Chapter 923 Little Follower

In 1996 AD, a girl who was only five and a half years old had her first meal of rice.

She ate white flour steamed buns and chicken in a restaurant that she had never dared to imagine.

She still remembered the young officer sitting across from her that day. He had a tall figure, sharp eyebrows and starry eyes, and an extraordinary heroic spirit.

He sat there and ordered a lot of things, eating more and faster than himself, and not talking to himself.

It was only after he finished destroying everything like a whirlwind that he spoke, "I thought you had some potential. After all, it would be difficult for a child as young as you to survive without eating or drinking for four or five days. You should be very energetic." He is tough and a person who has a chance, but now it seems that I made a mistake.”

Chihaya sat there with a small mouthful of steamed bun in her mouth, a little at a loss. In fact, she was still confused.

"S-Sir, I, did I do something wrong?"

She was very sad, but it was too difficult for a girl of her age to want to die. Young life always desires to continue to grow. This is the instinct of life.

She had a full meal and tasted delicious food she had never enjoyed before, and she didn't want to die so much.

The young officer sighed, "You are too cowardly. People like you cannot go to the battlefield. Now I am just curious, what is your will to survive? Do you have any unfulfilled wishes?"

Xiao Chihaya fell silent. She looked at the steamed buns in her hands and the greasy chicken on the table, "I still want to wait for dad and eldest brother to come home..."

The young officer had a look of astonishment on his face. He couldn't understand the girl's thinking. Without food, do you just want to wait in front of the door until your family returns?

And he already knew that this girl was an orphan, and there was no way she could wait until her father and brother came back.

"Do you think you can wait?"

The young officer asked rhetorically.

Xiao Chihaya calmed down surprisingly. She took another bite of the steamed bun, chewed it in her mouth, and whimpered: "I want to wait for them to come back, otherwise I don't know where to go."

The young officer was silent for a moment, looking at the little girl who kept eating the steamed buns and swallowing them, "Don't eat when you feel uncomfortable, because it will make your choking more obvious."

He stood up and walked outside the shop, leaving behind a broken piece of silver.

Chihaya quickly stood up and chased outside, "Can I still go there?"

"Come on, with any luck you can live a few more days."

The young officer did not look back and mounted the horse, with Xiao Qian already chasing after him.

Four days later, Chihaya stepped into the legendary Shenwu Empire for the first time, a super empire that was said to have ruled the world for five thousand years.

Their country has been surrendered to the Shenwu Empire for nearly a thousand years, paying tribute every year, and is also protected by the Shenwu Empire.

She didn't know where she was going or what she would do after going to the Shenwu Empire, but she felt it didn't matter as long as she could live.

She wanted to see what that big country in the east was like. She wanted to know why her father and eldest brother were fighting.

On the ship, there were many children from their own country, hundreds of them, and the accompanying soldiers explained the next arrangements to them.

They will be sent to a secret blood warrior base for training. If they perform well and are selected to become secret blood warriors, their families will receive a subsidy of ten taels of silver, and five taels of silver will be sent home every year.

This is an astronomical sum of money. In Japan, two taels of silver is enough to feed a family of three for a year.

Many of the children on the ship were not orphans, but were "sold" by their families, because as long as they chose to board this ship to the Shenwu Empire, they could get three taels of silver, which was life-saving money for many families.

Chihaya was different. She had no family anymore. Before parting with her, the officer gave her three taels of silver and said it was hers.

The days at sea were difficult. At first she would look at the sea, confused and ignorant, but later she would gradually become uneasy.

She knew about the secret blood warriors. It would be better to say that every small country in the east had legends about the secret blood warriors.

When the children on the boat learned that they might become a secret blood warrior, they were so excited that they couldn't control themselves, but Chihaya still remembered that the secret blood warrior was going to fight.

And the secret blood warriors are only one in a hundred or even one in a thousand, so what will happen if they are not selected or fail?

This was something that no one in charge on the ship had ever said, which made her feel uneasy.

But what about being uneasy? Her life has moved on, but without a destination.

