Chapter 35 "Bang! Bang!"
The commotion outside the shed weighed heavily on everyone's mind inside the classroom.
Shu Ran stood beside the lectern, her gaze fixed on the children's heads, but her ears were picking up every little movement outside.
Time stretched out with the friction of the pen tip, and the commotion in the direction of the unit seemed to have subsided somewhat.
Finally, the bell rang, signaling the end of get out of class. The broken gong hanging on a tree branch not far from the door was struck.
The person banging the gong was a colleague from the next office whom Shu Ran had asked through connections. That person happened to be leaving get off work and casually banged the gong twice.
Shu Ran glanced at her watch, her tone filled with concern: "Class, school's over. You all did a great job writing today. On your way home, don't wander off; go straight home. Remember, don't wander off." Her gaze swept over the children.
The children quietly gathered up their pencil stubs, lime lumps, and scraps of paper covered in writing.
Unlike usual, no one rushed out laughing and joking. Shi Tou helped Ayiman sling her small cloth bag over her shoulder. A subdued silence filled the shed.
Just then, a series of hurried footsteps approached. The door was pushed open with a bang, and Xu Junjun appeared in the doorway, panting heavily. Sweat clung to her face, and there were several bloodstains on the medic's white blouse.
"Ranran, are you alright?" Xu Junjun exclaimed with relief as soon as she saw Shu Ran. "You're back! Officer Chen and the others... are back!"
All the children stopped what they were doing and turned to look at Xu Junjun, at the bloodstains on her clothes.
Shu Ran's heart nearly leaped out of her throat. She hurried to the door, her voice trembling, "How is he?"
"They're alive!" Xu Junjun spoke quickly, still shaken. "Several people were injured! Officer Chen's arm was cut by shrapnel and he bled a lot! Two other soldiers were even more seriously injured; one had a leg injury from the blast, and the other was knocked unconscious and hasn't woken up yet! I have to rush back to treat them! They were just carried to the infirmary!"
She finished speaking in one breath, and before Shu Ran could react, she turned and ran, her figure quickly disappearing on the dirt road leading to the clinic.
A wave of relief washed over Shu Ran, but worry gripped her again. The children gathered around, their little faces filled with fear and questions. Ayman clutched tightly at the hem of her clothes.
"School's out, everyone go home." Shu Ran's voice was a little unsteady. "Shi Tou, keep an eye on Ayiman and take her home. Remember, go straight home and don't look around or ask any questions." She handed Ayiman's cold little hand to Shi Tou.
The children walked away, turning back every few steps.
Shu Ran locked the dilapidated door of the tool shed. Her stomach was empty and she felt anxious, but she didn't care about that. She lifted her foot and ran towards the clinic.
A large crowd had gathered outside the clinic, mostly family members of employees who had rushed to the scene after hearing the news. They were stopped outside by two armed soldiers. The atmosphere was tense.
Shu Ran squeezed to the front and immediately saw a dark green jeep covered in mud that she had never seen in the company before, parked in the open space in front of the clinic. There were no markings on the vehicle.
The superior's car has arrived!
So, what is Chen Yuanjiang's mission level... and what exactly is his identity?
She peered through the crowd. The clinic door was open, and figures moved inside. She could vaguely see a person lying on a stretcher, and blood-stained gauze on the floor. She didn't see Chen Yuanjiang, but she heard a familiar voice coming from inside:
"...Reporting to the commander, the target... has not been cleared! There are at least two more people, carrying equipment... who have infiltrated the pastoral area or deep into the Gobi Desert! I request... a temporary halt to the evacuation! We must... dig them out! Otherwise, the consequences will be dire!" It was Chen Yuanjiang, his voice weak from his injuries, yet resolute.
A more authoritative voice rang out, speaking rapidly with a radio-like quality: "Your injuries and the team's condition need to be assessed! The vehicle to pick you up is outside; that's an order!"
"Commander!" Chen Yuanjiang's voice was urgent, but most of the rest of his words were muffled by a soldier closing the door, leaving only indistinct syllables. Shu Ran only caught a few chilling words: "hidden danger," "right under her nose," and "releasing a tiger back into the mountains."
A chill ran through Shu's entire body. Even the jeep at the department entrance seemed like a stone weighing on everyone's hearts.
For the next few days, the atmosphere in the livestock company seemed gloomy, and the company sent people to reinforce the doors of all the bungalows and dugouts.
