Elder brother's garrison

Xiao Bai clearly felt that after he finished speaking, the entire hall fell into a deathly silence, and everyone's breathing could be clearly heard.

Aunt Mei seemed somewhat surprised by Xiao Bai's answer. She thought for a moment and then asked again.

"He abducted you here, don't you hate him?"

"I hate it." Xiaobai nodded.

"Then why did you spare him?"

"...What if he holds a grudge and retaliates against me later? And there are so many people watching here, others might help him get revenge on me..." Xiaobai lowered her head and said softly, "I see that the people here are not eating well. I want to have a few more chicken legs when I eat."

"..."

Aunt Mei looked at Xiao Bai, her eyes widening slightly.

After a while, Aunt Mei withdrew her hand.

"Good, good, good, what an interesting and pretty girl, so well-behaved, so good." Aunt Mei smiled, a particularly happy smile. She reached out to the tall women beside her, who then stepped forward and took Aunt Mei's hand. "Gao Le, did you hear that? From now on, give this little girl two extra chicken legs with every meal."

"Yes." The tall man nodded.

"Gao Yang, you're incredibly lucky this time. You've brought back a little lucky star. This is your blessing." Aunt Mei looked at the short man kneeling on the ground and said with a sigh, "Cherish it. She gave you this life. You should thank her."

These words caused the short man to lose all strength and collapse to the ground.

"Thank you, thank you Aunt Mei... thank you Aunt Mei..." the short man said, crying.

Aunt Mei didn't look at the short man again. She just took another deep look at Xiao Bai and then said something to the tall man.

"Gao Le, I quite like this little girl. Give Gao Yang some benefits."

"Yes," the tall man replied.

Aunt Mei left with the tall women around her, and everyone in the hall watched her depart until she disappeared up the stairs.

It's worth mentioning that Aunt Mei didn't even glance at Miao Yan again before she left.

Someone must have been relieved after Aunt Mei disappeared.

The tall man turned his head and looked at Miao Yan, who was almost exhausted, the short man who was lying on the ground panting, and Xiao Bai, who looked completely unharmed and seemed peaceful and serene, as if she were detached from worldly affairs.

"Get up," the tall man said to the short man.

"Yes, yes..." The short man stood up, his face pale, and bowed to the tall man, his eyes pleading, "Brother, am I now...?"

"It's nothing." The tall man said, glancing at Xiaobai and Miaoyan. "Take these two to the fifth-grade dorm and get them both a single room. The dorm supervisor for their grade was dismissed for causing trouble last time, and the position has been vacant ever since. You can take over now."

"Really? Really?" The short man's eyes lit up.

"It's Aunt Mei's idea. You don't need to cook anymore; you'll be the dormitory manager."

"Yes, thank you Aunt Mei, thank you brother!"

"Keep an eye on yourself and those kids." The tall man said casually. "Sometimes cooking isn't necessarily worse than being a dorm supervisor. Think about what happened to the last dorm supervisor after he made a mistake."

The short man's face immediately showed fear again.

The tall man didn't say anything more, but took a sign out of his clothes and threw it to the short man. Then he turned around, went upstairs, and left.

The short man caught the sign. He was exhausted and looked tired. He exchanged a glance with Xiaobai and Miaoyan.

The short man's gaze toward Xiaobai was particularly complicated.

Xiao Bai smiled slightly at the short man.

"Congratulations, Dormitory Manager Gao!" Xiaobai said crisply.

Xiao Bai's words made the short man's smile look even more like a grimace.

Chapter 3698 Work

The short man... or now we should call him Gao Yang, the dormitory manager, after receiving the token from the tall man, led Xiao Bai and Miao Yan to a special office, where they stayed for quite a while.

There were many voices coming from inside the office.

When Gao Yang came out, he had changed his clothes and was wearing a dormitory supervisor's badge around his neck.

After Gao Yang came out, he looked at Xiao Bai with a complicated expression, and then led Xiao Bai and Miao Yan towards the school's dormitory area.

This place is supposed to be a dormitory area... but when Xiaobai actually arrived at the scene, he found that it was just a series of dilapidated empty classrooms. When Xiaobai passed by the empty classrooms, he found that there were quite a few children lying on the ground inside. Their clothes were dirty and they were thin. There seemed to be an unpleasant smell of sweat, smoke and stench in the air.

Xiao Bai thought she would live here too, but Gao Yang took her and Miao Yan away from the empty classrooms and led them to a place that resembled an office.

Opening the office door revealed a few beds that were as rudimentary as could be.

