Chapter 111

Yang Lei leaned heavily against the stone wall behind him, panting.

The ground beside the rift where he had been waiting to be rescued was already buried by the landslide. After years of experience in flood rescue at the Zhou Qiao brigade, he knew from the rain and water situation that he couldn’t remain where he was. Yang Lei cleared a difficult path through the forest behind him and climbed up a section of stone wall. The road that he had come out from before would collapse at any time, and he could no longer go back. Yang Lei grabbed several vines and climbed up a jutting plateau. The other half was a cliff. Other than this place, there were already no paths.

Yang Lei leaned against the stone wall and listened to the faint rumble in the mountains. Dull noises sounded from time to time around him. It was the soil of the landslide and the flowing water.

His search and rescue kit had already rolled into the flood on the way to save the villagers, and all of the equipment was gone. Yang Lei smiled bitterly. Right now, all he could do was first find a temporarily safe place like this. As he waited to be rescued, he waited for the rain to stop and the ground to stabilize, so he could find a way out.

However, Yang Lei also knew from his experience in fighting floods that in the mountains, nothing was certain. He didn’t know how long the stone wall behind him could last. If a mudslide broke out, a stone twice as big as this could be washed away. Right now, the army had already lost his exact location. According to the standard practice of handling sudden emergencies, the army had probably already evacuated to a peripheral safe zone.

The rainstorm came down. Yang Lei wiped his face and was rather calm.

Yang Lei thought, He wanted to get out. He must get out.

He still had unspoken words that he had to say. He still had things that he had to do and people he had to see.

He had already carefully examined the terrain. Although his search and rescue bag was gone, and he didn’t have the most effective way to save himself and contact the outside world, he still had some tools that could be used. There were continuous small landslides all around, and these landslides could sometimes create a path that originally did not exist. Yang Lei had already identified a position that had been broken through and was waiting for the best opportunity.

If his luck were really that bad, when his comrades led the villagers out, he should have at least asked them to help convey a message.

Yang Lei smiled bitterly and looked at the stone wall behind him.

If he left something on this stone, it may be discovered later. Yang Lei thought derisively, but he really took a piece of stone, turned around, and made strokes on the wall, carving into it.

Yang Lei wrote down two words and wanted to write something more, but he stopped. The rain washed over the scratches on the rock, washing away the blood stains from Yang Lei’s hands that stained the scratches. Yang Lei could not open his eyes because of the rain, and he made marks again. The scratch was washed away in an instant. Yang Lei repeatedly scratched at it, but there were still only two words…

Waiting made time slow down. Yang Lei leaned against the stone wall, looking at the sheets of rain.

He remembered that snowy day. In the rearview mirror, standing on the snowy ground, the figure did not move at all.

That day, he said, “We can at least be brothers, right?”

He remembered the day before Lunar New Year, when they sat on the terrace. He said, “We promised that we would set them off and make the world ring that night, remember? That night, I really hated you.”

He remembered that night, when he celebrated Fang Yu’s birthday. He said, “Go back to the path that you chose and walk it until the very end! …Don’t make me look down on you!! …”

Rain washed over his face. Yang Lei closed his eyes.

He remembered something more distant. That year, that day.

The person playing the guitar on the stage of Turbulent Times, with a smile, plucking the strings. The light shone on him. He sang an old song, while he stood offstage looking at him, listening to his own heartbeat, which grew with the sound of the guitar…

Fang Yu stood on the other side of the crack. There was a scene of devastation under his feet.

The soil and stones of the landslide were piled in the middle, piling up into a little hill that came out of nowhere. Broken branches and stray rocks pressed messily on top of it. The huge collapsed rocks cut off the way to the back of the mountain.

“Yang Lei!!”

“Yang Lei!!! …”

…

The sound of the current and rainstorm swallowed his roars in the wind…

Fang Yu saw something buried in the collapsed soil, the green half exposed in the soil. Fang Yu stared at that thing, pushed aside the layer of soil, and dug it out.

A military helmet.

Fang Yu stared at the helmet and threw it away. He pushed away the stray rocks pressing down around the soil and dug down. He threw away the stone tools in his hands and used his fingers to dig down…

Yang Lei jumped from the plateau onto a gently sloping area created by the slide. This side slope that had just collapsed was the opportunity that he had been waiting for. Yang Lei didn’t hesitate. When he went down the mountain with his comrades, he had hidden in a safe cave. Once he got to the cave, it was easy. Yang Lei looked in that direction and struggled to find a path. He turned on his mini flashlight, but the battery would not last long.

Yang Lei used a knife to cleave the messy clumps. The weak light swayed in the forest…

After cleaving for a while, Yang Lei suddenly stopped.

The wind and rain carried over the muffled shouts that had been covered. Yang Lei immediately turned in that direction. That was probably a trapped person calling for help. Yang Lei didn’t hesitate and went in that direction.

The shouts were getting closer. Yang Lei was stunned for a moment. He could faintly tell that they were shouting his name!

“…I’m here!” Yang Lei reacted. Perhaps that was his comrade looking for him. Yang Lei also shouted at the top of his lungs, not knowing whether the other person could hear him.

The voice on the other side was rapid and frantic, coming straight at him…

Yang Lei heard the voice clearly. Yang Lei suddenly stopped, and his back stiffened.

Yang Lei thought that he had a hearing problem.

He froze, listening in disbelief to the roar in the wind that gradually got clearer. Until the sharp sound of clearing the path came from the other side of the forest, until Yang Lei completely heard that voice clearly…

…All of Yang Lei’s blood was flowing backwards. He was stunned…

He crazily cut branches and rushed into that disordered forest. The thorns tore his clothes and left bloody scratches. Yang Lei didn’t feel anything… He rushed out of the thorns and stood in the open space in the forest. He saw the figure coming in the rainstorm, and Yang Lei was stunned…

He stood there dumbly, unable to perceive anything around him. A section of tilting and broken trees collapsed and fell down from the side of the mountain. Someone pulled him over. The broken tree toppled behind him. He hugged Yang Lei to his chest with all his strength…

The rain poured down, and the currents of the river valley surged. The entire mountain was roaring, shaking the earth below their feet. In the midst of the mountain’s roars and the tremor of heaven and earth, the rainstorm washed over the two tightly hugging people.

Underneath their feet was land that could collapse at any time, and above their heads were torrents that could rush down at any time, but they still seemed to be in that beautiful and quiet courtyard. Under the parasol tree in the sun, in the fragrance of wisteria flowers that were as bright as clouds, they embraced only each other…