“He says that when a person is lying, their eyes drift to the lower left corner. Just now — you were lying.”

For Nan Chu, being seen through wasn’t particularly alarming. In front of Lin Luxiao, she had never concealed herself. She had no interest in doing so.

She curved the corner of her mouth: “You didn’t look for me because of Yan Dai’s situation, did you?”

Lin Luxiao’s nostrils produced a quiet sound: “Where were you just now?”

Nan Chu: “In the small grove. Smoking.”

Lin Luxiao fixed his gaze on her, the look in his eyes darkening by a few degrees.

After a long pause, he gave a slight nod, hand going to his hip, tongue pressing briefly against his lower lip as he said: “Come on. Stand up straight.”

Nan Chu stood up straight as directed.

“Ten squats.” He said.

Out of nowhere.

“……”

Nan Chu stared at him in disbelief, eyes going perfectly round.

Was he out of his mind? Calling her out here in the middle of the night, just to make her do squats?

Nan Chu didn’t move, stubbornly holding his gaze: “What did I do wrong?”

Lin Luxiao’s brow knitted in displeasure: “Twenty.”

“……”

Could she say a swear word? She couldn’t. Fine, at least she could make a face internally.

“Follow orders without question — do I need to teach you those four words?”

Nan Chu still didn’t understand what she’d done to deserve this, but somewhat reluctantly extended her arms straight ahead, held them level, and lowered herself into a squat.

Truly — being company commander really goes to people’s heads.

“One.” He counted.

Eyes rolling, eyes rolling.

“Two.”

“Three.”

“Four.”

“Five.”

“Six.”

“……”

Nan Chu started panting. Her arms gradually sagged, and someone’s hand shot out to lift them back up. She looked up — Lin Luxiao had his brow slightly raised, watching her. “Haven’t you eaten?”

She gave him a look — expression flat as a board — and made up her mind not to give him the satisfaction of begging for mercy. She adapted quickly. Each time she went down she hurled a silent curse at him in her head — and somewhere along the way the cursing started slipping out of her mouth, and she didn’t even notice.

“Eleven.”

“Lunatic.”

His eyes warmed with the faintest trace of expression — a subtle curve, something like amusement: “Twelve.”

“Sadist.”

He was entirely unbothered, still drawling through the count: “Thirteen.”

“Bastard.”

He stopped counting altogether, leaned against the wall, lit a cigarette, and said with a low laugh: “That’s it — keep going. Keep cursing, keep squatting. Until I say stop.”

Nan Chu held her arms level, stubbornly resolute. Her eyes carried a faint edge of temper — mostly, though, they were just cold and flat. She looked at him steadily, going down and up one repetition at a time, breathing hard, a flush rising on her face. She still would not beg for mercy.

She lost track of how many she had done. Just when she felt she might faint, the voice across from her finally said: “Stop.”

Nan Chu lurched back, half her body braced against the door, bent forward, both palms on her knees, panting. She looked at the floor and asked: “Can I go now?”

“Did I say you could go?”

Nan Chu was furious: “Is there something else?”

Lin Luxiao raised an eyebrow, walked to pick up an ashtray, set it beside him, bent his head, and slowly tapped the edge to knock off ash — a little casually, like he’d almost forgotten about it — and asked: “You and Yan Dai — what’s going on between you two?”

Done asking, he brought the cigarette to his lips and slid her a glance.

Nan Chu’s expression shifted slightly. So it really was about this. Her expression became indistinct, and she said nothing.

The story between the two girls — Yang Zhenggang had gossiped about it from the beginning. He’d even seen a photo of the man involved; Yang Zhenggang had said the young fellow was quite handsome. Lin Luxiao had taken one look and found it unmemorable. He had also told Yang Zhenggang then and there: if either of those two caused trouble, he would apply to have both removed from the unit.

He didn’t particularly care one way or another about Yan Dai.

But this girl — he couldn’t just let her be driven out. Her reputation was already troubled; if she also got kicked out of a unit, where would that leave her career?

That said, regardless of what it was, certain things needed to be said first.

Lin Luxiao looked at her, his voice taking on a deliberate gravity: “Whatever happened between you two before, whatever grievances you have — none of that is my business. But in my unit, if either of you causes trouble, you both get the hell out.”

The girl was sharp enough when she needed to be. He wondered if she understood what he was actually getting at.

Nan Chu had heard from Yang Zhenggang before that Lin Luxiao was currently being assessed for a promotion — so she understood the concern underlying his words: “Don’t worry. I won’t give you any trouble. If something comes up, I’ll handle my own application to leave the unit.”

“……”

Lin Luxiao held the cigarette between his lips for a long beat without moving. Then he lowered the cigarette from his mouth, pressed the tip of his index finger to Nan Chu’s forehead: “Do you actually understand what I mean?”

