Chapter 1

  The distance has nothing but remoteness.

  Hai Zi

  November 28, 2005, Beijing.

  The sky in Beijing in November is always leaden, and snowflakes start to fall early. The biting north wind blows on everyone's face.

  The sky was slightly bright, Liu Junhao, Shao Hui and Zuo Ming packed their bags and discussed the way to return home after retiring from the army.

  "Hey, have you thought it through? How are we going to get there?" Liu Junhao rubbed his frozen cheeks and asked excitedly, exhaling white mist.

  "Wow, with so much demobilization pay, we can indulge a bit! Let's take a plane! That broken helicopter is sickening, let's try taking a plane and being served by the flight attendants!" Shao Hui shouted with great enthusiasm, and before he even finished speaking, he elbowed Left Ming.

  "Hey, do you agree?"

  "Uh-huh! That's right, after taking helicopters for so many years, not a single flight attendant. Forget it if there weren't any, but how many times did we have a normal landing? We'll just take the plane back, and consider it a life experience." Xiaoming nodded in agreement, pecking at his food like a little chicken.

  In the army, although the season of demobilization is very sad, there are always many old soldiers who can't bear to leave their troops and comrades, crying miserably. However, the iron-clad barracks and flowing water of soldiers must be demobilized when they should be demobilized. But there are also a few people who are excited about going home, this demobilization is more exciting than a prisoner being released from prison.

  When the head of the troops finished his farewell speech on stage, the three had already changed into casual clothes, carrying their backpacks and taking a shortcut to climb over the wall in front of the gate guards. The guard was in tears and shouted at the three silhouettes: "Old squad leader, aren't you guys putting me in trouble?"

  "Who are those three?" The commander of the troops asked the regimental commander from the rostrum after turning his head to look at this scene.

  "Hey, they're just Shao Hui, Zuo Ming and Liu Junhao, now that they've all retired, let them be reckless for once!" The captain said in a roundabout way.

  The commander of the troops gazed at the three-meter-high wall with a thoughtful expression, nodding his head, and then turned to face the regimental commander:

  "After the farewell ceremony is over, immediately hold a military meeting, and the officer on duty must conduct an inspection!"

  Capital, International Airport.

  Shao Hui held his ticket and stared at the screen in the hall, looking confused: "Brothers, what's our next move?"

  "It seems like we're changing something on our boarding passes. We've already bought tickets, what's the point of going through this?" Left Ming's confusion was no less than Shao Hui's.

  Liu Junhao didn't say a word, his eyes habitually scanning the surroundings left and right. A police officer patrolling with a police dog in the distance noticed these three somewhat abnormal people and walked up to them, standing at attention and giving a standard military salute: "Comrades, please go over there to register." The well-trained police dog next to him was staring intently at the three suspicious individuals in front of him.

  "Sit!" Liu Junhao shouted at the police dog, pointing his finger at it. The police dog, which had been full of hostility just a moment before, suddenly sat down on the ground. The policeman was taken aback and pulled on the leash to order the dog to stand up. The dog stood up reluctantly, and the policeman couldn't figure out what was going on with these three people. He could only point to the counter on the side and say, "Please go over there to register, thank you for your cooperation."

  Shao Hui and the other two followed the officer to the counter, where the police officer inside said expressionlessly: "Take out your documents, open your bags for inspection."

  "Clang", Shao Hui dumped all the items from his backpack onto the table, a rusty bullet rolled in front of the police officer. The officer picked it up with his hand and asked knowingly, "What is this?"

  Shao Hui looked at the gun without saying a word, his left hand slowly rose and placed on his waist. The police next to him immediately became alert: "What are you doing! Put your hands up!"

  "We are not bad people, we just want to go home."

  "It's been a long time since we've been home." He added.

  The policeman glared at him without a word, picked up a certificate on the table: "Are you a soldier?"

  "From yesterday on, we are ordinary people from today." Shaohui replied with his hands up.

  "You're right, you have to be careful with us, or else it'll turn into a conflict between the police and the people!" Liu Junhao interjected.

