The sentence "punished with twenty laps" in Chapter 418 was like a sharp knife chilled to ice, precisely stabbing into Bai Wei's most vulnerable spot.

Her scream stopped abruptly, her body trembled violently, and the last trace of color drained from her face.

"Enough!" Zhang Ruobing lost all patience. She didn't want to argue with this trainee who was clearly mentally unstable any longer. "Bai Wei, you've been making a scene in the middle of the night because of your personal emotional issues, seriously affecting the rest of the group and disrupting the order of the barracks! Now, go outside to the drill ground and run ten laps! You can come back to sleep when you've finished!"

"Instructor! I..." Bai Wei still wanted to explain.

“Twenty laps!” Zhang Ruobing’s voice was devoid of any emotion.

Bai Wei immediately shut her mouth.

She knew that if she continued talking, it might be thirty laps, forty laps, until she ran until dawn.

Under the cold gaze of Zhang Ruobing and the other female soldiers in the dormitory, Bai Wei could only get up from the ground, trembling all over, like a wandering soul whose soul had been taken away, and step by step, she walked out of the dormitory and towards the empty drill ground shrouded in pale moonlight.

The dormitory returned to silence.

Under Zhang Ruobing's orders, the female soldiers all went to bed and lay down.

The lights went out again.

In the darkness, Zhang Xiaoyan muttered to herself, "I think Bai Wei has really gone crazy. Now that she's gone for a run, we can finally get a good night's sleep."

“That’s right,” Sun Li rolled over and lowered her voice, “If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear. She must have done something shady to Xiaoya, otherwise why would she be the only one being so suspicious every day?”

"Shh...don't say anything, or Instructor Zhang might hear you."

"..."

The chatter gradually subsided, and the exhausted female soldiers quickly drifted off to sleep again.

The person who started all of this—Su Tang—was lying quietly in the next dormitory room, without even opening her eyes.

She only slightly adjusted her sleeping position when Zhang Ruobing made her rounds, letting out a muffled murmur in her sleep, as if disturbed by the noise from next door. Then she turned over and continued to "sleep soundly".

The night is still long.

The real show has only just begun.

At 2:30 a.m., the playground was as empty as a wasteland forgotten by the world.

Bai Wei stood alone on the 400-meter cinder track.

The night wind stung her face like a knife. She was only wearing a thin training uniform, and the cold sweat she had just broken out in was now chilled to the bone by the wind, making her shiver uncontrollably.

On the flagpole in the center of the playground, the red flag fluttered in the night wind. The sound seemed particularly abrupt in the deathly silence, like someone suppressing their sobs in the darkness.

She didn't dare to look back at the dormitory building.

She always felt that there were countless eyes watching her from the hundreds of dark windows in the dormitory building.

Especially Wang Xiaoya's eyes.

"Twenty laps..."

Bai Wei's lips trembled, and she exhaled a puff of white breath.

She took one step at a time, her legs feeling like they were filled with lead.

The coal ash on the track made a "rustling" sound underfoot, amplified infinitely in the quiet night.

One lap.

Two laps.

The physical exhaustion and coldness temporarily pulled her mind away from that extreme fear.

Anger and humiliation, like a belated tide, slowly overwhelmed her.

Why?

Why does nobody believe me?

I saw it so clearly! That hand, that smell, it was definitely not an illusion!

Could it be... that Wang Xiaoya has really returned?

No! Impossible!

Bai Wei shook her head violently, trying to shake this terrible thought out of her mind.

She was an educated person, had read books, and knew that there were no such things as demons and monsters in this world.

That's not a ghost...it must be someone playing tricks!

Who is it?

Who would try to scare her like that?

A name popped into her mind almost instantly.

Su An!

It must be her!

Who else could it be but her?!

Ever since that incident in the cafeteria, she's been using those mystical traditional Chinese medicine theories to scare people, saying things like "mental illness manifests as physical pain" and "fear damages the kidneys." Tonight, she pulled this same old trick again!

That bitch, she must know something!

She knows I drove Wang Xiaoya to her death! So she wants to use Wang Xiaoya's "ghost" to torment me and avenge that short-lived woman!

Once this idea takes hold, it can never be stopped.

All the previous fear instantly found an outlet, transforming into overwhelming hatred towards Su An.

"Su An... Su An!"

Bai Wei gritted her teeth and muttered the name. Because of her anger, she couldn't even feel the cold and fatigue in her body, and her pace quickened.

But...where is the evidence?

What grounds do I have to accuse her?

She said she used a string to hold a fake hand to scare me in the middle of the night? She said she made ghostly noises by scratching under the bed with sandpaper?

Who would believe that?

If I told anyone, they'd just think I was completely insane! Just like what happened in the dorm just now!

Instructor Zhang didn't believe it, his roommates didn't believe it, and nobody in the entire Third Battalion believed it!

They'll just think that I, Bai Wei, lost to Su An and went crazy in a fit of rage!

A tremendous, powerless sense of despair enveloped her once again.

She found herself trapped in a vicious cycle.

Su An used the word "ghost" to attack her, and once she claimed to have ghosts, everyone would think she was crazy, making her even more isolated and helpless.

This was a war she simply couldn't win.

That bitch Su An, how could she be so cunning and vicious?!

"ah--!"

Bai Wei let out a suppressed, beast-like roar, venting all her anger and resentment on the deserted playground.

She ran frantically, as if trying to leave all the fear and humiliation behind.

The wind howled in her ears, and her lungs burned, but she dared not stop.

She was afraid that if she stopped, that "thing" would follow her again.

...

On the other side, the female soldiers' dormitory building.

Zhang Ruobing did not go back to sleep immediately.

She stood by the window in the corridor, watching the tiny figure running like a ghost on the playground, her brows furrowed.

Bai Wei's condition is very strange.

As an experienced grassroots instructor, she had led all sorts of soldiers. There were troublemakers, spoiled brats, and psychologically fragile ones. But she had never seen anyone like Bai Wei, whose mental state deteriorated so rapidly in just a few days, even experiencing hallucinations and auditory hallucinations.

Was it really due to excessive training pressure, coupled with the psychological trauma caused by Wang Xiaoya's death?

Zhang Ruobing took out a "Daqianmen" cigarette, lit it, and took a deep drag. The pungent smoke filled her lungs, clearing her chaotic thoughts slightly.

Zhang Ruobing recalled Bai Wei's statement to the task force in the solitary confinement room.

Bai Wei said that she saw Wang Xiaoya stealing food of unknown origin and climbing out of the window to go to the back mountain late at night. She was worried that Xiaoya would be turned by enemy agents, so she kept an eye on her. Later, Wang Xiaoya was discovered and committed suicide out of fear of punishment.