Going Home (Part 1)

Azure Huaxia Front, Ninth Army War Training Base. Morning sunlight spilled from the sky, filtering through the branches and leaves of the trees along the perimeter wall. It cast a dappled pattern on the ground and onto the two men squatting at the base of the wall. Zhao Erzhu and Hu Biaomao squatted side by side, cigarettes dangling from their mouths and heads tilted back. Both still had smeared blood at the corners of their mouths and dark bruises around their eyes. Their combat uniforms were caked with dirt here and stamped with footprints there. They had just been in a fight, only to be hauled back by Lao Jian and temporarily dumped here. At the time, two groups of new recruits had gotten into a brawl—about thirty or forty of them in total. Zhao Erzhu had walked past, seen the commotion, and stepped in to break it up, saying: "Stop! We're all heading back to our respective stations today, what the hell are you still fighting for?! We're all comrades-in-arms, can't you just put up with each other and let it go?" Someone in the chaotic crowd yelled back, "None of your damn business!" That was unacceptable! Zhao Erzhu immediately went after him. Because the scene was far too chaotic, he had no idea who had spoken. He had to shove his way in, grabbing people one by one to ask, then tossing them out. Before long, he had joined the brawl—brawling with everyone. Hu Biaomao had come over to ask what was going on, only to get swept right into it. He had barely stood there and asked a single question before being utterly swallowed up by the mob. "Say, do you think Captain Lao will change his mind and not want us anymore?" Squatting against the wall, Zhao Erzhu tilted his head toward the sky, the half-smoked cigarette in the corner of his mouth bobbing up and down. He asked with a rather wistful look. "No way, relax." Hu Biaomao smiled confidently and analyzed, "I asked around just now. When the recruits graduated last year, Major Qing got into a brawl with people, too." *So Major Qing was picked by 1777 because he got into a brawl? Something feels off about that...* Whatever. Zhao Erzhu couldn't be bothered to waste the mental energy and simply agreed. "Oh. So Captain Lao might just like people like that?" "Yeah. Otherwise, would he take you?" Hu Biaomao glanced at him. "Fair point. Otherwise he wouldn't take you either." Zhao Erzhu reached up to touch the corner of his eye and grimaced in pain. "We'll be heading out to the station soon. 1777 is badass. Sigh, what a pity Major Qing died." "He didn't die." Hu Biaomao spoke in a very low voice, but with absolute certainty. Zhao Erzhu turned his head to look at him. "He didn't die?! Didn't they say he was dead with no body found?" *Does missing, presumed dead with no body found mean dead? Well, there really is the word 'dead' in it!* Hu Biaomao thought about it, then suddenly... *wait, how do you write those characters again? Forget it, don't think about it.* "Anyway, he isn't dead. None of them are. I've been secretly following the people from 1777 these past two days. Guess what I heard? I heard they just got a squad sister-in-law. Now think about it—if Han Qingyu and the others were really dead, do you think Captain Lao would be in the mood for that?!" Hu Biaomao deduced with his own logic. Zhao Erzhu pondered. "Definitely not." "Exactly! Why else do you think I fought tooth and nail to join 1777?! To be completely honest with you, I'm just here to ride their coattails." Hu Biaomao sighed, speaking candidly. "This isn't my jianghu anymore. And it's a jianghu where people can die at any moment. Here, I have to work my way up from scratch..." Here, probably nobody understood navigating the jianghu better than Hu Biaomao. To walk the jianghu, you had to be ruthless, but you also had to have brains and know when to advance or retreat. When you shouldn't bow your head, you'd rather die than bow; but when it was time to bow down and ride someone's coattails, you had to bend your back. Only by lowering your head to look at the dirt could you raise your head and gaze upon the blue clouds. *Clang!* With a slight outward flick and jerk of his left arm, two gold bars slid out from inside his sleeve. Hu Biaomao gestured for Zhao Erzhu to look, saying, "These are called 'yellow croakers'—gold bars. Know why I brought them?" Zhao Erzhu gave a blank look. "That's why you guys are just street hoodlums. What my brother and I walked, that's what you call a jianghu." Hu Biaomao said, "Navigating the jianghu comes down to money and women. But I couldn't exactly bring a few tall foreign broads into the army with me, right? So my brother had me bring these." "Who are they for?" "If Captain Lao had hesitated for even a moment back then, they would've been his." Hu Biaomao weighed one in his hand, looked up, and glanced at Lao Jian, who was standing not far away chatting with someone. He said gleefully, "Now? I'll wait until Major Qing returns and give them all to him, let him casually carry me to top-tier." *This logic feels slightly off again. Why does Old Biao always sound like he's making a ton of sense, but it still feels weird?* Zhao Erzhu frowned in thought, then gave up. "Oh, well it's a good thing I don't need that. I can fight way better than you." *The nerve of this guy!