Top Soldier Pursued by a Beauty

Looking around, he saw fashionably dressed young men and women everywhere. Luxury cars lined the paths, and a boisterous din filled the air. Standing amongst them with a cheap woven bag, Zhao Dong felt incredibly lonely and out of place...

All new students were greeted by upperclassmen. But because of his worn-out bag, Zhao Dong was practically invisible. He would get occasional glances sizing him up like an oddity. In the following six months, he inevitably became the target of public scorn, an outcast everyone avoided. After all, his family was poor and his clothes were shabby, making him an easy target for contempt.

This continued until one evening when the sky was filled with dark, thunderous clouds streaked with lightning.

Zhao Dong was burying his head in his studies at the library. When he finally looked up, a torrential downpour had enveloped the world outside. He packed his books and hurried toward the dormitory.

On the way, a girl's cry of alarm made him stop in his tracks. Looking back, he saw a few punks with bleached hair had appeared in a nearby alley. They were surrounding a tall girl, making lewd remarks.

Though Zhao Dong felt insecure, a sense of justice still burned within him.

He shouted, "Who are you? Who let you onto campus?"

The angry shout drew the punks' attention. What followed was inevitable. A flurry of punches and kicks rained down on Zhao Dong. But in the commotion, the girl seized the opportunity to escape the alley. The beating left Zhao Dong bedridden for three whole days.

But ever since that day...

Whenever he went to the library, a girl would always be there, secretly watching him from a distance. Each time, she would sit a little closer.

Until one day, when Zhao Dong looked up from his book, the sky was once again pouring rain. He ran outside with a worn black umbrella, where a lone, slender figure standing by the door caught his eye. Glancing at the umbrella in his hand, Zhao Dong eventually held it out to her.

"Hey, uh... this is for you..."

"Ah?" the girl exclaimed in surprise. "But... what about you?"

Zhao Dong smiled simply. "I'm a man. I'm not afraid of a little rain."

With that, he was about to dash off. But the girl grabbed his arm, a faint smile on her lips.

"You're so silly. Why don't we walk back together?"

Zhao Dong was stunned. It was the first time in college a girl had ever smiled and spoken to him. Before he could agree, she had taken his arm and pulled him out into the rain.

Zhao Dong walked in a daze the entire way. The girl only stopped when they reached the side of an alley.

"Zhao Dong, do you remember this alley?"

THUMP!

Zhao Dong's heart skipped a beat. "You... How do you know my name is Zhao Dong?"

The girl gave a charming smile. "Because you saved me. In my heart, you're my hero!"

With that, she rose onto her tiptoes.

The next moment, a tingling sensation shot through Zhao Dong's body. The girl's soft lips had pressed against his. The feeling surged through his brain like an electric shock. After the kiss, the girl, blushing furiously, ran off into the rain and vanished from sight.

He was sleepless all night.

「The next day.」

Zhao Dong took the initiative to ask about the girl. The answer he received, however, caused the feelings of inferiority buried in his heart to surge forth once more. The girl was Ding Lan, the belle of the freshman class.

Zhao Dong let out a bitter, silent laugh. He couldn't believe such a cliché plot was happening to him. He certainly didn't believe the goddess of fate would ever smile upon him, yet it seemed Cupid had indeed shot his arrow at both him and Ding Lan.

In the days that followed, Zhao Dong deliberately avoided her, until Ding Lan cornered him at the entrance of the men's dormitory.

She demanded angrily, "Zhao Dong! You kissed me! Are you not going to take responsibility?"

"No... it's not like that." Back then, Zhao Dong was painfully clueless when it came to romance. He stammered awkwardly, "I... I'm just a poor guy. I can't even support myself. I'm in no position to be responsible for you. I didn't save you for any special reason. I would have helped any other student in that situation. I had no ulterior motives. We're from different worlds. You should stop looking for me..."

With that, Zhao Dong turned and fled. He thought Ding Lan would finally give up.

But who could have known?

「The next day!」

Down below the men's dormitory building, a beautiful girl in a white dress stood holding a bouquet of fiery red roses and shouting into a megaphone, "Zhao Dong! Get out here!"

The commotion immediately attracted a crowd of teachers and students. From his window above, Zhao Dong stared down, completely stunned.

"Zhao Dong! You're right, you're poor, and people don't treat you as an equal, but so what?" she yelled. "I, Ding Lan, don't care about money, and I certainly don't care what other people think! In my eyes, you are my hero! You are my whole world!

"Zhao Dong! I just want one answer from you today! Do you like me or not? If you don't, I'll leave right now and never bother you again!

"But if you do like me, then come down here like a man! And no matter how hard life gets, I'll face it with you, okay!?"

This spectacle caused an immediate uproar among the students. Some cheered, while others cursed angrily.

Zhao Dong couldn't remember what happened next. He only remembered taking Ding Lan's hand in front of the entire school.

And just like that, they became a couple.

