The team members all sat on the armored vehicle, setting off on the journey back to the camp. Because the space inside the vehicle was narrow and there were many people, it seemed as if the temperature had risen a little.
Su Wenwen drooped her head, her heart not in its place1.
Luo Xi, with good intentions, gave her a hand warmer, but it was refused by Su Wenwen. Although Luo Xi didn’t say anything at the time, her facial expression was obviously a bit cool. In the later conversation, both sides were somewhat unsettled, with one exchange and no exchange2, as if a barrier had formed.
If it were the past, Su Wenwen would probably have kept her mouth shut, trying to do other things to make Luo Xi happy, thinking that with time, the conflict would fade. But it was different now. She already clearly knew that a conflict is a thorn; pricked in the heart, it will not disappear with time, but will only leave a scar. Since there was a barrier, it had to be broken. In a few days, Su Wenwen would be able to finish the camp training, and at that time, she would have a proper talk with Luo Xi.
Returning to the camp, Su Wenwen went back to the dormitory, rummaged through her spatial backpack to find medicinal ointment, and then went out to the men’s dormitory. She found the male team member who had just blocked a punch for her and gave him the ointment.
“Thank you for today.”
“Haha, you’re too polite. It was just one punch. I have coarse skin and thick flesh3, it’s nothing.” He stood at the doorway, and when he saw Su Wenwen looking for him, his cheeks turned red. “My name is Xiao4 Luo. If it’s convenient, could I add your contact information? After the camp training ends, I’ll treat you to a meal.”
Su Wenwen smiled and refused him.
Xiao Luo’s expression was a bit disappointed, but he also smiled and said it was okay. After he took the ointment, Su Wenwen turned and left. He watched her back until it disappeared around the corner before retracting his gaze.
His roommate teased: “Wow, she’s a little beauty. I remember her name is Su Wenwen, right? Seems like she likes women, has a girlfriend. If you want to pursue her, you’ll have to get a sex change first.”
Xiao Luo pushed him: “What are you talking about? I just think she’s a good person and want to make a friend. It’s not as dirty as you all think.”
Su Wenwen heard their entire conversation. After closing off her five senses, she shook her head quite helplessly. It seemed that far more people knew about her and Luo Xi’s matter than she had imagined. But this was also good, as it saved a lot of trouble.
On the last day, the camp welcomed a big chaotic fight. Everyone held plastic daggers in their hands and had a mixed battle in a designated circle. The entire field was soft sand, and a huge circle was cordoned off with a thick rope. The competition was an individual battle, but the men’s team and the women’s team would subconsciously prioritize eliminating the other side, so it was more like a confrontation match between the men’s team and the women’s team.
By now, Su Wenwen’s cold weapon proficiency had already been raised to level ten. Although she only held a plastic dagger in her hand, she still slashed open a male team member’s combat suit. The other person directly shouted loudly: “Lying in the trough5, are you using a real knife?”
Su Wenwen bent the plastic knife a bit. The male team member saw the soft knife almost being folded in half and was very confused in his heart, but he had already been attacked, so he didn’t think much more of it and directly left the competition.
The people who lost were on the side, waving flags and shouting. Everyone6 had a hot-blooded, boiling appearance, not the least bit affected by the cold winter. In a stretch of snow-white, they freely sprinkled their laughter.
More and more people were eliminated, and the competition entered a white-hot stage. Now, the men’s team had four more people than the women’s team. The pressure on the women’s team immediately rose. The plastic daggers in their hands were gripped tightly; even the veins on the women’s soft backs of their hands bulged like the blue veins on the back of a man’s hand.
Xiao Luo pointed at Su Wenwen and said: “I’ll fight you one-on-one.”
Su Wenwen gladly accepted.
Xiao Luo usually often talked back to the training officer, but he was indeed smart and learned fast. He had skillfully mastered the military body fist7 in just a short half-month, but Su Wenwen was not bad either. The gazes of the two people revealed excitement. When they struck, they had no reservations, and Xiao Luo would certainly not show mercy just because Su Wenwen was a woman.
As a man, Xiao Luo’s arms were strong and powerful8. Even with a plastic dagger, he swung it with a kind of dangerous signal. Whether it was the waist or the legs, the side with more muscle could produce more astonishing explosive force. In a few strides, he arrived at Su Wenwen’s side, pressing Su Wenwen with his absolute height advantage.
Su Wenwen’s reaction was extremely fast, neutralizing Xiao Luo’s attacks one by one. Xiao Luo was not the slightest bit surprised. After all, from the last time they climbed the high wall, he knew Su Wenwen’s strength was not ordinary.
Xiao Luo laughed “hehe” and used his full strength, using a move he had just learned to launch a flying kick at Su Wenwen. He jumped very high, his body as light as a bird. At the moment of kicking, he retracted his foot and switched to kick with the other foot. He originally thought this feint could trick Su Wenwen’s eyes, who knew that Su Wenwen didn’t fall for it at all9.
Both her hands directly grabbed his ankle. With a reverse twist of her hands, Xiao Luo fell to the ground completely unprepared, the pain making his vision go black, and he almost fainted. Before he could get up to continue fighting, the plastic dagger was held horizontally to his neck.
“You lost.”
Su Wenwen’s gaze was flamboyant and confident. Because of the exercise, her cheeks and lip color looked exceptionally rosy, and her ghost-like movements were handsome and free, attracting the women’s team to focus on waving their flags and shouting for her.
Xiao Luo smiled, magnanimously left the rope circle, and then, like a traitor, joined the women’s team in cheering for Su Wenwen, completely forgetting that the men’s team still had people in the competition.
