A few days later, news came from the military academy that Qin Xiangyang’s application had been preliminarily accepted, and his middle school exam scores were also satisfactory. However, he still needed to attend an interview which was scheduled for September, the same month Qin Xiangnuan would start school.
Qin Xiangyang, ecstatic that he had passed the initial selection, began to train his body intensely as instructed by Jian Zhiqing. With nearly three months ahead of him, he was determined to get in the best physical shape possible to face the military school’s interview.
Every morning, he would get up early to run with sandbags strapped to his legs, then come back to do push-ups, and lift buckets to and fro. No matter if it was windy or rainy, he never missed a day. He was set on getting into military school; becoming a soldier was his dream, and getting into military school was nothing short of a miracle in his life.
Qin Xiangnuan was still selling her scallion pancake, and business was consistently good. The increasing number of vendors in the park affected her sales somewhat, but she still made a minimum of a thousand yuan a month with no issues. Jian Zhiqin and Taotao continued to live with her, showing no desire to go home.
The food that Qin Xiangnuan cooked was so delicious that both kids weren’t picky eaters and, in less than two months, they had grown taller and put on some weight. Li Qiuhua saw her son getting stronger and continued to "graze the sheep," leaving the kids in the care of Jian Zhiqing. When Jian Zhiqing was busy, Qin Xiangnuan would look after them.
Thankfully, Qin Xiangnuan had always liked children, and having the two kids around meant she was never lonely. Of course, Conghua had grown rapidly and now was a large German Shepherd who looked quite fierce yet was incredibly smart.
It was only then that Qin Xiangnuan realized that Conghua wasn’t just any dog but rather, a descendant of a military dog. She had been raising him as a household pet with an undignified name like Conghua, and since she fed him whatever he wanted, he had lost his figure and become a little chubby, almost undermining the dignified image of a military dog.
Fortunately, Conghua was fierce, and his bark was loud. Otherwise, it might have not just been the military dog’s dignity at stake, but even his own dog dignity would have been lost.
The shop was still running every day, and business was going well—much better than the lives of most people. At least she had an income every day and it was quite substantial. The weather was getting warmer, and people started wearing less clothing. The most stylish outfit then was a shirt made of Dacron paired with trousers or sweatpants. Such attire would be considered extremely unsophisticated in the future, but at that time, it was very in vogue.
Jian Zhiqing usually wore a white shirt with dark formal pants. Although he wasn’t a college student, he reminded Qin Xiangnuan of the pure, clean, young lads of a bygone "white-clothed era." However, Jian Zhiqing had long since become more sinister, far from pure, with a tendency to develop into a dark character.
"What’s been going on with you lately?" Chun Xiangnuan sat down, placed a soft-boiled egg on the table for Jian Zhiqin, while Little Taotao was already munching away with his spoon. But Jian Zhiqin, who was usually as lively as a monkey, had suddenly become so quiet and seemed so uncharacteristic of him.
This kid, before he was even born, made his mother almost faint from hunger, and by the age of five, he’d wander from home to find something to eat. When it came to food, he didn’t seem to care about anything else. What had happened to him, could it be an early love?