White Olive Tree

Chapter 49

Song Ran smiled and said: "Yes."
The officer actually stretched out his palm towards her in an upright manner. Song Ran was flattered and hurriedly handed it over to shake his hand.
The hands of soldiers are very powerful.
He asked neatly: "Madam, may I help you?"
Song Ran blushed and said she wanted to know the history here.
The officer nodded and led the two of them past the guard line and up the slope.
The altitude of the hill is not too high, but it overlooks the flat terrain of Aara.
The weather is very good today, the sun is shining brightly, the vision is clear, and we can clearly see the devastation of the war on the entire ancient city.
The officer was not very fluent in English, but he patiently and repeatedly told Song Ran that their country had suffered an aggressive war a few centuries ago.  At that time, the Eastern Kingdom was facing the crisis of national annihilation and genocide.  Aara is the capital of the ancient Eastern Kingdom. The anti-encirclement and suppression campaign lasted for a full year, resulting in millions of casualties. The Battle of Matumanggang was the most brutal. Soldiers who sacrificed their lives for the country sacrificed their lives here one after another.
Now, the sky is blue and the grass is green.  Looking around, the rain of bullets and blood dripping from hundreds of years ago have long since disappeared.
Standing on a high place, overlooking the hillside, Song Ran quickly saw the scene that he had not been able to see clearly when he was walking up the path - stone tablets lying quietly among the vast green grass.
Unlike the stele erected for the dead in China, the stone stele here lies flat on the ground, like a bed of rest.  Piece after piece, neatly spread over the entire hill. 
It turns out that the former battlefield of Matumanggang has turned into a huge cemetery over the centuries.  People who died in the Patriotic War hundreds of years ago rest here and will forever protect their homeland.
And she was actually standing on the top of this huge tomb.
The desolate wind blew, and a sad but solemn emotion tightly wrapped Song Ran.
She couldn't help walking down the hillside, stepping among the green grass that covered her ankles, and saw that each tombstone had a name and age engraved on it.
Five or six hundred years ago, many of the young people born in 1413 were only seventeen or eighteen years old.
The officer stood by the cemetery and said, "I don't know whether their bones were buried in the hills or whether their bones were piled up in the hills."
Song Ran walked back and when he went up the steps, he suddenly saw one of the tombstones. The black tombstone was engraved with gold in the language of the Eastern Kingdom and wrote a long paragraph.
She asked: "What is this, an epitaph?"
The officer came down, looked down and said:
"Don't bury me too deep, brother. If someone invades my country, please wake me up and I will get up and keep fighting."
Song Ran was speechless for a moment. Her chest heaved and she took a deep breath.  Looking up at the sky, I saw the huge bronze statue on the top of the mountain. The medieval female warrior was waving a long sword, looking at death, shouting, and sprinting forward.
The bronze statue reflects the blue sky like the sea, an invisible thing, thick, rich, and weighing heavily on people's hearts.
Song Ran was holding a camera and taking pictures. On the side, Li Zan asked the officer: "I heard that a group of soldiers have been stationed at Matumangan since the beginning of the war to prevent extremist organizations from occupying this land. Is that you?"
Song Ran looked over.
The originally serious officer actually smiled and gestured with his fingers: "We are the ninth batch."
Song Ran naturally knew what this meant.
The officer said: "They want to blow up this hill and destroy the bones of heroes. If this is your hometown, will you allow it?"
Li Zan smiled faintly and shook his head.
Feng Danyunqing made a small movement, but a fierce determination flashed in his eyes.
Song Ran's heart moved slightly.
Li Zan turned his head, looked at her, and smiled slowly: "What's wrong?"
She smiled and shook her head: "Nothing."

They stayed on the hill for about an hour, thanked and said goodbye.
When leaving, Song Ran asked the officer: "Do you think the defense battle will be won? Will the Eastern Conference win?"
The officer said firmly: "She will survive."
Song Ran followed Li Zan down the mountain.
The afternoon sun was scorching the path, and the ground temperature was a bit high, but her heart was particularly calm, as if a pair of invisible hands were soothing her.
She looked at the city of Ararat in the distance and asked Li Zan: "Do you think you will win?"
Li Zan said: "Until the war is over, everything will be uncertain."
She became inexplicably nervous: "What if we lose?"
"Then wait until next time, recharge your batteries, and make a comeback. However, civilians will have to continue to suffer."
"Are you acting with them?"
"No. It should not be too long after the war breaks out." Li Zan said, "Our battlefield is in the extremist organization stronghold in the northwest suburbs."
Song Ran lowered his head and walked beside him: "You have been here for three months, right?"
   "right."
"Have you ever been hurt?" She whispered.
Li Zan paused for a moment, his expression unnatural, and said, "I haven't been seriously injured."
"A serious injury is..."
"Broken arms and legs require major surgery." After saying that, he noticed something, turned to look at her, and smiled lightly, "Our fighting method is different from the government army, and the injury rate is not high. Don't worry."
As soon as the words "Don't worry" were spoken, both of them fell silent.
Song Ran casually picked up a leaf of green grass on the side of the road and said, "You don't seem to have told me why you have to come here. Although I can think of the general reason, we didn't talk about it in detail at that time."
Li Zan knew what she wanted to hear, but couldn't answer at this juncture.
He raised the corner of his mouth and smiled casually: "There is no special reason. I am just too annoyed by terrorist attacks and it makes them unhappy."
Song Ran followed his intention and smiled: "I'm about the same. I'm writing a book or something."
While talking, Song Ran had already reached the foot of the hill, and looked back at the huge tomb again.
At this time, several wandering teenagers walked by singing songs.
The melancholy and gentle tune was exactly the folk song Song Ran had heard countless times in the Eastern Kingdom.  But this time the teenagers sang in English, and she suddenly understood the lyrics:
"They say time heals all sorrow,
They say you can always forget in the future;
But the smiles and tears over the years,
But it always makes my heart hurt like a knife!  ” (Note 1)
Li Zan handed her the helmet and said, "That child sang this song when we were debugging bombs in Hapo City."
"I just thought of it." Song Ran wore a helmet, sat on the motorcycle, and whispered behind him, "Thank you for bringing me here today."
Li Zan raised his chin slightly, fastened his helmet straps, and did not answer. Instead, he said: "When the war breaks out, you must pay attention to safety. Don't rush out of the front line. Don't wander around in other places. At that time, no area was safe.  Absolutely safe.”
"I know." Song Ran said, "I will be with their national reporters, and I will be in the rear where the military is stronger. But you..." She lowered her voice and felt a sudden pain in her heart.
Li Zan was silent for a while, and seemed to be still buckling. Only a light voice came from the front: "Don't worry about me. After the war, I will move to the next location. If you don't see me then  , don’t think wildly, I should have left and gone to other places. ... There is no need to look for me."
Song Ran didn't believe what he said at all.
But so what if you don’t believe it, in this precarious city.
Knowing...he didn't want her to worry.  He already had too much on his shoulders.
She sat behind him and suddenly realized that his back was actually quite thin and he was still very young.  Her eyes were red, but he never looked back at her and started the motorcycle.
The strong wind blew over and quickly evaporated the mist in her eyes, leaving no trace.