"So you took it all yourself?" Xiaoyun asked coldly, his anger only shown through his hand as the document folded in half.

"I-I... I took it all."

"Very well... Nobody here is guilty beside him?" Xiaoyun asked again as he stood up from his seat.

With no one speaking up, Xiaoyun suddenly reached inside his jacket and pulled out a brand-new gun.

"C-Commander I——"

"If no one else speaks up, he will take up all the blame as a scrap goat," Xiaoyun warned as he pointed the gun directly at the major.

Seeing the major being pointed at starting to crack under pressure, Han Bang suddenly stepped forward.

"It''s my fault. I should have realized it as their superior when I got here. Please be lenient with them——"

"Sit down, Han Bang. I want them to hear it from them, not you."

Han Bang hesitated for a second, but seeing Xiaoyun''s determined face, he sat down at one of the seats.

"Any of you going to own up to it, or you''re going to let your comrade die?" Xiaoyun asked again, showing no sign of backing down.

After a long standoff in silence, all of the major stood forward and bowed down at once.

"Sorry, commander. We failed your trust... We were blinded by greed and couldn''t resist the urge."

Seeing all of them owning up to it together, Xiaoyun looked a little relieved as he finally lowered his gun and handed it over to Kate.

"Was it hard to admit doing something wrong?" Xiaoyun suddenly asked as he sat back down in his seat.

"N-No, sir." One of them nervously answered as they slowly got back up to look at Xiaoyun.

"I want to see all the money returned and a resignation letter tomorrow."

Seeing the major looking a little unhappy at the result, Han Bang quickly got up from his seat and slapped each of their faces.

All of them quickly unfreeze and bow down in gratitude, with some of them still a little confused at Han Bang''s slap.

"Thank you, command Chen, for the leniency."

Han Bang said out loud as he forced the two of them to bow down along with everyone else.

"You all can leave... Han Bang, come back here at six."

"Yes, sir!"

As all the majors, along with Han Bang, left the room, Xiaoyun''s tense face finally dropped.

"Fuck, man... Why did they try to embezzle this money? It''s not like I''m not paying them enough.

Seeing Xiaoyun looking a little lost as he stared at the empty board in front of him, Kate felt a little bad.

"Everyone is blinded by greed... It''s a capitalistic world in which we live. Everyone wants more money." Kate pointed out.

"But their salary a week is literally what a person works for half a year... There''s literally no point in getting more money."

"I mean, most of them are just your average Joe before they join the military... You can''t really expect them to have discipline or self-control."

Hearing Kate''s explanation, Xiaoyun knew she was right, as his past personal experiences when he was Songming showed the same type of people''s greed for money.

But on the inside, he didn''t want to admit she was right. He wanted to be able to trust people without being so paranoid.

"Han Bang, you really make it hard for me, you know that?"

Xiaoyun paused for a second, then continued.

"Fine, they won''t need to resign... But as a punishment, they''ll all be demoted to private and begin from the start.

I don''t ever want to make this decision again. Do you understand me?"

"Thank you, sir!"

"Now go, you don''t have to come back at six anymore." Xiaoyun waved.

As Han Bang left the room, Xiaoyun sighed and looked back at his notebook.

"Why did you back down?" Kate curiously asked.

"If I don''t back down, he was never going to move... Besides, now I think about it, he''s just giving me a step to go down."

"Step to go down?"

Kate got even more confused as she couldn''t understand the Chinese word that Xiaoyun had just said.

"I was too irrational earlier... Think about it: where are we right now?"

"Um... Guangzhou outpost?"

"And who''s the one that had been directing most of the soldiers here?"

"The majors... Oh, I get it... But is that really necessary? None of them would dare to oppose you."

"Yeah, they won''t oppose me. But Han Bang will have to deal with this after we leave. If all your superiors that you had been working with clearing Guangzhou all get fired, what do you think of Han Bang, who''s now the highest authority here?"

"Infighting," Kate answered.

"Exactly. That''s the last thing I want. Infighting in the military is the worst-case scenario... Man, he really is a much better commander than I am."

As Xiaoyun murmured to himself and began writing down different ideas that were popping into his head, Kate sat down at one of the seats near the doorway and watched.

---

Meanwhile, in the basement of the military building...

"Everyone got the food stamp gathered?" One of the major asked as they stood in a circle.

"Yeah, that''s all we have left..."

Seeing only four out of five boxes being full, all of them knew they were in trouble.

"Fuck, how the hell do we make up the differences?"

"I don''t know..."

As the majors looked at each other in silence, none of them could come up with a plan.

"How about we borrow some food stamps temporarily and pay them back later?"

Hearing the suggestion, all of them turned over to the person who suggested it.

"You going to borrow an entire box worth of food stamps?" One of them asked, looking at him as if he was a dumbass.

"Never mind... I didn''t think about that."