Hello, Mr. Major General

Miao Yunxiao pushed the half open door to go inside. The other bedroom that had been locked for half a year was finally opened today and she could see several boxes inside. Miao Yunxiao thought about it, then walked over to knock on the door.

Gu Nianxhi was organizing her room and poked her head out from the boxes when she heard the knocking. She greeted Miao Yunxiao with a smile, “Hello…”

The person standing at the door quietly watching her was no other than the quiet girl from the elevator. Gu Nianzhi cheerfully moved aside the boxes in front of her to offer her hand, “What a coincidence, I’m actually in your dorm. Today was my first day in school and I’s already ran into my roommate in the elevator, it must be fate.”

Miao Yunxiao smiled but didn’t accept Gu Nianzhi’s hand. She casually glanced around the room and said slowly, “I saw the door totally open when I came back and thought I got broken into.”

Gu Nianzhi, “…” What a novel statement. “I’m sorry, did I scare you?” Gu Nianzhi pursed her lips but didn’t stop smiling as she cocked her head, “But I already went to the faculty to complete the paperwork yesterday and also got my key, didn’t anyone tell you?”

Miao Yunxiao was speechless–an instructor from the faculty did call her yesterday to tell her a roommate was coming and to be prepared. But the instructor also said that the classmate didn’t come personally because her family helped her sign in instead. “Yeah, they did.” Miao Yunxiao looked at Gu Nianzhi again, “But I didn’t know when you’d arrive.”

“So it was a misunderstanding.” Gu Nianzhi gave her thumbs up, “Ok, it’s fine that we talked it through.” She went on to ask Miao Yunxiao, “What’s your name? Are you also a post-grad law student?”

Miao Yunxiao replied dryly, “My last name is Miao, and first name is Yunxiao. I’m a first year post-grad law student. What about you? Which university did you transfer from? Where did you do your undergrad?”

Gu Nianzhi modded, “Pleasure to meet you, Classmate Miao. My name is Gu Nianzhi, and I’m also a first year post-grad law student so we’ll be classmates from now on. I didn’t transfer from another school, but got in with spring admission.”

“Spring admission?” Miao Yunxiao frowned, “I’ve never heard of our school having such a kind of admission?”

“Really? I think that’s pretty normal.” Gu Nianzhi shrugged, “Schools abroad divide into three semesters, so there are spring, summer and winter admissions.”

“But this is not abroad, this is the Huaxia Empire.” Miao Yunxiao stated seriously, “So you can’t be lumping us into the same category.”

Gu Nianzhi bit her lip because she didn’t want to discuss the different university entrance requirements between the Empire and other foreign countries on her first day of school. She turned back to her boxes and kept the smile on her face, “That I don’t know, maybe B University needs to learn from schools abroad.”

Miao Yunxiao assumed Gu Nianzhi wasn’t being honest and happened to dislike people like that. She stared at Gu Nianzhi’s back and enunciated carefully, “I think we should formally lay down clear rules for the dorm if we’re going to be living together. That way we can get along for a long time and avoid problems.”

Gu Nianzhi frowned and disregarded Miao Yunxiao. She opened the boxes and began moving things out of it, but when she took her bedding out and turned around, Miao Yunxiao was still standing right in the middle of her room with her eyes glimmering. “Classmate Miao, today is my first day here and I need to put a lot of things away. Can we talk about the rules on a later day?” Gu Nianzhi didn’t want to fight on her first day of school so she suppressed her temper and asked kindly.

Miao Yunxiao was fairly reasonable. She watched Gu Nianzhi for a while then nodded, “Ok, you can clean for now. We can talk about the rules later.”

Gu Nianzhi smiled at her as she moved to door and put her hand on the doorknob, “I’m afraid I can’t host you any longer, I’ll make sure to invite Classmate Miao over for a proper visit after I finish cleaning up.”

Miao Yunxiao saw that Gu Nianzhi was fairly polite and this improved her opinion. She smiled, “Hurry up and clean then, if you are in the same class as me we have a meeting tonight. Don’t forget to go.”

Gu Nianzhi finally sighed in relief and nodded with a smile as she watched Miao Yunxiao leave. She closed the door right away and sighed deeply with her back against it as she thought about what a nuisance her new roommate was. Although Miao Yunxiao didn’t seem to be an unkind person, her socializing style was completely different from Gu Nianzhi’s. Because of this, Gu Nianzhi decided to keep her at an arm’s length to avoid trouble. Looking at the cardboard boxes around the room, she couldn’t help sighing softly and continuing to battle against all her belongings. After spending a whole afternoon, she finally moved everything out of the boxes. The bedding was laid out on the bed, clothes were in the closet, and reference books and literature was on the bookshelves. Lastly, she set her cups, bowls and cutlery in the cupboard by the wall, then placed slippers by the bed and quickly changed into them. Gu Nianzhi rubbed her feet and thumped her head. Earlier Mia Yunxiao had really confused her and she had actually cleaned up wearing high-heeled boots. Now her feet were too painful to stand on and her big toes lost all sensation. Gu Nianzhi sat on the bed for a while before limping to the bathroom to fill a basin of hot water and salt to soak her feet.

Huo Shaoheng was driven off from B University to the Supreme Military Council for a meeting that he was unable to refuse and must attend. But when he arrived there, he realized that it was only a regular meeting for the military elite after Lunar New Year. He used to work from the C City base and often embarked on missions, so he had never participated in high level military meetings. This time the Special Operations Forces was officially established and as the acting commander, he must attend such meetings in the future as well. If he cannot attend, he must get approval from General Ji. Sitting down in the conference room, Huo Shaoheng realized that his father, Huo Guanchen was also attending. Huo Shaoheng quietly sat in seat with his name plaque and nodded to the other people in room as a greeting. Huo Guanchen was directly across from him and both father and son were not chatty people, so they merely glanced at each other.

