Chapter Thirty-Two

  "Wait a minute!!! Wait for me......" Just as I walked to the entrance of the cemetery, a panting voice came from behind. Turning back, it was Xiaohua gasping for breath.

  "What are you waiting for?" He turned around, looked at her, and quietly waited for her to calm down her breathing before asking this question. "Is there anything else you want to know? This woman is so troublesome."

  "Can you give me some time?" He looked at her with a puzzled expression after hearing her question, expecting what she would say next.

  "I want to talk with you." Seeing that I didn't respond as she had hoped, but instead stared at her with a puzzled expression, she could only begin explaining why she called out to me. "What's there to talk about?"

  "Why? You want to know, I've already told you everything, why? Still asking me?" A string of whys, asking out loud, made her feel that I was angry. Actually, my heart is a bit impatient now.

  "No, no, I just want to chat with you. Can you walk with me?" What is this? An invitation? Or something else?

  I didn't bother with her, but continued on my way. However, she kept following me and calling out for me to wait for her. Finally, I couldn't take the trouble she was causing me anymore, so I stopped, turned around, and said, "I still have 40 minutes before my train leaves, it takes half an hour to get to the station, so you have 10 minutes." As I spoke, I glanced at my watch and gave her 10 minutes.

  She didn't say a word, as if she was organizing the questions behind her, so that she could dig out my most secrets in 10 minutes. I also didn't respond to her, but slowed down my pace, letting her keep up with my rhythm. "Why? You're accommodating me?" She asked this question with doubt when she found out I had slowed down my pace.

  "Ouyang once told me that the one she loves is made of wood, not stone." I softly spoke out the answer to her, but in my heart, I recalled what Ouyang and I last said in the tree hole, "From now on, don't treat girls like that. The husband I love is made of wood, not stone."

  "Hehe~" A soft laugh interrupted my thoughts, I turned around and saw her covering her mouth with a sly smile, seeing the puzzled look in my eyes. She seemed to have the feeling of being found out, a faint red color appeared on her face, she made a mischievous expression at me as if saying "you caught me~", and playfully stuck out her tongue.

  Looking at her, I thought of my sister. Lovingly placing my hand on her head, playfully messing up her hair, "If my sister were still here, she'd be about your age now." In response to her puzzled gaze, I slowly spoke gentle words from my mouth.

  "Your sister? Sorry, I shouldn't have asked." She subconsciously asked the question, but immediately saw my expression turn gloomy and hurriedly apologized. What a considerate girl!

  "It's okay, you really are like my sister, as mischievous as her, as understanding as her, and as lovely as her." He stopped in his tracks, looked up at the sky that had already started to darken, and slowly spoke out words of forgiveness.

  "Why do you have long hair? The army doesn't seem to allow it, does it?" She quickly changed the subject and gently reached out to brush a stray lock of hair from my forehead behind my ear, then stared at my shoulder-length hair and asked this question.

  "Ouyang sister once said that I look good with long hair, and I thought of leaving it for her to see after the war is over. But I couldn't wait that long, so I started growing it now." Still looking up at the sky, still speaking in a slow tone, low voice, slowly expressing my longing for Ouyang.

  "You must love Ouyang sister so much, I really envy her for having someone who loves her like that." She also raised her head like me, looking at the sky, and spoke in a slow tone with a soft voice that echoed in my ears, as if she was confiding something to me.

  "Really? But... never mind, you wouldn't understand anyway." I wanted to retort back at her, but as soon as the words left my mouth, I realized that I owed Ouyang too much, far too much, and there was no way to explain it clearly, so I could only cut off this topic.

  "Oh, can I ask another question? You don't have to answer it." This little girl really has a lot of questions.

  "Go ahead and ask, I'll answer you, but this is the last question. It can be considered a response, but at the same time, it also shut down her subsequent questions because he really felt too bothered."

  "You once said in front of Ouyang's sister's grave, to me and my classmates, that she would forever be in the most sacred place in your heart, and you wouldn't allow anyone to touch it. But why did you decide to tell us in the end?" Upon hearing this question, he saw her curious gaze and couldn't help but reveal a hint of bitter smile at the corner of his mouth. "This is not an easy question to answer."

  "You might think I'm deceiving you. Because, when I turned to leave, I saw Ou Yang's photo on the tombstone, giving me an accusing look. So, I had no choice but to listen to her, even though I didn't want to tell you guys." As I finished speaking with a bitter smile, looking into her eyes, my words became more and more astonishing, my mouth even slightly agape. Seeing myself like this, the bitter smile grew even stronger.

  "Is that so..." She murmured these two words, then lowered her head, as if considering something, and also seemed to be moved by something.

  "May I ask a question?" Seeing this, I also prepared to answer the doubts in my heart.

