“Cough, cough… cough, cough…”
What had happened?
“Ugh, cough… cough, cough, cough…”
The surroundings were pitch black. Her ears ached, and her head swam with dizziness.
Judging by her immediate surroundings, this wretched place was certainly no heaven; perhaps, she mused, there was no such place as heaven at all.
The last time she had died, a blink of her eyes had brought forth the midwife of her current life. This environment, however, was clearly not a delivery room, which meant she had, against all odds, managed to cling to her precious life.
But what exactly had transpired?
Having coughed out most of the dust that had invaded her lungs, Lin Yu struggled valiantly, pushing her head free from the mound of earth.
She remained seated by her small cot, though the half-buried, log-supported bunker that had once stood before her had given way to a partially collapsed wall of splintered planks. The path to freedom was almost entirely blocked, save for a single opening beneath the desk where she used to “work,” through which a faint sliver of light from outside now pierced.
It appeared a shell had scored a direct hit, collapsing the bunker.
What terrifying precision…
She wasn’t referring to the Lanforthian artillery, but rather to the combat engineers who had constructed this very bunker.
They had claimed it could withstand a shell, and indeed it had—just one. A second would undoubtedly have meant instant death for anyone inside.
Frantically, she patted herself down, confirming that all her limbs were intact and free of wounds. After vigorously wiping the dirt from her face, she attempted to dislodge the grit from her hair, but realizing it would be a losing battle for now, she shifted her attention to surveying her surroundings.
The bunker had collapsed from its very center, the fractured planks and remaining upright walls forming a treacherous triangular zone that trapped her within.
‘Right, the others…’
She turned her head to the right, where a narrow passage remained open near the firing slit. She had survived by sheltering here, but the others…
Lin Yu’s hand brushed against a warm, sticky pool of blood.
“This… this is…”
“Gurgle… wheeze… gurgle…”
It sounded like air escaping.
“Ah!”
A splash of warm blood spattered across her face.
Staring at the soldier’s face before her, she stammered, unable to articulate his name. “Gao… Gao…”
“Gurgle…”
He was the informal leader, the “Big Brother,” among the soldiers, now slumped diagonally on a blanket, his hand clamped over his neck.
From where the blood pulsed forth, a splintered piece of wood protruded, deeply embedded. Judging by the gruesome display, it had not only pierced his artery but also his windpipe.
Arterial blood gushed explosively from the wound, some of it flowing down his windpipe into his lungs, triggering a series of racking coughs from the injured man.
With each cough, the sound of escaping air grew more pronounced, a chilling, wheezing gasp.
“I must, I must… I must find it now…”
An immediate operation was vital; she needed to suture the ruptured carotid artery, immediately…
With trembling hands, Lin Yu fumbled for the surgical kit on the cot behind her. She spread it open, illuminated by the faint light filtering through the firing slit, and gripped the scalpel and hemostats.
“The steps are to first cut the epidermis, then use hemostats to stop the bleeding… No, no, no, this is the carotid artery, doing that would…”
As she leaned closer to the wound, her grip suddenly faltered, and the scalpel clattered to the ground.
She hastily retrieved it, scrubbing vigorously with her hand to wipe off the clinging dirt, only to slice a deep gash into her own finger.
“I…”
She stared blankly for a moment, first at her own wound, then at the soldier’s.
“I’m sorry, I can’t do anything…”
Dropping the hemostats to the ground, she knelt beside the injured man and, collapsing onto him, wept uncontrollably in despair.
‘Forgive me, Nangong, even after learning from you for so long, I haven’t fully mastered the knowledge you imparted, nor have I truly become a competent medic.’
“I’m not a qualified medic…”
Lin Yu could only perform one last act for him: administer a painkiller, ensuring he wouldn’t suffer so excruciatingly before his inevitable end.
Turning back to rummage through the storage cabinet, her hand met only a wet, clammy surface—a stark contrast to the soldier’s warm skin. The precious painkillers had all shattered, leaving shards of glass embedded in her palm.
She could no longer distinguish whether the blood on her hands belonged to the injured soldier or to herself.
“Why are you crying? Why aren’t you saving him?”
