Chapter 113 I Want to Take Him Home
The wind at the end of October already had a chill in it, and the vanguard troops began to assemble silently in the biting morning wind.
There was no noise here, only the low roar of the mecha engine running.
The suicide notes were collected together last night.
Although Chen Luan, Jiang Ling and Jiang Xun all said that they handed in a blank paper and did not write anything.
When Chen Luan and Jiang Xun came over, they saw Qin Yang reaching out his hand towards Jiang Ling.
The two alphas looked at each other, their pheromones touching each other lightly in a dimension that Chen Luan couldn't detect. The two hands gently grasped each other with a "snap" sound and then immediately released them cleanly.
Jiang Ling looked up at the other person's dark eyes, and finally pulled the corner of her lip slightly: "It's been a long time."
What luck he had to be assigned to the same group with Qin Yang.
"you--"
Chen Luan's eyes flickered between the two alphas' faces: "Are we on the same path?"
"Assistant Chen."
When Qin Yang saw Chen Luan, he almost immediately shifted his gaze over. A smile just appeared in his eyes, but he froze in place when his gaze swept over the bright color hanging on Chen Luan's earlobe.
One red and one blue, one on each side.
They are obviously a pair with the ones on the ears of the two little kids from the Jiang family.
The fingers hanging by his side were slightly tightened in his palms, and then slowly loosened.
The alpha's eyes dropped, and he pursed his lips slightly to hide the emotion in his eyes. He looked back at Chen Luan: "Well, we're going west. What about you?"
"Southern line."
Qin Yang nodded. "According to the command center's preliminary assessment and the fleet's previous exploration data, the southern route is arguably the shortest. However, the terrain is complex and there are many obstacles, so we still need to be mindful of conserving energy."
After the words fell, Qin Yang paused and looked into Chen Luan's eyes again: "Be careful."
"good."
Chen Luan looked at his student, who had grown into an outstanding officer, and sighed softly. Finally, he raised his hand and patted Qin Yang's shoulder, then tilted his eyes at him and said, "Come back alive."
Just like the summer when he decided to sign up for the fleet.
At that time, Chen Luan was wearing a white military uniform, holding two bouquets of flowers as hot as the scorching sun, and said the same thing to him: "Come back alive."
But now, when Qin Yang looked at the two earrings on Chen Luan's earlobes, he suddenly felt a sense of relief.
Yes, that summer before, the flowers in Chen Luan’s arms were not his.
Now and in the future, Chen Luan will not be his.
In the morning breeze filled with the cold, hard, and murderous smell of metal, the alpha fastened the straps of his helmet and slightly curled his eyes: "Well, let's go."
It was as if he was formally saying goodbye to the heart-throb that had lasted for many years.
Amid the heavy footsteps of the mechas, several teams walked firmly in different directions towards the Jedi ahead.
Jiang Xun is in the east, Jiang Ling is in the west, and Chen Luan is in the south.
Three mechas with different paint jobs were in the torrent of steel. Before the teams separated, they looked at each other from afar through the gray and cold wind and the dark purple fog, and then strode forward again.
On this day, after more than two hundred years, mankind once again took up all their fearlessness and pointed their swords at the abyss.
*
The exploration of the southern line was not very smooth.
The polluted dust fog in the ecological core area was so thick that it was almost like liquid, swallowing up most of the light. The external searchlights of the mecha could only detect a very limited range in the sticky air.
The contaminated fungal blanket with an eerie blue color covers every inch of land and the remains of the city's past buildings, breathing and pulsating like a living thing. The rusty vines spreading everywhere are covered with dense eye tumors, and strange-looking desolate creatures crawl and peek among them.
The southern team led by Chen Luan encountered a large-scale wild beast nest on the first day of entering the core area. After eradicating it at a considerable cost, they saw a polluted dust storm spreading rapidly from the horizon on the third day.
The maximum time an S-class mecha can stay in the core area is about one week. If it exceeds one week, the airtightness of the cabin will be destroyed by the highly corrosive polluted dust.
