"Stunned?" After speaking, he laughed again himself. Seeing that Yu Hao didn't move, he waved a hand in front of her face and lowered his head to find her eyes, seeming to want to read some emotion from them.

But there was none.

Yu Hao's eyes were cold from beginning to end.

Lu Huaizheng crossed his arms over his chest and lowered his head with a self-deprecating smile. "I was kidding. I'm really injured. I was afraid you'd be scared if you saw it, so I just said it offhandedly. You—"

The curtain behind Yu Hao billowed gently. She cut him off directly, "Is there a single true word that comes out of your mouth?"

Lu Huaizheng straightened up slightly, the smile freezing on his lips.

Yu Hao found his cavalier attitude particularly infuriating. He had tricked her once in high school too. He had sprained his ankle playing basketball and deliberately grimaced, pretending to be in pain. He acted so well his eyes even turned red. As a result, she was so worried that she ran across the street to the pharmacy without even looking at the traffic lights to buy him Yunnan Baiyao. When she turned back, she saw him hopping around, joking and laughing with the people next to him. At that moment, she was filled with anger and anxiety, and she fiercely threw the medicine at him, turned around, and ran off.

Lu Huaizheng came to his senses and chased after her with a limp, apologizing nonstop and trying to coax her.

But she wasn't appeased, so she pounded his chest hard twice. Lu Huaizheng pulled her directly into his embrace, coaxing, "I'm sorry. I didn't know you were so worried about me."

They were young then. With that one embrace, their two young bodies were pressed together, and their two hearts fluttered wildly, turning their worlds upside down—

Lu Huaizheng was nervous too. It was the first time he had held a girl like that. His mind was filled with a single thought: she was so soft. He couldn't help but tighten his embrace, nuzzling his face against the side of her ear, calling her name in a breathy voice, one call after another, his heart aching for her.

Lu Huaizheng could feel that the Yu Hao back then truly liked him.

That was why he joked with her and teased her so unrestrainedly, truly doting on her as if she were his own girl.

But now, the girl standing before him—aside from looking the same as the girl from back then—was a complete stranger in every other way.

Her eyes were filled with a deep impatience and dislike for him.

"Sorry."

He averted his head and stuffed his hands into his pockets. His voice became cold again, and the apology was completely devoid of sincerity.

Yu Hao didn't care either. She turned and walked out.

The male military doctor hiding behind the curtain finally poked his head out. He plopped down onto the chair and let out a long sigh of relief, then glanced sideways at the man leaning against the desk with his head down. "What the hell were you playing at? You started making hand signals at me the moment you came in. Good thing I reacted quickly. Who was that just now?"

"A psychologist," he said without looking up, his voice heavy.

The doctor wailed, "That's insane! You won't even let someone like Xiao Liu go. Hey, have you been in the Military Unit for too long? Do you think even a random cat looks pretty now?" After saying that, he felt something was off. "Wait, didn't Xiao Liu go on maternity leave?"

"She just arrived."

The military doctor came to his senses. Now he remembered. A while ago during a meal, the male soldiers were all discussing the new pretty and aloof young lady in the psychology lab, betting that their captain wouldn't be able to win her over.

The doctor patted Lu Huaizheng's shoulder with considerable sympathy. "I say, why don't you just stop making things hard for yourself? Director Li's daughter isn't bad either. Besides, think of how much smoother your career path will be if you marry her..."

Lu Huaizheng snorted. "Maybe my brain's flooded."

"There's still time to pour it out."

"Is that so?"

After Yu Hao finished her meal and returned to the psychology lab, a young soldier in a training uniform was standing at the door.

"Looking for me?"

The young soldier nodded. "Can we go inside to talk?"

Yu Hao: "Alright."

She went in and turned on the lights, lowered the air conditioner to eighteen degrees, and adjusted the softness of the lighting before holding the door and letting him in.

The young soldier sat up straight with his hands on his legs, looking around nervously before introducing himself, "My name is Wu Heping."

"Soldier Wu."

The young soldier tried to ingratiate himself, "You look much more professional than Dr. Liu."

"Of course. I am a professional."

Yu Hao said this in a deadpan voice, and Wu Heping couldn't help but chuckle at her expression. "I heard you're a researcher from the S Research Institute. I have a few questions I'd like to ask you."

