The buses rode deep into the mountains for about another hour before they finally saw signs of human presence. A majestic olive-drab gate that stood concealed among the mountains opened before their eyes, revealing rows after rows of simple yet neatly arranged barracks inside.
This place was where they would spend a month.
As Sophia looked at the surrounding mountains and rivers, she suddenly recognized this place. This place was Audistin’s hunting ground!
This hunting ground was the only actual hunting ground in Bayside City, and many beasts were raised inside for the hunting pleasure of the scions of noble families. In other words, there were lots of wild animals nearby.
Sh*t, this is going to be serious! thought Sophia to herself. She had thought of climbing over the wall at midnight to wander nearby, but who would dare to sneak out under such circumstances?
Luckily, the military camp was situated next to Audistin’s ground, which was her home turf.
Sophia led Nathan into the military training camp in the best of spirits. Everything seemed very new to her, including the spacious training ground, the rows of barracks, and the olive-drab color that came and went around them. However, Nathan seemed to be unhappy; perhaps it was because he had not gotten enough sleep on the bus, for he kept pouting his lips.
Sophia soon found her barracks, which accommodated twenty people. Inside the barracks were bunk beds and two rows of desks with a desk for each person. On each desk was a tooth mug with toothpaste inside, whereas below each desk was a thermos bottle. Instead of being air-conditioned, the barracks had only a few large fans.
The ladies were still complaining about the barracks’ poor living conditions. Even the civilian students, who mostly came from well-to-do middle-class families, had never borne such hardships, let alone children of wealthy families.
Nathan should have been staying in a male dormitory, but for some reason, he was assigned to the same barracks as Sophia’s; he took the bunk above hers.
As Sophia put her stuff in their proper places, she muttered to herself, “Does Michael really have no qualms about putting his son in here?”
After putting her stuff in place, Sophia went out to have a look. There were many barracks here, for every barracks could accommodate twenty people, and there were at least four thousand new students in this batch. Therefore, the barracks covered an extensive area.
They had half a day to rest, recuperate, and get used to the place. Wearing a pair of slippers, Sophia took Nathan for a leisurely stroll around the military training camp.
However, she didn’t expect the military shoes she placed under her desk in the barracks to have a few nails put into them after she left.
Nathan seemed to be very familiar with the military training camp as he guided Sophia around the place with ease and introduced every place they came to.
“That’s the infirmary. Your husband’s men are inside, so you can have them do me a favor by writing a sick note for you to skip military training.”
“Don’t lose your way. This place is big, so follow me closely.”
They strolled around for a while before arriving at the back door of the military training camp. This military training camp was heavily guarded and strongly fortified, so it was almost impossible to climb over the wall. Besides, this place was easily guarded but difficult to attack; people could only get in and out through the front gate and the back door.
One must swipe his or her ID card in order to enter or leave the military training camp. Nathan took a card off his neck and swiped it.
With that, the wicket gate opened with a beeping sound, and Nathan went out through the gate calmly while still holding Sophia’s hand.
The group of special forces guarding the gate with live ammunition stayed perfectly still as though they didn’t know that a kid was swiping his card to leave the camp.
After they exited the camp, a Second Lieutenant came riding a military tricycle and took them for a ride.
The tricycle rode on the deserted road for about more than ten minutes before it arrived at a stretch of open land, which seemed to be a large vegetable farm equipped with polytunnels.
Is this the military training camp’s vegetable farm? Sophia thought to herself.
The military camp was too far away from residential areas since it was situated in a barren mountain. Therefore, it was only natural that the troops cleared out a plot of land to plant some vegetable crops for daily consumption.
As she had expected, there were soldiers growing vegetables on the farm while dressed in olive-drab.
Nathan brought Sophia into one of the polytunnels without saying a word. Sophia was puzzled as to why he did so, but on second thought, she realized it wouldn’t be possible for her to be kidnapped and sold by a little brat. Therefore, she entered the polytunnel after him.
As she entered the polytunnel, she was suddenly overwhelmed by the sight of countless big watermelons before her eyes. As it turned out, this place was used to grow watermelons.
The ground inside the polytunnel was covered in sandy soil, and heat lamps were used to resemble the environment best-suited for growing watermelons. As a result, the watermelons here were especially huge in size.
As it turned out, they were here to pick watermelons.
Nathan entered the watermelon field and looked around before picking a small watermelon that he could carry just fine. Sophia picked a few big watermelons as well. She was quite an expert at picking watermelons, for her maternal grandfather’s family used to grow watermelons in their hometown village.
After they finished picking watermelons, somebody helped them load the watermelons into the car and even drove them back to the military training camp.
Sophia was now even more certain that Nathan was related to the Fletcher Family of Bayside City.
The car drove straight into the military training camp when it arrived and dropped them off at the camp’s cookhouse. After the cooks cut all the watermelons into halves, Sophia and Nathan ate one half of a watermelon each, whereas the remaining watermelons were wrapped in cling film and stored in the refrigerator.
Sophia, who had been thirsty, felt refreshed all over after eating the watermelon. She wiped her mouth and asked Nathan, “Tell me, kid, how did you know there’s a vegetable farm over there? Also, who gave you that card?”
Sophia had thought that the card was an amulet since Nathan wore it around his neck all the time; little did she expect that it was actually a card.
Nathan nibbled at his watermelon as he replied coldly, “Shut up and eat your watermelon.”
Since he didn’t answer her question, Sophia didn’t ask him again. After finishing off her watermelon, she committed this place to memory lest she couldn’t find it when they came to eat watermelons next time.
Nathan finished off his watermelon and wiped his hands. After that, he said, “Be careful; someone put nails in your shoes.”
“Huh?” Sophia asked, “How did you know that?”
“Somebody told me about that, of course!” answered Nathan.
Someone actually put nails in her shoes? It seemed that those people would never stop until she was dead!
If she unknowingly stepped on the nails, she would be unable to undergo her military training. Not only would she lose her credits for military training, but she might also end up being crippled!
Sophia felt refreshed all over after eating her watermelon. Suddenly, an idea came into her mind, and she said, “I have a plan.”
She rushed to the infirmary with Nathan after leaving the cookhouse. On their way to the infirmary, she saw a military vehicle passing by in front of them. She immediately moved back to make way for the vehicle; to her surprise, however, the vehicle stopped in front of them.
The military vehicle’s door opened, and a pair of polished military boots came into her sight. Then, the wearer of the boots also walked straight up to them.
Sophia looked at the man who shone with a glaring olive-drab brilliance.
He was Joel Fletcher, the eldest son of the Fletcher Family of Bayside City. It could be said that he was the wealthiest of the wealthy and the most powerful among the princelings in Bayside City. Moreover, his whole body exuded an intimidating aura, causing Sophia to have difficulty breathing in his overwhelming presence.
As Joel walked straight up to them, Nathan suddenly hid behind Sophia; he seemed to be very afraid of Joel.
However, Joel suddenly crouched down to be on a similar level with Nathan. In contrast to the stern look he adopted during the admonitory speeches just now, he had a smile on his face as he extended his hand to Nathan at this moment. He asked, “Do you still remember your uncle, Nathan? I’m your mother’s brother. I even cuddled you before!”
Sophia was startled by his words. Uncle? So is Joel Nathan’s uncle? Doesn’t that mean Nathan’s mother is a Fletcher? Isn’t Michael his Dad?
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