Chapter 156: Short Stature

After a big battle, everyone was already very tired, but the Qiming members hardly slept at all in the second half of the night.

Some time passed.

A thunderclap boomed outside.

Then a heavy rain poured down.

For some reason, the sound of the rain greatly relaxed everyone's nerves; perhaps subconsciously they felt the enemy wouldn't attack in such heavy rain.

Chen Mu kept his eyes closed, but only when the rain stopped and the outside sky grew dimly bright did he finally get some sleep.

Morning.

Everyone got up very early.

They merely had somewhat dark circles under their eyes.

Chen Mu led Wei Dalei and the others outdoors.

That stone ball remained in place, while the plastic ball on the ground continued to emit light conscientiously, though its brightness had greatly diminished, and because of the rain, a large portion had been washed away, leaving not many at the doorway.

At the critical moment last night, Dong Junwei had already exerted her utmost effort, so the brightness and duration of these plastic balls were stronger than those she had made before.

But because it was already broad daylight, the difference wasn't very noticeable.

Chen Mu walked over to that stone ball; last night he hadn't had the mind to study it, but upon close inspection now he discovered that the ball was not only huge but also exceptionally smooth, looking as if it were machine-polished marble.

"What kind of special ability could this be?" he turned his head to look at Tang Jing.

"It's possible, perhaps it makes object surfaces smooth?" Tang Jing said: "But a stone ball this big must have taken considerable time to make."

Chen Mu wondered: "If it's just to make the fire effect look realistic, wouldn't that be too wasteful?"

"Maybe this stone ball has other uses?"

"Should we move it inside?"

"What use does it have?" He Ying asked: "Chen Mu making such a big stone ball shouldn't be too difficult, right?"

"Making a stone ball isn't hard, but making its surface so smooth as to facilitate rolling is another matter." Chen Mu laughed: "As for its purpose, I haven't thought of it yet, but since Yi Zhong put effort into making it, we can't let them take it back."

Last night's rain was indeed heavy; the bloodstains on the ground were washed away seven‑eighths, basically erasing any trace of last night's battle.

Because they hadn't slept well last night, Dong Junwei had everyone return to their rooms in shifts during the day to catch up on sleep, but some follow‑up repair work still couldn't be halted.

Especially the watchtower.

After being tested in battle, its effectiveness turned out not to be great; the main issues were nighttime observation and transmitting information.

"I couldn't sleep last night, and I came up with a method for up‑down communication."

"Oh?"

"Make a hollow pipe of stainless steel connecting upper and lower levels, with both ends shaped like funnels—wouldn't that allow us to speak?" Chen Mu gestured with his hands as he explained his idea.

"A primitive telephone?"

Tang Jing laughed: "It sounds feasible."

"Then I'll make it now."

The problems exposed by the battle must be resolved immediately.

Yi Zhong's attack last night, upon reflection, isn't a bad thing; at least it gave everyone a sense of urgency, making them more proactive in their tasks.

Dong Junwei suddenly said: "I'm curious how they found us—we haven't left the area these past days."

"Perhaps it's some kind of scouting ability?"

"For example… thermal imaging? Or perhaps it's a sensory enhancement like that of Sun Yuan and Zhao Xiao Yan?"

Chen Mu said: "That's also possible; the day we first came back, they were already trailing us and had located this place, but they didn't dare rush in, thinking they'd wait for us to go out before acting."

"As a result, we haven't gone out for many days." He Ying chuckled, but thinking of her daily morning exercises near the doorway sent a chill down her spine.

Although the water supply is no longer a major issue, He Ying still insists on going outside each morning to gather some dew, and everyone also prefers to wash up with dew—not only is it cleaner, it also sounds more refined.

Dong Junwei sighed: "No matter what, we are now officially opposed to Yi Zhong, and our location has been exposed; if they come again next time, it probably won't be so easy to deal with."

Dong Junwei didn't say this to everyone; instead, after everyone went off to their own tasks, she separately summoned Tang Jing, He Ying, and Chen Mu to discuss future countermeasures.

Chen Mu nodded: "This time we won easily thanks to the hand grenades, but next time I expect they'll be prepared."

Tang Jing said: "There's no need to be overly pessimistic; their losses this time are not small, so they probably won't come back for revenge quickly, and besides, Yi Zhong still has to guard against Qingbei, so they won't pour too much force into our side."

