The Stunningly Beautiful and Delicate Darling in the 1980s Military Compound - Chapter 53

This was the feeling!

Jiang Manman never dreamed she would get this close to Chen Che in this life. Everything felt unreal. Despite the physical exhaustion, just being pressed against his uniform made her feel as if she had stepped into another world.

However, Chen Che’s pace was too fast. In no time at all, he had delivered her to the infirmary without a single hint of impropriety in his behavior.

The doctor, Zhang Mei, was someone Chen Che knew well. “Doctor Zhang, this comrade seems to have fainted from low blood sugar. Can you take a look?”

Seeing that Jiang Manman’s eyes were open, Zhang Mei had her lie down, checked her vitals, and asked, “How are you feeling now?”

Jiang Manman’s mind was entirely on Chen Che. Having had a small taste of closeness, she naturally wanted more. She hesitated before answering, “I just feel a bit dizzy.”

“It’s definitely the low blood sugar,” the doctor said, handing her two bottles of glucose and instructing her to rest. “No matter how busy you are, you have to eat on time. Especially for a woman as thin as you.”

In the research institute, even tall men fainted from exhaustion occasionally, so Zhang Mei was used to being gentle with her patients.

Hearing the doctor’s words, Chen Che felt a slight pang of sympathy. He didn’t have any personal feelings for Jiang Manman—she was a peripheral figure in his life—but thinking of her as a fellow comrade struggling for the country’s ideals gave him a sense of respect.

“Comrade Manman,” Chen Che said, standing by the bed. “Don’t go back to work today. Rest here. I’m heading back.”

“Cousin!” Jiang Manman reached out and grabbed the corner of his jacket. She hated it when he called her “Comrade Manman”; it sounded so distant. Her voice was weak and full of grievance. “Cousin, I don’t feel well. Can’t you stay here and keep me company?”

Since she was a patient, she felt she had the right to be a little unreasonable.

But Chen Che remained strictly professional. “When I get back, I’ll have Comrade Wang from your group come over. I have things to do.” Without waiting for a response, he walked out.

He respected her work ethic, but he disliked how she spoke to him as if they were intimate. He had no desire for private contact.

Zhang Mei, a middle-aged woman in her forties, watched the scene while filing medical records. She glanced at Jiang Manman, who was staring out the window at Chen Che’s departing back.

“You’re new here, aren’t you?” the doctor asked with a knowing smile. “Do you like Commander Chen?”

Jiang Manman’s face flushed. “Actually, I’m his cousin. Well, not biological, but…”

Zhang Mei shook her head disapprovingly. “Young lady, that’s not a good idea. Commander Chen is married. Your feelings won’t lead anywhere. I’ve heard his wife is quite a beauty—talented, too.”

Jiang Manman’s face soured. She considered herself a comrade who could fight alongside Chen Che; how could she possibly be inferior to someone like Song Mingyue?

Meanwhile, Wang Bing was fuming. He had seen the Commander carrying Jiang Manman on his back through the side path, and it was obvious to him that the woman was clinging to him with “unpure” motives.

“Commander,” Wang Bing said, looking unhappy once Chen Che returned. “Who do you think is more outstanding—Comrade Jiang Manman or the Sister-in-Law?”

Chen Che frowned. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m asking who you admire more.”

“Wang Bing, this is work time. Don’t waste it on nonsense.”

Wang Bing, who had grown up watching “drama” at youth settlement points, felt he had a keen eye for “scheming” women. “How is this nonsense? You carried a woman to the infirmary! She didn’t look like she was fainting to me; she looked like she was enjoying the ride. Commander, you’re too inexperienced in judging people.”

“You don’t even have a girlfriend, yet you’re lecturing me?” Chen Che countered.

Wang Bing sighed. He felt his Commander was going to regret his blindness one day.

For now, Chen Che had no regrets. His relationship with Song Mingyue was in a state of “passionate bliss,” largely due to the Commander’s sudden discovery of the joys of intimacy.

A man in his twenties experiencing these things for the first time is a changed man. Previously, Chen Che would spend two hours reading after dinner—a habit he’d kept since childhood. Now, the moment dinner was over, he would lock the courtyard gate with a straight face and say, “Let’s go to sleep.”

Mingyue, fresh from her bath in her silk nightgown, would tease him. “Sleep? And how exactly do you plan on sleeping?”

Chen Che couldn’t handle that kind of temptation. He would pander to her like a lovestruck youth. Mingyue didn’t mind; she enjoyed his company, his strength, and the way he made her feel.

She watched as the “principled” Chen Che slowly abandoned his resistance to new “positions” and ideas. Seeing a handsome, stoic man “slap his own face” by giving in to desire was a hobby she never grew tired of.

Amidst the domestic bliss, Mingyue’s entrepreneurial spirit was being poked by her friends. Zhang Jingjing and Zhao Xing were eager to start a new project. Zhao Xing, especially, needed a distraction from her heartbreak over Wang Mo.

“Selling food is hard work, and none of us are experts,” Mingyue told them. “If we do business, we need to do something we’re good at and that has a high chance of success. What do you think of clothing?”

Mingyue had thought it over. People’s aesthetics were changing in the 1980s. Selling clothes had huge potential, and Mingyue never lacked confidence in her sense of style. Fashion is a cycle, and she knew exactly how to blend 80s trends with her modern eye.

Jingjing and Zhao Xing were immediately on board. “Mingyue, when it comes to clothes, who could possibly compete with you?”