Dropping her hands, she looked further to her right. Within the cramped confines of the half-collapsed bunker, a third person was still alive. “Aren’t you a medic? You treated me before, so why don’t you…”
“You didn’t have a ruptured carotid artery; of course, you could be cured! But him, he’s already…”
Even on a fully equipped operating table in her previous life, such a condition would have been perilously risky. In this dim, desolate place, utterly devoid of life-support equipment, he was, in all but name, already a dead man.
Her tear-choked retort failed to quell the other’s urge to accuse. “Then aren’t you just a quack doctor? Watching a wounded man die before your eyes, yet powerless to treat him.”
“You swore to offer loyalty to His Majesty the Emperor by healing others, yet you can’t even fulfill your most basic duty—”
“Do you even know what a carotid artery is?! Do you know what shock is?! If you’re so capable, you do it!”
Lin Yu lunged forward, delivering a punch squarely to his face. Alas, the feeble blow not only failed to hurt him but instead injured her own hand.
She could distinctly feel the scalpel gash on her hand tearing open further, and the glass fragments embedded in her palm digging in deeper.
Realizing she lacked even the strength to throw a proper punch, Lin Yu felt a surprising amount of her anger towards him dissipate without reason.
“I am an assault soldier; my duty is to capture trenches for His Majesty the Emperor. You are a medic; your duty is to treat the wounded for His Majesty the Emperor. We each have our own responsibilities, our own tasks to fulfill.”
“Then go capture the trenches! Go launch a counter-charge and drive them all into the sea to feed the fish! Why are you sitting here doing nothing?! Letting their artillery bombard the logistics area into such a state! You know it, you’ve fought for so many years, you clearly know which wounds are beyond saving…”
She wanted to continue her angry exchange, but suddenly, Lin Yu’s fight drained away. She retreated two steps and sat back beside the injured soldier, placing her bloodied hand gently over his blood-stained cheek.
“Yes, you’re right… I am a quack doctor. As someone meant to heal and save lives, I can’t even preserve a single one…”
Closing the eyes of the now still soldier, Lin Yu wiped her tears away with the back of her hand and looked up again at the imbecile. “There, are you satisfied? I’m a quack doctor, I can’t cure illnesses or save lives. Is that enough?”
He shook his head, dismissing Lin Yu’s bitter words. “No. If you abandon the path of proving your loyalty through saving lives, then stand up. Prove your loyalty by killing, just as I do.”
“Extend your rifle barrel, shoot any target wearing a Lanforthian uniform. No living thing must be allowed to breach the trench we defend.”
He picked up his rifle from beside him, using the buttstock to brace himself as he rose. With practiced ease, he disengaged the safety and chambered a round. “The Lanforthians tend to charge after a brief artillery barrage. If this is the prelude to their attack, we must stop them immediately.”
“…”
Lin Yu, too, scrambled back into her half-buried mound of earth, picked up her rifle, and vigorously slapped it to shake off the clinging dirt. She pulled back the bolt to “re-chamber” a round, only for a bullet to clatter to the ground.
Her rifle had already been loaded, but the safety had remained engaged.
Frantically, she sat on the ground, trying to snatch the bullet with her hand, but failed two or three times, watching helplessly as it rolled out through the opening beneath the desk.
‘I’ve lost a hidden backup energy source… no, I’ve lost a bullet.’
With great difficulty, Lin Yu raised her rifle, now loaded with only two rounds. She stepped onto her cot, resting the gun on the sandbags, mirroring the exact posture she had maintained throughout the previous night.
Suddenly, she began to understand why that imbecile could so righteously believe that the Emperor superseded all else.
Facing reality demanded courage; some drew strength from faith, from deities, to press onward. Taking a life also required courage, and he, in turn, drew strength from loyalty, from the Emperor, to continue his slaughter.
‘As for me, why should I fire?’
‘Because Lanforthian shells stole the lives of my beloved friends and family. A debt forged in blood can only be repaid in blood. I must kill six Lanforthians to settle the bloody promissory note they have left behind.’
‘Until then, I cannot die.’
Pressing her cheek against the rifle stock, Lin Yu meticulously aimed forward, awaiting the appearance of red figures in her sights.
Yet, the figures that emerged were not clad in red.
Scattered soldiers in khaki uniforms darted between shell craters, scrambling over barbed wire, charging relentlessly forward.
With but a single glance, Lin Yu made her decision. “Don’t shoot—”