Xin Ran looked as though she let out a huge sigh of relief upon seeing her. She pursed her lips, almost crying: "I came to find you. I changed two SIM cards but had no signal, so I couldn't contact you. They wouldn't let me in here, and I thought I wouldn't be able to wait for you... Oh, what happened to your leg?"

Fu Luo casually said: "It's nothing, burned by the radiator. Did you need something from me?"

She and Xin Ran had very little in common to talk about. Their only common ground was Ye Wenlin. Usually they relied on mobile phones and the internet to keep in touch. Fu Luo rarely spoke online, so the only way left for them to communicate was text messages. They seldom met face to face.

Only now did Fu Luo remember that Xin Ran didn't know where she lived, and also didn't know that she had already graduated and was just coincidentally staying at the school dormitory.

Xin Ran seemed listless, hesitating for a long time. Fu Luo's ability to read expressions was basically at a kindergarten level. At the time, she still thought Xin Ran was worried about Ye Wenlin, so she said presumptuously: "You want to ask about Senior Brother Ye? Don't worry, he's not dead, he's alive."

Xin Ran: "..."

Her face turned pale, and then slowly filled with a layer of dread. Even her voice trembled a little: "What do you mean by 'not dead'?"

Damn, civilian signals and media were basically paralyzed. The matter about "Dagger" should have only spread among insiders. Xin Ran definitely wouldn't know about it!

Fu Luo, who had let her guard down and misspoke, could only force a dry laugh, trying in vain to remedy the situation: "Well... Hahaha, I was just joking. Don't I often say things like 'go die, scumbag'?"

It sounded so fake... Xin Ran looked at her bleakly.

Fu Luo couldn't keep making things up, so she could only beat around the bush: "Um... Have you eaten? How about I take you to find a place to..."

"I understand now." Xin Ran lowered her head, looking at the tips of her shoes, and said softly, "It must be very dangerous on the front lines right now."

Fu Luo fumbled for her phone: "I have a working signal here, you can call him first - of course if he happens not to pick up then he's probably in a combat meeting, so don't worry too much..."

Her words suddenly cut off. The phone's accidentally scratched screen showed thirty-two missed calls and countless messages.

They were all... from Fu Xiaoxin and Wang Yizheng.

It was as if a thorn had suddenly grown in her heart. With each beat, it pricked like a needle, painfully.

"Never mind." Fortunately, Xin Ran was too preoccupied to notice her expression. Xin Ran gently refused, saying softly, "You probably think I'm a bit... a bit... not good, right?"

Fu Luo hadn't come back to her senses, blankly asking back: "What's not good?"

Xin Ran bit her lip tightly, silent for a long time before raising her head: "Can you leave a message for him for me?"

Fu Luo was stunned for a moment. Her nerves, thicker than her waist, slowly woke up, sensing something ominous in the atmosphere of the conversation, suddenly having a bad premonition.

"What's wrong with you?"

"The two of us - Wenlin and I, it's probably over." Xin Ran said softly. Then she carefully took Fu Luo's hand, opened her palm, and placed a crystal pendant in it, "If you have a chance to see him, please return this to him for me."

Xin Ran's fingers were ice cold, but the pendant had been warmed by her touch.

Fu Luo: "Why?"

"My family..." When Xin Ran said this, her voice suddenly cracked. She turned her head away, forcefully clearing her throat before continuing, "My family doesn't agree."

This time, it was Fu Luo's turn to fall silent. Her fingers slowly caressed the pendant. It was polished smooth and shiny, made of artificial crystal, not precious, but designed with a sense of style. It was probably worth a few bucks. For a cheapskate like Ye Wenlin, this thing likely represented his greatest sincerity.

She held this lost love in one hand, and thirty-two missed calls in the other.

Her mood was too complex for words. There seemed to be a hint of anger, but also mostly bewilderment.

