Jiang Yan was tall, long-legged, and well-proportioned. Years of physical conditioning had given him exceptionally fine lines and powerful muscles.
As Sang Zhi hugged the man's legs, she could practically feel the heat radiating from them, along with the wild, tense energy stored in those muscles.
Jiang Yan, however, was having a stroke of bad luck.
Caught in her tight embrace, his tall frame began to sway precariously. Fortunately, he was agile enough to grab the windowsill and steady himself. Otherwise, with his sheer weight crashing down, Sang Zhi would have been the one getting hurt.
Being violated in such a manner, it would be a lie to say he wasn't angry.
Yet he maintained his composure and didn't lose his temper.
Seeing that she had been hugging him for ages without letting go, he snapped irritably, "Let go!"
Sang Zhi hadn't done it on purpose. She apologized profusely while releasing her grip.
Divisional Commander Cai, who had taken in the entire scene, looked at the two of them with a complex expression.
"Sang Zhi, if you have any difficulties, just speak up. No matter how troublesome, we can discuss a solution. We don't engage in that old-society, exploitative nonsense here."
He then cast a disapproving look at Jiang Yan.
"And you! How could you let someone kneel to you? Is that how the Party and the organization educated you?"
Regarding such a matter, Jiang Yan found himself unable to defend, though fortunately Sang Zhi snapped back to her senses and cleared up the sequence of events for him.
"Uncle, don't blame Commander Jiang. It was all my fault. I shouldn't have gone and startled him without a word of warning. Now I'm just thankful I ran into Brother Jiang; otherwise, in that situation, I definitely would have broken a bone."
Her words were thirty percent flattery and seventy percent sincerity. Honestly, not just anyone could have killed their momentum at such a critical juncture.
Hearing the praise, Divisional Commander Cai nodded with satisfaction—partly because she was sensible, and partly out of genuine pride in Jiang Yan.
After this brief interlude, the old man asked about her plans for the future.
After all, she wasn't a kitten or a puppy where providing food and board was enough; he also had to help pave the way for her future.
When Sang Yun had first arrived, he had asked the same question, and the answer had been a desire to work at a nearby hospital.
Sang Yun had previously attended a health school, where placements were assigned by the institution.
Yet the current fashion was that "education must serve proletarian politics" and "the focus of medical and health work must be shifted to the rural areas."
If she truly followed the school assignment route, most likely her internship and employment would be arranged in the countryside.
Sang Yun had barely managed to escape the peasantry; why would she be willing to take root and sprout in the countryside like an educated youth?
He had also heard Sang Yun mention that this younger cousin was pampered and could not endure the hardships of studying medicine.
He figured she would probably lean toward relaxed and respectable jobs like working at a supply and marketing cooperative or a department store.
Though he hadn't received an answer yet, he was already calculating who he could ask for help regarding a job.
The young female comrade pondered earnestly for a moment.
She stated that her ideal profession remained that of a doctor.
Jiang Yan, who had been sitting on the sofa with his legs together and his spine straight, gave a rare lift of his eyelids upon hearing that she understood medicine.
Divisional Commander Cai wore a troubled expression.
That profession was about saving lives and healing the wounded. Even if he had the ability to pull strings, how could he treat human lives as a child's game?
"This won't do. Choose something else."
Sang Zhi understood his misgivings. Unlike later generations, traditional Chinese medicine at present relied on transmission, apprenticeship, and mentoring, with academic credentials not being a hard threshold.
Quite a few people coasted on the glory of their elders to become traditional medicine practitioners, only to blindly recite texts and prescribe herbal remedies that neither caused harm nor achieved any therapeutic effect when patients were suffering.
He must have assumed she had the same intention.
"I studied under Granny Cai for many years. While I wouldn't call myself a master of medicine, I'm not the quack you imagine either. Naturally, the medical profession is sacred; I will rely on my own strength to take the exams and apply. You don't need to worry about that."
Realizing he had misunderstood her, Elder Jiang felt a rare pang of guilt.
He even suspected whether she was deliberately saying things just to coax him into a good mood.
Yet seeing her porcelain-white face filled with earnestness and her eyes brimming with absolute sincerity, his heart settled back into place.
She did not fail to notice the elder's satisfaction.
Turning toward Jiang Yan, whose gaze carried a hint of scrutiny, she flashed an open, magnanimous smile.
When she was determined to accomplish something, she could melt even stone.