Yu Hao hummed in acknowledgment, thought for a moment, and decided to explain, "Strictly speaking, I'm not a researcher yet, just an assistant researcher. But I will do my best to answer your questions."

Wu Heping couldn't tell the difference between a researcher and an assistant researcher. In any case, she was a psychologist, and that was all that mattered.

"I feel like I might not be suited to stay here," he said with a troubled expression.

Yu Hao listened attentively. "Why? Did you fail the assessment?"

"I passed the assessment."

"Other reasons?"

"There are too many elites in this Military Unit. Although I pass the assessments, I always just barely scrape by in last place. This morning, during emergency bandage training, I spilled pig's blood all over the captain."

So it was pig's blood.

"Did the captain reprimand you?"

Wu Heping nodded. "Don't be fooled by how easygoing the captain is usually. The moment he's on the training ground, he becomes completely ruthless. He's especially fierce when he's scolding people."

"I heard it isn't easy for you all to get here. You have to go through multiple rounds of selection, with an eighty percent elimination rate. Only the remaining twenty percent get to stay in this Military Unit. To give up all your past efforts just because you dislike him—isn't that a waste?"

Wu Heping shook his head again. "You misunderstood. It's not because I dislike him. I really like our captain and respect him a lot. He's the most qualified soldier, a man among men. It's precisely because of this that I really want to gain his approval. If he praises me once, I'm energized for the whole day's training. If he scolds me once, I can't even eat that day."

"..."

"It's because of this that I find myself making more and more mistakes. I get nervous whenever the captain just glances at me, even with things I can normally do well. Then when I'm firing, I even forget to release the safety. Several times during drills, I had no room to perform. The captain said someone like me can basically say goodbye to live ammunition. But I used to be top-notch in everything back in my old company..."

"Then transfer to another team," Yu Hao said expressionlessly.

Wu Heping's heart sank even further. He had an expression that said 'I think I can still be saved'.

After a while, he asked, unwilling to give up, "Am I really a lost cause?"

"Not necessarily..."

The moment Wu Heping heard there was still hope, his small, dark eyes lit up instantly. But then he seemed to think of something and deflated again, saying in a low voice, "I've seen Dr. Liu before and took some medicine, but I still couldn't overcome it."

Yu Hao lowered her head to write in her notes. "Do you very much want to get your Captain Lu's approval?"

"Yes."

"But you always feel like whatever you do is still lacking?"

"Yes, yes."

"When Captain Lu isn't around, does your condition improve?"

"It does. I'm not as nervous when he's not here."

Yu Hao put her notebook away. "You need to overcome your fear of Captain Lu. He's the one you're afraid of."

"How do I overcome it..."

Yu Hao thought for a moment and gave a suggestion. "Make Captain Lu take off his hero's mantle. Eliminate your sense of worship for him. I think you need to have a deep talk with him. You might have some misunderstanding about him. Think about it, take away his identity as an airborne captain, and he's just an ordinary man. He doesn't have more hands or feet than you all. Don't be fooled by his usual swagger; he's really not as good as you guys at video games."

He used to get crushed by me every time.

Wu Heping let out a curious sound, feeling that something wasn't right. Yu Hao realized it too.

Just then, footsteps sounded from the stairway outside the door. Before Wu Heping could react, Yu Hao jutted her chin towards the outside, then pointed to the small room inside—the psychological catharsis room. "He's here. I can provide a relaxing environment for you two, but you have to go talk to him yourself."

Wu Heping was taken aback. "Can't you help me talk to him..."

Yu Hao swiveled her chair around to face away from him and said impassively, "Unfortunately, I also dislike your Captain Lu."

Wu Heping muttered, "I already said it's not dislike..."

Yu Hao paid him no mind, her head bent as she recorded something. Without looking up, she told him, "If you don't go now, he's going to leave."

Wu Heping braced himself and walked out.

"Cap...Captain Lu."

Lu Huaizheng had just finished changing and was now wearing a standard combat training uniform. With one hand in his pocket and a key in the other, he was about to open his office door when he heard the voice and turned around.

"What are you doing here?"

Wu Heping really couldn't get the words out. After holding it in for a long time, his face flushed red, and he stammered, "Dr. Yu said..."

Lu Huaizheng frowned impatiently.