So they had to return to base immediately and wait for the dust storm to pass before exploring again.
The progress of the other routes was also not smooth. When Chen Luan came out, the eastern team where Jiang Xun was had already withdrawn.
Through the mecha's identification lens, Chen Luan saw Jiang Xun standing outside the base waiting anxiously.
"Chen Luan——"
Chen Luan, who had just opened the hatch and jumped down, had not yet stood firmly when he was immediately embraced by the familiar warmth.
"The command center said they detected a pollution dust storm along the planned southern route."
Jiang Xun pressed Chen Luan into his arms, tightening his grip. His voice was still trembling: "...I'm glad you're back."
No one knows better than him what happens when a pollution dust storm hits.
fortunately,
Fortunately, he came back safely.
The corroded and damaged mechas needed to be repaired, repainted with anti-corrosion paint, and replenished with energy. The wounded who retreated needed treatment, and the rest of the people also needed to rest. The base became busy again.
But there has been no news from the troops on the western front.
On the evening of the third day, the command center detected large-scale abnormal index fluctuations on the west line, and the ecological activity level rose by several levels.
From that moment on, the waiting began.
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6…
No one from the Western Front team returned.
Chen Luan slowly began to fall into uncontrollable anxiety and panic.
Time became extremely long and unbearable, as if it had lost its normal flow rate, and every minute and every second was infinitely stretched and stretched. A solemn silence began to spread in the command center.
Chen Luan sat outside the gate of the command base, gazing silently at the foggy polluted area in the distance. Jiang Xun stood beside him, holding his hand tightly. His tone sounded firm, as if it were a form of self-hypnosis.
"It's okay, I'll be back."
"I definitely will."
Will you come back?
Chen Luan raised his somewhat stiff eyes and looked at Jiang Xun, his voice hoarse: "But it's only seven days."
"But the limit of an S-class mecha is only seven days."
And now, it is already dusk on the sixth day.
At this time, the gray-purple sky was low, and the last bit of bleak light was gathering into the horizon.
In the increasingly cold wind, the putrid smell mixed with the fishy and rusty smell from the polluted area is spreading out continuously, penetrating into every pore of the air.
The wrapper of the fruit candy that I was unconsciously twisting with my fingertips was almost crumpled to pieces, and the sweet smell in my mouth was almost overflowing from my mouth.
Sugar doesn't taste good.
Jiang Ling bought it from the supply window of the cafeteria before leaving. The taste was far worse than the brand he usually ate. It didn't have the sour and sweet refreshing fruity taste, only a greasy sweetness that went straight to the top of his head.
But it is precisely when these sweet tastes spread wildly in the mouth that can suppress the dull pain that rises from the chest bit by bit as time goes by.
The familiar pair of light amber eyes before his eyes were staring at him.
Chen Luan's throat rolled with difficulty: "Jiang Xun."
"Yeah, I'm here."
"Tomorrow is the seventh day."
Tomorrow is the deadline.
On this day, the night became especially long, and the darkness seemed to have become a living thing, spreading out from the abyss, climbing up along Chen Luanluo's sight in that direction, and entwining layer after layer around his heavy heart.
Chen Luan did not return to the camp, but waited outside the base almost stubbornly.
He will come back.
He will come back.
Chen Luan told himself this, but his knuckles were clenched so hard that they turned slightly white. The slight stinging pain from his nails digging into the soft flesh of his palms spread along the tense nerves and pulled at the blood vessels in his temples that were throbbing with pain.
In the dark night and the familiar smell from the contaminated area, he seemed to be back in front of the damp and dim gate of the underground base.
Jiang Mingming, who went out to participate in the rescue mission at that time, lost contact.
He also waited at the base gate for seven full days.
What happened next?
Chen Luan's eyes, which gradually became empty, blinked slowly.
She didn't come back later.
She didn't come back.
Chen Luan led the team and searched for a long time along the traces left by the team, but in the end they only found the gun and half of the chocolate that his sister liked to eat under the gun.
He lost the only family he had.