"That said, I still want to find a chance to scout them; last time we gained quite a bit of supplies, but we got no information at all."

"How about another trip to the cafeteria?" He Ying instantly perked up.

"Let's wait a few days." Chen Mu nodded: "First we need to tidy up the place."

Tang Jing opened her mouth, wanted to speak but held back, finally smiling and nodding without saying anything.

Three o'clock in the afternoon.

The watchtower's communication pipe was completed.

This communication pipe has a diameter of nearly 1 centimeter, which indeed added considerably to Chen Mu's workload; this was Tang Jing's request, but she only said it was the optimal result after calculation, and unlike before she didn't take the opportunity to popularize any knowledge among others.

Since noon, Tang Jing's enthusiasm has been low, and she often zones out.

As if she were thinking about something.

Chen Mu rarely sees her like this; he originally wanted to ask a few questions.

But upon second thought, if even Tang Jing can't solve the problem, he seems to have no need to ask.

After completion, the communication pipe aroused everyone's interest, and each person came over to try it a few times.

During the daytime shift today, it was Chang Junyan's turn on duty; after completion, naturally he was the first to experiment: he cleared his throat, then loudly sang a national anthem; the sound traveled through the pipe and emerged from the lower funnel, sounding a bit muffled but still fairly clear.

Chang Junyan is tone‑deaf; frankly his singing is hard to listen to, but everyone still stood and listened to him sing from start to finish, then gathered at the funnel's mouth to exchange a few words with him.

After confirming that the upper end could also hear clearly, it was already almost four o'clock.

Chen Mu did not go to catch up on sleep.

Last night's consumption was mainly stamina; he hardly used any special ability, and at seventeen or eighteen years old, staying up one or two nights is still no problem.

The main thing is, he has too much to do.

……

That stone ball was rolled back and placed beside the Water Reservoir.

Wei Dalei, under Chen Mu's command, easily pushed the stone ball to the designated spot by himself, and then was summoned by Dong Junwei.

Just as Old Wei left, Gu Yinglong came forward with a curious look, reached out and touched the stone ball.

Chen Mu, seeing her tiny figure, always felt as if the stone ball might crush her; after thinking, he still created a raised barrier on the ground to stop the stone ball from rolling.

One big and one small, the two of them stood beside the stone ball.

Chen Mu suddenly realized something, turned his head and asked, "Have you seen this stone ball?"

"Mm." Gu Yinglong nodded, still looking curiously at the stone ball.

"At Yi Zhong?"

"Mm, at Yi Zhong." The little girl continued nodding.

Over these days, Dong Junwei explained the basic situation of the school to Gu Yinglong, and also told her that the people who initially imprisoned her were all from Yi Zhong.

Given Dong Junwei's nature, she normally wouldn't speak ill of others behind their backs, even if they were enemies; but out of concern turned to worry, fearing Gu Yinglong would lack vigilance toward those people, when she told her these things, the implication was clear—those from Yi Zhong are all bad people, don't bother with them in the future.

Gu Yinglong nodded her little head, indicating understanding.

However, she seemed to have no resentment toward Yi Zhong.

In fact, when Gu Yinglong first arrived, her face never showed any expression of joy, anger, sorrow, or happiness; even though she was confined in a cage, she seemed not to feel anything wrong.

According to Tang Jing's explanation, because she lacks memory of 'people,' she also doesn't know how a person should live normally; in her world, there is no kindness, nor bullying, and human emotions are completely a blank slate to her.

And after these days of interaction, Gu Yinglong is noticeably more cheerful than before, at least sometimes she laughs.

All the girls felt sorry for her ordeal, took extra care of her; Dong Junwei didn't assign her any work, yet Gu Yinglong herself always wanted to help with something.

She often ran back and forth with her short little legs among the busy crowd.

But it's obvious that the things she can help with are very few; sometimes she even gets in the way.

Over time, Gu Yinglong's enthusiasm took a hit; nowadays most of the time she just sits aside watching others work.

And what she likes most is watching Chen Mu use his ability to reshape objects.

Whether metal, plastic, or wood and stone, these originally lifeless things undergo myriad changes in Chen Mu's hands.

In Gu Yinglong's view, this is basically magic.

Thus, Chen Mu seemingly gained a regular audience; whenever he worked or trained, Gu Yinglong would drag a small stool to sit not far away, propping her chin to watch him.

