Chapter 28: Could It Be That She Doesn’t Like Me?

He reminded him, “Brother, I heard there’s a new movie that’s really good.”

Gu Huaizhi glanced at him, “Who has time to watch that?”

Zhang Yang: “…” Serves you right for not having a wife.

At this time, Ye Qinglan asked back:

“Are you done practicing? Are you confident?”

Gu Huaizhi: “Not really. But I think fighting with you more will help me improve my skills.”

“Then wait until I have time, I’m busy lately.”

“Alright, I’ll welcome you to visit my school when you have time.”

Ye Qinglan chuckled at his words.

This train ride was destined to be anything but boring. Gu Huaizhi wasn’t a cold person, and Ye Qinglan’s coldness only came out in certain situations, so they chatted in low voices from time to time along the way.

They talked about random things, like where to go in Lingcheng, where to go in Beijing.

What new snacks were out lately.

The space probe visited Jupiter.

The newspaper said the embassy of a certain country was attacked.

…

Midway through the journey, Ye Qinglan took out a newspaper from her bag and browsed through it, reading very quickly, finishing one page and moving on to the next.

Gu Huaizhi thought she was reading newspapers at a very fast pace. He didn’t know she was looking for useful information.

Wei Han learned about the child because someone from Haicheng went to Xiangcheng to visit relatives and mentioned it. He also said it was once in the newspaper.

She thought about finding all the newspapers from recent years, maybe she could find some other strange and unusual news in them.

As evening approached, when the flight attendant passed by, Gu Huaizhi asked, “It’s dinner time, what do you want to eat?”

“What’s available?” Ye Qinglan put away the newspaper.

The flight attendant enthusiastically said, “Today’s meal is very rich, not just braised rice. There’s braised pork rice, braised spare ribs rice, braised chicken rice, and vegetables. 50 cents a portion.”

Ye Qinglan: “Give me a portion of braised spare ribs, thank you.”

Then she added, “Anyway, it’s all on the public expense, we’ll each pay our own way, and each report it back for reimbursement, that’s more convenient.”

“Alright.”

Gu Huaizhi and Zhang Yang both ordered braised pork, two portions each.

The flight attendant took the money, gave them tickets, and said, “When the dining car passes by, you can get your meal with the ticket.” Then she shouted forward, “Dinner time is here, who wants to order? Today we have braised pork rice…”

After about twenty minutes, the flight attendant pushed the dining car over.

It was really quite a lot of food, and the vegetables were fresh and green.

They had already passed lunchtime when they got on the train, so they didn’t need to take off their masks to eat candy or chocolate, but they had to pull down their masks for dinner.

Gu Huaizhi actually wanted to see what she looked like, after all, she was his blind date, but thinking about how she didn’t show her face during the competition, and he didn’t win against her, he felt embarrassed to turn his head to look.

Ye Qinglan didn’t think about it so much at the moment, because the train food today was actually quite good. She had eaten train food many times, but none of them tasted as good as this one.

After finishing the meal, Gu Huaizhi didn’t look up.

Gu Huaizhi got off at Lingcheng, earlier than Ye Qinglan.

After midnight, the sound of the train arriving at the station echoed.

Gu Huaizhi carried two suitcases, “Take care of yourself on the way.”

Then he felt like his words were meaningless, with her skills, who knew who was taking care of whom.

Zhang Yang also said, “Comrade, we’re leaving then.”

“Alright, see you.” As Gu Huaizhi turned around, she said, “Train hard, I’ll come to inspect you when I get back.”

Gu Huaizhi smiled, but before he could say anything, the sound of people urging him to get off the train came, so he left immediately.

After getting off the train, he remembered that he hadn’t replied to Ye Qinglan, so he turned to the side of the carriage by the window.

At that moment, Ye Qinglan was drinking water, and when she suddenly saw her profile, Gu Huaizhi froze!

Ye Qinglan sensed the gaze from outside the window and turned her head, her face was completely revealed in front of Gu Huaizhi. Ye Qinglan had an oval face, big and bright eyes, thick eyebrows and eyes, three-dimensional features, bright and heroic at first glance. This heroism was partly innate, and partly due to her training.

Gu Huaizhi！！！！！ For a moment, his heart felt like it was stirred up by a wave, extremely restless. His whole being felt like it was trapped by something, was it joy, was it numbness… that feeling was indescribable.

Ye Qinglan raised her eyebrows？？？

What are you staring at?

She tapped on the window, “What’s the matter?”

Gu Huaizhi finally reacted, smiled, “I just wanted to say goodbye, I forgot to say it earlier.”

Ye Qinglan nodded, “Goodbye.”

People waiting for the train outside had already started boarding, Gu Huaizhi retreated to the safety line.

The horn sounded again, but Ye Qinglan saw that he didn’t leave, but stood there quietly looking at her.

What are you looking at?

Before she could ask, the train started moving.

Gu Huaizhi’s gaze followed the movement of the train, until the train was no longer visible, then he retracted his gaze.

Ye Qinglan in the train also retracted her gaze.

When Gu Huaizhi turned around, he saw Tie Jianjun and Zhang Yang standing not far away, smiling at him.

Zhang Yang said, “Brother, are we going to have a sister-in-law?”

