Opening the Sluice

"You can shout a little louder, just enough to wake everyone up." Xu Lingqu withdrew the branch, twirled it in her hand, and tossed it backward. A yelp of pain followed.

"I thought you hadn't noticed the tail you picked up," Jin said with a grin, showing a canine tooth. Xu Lingqu was even more interesting than he'd expected.

Xu Lingqu hadn't used much force. Tang Muwen rubbed his thigh, picked up the branch, and stepped out of the shadows. Keeping his eyes low, he didn't dare meet Xu Lingqu's gaze. "I'm sorry. I was just curious; I didn't mean to follow you..."

"Tsk, who knows if you meant it or not." Xu Lingqu stayed silent, but Jin jumped to her defense. He tilted his head and called up to a tall tree, "Shen Shouli, you're sitting up high, so you must have seen—"

Before he could finish, another figure dropped from the tree. Shen Shouli landed gracefully, brushed off his clothes, and glanced at the three people besides Jin without a word.

Jin continued, addressing Xu Lingqu, "As expected of someone from the Command Department—sharp mind. Fate brought us together tonight. We may not have your meticulous analysis, but Shen Shouli thought the tent was too dirty and dragged me up into the trees with him..."

He really talked too much.

Shen Shouli corrected him. "You insisted on coming."

"But the tree trunk isn't exactly clean either—maybe even bird droppings," Xu Lingqu said bluntly.

Jin froze for a second, then burst into muffled laughter, clutching his mouth. Beside him, Shen Shouli went rigid, his fists slowly clenching at his sides after the initial slack.

After delivering that critical hit to the two, Xu Lingqu turned to Tang Muwen. "You'd better tell the truth."

"...I'm not very strong. I need a... a fairly capable teammate." Tang Muwen's throat went dry; as he looked into Xu Lingqu's eyes sparkling under the moonlight filtering through the trees, he looked as if he might cry.

Xu Xiqin eyed Tang Muwen warily. Her sister had only just begun to shine, and already people were clinging to her without a second thought!

Before Xu Lingqu could answer, Tang Muwen pressed on, "You just said there's something going on by the river, and the instructors might intentionally increase the water flow to flood the tent area—is that true?"

Most of the others were likely already fast asleep, following Instructor Chen's advice. If Xu Lingqu's suspicion was correct—that the instructors would release water or otherwise flood the tent site—it would be extremely dangerous while the students slept unaware.

"So the tears in the tents were man-made... to let the water in more easily?" Xu Xiqin asked in disbelief, shaking her head and furrowing her brows. "No, we have to wake them all up."

Jin blocked her path.

"You're going to wake everyone up right now?"

"Move aside." Xu Xiqin didn't understand why he was stopping her. "This is a matter of life and death—how can we just ignore it?"

"Right now, every one of them is our competitor. First off, we don't know for sure if any of this will actually happen. Second, this is just a trial, like the jump and hand-to-hand combat tests." Jin stood his ground, unusually serious. "If you go wake everyone up now, the instructors can easily change their approach. But what you do would just add to their burden. If nothing happens, the others will resent you for robbing them of a good night's rest."

"So, just because of what you said, I should watch them sit in danger without knowing?" Xu Xiqin narrowed her eyes, and the tension between them turned sharp.

Tang Muwen spoke up. "Maybe we could just tell them. Those who believe us can trust us; those who don't can go back to sleep."

"That would play right into the instructors' hands," Shen Shouli said, stepping forward. "If they scrap the plan, those who believed us get nothing, and those who didn't get a good night's sleep. Then we'll have zero credibility with everyone."

Both sides had their arguments, and they needed an outside force to break the deadlock. Four pairs of eyes fixed on Xu Lingqu. She simply turned and continued into the woods.

"If tonight is a trial, then our every move is also within the instructors' expectations," Xu Lingqu said, following the path the female instructor had taken earlier in the dark. "If flooding the tents is part of their plan, then they'll have rescue measures in place."

She remembered that the temporary medical tent had been near several small wooden cabins. At first, after hearing Xu Xiqin's explanation, she'd thought those were the instructors' quarters. Now, she realized they looked more like storage areas.

Xu Xiqin and Tang Muwen decisively followed, while Jin and Shen Shouli hesitated briefly before trailing along.

"You mean, our movements right now are also within the instructors' expectations, and they think we'll go grab supplies to save people?" Jin hurried to catch up, almost stumbling over his own feet, and Xu Xiqin shot him a glare.

"Probably." Xu Lingqu actually just didn't want to go back and wake everyone up. That would be a thankless task and remind her of unpleasant memories from the apocalypse.

Fortunately, this body hadn't stripped away Xu Lingqu's sense of direction. She felt her way to the temporary medical tent, where the lights were all off. She knocked on the door. Doctor Li wasn't there—she had probably returned to the actual training ground.

The group opened the wooden cabins. They were empty, but they were filled with life jackets, lifebuoys, and even two inflatable boats.

"Wow... you're practically clairvoyant." Jin rubbed his hands together, staring at Xu Lingqu. "So... are we about to go save the 'world' now?"

He was glad he'd run into Xu Lingqu; otherwise, he'd still be perched on that possibly bird-shit-stained tree branch with Shen Shouli, like a couple of monkeys.

They couldn't carry everything in one trip—they'd need to haul it in batches to the woods not far from the tent site. Xu Xiqin and Jin were full of energy—one born with a sense of justice and passion, the other feeling like a cool-as-hell savior.

Tang Muwen worked diligently, like a hardworking drone bee, while Shen Shouli still wore that expression of distaste for dust and dirt, but he took the heaviest items—the boats.

Xu Lingqu stacked the life jackets and placed them in a clearing in the woods. By the time they'd moved most of the supplies, it was well into the latter half of the night. Jin leaned against a lifebuoy and sighed. "What if tonight is just an ordinary night? Then in the instructors' eyes, we'd be complete fools."

"You're a fool right now." Before seeing these rescue supplies, Xu Xiqin had been worried, but now that they'd moved them all, she was fully confident in Xu Lingqu's guess.

"If what we're doing turns out to be pointless, that would be wonderful," Tang Muwen murmured from behind.

Xu Lingqu didn't speak. The moonlight fell on her face, expressionless, as she quietly watched the river from a distance.

She made up her mind. "Move the supplies out first, and throw the life jackets and lifebuoys right by the tent entrances."

Tang Muwen hesitated. "Wouldn't that be too noisy? What if we wake everyone up?"

"Once the supplies are right there, anyone smart will know what the instructors have in store," Jin said, catching on quickly. "And if they're not smart, no use trusting them anyway. As the saying goes, the worst thing is a fool who means well."

They began placing the rescue gear outside the tents.

Suddenly, a dull thunderous rumble.

Xu Lingqu's heart skipped a beat. They were too slow. "The instructors have opened the sluice."