Chapter 304: Reconciliation
A few limbs and corpses were nothing; Xiao Fei was a top graduate of the Army Medical College, and she had personally dissected many body teachers during school.
It was just corpses; it wasn’t like she hadn’t seen them before.
Mustering courage, she finally reached Chang Ning’s side, but Xiao Fei was stunned by the scene before her.
She had already prepared herself mentally in advance, but when she really saw the corpses in the pit, she couldn’t hold back her physiological reaction after all, with nausea surging straight to her throat.
“Chang… urp~”
Before she could even finish greeting him, Xiao Fei threw up right in front of Chang Ning.
It was over, over; she had embarrassed herself in front of Chang Ning this time!
Xiao Fei was anxious to death right now; she was afraid that her disheveled vomiting appearance would affect Chang Ning’s impression of her.
Right now, she and Dr. Tong were evenly matched; if this caused the scales in Chang Ning’s heart to tip toward Dr. Tong, she wouldn’t know what to do.
No! She had to quickly think of a way to salvage it.
Chang Ning, who was shoveling lime into the pit with a shovel, had no idea about Xiao Fei’s complicated thoughts. Seeing her pale face, he casually picked up an unopened bottle of bottled water from beside his foot and handed it to her.
Xiao Fei’s current state was very poor, and Chang Ning understood this completely.
The scene in the pit was enormously shocking for ordinary people; seeing it rashly could cause serious illness at worst or physiological reactions leading to vomiting at best.
Xiao Fei’s reaction was already quite good; at least she hadn’t fainted from fright or lost control of her bladder.
“What are you running over here for? This isn’t a place for you.” Before Xiao Fei could open her mouth to try salvaging her image, Chang Ning spoke up.
His intention was to get Xiao Fei to leave, but his tone wasn’t particularly gentle.
It sounded like he was chasing her away.
What did he mean? Was he chasing her away?
“Don’t misunderstand; I’m worried you can’t adapt here.”
Seeing Xiao Fei’s expression turn from sunny to cloudy like the weather, Chang Ning realized his earlier words might have caused a misunderstanding, so he quickly explained.
She had come to see him out of kindness, and Chang Ning felt it was better not to let her go back in a bad mood.
Hearing Chang Ning’s concern for her, Xiao Fei’s heart leaped with joy, and a smile bloomed on her face.
In a different setting, her appearance would be normal, but this was the burial pit.
Standing at the edge of the burial pit and smiling—anyone would think that was abnormal.
Chang Ning had no time to think about that now; he needed to hurry and shovel lime into the pit.
Even in this short delay, he could already smell the corpse stench, but he couldn’t just say directly in front of a girl: You’re delaying me from burying the corpses.
That would be too hurtful; his emotional intelligence wasn’t that low.
Seeing Xiao Fei suddenly bloom with a smile again, Chang Ning sighed inwardly: Women’s thoughts are really hard to guess. Sunny one moment, cloudy the next, then sunny again—truly baffling.
But he had no time to study women’s moods right now; he needed to persuade her to go back while she was happy.
With her here, he had to divide his attention to chat with her, and he couldn’t focus on work.
Besides, what did it look like for a girl to stand at the edge of the burial pit laughing and joking?
Gao Zhong Dui was around this time; if he saw it, they’d definitely get chewed out, and he’d drag Chang Ning down with him.
Xiao Fei: “No…”
She wanted to say it was fine, right? She was absolutely going to say it was fine.
If he let Xiao Fei say that, how could he persuade her to go back?
“Look, this place is full of corpses; the comrades are coming and going carrying them. I need to spread lime and soil to cover the corpses in the pit before they bring more back.
I heard corpses produce some substance that’s very unfriendly to women’s skin.
You wouldn’t want to go back smelling faintly of corpse stench with worse skin, right?”
The first half of this statement politely expressed that he had no time to chat with her.
The second half gave Xiao Fei a reason and an out based on girls’ love of beauty.
From any angle, Xiao Fei had no reason to stay, and what was there to stay for at the edge of a burial pit anyway?
Chang Ning couldn’t figure it out: Was she purely curious about the difference between corpses from the battlefield and the body teachers from school?
Originally, Xiao Fei had planned to stay with Chang Ning even if it meant overcoming her urge to vomit, but after hearing his two statements, she fell silent.
