Chapter 28

  June 2003, wheat field, a third country.

  A two-year-old child, just learning to walk, stumbled along the side of the road, searching for something. On the roadside, someone had discarded a few rotten broad beans. The child hobbled over, sat down, and picked up the beans, clumsily stuffing them into his mouth. At this age, he didn't know that eating broad beans required peeling, but they still tasted sweet as he sucked on them. A pickup truck full of armed soldiers sped by: "Hey, look at that little brat eating broad beans!" The truck backed up, and four or five robust soldiers got out, snatching the beans from the child's hand. The child's mouth was covered in bean peels, and with a pure and innocent gaze, he stared fearfully at these fierce and menacing uncles. However, they didn't show him any care; instead, one of them kicked him into the roadside ditch. The child curled up his weak body in pain. Three men in casual clothes, Shao Hui, could no longer bear to watch this scene, so they stood up, took their guns, and ended the lives of these soldiers. Shao Hui picked up the child and gently comforted him, while the three men emptied their pockets of food into his bag...

  This is a true story that happened when they were executing Mission No. 3 abroad that year.

  Thinking of this, Shao Hui had a mind to save Salome's life, all for his mother and two sons.

  Shut up! Don't try to get sympathy from me with your old and young family members! Because of you, my brother died in a foreign land, today I want you to pay back with blood! Wang Jianbin still wants to put Salome to death.

  What he said is true. How do you see it? Su Yue-song threw this difficult problem to the team members. Now, except for Wang Jianbin who has made his views clear, no one else has spoken up yet.

  The team members stood quietly on the spot, thinking. Shao Hui didn't dare to be the first to express his thoughts of compromise, in case many people opposed it and he became the target of criticism, making things even more difficult.

  I think we should let him go. Firstly, he was forced to do it; secondly, although we are living in a chaotic world now, we don't have the right to use capital punishment; thirdly, he has an elderly mother and two children, if we kill him, it's equivalent to destroying his whole family, especially the two children, it's too pitiful. The first one who spoke up was surprisingly Liu Junhao, and what he said was spot on, Shao Hui gave him a nod of approval.

  We still feel that Salome should be put to death. Zhang Weize and Li Jinping restrained the impulsive Wang Jianbin: Since ancient times, blood debts have been repaid with blood, and the punishment for traitors is even heavier. Not killing Salome would not be enough to calm the people's anger!

  Legally, there is the death penalty, but there is also a suspended death sentence, which shows that the law still has humanity. Now killing Salome would be easy, just one shot, but even if you killed him 100 times, would it be useful? Can Wang Hongtao stand up again? But if you kill him, it's equivalent to killing his whole family, and his elderly mother and two young children will have to go begging and picking up trash to eat. I saw with my own eyes in another country where I was on a mission that a child under the age of two was picking up things to eat on the street and was beaten by someone. If we shoot him, the two children will definitely end up like this, then aren't we also becoming terrorists? Why do we need to make mistakes to punish others' mistakes? After Left Ming finished speaking in one breath, he looked around at everyone and found that Wang Jianbin was staring at him with hatred.

  What's your opinion? Su Yue Song looked at Zhao Zheng Hao and asked.

  Where there is war, there are casualties. But this time... Zhao Zhenghao, who was as fierce as a tiger in battle, has lost his composure now. Colonel, you decide.

  The team members were discussing in Chinese, and it was unknown whether Salome understood or not, kneeling on the ground without moving.

  Let him go, we're here to protect life, not create death. Shao Hui quietly spat out a sentence.

  What feud do we have with you? Why should we help him! Wang Jianbin pointed at Salome on the ground and roared at Chao Hui.

  The coach didn't reason with him, but looked at the team members. Finally, his eyes fell on Wang Jianbin: Do you agree that I make the decision? Everyone nodded in agreement, and finally, Wang Jianbin turned his head to one side to indicate tacit consent.

