Chapter 84: —

Fresh flowers last no more than fifteen days at best, and before the first petal began to rot, Xu Ze had carried seventeen stems of Liatris Flowers to the laboratory at the Military Medical University. For medical students, making dried flowers was a task that was convenient from theory to practice.

Xu Ze had specifically bought a transparent rectangular acrylic box — it had a certain heft to it — and once the whole bouquet of dried flowers was placed inside, the whole thing looked rather like a piece of artwork. Perhaps with a ribbon or some such decoration it would have looked even better, but Xu Ze wasn't much good at that sort of thing; he simply wanted to preserve the flowers well.

His mobile phone buzzed — a call from a team member: "Xu Ze, the Boss is here, says he wants to have a quick meeting. Which room are you in? Get over to 602."

"Okay."

Xu Ze carried the box back to 604, set it beside his school bag, then headed to 602. The team members had already arrived. Huang Liling was reviewing the most recent project reports and data, and when he saw Xu Ze come in, he said: "Everyone's here. Let's begin."

Everyone gave a brief update on their progress. Huang Liling went through them one by one with a few words of instruction, and with that the meeting was over; everyone went back to their own work.

"Xu Ze, stay behind."

Once the others had left, Huang Liling gestured for Xu Ze to sit, then asked him: "Has it been less busy over at the 195 Hospital lately?"

The League Military Hospital was a special institution; outside of major wartime, it generally wasn't all that busy. Xu Ze nodded. "Yes."

"Good. While you've got some free time, go meet someone. I mentioned her to you before — Ruan Miao, the daughter of the vice president of Lianmeng Investment Bank." Huang Liling said, "Last week she was transferred back to the Capital City Municipal Government."

Before Xu Ze could speak, Huang Liling went on directly: "The girl took a liking to you over a year ago. You were busy with frontline support at the time and turned her down politely. Now she's still interested in meeting you. Don't tell me you're not going again — even if it's just a chat between young people. Her father is an old friend of mine. He has no particular requirements for a son-in-law; as long as his daughter likes him, that's good enough. Rare for him to be so open-minded about it."

Xu Ze: "Teacher..."

Huang Liling cut him off: "You have to go this time. Meet her first. Anyone else I wouldn't bother with this much. If you refuse again, I'll have the hospital switch your doctoral advisor for you immediately, and after that the two of us will have nothing more to do with each other."

The academic structure of the Military Medical University was somewhat different from that of an ordinary medical school. In clinical medicine, each cohort had a batch of around twenty 5+2+2 talent-training slots. Nine years meant admission straight into the League military medical establishment — a continuous bachelor's, master's, and doctoral program — and after graduation, one could choose to stay at the hospital, stay at the university, or enter the Military District. Xu Ze was one of this cohort's nine-year-program students. Huang Liling had already been his specialized-coursework teacher for five years and his graduate advisor for two; barring any accident, he would be Xu Ze's doctoral supervisor for the next two years as well.

They had spent too long together not to know each other well. Xu Ze understood Huang Liling, and Huang Liling understood Xu Ze equally well — he knew exactly what kind of argument would most effectively make this student of his, who on the surface seemed to have no temper but was in fact harder to manage than anyone, finally give way.

"Even if there's someone you like, from undergraduate all the way through master's, I've never seen you end up with them. If after so many years you still haven't gotten together, then in this lifetime there's basically no chance anymore. I don't want to watch you keep wasting your time." Huang Liling was suddenly a little moved. "Xu Ze, you're someone I've brought along with my own hands from the very beginning — the research, the projects, the clinical rotations at the hospital. Seeing you achieve results, I'm proud. But I'm just the sort of person who likes to meddle. For a student I believe in, I hope I can do something for him in other areas too."

At this point, Xu Ze understood there was probably no room left to refuse — at least, not by directly refusing Huang Liling. Perhaps meeting Ruan Miao and then making things clear to each other would resolve this better.

"All right. Thank you, teacher." Xu Ze said.

