First Night with the Army: The Stoic Big Shot Is Done Pretending

Wen Ci watched as the bathroom door opened. The man’s lower back was covered with countless scars. Even for Wen Ci, who had experienced apocalyptic battlefields, the wounds were still shocking to see.

Her heart couldn’t help but ache for him. ’What in the world had Huo Jingyuan been through all these years?’

The room was warmer than the bathroom. When Huo Jingyuan felt the change in temperature, he thought the water heater was working again. He had just turned around when he met Wen Ci’s gaze.

Wen Ci’s gaze involuntarily traveled downward, and amusement danced in her eyes.

Huo Jingyuan quickly shut the door. He had been in such a hurry when he came in that he’d forgotten to make sure the door was closed, leading to this awkward blunder.

-

After his shower, he pulled on a white T-shirt. A droplet of water from the tip of his hair trickled slowly down his Adam’s apple, and Wen Ci’s gaze immediately followed it down.

The outline of his abs was faintly visible at his waist.

"Do you want to go to the mall?" Huo Jingyuan asked.

Wen Ci glanced at the clock in the room. It was nearly seven-thirty, and there wasn’t much nightlife in the eighties. "Is any mall still open this late?"

"In Sea City, they close at nine p.m."

Sea City was a provincial capital. Ever since the government began encouraging the street vendor economy, nightlife had gradually started to emerge. This was the liveliest time of the evening.

"What are we going to buy at the mall?" Wen Ci asked.

Huo Jingyuan nodded. "My comrades asked me to buy some things to bring back."

The soldiers in the Northwest Military Region didn’t get much time off aside from annual leave and marriage leave. So, after learning that Huo Jingyuan was taking his marriage leave, many of them had asked him to bring some things back.

"I want to go look around too."

Wen Ci’s hair still wasn’t completely dry. It was extremely difficult to find a hairdryer in this era, so after washing their hair, women could only rub it with a towel.

Getting one’s hair completely dry with just a towel was very difficult; most people simply let it air-dry.

As they walked out of the guesthouse, Wen Ci saw many small vendors on the street, including some selling roasted sweet potatoes. The air was filled with the lively buzz of daily life.

Unfortunately, the shop with the things Huo Jingyuan’s comrades had asked him to buy had already closed for the day. He frowned. "Looks like I can’t buy their things."

"But you can," Wen Ci said, blinking. "You take the first bus back to the compound tomorrow morning, and I’ll wait for the stores to open and buy the things for them."

"No." Huo Jingyuan rejected the suggestion.

’Wen Ci is a newcomer here and doesn’t know the area. How could I let her run my errands for me?’

"But didn’t you promise to help them buy things?"

"They’ll understand there were unexpected circumstances."

-

「Meanwhile, in a compound far away in Beijing.」

Jiang Ye jolted awake on the sofa. She stared at her surroundings in the living room, her eyes wide. Then, tears began to stream down her face.

’I’ve been reborn?’

In her past life, she had a high school boyfriend who was a shoo-in for Qingbei. When she heard her parents wanted to marry her off to a man she’d never met, stationed far away in the Northwest, she had decisively refused, even going so far as to discreetly leak the truth about her birth.

This allowed the Jiang Family’s biological daughter to marry the man from the Northwest in her stead.

But...

Decades later, Jiang Ye had suffered endless grievances. Her boyfriend’s heart had always belonged to his "white moonlight"—the one that got away—and she, due to health problems, remained childless.

Her husband despised her for it, and her end was tragic beyond words.

In contrast, Wen Ci, who had taken her place in the marriage, became the distinguished wife of a high-ranking official. Although they supposedly had no feelings for each other, on the surface, her life was one of prestige.

Jiang Ye’s eyes narrowed. ’A new life.’

’This time, I must defy the heavens and change my fate.’ She just didn’t know what point in the timeline she had returned to. The front door opened, and Jiang Ye saw her brother helping their drunken father inside.

"Brother, Dad, I want to marry Huo Jingyuan."