Chapter Thirty

  "Sir, what's wrong?" In a daze, I suddenly heard this voice next to my ear, and felt someone touch my shoulder. Instinctively, I grabbed the hand on my shoulder and pulled it into my chest, while my other hand drew out the gun from my waist and pressed it against the head of the person in my arms...

  "Ahh!!!" A loud cry woke me up completely, and my blurry eyes cleared up again. It was then that I smelled a fragrance coming from the guy who was so scared he didn't dare move, a very refreshing feeling. As I lifted my head, I found out that there were already many people surrounding me. Looking at their expressions, they seemed to be fearful, with terror in their eyes. And also... excitement? 'What are they excited about? Are they excited to finally see the gun?' I wondered to myself.

  "Ka-da! I instinctively flipped the safety switch on my gun and holstered it, gesturing to the people around me to help lift up the person in my arms. As they helped her friend shakily get back on her feet, I finally saw that she had been scared to the point of having no blood color on her face, with eyes full of terror..."

  "Sorry, did I scare you?" Realizing my mistake, I slowly got up, only to find that my whole body ached terribly. "Is this because I stayed here overnight?" I asked myself in my heart. My hands automatically smoothed out the wrinkles on my clothes, and then I walked gently to her side. The person supporting her took a step back, startled, when they saw me approaching. With a bitter smile, I stood still, trying my best to speak in my gentlest tone.

  "What's wrong with you? She was kind, seeing you sitting there, wanting to wake you up, afraid you'd catch a cold. How could you treat a girl like that..." She hadn't even spoken yet, but the boy next to her had already furiously questioned me. I didn't respond to him, just gave him a cold stare, which made him shut up completely and take a big step back. "What? Scared off by just one look?"

  "Sorry, scared you." He said the apologetic words again and was ready to leave. He turned around, picked up his military cap from beside him, bent down, and prepared to pick up yesterday's cigarette butt into his cap.

  "It's...it's okay." Just as I picked up the first cigarette butt, I heard this voice behind me, feeling very weak. "Looks like I scared him pretty badly..." As I said this in my heart, I slowly turned my body around to face the speaker.

  Her face had regained some color, although still pale, but was no longer as white as it had been a few minutes ago. "You shouldn't forgive me, if you hadn't shouted out at the time, I would have already fired..." Looking into her eyes, I said this with a bitter smile, but at the same time, I found that almost everyone took a big step back, except for the person who was scared by me and didn't retreat. However, she covered her mouth with her hand because of surprise, which had opened wide in shock...

  I didn't bother to look back at the people behind me, but instead turned around and continued to pick up my discarded cigarette butts. When I picked up the last one, a dustpan suddenly appeared in front of me. "Put it here, in the hat, it will get dirty." Then, the person standing next to me said, "You're really something, aren't you?"

  "Thank you......" Seeing the other's kindness in return for grievances, I was embarrassed and could only say these two words, taking the dustpan with one hand and pouring the cigarette butts from my hat into it.

  "What are you doing? Xiaohua, do you have something going on with this guy? Has he hurt you?" Just as I was about to return the dustpan to her, I saw that she was suddenly pulled aside by a tall boy, who then gently asked if she had been hurt by him. "Probably her boyfriend."

  With a smiling gaze, I looked at the boy who was glaring at me with anger. Since both of my handguns were tucked behind my back, he had no idea that I was armed. "Don't be afraid of him, he's just a soldier," I said calmly. The guy still didn't realize the danger I posed and continued to stare at me with provocative eyes, even sneering at me from the corner of his mouth.

  "What's wrong? What happened?" As she looked back at the sound, she saw her tardy teacher arriving late, because she had already heard someone calling out to her, "Isn't today Qingming Festival?"

  "I'm sorry, officer. If my student has offended you, please accept my apologies." This female teacher didn't even question me about scaring her students first, but instead came to apologize to me, and I started to admire her tactful way of handling things.

  "Teacher Zhang, what did he say? Isn't it just a soldier's rash? Wait for my big brother to come back and scare him to death." The bodyguard who didn't know what happened was still spitting saliva at me.

  "Your big brother? Which unit is he from?" Upon hearing his words, I was very curious, what kind of big brother could have taught such a brother? I'm really curious.

  "My elder brother, hum~ If I told you, it would scare you to death. He's a lieutenant and a sniper, the ace sniper of our army, Wang Kun, is in his unit, and he's Wang Kun's partner. Do you know who Wang Kun is? The ace sniper!!! His worst part is that he's ruthless towards people like you, the dregs of the military. Be careful or he'll find out and kill you......" Hearing him say this, I couldn't help but think with a wry smile, "How many partners do I have?"

  "Shut up!!" The guardian's words were cut off, as the teacher, whose face had turned red with anger, loudly stopped him from shouting further.

  "Sorry, I apologize for my students' impoliteness, they're still young." Upon hearing her words, I couldn't help but think of a wry smile, as if I really was the so-called "army ruffian", who took pleasure in bullying the weak.

  "Mysteriously, I'm not interested in your apology..." Just as I was about to finish my sentence, I was interrupted by the scene that caught my eye...