I couldn't bring her home either.
What about Jiang Ling?
Will Jiang Ling come back?
Can he... come back?
A warm hand slipped between his clenched fingers, palm against palm, clenching tightly.
Chen Luan turned his head in a daze and stood there in a daze for a long time. His eyes slowly moved to the side of the familiar face in front of him and the left earlobe.
Empty.
Not Jiang Ling.
This is Jiang Xun.
They waited here all night, cuddling each other.
It's dawn.
In the dim morning light, Chen Luan, who had almost solidified into a sculpture, was still looking at the silent horizon.
Until several mechas stumbled out from the thick fog in the distance, and then more and more...
Chen Luan's body suddenly tensed up as his heartbeat suddenly quickened.
He stood up, almost staggered a few steps outside and almost tripped, but was helped up by the familiar warmth around him.
He held his breath and eagerly scanned the numbers on the mechas one by one.
no.
This is not,
This is not...
Where is Jiang Ling?
Is Jiang Ling back?
no,
no--
no! !
None of them!!!
Where is Jiang Ling?
Where is his Jiang Ling?
Why didn’t you come back???
Someone came out of the cabin.
More and more people came out of the cabin.
No new mechas have emerged from the contaminated area.
The smell in the air began to become chaotic, and the influx of medical staff and injured fighters created a rumbling reverberation.
Chen Luan stood at the edge of the noise with a dazed expression, a bone-chilling coldness seeping out from the cracks in his bones.
Where is Jiang Ling?
Amidst the chaos, he saw a somewhat familiar face.
It seemed that he had seen him in Jiang Ling's team before setting off.
The man was injured and was being helped out of the cabin.
Chen Luan didn't know how he got in front of him.
He just held the other person's arm tightly, opened his mouth with bloodshot eyes, but couldn't utter a word.
Where is Jiang Ling?
He wanted to ask where Jiang Ling was and why he didn't come back.
But my throat felt like it was clogged with wet cotton wrapped in sharp thorns, and every breath was filled with a damp, fine, and dense stinging sensation.
He was speechless.
He was completely speechless.
A hoarse voice beside him asked for him.
"Where's Jiang Ling?"
The identical face brought the person who was being pulled back to his senses, but he looked at the pair of light amber eyes again, his lips trembling and his eyes reddened:
"Captain Jiang..."
"What happened to him?"
Chen Luan finally heard his own voice, which had almost become a whisper, but darkness spread around his vision. "Tell me, what happened to him?"
"We... encountered a massive beast tide near the mother nest."
"...We temporarily took shelter in an abandoned building, but they were too tight."
"Later, Captain Jiang and Captain Qin asked us to leave first..."
Chen Luan couldn't hear what was said afterwards.
Suddenly, a sharp roar sounded beside his ear, and Chen Luan heard the sound of his own heartbeat falling and smashing on the ground.
The darkness around the field of vision quickly spread, and the blood in the body froze and flowed backwards at this moment.
In his mind that was blown into darkness, Chen Luan's throat rolled with difficulty.
Then he mechanically turned around and walked towards his own mecha parked on the edge.
The wrist was pulled.
Chen Luan turned around and was in a daze for several seconds.
A broken voice escaped from between his teeth: "...Jiang Xun."
"……where did you go?"
Where am I going?
Chen Luan looked at the familiar face in front of him with a blank expression. It seemed that he was looking at him, but also seemed not to be looking at him.
My sister didn't come back.
When he went to look for her, he was unable to bring her home.
In a trance, he saw Jiang Mingming's bright face again, smiling and bumping fists with him before leaving, but the next second, that face quickly melted away like a drop of ink in water.
Then the scattered ink colors gathered together again, and he saw Jiang Ling kicking open the door of his office like a bastard, blocking him like a rogue and asking for a kiss.
But Jiang Ling didn't come back either.
Chen Luan blinked slowly, and a hoarse voice escaped from between his dry and pale lips:
"I……"
"I'll go find him."
"I want to take him home."
Whether in life or death,
He wants to take him home.
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