Can't Take My Eyes Off You

C 286-287

It was not the common dinnertime for the soldiers at this time of the day, so when Jiang Yao and Lu Xingzhi went it, it was quite vacant.

"There you are! Come here, come! Take a seat!"

Colonel Lin waved his hand at them enthusiastically the minute they walked in. He and the attendees were taken aback when they laid eyes on Jiang Yao.

They knew that Lu Xingzhi married his wife when she was only eighteen years old, the wedding seemed to be held in a rush too. Now that they finally saw her face, they were stunned in surprise. The girl looked very charming and sweet, people would buy it if she claimed herself to be a minor.

"Xingzhi, you're the man! No wonder you have to marry her fast!" Colonel Lin was thirty seven years old, he was the youngest colonel in the base. Since he shared a close friendship with Lu Xingzhi, he talked to him in a casual and leisure tone.

Upon the remark, Mrs. Lin withdrew her gaze from Jiang Yao and chuckled, "That's right. If I'm a man and I stumble upon such a fine lady, I would have married her quick too."

Mrs. Lin led Lu Xingzhi and Jiang Yao to their seats. After settling in, Mrs. Lin introduced the people around her to Jiang Yao. The slightly shorter and chubbier woman was Deng Meihua, Major Zhu's wife, Jiang Yao addressed her as Mrs. Zhu. Sitting beside Mrs. Zhu was a skinny woman, Jiang Liping, Captain Yang's wife.

"Did you take a stroll around Jin City this afternoon? How was it? What's the difference between our city and the southern city?" Mrs. Lin was local. She had never been to the southern region before, hence she was curious about the place.

"Sergeant Lu went to fetch you after lunch. I thought that you would arrive later in the afternoon, but who knew you'd be back in the evening." Colonel Lin shot a cheeky glance at Lu Xingzhi before speaking to Jiang Yao again, "Just now, I asked him whether your train would arrive at around 1 pm since he was going to pick you up after lunch. Only then did I find out that your flight was at 1.30 pm. You hadn't even taken off yet when he went out!"

The minute Colonel Lin finished talking, everyone at the table laughed happily.

At the side, Jiang Yao pursed her lips tight, trying to muffle a laugh. After landing, she asked how long he had been waiting for her, and he answered that he had just arrived. Well, the man definitely lied without batting an eye. He was clearly there at the airport for a long time. No wonder his shirt felt cold and moist.

Lu Xingzhi lowered his gaze at the young lady who was snickering with her lips curled mischievously. He did not feel even the slightest embarrassment after being exposed.

He dearly anticipated for the day's arrival. In the morning, as soon as the sun rose, he was not able to focus on the training nor his duty at the base as he thought about Jiang Yao who would arrive in the evening. Thus, he took half a day off and rushed to the airport to wait for her arrival.

He waited for hours at the airport, but it was very pleasant and delightful. Every minute passed indicated that she was coming to him soon.

Looking at the dishes on the table, Jiang Yao knew that they had first inquired about her taste from Lu Xingzhi. Almost all the dishes were lightly flavored and stews that were not that spicy.

It was actually a get-together between the comrades and their families in the name of a welcome feast. During Lu Xingzhi's wedding, no one from the base could attend because of the distance. This was the first time they were seeing Lu Xingzhi's wife after being married for more than a year. In order to make a good impression on the base, Colonel Lin sponsored tonight's dinner.

Colonel Lin had previously gained some insights about Jiang Yao from Zhou Weiqi and Chen Xuyao. He remembered when he first heard about Jiang Yao from Zhou Weiqi, there was a faint disdain and dismay in his tone. Whenever he talked about her, it sounded more like complaints about her as a person. Only then, Colonel Lin found out that Lu Xingzhi had some marital problems with his newlywed wife, although his information was scarce.

However, recently, when Zhou Weiqi and Chen Xuyao came to the base, they talked about Jiang Yao more, and there were obvious changes in their attitude and tone.

When Colonel Lin learned that Lu Xingzhi's wife would be visiting him at the base during the National Day holiday and was even staying for a few days, he was very delighted.

Jiang Yao willing to visit her husband at the base indicated that she had accepted her status as a military dependent, or rather, an army wife. Lu Xingzhi was a soldier with a promising future. Thinking that she might come to live on base in the future, Colonel Lin wished to leave a good impression on Jiang Yao so that she would not feel awkward and uncomfortable about living here.

Colonel Lin had been observing the interaction between Lu Xingzhi and Jiang Yao since they came into the cafeteria. When he teased Lu Xingzhi, Jiang Yao glanced at her husband with a smile on her face, while lu Xingzhi's eyes never left her. Truth be told, their relationship was not as bad as he imagined, instead, they were so sweet together, like a pair of lovebirds.

At the table, the men were eating and drinking while the women were chatting.

From the conversations they were having, Jiang Yao learned that Mrs. Lin did not stay on base. She worked as a teacher in an elementary school in the city. On the weekends, she would bring their children to visit Colonel Lin at the base. Mrs. Zhu was the teacher in the kindergarten in the base. Her two children also attended the kindergarten.

Captain Yang and his family lived one level below Lu Xingzhi's quarters. Mrs. Yang was the person who took care of Ge Wenwen when Mrs. Ge was at the hospital. Now, Mrs. Yang and Mrs. Ge did not even greet each other anymore, Mrs. Yang went to the extent of forbidding her daughter from playing with Ge Wenwen.

However, throughout dinner, Mrs. Yang did not badmouth Mrs. Ge. She simply blurted a simple remark and brushed off the discord with Mrs. Ge casually. Frankly speaking, if Jiang Yao had not heard about it from Lu Xingzhi earlier, she would not have figured out that such a nasty thing had happened between the two Madams. It seemed that Mrs. Yang was not the kind of person who would badmouth someone behind their backs.

"Oh yes, Jiang Yao, I heard many people saying that you are studying at a university in the south. What major are you in?" Mrs. Zhu asked out of the blue. "Sergeant Lu once mentioned that you plan to come here and live on base after graduation, am I right? Have you ever thought about what you will do? What do you think of the kindergarten in our base?"

Jiang Yao was eating. She listened to her while disgesting her series of questions, finding some peculiarities in her questions.

After the series of questions, Mrs. Lin quickly answered, diverting the inquisitive questioning.

"Meihua, Jiang Yao is still a freshman, isn't it a little too early for you to ask her this?" Mrs. Lin said, "Besides, she is in one of the national universities, don't you think it's such a waste of talent for her to become a kindergarten teacher in the base after graduation?"

Although Mrs. Lin was not sure what Jiang Yao's major was, she reckoned that a kindergarten teacher would be an overkill to her educational background.