My husband is me.
"I am your husband."
61.
After the presentation, the training for the day for the Valiant Battalion was completed. A group of familiar soldiers, who hadn't seen Chongming in a long time, stopped him and insisted that he come along to play ball. Some even asked him about his junior sister, to which Chongming smiled and said, "She's already married."
Sighs of deep sorrow rose and fell.
"Alright, let's go to the court and play a few rounds together."
Lan Jian, who was packing up her computer not far away, heard a burst of cheers and shouts erupt from where Chongming was. Chongming pushed through the crowd and walked towards her. "Lan Jian, I'm going to play ball at the membrane ball court. Do you want to rest in the dormitory area, or do you want to watch us play?"
Lan Jian smiled as freely as whenever she was playful and pestered Chongming to play games with her, "Of course it's more fun to watch you guys play ball!"
Chongming took the computer from her hand. "Then I'll have Dou'er drive you to the stadium. The dormitory isn't far from here. I'll go to his room to change my clothes before I come back."
As soon as he finished speaking, Dou Yaozu, who had disappeared for a while, came out with a parasol in his hand and waved to Lan Jian and Chongming at the door. Lan Jian and Chongming said goodbye and walked towards Dou Yaozu.
Dou Yaozu, a rough and uncouth man, rarely served women except for his elders. It was quite unusual for him to be holding an umbrella and escorting Lan Jian to the parking lot at the gate like a bodyguard. Even for such a short distance, Chongming insisted that he get the umbrella to shade this young lady from the sun. Before he could complain, Lan Jian spoke first.
"Thank you for holding the umbrella for me, Brother Dou." Lan Jian sat in the back seat. The temperature inside the car was just right, and it seemed that the air conditioning had been on for a while. "Senior brother knows that I'm always delicate. I'm sorry to have troubled you."
On one hand, she told her senior brother to distance himself from Chongming, and on the other hand, she said that she was being spoiled and taking the blame on herself.
Dou Yaozu was a man who couldn't keep a secret. He glanced at the beautiful woman sitting gracefully in the rearview mirror and found it amusing—it was this very female student from Beiluan who had married the best officer in their Valiant Battalion.
"You're welcome, sister-in-law."
Lan Jian was taken aback. "Does Brother Dou know about my affair with Chongming?"
Just before class started, Chongming introduced Lanjian to Dou Yaozu, saying, "This is Lanjian."
Dou Yaozu pretended to suddenly realize something, "The Lan Valley Stream in the saying 'Ping Lan Valley and pacifying my Yue Village' must refer to you, right!"
He didn't say it directly then because there were too many eyes and gossips around, but now that it was just him and Lan Jian, he felt more at ease speaking. "Of course, I was the first among my friends to know that you two, my senior and junior brother, were getting married! Chongming and I are best buddies, he mentioned me to you, right?"
"I mentioned it." I mentioned it on my way here this morning.
"This kid has always been a blockhead. There are plenty of people outside who call him a holy monk. Now that he's married, he finally knows how to be considerate of his wife. All my years of careful guidance and cultivation of him have not been in vain!"
"Enlightenment?" Lan Jian seized on the key word and probed, "It seems that Brother Dou is more effective than his first love."
"What first love?" Dou Yaozu frowned. "You're not talking about the youngest daughter of the Zheng family, are you?"
"Senior Xue Rou, isn't she his first love?"
"Of course not!" Dou Yaozu said indignantly. "How could the Zheng family woman be a match for the son of my Southern Army commander?! How could the offspring of a bunch of petty thieves and despicable politicians be compared to the sons of my Valiant Battalion?"
Lan Jian was disgusted by Dou Yaozu's dislike of Zheng Xuerou.
Startled, she quickly changed the subject, "It seems that the children of the Valiant Battalion all come from military families. Aren't there any selected from other units?"
"The Valiant Battalion consists of elite soldiers; they join the training camp at the age of fifteen or sixteen..."
What should have been a five-minute drive took Dou Yaozu a full ten minutes to reach the stadium. When Lan Jian got out of the car, Chongming was already waiting at the entrance. He was wearing a white jersey, light blue shorts, and pure white basketball shoes with gray soles. As soon as Dou Yaozu saw the shoes he'd chosen, he started yelling. Lan Jian wasn't familiar with the basketball player's name, so she whispered to Chongming, "What if we get his shoes dirty? Will he get angry?"
“Yes.” Chongming smiled and patted the top of Lanjian’s head as he saw her eyes widen. “But he won’t hold it against me if I win the game.”
Lan Jian smiled and took the sports jacket he handed her. "Then I'll cheer you on!"
Chongming ran backwards to the sidelines, facing her and pointing to the coat hanging in her arm, "It's for you to use as a cushion."
Lan Jian lowered his head and couldn't help but chuckle.
Less than three minutes into the warm-up, the two teams took to the field at the sound of their comrades' whistles, who were temporarily acting as referees. Dou Yaozu introduced the two teams to Lan Jian. The white team, led by Chongming, consisted of two members from the first company. They were two brothers who looked like twins, with their arms around each other's shoulders. These were the Rong brothers, who had trained with him since childhood. The leader of the blue team on the other side was a tall and strong young man with thick eyebrows and lips. He was the youngest member of the seventh company and had frighteningly strong physical abilities.
"Even if it's a bear, Lu Linyue can beat it down with his bare hands."
"His name is Lu Linyue?"
