In the afternoon, the rain finally fell.
The rain was neither too heavy nor too light. I could hear the rustling of leaves nearby being hit by the falling rain, and I could see the misty water, which blocked out the distant mountains and made the nearby scenery unclear.
A rugged mountain path had long been muddy. If you stepped on the high ground, you would slip, and if you stepped on the flat ground, you would sink. There were patches of muddy yellow in the messy footprints, and more than a dozen figures were walking with difficulty in the rain.
His military uniform was already soaked through, turning dark gray and clinging to his skin, clearly revealing his strong spine. There were several criss-crossing folds of water on his back, which twisted as he walked.
No matter how the leggings were tied, they all looked the same now, covered with mud, which made Hu Yi very unhappy.
Suddenly there was a scream, and the figure in the raincoat in front staggered, and Hu Yi, who had been holding her arm from behind, almost fell down.
"Doctor Zhou, are you okay?" Chief Xu asked from the front of the team.
"It's all right."
"Xiaoli Village is not far ahead. We will get there if we hold on a little longer." After saying this, Section Chief Xu turned around and continued walking.
"Can't you hold on a little steady?" Zhou Wanping, who was wearing a raincoat, muttered in dissatisfaction in front.
How can I help her? How can I keep her steady? The path was narrow and steep, and it was slippery from the rain. Even Hu Yi couldn't walk steadily. I would never take this kind of job again. It was a pain in the ass. Hu Yi thought to himself, and raised his right hand, which had been stretched forward, a little higher, and gently supported it under the armpit of the raincoat, just in case she slipped again.
Soon after, the muddy path finally became flat. I lifted the curly brim of my hat dripping with rain and saw a small village ahead, looming in the rain and fog.
At this moment, the leaves not far away rustled, and a group of figures suddenly emerged from the woods on the roadside ahead.
Without thinking, he grabbed the raincoat with his right hand and threw Zhou Wanping, who was walking in front of him, into the mud on the side of the road. A female scream was heard.
There was a chaotic sound of gun bolts, and more than ten guns were unloaded in panic. The people on the opposite side also pointed their guns in the rain. The two sides confronted each other through a curtain of rain, looking at each other vaguely.
Section Chief Xu, who was at the front of the team, looked carefully at the figure opposite him and asked, "Which part?"
"From the Beishan Group. Where are you from?"
"We are from the division."
"From the division?"
Section Chief Xu put away his gun, walked forward a little, saw the other party's attire clearly, and shouted back, "One of us." Then he asked, "Where are you going?"
The man who was talking to him took a closer look at Section Chief Xu and motioned his men to put down their guns. "We are going to Kunma Mountain. We want to take shelter from the rain and rest in the village before we go. My last name is Ye, and I am a platoon leader." Then he stepped forward and asked, "What's your name?"
Section Chief Xu took the initiative to extend his hand: "My last name is Xu."
In the rain, the two sides shook hands.
Zhou Wanping sat in the mud, her whole body was dirty, her gray uniform had completely turned yellow, and when she fell, even half of her face was splashed with mud. She frowned and looked at Hu Yi: "I was wondering... whether I should say thank you to you."
Hu Yi put away his gun, walked into the muddy roadside helplessly, and held out his hand to her: "No need. This is the job of a guard."
It was getting dark, and the rain was still falling. The enthusiastic villagers vacated two adjacent courtyards, one for Platoon Leader Ye and his team, and the other for Section Chief Xu and his team.
Zhou Wanping and Section Chief Xu were discussing in the house whether this village was suitable for setting up a field hospital. Ten guards were sitting around the stove in the kitchen, warming themselves by the fire and occasionally chatting with each other. They were a guard squad that Section Chief Xu brought out from the division.
Hu Yi sat in the darkness in a corner of the kitchen, staring absentmindedly at the fire not far away.
I always felt that something was wrong, but I didn't know what it was. I had been thinking about this question in my mind since this afternoon. A standard platoon of more than 30 people, a Czech-style platoon, with a fellow villager in the team, and the platoon leader Ye had a northeastern accent. What was wrong? Why did it feel wrong? I thought about it carefully, scene by scene.
Hu Yi suddenly stood up, his brows furrowed deeply in the light of the fire, and said in a deep voice to the ten people around the stove: "Put out the stove!"
"What?" Everyone turned their heads, confused.
"I said turn off the stove quickly," Hu Yi repeated this sentence, and took a few big strides to lift the door curtain and walked into the inner room. Ignoring the puzzled looks of Zhou Wanping and Section Chief Xu, he went to the table and blew out the oil lamp. In an instant, the room fell into darkness, leaving only the faint green light from the window and the sound of rain outside.
"You are..." Chief Xu's tone was very dissatisfied.
Zhou Wanping was completely confused and didn't know what was going on. She just stood there in the darkness without saying a word.
The door curtain rustled, and two soldiers came in from the kitchen and came to the inner room. They were afraid that Dr. Zhou's guard was a psychopath, so they were ready to protect the leader.
