Zhenzhen listened to Xi Junjie's pale explanation and felt more and more uneasy. Recently, a large-scale war broke out between Pakistan and its neighboring countries, with countless casualties. Many overseas Chinese came to the embassy for help, hoping that China could take them back home. Seeing that the war in Pakistan was becoming increasingly difficult to control, the staff of the embassy hurriedly reported to China and requested that China send people to evacuate the overseas Chinese.
Without further ado, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs immediately reported to the higher authorities after receiving the request. Within just one day, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued an instruction requiring the Ministry of Foreign Affairs staff to go to Pakistan with the army to carry out the evacuation of Chinese citizens. Due to the local war, the plane was expected to land only in a neighboring country that was not affected by the war. During this period, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs staff and the army had to drive to the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan alone to pick up the Chinese people abroad, and at the same time verify the identity and nationality of the evacuees. Every link could be dangerous. Although China asked the two countries involved in the war to cooperate in the evacuation, such guarantees were not very credible in the war.
After hanging up the phone, Zhenzhen sat on the chair with a pale face. The office staff took a document and put it on Zhenzhen's desk, but Zhenzhen pushed it away, grabbed the car keys on the desk and ran out.
"Manager, this is the latest document for the land auction." The subordinate shouted hastily for fear of delaying the company's important matters. At this time, Zhenzhen didn't care about the land auction at all. There was only one thought in her mind: go home quickly.
It was not time to get off work, and there were not many pedestrians on the road. Zhenzhen drove the car to the door of her house without any obstruction, pushed open the door and ran in. Xi Junjie put the last coat on the bed into the box, looked around the room, and seeing that there was nothing else to pack, he bent down and zipped up the box.
"Bang!" The door was suddenly pushed open. Xi Junjie turned around and saw Zhenzhen holding the door frame with one hand and breathing heavily. Xi Junjie sighed, stood up, walked to the door and pulled Zhenzhen in: "I told you it's okay."
Zhen Zhen's eyes suddenly turned red, she threw herself into Xi Junjie's arms and hugged his neck tightly: "How can it be okay? I'm not a fool."
"You know, I have no choice in this matter. At this time, those compatriots need us to take them home." Xi Junjie gently kissed Zhenzhen's hair: "But I promise you, I will come back safely, okay?"
Zhenzhen's tears soaked Xi Junjie's shirt. She nodded vigorously in his arms: "You have to promise me that you won't try to be brave or a hero. I just want you to come back safely."
Xi Junjie smiled, deliberately showing a relaxed attitude: "You must come back safely. I have you and two lovely children at home, how can I let anything happen to you. Don't worry, we have accompanying troops, and China will continue to contact those two countries to let them avoid our retreat route."
Zhenzhen knew that she couldn't stop this kind of mission sent by the country, and Xi Junjie couldn't not go, so she could only hug his waist, wishing that time would pass slower.
Xi Junjie also hugged him quietly until he saw the time on the wall could not delay any longer. Then he slowly pushed Zhenzhen away and looked at him jokingly: "Look, I haven't even left the house yet, and I have to change my clothes."
Looking at the large wet mark on Xi Junjie's shirt, she wiped her tears and tried to force a smile: "I'll go get you a shirt."
Xi Junjie unbuttoned his shirt, took it off and put it aside. Zhenzhen came over with a neatly ironed shirt and helped him put it on, buttoning it up slowly one by one.
"I'm leaving." Xi Junjie's voice was a little hoarse.
Zhenzhen picked up the car keys on the table: "Where are you meeting? I'll take you there."
***
Zhenzhen stood outside the airport and watched Xi Junjie's private plane taxi off the runway and fly into the blue sky. She leaned against the car door quietly until the sky gradually darkened. Zhenzhen came to her senses, turned around, opened the car door and returned home.
The car stopped outside the gate. Li Muwu, who was sitting at the door, stood up immediately and whispered to Zhenzhen: "Your parents-in-law had a quarrel. It seems to be because of Junjie's business trip?"
