The day Song Ran met Li Zan was an ordinary day.
On June 3rd, Ale City, located in the north-central part of the Eastern Kingdom, looked the same as usual every day. At eight o'clock in the morning, Song Ran opened the window of the hotel, and a north-south street downstairs led directly to the elementary school at the end. The commercial buildings on both sides of the road are short and flat, and the high and low residential houses are hidden behind the trees.
As far as the eye can see, the streets are dusty, and there is no one to clean up the confetti and fallen leaves. But the sky is blue and the sun is shining brightly.
Downstairs in the restaurant, a young mother wearing a headscarf and a black robe was sitting at the table with her young son having breakfast; the owner of the shop was standing behind the booth, cutting the barbecue with one hand and throwing the pastry with the other. The smell of grilled meat, boiled beans and flatbread wafts through the streets. In the repair shop across the street, a few middle-aged men pushed motorcycles and crowded at the door of the shop early, chatting with the repairman, speaking the Dongguo language that Song Ran could not understand. A whistle sounded not far away, the bus stopped on the side of the road, and a group of elementary school students in school uniforms rushed out of the bus, chattering and running towards the school. The bus driver rolled down the window and chatted with the police patrolling the roadside.
Everything looked the same as every day before, but it was different.
The local restaurant is still open, but KFC has long been closed; the dental clinic is opening, but the mobile phone store has been closed for more than a week. A new model of a certain Chinese mobile phone brand was posted on the door. The posters were in tatters, and the pieces of paper trembled in the morning wind. A stray dog is curled up in a pile of torn newspapers in the corner. The glass window of the clothing store next door was also covered with a layer of dust, and two mannequins could be vaguely seen inside the window, one with a black robe and scarf covering his face, and one with a white shirt and floral skirt.
The morning breeze swept over the fallen leaves and confetti, but could not move the still skirts in the window.
Song Ran sighed for no reason, a faint melancholy in her heart was like that piece of dusty glass. This is her last day in the country. Today her mission is over and she is about to return. It took 4 hours to drive from Ale City to the capital Gamma, and the plane back home was at eleven o'clock at night.
She leaned against the window and swiped the internet with her mobile phone. It's afternoon in China, and netizens are discussing topics such as celebrity cheating, the most beautiful tofu Xishi, and so on.
At half past eight in the morning local time, it was almost time to pack up.
Just as she folded the tripod, the floor under her feet suddenly shook, like an earthquake. But it's not an earthquake! She grabbed the camera and pressed the switch and rushed to the window, and there was a thunder and explosion in the sky.
But everything in the world outside the window is as usual. People on the street looked up like a flock of bewildered geese. Soon there was another loud bang, one after the other—cannonballs.
The war has begun.
The street boiled instantly, people shouted loudly and fled in all directions.
Song Ran rushed to the top of the building with her camera, tripod and communication equipment on her back. Looking at the wasteland outside the city, she couldn't see any troops. But the artillery fire continued. It was Haru City, tens of kilometers northeast of Ale City, where one of her male colleagues was stationed.
The cell phone signal was cut off. The first step in the war destroyed the communication base station.
Song Ran set up the equipment, turned on the satellite phone, and only then did he connect. Then he said about the domestic affairs: "The government army and the rebels are fighting outside Haru City. What's the situation on your side?"
Song Ran turned the camera angle and held his breath: "I am now on the roof of a hotel in the northeast suburb of Ale City, an important town in the central part of the Eastern Kingdom. I can hear the clear sound of gunfire coming from the direction of Haru City. The building under my feet is still shaking. The photographic picture is also unstable. In the Ale area where I am, there were cars and pedestrians downstairs a minute ago, but now the street is empty. The direction of my finger on the opposite side is an elementary school, and you can see..." She zoomed in on the picture, " The teachers took the students to evacuate from the teaching building to the playground. The number of students studying here has dropped from more than 300 a few months ago to more than 100 now. Many families have already moved to the south, near the capital Gamma ..."
