To my frozen hometown

Chapter 21 If your face hits a steel plate, your nose will be broken (seriously)

A week later, the Greenhouse Guard train was back at the foothills of the Back Mountain Range.

They came to observe the herd of beasts, and this time they acted more cautiously, and did not light the spices to lure the beasts as soon as they entered the mountains.

The train was moving slowly on the track, and the soldiers and hirelings held up their binoculars to watch every bit of movement around them.

Soon, one of the soldiers seemed to have discovered something. He turned the roller on the telescope and looked in one direction.

"Team...Captain..."

The next moment, the soldier froze there, stammering and speaking to Watson.

"What's wrong?" Watson looked at him suspiciously.

"That, there." The soldier put down the binoculars and pointed to the distance with his finger.

Watson stepped forward and took the telescope in the soldier's hand, and looked towards the place he was pointing at.

Then, he saw a corpse of a beast.

Even Watson had never seen anything like this.

Countless corpses lay on the blood-stained snow, black birds hovered in the sky, and a group of wild dogs ran among the corpses, seemingly looking for food.

Three or two flying birds landed on the dead body of a male lion, combing the feathers while pecking at the carrion of the dead body.

As the snowfield train approached, more and more people saw this scene.

They stood dazedly by the car window, smelling the thick and lingering bloody smell in the air, and felt their mouths dry, so they subconsciously swallowed a mouthful of saliva.

"Hey, what happened here?" an employee in the carriage asked.

No one answered him because no one knew the answer.

All people saw were the corpses that covered the foot of the mountain, and the six knives erected among the corpses, six broken knives that reflected the sun.

······

The threat from the herd was resolved. Although the greenhouse guards did not investigate the cause of the death of the herd of animals in the Houshan Mountains in the end, they could only blame the cause of the incident on the herd of beasts killing each other.

But Greenhouse No. [-] has indeed passed the most difficult period of the year.

The opening of the guard gave them the conditions to re-exploit resources, and the greatly reduced number of beasts returned to the deep mountains again, and they should not come out to harass humans again in a short time.

So, two weeks after leaving the greenhouse, the greenhouse guards returned to the greenhouse on the snow train.

At this time, many relatives of soldiers and employers were waiting in front of the Greenhouse Guard camp.

The soldiers and employers who came out of the camp hugged their families with smiles on their faces. For a moment, it felt like a world away.

People's reunion and reunion are always beautiful, but those who can't reunite can only stand in the crowd in despair, looking around, until the hope is shattered, and then either squat or sit on the ground, or cover their faces and cry bitterly, Or weep in silence.

Al arrived at the guard camp at eight o'clock in the morning.

She saw Watson standing in the crowd, so she walked up.

Watson also saw Al, and he wanted to avoid the girl, but his feet seemed to be poured with molten iron, and he couldn't move a step.

Watson didn't say a word until Al walked up to him.

He just looked at Al, lowering his eyes, with meaningless regret on his face.

Al was familiar with this look, and it made her fingers tremble.

"Where's Liu Yuan?" Looking at the tall figure in front of her, the girl asked.

Watson knew he was about to do something cruel, but after a moment of silence, he still spoke.

"Sorry, there's nothing we can do."

With that said, he took out a coat from a box beside him and handed it to Al.

"It's the only thing she has left."

The girl felt as if her heart was sinking until it could no longer beat.

She reached out and took the coat from Watson's hand, and then showed a smile that was uglier than crying.

"Thank you."

Apart from this, she has nothing else to say.

Fate once again told her that it was so easy to lose everything.

This reminded her of what Liu Yuan said to her that night.

"So, fate will never change its attitude towards you because of your complaints and worries. All you can do is believe that it will develop in a good direction."

"I don't believe it, but I hope you can."

It's just that Al can still believe that everything will develop in a good direction.

Apparently, she had lost her trust.

The most painful thing is often like this, not never believed, but once believed.

Once upon a time these two were really special because they were always able to omit too much heaviness.

Al left, in the slightly crowded crowd, under the gaze of Watson, holding the coat, not knowing where he was going.

······

The day after the Greenhouse Guards returned, they held a funeral for the victims.

Under a tombstone dedicated to the victims.

