dkrc Chapter 75 Unable to withstand it
Chapter 75 Unable to withstand it
Lin Shuyao's hand, which was about to brush her hair, froze in mid-air. She subconsciously turned her head, and her gaze met Cheng Zheng's eyes directly.
His eyes were dark and deep, like a bottomless pool.
The surface is calm and still, but beneath it, there seems to be an undercurrent of turbulence.
As he stared at her so intently, Lin Shuyao's heart skipped a beat, and a strange flutter rose from her chest and rushed to her cheeks.
They stared at each other for two seconds.
She couldn't resist looking away and turned her head back, her cheeks and even her small earlobes flushed red and slightly hot.
Seeing her quick, evasive gaze and flushed cheeks, Cheng Zheng's eyes darkened further, his Adam's apple bobbed slightly, and his arm around her tightened abruptly.
"Squeak—"
The truck finally came to a stop in the open space of the Xishan firing range.
The truck bed was lowered, and the instructor jumped out of the driver's seat: "Get out! Assemble!"
The comrades, who were already dizzy from being jostled around, couldn't wait to jump down.
Lin Shuyao stood at the back of the car, looking down at the ground, which was quite high. She felt a little dizzy. She had a severe fear of heights. She didn't feel anything when she climbed onto the car, but now that she was jumping down, she realized that it seemed a bit high.
The people around them jumped off the car one by one with practiced ease.
Her legs felt weak and she didn't even have the courage to take a step.
Cheng Zheng stood under the car, watching her cling to the side panel, peering out but too afraid to move. He reached out his hand to her: "Jump down, I'll catch you."
"I...I dare not..." When Lin Shuyao was scared, her voice unconsciously trembled with a soft tone.
Cheng Zheng glanced back; the others were running towards the assembly point with their backs to him. He turned to Lin Shuyao and gestured, "You squat down first."
Lin Shuyao did as instructed.
Cheng Zheng opened his arms as if to embrace her, his gaze fixed on her: "Open your arms and hug my neck, I'll lift you down."
Lin Shuyao roughly understood what he meant. She squatted down at the edge of the back of the car, put her arms forward, wrapped them around his neck, and then slowly leaned her body outward.
Cheng Zheng lifted her down from the car by supporting her knees with both hands.
Suddenly feeling weightless as her body was lifted into the air, Lin Shuyao let out a short, delicate cry and instinctively grabbed Cheng Zheng's head tightly with both hands.
In their current position, her chest was right next to Cheng Zheng's head. Cheng Zheng felt his face buried in an indescribable warmth and softness. His high nose bridge poked something, and a faint fragrance mixed with a soft, bouncy touch invaded all his senses without any obstruction. When he realized what it was, his breath became hot, and his entire earlobe and neck turned an astonishing red.
Then, as if he had been scalded, his arm muscles tensed up suddenly, and he put her down on the ground. Lin Shuyao's feet touched solid ground, and before her arms, which were wrapped around his neck, had completely loosened, she felt him suddenly take half a step back as if avoiding some flood or ferocious beast, creating distance between them.
She had been in a state of high tension and hadn't fully grasped what was happening. She looked up at him blankly, and he looked away, his voice hoarse: "Go to the assembly point quickly."
"Oh." Lin Shuyao seemed to wake up from a dream and quickly ran towards the meeting point.
Cheng Zheng took a deep breath to calm the heat in his body before following after him.
The Xishan Target Range is an open area partially enclosed by low earthen slopes. The ground is made of rammed yellow earth, and in the distance stand several rows of mottled wooden target frames, with red and white target paper fluttering weakly in the wind.
Further away are rolling, sparsely vegetated, gray-green hills. The sky is a clear, deep blue, without a single cloud. The blazing sun pours down without any obstruction, making the air on the ground appear slightly distorted.
The entire firing range was empty and solemn, filled with dust and a faint smell of gunpowder.
After a brief speech, the shooting instructor announced that the team would rest for fifteen minutes before resuming training.
Upon hearing this, everyone felt as if they had been granted a pardon. They quickly found shady slopes or simply sat down on the ground, some fanning themselves, others drinking water.
Lin Shuyao found a slightly shady spot on the edge of a slope and sat down. She licked her lips, which had become a little dry from the sun, and then suddenly remembered that she hadn't brought a water bottle!
The main reason was that she never expected the Xishan shooting range to be so far away, and that the environment was so open and exposed to the sun, with no shade at all.
