Chapter 38: Ending
The next day’s military training performance clearly lacked the appeal of the welcome party. Fifteen minutes before assembly, the training ground was still empty. Su Yu sat on a bench, nibbling on a steamed bun, his face drowsy, his messy hair falling over his forehead.
At six in the morning, Gu Chuan, smelling of alcohol, opened the dorm door, waking everyone up. A flurry of showering followed, leaving them with no desire to go back to sleep. They got up early and waited for the performance to begin.
After finishing his steamed bun, Su Yu felt like something was missing. Perhaps he should have bought something to drink. The military training performance would last the entire morning, and he would get thirsty.
He took out his phone, intending to ask Lu Siyuan and Chu Feng, who were still in the cafeteria, to bring him a bottle of water. As he looked up, he suddenly saw a lone figure, small and hunched over, as if she could curl up into a ball.
He hadn’t seen anyone when he arrived, and he hadn’t noticed An Zhi sitting on the bench next to him. The military training uniform was clearly too big for her, the pant legs dragging on the ground, covering her small white shoes.
The girl held a cup of soy milk, her small legs swinging as she sat on the bench, her feet not touching the ground. She stared at the dust on the ground, lost in thought.
On a whim, Su Yu stood up and walked over. He didn’t know why, perhaps it was the empathy of being the only two people on the empty training ground, or perhaps his mind was still foggy from lack of sleep.
“Alone? Where are your roommates?”
“Ah!”
An Zhi seemed startled, almost spilling the soy milk in her hand. Her round, deer-like eyes were only a third open, a hazy mist of sleepiness in them. She hadn’t been spacing out, but had accidentally fallen asleep.
“I came late, so I was assigned to a dorm with students from other majors.”
“Then why did you come so early?”
“I was afraid of oversleeping… so I came a little early. But there was no one on the training ground. I’m so sleepy~” An Zhi replied wearily, her eyelids drooping, her head hanging low. “Sigh, I shouldn’t have slept in every day during the summer break. I can’t break the habit.”
“When did you get here?” An Zhi’s sleepiness had been scared away. She sipped her warm soy milk to wake herself up and started a conversation.
“Probably a little later than you.”
“Then why did you only come over now?” An Zhi tilted her head in confusion, then seemed to understand, a silly grin spreading across her face. “I know, you were sleeping too, weren’t you?”
“I was watching you sleep for a while.”
“Cough cough…” An Zhi coughed softly, her ears turning red. She looked away, embarrassed, and muttered, “There’s nothing to see. Were you watching me make a fool of myself?”
“Cough cough! Cough cough!”
Louder coughs came from behind. Su Yu turned around and saw Gu Chuan and a few others standing nearby, coughing loudly and ostentatiously. He looked at Gu Chuan’s pale face from a night of drinking and was genuinely afraid he would cough up blood.
“Your roommates… don’t seem very healthy, especially the one in the middle.”
An Zhi didn’t seem to understand the sarcasm in their coughs and looked at Gu Chuan with concern. She looked at Su Yu seriously and said, “I think you should be more concerned about your roommates.”
“Okay, I’ll go now.”
Su Yu nodded in agreement and walked towards them. Looking at their mischievous faces, he knew they were up to no good.
Seeing Su Yu approach, Gu Chuan quickly turned his head and looked in another direction.
“Uh… the weather is nice today.”
“Yeah, the sun is very round.” Lu Siyuan quickly agreed.
Chu Feng glanced at Su Yu and muttered, “I just got here. I didn’t see anything.”
“Haha.” Su Yu just scoffed.
…
Under the most intense sun, his fourteen days of military training ended with a performance. The rousing revolutionary songs, accompanied by the resounding footsteps, echoed throughout the training ground. Everyone was full of spirit, welcoming the beginning of their university life.
The principal was giving a closing speech on the stage, and the audience was quiet. Due to his height, Su Yu stood in the second row of the formation. In front of the computer science platoon was the law school platoon. Xia Qian Ge’s class wasn’t far from his. He looked straight ahead, his gaze subconsciously sweeping over the spot where Xia Qian Ge usually stood during training. His pupils constricted. He didn’t see her.
But he did see the girl with the mushroom haircut, whose name was Xu Dan. Xia Qian Ge should be standing in front of her.
Absent on the day of the performance?
He wanted to stay out of it, but he couldn’t stop thinking about it. He couldn’t stop the thoughts from flooding his mind.
She had seemed really unwell yesterday. But he had been so flustered by the strange illusion that he had left in a hurry, without asking too many questions.
Although she always seemed frail, yesterday, her face had been frighteningly pale, yet with a sickly flush on her cheeks, as if from the sun, or perhaps a fever.
In his previous life, caring about her health had become an instinct. She often neglected her health for work, sometimes staying up all night on complex cases. Even though the pay for a single case was substantial, sometimes three months of Su Yu’s salary, he had felt it wasn’t worth it.
Su Yu loved her gentle and fragrant nature, but after she started working, she had become the serious and dignified woman in the courtroom.
When they lived together, she often got sick. When she was sick, she was nothing like her work self. She would lie in his arms, gentle and shy, as soft as spring water, making his heart melt.
“Su Yu? Su Yu!”
An anxious voice pulled Su Yu back from his memories. He looked at Lu Siyuan standing next to him and frowned in confusion. “What’s wrong?”
“Your position, you’re standing crooked!”
“Oh, okay.”
…
No reply…
Su Yu looked down at the empty message box, the unease in his heart growing stronger.
He shouldn’t get involved, he really shouldn’t. The probability of something happening to her was as small as a grain of sand, but what if…
The closing ceremony ended, and the crowd quickly dispersed.
Su Yu was pushed forward by the crowd.
The slight possibility was like a sharp, tiny thorn, not enough to hurt him, but stuck in his throat, scratching his windpipe, a faint, lingering pain.
He pushed through the crowd and stopped the girl named Xu Dan, his voice dry and hoarse.
“Do you know… how Xia Qian Ge is doing?”
