CH 25.2

Chapter 25.2 – Triumph

The crowd outside the alley hadn’t dissipated yet. They bathed in the sun, breathed fresh air, talked about the snowdrops, talked about the record, and talked about the young and promising General Lu.

And Lu Tinghan, who was separated from them by a wall, was hugging his little monster in the deserted alley.

He seemed to have a thousand words, but in the end, he only said, “…let’s go home.”

Lu Tinghan was still wearing a military uniform shirt, so he put on a casual jacket to block the glittering golden epaulettes, and then put on a mask.

Now, no one would notice them, the crowd was still in excitement, and even if they saw those military pants and boots, they would only think it was some ordinary soldier who had just returned from the front.

Who would have thought it?

The hero was rubbing shoulders with them.

Not seeing each other for over a full month was too long for an abyss with very high emotional needs like Shi Yuan. He clung to Lu Tinghan’s side, not leaving half a step.

He said, “I miss you so much, fortunately, my tail is not tied in knots these days, otherwise, I would not be able to untie it.”

Lu Tinghan smiled.

Shi Yuan asked, “Did you miss me?”

Lu Tinghan: “Mm.”

Shi Yuan was instantly satisfied, and said, “Let me tell you, Lu Tinghan, I met a lot of people in the shelter, and a lot of things happened.”

Lu Tinghan touched Shi Yuan’s head: “Tell me everything, we have a lot of time.”

So, Shi Yuan happily talked about his experience, Lu Tinghan listened and asked a few questions from time to time.

The sun has completely risen, and the golden light spilled over the world. They went out into the streets, walking through the city he defended, and into the tide of thousands of people.

*

After the alarm was lifted, all recreational activities in the city were suspended, and everyone had to devote themselves to rebuilding the city.

Gleaning City was not the main battlefield, the damage inside the city was small, and the main losses were concentrated on the outskirts of the city. Even so, people could be seen everywhere, clearing up the wreckage and transporting materials.

Shi Yuan was assigned the task of being a food distributor.

A new emergency food supply office has been built on the street to provide nearby meals for workers. Shi Yuan was distributing food from morning to evening, serving people rice, fried vegetables, and carrot soup.

During the rebuilding period, wages were kept very low. His hourly salary was 2 yuan, but everyone received a share of necessities. He received a small bag of rice, bread, and daily necessities such as toothpaste and shower gel.

All kinds of people came to eat, and even more people recognized him.

A young man working at a nearby construction site came here to eat every day. One day, he said in surprise: “Hey, I just thought, why you look so familiar. You were in the theater before, right?”

“Yes,” Shi Yuan replied.

“I’ve seen your show,” said the young man. “You played the ‘Savior’.”

Shi Yuan added: “I have played different roles, Lin Mo, the cypress demon, and the savior are all me.”

“I know, I know.” The people in the back line began to urge, and the man spoke a little faster, “I have an impression of all of them – when the reconstruction is over, I look forward to seeing your performance again.”

The young man added his contact information and said he would get in touch later.

After work today, Shi Yuan saw someone selling flowers on the side of the road.

The ones sold were snowdrops, the kind that hadn’t bloomed yet, and each one cost 120 yuan.

There was only the last one left, the buds were not full enough, the branches and leaves were thin, and it didn’t look like the prettiest one.

There were several snowdrops in the house before, and Shi Yuan was waiting for them to bloom – this was the first time he had raised flowers, and he always felt that it had a special meaning. He didn’t know if the indoor conditions were not as good as the balcony. The flowers bloomed briefly, and by the time he and Lu Tinghan got home, they had already withered.

Shi Yuan had been thinking about buying another flower for Lu Tinghan.

But he hesitated again. After all, Lu Tinghan even had a sea of flowers, and he might not care about this flower.

“This is the last batch of budding snowdrops,” the man explained after seeing Shi Yuan standing for a long time. “The other batches have already bloomed, and this is the only one left. If you miss it, there will be no more! In special periods like today, this price is normal.” It was very cold, he rubbed his hands and tried his best to promote it. “Whether you give it away or raise it by yourself, it’s pretty good. Just put it in a vase and add water, and it’s guaranteed to bloom.”

Shi Yuan was moved, and counted his own money. After counting the previous deposits, it was enough to buy one.

He said, “Give me the last one.”

“Okay.” The man laughed. “Do you want to raise it yourself or give it away?”

“Give it away.” Shi Yuan bent his eyes and smiled.

He took this budding flower home, put it in a vase, and took the vase into the room to hide it.

He wanted to surprise Lu Tinghan.

It’s just that when he had dinner with Lu Tinghan, he still couldn’t hold back: “I have prepared a gift for you!”

“What gift?” Lu Tinghan was very interested.

“Secret,” Shi Yuan said, and added, “It’s actually not something special – it’s really not.”

Lu Tinghan asked, “When can I see it?”

Shi Yuan thought for a while: “Half a month.”

In the days that followed, Shi Yuan changed the water every day, looking forward to the flowers blooming.

After half a month, the buds finally bloomed, and they were almost in full bloom.

On this day, Shi Yuan flew home as soon as he got off work.

