Chapter 98 Chapter 98 Long time no see
Stoney Creek is a small town with a small population.
Standing in the town and looking north, you can see the endless Bailong Snow Mountain stretching across the horizon.
It was already night when Chen Luan arrived at the town.
After driving for a long time, Chen Luan found a hotel to stay in. After taking a hot shower, he sat on the edge of the bed with a piece of bread in his mouth. He habitually opened his mobile phone and read the local news of Qiwei City and Mingxizhou’s military newspaper from beginning to end, and finally went to the military academy forum.
The news in Qiwei City will report on the attack by the desolate species. Chen Luan will be able to know whether there are any casualties among the people, and... whether any of the hunters responsible for carrying out the mission were injured.
Ming Xizhou’s military newspaper would regularly publish the results of the cleanup and the announcement of casualties in the fleet and squadrons.
At the last military academy forum, students go to different places after graduation, and there will always be the latest first-hand news circulating.
For example, which senior student was transferred and promoted, or which senior student retired due to injury.
Chen Luan searched the forum several times using keywords such as "Jiang", "Jiang Ling", and "Jiang Xun". Seeing that there was no new related content recently, he breathed a sigh of relief and exited the forum.
The room is not big, but clean.
The warmth in the room created a thin layer of mist on the windows, blurring the light outside into a blurry mass.
Chen Luan opened the window, and the smell of ice and snow hit him in the face.
The room was on the second floor facing the street. Looking down, I could see the bluestone streets covered with melted snow, reflecting the wet lights. Looking up, I could see the brilliant starry sky that seemed to be swaying in the wind from the snow-capped mountains.
It is rare to see stars in the city.
Chen Luan stood by the window, looked up at the sky, reached out his hand, and felt the wind passing through his fingers.
A few overdressed children ran over downstairs, holding cold fireworks and laughing. Chen Luan suddenly realized that the Chinese New Year was approaching again.
Just this year,
Destined to live alone.
The last time he spent the New Year alone was so long ago that Chen Luan couldn't remember clearly.
But what became increasingly clear in his mind at this moment was the fireworks that suddenly bloomed outside the window as the countdown to the New Year approached when he was alone in Qiwei City on New Year's Eve a few years ago.
At that time, he discovered that his heartbeat was in sync with the frequency of the fireworks.
Thinking of those two silly figures illuminated by street lights in the heavy snow, and their laughter as they ran among the blooming fireworks, Chen Luan's lips couldn't help but rise slightly, but then fell after a moment of silence.
What was he thinking later as they walked home together through the snow?
At that time, the cold fireworks in my hand were shining, behind me were fireworks as bright as today's stars, and in front of me were the shadows of three people blending together.
What are you thinking about?
In the empty room, Chen Luan sat on the floor with his knees hugged, leaning against the bed, looking up at the clear starry sky across the sky.
The wrist was empty, with a shallow mark similar to a ring mark, slightly lighter than the surrounding skin color.
The weight that was always swaying in my chest was gone.
Chen Luan unconsciously raised his hand and rubbed the shallow mark on his wrist.
At that time, he was looking at the two figures in front of him and thinking,
If only it could stay like this forever,
It would be great if every year could be like this.
But……
Chen Luan's eyes dropped and his gaze fell on his wrist.
What he wanted at that time was to continue existing as a family member.
Or is there something else mixed in?
When those hugs and that warmth were close to him, was the speed at which his heart beat faster just because of panic?
Is he just indulging them?
They must be terribly worried since they can't contact me...
But I'm sorry,
sorry.
I don't know how to face you.
How should I face the fact that this relationship, which I thought was a family relationship, was destined to deteriorate from the very beginning?
I don't know either,
I am habitually indulging you.
Or there is still the kind of feeling that you want.
Are those warmth and dependence fake?
Is it a bait disguised for hunting?
From the very beginning, the love that crossed the boundary was controlling.
Love that deceives,
Is it really love?
Chen Luan couldn't come up with a clear answer.
So all he could do was escape temporarily, detach himself and slowly examine this relationship.
The next day, the weather was fine.
Chen Luan officially went up the mountain to visit Uncle Seventh's former residence.
The yard is located at the foot of the mountain, and Hong Lingxi takes good care of it.
Chen Luan saw a lot of things belonging to Uncle Seventh here, but what surprised him most was a photo album that Hong Lingxi took out.
The photos in the album were carefully preserved in good condition, with only yellowing marks left by time.
It turned out that Uncle Qi had secretly saved so many photos, and he found his own shadow in many of them.
Chen Luan slowly and carefully flipped through the pages one by one, looking back at his life across the torrent of time.
