“Two mouthfuls of water in six days, even if I wanted it to act up, I didn’t even have the chance.” K7 tugged at his dried and cracking lips, through gritted teeth. “Did you bring any sutures? I’m afraid I have plenty of big and small places that need stitching up. Sakra was afraid I’d die, so he took out the shrapnel in my body. F*ckers! How dare they not stitch me up!”
T6, who was standing on alert, heard him. He said, “Damn” and laughed: “Don’t you get too greedy, in ST history, you’re definitely their first well-treated captive.”
The party of eight soldiers pushed forward with the information given from the insider and retreated towards the safe zone.
“Which country is the mercenary that contacted us from? And here I was wondering why the military was so certain that K7 had entered ST’s base, it turns out we had a planted agent.”
“We don’t know which country he’s from, but places like this aren’t any different than terrorist bases. We’ll definitely need men of our own, and if anything happens, at the very least, we’ll get notified immediately within our borders.”
The dry and chilly wind blew across the endless golden sand. The dust that it carried away covered up the tracks that the party had made. The silhouettes that were walking towards the darkness to reach the light did not stop; they brought along their rescued comrade and treaded on the journey back home.
On the edge of the horizon, the light had once again revealed itself, illuminating this land that was spreading with war for the last couple of decades. Nobody knows how much blood and tears of men were soaked in the golden sand; every corner gave off desolate loneliness.
Even if the sky was lit, the place still felt so desolate.
After sleeping for two hours, Ye Jian opened her bloodshot eyes and stood upon a dune. She silently watched as this ravaged land welcomed the arrival of a new day. She opened up her palm, allowing the morning breeze accompanied by sand to slip through her fingers, and then she slowly furled her fingers.
“What are you thinking about?” Xia Jinyuan’s voice came from behind her, his military boots stepped on the sandy surface, making very little noise.
“Nothing much, I just think that the sunrise here was magnificent. It’s a pity that this land was always filled with danger, unknown danger, and danger that instills fear in the common folk.” Ye Jian did not turn her head, and she stood facing the sun. Wearing a white t-shirt and black trousers, her androgenous outfit wouldn’t make someone realize that this person was a girl…
Xia Jinyuan stood shoulder to shoulder with her. After their short two-hour nap, he also had bloodshot eyes; he smiled: “Internal strife is the biggest problem. We guard our homeland and protect the citizens of our country so that they can calmly watch the beauty of sunrise and enjoy a period without fire and ashes without the flames of war. That is what we have always stood for.”
“This land will one day return to a state of calm and will have someone to protect it so that their citizens are distant from fear, distant from fire and ashes…, that day will come.”
Raising her head to look at the man whose chin was oozing toughness, Ye Jian smiled: “Captain Xia, did you enroll yourself into the military because of this reason?”
“I’m the same as you, I came for one reason, for one goal.” Xia Jinyuan raised his brows, staring at the girl bathing in sunlight. The gentle morning sun revealed the star-like brightness behind those obsidian eyes and also revealed the incorruptible persistence deep beneath her eyes.
His dark pupils dimmed and recovered. Stretching out his arms, he smiled warmly, “Here, give me a hug.”
“Go hug yourself, and I’m going to check on K7.” Ye Jian wasn’t as brave as him. To dare hug Xia Jinyuan when G3 and the others were all present before he smiled and stretched out his arm, she turned around agilely and escaped quickly.
K7’s injuries had all been taken care of. There were a total of thirteen injuries on him; among them, the injury that was about twenty centimeters deep on his shoulder blade was the worst. The deepest parts of it were already inflamed and swollen red.
At 4 o’clock in the morning, they entered Mirwais Hospital, a hospital that was built in the ’70s of the last century with the help of the Chinese government.