After she finished her report, the cannon fire from the other end disappeared. I don't know if the fighting stopped or turned into a gun battle.
Song Ran waited on the roof for ten minutes, but found nothing new.
The sky was as blue as washed sapphire, the sun was brighter, and the world was as weird as if nothing had happened.
The notice from above was that Song Ran would return to China as usual. But the war suddenly broke out, and the communication line may be completely blocked. Going back is not easy.
The car she rented was returned last night. And the driver who had made an appointment to take her to Gamma today wanted to take the family of six south, so he broke the appointment. In special moments, there is no way to blame the other party.
Around 9:30, Song Ran contacted a reporter friend in the United States and learned that they had a car and could take her along. But they were in Shuri City, more than ten kilometers northwest of Ale, and set off southward at 10:30 in the morning.
At this moment in Al, the streets were crowded with people fleeing with their families and their families in cars and motorcycles. The road out of the city was blocked. The sound of whistles, cursing, shouting, and crying of children can be heard endlessly. Song Ran ran for more than a dozen streets under the scorching sun, looking for a motorcycle all over the city, but at this time the means of transportation were hard to come by.
On the way back, her eyes got wet several times. It is impossible not to be afraid.
Back at the hotel, the driver who broke the contract was waiting for her in the front hall. He sent a motorcycle.
At ten o'clock in the morning, Song Ran changed into a black suit, put on a hat and a mask, tied the equipment box and suitcase to the back seat, and rode a motorcycle straight to Su Rui City in the northwest. Motorcycles are men's, heavy and difficult to handle. She fell a lot when she first came, but now she is very familiar with it.
The road is high and wide, and occasionally a few fleeing vehicles going south pass by.
She drove very fast, and arrived at the suburb of Su Rui in about a quarter of an hour. The streets and houses are empty, and the wind blows garbage everywhere, like a ghost town in the daytime.
Just after walking down a street, there was a faint gunshot in the distance. Song Ran's palms were drenched with sweat, and he hurried to the other end of the city.
She made a detour in the empty alley, and quickly rushed onto the wide and deserted main road. When she accelerated again, seven or eight figures in camouflage suddenly appeared from all directions in front of the alley corner, on the roof of the building, behind the car, fully armed and holding steel guns. shout at her:
"Back Up!"
"Stop!"
Song Ran slammed on the brakes. Under the action of inertia, the car slid forward rapidly, and the tires and the ground made harsh friction sounds. There is an iron box in the middle of the road, a wire is exposed from the box, and a small piece of metal is attached to the end of the wire.
The motorcycle braked to a stop, and Song Ran dropped his left foot, stepping on the metal piece impartially. In an instant, the iron box lit up, and the red numbers began to count down——
It's a bomb.
There was deathly silence all around.
Song Ran's heart shrank into a point.
She stepped on the metal sheet with one foot and the pedal of the motorcycle with the other. She leaned on the spot and did not move. The sweat on her face rolled into her neck like beans.
Every second was stretched infinitely by fear. But the group showed no signs of coming up to rescue them.
After a few seconds of dead silence, a voice shouted at her: "Stay Put!" (Don't move!)
As soon as the words fell, someone yelled again: "Azan!"
Song Ran couldn't tell which language azan was speaking. I saw a man in gray-green camouflage jump out of a window on the second floor of a certain building, stepping on the drainpipe and descending quickly. Wearing a helmet and a mask, he stood on the side of the road and watched her from a distance—her black attire was suspicious.
Song Ran's voice trembled like a twisted thread: "Help! Please!"
The man stood still for a second and walked towards her. Someone stopped him and shouted again: "Azan!"
He turned his head and gestured to his companion.
The timer on the iron box is rapidly counting down—00:09:10
The man approached with a gun in his hand, his eyes were black and bright on the mask, as vigilant as an eagle. He walked slowly and slowly. When he was about ten meters away from her, he stared at her masked face for a while, narrowed his eyes slightly, and asked, "Chinese?"