In the photo taken at the reformatory, the young Chen Luan sat quietly in the corner. Chen Luan remembered that it was not long after he was brought to the reformatory.
At the exit of the underground base, a group of children, participating in a collection mission outside the base for the first time, were putting on protective clothing. The older boy, Chen Luan, raised his helmet to his head, as if he had noticed the camera, and turned around to make a face at the camera.
Further on, there is a photo of Chen Luan, who was selected to join the mecha team, being supported by Jiang Mingming's shoulders. This is also the photo on Jiang Mingming's tombstone.
I turned the pages of the thick album one by one,
Chen Luan is in the team at the training ground.
Wearing combat uniform, he followed the team leader towards the exit of the base.
Later, Chen Luan became the team leader and the instructor, and reappeared on the training ground with a group of young people like him.
The last photo is a group photo of all the members of the Cloud Ci team. There are nine of them in total, and everyone has a smile on their face.
Chen Luan's fingers rested on the edge of the photo for a long time.
He remembered that this photo was taken in his first year as a team leader, when their team won the Gold Team Award, although they were only given some food as a prize.
My fingertips brushed across faces that were familiar yet had become unfamiliar due to time.
Chen Luan lowered his eyes and silently recited their names one by one:
Wu Tianxin, An Yongnian, Lu Ning, Liang Yu, Li Xiwang, Zhang Mingyi, Peng Xiuxiu,
Jiang Mingming.
But later, they were all gone.
New members continued to join the Yunci team, but of the initial batch, only Chen Luan was left.
Until finally no one survived.
But Chen Luan felt that he was lucky.
He escaped from the timeline and jumped to today, two hundred years later, and saw the dawn that they had ushered in after paying everything for it.
The light now shone upon him through the window,
It is also reflected in the young and energetic faces in the photos.
Look,
Look,
We did it.
We really did it.
That day, Chen Luan brought a bottle of wine that Uncle Qi liked and sat in front of Uncle Qi's grave for a long time.
They talked about the past and the present, and the wine fell to the ground one by one, and the smell of alcohol lingered around Chen Luan.
But in the end, Chen Luan's eyes finally turned red, and he hugged his knees and looked at the spotless blue sky.
I miss you so much,
I miss you guys so much.
I'm doing well in the new world.
But I really, really miss you guys.
Later, when Chen Luan stood up, the wind suddenly blew, and the wind gently brushed Chen Luan's hair, pushing Chen Luan.
As if to say:
Go forward, go forward,
The past cannot be retrieved, so you have to keep moving forward and never look back.
Chen Luan stayed in Shixi Town for a week, and the town gradually became lively.
After asking, I found out that there will be a skiing competition held in the Great Snow Mountain in the near future. There is also a skydiving base nearby, and a federal champion is coming here to challenge the record.
The tavern downstairs in the hotel was bustling with activity. Chen Luan sat in a corner with a cup of hot cocoa, while the live broadcast of the challenge was being shown on the screen.
The beautiful woman took off her goggles and waved with a smile as the wind howled from the top of the snow-capped mountain:
"Hello everyone, I'm Zhang Fufeng."
Amidst the noisy conversations and laughter in the tavern, Chen Luan saw the beta looking at the camera, his dark eyes gleaming:
"...Yes, I think betas are the freest group of people in the world."
“…We don’t have the problems of susceptible and febrile periods, so we don’t need inhibitors…”
"We can set off at any time and go wherever we want, without having to worry about how much inhibitors we need to prepare or whether we'll run into any discomfort..."
"...Why are you out here pushing your limits?"
"Because the world is so big, I want to see more."
The world is so big, I want to see more.
Chen Luan suddenly laughed.
He thought he knew where to go next.
He wanted to take their eyes out and see the new world that was once again under the sun.
So on the day when the New Year's bell rang, Chen Luan was on the road.
Bringing some old photos copied from Hong Lingxi.
There are stars in the sky above my head, the wind is singing in my ears, and under my feet is the journey to a new world with the old people.
The countdown is on the radio.
Chen Luan looked up at the night sky that was as brilliant as fireworks.
Now,
What are Jiang Xun and Jiang Ling doing?
Jiang Xun and Jiang Ling are on a mission.
Above Qiwei City, Jiang Ling sat in a patrol plane, his fingers stroking the photo clipped in his work ID. The photo showed the smiling faces of himself and Chen Luan at the age of 15.
In the command center of the medium- and high-risk pollution zone K709, Jiang Xun held his 15-year-old self and Chen Luan against his chest, close to where his heart was beating.
The second the countdown reaches zero,
Three different voices sounded at the same time.
In the wilderness, above the city, on the edge of the polluted zone—
"Happy New Year."
"Chen Luan, Happy New Year."
"Brother, Happy New Year."
