The white lab coat worn on the man made him look upright and straight, his bearing outstanding.
He stood there calmly. Behind him were green military tents, beneath his feet the yellow desert; everything around seemed to fade into mere backdrop.
Dan Pinghua and Bai Chuanhao stepped forward at the same time.
“Professor Xie.”
Even someone of Dan Pinghua’s age, who liked to lean on seniority, called out this title willingly.
“Why are there only two team leaders?” The man frowned slightly. “Didn’t the list say there were three?”
“There’s another one right here!” Xu Kuan suddenly reached out and shoved Jiang Fuyue forward.
Xie Dingyuan’s gaze followed and fell this way. After a moment of stunned surprise, his pupils abruptly contracted, his expression quickly freezing, black storms sweeping through his eyes.
Everyone only felt a chill invade the scorching air, like frost and snow arriving suddenly, biting cold.
And the originally somewhat aloof Professor Xie now had a face as still as water, staring fixedly at the Jiang Fuyue who had been pushed out. His gaze shifted several times before finally turning into a dead, deathlike calm.
The instant Jiang Fuyue was pushed forward, her heartbeat stalled, her hands and feet stiffened.
Meeting the man’s line of sight, she guiltily dodged away.
Xie Dingyuan’s mouth tightened. “You’re also a team leader?”
“…Mm.” She nodded, lowering her eyes.
“Name?”
The corner of her mouth twitched. “…Jiang Fuyue.”
“Since you’re a team leader, then where are your team members?”
“…None.”
“Very good. One person equals one team, is that what this means?”
Jiang Fuyue: “……”
Xie Dingyuan: “You, come with me!”
With that, he strode ahead first.
The wind lifted the corner of his white lab coat, carefree and unrestrained, reserved and aloof.
Jiang Fuyue followed closely behind.
Everyone couldn’t help revealing looks of sympathy—
“It’s over.”
“Hope she doesn’t come back crying.”
“Who doesn’t know Professor Xie is famously strict? The higher-ups letting Jiang Fuyue lead alone this time already doesn’t comply with regulations.”
“Jiang Fuyue is really unlucky, she just arrived and already provoked the big demon king.”
“Professor Xie isn’t Xin Hongcheng; he’s not someone you can just snap back at. Feels like someone’s about to be done for.”
“No matter how capable or daring you are, once you’re in front of Professor Xie, you’ll turn into a soft-legged shrimp. Don’t ask how I know, anyone who’s worked with Professor Xie before says so.”
“……”
Xu Kuan looked in the direction Jiang Fuyue left, speaking softly. “It won’t really be this bad, will it?”
Bai Chuanhao: “You’re asking me?”
“Yeah!”
“To be honest, I don’t know. But Professor Xie’s strictness never disappoints. There’s only one thing we can do.”
Xu Kuan: “What?”
“Wish her good luck.”
“……”
On this side, discussion continued nonstop.
On the other side, Jiang Fuyue followed Xie Dingyuan, and just after turning a corner, in the next second, the man grabbed her wrist and pinned her against the wall.
“Jiang—Fu—Yue!” He ground out each word through clenched teeth, every syllable suppressing anger, like a lion on the verge of frenzy.
And the girl he restrained was like a little white rabbit that had fallen into a wolf’s den. Her beautiful peach-blossom eyes were clear to the bottom, flickering with innocent yet enticing light, one glance was enough to soften the heart and make one forgive her.
“Are you angry?” Especially when she spoke softly and gently, it was impossible to resist.
But Xie Dingyuan knew that the docility before him was all an act!
The more compliant she looked now, the bolder she was when making decisions.
“What did I say back then? Hm?” The rising tail of his words concealed danger.
Jiang Fuyue tugged at his sleeve, her voice even gentler. “Are you really angry?”
Xie Dingyuan pulled his sleeve back, his tone heavy. “Stop that with me!”
“Alright then.” Jiang Fuyue could only withdraw her hand regretfully.
A look of giving up completely.
The man laughed in anger. “I told you not to come, not to come. How did you promise me?”
“I said I wouldn’t come.”
“Then what about now?!”
“The country sent me. I had no way to refuse.” She spread her hands.
