Chapter 25: My heart! It aches! (6)

Chapter 25: My heart! It aches! (6)

After celebrating Chinese New Year’s, everyone felt a little more relaxed. But the training period would soon start again. There would be a tournament with the Special Armed Forces, which the leaders all highly valued and didn’t dare neglect. At the same time, new recruits were to be welcomed as they left their basic training company and assigned to a squadron. Cheng Hui was busy all day cozying up to the basic training company commander in the hopes of being allocated more good recruits.

Chen Mo looked out the window at a random tree with.small green specks hidden in its branches. He added more tea leaves to his cup. Miao Yuan had brought the leaves back from her trip home over Chinese New Year’s. Her hometown produced good quality green tea and she had emphasized that if they weren’t kept in a refrigerator, the taste would change quickly. At that time, Chen Mo had promised to heed her advice, but his office didn’t have a refrigerator and neither did his dorm. Chen Mo suddenly realized that he had lived so many years without a refrigerator.

The tea leaves were kept in a drawer in the office. Perhaps the taste had already slowly changed. Sometimes, when Cheng Hui didn’t have any tea leaves left, he would borrow Chen Mo’s to make a cup. After tasting it, Old Cheng would sigh and say, “She stored such a good tea away in a fridge for the greater half of a year only to deliver it to you and have you keep it like this. You really don’t know how to appreciate things.” Chen Mo would smile slightly and say that he really couldn’t taste the difference. He drank it every day, so it wasn’t that easy to tell.

In the field below, all the group leaders were breaking in their new recruits. Chen Mo just so happened to turn his head and see a new recruit trying out a gun. The gun muzzle was turned towards the recruit, who was chasing after a friend and having a lot of fun. Seeing this scene, Chen Mo grew angry. He grabbed a nearby stapler from the table and chucked it down. The recruit waving the gun only heard the whistle of the wind. A giant hole suddenly appeared below his feet and scared the wits out of him, causing him to plop down onto the ground.

Chen Mo rapped the window. “Come up!”

These younguns are revolting. They aren’t even familiar with the gun, and yet they dare to play with it like that. What if the gun was actually loaded?

The leader dragged his disaster-courting new recruits up. The pitiful recruit looked at Old Cheng, who coughed before burying his head in some documents.

Chen Mo didn’t say much. He only shot them a murderous glare for a few minutes. The three soldiers shrunk back. In the end, Chen Mo cleared his throat, “Go out. Fifteen kilometers with light weights. Die and you’ll receive a burial. If you don’t die, come back to catch your breath.”

The three soldiers fled with glistening eyes.

Cheng Hui slowly raised his head. “You’re so evil!”

Chen Mo drank some tea. It isn’t even that bad. You don’t even know that when I opened my mouth, I gave them a 70% discount. Originally, thirty kilometers with heavy weights was the starting price.

New recruits were like immature children. It seemed like all innocent youngsters liked pointing guns at others. But in truth, they didn’t even have the courage to handle the consequences of a single gunshot. They only thought it was fun. Chen Mo hated people who treated guns as playthings.

Guns weren’t toys. They weren’t the least bit fun. Guns were weapons. Guns were tools to murder, and brothers were the only thing you could rely on.

Chen Mo thought of how he had shown Miao Yuan his guns once. He had demonstrated how to break each one down and then once again reassemble them. He had seen Miao Yuan’s stunned expression and somehow felt proud. Chen Mo had then taken her hand and let her feel the gun barrel. Her white, slender fingers contrasted against the greyish-green metal. That image grew vivid and he became absent-minded.

His most beloved girl holding his most beloved gun. That feeling was uncomfortable yet harmonious.

Chen Mo had demonstrated how to take aim and Miao Yuan excitedly stood in front of him, acting as a target. He quickly turned the muzzle away. Miao Yuan asked, “What do I look like from the lens?” Chen Mo shook his head. He couldn’t imagine Miao Yuan’s face being covered with a crosshair. That image was too frightening.

Miao Yuan noticed his silence and sneakily removed the gun scope to point it at Chen Mo in jest. When he discovered what she had done, the crosshair was dead centre between her eyes. Chen Mo felt his heart pierced by cold. He immediately snatched the gun scope from her hands. He knew he was a little too forceful when he saw Miao Yuan shrink back from him, tightening her hands. It wasn’t until they were eating that he noticed traces of blood on her palm.

Ah, these girls, Chen Mo thought. They’ll casually play with a gun, but when they accidentally get hurt and bleed a little, they’re scared to death.

The chill of winter melted into spring. The heater was on all winter, evaporating the last drop of water from one’s body. Miao Yuan’s throat was dry and her voice raspy when she spoke. Chen Mo wanted her to go to the hospital for a checkup but Miao Yuan simply opened her bag and rummaged for cough suppressant.

