Chapter 80: 40.2

Chapter 40.2 – Their Courage

That night, Tracy’s indicators fell sharply all the way. Shi Yuan called the doctor, a group of people hurriedly pushed her into the emergency room, and successfully pulled her back.

The next day, Qin Luoluo came and guarded Tracy for a day, and then she had to call Shi Yuan over again. When Shi Yuan came, he took the last blooming sunflower from the living room, rolled it with his tail all the way to the hospital, and gave it to Tracy.

Tracy was overjoyed when she saw it and she was happy for several days.

After that, she was hospitalized intermittently, and Shi Yuan went to the shelter several times.

In mid-July, Wolfgang returned.

He was carried back on a stretcher.

There were also numerous wounded people who came back with him, and jars of ashes. Some said that General Su Enqi made a mistake in his command, causing their army to suffer heavy losses.

For a while, everyone was talking about General Su.

“It seems that he is really old… why not just let General Lu take command.”

“Yes, I heard that he had several small mistakes before.”

“Really, age is not forgiving. I think he was often called ‘General Changsheng’ when he was young. Say, if there is such a blunder next time, what should we do?”

“Wait, wait, is there anything to prove that he really made a mistake? I think it’s okay. This is just a defeat. Who can guarantee victory forever? We have to have confidence in General Su!”

Shi Yuan never understood military affairs.

Besides, there were all versions of gossip, he didn’t know if they were true or not.

He didn’t care about those either, he was only responsible for taking care of Wolfgang.

Wolfgang was injured by the infected deer. His right arm, abdomen, and calf were covered with large open wounds. He needed dozens of stitches and had a high fever for five days before subsiding.

The only consolation was that his and Tracy’s wards were close enough to each other that he was able to go see Tracy on crutches.

Tracy was very happy and pestered him to tell stories every time. Wolfgang was not in good spirits, and he fell asleep after listening to the story for a while. He leaned against the head of the bed and refused to go back after fighting with his eyelids.

Shi Yuan wanted to use his tail to drag him back to the ward so that he could rest earlier, but the usual Wolfgang was like a small mountain, and the injured Wolfgang was still like a small mountain. He couldn’t shake him, so he could only call the nurse over and let her scold him back in anger.

Wolfgang, in the end, had a strong physique, and such a serious injury improved rapidly day by day; opposite him was Tracy, who was getting weaker and weaker.

Tracy was rescued several more times.

Shi Yuan stood by her hospital bed, looked at her increasingly pale face, and thought, she might not survive the day of surgery.

Wolfgang often sat at the head of her bed for most of the day. He had always been a man of few words, and it was the same at this time, he was as silent as an old piece of stubborn stone, but his eyes were soft.

Once, by chance, Tracy woke up. Wolfgang said: “When I first met you, you were sitting in the window reading aloud, playing different roles. What were you reading?”

“I don’t remember much, maybe it’s “Mr. Fox”.” Tracy smiled. “You and Ms. Isabella both said that I would definitely be a good actor.”

“Yes, you will be the best actor in the world.”

“I was not good at performing on stage before, and I forgot my lines when I went up.”

Wolfgang stroked her hair: “That’s normal. You’re too young, all you need to do now is grow up.” He lowered his head and kissed her cheek lightly. “You just need to grow up.”

Three days later, Tracy’s eyes closed forever.

Wolfgang didn’t close his eyes for a few days, his wound worsened, and he started to have a fever again.

After the fever, he fell asleep in a daze. Shi Yuan took care of him, helped him get medicine, and changed the wet towel in front of his forehead all night. After the most dangerous night, Wolfgang’s body temperature stabilized in the early hours of the morning.

Shi Yuan took the washbasin to change the water, and when he came back, Wolfgang was already awake. He lay flat on the bed, staring at the pale ceiling, and said, “There is no God of Salvation.”

Shi Yuan washed the towel, wrung out the water, and folded it into a square piece. He put the towel on Wolfgang’s forehead, and a touch of water flowed down, passing through the corners of the man’s eyes, and wetted the collar of his shirt.

The sun rose, and the brilliant golden light came alive, hugging them through the glass window, and a shriveled flower at the head of the bed.

Shi Yuan said, “Well, there is no God of Salvation.”

*

Tracy’s funeral took place a week later, and everyone offered her flowers, fairy tale books, and plush toys. It’s a pity that they couldn’t buy a few flowers, so they laid a shallow layer and turned it into ashes in the fire together.

