Chapter 22 Chapter 22 You are obviously alive

A solo trip home turned into a family reunion with all the members, which was an unexpected development before Chen Luan set out.

However, after Jiang Xun and Jiang Ling joined, Chen Luan's originally slightly depressed mood inexplicably improved a lot.

The base ruins are located on the outskirts of the city, and it is snowing outside again.

Chen Luan insisted on taking the skytrain and not taking a private car. Jiang Xun and Jiang Ling had no choice but to get on the car as well.

At this time, Chen Luan was sitting by the window. Huge snowflakes fluttered towards the glass like butterflies. Below the skytrain was the city of Scanple shrouded in lead-gray snow fog.

Compared to the extravagant and prosperous Qiwei City, Scanpur, as an industrial city, is much quieter and more stable, with towering chimneys and endless factory buildings everywhere.

Pipes of all sizes run between the buildings, like the tangled blood vessels of this iron-gray city.

Chen Luan looked at the city below the train, and finally the scene in his memory slowly overlapped with the scene in front of him.

The commercial plaza over there used to be the ruins of a large warehouse, and they looted a lot of good things from it.

That gymnasium was previously an abandoned residential area, and they had set up a small supply station inside.

besides--

The abandoned playground.

That location is now a school.

Now, the children’s paradise has turned into their hell.

Chen Luan curled his lips and thought.

The closer he got to the outskirts of the city, the more Chen Luan felt as if his heart was caught in an airtight net, thumping muffledly in his chest.

Until he saw the extremely familiar black signal tower in the distance on the horizon.

Less than three hundred meters from the bottom of the tower is the entrance to the S17 underground base.

——That’s also where he died.

After walking out of the station, Chen Luan fell completely silent.

Chen Luan stopped when he could see the gate of the memorial hall from afar.

His heart began to beat wildly uncontrollably, and he even felt...

The urge to turn around and run away.

He knew that this feeling was almost like homesickness.

Jiang Xun and Jiang Ling behind him also followed silently, their eyes fixed on Chen Luan's back.

They had never seen such chaos.

The young man in the black coat seemed to be surrounded by a layer of gray fog, forming an airtight cocoon. Snowflakes danced above his head, tearing at his messy hair, and the cold wind tried to push him away.

He stood silently at the intersection, his usually straight back now visibly stiffened, and the cocoon was solidifying into a shell.

It's like being separated from reality and illusion.

Jiang Ling even had the illusion that Chen Luan would be torn to pieces by Skamper's cold wind and snow in the next moment, turning into a cloud of mist and disappearing.

He felt a little uneasy for no reason.

So he immediately stepped forward, patted Chen Luan's shoulder, crossed his arms deliberately, raised his eyebrows, and said in a casual tone, "What are you staring at, Chen Luan? The light is green. Are you planning to stand at the intersection until closing time?"

Chen Luan turned his head in a daze, his misty eyes blinked slightly, and then he came back to his senses as if his soul, which had been wandering in the air, was suddenly pulled back to his body.

He fished out a piece of candy from his pocket, put it in his mouth, and crunched it. Then he slowly began to talk nonsense with a smile, "Yeah, I'm planning to apply for a job as a traffic light operator. I'll stand there for a while to get used to the job."

The gray fog seemed to dissipate.

Even the drifting snowflakes seemed to have softened.

The three of them crossed the intersection together and walked into the iron-gray gate.

The memorial hall was rebuilt on the site of the base. It has only one floor above ground and was expanded for exhibition.

The real ruins of Base S17 are underground.

Since there were not many tickets available, the huge exhibition hall looked deserted and cold.

Chen Luan walked around the venue.

He saw many, many familiar things.

Used weapons and equipment, decrees and announcements issued by the base, new price tags on the goods at the supply station, and the insect protein pancakes in the cafeteria...

He even found Uncle Seven's fishing set in a corner, and next to it was a large enamel teacup with the words "No empty-handed today" printed on it, which he had patched and patched again and again.

Those people and things that were as clear as yesterday are now placed in a small glass display case, separated by the dust of two hundred years, and stare at him from afar.

A strange feeling of separation slowly welled up in Chen Luan's heart.

It was clearly a few months ago that Chen Luan, who was about to go on a mission, was still biting on a protein biscuit, with chocolates he had bought from the supply station in his pocket, and greeting Uncle Seventh who had just returned from fishing and invited him to drink fish soup.

But he didn't make it home alive to accept Uncle Seven's invitation.

The old man must have been sad for a long time after his death.

...Not necessarily.

