Behind the compound, on the back mountain, there was originally a barren slope, overgrown with waist‑high weeds and scattered rocks.
Now, however, the place was bustling with activity.
Dozens of military wives, dressed in worn gray‑blue clothes with towels wrapped around their heads, were swinging hoes and shovels, battling the earth beneath their feet.
“Heave—ho! Heave—ho!”
Some shouted work chants, others chatted idly, and the atmosphere was lively enough.
Until Bai Luoluo appeared.
It was as if someone had pressed the mute button—the noisy wasteland fell instantly silent.
All eyes turned toward that out‑of‑place figure, beams of attention shining on her like searchlights.
Today, Bai Luoluo was wearing an off‑white long dress. Though it was already wrinkled and no longer as pristine as when she first arrived, among the crowd dressed in dull gray it still stood out sharply—like a crane among chickens.
Especially her long hair, messy yet still naturally curled, and her skin, pale as if it had never seen the sun.
Dragging a rust‑covered hoe in her hands, she walked unsteadily, looking downright ridiculous.
“Oh? Isn’t this our pampered young miss?”
The one to break the silence was, as always, the loud‑mouthed Wang Cuihua.
She straightened her back, planted her hoe into the ground, and sneered openly.
“Has the sun risen in the west? The young miss has finally deigned to descend and play in the mud with us?”
Scattered bursts of laughter rippled through the crowd.
“Sister‑in‑law Cuihua, you don’t know, do you?”The woman beside her, Sister‑in‑law Liu, chimed in sarcastically.“I heard this was a hard order from Commander Lei.”
“They say it’s to cure certain people of their laziness—no work, no food!”
“What? Really?”“Looks like Commander Lei means business this time!”
“That’s right. Our compound doesn’t raise freeloaders. Why should we break our backs while she sleeps all day at home?”
The pointing fingers and cutting remarks buzzed like flies, drilling straight into Bai Luoluo’s ears.
She clenched the hoe handle tightly, her palms slick with sweat.
Gritting her teeth, she forced herself to ignore them.
She walked over to the plot Xiao Zhang had assigned her.
It was the most remote patch of land, with the hardest soil, littered with rocks of all sizes.
Clearly the “hard bone” no one else wanted to chew.
“Sister‑in‑law, this one,” Xiao Zhang said reluctantly, pointing at it.“The Commander said it has to be fully turned over before dark.”
Turn it all over?
Bai Luoluo looked at the wasteland—nearly half the size of a basketball court—and her heart sank.
With her current physical condition, forget turning it over; even standing here felt exhausting.
But she had no choice.
For food.To avoid starving to death.
Bai Luoluo took a deep breath and lifted the hoe.
Only then did she realize how heavy it was.
At least twenty pounds.
For someone who had never done hard labor, it felt like lifting a boulder.
“Ugh!”
She let out a muffled groan and, using all her strength, slammed the hoe into the ground.
Clang!
A sharp sound rang out.
The hoe didn’t bite into the soil as she’d imagined—it struck a buried rock instead.
The powerful recoil traveled up the wooden handle, numbing her hands. The hoe nearly flew out of her grip.
“Ow!”
She cried out in pain, staggering back two steps before falling hard onto the ground.
That did it.
Her white dress was instantly smeared with mud and grass.
Loud laughter erupted around her.
“Hahaha! This is killing me!”
“She can’t even hold a hoe steady and wants to turn soil?”
“Is this young miss dancing, or doing embroidery?”
Wang Cuihua laughed so hard she bent over, pointing at Bai Luoluo.
“Girl, if you can’t do it, just say so. Don’t embarrass yourself here. Go back and beg Commander Lei—act cute a little, and maybe you won’t have to work.”
Sitting on the ground, Bai Luoluo’s eyes welled with tears.
It hurt.
Her palms burned with pain.
Looking down, she saw that her once‑delicate skin had been rubbed raw, blood seeping out.
But what hurt more was the humiliation in her heart.
She had never been this miserable.
Being surrounded and laughed at like a clown.
“I won’t cry… I won’t cry…”
She told herself over and over.
If she cried, they’d only look down on her more.
Stubbornly, she pushed herself up, brushed the dirt off her dress, and raised the hoe again.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Gritting her teeth, she hacked at the hardened soil, strike after strike.