Wolfgang left Gleaning City again, preparing to return to the army and continue fighting.

Shi Yuan went home, sat on the sofa, read Waiting for Godot given to him by Cheng Youwen, and fell asleep.

Shi Yuan was awakened by Lu Tinghan, and he shook his tail in surprise.

Lu Tinghan went to Fengyang City for half a month, but only came back today, he rubbed Shi Yuan’s head skillfully.

However, no matter how he rubbed it, Shi Yuan was just swinging the tip of his tail, without making a purring sound.

At a glance, he was not in a good mood.

Have to coax.

“What happened? “Lu Tinghan asked him, “Tell me about it.”

Shi Yuan told him about Tracy.

Lu Tinghan was silent for a while and said, “Let’s go to the balcony to get some air.”

The air on the balcony was very good. Looking at the city, a few buildings had fallen, but most of them were still there. Shi Yuan hugged Lu Tinghan and buried his head in his arms. After a long time, he said in a muffled voice: “…I am not the God of Salvation, I can’t save them.”

This sentence was unexpected, Lu Tinghan paused and said, “Shi Yuan, the script is just a script.”

He thought Shi Yuan was too touched by the scene and got too deep into the drama.

Shi Yuan hugged Lu Tinghan’s waist tightly, his head muffled and silent. He had a thousand words, and it took a long time for him to finally speak: “I thought, I thought it was meaningful for me to come to the city.”

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—The kind of more special meaning other than finding his human, such as saving a city.

That’s how it was played in the script, obviously, a hypocrite could become a real hero, but it wasn’t the case for him.

Looking at Shi Yuan’s posture of being wronged and aggrieved, he would definitely not be able to coax him in one night.

Lu Tinghan lowered his eyes and touched Shi Yuan’s head. He no longer tried to refute that the scripts were all fake and that he didn’t have to substitute himself. He just said: “Maybe it is meaningful, just not in the way you think.”

Shi Yuan looked up at him, his tail bent out a question mark: “Huh?”

Lu Tinghan didn’t answer his question, and changed the subject: “Have I told you the story of Xie Qianming?”

Shi Yuan shook his head. Neither Lu Tinghan nor Cheng Youwen mentioned Xie Qianming to him. He knew very little about that man. Only the wolf tooth pendant on his neck could prove that they had traveled together.

Lu Tinghan said: “I said that Xie Qianming was my former superior and took care of me when I was a first-class soldier. He liked stage plays and tried to drag me and other subordinates to see them several times, we were not interested in art, and in the end, he was the only one who persisted.”

Shi Yuan listened silently.

Lu Tinghan: “After I became a second lieutenant, I proposed to be an abyss watcher. Everyone opposed me, friends, comrades-in-arms, teachers, relatives… Only Xie Qianming supported me vigorously, helped me go through a lot of procedures, resisted a lot of pressure, and persuaded a lot of people. He told me later that firstly, he believed in my decision, and secondly, he felt that in life, you should always do something courageous.”

He continued: “Xie Qianming had always been a very courageous person. I have heard his stories one after another. When he was a child, he climbed a very high tree and climbed on it to enjoy the scenery, almost scaring his mother to tears; he grabbed the tails of infected mice with his bare hands and knocked them out one by one; it was his daily routine to contradict his superiors, and when he encountered something he felt was wrong, no matter who it was, he would all give them a round of curses.”

Shi Yuan: “Oh…”

Lu Tinghan: “He often told me that the most difficult and valuable thing in the world was courage – the courage to face everything and challenge everything. And he…” He paused. “He was also very brave in pursuing his wife. Others scolded him for wanting to eat swan meat, but in the end, he really ate it.”

Shi Yuan asked, “Is he considered stinky and shameless?”

Lu Tinghan: “…where did you learn these words, yeah, you can say that.” He stroked the black scales at the corner of Shi Yuan’s eyes. “Then I went to be an abyss watcher, and returned to the city ten years later. Xie Qianming suddenly resigned from his post in February last year, and then disappeared.”

“Where did he go?” Shi Yuan’s tail bent even more, and he felt very familiar with this point in time.

“He went to the wasteland,” Lu Tinghan said. “His son disappeared outside the city, and he said he was going to find him. He was always very brave, and he would definitely do what he wanted to do.” He looked at Shi Yuan. “Before leaving, Xie Qianming took away the wolf tooth pendant, which was a birthday gift he was going to give to his son. Shi Yuan, if his son was still alive, he should be about your age.”