Xie Dingyuan: “……”
“Besides, I didn’t come to look for you. I came to work!”
The man’s brow tightened. “What work?”
“Here, take a look.” Jiang Fuyue lifted the work badge on her chest to show him.
On it, written in both Chinese and English—
Aid-F Team Researcher: Jiang Fuyue
Xie Dingyuan only felt helplessness and anger surge up at the same time, rushing straight to his head.
He took a deep breath, emotions churning several times.
In the end, his tone softened. “Yueyue, this place is very dangerous…”
“I know.”
“You know and still—”
Jiang Fuyue met his worried eyes and smiled slightly. “I also want to walk the road you walked, see the scenery you’ve seen. You can do it, so I won’t be too bad either. Believe that?”
The man’s thin lips pressed together, his eyes deep as the sea.
“Professor Xie—” Someone was calling from not far away.
A sigh escaped his lips. Xie Dingyuan placed both hands on the girl’s shoulders, with such force, such heaviness.
“Take good care of yourself.”
After speaking, he turned and left, his back carrying a trace of haste and fluster.
His tightly clenched hands revealed his restraint and forbearance at this moment.
Jiang Fuyue showed a puzzled look. That’s it? It’s over?
She had originally prepared herself to be harshly scolded by Xie Dingyuan, even for him to get angry and give her the cold shoulder, but she hadn’t expected that he would just… leave?
Xie Dingyuan was indeed very angry—no, more precisely, furious.
Angry that Jiang Fuyue didn’t listen, and also angry at himself for not discovering it in time and stepping in to stop it. Now, whatever he said, it was too late.
He had to leave, give himself some time to calm down; otherwise, he didn’t know what he might do.
What if he hurt Jiang Fuyue…
That was absolutely not what he wanted.
“Professor Xie, the clinical trial data has already been sent—” Uh!
That person only felt a burst of cool wind brush past him. When he raised his eyes again, he saw Professor Xie pass by without looking sideways, a low-pressure aura enveloping him entirely.
……
Jiang Fuyue and her group were arranged to stay in a flat building.
Two people per room, but since the whole team had only her as a woman, she was arranged to stay alone, though there were still two beds inside.
As night was falling, today was given as a temporary rest period.
Tomorrow they would officially enter the virus laboratory and begin the related research.
Meals were provided at the canteen, served at fixed times and locations, with a fully militarized schedule.
Oh, and there was one very important thing—
“Please hand over your mobile phones.” A soldier who could speak Chinese was assigned to come over.
This time, no translation was needed.
“Hand over our phones? Why?”
The soldier replied stiffly: “For the needs of the confidentiality system.”
“No phones then how do we contact each other?”
The soldier raised his hand, and two others carried over a crate of black items that looked like remote controls and began distributing them.
“These are base-customized walkie-talkies. They can meet daily communication needs. And it’s necessary to remind everyone that all your conversations will be under monitoring.”
Old Huang from Dan Pinghua’s team spoke with emotion: “Is this also required by the confidentiality system?”
“Of course not. This is called counter-espionage measures.”
Old Huang: “……”
After the precautions were explained, the soldiers left. Everyone took their walkie-talkies back to their rooms.
Jiang Fuyue closed the door and lowered her head to examine the item in her hand. It was more compact and lightweight than an ordinary walkie-talkie, with a shorter antenna as well.
She guessed it could only be used to receive base channel signals. As for external radio waves, they should be completely shielded here.
She turned on the power, rotated the dial, and began tuning.
As everyone knows, the shortwave HF portion includes nine different bands, ranging from 1.8MHz to 29.7MHz.
This should be the 10-meter band, with a frequency range of 28.0–29.7MHz, capable of very good communication performance, with low power requirements and small antenna size.
The characteristics matched perfectly.
But not entirely.
Here it merely adopted the radio mode, but the actual tuning was different from ordinary radio.
For example, 29.6MHz is an internationally well-known Huaxia FM frequency. Since the Huaxia Radio Sports Association carried out 10-meter FM experimental activities in 1995–1996, this band has remained active.
But in the tuning function of this so-called “walkie-talkie” in her hand, “29.6MHz” was the base’s training bulletin.
