226: Chapter 226: We were just getting emotional, what's the rush now?

Qin Feng just wanted to return to the territory of the Dragon Country as soon as possible, make a big profit, and then get a good night's sleep.

The sky had darkened, though no one knew when.

"Drip."

A drop of icy liquid landed on Qin Feng's face.

He looked up at the sky.

"Drip, drip..."

Following that came the second drop, the third drop...

It was raining.

"Ah! It's raining!"

"There's water! There's water!"

From the back of the group, a female prisoner let out a joyful exclamation.

They all raised their heads, opened their mouths, and greedily caught the sweet rain falling from the sky.

Their parched throats were moistened; the feeling was no less than being reborn.

Qin Feng also stopped his pace, letting the rain wash away the grime and exhaustion on his face.

This rain had come at just the right time.

But Lanna's condition was not optimistic; new injuries added to old ones, and she had started running a fever again, drifting in and out of consciousness.

Qin Feng had let her get on the horse early on, but even so, her haggard appearance was evident.

In early September, in the northern border region of the Dragon Country, the temperature difference at night was extreme.

The autumn night rain was bone-chillingly cold.

Soaked clothes clung tightly to the body, making people shiver uncontrollably.

The wind on the Gobi Desert, mixed with rain, cut against the face like knives.

Although the rain provided immediate relief, it was essentially drinking poison to quench thirst.

As time passed, the group's speed slowed down again.

Some started shaking, and some even began to tremble uncontrollably while walking.

"Get up! Do you all want to die? Once you fall, you'll never get back up again."

Qin Feng shouted through the rain; the more difficult the situation, the more he needed to strengthen their resolve.

He wasn't joking; he was stating a fact.

The female prisoners shivered all over from the cold, but upon hearing this, they all helped each other and continued forward.

Seeing the situation getting worse and worse.

Qin Feng walked to the middle of the group, looking at each face that had turned pale from the cold in the rain.

"Only two more kilometers!"

"If you give up now, there is only one path: death!"

"The Dragon Country is just ahead! Hold on!"

"Once we reach the Dragon Country, there will be hot water for baths, delicious food to eat, and the best doctors..."

His voice pierced through the curtain of rain, jolting everyone's spirits.

Perhaps moved by the vision Qin Feng had painted, someone finally started to jog.

Following that was the second, the third...

The entire group began to stagger and run through the wind and rain.

Qin Feng mounted the horse sideways and supported Lanna's body.

"Can you still hold on?"

"Yes!" Lanna said, dazed.

The rain grew heavier, accompanied by thunder and lightning, and the world was in chaos.

Lanna felt her consciousness beginning to blur; she curled up in Qin Feng's arms, feeling his faint body heat.

The rain was too heavy!

The female prisoners' stamina was quickly bottoming out; now they looked like a line of walking corpses, walking unconsciously along the muddy road.

Just a short distance ahead, in the wind and rain, a stone tablet half a person's height stood silently.

On the stone tablet were engraved two bright red characters; the red, under the washing of the rain, became increasingly vivid, as if written in fresh blood.

The Dragon Country boundary marker!

We're back.

Qin Feng looked at the boundary marker, and the heartstrings he had kept taut the entire journey finally relaxed.

He exhaled a long breath of white mist, feeling the exhaustion of the past few days rushing in like a tide at this moment.

"We... have arrived?" Lanna's voice trembled.

"We have." Qin Feng turned back, looked at her pale face, and grinned, "Welcome to the Dragon Country."

Almost at the same time, the female prisoners behind him seemed to have all their strength drained, collapsing to the ground one after another.

They looked at the boundary marker; some wailed, some laughed uncontrollably, and some just stared blankly, tears and rain mixing together, streaming down their faces.

Yaro stood in the rain without falling.

She looked at the boundary marker, then at Qin Feng's back, her eyes complex.

The Dragon Country...

Is this the Chef's country?

She couldn't help but turn her head and take one last look at the land of the Yang Country.

Perhaps this departure would be a final farewell!

...

The thirtieth day since Qin Feng's "sacrifice."

At the Northern Sword Special Operations Base, the air in Platoon Leader Long Zhan's office was thick with smoke.

The ashtray on the desk was already piled high with cigarette butts.

Platoon Leader Long Zhan's eyes were bloodshot; he held a pen in his hand, facing a report, unable to bring himself to write.

