Chapter 7: Huai City
The shade beneath the old locust tree lay shattered across the ground.
Gu Ye shot to his feet.
His back scraped hard against the rough bark, tearing off a patch of dry tree moss.
The shrill scream was still echoing from the far end of the training ground.
Gu Ye didn't even glance at the recruit writhing in pain.
His eyes were locked dead on the blue holographic screen flickering across his retina.
It was a glittering mountain of gold.
An experience package delivered right to his doorstep.
Gu Ye didn't even bother slinging the canvas strap over his shoulder.
His right hand seized the handle of the thirty-jin metal medical case.
Veins bulged across the back of his hand.
The terrifying explosive power granted by [Superhuman Physique] flooded into his legs in an instant.
His camo rubber shoes slammed hard against the dirt path.
A muffled thud.
Mud splattered.
Gu Ye burst forward like a cheetah catching the scent of blood.
Fifty meters.
The scenery on both sides blurred into smears of color.
Wind roared past his ears.
Several veterans who had crowded around were sweating anxiously.
"Spread out! Stop crowding him!"
Gu Ye shouted.
His voice was loud enough to pierce eardrums.
He carried the case one-handed and barreled straight through two recruits on the outer ring.
His feet skidded across gravel, sliding to a stop in front of the injured man.
The wounded recruit was named Liu Xiaodong.
His thin, small body curled in a pool of blood, both hands clamped desperately over his right knee.
Blood kept seeping out between his fingers.
His face was twisted in agony, tears and mud smeared across the whole of it.
Hearing the commotion, Liu Xiaodong forced his eyes open.
He met Gu Ye's gaze head-on.
There was not a trace of pity in those eyes.
Instead, they burned with a feverish excitement that made his skin crawl.
Like a butcher eyeing a prime cut of pork belly on the cutting board.
Liu Xiaodong shuddered.
Even his scream got stuck in his throat.
"Gu—Gu-ge... don't look at me like that."
Liu Xiaodong shrank his neck back.
Gu Ye said nothing.
His thumb pressed hard on the metal case's latch.
Click. Click.
The lid flipped open.
A sharp mix of alcohol and iodine drifted out.
"Hold his leg straight. Don't let him kick."
Gu Ye turned and ordered the First Platoon Leader of the recruit company standing nearby.
His tone was blunt, carrying the unquestionable authority of a lead surgeon in an operating room.
The Platoon Leader froze for a moment.
But his body instinctively obeyed.
He pinned Liu Xiaodong's thigh and calf down, one hand on each.
Liu Xiaodong's camo pant leg over his knee was completely shredded.
Strips of torn fabric mixed with yellow dirt were jammed deep into the mangled flesh.
Dark red blood kept surging out.
At the deepest part of the wound, the pale white patellar ligament was faintly visible.
Gu Ye didn't wear sterile gloves.
No time, and field conditions didn't allow it anyway.
He grabbed a plastic bottle of saline.
Bit the plastic seal off the cap with his teeth.
Tore it off with force.
Spat the plastic cap into the mud by his feet.
Gu Ye squeezed the bottle.
The cool saline shot out as a high-pressure stream, precisely washing over the bloody knee.
Yellow mud, fabric scraps, and blood foam were rapidly flushed away.
"Ah—!"
The saline stung the exposed nerve endings.
Liu Xiaodong arched his back like a fish electrocuted.
His hands clawed wildly at the dirt, gouging ten deep furrows.
"Shut up. Bite your clothes."
Gu Ye pressed his left hand against the edge of the kneecap.
His right hand snatched a medical pointed forceps from the case.
The stainless steel forceps glinted coldly in the sunlight.
Wang Fugui, the old military medic from the company infirmary, was running over panting, canvas first-aid bag on his back.
He pushed through the crowd, about to shout "Let me do it."
The words reached his lips and he swallowed them back down.
Wang Fugui stared blankly at Gu Ye's hands.
Gu Ye's hands were too steady.
The right hand holding the forceps was like a precision industrial robotic arm.
Wrist suspended in the air, fingertips lightly touching.
Ding.
A blood-covered pebble lodged in the flesh was flicked out and dropped into the stainless steel kidney tray beside him.
Ding.
Another small shard of sharp glass.
Not a single wasted movement.
Every probe perfectly avoided the damaged capillary networks.
So fast it left afterimages.
In barely ten seconds, the foreign matter in the wound was cleaned out completely.
Wang Fugui's jaw hung slightly open.
Thirty years as a grassroots military medic, and he considered himself quite skilled at trauma care.
But this recruit's technique made him feel like an apprentice.
This wasn't bandaging.
This was a micro-sculpture art performance.
Gu Ye dropped the forceps.
Grabbed a fist-sized ball of medical cotton.
Stuffed it straight into the wide-mouth iodine bottle.
Soaked it full of the brown liquid.
"Bear with it."
Gu Ye held the dripping iodine-soaked cotton ball.
Without any warning, he pressed it hard onto the cleaned wound surface.
From the inside out, he drew a standard concentric circle.
One full circle.
The wound was thoroughly disinfected.
Liu Xiaodong's eyes rolled back, nearly fainting from the pain.
His teeth bit into his camo collar hard enough to draw blood.
Gu Ye pulled out a roll of wide gauze.
Shook it open.
Folded it thick, four layers, and placed it over the wound.
Hands alternating, the bandage wrapped around the back of the knee.
Pulled tight, tied off.
Finally bit through the medical tape with his teeth, pressed two cross strips horizontally and vertically.
"Done."
Gu Ye stood up and dusted the mud off his hands.
