Neither Xiong Baiyan nor Ji Jiangyuan had truly beaten Zhou Cheng.

However they had chosen to compete in Zhou Cheng’s areas of expertise, and achieving such results was already quite remarkable.

Zhou Cheng was at a disadvantage, having just run 10 kilometers before the shooting competition with no time to recover. However, with fixed targets, the same shooting distance, and identical weapons, hitting the ten-ring bullseye was the best possible score. Regardless of Ji Jiangyuan’s upper limit, he had already achieved perfect accuracy.

In shooting, Ji Jiangyuan truly demonstrated athlete-level skill.

From this perspective, Zhou Cheng felt he had lost.

Not taking his opponent seriously in the 10-kilometer race and barely winning was due to his arrogance.

He hadn’t expected to find such competent marksmen among Huaqing’s freshmen. Ji Jiangyuan alone made Zhou Cheng reflect. When Director Li assigned him to lead the military training, Zhou Cheng was delighted, viewing this “punishment” as implicit praise.

Usually, someone of Zhou Cheng’s rank wouldn’t lead military training instructors. Being demoted to train a group of student soldiers was a punishment.

However, with his girlfriend Xia Xiaolan at Huaqing University, Zhou Cheng was more than willing to lead the training.

Now Zhou Cheng seemed to understand Director Li’s deeper meaning. “Learn from each other, progress together” – was Director Li using Huaqing students to wake him up?

Combined with his family’s reaction and Xiaolan’s letter, these things sent Zhou Cheng into deep thought. To Xia Xiaolan, it appeared as if Zhou Cheng was dejected.

Understandably so – Zhou Cheng was proud to his very core, and failing to achieve an overwhelming victory as Chief Instructor in front of so many Huaqing students probably felt like a loss to him.

Xia Xiaolan began watching Zhou Cheng’s movements.

Finally, she found him alone in the evening.

“Want to take a walk?”

Zhou Cheng glanced at her. “Miss Xia, you must not be getting enough dinner every night if you’re walking around now, burning more energy.”

He wasn’t deliberately avoiding Xia Xiaolan. He hadn’t figured out how to answer her questions yet, and being too close to her made it hard to control himself. This was the Jibei Province Military Training Ground with 2000 Huaqing students – he didn’t want anyone gossiping about Xia Xiaolan. If he couldn’t control himself, better to keep a safe distance. His willpower had always been weak when it came to Xia Xiaolan.

Xia Xiaolan just kept looking at him until Zhou Cheng couldn’t bear it.

“If you’re trying to comfort me, there’s no need. I haven’t taken this afternoon’s competition to heart.”

Xia Xiaolan shook her head. “I’m not here to comfort you. One’s a sports special recruit, the other’s a regional IPSC champion. Physical fitness and marksmanship are basic skills for you, but there’s no rule saying others can’t excel at these too. In a life-or-death fight, neither of them would last a minute against you… But that’s not important. What’s important is what happened last time.”

Such an impatient girl, couldn’t even wait until military training was over.

Zhou Cheng had no way to deal with her.

“Mm, I’m listening. Go ahead.”

“First, tell me why you haven’t replied to my letter! Did the questions in my letter trouble you?”

Sure enough, they couldn’t avoid discussing the letter.

Zhou Cheng nodded honestly: “It did trouble me. The issues we discussed before, you brought them up again so clearly… Xiaolan, your questions confused me.”

Xia Xiaolan hadn’t written the letter to complain or break up.

About Guan Hui’e coming to find her – if it involved Zhou Cheng’s future, she could understand Guan Hui’e’s anger. It was like how Liu Fen would likely demand a breakup if Zhou Cheng had caused her to waste three years of schooling. The Zhou family had no position to consider things from her perspective – they would always think of Zhou Cheng first, which was perfectly natural. Parents always care most about their children!

In her letter, Xia Xiaolan declared one thing: youth was too precious, and while she and Zhou Cheng could date, it wasn’t appropriate to enter marriage too early.

At a minimum, she wouldn’t marry during her five undergraduate years, and she hoped Zhou Cheng would be mentally prepared for this.

After graduating, whether to pursue further education – Xia Xiaolan herself hadn’t decided yet.

What she could offer Zhou Cheng now was only the promise of romance.

“Dating only requires mutual affection – seeing each other brings joy, that’s what it means to like someone! But marriage binds two people tightly together. With your personality, once you choose someone it’s for life. While I’m confident I won’t break my vows, I don’t know if I can be a so-called ‘good wife’! During our courtship, we can slowly consider these things. You try not to worry so much about me running away, and I’ll try to trust you completely and be a qualified girlfriend. I’ve reflected on some of my behavior – I haven’t given you much sense of security. We’re both new to relationships, and we have time to learn together… But Zhou Cheng, in this world, we don’t just have romance – other things are important too. I hope you’ll think clearly about what kind of person you want to be.”

Was this job what Zhou Cheng truly liked?

What someone likes in their teens might change in their twenties.

Even with two lifetimes of experience, Xia Xiaolan wouldn’t dare say her desires wouldn’t change, let alone claim her personality was perfect. Having become an orphan early in her previous life, spending time depending on others before struggling up from the bottom alone, Xia Xiaolan knew she was very “independent.” When Guan Hui’e asked what she liked about Zhou Cheng, wasn’t it because she thought Xia Xiaolan hadn’t included Zhou Cheng in her life plans?

Now Xia Xiaolan was clearly telling Zhou Cheng that after graduating, whether pursuing further education or not if their relationship remained stable, she would marry him. She wasn’t threatening Zhou Cheng with a breakup, nor could she let Zhou Cheng keep compromising. She wanted Zhou Cheng to figure out what he wanted most.

Did he want them to stay together happily?

Or did he just want to get married soon, settle down with a wife and children, accepting anyone as long as he could marry?

She told Zhou Cheng her plans, hoping to align them with his.

Zhou Cheng looked down, seeing the sincerity in her eyes.

She must have thought long and hard before deciding to marry after graduation.

Zhou Cheng had once suspected that Xiaolan didn’t want to marry at all – not just him, but anyone! That was Zhou Cheng’s keen intuition, the same intuition that had helped him avoid many crises on the battlefield.

But Xiaolan was changing.

After careful consideration, or perhaps after his mother’s opposition, had Xiaolan changed?

He had thought his mother’s visit to Xiaolan would likely lead to a breakup. Instead, under these circumstances, Xiaolan showed him something completely different.

He just watched as Xiaolan wracked her brains, concerned about his pride, turning comfort into subtle suggestions: “Temporary setbacks don’t matter much. I made mistakes too – if I hadn’t been so high-profile at work, the later events wouldn’t have happened… Anyway, if this affects your promotion, we can face it together. I believe in you, Zhou Cheng. Nothing can defeat you!”

Her eyes were so bright, that Zhou Cheng wanted to kiss her.

Then he did kiss her eyes. Xia Xiaolan’s eyelashes fluttered against his lips, tickling them, her eyelids cool against his burning lips.

This kiss had nothing to do with desire – it was just an inexplicable heart flutter.

Xia Xiaolan’s eyelids tingled. She felt Zhou Cheng’s lips leave and heard his whispered words:

“Xiaolan, I want to become someone you can rely on, someone my family can trust, someone the organization can depend on… I want to become your pride.”