Little Octopus - Chapter 4

Chapter 4

When I called my mom to tell her I was bringing my boyfriend home, she ditched her square dancing and dragged my dad back to the house in a frantic rush.

But in their haste, they realized they had dropped their keys somewhere along the way just as they reached the front door.

I hadn’t lived with my parents for a long time, and since today was a last-minute decision, I hadn’t brought my keys either.

In the end, he showed off a bit of skill by picking the lock with a five-yuan bill. Because of that particular talent, my father’s gaze toward him became filled with scrutiny.

My mother pulled me into the kitchen, leaving my father in the living room to interrogate him.

“So, what does Xiao Yu do for a living?”

I brought out a plate of fruit from the kitchen and sat down beside him.

I gave his palm a secret squeeze. He smiled at me and said, “It’s fine. I’ve already filed a report in advance; I can talk about it.”

My father looked completely bewildered.

Yu Chenghuai continued, addressing my father, “Uncle, I’m a soldier. Special forces. My specific duties are classified and can’t be discussed, nor can I say which unit I belong to.”

“Then what *can* you say?” My father’s expression seemed to say: *You had to file a report just to tell us that much?*

“I can say that I love Xiaoxiao very much and want to marry her. Because of the nature of my work, my experiences, and my strong personal conviction, I will cherish this relationship above all else.”

“Can you special forces guys ever retire?”

“It’s possible, but right now I’m neither injured nor disabled. It isn’t easy for the country to train a special forces soldier. Retiring at my age would be a waste of national resources.”

“…If you were injured or disabled, why would I marry my daughter to you?”

Later, as we were leaving my parents’ house, he said my parents were quite nice.

“How so?”

“Even though they aren’t entirely satisfied with me, they’re trying to accept me because I’m the one you like. They’re very open-minded.”

“Do you special forces guys have to study psychology or something? You seem to see right through people.”

He thought for a moment and then shook his head. “I can’t see through you.”

“Why?”

“Probably because the ‘like’ factor has clouded my judgment.” He paused. “Usually, when I talk to others, I know three or four sentences in advance what they’re going to say next. But you always seem to fall outside my expectations.”

“That kind of confession doesn’t count,” I said, pouting.

“See? I didn’t expect you to say that. I thought you’d say, ‘We’ve only met three times, how much could you possibly like me?’ But instead, you said it doesn’t count as a confession. You never even doubted the sincerity of my feelings for you.”

“Why should I doubt it? It’s not like I don’t know how likable I am.”

He pulled me into his arms and said, “Yes, yes, yes. You’re absolutely right.”

After leaving my parents’ place, he took me to an apartment in the city center.

He said, “I’m sorry. Whenever you need me, you never even know where I am.”

I replied, “You’re out there protecting the world.”

He smiled, though it looked a bit bitter.

Fortunately, I’m sweet enough to balance him out.

“I don’t have much money right now, so I bought this apartment for you first.”

“For me?”

“Yeah.” He handed over a property deed with my name on it.

I didn’t know how he managed to buy a house in my name without alerting me, and even though it was just a small apartment that I could have afforded myself, a wave of warmth rose from my chest.

“This is my salary card. The password is your birthday. If you need money, just take it from here.”

“How much is in it?”

“After buying the apartment, there should be nearly a million left.”

“That much?!” I thought soldiers were supposed to be dirt poor?

“This is every bonus, injury allowance, and paycheck your husband has earned over the last six years…”

“Then your monthly average is over ten thousand-that’s not bad-ow!”

He flicked my forehead again.

“My monthly salary is only a few thousand. The rest is almost entirely bonuses and injury pay. Try to wish some better things for me, would you?”

“But if you give me all your money, what will you do?”

“Even if I have money, I need the time to spend it. I’ll have to trouble you to spend it for me.”

“Roger that!”

While I was showering, I heard the door open. I poked my head out of the bathroom. “You’re not going to suddenly disappear, are you?”

“I’m not leaving. I’m just going downstairs to buy some things.”

There was a lot of meaning in his smile. I knew immediately what he was going to buy.

Blushing, I ducked back under the showerhead.

Man, I was suddenly getting nervous.

I lay in bed alone until the covers turned cold, but he didn’t come back.

I tried calling him, but his phone was off.

I sent a WeChat message, but there was no reply.

Now I finally understood the true meaning of what his sister, Yu Pingjin, had said: *Loving my brother is hard work, but whatever you do, don’t give up.*

This wasn’t just hard work.

This was a hard life.

It wasn’t until a month later that I finally received a call from him.

He explained that he had received a sudden mission that night and had to head straight to the deployment site.

It was a classified mission; he couldn’t tell me anything.

I stayed silent on the phone, feeling sullen.

“Little Octopus, I only get ten minutes on the phone once a week. Are you going to spend the whole time being angry?”

“You can’t keep using that to threaten me.”

“What can I say? It works every time. Haha.”

“Even though I’m talking to you, I’m writing all of this down in my little grudge notebook.”

“Fine. Next time we meet, you can take your revenge!”

“I used your money to buy a house.”

“What do you mean ‘my’ money? Watch your phrasing. That’s *our* money.”

“Oh.”

“Where did you buy it? Was it enough?”

“In the High-Tech Zone. I added some of my own savings to it.”

“Then I’ll work harder and try to get another bonus by the end of the year to make up for what you put in.”

“Well, it’s all ours together anyway.”

“Yeah, together.” He sounded incredibly happy.

I could hear people in the background teasing him and calling out “Sister-in-law!”

He barked a few “shoo, shoo, shoo”s at them before speaking back into the phone. “Little Octopus, I wanted to ask… can I file my marriage application report now?”

“Yu Chenghuai, I haven’t even inspected the goods yet.”

He laughed. “Understood. I’ll file the application first then.”

“?”

“Guaranteed Grade-A goods.”

“Oh, get out of here!”