Part 2
The artillery fire outside finally quieted down a bit, almost inaudible. Mǐ Qiū sat alone on the edge of the bed, swinging her legs.
Mǐ Qiū suddenly realized: This is Commander Fù’s tent. So who was the person talking to me today? His outfit didn’t look like an A-class Sentinel’s uniform.
She waited all night, but Commander Fù still didn’t appear.
So she went to the entrance again. It was the same Sentinel guarding the outside.
He said Commander Fù still had business and told Mǐ Qiū she could rest first.
Let me sleep first?
“But sleeping in your Commander’s tent isn’t very appropriate, is it?”
“Are there any other spare tents?”
“Where would we get spare tents here? This isn’t a place where we can just add empty accommodations for you at will. Here, we aren’t even sure we’ll see tomorrow’s sun; we just hope to live one more day.”
“Forget it, why am I talking to a Guide about this?”
He only said one sentence at the end: Everything was Commander Fù’s instruction, and he couldn’t make any decisions.
Don’t leave the tent; don’t make things difficult for him.
Mǐ Qiū had to give up, abandoning any thought of going out.
Mǐ Qiū dozed groggily for almost two hours, the soft yellow light staying on beside her. When Mǐ Qiū woke up, she seemed to glimpse a black human silhouette outside.
That must be Commander Fù, right? She stepped towards the outside. Indeed, the Sentinel was guarding the door motionless. Mǐ Qiū didn’t actually walk out, just poked her head to look. No, that shadow seemed to be behind the tent.
Mǐ Qiū heard some movement outside and felt something was wrong. Until she saw the man who had been in the tent with her that morning bend down and enter. Just as she prepared to speak, her mouth was covered by a pair of warm palms.
The man covered her mouth, preventing her from making a sound. Mǐ Qiū: “Is there a D411 outside—”
Mǐ Qiū lowered her voice, asking quietly, trying to confirm something. The man didn’t speak at first, then simply gave a hum of acknowledgment.
Because he was covering her mouth, their posture was a bit awkward. Mǐ Qiū didn’t know where to put her hands, but she seemed to feel something—a wet, hot sensation, like some liquid flowing from the man’s body.
Mǐ Qiū looked down and saw blood gushing ceaselessly from his abdomen! Even in the dim light, it was clearly visible.
She was worried. “Is this the monster’s blood?”
“It’s my blood.”
The man’s face was pale. It was obvious he was injured, and badly. There was a bloody hole in his lower abdomen.
Mǐ Qiū was not only worried about him but also about the situation outside. If that black shadow really was the monster, Mǐ Qiū obviously didn’t know what to do in this situation.
The man said to her, “His body has been cut in two. He can’t survive.”
It seemed he had received such a severe injury because of the monster outside. He said, “Their target was me.”
Mǐ Qiū helped him up and sat him on the edge of the bed, saying, “I’ll find someone for you.”
The man clearly didn’t intend to leave. One hand tightly gripped her wrist, saying, “There’s a medical kit in the rightmost drawer. Get it for me.”
Mǐ Qiū thought, If the injury is severe, he must go to the Rear Support Area. Otherwise, the treatment will be delayed. Mǐ Qiū told him her thoughts, but the man was resolute and didn’t plan to go.
“Cut the crap! Bring it here. You don’t need to worry about this.”
“If you insist on this, I’ll tell Commander Fù. You can’t just act on your own.”
“Do you need to tell him?”
He frowned tightly, beans of sweat resting on his forehead.
“You’re looking for Fù Róngqīng, right?”
“Mhm.”
“I am him.”
So he is the person Mǐ Qiū has been looking for all along. Mǐ Qiū thought she was truly stupid; she hadn’t considered the one possibility that he would be Commander Fù.
In that case, she had to follow his instructions. Mǐ Qiū brought the medical kit over.
Fù Róngqīng: “Sanitize the knife directly with alcohol. Do you know how?”
How could I? But Mǐ Qiū still had to bite the bullet and do it.
“Actually, you just need to cut a cross shape with the knife to open the wound.”
Mǐ Qiū was rummaging through the box and asked him, “But where is the anesthetic?”
“I need to find the anesthetic.”
He said there was no anesthetic at all because the medical facilities here were very crude, and only the most basic medical kit was available. In the time they were speaking, more and more blood was flowing from his lower abdomen.
Mǐ Qiū was still worried that she absolutely couldn’t handle this well on her own. She prepared to get up to do something but was stopped by him. “Don’t do useless things. It’s no use.”
Mǐ Qiū: “But if we don’t try, how do we know it’s useless?”
“Those things have targeted me. If they know I’m injured, they’ll probably raid the tent tonight.”
Mǐ Qiū finally understood the real reason, so she prepared to give him simple treatment first.
It wasn’t that she had never done it before, but every time she did it, her hands couldn’t help but tremble. He said the reason the wound had to be cut open wasn’t for fear of infection, but mainly because there was poison inside the wound, and the poison had to be forced out.
He even gestured for Mǐ Qiū to pour alcohol continuously onto his wound first, to clean and disinfect the surface, so Mǐ Qiū did as told.
