Chapter 1066: The Story of Ling and Heng (329)
The reason K asked this was because months ago, he had personally witnessed Feng Ling’s ruthless resolution; he had seen her firm rejection of Li Nanheng and XI Base.
Since then he had been worried that Feng Ling would never return.
After waiting for so long, she had finally returned. However, he instinctively felt that this matter wasn’t as simple. At least, based on his understanding of Feng Ling’s character, there was no way she would agree to returning this easily
“That’s right. The news of your interns.h.i.+p as an instructor has already spread through the base. All of the men who used to interact with you and didn’t have much bias against you, are all happy for you. Only those few men in those Team Three, who constantly pit themselves against you, are acting as though they have been humiliated. All of their expressions are constantly ugly; just looking at it makes us feel great. We were only lacking your return!” Lin Cheng stepped forward and caught Feng Ling by the wrist to tug her over: “Come, come, come. You haven’t held a rifle in two to three years, haven’t you? Quickly give it a try. You were once the Feng Ling we had the most pride in. How’s your skills now? It hasn’t deteriorated, has it?”
“How can it possibly deteriorate? Don’t you know that nine months ago at the Boston forest, Feng Ling faced more than ten men alone and didn’t show the slightest hint of fear. If it weren’t for the sudden explosion, she likely could have killed all of those men on her own.” K watched Feng Ling in antic.i.p.ation. “After your three years of absence, we’re almost done catching up to you.”
Feng Ling really did miss holding a rifle. When Lin Cheng tugged her over, she did not refuse him.
She originally thought she would be borrowing one of their rifles to mess with, but Tam received Lin Cheng’s gaze and turned decisively to the weapon rack by the side. He brought out a brand new rifle and quickly placed it in Feng Ling’s hands.
Feng Ling scanned the rifle in her hands and s.h.i.+fted her gaze down. She saw that her name was written on the name tag attached.
She looked up and watched Lin Cheng in confusion.
“Back when our sniper team first moved to a new training ground, the base specially custom-made rifles for all of us. Yours was included as well. All of the things you are meant to have, not a single thing was left out.” Lin Cheng continued: “You’ve always been one of us. You’ve never left. Back then, Boss said that you only received a last minute mission and are unable to return to the base temporarily. But the things that belong to you will always remain here. The XI Base has always been awaiting your return, so have we.”
Feng Ling held the rifle and silently turned toward the target stands. She was unmoving for a long moment.
“All right, let’s stop talking about that. Give your new rifle a try,” Lin Cheng and the rest backed away as he spoke.
Feng Ling lifted the rifle in her hands and aimed toward the 100 meters target. With a “peng” sound, she made one trial shot and prepared to strike all of the targets without any mistakes.
The other four men all understood that her strengths did not only lay there. Although she hadn’t touched a rifle in a while, she definitely would not make mistakes.
Following which, Feng Ling s.h.i.+fted 45 degrees away and fired a shot toward the 300 meters target on the other side. Once again, her bullet landed right on the center.
Applause rose from her surroundings. Everyone watched for her next move in antic.i.p.ation.
Feng Ling lifted her rifle once more and aimed at the 500 meters target; the target stand could barely even be seen clearly.
“I heard that back when Feng Ling first left the base, she had already been able to shoot accurately from 500 meters away. But back then, I heard she only made a few attempts on her own and never did it in front of us. It’s been so long since then. I wonder if she’ll be able to do it…”
“She definitely can.”
Before they finished speaking, another shot was fired.
Feng Ling held onto her rifle as she watched the bullet move through the air. In a blink of an eye, it embedded itself on the center of the target and broke through it.
Not only were the four men astounded, even the instructor, who had been sipping his tea by the side to give them some time to catch-up, was startled. He stared at the target by the side and turned to Feng Ling, who was composedly holding onto her rifle. He swallowed the tea in his mouth with some difficulty and thought to himself that it was no wonder Feng Ling had the ability to be rehired to intern as an instructor.
It had been two to three years since she last touched a gun, yet she was able to fire so accurately. Even he himself lacked the confidence to do the same.
No matter what t.i.tle the XI Base has given her, those were all things she deserved to have.
Feng Ling placed the rifle down and turned back to look at them. “You guys continue practice. I won’t continue delaying your progress any further.”
“You’re not disturbing, you’re not disturbing. In the first place, you should be partic.i.p.ating in this practice with us. Although, now that you’re an instructor, I suppose you can’t be practicing with us, right?” Lei Peng picked her rifle up for her.
Feng Ling did not explain. She only said, “It’s been a long time since I had the food in the cafeteria. If you’re all free tonight, let’s go have a meal together.”
“Will you be staying in the base today? You’re sleeping here?” Tam heard this and instantly began excited. He leaned close. “Where will you be staying? Your previous place or at our new accommodations? Wait, no, you’re a girl now. You can’t be staying with us. The base should have arranged a special accommodation for you. Have you asked Ah Feng yet? Has he planned it for you yet?”
After receiving so many questions, Feng Ling had some difficulty answering them all. She watched Tam and answered after some consideration: “Not for the time being.”
She did not say that she would be staying. However, since she wasn’t sure when Li Nanheng was returning, and since she was already here, there was no point in making things difficult for herself and living outside.
For now, what she needed to do was to wait for Li Nanheng to return and to quickly receive his signature. This way, she could smoothly leave for Hai City.
“You returned so abruptly, I’m sure the base hasn’t prepared anything yet. Maybe you’ll have to return to your previous place?” The men continued with the topic.
“That can’t be. Right now, Feng Ling isn’t suited to live with the rest in that building.”
“Why not? In the first place, she stayed next to the Boss. Boss’s room has never changed. Her room is also cleaned every single day. It’s ready to be used right now. We just have to bring a new set of bed sheets. What’s so troublesome about that? Besides, isn’t it natural for her to live next to the Boss?”
K listened to their conversation but did not speak. He recalled the last time he saw Feng Ling with Boss Li. He also thought about how Feng Ling barely had any contact with Boss since returning to Los Angeles. He s.h.i.+fted his gaze onto her as though he was trying to figure out her thoughts.