Love Began with the First Meeting

Edgar's deep eyes were fixed on Maggie. Her face was firm and her eyes stared back into his. Although she said that in a pretended casual voice, he knew that she wasn't lying. "If you did that because I once rescued you in your childhood, then you are saying that you chose to join a military college just for me, but to serve our country as a competent soldier is for your own good." His tone was devoid of any emotion. "Maggie Du, don't waste your time pursuing me any longer. It doesn't matter if you're trying to play a prank or if you're serious. The result will not change." Edgar's eyes looked increasingly distant and Maggie felt her heart shatter in an instant. "Sir, you taught us that nothing is impossible in the world." She pursed her lips and looked intensely at him before turning around and leaving in a fit of anger and agony. She didn't bother to wait for him to finish his sentence.

Edgar looked at Maggie's proud back, striding away from him. It was not until her figure had disappeared from his sight into the dark night that he withdrew his eyes from her. The roast lamb leg had lost its warmth. Edgar smiled bitterly and grabbed a piece of it, taking a big bite and chewing it fiercely.

"I think I'm too old to understand what young people are thinking,"

a voice came from a short distance away from him. Edgar turned slowly to look in the direction of the voice. A man was walking towards him in his military uniform with a shoulder mark indicating that he was a major general of the army. He looked like he was in his late forties.

"But I just realized that I don't understand what you are thinking either. They say that even a meagre three years' difference in age creates a generation gap. If you look at it that way, there are a few generation's worth of gap between us," the man joked.

Edgar cleaned his hand, stood in attention and was about to salute him. But he was stopped half-way by the man, who simply waved his hand. "Don't try to shut my mouth by interrupting." He glanced at the roast lamb leg beside Edgar and asked with a smile at the corners of his mouth, "How does it taste? The roast lamb from Maggie Du is especially yummy, right?

"Every member of the Eagle Special Brigade has at least once been stuck in the mountain forest, where there is absolutely no meat to grub on, and I'm no exception. For us, this is a delicacy." A smile appeared on Edgar's face. He raised the roast meat to the man, inviting him to enjoy the meal with him.

The man shook his head and said, "I already had supper. I got off work just now, so I came here to see you, but I wasn't expecting to stand witness to such a dramatic scene." With a grin, he continued to tease Edgar, "I didn't want to disturb you when I saw that Claire Qin was here talking with you. I wanted to go for a walk, but before I went away, Maggie Du appeared and I watched the show."

Edgar didn't seem to mind being teased by him. As he took a bite off the meat, he said, "This is not the first time that you are enjoying a joke at my expense, and it seems that you take quite a lot of pleasure in it."

"You can't blame me. Stories around you are always so interesting. Mr. William Du was planning to visit here today. Lucky for you, he went to the armored brigade instead. If he had come here at the wrong time, I wonder how you would have handled the situation." "You know very well that Maggie Du did that on purpose. She was acting all along," Edgar said, rolling his eyes.

Seeing his expression, the man burst into laughter. He chuckled, "Sorry, maybe my eyes were not sharp enough to see through her. If that's true, then even the smart Claire was fooled by what Maggie had said just now, along with her tears and her sobs." He pointed to the curb behind them, indicating that he wanted to talk there. Edgar followed him and sat on the curb. Then the man continued, "I don't think Maggie was kidding." He had been working as William's subordinate for many years. He had watched Maggie grow up. She had always been quick-witted since her childhood. If it were not for Edgar, a psychological shadow would have been left upon her after her kidnapping incident.

Edgar stopped eating his meat, and just stared at it as if he was lost in his thoughts. He lowered his eyes to look at his shadow in the moonlight. "Like you said, a meagre three years' difference in age does create a generation gap."

The man burst into laughter again. Edgar was confused by his response. He asked between laughs, "Edgar, have you ever tried talking to other people about your day or anything casual? Do you know what that even means?" He laughed even more heartily. "In this world, there is always this one person who will conquer you. Have no doubt about it. Since you're not working tomorrow, why don't you take the time to think carefully about what I said and sort out your own emotions? If your Miss Right has finally come for your heart, you cannot escape from her even if you want to. Why not face her directly and solve the issue?"

Hearing the man's words, Edgar began ruminating silently. Because of the accidental kiss in A City, he indeed had thought about the possibility of getting together with Maggie. However, that was just a thought. He didn't intend to do it for real. He was no longer the impulsive young man he once used to be.

Patting Edgar on his shoulder, the man said, "Enjoy the night. I'm going to take a walk. Soldiers need their rest too." He stood up. "I haven't been on night duty for many years. I didn't think it would be so taxing."

After saying goodbye to him, Edgar tried to bite into the piece of meat in his hand; it was stone cold now. He no longer had any appetite. His mind was elsewhere now. He wasn't in the mood to eat anymore. He remained absent-minded all night. Maggie's amazing performance in front of Claire and the stubbornness on her face kept rolling in his head. When he stopped thinking about her, he remembered the earnest words of the man. Maggie stayed in his mind and heart for the rest of the night.

Right before dawn broke, the cocks raised by the cooking team began to crow loudly. The army horn would usually blow around this time. However, since it was a day off, it was quiet all around the Eagle Special Brigade, except for the voices of the military officers that came through the earpieces, who were on duty at different positions.

Edgar watched as the sky turned a bright red in the east, and a bitter smile formed at the corners of his lips. He turned on the intercom and asked, "I need your advice. If I really do pursue Maggie Du, would I be acting in my own interest? "There was complete silence.

Some of the military officers who were on duty at that moment had stayed up the whole night and were very tired to respond to his sudden question. The rest of the military officers, who had begun work on the second half of the night, had higher military ranks, ranging from colonels to generals. When they heard Edgar's abrupt question early in the morning, everybody was stunned and froze in their positions. 0000000000000000