Sweat streamed down her forehead into her eyes, stinging so badly she could barely keep them open.
Her clothes were soaked through, sticking unpleasantly to her back.
The sun grew fiercer.
It felt like standing under a blazing furnace.
That strange dizziness returned—stronger than ever before.
The world before her eyes began to sway and blur.
Sounds grew distant and muffled, as if separated by a layer of water.
Her heart pounded like a drum, thump, thump, thump, slamming against her chest.
Her stomach cramped violently. She wanted to vomit, but nothing came up.
[Warning! Warning!]
In her mind, the system’s shrill alarm suddenly exploded.
[Host’s physical stamina critically depleted!]
[Detected maternal energy deficiency. Fetus is forcibly drawing nutrients from the mother!]
[Low blood sugar! Low blood pressure! Immediate fainting warning!]
What…
Fetus?
Bai Luoluo groggily caught those two words.
Before she could even process what it meant, the world around her suddenly went pitch black.
The hoe in her hand clanged to the ground.
Then, her body went limp like a kite with a broken string, collapsing backward.
Thud!
She fell flat onto the patch of freshly turned soil, like a flower battered and wilted by a sudden storm.
The sudden turn of events froze everyone around.
“Huh? Why did she fall?”
Someone asked in confusion.
But no one immediately stepped forward to check.
Everyone stopped their work, standing and watching.
Wang Cuihua curled her lip in disdain.
“Pretending, right?”
“She’s only swung it a few times. Not even ten minutes? Already fainted?”
“Too fake!”
“Yeah, she was just glaring at us a moment ago, now she’s playing dead.”
Sister‑in‑law Liu chimed in, her voice dripping with sarcasm:“She definitely doesn’t want to work. Trying to make Commander Lei feel sorry for her.”
“Kids these days will do anything to get out of work.”
“Ignore her. We work, let’s see how long she can lie there.”
Some even deliberately kicked up soil toward her, not caring if it dirtied Bai Luoluo.
In their eyes, this was a pathetic ruse—a pampered young lady faking a faint to escape labor was completely normal.
Only Xiao Zhang, standing under the shade of a distant tree, felt his stomach drop.
Something wasn’t right.
The way she fell… too serious, too real.
Not a single instinctive protective move.
And her face…
Even from this distance, it was deathly pale, the color drained entirely.
“Sister‑in‑law!”
Xiao Zhang shouted, dropping his water bottle, and dashed over like a madman.
He knelt beside Bai Luoluo, and what he saw made his blood run cold.
Her eyes were tightly shut, her jaw clenched.
Her forehead was beaded with cold sweat, soaking her hair.
Her breathing was so shallow it was almost imperceptible.
Most terrifyingly, her lips had turned bluish‑purple.
This wasn’t a faint…
She was on the verge of collapse!
“Sister‑in‑law! Wake up! Sister‑in‑law!”
Xiao Zhang shook her face, but there was no response.
His hands were trembling.
If she really died… Commander Lei would never forgive him!
“Stop standing there! Somebody help! She’s really fainted!”
Xiao Zhang yelled, his voice breaking.
Finally, the other onlooking military wives snapped out of their amusement.
They crowded around—and their jaws dropped.
“Oh my god, why is her face so white?”
“Really fainted? I thought she was just pretending…”
“Quick! Take her to the medical post!”
Even Wang Cuihua, who had been mocking her moments ago, panicked.
If something happened under their watch, no one could take responsibility!
“I’ll carry her!”
Without hesitation, Xiao Zhang hoisted Bai Luoluo onto his back.
She was so light.
Carrying her felt like carrying a bundle of dried firewood, stabbing pain into his back.
Could a living person really weigh this little?
Xiao Zhang didn’t dare think further. Sprinting down the mountain path toward the medical post, he carried Bai Luoluo, silently praying all the way.
“Sister‑in‑law, please don’t die!”
“If Commander Lei finds out it was my order that pushed you to this…”
He didn’t dare imagine the consequences.
At this moment, he still had no idea that her collapse wasn’t just from heatstroke and exhaustion.
It was also the trigger for a shocking secret being revealed.
Hundreds of meters away, at the training ground, Lei Li stood with his hands behind his back, staring at the distant mountains.
An inexplicable unease gnawed at his heart.
It was as if something important was slipping away through his fingers.
The sensation filled him with a nameless panic.