She could understand the implication in his words; she really was disturbing his work by being here.
If this caused her to lose points with Chang Ning and let Tong Youyou that woman gain an advantage, it wouldn’t be worth it.
So Xiao Fei decided to follow Chang Ning’s earlier words and return to the medic team—absolutely not because of the corpse stench or skin issues.
“Alright then, I’ll head back first and not disturb you.” Xiao Fei said to Chang Ning.
In this situation, even if disturbed, he couldn’t admit it, so Chang Ning met Xiao Fei’s eyes with a mild smile on his face: “How could it be disturbing me? It’s I who let you down.”
“No, no, how could that be.”
Xiao Fei’s heart was already filled with Chang Ning’s gentle eyes and face, her thinking nearly at a standstill.
She couldn’t hold up anymore!
Glancing at Xiao Fei’s disheveled retreating figure, Chang Ning finally let out a long breath.
Not mentioning Xiao Fei’s background that he couldn’t afford to provoke, just based on her coming specifically to see him, Chang Ning had to politely persuade her to leave without hurting her feelings.
The verbal and psychological sparring with Xiao Fei was more exhausting than last night’s unequal battle.
He’d rather shovel an extra shovelful of soil to bury corpses than engage in a battle of wits with Xiao Fei; women’s thoughts were too complicated, leaving Chang Ning mentally drained.
“Yo yo~
What’s the situation? Why’d she leave? Did you piss off that little girl, you rascal?”
Ostrich and the medic were carrying a head-exploded corpse; their jungle camouflage was long stained dark and light with blood.
Actually, they had arrived ten minutes ago, but seeing Xiao Fei chatting with Chang Ning, they didn’t want to be third wheels.
After she left, they carried the corpse forward to tease Chang Ning.
“Piss her off? Am I that kind of person?
We men, upright seven-foot fellows—how could we bully women?”
Chang Ning shoveled another shovelful of lime into the pit, then leaned on the shovel to respond to Ostrich’s teasing.
“Hey, you’re bragging about yourself there, huh? Look at you, so shameless.”
Ostrich made a retching motion as if disgusted by Chang Ning.
For Ostrich’s sarcasm, Chang Ning felt no shame but rather pride, because his goal was achieved—he wanted to disgust Ostrich.
Who told him to tease me earlier?
“The words I said yesterday were a bit harsh; here, I apologize to you.”
Chang Ning didn’t want to ruin his relationship with Ostrich, so he spoke up to apologize.
Even if Ostrich was truly swept up in hormones and lost his head, Chang Ning shouldn’t have said those excessive words that made Ostrich lose face in front of everyone.
Actually, if Ostrich was wrong, Chang Ning could have found a chance to communicate privately, pointing out that he hadn’t considered Ostrich’s self-respect.
“Psh, it’s no big deal.
What are we? Brothers who’ve lived and died together!
We’re buddies; what’s past is past. You think I’d hold a grudge?”
Hearing this, Ostrich laughed heartily and patted Chang Ning’s shoulder, indicating he wasn’t that petty.
“That’s good; I was just afraid you’d have hard feelings.”
Seeing Ostrich truly didn’t mind, Chang Ning relaxed.
As Ostrich said, they were brothers who’d lived and died together; on the battlefield, they could take bullets for each other. If emotions created a rift affecting combat, the consequences would be severe.
This wasn’t what Chang Ning wanted, nor what the entire B Group would accept.
“Though during the meeting you didn’t consider my face at all, I really can’t refute you.
After the meeting, I thought it over carefully, and you were right about everything.
My state at the time really wasn’t suitable for the mission; if you hadn’t scolded me awake, I wouldn’t dare imagine what damage my impulsiveness would cause B Group in this Langde Village mission.”
Ostrich didn’t mention the reason for his impulsiveness, and the three present didn’t ask; everyone knew, and pressing would embarrass Ostrich.
Just treat it as a lesson.
Actually, thinking about it, this was pretty good; Chang Ning hadn’t forgotten there was still the capture of Ma Yunfei ahead.
It was treating Ma Yunfei’s wounds that led to Xiao Ying’s death, which could have been avoided if the medic Shi Dafan had been involved.
But Xia Lan just wouldn’t agree, leading to Xiao Ying’s death accident.
Now, because of Chang Ning, Ostrich and Xia Lan’s interactions weren’t that deep.