After drinking three cups of water, it still was of no use!

Chen Mo suggested that this was a problem with her constitution and told her to rise at 6 am every day and run laps.

Disheartened, Miao Yuan couldn’t believe what he had said.

Chen Mo thought that kids’ health these days were lacking. A new recruit in his troop ran  five kilometers in 25 minutes, but when he got to the end, he collapsed. The recruit had heart failure and nearly died. His parents had escalated the issue all the way to the highest level and flipped heaven and raised hell over the matter. Immediately Chen Mo pointed out, “These days, being in the military isn’t even compulsory. Your son has so little strength. What are you making such a big fuss for?”

God is just like this. When he sends good fortune your way, he hesitates. When he shows you favor, he’s afraid that he’s treating you too good. So for the next round of good fortune, he’ll have you waiting for eternity. Yet troublesome matters come one after the other. While Chen Mo’s head was still hurting from trying to solve the problem of the new recruit training, the detachment leader’s phone call came in. Her said to push back all matters Chen Mo was involved with because there was a mission. Chen Mo immediately became nervous.

Some Taiwanese big shot recently wanted to come to the mainland to develop relationships and pay respects to his ancestors. His safety would be left for the regional Armed Police Force to deal with. The detachment leader saw this mission as very important. This sort of mission wouldn’t normally be met with mishap. If it did, it would become some big matter of the central government. When he went to pick up the materials, Chen Mo saw that the folder was stamped with big red characters that read, “Confidential.” Inside contained a comprehensive packet of staff bios and itineraries.

He hadn’t touched this sort of textured document in a long time. Chen Mo felt excited and his blood boiled while his thirst for danger grew.

Everyone in the fifth squadron assembled. All elites would be joining the mission. The third squadron was tasked with assistance. As the leader, Chen Mo was responsible for the safety of the entire process. His schedule was about to become very busy. When Miao Yuan called at night, he brought up that he may not around much. Miao Yuan was curious as to what it was, but Chen Mo said that it was confidential. When the period of confidentiality passed, he would tell her. Of course Miao Yuan had some objections.

Her cough was still heavy. The spring winds gusted, and when Miao Yuan walked on the roads, her throat would feel as though it was being sliced by blades. Carrying a big package of cheese, she hugged her down coat tighter and struggled forward. When she got to the middle of the road, she suddenly wanted to cough. She couldn’t help but bend over and cough. A massive pressure passed through her chest like this.

At that moment, Miao Yuan felt strange, it was as if time was being stretched and everything was moving in slow motion. She saw herself loosen her grip, the cardboard box fall, and the red cheese wheels tumble out and roll away. Then her head felt a heavy thump in some place and everything before her turned blurry.

Apparently there really was such a thing as golden stars circling around one’s head.

While feeling like she was going to faint, Miao Yuan quickly took that moment to think.

The cab driver hit the brakes and ran over to see if she was okay. Passerbyers surrounded her in a circle, each carrying different expressions. However no one touched her. Miao Yuan thought, I guess it’s true that people have fallen.

The cab driver called 110, the emergency police number, and also called for an ambulance. After making those calls, he turned to fixate his gaze on her. “You won’t die, right?”

Miao Yuan saw that the young guy was nervous, as though his house was on fire. She tried her best to scan her body. “I’ll try my best not to die.”

With that the young guy spurted.

Miao Yuan passed out for a bit, but her consciousness slowly recovered. Other than a sharp pain in her left arm, there didn’t seem to be any big problems so she slowly sat up. The young cab driver was immediately worried and shouted, “Lie down, lie down.”

Miao Yuan blinked her eyes. But lying down like this is very cold!

The young cab driver went to support her and cried out, “I’m begging you, my esteemed ancestor. I had a sworn brother who was like this. He got hit by a car and felt that he was fine. He even walked. But once he stood up, he became paralyzed. His vertebrae were misaligned. I’m begging you madame. I still want to support you for a lifetime.”

Miao Yuan immediately did as she was told and lay down. She didn’t want him to support her for a lifetime.

The ambulance was still on some street in the city blasting it’s sirens as it drove forward. Miao Yuan felt cold, and moreover, lonely. She pressed 1 on speed dial and heard evenly-spaced beeps, feeling anticipation and nervousness, her emotions rising and falling. In the end, a sweet girl’s voice sounded: “Sorry, the subscriber you dialed cannot be connected for the moment. Please redial later.”

The old city’s skies always carried that greyish-green tint. As Miao Yuan lay with her eyes open, she sighed over how the sky could could be so blue, yet seem so green. It almost resembled metal. But her eyes were cold, super cold!

Didn’t science already prove that human’s eyes won’t feel temperature?

Science my ass!

Science also proved that love was just the hormones from the release of dopamine!

So therefore, science really can’t be trusted. Nothing can be trusted.