Li Ling grinned and said, "Take away that 'ma' from you. A man can't say no." Then he comforted her, "Don't worry, I just carried you all the way. You should have noticed that it didn't take much effort, right, Chen Pai?"
"You little rascal." Chen Pai patted Li Ling lightly on the head, somewhat shocked by Li Ling's physical fitness. He had carried him for so long without even breaking a sweat.
Little did he know that Li Ling's physical condition had reached the limits of human potential, and the world seed in his sea of consciousness was providing him with energy every moment. Now, even if he carried someone on his back for a whole day, he wouldn't get very tired.
Li Ling glanced at the Southeast Lake case, where Xiao Ying's field hospital was located. He would go there to see Xiao Ying first, and then he could also treat Chen Pai's illness.
Li Ling carefully laid Chen Pai on the ground, letting him lean against his backpack. He then tied the opening of his waterproof travel bag to create a makeshift buoyancy device. After waiting a while and seeing that Chen Pai's complexion had improved considerably, he asked, "Chen Pai, does your leg still hurt?"
Chen Pai shook his head, indicating that he had almost recovered, and slowly stood up.
Li Ling threw the waterproof travel bag into the water, slung Chen Pai's backpack and gun over his own shoulder, and said, "Chen Pai, you're injured. Lie on this floating backpack. I'll swim ahead of you. Once you're in the water, hold onto my belt."
Seeing that Chen Pai was about to speak, Li Ling preemptively said, "Chen Pai, don't worry about me. I know my physical condition. I can swim you across."
Chen Pai gave Li Ling a deep look and realized that he was not joking. Although he was somewhat shocked by Li Ling's physical fitness, now was not the time to investigate this issue, so he immediately walked into the lake.
"Let's go, get in the water."
“Chen Pai, let’s go to the Southeast Lake case first, it’s closer. Once we get there, we can rest before going to the Southwest Lake case. Otherwise, given your current condition, soaking your leg in cold water for too long will only worsen your injury.”
Li Ling needed to find a reason to go to Xiao Ying's place.
Chen Pai paused for a moment, feeling the faint pain in his leg, and nodded.
Li Ling hung the gun behind him and placed it on top of his backpack, freeing his hands to paddle. Chen Pai lay on the floating backpack, holding onto Li Ling's belt with one hand and paddling with the other, struggling to swim towards the southeast shore of the lake.
...
At the temporary base of the Blue Army Wolf Fang Special Forces, Captain Gao looked at the prisoners with a grim expression and said coldly, "They have an extra set of combat gear and a backpack, and the rank on their camouflage uniforms is Private. What's going on? Besides the officers in charge, who else escaped?"
In the chaos in the forest, they hadn't noticed the extra backpack, but upon arriving at their camp, they discovered the problem during a headcount and realized that someone had slipped through their fingers.
The prisoners naturally ignored Captain Gao's questions, and Captain Gao couldn't really interrogate them like prisoners, so he opened the extra backpack.
On top of the bag was a sealed file folder. Inside were letters written by Li Ling to Xiao Ying, which he had intended to bring to her, but hadn't been able to take with him when he was traveling alone.
When Gao Zhong picked up a letter and saw the name 'Zhuang Yan' written on the sender's address on the envelope, his expression immediately turned ugly.
Back at the reconnaissance company's firing range, Li Ling only gave the name "Xiao Zhuang," which prevented Captain Gao from knowing the full name "Zhuang Yan." However, the college student they had just met, who claimed to be a hiker, immediately made Captain Gao realize that the two were alike. The name on the student ID he saw was Zhuang Yan.
"Drama Academy, Lao Miao clearly mentioned it, how could I forget?" Team Leader Gao closed his eyes in frustration and placed the letter in his hand on his head.
"What's wrong, Captain Gao?" Coyote asked, looking at Captain Gao with a puzzled expression.
“This set of equipment belongs to that college student, the college student who slipped through my fingers. I was worried that he didn’t have money, so I gave him two hundred yuan for the bus fare.”
"Pfft~"
Among the prisoners standing nearby, Lao Pao, Chen Xiwa, and others almost burst out laughing when they heard Captain Gao's words.
...
Li Ling paddled slowly, already finding it quite strenuous. That damned southeastern shore of the lake was still a long way off. Armed swimming was different from mountain cross-country; the physical exertion it required was terrifying.
Especially when carrying a standard 24.5-kilogram backpack, along with an automatic rifle, pistol, water bottle, and other heavy equipment, and also having to lead Platoon Leader Chen, even with Li Ling's current physical strength and the replenishment from the World Seeds, he was finding it somewhat difficult to cope.
Looking behind him, Chen Pai had already fainted.
Li Ling tightened his backpack and, gripping Chen Pai's arm, struggled to swim towards the southeast bank.
After an unknown amount of time, Li Ling finally saw the shore. At that moment, two female soldiers were chatting by the lake. Li Ling was still somewhat sober and quickly realized that he must have encountered Xiao Ying and Xiao Fei.
After swimming a little further with the unconscious Chen Pai, Li Ling took a closer look and realized it was indeed his own shadow. He couldn't help but shout excitedly.
"Xiaoying!"
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Chapter 44 The landscape is like a painting, and every part of it reflects you.
"Xiaoying! It's me, Xiaozhuang!"
After shouting, Li Ling first pushed the unconscious Chen Pai ashore, and then he himself swayed and collapsed on the bank.
"Xiao Zhuang!"
Seeing this, Xiaoying panicked and ran to Li Ling's side. When she saw Li Ling's face clearly, she immediately picked up his head and cried out, "Xiao Zhuang, Xiao Zhuang, wake up! What's wrong? Wake up!"
Xiao Fei ran over to Chen Pai to check on him and breathed a sigh of relief after finding that he was alright.
Li Ling was only slightly exhausted, but still conscious. He said weakly to Xiao Ying, "Xiao Ying, I'm fine. I'm just exhausted. I'll be fine after a rest. How's my platoon leader?"
Hearing this, Xiao Fei quickly said to Li Ling, "Don't worry, he was just exhausted. He drank some water and passed out."
"By the way, our platoon leader has ankylosing spondylitis and injured his leg before. He needs to get treatment as soon as possible."
After giving these instructions, Li Ling relaxed completely, sprawling out on the ground, not wanting to move at all. Although he hadn't passed out yet, all he wanted to do now was get a good night's sleep.
In the end, Xiaoying stayed behind to take care of the two, while Xiaofei went back to the field hospital to get help. Li Ling was held in Xiaoying's arms, and at this moment, tears kept streaming from Xiaoying's eyes.
Li Ling struggled to raise his hand to wipe away her tears, and gently comforted her, "Xiaoying, I'm really fine. You should smile when you see me, don't cry, you won't look pretty when you cry!"
Hearing Li Ling's words, Xiao Ying, though still crying, felt much relieved and said reproachfully, "You're teasing me as soon as we meet."
Xiaoying's voice was soft and gentle. Li Ling chuckled as he lay in Xiaoying's arms, "Don't cry, I'll be sad if you cry."
During the time I haven't seen you, I've thought about you constantly and written you so many letters, but I haven't had a chance to show them to you yet.