Chapter 264 Choice

Inside the office, everyone's eyes were fixed on the small, charred metal box, as if time had frozen.

Finally, someone broke the silence.

"Only one?" the person asked softly, their voice trembling slightly.

"Only one," someone beside them responded in a low voice.

"How badly was the soldier named Yuan Wen injured?"

"Very badly. She suffered extensive burns to her body and can no longer breathe on her own. She's on a ventilator, and her vital signs are declining... Unless a miracle occurs, she won't make it through tonight," the hospital director said.

"What about Commander Fiers?"

"His condition... is even more critical than Yuan Wen's. He has massive bleeding and extensive lacerations, and he may not even survive the surgery." The director spoke again.

A huge dilemma emerged. Everyone looked at the carrot, each with a question they dared not ask.

Who should it be given to?

Yuan Wen was its owner. Both logically and emotionally, the fruit should be given to her, allowing her to heal and continue living. But the current situation was that Fiers also needed this magical ancient medicine to save his life...

One ancient medicine, two people. To save one, they had to abandon the other.

If it was cut in half, it might save both of them, but it could also lead to both of them losing their chance at life due to insufficient medicinal power...

The female soldier stood there, at a loss.

"..." The President of the Khanate looked grave and slowly said, "I will only state one fact. If the soldier named Yuan Wen dies, her family and friends will grieve and be heartbroken! But if Fiers dies, and the Khanate's forces split again, then thousands, even tens of thousands more families will be broken and plunged into the same pain!"

"Fiers cannot die!"

The President stared at the military region leader, speaking each word with emphasis.

"What are your opinions?" The military region leader looked at the people beside him.

Everyone who met his gaze lowered their heads, not answering.

Because they knew they were about to face a cruel reality.

Yuan Wen... would be abandoned!

Because no matter the logic or emotion, nothing was more important than one thing: political significance!

Fiers' survival could ensure the smooth handover of tens of thousands of Khanate troops, preventing further internal strife and indirectly avoiding massive losses in manpower, resources, and lives for everyone.

And Yuan Wen's survival...

The crowd did not continue to think along those lines, because reality was incredibly cruel.

Religion has the concept of "equality for all beings," but in reality, all beings can never be equal. Everyone's life does indeed have a different price, and that price is not only reflected in money, but in many other aspects as well.

On this scale of "value," Yuan Wen lost to Fiers.

"The first thing I learned on my first day in the army was... when the country needs me to sacrifice, I will sacrifice. I still hold that as my motto," the military region leader closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and said, "If it wasn't an ordinary soldier lying in the intensive care unit today, but my own children, I would still make the same choice."

As he spoke, he pushed the metal box towards the hospital director and solemnly said, "Give this medicine to Fiers! Do everything you can to save that soldier. If she unfortunately dies, posthumously award her a hero's medal, report it to the capital, and I will apply for a state funeral for her to be interred in the Hall of Valor."

The atmosphere in the office was solemn. No one spoke. After a long while, a low sigh was heard...

...

Li Tianran was in a hurry, riding in a truck carrying the wreckage of a Western Xinjiang Military Region transport helicopter, speeding towards the Western Xinjiang Military Region.

He was feeling very irritable and regretful.

He regretted not following the helicopter formation earlier, wasting valuable time.

Li Tianran had seen the formation pass over the battlefield, but he did not follow because he could not be sure if Yuan Wen was in it, and there were too many people for him to easily expose himself. After all, after Miao Yu discovered his true identity, he was considered a "top wanted criminal" within Yan Huang. If his identity was exposed, he might not only be unable to save Yuan Wen, but also be surrounded and entangled.

He placed some patrol surveillance radars, and then continued to delve deeper into the Khanate, wanting to find some isolated soldiers to inquire about Yuan Wen's specific location. But he didn't realize something was wrong until the out-of-control general's mecha began attacking the formation, and by the time he turned back, it was already a step too late.

"Wait for me! You must wait for me!" Li Tianran muttered to himself, trying to reassure himself, "It's okay, I gave her three life-saving pills. Even if she has one foot in the door of death, she can still be saved! As long as she takes those three pills, she'll be fine no matter how badly she's injured..."

"I told her to use that kind of medicine in life-or-death situations, she definitely won't forget!"

Sitting next to him, Han Han looked at the uneasy Li Tianran and said, "Big Brother, don't worry, Sister Yuan Wen will definitely not die... I heard that the military region hospital is the best hospital, and she has so many good comrades-in-arms, they will definitely save Sister Yuan Wen!"

Li Tianran's heart was pounding non-stop. He felt a strange fire building up in his chest, as if it was about to erupt.

...

Inside the hospital, in the operating room.

A doctor in sterile clothing crushed the ancient-medicine-grade carrot into a slurry-like food and delivered it directly into Fiers' stomach through a tube. With intentional stimulation, Fiers' stomach began to churn and digest.

"His blood pressure is rising! His heart rate is recovering!"

Soon, the doctor in charge of monitoring detected changes on the heart rate monitor.

"The bleeding points are no longer bleeding, and the lungs are recovering spontaneous breathing!"

"My God! There really is such a magical medicine in the world, this, this, this..."

"Quick, quickly report this good news to the leader!"

The operating room was filled with joy.

Meanwhile, in the ICU ward less than thirty meters away, Yuan Wen was covered in transparent tubes, for blood transfusions, for assisted breathing... Her skin was cracked, her whole body charred black, looking more like a lifeless piece of dead wood.

The doctor in charge of taking care of her glanced at the electronic monitoring equipment next to her, silently recorded her declining bodily functions, and slowly sighed.

The ward was deathly silent.

Two rooms less than thirty meters apart were filled with completely different emotions, and the fates of the two people who were the protagonists should have been reversed.

But who was to blame for this?

Blame Yuan Wen?

That's absurd.

Blame Fiers?

But he did nothing.

Blame the military region leader?

From his position, his decision, although cold-blooded, was not wrong. Superiors consider things from a perspective that is never swayed by emotions...

No one was at fault, yet it caused a dramatic change in the fates of two people.

And the only person with the ability to break the situation was rushing over with all his might.

Yuan Wen's heart rate line showed that she might not have much time left.

Could Li Tianran arrive before everything was completely irreversible?

No one knew...

(Actually, this part of the plot is very disgusting. According to the original outline, the plot should have been very passionate and manly after Li Tianran left Mad Breath Island, but after writing two chapters according to the original plan, the website directly gave two warnings about political involvement, two! It completely calmed my boiling heart. I was dumbfounded, because the next step after a political warning is a 404 warning. If I continue to write according to the original plot, this book might be gone after writing this plot.)

(After careful consideration, I painfully decided to overturn the original outline, but after writing for two days, I found that the plot written after the second overturn was really bad. When I read it, I often found shocking bugs in the plot. What kind of ghosts and errors are these? How did the character settings also change? How did Li Tianran become stupid? In short... it was too different from what I had imagined before, but I didn't have the courage to overturn and rewrite for the third time, because I was afraid that I would write worse and worse. I can only try to speed up the pace, finish this plot, and try to make it not have too much impact on the overall plot, and even readers who skip this section and directly read the next plot will not affect the reading experience... If there are slight changes in the character settings in this plot, please don't scold me for messing it up, because if I don't slightly adapt the character settings to the plot, the whole book might be gone... That's it, I will speed up the update speed recently and quickly finish this plot, helplessly...)