirit, the unwavering resolve.
“There are other women here too,” Qin Zheng said.
Since they arrived, apart from the women in the mess hall, they hadn’t seen any women their age.
Shen Yihuan followed her gaze and saw a woman, her back to them, squatting on the ground, washing clothes. She wore a white lab coat, so she was a doctor.
She recognized her as the doctor she had seen at the hospital that night.
Later, Lu Zhou told her that this was the aid doctor who was coming with them.
Now, looking closely.
She had a very gentle appearance. A small crescent moon earring adorned her earlobe. Her hair just reached her shoulders, dark brown. She wore loose gray trousers, and she was very thin. Her temperament was somewhat similar to Qin Zheng’s, but Qin Zheng was older and already married, while she still had the delicate beauty of a young girl.
“Should we go say hello?” Qin Zheng asked her.
Shen Yihuan said, “You go, I’m going to check out the training ground.”
________________________________________
A surge of heat permeated the training ground, not just from the temperature, but also from the agile soldiers who had just finished a round of training and were now leisurely resting.
Some sat on the ground drinking water and chatting, others played around on the field, and the parallel and horizontal bars were also surrounded by people.
Shen Yihuan looked around and found Lu Zhou leaning against the flagpole.
He was the only one still wearing a shirt; everyone else was bare-chested and sweaty.
There was a mesh fence around the training ground. She hadn’t found the entrance yet, but she had already attracted the attention of the men inside.
She was too fair, and her dark blue long dress was particularly eye-catching, making her easily noticed.
Lu Zhou heard the whispers, as if sensing something, and turned to see Shen Yihuan outside the fence.
He frowned, low-scolding the few gossiping men, then ran towards Shen Yihuan, in military posture, hands clenched in fists swinging at his waist, long legs moving rhythmically.
“What’s wrong?” he asked through the barbed wire.
“I came to take a look.”
“Do you want to come in and take pictures?”
She shook her head: “I’ll take them tomorrow.”
Lu Zhou lowered his gaze, looking at her, then suddenly asked, “What’s wrong with you?”
Shen Yihuan looked up, bewildered: “What?”
“You’re not happy.” His tone was affirmative.
She was silent, then realized she did seem a little unhappy, an unexplainable discomfort, stifled in her chest, neither rising nor falling.
It was an emotion that only appeared after she came in and looked around.
She was very good at protecting herself and would always move in directions that benefited her.
When she found that she no longer had the same swagger as before, she naturally smoothed out all her rough edges and began to interact with this cold world in a smooth, gentle way.
So, she actually hadn’t experienced many truly sad days. At most, it was only the first half-year after Shen Fu died.
This sadness was more psychological than physical. With Qiu Ruru and Gu Minghui around, they took great care of her during that period, and it was impossible for her to experience tragic events like going hungry.
So when she walked into the military camp and truly realized the kind of life Lu Zhou was living, she found it a bit hard to accept.
When they first broke up, he was both heartbroken and training so hard, with living conditions that weren’t good at all.
This blue long dress, she had prepared yesterday to wear today. She was very aware of her own advantages, and she wasn’t some truly good and beautiful person.
She had deliberately dressed beautifully today to meet the aid doctor Lu Zhou mentioned. She wanted to impress everyone the moment she appeared, to stand in front of that doctor, and then subtly win her over.
It was quite childish.
But when she came out of the mess hall and Qin Zheng asked her to go say hello to that doctor, Shen Yihuan suddenly didn’t want to go.
“Ah.” She opened her mouth and responded, her slender white fingers clutching the mesh.
________________________________________
Captain Lu rarely acted this way towards a woman, immediately attracting everyone’s attention. They gathered, craning their necks towards them.
Then they saw their tall and imposing Captain Lu, in front of the young girl, squat down.
Looking up at her.
Everyone was stunned. What the hell was going on?
Captain Lu actually squatted down in front of a girl one day?
This woman must be someone important.
A sudden burst of exclamations from behind, mixed with laughter, made Lu Zhou turn his head. He frowned and shouted at them, fiercely: “Everyone run fifteen laps! No dinner until you finish!”
Shen Yihuan shivered from his yell.
Lu Zhou took the young girl’s index finger, which was hooked in the mesh, and changed his tone.
“Who made you unhappy? I’ll make them run laps, hmm?”
Although she knew he was joking—Lu Zhou wasn’t the kind of person to abuse his authority like that, and it wasn’t allowed in the military—the number of times he joked could be counted on one hand.
Shen Yihuan was startled, then suddenly curved her lips into a smile.
When the young girl smiled, her eyes curved, her lips red and teeth white, her features as delicate as a painting.
Lu Zhou was captivated, his gaze for the first time looking at her so openly and frankly.
He whispered in a suppressed voice.
“You look beautiful when you smile.”
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