Chapter 120

What secrets are hidden in the dark room?

——Timeline——

The atmosphere inside the military green jeep was unusually somber.

Cheng Sangluo rested her hands on her knees, her posture still so upright, and even the bumpy ride of the car could not shake her resolute body.

She turned her head to look out the window. The sounds of drills echoed from the training ground, the uniform footsteps breaking through the air, and the resounding military songs were occasionally interspersed with powerful slogans.

Cheng Sangluo was in a daze. In the fleeting scene of the military area, she could still vaguely see her former self, and couldn't help but let out a heavy sigh: "Yesterday I was still a greenhorn, how come I'm discharged today? Eight years...time flies..."

She lowered her head and gazed intently. On her civilian uniform, which had been stripped of its military insignia, was a bright red flower, a symbol of a soldier's honorable retirement and signifying that her military career would never return.

Cheng Sangluo withdrew her gaze, looked at the silent person beside her, and joked with a wry smile: "Am I your biological daughter? What kind of company commander personally sees someone off all the way? If you keep seeing me off like this, you might just send me home."

“Since I’m going to Zhouhai on business anyway, I’ll give her a ride if I can.” Wei Yun patted his trouser leg and turned to adjust the big red flower on Cheng Sangluo’s chest. “If only you could hold on for a few more years and wait until you get promoted before leaving, at least you’d have a better job placement. By the way, did you keep the letter of introduction I gave you?”

"Yes, it was even specially wrapped in a kraft paper envelope." Cheng Sangluo did not regret her decision to leave the army. "Life is about new beginnings, seeing the world, and making plans for the future while you're young."

She sighed occasionally, fiddling with the hat in her hands, but a hint of discomfort showed in her eyes, probably because she felt the military cap without the national emblem just didn't look right.

“I remember when you first came here, you were the youngest recruit, skinny and bony like a bamboo pole.” Wei Yun smiled as he recalled the first time he saw Cheng Sangluo, then his smile faded as he cautioned, “I know about your family situation. I was just being nosy and saying a few words. You were too young to make your own choices before, but things are different now. You have the ability to support yourself and the opportunity to make your own choices. You should make clean decisions about certain people and things, and stop being led by the nose.”

When Cheng Sangluo spoke of her incompetent family members, her smile froze, and a deep sense of melancholy welled up in her eyes.

"Understood!" she answered with her usual firmness, even giving a standard military salute as if it were muscle memory. "I will never forget the leader's instructions!"

"Why are you still calling me 'leader'? Once we're outside the military region, we're comrades and friends." Wei Yun always had a serious demeanor, but today he was surprisingly friendly, probably because he was reluctant to let such an excellent soldier leave. Even his tone of voice was different from his usual coldness.

She put her arm around Cheng Sangluo's shoulder and started nagging her more than ever before: "Take good care of yourself from now on, keep in touch, and don't be shy about asking for help if you encounter any difficulties. We're not called your leader for nothing, right?"

The two chatted about their experiences in the military camp, including tense moments when their lives hung by a thread, glorious moments when they were awarded for their merits, and moments when they were punished in a way that made them both laugh and cry. They also talked about what the new future would look like.

The military jeeps drove along the road, from noon through twilight, finally ushering in a sad farewell under the cover of night.

Cheng Sangluo's hometown is on the outskirts of Zhouhai, a remote and impoverished place. Most of the young people in the village work in the city, leaving behind the elderly and children who live day after day in hope.

"That's enough for now, the roads in the village are difficult to navigate." Cheng Sangluo stopped the car, got out, and turned back to thank her, "Thank you for driving me home. You must have had a long and tiring journey."

Wei Yun didn't insist on continuing to see you off, nor did he get out of the car. Through the car window, he sighed, "You are the soldier I'm most proud of, whom I trained myself. I was the one who welcomed you back then, and it's only right that I see you off today. A good ending is one with a beginning and an end. It's getting late, let's go home."

"You are my leader for life, once a leader." Cheng Sangluo straightened his back and saluted solemnly. "I am grateful for your care over the past eight years. We will have a long future together."

"Hahaha, what a long day ahead!" Wei Yun laughed heartily, patted the driver's seat, and signaled to the driver that they could leave.

Cheng Sangluo watched the camouflage green car disappear into the distance until the scattered headlights vanished from sight.

She took a deep breath and turned to look at the archway at the village entrance. The two characters "Ping Village" hanging there had long lost their former color, leaving only a dusty, old look.

Compared to other honorably discharged soldiers, Cheng Sangluo, like the village archway, was left with only loneliness.

The Cheng family certainly wouldn't stand guard at the village entrance, let alone give a grand welcome with gongs and drums.

She left in a hurry, like a plague god being driven away by her family. Now she returns all alone, and no one will remember that today is a special day.

Cheng Sangluo walked alone on the deserted village road, carrying her light but not heavy luggage, thinking that the family was not hoping for her, but rather for the bonus and resettlement fee they had painstakingly saved for eight years.

"You really don't know your own strength. What if someone gets killed? How am I supposed to explain this to the boss?"

"He could lose something so important, don't you think he deserves to die!"

Cheng Sangluo was distracted, thinking about how to face the family of ghosts when she got home, when her attention was drawn by a few urgent low growls.

She turned her head to look at the dilapidated courtyard beside her. The crumbling walls, weathered by years of weathering, suggested that no one had lived here for a long time.

As the cigarette was lit with a lighter, a cold and gloomy male voice rang out, "Hit." This was followed by the dull thud of a stick hitting a body.

