Chapter 56 The Grand World

The Colonel pondered for a few seconds after hearing Qing shui, and as if he understood Qing shui’s implication, he nodded and said, “Of course, it’s also our duty to a.s.sure the safety of related personnel of our EMs.”

The Colonel waved his hands as he ordered the soldiers, “Bring her!”

“No!!!” Doctor Huang screamed desolately as she was detained by those soldiers. “You can’t do this!!! You are abusing power; I didn’t commit any crime and you can’t expel me from the base!!!”

Her cries alarmed the whole building, and some people were awakened from their dreams. These vigilant people opened their doors one by one to look for the cause of the scream, but they all shrank back when they noticed the uniforms in the dark.

However, at this moment, there were countless ears spying on them behind the closed doors.

“Someone from this woman’s room went missing. Therefore, all of you are suspected of homicide. Under the govern of our temporary policy, you are all expelled from the Kaifeng military base.” After the colonel announced this, he gave an order with a nod. The soldiers rudely pushed the doctor from the room to the corridor.

“Alright, I have fulfilled your requirement.” The colonel glanced at the doctor with disgust, and then he held out his hand and shook hands with Qing shui, and lowered his voice with caution as he whispered, “I hope you can keep your promise as well.”

“Of course.” Qing shui gave the colonel confirmation with a determined nod, and then he withdrew his right hand and took out a letter from his pocket. “This letter contains my experience of meeting an intelligent organism, I hope you have a chance to read it.”

“An intelligent organism?” The colonel took the letter, but his eyes revealed disbelief. “That’s impossible; do you have any idea of how long it has been? Even though the evolutionary rate is rapid now, I still don’t believe that there is an intelligent life form other than humans out there.”

“In fact, if I weren’t facing it in person, I wouldn’t believe it either.” Qing shui said, “I have informed you and given you the letter, so you can choose to believe it or not. I just think that humans should know about this before it is too late…To be honest, whether you believe it or not doesn’t bother me at all, because considering the size of Kaifeng and the power of the military here, it’d be impossible to find it, not to mention intimidating it in any way.”

Qing shui’s words apparently caused the colonel’s mind become uneasy, he put the letter into his pocket with some doubt. Time pa.s.sed faster than they expected; the sky was slowly lit up by the sun.

“You should all leave.”

“Yes, and time won’t wait for us either. A minute of delay could possibly kill us.”  Qing shui fastened the belt on his backpack. He took the lead and left the room.

Chang and Jing followed Qing shui tightly and Pangzi carried even more luggage with him. The group went through red fog in the corridor.

“Guys… be careful.” Lin’s eyes were filled with tears as she shouted loudly.

“Same to you,” Chang tilted his head and said resolutely.

“Stay alive,” Pangzi gave Lin a big bear hug.

“Take good care of yourself.” Even Qing shui, the person who was always resilient, joined in the hug. He grabbed on Lin’s arm tightly, “There is quite a bit of meat in the barrel and it should last for a few days. If you can’t finish them by yourself, you can share it with the military, so at least this way… they will treat you nicer. Be strong, be persistent. You can always make sacrifices for survival. Please… stay alive.”

“Thank….. thank you…” The girl in the circle had tears all over her face. “Guys… will we meet again someday?”

“I believe we will.” Chang held up Jing so that she could sit on his shoulders and smiled as he asked, “What do you guys think?”

“We will meet you again, of course!” Pangzi disguised his sobs with a hearty laugh.

“We’ll definitely meet again.” Qing shui loosened his hand and looked at Lin one last time, and then the four turned away and stepped into the dense fog in the early morning, and their figures slowly disappeared in the redness of the fog.

Finally, they started their new adventure.

……

The soldiers followed up tightly with the four; in total, there were 20 people. The group was led by a mid-aged man and the young EM, Ming Yi. At the end of the group was the doctor, who was detained by two soldiers. She was still struggling to get away.

“Ming Yi, you should knock her out. If she keeps behaving like this, she’ll be a burden for our trip. We’ll wake her up again when we get on Zhengkai Avenue. By the time she knows where she is, she won’t run back to the base by herself recklessly.” The troop just left the building and the leader commanded the EM.