"Aren't we staying in the classroom?" Xiaobai asked Gao Yang from the doorway.

"Brother Le said he'd give you a private room, and this is it," Gao Yang said weakly to the two of them. "You... um... you... you go in and take a look. If there's anything you're not satisfied with, I'll try my best to resolve it for you."

"...?" Miao Yan looked at Gao Yang's inexplicably weak posture, which seemed to be a subordinate communicating with a superior, and felt confused and puzzled.

But just as Miao Yan was feeling lost, Xiao Bai had already pulled her into the office.

To be fair, although this office is simple, at least it has something that can be called a bed, compared to the classroom.

Miao Yan stood behind Xiao Bai, looking around blankly, as awkward as a chick left behind by its mother hen.

"The situation here is actually not bad compared to other places," Xiaobai said.

“Yes, yes…” Gao Yang nodded from the side, looking embarrassed, and said to Xiao Bai, “Um… Miss… we still have to go out next.”

"What are you going out for?" Xiaobai asked Gao Yang.

"Work."

What is work?

"Cleaning."

"Oh...it's over there in the lobby." Xiaobai nodded, then asked Gao Yang, "I saw that the school had already been cleaned very well by you guys, so why are there still so many people cleaning?"

“Sigh, cleaning is part of it, but the main thing is to exhaust these kids,” Gao Yang said, looking down. “It’s like when you punish someone, you make them dig a hole in the playground, then fill it in, and then dig it up again… it’s exhausting.”

“I saw people in the classroom before.”

"Those were all exhausted and were carried back to rest."

"I see." Xiaobai nodded, then pointed at Miao Yan, "Is Miao Yan going too?"

"Miss, I'm sorry, I wanted to let you rest, but you were too conspicuous just now, it's not appropriate to let you rest now..." Gao Yang looked troubled.

“…Okay.” Xiaobai glanced at Miao Yan, who had her head down and arms crossed, seemingly unsurprised by the current situation.

After showing Xiaobai and Miaoyan their dorm rooms, Gao Yang led them away from the dormitory building.

Although there were many children working in the lobby, it was clear that this was not all of them. Gao Yang seemed to be very familiar with the dormitory manager's routine. He led them directly to a large conference room, where a group of children were kneeling on the floor wiping the steps. There was only a burly man leaning against the wall, watching them with a cold face.

After Gao Yang brought Xiao Bai and Miao Yan over, he said a few words to the big man, showed him his dormitory supervisor badge, and then the big man grinned at Gao Yang, patted him on the shoulder, and left.

Because he was in front of other people, Gao Yang no longer acted subservient to Xiao Bai. Instead, he stood arrogantly in the place where the big man had been and shouted at everyone in the conference room.

"Stop right there!"

The children in the conference room stopped what they were doing and looked at Gao Yang.

"I'm your new dorm supervisor. Do you all understand who's in charge from now on?"

The children in the conference room immediately got up from the steps, stood up crookedly, and looked at Gao Yang.

"Good job, dorm manager!"

"Okay, let's get back to work!" Gao Yang said, leaning against the wall.

The children in the conference room lowered their heads and continued timidly wiping the steps.

Xiao Bai looked at the children in the room, lost in thought. But the next moment, Miao Yan, who was beside her, took her hand and staggered to the bucket, handing her a dark rag.

Xiao Bai took the rag, and then saw Miao Yan hugging the bucket, panting as she tried to lift it.

Xiao Bai smiled, stepped forward and handed the rag to Miao Yan, then, under Miao Yan's dazed gaze, easily lifted the heavy bucket of water.

The meeting room had many things to wipe: steps, tables, chairs. The children in the room started wiping from the first floor to the last, and then went back to the first floor to continue wiping. Anyone who didn't work hard would be scolded by the dormitory manager, Gao Yang, and even threatened not to eat.

Xiao Bai and Miao Yan joined the group of children who filled the room.

Although Gao Yang couldn't openly show favoritism towards Xiao Bai, he would at least pretend nothing happened if Xiao Bai slacked off a little while wiping the floor tiles.

Gao Yang's voice could be heard from time to time in the conference room. He usually said things like, "This person isn't working hard enough," or "That person is resting," or "You're not allowed to eat later."

Since these words weren't directed at Xiaobai, she didn't feel anything special. She also had the opportunity to observe her surroundings.

The children in this conference room ranged in age from under ten to around thirteen or fourteen. They were all being forced to do the bare minimum of work they could manage, and each of them looked exhausted and confused.

"Are you tired? Are you sleepy? No rest allowed! Once someone pays to buy you out, you won't have to suffer like this anymore, understand?"