  "Well, ask away. I'll answer everything you want to know." She still spoke with her head down, slowly saying what she wanted to say.

  "This kind of person, the bloody smell on my body, I believe even you can feel it, right?" Seeing her nodding, I continued to say what came next, "Then why did you still want to wake me up, even if I almost killed you, and yet you forgave me, and now you're still willing to chat with me. Aren't you afraid of me?" The puzzled self slowly spoke out the doubts that had been in my heart all along.

  "When you were called to wake up, because I saw you alone leaning on the tombstone, I thought you were thinking about something. As I walked closer, I found out that you were sleeping, and there were still tears on your face that hadn't dried yet, which made me feel a pang of sadness without realizing it. From then on, because I felt that you weren't as scary as I thought, but instead had an aura that made people want to unconsciously get closer to you. Although you look very aloof."

  After she finished speaking, I wanted to bitterly smile again, "If you let those new recruits hear what you just said, their first reaction would be to take you to the psychiatric department of the hospital." This sentence, I only thought in my heart and didn't let her hear it, because I didn't want her to misunderstand my intention.

  "Is that so? I should get going, or I'll miss the train." Glancing at the watch on his wrist, he muttered something else under his breath and hailed a passing military vehicle.

  "Are you going to the front line?" She saw me walking towards the military vehicle parked a few meters away, and softly asked from behind me. Turning around, I saw her reluctant gaze, nodded ruthlessly, and could see tears welling up in her eyes.

  "Then, remember to come back alive, because here, not only is your Ouyang, but also your sister is waiting for you to return!!" She looked into my eyes and loudly expressed her blessings to me, which was also a constraint on me. I gently shook my head, refusing her blessing, and as she couldn't help but burst into tears, I walked over to her side, lowered my head, and softly spoke the reason for my refusal, as well as my advice to her.

  "Sorry, I can't guarantee that. If you really want to call me brother, then listen to what I have to say: don't go to the battlefield, this is a request." Having said that, I turned around and left.

  "Why?!!" came her loud inquiry from behind me.

  "Because I don't want, the tragedy between me and Ouyang to repeat!!" She answered loudly, without turning back, only raising my left hand to make a goodbye gesture, then turned around and boarded the impatient military vehicle that had been waiting on one side, giving the driver an apologetic glance.

  "Take care!!! Brother!!!" Along with the roar of the engine, the military vehicle had already started moving. At the same time as the car moved, her shouting voice also came from behind. The driver who heard this asked me considerately, "Do you want to stop the car?" Probably really taking her for my sister. While thinking in his heart, he just lightly shook his head at him, indicating that he should speed up, because there was not much time left...

  "Brother, wake up." Suddenly, a voice entered my ears, and I slightly opened my eyes to see the gleaming eyes of Shan Xiong in the darkness. "It turned out that I had already fallen asleep and had a dream, which was about that day and that girl named Xiao Hua, but with a different scenario." As soon as I thought of this, I was fully awake, nodded at Shan Xiong to indicate that I was now fully awake.

  "Alright, let's get ready, we'll set off in half an hour." Upon hearing this, I was puzzled because I didn't have any equipment to prepare except for the sniper rifle that I was holding in my arms. All other equipment was already properly attached to my body. Then it dawned on me that San Xiong knew about my low blood pressure and wanted me to take a break before setting off. "What a considerate guy." As I thought this, I nodded heavily at San Xiong again and put my hand on his shoulder, giving it a light squeeze. Seeing San Xiong silently nodding back at me, I knew he had received my gratitude...

  It's been forty minutes since I woke up, and our group of 14 people left the hiding place in the last darkness of dawn, slowly making our way through the rubble towards the main camp. If we say that our current location is only 3 kilometers away from the main camp in a straight line, but due to the rubble and ruins, as well as some obstacles, the safe route is nearly 10 kilometers long. Thinking about this makes me want to curse in my heart, 'This damned city, why is it so big?'

  "Captain, you said, why did they send us here to scout? And it's been 7 days already, without any signs of support for us, and they're less than 10 kilometers away!!" I was walking in the middle of our squad, we were advancing in a triangular formation, Shan Xiong was leading the way, I was in the middle, while others were on the sides keeping watch. This voice was from a soldier beside me, who was responsible for keeping watch, and he asked softly by my ear, after all, we also feared being discovered.

  "I don't know, watch your step!! Be quiet, be vigilant, if there's a problem, go back and ask. Just after saying four words, I found that the soldier who had been waiting for me to answer his question was beside me. Because he was always looking at me, he didn't notice the ground beneath him and was suddenly tripped up. As he was about to fall, I reached out to support him, and just as he was about to say thank you, I turned his head in the direction of vigilance with my hand. Then, I told him to shut up, so that others wouldn't hear and affect morale."

