Love Began with the First Meeting

Maggie was listening to Monica, but her eyes were fixed on Cain. She always did like things that are pleasing to her eyes, including handsome men. She did, however, have some propriety. She knew how far to go and when to stop. Nevertheless, she froze when the new instructor's eyes halted on her. He was like a deep ancient lake that she could not help but want to explore. She wanted to discover his secret, but maybe she would fall into a bottomless abyss.

"Comrade Maggie Du, you're a married woman now," Monica reminded her, giving her friend a small nudge. "Don't have a crush on anyone but Captain Edgar." Saying that, she realized the joy of being single, and reveled in the freedom that she had. As Cain walked away, she followed him with her eyes, even after his figure disappeared into a darkened shadow, half visible and half invisible against the white snow.

Maggie didn't take her eyes off Cain until he disappeared from her sight. The sighs and chatters of all the girls suddenly overwhelmed her ears. It seemed that Cain had replaced Edgar in their hearts just from a single glimpse of the instructor. Maggie looked around her female classmates, not in the mood for a snowball fight anymore. She told them that she wanted to stop, and that she intended to go back to her dormitory.

"Wait for me!"

Monica cried. Maggie didn't stop walking, but waited until her friend tackled her from behind, knocking her shoulder and linking her arm with hers. Maggie turned to see her friend grinning at her.

"What's wrong? You're unhappy to find a man more handsome than your husband?" Monica teased. "Or it wasn't until just now that you realized that you married too early and you couldn't look at any other man?"

Maggie sighed, looking down again. "Neither of those," she said sulkily. She didn't know why, but she felt as though Cain could see through her every time he looked at her, despite the calm and peaceful look that he had. As a result, she felt restless and uneasy. "Neither," she said again. "I don't know why, but I felt uncomfortable when I looked at that man."

"What?" Monica stopped walking and looked at her friend confusedly. Why did Cain make Maggie uncomfortable? He was a whole different level of handsome and attractive, and he was nothing short of a perfect light to her eyes and to her mind. It seemed unfathomable that he would cause distress to anyone, even to a married woman.

Maggie shook her head, unsure how to explain what she was feeling. She gave her friend a look, and both of them headed back to the dormitory. Even after taking a shower, Maggie still felt restless and uneasy. Not in the mood to do anything, she lay on her bed, took out her phone, and sent Edgar a text message.

"I met the new instructor, the very handsome one, just now. I don't know why but I feel uneasy. Come and console me."

Meanwhile, Edgar was with Claire, and they were talking about the recent development of S Army. It was not until now that he had the chance to ask her why she had come to work as a temporary instructor in National Defense University.

"The higher leadership hope the students here would have deep understanding of disguise skills while improving their military capability," Claire answered with a smile. "While you were engaged in peace keeping abroad, I was sent to A Country to study for a period of time, so..." She shrugged. "I didn't decline."

Edgar nodded. He was about to ask another question when his phone buzzed in his pocket. "Excuse me," he said to Claire as he fished it out. He checked the message from Maggie and replied, frowning slightly.

"I'll talk to you later when I'm not busy anymore," he wrote.

Seeing his short and very simple message, Maggie frowned, annoyed. "Hmm... You're always busy... What are you doing? Are you busy thinking about how to torture us?"

"You doomsayer..." At her mumble, her friend screamed and threw a pillow from across the room at her.

Maggie caught it without difficulty. Smirking, she shook her head slowly. "It's not good having sharp ears."

Monica smirked back, not able to keep from criticizing her. She could tell that Maggie was still feeling uneasy since they had met their new instructor. "Hurry up and go to sleep! If you're really a doomsayer and what you say is true, we'll have a lot to do tomorrow." Despite saying that, she didn't really foresee any hardships. After all, they were about to attend training during what would have been their vacation, so they were already suffering a lot. She couldn't imagine any more suffering than that.

However, she couldn't be too certain about that either. According to Murphy's Law, anything was possible and the more you worried about something happening, the more likely that it would happen. Pretty soon, Monica drifted off to sleep. As she was dreaming about her bright future and Maggie was impatiently waiting for Edgar's next message, the assembly horn on campus sounded.

Suddenly, all the lights in the dormitories turned on, one after the other. In just 30 seconds, they were all shining bright. Then a voice came from the radio broadcast, ordering assembly at No. 4 training ground in fifteen minutes. The voice sounded ice cold as though it came straight from Hell.

As soon as Maggie got out of bed, she went to wake Monica up. It usually took them about 15 minutes to get ready and arrive at the training ground, so they needed to be quick. Monica put on her clothes as quickly as possible while cursing underneath her breath. She thought Maggie just jinxed them and made something happen. She was still half-asleep, having been woken up suddenly.

While the students were busy getting things ready in the dormitory building, Edgar, Claire and Cain were standing in front of the platform of No. 4 training ground, no expression on their faces. Both Edgar and Claire wore informal military suits with their respective military ranks showing, while Cain wore a long military coat. The three of them looked like they were going to judge the students and send them into their dooms. "Keep the time!" Edgar ordered.

"Yes!" Claire answered, beginning to count down the last five minutes. Although it was a college and the trainees were students, they were also servicemen and servicewomen, and this was even more important. They were supposed to abide by strict military discipline. They might relax to a certain extent on other days, but they were taking part in the assembled training for the time being. Everything would be the same as in military camps.

The students arrived in succession. Most of them were male students, and there were only a few female students. Claire looked down at the electronic timekeeper in her hand. There was half a minute left. She looked around the students, most of whom were dressed neatly. Not seeing Maggie, she smiled faintly. She hoped that Maggie wouldn't be on time.

Benjamin arrived, out of breath from having run all the way from his dormitory. He looked around and found that neither Maggie nor Monica had arrived yet. Of course he got worried, but since the instructors were up ahead, he couldn't turn around and run back to check on his friends. "Excuse me!" Maggie's voice rang through, and Claire looked away. "Maggie Du is here! Monica Sun is here!" the girls yelled.

Claire took a look at the timekeeper again. To her dismay, the girls arrived before time ran out. She looked up at Maggie and in the dim light, her facial expression couldn't be easily seen.

Maggie didn't look at Claire, but she sensed the sharp look that she was giving her. It felt as though nothing but Maggie's death would satisfy her. Maggie had never expected to see Claire again, especially under these circumstances. Despite the same military rank as first lieutenant on their shoulder marks, Claire was a teacher and she was a student. There was a forever broken gap between the two of them. 000000