Storm is coming
The next day was the third to last day of military training.
When I woke up in the morning, the sky was gloomy, with heavy dark clouds hanging low in the sky. The air was filled with damp and sultry vapor, like a precursor to a heavy downpour.
On the small blackboard downstairs in the dormitory building, the weather forecast was written in eye-catching red chalk: [Today and tomorrow, due to the combined influence of an upper-level trough and ground-level cold air, our city will experience continuous heavy rainfall, possibly accompanied by severe convective weather such as thunderstorms and strong winds. Teachers and students, please take precautions.]
"Damn it! Can we continue training on this day?" Fatty Jiang wailed, looking out the window. "Isn't it obvious it's going to rain? Could the instructor be so heartless?"
However, the assembly whistle sounded mercilessly on time.
On the training ground, everyone was listless. The dark clouds overhead grew thicker and thicker, and the wind grew stronger and stronger, making it almost impossible to open your eyes.
"Everyone, cheer up!" Instructor Zhou Hai's face was gloomier than the sky. "What's wrong with a little rain? Are you made of paper? Will it melt if you get wet? The war won't be suspended just because of bad weather! Stand up straight!"
Although he said so, the content of the morning training was changed from high-intensity physical training to relatively easy drill and military posture exercises.
Even so, everyone was still suffering. The oppressive heat and low pressure made everyone feel a tightness in their chest.
Lu Yu stood at the front of the team and glanced back. He saw that Shi Guang's face was pale and his lips were tightly pursed, as if he was particularly uncomfortable with the oppressive weather. Lu Yu's brows unconsciously furrowed, and a trace of worry filled his heart.
In the afternoon, the wind grew stronger, making the flagpoles on the training ground hum. The sky darkened as dusk, and raindrops as big as beans began to fall sporadically.
"Instructor, it's raining!" someone in the team shouted.
"Stand still if it rains! Soldiers, can't you bear this little hardship?" Zhou Hai shouted stubbornly, but he still glanced at the sky and finally waved his hand reluctantly, "Everyone! Go to the eaves of the rostrum next to us to avoid the rain! Rest where you are!"
"oh--!"
As if granted amnesty, everyone rushed to the narrow shelter under the podium. They huddled together, watching the increasingly heavy rain outside and discussing the situation.
"It looks like the rain won't stop any time soon."
"It would be better if it rained harder, so as to completely wash away our afternoon training!"
The raindrops soon formed into lines, pattering down from the sky. The sky and the earth were covered with a gray haze, with only the sounds of rain and wind.
The space under the rostrum was not large, with hundreds of people crowded together. The air was a mixture of sweat, moisture, and the plastic smell of cheap raincoats.
"Damn, it's like boiling water!" Fat Jiang wiped the rain off his face and complained, "If I had known this would happen, I should have worn slippers!"
"Based on the current rainfall and wind speed," Sun Rui, who had slipped over from the next door at some point, his glasses misting over, "this rainfall has reached the orange alert standard. When an orange alert is in effect, all outdoor group activities should be suspended immediately. The instructor's behavior constitutes a procedural violation."
"My dear brother Sun, if you go and reason with the instructor now, he will let you experience what it means to be physically shut up." Fat Jiang shrank his neck.
On the other side, Lin Xiyue was gathered with a few other girls. She looked at the sky with some concern, took out a tissue from her pocket, and handed it to a girl next to her who was soaked.
"Oh my god, this rain isn't going to stop," Wang Qing said as she took the tissue. "Did you guys check your phones? The weather forecast has issued a red alert for heavy rain! Why won't the school let us go back?"
"Didn't the instructor say we need to strengthen our willpower?" another girl shrugged helplessly. "I guess they want to wait until the rain subsides before disbanding."
"This isn't about training my will, it's simply destroying my body and mind," Wang Qing complained, rubbing her arms, which had grown a little cold. "It's so stuffy and damp, I feel like I'm going moldy."
Lin Xiyue listened quietly without interrupting.
"Hey, Xiyue, tell me," Wang Qing suddenly nudged her with her elbow and asked mysteriously in a low voice, "Do you think our squad leader... is a little too kind to Shi Guang?"
This question instantly made the girls around prick up their ears.
Lin Xiyue was stunned for a moment. She didn't expect that everyone had noticed it. She thought for a moment and said in a gentle tone, "Maybe it's because Shi Guang is a bit introverted. As the class monitor, it's only natural for Lu Yu to take care of him a little more."
"No! I'm telling you, I feel differently." Wang Qing retorted immediately, lowering her voice as if sharing a big secret. "I saw La Ge clearly that day. That look in his eyes, wow, it was so gentle it almost made me cry! And just now, he was the first one to run to Shi Guang to shield him from the rain!"
"Yes, yes, I saw it too!" Another girl immediately agreed, "And don't you think so? Ever since that girl from the outer courtyard confessed her love to him last time and was publicly rejected by Lu Yu, his feelings for Shi Guang have become even more... even more obvious."
"Right, right!" Wang Qing found an ally and immediately became excited. "So, I guess those CP fans on the campus walls aren't just groundless rumors!"
Lin Xiyue was slightly startled, but she didn't continue the topic. She just said softly, "Okay, stop talking about classmates behind their backs. It's not good if they hear you."
The rain was getting heavier, but Zhao Teng seemed extremely excited. He hid his cell phone in his sleeve and aimed the camera at the violent wind and rain outside, as well as his classmates who looked a little embarrassed under the rain.
