North to Hanchuan

"From the very beginning when we set foot on this road, we thought that one day, no one in this line of work will end well..." The hoarse female voice was low and slow, hovering slowly in the quiet ward.

The four walls of the room were blindingly white, and Ji Ningsheng realized that it was dawn when he felt the warmth coming from behind and looked through the windows at the back.

It took Lin Su a whole night to finish telling the story of the dusty years buried in the mountains and barren mounds. Her expression was so peaceful that those thrilling scenes of surviving a near-death filled with gunpowder and shattered bones became an understatement. .

Ji Hanchuan had been kneeling beside Lin Su's wheelchair, and he had maintained this posture all night. The sunlight came in through the window, plating a faint layer of gold around him, but it couldn't melt the pervasive chill on his body.

18 years of bedridden unconsciousness, the real meaning of the years has stopped running on Lin Su's body. Her eyebrows and face look very young, but her pale skin and deep well-like cool and quiet eyes tell endless sorrow and death.

"I didn't expect to see you again, my child." Lin Su stretched out his thin and scarred hand, and gently stroked Ji Hanchuan's soft and black hair.

The young man rubbed the top of his hair deeper into the palm of his mother's hand. His nostalgia was so strong and deep, and his heart ached beyond measure.

Lin Su's tired and dry eyes were finally moist: "Xiao Luo, I have not fulfilled my responsibility as a mother since you were born, your father and I have never regretted the choices we made, until the moment we died... ..."

"If I really died at that moment, then it would be considered a worthy death." Lin Su's pupils trembled slightly, as the soaring flames and splashing blood roared towards her face, tearing her consciousness and nerves apart, "But I am still alive …The moment the fuel tank of the car in front exploded|exploded, your father jumped on top of me, and I still remember the last two words he left me, which is your name..."

"Mom..." The hoarse call was squeezed out of the congested throat, Ji Hanchuan hissed and sobbed in sorrow, his internal organs were so painful that he curled up together, he hugged Lin Su's waist tightly, like I want to go back to my mother's body.

Lin Su's trembling ending is full of sadness, helplessness and indescribable disappointment and resentment:

"As a Chinese, I used to be very proud of this. We went to that isolated island and tiger's den without hesitation... But at this moment, I deeply feel the pain that the Chinese people have brought to me. We are not afraid of sacrifice, but we are afraid of being betrayed and abandoned by our own people. Huaxia People... have turned their backs on us...it's hard for me to imagine and accept..."

……

"Xiao Chuan, did you hear that?" In the corridor, Ji Ningsheng clenched his fists tightly, his eyes were bloodshot and he was trembling all over, "It's the Gu family, it's Gu Hengbei's father's order... In fact, I should have known it a long time ago. When my mother saw the Gu family on TV, she would spit hard every time! She told me at that time that 'the surname Gu is a sanctimonious human-faced beast'! Now I finally know why..."

Ji Hanchuan leaned against the wall, his eyes were blank, his mind was like the world after a heavy snowfall, a vast expanse of whiteness, completely devoid of thoughts.

It wasn't until Ji Ningsheng gritted his teeth and squeezed out a name that Ji Hanchuan's pupils trembled slightly as if being pricked by a needle point: "The Gu family has a blood feud with us, Xiao Chuan, do you want to continue messing with Gu Hengbei? Are you worthy of your parents?"

Ji Hanchuan stood upright, his empty eyes filled with struggle and pain, he almost begged Ji Ningsheng and said: "Brother, this matter has nothing to do with Gu Hengbei, don't tell him."

……

"Snapped!"

Gu Hengbei finally lit the cigarette, this action was also like a pause, temporarily interrupting Ji Ningsheng's statement.

The hot smoke poured deep into the lungs, and finally squeezed away the cold air that filled the chest and lungs. Gu Hengbei held the smoke between his index finger and middle finger, and unconsciously pressed the sharply throbbing eyebrows with his fingertips.

The burning sparks suddenly burned a little hair on the forehead, Gu Hengbei pinched off the scorched and curly hair, and licked his cheek with the bitter and numb tongue, his voice was so low that he seemed to be talking to himself: " No wonder he was so out of his mind all day after I came back, bloody revenge..."

Ji Ningsheng kept his head up until he heard Gu Hengbei's words, and when he heard Gu Hengbei's words, he turned his head, his stiff neck made a "click", and he shook his head extremely slowly: "Xiao Chuan never thought of revenge, Lin Mom didn't ask him to take revenge either, Mother Lin just hoped that he could stay away from China, stay away from the whirlpool center of this incident, and spend the rest of his life safely and freely."

"At that time, he couldn't find his shadow all day long, so he just went to take care of... Mama Lin?"

