The feedback had been submitted, yet it felt as though no feedback had been received at all.
After hearing the report, the man simply nodded, uttering a noncommittal “Mm” without the slightest ripple of emotion, before turning and walking away.
Miss Xiuxiu, having received no discernible response, found her hands trembling, feeling utterly like a clown.
“Damn it! That hurts!”
A young girl’s startled cry echoed within the military-green tent.
With a film of watery mist blurring her vision, the girl lifted her head, gazing at the nurse who was massaging her ankle to promote blood circulation and reduce swelling, pleading miserably, “Sister, please stop rubbing! It’s killing me!”
“Bear with it a little longer, young lady,” the nurse said with a smile.
She continued, “You’re lucky; it’s not a severe sprain, and no bones are broken. A good rub, followed by an ice pack and stabilization, and you’ll be fine by tomorrow.”
As she spoke, her left hand pressed against the ankle while her right hand gently gripped the small foot, continuing to rotate it slowly.
“Ow, ow, ow!” Huang Xiu gasped, sucking in a sharp breath, her fingers clenching tightly onto the edge of the wire-frame bed.
“And stop calling me ‘young lady’!” she gritted out, each word delivered with sharp precision.
“Alright, young lady, you’re a young lady,”
The nurse joked, but seeing the girl’s face redden further, clearly on the verge of irritation, she quickly amended, “Alright, alright, I won’t say it. Calling you ‘student’ should be fine, right?”
‘Honestly… girls these days were so peculiar, not even allowing themselves to be called ‘young ladies’ anymore.’
The nurse was utterly bewildered.
However, when her gaze casually drifted to the girl’s chest, she noticed the slight mounds, roughly an A+ cup size.
“Ah, I see! So that’s how it is!”
In that instant, everything clicked for her, and a knowing, delighted smile spread across her lips.
Gently massaging the swelling on her ankle, the nurse looked at Huang Xiu earnestly and said, “It’ll grow, don’t worry!”
‘Grow? What would grow? Her height?’
Still somewhat confused, Huang Xiu nodded.
She was only seventeen; her growth plates shouldn’t have closed yet, meaning there was indeed still room to grow taller.
Her current height of 1.72 meters genuinely dissatisfied her; she yearned to return to her previous 1.78 meters.
“There,” the nurse announced, wrapping several layers of bandage around the girl’s now considerably less swollen ankle, securing it at a fixed angle.
“You can remove the bandage tomorrow,” she added, rising from the chair beside the bed and stretching languidly. “Student, you should rest here for the night.”
Having finished, she was about to push aside the tent flap and step out when Huang Xiu suddenly called out to her.
“Wait, Sister, I have something to ask you,” the girl said, scrunching her nose. “Do you know a sophomore named Shi Lei? He’s thin, like a bamboo pole.”
“He should be here by now.”
Having been constantly in peril herself, she hadn’t had the chance to consider Shi Lei’s safety.
Now that she was safe, her concern for her “good big son” (TL Note: A humorous or affectionate term, often used for a younger male friend or junior, implying a protective or doting sentiment) resurfaced.
“Shi Lei?” The nurse pondered for a moment, then shook her head. “I don’t know, actually. I just arrived here myself.”
She was a nurse from the City People’s Hospital, originally on night duty, when suddenly the head nurse called.
She was told of an urgent mission requiring a contingent of nurses to deploy immediately.
Without knowing anything, she and several colleagues were whisked away in a military vehicle, disoriented, only to find themselves here once they regained their bearings.
“Alright then!” Huang Xiu said, her gaze retracting in disappointment. “Sister, please go on with your duties.”
The nurse nodded, pushed aside the flap, and exited, leaving Huang Xiu entirely alone within the tent.
With no phone, no television, not even a book, she tossed and turned on the bed, utterly bored.
“By the way… Yun Ning should have escaped, right?” Huang Xiu mumbled, her gaze fixed in the direction of the campus.