"Oh." Zhen Zhen paused. Although Xi Changbo was the deputy in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, many decisions were made by him and the top leader. Xi Changbo must have known about sending Xi Junjie abroad. In fact, from the perspective of her father-in-law, Zhen Zhen could understand his decision. If she didn't send her son out at such a dangerous moment, it would inevitably be used by others to make trouble.
"I understand." Zhen Zhen said, "I'll go and persuade them. I'll go see the twins later. Please ask my mother to wait for me."
"There's still milk in the refrigerator, don't worry." Li Muwu said, and couldn't help asking, "Isn't it just a few days abroad? Why do you all look unhappy?" Seeing that Zhenzhen's eyes were still red, Li Muwu became a little anxious: "Is there something we don't know about?"
"No." Zhenzhen tried to force a smile: "It's just that we haven't been apart for such a long time since we got married, so it's inevitable that I feel a little uncomfortable."
"Oh, kid, you're still clingy even at this age." Li Muwu laughed, "Junjie said he'll be back in ten days or half a month."
"I understand." Zhenzhen pointed inside the gate: "Then I'll go in first." Li Muwu nodded, watched Zhenzhen enter the gate, and then turned around and went home.
Walking into the main courtyard, Zhenzhen could hear the quarrel between Ling Xiulan and Xi Changbo without using her special powers. It had been several years since Zhenzhen moved next door to the Xi family. Whenever she saw her parents-in-law, they were always in love. This was the first time she had ever seen a quarrel like this.
Zhen Zhen sighed and knocked on the door gently, and the quarreling sound inside immediately disappeared. The door opened from the inside, Zhen Zhen glanced at Xi Changbo who opened the door, and called softly, "Dad."
Xi Changbo responded with some guilt, and couldn't help but lower his head. Zhenzhen stood at the door and looked at Ling Xiulan who was sitting on the sofa wiping her tears. She walked over and sat next to her and held her hand: "Mom, don't cry, Junjie will come back safely."
It would have been fine if she hadn't said this. As soon as she said this, it was like a switch was touched. Ling Xiulan turned around, hugged Zhenzhen and burst into tears: "Your father said it was easy, and he would make the two countries avoid the route, but can you be sure of the war? If they were so reasonable, how could so many people die in those two countries?"
Patting Ling Xiulan's back gently, Zhenzhen also said a few words for her father-in-law: "Mom, actually my dad is also upset. Junjie is his only son. He must be worried and concerned about him. But with his status, he can't stop it. He can only do this."
Xi Changbo sighed, his tone not as intense as before: "You, you don't even understand me as well as a child."
"But I feel bad." Ling Xiulan's eyes were red. "That's my son, my only son. What would you let me do if anything happened to him?"
Zhen Zhen was silent for a moment, then said word by word: "I won't let anything happen to him."
Ling Xiulan's eyes fell on Zhenzhen's face. She was suddenly frightened. She could not care about crying anymore. She grabbed Zhenzhen's hand and advised, "Zhenzhen, Mom knows you are worried about Junjie, but I think it's clear. Your dad said that the troops traveling with you are the best in China. With their protection, Xi Junjie and the others will be fine. You can't rashly run to find Junjie by yourself. And the twins, think about it. They can't live without you."
"I know." Zhen Zhen smiled faintly: "Besides, I can't get a plane ticket to go there."
Ling Xiulan was relieved, wiped her tears and began to comfort her daughter-in-law: "Mom was frightened just now. In fact, I understand those principles, but I still feel uncomfortable in my heart." Looking at Zhenzhen's eyes, Ling Xiulan couldn't help asking: "Did you send Junjie to the airport?"
Zhen Zhen nodded and smiled at Ling Xiulan: "He said he would come back safely, so we should wait for him at home."
Ling Xiulan looked at the haggard look that appeared for the first time on her daughter-in-law's delicate face, and couldn't help but hug her in her arms out of heartache.
