The wind at the airbase was particularly strong.

Yu Hao nodded, and the wind blew her hair all over her face. She felt she must look exactly like Sadako climbing out of the TV right now. She pushed her hair back, then felt him pull the collar of his own jacket to wrap her up snugly, and he asked with a smile, “Are you looking for me for something?”

“Can't I look for you even if there's nothing?” Yu Hao asked back.

Lu Huaizheng raised an eyebrow, pursed his lips, nodded, and remarked with feeling: “You can. It's rare for you to take the initiative to find me. I'm a bit overwhelmed by the favor.”

Yu Hao reflected seriously and asked bluntly, “Was I very bad to you in the past?”

Lu Huaizheng looked down at her condescendingly. “You want the truth?”

Yu Hao nodded solemnly again.

Lu Huaizheng broke into a smile. Tilting his head slightly to look at her, he answered truthfully, “Remember when we used to go out and play cards? Jiamian said you were like a machine, with the same expression whether you won or lost.”

Yu Hao remembered as well. “But you said back then that it was the expression of someone destined for great things, who doesn't let joy or anger show.”

“Right, it's a good thing.” Lu Huaizheng nodded and said, “Aren't you doing great things right now?”

After saying that, Lu Huaizheng led her back.

It wasn't until Yu Hao returned to the counseling room that she belatedly realized he had subtly sidestepped the topic. He had talked in a circle and never actually answered her question. It seemed she really hadn't been very good to him in the past.

But how was one supposed to be good to someone?

After the afternoon break ended, Yu Hao created a group chat and posted a question in it.

“Please talk about the ways you are good to someone. Use specific examples.”

The group included her entire barren circle of friends: Shen Xiyuan, Zhao Dailin, Ye Tingfei, and two graduate students she used to mentor who she was on good terms with. She even pulled Professor Han in. Including herself, there were seven people in total.

Song Xiaotao and Yuan Jing were not included.

Yu Hao was a person who wore her heart on her sleeve; she liked who she liked, and was quite direct with those she didn't. In any case, they had created plenty of small group chats behind her back too.

Zhao Dailin replied the fastest, sending several stickers before a string of words popped up.

“What kind of crazy fit is this?”

Ye Tingfei: “Little Junior Sister has found her conscience, my heart is greatly comforted. No need to be polite, just treat me and Senior Sister Zhao to a meal.”

Zhao Dailin: “Why would I want to eat with you?”

Graduate student Chai Lan: “What group is this? Hey, am I seeing Professor Shen from the neighboring department?! Sob sob...starry-eyed, Little Professor Shen!”

Graduate student Wang Jia: “How do you know that's Little Professor Shen?!”

Graduate student Chai Lan: “Someone in our department added Little Professor Shen on WeChat. That's his profile picture, and his WeChat name seems to be Professor Shen's English name.”

Zhao Dailin: “You're Formolan.”

Only Shen Xiyuan was seriously answering the question: “Give her money.”

Everyone: “...”

Professor Han: “Yu Hao, are you researching a new topic again?”

Ye Tingfei: “This isn't researching a topic, this is researching a person, isn't it? Is Little Junior Sister in a relationship?!”

His words woke everyone in the group up, and the messages started flooding the screen like an explosion.

Zhao Dailin switched to private messaging her, sending dozens of WeChat messages, all of which were, “Damn, is it Lu Huaizheng?! Did you two get together?!”

Dozens of messages popped up.

“Playing dead is useless. If you don't tell me, I'll just go ask him directly at work on Tuesday.”

Only then did Yu Hao reply: “Don't do anything rash.”

Zhao Dailin: “Hmph.”

After sending this, Zhao Dailin picked up the water cup beside her and took a sip.

Her phone chimed again. She picked it up leisurely, holding half a mouthful of water as she tilted her head back to glance at it. But when she took a closer look, the next second, she sprayed it all out—

Yu Hao replied: “If I bring up marriage with him now, will he think I'm a psycho?”

Zhao Dailin quickly grabbed a few tissues to wipe up the mess, and replied to her: “Hold on—let me clean up first.”

Once Zhao Dailin had cleaned up, she walked right outside the lab and called her. When the call connected, she asked into the phone with great solemnity, “First, answer a few questions for me.”

“Go ahead, Senior Sister.”

“Has he expressed his love for you?”

“No.”

Zhao Dailin then asked from the other end of the line, “So, have you two slept together? Was it so good that you want to sleep with him for the rest of your life?”

