Beyond the Zenith

As they drove on, they passed through a nameless town, and the now open-top van paused briefly before continuing its leisurely crawl along the mountain road.

The van was filled with the scent of breakfast foods. There was soy milk, fried dough sticks, plain rice porridge, oil cakes, steamed buns, white bread, and sorghum bread.[1]

With every bite, the guys would deliberately smack their lips loudly, letting out a satisfied hum of “Mm, delicious.” When they drank, they made a point of releasing an exaggerated sigh as they lowered their cups, making their soymilk sound like fine liquor.

Shen Yixiu crossed her dead iron arms over her chest and stared out the window in annoyance. These people were messing with her on purpose. Their behavior had escalated from initial caution to increasingly brazen. It was undeniably rude, yet somehow she also felt at ease. This was more comfortable than when her family walked on eggshells around her feelings.

In recent years, her aunt’s family often came over to celebrate the New Year together. Not once in that time had they dared to lay out the New Year’s Eve dinner properly out of consideration for her circumstances.

Although grateful and even moved, in truth, Shen Yixiu didn’t like it. She wanted to watch the whole family have a reunion dinner with their hearts at ease, chatting about the year ahead. She liked listening to her grandfather brag about his unmatched combat prowess in his younger days, a little drunk, and she wanted to join them at the table just to talk.

A burp interrupted Rust Girl’s daydream.

Han Qingyu tore off the uneaten half of a fried dough stick, tapped the back of his hand against Shen Yixiu’s shoulder, and when she turned around, said with a straight face, “Here, have a closer look.”

That was the last straw. Shen Yixiu stared at him for a long while, then silently bent down and pulled her blade out from under the last row of seats.

Her dead iron war blade was custom-made and was much wider, thicker, and heavier than the standard-issue dead iron straight blade. At first glance, it resembled a guillotine. The hilt wasn’t particularly large, but it was longer than normal, designed for a two-handed grip, for swinging and chopping.

Metal scraped against metal as Shen Yixiu set the blade upright beside her foot and rested one hand on the hilt. She remained wordlessly seated the whole time and simply turned her head to gaze pointedly out the window.

The van instantly fell silent.

There were no more lip-smacking or exaggeratedsighs. All of them ducked their heads down and nibbled at their food in careful bites like rodents.

Shen Yixiu wanted to laugh so badly, but she held it in.

After a long while, someone finally broke the silence.

“So, honest truth here,” Liu Shiheng said from the driver’s seat, his tone grave. “We’re, uh, completely and utterly lost.”

They had been driving aimlessly in a panicked escape for half the day and had managed to lose themselves.

“So what do we do now? Figure out where we are and find a way back?” He Tangtang asked.

Everyone’s gaze once again collectively turned to Han Qingyu.

Despite unwittingly becoming the decision-maker of the group, Han Qingyu had adapted fairly quickly. His guiding principle had always been simple: No matter what, never shortchange himself and his people.

“Let’s figure out where we are first, then contact the base and ask for the address of the nearest medical station.” Han Qingyu thought for a moment. “We’re all seriously injured, anyway. Let’s go lie down for a few days.”

The Coalition’s front line medical stations were said to be heaven on earth.

They soon discovered this to be true.

The medical station they eventually reached was nestled behind a mountain in a scenic area, disguised as a “rest and recovery facility for high-ranking officials.” The facilities were top-notch, the scale impressive, and the combat nurses beautiful.

They stayed for more than ten blissful days, unwilling to leave, until the regiment’s field training exercise ended and the base repeatedly called them back to prepare for recruit graduation. Only then did they finally—and very reluctantly—leave.

“I really want to get injured again,” He Tangtang said, seated in a vehicle belonging to a nearby district platoon.

Platoon 979 belonged to Regiment 433 of the Ninth Army and had ranked twelfth overall in the previous year’s army-wide standings. It just so happened that they were also sending people back to the combat training base to attend the recruitment briefing assembly and bring in new blood.

So, making a slight detour of only about two hundred kilometers, give or take, they picked them up.

The deputy platoon leader in charge was attentive to everyone throughout the ride, but the person he was most enthusiastic about was actually not Han Qingyu. It was He Tangtang.

“How should I put it? We never even considered trying to recruit you. Everyone in the army knows you’re going to be a Color Eraser’s pick. There’s no way we could compete,” the deputy platoon leader explained to Han Qingyu with a smile as they were getting off the vehicle at the combat training base.

Waving at He Tangtang, who had already walked a short distance away, the deputy platoon leader called out with a grin, “Little Tang, seriously though, think it over when you get back. Come join us at 979. You saw our medical station too. Come, and we’ll guarantee you get injured every day.”

Everyone broke out into laughter, then thanked the deputy platoon leader and waved goodbye.

“You can tell just from that deputy platoon leader how good the atmosphere is in Platoon 979.”

“For sure. You’d definitely enjoy being there.”

“Yeah, plus you’d get to see those pretty nurses all the time.”

“Haha.”

The group walked along, chatting and joking, save for Shen Yixiu, who had gotten off at the entrance and gone home ahead of them.

Ads by PubFuture This laughter and merriment fell squarely in the eyes of Regiment Commander Li, Lao Jian, and the others of Regiment 425. They had actually been waiting for them for some time, standing behind a second-floor window and watching with aching hearts.

“Are these bastards really not even going to leave us a B+ recruit?” Regiment Commander Li muttered weakly before sighing.

The entire combat training base was like this in the days leading up to recruit graduation. Poaching and defending happened both in the open and behind closed doors. It happened not only between regiments, but even between different platoons in the same regiment. Everyone was simultaneously guarding against each other while also competing for the best recruits.

Regiment 425 had already accepted that they couldn’t keep Han Qingyu. Their reason for coming was simply to leverage their bond and say a few words in the hopes that he would return to Regiment 425 to form his platoon when that time came.

“What can we do? We don’t have a single platoon ranked in the top twenty.” The regiment lead advisor smiled bitterly. “As for this one, let’s try to do some persuading and see if we can keep him.”

The lead advisor was obviously referring to He Tangtang. He turned to look at Lao Jian.

“The problem is, I’m not even that close to him,” Lao Jian reluctantly admitted. “I’ve only been acting head instructor for so long, and they were gone for more than ten days of that.”

Regiment Commander Li hesitated. “Then what do we do? Do we have to go ask Mira for help again?”

“You go if you want. I’m not going,” Lao Jian said.

“I don’t have the face to go either,” the lead advisor agreed.

The approaching recruit graduation meant things could no longer be hidden, and Mira had already learned that her appointment as platoon leader had been rejected. One of the specific reasons listed in the rejection was this: Internal opposition within the regiment; deemed unsuitable upon organizational review.

Nobody had seen much of her for the past two days.

A staff officer behind them suddenly interrupted their conversation, pointing at something below. “Commander, look down there.”

Regiment Commander Li and the others glanced over and instantly felt like rejected suitors watching their dream girl go on a date with another. It stung. Badly.

A captain stood at the roadside, around a corner, calling out to Han Qingyu with a warm smile. Of course, a captain was nothing special in itself. Lao Jian was a captain too, and a platoon leader at that.

This man was not a platoon leader.

On the left side of his chest, pinned at an angle, was a gold insignia bearing an inscription.

He was from the Gold Erasers.

1. The foods listed here are 豆浆油条，清粥油饼，大包子、白面包和高粱面包. I can’t attach images in references, but you can scroll down to thoughts for images in case you’re curious about the more unfamiliar of these look like. ☜