At first, she could do it well, but ultimately she was afraid. Seeing Mǐ Qiū’s hands shaking uncontrollably, he said he would do it himself.
Mǐ Qiū didn’t let him do it himself and finally managed the first step. When it came time to cut the cross, Mǐ Qiū held her breath before pulling two cuts open. He continued to instruct Mǐ Qiū to cut away the rotting flesh around the wound that had been eroded by the poison.
Because if they waited any longer, the toxins would invade his internal organs, which was obviously extremely dangerous.
Knowing that Mǐ Qiū would faint at the sight of a certain amount of blood, Fù Róngqīng said, “If you’re scared, you can use gauze to cover the blood.”
“It’s okay. I only faint occasionally, and only when it reaches a certain volume.”
Mǐ Qiū swallowed her saliva and continued.
Now, she clearly had no other choice. Something inside the man’s body seemed ready to burst out… Mǐ Qiū quickly cut away his rotten flesh and then bandaged it firmly.
Even so, after wrapping it, a red stain seeped through the bandage.
His condition didn’t deteriorate further, and his body was physically better, but Mǐ Qiū faintly sensed something just now. It seemed his spiritual body was very unstable, ready to explode at any moment.
Mǐ Qiū then said, “I’m going to hypnotize you now.”
Her hypnosis equipment had naturally been carried in her backpack all along, compressed into a portable version inside.
Because he was in too much pain right now, his spiritual body must be trapped somewhere. Mǐ Qiū couldn’t wait any longer; she had to deal with it now.
“What are you doing?”
Mǐ Qiū took out the hypnosis equipment. She wasn’t sure if the toxins in the wound were causing his current mental disorder, but if she couldn’t hypnotize and soothe him well, he would still be in danger.
Then Mǐ Qiū entered his spiritual body. Inside a completely sealed iron cage, she was locked in with a male lion.
The lion kept growling low. Its roar was full of imposing power, circling Mǐ Qiū constantly, seeming to look for a good place on her body to bite.
Facing its increasingly ferocious face in this situation, Mǐ Qiū threw the food in her hand to it. It swallowed a chunk of fatty meat into its belly in one gulp.
If it’s full, logically it shouldn’t be a threat to me anymore, right? Mǐ Qiū thought.
Unexpectedly, the lion clearly didn’t intend to let her go but approached her further. She could only retreat continuously. Perhaps the lion also had a weakness, and she could stop it.
Because now she had a premonition that if she didn’t stop it, she might very well become the lion’s meal.
Its fluffy mane made its body look huge. It tapped its four paws on the ground twice, tilting its head to look at Mǐ Qiū.
Mǐ Qiū had to use the method she had previously queried on her light-brain. Perhaps the methods for subduing such large animals were similar. She could only take a gamble now.
But that method required human strength. If her strength was insufficient, she might ultimately be unable to escape the result of being swallowed by the lion. She couldn’t contend with it at all; the disparity in their strength was immense. Even for a strong person facing a male lion, there was only a 0.1% chance of gaining the upper hand. Mǐ Qiū thought, I absolutely cannot force it.
Its tail swayed ceaselessly, staring at Mǐ Qiū constantly, as if she would soon become its meal. At this moment, it had long regarded her as prey. The lion approached, its mouth wide open, its sharp teeth almost grazing Mǐ Qiū’s arm. Her slender arm was almost bitten off by it. Mǐ Qiū looked at it like this.
A standoff between one person and one lion—this wouldn’t do! Mǐ Qiū had to think of a way as soon as possible. She still had to soothe it within two hours. She couldn’t hide; hiding would leave her in an even more terrifying situation at any time. Mǐ Qiū knew she had to be brave now and think about what it truly needed in this dreamscape.
Mǐ Qiū could only take a gamble. She opened the door of the iron cage. It must have been trapped, so she let it out. The lion looked at her, watched for a while, and finally walked out of the cage without biting her. Its mood wasn’t so manic anymore, and its body slowly crouched down.
Although it wasn’t completely devoid of hostility toward Mǐ Qiū, it finally quieted down.
Mǐ Qiū now entered a deeper layer of the dream.
Mǐ Qiū felt a bump. Opening her eyes, she realized she was sitting in a jeep. She was in the back seat, and the person driving in front was Fù Róngqīng. He seemed to be wearing something on his ear, talking to someone through the device: “Yes. She is sitting in my car right now, heading to the Guide Institute. Oh, got lost.”
Perhaps because she was in the scenario, Mǐ Qiū seemed to be able to hear the other person saying to Fù Róngqīng: “I say, haven’t you considered the matter of matching with a Guide yet?”
“No.”
“You have to consider it. Don’t just focus on your career. Is there no one you like? Don’t be too picky. Some Guides have good conditions. Trust me, actually, the union of two people can boost your career even more.”
“Forget it, let’s not talk about this. I have no thoughts in this regard.”
The two talked around this topic for a while. Then, Fù Róngqīng hung up the call and arrived at the Guide Institute. The car stopped, and Mǐ Qiū suddenly said to him, “Commander Fù, what do you think of me? To be your matching Guide.”
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