Unable to reach Jiang Chengzhou, Lin Zhilan grew willful and called Cheng Qingshan every few days.
Only when Cheng Qingshan said, “Chengzhou is doing just fine,” could she finally set her mind at ease.
During Linlin’s summer vacation after the second semester of her second year of high school, the most severe typhoon to strike the island in nearly a decade made landfall. The winds reached Force 10, with gusts up to Force 12, accompanied by torrential rain and a huge storm surge. It lasted for three full days.
The violent winds drove rain and hail before them. Enormous waves churned across the sea, all offshore routes were closed, and every fishing boat returned to port to take shelter.
The typhoon cut straight across the entire island, severing all maritime transport and leaving the island completely isolated from the outside world. Supplies could not arrive until the storm had passed and a resupply vessel was able to make its way ashore.
The military region urgently dispatched troops to assist with disaster relief.
Lin Zhilan and her colleagues at the hospital also threw themselves into treating the injured.
On the third day after the typhoon passed, the overcast skies finally cleared completely. The sky was a brilliant, cloudless blue, startlingly pure.
Then came oppressive heat and humidity, which made everything especially grueling.
Lin Zhilan had been working nonstop for more than twenty hours. Her white coat was spattered with mud and stained with blood.
The temporary medical shelter erected in the military camp was packed with casualties. Most were soldiers injured by falling trees during rescue operations, though there were also several fishermen hurt when their homes collapsed.
Linlin helped nearby by handing over gauze and dressing wounds. Her hair was soaked with sweat and plastered to her forehead, but she had no time to tidy it.
She had grown into a young woman. If education policy had not suddenly changed high school from a two-year program to three years, she would have been starting university that autumn.
At seventeen, she was in the bloom of youth.
She had inherited her mother’s beauty, with features so exquisite they seemed almost otherworldly.
If Lin Zhilan’s beauty was bright and striking, with a touch of heroism, Linlin’s was elegant and graceful, yet dazzling.
Her face and most of her features resembled Lin Zhilan, but not her brows and eyes.
Linlin’s brows were softer and more delicately shaped, while her almond-shaped eyes were limpid and pure, clear as a deep mountain spring.
She had a sweet, innocent, gentle appearance, but her gaze was composed and self-possessed, carrying an almost innate air of pride.
Whenever a young soldier met her eyes, he would instinctively lower his head, suddenly awkward. No one dared to meet her gaze too boldly.
After stitching up the wound on a soldier’s arm, Lin Zhilan glanced at her daughter.
She reached into her pocket for a handkerchief to wipe the sweat from Linlin’s face, only to find that it was already covered in mud and useless.
“Baby,” Lin Zhilan said softly, “go home and get some rest. It’s too hot here. You’ll get heatstroke.”
Her mother was calling her “Baby” again. Linlin could hear the doctors, nurses, and soldiers nearby trying not to laugh.
She smiled unconcernedly. “The power’s out at home anyway, so it’s just as hot there. I’m fine here. Besides, I can help out.”
Su Lang was busy with disaster relief, and Lin Zhilan had not stopped working either. Linlin wanted to do whatever little she could to help.
“Baby!” There was a hint of disapproval in Lin Zhilan’s eyes.
Linlin blinked, walked over to her, and pleaded sweetly, “Mommy~ I just want to stay here with you.”
The moment the girl’s soft, coaxing voice rang out, the surrounding noise unconsciously quieted. Everyone’s attention drifted toward them, some openly, others pretending not to look.
Lin Zhilan shot her a glare, but she could never resist her daughter. “Then don’t push yourself. If you feel unwell, you must tell Mommy.”
“I know.” Linlin gave her mother an obedient smile.
The area immediately fell silent, followed by a chorus of startled breaths.
When Linlin did not smile, her expression was cool and self-contained, making people hesitant to approach her.
But when she smiled, that cool reserve transformed instantly into a dazzling radiance that could steal one’s breath away. Her clear eyes curved into two crescent moons, and a lively spirit seemed to burst forth from her.
The contrast was utterly captivating. It made people want to place every good thing in the world before her and rendered them incapable of refusing any request she might make.
Several young soldiers stared for a moment before hurriedly looking away, the tips of their ears quietly turning red.
The typhoon had left the roads in complete disarray.
The soldiers were busy hauling away fallen trees and clearing the roads. Su Li was helping several children pick up branches and debris, so there was no need for his family to worry about him.
When he came looking for Lin Zhilan and Linlin, he was covered in mud from head to toe.
Su Li stopped at the entrance of the tent. He did not rush inside. Instead, he poked his head in and called, “Mom! Sis! Guess who I saw!”
Lin Zhilan was busy, so Linlin set down what she was doing and led him outside.
“Mom’s busy. Who did you see?”
“Big Brother!”
Linlin froze, as though she had not understood. “Who?”
“Your brother.” Su Li rose onto his toes and shouted right beside her ear, “Jiang Chengzhou!”
Linlin’s ears nearly rang from the volume, but she had no time to deal with her troublesome little brother. Grabbing his arm, she asked, “Where is he?”
“Over by the harbor. He’s with the soldiers, moving sandbags.”
“Are you sure you saw him clearly?”
Su Li sighed. “Do you believe me or not?”
The next second, Linlin turned and hurried into the tent. “Mom, Big Brother’s back!”
Lin Zhilan’s hands stopped. “Where?”
“At the harbor.” Linlin anxiously stamped her feet. “Mom, I want to go see him…”
It was not only Linlin who wanted to go. Lin Zhilan wanted to go too.
But she truly could not abandon the work in her hands. All she could do was say, “Then go take a look first. Be careful and don’t get hurt. If Chengzhou really has come back, tell him he must come home.”
“Okay!”
Linlin answered and ran off.
The situation at the harbor was even more chaotic than at the medical shelter.
Although the typhoon had passed, the sea was still surging relentlessly. The water near the shore was terribly muddy, and underwater currents and hidden reefs posed an even greater danger.
Large supply landing vessels did not dare approach the shore recklessly. They had to wait for the waves to calm and the silt to settle before maritime traffic could resume.
Jiang Chengzhou had arrived with the troops aboard a small military speedboat. They had avoided the worst of the waves and landed on a temporary reef beach.
He had not had time to return home. He had to patrol the coastline with the troops, remaining on guard against seawater surging inland.
Linlin had just reached the perimeter of the harbor when a sentry stopped her, extending an arm in front of her.
“Comrade, it’s dangerous beyond this point. You can’t go any closer.”
“All right, I won’t go closer. I’ll just stand here and look.”
Linlin rose onto her toes and peered inside.
The harbor was full of people coming and going, all of them in military uniforms. Linlin could not pick Jiang Chengzhou out among them.
Jiang Chengzhou had been among the first group of students admitted by the university after the national college entrance examination was reinstated.
In his second year, the school selected promising students to attend a closed defensive training program. The camp was located on a remote island in the sea.
The entire program was conducted under closed management. Private correspondence was forbidden, and participants were not allowed to contact anyone outside on their own.
As the country began constructing large-scale coastal defense fortifications on the islands, superior authorities selected the top students from the command program and assigned them to classified missions involving coastal-island defense mapping and position surveys.
In other words, although Jiang Chengzhou had actually been only a little over a hundred kilometers from home during these past few years, he had not been able to return even once.
