2.7

1 month later

"What the hell happened to you?!"

"Isn't that obvious?" Shi Zixin says lightly, flicking the arrow embedded in her shoulder. Shi Zixin lightly flinches at how the wood reverberates throughout her body, a completely odd sensation that is hard to put into words. "I got stabbed by a knife."

"Now is not the time to be joking around," Gang Meili snaps at Shi Zixin. Shi Zixin merely gives a sheepish smile. The doctor rolls her eyes before she grabs the commander by the unhurt right shoulder. Before Shi Zixin can react, Gang Meili pushed Shi Zixin onto the bed.

Currently, Gang Meili is the only one on duty. After all, it's half past nine and most are already in bed. The only reason she was in here is in case of any late-night incidents.

Gang Meili had thought that rule was stupid until Shi Zixin came in.

"We're nowhere near a battlefield, for gods' sake! How'd this happen?" she asks. Gang Meili turns her back on Shi Zixin, getting out materials to patch up the wound.

"New recruits," Shi Zixin grumbles. "They were inspired by Fu Junjie's speech on him working extra to get far. Somehow, they thought that shooting arrows at night at random objects fit this 'extra training.'"

I swear, those idiots get dumber and dumber with each new group. Is there an idiot serum in the water?

"Now, I'm not here for you to reprimand me," Shi Zixin says. "I merely do not have all the tools in my tent for me to do this on my own."

"What are you talking about- NO-!"

Gang Meili had the unfortunate pleasure of seeing Shi Zixin pull out the arrow with their right hand. Shi Zixin looks up innocuously, ignoring the blood spurting out onto their blue tunic.

"What?"

"Why would you pull it out when I was just about to?" Gang Meili facepalms as she steps closer. "I swear, you're just like a child!"

"I don't know what child would get shot with an arrow," Shi Zixin jokes. Gang Meili gives the commander a stern glare.

"I'm serious. If you pulled it out wrong, your muscles could've become damaged and you'd be sent home," Gang Meili informs.

Shi Zixin raises an eyebrow. "You don't want to see me go? How sweet, I didn't know you cared, doctor."

Gang Meili scoffed. "Hardly. You're the one who's giving me my pension."

Shi Zixin gave a light gasp of shock at this. "And what I thought we had was special."

The doctor snorts at this. "Alright, commander, please let me do my job and sew up your wound."

"That's quite alright," Shi Zixin says, sitting up from the cot that she was forced upon. "All I needed to do here was see your lovely face-"

"Then you can put down the gauze, commander."

Shi Zixin held up the bundle of gauze in her hand. "Oh? This? It's for a friend."

"Mmhm."

Shi Zixin sighs. "I'm sorry, doctor, but I'd like to take care of this myself."

"Are you afraid of doctors?"

"Hardly," Shi Zixin responds. "I just have some things I'd like to do myself."

Gang Meili evaluates the situation before sighing. "I don't know if this is the right thing for me to do...but I...I trust you."

Shi Zixin gives a short smile at this. "Thank you, docto-"

"-I trust you enough to come back here in an hour's time. If you are not here, all patched up, I will assume you are dying and I will march into your tent and force you to let me treat you. Do you understand?" Gang Meili says firmly.

Ah, I can see how the fiery trait runs in the family.

The commander nods. "Of course. I'll see you in an hour's time."

Shi Zixin turned her back to the doctor, letting the tent's flap fall back in. The commander's boots crunched through the snow on the way back to her own tent. Upon entering the tent, Shi Zixin collapsed onto the bed, much paler than she was before.

'Why would you not let an actual doctor take care of your wounds?' 008 asks as their voice echoes at the back of Eman's head.

'Because,' the girl grunts back, pulling down her tunic sleeve to reveal the wound, 'Doctor Gang is smart.'

Even though Shi Zixin's muscles are lean and nowhere near feminine, a single glance from a doctor would give away Shi Zixin's identity. Her shoulders are much narrower than a man's and the muscles grow differently. Through the thick padding of armor and clothing, one cannot see that Shi Zixin isn't a macho man.

