The sun in the East always rises very early, and the sky starts to get bright around four or five o'clock.
Song Ran's room didn't have time to install curtains, and the bright daylight irritated her eyes and woke her up.
Pei Xiaonan from next door did not come back all night, he must be in the hospital recovering from his injuries.
Song Ran and Jose had an appointment at 7:30 in the morning, so there was still some time. She held a piece of bread in her mouth, sat at the table and wrote in her diary, and then copied all kinds of information to the cloud storage disk.
Finished recording, 7:20.
After much thought, she logged on to Twitter and posted a message: "Back to Ale."
She didn't bother to read the comments that immediately came in, so she searched for Li Zan's account and took a look. His Twitter account was empty, nothing. In the beginning, he had only applied for it to follow her updates.
Now that she has become his ex-girlfriend, maybe it is no longer necessary.
While I was still thinking about it, I heard the sound of a car driving in downstairs.
Song Ran collected his thoughts, put on the bag he had packed long ago, and quickly went downstairs.
As expected, it was Jose who came.
He got out of the car and stood straight in front of it. When he saw Song Ran, he smiled widely, put his hands on her shoulders and saluted her solemnly, saying, "Song, I am very honored to meet you. You are the idol of every reporter."
Song Ran had been with Sashin for a long time before, and was used to their enthusiastic and exaggerated way of speaking, but this time she still blushed slightly and said shyly: "I am lucky."
"Luck is God's blessing," said Jose, "but God only favors excellent and kind people."
Song Ran thought that if she continued to be humble, she might come up with more words of praise, so she simply accepted it with a smile.
Jose is a special correspondent for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the East Country and is about 35 years old.
He was tall, with a sharp face, high brow bones, and deep eye sockets, a typical Eastern appearance. He was old enough that he didn't need to grow a beard, and he looked much more mature than Sasin.
Today, he took Song Ran to the battle command center of the Ale City Defense War to share information about the war with other special reporters. At present, troops from nearby cities are being dispatched to Ale City, and a large-scale fierce battle is imminent. The dispatch and safety of war reporters also require unified deployment.
Jose asked, "You didn't go to the war zone yesterday?"
"No." She was still afraid that it would be unsafe to be alone.
"There's still some time before the gathering. Do you want to go over there and take a look?"
"OK."
José turned at the intersection and took a road heading north.
Sure enough, not long after we walked, we heard faint gunshots and artillery fire.
Song Ran glanced at his watch and sighed, "It's not even eight o'clock yet. Doesn't everyone need to go to bed?"
Jose laughed. "You'll get used to it. Where in our country can we find a place where we can sleep peacefully?"
Song Ran looked out the window and noticed that along the way, there were many children searching and collecting things among the ruins on the roadside.
She was a little confused until halfway through, when two ragged and skinny children appeared from the ruins of a building ahead.
The little boy, about five or six years old, was climbing on the ruins; behind him was a little girl, no more than four years old, who was half-naked and was using her hands and feet to slowly move on the stones.
The little boy rummaged among the bricks and stones for a long time, and found a piece of bread crumbs, which he immediately handed to his sister. The little sister took it and stuffed it into her mouth. The crumbs, which were only the size of a finger, went into her stomach in an instant. After she finished eating, she looked at her brother eagerly.
The little brother continued to use his thin little arms to turn over the bricks that were too heavy for him. The little sister stumbled behind him, trying to help, but she was too thin and weak, so she could only throw away some small stones in vain.
Song Ran took out his camera.
Seeing this, Jose slowly stopped the car and waited for her to take pictures, saying, "There are too many war orphans like this."
“Why not send them to a refugee camp?”
"These are the ones who escaped from the refugee camps. There is a shortage of supplies and we can't take care of them. They are young orphans and can't get enough food."
Song Ran searched for it, but found that he didn't have any food in his bag today.
Neither did Jose, who shrugged regretfully.
On the ruins, the little boy suddenly shouted with joy. It turned out that he had picked up half a cookie piece.
The younger sister immediately crawled to his side happily. She took the biscuit, took a bite, and broke it in half while chewing. The older brother quickly squatted down to pick up the crumbs on the ground and put them into his mouth. The younger sister handed him half a biscuit, but the younger brother refused and continued to look for it.
His sister followed him hurriedly and kept stuffing things into his hands.
The young man couldn't resist and finally took it, but carefully put it in his pocket.
Song Ran was still watching, and Jose sighed: "Are you leaving?"
Song Ran retracted his gaze: "Let's go."
Jose started the car again, but before he started driving, he heard gunshots ahead.
If it was her first time at the battlefield, Song Ran would probably ask Jose if the children couldn't hear the gunshots and why they weren't afraid. But now she knew very well that they were chasing the gunshots. There were soldiers on the battlefield, and only where there were many soldiers and dead bodies would there be all kinds of small objects and food scraps left behind.
What is fear in the face of bone-gnawing hunger
Jose said: "This generation of children has no future." He paused and said, "We have no future either."
