We Barely Know Each Other, but I'm Sharing a Room with a Rough-Hewn Soldier!

In the 1980s, Xu Zhi, a graduate of a teachers' university, was assigned to teach at a high school near the Beiling Military District.

She was beautiful, cool, and refined. The person she couldn't stand most was Lu Xiao, a battalion commander who lived next door to the school.

Lu Xiao was tall, rough, and blunt. He could fix cars, chop wood, and haul coal. Whenever he saw her, he would call out with a cheeky grin:

“Teacher Xu.”

Xu Zhi never paid him any attention.

Until a torrential rainstorm destroyed the teachers' dormitory, leaving Lu Xiao's home as the only place in the whole family compound with a room to spare.

Xu Zhi was forced to move in with him.

To avoid gossip, the two pretended to be married in public, but privately agreed on three rules:

First, don't enter the other's room.

Second, don't touch the other's things.

Third, don't let anyone get the wrong idea when we're out.

Xu Zhi thought that as long as she kept to the rules, they would go their separate ways after three months.

But when she was afraid of the thunder in the middle of the night, she hugged her pillow and knocked on his door.

When her bicycle broke, he crouched down to fix it for her.

When someone at school pursued her, he waited for her outside the school gates with a cold expression.

When she fell ill, he stayed up all night. When he was injured, she refused to leave the clinic's door.

When one of the other wives in the family compound asked again:

“Teacher Xu, are you and Battalion Commander Lu dating?”

Xu Zhi instinctively denied it:

“No, we're not close.”

That very evening, just after she closed the door, the man cornered her against the wall and looked down at her.

“Teacher Xu.”

“You've lived in my home for three months, eaten my food, used my ration coupons, and slept in my bed.”

He leaned closer, his voice low and amused.

“And we're still not close?”