Gu Yan summoned his courage and said solemnly to Zhou Mingzhu, "Comrade Zhou Mingzhu..."
Zhou Mingzhu turned her head to look at him. "Do you need to use the restroom? Do you need me to help you over there?"
The soldier sitting near the door cast a quick glance at Gu Yan before silently lying back down, trying to make himself invisible.
Gu Yan’s pale, handsome face turned a brilliant shade of crimson, the color spreading from his forehead down to his collarbone as if he had been scalded with boiling water. He opened his mouth, stammering, "No, I don't... I, I can walk..."
Zhou Mingzhu nodded and turned to Lujun and Qitong. "Are you two going to stay here with your father to keep him company, or will you come with me to see the new place?"
Lujun and Qitong jumped up immediately, shouting in unison, "We'll go see the new place with Mom!"
Zhou Mingzhu nodded and hoisted her pack. "I've already shown you the local specialties in here, though you can't eat them yet. The dried fish and dried meat aren't suitable for your current condition. I’ll take them to the new place; once you’ve recovered, you can cook them yourself. I don't know how to prepare these things."
"By the way, is there anything else you’d like to eat?"
Gu Yan opened his mouth, glanced at Lujun and Qitong, then back at Zhou Mingzhu, who was waiting for his reply. He mustered his courage once more: "You don't need to go through all this trouble. You don't understand my situation. I cannot marry you."
Zhou Mingzhu raised an eyebrow, set down the pack, and sat right on the edge of Gu Yan’s bed.
"What? Am I not pretty enough for you? Do you not like me?"
Gu Yan was stunned. He stared at her with wide eyes; he had never met a woman who looked so quiet and delicate but spoke with the ferocity of a village shrew. The red that had just begun to fade from his face rushed back, spreading from his forehead down into the bandages beneath his collarbone.
"No, that’s not it, I don't dislike you..."
Zhou Mingzhu crossed her arms, tucked her right foot under her left knee, and looked at him. "Then that’s settled, isn't it? Just focus on recovering for now and stop thinking about nonsense."
Gu Yan frowned. "I don't want to be a burden to you. My... my condition is poor, and I might never get better for the rest of my life."
Zhou Mingzhu arched a brow. Although she hadn't finished reading the novel, she knew that while Gu Yan’s recovery from his serious injuries took some time, he had eventually healed. While the injury to his leg was indeed severe enough to ache whenever it rained, hadn't she arrived just in time?
In the later stages of the novel, the heroine used the spirit spring to nurse him back to health. There was no way she could come here, feed him the spirit spring early on, and still have him fail to recover.
Zhou Mingzhu thought for a moment, and it suddenly clicked. The novel had briefly mentioned that the hospital initially determined Gu Yan had sustained damage to his private parts. Or was it... his "root"? That it had been severed? She couldn't quite remember the specifics. But the heroine had cured him with the spirit spring, so there was no reason she couldn't do the same.
Zhou Mingzhu patted Gu Yan’s uninjured arm. "Don't worry, there is no illness that can’t be cured. I’m going to take the kids now. It must be one or two o'clock already. After I get the house settled, I still have to buy groceries. I need to get back to bring you dinner, so I really don't have the time to linger."
"We can talk more tonight. I just got here, after all—we have a long road ahead of us!"
Gu Yan opened his mouth, but Lujun let out a pitiful, "Dad."
Gu Yan had no choice but to nod, watching as Zhou Mingzhu walked away with her pack slung over her shoulder.
As soon as she left, the young soldier by the door spoke up. "Company Commander Gu, why don't you want your wife to stay here?"
Gu Yan pressed his lips together, his face deathly pale, yet he gathered his courage to say, "The doctor said my abdomen was pierced by a bayonet wielded by the child soldiers of Annan, damaging the core. I may never be able to have children of my own. I don't want to ruin Comrade Zhou's life."
The baby-faced soldier opened his mouth, sighed, and scratched his chin. Not knowing what to say, he simply asked, "Company Commander, are you itchy? I feel like my wound is so itchy now, itchy and painful."
Gu Yan had actually felt it too, especially since he hadn't just eaten rice porridge—he had also drunk the water from the military canteen. He was feeling it most acutely. He couldn't help but groan, "It is a little..."
Zhou Mingzhu ignored all of that. She took the children downstairs and found the office that arranged housing for military families. She produced the referral letter from the brigade leader, which explicitly stated that she was Gu Yan's wife.
The receptionist asked, "Do you not have a marriage certificate?"
Zhou Mingzhu, wearing a patched navy-blue cotton jacket, pulled at the corner of her mouth, looking embarrassed. "We didn't have time to register."
The receptionist nodded in understanding. "You really should find the time to get it sorted out. Come with me. There are no vacant courtyards nearby, but there are some available a little further away. Would that be alright?"
Zhou Mingzhu nodded. "Thank you, comrade."
As she walked out of the office with the receptionist, a uniform-clad crew member standing by the operating room entrance looked at her in surprise. "It's you? Comrade, what are you doing at the hospital?"
Zhou Mingzhu pointed at herself, bewildered. "Are you talking to me?"
The middle-aged man in the navy-blue uniform smiled broadly and nodded. "Yes! You were the one who shouted out the criminal’s identity, and that’s how we were able to catch them! We were so busy afterward—several of our people were injured—that we didn't have a chance to find you. We were going to present you with a banner as an official commendation!"
Zhou Mingzhu hurriedly waved her hands, while the slightly impatient receptionist looked on in astonishment. "Comrade, are you here because you were injured?"
Zhou Mingzhu quickly explained, "No, my husband is a soldier who fought in the counterattack against Annan. He was severely wounded and evacuated from the front lines. I’m here to take care of him."
The crew member reached out and gripped Zhou Mingzhu’s hand. "Your whole family is truly patriotic! May I have your name? Or your husband’s? I am the train captain of the line you traveled on; my name is Wu Huaide."
Zhou Mingzhu hesitated before saying, "My husband is Gu Yan, a company commander in the 76th Division. I am Zhou Mingzhu, a military spouse, and I am preparing for the university entrance exams this year."
Wu Huaide shook her hand excitedly. "Thank you, thank you, thank you! It was all thanks to you. That shout of yours really saved the day!"
He didn't say anything more, but Zhou Mingzhu knew that whatever was in that brown notebook must have been of great importance. Perhaps Wu Huaide was exaggerating, as the other two soldiers who had lunged forward with Lu Haichuan clearly seemed prepared, but her shout had certainly alerted them. After all, those people hadn't looked like they were together at all.