That tiny, girlish, tender fantasy, like the thin ice of early winter, was crushed by an overwhelming sense of helplessness, shattering in an instant as if it had never existed.

It had been so long, why had no one objected before?

Why did it have to be at this time?

"I heard he's on the front lines. My family is unanimously against our relationship." Xin Ran slowed down her tone, trying to squeeze out a smile, but secretly wiped away a tear, "My mom... my mom even cried. She said..."

Xin Ran couldn't continue her words, but Fu Luo knew what her mother had said, because all those words were in her own phone's text message inbox.

"I have no choice, I can't..." There was a sob in Xin Ran's voice, "Do you also think I'm a terrible person? Do you also think I'm very heartless?"

Fu Luo stood stiffly for a while, tentatively reaching out her hand slowly, hesitantly placing it on Xin Ran's shoulder, saying with a hint of gentleness in her nasal voice: "No, not at all."

Guided by Fu Luo's hand, Xin Ran slowly squatted down, burying her face in her knees and beginning to cry silently.

Fu Luo stood beside her helplessly, rummaging through her pockets and finally finding a wad of paper. Pulling it out to look, it was crumpled like it had been used. She was too embarrassed to take it out and give it to someone, so she secretly stuffed it back.

The night wind was bleak. She shifted her weight to her uninjured leg, watching Xin Ran cry. Occasionally people coming and going would give her a strange look. That gaze made Fu Luo uneasy; she felt as if she were being seen as a heartless scoundrel.

Finally, she extended a finger, as cautiously as if defusing a bomb, and poked Xin Ran's shoulder: "Ahem, um... let's go somewhere else to talk."

By the time Fu Luo returned to the school dormitory, it was already late at night.

The new students hadn't moved in yet. Fu Luo greeted someone and returned to her old place. Only then did she feel like she had caught a hot potato - how should she tell Senior Brother about this?

She rubbed her temples hard, lying on her back on the bed, her thoughts in turmoil in the quiet night.

She couldn't help but think of the sound of Xin Ran's crying again.

"I really do like him very much," that long-haired, beautiful girl said, "Why does there have to be a war? Can't we just get along? Why must there be a war?"

The beautiful and fragile girl reminded Fu Luo of an egg teetering on the edge of an overturned bird's nest.

Indeed, for someone like Xin Ran, she did nothing wrong. She had the same ordinary wishes as everyone else, and had prepared herself to work hard for the future. But the times were so unfairly neglecting her. She had no way out, no room to turn back.

Never before had Fu Luo so deeply felt what it meant to be "as insignificant as ants".

The ancestral homeland passed down through generations, the vast nest built through immense work - with a rising tide, it would vanish in the blink of an eye.

In that deathly still universe, not even sound could propagate.

"Senior Brother, there's something I want to tell you. Xin Ran came to find me today..." Fu Luo deleted and revised, revised and deleted this short message, choosing her words more carefully than during the college entrance exam essays back then. In the end, she still only squeezed out this one sentence.

Fu Luo let out a long sigh and heavily put down her phone, thinking in despair: Forget it, don't say anything. Just take a photo of that pendant and send it to him.

As she raised her hand, she inadvertently touched the sensitive touchscreen and accidentally sent out that half-written text message.

What kind of thing is this? Hesitant and unclear.

Fu Luo hurriedly wanted to add a few more sentences and resend it, but she first received Ye Wenlin's reply.

Ye Wenlin: "Read. Zhen* knows."

*T/N: Zhen is the pronoun for an emperor.

No... Your Majesty, what do you know?

Following that, Fu Luo received Ye Wenlin's second message, which was a photo taken with his phone. The picture showed a five-yuan Earth Pass banknote, with light and childish handwriting on it: "Your heart should be like a stone."

Below the photo was Ye Wenlin's message.

"Encourage each other," he said.

Fu Luo blankly put down her phone. From his abnormally calm reaction, she sensed an indescribable sorrow.

