Completely ignored.
That feeling was more humiliating to Bai Wei than any insult or beating. It was as if everything she had painstakingly acted out was nothing more than a trivial, ridiculous one-woman show in her eyes.
Bai Wei's fingernails dug deeply into her palm in an instant, piercing her skin and causing a sharp pain, which barely allowed her to maintain her composure on the spot.
Su An! You just wait! You just wait! I won't let this go! Wait until the task force announces its findings, then let's see how arrogant you can be!
She thought bitterly, but dared not turn around and look at Su Tang again.
Just then, a series of steady, powerful footsteps sounded. Instructor Lei Kuan strode over with a dark expression, followed by Qin Ye, who also had an expressionless face, and Zhang Ruobing, whose expression was complicated.
"Su An!"
A voice filled with suppressed worry and urgency rang out, and Gao Kai rushed out of the crowd like a gust of wind, the first to reach Su Tang. He looked Su Tang up and down, and seeing her pale face and thin figure, his eyes reddened with heartache.
"Are you...are you alright? They...they didn't do anything to you, did they?" he asked incoherently, wanting to reach out and help her up, but not daring to.
Su Tang stopped in her tracks. She looked at Gao Kai, and a faint ripple finally appeared in his usually calm eyes. She shook her head, her voice a little hoarse: "I'm fine."
Immediately afterwards, Chen Xiaocao and Liu Landi also ran over crying, supporting her arms on either side.
“Sister Su An!” Chen Xiaocao buried her face in her arms and burst into tears, “You’re finally out! We missed you so much! Waaaaah…”
Su Tang raised her hand and gently patted Chen Xiaocao's trembling back without saying a word.
Not far away, Jiang Yan also stood there, his gaze fixed on Su Tang, his brows slightly furrowed. He couldn't see through her. This female soldier seemed to be forever shrouded in a layer of mist; whether it was sadness or anger, it was as if it were sealed by a layer of solid ice, only occasionally revealing a chilling glint.
"Attention, everyone! Assemble on the playground!"
Lei Kuan's roar, like a thunderclap, shattered the brief moment of warmth and eerie silence.
On the parade ground, all the soldiers quickly lined up, and the atmosphere was tense and solemn.
Qin Ye stood at the very front of the line, dressed in a crisp training uniform, his posture as straight as a pine tree. His cold gaze slowly swept over everyone in the ranks, finally flashing across Su Tang's face so quickly that almost no one noticed.
Su Tang lowered her head, feeling that gaze brush against her like a feather, carrying a barely perceptible warmth. She knew that this week, the person suffering the most was perhaps not her, but him.
"Regarding Comrade Wang Xiaoya's case, the special investigation team has reached a preliminary conclusion after a week of meticulous investigation."
Qin Ye's voice, though not loud, was like an icicle, clearly piercing everyone's ears.
The entire room fell silent.
Bai Wei stood in the queue, her palms sweating with nervousness, her heart pounding wildly. She seemed to be looking down, but out of the corner of her eye, she was fixed on Qin Ye, awaiting his "verdict."
"The conclusion is," Qin Ye paused, speaking each word with utmost clarity, "that homicide has been ruled out, and the death was a suicide. However, the cause of suicide is still under further investigation."
boom--
This conclusion, like a bomb, exploded among the crowd.
Although it was expected, everyone's heart still sank when those two words were officially announced by the head instructor.
Chen Xiaocao's cries rang out again, desperate and helpless. Gao Kai's fists clenched so tightly they cracked. Jiang Yan's brows furrowed even more deeply.
Upon hearing the words "homicide ruled out," Bai Wei's extremely tense nerves suddenly relaxed, and a tremendous surge of joy, like someone who had survived a disaster, welled up inside her. She almost couldn't control herself and burst out laughing on the spot.
She forced her head down and bit her lip hard to keep that smug smile from showing on her face.
Homicide has been ruled out!
This means that, from a legal and disciplinary standpoint, she is completely safe! Wang Xiaoya's death has absolutely nothing to do with her anymore! Su An, what do you have to fight me with?
"but!"
Just as Bai Wei was immersed in the joy of victory, Qin Ye suddenly changed the subject. His voice rose sharply, and his gaze became as sharp as a drawn blade!
"This incident has served as a wake-up call for all of us! It has exposed huge, fatal problems in our Third Battalion's ideological development, internal unity, and psychological resilience!"
Qin Ye took a step forward, and his imposing aura made the soldiers in the front row even subconsciously shrink back.
“A vibrant life has passed away right before our eyes! Every one of us bears responsibility! It was me, Instructor Lei, Instructor Zhang, and all of us instructors who failed to fulfill our responsibility to observe and guide her! It was you, your comrades who were with her day and night, who failed to notice her abnormality in time and failed to give her enough care!”
His voice was filled with thunderous rage, each word like a whip, lashing the face of everyone present.
"What is an army? It's a battlefield! On the battlefield, bullets won't go around you just because you're weak! The enemy won't let you off the hook just because you break down! A minor inspection, a baseless suspicion, can crush our soldiers! Can such a force fight? Can it win battles?!"
"With one week left until the unrestricted combat assessment, we will undergo 'Devil Week' extreme training! We will have emergency assemblies at 4 a.m. every day, and all training will be intensified! We will carry 30 kilograms of weight and run 20 kilometers!"
"In the morning, there's intensive training on 400 meters of obstacles, including mud pits, high walls, and fire barriers. In the afternoon, it's unprotected combat and sparring! In the evening, there's a two-hour course on tactical theory and psychological resilience! No weekends off! The bottom three in the overall training score each day will be fired immediately!"
"I have only one goal," Qin Ye's voice was icy cold, "either you stand tall and walk out of the training ground in the assessment a week from now, becoming a true soldier! Or you'll be carried out and sent back to your original unit within this month!"
The entire room fell silent.
Everyone was stunned by this sudden, hellish training plan. Twenty kilometers of cross-country running every day? Endurance training without protective gear? Last-place elimination? This is going to kill people!
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