Chapter 5: Guan Yizhou Is Here!
After using the toilet, Wen Jialing's face relaxed considerably. The tightness that had gripped her expression was gone.
Song Tingyue took her to the mess hall. This was likely the first time in Wen Jialing's entire life that she had ever stepped into such a massive crowd of men.
Although there were a few scattered female soldiers and family members in the group, the male-to-female ratio was severely imbalanced.
No wonder they organized social mixers—to solve the single status issue for these young men.
Some of the soldiers must have just come off the training ground. They had stripped down to nothing but white tank tops, steam rising from their bodies. Sweat soaked through the thin fabric, revealing solid, rugged muscle lines in full view. From a distance, it looked no different from being bare-chested.
Wen Jialing felt like she had accidentally wandered into a purely masculine territory.
Her cheeks suddenly burned hot. The air around her seemed to thicken.
She kept feeling countless gazes falling on her, some curious, some appraising, but most unhidden astonishment. It made every inch of her body feel uncomfortable.
She had grown up in the circles of old Shanghai, surrounded by wealthy and established families. With money came the conditions to pursue scholarship and etiquette, to act like cultured people, maintaining a certain dignity everywhere. Their gazes never lingered too long on anyone.
It wasn't like now, where they stared nakedly, as if trying to see through her inside and out.
Wen Jialing could only quicken her pace to keep up with Song Tingyue. It seemed that only by getting closer to him could she draw more security.
She reached out, instinctively wanting to hook his arm.
Some habits are carved into the bones, even after a long separation.
When she was little, her favorite thing to do was hang on his arm and swing back and forth. Even in his youth, Song Tingyue was much taller than his peers. She could cling to his elbow like a little monkey climbing a tree, letting him lift her up entirely.
When she couldn't hold on anymore, she would shout in panic, "Brother! Brother! I'm going to fall!"
Song Tingyue naturally never let her fall.
Otherwise, she wouldn't have sought out his arm as her first reaction when feeling afraid, treating it as her sole shelter.
In her memory, during countless nights of roaring thunder, she would run barefoot into his room, *thud-thud-thud* in the darkness, heart pounding wildly as she burrowed into his embrace. Only by tightly hugging his arm could she barely manage to fall asleep.
A thunderclap seemed to explode in her mind, abruptly pulling her thoughts away from childhood memories.
Just an inch before her fingertips touched his arm, Wen Jialing suddenly pulled her hand back, her eyelashes lowering.
*Wen Jialing! What are you doing?*
She cursed herself fiercely in her heart.
His reply had been crystal clear—taking her in was to repay the Wen family's kindness of raising her.
Song Tingyue noticed this tiny movement. A fire he couldn't quite define surged in his chest.
He glanced down at his training uniform. During practice, dust had smeared onto his sleeve. He had specifically rolled the dirty part into the fold earlier to hide it.
Looking at it now, it didn't seem all that dirty.
What was this little girl disgusted about again?
Song Tingyue's face darkened. Just then, a soldier walked toward them. Without saying a word, he raised his hand and stopped him.
The one intercepted was a rookie. This new recruit had already heard the squad leaders mutter that Regiment Commander Song had a rough temperament when training troops.
This was a man who had truly handled live ammunition. Forget humans; even ghosts would detour around him.
Rumor had it that back in basic training, several unruly recruits challenged him to sparring. Song Tingyue let them come at him together. His strikes were fierce and efficient. In three moves, five actions, he knocked them all flat. Those guys spent a full three days in the medical unit before they could get up.
In the hearts of the new recruits, the one thing absolutely not to provoke in this unit was the name "Song Tingyue."
"Regiment Commander Song, please give orders!"
The rookie gave a standard salute, but his eyes couldn't help sneaking a glance at the person beside Song Tingyue.
That young girl had skin as white as a peeled egg, tender and delicate. Her frame was small, looking like she might topple over in a breeze.
Everyone in the camp was quietly spreading rumors that this was Regiment Commander Song's newly arrived wife.
The rookie stole another look at Song Tingyue's tall, burly physique. There was a wildness and brute force radiating from him. Even other big men like them felt a bit intimidated seeing him. He wondered how such a fragile girl could withstand him?