Back in the laboratory, Xu Ze was organizing his school bag, and throughout, his gaze kept falling on the dried flowers in the acrylic box — the white petals had already turned a pale brown. Xu Ze could still recall with perfect clarity what this bouquet had looked like at its freshest, its best.

"Good. Someone like you, who lets nothing in and won't be moved no matter what — you just need someone to twist your arm the hard way. I support Professor Huang's approach." So said Chi Jiahán, when he had arranged to meet Xu Ze for dinner after work on Saturday and learned that Xu Ze might be meeting Ruan Miao.

Xu Ze ate his breakfast in silence, saying nothing. Chi Jiahán nudged him lightly under the table with his foot: "Have you decided? Continue on to the doctorate at the Military Medical University, or go abroad? You've already been at the Military Hospital so long — Professor Huang must want you to go to the research institute next."

"Still considering." Xu Ze said.

"Take your time, Dr. Xu." Chi Jiahán tore his toast into strips. "As long as you make a few fewer trips to the frontline, I'll be thanking heaven and earth."

After the meal, Xu Ze and Chi Jiahán each returned to their respective departments. Chi Jiahán went to the changing room and couldn't find his white coat, then remembered he had left it in the office when he got off work the day before.

Taking off his shirt and hanging it in the locker, Chi Jiahán went to the main desk in his T-shirt to clock in. A nurse looked up at him and laughed: "Our Dr. Chi looks just like a high schooler."

Chi Jiahán laughed too: "That's right. Once I sign in I'm going back to Chinese class."

When he turned around, the smile hadn't yet left his face — and an Alpha two meters away suddenly stopped in his tracks, looking at him.

"Captain He." The nurse stood up to greet him.

He Wei gave the nurse a nod, then shifted his gaze back to Chi Jiahán.

It was a strange, slightly frozen state, though it lasted only a few seconds. He Wei had expected Chi Jiahán to turn and walk away, as he had done last time in Xu Ze's office, but unexpectedly, Chi Jiahán asked: "What happened to your hand?"

He knew He Wei had been sent back to the Capital on his parents' orders to recover, but from the look of things, the more he rested, the worse he got.

He Wei raised his left wrist, wrapped in bandages, and looked at it. "Sprained."

"Orthopedics is on the fourth floor."

"Mm, just came down from the fourth floor. Toothache lately — figured I'd get it checked while I'm here." He Wei smiled. "Does Dr. Chi have time now?"

"If it's a checkup, find one of my colleagues. I have a surgery to assist with shortly."

"Not asking you to do a checkup. Something else."

Chi Jiahán said nothing and walked toward the office. He Wei followed unhurriedly behind him. The back of Chi Jiahán's head had a sort of fuzzy quality to it, and He Wei kept looking at it.

Once in the office, He Wei leaned against the doorframe. Chi Jiahán put on his white coat, clipped his communicator to his chest, then stood in front of He Wei, looked up, and asked: "What is it?"

He Wei, looking down, met his eyes for a moment, then drew a delicate pink envelope from his uniform-trouser pocket: "The last two times I came you weren't here, so today I brought it again."

Chi Jiahán made no move to take it. He asked, somewhat coolly: "What is it?"

He Wei watched him, as if observing without showing it. In the end he bit the tip of his tongue, produced a fairly easy smile, and said in a not-entirely-serious tone: "A wedding invitation."

Quite clearly, Chi Jiahán was taken aback.

"I hadn't heard before that Captain He was getting married." Recovering himself, Chi Jiahán no longer looked at He Wei. His gaze fell on the hand holding the invitation — the deformed ring finger, the little fingernail only half remaining. He said, in a tone of studied indifference: "Congratulations."

"Yes. So please keep it between us, Dr. Chi." He Wei gave the envelope a slight shake. "Will you come?"

After a brief silence, Chi Jiahán raised his hand and took the envelope. The envelope was stiff; he could feel that inside it was an even stiffer card.

"No." He answered.