“...” The tips of Yu Hao's ears turned red. “No.”

“Then what's with this crazy talk?! Twelve years, you two haven't seen each other in twelve years, do you have any idea what he's thinking? Making a woman be the one to bring up marriage, he really has some nerve!”

Just as she said this, someone knocked gently on the door.

Yu Hao turned around, holding her phone. Lu Huaizheng had changed into civilian clothes and was leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed, his knuckles resting on the door panel.

Yu Hao covered the mouthpiece with her hand and said hurriedly, “I can't talk anymore, something's come up.”

She hung up and tossed the phone aside like a hot potato, pretending to be calm as she leaned back in her chair and waited for him to come in.

Lu Huaizheng straightened up, walked in, and leaned against her desk. With his arms crossed over his chest, he bent down to look at her and noticed the tips of her ears were glowing red. His gaze subconsciously swept over the phone she had just tossed aside, which was now dark, before turning back to her. “Who were you on the phone with? Why is your face so red?”

Yu Hao averted her eyes, consciously avoiding his pressing gaze. “My senior sister. You know her, Zhao Dailin.”

“What did your senior sister say”—he uncrossed his arms and propped both hands on the edge of the desk, still looking down at her—“to make you shy?”

“Nothing, just nonsense.”

Lu Huaizheng laughed, then cleared his throat and feigned seriousness, tapping on the desk. “Call your senior sister.”

Yu Hao looked up at him blankly, her words coming out haltingly, like from a typewriter: “Why call her?”

Lu Huaizheng, with his hands still braced on the desk, casually scooped up the phone she'd tossed aside, gave it a little shake, and said with a perfectly straight face, “When I was studying in Venezuela, I learned a surveillance technique. I can use this call to reverse-surveil the contents of your last call. It's very common abroad, haven't you seen it?”

Yu Hao shook her head, bewildered.

Lu Huaizheng held the phone out to her and tapped it. “Here, give her a call, let me show you.”

Yu Hao thought of their previous conversation, and her brain seized up. “I'm not calling.”

Seeing how nervous she was, Lu Huaizheng decided to stop teasing her. He lowered his head, put the phone down, and finally started to laugh, his dark eyes filled with deep meaning. “Do you believe everything I say? Huh? Aren't you studying lie detection?”

“Why is it when you lie...”

“It sounds like the truth?” He laughed dismissively.

When people lie, they make certain subconscious movements. This is basic lie detection, and Yu Hao's judgment was more than sufficient when facing low-level liars during criminal interrogations. But when faced with someone with high psychological fortitude, she needed to use heart rate and other special patterns to make a judgment. It was difficult to tell if someone was lying based on a single conversation alone.

“I didn't learn any counter-surveillance techniques for wiretapping in Venezuela, but I did learn from an FBI informant how to successfully beat a polygraph, so you don't need to be discouraged.”

“Why did you learn that?”

He shrugged, not answering.

But Yu Hao figured it out. It was probably in case he fell into the hands of terrorists or other organizations in the future, to avoid leaking military intelligence secrets.

She then recalled what Lu Huaizheng had said to that new recruit at the airbase.

This is just an ordinary job, with no special labels attached.

After she transferred schools, she had fantasized more than once about what the adult Lu Huaizheng would be like. Would he have gone bad? Would he become a gentleman, or perhaps a successful business elite? She had even wondered, since he disliked studying so much, if he would be unable to make money in the future, unable to support himself, begging under a bridge. If she ran into him, should she give him money?

The one thing she never imagined was that he would become a soldier.

Later, she felt she had overthought it. In reality, someone like him should be able to do well anywhere. He never had a hostile streak; he would digest any negative energy on his own, didn't like to gossip, and never criticized his friends for their shortcomings.

She should have realized it sooner.

Although he never seemed serious, he never compromised on matters of principle. Just like that time during military training—how could such a passionate man go bad?

“Do you normally not use the special military passage?” Yu Hao asked.

Lu Huaizheng paused for a moment, then understood. He said impassively, “I don't go out much. For official business, trips, and meetings, I always travel with the leadership. And I don't really like being treated as a special case. It feels like I'm being treated as mentally handicapped.”

Hearing this, Yu Hao couldn't help but burst out laughing, a faint dimple appearing by the corner of her mouth.

Lu Huaizheng leaned against the desk, his hands stuffed in his pockets. He tilted his head and watched her laugh for a while, his eyes blazing like a falling star, as if looking at some rare treasure. Then he also lowered his head, smiled, and turned away.