Later, she came to the military camp and met the boy who impressed her deeply at first sight.

The other person seemed to be half a year older than me, and he was also training in the military camp, but at only six years old, he was lying on his back on the playground, pushing a stone mill of hundreds of kilograms while training.

He was an outlier in the basic training camp. No child dared to approach that indifferent boy. His young body had clearly defined muscle lines, and sweat slid down the cracks of his muscles.

He pushed the stone mill upwards with a determined look. He didn't look like he was training, but like he was competing with something. At such a young age, he had a fierce look in his eyes while training.

She didn't know what the other person had been through, but she felt a little distressed for no reason. After that, she admired him.

He must have a very tragic past, but he is very strong and admirable.

She started training with the children at the same time. The boy named Lu Chen was always the best. He didn't look like a human being. His burst of power was much stronger than that of an adult man.

Whether it is basic training or combat training, Lu Chen always ranks first and is the object of awe among all the children.

But Lu Chen had no friends, and all the children were afraid of him. After the training, they all stayed away from him, thinking he was a little monster.

At first, during the fighting training, the children were still sparring, but later it became the instructor and Lu Chen sparring alone. The six or seven-year-old boy was like a little beast. Although he was young, he was very fierce.

Chihaya always hangs behind Lu Chen like a little tail. She really wants to ask him why he is so powerful, so strong, why he has the motivation to train so hard every day, and even gives himself extra training. Obviously you are already the third One person, and left the person behind him far away.

But she didn't dare. That boy seemed to be a thousand miles away from everyone. He was polite but distant, strong but intimidating.

She only dared to pass a towel or a glass of water to the other party after training, and the other party would only reply with a thank you.

Later, when they were eating together in the cafeteria, they finally spoke. The boy looked at him and said, "You are not suitable here. Before receiving the secret medicine, you have one chance to apply and go home."

Chihaya was pleasantly surprised that the other party was talking to her, but the other party's words were to persuade her to leave, "I... I also train very hard."

"Basic training results are in the middle, fighting training results are in the middle and lower reaches, and you never practice again after the end. Are you working hard?"

The boy said calmly, "You can do better, but you don't want to."

Chihaya was a little silent because she really didn't work hard enough. She didn't feel how difficult the training was, but she couldn't find a reason to train hard.

The repetitive life every day made her gradually forget her former homeland, and also made her start thinking about the future again. What is the purpose of coming here...?

Every child here has more or less their own goals. Some simply want to become a secret blood warrior and stand out, while others want to be selected and send money to their families to improve their lives.

Children who are more mature may even consider defending their home and country as a way to realize their ideals in life.

So most people work hard, but she is a pure orphan. She no longer needs to send money to her family, and she doesn’t want to get ahead. Earlier she wanted to see the countries where her father and brother had been, and wanted to know why they And fight.

But later Chihaya felt that this was not something she could figure out, and the result was more likely to be helpless and pale.

She is currently alone, and living is just living, but if it is just to make a living, living like this is too empty.

In this troubled world, she is far away from her homeland and comes to a strange country. She has no relatives, no friends, and no future. What does she want to pursue? This is too complicated for a six-year-old child.

"Someone once told me that if you have talent but don't work hard, you are committing a crime, so I look down on you."

The boy said bluntly, because he could see that the girl was comfortable with the training here and was a talented person.

"I...I just don't know...what to do in the future. I don't have a home anymore. If I apply to quit, I have nowhere to go."

Chihaya was a little confused and frightened. After saying these words, she seemed to be asking her own true feelings. I have nothing and nothing I want. Do I just want to live?

The boy was silent for a moment, "...who knows what will happen in the future. Only when you are alive can you know what will happen in the future. If you want to live and have food to eat, you must train well and maintain your body at its peak. Otherwise, the secret medicine injection will dead."

"Just...to live?"

Chihaya said blankly.

After finishing the large plate of coarse grains, the boy wiped his mouth and said, "Isn't this reason enough? If you must have some goal to move forward, then follow me."

After a year of training, the children began to receive injections of secret blood. That was the day that decided their fate.

