Chapter 232 | Chapter 233 | Chapter 234
Chapter 232: The Appointment of Bai Yu of the Imperial Capital
Life at Huai Yu’s place was proceeding methodically, with everything moving according to plan. Meanwhile, far away in the Imperial Capital at the Garrison Army Headquarters, Bai Yu walked into the conference room with a gentle smile like a spring breeze, causing the two small green plants in the room to instantly sprout flower buds.
As she walked step by step and sat down, the buds blossomed in turn; everything was perfectly timed, and the air was filled with a lingering, delicate fragrance.
The two deputy commanders opposite her raised their eyebrows simultaneously. “Your control is getting better and better.”
“It’s alright,” she said, laughing shyly. “Just a natural habit.”
It truly was a natural habit. Though it appeared effortless and understated, both the timing and the speed at which the flowers bloomed were controlled with precision. Everyone in the conference room exchanged glances, each harboring their own thoughts.
A moment later, someone walked in through the door.
Everyone stood up in unison. “General Wu.”
Wu Yue’s smile was equally gentle. “Please, sit… It’s quite fragrant in here. Commander Bai, you shouldn’t always use your ability on such trivial matters.”
“As members of the Garrison Army, we have our own battlefields.”
His tone wasn’t harsh, and his expression carried a hint of mild tolerance, as if he were indulging a mischievous girl from next door. Several people present had their expressions shift, but Bai Yu remained all smiles. “You are quite right.”
Wu Yue smiled slightly as well and then produced a document. “Then, allow me to announce this year’s Garrison team assignments…”
…
The meeting concluded two hours later. Since Wu Yue was the Garrison Officer, as long as the five deputy commanders didn’t have significant objections, everything proceeded quite smoothly.
However, once he left, there was a loud “thwack” in the room as a dark-skinned woman with a high ponytail slammed her documents onto the table. “This is simply outrageous!”
“The grain production area in the North District has been in a drought for three months! And yet, because of a minor disturbance of mutated plants deep in the mountains, he’s assigned me to guard duty there! I’m a fire-type ability user; I can’t irrigate the fields, and I can’t enter the mountains. If my year-end performance report shows nothing accomplished, does he expect me to rely on his ‘tolerance’?”
If this were a strategic deployment, she would naturally be willing to comply.
But what did he say instead?
When she raised her objection, he had remained helpless yet gentle. “Look at you, all these years and you still haven’t changed that hot temper of yours—this year, you weren’t selected as a deputy commander; the higher-ups took this deficiency into account!”
“I have already gained a preliminary understanding of the situation in the major cities of the North District. You are to appoint your own direct subordinates. Use this time to properly temper your character.”
“If you remain this impatient, how can I trust you with major matters in the future?!”
The woman with the high ponytail paced back and forth in the conference room. “Major matters? What is a major matter? With the major urban areas of the North District now serving as the primary grain production region, rainfall is the only major matter!”
She was panting, clearly on the verge of exploding, but after pacing for two laps, she still opened her computer, typing out a document to issue orders. “Commander Zuo, I’ll be borrowing two high-level water-type ability users from your team.”
“Commander Chen, I recall there are a few ability users in your team who previously worked with the meteorological observatory on artificial rain. I’ve added them to the list. I’ll go to the observatory to mobilize personnel, and we depart in three days.”
“Commander Bai, my ability is unsuited for combat deep in the mountains, nor can I assist with agricultural development. The North District isn’t far from Flower City. If necessary, please bring your team to support us.”
Bai Yu nodded. “It is my duty.”
The crops were in their most critical growth period. A three-month drought wouldn’t have been a big problem before the cataclysm, but since the cataclysm, the weather had become much more extreme, with heatwaves easily reaching forty-two or forty-three degrees.
If it weren’t for the fact that many people now had stronger resistance, it would have been impossible to survive this summer. The most critical issue was that the drought would affect crop growth. Wood-type ability users with the ability to stimulate growth could minimize agricultural losses at this time.
For a nation striving to rebuild, the issue of grain was of paramount importance.
After she finished arranging the basic matters, she produced an application, looking troubled. “The Ministry of Agriculture is swamped all over the country. I’m a fire-type, and in the middle of summer, I have to go beg for support…”
The Garrison Army would lose all face! That wasn’t even her purpose!
Six years into the cataclysm, everyone did things with decisive speed. Bai Yu stared at her computer for a while before making a phone call. “Captain Zhu, my guard area for the second half of the year is Flower City. Would you like to apply to come with me?”