Then the cars on the road continued on their way, the patrol planes over the city were still guarding the peace of the city, and the cleanup teams in the polluted areas were ready to go.
The road in front of Chen Luan continued to extend forward. Outside the window, the wind blew across the snow-capped mountains, and the rain flowed across the grassland. From the wilderness to the city, from the city to the forest, he once again rushed into the surging crowd with fresh dew on his body.
The gas tank was filled and emptied, and the tires were changed again and again.
Until the next spring and winter, on the distant island of Saint Bernard, Chen's messy hair grew very long, and the ends of his hair were hastily tied up. He stood on the empty and silent mountain top and looked into the night sky.
The surging emerald light swayed and shone among the stars, creating a colorful purple that fell from the sky.
Chen Luan stood under the gorgeous aurora, and his eyes suddenly felt a little sore.
It would be nice if they were here too.
If they were there,
That's fine.
No one knows,
In fact, ever since Chen Luan left, longing for her has been surging in his heart all the time.
After leaving St. Bernard Island, Chen Luan returned to Shixi Town and rented a small house. He planned to live here for a while, rest up, and live a peaceful life.
A lot of things happened during the trip.
For example, Director Jiang lost the re-election, and the Silent Voice Foundation was exposed and is currently mired in accusations and massive negative public opinion.
For example, Zhang quickly cut ties with Jiang Yongting after he was arrested, but was still dragged into the controversy because of the profit-sharing relationship with Silent Voice.
For example,
Mrs. Jiang, Zhang Lingyi, divorced Jiang Yongting.
Chen Luan felt a sense of familiarity from the silhouette of the man wearing a gauze hat in the news photo.
It wasn't until news appeared on the Internet that extreme athlete Zhang Fufeng had successfully challenged a record again that his energetic face gradually overlapped with the outline under the gauze hat.
The cage of interest-based marriage can trap flowers growing in a greenhouse, but it can never trap the wind of freedom.
In the past two years, Hong Lingxi has also become Chen Luan's good friend and comes to Shixi Town for a short stay every year.
Skiing and skydiving events are still being held at Bailong Snow Mountain this year. When Hong Lingxi heard that Chen Luan was going to stay here for a while, he enthusiastically invited him to go skiing on the mountain.
Hong Lingxi is a veteran skier and a very good ski instructor, and Chen Luan learns quickly.
Occasionally he keenly sensed that there were suspicious people following him nearby, and Hong Lingxi told him not to pay attention to them, as they were just some paparazzi who were bored and snooping into her private life.
Life in Shixi Town is very easy. Prices in the town are not high and the people are simple and honest.
But after the journey, which left him no time to think, Chen Luan, who had calmed down, began to miss the small but always warm little house in Qiwei City. He missed...
Those two pairs of light amber eyes.
Come home in spring.
He thought.
I'll go home when spring comes.
He couldn't keep avoiding that matter, there had to be an answer.
Also, if I don't go back to work,
He's running out of money :D
Hong Lingxi returned to Youminglik Island again.
With free time, Chen Luan began to wander around the streets of the town, teasing cats and dogs, making children cry, and living like a heartless scoundrel.
Chen Luan, who usually pays no attention to the entertainment gossip section except for the hunters and military developments, did not know that a piece of gossip from paparazzi was circulating everywhere at this time.
[Shocking news! Hong Group female director Xueshan secretly met with her lover! Their behavior was intimate! [Pictures] [Pictures]]
The Hong Group's female director's wedding date has been set! She's reportedly taking romantic snow-capped mountain skiing-themed wedding photos! [Photos][Photos]
That day, Chen Luan ended his day of wandering around, and as usual, he took a dozen bottles of sweet rice wine and snacks home from the tavern. He hummed a tuneless tune, rubbed the big yellow dog guarding the community gate on the head, chased the big orange cat in the community, fed it two cat strips, and staggered towards his residence.
The community is very old and dilapidated, and there is not even an elevator.
Chen Luan lived on the fifth floor of a six-story building, and the corridor was pitch black.
Chen Luan shouted "Hi" and turned on the voice-controlled light. He went upstairs and walked down the corridor with a bag of things in his hand. He inserted the key into the slightly rusty keyhole and opened the door with a "click".
The wind rushed into the house from the corridor, and at the same time, it also changed the air inside.
It's very familiar, yet also a little strange after being away for a long time.
In the dim corridor light, Chen Luan's fingers gripping the key froze, and the incoherent humming in his mouth stopped abruptly.
There was no light in the room. Chen Luan stood at the door and blinked slightly.
A voice that had passed through my ears thousands of times echoed in the darkness.
"Chen Luan, long time no see."
"I heard you were getting married? Why didn't you call me?"
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