"Li Xin from the next class is only six years old, but she's already living with a rich family. She's so lucky! She doesn't have to work, she can rest in bed every day, and she even has her own dolls. She'll inherit a lot of money from her godparents in the future. Aren't you envious? You have that opportunity too!"

“Children should be obedient. Wang Ran was disliked and not adopted because he was too naughty. Now he is fourteen years old and can only work in other factories. The work there is heavier and more tiring. Do you want to do the same?”

"If you don't work hard, no one will like you. You won't even be able to get food, let alone be sold!"

"..."

While Xiaobai was lost in thought, Gao Yang was still shouting from the other side of the wall.

Xiao Bai was not in a good mood because of what was said. She frowned and glanced at Gao Yang with some displeasure.

Gao Yang felt Xiao Bai's gaze and immediately froze, revealing a somewhat embarrassed expression as he raised a few pieces of paper in his hand.

That's probably what the dormitory manager's job is like.

When Xiaobai saw the piece of paper in Gao Yang's hand, he closed his eyes and ignored him.

Gao Yang breathed a sigh of relief. He continued to shout slogans, but this time his slogans were clearly less confident and less threatening.

Inside the meeting room, everyone was working quietly, and none of the children dared to speak.

The work lasted all morning, and finally, with Gao Yang's announcement of the end, all the children in the conference room collapsed to the floor, panting heavily.

Aside from Xiaobai, all the other children around them were drenched in sweat from exhaustion, including Miao Yan, who was breathing rapidly, twitching slightly, and looking extremely pale.

"Let's go to the cafeteria for lunch!"

Gao Yang shouted, and the children on the ground, as if they had been trained to be completely mechanized, stood up no matter how tired they were and lined up at the entrance of the conference room.

Xiao Bai was naturally taken inside as well. All the children, led by Gao Yang, headed towards the cafeteria. Along the way, Xiao Bai and his group passed by several classrooms, which all had similar scenes.

Xiao Bai and his group quickly arrived at the cafeteria. There were several middle-aged women wearing masks serving food to everyone with spoons. Xiao Bai took the food bowl and lined up to get to the front. Then, he saw the middle-aged woman in front of him coldly pour a spoonful of a strange food that looked like paste, reddish-brown, mixed with something resembling rotten cabbage, broken tofu, and rice porridge.

Xiao Bai looked at his rice bowl.

Just then, the woman serving the food looked at Xiaobai, took out another bowl, and used her dirty hands to pinch out two braised chicken legs. Amidst the longing gazes of a group of children nearby, she threw them onto Xiaobai's bowl.

"This is a gift from Aunt Mei."

The cafeteria lady said to Xiaobai.

"..."

Xiao Bai looked at the chicken leg and the paste-like food, his expression suddenly becoming quite complicated.

Mealtime seemed to be the only relaxing time for the children at school. It was here that Xiaobai finally heard the children talking in hushed tones, which made Xiaobai realize that these children were not mute after all.

There were no tables and chairs in the cafeteria, so Xiaobai and Miaoyan found a corner and squatted down. As soon as they squatted down, a group of children stared intently at the chicken leg in Xiaobai's bowl, their dark eyes shining and their mouths drooling.

"..."

Xiaobai looked at the group of dirty children in front of her and held out her rice bowl to them.

The children immediately swarmed forward, snatching the rice, bowl, and chicken leg from Xiaobai's hands, and then scattered in all directions.

Looking at her empty hands, Xiaobai felt relieved. She rested her chin on one hand and turned her head to look at Miao Yan sitting next to her.

Miao Yan lowered her head and ate the paste-like food in small bites... or rather, the feed. She felt Xiao Bai's gaze and met Xiao Bai's eyes.

"We should be able to talk here, right?" Xiaobai said to Miao Yan.

"..." Miao Yan's expression softened, and she shook her head, "This place... won't work..."

This was the first time Xiaobai had heard Miao Yan's voice.

The voice sounded like that of a lark that had been poisoned and rendered mute; once melodious, now hoarse and exhausted.

Chapter 3699 The Little Dark Room

Miao Yan was, after all, a girl who had been severely infected by the aura of the deep sea and struggled on the brink of death several times. Unlike a high-ranking admiral, she did not have a mental network to protect her. Even if Xiao Bai completely expelled the aura of the deep sea from her body, most of the damage that the aura of the deep sea had caused to her body was irreversible and permanent.

These so-called injuries certainly include some internal organ injuries that affect lifespan, but there will also definitely be aspects that affect quality of life, such as vocal cord injuries.