The moment the car started, Song Ran heard the little boy's cheers again and turned back to take another look.
It turned out that he found a lighter under the bricks and excitedly shared it with his sister.
Two children sat on the ruins, holding lighters and flicking them, the flames jumping up and down. The little sister seemed to have seen a rare toy, giggling and shaking her feet. The brother also laughed happily.
The faint light from the children's palms illuminated their sparkling eyes.
As the car turned a corner, Song Ran finally looked away and said, "They still have a long life ahead of them, and a future."
Feeling the atmosphere was too heavy, he added with a smile, "Of course, it's hard to say now that you're older."
Jose laughed out loud: "Song, you are so cute!"
The car drove along the outskirts of the war zone. Amid the sound of gunfire, Song Ran saw many soldiers and civilians digging trenches, clearing ruins, and blowing up buildings early in the morning in preparation for the next battle.
At five minutes to eight, they arrived at the combat headquarters in the center of Aler City, a four-story museum.
This place is less than two kilometers away from the front line. Military vehicles, military motorcycles, and soldiers running are constantly coming in and out, reporting on the military situation from various fronts.
Song Ran followed Jose out of the car and walked into the museum.
The museum's collection had long been emptied, and it was dimly lit, dark and eerie inside, with nothing in it.
The headquarters was in an air-raid shelter two floors underground. Song Ran took the wooden box elevator down to the underground.
In the dim incandescent lights, narrow corridors, and pigeon-hole-like basements, commanders, military strategists, correspondents, recorders, typists, and people in various positions were concentrating on the tasks at hand.
Song Ran meandered in the ant nest-like underground for a while and came to a closed corridor.
There was a sealed room at the end of the corridor. Through the small glass on the door, one could vaguely see a group of people in military uniforms discussing strategic deployment, arguing with each other. No sound could be heard.
The guard looked at her warily, and she immediately looked away and followed Jose into a small, dark room at the end.
There were already some reporters from home and abroad gathered in the room, but she was the only Asian face and the only woman. Several European and American male reporters looked at her with distrust, even contempt, as if they thought that she, who was thin and female, could not match the battlefield mission.
Song Ran pretended not to see it.
Before the meeting started, several people started smoking, and the small space was immediately filled with smoke.
The pressure on the battlefield is too great, and almost everyone, young and old, men, women, and children, smokes.
Someone passed a pack of cigarettes around, everyone got one. When it came to Song Ran, she waved her hand and smiled, "I don't smoke."
"Elegant lady." The French reporter who was distributing cigarettes laughed, and it was hard to tell whether it was a teasing or a mockery.
The pack of cigarettes with one cigarette left and the lighter were placed in front of her. The owner had no intention of taking them, and she turned a blind eye.
At eight o'clock, a war news officer from the East came in. He was in charge of the war filming.
The content of the meeting was very simple. The government forces would try their best to provide convenience to these journalists who have a certain voice in the international arena, and asked them to help the government forces win the support of international public opinion while recording objectively.
The French reporter puffed on a cigarette and joked, "Don't worry. In my camera, the government troops are all brave and the rebels are all brutal."
Several foreign reporters burst into laughter.
The Dongguo people in the room also smiled, pretending not to understand even though they could hear the mockery and sarcasm in the smile.
Song Ran had a blank expression on his face, as if he had just heard the most boring joke.
The French reporter saw it and asked, "What do you think, miss?"
Song Ran raised his eyes: "I don't care about this issue, sir."
"Oh? Then you come to the battlefield and you don't care about these things. May I ask what you care about?"
Song Ran: "I only care about when the suffering of the people here can end."
“…” The male reporter blew out a smoke ring and said nothing more.
After a while, the meeting ended and everyone left.
When Song Ran stood up, he picked up the pack of cigarettes and the lighter and handed them to the reporter: "Your stuff."
He refused to take it and laughed: "The battlefield is very scary, young lady, I hope you won't be scared to tears. Try it when you are scared, cigarettes will give you courage."
Song Ran replied: "Unlike you. My courage comes from my bones, not from nicotine."
The reporter was smoking a cigarette, and raised his eyebrows at her words. He stopped smiling, said nothing more, but did not take the cigarette either, and walked away.
Jose and several reporters from the East Country wanted to stay for an internal meeting. Song Ran left first.
She held the cigarette and lighter and wanted to throw them away, but after thinking about it, she didn't.
She walked out of the command center's big iron gate and stood in the dim underground corridor of the air-raid shelter waiting for the elevator.
It has a horizontal iron gate and a yellow wooden cabin. This is a very old type of elevator.
It was the same as the one she had in Hapo City. At that time, Li Zan also taught her how to ride it.
The elevator never came down.
She waited for a while, then stopped waiting and walked to the side and opened the door of the stairwell.
The sensor light is on.
The heavy door slammed down from behind, hitting her backpack and causing the cigarette box in her pocket to fall out.
Song Ran picked it up and took a look. There was a picture of a sexy blonde girl on the cigarette box, and there was only one cigarette inside.
