I put you in charge of those rebellious female soldiers, how come they all became top special forces

"What's your name?" Chen Zheng's voice was unusually gentle.

"Guo...Guo Huaiying."

"A good name." Chen Zheng nodded. "Huaiying means to cherish heroes."

The girl paused for a moment, then gave an awkward laugh.

Chen Zheng picked up his chopsticks, took a braised lion's head from his plate, and threw it into Guo Huaiying's rice bowl.

"Eat it."

Guo Huaiying was startled and stammered, "No... Commander, I can't eat it, I..."

"That's an order."

Chen Zheng put on a stern face and adopted the demeanor of an instructor.

"Who said you're incompetent?"

"Being able to finish this whole bowl of rice is a skill in itself."

"On the battlefield, those who can eat and sleep well are the ones who live the longest."

"and……"

Chen Zheng looked into her eyes and said, word by word:

"If your dad knew you were starving yourself like this to save the country money on food, he'd be so angry he'd crawl out of his grave and beat you up, believe it or not?"

"eat!"

"Only when you're full will you have the strength to walk with me."

Guo Huaiying looked at the lion's head, then at Chen Zheng's face, which, though stern, held no hint of mockery in its eyes.

Her lips trembled.

Sudden.

"Wow--"

She opened her mouth and burst into tears without warning.

Tears fell into the rice bowl like beads.

While crying, she grabbed a spoon and stuffed meat and rice into her mouth.

"Mmm...it's so delicious...it's really delicious..."

She cried out incoherently, like a child who had been wronged for a long time and finally got to eat candy.

these years.

She kept that promise and lived so cautiously.

Nowadays.

Finally, someone told her that she could eat meat.

Anran secretly wiped away her tears, turning her head away, unable to bear watching any longer.

Chen Zheng simply watched her wolf down her food, the thermos cup in his hand becoming slightly deformed from his grip.

"Eat slowly, don't choke."

"Ugh... ugh..."

Guo Huaiying responded vaguely, trying to swallow the meat in her mouth, but because she was in such a hurry, she choked and her eyes rolled back.

She grabbed the seaweed soup next to her, gulped down a big mouthful, and then swallowed the piece of meat.

"Is it good?" An Ran handed over a wet wipe, her voice very gentle.

"Delicious! So delicious!"

Guo Huaiying nodded vigorously, a simple smile appearing on her dark red face.

"I've never eaten such delicious meatballs in my entire life."

"Eat more if you like it." An Ran pushed her plate over as well, even though she hadn't eaten any of the food on it. "These are all for you."

Guo Huaiying looked at the plate of ribs, a hint of longing flashing in her eyes, but she withdrew her hand.

"No...no, I can't eat the commander's food."

"This is fine with me."

She lowered her head again and used a spoon to scrape the remaining soup at the bottom of the bowl, not letting a single grain of rice go to waste.

Chen Zheng leaned back in his chair, watching her movements, his gaze darkening once more.

"You just said that your father was killed in the border defense regiment."

"And what about your mother? With the pension, she wouldn't be letting you live such a miserable life, would she?"

In principle, the orphans of martyrs should be given preferential treatment by the state.

With the addition of the pension, they won't be unable to afford even a meal of meat.

The spoon that was scraping the rice bowl stopped.

Guo Huaiying's hand trembled slightly.

She lowered her head, looking at the empty rice bowl, and the tears she had just stopped falling again.

"My mother... is gone too."

An Ran's heart skipped a beat.

"Even that's gone?"

"Hmm." Guo Huaiying sniffed, her voice low. "My mother is a narcotics officer."

The year my father passed away, my mother was still working on the front lines.

"Later... when I was about twelve years old, my mother went on a mission and never came back."

"She's that... undercover agent."

Guo Huaiying raised her head, her eyes red.

"Those bad guys were too ruthless. After my mother was discovered..."

She didn't continue speaking, but subconsciously gripped the stainless steel spoon tightly, her knuckles turning white from the force.

Even if Guo Huaiying hadn't said anything, Chen Zheng and An Ran could have guessed how tragic the ending would be.

Children of two martyrs.

The weight of those words made An Ran feel like she could hardly breathe.

"Then how come you ended up at this military academy?" Chen Zheng's next question was even more direct. "As the children of two martyrs, the state will take care of you to the end. How can you think of yourself as someone who's just freeloading off the government?"

Guo Huaiying tugged at the corners of her mouth, revealing an ugly smile.

"Because... I'm stupid."

She pointed to her head.

"I'm an idiot, I'm bad at studying, and my brain doesn't work well."

"I wasn't supposed to get into military academy, but I asked my uncle, who was an officer, for help, and he got me admitted through special admission. He even kept all my pension money for me."

At this point, Guo Huaiying lowered her head even further, almost to the point of hiding under the table.

"I know, this is what it means to get in through connections."

"I shouldn't be here. This place is full of college students, all smart people."

"They can all do calculus, know about radio waves, and can even write code."

"I can't."

Guo Huaiying's voice was choked with sobs.

"I really can't learn it."

"Those formulas are like reading gibberish to me."

"I always come in last place in every exam."

"When the teacher asks me questions in class, I can never answer them. I can only stand there like an idiot and be laughed at by the whole class."

She became more and more agitated as she spoke, and years of pent-up grievances suddenly welled up inside her.

"Last week...last week, that calculus teacher scolded me in front of the whole class."

He said, "Guo Huaiying, you're just a piece of rotten wood; you can't be carved into anything useful."

"They said if it weren't for your deceased parents, the school would have expelled you long ago."

"They even said that keeping a piece of trash like you in a military academy is a waste of the country's food and resources!"

Guo Huaiying covered her face and burst into tears.

"I don't want to be a useless person... I really don't..."

"Before my mother passed away, she told me to study hard and not to end up like her and my father, constantly risking their lives."

She said that as long as I could get into university, even if it was just a junior college, she would be at ease.

"But I'm stupid! I really tried my best!"

"I study until two or three in the morning every night, but I just can't figure out those problems!"

"I'm sorry to my father, and I'm sorry to my mother..."

"I'm just a piece of trash who deserves to eat leftovers..."

The sound of crying echoed in the corner of the cafeteria. Although there were other voices around, the atmosphere at this table was very oppressive.

An Ran's tears had long been unstoppable.

"Don't cry, Huaiying, don't cry..."

An Ran stood up, wanting to go over and hug the girl.

But before her hand could touch Guo Huaiying, it was stopped by another hand.

Chen Zheng gripped An Ran's wrist.

"Let her cry." Chen Zheng sat there, expressionless. "It's better to cry than to keep it inside."