Chapter 43. Misunderstanding
“What do you mean?”
Bai Chongxiu handed a letter to him and said, “Take a look at it. It was left by Adjutant Xu.”
Leng Yuhe didn’t know what he meant, so he immediately took the letter and opened it.
“Young General, I betrayed you. I was mentally prepared to die on the battlefield. Shen Nan kidnapped my family members and threatened me… My greatest luck in this life is to follow you. In the next life, I will definitely try my best to pay your kindness back.”
The letter was not long, but it took Leng Yuhe a long time to read it because he didn’t want to believe the truth.
“Adjutant Xu is a righteous person. I can help you take his body home, arrange a grand funeral and give him the title of martyr. What do you think?”
“No need. Spread the news that Adjutant Xu wanted to assassinate me while I was unconscious. Then I found out his plan and executed him on the spot.”
After hearing this, Bai Chongxiu was puzzled. “Anyway, he saved your life. Even though he betrayed you, he shouldn’t end up like this.”
Leng Yuhe held the letter tightly and said, “Don’t you understand? Only in this way will Shen Nan spare his innocent family members.”
Bai Chongxiu understood his meaning instantly, and he admired Leng Yuhe’s forethoughtfulness. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll do these things for you.”
“Why can’t we leave the border after we win the battle?” Being distraught, Leng Yuhe asked in a frightening tone.
“My father just called me and said that the enemies in Province S won’t give up easily. They will definitely take further actions, and my father asked us to remain stationed at the border.”
Since it was the President’s order, Leng Yuhe had to obey it. “But our camp and supplies were burned up before. How did you get a call from the President?”
“You’ve been in a coma for two whole days. All the supplies are already in place, and the camp has been renovated as before.” Bai Chongxiu then went out while saying, “You haven’t eaten for a long time. I’ll arrange for someone to bring you some food.”
When he heard that he had been unconscious for two days, Leng Yuhe was shocked. He didn’t know how Ruoqing was now. Adjutant Xu had already stated in his letter that Su Ruoqing lied to him about her illness. At that time, he couldn’t call her to ask the situation, but now he could contact her.
While thinking about it, Leng Yuhe sat up from his bed in spite of the pain in his body. Meanwhile, two soldiers who delivered food to him had just come in.
“Young General, why are you up?”
“Help me over. I need to speak to my family on the phone.”
A soldier put down the dishes to help Leng Yuhe get up. When he went to the phone and saw something on the table, he suddenly reached out to take it and hide behind his back. His movements were too obvious, making Leng Yuhe suspicious.
“Take out the thing hidden behind your back.”
“Young General, it’s just the newspaper of the previous two days, so it’s not worth reading.” Faced with Leng Yuhe’s coercion, the soldier was so nervous that his voice trembled, but he still refused to hand over the thing to Leng Yuhe.
Since he refused his request so firmly, Leng Yuhe was certain that there was something wrong.
“Don’t make me say it again. Give it to me right away,” Leng Yuhe said in a threatening voice, and the atmosphere in the room was getting more tense.
The soldier dared not resist again. Lowering his head, he slowly took out the thing hidden behind him and Leng Yuhe took it away immediately.
It was indeed the newspaper of the previous two days, and there was nothing to make a fuss about. When he was about to put it down, he saw a familiar name on the newspaper. It was Su Ruoqing.
When realizing that Leng Yuhe had seen the news, the soldier was annoyed and frightened, and he slowly left the room to find others to discuss the solution.
“The Young General has found that newspaper. What should we do now?”
“What? We have reached an agreement that no one could put that newspaper in his room. Who did it?”
“I feel strange, too. The newspaper is put next to his phone. The person who did this definitely wanted the Young General to see it.”
The soldiers wanted to figure out the truth, but they ignored Bai Chongxiu, who was standing next to them with a smile.
In the barrack, Leng Yuhe had already read the newspaper. Although he was willing to believe in Su Ruoqing, he felt distressed and was even afraid to call her.
Bai Chongxiu came in again and stood behind him. “I didn’t expect you to finally know it. This matter has spread like wildfire and everyone knows it now.”
On the other side, Su Ruoqing had been trying to find the person behind the scenes for a few days, but she was still clueless. When the people stationed in the army reported that Leng Yuhe’s phone had been reconnected, she couldn’t wait to call him.
When the phone rang, Leng Yuhe quickly answered it.
“Yuhe, is that you?” Hearing the familiar voice of Ruoqing, which he had missed for a few days, Leng Yuhe had mixed feelings. He said, “It’s me.”
“Great! I can finally reach you. Do you know how worried I am about you?” He could hear her sobbing and feel her concern for him, but the headline of the newspaper was right in front of him. He felt that he had lost the ability to make decisions decisively for the first time. Anything about Ruoqing could easily fluster him.
“We won the battle. Don’t worry. Now I have something to ask you.” Leng Yuhe calmed down and decided to ask her that matter directly.
