Are You Addicted?

That night, just as Bai Luo Yin was about to sleep, he received a call from the instructor.

"Xiao Bai, our Combat Wing is holding a celebratory banquet tomorrow, you have to be there!"

Pulling one side of his lip back as if in contemplation, Bai Luo Yin remained silent for a while before he asked, "Is it at the military base or somewhere else?"

"It"s in a banquet hall on the fifth floor of the International Conference and Exhibition Centre. Let me tell you, the banquet has been booked already so don"t bother trying to find some excuses to get out of this. Many youngsters are eager to get out and walk around but you on the other hand, you don"t partic.i.p.ant in any activities other than training. At this point, should I praise you or punish you?"

"Fine. I"ll go, okay?" Bai Luo Yin"s tone seemed somewhat helpless once he answered.

A hearty laughter transmitted from the other side from the instructor, "As the Deputy Commander, you have to interact with the new recruits more often to bond with them. Even if prestige needs to be established, there"s no need to go overboard. Some of the new recruits are quite intimidated by you to the point that they don"t even dare raise their head when they see you."

Hearing those words, Bai Luo Yin"s brows knitted together, forming a slight frown, "Isn"t that a bit too exaggerated?"

"Go look at yourself in the mirror right now!"

Although somewhat reluctant, Bai Luo Yin actually sauntered ahead and stood in front of the mirror.

Once again, the instructor urged him, "Remember to wear your military uniform, some of the higher-ranking leaders will be present during the start of the banquet and just know that they want to take photos as souvenir."

"Okay, I know."

Once the call ended, Bai Luo Yin closely examined the face in the mirror and silently contemplated to himself.

Is my face really that scary to others?

In order to make his image look somewhat more approachable, Bai Luo Yin decided to shave his beard off after taking a nice shower.

Just as he smeared the shaving cream onto his face, he heard a knock on the door.

"Who is it?"

"Major, it"s me." Liu Chong"s voice sounded off from the other side of the door.

The moment Bai Luo Yin opened the door, Liu Chong stood in front of him wearing a thick cotton padded coat with a thin layer of snow already covering his shoulder.

"What"s going on?" Bai Luo Yin asked rather indifferently.

Not shifting his eyes away, Liu Chong quickly shoved some clothes into Bai Luo Yin"s arms. Then a second later, he backed up and wandered back into the gelid wind without uttering a word.

Somewhat taken aback at that peculiar behavior, Bai Luo Yin lowered his head for a glance. The clothes that were shoved in his hand a moment ago was the military uniform that he needed to wear for tomorrow"s banquet. He had left it at the laundromat earlier and haven"t had the time to pick it up yet, but surprisingly, Liu Chong brought it back for him beforehand. Having avoided the ha.s.sle of going out, Bai Luo Yin felt a sense of warmness cradle his heart.

Today, a spectacular annual conference in a banquet hall on the fifth floor of the International Conference and Exhibition Centre is also taking place for Gu Hai"s company. And, as it seems, only a single wall separated this room from Bai Luo Yin"s Combat Wing celebratory banquet.

During this time of the year, it was always the happiest moment for all the older women in the company. Aside from being presented with all kinds of incentives, they can also be in close proximity to their President and, even if their eyes were to simply meet for a second, it would keep them all extremely excited for many days to come.

Consequently, days before this conference took place, these women were usually extremely busy organizing the event while taking their time to choose the most dazzling outfit. All of this was so that they can parade their elegant charisma at the annual conference in hope of gaining some attention from their President.

Since this banquet room was packed with beautiful women soft like that of a buoyant of cloud and each one dressed so elegantly like that blossoming flowers, all the young waitresses dared not enter. As a result, they were all exchanged for a horde of male waiters instead.

Unsurprisingly, since this group of older women has not come in contact with any men for far too long, now that they caught a glimpse of a male waiter, their hawked like eyes stared at him without so much a blink.

Naturally, Gu Hai made a brief introduction to the entire staff to welcome them. Then he handed the remaining lineup of programs over to Yan Ya Jing to manage while he simply tasked himself with the responsibility of acting as a mere attendee and recorded everything. Occasionally, if he was in a cheerful mood, he "might" stretch his hands out for a round of applause but for the majority of the time, he remained cold and withdrawn.

When the award ceremony and short speeches came to an end, it was finally time for dinner to commence. Since dinner was presented in a buffet style, it made the atmosphere all the more relaxing. With that, many of the beautiful women took this opportunity to worm their way closer to Gu Hai.