Seeing that the timing was right, Sang Zhi quickly pulled out the portrait.
"Uncle, I have another matter I must trouble you with. Look, this is my younger brother. He went missing four years ago. Of course, whether he was lost or sold remains to be verified. But my parents are both gone, and as his older sister, I certainly cannot sit idly by. You and Brother Jiang have broad connections and understand a great deal, so I'm swallowing my pride to ask the two of you to help me make some inquiries."
Divisional Commander Cai took a glance before handing it to Jiang Yan.
The man's distinct-jointed fingers traced the lines on the paper, and when he raised his head, his gaze was already filled with sharpness.
"Did you draw this sketch?"
"Mm. I drew it from memory. I can't guarantee it's an exact match, but it's probably sixty to seventy percent similar."
Jiang Yan folded the portrait and tucked it into the breast pocket of his jacket. Extending his long legs, he allowed the corners of his mouth a rare upward twitch.
"I'll have a comrade who transferred to the Public Security Bureau help out. But before I forgot to ask—where is your old home? What do you like to eat?"
Sang Zhi's smile stiffened.
She did not believe the man was kind-hearted enough to show special concern and ask so many questions.
Probing her—was he suspecting something?
One had to bear in mind that she possessed none of the original owner's memories.
And as a cannon-fodder character, the author hadn't wasted much ink on her background.
If a person couldn't even state where her longtime hometown was...
Wouldn't that be utterly absurd?
Forget Jiang Yan; even Elder Jiang raised his head and shot her several scrutinizing looks.
"Comrade Sang certainly has a noble person's forgetfulness."
Jiang Yan's voice was chilly.
It seemed his earlier intuition was correct—she really did have something fishy about her.
Yet if she were a spy, could she be stupid enough not to even have her backstory memorized?
"How could that be?"
A sweet little dimple blossomed at the corner of Sang Zhi's mouth. "My hometown is in Sanzhai County. In our parts, there's a saying: 'Ten mountains, nine without peaks; southern waters flow to the north.' What I love most is monkey-head mushroom—it's a local specialty. Our braised monkey-head mushroom is even one of the Eight Treasures of the Manchu-Han Imperial Feast."
Monkey-head mushroom was simply a type of fungus.
However, they grew large, with thick flesh and a delicate texture. Because their survival conditions were harsh, they were tightly bound to Sanzhai County.
"Right, another day I'll have someone bring some back. Xiao Jiang, you should try it too." Once the old man's conversational floodgates opened, he couldn't stop.
Sang Zhi was still young; waiting another couple of years to work was fine.
Jiang Yan, however, could not be delayed any longer.
With earnest persuasion, he said, "Your mother called last night. She was worried sick upon hearing you were injured, and if I hadn't talked her out of it, she would have come over that very evening. She also said you aren't a child anymore, and it's time to consider personal matters—asked me to keep an eye out for anyone suitable around here."
Jiang Yan had no desire to listen to this. Telling him to rest up quickly, he slipped out.
Sang Zhi trotted after him, offering enthusiastic thanks.
You don't hit a smiling face. Given how attentive she was being, he would surely put even more effort into helping her find her brother, right?
Jiang Yan lowered his gaze, his voice slow and low.
"With a portrait as lifelike as that, finding someone will surely be twice as easy with half the effort."
It was a perfectly normal conversation, and he even wore a rare trace of a smile, yet Sang Zhi felt an inexplicable sense of oddness.
Watching his departing back, she began to mentally review her earlier answers regarding her background.
It was information she had exchanged using eighty Merit Value points; there was no way it could be wrong.
Where, then, did the unease come from?
It wasn't until she saw Sang Yun using a feather duster to clean a picture frame that the realization struck her like a lightning bolt.
In her past life, she had received an elite education. Aside from medicine, she had blossomed in all areas—which naturally included art.
Sketching was the foundation of all drawing, a mandatory stage in studying the visual arts.
Even though she had merely used a pencil, without building up line weight, cross-hatching, or rhythm, and had ignored planes, volumes, tones, and textures in favor of capturing a likeness...
It was still a sketch!
No wonder he had deliberately asked about sketching earlier, and asked where her home was and what she liked to eat. Probably, at that very moment, he had been testing her!
An orphaned girl, against the backdrop of rural schools being shut down, knew what a sketch was and was even able to draw one.
Wasn't this a glaring, sky-shattering loophole?
He suspected her. He definitely suspected her!
She grabbed handfuls of her hair and screamed silently.