Both of them were smiling, unable to hide it.

Outside the window, the vines quietly merged with the fence, like an unknown flower blooming in the corner of the wall, standing delicately. The atmosphere was harmonious.

After a moment of silence, Lu Huaizheng knocked on her desk again.

“Call your senior sister.”

Yu Hao stopped smiling. “Huh? Still calling?”

“There's a meeting at three. The leadership wants her to come over, both of you together.”

“So you really did need her for something just now.”

“What else?”

...

It was the same conference room as last time, but Professor Han wasn't there this time. Zhao Dailin was beside her instead. Yu Hao sat in her seat, her hand nearly twisted off by Zhao Dailin.

Lu Huaizheng, wearing his military uniform, sat opposite them, listening intently as the leader assigned the mission.

Zhao Dailin was ruthless, pinching Yu Hao's hand hard, leaving a red mark. Yu Hao sucked in a breath from the pain. Her movement was a bit large, causing the man opposite them to glance over coolly. His face was stern, his expression serious, signaling for Yu Hao to be more attentive.

Yu Hao gritted her teeth and turned to glare at Zhao Dailin.

Zhao Dailin sullenly withdrew her hand and mouthed, “I'll deal with you later.”

Li Hongwen didn't notice. He turned to Lu Huaizheng and said, “You and Sun Kai will lead the team for a one-month border training exercise. Have Yu Hao and Dr. Zhao go along with you.”

Yu Hao was just about to speak.

Li Hongwen: “I've already spoken with Professor Han. Your work here must be the priority for now. When Dr. Liu returns, you can go back.”

Yu Hao actually wanted to ask where the training exercise would be.

Lu Huaizheng glanced at her and said to Li Hongwen, “It's only a month. The two of them don't need to come, do they?”

“You shut up. I haven't even settled the score with you about that new recruit in your team yet. In the past, which mission did you go on that Dr. Liu didn't follow?”

“I can go,” Yu Hao said immediately.

Zhao Dailin lazily raised her hand. “I can go too.”

“The conditions there won't be so comfortable. Situations can arise at any time. Do you two think you're going on a vacation?” Lu Huaizheng said, staring fixedly at Yu Hao.

Zhao Dailin smiled. “Captain Lu, then you might not understand our line of work very well. We don't just sit comfortably in an office all day reading literature and writing papers. Last year, for a research project, Yu Hao and I stayed in a poverty-stricken mountainous area for two months. There was no water, we even had to walk several miles just to take a shower, and we almost...”

Yu Hao squeezed her hand, and she finally reacted. It wasn't appropriate to talk about that matter. She subconsciously shut her mouth and changed the subject, “...fell...down...Anyway, there's no hardship we can't endure.”

After hearing this, Li Hongwen nodded in satisfaction and made a final decision: “Depart tomorrow!”

...

When they arrived at the border, the plane carrying Yu Hao, Zhao Dailin, and the army doctor Shao Feng was the last to land. Lu Huaizheng and his team were already waiting in neat formation on the wide lawn.

After getting off the plane, Shao Feng carried his case and walked beside Yu Hao, saying, “I just heard from the instructor that Captain Lu made another standard zero-meter precision landing.”

Zhao Dailin asked, “What's a zero-meter precision landing?”

Shao Feng explained to them, “A standard zero-meter precision landing refers to when a paratrooper jumps from the air and treats the entire ground as a target. Before jumping, each paratrooper has a fixed landing point, which is called the bullseye. If the paratrooper, after opening their parachute, lands exactly on that bullseye, it's called a zero-meter precision landing.”

“Is that very impressive?” Zhao Dailin raised an eyebrow.

“It is. Usually, there's a margin of error. It can be off by ten or even hundreds of meters. A good one is just a few meters off. I haven't seen many who can land so accurately. Captain Lu is one of them.” After saying that, Shao Feng looked at Yu Hao and struck up a conversation with a smile, “Dr. Yu, I heard you knew our Captain Lu before?”

Just as Yu Hao was about to answer, she saw the man at the front of the formation, holding his military cap under one arm, squint against the harsh light and glance impatiently in their direction.

Frightened, Shao Feng instantly shut his mouth and quickly pulled Yu Hao into the formation.

Halfway there, he noticed the man's expression seemed even more impatient. He suddenly realized something, immediately let go of her hand, and silently went to stand at the very end of the line, very politely maintaining a ten-centimeter “safe distance” from Yu Hao.