Special care
Military training has entered the second half.
More than ten days of intense training, like a giant juicer, squeezed every last ounce of holiday laziness out of the freshmen. Everyone's skin darkened by at least two shades, and their eyes lost their initial confusion, replaced by a tempered determination.
The training atmosphere, from its initial tense and seriousness, became slightly more relaxed. Instructor Zhou Hai was no longer as unapproachable as he had been at the beginning, and even joked with everyone during breaks. Everyone also got used to finding their own joy amidst the sweat and slogans.
That afternoon, during a break in training, the sidelines suddenly attracted a crowd of seniors and seniors. Military training grounds have long been a prime location for discovering promising talent. And among this year's freshmen, Lu Yu was undoubtedly the most prominent.
Not only does he have outstanding looks and excellent physical fitness, but as the class monitor, he also has great leadership and affinity. In just over ten days, he has gained extremely high popularity among the freshmen.
As soon as the command to rest was given, several brave girls came over together.
The leader was a sweet-looking and lively girl from the Foreign Languages College next door. She was holding several bottles of iced sports drinks in her hands and had a clear goal.
"Hi! Classmate, you must be Lu Yu from the School of Cultural Heritage?" The girl walked up to Lu Yu with a generous smile on her face, and admiration in her eyes almost overflowing.
"It's me, hello, senior." Lu Yu stopped playing with his teammates and responded politely.
"We are from the School of Foreign Languages and have heard of you for a long time! Seeing that you are training so hard, we bought some drinks to quench your thirst!" said the girl, distributing the drinks in her hand to several boys around Lu Yu, and finally, handed a bottle to Lu Yu.
"I bought this especially for you!" she said bluntly, not hiding her purpose. "My name is Li Meng. Can we be friends?"
This bold and straightforward special care instantly ignited the gossip hormones of the boys around.
"Yo! Brother Lu's charm has spread to the outer courtyard!"
"Brother Lu, this is an inter-campus social gathering!"
"Don't let down my senior sister!" Zhao Teng winked at the side and had already started secretly recording his exclusive material.
Lu Yu was a little amused and helpless by this sudden situation. He scratched his head, thinking about how to refuse politely and without hurting others.
But at this moment, he caught a glimpse of Shi Guang sitting not far away from the corner of his eye.
Lu Yu's eyes just glanced casually, but they froze in an instant.
He saw Shi Guang sitting there quietly, head down, his expression unclear. But his hands on his knees unconsciously tightened, squeezing his unopened bottle of mineral water until it was slightly deformed.
That action, like a tiny needle, accurately pierced Lu Yu's heart.
An inexplicable feeling of irritability suddenly came over me.
He wasn't annoyed by the female classmate who had confessed her feelings, nor by the group of friends who were stirring up trouble. He was annoyed by Shi Guang's current state, that familiar state where he would immediately retreat into his shell when faced with external pressure.
[What’s going on…] Lu Yu roared silently in his heart.
The atmosphere has finally calmed down a bit these past couple of days, and he's even willing to talk to me, but now he's doing it again. Just because of a few provocative words from an irrelevant person, he's going to lock himself up again?
He looked at the tense silhouette of time, and the unhappiness in his heart grew stronger. He felt that his cautiousness over the past half month, all that silent care, was like building a castle on the beach. After finally building a small prototype, a wave hit and it was all wasted.
And now, the appearance of this girl and the surrounding booing are the damn wave.
[I’m so annoyed.]
Lu Yu looked at the beautifully packaged bottle of sports drink in the girl's hand and gave her an apologetic smile: "Thank you for your kindness, senior sister, but I don't usually drink flavored drinks. I appreciate it."
After saying that, in the girl's astonished gaze, he walked straight towards Shi Guang.
Under everyone's shocked gaze, he walked in front of Shi Guang, squatted down, and made sure they were at eye level.
"Hey," he looked at Shi Guang, his tone carrying a hint of helplessness in it, like coaxing a child, which he himself didn't even notice, "Your water, don't you want to drink it? If not, give it to me."
Shi Guang didn't expect Lu Yu to come over suddenly, and he didn't expect that he would reject the girl's kindness in front of everyone and instead ask him for water.
His eyes were filled with shock and confusion, as well as a hint of panic that he himself didn't understand.
"What are you standing there for?" Lu Yu looked at his dazed expression and couldn't help but laugh. He reached out and took the bottle of mineral water that he had kept warm from his hand. "If you don't want to drink it, I will."
He unscrewed the bottle cap, tilted his head back, and drank most of the bottle.
In the sunlight, his Adam's apple rolled up and down, and a few drops of water slid down his chin and dripped onto his sweaty collarbone.
"Plain water is still more effective in quenching my thirst." He breathed a sigh of satisfaction, then put the remaining half bottle of water back into Shi Guang's hands.
The whole process went smoothly and naturally.
The noise gradually died down, and everyone looked at each other, their eyes full of gossip. Li Meng's smile froze slightly, but it quickly returned to normal.
As for Shi Guang, he lowered his head, looking at the bottle of mineral water in his hand, which was mostly drunk and still had Lu Yu's body temperature. He then looked at Lu Yu who was standing in front of him, smiling at him calmly.
