The wealthy military officer spoils his wife excessively

Next, we see the scene of Suwen, who was at the very end, slipping and falling.

This scene wasn't difficult for Suwen. If she relaxed even slightly, the heavy snowstorm could easily knock her down. The difficulty lay in her two teammates having to each hold onto her.

During the first test shoot, Suwen's ice axe slipped, and she immediately tumbled down like a snowball. The male actor only managed to grab a corner of her clothing, while the other young model didn't even dare to reach out.

The border guards were used to seeing in the wind and snow. Lu Zheng, who was watching from a distance, immediately noticed something was wrong and was the first to break out of the formation. Then, all the soldiers rushed out as fast as they could to prevent any accidents.

Fortunately, the snow beneath her was fresh, soft, and fluffy. Suwen rolled around about ten times, getting a mouthful of snowflakes. Her hair and body were covered in white snowballs. Lu Zheng was the first to pick her up, and then the staff gathered around, holding medicine boxes and chattering amongst themselves.

"Miss Nie, how are you?...Are you dizzy? Where does it hurt?"

Lu Zheng had already handed her over to his assistant and quietly retreated to the outer edge of the crowd.

Suwen touched her head. The snow was so soft that she hadn't fallen anywhere, but she had rolled around about ten times and felt a little dizzy.

After the medic checked her condition and confirmed that she was alright, the makeup artist touched up her makeup again, and the director went to explain the action points to the other two actors.

The filming progress was fraught with difficulties, and Suwen didn't know how many times she had rolled around. Finally, after the director's voice "Cut!" came through the earpiece, she felt a great sense of relief.

A helicopter hovered overhead, and the cameraman gave them a thumbs-up. The three actors collapsed onto the snow, letting out a long sigh. The accompanying crew rushed out, ignoring the cold, rolling around in the snow, cheering and screaming. It was their first time witnessing such natural beauty; setting aside the harsh weather, the boundless snow-capped mountain scenery was truly magnificent.

Lu Zheng, who had been watching her from afar, also subtly curled the corners of his mouth. It turned out he had worried for nothing. She had actually been enjoying her work all along. In her, one could always find those seemingly ordinary yet subtly touching moments that moved everyone.

After the excitement subsided, the film crew took a group photo at the flag-planting site. For them, this filming experience was not just a job, but also an adventure. Everyone wore satisfied smiles.

The director still remembered the border guards and warmly invited them to come over for a group photo.

Platoon Leader Cao Zibin awkwardly shook his head, "No, no, I'm ugly, I don't photograph well, you guys go ahead and take the pictures." Then, he ordered his platoon of "weak soldiers," "Attention! Right turn, march... Attention! Right—dress! Forward! Now, our Longzi County Border Defense Company, Platoon 1, is only one item away from successfully completing our mission. Do you know what it is?"

The soldiers answered in unison, their voices ringing out, "We know!"

"Everyone, shoes—!"

Aside from the border guards, everyone else, even the photographer, burst out laughing. It seems there's a tradition in the military to avoid saying "eggplant" or "panax notoginseng" when taking photos, instead saying "shoes"...

Under Platoon Leader Cao Zibin's command, the soldiers even took photos with the same orderly precision as if they were on a military campaign. This made everyone feel even more respect for these soldiers who were guarding the sacred border of their motherland.

Many years later, when Suwen touched the slightly matte group photo and saw the handsome soldiers standing behind her in pine-green uniforms with dignified and solemn expressions, she realized how careless she had been.

She had always thought his heart was as cold and hard as his military uniform, but she hadn't noticed how gentle his eyes were in this photo, a gaze so tender it could almost melt the wind and snow. It wasn't directed at the camera, but rather fell squarely on her.

After filming wrapped, Cao used a helicopter to take them back to the barracks. The crew had gone out to work in the wind and snow before dawn and were half-frozen. Now that they were back in their rooms, they covered themselves with quilts and went back to sleep.

Suwen wasn't sleepy; perhaps the cold had made her even more awake. She leaned against the window, watching the soldiers return and regroup, continuing their training against the wind and snow. Those rows of green pine branches eventually blended into the distant white landscape, and her heart was suddenly filled with a unique kind of emotion.

For these soldiers, and for Lu Zheng.

Lu Zheng.

I am waiting for you.

She waved to the figure disappearing into the distance from inside the house.

She had to fetch hot water from the boiler room herself. Last night, Xiao Zhao took care of her and prepared the hot water for her, but she felt embarrassed to bother him today.

Passing by the kitchen, I saw the cooks preparing food. There were no restaurants in Longzi County, so even film crews had to rely on the army's food.

She was a little curious about what the soldiers usually ate in this freezing cold.