  Let him go. As soon as the words came out, everyone in the room was stunned, especially Wang Jianbin, who stared at Su Yuesong with his mouth agape in incredulity. Shao Hui was also shocked, he didn't expect it to be so easy to persuade Su Yuesong to let Salome go, a weight had been lifted off his mind.

  You can go, don't come back again. Su Yue Song said to Salome who was kneeling on the ground. Salome didn't show any excitement, solemnly knocked three times and slowly got up and walked away.

  Come back! Come back! Ah…… Wang Jianbin was stopped by someone, looking at Salome with a desperate cry, he turned his head to look at Zuo Ming, his eyes filled with deep resentment, like an injured and trapped leopard, making people feel chilled.

  Wang Hongtao still lay quietly in the quilt, all the hustle and bustle of the world had nothing to do with him, and the quarrel that arose from himself could no longer be heard. The team members gently took off his camouflage uniform, the fresh blood on his clothes had condensed into a thick layer of armor, a bullet hole in front was like a dark red medal hanging high, and the zipper was also frozen by the blood and couldn't be pulled open. Zhao Zhenghao picked up scissors and slowly cut open his clothes, two people came forward to support Wang Hongtao, carefully peeling off his clothes. A large wound suddenly appeared before everyone's eyes. Bullet wounds are all like this, initially only a small point of entry, but after rotating out in the body, they can cause a huge second wound. Zhao Zhenghao used a towel with warm water to gently wipe away, turning over Wang Hongtao's body, the team members' tears all came down - the skin around the first bullet wound was rolled outward, the high temperature of the bullet burned the skin into black, a large area of dark purple around the wound, blood vessels under the skin were clearly visible. Next to it was another small wound, this was the real fatal spot, the entire back was blurred with blood and flesh, no clean place could be seen. A young man in his prime, a warrior who was about to start his brilliant life, a son who had not seen his hometown and parents for many years, just turned into an icy corpse before everyone's eyes.

  He is an orphan. Li Jinping stared at Wang Hongtao and said.

  "What?!" Zhao Zhenhao was shocked and stopped his actions.

  Not only you, but even our squad didn't know his background. Li Jinping continued to say that we were in the same class, Wang Jianbin was the class leader, he saw that Wang Hongtao was different from ordinary people, so he took special care of him. Later, when he was transferred to be an officer and asked to visit his family, he refused to go back, Wang Jianbin got angry, this opportunity to visit his family was hard-won for him. So he drove him home, and also took a leave of absence to secretly follow him, because he really wanted to know the growth environment of this soldier under his command. Later, he followed him to Wang Hongtao's hometown, Wang Hongtao didn't go anywhere else, bought fruit and incense paper to come to his mother's grave, stayed for a whole day, slept in an inn at night, and the next day was another day, like this, he stayed by his mother's grave for more than 20 days. Wang Jianbin was moved, regarded him as his own younger brother, Wang Hongtao had a introverted personality, the class leader talked to him every night, slept on the same bed, trained and studied together, slowly guiding him, their relationship was like that of close brothers, Wang Jianbin promised to take him back home after completing this task, give him the warmth of a family, who would have thought... Li Jinping said to this point, choked with sobs, biting his lip, using all his strength not to let tears flow out. The room fell silent, the team members hadn't had time to change their clothes, still wearing blood-stained uniforms, sent Wang Hongtao on his last journey, but didn't find Wang Jianbin's figure anywhere.

  Su Yue Song found a few Nepalese to preside over the cremation. Due to their unique funeral culture, the Nepalese have extremely high skills in on-site cremation. They built a multi-layered wooden bed outside, and the team members solemnly carried Wang Hongtao, who was wearing new clothes, here, carefully placing him inside, watching as the thick wood covered him, and finally setting it ablaze. In front of the raging flames, the Nepalese chanted something in their own language, and only later did I ask a translator to find out that the lyrics were roughly Buddhist in tone:

  The eagle flies over Mount Everest, the dragon fish swims towards the azure sea, the deceased child, returned to the place of origin...

  In the singing voice, the brave spirit accompanied by thick black smoke, swam towards the azure of the sea.