85: Chapter 85: "Special Care," a Heartwarming Moment Between Grandparents and Grandchildren

In the thorn thicket, the female soldiers' pace became slower and slower.

"Report... I quit..."

A female soldier, her face covered in bloodstains, finally couldn't hold on any longer and raised her hand tremblingly. Her training uniform had been torn into strips by the thorns, revealing skin covered in tiny wounds.

Su Han signaled Zhou Mo to lead her out and smiled. "A wise choice. Not everyone can be a Special Forces Soldier; you've already been very brave."

When the female soldier was helped out of the thorns, her face was already covered in tears, whether from pain or regret.

"Does anyone else want to quit?" Su Han shouted toward the thicket. "You haven't even crawled halfway yet!"

A few suppressed sobs came from the thicket, but no one else raised their hand.

"Very good!" Su Han nodded in satisfaction, then suddenly raised his voice. "Su Qingcheng! What are you dawdling for? Crawl faster!"

Su Qingcheng's whole body shuddered. She gritted her teeth and increased her speed. Thorns carved new bloodstains onto her face, but she didn't make a sound.

Su Han narrowed his eyes and whispered a few words to Houzi beside him. Houzi nodded, picked up several sharp stones, and slipped into the thorn thicket.

————

"Ah!"

Su Qingcheng suddenly cried out in pain. She felt her palm press onto an exceptionally sharp stone, and blood immediately gushed out.

"What's wrong, Chengzi?" Lin Yu, who was in front, looked back worriedly.

"It's nothing..." Su Qingcheng endured the pain. "I just got scratched by a stone."

She crawled forward with difficulty, only to find that the thorns ahead were clearly denser, and many sharp rock fragments were scattered on the ground.

"Strange..." she muttered softly. "It didn't seem like there were this many stones in this area just now..."

Before she could finish, a sharp stone "happened" to roll right in front of her. Su Qingcheng instinctively used her hand to block it, and the edge of the stone immediately sliced a bloody gash on the back of her hand.

"Hiss—"

She sucked in a cold breath and looked up toward where the stone had rolled from, meeting Su Han's half-smiling gaze.

"Great-grandfather, you..." Su Qingcheng understood instantly, wanting to cry but having no tears.

"Comrade Su Qingcheng!" Su Han barked with a stern face. "Distraction on the battlefield is seeking death! Keep moving!"

As he spoke, he "inadvertently" kicked several more sharp stones onto her path ahead.

The female soldiers watched this scene dumbfounded, feeling both sympathy and relief—thankfully they weren't the Chief Instructor's great-granddaughter!

"Chengzi..." Li Xue swallowed hard. "Your Great-grandfather is giving you... very 'special' attention..."

Su Qingcheng gave a bitter smile. "The Su Family rules... the requirements for our own people are even stricter..."

She took a deep breath and forced herself to crawl forward, letting those sharp stones and thorns leave even more scars on her body.

————

At the edge of the training ground, the members of the War Eagle Squad watched Su Han's "operations" with colorful expressions.

"Su Han," Da Xiong couldn't help but say, "isn't this... a bit too obvious?"

Houzi added with a mischievous grin, "Exactly. Who specifically throws stones onto their own great-granddaughter's path?"

"What do you know?" Su Han said as if it were only natural. "This is called focused cultivation. Children of the Su Family must be more outstanding than everyone else."

Zhou Mo shook his head. "I finally understand. Being a junior in your Su Family is truly not easy..."

————

In the thorn thicket, the female soldiers' physical strength was nearing its limit.

Lin Yu's arms were shaking violently; every inch forward felt like it took all her strength.

Li Xue's situation was even worse. Her glasses had long since disappeared, and her high myopia left her almost unable to see the path ahead, forcing her to follow the person in front mechanically.

"How much... further..." a female soldier asked weakly.

Zhang Meng, at the very front, responded through gritted teeth, "Almost there! I can already see the end!"

Su Qingcheng's condition was relatively better; although she was covered in scars, her breathing was still steady.

"Chengzi," Lin Yu panted heavily, "how can you... still keep going..."

Su Qingcheng smiled bitterly. "I've been... used to being trained by my family elders since I was little..."

What she didn't say was that Su Family training was much more brutal than this—holding a horse stance on wooden boards covered in broken porcelain at age six, practicing punches in freezing river water every morning starting at age ten...

In comparison, the thorn thicket before her actually seemed quite "mild."