* Hu Biaomao frowned in hesitation, which tugged at his bruised eye sockets and sent a throb of pain through them. *Should I really bring this guy along on my Azure jianghu career? If I bring him, am I gonna get beat up like this every day?!* On the other side, less than two hundred meters away. Lao Jian checked his watch, then reached out and patted Regimental Commander Li Wangqiang on the back. "Well, we're getting ready to head back, Commander. You..." Li Wangqiang truly believed something terrible had happened to Han Qingyu and the other three. Meeting this time, his entire demeanor had collapsed into exhaustion and grief. Lao Jian couldn't bear the sight, but bound by orders from above, he couldn't tell him directly, which left him feeling guilty and helpless. The higher-ups hadn't even told Army Commander Lu Wuzheng about this. Li Wangqiang removed his cigarette, looked up, and said, "Alright, head back then. By the way, that sentry post where those boys used to stay... remember not to let any new recruits move in." "...Understood!" Lao Jian turned, preparing to leave. "Tell me..." Commander Li suddenly spoke again from behind him. "Tell me, if we could turn back the clock, would we still have worked so hard to keep him in Regiment 425? I've been thinking these past few days... if they had gone to Golden or somewhere like that, maybe this wouldn't have happened." Commander Li's heartache was entirely genuine! Lao Jian paused, his body stiffening for a moment. "We'd still keep him. But I'd wish he hadn't revealed his brilliance so early on... Cough! We should hide people away!" The last sentence was delivered with sudden, forceful emphasis for no apparent reason. After saying that, Lao Jian walked off, raising his hand toward the distance. "1777, fall in." Li Wangqiang stood there stunned, watching him. He turned the words over in his mind. *Wait, something's not right... Whoa! Hide them away?!* The regimental commander decisively spun around, took a deep breath, and composed his emotions, keeping his expression completely inscrutable. The day Lao Jian set out with the recruits back to the station was October 4th. Nearly twenty days had passed since the incident. The Azure Alliance had already dispatched people to conduct their first investigation into the Third Fixed Exploration Site in Nepal, where the Alphonse family was stationed. Naturally, they found nothing. Logically, they should have investigated Han Qingyu and the other three next, but the people were gone. Where would they investigate, and how could they investigate? After fierce arguments inside the Council—mostly consisting of people shifting blame and using every trick to dodge responsibility—they finally pushed forward an Australian councilman named Nathan, who understood Chinese, to place a phone call to Chen Buer. "It's like this, Legion Commander... I, we, they learned of a situation. It's said that before Han Qingyu and the others went missing—before they died—they might have spoken with you..." Nathan felt he might be finished. "Oh, can't they speak to me?" On the other end of the line, Chen Buer asked back flatly. "They can, of course they can. But you see, coincidentally, right after speaking with you, he vanished." "Vanished after talking to me?!" On the other end, Chen Buer pondered and paused. "So what's-your-name? What was your name again?" "Na... can I not say?" "His name is Nathan," the secretary behind Chen Buer quietly reminded him. "Oh, Nathan. Councilman Nathan, have you noticed something?" "What is it?" "You just spoke with me, too." The tone remained entirely flat. As the words fell, a sharp *clack* followed as the call was disconnected. Clutching the receiver, Nathan looked left and right. *I really might be finished. Damn it, which fucking idiot came up with the idea to investigate Chen Buer?!* That same evening, Las Vegas. Sporting an afro, wearing a silk floral shirt, and biting down on an unlit cigar, Liu Shiheng walked beside Ye Jian. Ye Jian had the exact same afro, wore a floral shirt in a different color scheme, and had a pair of sunglasses on. They had been here for a few days already. For the first two days, Ye Jian had been losing. He said it was his first time entering a casino. But over the following days, he began to win. By now, they had won over one million dollars, two hundred thousand of which Liu Shiheng had spent as of just moments ago. *So isn't this the life I dreamed of after breaking away from Azure?! Why don't I just stay like this and stop running? That way, I can consider myself tying down a Snow Lotus super combatant for Azure,* Liu Shiheng thought to himself. Their hotel rooms were separate, directly opposite each other across the hall. Walking down the corridor, Liu Shiheng pretended to casually glance at the newspaper-like item in Ye Jian's hand. That thing had been casually handed to Ye Jian by someone walking out of the elevator just as they were getting in. Liu Shiheng cared about it because he wanted to see if there was any news about Qingzi and the other three. At the room door, Ye Jian stopped and tilted his head to look at Young Master Liu. "Young Master Liu wants to read it?" "Will reading it kill me, Young Master Ye?" "No." "Then let me have a look."