This report was about Qin Feng, and he always sighed, especially when writing the part about Qin Feng's sacrifice.

It had been a month.

No sign of him alive, no body found in death.

The memorial service had been held, and the funeral had been conducted!

Such a promising young man, just gone like that!

"Knock, knock."

The office door was knocked on.

"Enter." Platoon Leader Long Zhan hurriedly regained his composure.

The door pushed open, and Chen Mo and Tie Zhu walked in.

The Military ranks and armbands on their shoulders had already been changed back to the style of their original units.

"Platoon Leader Long," Tie Zhu called out in a muffled voice, his eyes a bit red.

"Leaving?" Platoon Leader Long Zhan raised his head, squeezing out a smile that looked worse than crying.

"Yeah, the train is tomorrow morning." Chen Mo nodded and placed two transfer orders on the desk.

The mission was over; the team that had been temporarily assembled would eventually have to disperse.

The office fell into a deathly silence.

"Damn it."

Platoon Leader Long Zhan suddenly cursed, yanked open a drawer, and took out a bottle of Moutai.

"The higher-ups don't allow drinking, but today, we'll make an exception."

Platoon Leader Long Zhan unscrewed the cap, found three enamel mugs, and filled them to the brim.

"A send-off for everyone."

Tie Zhu didn't say a word, picked up the cup, and downed it in one go; the spicy liquor burned so much that tears almost came to his eyes.

"Cough... cough cough!" He coughed violently, "Platoon Leader Long, I will miss you..."

"What Platoon Leader are you still calling him? You should change it to Company Commander."

Chen Mo hurriedly corrected him, punched Tie Zhu in the chest, and then drank his down in one gulp.

Platoon Leader Long Zhan smiled self-deprecatingly and downed a cup as well.

"I got a bargain on this mission; whatever Company Commander or not, we are all brothers."

He poured himself another cup, his gaze drifting out the window.

"If only Huazi, the Chef, and the others were here too..."

"Sigh, the Chef was just too capable." Tie Zhu said, his eyes reddening, his voice choked with sobs.

"He always rushed to the front for everything, rushed to the front for every danger."

"Yeah..." Platoon Leader Long Zhan sighed deeply, "That kid, he was a genius, born to be a soldier."

"Quick-witted, ruthless enough, and struck hard. But damn it... we couldn't even recover his body!"

By the end, this man of steel had a crying tone in his voice.

This one sentence shattered the tough shell everyone had been desperately maintaining.

"The kid was only twenty, just started college. I, Long Zhan, have let him down the most in my life."

Platoon Leader Long Zhan slammed a fist onto the desk, causing the enamel mugs on it to jump.

Tie Zhu could no longer hold it back; the 1.8-meter-tall strong man covered his face, his shoulders shaking violently.

"It's all my fault... for that last part, I shouldn't have let him stay behind to cover... I should have been the one to stay..."

"Bullshit!" Platoon Leader Long Zhan roared, "What could you have done if you stayed? To die? That was an order!"

In the office, the three tough men cried like children.

"Ring-ring—!"

Just at such a sentimental moment, Platoon Leader Long Zhan's phone rang.

He wiped his face, took a deep breath, and answered the phone with an impatient tone: "Who is it?!"

"May I ask if this is Captain Long Zhan of the Northern Sword Special Falcon Reconnaissance Platoon?" A serious and unfamiliar voice came from the other end of the line.

"I am! Speak your mind, and make it quick!" Platoon Leader Long Zhan was in a terrible mood.

"Captain Long, this is the Border Defense Department, Post No. 73 on the northwest border of the Dragon Country."

The other party's tone remained strictly professional.

"We have a matter to confirm with you here. In front of the Dragon Country border, there is someone who claims to be your soldier, and we need you to come over to verify his identity."

Platoon Leader Long Zhan frowned, the alcohol hitting him, and he said testily:

"My soldier? My soldiers are all right here! The others have all sacrificed! Have you figured it out? Don't you fucking joke about this kind of thing!"

The other end of the line was silent for two seconds, as if confirming something.

"Captain Long, please calm down."

"He says his name is Qin Feng, codename Chef."

"His original unit was under the 9th Group Army of the Southern Military Region..."

"Who did you say?!" Platoon Leader Long Zhan's voice instantly rose by an octave, and he sobered up immediately.