Just because I'm going to join the army, Lan Jian, are you going to break up with me?
"Just because I'm going to join the army, Lan Jian, are you going to break up with me?"
After Lu Jie left, only Zhong Shiqing and Meng Lanjian remained in the office.
Zhong Shiqing's father was also a high-ranking general in the South in his early years. After the Northern Party launched a surprise attack on the South, Zhong's father was determined to counterattack the Northern Luan. Zhong Shiqing was the son of a soldier and should have spent his life in the military camp with his father. At that time, the news that the Northern Luan had hired nuclear weapons experts reached the South. Under the instructions of his superiors, Zhong's father sent his son Zhong Shiqing, who had secretly gone to serve in the Marine Corps, to the School of Nuclear Engineering at Nanjing University. Four years later, he secretly sent him abroad.
Unfortunately, the world has changed over time, and the peaceful era has fostered complacency and weakness in the younger generation. By the time Zhong Shiqing returned after completing his studies, the situation had already changed.
The newly appointed leader belongs to the conservative faction and does not value nuclear energy and nuclear weapons. He is determined to negotiate peace with the North on the premise of developing the economy. However, the North is not only home to politicians who prioritize profit, but also to ambitious schemers. The nuclear weapons expert who possessed key technologies was turned by the North Luan, who took all his manuscripts and single-handedly destroyed the entire accelerator center. Zhong Shiqing's knowledge was transformed into design blueprints for a nuclear power plant, a model of a cyclotron, and ultimately, scrap metal destined for destruction.
However, all of this was caused by the person in front of you's own uncle.
Does Zhong Shiqing hate Yan Jisheng?
Zhong Shiqing and Yan Jisheng had never met. Before Zhong returned to China, the Nuclear Engineering Institute gave him a professorship appointment letter, which Yan Jisheng withheld in his director's office. Zhong's father pressured the university for a month, but Yan Jisheng still refused to stamp the letter. When Zhong Shiqing finally took up the position of head of the personnel department at Nanjing University, the first thing he dealt with was Yan Jisheng's resignation.
Zhong Shiqing harbored deep resentment and completed all the administrative procedures in almost three days, expelling Yan Jisheng from the Nuclear Engineering Institute.
The next day, the news of Yan Jisheng's defection caused an uproar throughout the Nuclear Engineering Institute.
With his father's support, Zhong Shiqing defied public opinion and transferred from his administrative position in the personnel department back to the Nuclear Engineering Research Institute. Several years later, three of the four nuclear power plants had run out of fuel rods and were awaiting decommissioning. Zhong Shiqing, a relative of the institute's leadership, took over the ailing Nuclear Energy Research Institute, becoming its last director.
After Meng Lanjian, the last doctoral student enrolled at the Institute of Nuclear Energy Technology, graduates, the Institute will be formally merged into the Institute of High Energy Physics, under the jurisdiction of the School of Physics. Meanwhile, the School of Nuclear Engineering will close down due to the changing times and the end of the Nuclear Peace Treaty.
At this time, Zhong Shiqing unexpectedly learned that Meng Lanjian and Yan Jisheng were uncle and nephew.
Meng Lanjian stood in front of Zhong Shiqing's desk, even more nervous than when she was facing Lu Jie.
“Lanjian,” after a long silence, Zhong Shiqing spoke slowly, looking at the girl standing with her head down in front of the table, her slender neck drooping and heavy like a flower stem unable to bear the weight of the flower, “You are not the only one who is not in control of your own destiny.”
Lan Jian looked up, her eyes instantly welling up with tears, "Teacher..."
"Let's put the internship on hold for now. I'll go back to the lab tomorrow and focus on preparing for my thesis proposal and oral exam!"
Braving the biting cold wind, Lan Jian walked from the Fourth Nuclear Science Department located at the west gate back to the Nuclear Engineering Institute, which was deep in the heart of the school. The main laboratories of the Nuclear Research Institute were located on the tenth to twelfth floors of the college, divided into four major research groups: nuclear medicine, atomic physics, space radiation, and heavy particles. Except for the heavy particle research group, which only had Xue Xiang's laboratory, the other three groups each had two or three laboratories, and the relationships between the research groups were very close.
Lanjian Laboratory, like Zhong Shiqing's office, was also on the twelfth floor. She suddenly rushed back to the laboratory at five o'clock on Friday afternoon, only to find it deserted, with only the computer fans spinning and the faint sound of the power supply remaining.
"Lanjian!"
Someone was calling her name from the doorway.
Meng Lanjian turned around and saw her boyfriend Han Li rushing over, panting as he opened the laboratory door.
