"I'll ask you one more time!" Zhang Ruobing's voice suddenly rose, "What is this? Where is it hidden? Who gave it to you?"
Three questions in a row, each more fatal than the last.
Wang Xiaoya swayed, unsure how to answer.
Su Tang's heart sank to the bottom.
She never imagined that her momentary soft-heartedness and sharing would bring such a big trouble.
"Report, Instructor! It was me! I ate it!"
Unexpectedly, this seemingly simple-minded and timid country girl did not cry or beg for mercy in the face of irrefutable evidence, but instead took full responsibility for everything.
Wang Xiaoya was afraid that if Zhang Ruobing continued to ask questions, it would involve Su An. Su An had only shared the food with her out of kindness, so how could she let Su An be implicated as well?
"It's you?" Zhang Ruobing narrowed her eyes.
"Yes! It was me!" Wang Xiaoya retorted defiantly, "I was hungry in the middle of the night and couldn't resist sneaking a bite!"
"Stealing food?" Zhang Ruobing sneered. "What did you eat? Don't tell me it was cornbread. Cornbread doesn't taste this sweet."
Wang Xiaoya's mind raced. She knew she absolutely couldn't utter the word "chocolate." That "foreign stuff"—once mentioned, the problem wouldn't be as simple as stealing food; she might be accused of "colluding with foreign powers" or "ideological corruption."
"It's...it's brown sugar! It's a piece of brown sugar I brought from home!" Wang Xiaoya quickly came up with a reason, "I...I was afraid you would find out, so...so I secretly put a small piece in my quilt, so...so that's why it smells so strong."
This reason seems to make some sense. Brown sugar is sweet, and it was a common item in rural areas at that time.
However, is Zhang Ruobing so easily fooled?
"Brown sugar?" She raised an eyebrow. "Does your family own a sugar factory? How can you make brown sugar that smells so good? But I can smell a milky aroma and... an indescribable burnt bitterness in it?"
Wang Xiaoya's heart jumped again; she hadn't expected this female Yama to be so discerning.
"Well... I mixed brown sugar with... with milk powder!" She continued, forcing herself to keep up the lie. "Yes! It was milk powder! I... I'm weak, and my mother was worried that I wouldn't get enough nutrition here, so she asked someone to send me some milk powder coupons. I exchanged them for milk powder and mixed it with brown sugar to eat and help me get better!"
This lie has become even more flawed.
What is milk powder? It's a rare commodity, even more precious than wheat flour and rice, reserved for newborns and seriously ill patients. Where would she, a strong and healthy rural soldier, get milk powder coupons? And she's mixing it with brown sugar? What a waste!
"Wang Xiaoya!" Zhang Ruobing's face darkened completely. She felt her intelligence had been insulted. "Do you think I'm easy to fool? Or do you think all the instructors in the camp are idiots? Keep making things up! I want to see what other nonsense you can spout!"
"Instructor! I didn't! I'm telling the truth!" Wang Xiaoya was so anxious that tears were about to fall. She knew that her lie was clumsy, but she could only stubbornly stick to it.
Because if she gives in, it will be Su An who suffers.
Sister Su An is so capable and kind, and she takes such good care of her and Cao'er. She absolutely cannot let Sister Su An down!
Zhang Ruobing's gaze fell on Wang Xiaoya.
Now, it's basically safe to conclude that Wang Xiaoya secretly hid snacks.
According to military discipline, this constitutes a serious violation of discipline, and at the very least, it would warrant a warning and require a self-criticism at a battalion-wide meeting.
Is it really worth all this fuss over just stealing food, with them personally leading a team to check the rooms in the middle of the night?
Zhang Ruobing's ultimate goal was to find the person who had broken into the restricted area behind the mountain at night.
What is the connection between that person and the act of stealing food?
Zhang Ruobing's mind raced, connecting all the clues.
All the clues point to one possibility—
The person who went to the back mountain was Wang Xiaoya.
Her going to the back mountain was likely to meet with someone outside and get the milk powder and brown sugar.
This is no longer a simple matter of discipline; it may involve more serious issues such as clandestine exchanges that violate military camp management regulations!
"Wang Xiaoya." Zhang Ruobing's voice turned icy cold again. "I'll ask you one last time: tonight, from the moment the lights went out until now, have you left this dormitory?"
Wang Xiaoya's heart sank, and her face turned deathly pale...
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