While his mind was racing, he received a heavy slap on the back of his head.
"Where are your eyes looking?" Song Tingyue barked coldly. "Running into the mess hall wearing just a tank top? Did you feed all those military regulations and discipline codes to the dogs? Go to the parade ground and run ten laps! And those bastards who were also wearing tank tops just now—you note down each one of them. Punish them all together!"
"Ten... ten laps..." The rookie groaned in misery. The sun was blazing overhead right now, baking the ground until it smoked.
Although Regiment Commander Song was strict during training and missions, he never made a fuss over trivial matters like wearing tank tops. Sometimes, after finishing his own training and feeling hot, he would strip down to just a tank top on the drill field himself.
Today, there was no inspection from the Military Region leadership, nor any check from the Division headquarters.
What had offended him? Had he swallowed gunpowder?
"Add five more laps!" Song Tingyue left no room for negotiation.
The rookie shivered, quickly saluting. "Yes!"
After this little incident, Wen Jialing noticed that the gazes previously lingering faintly on her suddenly vanished. Everyone was deliberately avoiding her—or strictly speaking, avoiding the intimidating man standing in front of her.
They were terrified of being caught making any mistake.
Wen Jialing kept her head down, picking at the rice in her lunch box with small bites. There were only two dishes: tomato scrambled eggs and potato stewed meat. There was plenty of meat, served by Song Tingyue, but she picked around it, having no appetite.
*Bam.*
She looked up. A military canteen was placed in front of her.
Song Tingyue had returned to his seat at some point. He held chopsticks diagonally in his mouth, holding his aluminum lunch box with one hand, looking utterly nonchalant.
He said casually, "I washed this canteen. Drink some water. Really something, refusing to drink water just to hold in your pee?"
Having said that, he buried his head and shoveled food into his mouth, completely unaware that Wen Jialing's face had turned nearly purple from his blunt, almost rude remark.
Not only had he spotted her refusal to drink water to avoid using the bathroom, but he had also stated it so openly.
How could he be like this!
Taking advantage of the moment she lifted her head to drink, Wen Jialing secretly peeked at him through her eyelids.
The man's buzz cut was clean and sharp. His eating manner was far from elegant. He stuffed food into his mouth indiscriminately. As his cheeks moved, a sharp jawline emerged. His legs were spread wide carelessly, one military boot nearly extending under her seat.
Why... was her heartbeat getting faster and faster?
Faster than it had ever been in her ignorant childhood.
"What are you staring at? Eat."
Song Tingyue didn't even raise his head, tossing the words over. Wen Jialing choked on a mouthful of water.
*Cough, cough, cough...*
She coughed until her face turned red. Her shoulders, thin as cicada wings, trembled violently. Her two long braided pigtails swung back and forth with each cough.
Song Tingyue hadn't even swallowed the food in his mouth. He kicked his chair and shot to her side. His large palm slapped against her back, patting and stroking downwards.
The first pat lacked proper control, causing her whole body to lurch forward.
Song Tingyue reacted swiftly, throwing an arm across the edge of the table to block her, fearing she would hit it. The hand patting her back immediately lost its strength. This slender little frame... his palm slid down and reached her waist. That waist was so thin he felt he could wrap both hands around it completely.
"Choking on water? Are you three years old? All these years, did you only grow taller?"
Wen Jialing's coughing subsided somewhat. She hurriedly wiped the water stains from the corner of her mouth, ignoring his harsh scolding.
She suspected that first pat was intentional venting of frustration.
Seeing that she was no longer coughing, Song Tingyue sat back down to continue eating. Before lowering his head, he threw out a sentence: "Don't waste food. Finish everything in your lunch box. Otherwise, go run laps with them. Understood?"
Wen Jialing: ?!
He was definitely doing it on purpose!
What repayment of kindness? He clearly tricked her here to vent his anger!
Angry as she was, furious as she felt, she obediently replied, "Understood, Brother."
Her voice was small, soft and sticky, drifting across the narrow table.
Carrying a hint of strangeness, mixed with a long-lost intimacy.
Song Tingyue's knuckles gripping the chopsticks tightened sharply. He didn't speak again.