116: Chapter 116: Little One's Farewell

The early morning sunlight spilled through the gaps in the curtains into the dormitory. Su Qingcheng had already packed her gear. She gently stroked the ID tag on her training uniform, her fingertips lingering for a moment on the number "5."

"Sister Qingcheng!"

A crisp child's voice suddenly came from outside the door, followed by the sound of "thump, thump, thump" footsteps. Before Su Qingcheng could turn around, a small figure rushed in like a cannonball and dove into her arms.

"Xiao Budian?" Su Qingcheng squatted down in surprise, looking at the little girl with two small pigtails wearing a pink dress. "Why are you here?"

Xiao Budian looked up, her large, round eyes sparkling with a mischievous light. "Great-grandfather said he’s taking me home! I came to say goodbye to you sisters!"

As she spoke, she pulled a handful of colorful candies from her pocket and held them up to Su Qingcheng like a treasure. "Here! I stole these from Great-grandfather!"

Su Qingcheng couldn't help but laugh. As she took the candies, she noticed a grass bracelet on Xiao Budian's wrist—it was one she had casually woven for her during a training break last week.

"You're still wearing this?" Su Qingcheng gently touched the bracelet, which had already turned slightly yellow.

"Of course!" Xiao Budian proudly puffed out her chest. "This is the amulet Sister Qingcheng gave me! Great-grandfather said that if I wear it, I won't be caught by bad guys!"

The other female soldiers in the dormitory were also drawn over by the commotion. Li Xue was the first to run over, squatting down to pinch Xiao Budian's cheek. "Xiao Budian, is your Great-grandfather finally letting you go home?"

"That's not it!" Xiao Budian pouted. "I'm going back to go to school! Great-grandfather said that if children don't go to school, they'll become little dummies!"

No. 18 Zhang Meng walked over and intentionally put on a stern face. "Then after you go back, will you forget about us?"

"I won't!" Xiao Budian stamped her feet anxiously and pulled a stack of crumpled pieces of paper from her other pocket. "Look, I've drawn all of you!"

The female soldiers leaned in to look and found several crooked "portraits"—one with a ponytail (Su Qingcheng), one with glasses (Li Xue), and one with developed muscles (Zhang Meng). Next to each portrait, there were also crookedly written numbers.

"This is the commemorative album I made for you sisters!" Xiao Budian explained solemnly. "When I grow up, I want to be a soldier too, and fight bad guys with you sisters!"

No. 12 Lin Yu's eyes suddenly reddened. She squatted down and hugged Xiao Budian tightly. "Xiao Budian, you must grow up well..."

"Sister Lin Yu, don't cry!" Xiao Budian hurriedly tried to help her wipe her tears, but ended up smearing Lin Yu's face with her sleeve. "Great-grandfather said that soldiers bleed but don't shed tears!"

"What else did your Great-grandfather teach you?" Zhang Meng couldn't help asking.

Xiao Budian tilted her head and thought for a moment, then suddenly stood up straight, mimicking Su Han's posture of holding his hands behind his back. "'Soldiers must have backbone! Better to die standing than to live kneeling!'—Great-grandfather tells me this every night!"

The female soldiers looked at each other, not expecting that the cold Chief Instructor would actually educate Xiao Budian like this in private.

"And there's more!" Xiao Budian suddenly became excited and pulled a cloth doll out of her backpack. "Look! This is 'Little Qingqing' that Great-grandfather sewed for me!"

The female soldiers looked closely. It was a crooked cloth doll that could barely be recognized as a human figure, sewn with camouflage fabric, with the number "5" embroidered on its chest.

"Is this... me?" Su Qingcheng took the doll in surprise.

"Yes! Great-grandfather spent several nights sewing it!" Xiao Budian said proudly. "Even though the stitches are crooked, he said it's a 'limited edition'!"

Su Qingcheng looked at the ugly but cute doll in her hand, and a warm current welled up in her heart. She couldn't imagine that the Chief Instructor, who was cold and ruthless on the training field, would actually sew a doll stitch by stitch late at night...

"Time's up."

A deep voice came from the doorway. Su Han was standing there at some point, wearing his service uniform and holding a small suitcase.

"Great-grandfather!" Xiao Budian cheered and ran over, hugging Su Han's leg. "I've finished saying goodbye to the sisters!"

Su Han nodded, his gaze sweeping over the female soldiers. "I'll be back in a week. During this time, Instructor Zhou will be responsible for your training."

"Yes! Chief Instructor!" the female soldiers replied in unison.

Xiao Budian suddenly remembered something and ran back to Su Qingcheng, mysteriously beckoning her to squat down.

"Sister Qingcheng, let me tell you a secret," she leaned into Su Qingcheng's ear and said in what she thought was a very quiet "whisper," "These past few days, I've seen many handsome guys at the base. They all say you're pretty, Sister Qingcheng, and they want to marry you and take you home to be their wife!"

Su Qingcheng's face turned red instantly, and the other female soldiers also showed mischievous smiles.

Su Han at the door clearly heard it, and the corner of his mouth twitched.

This little girl is freaking playing matchmaker in the Special Forces!

"Su! Xiao! Meng!" He called out Xiao Budian's full name one word at a time.

Xiao Budian stuck out her tongue and quickly ran back to Su Han's side, but didn't forget to look back and make a face at the female soldiers. "Keep it up, sisters! When I grow up, I'll come and be your captain!"

"Woof woof!"

Just then, the sound of urgent barking approached from a distance.

A majestic military dog ran over quickly, then pounced on Xiao Budian, licking her all over!

The members of the War Eagle Squad were all surprised.

That was the base's decorated dog, "Heibao." Usually, even the trainers had to put in a lot of effort to get it to obey.

Who would have thought that in just one short month, it would become so familiar with Xiao Budian!

"Heibao came to see me off too!" Xiao Budian announced proudly, turning to hug the dog's neck.

Surprisingly, the usually aloof Heibao actually lowered its head submissively and affectionately rubbed against Xiao Budian's face.

"This..." Monkey's eyes widened. "Xiao Budian, when did you get so close to Heibao?"

"We've been good friends for a long time!" Xiao Budian said triumphantly. "I secretly share my meat with him every day!"

The members of the War Eagle Squad looked at each other. "Heibao is actually this friendly to people?"