Chen Luan thought of Uncle Seventh's character and curled up the corners of his lips again.

The old man has lived to this age and has been here since the base was first built. In the fifty years of war, he has seen a lot of life and death and separation, and is very open-minded.

Even if I'm sad, it shouldn't last too long.

Life will push people to move forward.

Chen Luan's expression was seen by the twins not far away.

It was not the kind of curious or admiring look that others had when visiting an exhibition. What was surging in Chen Luan's eyes was clear nostalgia and intimacy.

More often, there is a feeling of bewilderment...

Trance.

Jiang Xun and Jiang Ling exchanged a glance, instantly understanding what the other wanted to say:

This is not normal.

Only after they finished touring the exhibition hall on the first floor and took the elevator down did they officially enter the base ruins.

Although Base S17 is called a small base, that is the result of comparison with a large base. In fact, its internal scale is almost equivalent to the urban area of ​​a county-level city.

The moment the elevator door opened, Chen Luan froze in place.

Because the first thing that caught my eye was a vast expanse of white tombstones that stretched as far as the eye could see.

In the center of the tombstone group, there is a huge memorial tower, on which are densely engraved familiar or unfamiliar names.

The foot of the tower was filled with flowers.

Chen Luan found Jiang Mingming in this silent white jungle.

In fact, Jiang Mingming and Chen Luan rarely take photos, and they hardly left any visual photos.

The photo on the tombstone shows 23-year-old Jiang Mingming, smiling at the camera.

But if you look closely, you will find that in the lower right corner of this solo photo, Jiang Mingming's elbow is lying there, as if he is holding something.

That was actually the shoulder of fifteen-year-old Chen Luan.

Chen Luan remembers this photo.

It was taken on the day he officially became a member of the mecha team.

The actual situation was that after taking the photos, Jiang Mingming hugged Chen Luan and cried for at least an hour, as if Chen Luan would join the crew today and die heroically tomorrow.

To be honest, although the mortality rate of the mecha group was very high, some of them survived to the end.

——Although Chen Luan did not survive to the end.

He took out a box of chocolates that he had prepared long ago from his backpack, placed it in front of Jiang Mingming's tombstone, bent down, gently closed his eyes, and touched the cold top of the tombstone with his forehead.

Chen Luan knew that there was nothing under the tombstone.

He also knew that his actions would seem unreasonable in the eyes of Jiang Xun and Jiang Ling.

But it doesn't matter.

He had never intended to hide anything when he came to this world.

But what surprised him was that the twins said nothing and asked nothing.

They just stood quietly not far behind him, waiting for him to turn around.

Chen Luan didn't look back, he continued walking along the cobblestone road.

But after taking only two steps, Chen Luan stopped.

He stopped, turned around, bent down, patted the monument next to Jiang Mingming, and started laughing until tears came to the corners of his eyes.

After laughing enough, Chen Luan stood up, half-knelt down and looked at the tombstone.

On the white monument, Chen Luan's name was written clearly in black and white.

There is no photo on the tombstone, only the date of birth and death and a line of small words engraved below the name:

S17 Base Mecha Group - Combat Training Instructor, Captain of the Cloud Ci Combat Team, 28 years old.

Chen Luan's hand touched his own cold tombstone.

Only at this moment did he realize very clearly that Chen Luan was really, really dead.

But at this moment he was looking at his own tombstone with his own eyes.

At that moment, the huge sense of absurdity seemed to penetrate him completely.

It was not until Jiang Ling gently called Chen Luan's name from behind that he came back to his senses.

He wiped his eyes, turned around and waved to Jiang Xun and Jiang Ling.

A young man in dark black sat relaxedly against the white tombstone, his eyes half-closed, a look of astonishment still lingering in his light grey pupils.

A beam of light came through the ceiling, half of it falling on his shoulders and half on the top of the monument, and dust was flying in the beam.

Chen Luan and her soul were close together, so beautiful that it seemed unreal.

Then Jiang Xun and Jiang Ling heard Chen Luan say, "Come, take a photo with me!"

"So this is why you had to drag your sick body here?"

Jiang Ling raised an eyebrow and looked at Chen Luan's name on the tombstone. "It's really hard for you to find someone with the same name in such a small memorial."

"What else? It would be a shame not to come and see it if we are so lucky."

Chen Luan hugged the tombstone with one hand in a friendly manner, and with the other hand he made a gun gesture, laughing at his head in a very funny way: "Stop talking nonsense, take pictures quickly, my arms are getting sore from lifting so much."