  But his words were interrupted by me and told him to shut up. However, the questions in my heart kept popping up like soap bubbles. 'Now that the enemy controls about 60% of this city, but upstairs, they clearly know we're going out, will encounter enemy search parties, snipers, why do they still send us out? After being stuck here for a month, why hasn't the relief team arrived yet? Not even reinforcements? Why aren't we allowed to carry wireless radios when we go out? Although it's said to be afraid of the enemy's electronic interference and eavesdropping, but this is also unreasonable! Military radios have anti-interference and confidential channels! Are they afraid that we'll find out something?'

  Bang! Bang! Bang! I, who was deep in thought, was suddenly awakened by the sound of gunfire coming from behind me and a short, pained cry as one of my comrades was hit. "We're down to 13 now, those bastards. We had 20 when we set out."

  "Take cover, take cover!!" The mountain bear in front of the troops shouted loudly, wanting the people next to him to quickly find cover, but another soldier was shot and fell to the ground with blood all over his body.

  "Damn it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Seeing this, the mountain bear directly fell behind a pile of rubble, set up his machine gun, and started blindly sweeping towards the back. His mouth also let out a roar of anger. Although I don't know if his bullets hit the enemy or not, but because of his blind sweep, the enemy was also afraid that stray bullets would fly onto themselves, so they stopped firing and hid behind a pile of ruins.

  "Come on, I've got you in my sights......" Lying on the ruins, he also set up his sniper rifle. The sky had already started to brighten up. Through the sniper scope, he could see very clearly that there was a guy with half of his head exposed outside the ruins. "Phew~" Along with his own muttering voice, his finger also pulled the trigger. From the sniper scope, he could see very clearly that the guy behind the ruins, who had carelessly exposed half of his head, had completely disappeared.

  "Let's go!!" The appearance of my sniper rifle made the enemy aware that there was someone on our side who could threaten their lives. I, who had just killed two people in an instant, saw that they were no longer showing their heads and fired back like before. Hurriedly putting away the sniper rifle, I called for others to quickly leave.

  BOOM! We had just run less than 50 meters when a grenade exploded beside us, and another soldier fell to the ground. Just as Shan Xiong swung his rifle butt at me, I was ready for him and caught it with the butt of my sniper rifle. "I've been expecting this move from you. You go, I'll stay behind."

  The mountain bear saw that the butt of his gun was easily caught by me, "You go, you must attract the enemy after breaking through, otherwise, none of us can leave!!" He shouted loudly in my ear.

  "You leave, I stay behind, they are more afraid of my presence." The grenade is still exploding in his ear, the scout, one shot and another guy who was about to fire again was blown away, then he himself shouted loudly, because from the firepower, at least 2 teams, nearly 40 people were coming from behind.

  "Li Pai Chang, Wang Shang Wei, let us stay behind, you two leave! There are many ordinary soldiers in the army, but there are only two of you!!" A soldier next to us couldn't help but shout out loud as well. I followed his gaze and saw that the other soldiers had determination in their eyes, and also genuine respect for us. 'They've grown up...' Seeing this, I couldn't help but think to myself that they had become real soldiers, no longer the new recruits that people looked down on.

  "Let your mom fart!!" The mountain bear's words made the warrior who was crouching behind me stunned, and then a look of grievance appeared in his eyes.

  "This bear-like guy is like that, you all know the way, so go back by yourselves. This is an order from me and him to you, do you remember military law?" I gently took over the conversation, speaking in a gentle tone with a hint of threat.

  "But......" The warriors around us still wanted to stay and cover our retreat with Mountain Bear.

  "But your mom!!!!! Get out of here, old man!" The enraged Mountain Bear had already cursed out loud. Looking through the gaps in the rubble, the enemy was approaching.

  "Now you leave, Mountain Bear and I will target the small ones, we still have a chance to leave alone. If you all stay like this now, none of us can leave! Leave!! This is an order!!" He loudly explained to the soldiers around him, then gave orders to Mountain Bear and me.

  "Yes!!" I said, finishing the order and turning back to pay attention to the enemy approaching from behind. From my back, came the firm voices of other warriors. But I could hear it, despite the continuous gunfire, I could hear the reluctance in their voices.

  Listening to the departure of the warriors behind me, neither I nor the mountain bear turned back. I reached out and took the water bottle left for me by the departing warrior, tilted my head back and drank it clean. Then, with a firm gaze at the mountain bear, I said in a measured tone: "Brother! This time, let's not abandon each other! We'll fight shoulder to shoulder!!"

  "En! We, shoulder to shoulder battle!!" The mountain bear loudly responded to my oath. Hearing this, I said the last sentence in my heart, 'This is a fight that belongs to me and the mountain bear alone. Ouyang, please bless the mountain bear to return alive......'