“It’s been a long time, Sister Nangong.” The veterans’ relationship with this only medic who actually performed her duties normally was far better than Lin Yu had imagined. “By the way, who is this?”
After a brief exchange of pleasantries, their gazes uniformly settled on Lin Yu, the unfamiliar newcomer.
“Is she the Commander’s new favorite?” The eldest-looking among them offered a rather impolite guess about Lin Yu’s identity.
Sister Nangong quickly began to introduce her. “This is my current assistant, an intern medic… oh, no, she just became a full-fledged medic today. Lin Yu, Lin as in the forest, Yu as in raindrops.”
She then gave Lin Yu’s back a gentle push. “Quickly, say hello to your sisters.”
Under Sister Nangong’s enthusiastic introduction, Lin Yu instantly gained several more “sisters.”
However, after being introduced to each of them, a question arose in Lin Yu’s mind.
Judging by looks, Sister Nangong was the most beautiful among the medics, so why was she the only one who had escaped the Lieutenant Colonel’s grasp?
As they busied themselves brewing tea and finding cups to entertain her, Lin Yu began to ponder this question herself.
She dared not ask Sister Nangong directly, fearing that she might inadvertently hit a sore spot, which would undoubtedly create serious obstacles for her future life as a medic.
She meticulously analyzed the differences between the other medics and Sister Nangong. Aside from her exceptional medical skills, what else fundamentally distinguished Sister Nangong from them?
Then, Lin Yu lowered her head in dismay, pressing both hands against her chest.
The rations for medics were far superior to anything she had eaten back home, yet they weren’t so lavish that she became immobile after every meal.
Over the past month, her nutrition had gradually caught up, and she was slowly gaining weight; her ribs were no longer as prominent as when she first became a medic. Unfortunately, her bust size remained at the level of a washboard.
In contrast, those medic veterans who had become “mistresses” were, every single one of them, flat-chested, with the largest estimated to be no more than a B-cup. This was a stark contrast to Sister Nangong’s D-cup, truly a difference between heaven and earth.
Could the Lieutenant Colonel be a small-bust fetishist (TL Note: Pínrǔ kòng, referring to a preference or fetish for small breasts)?
Noticing Lin Yu’s expression, which had dramatically worsened as she pressed her chest, Sister Nangong secretly leaned in and whispered to her: “Have you already figured it out?”
“Figured… figured what out…?”
“Figured out that the Lieutenant Colonel actually doesn’t like large ones.”
“…”
Lin Yu’s face grew even paler, and she involuntarily imagined her own tragic fate, forced to become the fifth mistress.
“Haha, look how scared you are,” Sister Nangong rarely showed such a genuinely bright smile. “How could I let you be taken in by someone like him? Don’t be afraid, everyone will protect you. The hot water is already boiling, and we won’t stay here long; we’ll head back after you’ve showered.”
Having comforted Lin Yu, she turned back to continue conversing with her friends, leaving Lin Yu as the only silent one in the entire room.
Sister Nangong and her friends were truly close. Although she occasionally mentioned the pressure of her work after they left, more often than not, she smiled faintly while chatting with them.
Women calling each other sisters… perhaps this was what ‘confidantes’ were like. Lin Yu, not having been a girl in her previous life, didn’t understand the specific dynamics of such relationships.
In truth, she’d had few ‘friends’ even in the broadest sense in her previous life; otherwise, she wouldn’t have wasted away at home for two years before a moment of impulsive folly led her to her death abroad.
She likely couldn’t handle this situation.
The only silver lining in her awkward predicament was that the veterans didn’t focus too much of their conversation on her. Lin Yu merely needed to sit on the soft fabric sofa, sipping tea from her cup, and wait for the hot water to be ready so she could enjoy a nice warm bath, without having to rack her brain to join their conversation.
‘For Sister Nangong, it’s a relaxing chat, but for me, why has it become such an ordeal?’
Lin Yu would rather stay in the tent and treat another injured soldier than participate in their little gossip session.
‘No, as a medic, it should be a good thing to be idle with no casualties. How can I curse the soldiers on the front line to be needlessly injured…’
‘Forget it, I won’t think about it anymore.’