Nan Chu nodded with complete sincerity, her clear black eyes wide and guileless: “Of course. Cause trouble and you’re out — that’s the point, isn’t it?”

That’s exactly the point: don’t cause trouble.

Lin Luxiao was satisfied. He ruffled her hair. “Right. All right — go.”

Nan Chu turned to grab the door handle. Her hand paused. After a moment, she asked: “Is Yan Dai really quitting? Did you approve it?”

Lin Luxiao leaned against the wall: “What does this place look like to you? Come and go whenever you feel like it? She brought it up to me. I’ve had the production crew look into it. If she really does leave, it won’t affect you at all. Focus on your training. You’ve lost some time already — the intensity going forward is going to increase. There might be an arrangement for you to enter an actual fire scene.”

Nan Chu made a quiet sound of acknowledgment, then turned back and asked: “Are there any more quit-smoking candies?”

Lin Luxiao paused: “I ran out. I had Xiao Jiu pick some up — come get them tomorrow.”

“Okay — I’ll give you money for them.” Nan Chu said.

Lin Luxiao held the cigarette between his lips and laughed, faintly self-deprecating: “No need. I can still afford that much.”

Then he stopped paying attention to her, waved her toward the door with a look of mild impatience.

……

The next day, the quit-smoking candies were delivered directly by Xiao Jiu. Nan Chu was in the middle of putting on her boots. Xiao Jiu came in and handed it over: “Commander Lin told me to bring this to you.”

“How much is it? I’ll pay you back.”

Xiao Jiu said: “No need, it wasn’t expensive.”

She got her military boots on, stood up, gave them a firm stamp: “You all work hard for that money.”

“Really, don’t worry about it.” Xiao Jiu said and turned to leave — then stopped at the doorway. He thought it over, turned back, and put on a show of indignation: “You’re really looking down on us, you know!”

Nan Chu didn’t understand what she’d done wrong. Wasn’t it only natural to pay people back?

She had a bit of a blind spot here. She didn’t know how to express herself. Words of comfort were beyond her. Love — she had never experienced it growing up, and so she didn’t know how to show it to others. She didn’t lack money. The only way she could think of to show someone she cared was with money.

It was like how she had once lived at Lin Luxiao’s place for a little over a month, and on leaving had tossed him ten thousand yuan as a gesture of thanks — and had not realized to this day that she had offended him with it right then and there.

Xu Ya had witnessed the whole exchange and said, half-joking: “Since when are you so thick with the commander? He’s even having Xiao Jiu’er bring things to you?”

Nan Chu tossed the quit-smoking candies onto the desk, her tone flat: “He just did it in passing.”

Yan Dai had just finished washing up and came in from the doorway with her basin, eyes landing briefly on the candies on Nan Chu’s desk. A sharpness flashed through her gaze. She said nothing and walked back to her spot.

“Commander Lin is so reserved, tsk tsk——” Xu Ya had finished tidying and leaned against the desk, glancing at Yan Dai: “How did your talk with the commander go last night?”

Yan Dai was applying lipstick in front of the mirror: “About what you’d expect. He told me to think it over carefully — said female soldiers are a small number, and redistributing would be complicated.”

Xu Ya gave her a meaningful look, giggling: “No way — the commander is reluctant to let you go, isn’t he?”

Yan Dai gave a small, satisfied smile. “Maybe.”

Xu Ya: “Come on, stop hiding it — did the commander hold your hand last night and beg you not to leave?”

Yan Dai: “Why don’t you just ask if something happened between us last night?”

Xu Ya clapped her hands to her face in excitement: “Did it? Did it?!”

Yan Dai: “This is a military unit. Do you think people here can just do whatever they want?”

Xu Ya sighed regretfully. “Fair point.” Her gaze drifted over and landed on Nan Chu, who was folding her blanket — neat, square, sharp-cornered, a perfect rigid block. She said in puzzlement: “Nan Chu, I’ve noticed for the past few days now that your blanket is folded way too precisely. It’s basically identical to Xiao Jiu’er’s.”

Yan Dai’s hands stilled. She shot a glance over, and silently curved her lips in cold amusement.

Nan Chu: “You flatter me.”

Xu Ya continued: “I mean it. It’s so exact — anyone who didn’t know better would think you’d actually served before.”

Yan Dai wiped her face, set down her things with a slight clatter: “I’m heading out.”

Xu Ya pressed her lips together and stuck out her tongue, then hurried after her.

……

The day’s training was intense. The morning session was staircase ascent and descent drills; the afternoon was the hundred-meter obstacle course.

Today’s instructor wasn’t Lin Luxiao — a new instructor had come, crew-cut, square-jawed, small eyes, dark-skinned, with a look of natural ferocity and a voice deep and rugged: “Your Commander Lin has gone to brigade headquarters for an exam today. I’ll be leading training. Last name Zhang — just call me Instructor Zhang.”

