After returning to the base.
Kong Shadi glared at her legs in dissatisfaction, stomped upstairs, grabbed her suitcase, and was about to leave. Lin Yihui hurried forward to stop her: “My goodness, what’s going on?”
Song Ziqi sat on the sofa with a cold face, impatiently saying: “Don’t stop her, let her go.”
They both had to work tomorrow, so it was indeed time to leave, but Kong Shadi’s attitude had also irritated him. This young girl was spoiled; whenever things didn’t go her way, she would become insolent, making her difficult to please.
Yu Hao and Lu Huaizheng exchanged a glance.
She sat next to him. Lu Huaizheng poured Yu Hao a glass of water and handed it to her: “Moisten your throat.”
Lin Yihui seized the opportunity to sit next to Song Ziqi, hooking his arm around his neck. Glancing at the serene couple beside them, he couldn’t help but tease: “I have to say something for my sister Shadi. You two both have such bad tempers. You can argue over such trivial matters—tell me in advance so I can prepare! You can start fighting in just a moment. You two are something.”
Song Ziqi could no longer contain his frustration, releasing all his accumulated annoyance.
“What do you know? This stubborn girl, acting on every whim, never considering others’ feelings. She’ll be the death of me one day.”
“Aren’t all women like that?” Lin Yihui laughed, his eyes briefly glancing toward Lu Huaizheng. “Learn from Huaizheng. Our sister-in-law is also a woman, yet he knows how to coax her.”
Song Ziqi’s face stiffened as he turned his head. “She’s different. Yu Hao doesn’t have Kong Shadi’s difficult temperament.”
Lin Yihui didn’t believe him. He reached past Song Ziqi to grab Lu Huaizheng, insisting that he share his secrets to coax a wife.
Lu Huaizheng leaned back on the sofa, looking at the two with disbelief.
They truly regarded him as a master of romance, their black eyes earnestly and passionately fixed on him, expecting him to dispense some wisdom.
“Are you talking about Yu Hao?” he asked mildly.
The two nodded.
Lu Huaizheng gently stroked the back of her head, made a sound, and said, “She’s quite easy to coax, not very troublesome.”
The conversation couldn’t continue; his words had protected Yu Hao completely.
Song Ziqi didn’t know about their high school experiences, but Lin Yihui had genuinely witnessed it. To say Yu Hao didn’t cause trouble would be impossible, but each time, Lu Huaizheng managed to pacify her completely. They all thought Lu Huaizheng had high emotional intelligence. In handling human relationships, even as a student back then, he was no worse than most adults. It was just that he was prideful at that time, full of youthful spirit, often doing rebellious things.
Kong Shadi came down with her luggage.
Her high heels stomped on the stairs, like an earthquake. Lin Yihui’s features contorted in distress: “My goodness, please step lighter! Don’t stomp through my stairs.”
Kong Shadi ignored him, wearing heavy makeup, walking away with her nose in the air.
Lin Yihui quickly shoved Song Ziqi, silently mouthing with exaggerated expressions: “Go after her quickly!”
Song Ziqi reluctantly stood up, took a breath, and in two or three strides reached the door, blocking her. His tone softened: “I was wrong, okay? Can we eat before you leave? I’ll kneel on the washboard when we get back, okay?”
Kong Shadi smiled and asked him: “What did you do wrong?”
Song Ziqi was taken aback but reacted quickly, his eyes flashing with fire: “Wrong in every way!”
As a result, Kong Shadi didn’t calm down. She shouted sharply: “Bullshit! Don’t you know exactly what you did wrong? ‘Wrong in every way’? Who are you trying to fool?”
Song Ziqi was dumbfounded.
The three on the sofa watched as if it were a show. Lu Huaizheng didn’t watch much, but Yu Hao stared curiously as the two continued their dispute to the car door.
Lu Huaizheng smiled at her boredom.
Song Ziqi directly picked up Kong Shadi without further words and put her in the car, leaving the suitcase standing lonely by the car… When they emerged again, Kong Shadi leaned against the car door, tying her hair while giving Song Ziqi a hard kick. By now, the tense atmosphere between them had completely disappeared. Song Ziqi had a smile at the corner of his mouth and lowered his head to kiss Kong Shadi’s lips again.
Watching their argument was like watching playful banter, and somehow they had been fed a mouthful of dog food. Lin Yihui sighed and stood up. Next time, he wouldn’t interfere! He’d be an idiot if he did!
In the afternoon, Kong Shadi and Song Ziqi left.
Lu Huaizheng sat on the sofa, looking at Zhou Di’s recent model aircraft design drawings. “This ‘Freedom’ was announced at the model aircraft exhibition a few days ago. It’s radio-controlled. If it could be applied to rescue operations or transportation in the future, it would save a lot of fuel and materials. But now the instructor and I are still looking for alternative fuels. Conserving energy is truly a major challenge.”
Lu Huaizheng lowered his head, seriously examining the photos on his phone, swiping through them one by one.
“Maximum flight weight?”
Zhou Di thought for a moment and answered: “I calculated it. The maximum flight weight, including fuel, is five thousand grams. It should be able to carry quite a bit of supplies, right?”
Lu Huaizheng nodded, “Feasible.” After saying this, he patted Zhou Di’s head. “The future of our country depends on you all.”
Zhou Di said proudly: “Absolutely!” Then, looking around, he asked, “Where’s sister-in-law?”
“Upstairs taking a nap,” Lu Huaizheng said as he stood up. “I’ll go check if she’s awake. Keep your voice down.”
Zhou Di consciously lowered his voice, playfully making an “OK” gesture.
At three o’clock, Yu Hao woke up.
