Chapter 14

“Look! Captain Lu is coming out of the duty room!”

The morning mist had not yet dissipated, and Lu Zhanye looked tired.

He straightened his wrinkled military uniform and walked out of the duty room.

He walked across the clothes drying yard with half a box of frostbite cream in his hand.

A clean white coat hung on the wire fluttered in the wind, just blocking the prying eyes of curious people.

“Why are you pretending to be so noble!”

Li Shufen was cursing, and the young nurses beside her were whispering.

“Head nurse, have you been on guard outside the duty room all night?”

“Humph, the lights in the duty room were on until three in the morning yesterday…”

Before he could finish his words, the belt in Lu Zhanye’s hand hit the clothesline…

Immediately afterwards, more than a dozen white coats cascaded down, covering the gossips in the snow-white cloth.

In the morning light, Lu Zhanye lit a cigarette with his back to the crowd. Amidst the smoke, his hand unconsciously supported his waist.

After a night of “company”, his waist started to ache again.

After putting out a cigarette, Lu Zhanye returned to the duty room again.

At this time, Shen Nanxing had finished washing up and completed the work handover with the doctor on duty.

“Follow me…”

Lu Zhanye took Shen Nanxing’s hand and walked out of the hospital.

Last night, in his dream, Shen Nanxing seemed to hear Lu Zhanye’s words.

The words “You can’t escape!” sounded very much like the tone of the last moment at the execution ground.

“Where to? I won’t leave until you tell me clearly.”

Shen Nanxing fought hard, causing his hands, which had been coated with frostbite cream last night, to bleed again.

“Come home with me!”

“I’m not… I’m not going anywhere. I’ll just stay in the hospital dormitory.”

“Don’t forget that we are husband and wife now. Your brother’s medicine is used up today.”

“We don’t have a marriage certificate, so how can we be considered a couple?”

“My marriage application has been approved by the Political Department. It’s too late for you to regret it. If you want to escape, you will go to jail.”

Lu Zhanye’s words made Shen Nanxing give up resistance for the first time.

She followed Lu Zhanye like a deflated balloon.

“You, why do you always force me to do things I don’t want to do?”

Shen Nanxing was a little helpless. For Shen Xiaoman, she could only compromise temporarily.

“When have you ever listened to me? Do you think I would hurt you?”

No? In the original novel, wasn’t he killed by you?

Shen Nanxing muttered to himself.

“What are you talking about?” Lu Zhanye asked.

“No. What I mean is, we haven’t gotten the marriage certificate yet, so it’s not appropriate for me to go home with you.”

Shen Nanxing casually responded to Lu Zhanye.

“There’s nothing inappropriate about it. The company has allocated suites to all married regimental officers.

Even if you want to sleep in a separate room, just come home with me first.”

Lu Zhanye’s jeep rolled over the cinder road, startling the sparrows on the clothesline.

The slogan “Prepare for war and famine” still remains on the blue brick wall of the military compound.

This was Shen Nanxing’s first time visiting the military compound.

“Captain Lu is back with his wife!”

Three heads popped out of the second-floor window.

The person who made the call was Wang Guiying, the wife of the platoon leader Wang Dalei.

Because she is the “messenger” and “know-it-all” of the family compound.

Therefore, everyone called her “Wang Baochang”.

Shen Nanxing followed behind Lu Zhanye.

With her small body and small steps, she could never keep up with Lu Zhanye, who was 1.9 meters tall.

She stepped on a loose brick and almost stumbled.

Lu Zhanye noticed it and hurriedly reached out to help her, but she took advantage of the momentum to push him away.

Unexpectedly, this one action caused the gauze on the back of Lu Zhanye’s training uniform to suddenly seep out blood.

His brows furrowed slightly.

“Shen Nanxing, don’t forget the second point of the agreement. Do you want me to repeat it?”

“Need not……”

Shen Nanxing took the initiative to hold Lu Zhanye’s hand and walked towards the family building.

