Qing Xue stood close to where the remaining prisoners, now also awake, were being held. At least a dozen other soldiers surrounded the huddled men, whose rope bindings had been re-secured in the process of examining the extent of the damage that had been caused.
The lieutenant in charge of the examination approached him when he was done.
“Report,” Qing Xue said, his tone clipped and his expression dark. After all, he was supposed to be a commanding officer whose mission had just partially ended in failure. If he really was in that kind of situation, he imagined this was how he’d behave.
Judging from how his junior officer swallowed nervously before speaking, he was buying the act.
“The ropes tying them to each other were cut in random places, sir. It was as if they were only trying to