Soon afterwards, General Ji finally came and sat at the head of the long table. He smiled brightly and clasped his hands together at everyone, “Hello everyone, Happy New Year.” Today was the first regular meeting after Lunar New Year, so everyone was in a relaxed mood. The conference table was also laden with all sorts of cakes and candies as well as tea and coffee, much like a tea party. General Ji took a bite out of small sweet pea cake and said to everyone, “Please enjoy these desserts and don’t be polite. Today is still considered the holiday and we should eat and drink merrily.”

The conference room was abuzz with excitement. Huo Shaoheng didn’t like sweets so he only ordered a black coffee to sip from. But he remembered that Gu Nianzhi enjoyed the Imperial Capital’s famed desserts, such as fried rice cakes, sweet pea cakes and sticky cakes. He thought how he would go to the bakery in the building to buy some specialty desserts and send them over to Gu Nianzhi after the meeting.

General Ji ate the desserts as he hosted the meeting. “This time we will first focus on the main annual mission, which is also the most important one. The interrupted experiment from 16 years ago will restart this year.” The conference room grew quiet and everyone couldn’t help glancing at Huo Shaoheng and Huo Guanchen.

General Jia also looked at Huo Shaoheng and declared solenly, “Shaoheng, this experiment will be led by Director Song of the Institute of High Energy Physics and you will assist on behalf of the military. AS the Chief of the Special Ops and Director Song’s son, you know better than anyone the importance and confidentiality of this mission.”

Huo Shaoheng bowed slightly and his expression was serious, “We are planning for this matter and the experiment will not restart until the security measures are fully in place.”

General Ji nodded and looked at the people in the conference room, “Everyone in here are core figures in military, but this experiment is of such importance that not even everyone in here has the security clearance to know the details of it. So we must remember to keep this confidential. If we discover any leaks, the culprit will be subject to the most severe punishment by military law!” As he spoke, he looked at Huo Shaoheng, “Shaoheng, is there anything else you’d like to say?”

“General Ji summed it up very well, but I have something else to add. The privacy policy of our Special Operations Forces has already been activated so anyone aware of the restarting of the experiment is already under our strict surveillance.”

“What? No way? But we don’t even know anything about it?” A man sitting at the end of the long conference table interjected. He was the Minister of the General Armament Department of the military, surname Ji. He asked with a slightly angry expression, “The Special Operations Forces can’t do this? How you can start monitoring us without even giving notice! Your authority is over the top?”

“This action was approved by the Standing Committee of the Supreme Military Council and the National Affairs Group of the Senate. So if Minister Ji has any differing opinions, please complain to the Standing Committee of the Supreme Military Council and the National Affairs Group of the Senate.” Huo Shaoheng explained slowly and clasped his hands together as he kept his elbows on the desk. His piercing stare made Minister Ji slightly uncomfortable.

But since Huo Shaoheng had already explained things to that extent, Minister Ji was unable to say much more. He muttered, “Then can’t you at least let us know beforehand? What is the meaning of a surprise attack like this?”

“Minister Ji, the Special Operations Forces have special concessions granted by the military and Senate, it would be illegal if he notified you beforehand.” General Ji chastised Minister Ji slightly, and the latter immediately shut up without another word.

After the meeting, no one really spoke to Huo Shaoheng and he also didn’t want to talk to them. He left first and saw it was still not yet noon, so he first went to the bakery to buy two boxes of specially provisioned cakes.

Yin Shixiong was at his side and chuckled, “Are these for Nianzhi?”

“Yeah.” Huo Shaoheng replied calmly, “Go back to the base first and tell Little Ze to focus on monitoring the General Armament Department. I’m concerned there’s already a leak.”

Yin Shixiong instantly became grim, “I’ll go right now.” He and Fan Jian left the Supreme Military Council first so they sent another car for Huo Shaoheng.

Huo Shaoheng has many orderlies and any one of them could drive. He got in the car and said, “Go to the furniture store in Scion Plaza.”

Half an hour later, they arrived at Scion Plaza and Huo Shaoheng directly went to a famous furniture store to buy a twin sized mattress and had it sent to B University. His car followed the delivery truck until it arrived to Gu Nianzhi’s dorm building.

Gu Nianzhi just finished soaking her feet and was slumped tiredly on the bed for some rest. Her phone rang with Huo Shaoheng’s special ringtone and she immediately perked up as she lunged over to grab it from her bag, “Huo Shao?”

Huo Shaoheng’s mood brightened at the sound of Gu Nianzhi’s voice. He leaned against the car door and smoked a cigarette as he spoke into the phone, “Nianzhi, I ordered a mattress to be delivered to you, make sure to open the door.”

Gu Nianzhi was stunned, “Mattress? What mattress?” She held the phone and peered down from the window. Because her window was directly above the entrance to the building, she could see a big Cherokee parked and a tall man leaning against the car as he smoked and called on his phone. She recognized the silhouette right away. “Huo Shao? You came back to our school?!” Gu Nianzhi tried to contain the excitement in her voice as to not sound too ecstatic.

Huo Shaoheng looked up and grunted. He threw the cigarette butt into the garbage, “Don’t come down, I’ll come up to see you.”