Chapter Five

  Now let's shift our focus to Ouyang Shuang.

  "I told you to stop smoking, but you still do it. And you, you're a dead bear, every time it's you who brings him cigarettes." As soon as I walked in the door, I saw him lying on the bed, smoking with that dead bear. The doctor has said it so many times already, smoking will have a very bad impact on his physical recovery, but he still smokes.

  "Haha, our great doctor is angry, pinch now, pinch now." Mountain bear is still fooling me, and every time I go out, he continues to smoke.

  Watching them laugh and smile, I couldn't help but recall the days when we first arrived here. It's been a month and 13 days since he woke up until now.

  His body recovered quickly, but he still couldn't get out of bed. However, his heart was still so heavy. One time when I was making my rounds at midnight, I heard a faint cry coming from the room. I stood outside and listened for a long time as he whispered the names of his comrades. I don't know how much time passed before the sounds in the room stopped, but by then I had already been crying uncontrollably.

  Although he never told me about his comrades, although my sisters and I quarreled with him to tell us the stories of what happened during those 7 days, he never told us anything, just a faint smile, shaking his head, and then nothing. But every time my sister and I washed him, we were shocked by the scars on his body. We knew that every time we turned over his body, it would pull at his wounds, but each time, he didn't make any sound, just silently endured.

  His emotions have been unstable, and he's always getting startled. Poor guy, there are so many unbearable things weighing on his shoulders. I still remember that one time when it was just half a month after he woke up, I walked past his room and heard him moaning softly. When I turned on the light, what I saw was the dark muzzle of a gun pointed right at me. At that moment, I let out a loud scream, waking up many people, and also making him realize it was me who had come in, so he put down the gun. Because of that incident, he forced himself to pick up his handgun again, which made the wound on his shoulder reopen. For this reason, Dr. Wang (that female doctor) even scolded me harshly. I felt wronged and asked her why she was scolding me. With a heavy heart, she told me that our soldiers also have the right to be afraid and cry. They are also afraid and they do cry. Especially those who just came back from the battlefield, their minds are like tightly stretched strings, and any slight stimulation would make those strings snap. Today he didn't fire the gun, which is already a blessing for me. Hearing this made me really scared, I was really afraid that he might have fired the gun at that time, but in my heart, there's also an inexplicable trust in him, believing that he wouldn't fire the gun. My heart is so conflicted!

  A hand suddenly waved back and forth in front of his eyes, followed by the sound of that dead bear's voice: "Hey~hey~hey~back to life~what is our great doctor thinking?"

  Seeing him still lying in bed, smiling silently. He is really handsome, sometimes I can hear other nurses secretly discussing him, especially the nurse who helped me wash him, a few people will hide in the corner and quietly guess how he got the scars on his body, and his figure is great ~ not a bit of extra flesh.

  "Haha, look at our doctor, she doesn't know what to think. Her face is all red." Ah, it feels like being a kid who's been found out, my face is burning. When I see his gentle and reasonable smile, my face burns even more. No way, I have to get out of here quickly, can't let him see me flustered. "Haha" I quickly ran out amidst the thunder-like laughter.

  I had already escaped to the bathroom, staring at someone's face in the mirror that was as red as a ripe apple. I must have been seen by him just now, what an embarrassing feeling, all because of that dead bear. However, that dead bear wasn't entirely useless, at least I found out that he also had a nickname - "隼" (Shun). But I really didn't know what this character meant. When I couldn't help but ask him about it, he looked at me with his beautiful amber-colored eyes. Immediately, I heard his low, deep voice in my ear: "隼 is a type of bird that only lives in high mountains, a kind of eagle. But it flies much faster than eagles and has a smaller body shape. It's an animal that specializes in preying on eagles. Because I'm a sniper, they call me 隼, it's like praising my sharp eyes."

  "Hehe~" Thinking of myself at that time, I couldn't help but burst out laughing again. Lifting my head, looking at the mirror, still seeing a red face, I pointed to her face with my finger and softly asked "Have you fallen for him?"

  "What did you say?" A voice suddenly sounded in his ear, like a thunderclap.

  "Ah!!" The frightened self could only make such a sound, and all I knew was that my heart was beating very fast, as if it was going to jump out of my throat.

  "You, you, you, this dead bear, this is the women's restroom, aren't you afraid I'll yell? Only when seeing that dead bear standing at the door did she realize that her secret had been completely heard by this dead bear."

  "Please~" The weak voice of that dead bear was in my ear, followed by an even more embarrassing answer: "Our great doctor, please take a look at the sign on the door next time you go to the bathroom, okay? Now I'm the one who should be shouting 'indecent'!"