“Zhu Xinsuan?” Someone nearby leaned over, curious.
“Yes,” Bai Yu nodded. She saw that there were few people left in the conference room before continuing: “His application for deputy commander didn’t pass, and he’s still being treated like a second-rate soldier… It’s such a waste.”
“When we collaborated on double or triple-ability tactics before, the ones he devised were extremely effective!”
1+1 was nearly equal to 3!
The other person sighed as well. “It’s true. I thought he would be a deputy commander… That kid Zhu Xinsuan has a brain as sharp as a razor! When it came to tactical deployment, only he could keep up with General Lin!”
“And during several large-scale mixed combat operations, his efficiency was even higher than General Lin’s!”
Bai Yu remembered it well, too.
“General Lin used to praise him as a natural talent for maneuvering troops. He wasn’t made for the front lines, and he wasn’t a general’s material. But when it came to commanding combat, he had an innate battlefield intuition…”
A man like that—in the past, General Lin had been unwilling to waste his talent and hadn’t assigned him arbitrarily, letting him rotate between different ability departments. But now? A mere deputy commander position, one that a newcomer like Bai Yu could hold, and he hadn’t even passed a single round!
It was simply absurd!
So absurd that even Bai Yu’s expression darkened.
As it stood, the five of them as deputy commanders each had new guard areas. Although she had plenty of combat experience, it was still far less than the others.
General Wu had been sympathetic—truth be told, a combination of luck and blind chance had led to her being assigned to guard a single urban area. It was his own hometown: Flower City, home to the nationally renowned Rose Corridor.
Everyone knew that with the Rose Corridor there, the guard mission in Flower City was the lightest.
At the time the appointment was announced, all sorts of gazes had fixed upon her in the conference room, but Bai Yu had remained poised. “I do not seek grand titles, nor do I plan for high office. Thank you all for your trust and cultivation. I am willing to guard Flower City, and I will give my all to fulfill my duty.”
Now, she was checking off the personnel she wanted to arrange on the backend list, while simultaneously recalling the mission she had received in Flower City two months ago.
If she recalled correctly, during that mission, she had saved a squad of local Flower City Defense Army soldiers. Once she arrived, her initial work should be easier to launch.
At this thought, she remembered the soldier who had lost a leg to the venom of a Spider-Morph but had still struggled to keep the creature pinned down. Subconsciously, she reached up to touch the scar on her cheek that hadn’t completely faded.
That person… had likely sacrificed himself long ago, hadn’t he?
She closed her notebook and sighed with a sense of loss.
The tiny flowers in the indoor pots withered instantly, like a funeral that no one noticed.
Chapter 233: The Convoy
The appointments and arrangements of the high-level Garrison officials had absolutely nothing to do with an ordinary person like Huai Yu.
Right now, she merely tilted her head back, staring at the rows of sunflowers behind the house as tears silently slipped from the corners of her eyes.
“What’s wrong?” Zhou Qian was helping to chop eggplants inside the bamboo tunnel. When he lifted his head and caught sight of the tears at the corners of Huai Yu’s eyes, he couldn’t help but feel surprised.
Huai Yu wiped her tears away. “They’re too piercing to the eyes. Will I still be able to crack melon seeds in the future?”
Zhou Qian: “…”
He silently cast a glance at the sunflower petals, which reflected the sunlight like mirrors under the glare, and then looked back at Kuang Biao, who had been exceptionally quiet and completely despondent lately. After a moment of hesitation, he advised, “Melon seeds aren’t exactly filling, and they’re so small… How about we just forget about it?
“I heard from my old squadmates that there’s a type of mutated melon seed on the North District market right now. If you try to crack it, it’ll pick a fight with you, and the seed kernel will stab your tongue like a sword… I’ll ask around later to see if I can buy some of those.”
Huai Yu said in bitter frustration, “I’m just craving a snack, I don’t want to pick a fight.”
Who could she even beat in a fight anyway!
At this moment, she could only stare longingly at the sunflowers. “Xiao Kui, now that you’re not dating anymore, will you still produce seeds?”
Unfortunately, Xiao Kui only expressed a slight ripple of emotion but couldn’t actually speak. Ever since it scorched Kuang Biao, it had grown increasingly cold and unyielding. Now, it simply refused to pay attention to anyone.