Ma Zhanshan's face was as black as the bottom of a pot. He wandered around the company headquarters every day with his hands behind his back, and his voice became hoarse. For the first time ever, Zhao Weidong stopped monitoring the production progress and instead led his men to drive several tractors to the entrances of the company.
At night, the company organized a militia patrol team, led by lightly wounded soldiers under Chen Yuanjiang, carrying lanterns and weapons, patrolling between the mud houses and dugouts.
The children sensed it too. They stopped playing and laughing on their way to school, holding tightly to the older children's hands. In class, Shu Ran could clearly feel their distraction. Adil was especially silent, his eyes often drifting to the northern sky outside the window with a wary look.
Stone also became very quiet, and after class he was always the first to run to close the door tightly.
Shu Ran continued to teach every day. She no longer taught new content, but instead led the children in repeated practice of basic words and arithmetic, repeating them over and over in the calmest voice, trying to soothe their anxious hearts with this gentle rhythm and atmosphere.
She deliberately placed on the lectern the thick, stiff red willow branch pointer that Adil had previously given her.
The topic of the red scarf was no longer mentioned. That imagined bright red seemed very distant and out of place in the face of the gloom and fear of reality.
On the third night, the wind was particularly strong. The howling wind wailed across the Gobi Desert, and the swirling sand grains pelted against the door panels with a crackling sound.
Inside the dugout, Shu Ran lay fully clothed on her bed, listening to the howling wind outside and the faint, ethereal patrol commands, unable to fall asleep for a long time. Sister Wang and Li Xiulan were also awake, their eyes open in the darkness, but no one spoke.
Sudden!
"Clang—crash!"
A loud crash of metal shattering against metal followed by the bleating of startled sheep and the mooing of cows. The sound came from the direction of the livestock pen at the east end of the company.
"Oh no!" Sister Wang sat up abruptly, her voice trembling. "The livestock pen!"
Almost simultaneously, the alarm sounded from the direction of the company headquarters, repeatedly striking the discarded plowshares! "Clang clang clang clang—!"
Shu Ran's heart sank to the extreme. It seemed that they had really come, and it seemed that they were heading straight for the core of the company.
She jumped off the bunk quickly and groped for her shoe covers in the dark. Sister Wang and Li Xiulan also jumped up in a panic, their voices trembling with tears: "What do we do? Teacher Shu? Why are they rushing into the livestock pen?"
Shu Ran didn't answer; she listened intently. The commotion over the livestock pen seemed to be growing louder, mixed with shouts.
Then came a sound that made her blood freeze—"Bang! Bang!" They were creating chaos.
A more terrifying thought flashed through Shu Ran's mind: Could their target... be the school? That lonely tool shed? There are children there! Or... the warehouse? The water source?
She pushed open the door of the dugout a crack and looked out. The night was as dark as ink, with only the flickering beams of flashlights and the sounds of voices and footsteps rushing towards the livestock pen from the direction of the company headquarters. Elsewhere, it was pitch black and deathly silent.
Just then, her gaze fell on the direction of the tool shed—beside the dark silhouette, shadows seemed to be wriggling, more than one, moving quickly towards the entrance of the tool shed, close to the wall.
The target really is the school! Are they trying to take advantage of the chaos to harm the children? Or... is there something they want hidden there?
Shu Ran's mind went blank! There was no time to think! The children had classes tomorrow, and there was no one in the shed. What if they were hiding somewhere dangerous? What would happen to the children tomorrow...?
She turned around abruptly, lowered her voice, and said urgently to Sister Wang and Li Xiulan, "Stay inside! Keep the door closed and don't make a sound! No matter what you hear, don't come out!" Before they could react, Shu Ran opened the door of the dugout and quickly slipped out, then closed the door tightly.
She bent over, pressed herself against the base of the earthen wall, and silently sprinted toward the tool shed, hidden from the chaos and noise.
She was certainly not going to her death; her target was a broken gong hanging on a branch of the poplar tree next to the tool shed.
The sound of the wind masked her footsteps. She quickly approached the tool shed. Sure enough, there were two dark figures in the darkness in front of the shed door. They were using something to pry open the already dilapidated door, their movements rough and urgent.
Shu Ran's heart was pounding. She held her breath, and using the cover of a big tree, grabbed half a mud brick from the ground next to her and smashed it hard against the broken gong with all her might!
"Bang—!!!"