“Stop talking nonsense.” Gu Huaizhi said, then added, “Hurry back and report.”

Zhang Yang asked as he walked, “Why do you say that? I saw you two chatting quite well along the way. Or is it that you don’t like her? Brother, I tell you, inner quality is the most important thing when finding a partner, I saw her reading newspapers all the way, she must be a person with inner quality.”

He never thought it would be the other way around, that the group leader would be the one not liked. In his eyes, someone with a good family background and personal conditions like the group leader, there was no way anyone wouldn’t like him.

However——

Gu Huaizhi said, “Could it be that she doesn’t like me? Anyway, we haven’t even gotten to the point of a single stroke.”

Zhang Yang exclaimed.

Tie Jianjun was extremely curious, “Brother, what’s the other party’s background, how come even you can’t get her?”

Gu Huaizhi: “A powerful person who can only draw a tie with me, if I want to get her, no, what do you mean ‘get her’?” He glared at him, “Don’t talk nonsense! Anyway, it’s not that I don’t like her, it’s whether she can like me, it still depends on whether I’m good enough.”

He didn’t think that just because he accidentally saw her face, he would be affected, after all, her level was there.

Tie Jianjun let out a “wow” after hearing that!

“Stop wowing, let’s go.”

The three of them left the station and went straight to the military district.

Gu Huaizhi’s trip was to be a bait, and also to bring back some things.

The reason for the bait was still the bugging device found near the research institute last time. Even though the disc that installed the device was dead, Xie Commander couldn’t accept it.

You know, even though the thing was installed outside the research institute, it was only a few hundred meters away from the institute, what was the difference between that and being right under their noses? Xie Commander felt like the enemy was dancing on his head.

So he decided to have a thorough internal and external investigation: use confidential documents as bait to lure out the snakes hiding in the dark.

After a phone call with Beijing, he spread the word that there was a major research breakthrough on the research institute side. Then he had Gu Huaizhi take confidential documents about the research results to Beijing, and the documents also included a confidential letter about territorial issues.

To make this more realistic, they even arranged two teams to deliver the confidential documents, that is, besides Gu Huaizhi, there was another team, and the rumors were spread from within, from people around him.

Anyway, each hidden snake had different focuses, some snakes focused on scientific research, some snakes focused on territorial issues, they could always lure out a few snakes.

Even if they only caught one, he could follow that snake and poke it into the snake’s nest.

Gu Huaizhi encountered two people as soon as he entered the train station, but he didn’t catch them, but he did catch the person he met on the train, for which he even got off the train halfway and bought a new ticket to Beijing.

Otherwise, according to the routes from Fanzhou and Lingcheng to Beijing, he wouldn’t have bumped into Ye Qinglan.

Back at the military district, he handed over the three large suitcases and went back home.

Even though he had been running around all day, he couldn’t sleep in bed, Gu Huaizhi kept thinking about the scene at the train station.

Finally, he slapped himself on the head and scolded himself, “Shameless! Stop thinking about it!”

He lingered until almost morning before falling asleep.

~~

On the other side, the train arrived in Haicheng at around 5 am.

In late autumn, the sky was still dark outside, but there were already vendors selling things at the station entrance.

After leaving the station, she looked around, the surrounding scenery felt familiar, for a moment she couldn’t tell which world she was in.

She stood there for a minute, then went to the nearby bus station, waited for two or three hours, and then got on a bus to Pingxin County, which was under the jurisdiction of Haicheng. While waiting, she found a place to put on her mask, covering her neck as well. Women traveling alone were prone to trouble, and trouble would delay her journey.

Wei Han said the child was probably in the Pingxin County area, but he didn’t know exactly where.

When she arrived in Pingxin County town, it was almost noon.

Ye Qinglan went to the guest house first, rested for a while, and then went to the state-owned restaurant for dinner.

There weren’t many outsiders in Pingxin County, everyone spoke the Haicheng dialect, and she spoke Mandarin, which inevitably attracted a few glances in the restaurant, especially since she ordered a lot of meat dishes and was reading a newspaper while eating, looking like a big shot.

The waitresses in the restaurant all looked at her several times.

When the waitress looked over again, she smiled and asked, “Comrade, is there anything wrong with me?”

“No, no.” The waitress was a little embarrassed, “I just think you can eat a lot.”

Ye Qinglan: “Men can eat, too. Besides, I’ve been on the road for several days.”

The waitress casually asked, “You’re not from here, are you? Where are you from?”

“I’m from Fanzhou.”

“That’s so far away.”

“It is far.” Ye Qinglan then asked, “Comrade, I see you’re a warm-hearted person, could you tell me how to get to Qiannan Town? I need to go to Qiannan Town.”

“Qiannan Town? You need to go tomorrow, there’s no bus this afternoon.”

“Oh, okay, okay, thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” The waitress was still curious and asked, “What are you going to Qiannan Town for?”

Ye Qinglan: “To find my nephew, the one with the amazing strength, the child in your town.”

She was just trying her luck, if no one knew, she would go to the newspaper office to inquire in the afternoon, it was said that it was in the local newspaper. If there was such a child, the local newspaper would definitely know.

But unexpectedly, the waitress actually knew.