Luo Qianqian rolled over and fished out her cell phone from under the pillow, calmly sending a message to Qin Nuan: "I want to eat hot pot tonight."
Qin Nuan stared at the message that appeared on her phone and was speechless. On such a hot day? After thinking for a moment, she replied, "Let’s wait until your military training is over before we eat it."
Both of them tacitly refrained from speaking and communicated by typing on their phones on their beds, and soon they heard a voice from the upper bunk: "Can you stop typing and just get some sleep in the middle of the day? If you don’t sleep, none of us can, right?"
Luo Qianqian totally ignored them and continued to send messages: "Are we ripping off the face now?"
Qin Nuan glanced at the message and responded indifferently without addressing the other person: "How many people could have heard about our affair yesterday? Think about it and you’ll know who let it out. None of us are fools. Just watch; they probably think we’re both done for."
Luo Qianqian raised an eyebrow and didn’t reply. She yawned, turned over, and sat up, looking as though she had just been woken up. "What’s the matter?"
The other side didn’t say a word, but their movements were slightly stiff; you could see their hands clutching the jacket covering them, the whiteness at the fingertips indicating they were gripping hard.
Who was Luo Qianqian? "Qin Nuan’s golden thigh’s ’daughter’," she wasn’t someone anyone could afford to offend. Cao Yingying thought she should get along with Luo Qianqian from now on, yet she was the one who had spoken out just before. Now she was in a dilemma whether to respond or not.
Luo Qianqian watched triumphantly as the other three woke up. Only then did she hop out of bed, making a loud noise. She saw Cao Yingying, who was pretending to sleep, tremble twice on the face. Luo Qianqian smirked pleasurably, picked up a cup, gulped down a couple of sips, and put it down, though not loudly.
They all probably guessed what Cao Yingying was thinking; they watched Luo Qianqian’s antics with merriment: "I need to drink water rich in trace elements such as calcium, iron, zinc, and selenium. What’s this? Purified water? Distilled water? None of these are going to help me with my military training."
Qin Nuan immediately played along, "I’ll go buy some for you later." However, she couldn’t help but laugh to herself. The cup clearly contained the plum drink that Luo Qianqian had poured in, and after those few words, it seemed quite high level, certainly far more so than the "water rich in trace elements" Luo Qianqian mentioned, which was just mineral water. Qin Nuan covered her mouth, her face brimming with laughter.
Cong Rong cleared her throat softly, with a serious expression: "Qianqian, is it true or not that you have an unmarried uncle?"
"Of course, it’s true." Luo Qianqian nodded, but thought to herself that she indeed had an uncle who would never marry: "I’ll introduce you this weekend."
Watching the plot unfold smoothly, Qin Nuan was speechless. What was this development? Was the next step going to be a real matchmaking session? And Cong Rong with Luo Xiying??? Wouldn’t that mean she and Luo Yanran would end up being generations apart from her best friend???
Even though she knew Luo Qianqian and Cong Rong were joking, she couldn’t help but let her mind wander.
"Okay, then I’ll buy you ice cream tonight?" Cong Rong continued with a beaming smile.
Luo Qianqian immediately nodded in agreement, her eyes clearly saying ’this is not a drill’: "I want... blueberry flavor." She decisively chose a flavor she didn’t like that much but didn’t hate either so as not to have her preferences pried into.
"Good." Cong Rong might not have known, but Qin Nuan, who was sitting up on one side, definitely knew.
One could only laugh inwardly at Luo Qianqian’s mischievous antics, without mentioning more, but looked at Luo Qianqian with eyes full of meaning.
Luo Qianqian returned the look and didn’t say much more. She actually enjoyed this kind of life filled with the smoke of gunpowder; otherwise, how boring would a bland life be for her?
Cao Yingying secretly took note of Luo Qianqian’s preferences. Still with her eyes closed, she wasn’t ready to wake up yet. Listening to Luo Qianqian’s conversation with the other two, she secretly clenched her fist, thinking to herself that all these would be hers after they left.
Luo Qianqian yawned and looked out the window at the drifting camouflage uniforms, sighing, "Why do I so not want to go? If it weren’t for the snitch reporting back, I would definitely have skipped it." While saying this, Luo Qianqian wasn’t reluctant to go at all; this little bit of exercise was nothing to her, and she had promised Grandpa to win a certificate, for which he would reward her with a table full of delicious food.
Qin Nuan was aware of Luo Qianqian’s capabilities and had no intention of exposing her. Not only could Luo Qianqian handle this little bit of exercise, she could handle twice as much with ease. The only unavoidable issue was sweating due to the hot weather.
"Alright, we’ll have to gather soon, go ahead and change your clothes," urged Qin Nuan, bringing the long-sleeved clothes into the room, and laughing at the touch of the already dry clothes: "These really dried quickly, and they’re still warm."
Luo Qianqian pursed her lips. If it were winter, she would have had warmers, but what about during the summer? How was she to shield herself from the heat? The afternoon had even stronger ultraviolet rays than the morning.
"First apply sunscreen, and try to avoid wearing short sleeves as much as possible, or you’ll really change color," Qin Nuan advised as she handed the sunscreen to Luo Qianqian. Watching her prepare to put on a short-sleeved shirt underneath her clothes, she couldn’t help but laugh, "Just be grateful that you have one less layer than the other girls, otherwise it’d be even hotter."
Luo Qianqian was speechless. Was it her choice not to have that extra layer? Looking at the small ’steamed buns’ on her chest, did she really need to be so buttoned up in such hot weather?
"I’ll bring you some papaya tonight, don’t worry," Cong Rong said, covering her mouth to hide a laugh at Luo Qianqian’s grievous expression. "Four years will definitely make you grow quite substantially."
Luo Qianqian didn’t refuse; she felt that in her past life, she should have been bigger by this time. Why does she still seem so small? She decided it was indeed time to supplement her diet. Regrets began years later.
"When we finish class, we’ll bring you water. What would you like to drink?" Qin Nuan asked as she watched Luo Qianqian apply sunscreen on her hands and wrists, squatting down to pull out the small bag of bread from inside her rubber shoes and changing into a pair, expressing her disgust, "These lousy shoes should be thrown away after military training; even the dye comes off. Look what happened to your white socks?"
Luo Qianqian was speechless; it wasn’t like she had bought these herself—they were issued by the school.
"Actually, my inner self tells me that I should drink warm saltwater, but my tongue says it wants rose cold brew, and yet my sweat says, if it was a shaved ice, that would be even better," Luo Qianqian blinked innocently and said, "So I’ll leave the decision to you, as I’m going to be a good girl and head off to military training. Oh, and could you check for me which subjects our department’s classmates have chosen?" As she spoke, she gave Qin Nuan a covert look, to which Qin Nuan nodded.
It was only after Luo Qianqian had changed into her military training uniform that she showed a face full of suffering, "As soon as I put it on, I feel like I’m entering a sauna. What can I say?"
"Alright, keep reapplying sunscreen. Try to stand out as the whitest among all the new students who turned into charcoal," Qin Nuan smiled, not saying much more, and pushed her out the door, whispering in her ear, "Don’t overdo it, just perform well."
Luo Qianqian felt the pressure; how was she to perform well without overdoing it? She was used to bracing the bitter cold winters, and what was this now? It was the peak of summer. Though it wasn’t as hot as at Uncle Zhuang’s place, there, there was air conditioning! No need for sunbathing! Unlike now, where it seemed they were keen on baking her alive.