The air seemed to freeze in an instant.
Commander Lei’s weathered face, the kind that remained unmoved even in the face of mountains collapsing before him, was visibly darkening at a speed the naked eye could see, turning as gloomy as storm clouds gathering before a downpour.
In his decades of military service, he had seen bullets fly and witnessed mountains of corpses, but a scene of “dogs dancing disco” was something he had never even dared imagine—not even in his wildest nightmares.
“Huo—Feng!”
Commander Lei’s roar was even louder than the police dogs’ barking just moments ago, making the leaves in the trees tremble.
“What! Is! Going! On!”
Huo Feng felt as bitter as if he had swallowed a whole pound of coptis. He snapped to attention, saluted, and answered through gritted teeth, “Reporting, Commander! This… this is the police dog unit conducting… conducting a new type of… agility training!”
Zhao Gang, standing nearby, covered his face.
What the hell kind of agility training was this?!
What unit in its right mind trained dogs to dance cheek-to-cheek?
Commander Lei was so furious that even his mustache bristled. He pointed at Black Panther, who was still wildly gyrating his hips.
“Agility? You call this agility? I think you’re trying to turn this place into a circus! This is ridiculous! Absolute nonsense!”
Standing behind Commander Lei, Jiang Yingxue could not speak, but the smugness in her eyes was practically overflowing.
She quickly wrote a line in her notebook and handed it to Commander Lei.
【Commander, I told you Huo Feng has been corrupted by that Miao woman. This kind of sorcery has thrown the military compound into chaos and seriously violated discipline. She must be severely punished!】
Commander Lei glanced at the notebook, and his expression darkened even further.
He had originally come after receiving a “hint” from the Jiang family, claiming that Huo Feng had become infatuated with a mysterious woman, and that the woman had even used poisonous sorcery to hurt Jiang Yingxue. Now that he had witnessed this scene with his own eyes, his impression of the never-before-seen “Su Man” had plummeted straight into negative territory.
“Where is that woman? Have her come out!” Commander Lei barked. “I want to see for myself what kind of person dares to perform this kind of feudal-superstitious nonsense in my troops!”
Huo Feng’s heart tightened. He instinctively stepped in front of the doorway.
“Commander, this isn’t her fault. It’s because I failed to discipline them properly. If someone has to be punished, punish me—”
“Oh? What an impressive display of authority.”
A cool, lazy voice came from behind Huo Feng.
Su Man slowly walked out, still holding the bowl of unfinished dried meat in her hands. She did not even bother to look properly at the old man wearing a general’s stars. She merely stretched lazily, the silver ornaments on her body chiming crisply.
“You’re already this old, yet you’ve still got such a temper.”
Su Man walked up to Black Panther, who was still dancing, and gave him a smack on the head.
“That’s enough. Stop dancing. Looks like this grandpa doesn’t appreciate the show.”
The moment her palm came down—
Black Panther, who had been gyrating wildly just moments ago, suddenly shuddered.
The dazed look in his eyes quickly disappeared, replaced by an unprecedented clarity and sharpness.
“Woof!”
Black Panther barked, his voice loud and resonant like a bell, full of vigor.
He dropped onto all four paws, his slightly sagging back now perfectly straight. His coat even seemed to gleam with a healthy sheen under the sunlight.
Then, as if triggered by a chain reaction, the other police dogs also stopped dancing one after another.
They did not pant with their tongues hanging out like they normally did after strenuous exercise. Instead, every single one of them looked incredibly energetic, their eyes shining almost frighteningly bright.
Several of the older dogs that suffered from rheumatism due to their age suddenly jumped two meters straight into the air, easily clearing the fence beside them.
The entire scene fell silent once again.
This time, everyone was stunned.
The dog handlers spent every day with these animals, so no one knew their conditions better than they did.
“Th-This… this is Da Huang?” Li Tieniu pointed at an old golden retriever, his voice trembling. “Da Huang has an old leg injury. He limps even when he walks normally. How… how can he jump this high now?”
“And my Bullet! He had gastroenteritis before and has been suffering from diarrhea and lethargy these past few days. How does he look even stronger than a bull now?”
The dog handlers’ exclamations came one after another.
Commander Lei, who had been ready to explode with anger, was stunned as well.
He might not understand dogs, but he understood soldiers.
The condition these dogs were in now was practically like a suicide squad that had just been injected with adrenaline. The explosive vitality radiating from them could not possibly be faked.
Su Man looked at Commander Lei’s astonished expression, the corners of her lips curling into a mocking smile.
“What? Can’t you tell, Commander?”
“My Carefree Powder is used in our Miao villages for fighting bulls. It doesn’t just make them excited. More importantly, it helps improve circulation, clear the meridians, and expel dampness and toxins from the body.”
“The dancing was merely a side effect of the detoxification process.”
Su Man walked up to Commander Lei and looked him up and down. Her gaze eventually settled on his left knee, which was somewhat stiff from years of rheumatism.
“As for you, Commander… your knee must hurt whenever the weather turns rainy, doesn’t it? Like millions of ants are gnawing at your bones?”
Commander Lei was utterly shocked.
That was an old ailment of his, a lingering injury from the days he had spent in a cat-ear cave during the war. Only a handful of people close to him knew about it.
How had this woman recognized it at a glance?
Seeing this, Jiang Yingxue panicked. She hurriedly wrote in her notebook:
【She’s spreading nonsense! Commander, don’t believe her!】
Su Man glanced at the notebook and sneered.
“Spreading nonsense?”
She suddenly turned around and snapped her fingers at the group of energized police dogs.
“Boys, whoever can chew up that notebook in the mute woman’s hand gets an extra meal tonight!”
Before she could even finish speaking—
The dozens of police dogs that had just “evolved” shot toward Jiang Yingxue like dozens of black bolts of lightning.
“Ah—!”
Jiang Yingxue was scared out of her wits. Although she could not make a sound, the terror rising from the depths of her soul made her immediately throw away the notebook and turn around, scrambling straight under the military jeep.
“Rip!”
In less than a second, the little notebook filled with complaints and accusations was torn into shreds.
Black Panther proudly carried the notebook’s cover in his mouth and scampered over to Su Man to take credit.
Su Man patted him on the head and looked at Commander Lei.
“Commander, would you say this counts as an improvement in combat capability?”
Commander Lei looked at the police dogs, whose movements had become terrifyingly swift, then at the disheveled Jiang Yingxue.
The anger in his eyes gradually faded, replaced by deep curiosity and… fervor.
He took a deep breath and pushed away the guards who tried to come help him.
“Huo Feng.”
“Here!”
“Have your wife get herself ready.”
Commander Lei’s voice remained stern, but the hostility from moments ago was gone.
He turned his head and stared intently at Su Man, as if he were looking at a priceless treasure.
“Comrade Su Man, regarding this… medicinal formula that can treat rheumatism and enhance physical strength.”
“I’d like to speak with you privately.”
“This could affect the combat capability of our entire military… and perhaps even determine the life or death of a very important person.”