"Attention everyone!" Su Han's voice suddenly came from ahead. "Last hundred meters! Hold on!"

The female soldiers' spirits lifted as they used their last bit of strength to crawl forward.

However, just as they were about to reach the finish line, Su Han gave them another "surprise"—

"For the last stretch, change to high-crawl!"

The female soldiers: "..."

High-crawl meant using elbows and knees to support the body while keeping the hips off the ground. This was exhausting enough on flat ground; in a thorn thicket, it was sheer torture!

"Chief Instructor!" Zhang Meng couldn't help but roar. "You're trying to kill us!"

Su Han's smile was radiant. "What? Can't take it already? Who was it that just said they wanted to prove female soldiers aren't inferior to male soldiers?"

The female soldiers were so provoked they gnashed their teeth, forced themselves to change posture, and continued forward in a high-crawl.

The pain of thorns piercing their elbows and knees made many of them weep, but no one shouted to quit anymore.

————

When the last female soldier crawled out of the thorns, everyone collapsed to the ground, lacking even the strength to move a finger.

Their training uniforms were already tattered, and their exposed skin was covered in bloodstains, with some wounds still seeping blood.

Su Han paced in front of them with his hands behind his back, a satisfied smile on his face. "Not bad, a tiny bit better than I imagined."

The female soldiers didn't even have the energy to glare at him; they could only lie on the ground gasping for air.

"However..." Su Han's tone shifted. "This is only the beginning. Next, there's..."

"Report!" a female soldier suddenly raised her hand, her voice weak but firm. "Chief Instructor, can we... treat our wounds first?"

Su Han had a moment of "sudden realization." "Oh right, I almost forgot you'd get injured."

He turned to Zhou Mo and said, "Come, come, everyone hurry back, disinfect, and then bandage them up. It wouldn't be good if they got infected!"

Then he gave the female soldiers a "gentle" smile. "Don't worry, it's all the best medicine. I guarantee there won't be any scars."

The female soldiers: "..."

After struggling back to camp, Su Han had them strip off their gear and change into physical training uniforms (shorts and short sleeves) to assemble.

Dragging their battered bodies, the female soldiers painfully changed into their PT gear. The friction of the fabric against their wounds made them constantly hiss in pain.

"Chengzi..." Lin Yu looked at the dense bloodstains on her arms, her voice trembling. "Your Great-grandfather couldn't possibly have even more ruthless training waiting for us, could he?"

Su Qingcheng was carefully avoiding her wounds while dressing. Hearing this, she smiled bitterly. "Based on my understanding of Great-grandfather... this has only just begun."

Li Xue adjusted her non-existent glasses—they had been lost in the thorns. "I finally understand now why he said 'female soldiers aren't suited for the special forces battlefield'..."

"Assemble!" Zhou Mo's voice came from outside. "Fall in within one minute!"

Ignoring the pain in their bodies, the female soldiers quickly tidied their clothes and rushed out of the dormitory.

On the training ground, Su Han stood with his hands behind his back in front of a large mud pit, an innocuous smile on his face. The pit wasn't large, but it was big enough to hold all the female soldiers.

"Report! Female soldier platoon assembly complete!" Zhang Meng shouted with a raspy voice.

Su Han nodded. "Good work, comrades! Seeing the injuries on your bodies makes my heart ache!"

The female soldiers: "..."

"Therefore," he pointed at the mud pit, "to treat your wounds as quickly as possible, please get in."

The female soldiers looked at each other; no one dared to move.

"Chief Instructor," Li Xue plucked up the courage to ask, "didn't you say... we were going to disinfect and bandage?"

Su Han gave a mysterious smile. "You'll know once you're in."

The female soldiers walked toward the mud pit half-doubtingly. When the muddy water reached their shins, someone couldn't help but cry out, "So cold!"

"Stand properly now," Su Han paced along the edge of the pit with his hands behind his back. "We'll disinfect while doing push-ups."

"What?!" the female soldiers cried out in unison.

Su Han snapped his fingers, and Zhou Mo and Houzi immediately ran over dragging two thick water hoses.

"Begin." Su Han said nonchalantly.

The next second, two jets of liquid erupted, spraying directly at the female soldiers in the mud pit!

"AHHH!!!"

Heart-wrenching screams instantly echoed across the training ground.

That wasn't ordinary water—it was 75% concentration medical alcohol!