When Liu Deng asked him directly about retirement, Lan Yu was stunned for two seconds before he realized that it must have been Lu Rankong who mentioned it to him, so he replied, "Yes, I want to retire."
"Why? You have a great future ahead of you and you have great potential in the army. I've never heard you talk about it before. Why do you suddenly want to retire?" Liu Deng sat up straight, asking with a mixture of disbelief and regret.
Although Lu Rankong didn't say anything, he turned his head slightly to look at Lan Yu, obviously wanting to know the answer.
Lan Yu thought for a moment and said, "Nothing much, I just suddenly wanted to live a peaceful life."
Liu Deng was silent for a few seconds, then said, "There is nothing else to do. Colonel Lu, please go back first. Colonel K, please stay for a moment. I have something to say to you."
Lan Yu knew that he wanted to talk about retirement, so she just sat there without moving. Lu Rankong stood up and shrugged, but did not go out. Instead, he walked to the window to look at the potted plants on the window and said, "You guys talk, I won't listen, I'll just stand here and wait for him."
"I want to talk to Colonel K about private matters." Liu Deng had to say.
"I know, you guys say, don't bother me." Lu Rankong reached out to fiddle with the leaves of one of the pots.
Liu Deng asked, "Do you have anything to say to me? Then please step aside for now. I will come back to you after I finish talking to Colonel K."
"No, I'm just waiting for him here." Lu Rankong stared at the pot of green plants with an interested look, and moved closer to take a closer look.
Lan Yu coughed and said, "If he wants to stay, then let him stay. General Liu just said it directly."
Liu Deng pointed at Lu Rankong's back. Lan Yu shook her head and said, "It's okay..."
Liu Deng was somewhat surprised, but also somewhat relieved, and said, "I'm very happy that you two have such a good relationship. The recent incidents involving the Longte people were all caused by you two. I was worried that the disagreement between you would hinder the execution of the mission, but I didn't expect that my worries were in vain. Very good, very good."
"Okay, then I'll ask directly. Colonel K, what happened that made you want to retire? Or do you actually want to be promoted? Let's talk openly. If you have any ideas, just say it directly, don't hide them."
Liu Deng picked up the teacup on the table and took a sip, then gestured to Lan Yu: "Don't be shy, have some tea."
Lan Yu thought about all sorts of things quickly. Finally, she took a sip from her teacup and said, "It's not a sudden idea. I've been thinking about this for a long time."
Liu Deng asked, "Is there no room for further consideration? After all, with your ability, it would be a pity to retire now. If it is because of the position, you have completed these missions very well, and the military was planning to promote you."
"This is the result of my careful consideration." Lan Yu looked at Liu Deng and said calmly: "It's not because of the position, nor because of what happened. I just want to live an ordinary life. After retirement, I can open a cafe or travel around the planets. I want to do something I like."
"But--"
"General Liu, there is no law in the Empire that forbids soldiers from retiring, right?" Lu Rankong suddenly interrupted Liu Deng, turned around and leaned against the window, saying, "K has served in the army for so long. Apart from other things, he has captured the Lonte people several times and made great contributions to the Empire. He should be able to retire, right?"
Liu Deng sighed with regret and said, "I can't give you an answer now. I need to think about it."
"How long will it take to consider it?" Lu Rankong asked.
"The colonel wants to retire early. I have to report to my superiors. It will take at least a month."
Lu Rankong narrowed his eyes slightly, and said with a half-smile: "One month to consider, then two months to submit the application, two months to review, and two months to discuss. If K wants to retire, will it take so many years?"
When Lan Yu heard this, she looked at Liu Deng a little nervously.
Liu Deng wiped his face and said helplessly, "No, no, no, who dares to delay in front of you, Master Gu? In this way, I will give you the response from the military in a month. If the military approves, then all the formalities will be completed in three or four months."
He looked at Lan Yu and asked, "Is this acceptable?"
"I can accept it. Thank you, General Liu." Lan Yu put down the teacup, stood up, leaned his legs towards Liu Deng, and saluted.
Liu Deng said: "But before you officially retire, you are still a soldier and a colonel. You still have to complete all the tasks assigned to you during this period."
"This is K's unshirkable responsibility. I will do my best to complete the task." Lan Yu said loudly.
Liu Deng looked at him for a few seconds, then waved his hand with a headache, "I don't want to see you, all of you, get out."
Lan Yu and Lu Rankong saluted and walked out of the command room.
The two calmly nodded to the soldiers who greeted and saluted along the way, walked out of the building and reached an empty corner. Lan Yu jumped up excitedly and said, "I can retire now. I can finally retire."
Lu Rankong's face was not very good. He snorted twice and said, "Didn't you hear what he said at the end? You are still a soldier before you retire. Just wait and see. This old fox will do everything he can to assign you various tasks before you retire. He will make you do any difficult and intractable tasks and won't let you have a day to rest."
Lan Yu saw that he had a gloomy face, looked around to see that there was no one around, and quickly kissed him on the face, saying, "It's okay, if you don't want to rest, then don't rest, just let him retire."
