But from that moment on, he began to hold life in awe.
Rain drifted in on the wind and fell into Shen Man’s eyes.
“Jiang Chengzhou, I’m actually pretty scared,” Shen Man said softly. “Before I came here, I never imagined gunfire and artillery would get so close to me.”
“Are you scared too?” she asked, looking at Jiang Chengzhou.
Jiang Chengzhou froze for a moment, then gave a relieved smile. “I am.”
That was what he said, but there was no fear on his face.
Shen Man smiled. “Me too. I’m afraid of dying.”
Jiang Chengzhou tossed another branch onto the fire and glanced at her. “If you’re afraid, why don’t you run? And you still have the nerve to laugh?”
Shen Man smiled. “Knowing that you’re scared too puts me at ease. If someone as brave as you is afraid, then it’s perfectly normal for me to be afraid.”
Shen Man had known Jiang Chengzhou since they were children.
Back then, her legs had not yet healed. Some children bullied her, while others looked at her with pity. Jiang Chengzhou was neither of those types.
He simply believed, with absolute certainty, that her legs would recover, and treated her like any other child.
At the time, Shen Man herself had no idea whether her legs would ever get better. For a long while, it was Jiang Chengzhou’s certainty that gave her courage.
Jiang Chengzhou clicked his tongue and took the clothes she had been drying by the fire, pulling them on. “I’m leaving. Be careful on your own. Stay around here for your daily activities, and whatever you do, don’t wander off.”
“They’re not dry yet.”
Shen Man still wanted him to stay a little longer.
Apart from her teacher, she did not know anyone here. It had taken her a great deal of effort to find someone to talk to, and now Jiang Chengzhou was already eager to leave.
Jiang Chengzhou checked the tent pegs around her tent, then sneezed. “I’ll be stationed here for half a month. I’ll come see you whenever I have time.”
“Platoon Leader!”
Someone had already come over to call him.
Jiang Chengzhou waved at Shen Man and strode away.
Jiang Chengzhou would spend half a month recuperating in the rear before heading into the mountains to take over the next shift.
During those two weeks, he came to see Shen Man whenever he had the chance, and every time, they inevitably returned to the same subject:
He wanted Shen Man to go home.
Shen Man had no connection to the army. She was one of the first graduate students at Capital Medical University, a talent trained by the country.
She had already been here for more than a month. As long as she asked to leave, it would not cause any real problems.
Even Shen Man’s supervisor had initially opposed her coming here.
But Shen Man did not want to be a “deserter.” And with Jiang Chengzhou here, she was not quite so afraid.
After winter arrived, the mountains grew colder by the day.
The cold here was different from the cold in the capital.
The dampness seeped through their clothes. Their clothes and trousers seemed never to dry, always remaining clammy and wet.
Keeping warm was another major problem.
Damp firewood would not catch, while dry firewood burned too quickly.
The battlefield infirmary was poorly equipped. There was no high-pressure steam sterilizer, so the main method of disinfection was boiling.
On top of that, firewood was also needed to keep the wounded warm. There was never enough to go around.
Jiang Chengzhou led a squad up the mountain behind the camp. Along the sheltered slopes, they searched for dead fir trees and shrubs. They chopped wood all day, with each man carrying two bundles of dry firewood back.
He stacked the wood in the shed behind the infirmary tent. Before leaving, he split another pile of thin branches and set them aside specifically for kindling.
While he was chopping wood out back, several nurses from the infirmary happened to come outside to hang up gauze. The moment they saw him, they nudged one another with their elbows and jerked their chins toward the tent.
Apart from the nurses, Shen Man was the youngest doctor there.
Jiang Chengzhou had been coming by so often that everyone knew the tall, handsome Platoon Leader Jiang was Dr. Shen’s childhood friend.
Seeing the nurses’ looks, Jiang Chengzhou nodded at them in confusion.
The nurses had already laughed as they ducked into the tent.
“Dr. Shen, your Platoon Leader Jiang is here again. He brings a huge load of firewood every time. We’ll be relying on him for our fire this winter.”
Shen Man and Jiang Chengzhou had always been completely innocent, but their teasing immediately made her blush.
She placed the scalpels, hemostatic forceps, and other instruments into an aluminum sterilization pot, added water, and set it to boil. Glancing at the time, she said, “Stop making things up. Platoon Leader Jiang and I are friends. What do you mean, ‘yours’ and ‘mine’?”
The nurses burst into laughter.
Shen Man glared at them, then lifted the tent flap and walked outside.
“Jiang Chengzhou, we have more than enough firewood here. You don’t need to chop any more.”
Jiang Chengzhou clapped the dust from his hands. “It’s fine. I’ll be heading up the mountain again in a couple of days. I’m just gathering extra firewood for you now, so it won’t be a problem when the weather gets worse.”
Hearing that, Shen Man found it difficult to refuse.
Jiang Chengzhou heard the laughter from inside and asked, “What are you all laughing about? You sound awfully happy.”
“None of your business!”
Shen Man did not want him to know they had been teasing the two of them. She snapped at him, but her face flushed red.
Jiang Chengzhou frowned and naturally raised the back of his hand to her forehead. “Your face is so red. Don’t tell me you’ve caught a cold?”
The moment he touched her, Shen Man’s ears grew even hotter. She hurriedly took a step back. “No. It’s hot.”
Jiang Chengzhou: “…”
“Have you burned your brain? It’s freezing today.”
He continued questioning her.
Shen Man glared at him. “Your brain is the one that’s burned!”
Jiang Chengzhou rubbed his nose. “You’d better take your temperature, or have your teacher examine you.”
How could a doctor herself be so reluctant to face illness?
Shen Man could not be bothered with him. She waved him off and went back into the tent.
Knowing that Jiang Chengzhou would be heading into the mountains again in a couple of days, Shen Man felt inexplicably anxious. She could not think of anything she could do for him.
The weather on the mountain was even colder than here, so Shen Man unraveled one of her sweaters and knitted him a scarf.
The cold mountain rain had just stopped. The rest camp was muddy everywhere, and each step splashed mud up to their trouser legs.
After asking around and finding out where Jiang Chengzhou was, Shen Man carried the scarf and walked farther into the camp.
The training ground was filled with soldiers in dusty gray uniforms. Jiang Chengzhou was training with the others. He had taken off his padded jacket and was wearing only a thin training uniform, which was covered in mud. He looked rather disheveled.
Someone spotted Shen Man walking over and was instantly distracted.
The border mountains were always damp and gray, but the woman approaching in the distance was strikingly beautiful.
Shen Man was not wearing her white coat today, nor was she wearing a mask.
It was difficult to dry one’s hair after washing it here, so Shen Man had cut it short for convenience. It fell just to her jawline.
Shen Man was the kind of woman no one could ignore once she entered a crowd.
Her brow bones were high, giving her eye sockets more depth than most people’s. A faint hump along the bridge of her nose added to her aloof, stubborn air.
There was a cool, breathtaking beauty about Shen Man that made her dazzling—and made people hesitate to approach her.
“Platoon Leader, Platoon Leader!”
The soldier beside Jiang Chengzhou called out twice.
Jiang Chengzhou frowned without looking up. “Are you calling someone’s soul back from the dead? If you have something to say, just say it.”
“Platoon Leader,” the soldier said, swallowing hard as he pointed toward Shen Man. “The mountain spirit has taken human form and come looking for you.”
“Hahahahaha…”
Everyone burst into laughter, and the entire training ground erupted into lively commotion.