  "Ah!" Hearing this, he hastily ran to the door and pushed it open with a loud creak. "Male"!! The only word on the door was this one big character. Oh no, not only had all his secrets been heard by the guy standing at the door, but he had also entered the wrong room. How embarrassing!

  "Hey, stop being awkward, you like him, we can all see that. Want to hear my opinion?" The bear head spoke again, but this time his voice was very small, not the thunderous voice.

  Realizing that the only straw was appearing in front of himself, he rushed over to grab it: "Well, but I don't know if he will like me."

  "That guy, he's the cold outside and hot inside type. Actually, if you treat him well, he'll treat you well too. But I've seen his file, want to hear what's next?" Damn it, that guy always stops at the most critical moment, really want to know about his past.

  "How about we go downstairs and have a drink? See if this works out, if it doesn't..."

  That dead bear shook its head... I only have this one way left, wait, I thought of it, he must agree with me "Or else I'll say a few bad words about him to Xiao Hui, how's that?"

  In an instant, the dead bear's expression turned exceptionally gentle, "How could I possibly trouble you, young lady? How about I treat you to something instead?"

  "Hmm~"

  "I believe you also know the true name of the peregrine falcon, it's Wang Kun." At this time, we were in the restaurant downstairs, Shan Xiong sat across from me, unexpectedly, the opening was such an uninteresting remark. "I know, get to the point, I want to hear the key part."

  Hugging the cup tightly, as the mountain bear spoke, I only knew that I was holding the cup tighter and tighter, my eyes were opening wider and wider, but my heart was aching more and more.

  "He enlisted at the age of 19, before the war. He completed his military service a year before the war began. He was an ordinary scout, but due to his outstanding performance, the army signed a one-year contract with him as a non-commissioned officer. However, because he had a fiancée, he only served for a few months and then applied for discharge. He wanted to return to his hometown to get married, and his fiancée agreed to wait for him, preparing to get married as soon as he returned. At that time, the country was already preparing for war, and he didn't even hear the military's call to arms. But you should know where the enemy bombed first, right?"

  "Ah, I see."

  "That's his hometown. Come to think of it, I had already met him back then, but he didn't leave an impression on me." The mountain bear let out a bitter smile as he said this, and the one listening to him could feel a deep sadness. That small town, I knew, was a major obstacle in the enemy's military advance route, so it was continuously bombed for three days, leaving it completely flattened. Out of its 350,000 residents, only a few thousand survived. The fact that he himself managed to survive is a miracle."

  "When our troops arrived, I couldn't believe it. The place was a paradise before the war, but now it's hell. Now you can look at the map, the city's name has been erased from the map."

  The mountain bear saw me holding the cup in my hand tightly, and asked considerately: "Can't you hear it? No, let's talk about it another day?" I just shook my head firmly with my eyes to indicate that he should continue speaking. I couldn't speak because I was afraid I would burst into tears.

  "At that time, anyone who survived in the small town was required to join the army, and Kaito was among them. The records show that from then on, he joined the sniper training, and he didn't use an ordinary sniper rifle, but a high-powered anti-materiel rifle. I'm sure you understand why he used it now."

  She nodded vigorously.

  "Adding the previous unit he followed, he has been in three units. If you're interested, I can give you the numbers of those three units. You'll find that those three numbers have become a memorial." What Mountain Bear said made sense to me - the three numbers that became a memorial meant that there were no survivors left in this unit.

  "For 2 years, there have been several extremely fierce battles, I believe you also know, but what you know is just the simple number of casualties. Don't interrupt me, let me continue. There were a total of N times, and a unit lost its designation. Once I participated, and he participated three times. I don't know if it's because his luck was good or something else. The first time, he miraculously came down from the battlefield without any scratches, and he was called a coward because the three people who came down with him are now all disabled. The second time, he only broke a rib, and on the entire front line, there were only two of them left, one half-dead guy. The third time, which is the one we just went to, his injuries were severe, and it can be said that he almost lost his life. However, on the entire position, there was only one survivor, him. I started to admire and envy his good luck. But what you don't know is that each interval wasn't short, and during that time, he and his comrades became familiar with each other and became brothers..." Mountain Bear said all this in one breath, then sat down and gulped water into his belly."

  Listening to this, I've already begun to understand his emotions. Looking at people as close as brothers, one by one falling down beside me, but I haven't had anything happen to me - what kind of emotion is that? "So now, he's willing to chat and laugh with me, which is good enough, but I also know he's keeping a distance from me. He's afraid; he's afraid that after becoming brothers with us, only he'll be left." The mountain bear's voice continued to echo in my ears, but I no longer had the heart to listen. All I knew was that I was running very fast now, wanting to reach his side as quickly as possible, wanting to hold him in my arms, wanting him to cry out loud instead of silently shedding tears.