At that moment, Nathan—who was nowhere to be seen in the morning—returned with a few male students behind him. They were helping him to carry a few boxes over.
As they opened the boxes before Sophia, she realized that there were popsicles and snacks such as jellies, popsicles, and iced watermelons inside.
Holding a popsicle in one hand and an ice-cream in the other, Sophia said in a loud voice, “Come over, everyone! Get yourself a popsicle after such a tough round of training.”
This made all the second battalion’s troops cheer with joy before they rushed to queue up for the popsicles.
It was obvious that there was an influential person among this batch of students since stuff like popsicles and watermelons could even be found.
On the other hand, those troops who needed to fight for a bottle of iced water looked at them enviously. Although popsicles were sold at the commissary, they couldn’t get their hands on it every single time because the demand for popsicles exceeded their supply. Since their drinking water was supplied by Bayside University, they only had mineral water; all they could do was to chill it. However, it was sometimes a wild wish for them to chill it because they were not allowed to use the barracks’ fridge either.
Under such circumstances, how were the second battalion able to eat popsicles?!
Greatly envious of them, everyone asked the battalion commander about it. As the battalion commander did not dare to expose the existence of the influential person behind all of it, he could only fool them by saying, “The second battalion has been performing well recently, so the commanding general gave them a reward.”
As soon as everyone heard that Joel was behind this, they stopped pursuing it any further. Indeed, the second battalion had been doing great because their internal affairs were handled nicely, nobody was absent from training, and they even finished their meals swiftly—these were what the other troops could not achieve.
Everyone from the second battalion was now sitting with Sophia. They were all eating iced watermelon, popsicles, and ice creams together as they watched Richard and Xyla displaying their affection with a bottle of water—that bottle of cheap mineral water was not even chilled!
After going on for a while, Xyla scurried away because she could no longer stand the sight of Sophia eating popsicles while she could only drink mineral water.
After the second battalion finished the popsicles and watermelon given by ‘Joel’, they became energetic once more and were determined to get good results in order to thank their commanding general!
Except for the battalion commander, little did everyone know that those popsicles had been brought inside by Nathan himself.
The battalion commander did not dare to investigate Nathan’s identity, so he could only help the boy to keep a low profile.
In the afternoon, Sophia returned to the troops despite her ‘illness’ and gave a stellar performance. As a result, Commander Ford could not stop praising her.
During their afternoon break, Sophia finally saw Kayla as she showed up in the training field.
After 24 hours of lockdown, she should be out by now.
Kayla must have been crying miserably because her eyes were all swollen. Moreover, she was behaving herself as she had not said a word after coming back. However, Sophia was even more wary of her. Was it possible for her to admit defeat so easily?
She must be plotting something against me.
After having lunch that day, Juliette returned to the dormitory by herself and sneakily closed the door after checking to see that nobody was around. Then, she took out a box from the wallet under her military attire.
It was a common accessories box used by the girls, but there were a few dead insects inside of it.
They were called rove beetles, and they had a potent toxin inside their bodies. When people came into contact with them, they could not just hit them with their hands. This was because the rove beetles’ toxins would cause dermatitis and eventually leave permanent scars on the body.
If these insects were on one’s face…
Juliette gulped and took a deep breath. Then, she covered her fingers with tissues and took the rove beetles out carefully, putting them on Sophia’s towel which she had left on the hanger. Juliette even used the head of a toothbrush to push them further into the towel, leaving several marks with disgusting colors behind.
When Sophia rushed back to the dormitory, the first thing she would do was to wipe the sweat off her face with a towel. By then…
Although Juliette had no wish to harm people, her father’s future and her mother’s surgery expenses were now controlled by Xyla. If she did not do this, she would be the unfortunate one instead.
As soon as Juliette hung the towel back to its original place, somebody knocked on the door. Feeling guilty, she shuddered and quickly threw the tissues in her hands away before walking over to open the door. Much to her surprise, Sophia stood outside with a faint smile on her face.
“You’re back, Sophia…” With a smile plastered on her face, Juliette greeted Sophia awkwardly, not daring to look into the latter’s eyes.
After a brief conversation, she pretended to tidy her stuff up.
Sophia entered the room and asked curiously, “It’s not even night yet. Why did you lock the door?”
Juliette made up an excuse and said casually, “I was changing my clothes!”
However, she couldn’t stop herself from looking at Sophia out of the corner of her eyes. As expected, the first thing Sophia did after coming back was to wipe her face with the towel.
As Sophia walked toward the hanger for her towel, Juliette felt her heart almost jumping out of her throat.
As she watched Sophia taking the towel, Juliette opened her mouth and nearly shouted out loud. However, her body stiffened instantly and she did not dare to speak a single word. If I don’t accomplish this task, I won’t be able to explain it to Xyla.
Meanwhile, she tried to console herself and said, People don’t really feel anything when they first come into contact with these insects’ toxins. It’ll be too late by the time she discovers it, and no one will know who the culprit is.
However, Sophia did not wipe her face after taking the towel. Instead, she just stood there and suddenly turned her gaze to Juliette before she said with a smile, “Why are you looking at me?!”
Hurriedly, Juliette averted her gaze and said, “Nothing, nothing…”
In the end, her flustered appearance had betrayed her.
Sophia calmly fetched a basin of water and slowly rubbed some soap in it. After making a basin of soap water, she soaked the towel in it and said, “The barracks still use soaps that have been produced years ago. When you make soap water out of them, it is the best tool to saturate strong acid, am I right…”
A shudder ran through Juliette Sanders’s body. How did she know?!
The alkaline in the soap could saturate the toxin of the rove beetles.
This must be a coincidence. How can she possibly find out?!
Much to her horror, Sophia continued to wash her towel while saying nonchalantly, “The nails in my shoes, the diamond necklace in my bag, and the rove beetles in my towel are all your doings.”
She was not asking a question, but was stating a fact as though she already knew this long ago.
Juliette did not admit to it and said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about now.”
Sophia poured the water away and left the towel aside. Then, she took up another towel and washed her face slowly before she said, “There’s no need for you to argue with me because you’re aware of your doings. In the future, just let me know whenever you receive their orders. Don’t be doubtful of me; what I have in mind is definitely more ruthless than theirs.”
Juliette did not say anything and bit her lip instead. Meanwhile, Sophia went for a shower with her towel and basin.
As she watched her leaving figure, Juliette became lost in her thoughts; an inner conflict stirred in her mind. The Sanders Family had been an influential family too, but its wealth and status declined as time went by. Soon enough, they disappeared from Bayside City’s upper social class in the end. Otherwise, she would not have been threatened by Xyla at all.
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