“Are you stunned?” After speaking, he laughed at himself. Seeing Yu Hao motionless, he waved his hand in front of her face and lowered his head to find her eyes, as if trying to read some emotion.

But there was none.

Yu Hao’s gaze remained cold from beginning to end.

Lu Huaizheng crossed his arms over his chestand, lowered his head with a self-mocking smile, “I was joking. I am injured, but I was afraid you’d be scared if you saw it, so I just said that casually. You—”

The curtain behind Yu Hao fluttered gently. She interrupted him directly, “Is there any truth left in your mouth?”

Lu Huaizheng straightened slightly, the smile freezing at the corner of his mouth.

Yu Hao found his carefree demeanor particularly irritating. He had tricked her once in high school too. He had sprained his ankle playing basketball and deliberately grimaced, pretending to be in pain until his eyes turned red. As a result, she was so worried that she rushed across the street without even checking the traffic light to buy him Yunnan Baiyao from the pharmacy opposite. When she returned, she saw him hopping around, laughing and joking with people nearby. At that moment, she felt both angry and anxious, throwing the items at him before turning to run.

Lu Huaizheng came to his senses and limped after her, apologizing profusely, trying to coax her.

But she didn’t feel appeased and pounded his chest hard a couple of times. Lu Huaizheng directly pulled her into his arms to comfort her, “I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were so worried about me.”

They were young then. When he embraced her like that, their young bodies pressed together, and their hearts pounded wildly—

Lu Huaizheng was also nervous. It was the first time he had embraced a girl like that. At that moment, his mind was filled with a single thought: she was so soft. He couldn’t help but hold her tighter, nuzzling his face against her ear, calling her name softly, over and over, filled with tenderness.

Lu Huaizheng could feel that Yu Hao truly liked him then.

So he teased her without restraint, joking with her, truly treating her as his girl to cherish.

But now, the girl standing before him, apart from looking the same as the girl from back then, everything else was very unfamiliar.

Her eyes conveyed strong impatience and dislike toward him.

“Sorry.”

He turned his head away, hands in his pockets, his voice returning to its coolness. The apology was delivered without sincerity.

Yu Hao didn’t mind and turned to walk out.

The male military doctor who had been hiding behind the curtain finally poked his head out, slumping into a chair with a long sigh of relief. He cast a sideways glance at the man leaning against the desk with his head down: “What the hell were you playing at, making those hand signals as soon as you came in? Good thing I reacted quickly. Who was that just now?”

“A psychologist,” he replied without raising his head, his voice muffled.

The doctor wailed, “That’s outrageous! You wouldn’t even spare someone like Little Liu? Hey, have you been in the military too long? Do you think any cat you see is beautiful? Wait, that’s not right. Didn’t Little Liu go on maternity leave?”

“She just arrived.”

The doctor suddenly remembered—a while ago during dinner, the male soldiers had been discussing how the new sister in the psychology research room was beautiful and cold, all betting that the captain couldn’t win her over.

The doctor patted Lu Huaizheng’s shoulder with sympathy, “I say, why don’t you just stop torturing yourself? Director Li’s daughter isn’t bad either. Besides, if you marry her, think of all the difficulties you could avoid…”

Lu Huaizheng snorted with laughter, “Maybe water has gotten into my brain.”

“It’s not too late to drain it out.”

“Is that so?”

After finishing her meal, Yu Hao returned to the psychology research room. A young soldier in training uniform was standing at the door.

“Looking for me?”

The young soldier nodded, “Can we talk inside?”

Yu Hao: “Sure.”

She went in, turned on the lights, set the air conditioning to eighteen degrees, and adjusted the softness of the lighting before pulling the door open to let him in.

The young soldier sat up straight, hands on his legs, looking around awkwardly before introducing himself: “My name is Wu Heping.”

“Soldier Wu.”

The young soldier tried to break the ice, “You look much more professional than Doctor Liu.”

“Of course, I am a professional.”

Yu Hao said this with a straight face. Wu Heping found her manner somewhat amusing, “I heard you’re a researcher from S Research Institute. I have a few questions I’d like to ask you.”