  "Look, there's a medal on this tombstone!!! And underneath it, there's a ring, is that platinum??? A careless guy suddenly appeared in front of Ouyang's tombstone, not only did his foot step on the marble in front of the tombstone, but he also carelessly picked up the ring I placed there last night, the wedding ring I bought yesterday afternoon for me and Ouyang."

  "Stop!! Put down the ring in your hand!!!" Seeing this, he only knew that his anger suddenly burned from his chest to his head, and he quickly ran over, shouting loudly for him to stop and put down what was in his hand.

  "Take it yourself!" The newly discovered guardian of the flower, directly snatched the ring from the guy who was stunned by his own roar, ran to the back of the crowd that deliberately blocked me, and loudly provoked me. His teacher was also confused by the sudden change and didn't know what to do, so he just stood there in a daze.

  "Damn it!! I don't have the patience to play games with you, you only have two choices, put down and then get out of here, or not put down, die!!" In a fit of rage, I reached back with both hands, directly drawing out the pistol stuck in my waist. Along with the sound of the safety being released, the two pistols were simultaneously aimed at his head.

  "Come on, I don't believe you dare to shoot." This guy who doesn't even know how to write the word "die", is still provoking me, and his teacher didn't even have time to stop us...

  Bang! Bang! Losing my patience, I fired both guns at the same time, blowing off the buttons on his shoulder. "Last chance, put it down and get out of here. If you don't, you're dead!" My gun was already trained on his head again, and he had been scared into sitting on the ground by the sound of my gunfire. He stared blankly at the spot where the two buttons on his shoulder had disappeared, his lips having lost all their color.

  "Stop!! Even if he's wrong, he's still just a child!" The female teacher, awakened by my gunshot, ran to his side and shielded him with her own body. She glared at me with angry eyes and loudly voiced her plea, which was actually an interrogation of me.

  At this time, the girl with "Hua" in her name, temporarily called Xiaohua, quickly walked to the side of the frightened guy. She snatched the ring from his hand and ran to the front of Ouyang's tombstone, bowed slightly, then carefully put the ring back in its original place. Seeing this, he also turned off the safety on his gun and neatly inserted it into the holster behind him.

  Bang! The furious and irrational female teacher, as she walked up to me, had already slapped my face with a loud slap, hitting very hard, causing me to lose balance for an instant. But I quickly steadied myself and faced her angry eyes: "You're a soldier, your gun is meant to kill the enemy, not threaten civilians and children! What kind of soldier are you?!" After I steadied myself, she slapped my other cheek again, loudly asking her question, and refused the good intentions of those behind her who were trying to pull her away, fearing I would harm her students.

  "If you're still angry, you can keep hitting...". My words had just fallen when another slap landed on my face. I didn't dodge, but let her vent her anger until she was tired and stopped, being held back by the students, before slowly speaking out my words.

  "23 points, nice shot!"

  "Is that so? For someone like you, beating you would be too light a punishment. Hand over your ID, I'm going to report your behavior to the military department and have you tried in a military court!" Still looking at her with a smiling gaze, the person who had just lost their composure from my words slowly handed over my officer's badge and threw it directly into her hands.

  "Return it after you've finished reading."

  "Name, Wang Kun. Rank, Upper Lieutenant. Age, 24. Specialty..." She read out the words on the officer's ID card in a low voice, but her tone grew louder with surprise... "Sniper..." She hesitated as she read out my specialty, but didn't notice that the people around her who heard her words looked at me with eyes slowly filling with surprise.

  "Are you that Wang Kun? The Hawk?" The female teacher who had just finished reading my military ID raised her head and hesitantly asked me this question.

  "Yes."

  "Aren't you a hero of war? Why hurt a child?"

  "Are you Wang Kun? Then what's written on this tomb is... Ouyang Shuang!!!" Xiaohua hesitated to ask me this question, because she hadn't noticed the words on the tombstone earlier. Now that she took a closer look, her voice was filled with surprise.

  "I don't care how you look at me, I only know that offending Ouyang will lead to death!!" I said softly, and then took out my military ID from the female teacher's hand. I walked slowly to the girl named Xiaohua, took out a Zippo lighter from my pocket, and said, "Sorry for scaring you earlier, little girl. But I want to tell you something: if you see soldiers sleeping here or elsewhere again, don't disturb them, especially if they've just come back from the front line. Be extra careful not to even get close to them. We who have just returned from the front line haven't adapted to the comfort here yet, and we might hurt someone as kind as you by accident." I forced the Zippo into her hand, "This is my apology to you. It's my first war trophy, which has been with me for a long time. Please accept an apology from someone who made a mistake unintentionally. Sorry." Without paying attention to her reaction, I walked slowly to Ouyang's tombstone and stood there quietly, bidding farewell to her in my heart, as my premonition told me that this was truly the last time I would come back to see her.

  I stood in front of the tombstone for a long time, put on my military cap, stood at attention, and gave a powerful salute to Ouyang's tombstone. Just as I was about to leave, I was interrupted by a voice coming from behind me. "Wait..."