She couldn't help but recall the message Ye Wenlin left her last time before leaving - she won't wait for me.

That person, at that time, had already seen through the entire ending, right?

Fu Luo tossed her phone aside. In the end, she didn't dare open the text message box. She found a position to avoid her injured leg and fell asleep with a heavy heart.

The medic's burn medicine was very effective. By the next day, a scab had already formed. Although it hadn't completely healed, for someone as tough-skinned as Fu Luo, it basically wouldn't affect her movement.

Early in the morning, just as Yang Ning said, a quartermaster came to find her.

It was a lady. Although wearing a military uniform, her makeup was meticulous and exquisite enough to be in a fashion magazine, making it a bit difficult to judge her age from her appearance. When not smiling, her eyes still carried a hint of joy. Her gaze was so gentle, unlike that of a quartermaster.

A person's eyes - especially a woman's - if beautiful to a certain extent, would give people the illusion of "a glance conveys a thousand words".

Simply put... a total goddess.

Fu Luo stared at her blankly for a while, always feeling that something seemed a bit off.

"I need to implant a communication device for you," the quartermaster took out a syringe and said in a patient and gentle tone, like a kindergarten teacher coaxing a child, "Don't be nervous, okay?"

"It won't hurt." The quartermaster disinfected her ear with an alcohol cotton ball. Her hand was very light, making one feel a slight coolness and a bit of itchiness. Up close, she could smell a soft and warm fragrance.

She chatted with Fu Luo, "Colonel Yang rarely asks for someone, especially at a time like this. I didn't expect Gray to be such a young girl... There, look, I said it wouldn't hurt, right?"

Fu Luo rubbed her ear, her earlobes a bit red, not knowing if it was because of "such a young girl" or that pediatrician-like tone.

Why couldn't yesterday's pig-slaughtering medic balance out with the quartermaster?

"My name is Dong Jialing, the 'Jialing' from Jialing River. My hometown is right there," the quartermaster took out the bag she carried, took out a fingerprint reader, inserted a blank chip, and handed it to Fu Luo, "Come, let's register your fingerprint information."

She skillfully removed the chip recording Fu Luo's fingerprint information and inserted it into her personal ID card: "Okay, all your personal information has been scanned in. The Second Department headquarters has already allocated your living quarters and personal items. You don't need to bring anything."

Fu Luo slowly stroked the brand-new ID card, her gaze lingering on the words "Space Combat Command Second Department General Staff D-level Soldier" with a complex expression: "Thank you."

"You're welcome. We'll be working together in the future." Dong Jialing glanced at her watch, "If you're ready, we'll depart for the Special Forces Dispatch Center in twenty minutes."

Countless special forces took off and landed from the dispatch center, busier than a civilian airport during the Spring Festival travel rush, yet the scene was not chaotic at all.

After entering the emergency combat readiness state, the dispatch center closed civilian routes and prohibited military dependents from seeing anyone off. The entire place was under martial law. In the vast waiting hall, besides the service personnel, there were only on-duty military personnel in uniform, sitting upright. The differences in uniforms and epaulettes showed these people came from different systems, but they all sat in the exact same posture.

No one ate, no one spoke loudly, and no one even moved around casually. Even when about to board the special forces aircraft, they lined up in an orderly manner and marched on in unison.

Besides the occasional time announcements and special forces flight information, the only other sound was the news broadcast on the screen in the center of the hall.

Only then did Fu Luo learn that civilian communications and media signals had been unblocked at dawn that day.

The incident in the capital the previous night had been reported as a serious accident. The higher-ups also felt that "unblocking is better than blocking". After a brief buffer, the Propaganda Department and the Information Security Division of the Security Department had obviously prepared to fight a tough battle.

At this time, the subtitles below the news were a bit glaring -

"Dissenting voices: With both sides suffering heavy losses, as fellow humans, do we still have the possibility of peaceful negotiations?"