Two weeks had already passed. The formation drills were undeniably grueling, but outside of training hours, life gradually grew a bit dull, just as Milla had predicted.
Left with no choice, Lao Jian held frequent meetings, doing his best to keep the team members on edge so they wouldn't slip into complacency before a Great Spike actually appeared.
"To be frank with you, since last year, because the frequency of Great Spike descents has spiked drastically, the corps has raised our squad's allowable casualty rate to fifty percent, with the allowable death rate reaching thirty percent... Do you have any idea what that means?!"
The young folks needed a scare; they were far too relaxed. Having delivered those grim figures, Captain Lao swept a grave gaze across the room.
A hand slowly went up.
"He Tangtang, go ahead. What do you think that means?" Lao Jian waited expectantly, ready to guide him whether he bravely claimed to be unafraid or admitted to being terrified.
"It means... I don't know," He Tangtang said after standing up. "Captain Lao, I raised my hand to ask, what if we can't hit it?"
Lao Jian froze. "What... what do you mean, what if we can't hit it?"
"What if we can't hit that casualty quota? What do we do? Do we off a few of our own?" He Tangtang asked earnestly.
Laughter threatened to erupt across the room.
"...*Cough, cough!* That is an *allowance*, do you understand? An allowance, not a requirement!" Lao Jian rapped his knuckles on the table, suppressing the laughter as he bellowed in exasperation.
"Oh, then I'm fine." He Tangtang sat back down, patting his chest. "Scared me half to death."
For a moment, the room was thick with stifled chuckles.
Fortunately, another hand went up just then. Hoping someone had stepped forward to save the situation, Lao Jian craned his neck, only to sink into immediate disappointment—the hand belonged to Wen Jifei.
Wen Jifei had already been kicked out of formation drills days ago to focus entirely on operating the device and practicing marksmanship.
In the beginning, Lao Jian had still held out hope, forcing him to take part in training. But during a cross-country march up a mountain, Wen Jifei had grown exhausted, taken a nasty fall, and refused to budge. When Lao Jian went to push him along, the kid actually claimed he had read the signs and found the mountain had terrible feng shui, so he wasn't going.
To uphold discipline, Lao Jian had no choice but to kick him out and let him concentrate on shooting.
"Captain Lao, I—"
"Shut up. Not another word from you."
Lao Jian cut him off, refusing to let him speak. After a moment, realizing the atmosphere was completely unsalvageable, he had no choice but to dismiss the meeting.
*Sigh. Wasn't everyone saying the defense situation was critical, that Great Spikes were raining down across the entire country?*
*Why hasn't a single damn thing shown up here?*
The squad urgently needed a hard-fought battle to ignite their fighting spirit and sense of urgency. Stepping out of the conference room, Lao Jian looked up at the sky, feeling somewhat downcast.
Walking alone after leaving the conference room, Milla suddenly heard footsteps behind her. She turned and found Han Qingyu.
"Captain Milla," Han Qingyu called out, coming to a halt.
"Hm? You looking for me?" Milla offered a radiant smile.
"Yeah. Here, I've been meaning to give this to you."
"What... ah, source energy blocks?!" Seeing three source energy blocks in Han Qingyu's hands, Milla hurriedly tucked her arms behind her back and shook her head. "I can't take these."
"I earned plenty in Nepal."
"Then use more yourself. Giving them to me is a waste."
"How could it be a waste?" Han Qingyu said earnestly. "I'm counting on your long-range suppressing fire to back me up when we fight Great Spikes in the future. Besides, the Snow Lotus faction of the Cleansing Faction has those human-monkeys. I've run into them before. While they aren't top-tier combatants, they're extremely fast and leap around in packs, making them very difficult to deal with... If we run into them again, having your suppressive firepower there will make things much easier."
With that, Han Qingyu shoved the source energy blocks directly into Milla's hands.
He then turned and hurried off to catch up with Wen Jifei and the others.
***
The outpost where Wu Xu currently stayed was roughly constructed from large stones and cement. It had two floors—not spacious, but exceptionally sturdy. Wu Xu slept on the second floor and used the ground floor as a kitchen.
During this period, though everyone kept telling him he could come down to the garrison whenever he had free time, Wu Xu had not visited again since the day he learned how to use the radio. He didn't want to put Captain Lao in a difficult position.
While the others were training, he practiced with his spear alone. When they rested, he sat down, listening to the radio while absorbing source energy blocks through his device.
Perhaps because he had been severely deprived in the past, Wu Xu's strength grew at a rapid pace.
He cooked his own meals and washed his own clothes, living in a calm, steady state, neither anxious nor complaining. The radio stations played songs at random; he rarely caught "The Earth," but whenever he did, he treated it as a reward for the day.
Usually, Han Qingyu and the others would walk up every day to hang out with him, sometimes bringing rice, flour, vegetables, and other supplies.
Then Han Qingyu or Shen Yixiu would spar with him for a bit.
Captain Lao had actually dropped by two or three times during this period as well, asking how he was doing... but regarding these visits, Captain Lao had told him not to mention them to Han Qingyu and the others, so Wu Xu kept quiet.