After getting off the helicopter and driving for over half an hour, Lu Heyang and Song Yuke arrived at a residential compound in the neighboring city. The buildings were a little old, but the facilities and security were in no way inferior to those of a high-end residential area — most of the residents were government employees or military families.

Before they had even pulled up, an old woman and a small child could be seen waiting at the roadside from a distance. Song Yuke parked the car, lifted several large gift boxes from the back seat, and walked up alongside Lu Heyang.

"Auntie, it's been a long time." Lu Heyang bent slightly forward and took Yu Fang's hand.

"All grown up, all grown up." Yu Fang's eyes were full of smiles. "Whatever it was could have been said over the phone. Coming all this way — how much trouble."

"I had been planning to come see you anyway." Lu Heyang looked at the little girl tugging at Yu Fang's sleeve and asked, "Your granddaughter?"

"Yes, six years old. Goes to school in the Capital. Today's Saturday, so she came over to my place to play." Yu Fang patted the girl's shoulder. "An An."

An An was not shy with strangers. She said to Lu Heyang, "Hello, Uncle."

Lu Heyang patted her head. Song Yuke crouched down and handed her a box of gifts: "How about Uncle plays with you?"

An An looked up at Yu Fang. Once she had her grandmother's permission, she took the gift, said "thank you," and then said "okay."

"And bringing so many things." Once they were in the living room, Yu Fang set two glasses of water on the coffee table. "Please sit down, Colonel."

"Just call me Heyang."

After Song Yuke had put away the gift boxes and taken An An out to the garden to play, Yu Fang finally said: "After your accident that year, you never came home again. Not long after, the rest of us nannies and I were arranged to retire. I never knew how to get in touch with you. Later I heard you'd gone to the Military Academy, and only then did I feel a little easier — I figured your body must not have had any major problems."

She was a little uncertain, and asked: "Heyang, you actually don't remember me either, do you?"

"I have a vague impression, but nothing specific." Lu Heyang said.

Yu Fang nodded: "I figured as much. Not everyone gets to see you right after you wake up. Once that moment has passed, it's very hard to remember afterward."

She stood up, went upstairs, and brought down a small box, then sat back down on the sofa.

"When you were in the hospital, a group of people came and searched your room. They opened the safe too, and took away some of the documents and materials inside. There were some other things — they probably thought they were useless and threw them in the trash." Yu Fang lifted the lid of the box. "I thought, if they were useless, why would you have put them in the safe? So I secretly picked them up."

Inside the box were several phone cards, an old, cheap-looking wristband, and a very small, very ordinary blue jewelry box.

Lu Heyang looked at the box for a few seconds without moving. He asked Yu Fang: "Auntie, do you still remember — when I had my birthday in my third year of high school, besides He Wei and Yun Chi, were there other people who came to the house?"

"Yes, there was. An Alpha about your age." Yu Fang thought for only a moment before she remembered. "I remember it especially clearly, because usually only the two children from the He Family and the Gu Family came. You never brought any other friends home. And that night the rain was very heavy. That child had injuries on his face. I remember it very clearly."

He was soaked through by the rain. You had me make ginger soup, and afterward he spent the night in the guest bedroom. I was worried at first that someone would come asking about the surveillance footage, but no one ever did — which was strange, in its way.

'Colonel.' Song Yuke knocked on the main gate. 'They say the meeting's been moved up.'

'All right.' Lu Heyang stood. 'I'm off. I'll come see you again next time.'

'Go on, don't hold up the meeting.' Yu Fang closed the box again and handed it to Lu Heyang.

Out through the gate, An An ran up to Yu Fang with her toy in hand. Lu Heyang waved at her, and An An said, 'Bye-bye, uncle.'

Yu Fang seemed to have something she wanted to say, hesitating. Just before Lu Heyang got in the car, she couldn't help asking: 'Heyang, I don't know if it's convenient to ask, but Qingmo, she...'

Lu Heyang paused, his hand on the car door, turned back, and smiled at Yu Fang: 'Jiejie is doing well. Please don't worry.'

