Li Changqing was in a difficult position too, unsure of what to make of her decision.
With her current popularity, why choose to join the forces instead of focusing on her career?
What he didn’t know was that Yan Huan’s obsession behind becoming a soldier was to accumulate her explosiveness, so that she wouldn’t go down the same path she took in her previous life. She wanted to play a new role, a role in which her current imagination and courage didn’t allow her to.
Lu Yi used his connections to find a stealthy unit that was seldom talked about in the outer world. It wasn’t a special force, but had the secrecy of one.
“It’s really tough in there,” said Lu Yi, bumping his forehead against Yan Huan’s. “If the going gets too tough, you can always come back. Nothing embarrassing in that.”
“I know,” said Yan Huan, kissing him on the cheeks and wrapping herself around his waist.
They were newlyweds who have yet tasted the sweetness of marriage, but the parting has come nonetheless.
Lu Yi shoved the luggage into the car, then sent Yan Huan off to enlistment.
They made a strange spectacle at the camp; parents sending their daughters off was a common sight, but not so much of husbands sending their wives off. Not to mention, a renowned celebrity of a wife who was the talk of the nation.
“Aren’t you Yan Huan?” Someone recognized her right off the bat.
“My god, it’s Yan Huan,” said the same woman, clamping a hand over her mouth. What was her favorite celebrity doing here? Was she here to don green?
“Hi there,” smiled Yan Huan.
“H-hello,” stuttered the woman in her exultation. A celebrity’s influence was nothing to be sneezed at. She reached out and shook Yan Huan’s hand. My god, I have touched the hand of a goddess. Such smoothness and silkiness. Just what skin products does she use?
“Can I have a picture with you?” she said as she held out her hand. Just one will do. Even if she couldn’t post it while she was in camp, she’s satisfied at the thought of looking at it by herself every day.
“Sure,” said Yan Huan generously. A proper actor would never let their fans be sad.
The woman quickly snapped a shot while making a V sign. In the end, she let a moment of courage take over her and gave Yan Huan a quick kiss, leaving her immensely awkward.
This was a little too enthusiastic for her.
“I almost forgot to introduce myself,” the woman quickly hid her phone to avoid the detection of the instructor. “My name is Huang Mengmeng, a huge fan of yours. In the past, I have only seen you on TV. What made you want to become a soldier? ”
“Mhm, I guess I wanted to experience the life of a soldier,” said Yan Huan, putting down her luggage. She didn’t find it too strange herself. Celebrities were people too, and they eat and drank just like everyone else. In the army, it doesn’t matter what you used to be or what kind of background you had. In there, they were all soldiers. Female soldiers.
Of course, this was going to be much tougher than the mandatory army training in high school.
Yan Huan, with her fame and pretty face, made everyone wonder about why a celebrity would become a soldier. However, once they changed and assembled, they realized that they didn’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.
