Two somewhat weathered concrete walls ran parallel to each other, with the walkway between them marking the dividing line between the reception area and the work area.
Wen Jifei, He Tangtang, and Liu Shiheng sat alongside Shen Yixiu atop the outer wall, keeping them from crossing the boundary.
Having spent hours helping Han Qingyu scour the hills for wildflowers, roaming far and wide, every one of them had mud caked on their soles and stray blades of grass clinging to their clothes.
Perched up high in a row, they watched and chuckled.
If not for these unusual circumstances, they likely never would have witnessed the scene unfolding in the distance in their entire lives.
"Still, if we do it like this..." Rusty Sister, who had not yet been completely corrupted by this bunch and still possessed a tender heart, gripped the top of the wall beside her legs and voiced her worry. "If we invite them to perform, but Qingzi doesn't actually watch, slipping away with us halfway through... Won't those girls resent him even more once they realize?"
"Is that even a question? Of course they will," Wen Jifei said with an easy laugh. "Do you really think Comrade Han Qingyu cares?"
"He won't," Liu Shiheng chimed in. "Or rather, it's not that he doesn't care, but that he most likely won't even notice. It's just the girls who'll be heartbroken, I'm afraid."
"Exactly, haha." Wen Jifei glanced over at Shen Yixiu. "Don't worry, though. I'll help comfort them. When the time comes and you guys head off to do your thing, a Dice like me won't hold you back."
"No way. I'm dragging you along for sure," Liu Shiheng said, refusing to let Plague Chicken keep all the good things to himself. "There won't be any danger over there anyway. We're just going to look. Who knows, maybe you've got the sharpest eyes of all."
As they spoke, Han Qingyu's figure shifted in the distance.
"Can he really pull this off?" He Tangtang craned his neck, half genuinely concerned and half hoping to see something go wrong. "He doesn't know the first thing about this sort of thing."
"Yeah, he must be feeling so awkward right now," Shen Yixiu said.
"You're wrong. He'll forget all about feeling awkward," Wen Jifei countered. "Deep down, our Qingzi is a very pure-minded guy. Once he sets his mind on a goal, he charges straight ahead without a second thought, so feeling awkward won't even cross his mind. As for whether he can pull it off..." He paused. "Well, I already coached him. We'll just have to see how he performs."
Han Qingyu also had mud on his boots and bits of grass clinging to his clothes.
When they had first returned, Shen Yixiu had suggested he change into fresh clothes before going, but Wen Jifei had shot the idea down on the spot, insisting this was for the best—a look so perfect it was worth fabricating if it didn't already exist.
And so Han Qingyu stood there now. Though he shifted his stance, he didn't step forward. "I have mud on my shoes. If I come over, I'll track dirt all over the floor."
Wen Jifei hadn't coached him on this line. He said it in all seriousness simply because he saw how clean the floor in front of him was.
Nie Xiaozhen broke into laughter. She suddenly found this rigid combat genius utterly adorable—the way he had no idea how to talk to girls, and how he stood there covered in mud and grass, worrying about dirtying the floor. God only knew how bizarre it was to use the word "adorable" to describe Han Qingyu, but at that moment, that was precisely what she thought.
Amid the surrounding laughter and quiet murmurs, Nie Xiaozhen smiled and teased, "Then we'll come over to you. But first, tell us what this is about. Are you here to chase us away from here too?"
Han Qingyu shook his head and lifted the enormous armful of wildflowers in his embrace.
The bouquet had been roughly arranged by Liu Shiheng, dominated by white magnolias interspersed with a few white-petaled, yellow-pistiled narcissi, accented with sprigs of flowering plum, poinsettia, and unfamiliar greenery.
Overall, it looked decent enough.
However, the girls of the outreach troupe frequently traveled across various defense sectors for their work, and they had received countless wildflowers from soldiers over the years—most of which were far prettier than this.
"It's a bit rough, but damn it, they still want it. Look, they're heading over," Liu Shiheng couldn't help muttering from afar.
At this point, the performance had already veered off script. Han Qingyu hadn't followed Director Wen's screenplay at all. He was supposed to look dashing and cool, or even put on the slightly flirty charm of a roguish soldier.
Yet he did neither. From Wen Jifei's perspective, watching Han Qingyu try to sweet-talk girls was thoroughly exasperating. The entire routine had clearly fallen apart, yet somehow it was achieving the exact desired result.
Across a distance of barely a dozen meters, Nie Xiaozhen had already arrived before him. Even within the outreach troupe—which essentially doubled as a cultural performance troupe—she was an exceptional girl, radiant and cheerful. Dressed in her form-fitting dance attire, her figure was on full display.
*Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump.*
Her heart raced. Even after eight years in the military and having received countless bouquets from frontline soldiers, Nie Xiaozhen couldn't suppress the excitement and nervous flutter within her.