Yu Hao made a sound of acknowledgment, thought for a moment, and decided to explain, “Strictly speaking, I’m not yet a researcher, just an assistant researcher, but I’ll try my best to answer your questions.”

Wu Heping couldn’t tell the difference between a researcher and an assistant researcher, but as long as she was a psychologist, that was all that mattered.

“I feel like I might not be suitable for staying here,” he said worriedly.

Yu Hao listened attentively, “Why? Did you fail the evaluation?”

“I passed the evaluation.”

“Other reasons?”

“There are too many elites in this unit. Although I passed the evaluation, I was always barely making it to the last one. This morning during emergency bandaging training, I even spilled a whole bag of pig’s blood on the captain.”

So it was pig’s blood.

“Did the captain scold you?”

Wu Heping nodded, “The captain may seem easy-going normally, but once on the training field, he seems to show no mercy. He’s particularly fierce when scolding people.”

“I’ve heard it’s not easy to come here, right? You have to go through multiple levels of selection with an elimination rate of eighty percent, and only the remaining twenty percent can stay in this unit. Because you dislike him, would you abandon all your previous efforts? Isn’t that a waste?”

Wu Heping shook his head again, “You misunderstand. It’s not that I dislike him. I like our captain and respect him a lot. He’s the most qualified soldier and a man among men. It’s precisely because of this that I want to earn his recognition. If he praises me once, I have energy for the whole day’s training. If he scolds me once, I can’t even eat that day.”

“…”

“It’s exactly because of this that I find myself making more and more mistakes. Even things I normally perform well in—as soon as the captain looks at me, I get nervous. Then I forgot to release the safety when firing, and several times during drills, I had no room to perform. The captain said someone like me could say goodbye to real guns and bullets. But before, when I was in other companies, I excelled in everything…”

“Transfer to another unit,” Yu Hao said expressionlessly.

Wu Heping felt even more dejected, with a face that said “I think I can still be saved.”

After a while, he asked reluctantly, “Is there no hope for me?”

“Well, not exactly…”

When Wu Heping heard there was still hope, his small dark eyes instantly brightened. Then, thinking of something else, he immediately deflated, saying in a low voice: “I’ve consulted Doctor Liu before, took some medication, but still couldn’t overcome it.”

Yu Hao lowered her head to make notes in the medical record book, “Do you want to gain your Captain Lu’s recognition?”

“Yes.”

“But you always feel like whatever you do falls short?”

“Yes, exactly.”

“Does your condition improve when Captain Lu isn’t around?”

“Yes, when he’s not there, I’m not as nervous.”

Yu Hao put away her notebook, “You need to overcome your fear of Captain Lu. You’re afraid of him.”

“How do I overcome it…”

Yu Hao thought for a moment and gave a suggestion, “Make Captain Lu take off his hero’s cloak, eliminate your sense of admiration for him. I think you need to have a deep conversation with him. You might have some misunderstandings about him. Think about it—setting aside his identity as the Airborne captain, he’s just an ordinary man. He doesn’t have any extra hands or feet compared to you guys. He may seem imposing usually, but he’s not as good as you all at playing games.”

She used to always defeat him in games.

Wu Heping made a sound of surprise, feeling something was off. Yu Hao realized it too.

At that moment, footsteps sounded from the stairwell outside. Before Wu Heping could react, Yu Hao raised her chin toward the outside, then pointed to a small room inside—the psychological venting room: “Someone’s coming. I can provide you with a relaxed environment, but you’ll have to talk to him yourself.”

Wu Heping was stunned, “Can’t you help me explain…”

Yu Hao turned her chair around, her back to him, saying neither coldly nor warmly: “Unfortunately, I also really dislike your Captain Lu.”

Wu Heping mumbled, I already said I don’t dislike him…

Yu Hao ignored him, keeping her head down as she recorded something, not looking up as she told him, “If you don’t go now, he’ll leave.”

Wu Heping reluctantly went out.

“Cap… Captain Lu.”