But it didn’t matter. Although the largest Xiao Kui—the one that looked like it would yield the most seeds—didn’t respond, there were still plenty of ordinary sunflowers around. As long as Huai Yu worked hard to purify them, they would still be edible despite having been disrupted by the contaminated rain.
Thinking of this, Huai Yu also let go of her obsession.
She cast another glance at the rows of dried vegetables sun-drying by the door, then turned to look at Zhou Qian. “Will we be able to ask Sister Chen Xing to drive over and haul the goods by the end of the month?”
Zhou Qian lowered his eyes to look at the eggplants by his hand. “How long will this take?”
Huai Yu calculated for a moment. “Sun-dry them for two days, and then pickle them… about half a month.”
She wouldn’t be idling during this half-month either; it would be time to sun-dry the fermented soybean paste. If they brought that along when they went to the wilderness, it would be delicious rolled in flatbreads.
Then she thought about the twenty-eight thousand points she had just managed to scrape together, and the various expensive ingredients that were depleting day by day…
Huai Yu shook the bag of salt. “We need to buy salt again.”
Zhou Qian nodded. “Alright, we’ll go to Jinyuan Community tomorrow morning. You have to come along too. You haven’t stepped out for nearly half a month; you’ll miss a lot of news if you only listen to the radio. A new commander has taken over the defense of Flower City recently, so I don’t know if there will be any new policies.”
Although the Garrison didn’t and couldn’t interfere with people’s livelihoods, the place where they lived was far too close to both the Rose Corridor and the wilderness, so they still needed to pay attention.
However…
Zhou Qian knit his brows slightly. That Commander Bai Yu mentioned on the radio—why did the name sound somewhat familiar?
Just as his voice trailed off, his ears twitched slightly, as if he caught the continuous rumble of roaring car engines.
A convoy…
It was only July right now. Did the Defense Force have another deployment mission?
He put down the eggplant in his hand, leaving behind only a sentence: “I’ll go take a look!” before hurriedly running toward the gentle slope on the high ground out front. That slope blocked people on the road from prying into Huai Yu’s home with binoculars, but it also blocked Zhou Qian’s field of vision.
Huai Yu grew depressed. “I didn’t hear anything at all…”
But she wanted to watch the excitement too. So after a moment of hesitation, she ran out after him.
The July sun was so blistering it felt as though it would scorch a layer of skin off. Zhou Qian had grown increasingly dark over this period, but Huai Yu was different; even if she ran until her breathing wheezed like a broken bellows and her cheeks turned burning red and hot, her skin would return to its snow-white state after just one night.
Standing breathlessly beside Zhou Qian right now, her head was pressed down toward the lower slope by his hand. “You’re too conspicuous!”
“I want to watch too!” She struggled, using both hands and feet to scramble toward the high ground, but the large hand on her head used too much force. Right now, she was like a turtle being held down by its head, unable to stretch it out, feeling increasingly powerless.
In the end, Zhou Qian relented, letting her quietly peek her head out—
“Huh? This isn’t the Defense Force convoy, is it?”
“Yeah.” Zhou Qian nodded. “That’s why I said you’re too conspicuous—” If it were the Defense Force, since they didn’t have covert missions, they wouldn’t mind citizens watching from the side.
After all, once they deployed, nine times out of ten it was a wilderness mission.
And since the casualty rate of these missions was so high, if relatives and families weren’t even allowed to wait by the roadside to catch a glimpse, then it would very likely…
But Huai Yu’s skin was very white, and the clothes she wore were also white, providing absolutely zero camouflage on the mountain. Facing an unfamiliar convoy, it was better to be cautious.
The hand Zhou Qian used to press down on her head grew a bit heavier. “It’s the Garrison.”
There were golden insignia painted on the vehicle bodies.
Huai Yu: …She hadn’t seen the Garrison yet! She really wanted to watch!
[Huai Yu peeking out.gif]
One car after another, coated in a special silver-white paint, drove past. The golden insignia on them also contained special particles that could be captured and tracked by signals as much as possible even in the wilderness. Now, accompanied by the roar of the vehicles, Zhou Qian realized that this was likely the newly arrived commander and her direct subordinates…
“Do they sell cars like these?”
Huai Yu ultimately peeked her head out anyway, her eyes completely filled with admiration. “I want one.”
“Mm,” Zhou Qian’s expression didn’t change. “Then dream on.”
“Is it really possible?”