She dropped it on the candlestick on the stone wall and just as she walked up a step, she looked back again.
The cigarette lay alone in the cigarette box.
She walked up another step, took out the cigarette, and rubbed it gently with her fingers. The cigarette paper looked hard but felt very soft.
She put it to her lips and sniffed it. Tobacco had its own unique aroma, not as bad as second-hand smoke.
Song Ran turned around and leaned against the wall, put the cigarette in his mouth, and lit the lighter with a "click".
She took a slow breath towards the flame, and the smoke quickly flowed into her lungs through her mouth. It was irritating, unpleasant, and smelly! She frowned and opened her mouth to spit out the smoke.
The door to the stairwell was pushed open. She turned her head unintentionally with a cigarette between her fingers and was startled.
Through the bluish-white smoke, Li Zan's eyes were somewhat obscure and difficult to discern. He paused in place, holding the heavy door edge with his hands; his eyes moved between her face and the cigarette in her hand, and finally fell back on her face.
Song Ran was frightened and exhaled silently, and more smoke came out. The smoke floated in front of her, making her face look lonely, unlike her usual self.
Li Zan just stared at her face without saying anything for several seconds.
But the charm under that dazed look was fleeting. She seemed to be caught by him. She was at a loss and the fingers holding the cigarette immediately hid at her side. Rourou's small body leaning against the wall also stood up unconsciously, looking at him nervously and cautiously.
We haven't seen each other for three months, and we haven't contacted each other for three months.
He seemed to have not changed much, except that his hair was a little longer; but if you look closely, you can see that he has changed a lot, his eyebrows and eyes are deeper, the lines of his jaw are more rigid, and his temperament seems to be more serious, perhaps because of the effect of the military uniform.
Even his eyes were... a little cold.
She suddenly felt a slight pain in her heart.
The hand hidden behind his back was brought forward again, and a wisp of green smoke rose above the cigarette butt.
Li Zan stepped in, turned his head away, and closed the door behind him. He let go very slowly, as if the door was a precious historical relic.
Five full seconds.
He gently closed the heavy door, withdrew his hand, and then turned back to look at her again, smiled faintly, and asked, "When did you come?"
It was the same smile again, the same smile she had when she went to the Security Department to pick up her car a year ago.
Polite, but seemingly... not getting any closer.
Her heart was numb, but she raised the corners of her mouth and smiled: "The day before yesterday."
"How long will it take?"
"At least until Ale is recovered."
He understood and nodded: "Yeah."
"… "
"… "
Nothing else to say.
In the dim underground, there was deathly silence, cutting through the heart like a knife.
When their eyes met, Song Ran felt that the expression on her face was about to collapse in the next second, but the sensor light saved her.
Lights go out.
The cool underground passage was plunged into absolute darkness.
No matter how hard I tried to adapt, there was no light from underground. The cigarette in my hand was also weak.
Song Ran said nothing. She didn't dare to wake up the light, and she didn't dare to face him who had regained consciousness.
Li Zan did not make any sound, and they both tacitly let themselves be submerged in the darkness.
Black covers everything.
There was only the smell of rotten and damp earth beneath the ancient buildings.
A few seconds later, she heard him walking up the stairs, the rustle of his army trousers and the clatter of his boots on the stone steps.
The stairs were narrow, so Song Ran took a step back to make room for him.
One step, two steps...
She stood on the third step, knowing that he was about to pass her.
She was so confused that she unconsciously raised her hand and put the cigarette holder to her lips.
The next second, Li Zan walked up the third step. Song Ran raised her eyes hastily, and in the dim firelight, she met Li Zan's eyes, which were particularly bright and deep in the dark, staring at her. But she didn't see clearly, and the next moment, he took the cigarette from her hand and put it out on the candlestick.
"..." Song Ran's eyes fell into absolute darkness again.
There was no sound at all.
She knew he was very close to her, and she became extremely nervous for no reason. Her hot and sweaty palms gripped the cool wall, and she tilted her head slightly to try to hear any sound around her and judge his movements.
But she could hear nothing and see nothing.
Her heart shrank, and she felt an inexplicable pressure approaching her. She felt like she was in a trance, and she seemed to smell the familiar scent on his face. Her heart was pounding, and she held her breath and almost dared not breathe, wanting to confirm something. But she didn't feel his breath. She wanted to sniff again to confirm, but she couldn't smell anything.
Everything happens in just one second.
He put out his cigarette, withdrew his hand, walked up the fourth step, and went all the way up.
Just now, maybe it was just her hallucination.
His footsteps became increasingly distant, and they passed each other in the darkness.
She dug her fingers into the stone wall.
Suddenly, there was a crisp sound, and Li Zan knocked on the iron railing with his gun. With a bang, the sensor light came on, and the dim light filled the corridor.
He walked around the corner of the stairs without looking at her, raised his eyes slightly and looked upwards, and went upstairs.
Song Ran lowered his head silently.
He stopped on the third step, looking at the exit for a few seconds, and finally lowered his head to look at her: "Aren't you leaving?"