"Yes, he's Dingyue's cousin. His family has always started with the character 'Yue' in their names. Didn't he tell you? He's the eldest grandson of the Lu family. His younger brothers all idolize him. That kid on the basketball court is him. He was the noisiest one among those who were about to play. He usually can't get his brother to play with him, so he's seizing this opportunity to have a match."
No sooner had Dou Yaozu finished speaking than Lu Linyue forcefully snatched the ball from Chongming's defense and, taking advantage of the open defense, quickly drove to the basket for a layup. The speed with which he crossed the ball and the force of his impact during the attack were terrifying to watch.
Lan Jian was a little worried that Chongming might get injured, his face showing tension. Dou Yaozu also began to focus on the changing dynamics of the game. He saw Chongming being double-teamed by two tall, thin players from the Blue Team. Whenever he had the ball, he was surrounded and attacked. He couldn't find a good opportunity to shoot, and as a shooter, he kept passing the ball to his teammates.
The game became increasingly exciting, attracting more and more fans. Dou Yaozu grew anxious, calling out the Rong brothers' names from the sidelines, urging them to get back on defense. By halftime, the White team was down by sixteen points. The players were drenched in sweat and panting heavily. Even Chongming was drinking water, sweat dripping from his forehead, neck, and arms.
Dou Yaozu, like a crow, was clamoring and explaining tactics to the White Team. Lan Jian saw several gray footprints on Chongming's white sneakers and, for some reason, felt no tension but instead began to find it amusing.
Just before the second half of the game was about to begin, Chongming suddenly leaned on the back of his chair with one hand and leaped to the second row. He squatted down, untied his shoelaces, and lowered his head to avoid Lan Jian's skirt, afraid that his sweat would get on Lan Jian's precious cheongsam.
"Can you tie my shoelaces for me?" He looked up, his usually composed gaze now carrying a confident air of determination. "You're wearing a moon-white cheongsam. Just because it's blue doesn't mean the Blue Team can win."
Lan Jian bent down and tied two tight bows for him. After tying the other shoe's bow, she smiled and replied, "Okay, although I'm wearing a blue cheongsam, my heart is white..."
Chongming slowly
Standing up, Lan Jian's gaze shifted from her lowered eyes to a smiling face with curved lips. "The captain's."
Upon hearing this, Chongming smiled slowly, "The cheongsam is for me to wear, victory is sure to be on our side!"
Chongming turned to leave, but Lanjian grabbed his hem. The pearl tassels around her cuffs swayed gently. She raised her fair, lotus-root-like arm and gestured for him to give her a high five.
The big hand gently clapped the little hand, making a crisp sound.
"Keep it up, senior!"
"Alright, wait for my triumphant return!"
The second half went into two overtime periods before the game finally ended. Those who weren't playing rushed forward, and even Dou Yaozu sprinted towards Chongming Island.
The team members lay exhausted on the ground, even the strong Lu Linyue had been worn down by the White Team's tactics. He lay on the ground and shouted, "Brother! You're so smart! I can never beat you in strategy in my entire life."
Chongming helped him up and patted him on the shoulder. "You're still young. I'm just a few years older than you and have more experience."
"No wonder Brother Dou said that the tactics he couldn't figure out no matter how hard he tried, you could solve the problem with just a little code or animation every time." Lu Linyue stood up. "I'm completely convinced!"
Chongming saw someone calling for everyone to take pictures. He walked to the edge of the stands. His hands were dirty, so he couldn't hold Lanjian's hand. He could only wave to her and ask her to come down and take pictures with him.
With the tripod set up and everyone lined up neatly, grinning and adjusting their expressions for the camera, Chongming suddenly stood in the center of the huge stadium, among all the players, and said in a resounding voice, "By the way, everyone, didn't you just say that my junior sister is married?"
The eldest member of the Rong family, having pressed the shutter button, quickly ran back to the group; five seconds remained on the countdown.
"5, 4, 3..."
Chongming added unhurriedly, "My husband is me."
Many, many years later, when the children were flipping through photo albums, they saw a picture of their father in his uniform from his time in the Valiant Battalion, interspersed with an old photo of him wearing a jersey and smiling broadly. The teammates behind him had very different expressions, all quite interesting. Some were dumbfounded, some were laughing exaggeratedly with their mouths wide open, and some were even about to fall down, pulling the people next to them down with them.
However, none of these are the most dazzling.
The most eye-catching figure was the mother in the crowd, wearing an elegant moon-white cheongsam.
The children heard their father say that their mother's cheongsam was handmade by her maternal great-grandmother. The fabric was precious and couldn't be exposed to the sun; if it were, it would turn yellow. This meant that with each cheongsam their great-grandmother wore, their mother would have one less to wear.
Therefore, my mother only wore that cheongsam on extremely important occasions.
The first time was at the inauguration banquet of their maternal grandfather, Meng Zhihe, when he took office as the Director of the Finance Department of Beiluan.
The second time was at the graduation ceremony when my mother became the first outstanding graduate of the five-year integrated program at Nanhua University.
The third time was when she accompanied her father back to Camp Valiant after several years to attend the renowned course on nuclear physics and cosmic ray protection, which was later jokingly referred to within Camp Valiant as "the course on how the moon is also a luminous body."
Everyone knows that the "shining figure" that her father mentioned in that class was her mother in her youth, standing gracefully beside him with a bright and charming smile, newly married to him.
@Author: Why does the last paragraph feel so tragic? But this story has a happy ending!
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