"*What more does one seek in life, constantly deciding between giving up and holding on...*"
He couldn't understand the Cantonese lyrics, but after hearing it enough, he found it pleasant. The radio sat on a small table behind him, resting on a plastic bag to protect against moisture. Wu Xu wore a pale grayish-green shirt issued by the garrison to blend in with regular troops, standing by the counter chopping vegetables.
It was a strange sight—a man who lived by the spear and risked his life in combat, standing there chopping vegetables. Fortunately, he looked rather cool while doing it, and after seeing it a few times, Han Qingyu and the others had grown used to the sight.
"Wait, take a look first. Is Wu Xu crying today?" Wen Jifei suddenly held out his arms to block those behind him.
Their gazes peered through the small window built into the stone wall.
"Looks like he really is. He just wiped his face... and now he's crying even harder," He Tangtang said.
"Could it be that he's been acting fine on the surface, but feeling miserable deep down?"
Just as Liu Shiheng said that, Wen Jifei had already dashed inside.
"Xu'er, what's wrong?"
Wu Xu turned to look at him, opened his mouth, closed it, hesitated for a moment, and said, "Could you not call me that in the future?"
Naturally, his hesitation could usually only be detected in his eyes, and even when delivering words laced with profound helplessness and complaint like right now, his voice carried no inflection whatsoever.
Whatever he said typically came with a wooden expression, spoken in the flattest, most unruffled tone.
Yet today, the rims of his eyes were red, and tears clung to his eyelashes.
Seeing this, even Wen Jifei, who loved fooling around the most, dared not play tricks. He nodded vigorously and said, "Fine, fine, fine! Just tell me first, what happened? Why are you crying?"
"I'm not," Wu Xu shook his head, then turned his gaze toward the vegetable he had half-chopped on the cutting board. After thinking for a moment, he turned back and said, "This vegetable seems to be poisonous."
Only then did everyone notice the half-chopped onion on the cutting board, likely brought up by one of them on some previous visit.
***
After dinner, Wen Jifei, having lost at rock-paper-scissors, was left downstairs to wash the dishes. The rest of the group, including Shen Yixiu, went up to the second floor and climbed onto the outpost's flat roof, sitting in a circle along the edge with their legs dangling over the side.
This had become a regular fixture of almost every clear evening.
Sitting here, they could see the entire village below—the houses, the roads, and the villagers. Over time, many faces had become familiar, and they had assigned names to the villagers based on skin tone and attire.
"Xiao Hei is trying to stop Xiao Cui again."
"Yeah. Ever since Xiao Hei confessed his feelings last time, Xiao Cui won't let him help carry water anymore."
"Xiao Hei's actually a decent guy. I saw him carrying firewood for the hunchbacked granny last time."
"But Xiao Cui doesn't want to marry someone in the village. Her father beats her all the time; she wants to get out."
"The dog at the hunchbacked granny's house gave birth to five puppies—one black, four mixed... Once the puppies grow up, they'll probably be sold. The mother dog guards them fiercely."
They watched and chatted like this almost every day. It was a wonderful feeling. Having grown up in a rural village himself, Han Qingyu felt a sense of familiarity and warmth, though as a bystander watching the simple, grounded life of the ordinary world, he couldn't help feeling a trace of envy.
Rusty Sister enjoyed watching the most; she found all of it vivid, lively, and beautiful.
As for Wu Xu, though he had also grown up in a village, he said his village was completely different from this one.
While they were talking, a head suddenly popped out of the ground-floor window.
"Ah, Wu Xu, I think I've been poisoned!"
"It's Wen Ji! The little nurse who dedicated a song for you, Wen Ji!"
"I've been poisoned! Come down and help me wash the dishes!"
Wen Jifei loved teasing Wu Xu.
A trace of helplessness showed through Wu Xu's wooden expression.
Han Qingyu chuckled and said, "He's shameless, isn't he? If you really can't take his bullying anymore... well, this definitely counts as bullying, just challenge him to a fight. That's how the rest of us deal with him. He knows his own limits, so he'll back down."
"...Alright."
Wu Xu had clearly reached his limit. He gave an affirmative nod, stood up, and headed downstairs.
A short while later.
He returned, sat back down, his face as expressionless as ever.
"What happened? You didn't say it?"
"I did. He said let's fight."
"And then...?"
"I was afraid I'd accidentally kill him."
"..."
So, Wu Xu remained utterly powerless against Wen Jifei. After a moment, hearing a dog bark in the village, Wu Xu suddenly remarked, "That little black dog barks every night. It barks really loud—the loudest of them all. I can hear it all the way from up here."
The next day.
When Han Qingyu and the others came up again, Han Qingyu set down a little black puppy from his arms.
"Bought it from the hunchbacked granny," Han Qingyu said. "It's yours to raise."
Wu Xu looked at Han Qingyu and nodded.
"Give him a name! He's your dog now. The rest of us have been arguing the whole way up and couldn't settle on one," Shen Yixiu said with a laugh, adding pointedly, "You're not allowed to call him Xiao Hei, though! That has zero personality."
Shen Yixiu's own cat was named Mangmang Mangmang.
Wu Xu had indeed originally planned on naming him Xiao Hei. Hearing Shen Yixiu's remark, he pondered for a moment, then said, "Then let's call him Bu Mang."
Chapter 189