Chapter 76: 第 76 章

'He doesn't remember you at all anymore.'

'He doesn't remember.'

'Not even a single impression?'

'Nothing left.'

Chi Jiahán frowned, poking at his rice with his chopsticks: 'Why should he.'

That year, when he learned Lu Heyang had lost his memory, Chi Jiahán had reacted strongly. He thought it was a pity, because he knew Lu Heyang had not been treating Xu Ze as a passing fancy — which made everything seem worse. Xu Ze had finally gotten hold of something good, and in the blink of an eye it was taken back, leaving him with nothing at all.

And Xu Ze did not understand why Chi Jiahán would feel regret. For him and Lu Heyang, any form of parting was reasonable.

There was only one regret, and over these years Xu Ze had thought of it again and again — if only Lu Heyang hadn't had the accident.

'Eat,' Xu Ze said.

'Has the physical exam schedule for your department come out? Are you staying at the hospital or going on field duty?'

'Had surgery this morning, didn't get a chance to look at the schedule.'

Chi Jiahán took a bite of vegetables: 'I've been assigned to the Navy Base. Wanted to see if I'd be going with you.'

'Let me check.' Xu Ze took out his mobile phone, opened the spreadsheet in the group chat, and after a few seconds his gaze stilled.

One look at that expression and you knew the result. Chi Jiahán asked: 'Air Force Base?'

Xu Ze nodded, closed his phone, ate.

Chi Jiahán knew Xu Ze — Xu Ze would never have volunteered to go to Chengxi, but fate seemed to delight in tormenting him.

'Go back and ask your department. If you can avoid going, then don't go.' Chi Jiahán said. 'If he's really forgotten everything, meeting him won't do you any good.'

Xu Ze lowered his eyes and said nothing.

'It was Director Zhou's idea. This field assignment will be easier, and he wanted you to get some rest.' The head nurse said. 'You don't know — your rescue team was in such danger that day, Professor Huang personally contacted Director Zhou afterward. He can't bear to blame you, so he could only emphasize to Director Zhou to send you out for support less often in the future.'

'It's fine.'

Xu Ze was still saying the same thing, as if nothing mattered. Across the entire Military Medical University, Xu Ze was the medical student who had gone to the front lines for support the most times during his undergraduate and master's years. Everyone knew Professor Huang Liling held high hopes for Xu Ze, hoping he would stay at the university and focus on research, but Xu Ze had still chosen to remain in clinical practice and become a physician.

He didn't seem to have edges, wasn't sharp, but always held to his own ideas without being shaken.

'It's only two days anyway.' The head nurse used Xu Ze's catchphrase to wrap it up. 'It's fine.'

So the next morning, Xu Ze and five colleagues got on the medical vehicle and headed for Chengxi Air Force Base.

Over these years the City Center was still the same, no great changes, but Chengxi had been transformed. The dilapidated buildings, the broken streets — all of it was gone, replaced by brand-new developments and towering skyscrapers. The chaotic, shadowed experiences of his youth had all been torn down, leveled, buried deep beneath the glittering new Chengxi district.

From Chengxi to the Base was still a long drive. After entering the Base, the head of the medical department came to coordinate with them.

'This time we're mainly doing physicals for the unit that came to the Base with the colonel — one hundred and thirty-six people in total. But the officers all have their own training tasks and meetings every day, so they can't be gathered together. We'll have to wait for them to come over when they each have time, so the schedule will stretch out, but that means no one has to work too hard.'

They put their luggage in the temporary dormitory, and everyone took their positions at the medical department. Xu Ze was responsible for drawing pheromone samples.

The soldiers came individually or in twos and threes, and not at a tight pace. The workload was light, and everyone began chatting idly. Xu Ze spent his free time writing his experiment report at the computer.

'I haven't seen that new colonel yet. I heard he came to our hospital a few days ago?'

'He's been to the hematology department several times. Chen General is hospitalized, right? Last time, it was when he brought Doctor Xu's rescue team back — isn't that right, Doctor Xu?'

