Chapter 40 “Can I help you?”
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Back at the association, Song Jing still wanted to check on Tao Tao but was informed by Jia Chengan that Tao Tao had taken medicine and gone to sleep. Song Youji urged Song Jing to go to sleep.
“Let’s check on her tomorrow! Don’t collapse from exhaustion! I’ve prepared the guest room for you.”
Yawning, Song Jing returned to the apartment, and Song Youji dragged Zhao Jiu into the meeting room to question him about the letters.
He vaguely remembered receiving a few anonymous letters, but that was a long time ago, and he couldn’t recall the contents. Later, when cleaning up miscellaneous items, he threw them away.
“Before we discuss serious matters, tell me about those letters.” Song Youji reclined on the chair, looking up at Zhao Jiu, giving an illusion of looking down on him.
The redness from Zhao Jiu’s ears hadn’t faded yet. He lowered his head, half squatting down, looking slightly below Song Youji’s angle to meet his gaze. “I wrote you letters when I was in the military camp.”
“What did you write?”
“I don’t remember; probably just some trivial matters.”
Zhao Jiu tried to play dumb and divert the conversation, then Song Youji said, “Those letters should be with my high school stuff. I’ll go back and look for them.”
“Didn’t you say they were lost?” Zhao Jiu was bewildered.
“They were thrown into the storage room.” Song Youji had no habit of randomly throwing away letters, especially now when letter writing was rare due to the widespread use of the internet. He kept Zhao Jiu’s letters along with the small notes passed in high school, all stored in the storage room.
“I should be able to find them.”
“Let’s not bother…” Zhao Jiu’s eyebrows were tightly knitted, “I might not have written anything good.”
“Tell me about it.” Song Youji’s lips curled slightly, leaning close to Zhao Jiu’s face.
“After entering the military academy, I joined the Three Summer Legion’s selection camp in my first year…”
As a dream in the hearts of countless soldiers, the Three Summer Legion’s selection was devilishly difficult. The old Marshal, being of advanced age, increased the difficulty to expedite the selection of a successor. On the first day Zhao Jiu was selected for the special training camp, he was sent to the scorching and freezing planet of Haberd.
Haberd Star has thirty-six hours in a day, with twenty hours under a high temperature of 50 degrees, and the temperature drops to minus thirty degrees at night. They have to stay on Haberd Star for a month in conditions of scarce supplies and complete additional tasks.
“One night, someone cut a slit in the sleeping bag I used for warmth. That day, I almost froze to death on the ice field. When my consciousness was fading, I suddenly thought of you and vowed that if I survived, I would write you a letter. Fortunately, it became dawn, and I completed the mission. I was the first one back at the base. After dealing with the person who wanted to harm me, I wrote you the first letter.”
The content of the selection camp had to be kept confidential, so Zhao Jiu omitted crucial information in the letters. He only mentioned that he almost froze to death but still ranked first in the assessment, along with various irrelevant details. After the supervisor checked, he sent out that letter.
After that, it was unstoppable.
Thinking about how Song Youji would read his letters and speculate about the identity of the sender, Zhao Jiu felt a surge of blood throughout his body, full of fighting spirit for the upcoming training.
In the following six months, they traveled to various planets, undergoing various brutal training. The number of people in the selection camp sharply reduced; some were eliminated, some chose to withdraw, and some died during the tasks.
Zhao Jiu persevered, ranking among the top, and the driving force that kept him going was the letters he sent to Song Youji.
“Once, in the rainforest on Yasi Star, I was bitten by a tiger-like beast on the leg. While writing you a letter, I was thinking, would you frown when you see the letter? Our disciplinary officer has always been soft-hearted. Even if he sees someone he doesn’t get along with injured, he will still come forward to care.”
With a slightly teasing expression, Zhao Jiu raised the corner of his mouth.
Hearing this, Song Youji started to recall. He remembered those letters.
The content of the letters was strange, with the sender alternately claiming to have suffered a severe injury and then receiving an award. They also told Song Youji not to worry, adopting a condescending tone.
