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Gu Xiaoxi giggled.

No matter what the future was like, as long as he still loved her, that was enough.

"Alright, I’m off to eat. I’ll call you again when I have time."

"Mm! Be careful and don’t get hurt," Quan Shaoqing said worriedly.

Fortunately, Gu Xiaoxi had not told him about her injury, and she had also instructed others not to talk about it, so no one would mention it.

The two of them hung up reluctantly.

Gu Xiaoxi sat in front of the window, looking out at the vast lawn, where even the leaves wilted under the scorching sun.

Her gaze deepened.

Life on a peacekeeping mission was tough.

Just then, Yeh Bai walked in with lunch.

"Why are you sitting at the window? The sun’s really harsh today. Luckily, this hospital is humane enough to have air conditioning," Yeh Bai said as he placed the food in front of Gu Xiaoxi.

Gu Xiaoxi glanced at the food on the plate and felt no appetite, "Anything happen recently?"

"Nothing! It’s been very quiet around here. Eat up quickly and make the most of this downtime to recuperate well," Yeh Bai instructed.

"You know I’m okay. These injuries are no big deal for me."

"Regardless, you still need to eat something. There could be a war breaking out at any moment," Yeh Bai said as he looked out the window and sighed.

"Mm!" Gu Xiaoxi chewed her food listlessly, as if she were chewing wax.

The afternoon was much cooler than the midday, and Gu Xiaoxi treated Yun Xiao’s leg injury.

Afterward, the two of them left the small clinic and walked along the small path of the base.

"According to the count, eight perished this time. And all of them were veteran soldiers from unit Z. To lose so many on just one mission, I don’t even want to think about the future," Yun Xiao said, looking at the setting sun with a heavy heart.

"..." Gu Xiaoxi pressed her lips together and said no more, only gazing towards the distant mountains.

The trees on the distant peaks were sparse, and in the light of the setting sun, their leaves took on a beautiful reddish hue, and the skies were painted with myriad colors by the twilight.

When she first left, she had earnestly promised Quan Shaoqing that she would bring everyone back safely.

Now, all she could bring back was a box of ashes.

What could she say now...

"The two of you recovered so quickly, you can go for a walk now?" Shao Changfeng appeared from nowhere with a bunch of wildflowers, smiling as he approached.

Yun Xiao glanced at the flowers in his hand and shook his head, "What’s a big guy like you doing picking flowers?"

"Men can’t pick flowers?" Shao Changfeng turned to Gu Xiaoxi and tossed the flowers into her arms, saying with a chuckle, "Master, there are no flowers for sale here. I could only secretly pick some outside the hospital wall to give to you. I wish you a speedy recovery."

"My apprentice, you’ve learned to curry favor! Do you need something from me?" Gu Xiaoxi held the flowers, sniffed them, and found them to be fragrant. They were indeed a species not found in Liuli Country.

Shao Changfeng immediately scratched his head and said awkwardly, "It’s nothing big, just a little matter about Practice Techniques. There are some parts of Volume Three I don’t understand. If you have time, could you teach me?"

Gu Xiaoxi chuckled lightly; she knew this guy had an ulterior motive.

"But I have to tell you, the effect of practicing here isn’t great, but you can’t slack off..." In the afternoon, Gu Xiaoxi explained what Shao Changfeng didn’t understand.

And so, life drifted smoothly by for another four or five days, and both Gu Xiaoxi and Yun Xiao’s injuries healed quickly.

Ever since they had arrived in Dongqi Country, the weather and various other reasons meant that the people from unit L didn’t have time to bother them.

Clearly, after a few too calm days, those people became restless.

Duruo and Zhao Zilong got into a fight in the dorm over a minor matter.

They were enemies ever since the plane ride, and now, as fate would have it, they were allocated to the same dormitory and couldn’t get along at all.

An occasional fight between the two of them was not a problem, but unluckily, they ended up smashing the treasured watch belonging to unit L’s captain, Che Junqing.

Since Che Junqing didn’t know who had broken it, he instinctively blamed Zhao Zilong.

Suddenly, the whole dormitory was in discord, and soldiers from units Z and L started to fight amongst themselves.

In the end, Zhao Zilong, Duruo, and Che Junqing were all brought into the hospital.

One with broken ribs, another with a damaged kneecap, and one with an injured finger—it could be said these were severe injuries.

Gu Xiaoxi felt a headache coming on after hearing the news.

This was indeed a case of internal and external troubles!

If their own people were fighting amongst themselves, how could they face the enemy?

