Sweet Wife in My Arms

’t have time to ponder much on that topic.

The training on the first day left them all exhausted, falling right into a dreaming sleep right as they hit the sack.
Once they woke, they had to gather for morning assembly.
No matter how fair one’s skin might be, they would look like dark at the end of it all.

Yan Huan felt as if she had turned into a snake, shedding skins by the layers.
At the start, she had remembered to apply sunscreen, but couldn’t be bothered with it later on.
Not like she had the luxury to take her time.
And so, her skin darkened day after day, and soon enough she didn’t care about it at all.

All of their phones were confiscated, and it was training all day and all night.

Yan Huan had some training of her own in the past, but they served her little here.
Her training was, after all, for a dancer and not a fighter.
Even when she acted as a stunt double, the fighting had been more style over function and couldn’t hold a candle to what real soldiers do.

Lu Yi and Lei Qingyi both excelled at combat, having come out of the army.
If Yan Huan wanted to nail the action scenes, she had to fight with her own hands and not rely on stunt doubles.
It wouldn’t mean anything if she always used stunt doubles.

Therefore, she became a female soldier.
If others could do it, so can she.
If others can endure it, so can she.
If others can brace it, so can she.

At first, the other soldiers dared not approach her due to her status, but they soon forgot about her identity after getting to know each other.
She was just like them, a regular soldier who trained, shed sunburnt skin, ate, and slept.

Yan Huan’s clothes were drenched as she ran with a large backpack on her back.
Some of the others were behind her, sparse and scattered.
She let out a soft breath and dragged herself onwards with sore legs.

Every time she felt as though she couldn’t carry on, she recalled Lu Yi, her husband, who was still waiting for her at home.
She didn’t want to disgrace him.
She couldn’t want the Lu Family to shame him for her weakness.
Therefore, she had to persevere.

She straightened her body once again, her willpower almost at its end.
Almost intuitively, she made her leaden legs move, a step at a time.
She would get to the endpoint even if she had to crawl.

She was getting closer and closer.
Finally, her feet touched the finishing line.
Turning back, there were many others behind her.
She was the only one who had reached the finishing line at the moment.

She smiled and wiped off the sweat on her face.

She gasped for air.
Finally, the endpoint.
This feels great.

Lu Yi came to visit her in the second week.
When she saw him, she wanted to hug him and bawl her eyes out, but no tears fell from her reddened eyes.

Lu Yi stroked her short hair.
“You lost your long hair.
What a shame.”

“You are darker now,” he frowned.
Yan Huan used to have fair skin, the type of skin that stayed fair even after tanning.
Now it was all dark.
That spoke volumes about how much they had been under the sun.

“Have you not noticed that I’m stronger now?” said Yan Huan, grasping her arm.
She felt much healthier.

Lu Yi squeezed her arm, still pitiably thin.
Tanned as she was, it was good that she didn’t get any thinner.
Perhaps it was her complexion, but she did seem a little healthier.