Lu Huaizheng had just changed clothes. He was now wearing an ordinary training uniform, one hand in his pocket, the other holding keys, about to open his office door. Hearing the voice, he turned around.

“What are you doing here?”

Wu Heping really couldn’t bring himself to say it. After struggling for a long time with his face turning red, he stammered: “Dr. Yu said…”

Lu Huaizheng frowned impatiently.

“Why is a grown man mumbling?”

“I…” Wu Heping was almost in tears, “I need your help.”

“What?”

“Could you chat with me for a while?”

Lu Huaizheng was quite shocked by this request. He reached out to feel Wu Heping’s head, “Is something wrong with you?”

“Dr. Yu said I have a fear of you, and my poor performance in training is because I’m afraid. To eliminate this fear of you, I need to… need to chat with you. We can talk about anything, just not about things in the unit.”

“Alright, where shall we chat?”

He clutched his keys back in his hand, being quite cooperative.

Apart from the training field, Lu Huaizheng was mostly an approachable big brother.

“Dr. Yu will arrange it.”

When Lu Huaizheng and Wu Heping went in, Yu Hao had already adjusted the temperature and lighting in the psychological venting room. Eighteen degrees is the most suitable temperature for the human body; at this temperature, human cells enter a relaxed state, and speech becomes more casual.

The two men sat facing each other, soft white incandescent light shining on their heads.

Lu Huaizheng was more relaxed, leaning back in his chair with his eyelids drooping lazily. Wu Heping would ask a question, and he would answer.

Their voices came through the sound recorder.

Wu Heping’s voice was deep with a hint of caution. Lu Huaizheng’s voice was clear and more casual.

“Do you have any other interests or hobbies?”

“Basketball?”

“Are you good at basketball?”

“Average.”

“Do you play games?”

“Yes.”

“What kinds of games?”

“I played Nintendo as a kid, but I don’t have time now.”

“Dr. Yu said you’re not good at games. Did you two know each other before?”

His voice paused, and after a long while, he squeezed out a light nasal sound, “Mm, not very familiar.”

Wu Heping probably didn’t know what else to ask and was silent for a while.

“How many times do you go to the bathroom each day?”

Lu Huaizheng: “…”

He still answered honestly, “Depends.”

“Were your grades good in school?”

“No.”

“Then what was your best subject?”

“Physical education?”

“Have you ever liked a girl?”

“Of course.”

“Have you ever pursued a girl?”

“Yes.”

“Did you succeed?”

“No.”

Wu Heping couldn’t believe it, “Are there girls you couldn’t win over?”

He smiled without answering.

Wu Heping didn’t know what else to ask. He felt that privately, the captain was indeed just an ordinary man, except for being somewhat handsome. But on the training field, his masculinity seemed overwhelming.

“Captain, do you also watch films?”

Lu Huaizheng looked up, not immediately understanding, “What films?”

“…You know… films that people usually need to watch.”

“Porn?”

Wu Heping hadn’t expected him to be so direct. He had asked very euphemistically, thinking perhaps this question could bring them closer, but the captain was too honest.

Wu Heping nodded.

Lu Huaizheng was straightforward, “Yes, I do.”

“How often do you watch?”

“…It depends.”

“Captain, have you ever measured your length?”

“Yes, I have.”

All men have measured.

Wu Heping decided not to ask further, fearing it might hurt his self-esteem.

Outside the door, Yu Hao couldn’t bear to listen anymore and turned off the recorder. A minute later, she turned it back on.

After talking for nearly an hour, the two men finally came out slowly. Yu Hao turned the recorder back on, and the buzzing electrical sound caught their attention. Wu Heping’s face reddened, and he scratched the back of his head in embarrassment, “Dr. Yu, you could hear everything?”

Yu Hao kept her head down, writing rapidly to record the conversation between the two men. She casually waved the notebook in her hand, not looking up as she said: “Yes, I wrote it all down.”

Wu Heping had forgotten that soldiers have no secrets, and any conversation must be conducted under monitoring. Yu Hao had to record it.

Lu Huaizheng showed no particular expression and didn’t look at Yu Hao. He patted Wu Heping’s back, “Let’s go.”