After leaving Shaylin's room, my heart was still pounding and it took a while to calm down. What exactly is going on between me and Shaylin?
"Blushing, heart racing, shortness of breath...did you hook up with her again?" Jietou asked as he approached me.
I wasn't in the mood for jokes, so I walked over to the window and looked out at the bustling street below lost in thought.
After waiting for about an hour or so, Shaylin finally came out fully dressed. She wore a simple and neat outfit today - a pink and white small suit with a checkered shirt on top, paired with khaki straight-leg jeans. Her hair was simply tied back into a ponytail which made her look elegant and refined. Seeing her made me regret my previous decision.
Her leg injury seemed to be quite severe as she occasionally frowned when walking with an awkward gait.
However, this very demeanor made her even more endearing and lovable; it tugged at one's heartstrings.
"Um...I'm good now; we can leave. Just that I have some injuries on my body which might make walking difficult for me. Please bear with me," said Shaylin calmly as she spoke normally to us.
Seeing that she had regained her composure, I also calmed down and dismissed any romantic thoughts from earlier. After quickly packing up our things in the room including carrying Yin Hun Ling (a type of bell), we set off together.
We hadn't eaten anything for almost 24 hours by then so we were all dizzy from hunger; naturally our first order of business after stepping outside was finding something to eat.
After we finished eating, the sun was setting in the west. We called a taxi and rushed to the hotel where Chi Qingshuai was staying. The hotel is called Qingyuan Hotel, located in the suburbs near Motu Mountain. Although it is large in scale, with a 20-story main building consisting of a lobby on the first floor, a restaurant on the second floor, and an entertainment venue on the third floor with guest rooms above that level.
Normally such hotels are rarely fully booked and there aren't many guests around. However today was different; both inside and outside of the hotel were bustling with activity as if out of nowhere so many customers had suddenly appeared.
As we walked towards the lobby while observing those customers along our way, we noticed that most of them were men around thirty years old dressed plainly or even wearing rubber shoes covered in mud like farmers. It's quite surprising to see these people living in such high-end hotels; I wonder what kind of trickery this is.
When we arrived at reception desk and mentioned Chi Qingshuai's name to check his room number, before anyone could respond a young man with short hair cut flat against his head approached us asking: "Excuse me but are you Liu Yiheng, Lan Xiaodong and Xie Yilin?"
"How do you know our names?" We couldn't help but feel curious about this sudden encounter.
"Heheh... Master Chi told us all about you guys! Follow me please; he has been waiting for you for quite some time." The young man turned around heading towards an elevator leaving us no choice but to follow him upstairs feeling skeptical about everything happening so far.
Soon enough he led us to a meeting room door on top floor saying: "Reporting!" He saluted before entering which surprised all of us until realizing that these people might be reinforcements brought by Chi Qingshuai himself. However upon entering the meeting room, we found Chi Qingshuai chatting with several middle-aged men dressed casually who didn't seem like soldiers at all.
Hehe, the protagonist has finally arrived. Let me introduce you all. This young man is Liu YiHeng, this one is Lan Xiaodong, and the girl next to him is Xie Yilin. Don't underestimate them, they are all skilled individuals." Chi Qingshuai stood up and introduced us to everyone before leading us to meet each other.
After the introductions, I learned that these people were all retired soldiers, some of whom had been out of service for over ten years.
This made me curious about what Chi Qingshuai was planning. Why did he bring so many retired soldiers here? What was going on?
"Shall we stop discussing things for today? You have traveled a long way and must be tired. How about you all rest first while I talk with Liu YiHeng and others?" After introducing everyone and exchanging pleasantries, Chi Qingshuai asked.
After those people left, Chi Qingshuai smiled at us while sipping his wine gourd and asked: "What do you think? Isn't it strange?"
"It's indeed strange. We thought you could bring in regular troops but instead there are only some retired soldiers. We don't understand your plan," I smiled and asked.
"Heheh...you don't understand because you're still too young to know our country's policies," said Chi Qingshuai shaking his head: "You should know that in our country not just anyone can mobilize troops without approval from higher-ups if it exceeds a certain number of personnel or requires reasonable justification for deployment. Although my acquaintance holds a high rank in the military hierarchy he doesn't have enough power to give me regular troops so I had no choice but to call upon some retired veterans who were no longer part of active duty units for help instead."
"Don't worry though; these people used to be elite training specialists even though they've left the military. They are all iron-blooded warriors who obey orders and can fight wherever they're needed," he added.
"I never knew our country had such regulations. This is news to me," Xie Yilin said curiously upon hearing this.
Hehe, so you guys are inexperienced in the world and still have a lot to learn. Have you read some nonsense novels where they easily mobilize an army or armored division to help with private battles? Let me tell you, it's all fake and completely unrealistic. If our military could be mobilized so easily, wouldn't chaos have broken out long ago? Our military has iron discipline, and the first rule of this discipline is that all actions must follow the party's command. Only those at the top can make decisions after research and discussion," said General Chi Qing proudly. He then raised two fingers and said to us, "But my gains this time are not small - 200 artillerymen who are skilled in various blasting techniques. They can blow up mountains or even bomb the US Congress building with a nuclear bomb without any difficulty.