The younger sister mistakenly identified her brother when visiting relatives and was kissed by the c

The soldier at the front had a round face and used to come here to bathe often; he had met Qiao Xinxin a few times.

As he entered, just as he was about to take out his bath ticket, he looked up and saw Zhou Liguang standing by the window. He paused for a moment, then quickly straightened his back and snapped to attention, giving a sharp salute.

"Battalion Commander Zhou! You're here to take a shower too?"

Zhou Liguang turned slightly to the side, his gentle expression instantly vanishing, replaced by the seriousness and composure he displayed in the military. He nodded gently and said in a deep voice:

"Okay, I'll take a shower."

Upon seeing Battalion Commander Zhou, the soldiers immediately fell silent and obediently lined up behind Zhou Liguang, waiting for him to proceed first.

Qiao Xinxin looked at the scene before her, and then at Zhou Liguang's somewhat tense profile. She knew that this was definitely not the time to talk about private matters.

She swallowed back the words that were about to come out, and changed her tune accordingly:

"Brother Zhou, are you here to take a bath too?"

Zhou Liguang seemed to just realize what was happening. He awkwardly patted his pocket, pulled out a neatly folded bath ticket without a single crease, and gently placed it on the wooden windowsill: "Hmm, I'll take a bath while I'm at it."

Qiao Xinxin took the bath ticket, tore off the stub with a "rip," and then took a red plastic tag from the wooden compartment next to her and handed it over.

"Here, take this sign. The ground is slippery, so be careful."

Zhou Liguang reached out and took the sign. As his fingertips touched the plastic sign, they inadvertently brushed against Qiao Xinxin's warm, soft fingertips, and he felt a slight jolt, as if he had been electrocuted.

He held the sign, but his feet seemed rooted to the spot, and he didn't immediately go inside.

"Brother Zhou," Qiao Xinxin looked up, her big, bright eyes staring straight at him. Her voice was soft, but it carried an unprecedented seriousness. "I'm free this weekend. Let's meet up then. I have something I want to tell you."

"The weekend?" he repeated softly, as if to make sure he hadn't misheard.

"Yes, it's the weekend." Qiao Xinxin nodded, her tone confident.

Zhou Liguang gave her a deep look, and a relieved smile finally appeared on his cold face. He nodded in response:

"Okay, I'll come see you this weekend. You can decide the time and place."

"Then let's meet on Saturday afternoon. We'll decide on the exact location then," Qiao Xinxin said.

"it is good."

Zhou Liguang then gripped the red sign in his hand, turned around, and strode towards the men's pool.

After the soldiers in line had bought their tickets and hurriedly went inside, the entire management office fell silent again.

The air still carried a faint smell of coal smoke, along with the icy cold air brought in by the soldiers earlier.

Qiao Xinxin leaned back in her chair, feeling a little weak, and gently placed her hand on the cover of the cool "Compendium of Materia Medica" on the table.

She looked at the empty doorway and said to herself, word by word:

"Qiao Xinxin, you can't be soft-hearted. You already promised Lu Baizhou, and if you keep dragging things out like this, it's not fair to Zhou Liguang or Lu Baizhou. Once the weekend comes, you must make things clear to him in detail."

Having made up her mind, although she felt a little bittersweet, the unease and irritation that had been weighing on her heart completely dissipated.

It's 9:30 p.m.

The steam in the bathhouse completely dissipated, and the last family member left, wrapped in a thick cotton-padded coat.

Qiao Xinxin quickly swept the floor, used the stove hook to seal the embers in the stove, locked the door, and carried the book "Compendium of Materia Medica" back to the Bai family home.

At this time, the Bai family courtyard was pitch black. Bai's parents had been exhausted all day and had long since gone to bed.

Only on the table in the main room, there was a kerosene lamp that had been deliberately dimmed, emitting a small, warm, yellowish light—a door lamp that her parents had specially left for her.

Qiao Xinxin felt a warmth in her heart and tiptoed through the main room back to her little boudoir.

She pulled the light switch, and with a "snap," the dim, yellowish incandescent bulb cast a soft glow.

She sat down at her desk, took a deep breath, and laid the heavy book "Compendium of Materia Medica" open on the table.

Instead of rushing to memorize those complicated prescriptions, she forced herself to calm down and go through the long catalog, classifying the more than 300 kinds of medicinal materials from beginning to end without missing a single word.

After she had built the framework in her mind, she opened the main text and began to read it carefully, page by page, following the page numbers.

"Ginseng has a sweet and slightly bitter taste, and is suitable for women suffering from metrorrhagia or excessive blood loss..."

"Bletilla striata, with its astringent and constricting properties, is used to treat hematemesis, epistaxis, and bleeding from traumatic injuries..."

In the still of the night, the only sounds were the occasional gust of cold wind outside the window and the soft rustling of her turning the pages of her book.

She closed her eyes, leaned back in the slightly chipped wooden chair, and silently reviewed what she had just read.

The once dry and abstruse text now seemed to come alive. The names, properties, meridians, and effects of more than a hundred kinds of medicinal herbs appeared clearly in her mind like soldiers in neat rows. Even the occasional ink stains on the pages were vividly clear, with almost no blurry areas.

This ability to "remember everything at a glance" is something that even Qiao Xinxin herself finds somewhat unbelievable, but more than anything, it gives her a sense of confidence and security.

The next morning, as dawn broke, the air still carried a hint of the chill of early spring.

After having breakfast, Qiao Xinxin said goodbye to Bai's parents and went out.

Today, Lin Zhengping was going to test her. Although she was confident, the thought of dealing with over three hundred kinds of medicinal herbs still made her palms sweat slightly as she gripped the canvas bag strap. She had noticed her memory had improved, but it was her first time undergoing such a systematic assessment, and she wasn't entirely sure how much she could remember or how well she could perform.

The gray brick building of the military medical department seemed a bit more lively today than yesterday. In the corridor on the first floor, several military doctors in white coats were huddled together, holding some forms and discussing some medical cases in hushed tones.

Hearing footsteps, they turned around and saw Qiao Xinxin walk in. One of the older men greeted her with a smile, "Oh, Comrade Qiao, here to learn from Minister Lin again? Come on up, he's been here for ages and is already reading in his office."

"Oh, thank you." Qiao Xinxin smiled sweetly and went up the slightly steep wooden stairs to the second floor.

The office door was half open. Lin Zhengping was wearing a pair of somewhat worn-out reading glasses and was sitting at a large wooden desk, flipping through a thick, yellowed medical book.