Chang Ning wasn’t sure if Ostrich liked Xia Lan now, but they hadn’t established a romantic relationship like in the original plot.
This way, Chang Ning could pull Ostrich to his side when the time came, or at least ensure he didn’t side with Xia Lan.
“Actually, when you said those words, you completely rubbed my face into the ground repeatedly; if I said I didn’t have hard feelings then, it’d be a lie no one would believe.
No matter what, my military quality in B Group is top-notch; for you to mercilessly chew me out in front of everyone—how could I not be angry?
Honestly, I was really pissed and wanted to punch that face of yours a couple times.”
“Then why didn’t you back then?” Chang Ning asked curiously.
Ostrich couldn’t answer this; he rolled his eyes at Chang Ning, thinking it was obvious—he was angry, not stupid.
“Heh heh, Ostrich just couldn’t beat you.”
Seeing Ostrich silent, the medic’s eyes darted slyly, a signature mischievous grin on his face as he tore down Ostrich’s facade on the spot.
“Damn medic, why are you everywhere!”
Ostrich laughingly cursed and picked up a loose clod of earth to throw at the medic, but he dodged nimbly.
“Was I unable to beat Chang Ning? I was giving face to Xiao Geng and didn’t want to flare up on the spot.
It was a meeting, such a serious occasion with outsiders present—how could I let outsiders see our family’s jokes?”
Ostrich explained indignantly; he absolutely couldn’t admit to being unable to beat Chang Ning.
Even if everyone in B Group knew his strength was inferior to Chang Ning’s, as long as he didn’t admit it, he’d never truly lost.
“Right, who in Wolf Fang doesn’t know Ostrich’s military quality is this.”
Chang Ning was happy to hype Ostrich up now, so he gave a thumbs up: “Even He Da Dui knows your reputation—strategic sniper.
You’re renowned, known to all!”
With apology toward his comrade, Chang Ning didn’t want to argue with Ostrich and simply let loose with praise.
In his mouth, Ostrich became a guy with infinite charm, like flowers blooming at his sight and tires bursting at cars.
“Aww~
Low-key, low-key; not as great as you say.”
Ostrich made a downward pressing gesture with both hands, humbly saying to keep it low-key, but his blooming flower-like smile showed how thrilled he was.
If he had a tail, it’d be wagging straight up to the sky right now.
Actually, Ostrich knew Chang Ning was deliberately hyping him up—the reason was naturally the apology.
So he couldn’t act humble; that would be rejecting Chang Ning’s apology.
Besides, he didn’t want to reject it; chances to be praised like this by Chang Ning were rare.
Now that he had the opportunity, he had to let Chang Ning praise him thoroughly.
Chang Ning himself knew Ostrich understood his intent and was playing along.
This round was both sides willingly cooperating to dissolve the previous unpleasantness.
The medic watched his combative comrades acting in front of him with amusement, inwardly mocking that their acting skills had tarnished the honor of Wolf Fang Movie Emperor.
At the same time, he thought Chang Ning and Ostrich must have had their heads caught in a door.
Otherwise, why turn a simple “one apologizes, one accepts” into something so complicated, even putting on a show?
Actually, the medic knew his own role here—lubricant.
Preventing unpleasant vibes during their exchange, then chiming in with jokes to steer the topic.
None of the three had communicated beforehand, or had someone mediate.
The conversation was completely spontaneous; when Chang Ning showed intent to mend the rift, Ostrich naturally picked up the thread.
The medic’s timely quips lubricated their talk, preventing deviation from the main idea.
The three hadn’t planned ahead; everything flowed naturally.
Their tacit understanding was even greater than twins.
The three’s communication was all seen by Gao Zhong Dui and Geng Jihui in the nearby forest.
Each held binoculars, eating melon with great relish.
Seeing the three chatting and laughing in a harmonious atmosphere, Gao Zhong Dui decided not to be a peeping tom anymore, so he lowered his binoculars and reassured Geng Jihui: “I told you they could solve it themselves; you’re just too worried about your comrades.”
“You can’t blame me for worrying too much; Chang Ning’s tone was very intense at the time.
I was really afraid a rift would form between Deng Zhenhua and Chang Ning, affecting B Group.” Geng Jihui smiled wryly.
But no matter what, as long as the problem was solved, it was all good.