A loud metallic tremor suddenly exploded in the company, drowning out the noise and chaos.
The sound was so abrupt and shrill, like an alarm blaring in the night.
The two dark figures trying to pry open the door were terrified by the loud noise so close at hand. They froze, turning their heads in horror to look at the source of the sound.
At that very moment—
"Bang! Bang!" Two clumps of dirt splashed up from the earthen wall of the tool shed.
"Don't move! Hands up!" Chen Yuanjiang's voice was filled with chilling murderous intent.
Chen Yuanjiang, accompanied by two soldiers, emerged from the shadows of a row of dugouts nearby. They had clearly not been completely distracted by the chaos in the livestock pen, but had kept a watchful eye on the core area of the company.
Chen Yuanjiang's left arm was still in a sling, but the black object he was holding tightly in his right hand gleamed coldly, locked onto the two dark figures.
The two figures, realizing their presence had been completely exposed, were both shocked and enraged. One of them spotted Shu Ran hiding behind a tree and immediately raised his hand to make a move—
"Watch out!" Chen Yuanjiang suddenly lunged at Shu Ran.
Something brushed past Shu Ran's ear, the scorching heat sending shivers down her spine. Instinctively, she covered her head and crouched down, shrinking behind a poplar tree trunk.
"Da da da!" A string of warning and suppressive sparks flew from the ground beneath the shadowy figure's feet.
"Catch them!" Ma Zhanshan's roar came from another direction. He arrived with a group of militiamen carrying lanterns, shovels, and spears. The lanterns instantly illuminated the area around the tool shed.
The two dark figures were completely panicked under the intimidation. They were like headless flies, and one of them still tried to resist, but was shot in the arm by a soldier next to Chen Yuanjiang, screaming as his weapon fell from his hand.
Seeing that things were not going well, the other one turned around and tried to flee into the darkness of the Gobi Desert.
"Don't run!" A figure suddenly rushed out from the militia ranks—it was Adil!
He only had a short-handled leather whip for herding sheep, but a sheepdog that was half a person's height rushed out and pounced on the leg of the fleeing dark figure, biting it hard!
"Ah!" Caught off guard, the dark figure was tackled to the ground! The militiamen swarmed forward and instantly pinned him down.
The one whose arm was injured was also quickly subdued.
Under the light, the faces of two enemy agents were revealed. They were covered in grime, dressed in tattered clothes that were slightly different from those of the local herders but deliberately aged, and their eyes were fierce and desperate.
Adil ran over, panting, looked at Shu Ran and Chen Yuanjiang who were being helped up by the soldiers, pointed at the bad guy, and shouted in broken Chinese:
"Him! Shadow! That day! The one who buried the iron lump! It was him!"
Chen Yuanjiang's eyes were sharp. Despite his arm injury, he strode up to the prisoners and ripped off their weapons. "Take them away!"
Then, he turned to the still-shaken Shu Ran, his gaze complex, filled with lingering fear, concern, and a barely perceptible tremor. That desperate banging of the broken gong just now was actually her doing.
Ma Zhanshan wiped the sweat from his face, looking at the chaotic scene with lingering fear. He roared, "Order! The entire company is on wartime alert! Militia on double guard duty! Dungeons divided into sections for joint defense! All non-essential personnel are prohibited from going out at night!"
His gaze swept over the pale-faced Shu Ran, then fell upon the solitary tool shed, and he gave the order decisively:
"Qiming Elementary School is closed from today! All single female comrades should move to the company headquarters warehouse for food and lodging! They will be looked after by the militia and women's team! Teacher Shu Ran, you should move there too! Safety first!"
Chen Yuanjiang did not object to Ma Zhanshan's arrangement. He whispered a few words to a soldier beside him. The soldier nodded and quickly ran towards the dark green jeep that had been parked in the shadows. Soon, two men in dark uniforms without any markings, with stern expressions, got out of the jeep and walked to Chen Yuanjiang's side.
Chen Yuanjiang spoke in a low voice to one of them.
Shu Ran glanced at the enemy agents being escorted away by the militia, then watched Chen Yuanjiang accompany his superiors towards the brightly lit company headquarters. She tidied her disheveled hair and headed towards the dormitory.
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Author's Note: This work is based on the theme of border troops and civilians defending the country in the 1960s. Please be aware of the unique historical context of the border region; some plot points are fictional. Thank you for your understanding.
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