Chapter Eighty-One: A Lesson at Morning Drill

Li Mengdie and Christine had been introduced by Zhao Li as medical officers, so naturally they went to the infirmary and waited. The room had already been tidied into something presentable. After they had sat there for a while, people began limping in one after another, grimacing as they clutched their arms.

“Crack.”

Christine handled things rather well. After all, she was a professional medical officer, and even while resetting bones she managed to remain fairly composed. Li Mengdie was different. She was a combat specialist who had learned battlefield first aid, but she was no match for Christine’s expertise. The sounds made while she reset the bones were even more horrifying than those produced when Zhao Li had dislocated the men’s joints.

Even so, no one dared voice any doubts. The performance of the two women had genuinely astonished them. Who could have imagined that two seemingly delicate beauties would be so ruthless when they got to work?

Whatever they might have thought, the injuries they had sustained left them no choice but to rely on the two women for treatment. There had originally been one medic among them, but he was now one of the wounded and could barely take care of himself. Regardless of the quality of their technique, at least the displaced joints had been put back into place. If they were left untreated for too long, the men could easily become disabled.

From that alone, it was clear that their new lieutenant commander was a truly vicious character. He had taken down every single one of them without exception, and, to give them a show of authority, had even dared to order his people to open fire. They had seen ruthless men before, but never one who was this ruthless from the moment he arrived.

As the saying went, a hero feared a scoundrel, and a scoundrel feared a man who did not fear death. Zhao Li’s arrival had given him the air of someone utterly unafraid to die. For a time, these men had no way to deal with him and could only lower their heads obediently. They could not beat him, and their backers had not even known that a new commander would be arriving today. All they could do was swallow their anger.

Men came and went across the parade ground, returning after having their arms treated to carry away the wounded. None of them dared shout loudly. They hurriedly carried off those with the most serious injuries first, lest they die from excessive blood loss.

That Lieutenant Zhao Li seemed completely indifferent to whether they lived or died. He had no intention of helping them at all. To be honest, these soldiers, who had been lazy and undisciplined for far too long, had truly been cowed in an instant. From the moment their gunmen failed, it was as though Zhao Li’s fury had been ignited. The lesson had been profound.

At that moment, Zhao Li was in the commander’s office, slowly gathering and organizing the chaotic piles of intelligence and documents. No one knew how long the papers had been left there, but there might be something useful among them. They were worth looking through.

As for his lazy subordinates, there would be plenty of time to deal with them gradually. There was no need to rush. The captain had warned him of one thing, however: most of these men had already established ties with the forces outside.

That was a serious problem. It was not that Zhao Li feared they might join forces with outsiders to seek revenge. The real danger was that, if they coordinated among themselves and took targeted action, information might leak out. That would be troublesome.

Still, Zhao Li was not completely helpless. Under the present circumstances, he had at least ten thousand ways to make these men train every day until they wished they could treat their pillows as home. The captain had said that, so long as they did not leave the military camp, the guerrilla forces would not casually provoke them. After all, the camp still represented the authority of the government.

It was truly pathetic. The government army had been bottled up inside its own camp by a few guerrilla bands and did not even dare show its face. Maintaining local stability? That claim was pure nonsense. The guerrillas had merely been gracious enough not to uproot the camp, yet the government still had the nerve to boast about preserving order.

Zhao Li now had ambitions of his own, and faced with such circumstances, he could not help feeling troubled. In the short term, he could rapidly raise the combat effectiveness of these government troops through brutal training, but whether such training would ultimately succeed was difficult to say. Who knew how many of them would leave because they could not endure it, become part of the missing population, or join the guerrillas outright?

Christine was an agreeable companion and someone he could discuss matters with. But she was busy treating the wounded, and he himself still had much to do. For now, it was enough to keep these men under control.

“Excellent!”

Zhao Li stood before the troops, who had arranged themselves into several neat rows, and spoke the two words with a stern expression. It was early dawn on the second day. Zhao Li had awakened from his meditation at daybreak and immediately pressed the assembly button.