It was a gloomy day, and Watson, wearing a black uniform, stood among the crowd and listened to the priest's eulogy.

He was silent all the time, until everything was over and the crowd dispersed, he still stood there quietly.

The incandescent lights on top of the conservatory made everything look so pale, including the newly inscribed names on the tombstones.

Standing in front of the tombstone, Watson lit another cigarette.

The smoke drifted away, blurring his face, and in the fog, he spoke slowly with a heavy voice.

"We will not fail once, a hundred times, or ten thousand times. Your sacrifices will not be meaningless, I promise."

As he spoke, he silently lowered his head and bowed to the tombstone.

Under the brim of the hat, other people couldn't see his eyes clearly. They only knew that he was biting the cigarette, biting it tightly, and then squeezed out a sound from his teeth, speaking word by word.

"So, please forgive me..."

Forgive me for putting you on that battlefield.

Please forgive me for not bringing you back alive.

Forgive me for all I can do is make your family cry.

Forgive me for continuing to fight, and for continuing to make the living die...

After a few breaths, Watson straightened up, pressed the brim of his hat, and turned to leave.

His back is straight, like a sharp sword that is too rigid, it will never bend unless it is broken.

But his figure was very tired, as if he was carrying an indescribable heaviness, so that his steps were difficult.

This heaviness stems from his powerlessness, from his need to ensure that he will never fail, and from his need to prove the meaning of those lives.

He couldn't let anyone on that tombstone die in vain.

So he will still fight.

So he will fight eventually.

For those heroes, to be remembered.

"We will not fail, we will use our lives to usher in the next dawn." - "Oath of the Guard"

······

Al was ready to leave, so early in the morning, she checked out of the hotel room (even though Watson was still paying for the hotel).

In the hall, two or three guests were drinking wine, and the stench could be smelled a few meters away.

This reminded Al of the first night she met Liuyuan, and of the song sung to her hometown in that tavern.

Thinking about it now, this was only a month ago.

And it was only two months since her sister left Greenhouse No. [-].

Can so many things happen in two months?

Al thought about it, and couldn't help feeling a little dazed.

Holding Liuyuan's brown-gray coat, she walked outside the door.

But at this time, the door of the hotel was pushed open first.

The light outside the door was a little harsh, which made Al narrow his eyes subconsciously.

Then, in that ray of light, she saw a familiar figure.

"Oh." Liuyuan stood by the door, looked down at Al who was about to go out, and raised his eyebrows.

"Looks like it's time for me to come back."

Al stared blankly at the person standing in front of her, she didn't understand, could it be that she was having a dream.

It wasn't until she reached out tentatively and poked Liu Yuan's stomach with her fingers that the real touch made her understand that everything in front of her was real.

"What are you doing?" Liu Yuan looked at Al's actions with some puzzlement, blinked his eyes and asked aloud.

However, the next moment, Al dropped the coat in his hand, reached out and hugged her waist, and buried his face in her chest.

Liuyuan was taken aback by Al's sudden intimacy, stood there stiffly, and glanced at the coat on the ground.

So hard.

Hugging Yanagihara, Al thought like this.

It's also so cold, it's like holding a stone.

But it was just such a feeling that calmed her down inexplicably.

It was like grabbing a tree trunk in a sinking mire, making her never want to let go.

Liuyuan looked down at Al who was hugging her, but in the end he didn't push her away, but just sighed, as if he said helplessly.

"So, do you still want to come with me?"

"Hmm." Al's voice came muffled from his chest.

"Okay." Liuyuan smiled wryly, she could see that Al seemed very happy, which made her feel a lot easier.

"In this case, can you let me go first, maybe we should sort things out."

"En." Al nodded, and then silently let go of Liuyuan.

Her nose was a little red, and she didn't know whether it was from crying or bumping.

In short, it's probably because of a collision. After all, it still hurts to hit your face against a steel plate, doesn't it?

Liu Yuan picked up the coat, put it on his body, then patted Al on the shoulder and said.

"Okay, let's pack up, we still have a long way to go."

After all, this is a trip to the end of the continent.

　Uh, regarding everyone’s comments, it seems that the platform problem is temporarily invisible, but I can still see it in the background, and it should be fine in a few days.

　　

　

(End of this chapter)