Campus Alliance-Never Fall North Star

Shen Jiaqi was obviously a little reluctant, and muttered some unclear words, but under Ren Qifeng's constant urging and gentle pushing, she finally stood up reluctantly, dragging her feet like a child, and slowly walked towards her room.

Seeing this, Ren Qifeng hurriedly followed her, fearing that she would fall in the dark.

He turned on the flashlight function on his phone to illuminate the road ahead, and said to Shen Jiaqi with concern: "You are like a child now. You have to go to bed obediently when it's time!"

When Shen Jiaqi heard this, she suddenly perked up and retorted mischievously: "You really treat me like a child!" There was a hint of coquettishness in her voice.

Ren Qifeng smiled slightly, nodded, then held her hand tightly and said gently: "Why not? I just want to pamper you like a child. Sleep when you are sleepy and eat when you are hungry. This way, your body will be healthy and we can be together for a long time!"

Shen Jiaqi didn't say anything, just stood beside Ren Qifeng, looked at his slightly tired face recently, stretched out his hand and gently placed it on his face, pinched his cheek which had no flesh to begin with, rubbed it gently and said: "Okay! I'll listen to you!"

Ren Qifeng smiled softly and said, "Go to sleep!"

I helped her cover the quilt, pinched the corners, turned on the air conditioner, soaked a hot water bottle, and carefully wrapped a towel to prevent her feet from getting burned. When everything was done, when I turned my head to look at her, the person on the bed had already made a heavy breathing sound.

Ren Qifeng didn't have to do anything. Just listening to and watching her regular breathing, he felt very content.

The rain gradually stopped, and Song Hui's small yellow umbrella was still held up between the tombstones of Song Chen and Cheng Huan. Water droplets from the edge of the umbrella dripped onto the tombstones, blurring the smiling faces of the two people in the photo.

Shen Jiaqi was walking back with Song Hui by the hand. There were grass leaves stuck to the little guy's braids, which were rubbed off when he was squatting in front of the tombstone and wiping the rain off the photos.

"Mom," Song Hui suddenly looked up and pointed at the rainbow in the sky with his little hand, "Look, does it look like the scarf knitted by Cheng Huan's mother?"

Shen Jiaqi looked in the direction of her hand, and saw seven-colored light bands hanging on the clouds. Her nose felt sore, and she smiled and nodded: "Like, the scarf knitted by Chenghuan's mother, it's also this warm."

When they returned to the coffee shop, Lu Yun and Xiang Haichen were stewing fish soup in the kitchen.

Xiang Haichen's hands were not very flexible yet, and his movements holding the soup spoon were a little stiff, so Lu Yu stood beside him, holding the pot handle for him from time to time. The sunlight leaked in from the small window of the kitchen, shining on their folded hands, just like when they shared a pot to cook noodles in the barracks.

"Stir slowly," Lu Yan lowered his head and whispered in his ear, "It's hot."

Xiang Haichen's ears turned red, but he deliberately argued: "You are the one who is hot. When I was cooking noodles, I put sugar instead of salt, and I choked and drank three bottles of water."

Lu Yan laughed out loud and scratched his chin with his fingertips: "I just wanted to show you my skills at that time."

On the corridor outside the kitchen, Ren Qingjia was lying on the desk taking notes. On the notebook was a timeline of the serial cases, with the words "The neck wound may be related to the murderer's childhood" written crookedly next to it.

Shen Jingxing leaned over to take a look, poking the notebook with his little finger: "This is drawn wrong, Dad said the knife used by the murderer should be thinner."

The two little guys were arguing with their heads close to each other, just like when Shen Jiaqi and Ren Qifeng discussed tactics back then.

Shen Jiaqi leaned against the door frame and looked, and suddenly felt his eyes getting hot - Cheng Huan always said that children are the seeds of hope, and now it seems that they have really sprouted in this land.

Chu Ziqian is leaving!

The night before he left, the lights in the North Star Cafe stayed on until late at night. On the bar were the specialties he brought with him, dried wild dates and strong liquor, the kind they had drunk when they were on a mission in Country M.

"This wine is strong, drink less." Ren Qifeng poured half a cup for each person and looked at Chu Ziqian, "Remember to keep in touch when you get there. Don't disappear when you go on a mission like you did before."

Chu Ziqian smiled, raised his head and took a sip of wine, his Adam's apple rolling: "Don't worry, the Joint Command has a satellite phone, call me when I miss you."

"And you," Chu Ziqian turned to Shen Jiaqi and handed her a wooden sculpture of a hyacinth. "It was carved by a carpenter from the border. He said it can calm the mind."