At night, after coaxing the twins to sleep, Zhenzhen lay in bed but couldn't fall asleep. Thinking of Xi Junjie who had been away for a few hours, she closed her eyes and controlled her consciousness to look for the shadow of the plane in the sky. Landing gently in the cabin, Zhenzhen looked at Xi Junjie sitting on the plane with his eyes closed, and couldn't help but float her consciousness over and gently kissed his cheek. Xi Junjie sensitively opened his eyes, looked around, and looked a little dazed. The colleague next to him put down the newspaper and looked at him puzzledly: "What's wrong? Are you dreaming?"
Xi Junjie came back to his senses and smiled a little embarrassedly: "I dreamed about my wife."
My colleague smiled kindly and said, "You'll see your wife when you get home."
***
When Xi Junjie and his party got off the plane, the staff of the neighboring country's embassy had already prepared vehicles. They would cross the border to the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan to pick up the diplomats and compatriots there.
At this time, Zhenzhen, who was in China, had no intention of managing the company. She called Mingbei back from the construction site to handle the company's business. She sat behind the desk with her eyes closed, staring at Xi Junjie closely with her consciousness.
Although Mrs. Li and Wang Sufen didn't know what happened, they saw that Ling Xiulan and Zhenzhen looked unhappy, and they also saw the news broadcast on TV, and they vaguely guessed the truth. At this time, they felt that they could not help their daughter and son-in-law, so they could only take the twins over early in the morning to avoid disturbing Zhenzhen. Fortunately, Zhenzhen squeezed a lot of breast milk and put it in the space, which was enough for the twins.
According to the route given by the staff of the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan, the route taken by the Chinese army and Xi Junjie and his team was relatively far away from the place where the two sides exchanged fire. Even so, gunshots could be heard from time to time in the nearby area.
The convoy drove for two days before arriving at the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan, which was already crowded with people waiting to be evacuated. Xi Junjie and his colleagues distributed the food and drinking water they brought to them. After receiving the evacuation route agreed upon with the two countries at war, the convoy immediately drove out of the embassy.
After walking for half a day, a scream suddenly came from the bus. Xi Junjie stood up and walked towards the direction of the commotion, and saw a young woman covering her face and crying loudly.
Xi Junjie frowned slightly, and asked the overseas Chinese who came to watch the excitement to return to their seats before asking the woman, "What's wrong with you?"
"The two friends who came with me to the embassy did not get on the bus." She looked at Xi Junjie in horror: "At that time, they said they were going to the bathroom, and then we got on the bus after a while. I thought they had come on, but when I wanted to look for them just now, I found that they were not on the bus."
Xi Junjie immediately asked, "What's your name?"
The girl cried twice before saying, "Li Wen and Zhang Xiaoran."
Xi Junjie quickly searched through the passports he had collected, and indeed saw the names of two people in them. Xi Junjie's face suddenly darkened, and he pounded the back of his chair, and quickly used the radio to contact the staff of the following cars: "See if Li Wen and Zhang Xiaoran are in the car." Five minutes later, the three cars reported back: "Car No. 2 is not in the car!" "Car No. 3 is not in the car!" "Car No. 4 is not in the car!"
Xi Junjie scratched his hair in annoyance. At that time, the staff had clearly done a final check to ensure that there was no one in the office and the bathroom before letting the car drive away. How could two more people be left behind? But since they were left behind, he had no choice but to go back and look for them. After all, their passports were still in his hands.
Xi Junjie immediately contacted the person in charge of the evacuation, who gave an order after a while: "Xi Junjie and two soldiers drive an off-road vehicle back to find the two compatriots, and the others continue to drive and meet up in the neighboring country."
The convoy stopped and soon an off-road vehicle was vacated. Xi Junjie sat in the driver's seat, and two soldiers armed with live ammunition sat in the passenger seat and the other in the back.
The evacuation routes given by the two countries involved in the exchange of fire are time-limited. After forty-eight hours, this route is likely to become the site of another exchange of fire between the two sides, so Xi Junjie must seize the time and try to leave the country as soon as possible.