Xu Ya leaned close to Nan Chu and murmured: “I suddenly realize that without Commander Lin’s face, even training feels pointless.”

Yan Dai overheard and looked at her coolly: “Didn’t you say Commander Lin wasn’t your type?”

“I like his face — I just don’t like his profession,” Xu Ya said, sticking out her tongue. “Being his girlfriend would mean spending every day anxious and worried at home — what’s the fun in that? Though probably more people want to sleep with him than want to be his girlfriend.”

She gave Yan Dai a suggestive look. The latter’s face colored slightly. She adjusted her composure and said under her breath: “Why are you looking at me?”

Xu Ya: “You’re definitely in the first camp.”

Yan Dai: “Just stop talking.” A flustered glare.

Nan Chu trained in earnest throughout, not joining in the conversation. The morning’s staircase drill went well — the instructor repeatedly praised her for being calm and courageous, for such a small girl. Yan Dai glanced sideways at her and said with cool mockery: “Suddenly putting on the model student act — what are you going for? Weren’t you always one to give Commander Lin a hard time?”

Nan Chu ignored her, standing straight in the formation: “I just had the sudden urge to live seriously for once. Problem?”

That line, to Yan Dai’s ears, was as ridiculous as someone who had jumped off a building — mid-air — suddenly shouting up at the sky that they’d changed their mind.

She sneered: “You always say you don’t care what people think. As I recall, Shen Guanzong’s image for you is ‘free-spirited and carefree.’ What — has the persona collapsed?”

She had always thought Nan Chu’s indifference was a performance. After all, wasn’t everything in this life a fight for reputation? A woman who genuinely didn’t care about her own public image was either genuinely unusual or posturing.

Nan Chu looked over at her. The brim of her cap shaded half her face, making it impossible for Yan Dai to read her expression. Her voice was flat: “Everyone has their own way of living. My being a mess, my being reckless — that’s my business. You’ve spent so long living in my shadow. Aren’t you tired?”

That landed precisely on a nerve.

Nan Chu’s words left Yan Dai visibly shaken. She didn’t want to admit she was envious of Nan Chu, yet privately she’d been quietly copying her fashion sense and manner. When she saw how indifferent Nan Chu was to everything, she realized that effortless, unbound quality was something she simply could not replicate.

She’d noticed Nan Chu smoking and tried picking it up herself — despite despising the taste of nicotine — because when she saw Nan Chu with a cigarette between her fingers, eyes subtly alluring, there was a kind of magnetic pull to the image that she couldn’t help but want to imitate.

She had once come across a photo of Nan Chu smoking on Ran Dongyang’s phone.

She was wearing a black skirt that fell past the knee, leaning with her upper body against a bar counter, her legs straight and slender. One hand rested on the counter surface. Long hair loose behind one ear, dark and lustrous with small glints of light. Slender fingers holding a cigarette, the lit tip trailing thin wisps of blue-gray smoke curling upward.

Her features were delicate, but they pulled you in.

Yan Dai had thought of a phrase: a fox’s eyes through a haze of smoke.

The old grievance, suppressed and seething for years, finally reached its ignition point during the four-hundred-meter obstacle course that afternoon.

All three women started at the same time — hurdles, trench, low wall, high board jump platform, horizontal ladder, balance beam, high wall, low stake net — eight obstacles total. Xu Ya had the best physical conditioning of the three; she pulled ahead from the start and left the other two behind. Nan Chu and Yan Dai ran neck and neck, trading the lead. After a stretch of muddy terrain, the cheering of the male soldiers rang out behind them.

At the balance beam, Yan Dai surged from behind and overtook her. Before Nan Chu could react, she was pushed off the balance beam from behind — and fell hard into the mud pit, getting a face full of dirt.

Nan Chu calmly stood up, brushed herself off, and climbed back onto the balance beam.

At the high wall, someone kicked her directly in the back — she landed hard, tailbone first, face contorting with the pain. Yan Dai smiled sweetly from atop the wall and asked helpfully: “Are you okay? Want me to pull you up?”

Nan Chu stood and brushed off her palms, completely indifferent: “Keep climbing.”

Yan Dai gritted her teeth and went on.

At the trench obstacle — a row of horizontal bars suspended above a muddy pit — the two of them swung across hand over hand, one behind the other.

Partway through, Yan Dai ran out of strength. Before she fell, she hooked her foot around Nan Chu’s waist and dragged her down into the mud pit with her. The male soldiers watching erupted: “What’s going on! Why has Nan Chu been falling this entire time?!”