In a way, it was also her fault for offending Zhang Fenglin, which led to the disharmony between the two teams.

She worried about how to resolve this issue.

Could she turn hostility into friendship?

Gu Xiaoxi thought about it all night and couldn’t come up with any solutions.

In the dead of night, the base’s emergency assembly alarm sounded.

All the soldiers got up, dressed, and assembled.

Gu Xiaoxi forgot she was still lying on the sickbed. When she ran to assemble, Cheng Guang chased her out.

"Everyone has thirty seconds to get on the vehicles; there’s an emergency mission. The entire team is to mobilize, except for the injured, of course." Cheng Guang looked at Gu Xiaoxi and Yun Xiao and said, "You two can’t go on this mission."

"Why can’t the two of us go? Our injuries are healed now!" Gu Xiaoxi hurriedly explained.

However, Cheng Guang didn’t have time to explain to them and simply walked away, saying, "These are military orders. You all stay and guard the base."

She could only watch as the main force boarded the vehicles and left.

"Ah..." Gu Xiaoxi was at a loss for words.

Of course, besides her and Yun Xiao, there were also a dozen other injured.

That included Zhao Zilong, Duruo, Che Junqing, and others.

Only a few nurses were left by the doctor.

Upon waking up in the morning, the base was desolate.

Apart from the guards at the gate, there was only a patrolling squad.

"Xiao Xi, what mission could this be that’s so urgent? Everyone has been summoned away," Yun Xiao asked perplexedly while having breakfast.

An emergency mission in the middle of the night, and come early morning, the base felt desolate, something she was unaccustomed to.

"Who knows!" Gu Xiaoxi felt lonely in her heart. The emptiness outside brought a desolate feeling.

Missions were always impromptu; such an urgent assembly and taking everyone to the battlefield surely indicated a major situation.

She believed that this matter would definitely not be less significant than their previous capture of the drug shipment.

"Ah! With no one around, it feels a lot colder. Xiao Xi, let’s patrol after breakfast. There’s nobody here; what if there’s a surprise attack?" Yun Xiao suggested.

Gu Xiaoxi nodded, "However, I think a surprise attack is unlikely. The bad guys are all busy fighting at the front line; who has time to come here for an attack. Besides, there’s nothing worth attacking here. These are just some injured people. They couldn’t cause much damage to them either."

"True!" Yun Xiao nodded and continued to eat voraciously.

"You eat slowly; I’ll go for a walk outside," Gu Xiaoxi put down her teacup and went out.

The weather in Dongqi Country really wasn’t pleasant, as the heat made it difficult for everyone to adjust.

At that moment, not far from the base,

Kang Di was fully equipped with his twenty subordinates, all ready for action.

"I finally set up the plan to divert the military’s attention. Listen up, grab anyone you see no matter if it’s a man or woman," Kang Di commanded coldly.

The lead subordinate, full of confusion, said, "Boss, didn’t you want to capture those two female soldiers? Why take everyone? It won’t be easy to escape either!"

"In case that female soldier isn’t there, we’ll have to grab her friends and force her to show herself. Trust me, it won’t go wrong," Kang Di said with a sinister look in his eyes.

He was a very calculating person; otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to stay on the path of crime for so long, with the military unable to do anything about him.

Gu Xiaoxi walked around the security net and found no issues, so she strode back to the sick ward.

Since this mission had nothing to do with her and she hadn’t slept well the night before thinking about things, she could now take a proper rest to catch up on sleep.

The room had air conditioning, so she could sleep more comfortably.

No sooner had Gu Xiaoxi fallen asleep than a group of people swaggered into the base from the main gate.

The twenty-some people spread out, using tranquilizer guns to knock out anyone they saw, and then silently took them away.

Yun Xiao was originally doing laundry when she heard a noise behind her.

She turned around and saw a figure flash by.

Just as she was about to yell out, she felt a pain in her shoulder and lost her senses, collapsing to the ground.

With her doors and windows shut, Gu Xiaoxi was oblivious to everything happening outside.

By the time she woke up,

the entire base was so quiet that she could clearly hear even the crows in the distance.

She went to the neighboring sick ward and didn’t see Yun Xiao.

Even Zhao Zilong, Duruo, and others who had recently been admitted were gone.

Curious, Gu Xiaoxi strode out of the medical room.

As she walked down the base’s pathway, she found even the guards at the entrance were missing.

"Yun Xiao!"

"Zhao Zilong!"

"Uncle Lu!" Gu Xiaoxi looked inside from the guard’s entrance.

The small room was empty; where had the guards gone?

"Where did all these people go?"