From time to time, bombings could be heard from the distant streets. Local residents stayed at home and dared not go out. Buildings, shopping malls, and parks that were once everywhere were basically bombed into ruins. Xi Junjie stepped on the accelerator all the way and returned to the embassy in just two hours. He jumped out of the car and opened the door to see two women sitting on the ground, crying and blaming each other.
Seeing the door suddenly open, the two screamed in fear, until they saw clearly that it was their yellow-skinned compatriots, they breathed a sigh of relief. They stood up and wiped their tears, recognizing that they were the staff from China who were doing the evacuation work, and immediately asked excitedly: "Why did you leave so suddenly?" "Why did you leave without notifying us in advance?"
Xi Junjie suppressed his anger and looked at the two people: "I also want to ask you, so many people got on the bus, why did you get left behind?"
Seeing the young man's furious look, the two turned their heads away with a guilty conscience: "Well, he had to go out for something."
Xi Junjie didn't want to waste time talking to such a fool, so he made way for the door and said, "Hurry up and get in the car. If you delay any longer, you might encounter a firefight between the two countries."
The two men then panicked, grabbed the backpacks on the ground and hurriedly got into the SUV. Xi Junjie's eyes swept over the gold chain on one of the women's wrist, and then looked at a gold shop that was bombed yesterday not far away. He took two deep breaths, then suppressed his anger and drove in the direction of retreat.
The round trip took four hours, because the two soldiers had to remain highly alert, so Xi Junjie was the only one driving. Even though he was eager to return home, his physical endurance was limited. After driving for eight hours, Xi Junjie parked the car at the edge of a forest and rubbed his eyes tiredly: "I'm too tired, I need to rest for a while."
Soldier Shao Hong handed him the compressed biscuits he brought: "Eat a little and take a nap for half an hour. I'll stand guard for you."
Xi Junjie nodded, took a bite of the dry and hard compressed biscuit, and fell asleep against the back of the chair before he could swallow it. Soldiers Shao Hong and Zhu Mingyi got off the car and circled around the vehicle.
Li Wen and Zhang Xiaoran noticed that Xi Junjie and the soldiers disliked them, and they felt a little guilty. However, after sitting in the car for eight hours, they really couldn't sit still anymore. After discussing in a low voice, the two of them opened the car door and got out.
Shao Hong immediately turned his head and looked at the two of them, and shouted sternly: "Get back to the car, it's dangerous here."
Li Wen swallowed and said bravely, "We want to go to the toilet."
Shao Hong looked around, pointed to a big tree not far away and said, "You guys go over there and take care of it. Come back early. We can't stay here for too long."
The two nodded and ran to the big tree. Li Wen looked at the distance from here to the car, pulled Zhang Xiaoran and said, "This is too close to them. Will they peek? Otherwise, we should point over there."
Zhang Xiaoran looked at the two soldiers circling the vehicle with guns, and said hesitantly, "Didn't you say it's unsafe here? Let's just make do with it."
Li Wen sneered: "It's so quiet here, there's no one there. Besides, we're not going far. Look, there's a downhill slope over there. If we go there, we won't be able to see anything."
Zhang Xiaoran looked at the slope that Li Wen mentioned, which was only about ten meters high, and nodded: "Okay, let's hurry up, because I think the people from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are not very happy about us going to the gold shop to pick up gold."
"They just complained that we made them run an extra trip." Li Wen said confidently, "Who would have thought that they would leave so suddenly without waiting for us."
The two of them were talking as they walked down the slope, but it was so dark that they couldn't see clearly. There was sand on the top of the slope and a big pit below. As soon as they took one step down, they slipped down.
"Ahh..." A piercing scream broke the silence of the night. Shao Hong and Zhu Mingyi turned their heads immediately and saw that there were no two people by the tree. Their faces changed immediately: "What are these two women doing again?"
“Help!”
"Come and save us!"
“We fell into a pit.”