Suwen knocked on the kitchen door, feeling rather embarrassed. Several conscripted cooks were sitting on benches picking vegetables, and they all greeted her warmly as "Comrade Female Star."

Suwen blushed and introduced herself, "My surname is Nie, you can just call me Xiao Nie." She also squatted down and picked up a few vegetables to help her pick them.

An old soldier from the mess hall said with a smile, "We roughnecks can handle this kind of thing. Comrade Nie, please have a seat!"

Suwen waved her hand hastily, saying, "I often do this at home, it's nothing." Then she started chatting with the soldiers.

"I heard that the old cooks in the army are even better at cooking than the master chefs in restaurants in Beijing. I wonder if that's true?"

The cook smiled smugly: "We're short on supplies and materials, otherwise we could make anything. The border defense company hasn't had any guests in a long time, so our company commander specifically instructed us to make the best food for you."

Now Suwen was really curious. She stood up, pointed to the large pot of rice next to her, and asked, "Can I take a look?"

The cook nodded indifferently.

She lifted the lid of the pot on the stove, and the fragrant aroma of meat wafted out, making her take a deep breath: "It smells so good."

"Yes, we're having braised pork today. I heard that Comrade Nie and you came from Beijing, so the squad leader specially made Beijing cuisine for us."

When the fog cleared, Suwen looked around to see what this Beijing dish looked like, but... in the huge, dark iron pot, there were pieces of meat that were almost entirely fat with no lean meat in sight, mixed with some kind of vegetable leafy greens and some ingredients that looked like radishes. At first glance, it looked like a hodgepodge.

"Cough..." Suwen turned her face away, put the lid back on, and asked, "Do you usually eat this?"

"We're lucky if we get to eat meat once a winter's time."

Suwen was taken aback: "Then what do you usually eat?"

The cook pointed to the baskets of radishes and cabbages beside him and said helplessly, "We'll be relying on these for the whole winter."

"That's all?"

The cook shook his head: "This is the current food. When the snow stops, the snow melts and the mountains are closed, these vegetables will be gone, and supplies from outside won't be able to be delivered. We'll just have pickled vegetables and white rice to eat."

"..."

White rice… Su Wen could hardly believe her ears. And Lu Zheng too…

"They're all young and strong men, can they handle it?"

“What’s so unbearable about this? We still have pickled vegetables to eat with our rice. Our platoon leader and company commander don’t even have pickled vegetables. Today, the company commander gave everyone an extra meal, which was deducted from the officers’ food allowance.”

Nie Suwen fell silent. She recalled the fatty pork and radish leaves she had just dismissed, and a wave of bitterness washed over her.

In the past, Lu Zheng was such a person who valued taste and was picky about every detail of life. Now, he's being asked to eat radishes and rice every day.

These are the soldiers from the border defense company.

It made her feel sad, but it also filled her with awe.

She fetched hot water and soaked her frozen hands and feet in the basin. Although each room had an electric heater, it was still bitterly cold, and her breath turned into white mist inside. The snow boots the manufacturer had given them were completely useless in this place; after rolling around on the mountain so many times, her clothes and shoes were already filled with snow, which had now melted into water.

She picked up her wet socks and hung them in front of the electric stove to dry. Then, the sound of firm and uniform slogans came from in front of the barracks. The soldiers had returned from training.

Suwen found clean shoes, socks, and clothes to change into, pushed open the door, and walked alone across the parade ground in front of the barracks.

The sentry on guard advised her, "Comrade, it's almost time for dinner."

"It's okay, I'll just walk around nearby, I won't go far."

The sentry hesitated for a moment and said, "Wait a minute, I'll go report to the platoon leader and find someone to follow you."

Suwen knew the other person meant well, so she nodded slightly. The sentry saluted her, then jogged back to the barracks.

In front of the outpost was a clearing in the woods, the hardy trees laden with icicles. Through the thick ice, one could vaguely see signs of flowing water at their feet; perhaps this was once a river. Suwen stood on the snowy ground by the riverbank, stamping her feet repeatedly to dispel the bone-chilling cold. Her feet were already frozen stiff; wearing shoes or not seemed to make no difference, the only difference being that the shoes felt frozen to her feet, hard and heavy. She removed her fox fur gloves, revealing the woolen gloves underneath, which felt like sheets of white paper pasted onto her hands, icy cold.

Suwen stamped her foot. Above the forest seemed to be a mountain peak, covered in silver and shrouded in frost and mist only seen in extremely cold weather, like a fairyland. Curious, she took a few steps closer. Suddenly, she heard what sounded like an animal's roar from the forest. Then, a creature with snow-white fur nimbly darted past her, leaping into the forest and blending into the snow.

Is it a hunting dog, or... a wolf?