Halfway through dinner, a beautiful woman suddenly walked into the hall and hysterically said to her school of sisters: "When I went to the bathroom a moment ago, I saw a room full of soldiers in the banquet hall beside us. Not only that, they are all Air Force pilots. Oh G.o.d, they were all so handsome I could barely breathe!!"

"Look at you losing your maturity!" Another beautiful woman could not help but to ridicule her, "How long haven"t you seen so many men? Is it really necessary to be overly excited like this?"

"I"m not lying to you all! They"re extremely handsome. If you don"t believe me, then go to the doorway and have a look for yourselves. I promise, you will have the same reaction as me when you come back."

This particular woman was unwilling to believe this preposterous farce, so as a result, with the sound of her heel tapping the floor, she arrogantly walked out. Less than a minute later, she came back defeated.

"My G.o.d!! I saw a very handsome officer standing guard outside the doorway. He even gave me a glance. Ughh…. ahhhh……my heart is beating so fast right now. I can"t! I have to go back for another look."

Once these words spread around the banquet, over a dozen or more of them immediately dashed out behind her.

In the other banquet room, Bai Luo Yin sat quietly in the last row and watched the bustling atmosphere rage on. After a few minutes past, he felt a wave of cool breeze caress his back. When he turned around to search for the source, he saw that the door was not closed properly, so as a result, he got up to close it. Just when he stopped in front of the door, a devilish looking woman was staring at him so intensely that a frigid gust of air infested every vertebra of his spine. Unable to stand the chill, he quickly closed the door with a loud thud.

Thus, this dozen or more beautiful women returned to their own banquet with dampened spirits, and even gave the woman who "fabricated" the rumour a good beating.

A long while later, nearly all the prominent military leaders from the different branches formally took their leave from the banquet, even the photographers went as well. With them gone, the remaining flock of young bachelors—long time bachelors to be more precise— began to banter and openly flirt with the female hostess.

While the room was bustling with noise and excitement, a new recruit walked back in from the bathroom. He turned with a click of his shoes to face the boisterous crowd and whistled three times to get their attention. After everyone quiet down, he looked over each one of them with a rather enigmatic expression.

—cough, cough— "Hehehe. You want to know what I just saw?"

All eyes uniformly aimed towards him, full of excitement and inconspicuous needs.

This person suddenly pounded the table with his fist and howled with laughter before he spoke, "There"s a company holding their annual conference in the banquet hall next to ours. s.h.i.t, all the ladies are f.u.c.kin" gorgeous! My eyes were going to explode by just looking at them! I really want to destroy their leader. It"s practically a reckless waste of the lord"s gift. With just one man possessing so many gorgeous women, how does he expect us bachelors live?"

Just as these words dropped, the whole banquet hall flared up.

"Let"s quickly check it out. There won"t be another opportunity if we missed this one!" [1]

"We might as well s.n.a.t.c.h two and bring them here. That way everyone can all have some fun!""

"What the h.e.l.l, how is two enough to share? We need at least twenty of them!"

After the rowdy bunch quarreled for nearly five minutes, the instructor finally spoke, his voice deep and demanding.

"All of you sit down. Behave yourselves and eat."

As if being shot, every excited face immediately sank and shattered into pieces, then sound of sighs repeated continuously from one person to the next.

Without bothering to look at their disgruntled expressions, the Instructor simply cleared his throat, "Send someone over there to invite them. See if they"re interested in joining us for a friendship party."

Once the stern words dispersed, the awkwardness and silent that overtook the banquet hall a moment ago became boisterous again.

"Hahaha……. you"re indeed worthy of being our instructor! The way you think is definitely more perceptive than us!!"

Hearing those praises, the instructor tried his best to conceal a smile. We"re all men, how was it possible to not understand each other?!!

After a quick discussion, there was a unanimous vote for Bai Luo Yin to make an appearance. Being ranked number one as the most handsome amongst the Air Force pilots, his presence alone was worthy of representing them in this venture. These mischievous bachelors even went as far as to guess that even if Bai Luo Yin simply stood at the door, the group of beautiful women will obediently walk out.

Since he was at such a joyous occasion, Bai Luo Yin did not have the heart to shatter everyone"s hope, so he summoned up all his courage and forcefully dragged his legs out.