As the young man received the order, he carried out the order without resentment.

Ming Yi carried the doctor on his shoulder after she pa.s.sed out. The doctor’s lost quite a lot weight the past few days due to starvation. The weight of an adult woman was nothing to the EM, and he draped her like a piece of clothing without any effort. Then, the EM went back to the forefront of the troop again.

“Hey, buddy.” Seeing Ming Yi walking by his side, Pangzi curiously asked as if the gossip could distract him from the sorrow of separation. “I thought you were the lead of the team, why are you listening to him?”

“Uh, he is the vice leader of this troop, and he was my captain when I was in service.” Ming Yi whispered, “Although they appointed me as the leader of the mission, I am still an amateur. I don’t even know how to use guns, not to mention directing a troop! My captain has served the army for more than 10 years, and he even went to the border of China and India for a real war. It is better to have him in the commanding position rather than me, don’t you think?”

“Oh, I see.” Pangzi nodded, “What’s his name?”

“Yue Zhao.”

As Pangzi and Ming Yi kept whispering to each other, they fully left the base. The troop leader Zhao turned on a huge yellow flashlight and shook it towards to the sky to gain the attention of everyone.

“We are now officially leaving. I would like to say something before we get into the city jungle.” The troop made a circle around him swiftly. “Although you all know that Ming Yi was appointed as leader of this troop, I don’t want to give an explanation at this special period. He is still young and unexperienced, so I’ll fill in the position of leader temporally. Does anyone has an issue with this?”

“No!” Almost all of the soldiers shouted. Obviously, some of them had served under this captain before.

“Good.” Zhao nodded satisfyingly, he shook the flashlight purposely “This is a military flashlight we used in foggy days, and it was modified specifically for this mission, so all of you should be able to see a meter or two clearly with the lights ahead.”

“However, be careful. The light isn’t here to improve your vision field, but rather act as a guide.” The captain stood on a big rock and spoke loudly in case someone couldn’t hear him. “In this b.l.o.o.d.y fog, I believe everyone can only see within two or three meters, so if you are in the middle of the troop, you definitely can’t see what’s in front of us, not to mention those of you who are walking at the back.”

“Therefore, when we move, you better take care of people in your surrounding as well. Follow each other one by one and don’t get lost! If you get lost by accident, shout! Also, look for the light! Don’t just stand there. The fog blocks sound, and I am sure you all know that, so if you miss the troop for more than 10 seconds, you will very likely become separated with the troop forever.”

“One last thing to remember is to hold onto your weapons at all times! You need to make sure it can fire whenever you need to. But remember, if you aren’t sure about where the danger is coming from, do not fire! You will hurt one of us mistakenly as we must stay very close in this fog. If you hear someone fire their weapon, lie faced down to avoid potential accidental injuries. Does everyone understand?”

“Understood!” The soldiers responded uniformly and the four nodded as they agreed.

“Alright, since we are all on the same page, let’s leave this b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l.”

Zhao walked at the very front of the troop and was arranging his soldiers to escort the others in certain orders. As the strongest on the team, Ming Yi was sent to the very back of the troop to look out for unexpected dangers. As for Chang and Qing Shui, they were positioned in the center of the line, which was a relatively safe spot that both the front and back could cover. Chang, being the only one who could see further, carefully looked around to make sure none of them went missing. Qing shui reached into his pocket to grab a handful of plant powder, and then he scattered them onto the soldiers’ clothing with help from the wind.

This way, everyone was taken care of and this relatively small troop was bound together.

On this journey, they were lucky enough that they didn’t encounter any dangers; when they pa.s.sed downtown, they happened to pa.s.s Chang’s home.

The home that he used to live in had completely collapsed. Traces of the past had been covered with the lively plants and ivy. Chang didn’t dare look at that place as a single glance could cause him to tear up badly. All the emotions and memories were left behind as he followed the troop and walked farther away from it.

Standing at the edge of the city of Kaifeng, they made a brief stop below the “Welcome to Kaifenng” billboard. They finally left the area where humans had occupied and urbanized. All of them were stunned by the grand world in front of them.

“This…this is truly extraordinary. Since when did the world become like this?”