  The police officer was suddenly amused, smiled and opened the discharge certificate. A few seconds later, his expression gradually froze, and he picked up another certificate to read before handing it over to the police officer next to him. The police officer looked at Shao Hui and the other two in surprise: "What kind of soldiers are you? Such military achievements are impossible in peacetime!"

  Shao Hui smiled slightly, unbuttoned his shirt with his right hand, and pointed to his waist with his left hand, ignoring the other's shocked expression: "This bullet was taken out from here, don't you want to take it away?"

  The two policemen looked at each other and said, "Brothers, since we are one family, please understand our work and take out your documents for registration. Hurry up and go home."

  Shao Hui nodded and put down his hands. The two police officers checked and helped to stuff the luggage into the backpack, asking: "Do you need our help with anything?"

  "What is a boarding pass?"

  "Uh... come with me." The police officer was somewhat tongue-tied.

  Outside the window, snowflakes began to fall sporadically. At the entrance of the plane, a police officer shook Shao Hui's hand and joked: "Come back to Beijing again when you have time, I hope we'll be colleagues or friends in the future, don't make it a cop-thief relationship!"

  "Haha, no way, we won't do anything despicable!" Shao Hui laughed loudly.

  "Alright then, see you later!" The policeman let go of his hand and waved goodbye.

  "Goodbye!"

  After saying goodbye to the other party, the three people walked into the cabin with their backpacks and finally found a place to settle down with the help of the flight attendant. At this moment, Liu Junhao's eyes began to be unfaithful again, making an effort to measure the beautiful flight attendants and female passengers, and finally locked in on the target after poking Zuo Ming: "Hey, hey, look at that girl, isn't she pretty?"

  "Hmm, she's quite pretty. You should get her phone number. What's the point of just staring at her?" Zuo Ming retorted, "At least ask for a photo or something, so when you go home, you can show it to your family and say 'this is my wife', how much face would that give you!"

  Shao Hui, who was gazing out the window, suddenly came to his senses and grabbed Liu Junhao's collar: "How did my girlfriend's photo end up in your bag?"

  "What...what's going on? Don't spit blood at people!" Liu Junhao hurriedly tried to shake off Shao Hui's hand.

  "Cut the nonsense! I saw it clearly when they were checking your bag just now, one was your wife's and one was my wife's. How dare you still try to deny it!" Shao Hui took advantage of the situation and wouldn't let him off easily.

  "Hey, Xiao Hei, this is where you went wrong. How could you secretly keep Shao Hui's wife's photo?... You did this... Right, have you kept my wife's photo?" Zuoming suddenly grabbed Liu Junhao and asked.

  "Only a scoundrel would hide his wife's photo! Shaohui's wife is very beautiful, don't even show me your wife's photo!" Liu Junhao was caught off guard and blushed as he defended himself.

  "Ah, you really have been hiding my wife's photo!" Shao Hui grasped Liu Junhao's collar and punched him in the chest with a loud "thud".

  "How dare you say my wife is ugly!" Zuoming slammed the table again, this time with much greater force.

  "Hello, dear passengers. The plane is about to take off, please fasten your seatbelts and listen to the instructions of our staff..." Just as the three of them were making a ruckus, the cabin announced its preparation for takeoff. The three of them stopped moving abruptly, quickly fastened their seatbelts, and sat straight up in their seats waiting for the next command. Two beautiful flight attendants demonstrated the necessary precautions to take on the plane, and after they finished, the plane took off. Shao Hui and his two friends lay back in their seats, enjoying themselves in the most comfortable position. After a while, Liu Junhao closed his eyes and sighed, "It's still more comfortable on commercial planes. Look at how elegant those flight attendants are, and think about how we were treated when we flew on military planes... it's just no comparison!"

  Shao Hui took off his headphones and said, "That's right, if our troops' planes were equipped with a few flight attendants like them, no need to say anything else, just standing in front of us during missions would be enough, I wouldn't even need the political commissar to give any motivational speeches, I'd definitely go all out!"

  "Look at you, thinking that a wife has forgotten her mother. When I get home, I must have a big meal with my parents and then sleep for half a month!" Zuo Ming's face was filled with longing.