"Child, actually we’ve come to accept it, we shouldn’t restrain Murong’s will—her marriage should be decided by herself. We understand everything about you and her!" Fang Min said so.
Ye Chenfeng was stunned.
Qiu Yuanshan also spoke up, "Young man, no need to pretend, we’re all men here, we understand those matters, no need for explanations!"
Ye Chenfeng wanted to cry but had no tears; he really wanted to explain.
"Don’t mind us, kid, we’re just here to see Murong; we didn’t expect to bump into you!" Fang Min kept on explaining.
Ye Chenfeng truly felt like crying, it’s my first time here too, making it seem like I come every day.
And Qiu Yuanshan with his explosive temper isn’t opposing me anymore? His stubbornness is usually unchangeable by eight oxen. Could it be because he thinks I’m handsome, he wants to give his daughter to me?
Anyway, Ye Chenfeng no longer cared too much and carried Qiu Muran to her bedroom.
"Just leave little Ye to me, you go outside and have a chat with your uncle?" Fang Min took over the task of taking care of Qiu Muran, ready with hangover remedies like sobering vinegar.
Feeling antsy like sitting on pins, Ye Chenfeng paced in one-two, three-four steps to where Qiu Yuanshan was.
It felt like he came for a secret affair but was caught by her parents, and Ye Chenfeng really lost all his anger.
"Come, little Ye, have some melon seeds—caramelized melon seeds, not sure if you’ve ever had them?" Qiu Yuanshan glanced at him and handed Ye Chenfeng a bag of melon seeds.
Then the two stared at each other in silence; Ye Chenfeng always felt that Qiu Yuanshan’s gaze was oddly behaved, making him uncomfortably at a loss for words.
So, Ye Chenfeng lowered his head and cracked the seeds, while Qiu Yuanshan brewed a cup of tea and watched the evening news silently, the two tacitly not speaking.
After a while, Ye Chenfeng slowly finished a bag of caramelized melon seeds, even surprising himself.
But Qiu Yuanshan was still doing his thing, seemingly with no intention of speaking to him. Ye Chenfeng felt guilty, but increasingly bored.
After some time, Ye Chenfeng opened WeChat and posted a status on his Moments:
Bored, finished a bag of caramelized melon seeds by myself. A total of 1854 seeds, 26 were empty, 9 with worms snuck in, 6 were unopened, stuck together, and 4 were bitter. Drank 3 cups of tea in the meantime. Yes, this is boredom.
ps: Just now, this sentence has a total of 67 characters, 11 punctuation marks, including eight commas, three periods, totaling 587 strokes, with 78 horizontal, 137 vertical, 65 oblique, 57 right-falling strokes, and 139 other strokes. Yes, this is the epitome of boredom.
"You must have been a soldier before?" After more than an hour passed, Qiu Yuanshan finally broke the silence, but this opening line made Ye Chenfeng embarrassed.
Ye Chenfeng nodded, "I have been!"
"Looking at your posture, so upright, your demeanor bold and efficient, you must have been a soldier, and not just any kind," Qiu Yuanshan praised.
Ye Chenfeng was stunned for a moment but then quickly said, "It wasn’t any ordinary branch, I was in logistics, feeding pigs!"
Qiu Yuanshan’s eyes brightened at the first half of the sentence, but he spat out his drink at the second half.
"That doesn’t sound like you, little Ye, you should know that back in the day I was with the most outstanding Reconnaissance Company in the Southeast Military Region..."
"Dragon Thorn Reconnaissance Company?" Before Qiu Yuanshan could finish, Ye Chenfeng spoke up.
"Yes, indeed, Dragon Thorn! How did you know?" Qiu Yuanshan seemed to have met a kindred spirit, his happiness evident in his expression.
Ye Chenfeng felt an urge to laugh because after he and Xi Dazhuang finished their new recruit training, they went straight into the Dragon Thorn and turned things upside down there. In the end, he was punished and reassigned to the cooking squad, where he basically spent his entire military career in the Divine Land.
"Little Ye, you couldn’t possibly be from Dragon... Dragon Thorn, could you?" Qiu Yuanshan asked with a tremble in his voice, as if he had met an old war buddy.
Ye Chenfeng did not hide it, nodding: "Indeed, I was once a member of Dragon Thorn! Old soldiers never die, they just fade away!"
The Dragon Thorn Reconnaissance Company’s history dated back to the time of the resistance war and was themed around aging soldiers in decline.
"Old soldiers never die, they just fade away!" At that moment, Qiu Yuanshan’s gaze became more solemn than ever before. He stood up straight and saluted Ye Chenfeng respectfully.
But his waist was particularly stiff, and when he stood up straight, his right shoulder was lower than his left.
"So you said you were... you were a pig feeder?" Qiu Yuanshan asked incredulously.
"Yes, that’s right. I was a logistics soldier for Dragon Thorn, responsible for their food supply!" Ye Chenfeng nodded.
"Oh, that’s not bad at all. Anyway, you were still one of Dragon Thorn’s soldiers!" Qiu Yuanshan’s gaze dimmed quite a bit, but his attitude had improved a lot, lacking the initial hostility.
Suddenly, Ye Chenfeng’s gaze swept over Qiu Yuanshan, and then he said: "You have a gunshot wound in your waist, dating back about twenty years ago, right?"
Qiu Yuanshan sucked in a breath of cold air. Was the Ye Chenfeng before him a god? How could he know this?
Following that, Qiu Yuanshan became indescribably excited, nodding vigorously: "How did you know?"
Ye Chenfeng smiled: "When you stand up straight, it’s clear that your right shoulder is lower than your left, and your body is particularly stiff, whether you’re getting up or sitting down. I deduced that you must have an injury in the waist area!"
"You can determine that? Could it be you’re a practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine? Your skills in observation and diagnosis are nothing short of miraculous! I was shot by a Vietnamese gun during the Vietnam Defense War, and that gunshot wound still aches intermittently, becoming a chronic problem. You mean to say you can treat this injury?"
Qiu Yuanshan just casually asked the question. While it might not be difficult for Ye Chenfeng to spot the gunshot wound, healing it was another matter entirely, one much more difficult. Over the years, he had sought treatment from many doctors.
Moreover, the gunshot wound had a significant impact on his kidneys, so over the years, Qiu Yuanshan’s and Fang Min’s intimate life had been far from satisfactory. Fang Min, at an age when she was particularly desirous, had a lot of complaints about Qiu Yuanshan.
"Of course, I can treat it, right now!" Ye Chenfeng answered matter-of-factly.
Qiu Yuanshan’s gaze sharpened, his breathing quickening.
"Are you sure?" Qiu Yuanshan felt his lips quiver.
"It’s possible, it’s not a big problem!" Ye Chenfeng assured confidently.
Although Qiu Yuanshan was still somewhat skeptical, he thought it wouldn’t hurt to let Ye Chenfeng try. What if it actually worked?
Ye Chenfeng rolled up the area around Qiu Yuanshan’s lower back, holding a Wooden Needle in his hand, gently inserting it, and then twisting it around.
Qiu Yuanshan’s expression became extremely exaggerated. His lower back had always been stiff and cold with no sensation, but the moment Ye Chenfeng’s needle pierced in, he felt a needle-like pain. Gradually, he felt a warm current flow through his entire body, and the comfortable sensation was indescribably pleasant.
Ten minutes later, Ye Chenfeng withdrew the needle.
"Mission accomplished!"