Ji Ningsheng didn't realize that Gu Hengbei's dry voice had already changed his name, he nodded: "Yes, although Mama Lin is awake, her health is already very bad, and her whole body's organs are failing. Here came the famous doctor named Roy, he said he would replace all the failed organs for Mama Lin, he is very good..."

Gu Hengbei murmured: "A donor is needed for organ replacement, so he gave one of his kidneys to his mother..."

"There was no need for this. Dr. Roy said that it would take 3-7 years to cultivate a suitable organ, and a living body is not needed..." Ji Ningsheng straightened his back, and Gu Hengbei was keenly aware of it. It was at this moment that Ji Ningsheng's emotions really collapsed, as if what happened next hit him more severely than the previous nearly 20 years of family ruin, poverty, desolation and bitter rain.

Later, Gu Hengbei understood that the pain left by the previous generation was long after all. For Ji Hanchuan, Lin Su's escape from death was a matter of joy and joy rather than sorrow and hatred. Not disappointing mother nor Gu Hengbei.

In fact, that's not too difficult, as long as Lin Su and Gu Hengbei don't know about each other's existence, everyone can really live in peace like this.

Life is so short, and everyone's days are not very long. If concealment can make everyone live well for the rest of their lives, then what's wrong with it.

But Ji Ningsheng broke Ji Hanchuan's delusion, he told Lin Su of Gu Hengbei's existence.

……

"Neither your father nor I have done anything for you, so we have no right to interfere with your future life, but Han Xueluo, if you still remember the blood and flesh that your father and I gave you, at least before I die, You can't be with someone surnamed Gu."

"I don't care that your father and I have been trampled on for half our lives, I don't care that those who betray us are still in high positions and honors, I don't care that the infamy we bear in a foreign country will not be cleared in our home country, I don't care Half of my body was crushed on the winding mountain road... But the blood your father sprinkled on me has not yet dried up, and the voice of him calling your name at the end is still lingering in my ears."

"If you really want him that much, wait for me to die...it's up to you..."

Lin Su's expression and tone were dull and calm, while Ji Hanchuan knelt in front of his mother, feeling overwhelmed with pain.

Later Ji Hanchuan walked out of the room, and when he saw Ji Ningsheng standing at the door with a hesitant expression, his eyes showed a cold hatred that had never been seen before.

Ji Hanchuan said every word without raising his voice, but every word was full of blood:

"Brother, I have never been sorry to you for so many years. You keep saying that I want to be happy, but what you have done today has completely ruined my happiness. Remember, if I am ruined, it is not because of care. What Heng Bei did was caused by you... I cannot forgive you."

……

Gu Hengbei stared fixedly at Ji Ningsheng. If his gaze could be turned into a substance, then Gu Hengbei's eyes must have smashed Ji Ningsheng into pieces until he was wiped out.

Ji Ningsheng showed a tragic smile: "Now you know why Xiao Chuan hates me so much, right?"

"Ji Ningsheng!" Gu Hengbei's clenched fingers rattled, ferocious veins crawled all over his forehead, and the bones on his temples throbbed like drums. The rage and resentment in his chest at this moment was not because of the four-year separation between himself and Ji Hanchuan. , he pointed at Ji Ningsheng, and his voice was so sharp that it almost broke, "Do you know that Xiaochuan's mother escaped from death, and her body and spirit are at the end of her strength? You tell her this fact, how will you let her live the rest of her life?!"

"I can't help it..." Ji Ningsheng hugged his head, his strong remorse was like cold venom injected into his blood vessels, penetrating into his limbs and bones, "At that time, Congress never gave up on the investigation of Xiao Chuan, and he attended at least three hearings Yes, marrying Ivanka is a once-and-for-all solution, and your Gu family treats Xiao Chuan's parents like that...how can you still be together? Gu Hengbei, if you knew these things at the time, ask yourself, can you still be with Xiao Chuan? together?"

The anger and anger that Gu Hengbei was full of was like hot charcoal being thrown down by a bucket of ice-quenched water, and it was unwillingly and powerlessly annihilated in the hissing white air.

Yes, if Gu Hengbei knew everything back then, he would not be able to be with Ji Hanchuan, that was the price they had to bear for the grievances of the previous generation.

"Gu Hengbei—"

Ji Ningsheng suddenly burst out laughing, his face showed a kind of convulsions of extreme madness, twisted and twisted convulsions of grief, indignation and excitement.

Gu Hengbei didn't understand until he said the following words, Ji Ningsheng thought that Gu Hengbei would have a hard time from now on, and actually felt a little better from despair.

