Chapter 5
Nightfall in Ranao finally brought a gentle, cool breeze.
Military training was already heavy physical labor, and the tropical climate exacerbated the exhaustion. After a full day of it, even though Lu Xiao’s main role was supervision and demonstration, she felt somewhat drained.
Her body wasn’t just sore; it was sticky and rank with sweat.
So, before dinner, she headed to the bathhouse.
The military bathhouse in Ranao was old and dilapidated, a world away from the facilities in Berlin.
The wooden stilt house had several new planks patching its mottled floor, and a fresh, thick layer of cement covered the walls, sometimes emitting a pungent smell.
It was off-peak hours, so the bathhouse was quiet, and the quiet brought a refreshing sense of coolness.
There were only three female Seju soldiers in the changing room. In fact, ever since the reinforcements had landed four days ago, places like the women’s toilets and bathhouse had been more or less taken over by the Seju army.
This was a matter of military structure. The number of female soldiers in the Northern Chilian Alliance’s army was extremely small, and most were in clerical or technical roles. In the Seju army, however, the male-to-female ratio was close to eight to two.
Upon seeing Lu Xiao, the female soldiers’ eyes immediately filled with admiration, their voices tinged with a hint of shyness.
“Good evening, ma’am.”
“Evening,” Lu Xiao nodded, placing her wash basket in a locker near the top.
A petite female soldier grinned at her. “Thank you for your hard work, ma’am,” she said, placing her own basket in a lower cubby.
“You’re the ones working hard,” a smile couldn’t help but touch Lu Xiao’s lips. “Rest well, and report immediately if you feel unwell.”
“Yes, ma’am!” Seeing their officer’s gentle, doe-like eyes, the female soldiers’ spirits lifted. Anyone who saw such a calm and gentle face would feel their mood brighten.
Lu Xiao was relieved to see the soldiers’ morale was good. Just as she was about to undress—
A familiar and annoying voice came from behind her.
“Captain Lu, what a coincidence.”
Lu Xiao paused for a moment before turning around. As expected, it was that woman again.
“Good evening, Major.”
“It’s so hot, isn’t it?” Bai Ran said, taking off her white coat to reveal a gray short-sleeved shirt underneath. Her arms were also pale and looked slender, but the muscle definition on them was surprisingly distinct.
Lu Xiao, who had been about to undress, froze. “Yes, it is.”
The young captain felt increasingly uncomfortable.
In her peripheral vision, those will-o’-the-wisp green eyes were indecently lewd, as if they could see right through a person’s clothes.
The three female Seju soldiers stared, transfixed, at the luminous beauty, their mouths slightly agape, their cheeks flushed.
This was their first time being so close to the allied Chief Medical Officer. At such a short distance, the impact of her beauty was multiplied.
Bai Ran lifted her chin and, with an air of complete ease, pulled off her shirt. The movement stirred the air, causing a few strands of pale golden hair to stick to the side of her face. One strand even touched her red lips—she had probably put on lipstick again.
Then, she reached her hands behind her back and unclasped her bra.
Her fullness was revealed to the humid air. Without doing anything at all, the simple act of changing clothes had taken on a different meaning.
Some temptations are objective, transcending gender.
Though she only glanced for a second, Lu Xiao felt a rush of heat to her nose and quickly turned her head away. She gritted her teeth, unbuttoned her uniform shirt, and stripped off her own clothes.
As she walked into the shower room, she heard that annoying voice again from behind.
“Captain Lu is thinner than I imagined.” The words were laced with a flippant smile.
“The training is intense. It’s hard to gain weight,” Lu Xiao replied coldly, nonchalantly turning the knob. Water immediately streamed from the showerhead on the ceiling.
The cool-to-lukewarm water cascaded over her skin, and the muscles that had been tense all day finally began to relax.
Lu Xiao closed her eyes, enjoying the rare moment of peace.
But when she opened them again, her temper flared.
Bai Ran was standing directly opposite her, showering under the adjacent nozzle, looking completely at ease.
Milky-white skin, straight and level shoulders, a waist that curved in dramatically at the sides. Her long legs were casually crossed, her rounded breasts and hips forming a perfect curve.
In the hazy steam, her entire body was that of a seductive serpent.
Lu Xiao feigned calmness and glanced around with her peripheral vision. As expected, she saw her three female soldiers all secretly watching Bai Ran.
Bai Ran lifted her head, her wet hair looking ethereal and white against the steam, like that of an elf.
The water streamed down her high-bridged nose, forming droplets on the dimple of her chin before dripping down between her full breasts. In the rising steam, her pale skin was flushed an amorous red.
…
She’s definitely doing this on purpose.
What on earth does this woman want?
Lu Xiao didn’t know how long she showered that day, only that she was the last one to leave the shower room.
She even nearly slipped on her way out.