“Okay. Please say it.”
Staring at the newspaper in front of him, Leng Yuhe asked, “You should have seen the recent news in the newspaper. I hope you can tell me that it’s not true.” Although he was willing to believe in Su Ruoqing, the two had not experienced any twists and turns in their relationship. Therefore, he could only rely on her commitment to comfort himself.
Su Ruoqing had long known what he wanted to ask, and she had already prepared her answer. Although she didn’t have an affair with Mingzhe, she did meet with him. She thought she had to tell the truth to Leng Yuhe.
“Yuhe, don’t get angry after hearing my words. I’ll confess to you…”
Bang! Bang!
Her voice was overshadowed by the sudden sound of gunfire. It blew up the telephone line and the whole barrack.
“Hello? Hello? Yuhe, what’s wrong with you? How could there be such a loud explosion?” The phone was suddenly hung up, and Su Ruoqing only heard the explosion. She was so shocked that tears rolled down her face, but she was still holding the phone receiver and shouting, “Yuhe, tell me what happened! Yuhe!”
Su Ruoqing’s eyes were filled with tears. She cried and shouted, and she even wanted to come to his side immediately to see what had happened.
“Madam, what happened? Why did you cry like this?” Su Ruoqing’s cry alarmed all the servants in the house.
Trying to suppress her urge to cry, Su Ruoqing wiped away the tears on her face and stood up. “You can all leave. Housekeeper, you stay.”
The servants were confused and didn’t know what had happened. They had to obey her order and leave the housekeeper there alone.
Su Ruoqing clung to the housekeeper’s sleeves, with her hands and voice trembling because of tension and fear.
“Please listen to me. Something bad might have happened to Leng Yuhe,” she said in a chocked voice, “I heard the sound of gunfire when I was on the phone, and then I couldn’t reach him.”
The housekeeper was also panicked. “What can we do about this? I am afraid that Young Marshal …”
“I have to go to the army to ask about the situation. You must keep your mouth shut and prevent those ill-intentioned people from making use of this matter.” After saying that, she dressed up and set off.
The officer stationed at the army had known Su Ruoqing for a long time. When he saw her, he asked, “Is there something wrong, Madam?”
“Let’s go to a secluded place to have a talk.” Su Ruoqing was just a girl under eighteen years old, and when faced with such a thing, she needed to be mentally stronger.
“Madam, you can tell me now.”
“I want to ask you something. What’s the situation on the front line now?”
The officer felt a little strange after hearing this. “Two days ago, we were informed from the soldiers on the front line that the Young General led his men to win the victory. I have sent someone to the Young Marshal’s residence to deliver this message to you.”
“Yes, I have received the message. Maybe I’ve forgotten it because I have too much things lately.” After saying that, she turned around and left the army.
She didn’t know if something bad had really happened to Leng Yuhe. She just made a guess after hearing the explosion. If she directly told the troops that they had to go rescue the Young General, something more serious would happen if there weren’t enough soldiers within the city. If so, she would become a sinner.
The housekeeper quickly came to ask her how the situation was. After telling him the truth, she kept silent for a long time. “We don’t know what happened to the Young General. We can’t solve the problem by waiting for him at home. I’ve decided to go to the front line to find him. I can only rest assured when seeing him.”
“Madam! It takes you a long time to get to the border. If something happens to you, how should I explain to Young General?”
Knowing that the housekeeper would not agree, Su Ruoqing put on a serious expression and said, “I’m informing my decision to you now, not asking for your advice. At least I’m the hostess of the Young General’s residence. Do you think you have the right to stop me?”
Hearing her threatening words, the housekeeper dared not to say anything against her.
Su Ruoqing didn’t mean to frighten him, so she said in a softer tone, “I still hope you can take everything seriously in this house. Please wait until I return with the Young General.” With enough money and a pistol, she set out.
On the other side, Leng Yuhe heard only half of Su Ruoqing’s sentence because of the loud sound of the explosion. In the continuous gunfire, he muttered to himself,
“What does she mean? She wants to confess something to me, but why does she want me not to be angry?” The words of Su Ruoqing echoed in his mind, and he found it hard to get her meaning. He stared at the newspaper in front of him and felt that his heart seemed to be tightly held by someone. “Did she really betray me?”
Leng Yuhe was immersed in sadness and depression, and Bai Chongxiu suddenly went in with several soldiers. “Shen Nan is so angry that he is now carrying out continuous artillery attacks on us. The barracks have been destroyed and we must move to somewhere else now.”
The critical situation made Leng Yuhe come back to reality. “Then why don’t you send some soldiers to fight with the enemies?” he asked.
“You’ve been in a coma for the past two days. We’ve almost exhausted all our weapons in the last battle. The new weapons have not arrived here yet. Now we can only hide somewhere and wait for reinforcements to arrive.”
Under Bai Chongxiu’s persuasion, Leng Yuhe followed other soldiers out of the barracks.