Lu Rankong's expression became better, and he said, "But I also pinched off his favorite pot of flowers."
After Lan Yu and the other person left, Liu Deng thought for a while, slowly walked to the window, picked up the kettle and watered his pots of green plants. As soon as he lifted the kettle, his expression became puzzled and he moved closer to look at one of the basins.
That was his most beloved Buddha Orchid, and he treated it like his own treasure and even remembered how many leaves it had. This pot of flowers is growing well, with lush and tender leaves and a red flower.
But now there were two fresh breaks on the stem, the broken leaves were placed in the flowerpot, and the newly opened flowers were drooping their heads, obviously they had just been beheaded.
Apart from Lu Rankong who was standing by the window just now, Liu Deng couldn't think of anyone else who would do this kind of flower pinching. He was so angry that he almost dropped the kettle. He looked out the window and saw that Lu Rankong had walked out of the building and was walking side by side with K.
He was about to shout Lu Rankong's name loudly and throw the kettle in his hand away, when he saw K looking around and suddenly kissed him quickly on the side of his face. Lu Rankong reached out to hold K's waist, but he dodged. The two continued walking forward as if nothing had happened.
Liu Deng narrowed his eyes, looking thoughtful, and continued to water the flowers only after the two men disappeared around the corner.
After watering it a few times, he saw the pot of broken-leaf Buddha Orchid and his face sank again.
"You bastard..." He just cursed, but then he felt that this was not appropriate to say, so he shut his mouth angrily.
Lan Yu and the other person walked through the training ground and returned to the dormitory building. Just as they reached the corner of the second floor, they heard footsteps coming down the stairs.
Lin Zhu and Chen Yuqin appeared at the stairs. After seeing them, Chen Yuqin greeted them, "Let's go to the restaurant to eat, otherwise there will be too many people later."
Lan Yu didn't say anything. Lu Rankong said, "No, we're a little tired. We're going to have something to eat in the dormitory. You two can go ahead."
"Do you need us to bring you food when we come back?" Lin Zhu asked.
Lu Rankong smiled and said, "No, no, you guys eat and don't worry about us."
It was not until the two men walked out of the dormitory building that Lan Yu whispered, "We see them every day, we are quite familiar with each other, and we have performed missions together. It is really hard to accept that they are also suspects."
Lu Rankong sighed and said, "There's nothing we can do about it. If there are any Longte people, then everyone on this mission is a suspect. Let's be more vigilant and wait for Liu Deng to investigate slowly. I hope no one has anything to do with the jump point."
Lan Yu swiped her card to open the door. Lu Rankong naturally wanted to come in, but he blocked him with his hand, "Go back and take a shower first, then come back."
Lu Rankong looked down at himself, still wearing the military uniform he had worn before setting out, and nodded, "Okay, come over after washing."
"By the way, I changed the shower gel and shampoo for you. The words on them are very small, so you have to distinguish them carefully. To put it simply, just make sure that the grass green one is shower gel and the blue-green one is shampoo." Lan Yu said.
Seeing Lu Rankong turning his head to look at him, he seemed to be hesitant to speak, so he continued, "The one with the same color as the 3C bullet is shower gel, and the one with the same color as the 4A bullet is shampoo."
"I understand..." Lu Rankong walked back easily.
When Lan Yu was taking a shower, the sound of running water could be heard from the shower head next to him. He had just squeezed out a ball of shampoo when the sound of the bottle cap being pushed down could be heard from next to him. He washed his hair, rinsed it, and applied the shower gel, while the person next to him was also pressing the bottle cap.
"Xiao Yu, I want to follow the same steps as you. I will do whatever you do now." Lu Rankong's voice came over, sounding a little muffled in the small space.
Before Lan Yu could answer, he said in a lingering voice, "It's just like the two of us taking a bath together."
Lan Yu ignored him and started to apply body lotion after taking a shower. Just as she pressed a dot of body lotion into her palm, Lu Rankong asked from the next door, "What are you using now? Haven't you washed your hair and showered? What are you still applying?"
Lan Yu said: "I wash my hair twice."
"Is that so?" Lu Rankong sounded a little surprised, and then said: "Then I will also take a shower twice, together with you."
Lan Yu heard the sound of pressing the bottle cap from his side again and couldn't help but smile while wiping it.
When everything was cleaned up and I came out of the bathroom, Lu Rankong came over, wearing a gray short-sleeved T-shirt.
As soon as he entered the door, he went to get the hair dryer and touched Lan Yu's wet hair with his left hand. Lan Yu glared at him, and he took his hand back awkwardly.
He raised the hair dryer to blow dry his hair, and soon his very short hair looked like a hedgehog. Lan Yu couldn't bear to watch it any longer, so she took the hair dryer and blew it along his hairstyle again, and only then did she smooth out his frizzy hair.
After drying his hair, Lu Rankong walked towards the kitchen and said, "It's already noon. I know you don't want to go to the restaurant, so I'll make you a bowl of noodles."
"You can also cook noodles?" Lan Yu was a little surprised. In his impression, Lu Rankong was definitely not someone who could cook.
"Yes, the noodles I make are pretty good." Lu Rankong said.