'That's good, that's good.' Yu Fang patted her chest, exhaled in relief, and laughed. 'As long as everyone's all right.'

On the way back, seeing Lu Heyang looking at the things in the box, Song Yuke asked while driving: 'Are those your childhood toys?'

'No.' Lu Heyang opened the jewelry box, stared at it for a moment, and answered: 'Evidence.'

Saturday afternoon, Huang Liling called Xu Ze no fewer than three times, urging him to be sure to keep the appointment on time, and ideally to pick up Ruan Miao at the Municipal Government entrance so they could get to know each other a little on the way to dinner.

'I'll have someone bring the car around to 195 Courtyard in a bit, then you drive it to pick her up. Understood?'

'No need, I'll borrow a friend's. Thank you, teacher.'

'That's fine, that's fine. It's about time to head out — Ruan Miao gets off at five, you know that, right?'

Huang Liling was perhaps a first-time matchmaker; there was, in his tone, a trace of nervousness.

'Mm. I know.' Xu Ze answered.

In fact, at noon Chi Jiahán had already tossed the car keys onto Xu Ze's desk and told him: 'Just had it detailed last night. Tank's full.'

Before Xu Ze could say anything, Dr. Chi said coolly: 'I know exactly why you agreed to this dinner, but there's nothing for it — the thought that this is your first blind date in so long still gives me a certain satisfaction.'

So satisfied, in fact, that he almost wanted to place an anonymous call to Lu Heyang — but considering Colonel Lu was, after all, an amnesiac, Chi Jiahán ultimately did not.

At half past four, Xu Ze messaged Ruan Miao to say he'd be waiting at the Municipal Government entrance; Ruan Miao didn't decline. Once the arrangement was confirmed, Xu Ze packed up, changed out of his white coat, and signed out for the day.

The road from 195 Courtyard to the Municipal Government was relatively empty, and Xu Ze arrived quickly. Because it was Chi Jiahán's car, the sensor recognized the plate and let him through automatically. Xu Ze parked in an empty spot by the entrance, beside several military vehicles.

At nearly five, Xu Ze got out of the car. Going up the steps, he saw a number of people coming out of the hall — not ordinary government staff, but leaders who had just concluded a meeting. Xu Ze stepped aside, waited until most had passed, then started back toward the hall, only to collide head-on with an omega.

The omega let out an 'Ouch,' and the documents in her arms tumbled to the ground. Xu Ze immediately said, 'Sorry,' then crouched to pick them up.

'Xu Ze?'

Looking up, Xu Ze realized the omega he'd bumped into was Ruan Miao. Ruan Miao had also attended Preparatory Academy in high school; before the senior-year split into classes, she and Lu Heyang had been in the same class.

'Are you hurt anywhere?' Xu Ze gathered the documents together. 'Sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going.'

'No, it's fine — I was walking too fast myself.' Ruan Miao tucked her hair behind her ear, took the documents. 'Give me a moment, I'll sort these out.'

Her bag was hanging from her arm, looking a bit awkward. Xu Ze extended his hand: 'If you don't mind, I'll carry your bag.'

'Sure, thanks.' Ruan Miao handed the bag to Xu Ze.

Hearing footsteps again from inside the hall, Xu Ze touched Ruan Miao's elbow lightly with his fingertips, signaling her to step aside a little, and said: 'If you're not in a hurry, you could sort them in the car.'

Ruan Miao moved a little closer to him, smiled at Xu Ze, and shook the folder: 'It's fine — already done.'

They walked down the steps together. Xu Ze opened the passenger door for Ruan Miao. Just as she was about to get in, she glanced up and suddenly paused: 'Is that Colonel Lu?'

Xu Ze went still for a moment. He turned and saw Lu Heyang, in a training cap, standing with several officers by that military vehicle. He realized then that the people in the hall had been Lu Heyang's group — they had been behind them on the steps the whole time.

