How much strength could one person have?
Su Qing couldn't say. At any rate, he hadn't even been able to walk steadily before, but now he could use one hand that was slashed bloody to hold up two people.
From pain or for some other reason, his whole body was trembling. Having reached this stage, his mind was a blank. There was nothing left. It seemed that only one thought remained in his heart and soul—I can't let go.
The hit had practically set all of Hu Bugui's organs shaking. He nearly spat out a mouthful of blood. After a long moment, he unevenly said, "Let...go..."
Su Qing ignored him. It wasn't that he was so dedicated; it was that he really didn't have any surplus strength to spare to react to this instruction.
The blood flowing from his hand had already soaked his sleeve. It fell drop by drop like rain. Their surroundings began to shake violently. The great incline that it might have killed them to fall down suddenly collapsed—they had fallen into some kind of world where it seemed that mountains collapsing and the earth cracking came as readily as wind and rain.
The thorny branch Su Qing was holding began to grow at a speed visible to the naked eye, like some fearsome monster. It opened into a large net. The more blood there was in a spot, the faster it grew. When it touched a wound, it bore inward. Soon, Su Qing's whole arm was wrapped up. Then it quickly wrapped around both their bodies, like a suspended death of a thousand cuts.
He only then found that the huge earthquake just now had shaken the slope into a precipice. For some reason, in that moment, Su Qing thought that this place was very familiar, as if he had been here before.
Just then, Hu Bugui took a deep breath and firmly clenched his teeth. He desperately spread his shoulders and arms. The thorny branches binding his body immediately bit into his flesh. The thorny branches were like animals; when you advanced a step, they retreated a step. They matched their strength against Hu Bugui's. Sweat trickled from his forehead down his cheeks, dripping onto Su Qing's neck. Sweat and blood mixed. Su Qing heard him quietly say, "Just hold on a little. The pain will be gone soon."
From an extremely close distance, Su Qing looked at him in astonishment. "What...are you going to do?"
Hu Bugui laboriously reached out a hand and gripped a thorny branch hanging down above him. The thorns slashed his wrist. They caught a vein or an artery, immediately cutting through. A large quantity of blood spurted out. The thorny branches wrapped around Su Qing's wrist were stimulated. They immediately released him and threw themselves on Hu Bugui's wrist like mad.
Hu Bugui firmly put his other arm around Su Qing's waist. Su Qing's chin bumped into his shoulder. Hu Bugui's breathing became more and more strenuous and slowly began to tremble a little. Then his teeth began to chatter. He desperately spread his body again, using it to create a space inside this cage made of thorns.
"Don't be scared. This time I'm here." Su Qing could clearly sense that Hu Bugui's gaze was a little slack, but it still fell on him with a slight smile. The blood was quickly leaving his lips and cheeks.
"Captain..." Su Qing's throat moved with difficulty. For some reason, he suddenly began to tremble even more fiercely.
Hu Bugui seemed to be covered in blood, but there was a smile on his face that looked slightly relieved. He said, "This time I'll finally..."
In an instant, Su Qing remembered where this very familiar-looking precipice was. The sound of a bird's wings beating came to his ears. A bird of some unknown breed suddenly flew out of the precipice. As though it was just starting to learn to fly, it doddered a little at first; but it strove very, very hard to flap its wings, its head raised from beginning to end.
Su Qing felt that the light stabbing his eyes was a little painful. Three years ago, in that grey house, when he had just woken from the dream of becoming a bird, he had used the same posture as Hu Bugui's to hold up a fallen wall—covered in blood, listening to the little devil's thin weeping.
Hu Bugui seemed to be having trouble even opening his eyes. He was blinking less and less often, as though the blood sticking to his eyelashes had already glued his eyelids together—his eyelashes were still very long, so long that they were too heavy.
Su Qing suddenly asked, "Captain Hu, do you like me?"
Hu Bugui's slightly slack gaze focused and slowly fell on Su Qing's face. Birdsong seemed to come from the horizon, so far, yet also so near. Hu Bugui seemed to smile. Then he lowered his head. His lips fell lightly on the tip of Su Qing's nose, the corner of his mouth. Finally, as though finding a haven, they pressed gently against Su Qing's lips.
But there was no next step. He only closed his eyes and left a fleeting kiss.
"...No," he said into Su Qing's ear in a voice as thin as gossamer, "I think I love you."
Su Qing was looking past his shoulder at the boundlessly vast sky. His eyes suddenly opened wide.