Shi Zixin quickly disinfects her wound with a splash of liquor before sewing up the wound. Quickly, she wraps the cotton gauze around her shoulder, pulling its ends tight with her teeth and her right hand.

Shi Zixin's face contorts in disgust as she fervently wipes the feeling of cotton gauze from her mouth. 008 laughs lightly at her state, but a singular glare forward stops him.

Shi Zixin pulls on a new tunic and ties back on her cloak before heading out to the medic tent. She pulls away the flap and sees Gang Meili pacing inside. Her usual tight bun had come slightly loose with baby hairs coming out.

The doctor glances up and lets out a small sigh of relief, which is quickly hidden by her stern facade.

"You were quite close to an hour-"

"But not over it, yes?"

Gang Meili's clicks her tongue. "No need to get all sarcastic, I'm merely making sure a patient is doing fine."

Shi Zixin sits down on a cot by the materials table, sitting down with tiredness. Gang Meili brings out the strange tea box and pulls out a pot.

'008, can you just tell me how that box works?'

'I'm not the one you should ask that question to.'

'So...you don't know or you won't say?'

'Won't say.'

Agh!

"Here you go."

"Thank you," Shi Zixin says, taking the cup extended to her. Gang Meili watches with cool eyes as Shi Zixin takes a sip.

Quickly, Shi Zixin's face contorts in disgust as she chokes on swallowing the liquid. "What is that?" she finally sputters, faint tears at the corners of her eyes.

"Tea."

"It tastes like alcohol somehow rotted with a splash of eucalyptus," Shi Zixin gasps, wiping the back of her tongue with her cloak. Gang Meili rolls her onyx eyes, leaning on the materials table.

"It's medicinal tea. It speeds up recovery. Would you rather be recovering for a couple of weeks and have to deal with a small dose of foul medicine; or have some sweet chamomile and be recovering for the rest of this war?"

"The latter," Shi Zixin immediately answers, setting the cup down hastily.

"Tch, you're unbelievable. You're acting just like Qingshan-" Gang Meili starts saying, but quickly cuts herself off.

Shi Zixin arches a brow. "'Qingshan?'"

Gang Meili's mouth opens and closes like a fish for a moment, before her shoulders straighten.

"Yes. My husband."

Shi Zixin couldn't hide the surprise on her face. "Oh...then if I may ask..."

Gang Meili gives a short, soft nod. "He died three years ago, caught up in a rebellion in the winter. Ye Qingshan and I had been married in the autumn," Gang Meili begins, her tone less harsh than it had been before. Her dark gaze seemed to get lower and lower, however. "Because he was the fourth son who had a younger brother still, my parents deemed it would be okay for me to be taken back into the Gang house if our dowry was returned and the farm given to the fifth brother." Gang Meili's hand instinctively twitches over her lower abdomen. "And...and with summer's arrival...then..."

"I see." Shi Zixin nods, cutting off the doctor. In this society, women had an expiration date on them. If they had already been in a consummated marriage, their value immediately plummets. Especially after what Shi Zixin assumes happened, it'd be hard to find her a husband.

"Do you at least like being a doctor?"

"Of course, I love it." Gang Meili looks back up at Shi Zixin, her eyes shining. "I feel rewarded for what I do. Whenever I set a bone or provide medicine or simply sew up a wound, I get this rush..."

Shi Zixin gives a tight smile. "That sounds amazing."

"Do you get the same feeling as a commander?"

Shi Zixin's smile falters for a moment before her face morphs into one of pondering. "I...I don't know. While you're a doctor and you know you're saving people...I'm...I'm taking away lives. I don't get a rush from the battlefield nor from creating tactics when I know that at the end of the day... my choices are the ones that bring down the sword on the enemy's head."

Shi Zixin looks up, meeting Gang Meili's cool eyes.

"When this war is over," Shi Zixin admits quietly, almost afraid to admit it out loud, "I don't know how I'm going to live with myself."