Huai Yu grew excited. “It’s so beautiful! So spacious! I’d be willing to pay ten thousand more points! I could plant so many vegetables!”
After a thought, she added, “Twenty thousand… works too! I’ll buy one in the future!”
The supply of that special paint was limited, and currently, priority was given only to the Garrison. What Huai Yu usually saw was either the eye-catching convoy of the Defense Force, or the miscellaneous red, yellow, and blue vehicles at the highway entrance—the main point was to be sufficiently visible in the wilderness.
Now, looking at the clean and pristine Garrison convoy, it was simply like spotting Snow White while squatting in a beggar’s den. How could she not be charmed?
Zhou Qian gave a cold laugh. “I told you to dream, and you really dare to dream! Why don’t you go down and ask them if they’ll sell it to you for a few tens of thousands?”
Huai Yu: …She wasn’t a fool!
Right now, she huffed and yanked Zhou Qian’s hand away. “Just say so straight out if it can’t be bought! Is this my fault? It’s clearly because the time has been too short, and I haven’t earned enough points!”
She waved her hand imperiously. “Otherwise, if I offer one million points, they’d definitely be willing to sell it.”
Zhou Qian thought about it and actually nodded. “If they still didn’t sell for a million points, then they really would be a bit foolish.”
A million points would be enough for them to manufacture twenty more…
“But what is the Garrison coming here for?” Huai Yu grew excited. “Are they going to the wilderness?”
“No.” Zhou Qian shook his head. He couldn’t help but look at her again, thinking to himself that she currently had neither a car nor the ability, and she wouldn’t be able to keep up even if the Garrison went to the wilderness, so what was she so happy about?
Still, he answered, “Didn’t you listen to the radio? The new commander has arrived in Flower City, likely to get acquainted and communicate with the Defense Force here, to facilitate the arrangements for future defense layout and clearing missions.”
However…
Huai Yu asked curiously, “Is a Garrison commander a very high-ranking position?”
Chapter 234: Little Ear
Zhou Qian frowned. “Never heard of them.”
Since leaving the Defense Army, he had lost his sources for many types of news. Besides, he hadn’t really been paying much attention anyway. Seeing that the caravan had already passed, he nudged Huai Yu. “Let’s go. Down the mountain.”
Inside one of the vehicles, Bai Yu was listening to her subordinate’s report: “There are two people on the slope. No abilities, no equipment. No threat.”
The detector in the vehicle slowly adjusted its angle before silently retracting, and the person giving the report let out a short chuckle.
“What is it?” Bai Yu asked, curious.
“Nothing,” the man replied, his tone relaxed. “Those two were chatting… it was quite amusing.”
One had taken a liking to their Garrison Army vehicle, while the other’s commentary had been quite witty…
He suddenly grew curious. “Commander, do you think logistics would agree if someone offered one million points to buy our vehicle?”
“Holy crap! One million!”
“Who? Who’s buying?!”
“With that kind of money… the Commander is even richer than you!”
“Would anyone be an idiot not to sell for one million?!”
“Nonsense!” The voice of logistics rang out over the public channel: “Our Garrison Army vehicles are strategic assets! How can we just buy and sell them whenever we please?!”
After a moment, the voice added, “Who wants to buy it? One million in cash?”
The channel fell silent for a moment before everyone erupted in a cacophony of shouting: “You just said these were strategic assets! That they couldn’t be bought or sold?!”
“I didn’t say that! I only said we couldn’t do it ‘whenever we please’… but an offer as sincere as one million—can you really call that ‘whenever we please’?!”
“If we don’t need the equipment, we could buy twenty vehicles for that price internally!”
“Only an idiot wouldn’t know how to do that math!”
“Alright, alright, that’s enough!” Bai Yu spoke up, and the channel instantly quieted. “Little Ear, your training is showing results—did your detection distance just exceed 50 meters?”
“It did!” someone replied promptly. “The distance reading shows 62 meters, but there were no obstacles and very few plants, so I’m not sure if we can achieve this effect in the wilderness.”
“62 meters is already hitting the training target.” A man’s voice sounded in the channel. “The training plan we set earlier seems effective. We can ramp up the training further.”
“Zhu Xinsuan, not bad!” Bai Yu praised him. “It turns out you have insights not just on ability coordination, but on ability enhancement training as well!”
“It’s nothing,” the man replied steadily. “When I was with General Lin, he had the intention of developing his own ability, and I was responsible for recording his progress by his side. I picked up a few things.”
