"If I have to choose..."
Tang Xiaohua looked at Lu Ziqing, "I’d like to stay in the Navy Corps."
Lu Ziqing pursed his lips. He was silent for two seconds, not as surprised as one might have thought, but rather... he had anticipated this.
"But as I said before, I’m also willing to return to Xilin,"
Tang Xiaohua hurried to add.
Lu Ziqing smiled, "It seems that Brother Luo and Chief of Staff Lu indeed treat you very well."
Tang Xiaohua took a deep breath, his hands crossed resting on the railing of the deck, the churning seawater just beneath, wave after wave crashing against the warship.
"They indeed hold me in high esteem. I didn’t expect to be transferred to the Navy Corps and receive such attention from the superior officers... it must also be because of Brother Lu’s relationship."
"I don’t deny that they indeed take into account their friendship with me, and so they hold you in high regard, but Xiao Hua, you are capable of bearing this esteem."
Lu Ziqing turned and leaned against the deck,
"In the officer preparatory class, you and Qing Luo completed all the courses in just one year while everyone else took a full two years. Of course, the way you studied and trained relentlessly, turning yourself into a robot, I don’t support at all."
Lu Ziqing looked at Tang Xiaohua.
Tang Xiaohua was silent for a while.
"In the second year, I recommended you go to the Germany Louis Military Academy for further studies, and you did not let me down."
"The world’s second-ranked military academy, allocating spots to various national military academies each year, Xilin Military Academy only has one spot, nearly a thousand enrollees each year, needing to complete forty-six disciplines within one year, with a dropout rate of ninety percent, thus each graduation class has less than a hundred students, and those who excel in all subjects are less than five."
"With that said, why wouldn’t Luo Haiyong and Lu Tian hold you in high regard?"
"But they don’t know that I can’t hear out of one ear."
Tang Xiaohua looked at Lu Ziqing, "If they knew, would they still feel confident in letting me be the captain of the ’Osprey’ assault team?"
Lu Ziqing looked at her steadily,
"You have a hearing aid in that ear, don’t you?"
Tang Xiaohua let out a long breath, "Yes..."
"Tang Xiaohua, this issue you’ve already solved, wearing a hearing aid might be inconvenient, but it hasn’t affected your ability to carry out missions, has it?"
"I hope the superior officers won’t mind if they find out."
Her worries were something Lu Ziqing could understand; her unit was the Navy Corps assault team, where the tasks they carried out were always challenging. If a significant mistake happened during a mission, the cost could very likely be the lives of her teammates and hers.
Not just for the Navy Corps assault team, this was the case for any unit that required a high level of intense and sensitive combat methods.
"Anyway, by the time the medical examination comes, it won’t stay hidden; we’ll see then."
"Do you still keep in touch with the other classmates in your class?"
"I’ve kept in touch with Xinglan. Half a year ago, we jointly executed a mission at the Thai-Myanmar Border under the team led by Bian Yiyi, but I haven’t really kept in touch with the others..."
"You see," Duan Chen always tells me about your ambition, but I just don’t see it."
"I’ve already said that everyone from the officer preparatory class will be the youngest reserve officers for the country’s military in the future. If you don’t foster good relationships with these people, how will you make farther strides in the future?"
Tang Xiaohua thought for a moment,
"That’s true; I guess I need to reconnect with old classmates."
As soon as Lu Ziqing heard her say this, he scorned.