Han Li's extremely urgent appearance gave Lan Jian a bad feeling. As a graduate student in the nuclear medicine laboratory, he had recently been interning in the nuclear department of a related unit. His sudden appearance could not be good news.
"The military service application form has arrived!" Han Li rarely appeared so solemn. "I heard it was sent to the community office, but I didn't give them a reply for a week, so they expedited it and sent it to my workplace."
Meng Lanjian slowly raised her hand as if all her strength had been drained away, and took the conscription form from Han Li's hand. The line for the enlistment date read January 2nd, and the branch of service was filled in as infantry.
I'm leaving on the 2nd of next month.
Not the Marines.
Meng Lanjian didn't know whether she should breathe a sigh of relief or feel sad.
Looking at Lan Jian's pale face, Han Li hesitated for a moment before finally asking, "So, will you still come to our house for the New Year?"
The two were discussing after work last night that if Lan Jian didn't return to Beiluan for the Spring Festival this year, Han Li would take her to his family home to celebrate the New Year together. Han Li's parents had visited Nanjing University last time to have dinner with him and also invited Lan Jian. Both of them are highly educated intellectuals who teach at universities, and they were very kind to Lan Jian, who is also highly educated. Han Li later secretly told Lan Jian that his parents liked her very much.
With the battle lines between the North and South poised to open at any moment, if Han Li were to serve in the military now, it would be tantamount to suicide. With Han Li, an only child, in the army, the atmosphere in the Han family would likely be terrible, even during the Lunar New Year.
Moreover, Lan Jian was originally from Beiluan.
Lan Jian replied to Han Li with a wry smile, "Then let's not go."
"But actually, the military gives people leave during the Chinese New Year."
"Han Li," Lan Jian said, holding back her tears, "before you join the army, the military will conduct a political background check on you. You absolutely, absolutely cannot tell them that you and I are boyfriend and girlfriend. It's best not to let anyone know that we've even dated."
"What do you mean? What do you mean by 'talked about'?" Han Li stood there stunned, staring at Lan Jian in disbelief. "Just because I'm going to join the army, Lan Jian, you... you want to break up with me?"
"Han Li, I am from Bei Luan." Lan Jian stared at Han Li intently. "If you want to complete your military service in peace, don't let anyone know that you dated a girlfriend from Bei Luan."
"So what if we know?" Han Li looked back at Lan Jian with a resolute gaze. He reached out to take Lan Jian's hand, but stopped in his tracks when Lan Jian looked away. "Is war inevitable? Are we going to give up this relationship for something that may not even happen?"
"Han Li, war is the cruelest thing in the world." Lan Jian said this with her most serious expression. "Regardless of whether it will eventually happen, now is not the time for us to think about personal feelings."
Han Li chuckled softly.
"Meng Lanjian, I never imagined you were such a staunch and blind patriot." Han Li, blinded by emotion, spoke without thinking. He felt that Meng Lanjian was only trying to distance herself from him because she was about to join the army, which was why she insisted on breaking up with him. "It's only a year! I'm going to serve a year, not go to jail! Why do you have to break up with me at this time?"
"Han Li, if war breaks out during your service, will you desert?"
Han Li answered with great pride, "Of course not!"
"Then my family certainly won't either."
After saying this, Lan Jian lowered her eyes and looked down at the laboratory floor tiles. She had been keeping her head down all day, avoiding the gaze of people she didn't want to face.
Actually, she had so much more to say to Han Li, but she could only tell him in the cruelest way that she could no longer be with him.
"I understand, Lan Jian." Han Li was pulled back to his senses by Lan Jian's last sentence. He realized with a clear mind and dejection that he, who was about to go to serve in the military, really could not continue to walk with Lan Jian, a person from Bei Luan.
After Han Li left, he closed the door to the heavy particle laboratory. Lan Jian was a little worried about him, so she took out her phone to ask a mutual friend to keep an eye on him, but found several calls from her senior classmates on her messaging app.
She then realized that she had sent the SOS emoji in the chat box before going to see the director that afternoon without deleting it.
Three minutes later, her senior saw the message and replied with a few question marks, but since Lan Jian hadn't checked her phone, it didn't show as read. After waiting for five minutes, her senior called Lan Jian three times at different intervals.
Oh no, my senior brother might have mistakenly thought something had happened to her.
Lan Jian called her senior brother back, but there was no response.
She could only leave him a message: "It's okay, senior. There's a problem I can't solve. Can you teach me when you come back on Monday?"
If I remember correctly, my senior brother is taking a flight back to Nanlu this weekend.
Calling someone "senior brother" is the northern way of addressing someone, and it's a term used from Lan Jian's perspective. However, when speaking to her directly, she would call her "senior brother" according to the southern way of addressing her.
- Just a little fun.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