After the others said goodbye to Lu Heyang and drove off in their respective cars, Song Yuke gave Xu Ze a greeting, then got into the driver's seat to wait for Lu Heyang.

Not knowing why Lu Heyang kept looking at him without speaking — the brim of the cap casting a shadow over the upper half of his face, his expression unreadable — for several seconds like this, Xu Ze spoke first: 'Colonel.'

'Dr. Xu, here on business?' Lu Heyang asked.

'No.' Xu Ze shook his head. 'Picking up a friend.'

Knowing something of Lu Heyang's amnesia, and that he probably didn't remember her, Ruan Miao said to Xu Ze: 'Xu Ze, give me the bag. I'll wait in the car.'

'All right.' Xu Ze handed the bag back to Ruan Miao and closed the door for her.

Lu Heyang's tone was casual: 'Off to dinner?'

'Yes.' Xu Ze answered. Thinking of the two people waiting, he felt a bit ill at ease. Xu Ze realized that with Lu Heyang, too, he had a comfort zone — whether before or now, a relatively smaller, quieter space, with no one else around, was what let him relax.

So Xu Ze said: 'If there's nothing else, we'll be going.'

Lu Heyang smiled faintly: 'Drive safe.'

On the way to the restaurant there was some traffic, so Ruan Miao opened a conversation with Xu Ze.

'Colonel Lu — does he still remember you?'

'No,' Xu Ze said.

'From the way you two looked just now, I thought he remembered you. It's been so long, you both seem to have changed, and yet not really.'

'In high school, did you know me?' Xu Ze wasn't sure — from what Ruan Miao said, she seemed to have an impression of him, but Xu Ze didn't recall any interaction between them.

'Of course I knew you. S-Class isn't that common — at one school, you'd always run into each other. Back then you were always hurt somewhere, didn't socialize with people, seemed to only be close with Chi Jiahán.'

'As for Colonel Lu — even though I didn't know his family situation at the time, he was close with Gu Yunchi, so you could guess roughly what background he came from. He seemed like a kid without bad habits or vices, and he didn't really like socializing either.' Ruan Miao thought for a moment. 'He's changed a little more than you have — probably because of the military. When he looks at people, it's like an interrogation.'

This kind of change, Xu Ze actually hadn't felt so obviously — probably because he'd already been 'interrogated' by Lu Heyang many times in high school.

'Don't feel pressured. Just think of it as dinner with an old schoolmate.' Ruan Miao shrugged, smiled at Xu Ze. 'You look like someone who's only interested in studying and work — after your PhD you'll definitely be even busier.'

The words he'd prepared were tacitly brushed aside by the other party; Xu Ze didn't know what to say. He turned and smiled at Ruan Miao as well.

After dinner, Xu Ze drove Ruan Miao home, then drove the car to Chi Jiahán's complex and brought the keys up.

'Tell me — how did you reject her.' Chi Jiahán hugged a cushion, slouched sideways on the sofa.

'I didn't reject her.'

'I knew it.' Chi Jiahán yawned. 'After all, most people only need to chat with you for two sentences to discover you're a robot. No need for you to reject anyone.'

'Go to sleep. I'm leaving first.' Xu Ze said.

'Not seeing you out.' Chi Jiahán watched Xu Ze leave with drooping eyelids.

The subway station was only a few minutes' walk from the apartment. His temples were throbbing, and Xu Ze took off his glasses. Almost at the apartment entrance, Ruan Miao called to ask if he'd gotten home.

'Just got in.'

'Then get some rest early. I was happy having dinner with you today — good night.'

Xu Ze figured the word 'happy' was probably Ruan Miao's well-meaning comfort. He said, too: 'Good night.'

After hanging up, Xu Ze went up the steps. A few of the lights at the top of the entrance seemed to have burned out; the area by the door was dim, and since Xu Ze wasn't wearing his glasses, he didn't notice until he was quite close that an alpha was standing beside the information display stand by the door.

Quietly watching the other's silhouette in the dimness for a long moment, Xu Ze was certain — and uncertain.

'Colonel?'