72: Chapter 72 The nation will never forget the kindness shown to the teacher.

The Zipline was completed.

A black, cold steel cable.

It spanned life and death.

In the deepest darkness before dawn, it was taut and silent.

Like a bridge forged of steel, leading to the world of the living.

Inside the warehouse, there was first a deathly silence.

Immediately afterward, cheers erupted, suppressed to the extreme, like caged beasts being released.

The Soldiers dropped their tools, embracing each other and forcefully patting one another's backs.

Some were laughing.

Some were crying.

Some knelt on the ground, kissing the cold floor, stained with blood and dust.

They had survived.

They truly had a path home now.

Shangguan Zhibiao looked at the steel cable trembling slightly in the night wind, and even this iron-willed man's eyes turned red.

He wanted to smile, but his lips wouldn't part.

He wanted to cry, but no tears would fall.

He just stood there, like a stone statue, allowing the wild ecstasy of survival and the confusion about the future to intertwine and surge within his chest.

However, not everyone was immersed in this joy.

Among the cheering crowd.

Xie Jinyuan did not move.

The expression on his face showed no relief, no excitement.

Only a solemnity so deep it seemed impossible to dissolve.

He slowly turned around.

His gaze passed through the cheering, jumping, and weeping figures.

It landed on the person lying unconscious on a makeshift door-stretcher in the corner.

Chen Xi.

The cheers gradually subsided.

Following the Colonel's gaze, the Soldiers also looked toward that corner.

All joy froze at this moment.

The atmosphere once again became stifling and heavy.

That's right.

The path was made.

But the person who paved the way had fallen.

He used his own flesh and blood to smash open the gates of hell for them.

He himself, however, remained behind the door.

A young Soldier slowly walked over.

He squatted down, looking at the paper-white face and the tattered clothes already soaked through with blood.

His lips moved, wanting to say something, but not a single word came out.

He just silently took off his military cap.

A second one.

A third one.

More and more Soldiers gathered around.

They said nothing.

They just silently removed their military caps and held them to their chests.

In this simplest manner, they paid the highest respect to their benefactor.

The old Military Doctor was still busy.

He used scissors to slowly cut open the clothes on Chen Xi's back, which had already stuck to his flesh and blood.

With every snip, his hands trembled violently.

He saw the scorched, blackened flesh that had been completely ravaged by shrapnel and shockwaves.

He saw the few pieces of stark white bone protruding from the ruined flesh.

The old Military Doctor's face was as white as paper.

He had practiced medicine for most of his life, saving no fewer than eight hundred, if not a thousand, people.

Yet, he had never seen such a horrific injury that still maintained a flicker of life.

He knew he couldn't save him.

Not even a deity could save him.

“Colonel...”

Shangguan Zhibiao walked up to Xie Jinyuan, his voice hoarse.

“Mr. Chen...”

Xie Jinyuan did not reply.

He just watched quietly.

Watching the man who had created miracle after miracle before his eyes, only to ultimately burn himself into ashes.

Then, he moved.

He took a step, slowly walking up to the makeshift door-stretcher.

He did not look at the shocking wound.

He only looked at Chen Xi's face.

That face, which usually held a hint of cynicism, was now deathly pale, devoid of any color.

Xie Jinyuan silently tidied his military uniform, which was covered in gunpowder smoke and dust.

He removed his military cap and tucked it into the crook of his arm.

He straightened his spine, which had long been exhausted from continuous bloody battles.

His movements were slow.

But they were profoundly solemn.

Under the gaze of hundreds of Soldiers inside the warehouse.

Under the scrutiny of hundreds of millions of viewers in the Livestream room in 2026.

He raised his right hand to his forehead, rendering the most standard and highest military salute to the unconscious man.

The entire warehouse was silent.

Only the sporadic sounds of gunfire and artillery from afar could be heard.

And the heavy, suppressed breathing of the Soldiers.

Xie Jinyuan maintained the saluting posture.

His voice was not loud.

Yet, it rang out like a great bronze bell in this silent, oppressive space.

Every word weighed a thousand pounds.

“Mr. Chen Xi.”

“With the strength of one man, you saved four hundred of my brothers from death, stemming the tide of disaster and propping up the collapsing edifice.”

“This kindness and virtue are as enduring as mountains and rivers; a hundred deaths could not repay them.”

He paused, and a hint of uncontrollable choke entered his voice.

“I, Xie Jinyuan, representing all officers and Soldiers of the National Revolutionary Army’s 88th Division, 524th Regiment, hereby swear.”

His voice suddenly rose.

Resolute and decisive.

“The benevolence of Mr. Chen!”

“The Nation shall not forget!”

As his voice fell.

Shangguan Zhibiao snapped to attention.

He saluted.

Behind him, all the Soldiers, regardless of rank or severity of injury.

At this moment, they instantly stood ramrod straight.

Following their Colonel's example, they raised their right hands toward the man lying on the door-stretcher.

Hundreds of hands merged into a silent forest of steel.

There were no slogans.

No shouts.

Only those figures standing straight as javelins.

And those burning gazes, filled with reverence, gratitude, and sorrow.

This was the highest respect a military man could express.

This was the heaviest promise a nation made to its hero during its darkest hour.

In the Livestream room.

The bullet comments had long vanished.

In front of the screens, countless people were already weeping without realizing it.

They looked at the resolute, honest faces in the picture.

Looking at that solemn and respectful sea of salutes.

They seemed to feel that heavy emotion that transcended time and space.

Amidst this solemn silence.

No one noticed.

That unconscious man, who was the focus of everyone's attention.

A tear slowly slid down from the corner of his tightly shut eye.

Clear and scalding hot.

Then, his hand, which hung down over the edge of the door-stretcher, stained with blood and dust.

His index finger.

Once again, faintly.

Curled slightly.