A strange feeling of sourness and swelling, yet with a hint of secret joy, grew and spread wildly from the deepest part of his heart like a vine.
He didn't know what this emotion was called.
He only knew that he felt very uncomfortable when he saw Senior Li Meng handing water to Lu Yu.
It’s like a shiny stone that you secretly hid in your nest is suddenly discovered by someone else, who then wants to reach out and take it.
And now, this stone was brought back by its owner himself and placed in front of him. This feeling made him feel a little overwhelmed, yet extremely relieved.
“Beep!”
At this moment, instructor Zhou Hai's piercing assembly whistle suddenly sounded.
"They're not dead yet! They're all like boneless!" Zhou Hai roared, "The rest time is over! Everyone, get up and return to your positions!"
The air, thick with gossip just now, was instantly shattered by this roar. Everyone woke up as if from a dream, reflexively jumping up from the ground and hurriedly running back to their own lines.
The smile on Lu Yu's face faded, and he immediately returned to the serious demeanor of a vanguard. He didn't say anything more, just looked at Shi Guang deeply, then turned around and walked back to the front of the team with long legs.
Time seemed to wake him up from a dream. He put down the bottle of mineral water in his hand and quickly walked back to his seat. He forced himself to look forward, but his heart was beating like a drum and he couldn't calm down.
"Everyone, stand up straight!" Zhou Hai's voice came again, "Next, practice the parade march! Leading troops, pay attention and follow!"
The afternoon training continued in this strange atmosphere.
Most of the students were clearly still preoccupied with the gossip drama. The procession was skewed, and many were still exchanging secret glances.
"Third row! That fat guy!" Zhou Hai's rage was first directed at the dazed Jiang Xiaopang. "What are you laughing at! Do your teeth look so white? Get out of line! Go to the side and do fifty push-ups!"
"Ah? Instructor, I..." Fat Jiang had an innocent look on his face. He was just communicating with Zhao Teng through lip syncing, but he didn't expect that joy would turn into sorrow.
"Now! Immediately! Immediately!"
Fat Jiang, with a mournful expression, slowly moved to the side and laid down on the scorching rubber track. His chubby figure made push-ups look particularly comical and laborious.
"One! Two!..." He counted for himself as he did it. Each time was like a life-and-death struggle with the earth, and his face turned red.
When he got to the tenth one, Sun Rui in the next row suddenly raised his hand.
"Report to the instructor!"
Zhou Hai was staring at the team and shouted impatiently, "What's going on?"
"Instructor," Sun Rui's expression remained calm as always. He pointed at the struggling Jiang Xiaopang and said, "According to the 'National Student Physical Fitness Standards,' for overweight individuals with a body mass index over 28, high-intensity anaerobic exercise, especially exercises like push-ups that require high core and upper limb strength, will put a higher load on the cardiovascular system and increase the risk of joint injury than individuals of normal weight. I request that the corporal punishment of Jiang Xiaopang be suspended, or replaced with other lower-risk punishment methods, such as horse stance."
This statement was so clear and logical, with detailed data and full of scientific rigor, that it stunned Zhou Hai. He opened his mouth, but for a moment he couldn't find a reason to refute it.
All the students in the company and the company commander of the neighboring company were trying to hold back their laughter and looking at Sun Rui as if he were a god.
Zhou Hai's face turned pale and blue. He pointed at Sun Rui and shouted, "You! You're the only one who talks too much! You have a good relationship with him, right? Fine! Then you step out of the line too! You do the remaining forty for him!"
"Yes!" Sun Rui responded without any hesitation and immediately stepped out of the line and walked to Jiang Xiaopang.
"Brother Sun... why are you doing this..." Fat Jiang was so moved that he almost cried.
Sun Rui ignored him, took off his hat and put it aside, then lay down easily and finished the remaining forty push-ups with an extremely standard posture without changing his expression. During the whole process, even his breathing was not disordered.
After finishing, he stood up, dusted off his hands, and saluted the stunned Zhou Hai again: "Report to the instructor, the mission is completed, and I request to return to the team."
Zhou Hai: “…”
He felt like, in all his years in the military, this was the first time he'd experienced the inverse of the saying "a scholar meets a soldier, and even if he's right, he can't explain himself" from a rookie. He waved his hand and said unhappily, "Get back to the team! You fat guy, get back here too! Next time you whisper, I'll make you run five kilometers!"
Fat Jiang felt as if he had been pardoned, and he crawled back to the team. He looked at Sun Rui's calm face, his eyes full of admiration and gratitude.
"Brother Sun," he whispered, "You are my real brother! From now on, if you tell me to go east, I will never go west!"
This small disturbance temporarily diverted everyone's attention and made the atmosphere in the training ground much more relaxed.
Lu Yu stood at the front of the team, his posture erect and his slogans louder than anyone else. He seemed completely unaffected by the recent events, still the outstanding model soldier. But only he knew that most of his attention was actually locked, out of the corner of his eye, on a figure at the back of the team.
Shi Guang was trying hard to keep up with the team, but his mind was a mess. Lu Yu's eyes, his words, the way his Adam's apple rolled as he drank water... frame after frame, they played over and over in his mind. He could even discern the familiar, refreshing scent that belonged only to Lu Yu in the air.
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