—At this moment, everything became clear.

Shi Yuan realized that Xie Qianming had not been able to find his son, but was instead infected by the purple light bug.

Then, Shi Yuan met him.

Xie Qianming let him get into the car, gave him food and drink, and persuaded him to go to the Wild Rose Troupe in the city to take a look. On a starry night, on a night when he knew he was going to die, he gave Shi Yuan the wolf tooth pendant.

Perhaps at that moment, Shi Yuan’s face coincided with his son’s.

Or maybe at that moment, Shi Yuan was Shi Yuan, the strange and dull-headed child he wanted to protect.

Although the ending was not good, this was Xie Qianming’s story.

Lu Tinghan said again: “Based on what I know about him, he must have left very decisively.”

“How decisive?” Shi Yuan asked.

Lu Tinghan: “The kind that won’t regret it.”

It was a foggy morning when Xie Qianming left. He submitted his resignation, packed his bags, and put the wolf tooth pendant in his left chest pocket.

He drove through the streets looking at the places he had protected, and stopped for a few seconds as he passed the Garcia Grand Theater.

Xie Qianming looked deeply at the marble statue and glanced at the various odd advertisements on the wall of the theater. Cheng Youwen must not have gotten up yet, and he didn’t plan to tell him, he just shouted at Cheng Youwen’s office: “Wait for me to come back!”

After thinking about it, he added: “Or don’t come back!”

The joke was terrible, but he inexplicably made himself laugh. He just smiled all the way and drove out of the city.

Of course, he knew how dangerous it was outside the city. But then again, there were some things one had to muster the courage to do.

[Courage]

This word had permeated the long civilization of mankind.

From soldiers who defended the country, to scientific researchers who explored the unknown, from firefighters who extinguished the fire, to artists who persisted in themselves… The courageous commander whose every decision carried the lives of countless soldiers who trusted him, playing against fate; the courageous mother who endured pain and suffering, bringing the loved one to the world; everyone on the street, the unkempt uncle, the hunchbacked old man, and the fat aunt, might have been brave heroes at some point.

Lu Tinghan looked at Shi Yuan: “In my opinion, we never need any God of Salvation. Such things do not exist and do not have to exist.”

Shi Yuan was still confused: “Ah, why?”

Lu Tinghan said: “Because it has always been humans who have saved humans. For thousands of years, we have come step by step, there is no half-luck.

“They often say that with my talent, I can break the deadlock and bring hope. But the reason why I was able to do this is because of the dedication and blood of my ancestors. Without them, I would not have come to this world at all, nor would I have the opportunity to have such a talk with you; if there were no soldiers who went through fire and water, without those researchers and workers, I would not be able to guard the city.”

He said: “We piled up the foundation to get to where we are today. We are one, we live and die together. In this world, there has never been a perfect God of Salvation, there has never been a lonely hero, only a group of brave people.”

Shi Yuan looked at him in a daze.

Lu Tinghan: “Shi Yuan, you came from the wasteland and you have never been in contact with the city. You are very afraid of people, but you still learned so many things and even performed on stage. Perhaps, you still have many stories that I don’t know.”

—For example, mustering up the courage to want to confess your identity, mustering up the courage to want to save the city.

Lu Tinghan said, “So if you have to ask what is the meaning of your coming to the city, then my answer is, maybe you are here to witness.”

“…what should I witness?” Shi Yuan asked.

“We have all seen the brave you.” Lu Tinghan smiled. “Now it’s your turn.”

“There is no need for the God of Salvation. Shi Yuan, it’s your turn to witness our courage.”

In the past, Xie Qianming embarked on a journey of no return alone, the crowd in the shelter watched a blooming flower, Xing Yifeng and the mutants willing to die.

At this moment, Cheng Youwen walked through rows of roaring machines on crutches, and countless people rushed to work day and night to make sturdy military boots and clothes; Qin Luoluo was still taking care of patients in the hospital, and they tried their best to see tomorrow; Wolfgang got on the last bus to the main city, he had already sealed his grief deep in his heart, piled his luggage on the seat, and his firm face was outlined by the headlights.

Their figures blended into the crowd of millions of people.

Tomorrow, the sun would rise as usual.

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