Wesley hopped in his car after leaving the Ji family's house. But he didn't start the engine. He whipped his phone out and tapped on a WeChat dialog box. He scrolled down the chat log to find messages from six months ago. The last message was Blair asking him to book the flight ticket.
He then tapped on her WeChat Moments. He found a new post from yesterday. It was all in English. Wesley read it carefully. She wrote, "Someone says, if you dream of a person you haven't seen in a long time, then he's erasing you from his memory. Someone says, if you dream of the same person three times, it means that everything between you and that person is ending. I saw the guy in my dream. Did he forget me? And I dreamed of him three times. So it's over, right?"
He saw that Talbot left a comment a few minutes ago. "What do you mean?" he wrote.
Wesley sat in the driver's seat, patiently waiting for Blair's reply to Talbot's comment. A few minutes later, she replied in Chinese, "I meant I was sleepy. Time for bed."
Wesley sighed. He wanted to post a comment, but didn't know what to say.
Blair rarely updated her Moments. But compared to Wesley, who never posted anything, she was an active user.
After scrolling through her posts, Wesley locked his phone and rested his head on the steering wheel, deep in thought.
He hadn't seen Blair in over six months. However, he felt like the girl had sown a seed in his heart, and it began to sprout, blooming and growing minute by minute. Her kiss, the soft touch of her hand, and her incredible beauty in that wedding gown haunted his mind every day. He couldn't shake off these thoughts.
Her words always rang in the back of his mind. "I'm your new neighbor. I may have to bug you more…" "Will you stay with me and let your feelings for me grow…"
As soon as Wesley returned to his platoon, he went to the dormitory to find Talbot. At that time, there was a crowd of soldiers around Talbot, all staring at what was on his phone. They were so engrossed they didn't notice Wesley had come in.
They were gossiping. "I bet our leader's sitting in a corner somewhere, reading Blair's post."
"Probably. My brother told me one thing. He saw our leader's phone one time. He didn't lock it in time. Guess what was on his screen? Blair's WeChat Moments!"
"Oh my God! Really? He's got it bad for her. Ever since he turned her down, he's gotten meaner, and he broods more."
"But why say no? If he liked her… Proposing in public wearing a wedding gown? Bold move. Really, if I were her, I'd hate him for rejecting me like that. He was so heartless!"
A familiar voice interrupted them. "So what's it to you, huh? Mind your own business!"
The soldiers didn't pay much attention to who this voice belonged to. Talbot thought it was just one of them asking, so he answered, "Blair is a goddess! But our leader can't see that, even though she loves him. Now she's off to London, all by her lonesome…"
Lenard was the first to recognize the voice. He nervously tugged at the hems of Talbot's and other soldiers' clothes.
They snapped back to reality and turned around simultaneously. 'Oh, crap!' They were all startled and leaped up from their chairs. Talbot quickly put his phone away. "Chief… M-Mr. Li… When did you get here?" he stammered.
"Chief, we're…taking a break. It's break time now," another soldier said. He meant to say that they had the freedom to talk and do whatever they wanted during break time.
Wesley coldly ran his eyes over the soldiers. He ordered them, "Two hundred push-ups now, all of you. Never mention her name again. If I hear you again, do three hundred. After that, it's seven hundred!"
The younger soldiers started looking worried. They wanted to beg for mercy, but decided against it—they'd probably get worse. Left with no choice, they lined up in a row, dropped to the floor to assume the correct form, and began to do the push-ups.
They had just counted to thirteen when Wesley suddenly took off his army cap, put it aside and joined them in their punishment.
Seeing their leader punishing himself as well, the soldiers all stopped complaining. They focused on finishing the two hundred push-ups they'd been given.
Blair, far away in England, knew nothing about all these episodes happened in Y City. She was now feeling extremely gloomy after a phone call from her maternal grandpa—Gilbert Ji. She had planned to pick up some part-time jobs in England during the holidays. But her grandpa had already booked a flight ticket for her, haranguing her until she agreed to come back home.
On the second day of the Spring Festival, Blair's plane touched down in the city airport in the afternoon. Wacian came to pick her up. Blair had told Miller her ETA beforehand. But her fiance wasn't around now. He had returned to his hometown to visit his relatives during the festival.
Blair spotted Wacian in the crowd. He held a bouquet of lilies in his hand. When they reached each other, Blair greeted him happily. "Hi Wacian!"
Wacian handed the bouquet to her and then took the suitcase from her hand, saying, "Welcome home!"
"Thanks." She breathed in the fragrance of the lilies, delighted.
Her cousin scanned her from head to toe and praised, "Wow, you're even hotter than before you left. You hair's much longer, too. Working too much to get a haircut?"
Blair laughed. "You're wrong. I was lazy. I had tons of fun."
Wacian laughed too as he walked forward. He slightly tapped her forehead. "I know you like to slack off. Lucky you're so smart. Otherwise you would've flunked everything."
They bantered with each other as they walked towards the exit of the airport. Suddenly, a tall figure caught their eyes.
A man in green camouflage walked in their direction, holding a phone to his ear.
The world is big, but sometimes it can be small.
Blair had just arrived, and now she bumped into a man she hadn't seen for six months.
Of course, she wouldn't be as naive as before. She knew Wesley didn't come to the airport for her.
Only Joslyn, Miller and her family knew that she was coming back that day. He couldn't have that info.
The next second, the man on the phone seemed to notice her too. However, he only looked at her for a couple seconds before his gaze fell on Wacian.
The two men had known each other before. Wacian knew Blair had a crush, but he didn't know it was Wesley. So he turned to look at Blair and said, "Hey, there's a buddy of mine. Let's go say hi. I'll introduce you."
The smile froze on her face. Embarrassed, she tried to comb her long hair with her hands, and nodded, "Okay."
While Wacian and Wesley shook hands, Blair's phone buzzed in her pocket. Before Wacian could introduce them, he saw the girl walk to one side, answering the call. 'Fine, forget it. Maybe next time, ' Wacian thought. He then shifted his attention to Wesley again. "My cousin just came back from abroad. Why are you here? Picking up or dropping off?"
Wesley was stealing glances at Blair out of the corner of his eye. Hearing Wacian's question, he focused on the conversation and nodded, "Picking up. My family's flying in from A Country. I've come to pick them up."
It wasn't easy for Wesley to get a vacation. His parents hadn't seen him for a year, so they couldn't wait anymore and flew out to Y City for a reunion.
"Oh really? Since I'm not in a hurry, I'll wait with you," Wacian said with a smile.
Wesley caught a glimpse of Blair's back. "Sounds good," he nodded.
