"Qiye, what did Brother Spear say?"
When they saw Lin Qiye emerge from the woods, Cao Yuan and the others immediately asked.
Only after hearing Cao Yuan's voice did Lin Qiye snap out of what Li Kengqiang had just said, his eyes filled with indescribable complexity.
"We... have been placed under house arrest."
"What?"
Everyone froze where they stood. Cao Yuan thought he had misheard. "House arrest? Us?!"
Lin Qiye slowly repeated the gist of Li Kengqiang's words. Cao Yuan's brow furrowed tighter and tighter.
"So bringing us to this island for training was just a pretense? Commander Zuo wants to keep us under house arrest here?" Cao Yuan asked in confusion. "Why? What did we do wrong?"
"..." Lin Qiye shook his head. "I don't know either."
"It probably isn't because we did something wrong, but because of some other reason." An Qingyu spoke thoughtfully. "If we had committed some mistake, wouldn't it have been enough to punish us directly? There'd be no need to go through all this trouble to trick us here. Wouldn't it have been more appropriate to lock us in the Abstinence Hall?"
"Then why?"
"Brother Spear said it too. This is a form of protection... It's good for us, and good for Great Xia."
"Keeping us under house arrest is good for Great Xia? What kind of logic is that?" Cao Yuan shook his head repeatedly. "Could leaving somehow be bad for Great Xia?"
"Commander Zuo wouldn't place us under house arrest for no reason. Maybe there's some deeper reason behind it." An Qingyu thought for a long while but could not come up with anything. After letting out a long sigh, he turned to Lin Qiye. "Qiye, what should we do?"
Lin Qiye looked toward the forest and fell silent.
Pretend nothing had