Just as she was feeling annoyed, Zhao Tiemei, her mouth dry and impatiently fanning herself, suddenly realized the problem and immediately raised her voice to confront her:
"Comrade Shen, as the squad leader, why didn't you tell everyone to bring water beforehand? How can we train under this blazing sun without water? Our throats are practically burning!"
Hearing this, the other team members who were drinking water chimed in, "Comrade Zhao, it wasn't our squad leader who told us to bring water. A colleague had been to the Xishan firing range before and just casually reminded us. Your squad leader is probably here for the first time, so it's normal that he doesn't know the actual situation."
"That's right, who could have imagined this? We can't blame the class monitor." The other female comrades chimed in quietly. Although they were also thirsty, they didn't blame Lin Shuyao.
Needless to say, Wang Qiang and Li Wei immediately defended Lin Shuyao, saying, "Just bear with your thirst. What if there's no water on the battlefield? Does that mean we should just stop fighting?"
"Comrade Zhao, didn't you graduate from a military academy? If you don't even have this much patience, what kind of soldier are you?"
"You, you all!" Zhao Tiemei was speechless after being rebuked. She rolled her eyes angrily, turned her back, and refused to look at anyone.
Lin Shuyao felt a little embarrassed. In truth, she did bear some responsibility for this. As the class monitor, she should have considered all possible scenarios beforehand and reminded everyone in a timely manner.
There's no water to drink right now, and everyone is tired and thirsty, which will definitely affect the training later.
Lin Shuyao was frowning, trying to figure out how to get everyone some water when the men in the next line noticed. Several of them came over and handed her their military water bottles: "Comrade Shen, our class has brought enough water. These bottles are all full. Please pass them around and drink some. Don't be shy!"
Seeing this, the other men also stepped forward to surround Lin Shuyao, generously offering to contribute the remaining water in their water bottles.
Lin Shuyao was surprised by everyone's enthusiasm. She looked up and gave the leading men a grateful and sweet smile. Her eyes were clear, her lips were red, and her teeth were white. She looked especially beautiful in the sunlight: "Thank you so much. If you ever need any foreign language materials translated in the future, I'll give you priority."
We can't let others help us for nothing.
The men were a little embarrassed by her smile and waved their hands repeatedly, saying, "Oh, no need, no need. We're all colleagues from the same factory, helping each other is only right. Don't be so polite."
"Exactly, we are also demonstrating the spirit of unity and friendship!"
"Come on! Everyone, pass the drink around!"
The atmosphere suddenly became lively.
The group passed it around, and one person tilted their head back and gulped down several mouthfuls.
While everyone was drinking water, Lin Shuyao got up and went to sit down in a sheltered spot.
She didn't drink water, not because she wasn't thirsty, but because she was a bit of a germaphobe and didn't want to drink from a water bottle that someone else had used. She was also afraid of being noticed and hurting people's self-esteem, so she could only walk away for a while when no one was paying attention, so that no one would notice whether she had drunk water or not.
Just as a person was sitting on the ground, staring blankly with her eyes down, a military green water bottle was handed to her.
She paused slightly, then looked up.
Cheng Zheng walked over at some point and stood next to her, his back to most people, blocking all view and sunlight.
"Drink some water."
His gaze fell on her delicate face, which was slightly flushed from the sun. Seeing that she hesitated to take the water, he gently shook the kettle and said casually, "Mine, I haven't drunk from it yet."
Lin Shuyao then took it, unscrewed the cap, and sipped it slowly.
The cool water slid down my parched throat, making me feel much better.
After she finished drinking, she returned the water bottle to him and whispered, "Thank you."
Cheng Zheng hummed in agreement, his gaze lingering for a moment on her slender fingers holding the kettle before reaching out to take it from her.
Then he unscrewed the lid, tilted his long, strong neck slightly back, and prepared to put his thin lips to the spout to drink.
The spot where his lips touched seemed to be where she had drunk from. Lin Shuyao hesitated and said, "Um... I... I drank from it. Do you want me to wipe it off?"
Cheng Zheng glanced at her indifferently, then tilted his head back, his sexy thin lips pressed against the rim of the pot, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down with each swallow. A drop of water that he couldn't swallow escaped from the corner of his lips, slid diagonally down his jaw, past his bobbing Adam's apple, and finally disappeared into the collar of his military uniform.
Lin Shuyao felt a little embarrassed, because she remembered Gao Tingting saying that he also had a cleanliness obsession.
How come it seems like you don't mind that she drank it?