Extra Chapter - Ji Lu Wushuang - Rescue Station

Jacob's face instantly paled.

He turned and looked at Ji Wushuang with pleading eyes.

Lu Qianqian's heart leaped into her throat.

Her knuckles turned white from gripping the armrest so tightly.

The lethal techniques Ji Wushuang had taught her during training flashed through her mind in a frantic blur.

But her body remained stiff, frozen in place.

Fear, like a cold hand, closed around her throat.

Ji Wushuang, however, was calm, seeming utterly unfazed by the situation.

She pushed the car door open and stepped out.

She glanced at the officer but said nothing.

Instead, she simply pulled a pack of cigarettes brought from Xia Country from her pocket and offered it to him.

Then, from another pocket, she produced an old, brass lighter.

With a click, she lit it for him.

The officer was taken aback.

He stared at this tall, cold-faced Eastern woman before him.

Her eyes were icy, devoid of fear or supplication.

There was only absolute calm.

And a hint of something utterly terrifying.

It was as if he wasn't looking at a woman, but at an incomprehensible, immense horror!

The officer was momentarily stunned, then instinctively took a drag of the cigarette.

It was fragrant, a taste he had never experienced before.

When his gaze fell upon the brass lighter,

his pupils contracted sharply.

On its side was engraved a faded emblem:

a skull with two crossed scimitars beneath it.

The "Blood Scorpion" mercenary group.

A name that, a decade ago, struck fear across K Country and the entire Central African region.

They had once been hired by K Country's former president to purge rebel forces.

Their methods were exceptionally brutal.

Back then, this officer had been just a lowly soldier.

He had witnessed with his own eyes how those wearing this emblem had slaughtered an entire village of rebel sympathizers as if they were chopping vegetables.

It was the nightmare of his lifetime.

In an instant, cold sweat beaded on the officer's forehead.

If this woman's gaze had initially given him only a vague sense of terror,

then this lighter was the concrete embodiment of a demon!

His hand holding the cigarette began to tremble.

When he looked at Ji Wushuang again, the greed in his eyes was gone.

All that remained was a fear rooted in the depths of his soul.

He didn't know what connection this woman had to the "Blood Scorpion."

But he knew that anyone possessing such an item was absolutely not someone he could afford to provoke.

He took several quick, deep drags of the cigarette.

Then, forcing a stiff, grimace-like smile at Ji Wushuang,

he waved his hand and barked an order to his subordinates.

"Let them pass!"

Ji Wushuang put the lighter away.

However, she left the remaining pack of cigarettes with the officer.

Then, without a word, she turned and got back into the car.

Jacob slammed on the accelerator, and the car shot forward like an arrow from a bow.

Only after they had driven a considerable distance did he dare, with lingering fear, to glance at Ji Wushuang in the rearview mirror.

"Ms. Ji... you... were you formerly with the 'Blood Scorpion'?"

"No."

Ji Wushuang said flatly.

"That was merely an insignificant trophy."

The car continued weaving through the city.

The terrifying scene they had just escaped left Lu Qianqian with no desire to look at the passing scenery outside the window.

Her heart was still pounding wildly.

For the first time, she had felt the threat of death so palpably.

And for the first time, she understood so profoundly her elder brother's intentions.

If not for Ji Wushuang,

she and Jacob might have died at that checkpoint today.

Or faced something even worse than death.

She glanced at Ji Wushuang, who remained as composed as ever beside her.

A feeling named "dependence" welled up in her heart.

The car stopped in a relatively quiet district in the eastern part of the city.

This was an international aid center funded by the Mo family.

Compared to other parts of the city, it was much cleaner and more orderly.

The compound walls were painted white.

At the gate, United Nations peacekeeping soldiers stood guard.

Seeing their car, the soldiers gave it a brief glance before waving them through.

The car stopped in front of a two-story building within the compound.

A white woman in her thirties with blonde hair and blue eyes was waiting for them at the entrance.

She wore a simple T-shirt and jeans.

She looked somewhat weary, but her eyes were bright.

"Hello, I'm Annie."

She stepped forward, introducing herself in fluent Xia language.

"This is the 'Doctors Without Borders' aid station in K Country. I'm the person in charge."

"Ji Wushuang."

"Lu Qianqian."

The three exchanged brief handshakes.

"Ms. Mo has already spoken with me,"

Annie said with a smile.

"Welcome. Our accommodations are a bit basic, I hope you don't mind."

She led the two inside the building.

The interior smelled strongly of disinfectant.

The corridor was lined with beds.

On them lay patients with various expressions of agony.

Moans and coughs filled the air incessantly.

Lu Qianqian saw a girl about her own age.

One of her legs had been blown off.

At that moment, she was staring at the ceiling with hollow, hopeless eyes.

"I'm sorry, there are too many patients. We don't have enough proper wards,"

Annie said apologetically.

She led them upstairs to the second floor.

"This is your room."

She pushed open a door.

The room was small, containing only two simple metal-frame beds and a chipped wardrobe.

But it was clean and tidy.

"Thank you," Lu Qianqian said.

"Get settled in first. Dinner is at seven in the canteen downstairs."

After speaking, Annie hurried back downstairs to attend to her duties.

The room was now quiet, occupied only by Lu Qianqian and Ji Wushuang.

Lu Qianqian set down her backpack, sat on the edge of the bed, and fell silent.

Everything she had seen and heard that day

had far exceeded the sum of her understanding from the past eighteen years.

Poverty, chaos, violence, death, disease.

These words, once seen only in news reports and books,

had now become a harsh, tangible reality.

She had thought she was prepared.

But now she realized how laughable her preparation had been.

"Regretting it?"

Ji Wushuang's voice sounded beside her.

Lu Qianqian looked up and shook her head.

"No."

Her voice was slightly hoarse.

"I just... need some time."

"To accept all this."

Ji Wushuang looked at her.

At her pale face and those stubborn eyes.

She said nothing more.

She simply tossed a pack of compressed biscuits from her own backpack to Lu Qianqian.

"Eat something."

"Food intake can help stabilize your emotions."

After dinner, night fell.

The entire city seemed swallowed by darkness.

In the dead of night,

gunshots echoed intermittently from the distance, and even explosions could be heard.

Lu Qianqian lay in bed, unable to sleep.

The sounds kept her nerves on edge.

Ji Wushuang slept in the bed next to hers.

Ji Wushuang's breathing was steady and even.

As if everything happening outside had nothing to do with her.