Chapter 26: The Mismatched Love Match

“A prank!” Song Huaizhi suddenly jumped up from her chair and slammed her hand hard on the table. “Daring to call the military unit and cause trouble—this is lawlessness.”

Realizing her reaction was a bit too strong, she lowered her voice a notch. “Do you know who it was?”

Shen Nanqing shook her head. “I’m not sure.”

After saying that, she looked down with some guilt, not daring to meet Song Huaizhi’s gaze.

This matter wasn’t big but not small either. Even though Shen Nanqing knew the troublemaker was Xu Ruyan, she had no proof.

This wasn’t modern times with cameras everywhere and a sky-wide surveillance net. She had no evidence to prove that the call came from Xu Baofeng.

Besides, Xu Baofeng had indeed been stalking her, but she came out unscathed. Instead, she had thrashed Xu Baofeng badly. After he was sent to the police station, if he tried to turn things against her, it would only backfire.

Xu Baofeng was the Xu family’s lifeline. He’d suffered enough bruises this time, plus he was extorted two hundred yuan. Shen Nanqing was sure Xu Ruyan wouldn’t have an easy time ahead.

Song Huaizhi thought about the other side’s scheming—most likely they wanted to lure Shen Nanqing out, or maybe the Shen family had offended someone. She wanted to ask if Shen Nanqing had encountered any suspicious people or events on the way to the hospital.

Seeing Shen Nanqing hanging her head, Song Huaizhi didn’t want to rub salt in the wound, so she patted her shoulder and comforted her, “Don’t worry, I’ll have someone investigate.”

On her way home, Song Huaizhi couldn’t stop thinking about Shen Nanqing’s situation and didn’t notice Song Huaiwen was already at home.

When she saw Song Huaiwen sitting on a chair, his grin almost stretching from ear to ear, she was startled and nearly dropped her keys.

“What’s gotten into you? Why are you sitting here grinning like an idiot?” Song Huaizhi asked.

Song Huaiwen snapped out of his daze, realizing he’d lost control, quickly reined in his smile and shook his head. “Nothing.”

Song Huaizhi didn’t believe him. She thought about how her mother had called today saying Zhao Wenjun had returned and urged her brother to hurry back—seemed like they were trying to set up a match.

“Oh, by the way, Mom told you to come back quickly,” she said with a sly smile, leaning close to him. “That Wenjun girl’s getting more capable every day—running all over the country. I haven’t seen her in ages.”

“She’s really capable,” Song Huaiwen nodded.

Song Huaiwen and Zhao Wenzhuo were good brothers, growing up together. Zhao Wenjun was Zhao Wenzhuo’s younger sister, always like a little shadow clinging to them as kids.

Now Zhao Wenzhuo was his deputy regiment commander and often praised Zhao Wenjun in front of him, saying his sister had grown from a delicate girl into a strong woman.

It was said Zhao Wenjun was highly valued at the state-run store where she worked, in charge of procurement. She frequently ran around various factories, discovering many best-selling new products and even received awards for it.

Song Huaiwen truly felt happy for this little girl who’d grown up behind him.

Seeing his satisfied expression, Song Huaizhi grew more convinced that there was something going on between him and Zhao Wenjun. Thinking about Zhao Wenjun’s age, she couldn’t help but recall Shen Nanqing.

She’d been thinking on her way back—Shen Nanqing was already twenty years old. Could it be someone had taken a fancy to her and wanted to meet her?

Soldiers couldn’t just leave the camp casually, so maybe that’s why they resorted to underhanded means. If that was true, such a person was definitely not someone she’d want to marry—cursing their own father and disregarding the law.

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck Song Huaizhi’s mind. “Huaiwen, hasn’t Wenzhuo found a partner yet?”

“Huh?” Song Huaiwen didn’t understand why his sister suddenly cared about Wenzhuo’s personal life.

“There’s a girl in our regiment—pretty, talented, and a good dancer too. I want to introduce her to Wenzhuo.”

For some reason, hearing his sister’s description made Song Huaiwen’s heart skip a beat, a bad premonition rising inside him.

He instinctively sat up straight and cautiously asked, “Who?”

“You know her,” Song Huaizhi said, her tone a little excited, “She’s the star of our regiment—Shen Nanqing.”

“No way.” Song Huaiwen’s forehead veins twitched violently as soon as he heard that. He said urgently, “No, absolutely not.”

Song Huaizhi was stunned by his sudden, intense reaction. Frowning, she looked at him puzzled: “Why not? I think they’d be a good match. Why such a big reaction? Does Zhao Wenzhuo have someone he likes?”

Song Huaiwen took a deep breath, trying to calm himself, but his voice still trembled a little: “It’s not that he likes someone, it’s that I like Shen Nanqing.”

“We’re already dating. Before you got home, I had just called the political commissar to report it.”

This time Song Huaizhi was shocked. She suddenly stood up, eyes wide open, eyebrows raised high as if they might fly off her forehead.

“Say that again—who are you dating?” She grabbed Song Huaiwen’s arm and shook it hard, her voice urgent.

Song Huaiwen helped her sit back down, his gaze burning, tone serious: “Nanqing and I are together. She should be reporting our relationship to Commissar Zheng in the next few days.”

Song Huaizhi took a long while to digest the news and calm down. Suddenly, as if her channels of understanding had opened, many previously ignored details started to become clear.

She had always thought this kid was a little strange.

“Come on, tell me everything! How did you two get together? Was it love at first sight?” Song Huaizhi couldn’t wait to ask.

As expected, gossiping was human nature.

Her eyes sparkled with curiosity as she stared closely at Song Huaiwen, afraid to miss any detail.

Song Huaiwen wasn’t a very talkative person by nature, and obviously couldn’t go into every little detail, but he roughly explained, implying that Shen Nanqing was very outstanding and that he liked her first.

“Shen Nanqing is the one I picked. She’s definitely excellent,” Song Huaizhi said proudly, pleased to have found such a promising candidate. Deep down, she breathed a sigh of relief—this almost turned into a huge misunderstanding. “Good thing I brought it up today, or else it would’ve been a big mess with the matchmaking.”

Song Huaiwen nodded repeatedly, feeling relieved to have finally cleared the air.

He didn’t know that when his sister mentioned a “wrong matchmaking,” she was referring to him and Zhao Wenjun.

Song Huaizhi glanced at Song Huaiwen, planning to call their mother later to clear things up—she couldn’t let their mom make things complicated.

Her brother had finally woken up to reality.

They say people in love are full of pride and joy.

But Shen Nanqing was utterly exhausted. The next day, she came to rehearsal with dark circles under her eyes.

Don’t ask—she was writing a love report, a thing she hadn’t done well in her entire life and had no idea how to start.

Xu Ruyan had taken leave to visit family; Li Zhen and Su Xiangqin had gone to the General Political Department. Now only Zhu Xiaomeng and Liu Huixin were left in the dormitory.

Her relationship with those two wasn’t great. Asking them for help seemed impossible—and besides, they had shown interest in Song Huaiwen before. If they found out about this, it would probably blow up.

Shen Nanqing began to miss the internet age, where she could just search for templates easily.

After struggling half the night, she decided to let the real culprit, Song Huaiwen, help her solve this report—because she really couldn’t write a single line.