Roughly half an hour had passed since she arrived at the camp and had her injuries tended to.
Even if they were with the garrison, they should have arrived much earlier.
‘Should I… go out and take a look?’ Huang Xiu suddenly flipped over and sat up, but then her eyes fell upon her ankle, so heavily bandaged she couldn’t move it, and the diligent soldiers standing guard just outside the tent.
The very next second, she slumped back down, her face etched with defeat.
Given such stringent security, it seemed even a fly couldn’t escape.
“Forget it,” she sighed. ‘There’s nothing to be done, so I might as well sleep.’ Huang Xiu buried her head under the covers, closing her eyes to rest.
Perhaps due to extreme exhaustion, the moment her eyes closed, her previously agitated spirit instantly subsided, her consciousness plummeting into a deep abyss.
Long, steady breaths filled the tent with a peaceful rhythm, as the girl, her face serene, quietly drifted into slumber.
Outside, the guarding soldier silently lowered the tent flap.
****
An indeterminate amount of time passed—perhaps five hours, or perhaps merely thirty minutes.
From the hazy depths of her sleep, Huang Xiu suddenly registered a familiar name.
She blinked her eyes open sluggishly, instantly blinded by the glaring energy-saving lamp.
Tears immediately welled up, blurring her vision, making everything appear indistinct, as if seen through frosted glass.
She closed her eyes and reopened them, finally adapting to the bright light.
Her ankle no longer throbbed as intensely, allowing Huang Xiu to slowly sit up and discern the fervent discussion unfolding just outside the tent.
“Let’s go now! I’ll lead the way!”
“No, I disagree. We must wait; reinforcements from Hexian County are arriving soon.”
“Every moment we delay now could mean another innocent child dies!”
One voice, urgent and unfamiliar, was unrecognizable to her, while the other, calm and composed, Huang Xiu immediately identified as the man she had previously seen holding a tablet.
‘Were they arguing?’
With a curious expression, Huang Xiu shuffled to the edge of the bed, drawing closer to the tent’s exit, and closed her eyes, listening intently to the conversation outside.
“According to current intelligence, as long as the students remain in their dormitories until daylight, there will be no issues.”
Outside the tent, Liu Xin stated calmly.
“Intelligence, intelligence! If your Void Management Bureau’s intelligence was truly reliable, how could you have been unaware of three Void Realms descending?”
Standing in direct opposition to Liu Xin was a slightly plump middle-aged man, with a receding hairline resembling the Mediterranean Sea (TL Note: A common Chinese slang term, ‘dizhonghai,’ referring to male pattern baldness where hair remains only on the sides, resembling the shape of the Mediterranean Sea on a map), huffing and glaring.
He wore a pristine white shirt, its hem tucked into his trousers, and a tightly cinched belt that conspicuously emphasized his beer belly.
He appeared to be nothing more than an ordinary, middle-aged man who had put on some weight.
“This matter stems from someone restless behind the scenes; I’ve already uncovered some clues. He Tianpeng, if you wish to go, I won’t stop you, but I will not dispatch anyone to assist you.”
“You!” He Tianpeng’s face flushed crimson with anger. He pointed at Liu Xin, his hand trembling. “How can you be so cold-blooded!”
“I am considering the bigger picture,” Liu Xin stated coldly. “If you possessed formidable strength, like Professor Yuan, I would allow you to lead. But you are too weak; going in would only cause a great deal of destruction and achieve nothing else.”
“Damn it, where is Professor Yuan then!”
He Tianpeng abruptly flung his hand out, pacing back and forth like an ant on a hot griddle.
The thought of his own child and other innocent students still facing danger within the school made him yearn to charge in directly.
However, Liu Xin’s recent words, though harsh, were undeniably logical, and they had sobered him.
Injured, he was no longer the “Annihilating Marshal Tianpeng” who could charge in and out of the Void Realm seven times over.