Ding Lan's family wasn't well-off. Her university living allowance wasn't very large either. Since Zhao Dong often went hungry from a lack of money, Ding Lan would use her own allowance to buy him meals. Because of this, she was often the one left with an empty stomach at the end of the month.

Later, for his birthday, Ding Lan gifted him a pair of Adidas sneakers worth over a thousand yuan. For her, a thousand yuan was a fortune. Zhao Dong pressed her about where the money came from, but she just waved it off, saying her family gave it to her. What Zhao Dong didn't notice was that during that period, Ding Lan had lost ten pounds.

Sometime later, Zhao Dong happened to hear from Ding Lan's roommate. He learned that to save money for his sneakers, Ding Lan had eaten nothing but pickled vegetables and steamed buns for half a month.

Overcome with emotion, Zhao Dong was determined to get a part-time job to treat Ding Lan to good food. But every time he suggested a nice restaurant, she was reluctant to spend the money, instead pulling him to a wonton stall outside the school gates. Two bowls of wontons, two eggs. Every time, Ding Lan would claim she was on a diet, giving her wontons to Zhao Dong and just drinking the broth. She would even eat only the egg whites, leaving the yolks for him, saying that they were one and should share everything.

During that period, Zhao Dong and Ding Lan were a legendary campus romance. But as the campus belle, how could Ding Lan lack suitors?

Zhao Dong vaguely remembered a day during their junior year, on their first anniversary. He had borrowed his roommate's hair gel to style his hair perfectly. He was wearing his best outfit—though it cost less than three hundred yuan—and was waiting for Ding Lan at the school gate.

Suddenly, a Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon pulled up to the entrance. A dapper young man in a suit stepped out of the car. As the trunk slowly lifted, it revealed a stunning arrangement of nine hundred and ninety-nine fiery red roses. In the center of the roses lay a brilliant, dazzling diamond necklace. A banner was draped across the open trunk.

"Ding Lan, I love you!"

"Damn! It's Young Master Wang!"

"Young Master Wang is the campus heartthrob of the junior year! His family's rich, he's handsome... countless girls have fallen for him. The rumors said he's had his eyes on Ding Lan for a long time. I guess it was true!"

"Tsk, tsk. For him to show up now... he's deliberately provoking Zhao Dong!"

"Zhao Dong isn't that much uglier than Young Master Wang, but their status is worlds apart! With Young Master Wang making a move, if I were Ding Lan, I definitely wouldn't refuse!"

"No kidding! That's a G-Wagon! What woman could refuse a G-Wagon? Ding Lan's only with Zhao Dong because no one better was chasing her. Now that Young Master Wang has made his move, she's not a fool. She knows who to choose!"

The crowd's chatter made Young Master Wang look exceedingly smug. He strode up to Zhao Dong and glanced at him with disdain.

"You're Zhao Dong?" Young Master Wang said, looking down on him as if he were a god.

"Yes. What about it?"

"Heh. When Ding Lan comes out and sees my G-Wagon, who do you think she'll leave with? You or me? With all these classmates watching, do you really think she'll choose a loser like you and embarrass herself in public?"

BOOM!

The words sent a roar through Zhao Dong's mind.

Just then, Ding Lan walked out. Without a shred of hesitation, she linked her arm with Zhao Dong's, turned to Young Master Wang, and said, word for word, "Please stay away from me and my man from now on. You're really annoying."

That one sentence sent Young Master Wang away. And it made Zhao Dong pull Ding Lan into a fierce embrace.

That night, they lay on a hotel bed together for the first time. Zhao Dong was insecure, but he wasn't completely naive. He sat on the bed, at a loss. Ding Lan leaned into his embrace, her face a picture of pure happiness.

"You said you had an anniversary gift for me," Zhao Dong said nervously. "Why did you bring me to a hotel? This place looks expensive. A night here must cost a lot, right?"

With a gentle smile, tears suddenly welled up in Ding Lan's eyes. She said, word by word, "Zhao Dong, I... I am your gift..."

How could two young people in love resist? Passion flared between them, their clothes fell away, and Ding Lan lay beneath him, saying through her tears, "Zhao Dong... this... this is my first time. Promise me you'll marry me in the future, okay?"

In that moment, they only had eyes for each other, with no thought for what the future might hold. Zhao Dong nodded vigorously and they sank into a deep kiss. Ding Lan took the lead, guiding him as they completely dissolved into one another...

The memory froze at that moment.

As his consciousness returned to the present, a bitter smile touched Zhao Dong's lips.

Back then, when I had nothing, our love was as deep as the ocean, and we supported each other. Now that I'm successful, you've ended up with someone else... Fate is so cruel, it's laughable...

Zhao Dong sighed at the absurdity of it all and was about to look away. But just then, he saw Ding Lan suddenly sprint towards the riverbank and leap straight into the water!

BOOM!

Zhao Dong's mind reeled in disbelief. His mind went blank for three seconds, then without a second thought, he broke into a sprint, dashing towards the river.