The announcer used Arabic throughout to publicly report the day’s training conditions of each squad.
Jiang Fuyue continued rotating the knob.
She thought, if each walkie-talkie corresponded to its own “channel,” and all were under monitoring, then the channels should be open.
If she were lucky, could she tune into Xie Dingyuan’s channel and talk to him?
Ahem…
She had angered him a bit too much just now and felt a little apologetic.
She thought she should still say “sorry.”
After all, it was she who didn’t heed advice and acted first.
Unfortunately, until dinner time, Jiang Fuyue still couldn’t tune into his channel.
“Forget it, I’ll talk about it after dinner.”
Because meals were served at fixed times and locations, Jiang Fuyue did not dare to dawdle. If she missed it, she would go hungry. There was no takeout or late-night snacks here.
When she reached the cafeteria, all she could see were camouflage training uniforms. At first glance, it looked like a lush green chive field.
There was a specially designated Huaxia food area here, with seating divided off. Other soldiers were not allowed to come over; it was for members of the Huaxia scientific research teams only.
Jiang Fuyue got her food and deliberately ate very slowly.
She thought that by waiting like this, she could squat and catch Xie Dingyuan.
Unfortunately, she never saw him.
“Hi, are you okay?” Xu Kuan dragged Bai Chuanhao over to sit across from her.
Jiang Fuyue looked baffled. Where did she look like she wasn’t okay?
“Professor Xie didn’t make things difficult for you, right?”
Make things difficult?
Not really.
Angry, though that was real.
“Jiang Fuyue?” Xu Kuan waved his hand in front of her eyes. “You weren’t scared stupid, were you?” He turned to look at Bai Chuanhao.
The latter shrugged.
Jiang Fuyue snapped back to her senses and said coldly, “Take your claws away.”
Xu Kuan froze, then awkwardly withdrew his hand: Fierce as h*ll. Doesn’t look like someone who got scolded!
“By the way, what did Professor Xie look for you alone for?”
Jiang Fuyue raised her eyes. “What do you think?”
“Probably has something to do with you forming a team by yourself, right? Think about it, there’s never been anyone like you in previous international aid research teams. Calling it unprecedented wouldn’t be an exaggeration. Professor Xie must be really curious, so he called you over to ask the reason, right?”
Seeing the gossip all over his face, Jiang Fuyue smiled.
With that smile, Xu Kuan was stunned; even Bai Chuanhao’s gaze couldn’t help but shift.
“Want to know?” she asked.
“Yes, yes!” Xu Kuan nodded repeatedly, eyes full of anticipation.
Bai Chuanhao looked uninterested on the surface, eating his meal on his own, but his ears had already perked up.
Jiang Fuyue said, “Professor Xie looked for me, of course because—”
Xu Kuan’s eyes lit up.
Bai Chuanhao slowed his chewing.
“Take a guess?”
The two of them: “……”
Jiang Fuyue swallowed her last bite of food, stood up, and left, looking exactly like a scummy guy who toys with an innocent girl’s feelings.
Xu Kuan was dumbfounded. “She’s… deliberately dangling us, isn’t she?”
Bai Chuanhao said, “Obviously, you’re the one being dangled.”
Xu Kuan snorted and curled his lips. “As if you weren’t too.”
Bai Chuanhao: “……” I was, but I won’t admit it.
Jiang Fuyue put her tray and utensils at the return point. Just as she was about to leave, she suddenly heard—
“Why haven’t we seen Professor Xie? Did he go back into the lab again?”
“No. Don’t know what happened, Professor Xie went out for a bit, and when he came back, he blew up big time.”
“Huh? Professor Xie gets angry too? Doesn’t he usually just give people a cold face and pressure them with his gaze?”
“I didn’t know Professor Xie could get angry before either, but now I do.”
“Scary?”
“Terrifying.”
“Tsk… then I’ll stay in the cafeteria a bit longer before going back to the lab. If I run into him at the wrong moment, that’d be disastrous.”
“Right, right, then I won’t rush back either.”
Jiang Fuyue blinked: Could it be because of her?
……
Night fell. Jiang Fuyue lay on her single military cot, still holding that walkie-talkie, tuning frequencies.