Gang Meili watches Shi Zixin carefully.

"While I cannot forgive you for killing others," Gang Meili begins with a sigh, "I understand that you do it with a conscience."

Shi Zixin gives a short nod to Gang Meili, before standing up with the cup in hand.

"Well," Shi Zixin says with an awkward smile, passing over the cup. "I'm off to bed. Goodnight, doctor."

Gang Meili looks at the cup hesitantly, before looking at Shi Zixin. Awkwardly, Gang Meili outstretches her left hand and squeezes Shi Zixin's right hand.

"I...I bel...I best think that if your shoulder gets any worse, you come right to me, alright?" Gang Meili rushes out, her ear tips turning pink.

Shi Zixin smiles softly, understanding the intent of the original message.

"Of course."

Shi Zixin slips from the woman's grasp and walks outside the tent.  From the corner of her eye, a shadow slipped out of view. Shi Zixin's brows furrow and she quickly puts her hand on the dagger hidden in her cloak, boots slowly crunching towards the tent's corner.

Shi Zixin jumps out onto the other side of the tent only to see the outlines of a grey rabbit.

The commander lets out a sigh, sheathing the dagger.

I really should get more sleep.

==

"...Eman!"

A being jolts awake, looking around. They were inside a small hospital room, tubes connecting and weaving in and out of a young girl's skin. In the doorway stood a greying woman, clutching onto her husband's hand tightly for support. The short man only stared blankly at the hospitalized girl.

How...how can I even see this?

"Auntie...?" the girl croaks out, throat dry. She scrambles to sit up, but quickly fails all attempts.

A doctor phases through them, walking to the girl's bedside.

"Is...is there anything you can do-"

"No."

The doctor's words floated and echoed about the tiny room, getting tinier by the second. The walls phased past the doctor, the uncle, and the aunt, but pushed the spectator closer to the bed of the girl. Soon enough, the being was forced to sit directly on the bed, staring at the face of the girl.

The girl sits up straight suddenly, head turned in the spectator's direction. Their busted lips opened, revealing a few missing teeth.

"You took more away."

The being feels their mouth open and words began to drip out, ringing in her own ears.

"You just did," the girl responds. "Wake up."

Shi Zixin sputters awake, breathing heavily. Just then, a person throws open the tent's flap.

"Sir!"

Shi Zixin was suddenly thankful she had slept in last night's clothes.

"What are you doing up so early, Lieutenant Biming?"

"Come quickly."

Shi Zixin's brows furrow. Quickly, she slips her feet into boots and grabs her cloak, swinging it around her frame as she leaves the tent. She sees a few other higher-up soldiers walking in the same direction, but a stern glare from Biming keeps them from pushing in front of Shi Zixin.

Biming pulls his commander towards the area of the medical tent. Shi Zixin's eyes widened as a peach-pit sized feeling of despair begins to grow in her stomach.

Outside, a small crowd has begun to form.

"Men!" Biming's voice looms over the crowd. "Back to your duties immediately!"

The soldiers quickly disperse, each muttering to themselves.

"I can't believe this has happened-"

"Who would do such a thing-?"

"What happened?" Shi Zixin quietly asks as Biming gulps. "It'd be best for you to check inside, sir."

Shi Zixin's hand rests hesitantly on the white canvas flap before pulling it up gently. The look of confusion quickly turns to one of horror when her eyes fall upon a cot.

A body was placed on the cot, arms folded over her chest.

Shi Zixin stepped closer, seeing the ring of blue bruises around her neck. The smell of foul tea sticking to the girl's hair, the torn clothes revealing newly formed bruises on her wrists, legs, and arms...

Shi Zixin's gaze fell upon the girl's face and saw that the once silky black hair had been matted down to the girl's face. Slowly, the commander's shaky hand reached forwards and peeled back the bloodied hair.

The characters for 'whore' were deeply carved into Gang Meili's forehead with a blade.

=

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