"You mean, they're all holding onto something, so they can't open up to me?" Chen Xi thought about it and decided this was the only possibility.

[Host, don't be sad. It's normal for people to have barriers between each other. You still have a wholeheartedly devoted leader and a lover who loves you wholeheartedly, and that's enough!] Although the system doesn't really understand human emotions, it respects them.

Humans are very strange creatures. Sometimes, even though they are blood relatives, they will still be wary of each other.

[Oh! Look at what you're saying. Why are you so sad? Compared to my past life, I'm already so happy in this life.] Thinking of her past life, which was a mess, her life in this life has been developing in the direction she wanted.

She already felt very happy.

"Hehe?" Sikong Ling felt someone touching his face in his sleep. As a soldier, he was still alert. He opened his eyes almost immediately after feeling the movement.

Then he met Chen Xi's dazed eyes. She just stared at him intently, as if her soul was out of her body.

His expression would change from time to time, from the initial dullness to surprise, and then from surprise to sadness. Sadness was written on his face, which made Sikong Ling feel extremely distressed.

He didn't want to see her like this, so he called out to her.

When Chen Xi heard Sikong Ling's voice, he suddenly pulled himself out of the conversation with the system.

"Xixi, don't you want me to go on the mission? But this mission is very dangerous. If I don't go, other comrades who go may lose their lives there. I don't want to see my teammates die." He has Chen Xi's protection and is not afraid of danger.

But if the teammates go there, they will definitely die.

He didn't want his teammates to die.

"No, I wasn't thinking about you. I was just talking to the old immortal." Chen Xi quickly explained, "The old immortal said you loved me very much? Is that true?"

Even today, even with the data to prove it, she still finds it hard to believe that Sikong Ling loves her so much.

After all, it was hard for Chen Xi to believe that a person could love someone so wholeheartedly.

She had never encountered this kind of feeling in her previous life.

Until the day I die, I will never believe that such feelings exist in this world.

"Yes, the old immortal is right." Sikong Ling did not hide his love for Chen Xi at all.

He reached out and pressed Chen Xi's head into his arms, letting her rest against his chest as he listened to his heartbeat. "Xixi, I thought I would devote my life to the country and be loyal to it forever. I wasn't sure if I would die in the line of duty, but that would be a good outcome."

Chen Xi had never heard Sikong Ling mention his own affairs, so when he heard him say this so suddenly, his eyes were full of shock.

He looked at Sikong Ling in disbelief, "What do you mean by that?"

"My parents are both researchers. I was raised by my grandmother. My grandfather passed away when my grandmother was very young. To support my father, my grandmother damaged her eyesight by embroidery. Then there was the war, and she worked very hard to raise my father. She went through the most difficult years of her life. At an age when she should have been enjoying her retirement, she had to take care of a burden like me. I know I shouldn't blame my parents for their dedication to their country, but deep down, I longed for their love. Plus, my parents' work was confidential, so outsiders didn't know they were researchers. Neighbors often mocked me for being a bastard without a father or mother. Being young and naive, I always went to my grandmother to cry.

My grandma was just comforting me because of my parents' work, it's not like that.

It wasn't until I was seven years old, when my grandmother passed away, that I met my nominal parents for the first time.

After they came back to pay their respects to the old man, they took me to my workplace.

From then on, I was finally able to stay with my parents.

But as their work locations kept changing, they finally decided to send me back to Beijing. After more than three years of wandering with my parents, I returned to Beijing at the age of ten and started school.

My parents think that a ten-year-old child should be able to take care of himself.

But they don’t know that that year, I didn’t even know how to use a coal stove, and my hands were often burned and blistered from improper operation.

Every time I popped a blister, I would hide and cry. I missed my grandma so much, and I hated myself for not growing up sooner. If I had grown up sooner, grandma wouldn't have gotten sick from taking care of me, and she wouldn't have passed away so young.

After those three years, I also realized how hard it is for my parents to work, so I won’t complain that my parents can’t give me a stable environment.

On the contrary, I just kept blaming myself, blaming myself for not being able to protect the people I wanted to protect.

Later, I grew up and successfully graduated from high school.

I also know that if I want to protect the people I want to protect, joining the army is a good choice.

Being a soldier means you can have enough to eat, and the country will train you and make you a talent, someone who can defend our country. I want to be someone who can make my parents worry-free.

Over the years, I have been working very hard on missions, wandering around in various missions that could be fatal.

I know the mission is dangerous, but the sense of accomplishment after completing each mission makes me more obsessed.

Guess how lucky I am that I was assigned to the Dayang Village Production Team as an educated youth. Guess how lucky I am that I met you.

The first time I met you, I was curious. How could a short person like you have so much strength? You're like a little sun that shines forever, never getting tired. I started to be curious about you.

Then I realized that, despite your small size, you're incredibly strong and quick, making you a rare and promising candidate for the military. I began to think about recruiting you into the army as a teammate. I thought, if I had a teammate as capable as you, completing missions would be much easier!

But then you told me you had no intention of joining the army. I'm not one to force things, so I thought, let it go, maybe we're not meant to be together.

But I never thought that you were actually a girl..." Sikong Ling paused here.

He lowered his head to look at Chen Xi's extraordinary and beautiful face, and couldn't help being moved, so he lowered his head and kissed her red lips.

"What happened after you found out I was a girl?" Chen Xi was interested in what he said next.

"I caught up with you. You know what happened next, right? I thought at first that it was just a dream, but I didn't expect that the dream would come true. You know, I was so excited that I couldn't sleep on the train coming here. All I could think about was what happened that night. And my increasingly determined idea." As Sikong Ling spoke, his hands began to move restlessly.