“You really love the national flag. Only soldiers understand cherishing it.” I recalled when a small Chinese flag fell on the ground in front of the apartment. Ye Zhengchen picked it up, wiped off the dust, and placed it on the railing.
His action felt particularly soldier-like, and I admired him for days.
“Didn’t you learn in elementary school that the national flag is our nation’s dignity?” he asked.
Seems like it was mentioned, but I don’t remember!
“But… how are you so skilled?” I pointed to the two-meter-high balcony barrier. “You climbed over it in three seconds.”
“That barrier isn’t high. Not many people take five minutes to climb over it.”
He laughed, clearly reminiscing about how I couldn’t climb over it back then.
I asked, “Is your father a soldier?”
He met my gaze, expressionless. “No, my father is a businessman. He wanted me to be a doctor, so he sent me to study in Japan.”
I was slightly disappointed. But why should it matter? Even if I had guessed right, what difference would it make?
“Why are you suddenly asking about this?” he inquired. “You don’t happen to… like soldiers?”
“I admire them!” I corrected. “Resolute, self-disciplined, strong, upright, with a passionate fire beneath a cold exterior…” I thought, beneath the military uniform lies a tempting figure.
“Soldiers aren’t as good as you think. I think doctors are better…” Ye Zhengchen stated.
I despised his opinion. “At least soldiers are disciplined and won’t casually flirt with women.”
He snorted coldly. “What you see is their uniformed appearance. Once they take off the uniform, they’re just men with physiological needs.”
“Having needs is fine; the key is self-control. If you can’t control your needs, how are you different from an animal?”
“Sometimes, humans are worse than animals…”
“His gaze lost focus, drifting away. ‘Tigers don’t eat their own cubs, wolves travel in pairs… Some people, for power and desire, don’t care about their closest kin…’
‘Who are you talking about?’
‘Many people.’
His brow furrowed deeply at ‘many people.’ I realized he never mentioned his father and had never called home.
Could their father-son relationship be bad?
I smoothed his furrowed brow while washing his hair, rubbing his Baihui, Taiyang, and Fengchi acupoints to soothe him. After washing, I helped dry and straighten his hair.