Hu Yi tried to lower his voice: "We are in trouble."
"What's the meaning?"
"Those people next door... are the enemy"
There was a clanging sound in the darkness, as if something in Section Chief Xu's hand fell to the ground, and the inner room and the kitchen became silent in an instant.
"Remember when we met this afternoon? After we identified each other, our people put away their guns, but they just put down their guns. This is not the way to treat your own people. We were careless."
"This... this reason... is too far-fetched, isn't it?" Section Chief Xu didn't dare to believe it. He thought about it carefully for a long time and said, "Besides... if they were enemies, how could we be alive now? Why didn't they shoot at that time?"
"I don't know. Maybe they didn't react at the time. Maybe they were afraid that there were other teams behind us. Maybe they didn't want to fight a hasty close-range battle. Maybe there were other reasons..."
The room was silent again. Section Chief Xu was not a combatant and had never participated in any battles. The soldiers brought from the division headquarters to this guard squad usually just stood guard and had no experience, not to mention Zhou Wanping. Hu Yi could determine that it was an enemy based on the subtle action of holding and putting away the gun, but the others in the room did not dare to make any rash remarks based on this.
Everyone in the room was silent in the darkness. Zhou Wanping broke the silence and said, "I believe what he said. Chief Xu, it's better to believe it than not to believe it.
Chief Xu suddenly realized that what Zhou Wanping said was true. He quickly stood up and said to the shadow at the door: "Arrange the security immediately and send someone out to check the situation. We are ready to leave..."
"You can't go out." Section Chief Xu didn't have time to finish his words before he was interrupted by Hu Yi: "It's too late. They have enough manpower to surround this yard twice. It's been so long since dusk, so perhaps the arrangements have been completed by now."
"Then... what should we do?" Section Chief Xu sat down again weakly.
This place is already a dead end, isn't it just waiting to die? No one is sure what to do. Section Chief Xu's legs are weak, and the guard squad leader has never experienced such a bad situation and has no idea what to do.
Hu Yi took a deep breath in the darkness. Even in the worst case scenario, he had to make arrangements. He didn't expect them to speak. He bluntly began to make instructions to the squad leader: "There are two windows in the front and one in the back. The rest of you should move things in the room to block the kitchen door. The higher and thicker the block, the better. Chief Xu, Doctor Zhou, you two should go to the kitchen now."
The kitchen has no windows, so if you block the door, you can hold out for a while, and it can be used as a temporary safe position and a place for reserve troops; use the inner room as a position, put three people there, and immediately send one from the kitchen to replace one who falls. The most feared thing is grenades, maybe three will fall in one wave, ten soldiers can take three waves, and then still be finished, but if you don't do this, what else can you do? At least you won't die so quickly.
The room immediately began to make a messy noise. The soldiers were busy in the dark. Tables, cabinets, pots and pans, bedding, pillows, firewood and other sundries were all piled up inside the kitchen door. A soldier squatted on each side of the window, and another soldier squatted in the corner under the back window, holding a gun and watching; the others all went into the kitchen, either lying or curled up.
Hu Yi pulled down the door curtain and threw it onto the pile of debris in the kitchen door behind him. He grasped the rifle handle with his right hand, put the gun body on his right shoulder, leaned against the door frame between the kitchen and the inner room, and looked quietly at the window in the house.
I should have figured it out long ago. I had been idle in the hospital for so many days and lost my vigilance. Now it was too late. Hu Yi blamed himself: Others had nothing to do with me, but... I harmed Dr. Zhou.
Breakout? Although it was dark and rainy outside, there was no chance. If we rushed out in a swarm, we would all become targets. But if we didn't breakout, we would definitely die. I stopped Section Chief Xu from going out on the spot just now. In fact, I had a purpose. It was to leave Zhou Wanping and myself a glimmer of hope to break out. At the right time, I would still issue the order to break out. Breakout cannot be carried out when the enemy is waiting, but must be carried out after the enemy launches an attack. It must be after Section Chief Xu and the surviving guards have started to break out first, and then Zhou Wanping will be led to break out. Only by using their attraction in front can we have a chance to find the direction with the highest chance of survival. But even so... the chance is not great. It depends on fate. I'm sorry, you can only blame your fate for not being as precious as Dr. Zhou's. I hope her fate is truly precious.
It was pitch black, and the only sound was the pitter-patter of rain. Water slid down the roof, fell off the eaves, and hit the ground outside the wall, making a crackling sound with no regular pattern. Every drop could be heard clearly, including the sound of my heartbeat.
"Doctor Zhou." Hu Yi's voice broke the silence in the room.
"Hmm." Zhou Wanping's voice was like the buzz of a mosquito.
"Come behind me."
After a rustling sound, Hu Yi, who was leaning against the door frame, felt the panicked heartbeat behind him.
"Squat down against the wall. No matter what happens, don't move from this position. Don't cover your ears."
"Um."
Then the dark room fell into silence again, with only the noisy sound of rain outside, covering up all the sounds outside...