Xu Ze looked at the computer screen and nodded.

'Hey, don't bother Doctor Xu writing his report... Have you seen him?'

'Saw him once.'

'What does he look like?'

'How should I put it — anyway, anyone who hasn't seen him is the one missing out.'

'Is he married?'

'Probably.'

Xu Ze's fingertip suddenly bent, mistyped. He was silent for two seconds, slowly found the delete key, and pressed it.

'How do you know?'

'It's normal, isn't it? An S-Class Alpha with that kind of background — the moment he enters the school, the big shots in the military and political circles have their eyes on him. Add to that his ability, and there are too many people playing matchmaker. Even if he's not married, he's definitely been arranged with a suitable partner.'

'That's true... and he seems to not like appearing in public? With that kind of personality, it's very possible he quietly got married.'

'Tch, I wonder if we can see this legendary Colonel Lu in the next two days.'

'Forget it, a high-ranking military officer like that — the Military District has military doctors doing regular checkups. How could they wait until now? Stop being lovesick.'

'You talk too much!'

At noon, Xu Ze finished lunch first, and after greeting his colleagues he went downstairs alone. The Base was very large, and Xu Ze wasn't sure which buildings he could enter, so he just walked aimlessly beneath the trees.

'Doctor Xu?'

He turned around. The lieutenant he had met twice before was walking toward him: 'So it really is you. What a coincidence — you're the one doing field duty at the Base.' The other extended his hand to Xu Ze. 'Song Yuke.'

'Xu Ze.' Xu Ze shook his hand briefly.

'Where is Doctor Xu headed?'

'Just finished eating. Taking a walk.'

'It's too hot outside. That way is the Base's central building — the lobby is open to outside visitors, you can go in and look around. It's cooler inside.'

'Okay, thank you.'

Song Yuke brought Xu Ze into the central building. The interior space was vast, looking like a technology exhibition hall, or like an airport waiting hall. Outside the glass curtain wall, over ten meters high, stretched a vast apron and airport runway, with fighter jets constantly taking off and landing.

'These outside are all publicly available aircraft models,' Song Yuke said. 'The colonel is over there — he's taking pilots out on a mission later.'

Before he pointed in any direction, Xu Ze's gaze had already fallen there. Lu Heyang was sitting on a bench, still in training clothes, talking with an air traffic controller. After a while, Lu Heyang stood and walked toward the elevator.

'Ah, something came up I need to attend to. Doctor Xu, you can look around — if you have any questions, just ask the soldiers. I'll excuse myself first.' Song Yuke turned off his communicator and said.

Xu Ze nodded: 'Okay.'

After Song Yuke left, Xu Ze slowly crossed the lobby and walked to the floor-to-ceiling wall. He looked at the bench for a few seconds, then finally went to the far end and sat down in the spot Lu Heyang had recently occupied.

The chair was cold, as if no one had ever been there. Xu Ze sat for a while, then heard the roar again and looked up — several fighter jets glided across the sky, flying toward the distance.

Watching the fighter jets fly away, Xu Ze felt his pants pocket and took out a leather wallet. The wallet was thin, holding only a little cash, usually used for meal cards and transit cards. After opening it, the first layer was a transparent pocket, and inside was a photograph.

The photograph showed a fighter jet in flight, shot from below, at a great distance, appearing blurred.

That was four years ago — the League's sixtieth anniversary celebration day. The Capital City held a grand ceremony, the City Center plaza was bustling, and Xu Ze went out to the plaza with his roommates amid their surprise.

'The news says there will be a flight performance — students from the Air Force school.' The roommate sighed. 'Ah, people our age are already flying fighter jets and earning military merit, and we're still shaking test tubes in the lab.'

'Seems like there's a brand-new fighter jet being unveiled today? Wonder who the pilot is.'

'Some big shot's son. Heard he's been on missions abroad, came back today specifically to fly for everyone to see.'