She waited anxiously for the hot water.
She started her bath, still troubled.
She even poked at the two inconspicuous bumps above her ribs, praying they would grow quickly so she wouldn’t fall into the Lieutenant Colonel’s strike zone.
Yet, no matter how much she fretted, they wouldn’t swell up overnight, nor could years of nutritional deficiency be remedied in a single day. To become bigger and taller, to escape the Lieutenant Colonel’s preference (TL Note: An explicit reference to ‘xp’ or ‘experience points’ from gaming, here implying a specific sexual preference or fetish.), she ultimately needed the accumulation of time.
“During this time, I must avoid the gaze of that brutal Lieutenant Colonel; I can’t let him discover there’s a medic like me in the medical tent.”
In the steamy bathroom, she stood before the mirror, speaking to herself with determination.
The girl in the mirror had unusually light brown eyes and the long, black hair characteristic of all Diacla people. However, due to prolonged malnutrition, the surface of her hair generally had a dull brownish-yellow sheen.
The marks of hunger had mostly vanished from her body, but years of poverty had left indelible imprints. The calluses on her palms, her rough skin, all reminded her that just over a month ago, she had been a simple village girl.
‘Not as pretty as I imagined, so… perhaps the Lieutenant Colonel won’t notice me.’
‘Ugh, don’t overthink it.’
Just as she prepared to gently wipe away the mist from the smooth mirror surface to carefully check for any lingering bruises from the beating she’d taken in the trenches, she suddenly noticed several handprints on it.
Curiously, she compared her own hand to them. The smaller handprint was about the same size as hers, while the larger one was a full circle bigger.
Lin Yu pondered who the owners of the handprints might be and quickly arrived at an answer—one of the mistresses and that brutal Lieutenant Colonel.
In fact, there was no need to ponder; they were undoubtedly the traces of a passionate struggle left by one of the four senior medics and him.
Her mind involuntarily reconstructed the scene.
A slender girl, hands braced against the mirror, as another pair of large hands reached over her head, also pressing against the glass. The girl’s face was flushed crimson, unwilling to meet her own gaze in the mirror, yet this only served to fuel the passion of the person behind her.
“…Indeed, all small-bust fetishists deserve to die.”
Taking two steps back from this “ancient battlefield,” she tried to dispel the imagined pink scene from her mind, refocusing on cleaning her body.
She meticulously scrubbed every inch of her skin, washing away all the accumulated dirt from her daily life, and her hair was thoroughly cleaned with the “shampoo” left in the bathroom.
The chemical industry in this world was rudimentary, but alchemy compensated for this, with many convenient small inventions from her previous life manifesting here in different forms, now evident in the bath products.
Still, as the saying went, grunt soldiers in the trenches had no right to use such things; they would be grateful just to receive a small bar of soap, let alone worry about hair care.
If their hair fell out and they became bald, they could at least avoid some of the lice infestations… It was said that some units already mandated short haircuts for combat.
Lin Yu, too, had not properly washed her hair like this since being forcibly conscripted. When the final basin of hot water cascaded over her head, she felt significantly refreshed.
“So comfortable…”
Hot water streamed down her back, her wet hair draped over her back and chest, several warm rivulets flowing along the strands, converging on her body. If it were winter now and snowing outside, and if she could have a cup of hot tea and a hot meal afterward, this would probably be the greatest enjoyment of her life.
Unfortunately, countries beyond the mountains never saw snow, even in winter; in fact, there was hardly any winter at all.
Lin Yu, wrapped in a bath towel, stepped out of the bathroom to find five women standing neatly outside the door, holding various outfits, waiting for her.
“Finished washing?”
“Eh, this, this is for…?”
“Let them help you pick out a nice outfit; I’m going to shower now.” Sister Nangong waved her hand and walked into the bathroom, leaving Lin Yu to the four eager medic veterans.
‘It seems the clothes Sister Nangong was holding won’t be put on me, because I simply can’t wear that size…’
‘No! The dress-up game is about to begin!’
Unable to escape, Lin Yu was surrounded, and the veterans enthusiastically helped her put on the smallest size of underwear.