Chapter Fifteen: The Night of the Air Raid

  At this time, Xu Gong's face was flustered and frightened. Obviously, he had seen Ping Shu and Jiao Ge, and was even more at a loss for words. He hastily stepped forward and said nervously: "Chairman, General Manager, it's not good! We were originally supposed to withdraw from the construction site before 9 o'clock! But when the workers were dismantling equipment, a group of soldiers came! They wouldn't let us pack up our things, and even said that we couldn't move the equipment! In the end, they didn't even let people leave!"

  I didn't dare tell the workers about the air raid, but now, seeing that they can't evacuate, what if something really happens?

  This is the first time I've seen Jiao Ge so anxious and flustered! In the past, whenever something happened, he would always remain calm and composed, with everything under control. This time, he's really getting a bit anxious.

  He hastily sent Ping Shu to investigate and find out what was going on, which link had gone wrong. For now, the most important thing is to withdraw the exploration team from the mining point. Even if the equipment is not needed, human safety must be guaranteed.

  Just as Ping Shu turned around and walked out the door, a series of massive explosions were heard from the oil extraction points near the Israeli border checkpoint.

  The explosion was heard from far away, and the four people in the house were immediately stunned. For a while, he didn't know what to say or do.

  I sat paralyzed on the ground with Xu Gong, a complete blank in my mind.

  Gaunt Xu Gong suddenly dropped his glasses, his trembling hands covered in old scars slowly covering his dry, cracked lips, a silent scream. Two lines of tears poured out, washing away the grey defeat on his face and revealing two clean, dark streaks underneath. Jiao Ge reached out to press down on Xu Gong's shoulder, softly comforting him, his voice slightly hoarse, clearly struggling himself.

  Ping Shu's body suddenly stiffened as he was about to leave, and his eyes turned red. This middle-aged man, who had always given me a similar feeling to Huo Shu, now had fire in his eyes, as if a ferocious beast inside him had awakened. Ping Shu didn't say anything, but just gave us a deep look, nodded at us, turned around, opened the door and rushed out.

  Jiao Ge quickly regained his composure, pulled open the curtains and gazed out into the distance with all his might, trying to get a clear view of the bombed area. However, it was too far away and blocked by buildings, so he couldn't see anything. The explosion sounds in his ears were only faintly audible. But the direction was absolutely unmistakable. Jiao Ge had once stood at this window and pointed out to me that the distant sky was lit up red by the explosions, looking especially like a sunset, beautiful yet cruel and desolate.

  Jiao Ge looked at me and Xu Gong, who were both in a daze, and thought it was time to stop us from being so down. He hurried back to comfort us: "Actually, this matter is not as serious as we imagined. If the Pakistani side attacks our mining point, they will definitely withdraw all their people from their own mining point. They absolutely won't let them die like that."

  Xu Gong, at this moment, was crying like a child. After hearing Jiao Ge's words, he seemed to have grasped the last straw and stopped crying. He blinked his tear-stained eyes, looked at Jiao Ge, then at me, whose eyes were still lifeless. It seemed that he had forced himself to believe Jiao Ge's words, which gave him a glimmer of hope, and thus slightly alleviated his overwhelming sense of guilt.

  "After all, our motherland is not just for show. If more than 400 Chinese citizens were really blown to the sky, neither Israel nor Palestine would be able to swallow this. Don't worry, Palestine needs China."

  Jiao Ge's words made me, who had almost lost my soul, regain it. In fact, I was not just shocked by the death of over 400 compatriots, but more so by the realization that history had changed after returning to the past. After coming back to 2008, the general direction of the world seemed to be no different, yet something completely impossible happened. I clearly remembered that before my rebirth, I had never heard of such a thing as over 400 Chinese citizens dying in this Sagada arrival.

  This is what I'm really worried about, and Jiao Ge's analysis made me realize that there is still room for maneuvering here, things may not be as bad as they seem. With my full energy restored, Xu Gong and I now want to confirm Jiao Ge's speculation, even if we can do something ourselves, as long as we can quickly prove that those compatriots are safe.

  Before long, Ping Shu brought back a reconnaissance team with a local translator wearing a black and white checked shirt, short hair and beard. He ran into the house without saying anything else, just pointing at the panting translator who couldn't speak, looking like he was exhausted too. The translator was a local, probably only 23 or 24 years old, who had come to China as an exchange student from the University of Jordan River West Bank three years ago and never returned to Palestine after graduation.

  After struggling in the North for over a year, I found that I had no competitiveness except for this Arab tycoon face, which made it easy to pick up girls. Coincidentally, Jiao Ge's company was recruiting translators, and the condition was that they must be local Palestinians. This guy, Hassan Ibn Ahmad Rahman Ibn Saleh Aziz Gaza, sounded like a noble young man who successfully made it into the translator recruitment and became one of the members of the exploration team traveling to Palestine. There were fourteen other translators like him, but the others were all left at the extraction point and couldn't come out.

  At this moment, it's unclear what happened. The remaining four people in the house, including me, stared at the young man who was panting and coughing, unable to straighten his waist. Everyone hoped to get some good news from him. Seeing that he couldn't speak due to coughing, we shifted our gaze to Ping Shu, who had brought him back. Ping Shu was also anxious, grabbed the clay water pot on the low cabinet, drank the remaining water in one gulp, and then told us about his encounter with Hasan.

  "This kid ran to a friend's house in Gaza City yesterday, using the excuse of going out to buy something, before the withdrawal from the construction site began. Just before the bombing started, he coincidentally met an old classmate who was the leader of a combat team at the Kasan Travel Agency, and for some reason, he went crazy looking for us. Luckily, I bumped into him, but this kid recognized me - I couldn't tell these Arabs apart."

  At this time, Hassan also smoothed out his breath and started speaking with a mouthful of Northeastern dialect: "Chairman, Mahmoud told me that Hamas is aware that we explorers are going to talk to the Chinese, wanting to get some aid. So they deliberately separated us and attacked the other side's mining point on purpose, just to make us think those explorers were killed in the blast. In fact, they had been relocated to an abandoned Israeli settlement outside Shaga City before the attack began."

  The result was a weight off his shoulders as Xu Gong handed him the water bottle, and after taking a big gulp of water, Hassan continued: "They're doing this to make China pay attention to our strength in the country before things escalate, then they'll release the casualty list from this bombing, we'll get our people back, and the country will see that there are no Chinese citizens among the casualties. So Hamas is fine, it's achieved its goal without really harming any Chinese citizens. But you, Chairman, and your family are in trouble!"

  After hearing his words, Jiao Ge and Ping Shu couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat, while I stood by with my heart slightly calmed. Although there were many uncertainties in this matter, at least the overall situation had not changed, and Israel's air raid on Sha Ga City would not be advanced. My greatest reliance still existed, and nothing too unexpected would happen. Only when I thought of this did I finally let out a sigh of relief, and my long-suspended heart was finally put to rest.