"Gu Hengbei, you have been ignorant and ignorant for the past four years, and you only hated Xiao Chuan blindly, but it was Xiao Chuan who protected you for four years. Do you regret it now like I do? Regret it like I do, and your heart aches? If you had known , can you still live in such a peaceful and peaceful way? Now that you know, can you live well for the rest of your life? You will be as heart-wrenching as I am and can’t sleep at night... Ha! Ha ha! Ha ha ha..."

Ji Ningsheng couldn't stop laughing, his pale face and thin cheeks were almost out of shape like a hungry ghost crawling up from hell, his sinister look was like a hissing poisonous snake.

He has been driven crazy by his own obsession, by Ji Hanchuan's hatred for him and his own hatred for Gu Hengbei.

"Tch!" Gu Hengbei sneered coldly. He extinguished the cigarette butt that had already burned to the end in the ashtray. Like a steel needle, he poked at the weakest part of Ji Ningsheng's body. He said, "Ji Ningsheng, do you think I'm as stupid as you? Do you think I'll be like you? Do you think I'll be trapped to death like you? Do you think I'll be easily captured by you? Drag it to hell? You idiot!"

Ji Ningsheng's last expression was frozen in the void, and Gu Hengbei couldn't tell whether he was crying or laughing.

Gu Hengbei stood up, and the words fell to the ground:

"Ji Ningsheng, don't let me see you again in this life!"

The door panel slammed, and countless dust rolled up, floated, and settled again.

----

The area where Xu Jin lived was a bit remote, the surrounding area was empty and lonely, and it became more and more dry and desolate under the cover of the cold winter. The windows of the car were not closed, and the sound of the wind flooded the world like a rising tide. Sitting in the car, motionless.

His hair was blown messy, the street lamps reflected his pale face dimly, and there was a moist light in his eyes.

Gu Hengbei looked at the dazed world outside the car, and what he remembered was a midsummer afternoon ten years ago.

The scorching sun scorched the earth, Taihu Huafu was trapped in the dull and hot summer, and the cicadas were singing one after another, which was extremely annoying.

Gu Hengbei's lunch break was interrupted by such a loud cicada, and he opened his eyes to see Ji Hanchuan sitting at the desk in the bedroom and looking at the computer.

Gu Hengbei got up quietly, came behind Ji Hanchuan, and suddenly threw himself on his back, as expected, startled Ji Hanchuan.

"Why are you looking at this thing?" Gu Hengbei glanced at Ji Hanchuan's computer, and the huge shocking headline made him laugh, "These are all made up!"

That day, Country A disclosed Huaxia's "Spark Project" to the world, which caused an uproar. Huaxia's netizens were even more excited, passionate and regretful, and various speculations and discussions were rampant.

17-year-old Ji Hanchuan is just at the age when he is curious about everything. Boys especially yearn for military and political secrets that are cloaked in mystery. .

Of course, if it was an incident that had already been declassified, Ji Hanchuan would feel at ease.

"These are all nonsense, tell me something reliable," Ji Hanchuan enthusiastically pulled Gu Hengbei over, and he sat across the chair with his legs open, letting Gu Hengbei sit in front with his back facing him, The two boys just squeezed each other into a chair, with their chests against their backs. Ji Hanchuan swiped his mouse to look at today's popular posts, and asked Gu Hengbei, "Do you know about this 'Spark Project'?"

Gu Hengbei knocked Ji Hanchuan's forehead backwards: "You are stupid, it's okay to let me know this top-level top secret?"

Ji Hanchuan rubbed his forehead, a little disappointed: "You don't know either."

"I didn't know before, and I didn't dare to know." Gu Hengbei laughed at first, and then thought, "But if there is such a plan, our Gu family must do our part, and it should have been in operation since my great-grandfather's meeting. , now that the people of Country A dare to disclose it, they probably have ironclad evidence."

"Irrefutable proof," Ji Hanchuan frowned slightly, "Is that someone caught?"

Gu Hengbei pursed his lips into an unhappy line: "It should be."

"The spy is caught... the end will be very bad, right?"

"Most of the spies in ancient times have no good results," Gu Hengbei took Ji Hanchuan's mouse and slid it at will. The desk was leaning against the window, half of the curtains were drawn, and the light from the computer screen flickered on his chiseled face. Mie, "The hidden front is a shadowy road of blood, with a knife hanging around the neck, and no light is seen. Once exposed, it will be a dead end."

Ji Hanchuan hesitated: "The country...can't protect them?"

Gu Hengbei looked at Ji Hanchuan with a somewhat secretive look, mixed with the grief of "how can you be so naive" and the relief and joy of "how can you be so naive", he thought about his words , Said: "There are some things between countries that are tacit, you do what I do, each knows that there are spies of the other side, but if they are caught by the other party, they can't admit it, and they rarely come forward to protect it - from a personal point of view It's cruel, but people in high positions have to think about the overall situation, and spies themselves are aware of this."

