Chapter 58
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 ce was where they would spend a month.
As Sophia looked at the surrounding mountains and rivers, she suddenly recognized this ce. This
ce 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.
Quinton was the lecturer in charge of apanying the students on their military training. He had
probably chaperoned the students many times, for he knew a lot about the military training camp. He
kindly reminded everyone, “The military training camp is just next to the hunting ground, so please be
careful and don’t wander around. Some students were bitten to death by tigers a few years ago when
they sneaked out by climbing over the wall.”
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 amodated 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 fewrge fans.
Thedies were stillining about the barracks’ poor living conditions. Even the civilian students,
who mostly came from well-to-do middle-ss 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 ces, she muttered to herself, “Does Michael really have no
qualms about putting his son in here?”
After putting her stuff in ce, Sophia went out to have a look. There were many barracks here, for every
barracks could amodate 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 ce. 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 ced 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 ce
with ease and introduced every ce 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 ce 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 ce 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.
N?velDrama.Org content.
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
opennd, which seemed to be arge 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 ofnd to nt 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 ce was used to grow watermelons.
The ground inside the polytunnel was covered in sandy soil, and heatmps 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 vige.
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 rted 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 ce 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 n.”
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 ring 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 simr 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?