Knowing that Bai Yu viewed General Lin as an idol, he quickly changed the subject. “Little Ear’s wood-type ability has zero offensive power and can only ‘listen’ to distant sounds through plants. His weaknesses are also quite obvious—the upcoming training plan will likely require cooperation from the Defense Army.”
“Understood.” Bai Yu turned serious. “I’ll bring this up when we make contact with them later. Furthermore, their experience dealing with mutated creatures is no less than yours, so it’s the perfect opportunity to establish cooperation.”
“Mm,” Zhu Xinsuan’s voice returned. “Among all the camps in Flower City, District 69’s daily guard duty isn’t that heavy because it’s located right next to the Rose Corridor. But I believe that being able to build a camp so close to the Rose Corridor implies they must possess some unique capabilities.”
“Commander Bai, we should be sincere in our cooperation.”
“Don’t worry.” Bai Yu stared at the camp, which was getting closer and closer, a warm smile blossoming on her face. “I have always been the most sincere.”
…
The dispersion of the authority previously held by the top Garrison officials among their five subordinates was news naturally known to the Defense Army as well.
However, they simply assumed this was a routine adjustment now that the political situation had stabilized and public welfare was recovering. During wartime, people longed for heroes, and the existence and deeds of those heroes served to guide ordinary people in finding direction and giving back to their country and people.
But now that the central urban areas were back on track, the personal heroics of individuals needed to be downplayed. Otherwise, if the existence of abilities lacked rules and regulations, it could interfere with public order.
For instance, the Defense Army had already reached a state of stability.
Now, the person in charge of the Defense Army received the news and waited quietly for the new commander to arrive…
When the caravan pulled in and the Garrison Army personnel began to disembark, a young woman with short hair stepped out. She leaped from the vehicle with a lithe grace, her core strength clearly visible. Her face was beautiful and approachable, and the scar on her cheek didn’t conceal her looks in the slightest; instead, it made many people’s eyes light up!
Even the waiting person in charge became significantly more enthusiastic: “Commander Bai, congratulations on your promotion! So, it was you who was coming!”
Bai Yu laughed. Away from Wu Yue, the burning determination in her eyes was visible to everyone. No one would doubt her ambition or her ability to fight bravely!
Especially—
“Last time, it was thanks to you leading your team back, launching a thousand-mile surprise attack, that our main force was saved!”
“You’re too kind!” Bai Yu’s smile was equally sincere. “It was the Defense Army under your command that took the initiative to cover our frontline troops; it was my duty to provide support. It’s just a pity that so many people still sacrificed their lives…”
“Not at all!” The person in charge was even more moved. “It was our duty. One of our men managed to hold back the Spider-Morph, keeping casualties to a minimum!”
Otherwise, total annihilation would have been the most likely outcome.
“I remember that,” Bai Yu said, her tone slightly somber. “That Defense Army soldier paid the price with his life…”
Huh?
The person in charge blinked. “That’s not right!”
“Are you talking about Zhou Qian? Thanks to you arriving in time, that kid is still alive! He’s living a good life now! Everyone in our camp knows it.”
Remembering his old friend, he showed a heartfelt smile.
Bai Yu froze.
“Commander Bai,” someone at her side reminded her.
Bai Yu came back to her senses, a deep smile spreading across her face. “That’s good to hear.”
…
The cooperation between the District 69 camp’s Defense Army and the Garrison Army was reached without a sound. Zhou Qian, however, remained unaware that the reason it had gone so smoothly was inextricably linked to him.
At this moment, he was hanging sliced eggplants on the rope under the blazing sun. Looking at the interlacing lines overhead and then at the row of tall eggplant trees in the vegetable patch, he couldn’t help but feel speechless. “I’m telling you, it’s just a tiny patch of land, how can there be so many eggplants that we’re still cutting them… Didn’t you say you weren’t going to force-grow them so big because you were afraid of being seen?”
Huai Yu sighed. “I want to keep a low profile too, but the car is so expensive, and the seasonings we stew our meat with every day are so pricey—how can we manage if we don’t sell more vegetables?”
Besides…
“Eggplant trees are so pretty when they grow big!”
The tall, two-meter-plus trees had thick trunks and dense leaves, with round, dark purple eggplants hanging one after another from the branches—
Well, at the moment, the branches were empty, with not many left.
Zhou Qian sighed.