What he didn’t expect was that Lu Tinghan went home earlier than him.

The command work after the war could not be neglected at all, Lu Tinghan had been very busy for the past half month. Until the last few days, the situation became more and more stable, and Su Enqi took over most of the tasks again, saying that Lu Tinghan should rest well.

“I know that you are energetic and don’t know how to be tired,” Su Enqi said in private. “You have been like this since you were young. Once, you had a fever and insisted on doing simulation training, in the end, you won, and you also burned until your face turned pale, and you were almost hospitalized, don’t you remember?”

Lu Tinghan: “I don’t remember.”

“You rarely get sick, how could you not remember such a big illness?” Su Enqi felt incredulous. “It seems to be the one that simulates reptiles, you were 17 years old.”

Lu Tinghan was silent for two seconds: “…Is it the simulation of the Level II reptile infection group, infantry combat outside the city, with restricted thermal weapons, and the best record was 6 hours and 47 minutes and I completed it in 6 hours and 1 minute, or the Level III reptile and bird infection group, land and air vertical encirclement, simulation with street fighting part, the one where I broke the record by five seconds?”

Su Enqi: “…”

Su Enqi: “…you remember these things so clearly, but you don’t remember that you were so ill that you were almost hospitalized?”

Lu Tinghan: “I don’t remember at all.”

Su Enqi was once again convinced by him, and realized that his former student was really devoted to war and military affairs, and he couldn’t pull him back.

In other words, Lu Tinghan is Lu Tinghan precisely because he has such a desire to win.

But he insisted on letting Lu Tinghan relax, even for a few days, after all, Lu Tinghan went back and forth between the front and the rear that month and never took a breath.

Su Enqi said: “If you have time to spend more time with your family – doesn’t that little partner of yours look forward to your return?”

Since the conversation that night, Su Enqi had always thought that Shi Yuan was his partner, and he was still hiding the baby so badly that he never mentioned it to others. And General Lu, in the spirit of not letting Su Enqi rush him to find a girlfriend, with the principle of “the less trouble, the better”, did not bother to explain to him.

Su Enqi mentioned it casually, but he didn’t expect to be able to persuade Lu Tinghan.

Unexpectedly, Lu Tinghan was silent for a few seconds, and then slowly said, “Okay.”

Su Enqi’s cloudy eyes widened: “Are you willing?”

“Yes,” Lu Tinghan said. “I’ll rest for a while.”

General Su looked at Lu Tinghan in shock as if the “Horn” suddenly came to life and said to him, “Hey baby, let’s go to a picnic together.”

After Lu Tinghan left, Su Enqi stood in front of the window with his hands behind his back, deeply moved: “Spring has arrived ah…”

The adjutant standing behind him: ?

Isn’t it the middle of winter now?

Before Lu Tinghan left the headquarters, he met Cao Yunjie, the mayor of Fengyang City.

After the end of the world, the army and the government gradually became inseparable. Although the mayor is called the mayor, he actually has a level 1 civilian military rank.

This meeting was private. Cao Yunjie had always admired Lu Tinghan very much. In a sense, his status greatly limited his ability to express his admiration:

If it weren’t for the appearance of the city, he would have liked to put up a large banner in front of the municipal building, with a banner on the left [General Lu’s strategy will surely win], and a banner on the right [General Lu is brave, skilled in battle, wise and powerful], and horizontally written [General Lu is awesome]; If it weren’t for his sensitive identity, and giving too expensive gifts would be suspected of bribery and ass-kissing, he would have stuffed the ancestral jade and painting collection into Lu Tinghan’s house long ago.

Lu Tinghan chatted with him briefly for a while.

Cao Yunjie expressed his enthusiasm in other ways, Lu Tinghan came empty–handed, and left with a large bouquet of flowers in his hands.

“This is the people’s heart, you can take it back!” Cao Yunjie said so, smiling like a wrinkled old flower too.

So Lu Tinghan left with a large bouquet of flowers.

On this day, it was rare for him to arrive home earlier than Shi Yuan. Shi Yuan threw himself into his arms, purring happily, but then saw the flowers he brought.

Sunflower, Lily, Strelitzia, Snowdrops, and Painter’s Palette.

They were all carefully selected flowers with excellent meanings, carrying Cao Yunjie’s sincere heart of a fan, a large bunch of flowers looked brilliant and charming, and they were extremely beautiful.

Shi Yuan stared at the flower for a few seconds, then his tail suddenly drooped and stopped wagging.

Lu Tinghan was a little puzzled: normally, Shi Yuan really likes flowers. He asked, “Why are you…”

Before he finished speaking, Shi Yuan entered his room quickly.

Inside the room, the branch of snowdrop he raised really bloomed.

It’s still good-looking, but it’s not in good shape, otherwise, it wouldn’t be the last one on the seller’s hands. Its buds were smaller than other flowers, the stamens were thin, and the corolla was thin, and its bloom was much less meaningful.

A small, lonely flower with a broken leaf.

Not as good as the bouquet of flowers in the living room, let alone the gorgeous sea of flowers.

Shi Yuan wilted.