"Family! Family! See this! What is true speed and passion? What is the storm of youth? This is it!" He lowered his voice and recorded the narration in an exciting tone. "Today, we don't believe in the weather forecast. We only believe in our iron will! Let's give a thumbs up to this unyielding youth!"
"Hey! Lu Yu and his classmates!" A familiar voice came from outside the noisy crowd.
Fat Jiang turned around and saw it was Li Zhe from the Eighth Company next door. He, along with a few other boys from his company, had squeezed over with a gloating smile on his face. "So what? Is your instructor really that ruthless? We almost disbanded right there, but Instructor Zhou just glared at us and brought us back. He insisted on competing with us to see who could hold their ground the longest."
"Don't mention it," said Fatty Jiang, looking hopeless. "Our instructor must have taken a bullet today."
Li Zhe's gaze swept through the crowd, quickly landing on Lu Yu and Shi Guang. "Huh? Where are your two roommates? Especially the aloof one. Can he handle this kind of situation?" he asked casually, clearly impressed by their brief encounter in the cafeteria.
"Over there." Fat Jiang pointed towards the corner.
Li Zhe looked in the direction he pointed and saw Lu Yu approaching Shi Guang, whispering something and shielding him from the rain with his body. He raised an eyebrow, a hint of amusement in his eyes, and said to Jiang Xiaopang, "Isn't your roommate a little too nice to Shi Guang?"
"Really?" Fatty Jiang pretended to be confused, "We're all brothers!"
"Tsk," Li Zhe curled his lips in disbelief, and without asking any more questions, he began to complain to them about the weird teacher in his college, and soon became friends with the students in the cultural relics preservation class.
Shi Guang stood alone at the outermost edge of the crowd, the rain blowing in on the wind, soaking his shoulders. He looked out at the world shrouded in torrential rain, his eyes becoming somewhat unfocused and his face growing paler.
Lu Yu squeezed through the crowd and walked to his side, using his body to block most of the rain that was drifting in diagonally.
"Hey, are you okay?" He asked quietly, his tone filled with concern that he himself didn't even realize. "Are you feeling unwell?"
"...It's okay." Shi Guang shook his head, but his voice was a little weak, "It's just a little... stuffy."
At this moment, a pale white lightning suddenly tore through the dark sky.
Immediately afterwards, "BOOM!" A deafening thunderclap sounded above everyone's head!
The sound was huge and muffled, as if the sky was about to fall. The girls below the podium erupted in waves of uncontrollable screams.
While standing next to Lu Yu, his body trembled violently at that moment as if he had been electrocuted!
His face, illuminated by the lightning, instantly turned pale. As if all his strength had been drained away, his body suddenly tilted to one side, almost falling to the ground.
"Time!" Lu Yu reacted extremely quickly, and with quick eyes and hands, he pulled him into his arms, thus preventing him from having close contact with the ground.
At the beginning, there was a coldness and violent, uncontrollable trembling.
"Hey! What's wrong with you?!" Lu Yu was frightened by his trembling. He lowered his head to look, but only saw Shi Guang burying his head tightly, his hands tightly grasping his arms. His nails dug deeply into Lu Zhongyu's skin because of the force, causing a stinging pain.
He could clearly hear the sound of Shi Guang's teeth chattering, and he could also feel the person in his arms, whose breathing became extremely rapid and disordered, like a fish thrown ashore.
"Let...let go..." He squeezed out broken, sobbing syllables from his throat, but it was not a struggle, but more like an instinctive cry for help, "I...I have to go..."
He did not rush out madly, but used all his strength to try to break free from Lu Yu's arms and escape from this suffocating environment surrounded by thunder and crowds.
The movement here immediately attracted the attention of people around.
"What's going on?"
"Shi Guang doesn't seem to be feeling well!"
Zhou Hai also noticed something unusual. He pushed through the crowd, strode over, and asked with a frown, "What's going on?"
"Report to the instructor!" Lu Yu answered loudly without thinking, "He has hypoglycemia. He might have been frightened by the thunder just now. He is a little unsteady on his feet!"
As he spoke, he held the increasingly trembling Shi Guang even tighter in his arms, using his body to isolate him from all sight and sound from the outside world. He could feel the person in his arms practically hanging their entire weight on him.
"What a bunch of spoiled brats!" Zhou Hai cursed, but still waved his hand, "Then why are you still standing there? Quickly help him sit down inside! Someone come over and help!"
Without saying anything, Lu Yu half-carried and half-dragged Shi Guang, who was almost unable to walk independently, to a relatively dry and quiet corner at the innermost part of the rostrum and let him sit against the wall.
Jiang Xiaopang and Sun Rui also quickly gathered around, forming a human wall.
"Brother Lu, what happened to Shi Guang?" Fat Jiang asked in a low voice in fear when he saw Shi Guang's distraught look.
Lu Yu did not answer. He squatted down and looked at Shi Guang who was still trembling, and looked at his eyes that were dulled with fear.
He reached out and took off his relatively dry camouflage jacket, and without saying anything, covered Shi Guang's head with it.
The coat blocked out most of the light and noise, and also brought in a reassuring and familiar smell.
In that small dark space that belonged to him alone, the violent trembling of time finally began to show signs of calming down.
Lu Yu just squatted in front of him, like a wild beast guarding its cub, fighting against the violent wind and rain outside with a firm attitude.
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