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Without much thought, he decided to send a message to Yang Qingyin: ‘I can’t believe we even have drills on weekends. I was thinking of inviting you to visit the ruins of the Imperial Palace as well as the Summer Palace!’

Feelings of regret swelled up within him seconds after hitting the ‘send’ button. He feared that she would see him as too sporadic.

‘What the hell should I do if she rejects me!?’ he wondered.

Yang Qingyin’s reply came two minutes later: ‘Why not bring me there after you complete your course?’

Luo Ziling suddenly became euphoric after reading her text. She had agreed to his invitation. Was there anything else that could make him as happy as not being turned down by Yang Qingyin?

‘No problem!’ he replied seconds later.

After searching his mind for a moment, he proceeded to type out: ‘I have never been there before. Perhaps you would like to be my guide when we go there?’

‘Will I be remunerated?’ asked Yang Qingyin, with a few hand over mouth emojis attached at the end.

From this alone, Luo Ziling could already picture her dazzling smile. Without hesitation, he responded to her query: ‘Maybe you’d be interested in a skincare concoction I can easily whip up?’

‘Do you think I am in need of such items? Am I not beautiful enough on my own?’

‘Well, of course not! But you may one day find that you need it, especially after becoming a mother. Not to brag, but this formula of mine is guaranteed to make a woman look at least ten years younger than she actually is!’

Yang Qingyin’s reply did not come immediately, stressing out Luo Ziling immensely. Scrolling up to check his previous messages, he couldn’t find anything wrong with them. He did not understand why she was giving him the cold shoulder.

Finally, after waiting for a couple of minutes, Yang Qingyin replied with a single rolling eye emoji.

Luo Ziling couldn’t stop himself from asking, ‘Did I say something wrong?’

The first thing he managed to grasp well after coming to this university was the art of text messaging. He wasn’t the best at typing with the pinyin* system, but he was relatively proficient in using the stroke-based system.

(*T/N: Pinyin is the romanization of the Chinese language, commonly used as an input system for Chinese keyboards. Another input method is via directly writing the letters (strokes) on the phone screen.)

Finally, the long-awaited text from Yang Qingyin arrived: ‘You’re bullying me!’

‘Am I?’ mused Luo Ziling, scratching his head cluelessly. He stared long and hard at the message before realizing where he had messed up—his whole talk about after she “becomes a mother” was indeed, rather rude.

Hastily, he replied: ‘Alright, I’ll admit it was my fault. But I really do have a bunch of formulas that my grandfather handed down to me. He told me that they would fetch a fortune in today’s market.’

‘Then instead of giving it to me, why don’t you sell it?’

‘Because you’re my friend!’

Again, Yang Qingyin went silent after receiving his text. Luo Ziling, who was a nervous wreck by now, carefully sent her a follow up message.

‘Did I say the wrong thing again?’

Fortunately, Yang Qingyin replied with a smiley face. ‘Your grandfather really loves you, doesn’t he?’

‘Well, he did raise me by himself. I’ve never seen either of my parents ever since I was a baby.’

For some inexplicable reason, Luo Ziling decided to reveal this side of himself to Yang Qingyin. When he sent the message, he felt a wave of sadness sweep over him. He thought about Ouyang Feifei’s encounter with the mother he desperately wanted to meet.

‘Is that true?’ responded Yang Qingyin, followed by a few surprised emojis. ‘I’m so sorry to hear that. I never thought you would have such a sad history. Perhaps, they have gone somewhere else for an important reason?’

Yang Qingyin wanted to ask if Luo Ziling’s parents had passed away, but she felt that it would be cruel of her to ask in such a direct way. She knew that it was rude to ask about this. Luo Ziling must be feeling a great deal of pain when answering her question. The only thing she could do was to offer a few words of sympathy, that was all.

‘I don’t know where they went. My mother knows that I have come to Yanjing, but for some reason, she doesn’t seem keen to see me.’

Feeling how out-of-place this message was, Luo Ziling recalled it seconds after he sent it.

But that was all it took. Within those few seconds, Yang Qingyin had already read his message. Still feeling sympathy for Luo Ziling, she struggled to come up with words to soothe him. After all, there was so much difference between the lives they lived.

Seeing how long it was taking Yang Qingyin to respond, Luo Ziling felt that he had made a mistake.

‘I apologize for bringing up such matters. Maybe it was best to keep it to myself.’

Yang Qingyin’s reply came quick this time: ‘No, thank you for letting me know a little more about yourself!’

‘Thanks for letting me vent a little too. Well then, I’m gonna head out to grab a bite.’

Luo Ziling didn’t know how to continue their conversation, and it just so happened that Cao Jianhui had rang him up, inviting him to grab some supper.

Yang Qingyin’s final reply contained a pair of smiley faces.

Luo Ziling’s mood improved greatly after the short conversation with Yang Qingyin. She was the complete antithesis of the Ouyang sisters, whom he had nothing but disdain for.

A battle broke out between Luo Ziling and his friends during supper. They challenged each other to a drinking game from which he emerged victorious, leaving his three friends blacked out on the floor.

The next day was Saturday, and all the freshmen continued their military drills. A majority of the students sighed in relief as soon as the drill instructor announced their final exercise for the day.

However, another announcement sent every one of them into hell.

“The drill intensity will be increasingly difficult for the coming days. I hope to see you all mentally prepared for what is to come.”

Naturally, the students could only moan in response to this.

During their noon break, Luo Ziling was chilling in his dorm room, chewing the fat with a bunch of his friends, when the main instructor in charge of all freshmen decided to pay him a visit.

“Luo Ziling! Follow me, someone is here to see you!” said the drill instructor in front of all his friends.

Luo Ziling shouted an answer before jogging behind the drill instructor. The man led him to the drill instructors’ break area. They weren’t even halfway there when Luo Ziling could no longer contain his curiosity and asked the chief instructor who was here to see him.

Upon hearing that it was a woman, Luo Ziling became excited.

‘Could it be her?’

When the thought of that woman popped into his mind, Luo Ziling found it harder to contain his emotions. However, disappointment soon followed when he realized who it was actually waiting for him.

She was a tall woman, sporting a black leather jacket and pants. With a pair of dark sunglasses sitting on the bridge of her nose, she stood coolly beside a rugged-looking military humvee. Every passerby stared in awe at this woman who looked like she came straight out of an action movie.

The woman removed her glasses as Luo Ziling got closer to her. Then, she brushed her fingers through her hair while looking back at him with a pair of expressionless eyes.

Luo Ziling had to look at her twice before finally making out who this unusually tall woman was. “So it’s you.” A smile broke across his initially surprised face.

He uttered, “Dressed up like that, I almost couldn’t recognize you.”