At first this made Chen Mu a bit uncomfortable.

But after a while, it didn't matter anymore.

Chen Mu at this moment thought that Gu Yinglong had stayed at Yi Zhong for a period, perhaps she had seen this stone ball; but seeing her curious look, she probably hadn't observed it up close.

"When you were at Yi Zhong, have you seen this big stone ball?"

"Mm." Gu Yinglong nodded her little head.

"Where did you see it, the cafeteria?"

"Mm, the cafeteria, there were many."

"Many?"

"Mm, thirty-three."

"You even counted them?"

"Mm-mmm." Gu Yinglong continued answering with her signature nod and "mm."

Chen Mu was momentarily speechless, but thinking she was probably locked in an iron cage with nothing to do, he started counting things for fun.

"Are those stone balls all this size?"

"Mm."

"Do you know what they're used for?"

"I don't know." Gu Yinglong shook her head.

Chen Mu asked a few more things, but Gu Yinglong at Yi Zhong was basically just a tool, and they probably wouldn't let her run around, so there wasn't much information to be gathered.

Just with so many stone balls, it's also unclear what Yi Zhong wants them for; according to his and Tang Jing's speculation, even if there were related Special Ability users, smoothing such a huge stone ball would definitely not be easy.

"What are you chatting about?"

Tang Jing walked over with a smile, her absent-minded afternoon demeanor gone, as if she had returned to that confident Tang Jing.

Upon seeing they seemed about to talk, Gu Yinglong voluntarily moved her small stool away.

"You say, how was Gu Yinglong captured by the people of Yi Zhong? And how did they know she had this special ability? According to their past behavior patterns, shouldn't they have just attacked on sight?"

Chen Mu poured out all the accumulated questions he had about Gu Yinglong in one breath.

Tang Jing said: "I don't know either."

"Anything else you don't know?" Chen Mu chuckled.

"I'm not a god." Tang Jing spread her hands: "But about Gu Yinglong, don't you find it strange?"

"She's strange all over; which aspect do you mean?" Chen Mu said.

"How tall do you think she is?" Tang Jing countered.

"Um... 1.4 meters?" Chen Mu ventured a guess.

"I think it's about the same." Tang Jing laughed.

"Indeed, she's a bit small."

"Not just a bit, she's too short." Tang Jing said: "In high school, the average height for girls is 1.6 meters; look, Dong Junwei is already 1.7 meters, Zhao Xiao Yan, considered the most petite in our class, is 1.52 meters; even if Gu Yinglong is a freshman, she shouldn't be only this tall."

"Maybe she has some physical illness?" Chen Mu asked.

Tang Jing said: "Maybe, but the issue isn't here; if the school had such a petite girl, she'd normally attract attention, but now, not to mention us, even our same-grade peers Lu Shanshan and the others have no impression of her—don't you find that strange?"

"It seems there really is a bit..."

Although Tang Jing's words made sense, they weren't absolute; Chen Mu felt doubtful and lowered his voice: "You mean she's not from our school?"

"'Just a guess in that regard.' Tang Jing spread her hands."

"But her uniform really fits her well."

"'Hmm.' Tang Jing gave a noncommittal response."

"If she's not from our school, then she's from Yi Zhong?" Chen Mu was slightly surprised, and after a moment said one word: 'Spy?'

Tang Jing laughed: "Spy? Not likely—how would they know we're going to steal the car?"

"Maybe it was originally prepared for Qingbei?"

"That wouldn't require sending an entire truck's worth of supplies and two combat-type Special Ability users, and besides, Yi Zhong had easily repelled Qingbei, right?" Tang Jing said.

"Then I just don't get it." Chen Mu felt helpless.

Tang Jing fell silent for a moment, then said: "Gu Yinglong should be safe, but… her background might be problematic, and perhaps it's related to Special Ability…"

"If you can't figure it out, then I have even less idea."

Chen Mu laughed: "But such a harmless little girl really makes it hard to be on guard; if she really is a spy, that would indeed be troublesome…"

"You're overthinking it."

Tang Jing gave him a rolling-eyed smile, then seemed to think of something; after pondering for a moment, she was about to speak when her face suddenly changed dramatically.

Chen Mu watched helplessly as Tang Jing's face showed pain, then her body slumped and she collapsed to the ground.