In increments of 0.1, trying them one by one.
Sometimes she would tune into other people’s channels, for example—
“Teacher Dan, I know you have the habit of drinking a cup of tea before bed. I happened to bring some tea leaves with me, just brewed it. Have a taste?”
“Thanks for the trouble, Little Zheng.”
“No trouble, no trouble. About the experimental section, could you let me handle the extraction…”
Jiang Fuyue didn’t listen any further, nothing more than flattery, currying favor, and exchanging benefits.
Another twist of the knob, switching to the next.
A string of Arabic burst out, extremely fast-paced, mentioning words like “drills,” “combat,” and “training.”
It was probably a base NCO’s walkie-talkie. Since the conversation didn’t involve secrets, it hadn’t been encrypted or hidden by central control and could be freely intercepted.
The next one, only the sound of water.
The next, louder than a nightclub. Jiang Fuyue hurriedly switched it off.
But most of the time it was empty frequencies, with only the crackling hiss of static.
She had no idea how she eventually fell asleep. She only knew that she was gripping the walkie-talkie tightly in her hand.
Until the indicator light blinked twice, the battery dropped too low, and it automatically shut down.
……
The next day, the training bell rang early, jolting the sleeping soldiers awake.
It also woke everyone from Dan Pinghua’s team and Bai Chuanhao’s team.
After breakfast, they headed for the laboratory.
Suddenly, “Eh? Why haven’t we seen Jiang Fuyue? Where is she?”
“Did she oversleep?”
“Don’t say it, there’s a real possibility. Girls, after all, how many aren’t delicate?”
“Delicate? This is work! No matter how delicate you are, you should know the occasion!”
“If you can’t endure hardship, then don’t come in the first place! Stay comfortably at home, why drag everyone else down?”
“Exactly! People without team spirit are the worst!”
“One bad apple ruins the whole barrel. I really don’t know what the higher-ups were thinking, actually letting her form a team on her own?”
Someone from Bai Chuanhao’s team couldn’t stand it anymore. “Jiang Fuyue might just be unfamiliar since she just arrived. There’s no need to crusade against a little girl like this, right?”
“What’s wrong with being a bit more tolerant? Who didn’t start out as a newbie?”
“We didn’t even agree on a specific assembly time beforehand. It’s understandable if she didn’t know.”
“As for team spirit, that’s a bit of a stretch. We’re three teams with different research directions. Jiang Fuyue alone is one team. If you really want to talk about team spirit, it shouldn’t be with us, she alone represents her team’s will.”
Xu Kuan nodded. “Exactly! She can come whenever she wants. Our respective experiment progress doesn’t affect each other anyway.”
“Some people really live by the sea, meddling in everything!”
“You—” Xin Hongcheng was so angry he was gasping.
Dan Huaping maintained his usual deep composure, saying nothing, with no extra expression on his face.
Those who didn’t know him might be fooled, thinking he was some deeply hidden big boss, but anyone who had spent time with him knew that his silence was merely a way of protecting himself.
Don’t speak, don’t stir trouble.
If something blew up later, he could cleanly remove himself.
“That’s enough!” Finally, Bai Chuanhao stepped forward, his gaze lightly sweeping over both teams. “Is such a small matter really worth arguing over like this?”
No one spoke.
“Xu Kuan, contact Jiang Fuyue and see what’s going on with her.”
“Okay.” Xu Kuan took out his walkie-talkie and tuned it to Jiang Fuyue’s channel.
“Jiang Fuyue? Are you there? Jiang Fuyue?”
“……”
Blank. Silent. No response at all, not even the crackle of static.
“What’s going on?”
“Did she do it on purpose?”
“Or did you tune to the wrong channel?”
Xu Kuan was puzzled too. “That shouldn’t be the case…”
Logically, as long as the walkie-talkie was on and tuned to the corresponding channel, even if the other side didn’t speak, there would still be the hiss of static.
It wouldn’t be like this, no sound at all.
Unless…
Bai Chuanhao said, “Her walkie-talkie isn’t turned on.”
Xu Kuan frowned. “It could also be out of battery.”
Finally met.
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