Aside from those whose injuries were too severe for them to stand, every soldier had gathered on the parade ground. The previous day’s display of authority had been enough to keep them subdued, and they now looked somewhat like an actual army. Still, they were clearly rusty, having no idea how long it had been since they had trained.

“Morning exercises. Run ten kilometers around the parade ground. Finish before breakfast. The last ten will receive no breakfast!”

Zhao Li issued the order without mercy, then turned as if to leave.

“Hey! What gives?” someone shouted after only a few words.

Zhao Li had already lunged toward him.

“Not happy? Fine. The run is now changed to hand-to-hand combat. Anyone who leaves the parade ground will be shot!”

As he spoke, Zhao Li drove a fierce punch into the chin of the man who had spoken first. His jaw was dislocated on the spot, and the tremendous force knocked the loudmouth unconscious.

Having so many people around to work his hands and feet was a pleasant way to begin the morning. Christine and Li Mengdie emerged from somewhere, each carrying an assault rifle. One sat smiling, the other cold-faced, on opposite sides of the parade ground, waiting for some unlucky man to run out—or be thrown out.

With this level of discipline, using them as guards was purely decorative. They would have been no worse off without guards at all. After all, despite having had no sentries for so long, nothing had happened here.

The previous day’s events had left a deep impression. Everyone knew that the moment they left the parade ground, a bullet would find their thigh. But this time Zhao Li had said they would be shot dead, not merely shot in the leg, so some cautiously edged toward the center. They dodged Zhao Li’s attacks while cursing the loudmouth in their hearts.

What could not he have said after Zhao Li left? Why say it to his face? Was he not simply giving Zhao Li an excuse to discipline them? They could neither fight nor escape. All they could do was pray that they would be the last to be beaten down. Perhaps that way, they would suffer a little less.

Li Mengdie had little regard for Zhao Li’s method. In her view, anyone who disobeyed an order should simply be shot dead, not given a lesson like this. The Genius School had never tolerated students who disobeyed orders. If anyone did, they were dealt with immediately. How could these men possibly be allowed to question a commander’s orders to his face?

It did not matter whether they had merely been ordered to run. Even if they had been commanded to charge straight into a hail of bullets, they would have to carry it out without the slightest deviation.

Thus, Li Mengdie gripped her rifle and watched the edge of the parade ground without blinking. The instant anyone crossed the boundary—or even set one foot upon its edge—she would carry out Zhao Li’s order and shoot him dead.

Her current mission seemed to include something beyond protecting Zhao Li. Li Mengdie did not care in the slightest. Even if she had to protect him for the rest of her life, she would gladly do so. While watching the boundary, she also kept an eye on Zhao Li’s movements. She deeply admired the clean and efficient way he dislocated his opponents’ joints.

The Genius School taught nothing but techniques for killing. It had no martial arts that could subdue a person without taking his life. Perhaps that was the difference between a combat specialist and a prison administrator.

Christine, too, kept watching Zhao Li’s movements. He was always surprising her. It had been the same at the recruit training center, and it was the same now.

The fact that he had survived injuries like those showed Christine that Zhao Li possessed extraordinary vitality—or, put another way, that his fear of death was extraordinarily strong. It was this intense will to survive that offered the only explanation for how he had endured those wounds.

What made Zhao Li cling so fiercely to life? It was a question worth examining. Ever since Christine had shown him Major Michael’s report, she had been probing him without pause.

There was no denying that Christine’s ambitions were even greater than Zhao Li’s. Otherwise, after mastering medical skills, she would never have devoted so much effort to cultivating the arts of seduction. Only with those abilities could she continue climbing in the outside world.

The appearance of the recruit Zhao Li seemed to offer Christine an opportunity. Thus, without informing her superiors, she had performed an enhancement procedure on him. The result had been an accident. Although the project continued under Christine’s name afterward, it left her with a small stain on her record.