One by one, the children walked into the room that smelled of blood, and came out sideways, turning into soulless living dead, or corpses bleeding from their seven orifices.

Chihaya was finally afraid. She had known that people would die in the screening of secret blood warriors, but when she saw it directly, when queuing outside, she still felt frightened. It was like waiting for the death sentence to be pronounced on you.

The boy patted her shoulder and said, "Be strong-willed and remember my words. If you don't have the determination to climb up from the abyss, no matter how talented you are, you will die later."

Chihaya nodded repeatedly. The boy went in before him and came out quickly, comforting him: "It's easy, you can do it."

When the bright red liquid pushed into her spine, Chihaya saw many illusions. When she was about to get lost at the bottom of the illusion, she chased the back figure and landed on the shore.

She succeeded and became a secret blood warrior, but no family members would receive her annual salary and no family members would cheer for her.

Later, they trained together. Lu Chen set foot on the battlefield when he was nine years old. She did not leave the training camp until she was ten years old.

Perhaps it was fate, or maybe the upper management considered that the secret blood warriors who grew up together would have a better understanding, so they were placed in the same team.

They experienced war together, and after leaving the battlefield together, they used their military pay to treat their teammates to eat and drink at roadside stalls.

Because neither Lu Chen nor she had a family, they only had to spend their own military salary, so they were the ones who entertained the most.

When they were thirteen years old, they returned from the main battlefield and got a week's vacation. The surviving teammates returned home one after another, hoping to reunite with their long-separated families.

Lu Chen and Chihaya stayed in the military camp, eating and drinking in nearby cities.

That day, it was the first time she saw this young man crying. His face was full of wine and tears, and his originally handsome face was so distorted that it looked unbelievable.

This young man who she once thought was strong and motivated, ruthless to herself and to her enemies, had been crying since her return last night.

Only then did she find out that Lu Chen's mother really stopped breathing last night.

Lu Chen has just been pretending to be strong these years. He wants to show his worth, have military exploits, be strong, and be invincible, so that the country can maintain his mother's life with the best medical conditions.

Even though it was just a soulless body, after becoming a Mystic Blood Warrior and understanding what a Mystic Blood Warrior was like, Lu Chen should have understood this truth, but he just didn't want to give up.

He would secretly go to where his mother was and fall asleep listening to the sound of breathing, but he would never hear that sound again.

"Captain, should you apply for more vacations to adjust your condition?"

Chihaya's rational advice.

After Lu Chen finished crying, he took another sip of low-quality rice wine, "No, my parents will look down on me. I'm still needed on the battlefield, and I can't let you go."

She knew that the boy was afraid that other teammates would go to the battlefield and there would be widespread casualties in his absence.

I don’t know when it started. These children who had no home were no longer alone. The comrades around them were their new family members.

So Chihaya also mentioned the wine altar, "I hope the war will end soon."

After clinking glasses, Lu Chen looked at Chihaya and said, "After these two years of fighting, you can apply for retirement. You are not suitable here."

Chihaya smiled and said, "Wait until I turn sixteen. I have to follow the rules, right?"

She has been following the other person all these years, and maybe she is no longer confused.

When they were fifteen years old, on the most brutal battlefield, when Lu Chen led the team to break out, almost everyone except Lu Chen was seriously injured.

After Chihaya stayed for a long time, although she rarely fought in frontal battlefields, as the boy said back then, she was talented and not weak.

She still remembers the boy's red-eyed roar at her, and the words she said with a smile as she looked back at him at the end: "Sorry, I can't follow you this time."

When she turned around and faced the sky full of gunfire, she opened her mouth and said silently: "Let's stop here."

Retiring at the age of sixteen is only... half a year away.

When Lu Chen sent the other teammates out and turned back for rescue, he only saw the remaining white cloth strips on the ground, blood stains on the ground, and the two overturned tanks.

He ran around the battlefield like crazy, but he could only see the smoke and debris that had not receded, and there was no longer the little follower who had been following him.

Because the little follower did not follow behind this time, but chose the opposite direction.