"Okay, okay, shoot, let's shoot now."

With a click, the picture froze.

Before Jiang Ling could say anything, she saw Chen Luan making the sound of "bang" with his mouth, poking his temples with his fingers, and lazily dragging out an exaggerated "Ah - I'm dead -", then laughed out loud, and then lay on his back.

From this perspective, Chen Luan could only see the high transparent ceiling.

Outside the zenith is a gray sky with snow dancing in the wind.

If he had followed the original trajectory, he would have been lying here, staring at this small piece of sky for two hundred years.

He is a shadow of the past, a relic of a war that has long passed, and should have turned into a pile of yellow earth and slept in the ground long ago.

To the extent that Chen Luan often wondered whether all this was just an illusion before his death, a mirage that would shatter with a single touch.

A shadow suddenly fell over my head.

It was Jiang Ling, who was folding her arms and looking down at him: "Is it fun to pretend to be dead?"

Chen Luan closed his eyes: "The dead cannot answer questions from the living, Jiang Ling."

"The dead can't talk."

He heard Jiang Ling sneer above his head, followed by a rustling sound.

Then he heard Jiang Ling's voice close by: "Now that I am dead, you can answer my questions."

The boy lay beside him, gazing at the ceiling.

Chen Luan still had his eyes closed: "You just said that the dead can't speak."

"But you are clearly alive now, Chen Luan."

The young man next to him turned his head and looked at Chen Luan with a burning gaze and a serious tone.

“…”

Chen Luan's breathing stagnated. He opened his mouth, and a sudden thunderclap seemed to be heard in his blank mind.

Then a heavy rain came, washing away the silent white.

My throat seemed to be blocked by something and my heart beat heavily twice.

On the other side of the body, Jiang Xun also sat down next to Chen Luan.

A light voice came from not far above: "If you plan to lie here until the universe explodes and the earth is destroyed, then I will go home and prepare your funeral."

The moment the words fell, it seemed as if some illusory bubble was popped with a "pop" sound.

go home.

Chen Luan lowered his eyes and finally slowly curled up the corners of his mouth.

"...Thank you for your kindness, brother. I'm really touched."

Chen Luan slowly exhaled the foul air in his chest, took a deep breath, and then sat up. The weather outside seemed to have cleared up.

Sunlight was shining through the ceiling, and a few birds were chasing each other across the clouds.

The clouds and fog dissipated.

He dusted himself off, stood up, stretched himself, and suddenly felt relieved.

Chen Luan looked back at his brothers, held out his hand, and curled his lips: "But there's no need for a funeral. Just consider it that I'm faking my death on the spot."

After helping the two people stand up, Chen Luan was obviously much more relaxed during the following tour.

Although Chen Luan still felt a little emotional when he saw that the familiar streets and houses were cordoned off and no one was allowed to enter, and the home he had been guarding a few months ago had become a museum and he had to fight for tickets to go home, but the feeling of emptiness and detachment had been isolated and would never come close again.

That's right.

He is obviously alive now.

He has a new home and new family.

Let the past go and let a new beginning begin.

After strolling around until the museum was almost closing, Chen Luan contentedly pulled his brothers back to the surface. Before leaving, he even bought two bags of insect protein biscuits from the cafeteria experience hall and invited Jiang Xun and Jiang Ling to taste them.

Jiang Ling didn't eat it. He would never eat such a thing even if he died.

no way!

Jiang Xun took a bite, with no expression on his face. He just silently threw half of the cake into a trash can when passing by.

By the way, Chen Luan never found where Wang Xiaodou’s grave was.

The scattered graves were all moved to the memorial cemetery near the elevator entrance. Chen Luan did not find Wang Xiaodou's tombstone, and finally placed the two bottles of pineapple soda under the huge memorial tower in the middle.

If there is no separate tombstone, it can only be carved somewhere on the tower.

When Jiang Xun and Jiang Ling stayed at their grandfather's house in the city for a few days and returned to Qiwei City, it was almost dusk. Chen Luan, who had returned two days earlier than them, was not at home.

Jiang Xun looked at Chen Luan's empty room, and inexplicably felt an uncontrollable restlessness rising up in his heart.

He reached out and touched the gland at the back of his neck, which was throbbing slightly, and his eyes met Jiang Ling, who was also covering the back of his neck.

The air was gradually filled with the scent of two completely different pheromones, so faint that it was impossible to detect without careful smelling, but it was indeed there.

"Jiang Ling."

Jiang Xun looked up at his brother's face, which was exactly like his own, and said calmly, "We are going to split up."

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