*Is it me? It is me.*
*So my story was meant to happen when I'm twenty-four. So this is how the script goes.* Nie Xiaozhen looked at Han Qingyu standing right in front of her.
Her mind was already racing, wondering what to say when she accepted the flowers.
*So many eyes are on us. I need to be reserved... But no, this guy is a block of wood. If I act too reserved, what if he thinks I'm rejecting him?*
"You..." The girl began to speak, lifting her hands.
Then she froze.
"About this morning, I'm very sorry." Han Qingyu didn't notice any of her inner turmoil. Speaking according to plan, he plucked a single white magnolia from the massive bouquet, leaned forward slightly, and offered it to Nie Xiaozhen.
"Ah..." Nie Xiaozhen took it woodenly.
Han Qingyu then sidestepped toward the next girl. "I'm very sorry about this morning."
And then the next...
The apology was sincere, and the flowers had clearly been gathered through hard effort. Holding them in their hands, the girls felt far more gratification than disappointment. Most thought to themselves:
*Even if it isn't a confession meant for me, this is still better than having all the glory and the man himself monopolized by someone else.*
Besides, the person apologizing before them was a young hero of Azure. A hand that normally wielded a blade was now holding flowers, and a face that hadn't flinched against a hundred enemies in the canyon was now filled with remorse. He was showing them immense face and respect.
Truth be told, he had no obligation to do this at all. They were the ones who had rushed over to watch that morning, and they weren't important figures anyway; aside from grumbling in private, what could they have done?
Yet he had come anyway, and with such sincerity.
At that thought, warmth and touched feelings welled up inside them. Holding the flowers, their smiles and tones softened into affectionate indulgence.
"It's totally fine."
"We understand."
"Don't worry about it at all."
Their anger evaporated.
All except Nie Xiaozhen's. She had no idea Han Qingyu was a dead iron straight man through and through. Just moments ago, she had taken the brunt of a single-target strike, leaving her deeply deflated and disappointed.
In a fit of pique, she threw caution to the wind and decided to march up and give the magnolia back.
"Hey, what... what's wrong with you?!" Midway through her petulant march, with the flower only half thrust out, the girl looked up and suddenly cried out in sheer panic and distress.
A thin trickle of blood was running down from the corner of Han Qingyu's mouth.
"It's fine, just an old injury acting up," Han Qingyu said with a faint smile, raising a hand to wipe the blood from his lip.
"The injury from Nepal? It hasn't healed yet?"
"Yeah, not completely. So when I chased everyone away this morning, it was actually... actually just out of vanity. I was trying to act tough. I didn't want anyone to see me looking weak and feeble," Han Qingyu recited, following the script Wen Jifei had provided.
*So that was it.* Nie Xiaozhen pulled the flower back, her pique replaced entirely by heartache. "Then it's really nothing! Why did you still run all the way here to apologize? Honestly..."
"Yes, yes, there was no need to apologize at all," the other girls chimed in one after another.
"It wasn't just to apologize," Han Qingyu continued. "I also wanted to ask if you have any rehearsal performances coming up. I knew a veteran in the military who got injured later on and coughs up blood all the time. He told me he once watched your morale-boosting performance on the front line and said it was wonderful. So... I really wanted to see it too."
"No, we— Yes, we do!" In truth, they didn't, but the moment they opened their mouths, the girls chorused that they did.
Mission accomplished. Han Qingyu breathed a sigh of relief, thinking to himself that Plague Chicken really was brilliant when it came to this sort of thing. At the same time, he remained completely oblivious to the fact that he had butchered several parts of the routine and had nearly caused a disaster.
"Still, can your body really hold up?" Nie Xiaozhen asked. Seeing a firm answer in Han Qingyu's eyes, a mischievous smile played across her lips. "Then you have to answer a few questions for us first."
This part hadn't been prepared. Han Qingyu nodded blankly.
By this point, Wen Jifei and the others had already slipped over to observe the scene.
Even Xin Yaoqiao had finally been unable to hold back, slipping down to hide nearby and watch how things played out.
"You aren't married, right?" Nie Xiaozhen asked with a grin.
The question set all the girls giggling at once.
"No," Han Qingyu answered.
"What about a girlfriend?" Nie Xiaozhen pressed.
Han Qingyu shook his head.
"Hey, why are you wearing a silver bracelet?" another girl suddenly chimed in, sounding surprised.
"This?" Han Qingyu lifted his wrist and glanced at it himself.
With that, everyone present saw it: on the wrist of Azure's young combat genius was indeed a silver bracelet. It looked somewhat old and had an outdated style, unremarkable on its own.
"When I joined the army, my mother told me to bring it along," Han Qingyu answered honestly.
"Did she tell you to give it to the girl you fall for?" another girl asked with a teasing laugh.
Han Qingyu didn't answer that question, but his reaction was an answer in itself.
And just like that, the worn, old silver bracelet on his wrist suddenly took on an extraordinary meaning.
Chapter 164