After midnight

Around one o'clock in the afternoon, Jiudu is in a lazy mood. Ordinary people will enter a leisurely afternoon, and people who have been busy at work for half a day will also take this opportunity to rest.

But not everyone would have this moment of peace. Lu Li quickly ate a quick meal and simply packed his bag before leaving. A quarter past one, Lin Nuan stood at the front door of the Lu Mansion to see him off.

"Lu Li, you must be extremely careful on this trip." Lin Nuan couldn't help but sigh after saying this.

"What's wrong? You're talking so little. Are you still angry with me?" Lu Li teased her intentionally.

"No, but why did you show up at Jiumen at that time? Wasn't it agreed that only my father and I would be present?"

"That's what we agreed on, yes. But after you left, I felt uneasy." Lu Li said as he walked forward to hug her.

"A Nuan, sometimes I really wish you could rely on me a little more."

"Lu Li, don't be so willful in the future. I'm worried about you too." Lin Nuan raised her chin to make herself more comfortable. Hearing this, Lu Li tightened his hand on Lin Nuan's waist. After a moment, he let go of Lin Nuan. At this time, Lu Lang was walking towards the door.

"Lu Li, the time is almost up. I'll give you a ride."

"Yes, father."

After walking a distance and blending into the crowd on the street, Lu Lang suddenly said, "I have already told Lu Yuan that he will take care of you along the way."

"Thank you father."

"I was standing far away just now. Did this child, Ah Nuan, tell you anything?"

"She didn't say much, just told me to be careful."

"Okay." Lu Lang patted Lu Li's shoulder. "Let's stop here. I'll wait for you to come back."

"Father."

"What's the matter?" Lu Lang had already taken two steps away, but when he heard Lu Li calling him, he leaned back and responded to him.

"Am I really so willful this time?" Lu Li's face was full of confusion.

"Yeah, that girl A Nuan will probably be in a difficult situation."

"Why?" Lu Li frowned. With Ah Nuan's personality, if she couldn't decide on someone, she would most likely go into battle herself. He just didn't want her to get hurt.

"Then have you ever thought about why she didn't confirm anyone other than Lin Changxing?"

"Alright, your own life is more important. Wait until you come back safely, and then you can handle your own affairs."

After Lu Lang finished speaking, he walked back to the Lu Mansion. He saw Lin Nuan still standing there, so he said, "Come on, Nuan, let's go back."

"Father."

"A Nuan, you did a great job." Lu Lang said, and slowly walked towards the path leading to his small bamboo house.

Half an hour later, Lu Li arrived at the north gate of Jiudu. Five minutes later, it was 2:00 p.m. They would set off on time.

An Yan said he was going upstairs to catch up on some sleep, but after entering the house, he was in a daze. He went to the window and watched the leaves of the trees outside falling one by one. He found that this winter was colder than usual. Because it was only mid-November, most of the trees were already bare.

An Yan looked at it and walked out again. He came to Qiqi's door and knocked twice.

After Qiqi opened the door, she didn't ask An Yan what he wanted to do. She opened the door and went back to bed. She turned over on the bed and buried herself in the quilt, then raised her head and blinked her eyes to ask An Yan.

"You come here, don't you want to ask me questions?"

An Yan hesitated for a moment and then slowly asked her: "Qiqi, have you heard of anyone else?"

"Others?" Qiqi repeated.

"Besides your former companions, those annoying doctors and nurses, and Song Hongtian and Song Yu, have you ever heard of anyone else?"

Qiqi thought and shook her head, then said very slowly, "No."

"I see." An Yan pursed her lips, "What do you want to eat for lunch?"

"Aren't you going to continue asking? Anyan, I thought I could help."

"If you want to help me, why not help me plant flowers this afternoon?"

"Really? That's great."

"Then I'll go out first. Xiao Su will be back soon. Let's make cola chicken wings. I promised her yesterday." An Yan said and walked out the door. Originally, he just asked casually. He had already said enough to Qiqi.

"Wait a minute, Anyan, you will destroy them all, right?"

Qiqi called him, but An Yan did not turn around. Qiqi watched An Yan close her door, and believed that An Yan would definitely do so. This was one of the main reasons why she wanted to be with An Yan. But what did An Yan mean by that? What did he mean by someone else? An Yan never asked unnecessary questions.

Qiqi decided not to think about it anymore, because she couldn't figure it out anyway. She casually opened the book The Little Prince that she was almost done with. In the afternoon, she would go out to plant flowers with An Yan, and then next spring, they would surely bloom the most beautiful flowers in the world. Because that was what she left in this world.

After lunch, An Yan saw Qi Qi looking at him expectantly, so he thought for a moment and said, "I want to take a nap. I'll call you when I get out."

"Okay, then remember to call me when you wake up." Qiqi said.

Qiqi turned back to her room, becoming more and more convinced of her decision. She only glanced at An Yan, and in just a few days, An Yan couldn't bear it. She believed that she would get what she wanted in the end.

An Yan went upstairs. It was past noon and he was really a little sleepy. But before he was ready to go to bed, a letter came to him. This letter had no beginning or end, but it completely made An Yan lose his sleep. The letter read:

The Fiery Team, led by He Wendong, officially set out at 2pm. There were five members in total, including Lu Li, Lu Yuan, Song Luo, Zhou Chen and me.

The letter was signed by Song Xinjun.

This letter was incoherent, neither explaining why they were formed nor where they were going. But An Yan immediately guessed the whole story, this was the result of the incident in Beizhong. No, it must have been earlier, Jiu Xiang must have been thinking about it for a long time. But this list, An Yan looked at it again and again, no matter how he looked at it, it didn't look like the people who could form a team and accomplish things.