They fought until the end, when only the women’s team captain and Su Wenwen were left. The women’s team captain’s movements were nimble, but she couldn’t compare to Su Wenwen’s speed. Finally, under everyone’s gazes, Su Wenwen won the victory.
Everyone played until their livers were trembling and they were dripping wet10. No one held a grudge against anyone because of this. But some people had gotten scraped up, so they went back to the infirmary to apply medicine. The remaining people were all exchanging contact information and then agreeing on a time to have a meal.
Someone found Su Wenwen to ask for her contact information, saying that after a while, when everyone was free, they could come out for a group meal. Although the possibility of a group meal in the current environment was extremely low, they were still full of expectation.
Su Wenwen couldn’t bear to refuse, but she also didn’t like socializing, so she directly told them: “Wang Kelin has my contact information. If you want to have a group meal, you can find me through her.”
Since she had said this much, they were too embarrassed11 to keep asking. After saying some words of blessing, they dispersed.
In the afternoon, Su Wenwen packed her luggage.
After bidding farewell to her roommates, she was the first to step out of the camp’s main gate. A car was stopped at the entrance. Luo Xi’s tense face flashed across Su Wenwen’s mind. Her heart warmed, and she quickly walked over and knocked on the window.
“Miss Su, I’ve come to take you back.”
The car door opened, and the one who got out was Lin Yu. Su Wenwen looked inside the car, stunned for a moment. Luo Xi wasn’t there. There was a little bit of disappointment in the bottom of her heart, like a fallen leaf from a duckweed, never able to return to its original tree.
Su Wenwen rode in Lin Yu’s car back to her residence. After Lin Yu dropped her off, he just said, “Miss Su, rest well,” and left.
Su Wenwen opened the door, and as soon as she entered the house, she felt a wave of warm air rush to her face. The heater placed in the living room was working with a “huchi huchi” sound, like a small and exquisite red lantern, extremely cute.
She wandered around the house for a bit but didn’t see Luo Xi. Su Wenwen sat on the sofa and made a phone call to Wang Kelin, saying: “Three days left. Proceed according to plan.”
“You can rest assured when I’m handling things.” Wang Kelin’s laughter was clear and crisp. “Ai, I’m suddenly so looking forward to three days from now!”
“I’m looking forward to it too.”
After simply exchanging a few sentences, Su Wenwen hung up the phone. Then she took the food ingredients out of her backpack and went to the kitchen to prepare dinner.
The two of them hadn’t seen each other much this month, and she had rejected Luo Xi several times, so naturally she had to coax her back.
The ingredients were limited, so the dinner she prepared wasn’t too sumptuous: a plate of sweet and sour peanuts, a plate of spicy napa cabbage with garlic paste, glutinous rice rolls, and also a bowl of soup.
It was just that the weather was too cold; the dishes she had just made got cold. Su Wenwen could only put the dishes into an insulated container first, sitting on the sofa waiting for Luo Xi to come home. But because the past few days of training had been too tiring, as soon as her body touched the sofa, she couldn’t help but doze off.
She drowsily fell asleep.
Fortunately, there was a heater in the living room, so even if Su Wenwen fell asleep, she wouldn’t catch a cold from the freezing temperature. But sleeping on the sofa in winter, one would more or less feel uncomfortable. The most common thing was frequently getting up at night to go to the thatched hut12.
Su Wenwen didn’t know how long she had slept when she woke up from the urge to urinate. She looked around at the pitch-black, icy cold surroundings. Only the firelight from the heater barely brought a trace of light.
She held her phone and looked at the time: 6:30 in the evening. It was almost seven o’clock, and Luo Xi still hadn’t returned. Just as she was planning to make a phone call to ask, she heard the door lock make a “pa” sound, and the main door was opened.
As soon as Luo Xi entered the house, she saw the figure beside the heater. After closing the door, she walked over and said: “Sorry, I was discussing matters with Ao Ge today, so I had Lin Yu go pick you up.”
“It’s okay. Are you hungry? I made food…”
“Very hungry!”
Hearing this, Su Wenwen got up and went to the kitchen to reheat the prepared dishes. She stood before the stove, looking at the flame, slightly lost in thought. Luo Xi embraced her from behind, bending at the waist and resting her chin on Su Wenwen’s shoulder, and said softly: “Actually, after seeing you, I’m not that hungry anymore.”
The end of Luo Xi’s speech tilted up slightly, revealing endless ambiguity. Hearing it made Su Wenwen’s cheeks turn red. She subconsciously raised her hand, wanting to bat away the misbehaving hand on her waist, but paused in mid-air, turning around to look at Luo Xi’s eyes hidden in the darkness.
“I’m sorry!”
“Why are you saying sorry?”
“At the camp, I knew you wanted to protect me, but I didn’t appreciate your kindness and even gave you cold words and cold speech13. You gave me a hand warmer, and I refused that too.” The words Su Wenwen had deliberated over for a long time, she was still afraid of not being careful enough when she spoke them, so her voice was very quiet. “But I want you to know, it’s not that I don’t accept the good things you give me, I just want to become strong too much. I don’t want to become your burden.”
“You always think so much. How could I possibly see you as a burden.” Luo Xi released Su Wenwen. “I thought you were apologizing to me because you were getting too close to Xiao Luo.”
Su Wenwen jolted, and a wave of cold air rose from the bottom of her heart: “You… you’ve been monitoring me?”
“Not monitoring. I’m just worried about you.”
“But I don’t feel at all that you’re worried about me. You’re just afraid of me getting too close to others, using worry as a pretext, that’s all.”
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