"No water for three days. Platoon Leader, get two people to carry him back to the barracks."
Wang Fugui raised his wrist and checked his watch.
From opening the case to finishing the bandage.
Forty-five seconds.
Wang Fugui felt his face burning, and quietly shifted the canvas first-aid bag behind him a little further back.
Gu Ye stood in place.
Exhaled a long, turbid breath.
Just then, a crisp electronic synthesized voice sounded from deep in his mind.
[Ding!]
[Detected: Host has completed one field trauma emergency treatment.]
[Casualty combat effectiveness retention rate: 90%.]
[System assessment: Excellent.]
[Reward issued: Eagle-Eye Dynamic Vision.]
A sharp stabbing pain shot into Gu Ye's eyes.
Like two cold steel needles driving straight through his pupils into his optic nerves.
Gu Ye let out a muffled grunt.
He jerked his head down, both hands clamped desperately over his eyes.
His knees buckled and he dropped to one knee on the ground.
Involuntary tears streamed out uncontrollably.
Dripping through his fingers onto the dry yellow earth, splattering dark mud spots.
"Gu Ye? What's wrong?"
The Platoon Leader had just finished ordering the stretcher bearers and turned to see Gu Ye kneeling on the ground.
He quickly reached out to grab his shoulder.
"I'm fine."
Gu Ye gritted his teeth, his voice squeezing out between his fingers.
"Wind's strong. Sand in my eyes."
The stinging came fast and left fast.
Three seconds later, the pain receded like a tide.
What replaced it was a refreshing coolness that seeped into his heart.
Like drinking a sip of iced mint water in the dead of summer.
The muscles around his eyeballs relaxed completely, filled with an unprecedented sense of fullness.
Gu Ye lowered his hands.
Blinked hard.
Squeezed out the remaining tears.
He slowly raised his head and looked at the world before him.
The world had changed.
The air was no longer transparent.
He could clearly see the tiny dust particles suspended in the sunlight.
Those particles tumbled up and down in the breeze, their trajectories perfectly distinct.
The shape and reflective surface of every speck of dust was magnified tenfold, forcibly jammed into his optic nerves.
Gu Ye turned his neck and looked at the old locust tree in the distance.
About twenty meters away.
Before, it had just looked like a blob of green canopy.
Now, he could see the serrated edges of every single leaf.
He could even see a green caterpillar slowly crawling on a leaf, gnawing at the veins.
He took a deep breath.
His vision extended further.
Past the red brick wall of the company mess hall.
Fifty meters behind the mess hall were the company's slop buckets.
Several large green plastic barrels sat with lids open, reeking of sour rot.
Gu Ye focused his gaze above the slop buckets.
A green-headed fly was circling.
Fifty meters away.
To an ordinary person, it wouldn't even qualify as a black dot.
But in Gu Ye's current field of vision, that fly was magnified infinitely.
He could clearly see the disgusting green-glowing fuzz on the fly's back.
He could see the dense hexagonal crystal structure of its compound eyes.
Most terrifying of all, the fly's high-frequency transparent wingbeats had slowed down in his eyes.
One frame.
One frame.
The wings swept upward, tearing the air.
Beat downward, generating lift.
The delicate transparent vein network on the wings was rendered in excruciating detail.
The whole process was like watching a super slow-motion movie.
Gu Ye sucked in a sharp breath.
This wasn't just improved eyesight.
This was a built-in high-magnification tactical sniper scope, plus a super high-speed camera.
With these eyes, plus Max-Level Hand-to-Hand Combat and Superhuman Physique.
He was practically a human weapon wrapped in a white coat.
Heavy footsteps came from behind.
Military boots ground against gravel with a rough scraping sound.
One step. Another step.
Stopped less than a meter behind Gu Ye.
Gu Ye didn't turn around.
Company Commander Qian Qiang's heavy breathing, carrying a faint scent of Honghe brand cigarettes, drifted into Gu Ye's nostrils.
Qian Qiang had been sitting in the jeep the whole time, never getting out.
He had witnessed Gu Ye's explosive hundred-meter sprint.
He had witnessed Gu Ye's fluid, effortless bandaging technique.
He had watched the old medic Wang Fugui slink off to the side in embarrassment.
Qian Qiang fished a flattened cigarette from his training uniform pocket.
Stuck it in his mouth, bit down on the filter.
Didn't pull out a lighter.
He just stood there with the cigarette in his teeth, looking down at Gu Ye's back.
This kid ran five kilometers with thirty jin on his back and came in first, didn't even sweat.
Bandaged a wound fast as a magic trick.
And now he was squatting on the ground, staring straight at the trash cans behind the mess hall.
Qian Qiang followed Gu Ye's line of sight.
Other than the mess hall's red brick wall, he couldn't see a damn thing.
Wind swept across the training ground, curling up yellow leaves from the dirt.
Qian Qiang spat the cigarette onto the ground.
Raised his right foot and ground the cigarette butt into the dirt with the thick sole of his military boot.
He lifted his head, his gaze passing over the mess hall.
Toward the mountainside further back.
That was the company's open-air shooting range.
Several white chest-ring targets, tiny as matchboxes at a hundred meters.
Qian Qiang's cheek muscles twitched twice, his back molars clenching.
He took a step forward.
Reached out his thick right hand and clapped it heavily on Gu Ye's shoulder.
The palm struck the camo uniform, sending up a small puff of dust.
"Gu Ye, come with me to the shooting range."
Qian Qiang narrowed his eyes, looking at the targets on the distant range.
His voice sounded a little heavy in the wind.
"Since your eyesight's so good, let's have a contest."