"But that...isn't connected to me protecting you." Hu Bugui's voice was becoming quieter and quieter. Su Qing thought that even his breath was weakening and would cut off at any moment. "I'm protecting you because you're...my team..."
Then his voice vanished. In that moment, Su Qing felt his heartbeat come to a heavy stop. Hu Bugui's arm confining him suddenly turned limp and powerless, and the net of thorns immediately began to contract, binding Hu Bugui's entirely unconscious flesh as though trying to jostle him awake.
Just then, Su Qing felt his stagnating double core system suddenly begin to flow once more.
A strong light flashed in his eyes, forcing Su Qing to close them. Then his whole body relaxed, and he fell down heavily. The last thing in his line of sight was that flying bird and that boundless white smoke.
There seemed to be some irresistible power pulling his consciousness down. At last, he knew nothing more.
When Fang Xiu woke up, he found that he had fallen into a maze. He got up in some astonishment, quickly adjusted his mental state, and found that all around him were walls fashioned out of reinforced concrete and the narrow paths they created.
Fang Xiu took some steps along the wall, turned down some intersections, then found himself at a dead end. He frowned and carefully considered how he had ended up in this place, but no matter what, he couldn't remember. He felt up and down his own body. Somehow, he found a pen in his pocket.
It was a very old, very used pen with dark blue ink.
At a glance, Fang Xiu knew whose this was. He smiled wryly and drew a mark at the corner, indicating which direction he had gone when he had passed by this place and where he had come from. Then he switched to another path and groped along.
He didn't know how big this maze was. Slowly, Fang Xiu found that he had lost his sense of time. All that remained was constantly walking and constantly drawing marks. The strange thing was, no matter how far he walked, no matter how many marks he drew, there was always ink in the pen he was holding.
The maze had day and night, and whenever it came time to eat, food and drink would suddenly appear at a corner, so he wouldn't die of hunger inside. At first Fang Xiu suspected that someone was watching him, but each time he gave chase, he came up empty-handed. He only walked into another path with a dead end.
Sunrise and sunset, day and night alternating—slowly, Fang Xiu began to become numb. He thought that he had entered a closed loop. Time and life had both been frozen in this endless, unceasing maze. He was all alone.
He began to draw marks on his coat to keep track of time.
He had begun to search for the exit to the maze as soon as he had woken up. Later, he became unwilling to walk anymore. Still later, he spent all day sitting in place with less than two meters of sky above him, leaning on the huge stone wall, staring blankly at Xu Ruchong's pen.
One day, he saw that one of his coat sleeves was drawn full of marks and realized in surprise that he had been trapped in this bizarre maze for ten years.
There were still many things he couldn't remember, and the things he could remember seemed to have faded in his memory. Even that person in his memories, even who he himself was, whether he was still alive... Until the twelfth year, when he heard another person's footsteps.
Fang Xiu raised his head almost woodenly and saw someone wildly coming towards him from the other end of the maze. He had a paper covered with drawings in his hand. He had one long pant leg and one short pant leg, and he was wearing unmatched socks under them. His hair stuck up all over the place like a bird's nest, and he occasionally grabbed it in bewilderment, making it stick up even more.
Fang Xiu thought that he ought to recognize this person, but no matter what, he couldn't remember what his name was.
But that person looked down and saw him. He stared blankly for a moment, then opened his mouth wide—Fang Xiu thought, He still looks clumsy and idiotic with his mouth open wide enough to shove an egg in.
The person dropped the paper in his hand and came towards him, yelling loudly, like a twitching, skinny frog. He grabbed Fang Xiu by the shoulder. Then, like a child, he unexpectedly began to wail.
In that instant, Fang Xiu remembered his name. He said to himself, Isn't this that dim-witted good-for-nothing Chang Dou?
Then he remembered that he was still alive.
When Lu Qingbai woke up, he found that he had returned to the RZ Unit headquarters. He had been woken by Qin Luo. Next to them was Xue Xiaolu, just opening her eyes in confusion.
Headquarters was completely empty. There wasn't a sound. As the only field agent present, Qin Luo scouted around. She even lifted a chair and smashed a surveillance camera, but the familiar alarm didn't sound. Everywhere was extremely quiet—apart from some bodies on display in the treatment center, there were only the three of them left.
Qin Luo went out to have a look. She harvested three guns and brought them back.
The guns had been inexplicably blocking her path. From a field agent's instincts, Qin Luo picked them up, took them back, and distributed them to the other two.
Just then, a sharp alarm rang in the treatment center. All three of them were startled.