Shen Jiaqi took it and found that the petals of the wooden carving were polished smooth.

"Be careful when you get there," she smiled, "Don't always think about taking the blame for others, take care of your own body too."

Chu Ziqian didn't say anything, he just raised his glass, and the glasses of several people clinked together, making a crisp sound, just like the sound of clinking glasses when celebrating in the army back then, but this time, there was a little more reluctant warmth in the wine stains on the rims of the glass.

The next morning, when Chu Ziqian's car drove out of the old street, Lu Yan and Xiang Haichen stood at the third-floor window and watched.

Xiang Haichen suddenly said: "He is actually afraid that Qi Feng will go to the border, right? If the situation over there is too much pressure and Qi Feng is required to go, he will have no way to deal with it!"

Lu Yan hummed. "Some burdens have to be carried by someone." He held Xiang Haichen's hand tightly, "Just like we are guarding this store and these people."

The sound of children's laughter came from downstairs. Song Hui was running after Ren Qingjia, holding a paper windmill that Shen Jiaqi had made for her. When the wind blew, it spun like a little sun.

Ren Qifeng sat on a rattan chair under the magnolia tree, Shen Jiaqi leaned on his shoulder, flipping through the border map left by Chu Ziqian, his fingertips paused at a certain mark - that was the coordinates of the team from Country E that they had helped back then.

"What are you thinking about?" Ren Qifeng asked with his head down, rubbing his chin against the top of her head.

Shen Jiaqi shook his head and closed the map: "I was thinking, when Chu Ziqian comes back, we will plant hyacinths all over the yard, he will definitely like it."

Ren Qifeng smiled and held her hand. Her fingertips were a little cold. It was an old problem. It always felt like this on rainy days. He put her hand in his pocket, and the warmth of his palm seeped into it little by little: "Okay, plant the whole yard so that he can smell it as soon as he enters the door."

A special task force for the serial cases was eventually established. Lu Xun and Ren Qifeng did not join, but they became the "think tank" behind the scenes.

Every morning, men in military uniforms would come up from a special staircase and place the latest clues next to the sand table on the third floor. When they came again in the evening, there would always be a few more suspicious points marked with red pen on the sand table.

Xiang Haichen's legs gradually got better and he was able to walk in the yard with a cane.

He always liked to sit next to Shen Jiaqi and watch her teach the children to read. The sunlight fell on the two of them, like a quiet painting. Once, Song Hui asked: "Father Haichen, does the scar on your back hurt?"

Xiang Haichen smiled and patted the little guy's head: "It doesn't hurt anymore, because you are here."

In late autumn, she hung Shen Jiaqi's military uniform in the closet on the second floor, side by side with Ren Qifeng's military uniform. The buttons on the collar were polished to a shine, as Ren Qifeng had rubbed them with a soft cloth when he helped her button them up that day.

"Are you still wearing it?" Ren Qifeng hugged her from behind, his chin resting on the top of her head.

Shen Jiaqi shook his head and ran his fingertips across the shoulder straps on his military uniform: "No, I'm fine like this now."

She turned around and looked at the white hair on his temples. "Look, the children are piling up fallen leaves in the yard, Lu Yan is teaching Hai Chen how to make coffee, and Chu Ziqian has sent dried wild dates from the border. Life like this is much more stable than when I was in military uniform."

Ren Qifeng didn't say anything, but just hugged her tighter.

In the wardrobe mirror, there were two figures leaning against each other. The hyacinths outside the window were all over the ground, like a layer of lavender snow. The light in the eyes of the person in the mirror was brighter than that year on the training ground.

On a winter night, next to the sand table on the third floor, the clue map of the serial cases was still posted. Next to the suspicious points circled in red pen, there were a few childish doodles - a little sun drawn by Song Hui, saying "light will illuminate the bad guys."

In the room on the second floor, Shen Jiaqi was already fast asleep. Ren Qifeng sat beside the bed, looking at her peaceful sleeping face. He held a strand of her long hair that had fallen during the day in his hand and carefully wrapped it around his fingertips.

On the bedside table, the hyacinth wood carving sent by Chu Ziqian glowed in the moonlight, like a small North Star.

The snow fell heavier and heavier, covering the roof of the North Star Cafe white.

The lights in the store were still on, reflecting the smiling faces on the wall, the clasped hands, and the whispers of children in their dreams.

As Shen Jiaqi often says, the light will always break through the clouds.

Those that are lost, waited for, and held on to will eventually grow into the warmest appearance in time - like hyacinths blooming every year, like old friends returning, like love, which never ends.