After graduation, Song Youji often received letters from classmates or admirers. Sometimes he would reply, but Zhao Jiu’s letters had no return address or signature, so he thought it was just from some bored person and didn’t pay much attention.
“If you had included your address, maybe I would have replied to you.” Song Youji said seriously.
Zhao Jiu slightly raised his body, placed his lips near the corner of Song Youji’s lips, and said with a hint of regret, “If I knew I liked you back then, I might have directly come to find you with a body full of injuries, to see if you would take me in.”
“If you were too frighteningly injured, I might have kicked you out.” Song Youji joked, with a hint of emotion in his eyes, “Do you have many injuries?”
“Many or not, haven’t you seen them yourself?”
“…I haven’t taken a good look.”
In the few honest encounters between them, Song Youji could hardly hold on for long before being led away by Zhao Jiu. It was difficult to stay awake, let alone pay attention to the injuries on Zhao Jiu.
The only thing he remembered was a shallow but long scar near the lower back on Zhao Jiu.
Zhao Jiu raised an eyebrow, dissatisfied, “I remember every mole on your body clearly!”
“Oh.” Song Youji casually shifted his gaze away, turning to the top of Zhao Jiu’s head. “Next time, I’ll pay attention.”
“No need for next time, just this time.” Saying that, Zhao Jiu grabbed Song Youji’s hand and placed it on his stomach, while his other hand unbuttoned himself.
Through the shirt, Song Youji felt Zhao Jiu’s abdominal muscles, couldn’t help but squeeze them, feeling soft yet elastic.
When Zhao Jiu unbuttoned the fourth button, Song Youji finally reacted and said, “This is the meeting room; don’t mess around.”
“Isn’t this what you wanted to see?” Zhao Jiu looked up at him, his tone full of seduction.
Unconsciously rolling his Adam’s apple up and down, it was difficult for an ordinary person to resist in the face of such allure.
But Song Youji decisively pulled his hand back and said, “Big brother is in the apartment; we should go back soon.”
With a hint of defeat on Zhao Jiu’s face, he heard Song Youji’s voice from above, “Big brother is here; I can’t let you sleep on the sofa again. Come to my room.”
Excitedly raising his head, Zhao Jiu said, “Then I…”
“Sleep on the floor.”
“Ying.”
This was the most cold and ruthless four words Zhao Jiu had ever heard.
**
Song Jing was haunted by nightmares all night. The four-hour surgery had exhausted his body, and even in his dreams, he continued to flash through various details of the surgery.
The unconscious Yu Ran, the black explosive the size of a fingernail, and the two doctors assisting him…
Song Jing kept thinking and finally woke up in the middle of the night, his throat dry as if there was a fire burning. Going out to get water, he encountered Song Youji, who was also awake.
“Big brother? Are you awake?” Seeing Song Jing looking exhausted, Song Youji poured him a glass of warm water. “Can’t sleep?”
“I’ve been having nightmares.” Song Jing leaned on the sofa, massaging his temples. “Why aren’t you sleeping either?”
“Got up to drink some water.” Song Youji shook his water glass, “Big brother, what did you mean by what you said to me at the hospital today?”
Song Jing thought about their conversation today and sighed, saying, “I feel there’s something wrong with the two doctors who were with me in surgery today.”
“Sang Tong and Mond?” Song Youji’s heart skipped a beat. “Who has a problem?”
“I have a vague impression of Sang Tong; he seems to be your high school classmate.”
“Yes.” Song Youji nervously looked at him.
Song Jing said, “I can’t pinpoint it, but both of them seem suspicious. Sang Tong was a bit hesitant during surgery, and Mond gave me the feeling of hiding his true skills. Both of them have the ability to be the lead surgeon.”
At the beginning, when they asked him to be the lead surgeon, Song Jing did hesitate. After all, Xiaoman City Hospital was a city-level hospital, and it was impossible not to have a lead surgeon. Even if it was fear of life-threatening danger, both Sang Tong and Mond went into the operating room with him. Even if they were not the lead surgeons, they would still be affected by the explosion.
