Always by your side

Ch 28. A jade statue under the moonlight

Past

Wei Ying POV

"Do you think the instructor is trying to kill us?" I ask

Lan Zhan shook his head. "Possibly, just cripple us so that we get a desk job from now on." We filled our canteens, and we kept running. As we head inside the forest, the vegetation grows thicker, and we cannot see the sun anymore.

It has been seven months since we entered the police academy. Lan Qiren was hard on us. Since he was part of the same academy where we started our training, he had to. He didn't want us to be labeled as receiving any special treatment.

I was kind of surprised that he let us enter. I thought he wouldn't accept that Lan Zhan went with me, but I underestimated his evil plan for us. After my stay in the hospital, he took me back home instead of sending me back to Madam Sanren's care.

He was very dotting.

It was bizarre, but Lan Zhan reassured me that seeing me in a hospital bed freaked the older man out of his wits. When I recovered and requested to enter the academy, he returned to his usual, grumpier self, and everything was right in the world. Except for Lan Zhan, after I recovered, he started to work under Madam Yu's tender reigns during the weekends while Lan Qiren took me under administrative work in the academy.

After completing the basic training, Lan Qiren sent us to special training sessions. The one making us run through a forest is called "open-air chase and rescue missions," the instructor is up to something, but I don't know what exactly.

Tall, muscular, and brooding, he kept an air of distance from most recruits. However, when he glances at Lan Zhan or me, his eyes are melancholy. When we asked about him, we were told he has been on complex missions in the Guangzhou region and was transferred here for training sessions this year.

The class syllabus says, "This course prepares officers to participate in high-risk chase operations in an open-air environment. Topics include visual tracking, land navigation with map, tactical tracking, and team operations."

The truth is that during the first week, half of the recruits have already returned home. The exercises are too harsh. Our instructor has already sent us through a swamp, and now we are abandoned in a mountain. Lan Zhan and I hid behind a rock beside a small stream to rest. We were selected as "the fugitives" in this exercise. If caught in the next 3 hours, we would have to retake this course.

We had been in the forest avoiding contact with our pursuers for hours, and then it happened.

It was a slight pull, but it was there. So, we have entered a magic array. As we advance, Lan Zhan says, "Did you hear that?"

I shook my head.

"that's exactly the point."

I realize he is right. No birds are chirping frogs, nor the sound of the wind through the leaves.

We kept walking, following the map until we reached our destination, an abandoned school partially buried by a landslide. We made it. We sigh in relief as the night claims the last remains of light.

However, something is watching over us. Soon, someone took a knife and launched it at us. We made quick work of this guy, but then I saw the paper talisman pasted at his back. After that, three more came at us, I took the second, and Lan Zhan took the other two down.

"Paper talismans?" asks Lan Zhan, and I nod. "Someone is controlling these guys".

"They failed," is our instructor's voice, "but if you can break the barrier, you will pass, and I won't need to use these talismans to get you down this mountain."