After Zhou Qichen was awakened by the dream, he couldn't fall asleep again. He lay in bed with his eyes open and stared at the ceiling. After a while, he was suddenly awakened by the sound of a door banging. The sound was very loud, and at that moment he instinctively reached for the bedside table, even thinking of finding a sharp weapon to deal with it.
The lights in the living room came on, and he heard the sound of the suitcase wheels sliding, followed by the backpack being put on the ground.
Only then did he realize that it was none other than Lang Feng who came over.
Lang Feng walked in the dark and said, "Sorry, the box hit the door. I guess it woke you up."
Perhaps because he was afraid of the glare, he did not turn on the bedroom light when he came in and was almost tripped by another box at the door.
Zhou Qichen was still confused at first, but he laughed when he heard the noise and took the initiative to turn on the bedside lamp.
"It's okay. I didn't sleep much just now. But you... took another day off?" He didn't look like he was sleeping. He didn't even change his clothes. He was still wearing the trousers and black T-shirt he would wear outside. He lay on the quilt with his clothes on and covered with a blanket.
Lang Feng didn't answer, but just took off his coat and threw it on the ground carelessly, then walked over and gave him a tight hug.
His hugs were always strong, powerful, and unreserved, especially today. It was at that moment that Zhou Qichen realized that he couldn't remember the last time he was hugged so tightly by someone—not by his parents, not by his lover, and the closest thing was probably the hug from his comrades before they said goodbye, but best friends are not lovers after all. The hug Lang Feng gave him was not only strong but also warm, and even their breathing was in sync. In the end, he even felt chest tightness and shortness of breath, and he cleared his throat before saying, "Okay, no missing limbs, just like you saw last time." He smiled at Lang Feng, then patted the place next to him to signal him to lie down as well.
Lang Feng didn't smile, nor did he move. He just sat beside the bed and looked at him and said, "Can't you sleep?"
"It's okay. I wake up at two or three o'clock. It's also because I haven't worked for the past two days, so I'm not used to it." Zhou Qichen said.
Lang Feng pondered for a moment, took off his sweater and shoes, and lay down beside him, his hand still holding his wrist.
"Do you... want to talk?" he said.
"What are you talking about? What happened?"
"If you want to talk, I'll listen. If not, let's do something else."
Zhou Qichen did not answer him immediately, but held his hand instead. He found that after being together, the silence between their conversations became common and comfortable, and Lang Feng was neither anxious nor pushy, patiently waiting for him to think before speaking.
So he really thought about it, and after about a minute or two, he spoke: "It was three years ago, one morning in October, I was doing land-based training at Zhoushan Base. It was supposed to be an ordinary exercise. If there were no accidents, we would be able to complete the mission by 11 o'clock in the afternoon."
Lang Feng's eyes widened, and he turned to look at his profile. This time Zhou Qichen didn't look him in the eye. He stared at the window on one side of the room. The window was slightly open, and the wind blew in, as if the past events were whizzing through the corner of his memory. He knew that Zhou Qichen was not answering the question. He was indeed talking about the accident, but he was not talking about the accident that hit the corridor bridge three days ago, but the plane crash that almost killed him three years ago.