"I said you're a heartless, narrow-minded scumbag, a grown man who picks on a woman over trivial matters, are you just inherently lacking love and care? Can't stand anyone, walking around with that sour face all day, I think a do-over would do you some good, lest you embarrass Chinese soldiers!"
Xing Liehuo's face was devoid of excessive emotion, but his eyes were terrifyingly fearsome, intimidating and piercing. As a military leader wielding significant power, a political figure who could influence countless lives and futures, a number one figure always praised and coddled wherever he went, when had he ever been subjected to such insults?
You give this girl an inch and she takes a mile, daring to belittle him in front of more than a hundred elite special forces soldiers.
For the first time, the Crown Prince was truly angered, wishing he could toss this girl into the sea to feed the sharks.
"Add another 5 kilometers, no food until you've finished running!"
After saying that, he turned and strode away, fuming.
Lifting her head, Lian Qiao bellowed defiantly at his retreating figure, "Don't be resentful, I'd rather drop dead here than comply."
On the training ground, all eyes were fixed on her—shocked, astonished, and some sympathetic... That's the Crown Prince, who else in the entire army would dare talk to him like that?
The rain kept falling.
250 rounds up and down on hook ladders, 250 trips back and forth through a 30-meter barbed wire crawl, holding an AK47 at shoulder height without moving for two hours—of course, with a brick suspended from the barrel with a rope. What followed was an endless 20-kilogram weighted run, on and on. For someone specially recruited, without any formal military training, especially a woman, this was an utterly impossible task.
She persevered, teeth clenched, cursing the damn man in her heart. His heart was truly cruel; he had his way with her and still had the nerve to discipline her. Such low class!
A cold-blooded, ruthless monster!
A capricious tyrant!
Fortunately, her strong foundation in breathing techniques and martial arts skills allowed her to persevere just like the male soldiers.
But, while the male soldiers' training ended, hers continued...
Soaked through like a duck, unable to tell whether it was sweat or rain, she ran gasping for breath. She truly wanted to die there and then but stubbornly refused to succumb to his malice, unwilling to let that bastard have the last laugh.
Life is full of ups and downs—what's one more time? These days, she lived vibrantly, determined to stand tall with the most defiant posture.
She ran and kept running, unaware of how much longer she could endure—one step, two steps, three steps...
Her vision blurred, the road ahead grew even longer, seeming to have no end, like a dark behemoth opening its gaping maw to devour her...
She fell, then stood up again to start a new round of running, convincing herself that this was no longer just a military training ground but her battlefield to uphold her dignity!
How much time had elapsed...
Bang—
Under the watch of a military long-range telescope, she collapsed heavily to the ground, unconscious...
She had a dream, a lengthy, protracted dream.
In the dream, she was 12 years old, holding an urn covered with a military flag, containing the ashes of her most admired father. She watched her mother scream and cry wildly until she just ran off crazily and disappeared...
In the dream, heavy male gasps and the moans of a woman intermingled on the intricately carved bed, the lamplight casting ambiguous shadows of a man and a woman, their naked skin flickering before her eyes.
She was angry, she roared loudly, "Yi Shaotian, Yi Shaotian, you bastard!"
She reached out to pull him back, but grasped only emptiness. No, she didn't like this fragile version of herself, hated this vulnerable emotional entanglement.
"Lian Qiao, Sky Hawk brother loves me... He loves me... It's always been me..."
Who's saying this? Xing Wan, oh, right, Xing Wan! The words echoed over and over in her ears like a curse.
No matter how brave she appeared or how indifferent she seemed, only she knew she was a pitiful creature abandoned by all...
Her heart ached fiercely, her body soaked in cold sweat and trembling uncontrollably as she murmured, "I'll kill you... I'll kill you..."
"Having a fit?"
A deep, cold voice reached her ears, and a rough hand touched her forehead. Who was this? The voice was so familiar.
Damn conceited jerk!
She startled, opening her eyes wide to find herself lying on a large bed permeated with a man's masculine scent, a suffocating presence bearing down on her. The man loomed over her like a wall, her nerves instantly on high alert.
She propped herself up on the bed, intending to sit up, but her head spun, her entire body ached unbearably.
She gritted her teeth internally, cursing the son of a bitch.
"You're awake?" Xing Liehuo looked down at her coldly; his demeanor regained the composure he had with Sky Hawk Squad earlier in the morning.
Lian Qiao's anger had not yet subsided. She sat up aggressively and glared at him, "Scumbag, what more do you want? What have I done to you to deserve this?"
Xing Liehuo snorted coldly and tossed a document envelope onto the bed in front of her, eyes chillingly detached, "See for yourself."
She glanced at him suspiciously and opened it—
Unbelievable! A marriage certificate. Whose idea was this photo? He's scowling, and she's smiling as brightly as a blooming flower; anyone would think she, Mu Guiying, had snatched Yang Zongbao away.
Huh! Xing Liehuo! So his surname is Xing?! No wonder he's not a normal human being!
But seriously, this is utterly ludicrous! Does he own the civil affairs bureau or what? She's only heard of arranged marriages by parents, never by superiors.
Alright, she knows she's young and beautiful, smart and invincible, brave and wise.
But does this ancestor, who only knows how to exercise power over others, understand that other people have dignity too?
Her back rigid, her face twisted in anger, she barked, "Reason?! Don't even tell me it was love at first sight."