As she hazily came to, a familiar tall figure stood on the small balcony, bathed in the sunset light, appearing somewhat surreal.
Lu Huaizheng leaned against the railing, a thick book beside him. The milk-white jade railing made his all-black outfit look exceptionally clean and elegant, particularly noble. A cigarette hung from his lips, emitting wisps of blue smoke. He lowered his head, seemingly deep in thought.
Behind him stood the mountains embedded in the horizon, towering and beautiful. Under the glow of the sunset, they seemed to be rimmed with gold, like a painting.
Yu Hao loved watching him when he was pensive; she always felt he was most masculine at those times.
She didn’t rush to get up, lying in bed and watching him steadily for ten minutes. Lu Huaizheng sensed something and inadvertently looked up to find her staring at him intently from the side. He extinguished his half-smoked cigarette, picked up the book, and came inside.
“After such a long nap, is your head not foggy?” he asked softly as he approached the bed and set the book down.
Yu Hao changed her position. “A little.” Her gaze fell on the book he had placed on the table. “Were you reading?”
“Just flipping through out of boredom.”
Yu Hao picked up the book and was amazed: “Russian?”
And it was the original version.
He smiled indifferently. “Is it that surprising?”
Yu Hao smiled: “It’s just the feeling of a former underachiever suddenly becoming a top student. Perhaps my perspective hasn’t adjusted?”
Lu Huaizheng bent down and gave her a meaningful look: “You can adjust to yet another perspective.”
“What perspective?” Yu Hao didn’t understand.
Lu Huaizheng looked at her for a while, lowered his head with a smile, put his hands in his pockets, and slowly straightened up. “Get up first. I’ll take you downstairs for a walk. If you keep lying like this, I really can’t believe you have abs. I seriously suspect your bones are more brittle than my grandmother’s.”
“How did you know?” Yu Hao was surprised. “During my last physical, the doctor said I was calcium deficient and had some osteoporosis.”
“…” Lu Huaizheng directly pulled her off the bed and mocked coldly: “Osteoporosis at this age? You’re probably the first one I’ve heard of.”
Then Yu Hao was taken by Lu Huaizheng to the field building outside the base, where they walked a full five rounds. Finally, when Yu Hao was truly out of breath and refused to continue, Lu Huaizheng let her off, with the condition that she would walk 5,000 steps daily and check-in. Yu Hao agreed outwardly but secretly thought, “Anyway, you’ll be back on duty in a few days and won’t be able to monitor me. I’ll just humor you for now.”
Thinking this.
The man’s voice came from above, full of pressure: “I’ll have Senior Zhao supervise you. Laziness will result in extra penalties.”
“…”
She hated exercise.
Except for yoga, she disliked all activities related to walking.
Yu Hao followed Lu Huaizheng back to the base, feeling gloomy all the way.
After dinner, they returned to the room.
Lu Huaizheng leaned on the sofa reading, while Yu Hao lay on the bed scrolling through her phone. Zhao Dailin had sent her a link to Di Yanni’s recent Weibo post.
The Weibo content showed that she had recruited volunteers for the Stanford Experiment and would conduct the experiment soon, hoping everyone would await the results patiently.
The comments below were all supportive.
“Hope this experiment’s results won’t disappoint.”
“The time to test human nature has come.”
“The scientific community should have more bold and interesting scholars like Dr. Di. Those textbook-bound old fossils should be eliminated with the tide of the times!”
“Hope Dr. Di starts online courses!!!”
…
At eleven o’clock at night.
Next door, there seemed to be the rustling sounds of two people moving in.
After a while, Lin Yihui came to knock on the door. “Is sister-in-law asleep? Jia Mian’s sister has arrived with some midnight snacks. Would you like to come down to eat?”
Lu Huaizheng looked back at Yu Hao.
Yu Hao got straight out of bed. “Let’s eat something. I’m hungry.”
Lu Huaizheng made a sound of acknowledgment and said to Lin Yihui: “You go down first. We’ll be there shortly.”
Yu Hao put on her shoes and walked toward him, looking up at him while casually tying her hair. She said softly: “Jia Mian has been avoiding you all day. Now that he’s finally back, you two should go down and talk. I’m not good with words, not skilled at pleasing people or comforting them, but I’ll try not to make things difficult for you in the future. I’ll try to get along with them, make them like me. Jia Mian was right; I wasn’t very good to you before, but I’ll learn how to love you—”
The second half of her sentence remained unspoken as her lips were sealed.
Lu Huaizheng turned and pressed her against the door, holding her chin and lifting it slightly before biting her lips. His eyes were deeper than ever as if he wanted to absorb her into his very bones.
Yu Hao felt that each of his kisses was particularly domineering, yet the tenderness in his eyes never changed.
This was the source of his charm, making her feel dizzy and falling into his passionate kiss.
This kiss was more intense than usual, yet it didn’t cross boundaries. It explored and caressed at the edge of boundaries. As she was pressed against the door, almost breathless, everything before her seemed chaotic, wild, and unbearable. Then Lu Huaizheng lowered his head, cupping her face, their foreheads touching, hot breaths intertwining at the tip of their noses. His thumb gently caressed her soft, white cheek as he slowed down, his eyes examining her carefully. Slowly, he pecked from her lips to the tip of her nose, finally landing heavily on the space between her eyebrows. With a hoarse voice, he said: “If I couldn’t protect you, I wouldn’t have come looking for you again. So, don’t have such thoughts anymore. With me, you can be willful, you can do as you please. I will always protect you.”
Finally, he held her tightly in his arms, their faces close as he whispered: “I won’t let anyone bully you.”