Arriving outside, the two doors to the other banquet hall were left completely wide open. Bai Luo Yin was about to lift his leg and walk in when he suddenly caught a glimpse of Yan Ya Jing. She stood pleasantly on the stage and said something into the microphone that he could not make out.

Feeling strange, Bai Luo Yin"s gaze gradually shifted towards the centre of the room, and with a glimpse, he saw Gu Hai — who was, unsurprisingly, surrounded by a group of gorgeous women at all corner. Seeing this kind of scene, it was hard for one not to think that this was a well-organized swingers party [2] for a second-generation son of an affluent official.

Letting his eyes remained on Gu Hai for just a bit longer, Bai Luo Yin"s heart tightened. He lowered his head only to see his own epaulet, [3] st.i.tched neatly on his uniform. Then, without looking back up, he hastily escaped the beautiful women"s line of sight.

All the bachelors in this side of the banquet hall were all eagerly looking around.

Standing amongst them again, Bai Luo Yin cleared his throat as a guilt-ridden expression coiled his face, "They didn"t agree"

After hearing this grievous news, the group of unyielding, tough men wept disconsolately on each other"s shoulder.

Meanwhile, in this side of the banquet hall, the beautiful woman that was berated by others a while ago spoke again, "I think I just saw that handsome officer again."

"Haven"t you had enough yet? Stop trying to trick us. If you"re capable, why don"t you pull one of them in here and show us!"

This beautiful woman was teetering on the edge of insanity by these wily women. Not bothering to care about things anymore, she strutted towards Gu Hai.

"Gu Zong, is it okay if I go to the banquet hall beside us and invite the officers there to join us for a joint friendship party?"

This time Gu Hai revealed a very generous expression, "I don"t have any objections."

Bai Luo Yin had just sat down, and his b.u.t.tocks has not been given a chance to warm up yet when he heard everyone shouting in alarm and jeering rowdily. When he raised his head for a glance, the devilish looking woman he saw earlier at the doorway, unexpectedly walked through the door.

"Hey beautiful, did you come to the wrong place?" Someone impatiently struck up a conversation.

The beautiful and cla.s.sy woman strutted elegantly towards Bai Luo Yin.

"Major, may I invite your soldiers to join us ladies for a friendship party?"

Bai Luo Yin, "……"

As expected, the flock of young, long-term bachelors eagerly picked up their b.u.t.tocks and pranced to the other room to meet the beautiful yet s.e.xually abstinent women. Since there seemed to be an impetuous sense of having known each other all along welling between them, there was no need to adjust the atmosphere. And, sure enough it did not take long for them to joyously mingle.

One by one and in small groups, the gorgeous women who had prepared the performances fought to get on the stage to showcase their act. Once they were done, they would even go as far as to make sensuous moves towards the soldiers.

Although there were many handsome soldiers, there were not many who actually knew how to entertain. Out of nowhere, someone shouted: "Let"s have our Deputy Commander go up. His singing is really pleasant to the ears! We need to give these beautiful women a great impression at their first encounter with us!

With that being said, all the handsome soldiers and beautiful women burst with joy in search of this legendary Major. But, in the end, he was nowhere to be found.

Unbeknownst to everyone, Bai Luo Yin has been sitting on the toilet for nearly an hour now. He sat there for so long that he was starting to feel a shortness of breath from the tension creeping up his chest.

Feeling that quite some time has pa.s.sed by already, he finally decided to escape and explain to the instructor at a later time.

Letting his head hang low, he walked out of the stall and went to the vanity unit to wash his hands.

Unknowingly, there was someone else also washing his hands beside him but Bai Luo Yin did not care. So, by the time he raised his head and looked into the mirror, his entire body stiffened in place.

Translator"s Note:

[1] "…过了这个村就没这个店了!" – Literal: "…after this village, there won"t be another shop!" but it actually means: "There won"t be another opportunity if we missed this one!"

[2] Swingers’ parties do not always conform to this designation because at many swingers parties the s.e.xual partners may all know each other or at least have some commonality among economic cla.s.s, educational attainment or other shared attributes. Some swingers contend that an orgy, as opposed to a s.e.x party, requires some anonymity of s.e.xual partners in complete s.e.xual abandon. Other kinds of “s.e.x party” may fare less well with this labeling.

[3] Epaulet (epaulette) – an ornamental shoulder piece worn on uniforms, chiefly by military officers

Are you Addicted?