This time, saving Zhao Li had allowed Christine to see his potential once more. She later learned that Zhao Li had been assigned to that place where the sun never shone. At the time, she had even felt a trace of guilt. But when she saw that Zhao Li had become a prison warden in little more than a year, she immediately realized that either Zhao Li himself or someone behind him possessed powerful connections.

Major Michael’s report was exceptionally foolish. Against a man like Zhao Li, who clearly had powerful backing, it could not harm him in the slightest. Thus, when Christine generously produced the report for Zhao Li to read, she was also carefully observing his reaction.

If Zhao Li grew nervous, then Major Michael’s suspicions had merit. Following Zhao Li would allow her to expose the hidden forces behind him. That would be a chance to earn considerable credit.

On the other hand, if Zhao Li remained completely unconcerned, that could indicate one of two things. Perhaps his backing was truly formidable and he simply did not care about such a minor smear. In that case, following him would allow her to gain the support of those backing him.

And if Zhao Li was genuinely innocent, then the prisoner files in his possession would become an irresistible prize. Christine did not know who was being held in the special prison, but anyone capable of mounting an armed prison break and wiping out every guard inside was hiding a secret that was certainly no ordinary one. Unlocking that secret would bring enormous credit.

Now, watching Zhao Li subdue those men one after another with such practiced ease, Christine completely believed that he had not been boasting when he claimed to have subdued three living prisoners single-handedly. He truly possessed that ability. More than one hundred and ninety men had all been subdued with dislocated joints. Even Li Mengdie might not have been able to accomplish such a feat with such precision.

Where Zhao Li had learned this technique was another matter that intrigued Christine. None of the standard martial arts included anything like it. Could it be a special technique from the special prison? In any case, all the prison guards were dead except Zhao Li. He could say whatever he pleased.

On the parade ground, Zhao Li continued tormenting the undisciplined soldiers. Neither Li Mengdie nor Christine felt the slightest fondness for them. Yet these men were also the government army’s entire foundation in this place. If they refused to obey orders, Zhao Li would have no future prospects for putting his plans into practice. From every angle, the two women would help him suppress these disobedient men as harshly as possible.

The cries gradually weakened, and few people remained standing. Zhao Li had shown great restraint. Almost all his attacks had been directed at their limbs, but each man had at least one arm or leg rendered useless, making it impossible for him to remain on his feet.

These lazy men lacked Sanders’s formidable willpower. They could not reset their own joints through sheer determination and skill. Once knocked down, they lay on the ground howling and waited to be treated.

This time, the whole affair did not even take half an hour. Toward the end, a few clever men, such as Old Scoundrel and the gunman, practically threw themselves at Zhao Li so that he could knock them down. It saved a great deal of time. Since they could not escape the blow in the end, they might as well cooperate. At least that would spare their fellow soldiers a little pain.

Unfortunately, even this clever calculation came to nothing. After the last soldier fell, Zhao Li looked at the men scattered across the ground, clutching their arms and legs and wailing, without the slightest trace of sympathy on his face.

“Hand-to-hand combat is over, but the morning exercise period is not. So before breakfast, enjoy the pleasures of morning exercise here on the parade ground!”

He clapped his hands and turned away. The camp’s logistics robots provided breakfast, so there was no need to worry about anyone cooking.

Before leaving, Zhao Li added, “Anyone who leaves the parade ground during morning exercises will be shot dead on the spot!”

Then he walked away alone. A moment later, even Christine and Li Mengdie, who had been watching over the group, departed. Not one person present dared leave the parade ground. They could only clutch their dislocated joints and cry out in pain from time to time.

“Which bastard was talking just now?”

Pain became easier to bear with time. Once they grew accustomed to it, it no longer hurt quite so badly. At last, someone remembered the culprit and cursed him furiously.

“Let me find out who it was. Once I’m healed, I’ll beat that bastard half to death!”

His words drew a chorus of agreement.

“If we’d known this would happen, even running would have been far more comfortable!”