"Ugh... Stop hitting me... Spare me... Spare me..." The pitiful wails shattered the tranquility of the village, sending chills down Cheng Sanghou's spine.

She put her luggage in the corner, bent down and crouched at the gate of the yard, peeking out to see what was going on inside.

A group of thugs were seen punching and kicking the man on the ground with baseball bats. A man in a suit and tie stood by, a cigarette between his fingers, its glow flickering on and off. He just watched indifferently, as if he were watching a spectacle that had nothing to do with him.

Cheng Sangluo looked around. The village was deserted and sparsely populated. If they waited for the police to come and deal with it, the person who was beaten would probably be long gone by now.

She frowned in thought, but without much hesitation, she stormed into the courtyard and hissed, "What are you doing?!"

She rushed into the crowd, snatched a baseball bat from one of the people, and swiftly swept it around several times, shielding the person who was beaten and unable to get up with her feet.

"Group fighting is illegal. If someone dies, no one will escape punishment!" Cheng Sangluo reprimanded sternly, trying to calm the situation by reasoning with the crowd.

Perhaps it was her military uniform that had a deterrent effect, for the surrounding henchmen, though eyeing her menacingly, dared not approach her even a fraction of an inch, except for the man smoking a cigarette who didn't take her seriously at all.

"Hmph, a soldier? No... so he's a veteran..." Xu Songheng sneered, flicking his cigarette butt to her feet, and threatened in a deep voice, "I advise you not to meddle in other people's business. It's the best choice for you and us to leave as if nothing happened."

"Do you think I would stand idly by?" Cheng Sangluo asked in a low voice, rejecting the other party's choice.

Xu Songheng pulled aside his subordinate and whispered a few words, a scheming smile playing on his lips.

Before long, his subordinate raised his baseball bat and charged straight at Cheng Sangluo. However, his fancy moves were no match for Cheng Sangluo's long legs, and before the bat could even hit him, it was kicked several meters away.

The others, emboldened, rushed over in a swarm, but none of them managed to get close to Sangluo.

The fight lasted for quite a while, and Cheng Sangluo was unable to break free because Xu Songheng's hands came one after another until she was knocked to the ground, letting out painful howls.

Cheng Sangluo quickly crouched down to check on the man who had been beaten so badly he was barely alive, patting his face and asking, "Are you alright?"

Xu Songheng left the courtyard at some point, and when he reappeared, he was accompanied by two policemen.

The police stormed into the yard and saw people lying all over the place, except for Cheng Sangluo, who was unharmed and still holding a baseball bat. They shouted at him, "What are you doing?! Put down your weapon, put your hands behind your head, and squat down on the ground!!!"

Cheng Sangluo looked at Xu Songheng with a sinister smile in surprise, then threw the stick aside and squatted down with her hands on her head as instructed by the police.

She was only thinking about saving people, but she never imagined that her outburst of justice would bring a devastating blow to a hopeful future.

—End of time travel timeline—

In the empty, dark room, Cheng Sangluo's heavy, rapid breathing echoed.

She was furious, feeling numbness in her hands and feet, and her tight throat making it impossible to breathe in fresh air.

She struggled to pull herself out of her long-buried memories, her mind hazy as she looked at her hands. The tearing pain came slowly, but wave after wave of pain gradually brought her back to her senses.

The dark room was in complete disarray, with fragments of the broken dust cover scattered all over the floor, stained with the dripping blood from Cheng Sangluo's palm.

She lay prostrate on the ground, clutching her military uniform tightly in her arms, which was stained with mottled blood, like the stains on her life that she could never wash away.

When one's heart is ashen, it is easiest to regain peace. After calming her breathing, Cheng Sangluo struggled to get up from the ground. Her usually bright and spirited eyes had completely lost their light at this moment, becoming so dim that not a trace of brightness could be seen.

She wiped each of her medals, which bore the marks of her past glory, with her sleeves, and packed up her own clothes. However, her injured hand kept bleeding, staining everything so that it could never be restored to its former beauty.

Cheng Sangluo raised her hand and wiped her nose.

She was so disheveled, choking back tears as she tried to tidy herself up, until finally she collapsed to the ground, exhausted, as if her last bit of energy had been drained away.

Ignoring the tiny bits of debris, she picked up a document that had been lying on the ground and examined it again and again until she was exhausted and numb.

In the quiet, dark room, her self-deprecating laughter suddenly rang out, a laugh that was both heartbreaking and chilling.

This whole drama went around in circles, with feigned flattery and genuine love, all the leveraging of power and compromise, only to end up making him the biggest joke of all.

It turns out that Lin Jin had been searching for the evidence to overturn the verdict all along. In the thick stack of documents, every piece of evidence was linked together, pointing to how Lin Sheng and Xu Songheng framed her step by step.

She shed her confident green attire, donned the prison uniform despised by the world, and exhausted all the pride of her first half of life.

It was so tough. Those days, with only a small patch of blue sky in the middle of the room, were so miserable.

She struggled so hard to get out of those high walls, all because she wanted to speak out for herself. Why was her journey so difficult? Why did the person she loved treat her like a monkey?

The bitterness of being bullied by Lin Jin was still stuck in her throat, and now there was the added blow of deception that was heartbreaking, not to mention the most poignant emotions mixed in with this relationship.

Cheng Sangluo leaned against the overturned display shelf, raised her hand to cover her forehead and let out a painful laugh, which eventually turned into a hoarse cry.

The smart home alarm finally stopped, amplifying the mournful wailing.

[Author's Note]

1. My pre-order novel, "The Sinful Lover," is available for collection.

2. Congratulations! You've unlocked another important piece of content.