Louder and louder cries for help came over. Shao Hong took two deep breaths and went to the car to wake up Xi Junjie. "Those two women went to the bathroom. I don't know what happened. Zhu Mingyi and I will go over to take a look. You should be alert."
Xi Junjie nodded, wiped his face, unbuckled his seat belt, opened the car door to get some fresh air, and Shao Hong and Zhu Mingyi walked towards the direction of the sound. The two climbed up the slope and looked at the two women at the bottom of the pit in silence. Li Wen, who was sitting on the ground, covered his forehead with blood and was terrified: "Hurry up and save us, our legs are weak and we can't climb up."
Shao Hong was about to speak when suddenly a series of gunshots rang out. He was about to turn around when suddenly bullets came from behind. Shao Hong made a prompt decision and pulled Zhu Mingyi into the pit. Then a grenade exploded at the edge of the pit, and the falling sand and stones almost buried several people alive.
Zhu Mingyi and Shao Hong each covered a woman's mouth and lay quietly under the pit without making any sound. After the two women realized the danger and said they would not make any sound, Shao Hong and Zhu Mingyi quietly raised their guns and prepared for battle. The gunshots outside were sporadic and disappeared suddenly after a few shots. Shao Hong and Zhu Mingyi were worried about Xi Junjie in the car, fearing that something might happen to him.
Time passed by minute by minute, and Shao Hong could not wait any longer. He made a cover gesture to Zhu Mingyi, and climbed up the pit carefully with his gun in hand, but found that it was quiet outside and there was no one there.
Shao Hong gestured to Zhu Mingyi, who dragged the two women into the pit and quickly ran towards the SUV parked outside the woods. But when they got to the car, they found that the door was open and there were many bullet holes on the car body, but Xi Junjie was gone.
Shao Hong and Zhu Mingyi could no longer care about the two women. They searched frantically with guns in their hands, but they searched the nearby woods and still could not find Xi Junjie. It was already dawn, and the two turned around again unwillingly. This time they finally found some clues. There were scattered bullet shells on the ground, one of which was stained with blood, but there was no trace of Xi Junjie.
"Is he kidnapped? But what do they want to do by kidnapping our Chinese diplomats?" Shao Hong said uncertainly: "What should we do?"
Zhu Mingyi was silent for a moment and said, "We can't delay any longer. Send them back first, and then apply for rescue immediately."
***
The sun shone in from the window, Xi Junjie's eyelashes moved, and he slowly opened his eyes. Perhaps because he had been in the dark for too long, Xi Junjie felt that the light was a little dazzling. He was about to stretch out his hand to block the sun, but suddenly a sharp pain came from his upper arm. Xi Junjie took a breath in pain, his eyes fell on the arm that was bandaged, and he was a little dazed for a moment.
Everything that happened last night gradually came back to his memory. At that time, Shao Hong and Zhu Mingyi went to find the two women. He had just unbuckled his seat belt and wanted to open the car door to get some fresh air when suddenly several people came out from behind the car. When they saw the parked car, they opened fire involuntarily.
At that time, Xi Junjie immediately rolled off the car and ran quickly into the woods with the help of the car. At this time, the screams of the two women distracted the group of people. Xi Junjie only remembered hearing the sound of the grenade explosion and the continuous gunfire. When he finally ran into the woods, a bullet grazed his arm and hit the tree in front. Because of the sudden pain, he slipped and fell, and his head hit the tree on the side, and he fainted at that time.
He touched his forehead with his uninjured hand and found that it was also wrapped in a bandage. The pain made Xi Junjie realize that this was not a dream. However, he found it unbelievable that he was saved in such a dangerous situation.
Feeling the softness of the big bed under him, Xi Junjie lifted the feather quilt on the lid. He stood up and walked to the window, and was suddenly attracted by a strange scene outside. There were many shelves and bottles and jars downstairs. After all, Zhenzhen collected so many cultural relics. Xi Junjie also had some basic understanding of cultural relics, but who could tell him where this place was and why there were so many blue and white porcelains outside