In the changing room, Bai Ran was already dressed but showed no intention of leaving. She was chatting with the petite female Seju soldier, a smile so gentle it couldn’t be more gentle gracing her face.
Her looks gave her a huge natural advantage. As long as she reined in the predatory glint in her eyes, others would fall headlong for the illusion of her gentleness.
No one would ever imagine she was a ferocious python.
The soldier was Sergeant Sarah from the Second Company.
Lu Xiao had an excellent memory and could recall the ranks and names of all her non-commissioned officers.
Watching the major’s gentle smile, Sarah was also beaming. Her voice, so different from its coarseness on the training grounds, had become delicate and soft.
Lu Xiao silently got dressed, trying not to listen to their conversation, but she heard it anyway.
They were talking too loudly.
“My spine gets so stiff from bending over during surgery all day. A shower helps a little.”
“You work too hard, ma’am. Massaging the acupoints on your trapezius muscle helps a lot, or you could try a muscle pinch.”
“Heh, I’ll go for a massage when I get back to Columbia. There are no massage parlors here.”
“I could give you a massage, ma’am.”
“Oh, I couldn’t possibly impose,” Bai Ran said, though her voice held no trace of reluctance.
“It’s nothing. Once we’re on the battlefield, our lives will be in your hands.”
“Well, if you insist. Would you like to have dinner together?”
“I’d love to!”
What kind of strange development is this?
Lu Xiao looked up in shock and saw the two of them walk out of the bathhouse side-by-side.
A bad feeling crept into her heart.
**
Placing the thermal lamp on the floor, Lu Xiao pulled a thin blanket from the cabinet and lay down diagonally on the folding cot.
Outside the window, darkness swallowed everything. The wind rustled through the palm grove.
Recalling the scene in the bathhouse, she grew more and more worried. Sarah was a simple girl, and a pretty one at that. Being in the same room with that insidious snake was, in every conceivable way, dangerous.
If anything happened to Sarah tomorrow, she would never forgive that woman.
Just then, there was a knock on the door of her single quarters.
“Reporting.”
“Come in.”
It was Second Lieutenant Sakurai Miyuki. She entered the room carrying several long, cylindrical boxes and carefully placed one of them on the desk.
“Ma’am, these are the newly printed maps.”
“New maps?”
Sakurai nodded. “They said there were changes to the administrative districts.”
Another new map.
Then again, it was about time for one.
After the door closed, Lu Xiao opened the long box and slowly unrolled the copperplate paper. At first glance, it looked no different from the old map.
After comparing them for a while, she finally noticed a change in the territory near the Indian subcontinent. The red territory, representing Seju, had grown larger.
The northern part of the island of Sri Lanka had turned red.
Sri Lanka? Isn’t that Northern Chilian territory?
Lu Xiao’s eyes widened.
She stared for a long time before she realized this was likely the price the Northern Chilian government had paid.
They would rather cede it to Seju than make any concessions to the Southern Chilian Alliance.
Studying the map again, Lu Xiao gradually became lost in thought.
North of approximately 15°N latitude, with the exception of the Yamato Islands and the Middle East, everything was a sea of red.
This was the territory of the Seju Theocratic Military State.
One side of the scales.
South of approximately 10°S latitude, with the exception of Madagascar, everything was a sea of blue.
This was the territory of the Old European Democratic United Nations.
The other side of the scales.
And the narrow strip on either side of the equator was the territory of the Equatorial United Kingdom. It was inconspicuous, but compared to the traditional nations of a century ago, its area was not small.
The green north of the equator was the Northern Chilian Alliance; the yellow to the south was the Southern Chilian Alliance. Although the two were nominally one country, in reality, their power was extremely fragmented.
The buffer zone at the center of the lever.
Since birth, the only world map Lu Xiao had ever seen was this one, with only four colors. Just four long strips of color, like a simplified rainbow, monotonous and fraught with danger.
According to the history books, the maps from decades ago were much more colorful, but the Third World War had turned it into a four-colored rainbow. The Seju army marched south, the Old European army marched north, and on a night in 2125, they drew the national borders near the equator.
It felt like something was missing.
Lu Xiao rolled up the map, tied it with a string, and put it back in the box.
The oppressive heat was gradually dissipating. She covered herself with the blanket, preparing to turn off the light and sleep.
Just then, a discordant sound came from outside the screen window.
Panting, low moans, soft whimpers.
What the hell.
Her ears were being polluted.
Lu Xiao closed her eyes and tried to block it out. It seemed to be coming from a nearby single-person dormitory. She had no idea which officer couldn’t control themselves and had found a woman.
But the suggestive sounds showed no signs of fading, melting into the boundless moonlight and drifting in with the light of the thermal lamp by her bed.
Lu Xiao couldn’t take it anymore. She closed the window and turned on the electric fan.
At that moment, only one person came to mind.
It can’t be her again, can it?