Song Ran almost didn't cry, and shouted: "Yes! I'm a reporter!"
Now, his companions emerged from behind the obstacles.
He came closer to look at the bomb, and then at the metal piece her foot stepped on, and said, "Your foot is really accurate."
"..."
Song Ran didn't know how to answer this three-point ridicule and seven-point gentle tone, but he relaxed a little.
He knelt down on one knee and removed the outer shell of the iron box, exposing the cumbersome wires inside. Song Ran couldn't help but gasped. He heard it, and seeing that she was still on the ground with one foot, he asked softly, "Can you hold it?"
Song Ran could only nod his head.
He didn't believe it, so he stood up and said, "Get out of the car first."
Song Ran whispered: "...I dare not."
"It's okay. I'll hold it." He comforted, holding the motorcycle with his left hand, and she felt his strength in an instant. He held her arm with his right hand, and Song Ran instinctively grasped him quickly, the muscles on the man's arm were tight.
He warned: "Don't shift your center of gravity, step down with your right foot."
Song Ran successfully got off the motorcycle with the strength of his arm. For a while, her feet were sore and numb, and her clothes were dripping with sweat. One of his companions came and pushed the motorcycle away. Others pushed nearby abandoned cars for cover.
He said: "Keep your center of gravity on your left foot, don't move."
"Yes." Song Ran glanced at the timer——
00:08:17
He squatted down again and began to straighten the lines.
It was almost noon, and the sun was scorching hot. In the desert area, the body temperature is close to 50 degrees. Sweat dripped from Song Ran's eyebrows into her eyes, making her tremble slightly. With this shake, I frightened myself out of my wits.
"Hold on." He said with a light smile, "If you move, I'll be a hero."
Song Rana said, "Yes."
He knelt on one leg, lowered his head to check the wiring, and occasionally cut off a few wires. Perhaps his easy-going temperament had a calming effect, and Song Ran calmed down a little. But the time passed extremely long, and after waiting for a long time, she couldn't help but look at the rest of the time.
Seeing that the timer broke through 00:03:00, she panicked again.
He was still defusing the bomb in an orderly manner. When the timer reached 00:02:00, he sighed softly and said helplessly, "It's too late."
Song Ran was startled.
He said so, but his hands didn't stop.
His companion realized the seriousness, and shouted again: "Azan!"
Song Ran's eyes were wet with tears, tears and sweat dripped into the mask, and her cheeks were wet. She sniffled very quietly.
Now he raised his head, and the pair of pure black eyes on the mask smiled at her, reassuring: "Don't be afraid. I won't abandon you."
The sunlight fell on his eyelashes, sparkling and jumping. His voice was as clear as spring water.
Song Ran stopped crying and nodded lazily.
He lowered his head and continued to disassemble.
But she could feel that the situation was getting more serious.
"Let's go." She said softly, "You are a good person, I don't want to... drag you to die with me."
Without raising his head, he asked, "How fast can you run?"
"ah?"
"How far can you run in five seconds?" His tone was quite casual, he frowned and removed the wiring without looking up.
Song Ran didn't react.
He said: "With one and a half minutes left, I can only dismantle the G-sensor in 30 seconds so that it doesn't detonate immediately when you take your foot off. But the timer will speed up ten times, and the remaining minute will be shortened to about five." seconds." He asked, "How far can you run?"
Five seconds?
Song Ran was stunned: "10 meters? 20 meters? I don't know,"
"Tsk." He said regretfully, "Not enough."
"Maybe 30 meters!" she said, "I didn't run as hard as I could."
He said, "Try today?"
"...Okay." She nodded.
00:01:10
"Ten seconds. Get ready." He said, keeping his eyes on the line and his hands resting.
Song Ran took a deep breath.
7, 6,
he whispered