Lan Yu recalled that when she cleaned the room for him, the kitchen was empty. Not only were there no kitchen utensils or seasonings, there was not even a bowl. She looked suspicious.
Lu Rankong originally thought that he would just make the noodles, but when he saw his distrustful look, his blood immediately boiled over and he blurted out, "I can not only make noodles, I can also cook."
"Can you cook?" Lan Yu was even more unconvinced.
"Three dishes and one soup..."
Half an hour later, Lan Yu leaned against the kitchen door frame with her arms folded across her chest, looking at the person who was cooking in the small room.
Lu Rankong was wearing a light pink plaid apron and cutting a piece of beef in front of a chopping board. His tall figure made the small space even more cramped.
"You don't have to cut it so finely, just roughly the same amount will be fine. The meat will be cut into shreds anyway," said Lan Yu.
Lu Rankong said without even looking up: "You said, three millimeters per piece."
"You asked me how thick it should be, and I said about three millimeters. It's just an approximation. You don't have to carefully compare every piece to see if it's three millimeters."
"I just cut it about three millimeters. If you measure it with a ruler now, it is definitely not the standard three millimeters." Lu Rankong gestured on the piece of meat with a knife and cut a slice slowly and carefully.
Lan Yu was silent for a few seconds, then said, "Why don't I do it..."
"No..." Lu Rankong said seriously, "I told you I'll cook. Three dishes and one soup."
Then he turned to look at Lan Yu, "If you cut it into shreds, how many millimeters will the shreds be?"
Ten minutes later.
"Are you sure this is the way to cut onions? If you dip the knife in water while cutting, it won't sting your eyes?" Lu Rankong asked Lan Yu while wiping his eyes with the back of his hand.
Lan Yu explained: "Don't get too close. If you get too close, your eyes will definitely be stung. Even water won't work."
"I don't want to get too close, but this cutting board is too low for me, so I have to bend down." Lu Rankong felt a little aggrieved.
The military built the kitchen without the thought that they would cook in it. Not only was it small, but the cooking table was also not high. Lan Yu usually has to bend down to use it, not to mention Lu Rankong who is 1.9 meters tall.
Lan Yu felt a little distressed when she saw him like this, so she said, "Let me do the cutting."
“No…” Lu Rankong half-closed his eyes and clenched the knife, saying with tears in his eyes: “It stings so much, how can I let you cut it.”
After thinking for a while, he asked again: "What if we replace onions with potatoes?"
"Onions are stir-fried with shredded beef, and the beef cubes are stewed with potatoes." Lan Yu said.
Lu Rankong said: "Then let's change this dish to beef cubes stewed with potatoes."
Lan Yu glanced at the chopping board and said, "If you're stewing beef, you've already cut it into shreds."
"Oh, then can we change it to shredded beef stewed with potatoes?" Lu Rankong frowned and looked at the pile of unchopped onions.
"Let me do it——"
"I'll cut it! I'll make stir-fried shredded beef with onions!" Seeing Lan Yu was about to come, Lu Rankong quickly interrupted him.
An hour later.
The two sat around the dining table and finally started eating.
"How about trying it? Is it delicious?" Lu Rankong's eyes were red and swollen, and he asked Lan Yu expectantly while holding the bowl.
Lan Yu swallowed the shredded beef in her mouth and said, "Okay, not bad, delicious."
Seeing that Lu Rankong didn't look very satisfied, he added more emphatically, "It's very delicious. Very tasty."
How can it not be delicious? He was directing everything from how much seasoning to mix, when to put the food in the pot, how much salt to put, and how many times to wave the spoon.
Lu Rankong also tasted it and said with great joy, "I told you I can cook, three dishes and one soup."
He ate a lot of rice and said vaguely, "I have such a good cooking skill. I must cook for you often."
After saying that, he picked up a piece of pork ribs and put it in Lan Yu's bowl. "Eat more. You need to gain some meat. You are too thin."
Lan Yu bit the tip of the chopsticks, looked at the person opposite her who was eating voraciously with red eyes, and nodded with a smile.
By the time they finished lunch, it was already three o'clock in the afternoon. Lan Yu was sitting on the sofa, and Lu Rankong was lying there with his head resting on his legs and a cold towel covering his eyes.
"Are you feeling better?" Lan Yu asked, looking down at him.
Lu Rankong raised the corners of his mouth and said with satisfaction: "It's comfortable, your legs are so elastic."
"I'm asking if your eyes feel better..." Lan Yu said.
"My eyes are okay. I can actually open them. It's not as serious as you think."
Lan Yu put his head down from her legs, went to the refrigerator to get another cold towel to replace it for him, and said, "You are allergic to onions, so don't cut onions in the future."
"That won't work..." Lu Rankong said, "If I don't cut it, you have to go. That thing is too stingy. I can't let you go."
Lan Yu said: "You are an exception. Few people get their eyes swollen from cutting onions. I am fine."
Lu Rankong was silent for a few seconds, then said, "Let's not eat onions anymore. If you want to eat them, we can go out to eat, okay?"
"Okay..." Lan Yu's voice softened.
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