In the surgical process, these two individuals also worked diligently, providing him with many professional opinions. Song Jing could sense that both of them were highly capable. Therefore, he was even more puzzled about why they refused to be the lead surgeons themselves.
“Sang Tong is an Omega. Maybe he feels uncomfortable being in the same room with you. As for Dr. Mond, I don’t know much about him, but according to Sang Tong, he has always been smooth and hasn’t liked to stand out in the hospital for many years,” Song Youji told his big brother about Zhao Jiu’s speculations regarding the NL organization, but deep down, he still felt that this matter had nothing to do with Sang Tong.
Song Jing wasn’t very surprised. He yawned and said, “My mentor and I have been studying Qiao He for a while now, and we did find that the gland modification surgery is reversible. However, due to a lack of practical experience and the absence of original data from the NL organization, we dare not hastily perform surgery on Qiao He. I came this time to find the data files of the NL organization, as my mentor suggested.”
Upon hearing that his big brother also had his own plans, Song Youji felt slightly relieved. However, he had something more important to tell Song Jing, which was the reason he couldn’t fall asleep tonight.
“Big brother, about Father…” Song Youji tentatively began, but after saying a few words, he heard Song Jing’s snoring.
Understanding his big brother’s fatigue, Song Youji thought it would be better to bring up this matter later. He carried Song Jing back to the room, covered him with a blanket, and then turned to leave.
Back in the bedroom, Song Youji moved cautiously, afraid of stepping on Zhao Jiu on the floor. However, after taking a couple of steps, someone grabbed his ankle. Losing balance, he fell, and Zhao Jiu securely caught him in his arms.
Closing his eyes, Zhao Jiu sniffed his hair and said, “Although I know this is the scent of big brother’s pheromones, the thought of you carrying someone else’s scent makes me uneasy.”
“Are you a dog’s nose?” Song Youji sighed, “Why aren’t you sleeping?”
“I woke up when you went out just now. Blame my heightened alertness.” Zhao Jiu, leaning against Song Youji’s shoulder, asked with concern, “Can’t sleep?”
Song Youji closed his eyes. “A bit.”
“Then let’s do something interesting!”
Before Song Youji could react, Zhao Jiu had already taken off his sleepwear. “Although you can’t see my perfect body without the lights on, you can still sense it.”
“This, this is the gunshot wound from the battle with the star pirates.” Song Youji’s hand was pressed near the heart, less than five centimeters away. The skin around was very smooth, except for that uneven part.
Zhao Jiu said, “Actually, that battle went smoothly. We wiped out a few hundred people in just half a day. It’s just that I was careless and didn’t notice there was still one fish slipping through the net. Since then, I’ve been more careful to clean up the loose ends.”
“And here, it’s a scratch from the merfolk on Hailan Star. We were ordered to rescue the little merfolk prince affected by the internal turmoil. However, that little guy was too alert and gave me a scratch as soon as he approached. The claws of a merfolk in combat have potent poison, but luckily his brother provided the antidote in time; otherwise, I might have died there. The wound has healed; the merfolk’s ointment is quite effective, probably can’t feel it.”
Zhao Jiu spoke nonchalantly, but he recounted experiences of near-death.
Following Zhao Jiu’s scars, Song Youji’s hand traversed those few short years, through numerous life-threatening experiences. Zhao Jiu, the marshal of the Three Summer Legion, might seem glorious, but behind that were scars accumulated from one glory to another.
“And this…” Zhao Jiu suddenly fell silent and asked Song Youji, “Did you fall asleep?”
“No, I’m sensing your medals,” Song Youji replied.
“These can’t be considered medals; they are just tasks.” Zhao Jiu took Song Youji’s hand away from his body and said, “Enough talking, you’ve ignited a fire in me from touching.”
“You did that to yourself, no backbone.” Song Youji’s voice carried a hint of amusement.
“That’s still your hand. I’ll go to the bathroom.”
“Don’t go.” Song Youji hooked his wrist and said softly, “Shall I help you?”
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