Ji Hanchuan's bright eyes were moist: "Is it true that children are sent abroad to be trained as spies? Then if they forget their motherland, wouldn't they be sent out for nothing? If they can't forget it, how sad it will be!"

Ji Hanchuan is the kind of person who has a particularly strong ability to empathize. Watching a cartoon is full of blood, and watching a tragic love story can't be relieved for a long time. At the age of 17, he still firmly believes that there are Superman and Ultraman in this world. Just think so He can be happy.

Gu Hengbei's eyes flickered slightly: "Yes, that's a very great group of people."

"In fact, they changed their nationality when they were very young. When they grow up, they start a family and start a business, and their offspring are not Chinese, but they can still contribute to China in this way. What do you think they are doing for?" Ji Hanchuan said The simplest question.

"For faith and belief," Gu Hengbei said, "what is a country? At a small scale, it is a passport, and at a large scale, it is a feeling. The weight of a country is different in everyone's mind. Western countries There is a "one drop of blood principle", but in my opinion, only we Chinese people have the "one drop of blood" engraved in our souls. Even if we change our nationality, even if we have never set foot on this Yanhuang land in our life, there is a drop of blood in our bones As a descendant of China, there is a natural sense of cohesion and belonging, loyalty, sacrifice, dedication, passed down from generation to generation, and will never be erased."

Ji Hanchuan stared blankly at him.

Gu Hengbei smiled, he actually didn't want to discuss such a heavy topic, he deliberately joked: "In ancient times, those who were sent to the enemy country as spies since childhood were all princes and princes, only in this way can the loyalty of spies be guaranteed , you should send me out, right?"

Ji Hanchuan looked at Gu Hengbei's face seriously, and said to the point: "You must not be able to do it, right? Your temper is like a cat, and you will blow up at once. Whoever offends you will turn on you on the spot. How can you be an undercover agent!"

"Hey you kid!" Gu Hengbei slapped his face back with his backhand, "Run on me, right? Look down on me, right? Do you think spies are born? People go through ninety-nine, 81, and [-] hardships. Tempered out!"

Ji Hanchuan hid with a smile, then took Gu Hengbei's hand and habitually put it in his mouth to bite, his eyes still fixed on the screen, muttering in his mouth: "The people of country A have not announced the list of 'Spark Project', you Will the country make a deal with country A in private to exchange these people back? Isn’t there something like this before? They are all heroes, and they should come back..."

The young man's heart is soft and kind, even if the warriors who have nothing to do with him are suffering, he is so sad that he feels the same.

Gu Hengbei stroked Ji Hanchuan's hair affectionately:

"Your current cognition is still at the stage where black and white are clearly opposed to good and evil, and some cruel truths are not suitable for you to tell."

Ji Hanchuan puffed up his face and became angry: "Gu Hengbei, why do you treat me like a child?"

"You're still underage."

"Then you..." Ji Hanchuan said angrily, "Then you're still seducing a minor!"

"Ha!" Gu Hengbei was delighted, he turned around, and sat astride like Ji Hanchuan, Gu Hengbei put his arms on the back of the chair to hold Ji Hanchuan in his arms, leaned close to his face and teased, "Then you Tell me, how did I seduce|seduce you, huh?"

However, Ji Hanchuan was not turned by Gu Hengbei, he held Gu Hengbei's hand and put it on his heart, with a serious expression on his face:

"I understand, I can understand this kind of sacrifice, I think even if one day I need to make such a sacrifice, I am willing, I am not afraid of sacrifice, I just sincerely hope that all the sacrifices that carry the dark night forward can finally get it The correct destination, Gu Hengbei, do you agree?"

"That's right," Gu Hengbei kissed Ji Hanchuan's starry eyes, "This is a long but bright road, and everyone in our generation is responsible."

……

When the first ray of morning light on the other side of the horizon shone into Gu Hengbei's pupils through the front windshield, he subconsciously closed his eyes, and then slowly stretched his long arms, moving his body that was frozen and stiff by the cold wind, Both the torso and the heart became warm and light at the same time at that moment.

The mobile phone in his pocket buzzed and rang, Gu Hengbei looked at the word "Second Bell" on the display and raised the corners of his lips slightly.

Gu Hengbei pressed the answer button while starting the car: "Erzhong, is he awake?"

"Gu Hengbei..." Ji Hanchuan's hoarse voice came through the receiver, with a drawn-out end, full of undisguised panic and grievance, "Where are you?"

"I'll be right back."

"Don't let me not find you, I'm afraid."

……

The author has something to say:

The changes are a bit big.

This chapter is a sweet dividing line.