The water at the bottom of the pit was filthy and cold, chilling to the bone. Nan Chu braced herself and stood up — and before she’d fully steadied herself, she launched herself at Yan Dai, grabbed her collar, and slammed her against the muddy wall of the pit. Yan Dai reeled from the impact. With a backward shove she pushed Nan Chu back into the pit. Nan Chu stumbled, muddy water splashing all around them, soaking both their trouser legs.

“Fight! Come on!”

Nan Chu spun around — the camera was pointed directly at her. Her head rang. All she could hear was Lin Luxiao’s warning from the night before: cause trouble, and get the hell out.

She pressed her fingers to her temples, head throbbing: “Get that out of my face.”

Yan Dai was still coiled tight with barely suppressed fury.

This fury had its origins three years ago — or even longer than that. When the news of Ran Dongyang and Nan Chu broke, something inside her had ached almost unbearably. But she’d told herself: this was the entertainment industry. Scandals were part of it — so were kissing scenes and bed scenes. These were things any artist had to come to terms with.

So even as the media ran the story hot, she treated it as though she hadn’t heard it. At most, she bought a few hired commenters to flood Nan Chu’s Weibo and considered her frustration vented. She didn’t let it into her heart — not until the day she found that photo on Ran Dongyang’s phone. That was when she understood that the rotten man had genuinely developed feelings.

She confronted Ran Dongyang with the phone. He didn’t even try to deny it — admitted outright that he had feelings for Nan Chu, that he’d even gotten the director to add a kissing scene, which Nan Chu had rejected.

That breath of rage — from that moment — she had been holding it ever since.

From beginning to end, she had believed Nan Chu was her rival. Her interloper.

Yan Dai lunged like a bull possessed, ripped off her microphone, and hurled herself at Nan Chu with the full force of her body, driving her down into the mud pit and pinning her there. She scooped up a handful of wet mud and stones and smeared it across Nan Chu’s face. Nan Chu kicked her off — fully furious now — flipped her over and pinned her down, both hands going to her throat, pressing her flat against the floor of the pit, eyes red with rage: “Have you lost your mind?!”

Yan Dai’s eyes blazed with venom. She swung her hand and delivered a slap to Nan Chu’s face — mud and water mixing with the impact. Nan Chu’s face snapped to the side. Something hard and ruthless surfaced in her expression.

“You never thought I’d lose my mind when you were stealing my man?!”

Nan Chu kicked her off. Yan Dai was still snarling and clawing to get back at her, but the male soldiers who had rushed over grabbed her and held her back.

Both women were disheveled from the scuffle — clothes in disorder, faces and bodies smeared with mud, utterly wretched-looking, scattered hair loose and falling around their faces. Like two maddened small animals.

Yan Dai spun around and snarled at the camera operator still filming: “Put that thing down. No filming. This segment does not air!”

Before the last word had left her mouth, Instructor Zhang arrived, hands clasped behind his back, and bellowed: “If you’re brave enough to do it, you’d better be brave enough for people to see it! Both of you — out of there, now!”

Instructor Zhang’s every muscle seemed to be trembling as he spoke. His face was dark enough to eat someone.

Shao Yijiu felt a cold shock run through him.

We’re done for.

……

Lin Luxiao had just come out of the exam hall when Meng Guohong called him into his office, gestured to the chair in front of the desk: “How are things in the unit lately?”

Lin Luxiao sat, straightened his cap: “Going well.”

Meng Guohong nodded and flipped through some documents: “Right. Start getting your handover materials organized with Yang Zhidao for the next stages.”

Lin Luxiao laughed: “You’re that certain I’ll pass?”

Meng Guohong finally looked up, and seeing his grinning face, reached for the ashtray beside him as if to hurl it at him: “If you don’t pass I’ll kill you myself!”

Lin Luxiao kept laughing and said nothing.

Meng Guohong waved his hand: “All right — get back to your unit.”

Lin Luxiao straightened his cap, snapped a salute, turned and walked out.

Dusk was settling in by the time the car pulled into the station — it was already evening, well past training hours. The moment he parked and came out of the parking area swinging his car keys, hands in his pockets, he saw a figure coming toward him at a run from a distance. The shape was vaguely Shao Yijiu-like — and when he looked more carefully, that’s exactly who it was. The boy’s face was all urgency; in all their years together, he’d never seen him this flustered. “Commander!”

Lin Luxiao stopped. Still swinging his car keys. “Is something on fire?”

That dark face was sheened with sweat.

Shao Yijiu was panting, eyes narrowed: “No.”

“Then where are you going in such a panic?”

Shao Yijiu had spotted the car coming in and sprinted down from the dormitory — he hadn’t caught his breath yet: “Nan Chu and Yan Dai — they had a fight. Instructor Zhang handed down punishment. Both of them are still on the — training ground……”

The sentence wasn’t even finished before the figure in front of Shao Yijiu had already vanished at a run.