An Yan folded the letter and put it under the book on the bedside. The weather outside was getting colder, and he had to finish planting his roses quickly.

"Qiqi, Qiqi."

"Okay, come right away."

Qiqi walked out of the house, and the first thing she did was to look at the sky. The weather in Xindu was pretty good today. Under the endless blue sky, the sun shone on the earth, but there was an occasional cool breeze. In this gap, An Yan was fully armed, bending over and shoveling a thick layer of soil with a shovel.

"What are we looking at?" Qiqi came over and saw the flower seedlings with some curiosity.

"Rose."

"The little prince's rose?"

"Well, have you finished reading the book?"

"finish watching."

"Please put on your gloves, the thorns may prick you."

"Okay." Qiqi picked up the unopened gloves on the ground, put them on herself and waited for An Yan to give orders. An Yan would always tell her what to do.

"First, remove the seal, then put the seedlings in the bucket and water them."

"Be careful." An Yan added.

"Yes." Qiqi said as she did as she was told, "An Yan, they will definitely bloom next year, right?"

"As long as you water it with your heart, it will work."

"I didn't expect that you, An Yan, are actually an idealist." Qi Qi suddenly said after hearing this, her tone inexplicably strange, so strange that An Yan's movements paused for a moment.

"But if it's you, I'm willing to believe it. An Yan, you are different from us after all." Qiqi lowered her head and tidied up the scattered flower seedlings, making it impossible to see her expression.

What's the difference? He is just an ordinary person. An Yan wanted to ask back, but he just remained silent.

"An Yan, I don't think you will believe this, but it is because of you that I am able to survive."

Qiqi put the seedlings into the bucket and carried it to the other side of the courtyard to get water. She was in a hurry and only left a back view of An Yan, so she missed the surprise on An Yan's face.

The work of planting rose seedlings progressed slower than they expected. An Yan and Qi Qi spent all their time and energy in the afternoon on it. But that was not all. They were busy for several days before the seedlings took shape under Xiao Su's guidance.

In the afternoon, An Yan was squatting among the seedlings pruning their branches and leaves when Song Xinjun's second letter arrived.

After arriving at Beizhong, we found nothing there, so we had to continue northward. The target person had hidden all traces of him, so we began to search in groups of two. He Wendong and Song Luo, Lu Yuan and Zhou Chen, and I was with Lu Li.

The content of the letter ended here. After reading it, An Yan put it away and stared at the stems and leaves of the rose in a trance.

"Why didn't you call me today?"

"I knocked on the door, but you didn't answer. I thought you were asleep, so I didn't call you."

"Oh...are there any scissors?"

"Use this one." An Yan held the sharp tip in his hand and handed the other end to her.

"Thank you." Qiqi took it and squatted down. She watched An Yan walk a few steps forward to pick up another pair of scissors thrown on the ground, and secretly breathed a sigh of relief. She was indeed in the room the whole time, but she didn't hear An Yan calling her, not because she fell asleep, but because she fell into a short coma.

An Yan then picked up the scissors, changed his posture and continued to trim the dry branches and leaves of the rose.

That night, when An Yan went upstairs to sleep, he put the letter he had been carrying in his pocket together with the first letter. After this letter, An Yan did not receive any more letters from Song Xinjun for a while. Life seemed to return to peace again.

An Yan opened his eyes, and the empty room was pitch black. He knew that he was dreaming again, because even though it was pitch black, he knew where he was. This was where he lived most often when he was imprisoned in Xishan. There was nothing here, but he could feel everything.

The floor of the house was a little cold. An Yan stepped on it barefoot and moved forward. He came to the door of the hut, slowly pulled out the bolt and opened the door a little. The bright light outside the door shone through the gap, and An Yan saw a burly man leaning against the wall opposite the door, nodding his head repeatedly, drowsy.

An Yan pried open the door lock, closed the door, and walked into the training room without looking back. After the teacher left today, he would not come back for another week. In fact, An Yan didn't know how many times he had repeated this action. Since his body returned to normal, the fatigue during the day could not let him sleep well at night.

But this time, there was a little girl standing in the empty training room before him.

The training room was different from An Yan's room. There was a window on the wall near the passage, and there was a transparent glass in the window. It was this glass that allowed An Yan to see the outline of a girl with the weak light.

"Is it you?" The girl came running over.

"Shh!" An Yan silenced her.

An Yan didn't know what the girl meant by "you", he just wanted the girl not to make any noise. But obviously, the girl was not obedient enough, otherwise she wouldn't have come here.

"All the children in my house are gone. Some say they are dead, some say we are all going to die. But we are not going to die, are we?"

"I don't know. Who are you and why are you here?" An Yan asked. Only his teacher and he would come to this training room, but the girl didn't answer either of these two questions.

"You are the oldest child I have ever seen here. How come I don't see you often? Where do you live? I have to go up and up to get here."

"Get out of here quickly." An Yan already knew who she was.

"No, they forgot to lock the door once. I check the lock every night."

This little girl... An Yan looked at her directly and said, "Go back quickly, don't let anyone find out."

"So what's your name and will I see you again?"

"My name is Anyan, you will see me again."

"Okay then." The girl got what she wanted and left the room.

As the girl completely disappeared and walked into the darkness, An Yan woke up from his dream. After he woke up, the oppression and crampedness in the dream still lingered. He had no choice but to lift the quilt and sit up, then look at the blank wall to empty himself.

An Yan did not draw the curtains when sleeping, so the room was not dark at this time. But in an instant, the light in the room was clearly visible. In this dim light, An Yan put on his pajamas and went downstairs. He saw the newly trimmed rose seedlings in the courtyard standing tall in the rising golden light. A new day has arrived.