Lu Zhanye was a little surprised by this sudden hand holding.

He temporarily forgot about his back injury and took his “adopted” wife by the hand to introduce her to everyone in the family compound one by one.

Lu Zhanye was the last regimental-level cadre in the military region to get married.

The political commissar and the director had been very worried about this matter before.

Therefore, the dormitory reserved for him was also the best.

Located on the east side of the third floor, it is a one-living room, two-bedroom suite.

Coming to the east house on the third floor, there is a faded iron plate with the words “House of Gloriousness” remaining on the door panel.

Lu Zhanye took out his key chain, picked one, and opened the door.

“The hot water is on the stove, and the bedding is in the inner room.”

He took off his belt and hung it behind the door.

“The bathroom is at the end of the corridor. Hot water is available on Tuesdays and Saturdays.”

Shen Nanxing looked around the room.

The furnishings in the house are full of traces of the 1980s.

After all, he was a soldier, so he kept the house in perfect order.

Just now when passing by the military family building, Shen Nanxing vaguely heard everyone talking about how Lu Zhanye had just been allocated a house the day before yesterday and had moved in overnight.

It seems that this man had planned this in advance.

Otherwise, in such a short time, apart from seeking his medical treatment and taking care of the company’s daily affairs, how much time would he have to arrange this small home?

Every detail here reveals Lu Zhanye’s deliberate concealment of intentions.

On the right hand side of the door is a simple bookshelf made of wooden boards.

“Selected Works of Great Men”, “How the Steel Was Tempered”, and several military atlases with frayed edges were neatly stacked on the three shelves.

On the top shelf, there was a half-empty can of fruit candy.

Judging from the candy wrapper, it is obviously prepared for young girls.

Passing through the outer room which also serves as a restaurant, there is half a fresh “囍” character pasted on the lintel of the inner room.

I think it was the comrades from the Political Department who helped arrange it.

The master bedroom has a double bed facing the window, and a Seagull radio is placed next to the bed.

There are also several rubber bands wrapped around the knob to fix the volume.

Next to it was a tin biscuit box with peeling paint.

Shen Nanxing opened the lid curiously, and found neatly arranged food coupons and cloth coupons inside.

Shen Nanxing, who escaped from Qinghe Village carrying his younger brother, had never seen so many food coupons and cloth coupons.

This is enough for an ordinary rural family to eat for a long time.

At the bottom were two movie ticket stubs, dated exactly the second day after Shen Nanxing’s brother was hospitalized.

Could this be… prepared for the two of them?

The wardrobe next to it is an old pine furniture with mortise and tenon structure.

When I opened the cabinet door, I saw a few women’s Dacron shirts and light-colored dresses, as well as two or three work clothes.

These clothes and Lu Zhanye’s military uniform were hung on the left and right.

There is still one-third space left in the middle.

It was obviously space left for her to buy more clothes in the future.

There was a brown paper bag in the drawer containing dried jasmine petals and half a bar of Shanghai brand soap.

The faint fragrance mixed with the scent of camphor wood was exactly the smell she often used in the hospital.

There was a small square table by the windowsill, and a yellowed newspaper clipping was pressed under the glass.

The cement floor was swept very clean, and there was a metal brazier in the corner.

The charcoal ashes inside were piled neatly, apparently for heating in winter.

There was a handwritten timetable posted next to the stove in the outer room, which detailed the “Shen Xiaoman’s medication time” and “Boiler room water supply time”. The handwriting was as sharp as a knife, and it looked like Lu Zhanye’s handwriting.

If it weren’t for the murderous vengeance, if it weren’t for the “infertility” caused by the back injury.

Shen Nanxing did not deny that Lu Zhanye was indeed the perfect husband that a woman desired.

“How is it, my dear wife, are you satisfied with this family?”

Lu Zhanye’s expectations did not receive a satisfactory answer after all.

“Captain Lu, you’re too immersed in the role.

Don’t forget that the third clause of this contract will take effect after I cure you.

You should leave all this to your true wife.”