After a few minutes, the roar came from afar, drowning out the bustling voices in the plaza. Eleven fighter jets screamed in from the other end of the city; as they neared the plaza overhead, they began weaving in pairs, except the brand-new blue-black fighter jet in the very center led the way like a lead goose, its tail spraying golden colored smoke as it spun.

The flight sound covered everything — the crowd's cheers, the uplifting music, the broadcast commentary, nothing could be heard. Xu Ze stood in the crowd, pushed until he could barely keep his footing, but kept his head tilted upward. When that fighter jet swept overhead, Xu Ze used his mobile phone to take a separate photo of it.

Until the plane had flown past, Xu Ze's gaze still persistently, intently followed that long golden cloud — at such a distance, nothing could be seen from outside, but he knew who the Alpha in the cockpit was.

Lu Heyang was a hundred meters up in the sky, and yet Xu Ze felt this was the closest they had been in so long.

He gazed up tirelessly, until his neck ached. Even though Lu Heyang could not hear him, could not see him, could not even remember him, Xu Ze still very much wanted to ask him: are you free now.

You must be free now.

'Wrapping up, wrapping up.'

After ten at night, the last few soldiers finished their physicals, and everyone packed up to head back to the dorm.

'Remember to gather here at six tomorrow morning. While fasting, we'll draw blood collectively — the notice has been sent out.'

'Got it.'

A few people were walking out, hadn't reached the door yet, when a sergeant came in and saluted: 'Colonel Lu just finished his meeting. He may not have time all day tomorrow — which doctor would be willing to go give the colonel a simple checkup now?'

At this hour it wasn't appropriate for an Omega to go. Among the only two Alpha doctors, one was married with children, eager to get back to his room to video call his wife and daughter — so everyone looked at Xu Ze, who had just closed his computer.

Xu Ze adjusted his glasses, hadn't quite processed it yet, when he heard the sergeant say to him: 'Doctor Xu, sorry to trouble you.'

It was a completely impossible-to-refuse situation. Xu Ze picked up his medical kit and set off with the sergeant. The car drove for twenty minutes and arrived at a building. The sergeant brought Xu Ze to the door — facial scan opened the door — then sent Xu Ze to the elevator. After fingerprint recognition, the elevator started and rose to the fourth floor.

'The colonel's room is this way.' Out of the elevator, the sergeant walked to the right, saying to Xu Ze, 'I'll wait downstairs. When the time comes, I'll send Doctor Xu back to the dorm.'

'It's not far. I can walk back myself.'

'Okay. If you have any questions, you can always find the soldiers on duty. Sorry to trouble Doctor Xu.'

'You're welcome.'

At the door, the sergeant pressed the doorbell. The display screen on the door lit up, and the sergeant looked at the screen: 'Colonel, the doctor is here to give you a physical exam.'

Lu Heyang's voice came through the speaker — he seemed to be in some room, sounded a bit far away: 'One moment.'

'Then Doctor Xu, I'll be going now.'

Xu Ze nodded, wanted to say 'okay,' but his throat seemed unable to make a sound. He suddenly wished the sergeant could stay.

Of course the sergeant still left. Xu Ze watched him enter the elevator. The elevator doors closed, and at the same time the apartment door opened — Xu Ze was startled, turned back, and Lu Heyang was standing inside the door. Seeing him, Lu Heyang wasn't too surprised, just slightly startled, then smiled faintly: 'What a coincidence — Doctor Xu is doing field duty at our Base.'

He was only wearing training pants, his hair half-wet. Possibly because his upper body was bare, he gave off a very primal, bone-deep sense of pressure. Xu Ze held his breath, his whole body stiff — only after a few seconds did he say: 'Yes.'

'Then shall you come in?' Lu Heyang asked politely.

Doing the checkup at the door was obviously unrealistic, but Xu Ze didn't think at all about why Lu Heyang would ask such a question. He nodded and answered: 'I should.'

Lu Heyang then pushed the door open a little more, and said to Xu Ze: 'Doctor Xu, please come in.'