Life is Like a Journey – Chapter 128

Volume 5: Extra

Peace Dove (4)

To prevent barbarism from trampling civilization.

That day after leaving, Lu Qingshi lingered outside the facility area for a while, hoping to see Gu Yanzhi, but there was no sign of her.

            

As the soldiers were changing shifts, she had no choice but to ask the white soldier: “Gu… uh, where did she go?”

“Ma’am, Sir is on a mission,” the boy replied formally.

“Where is this mission? Is it far from here? Is it dangerous?” As soon as she asked, she felt these questions were unnecessary.

            

“Sorry, ma’am, that’s classified military information.”

Just as expected.

Lu Qingshi stopped asking and turned to walk slowly toward the Doctors Without Borders station.

            

The ring was lost, and last night she had treated her that way…

It wasn’t hard to see it was all fake.

Every time she thought about it, she felt like last night was a beautiful nightmare. She had left without a word, and then there was that provocative woman…

            

What exactly was their relationship?

Lu Qingshi walked away dejectedly. Hearing a motorcycle behind her, she turned hastily, unable to hide her disappointment.

The white boy caught up: “No, ma’am, Sir ordered me to take you back.”

            

“No need, I can…” Lu Qingshi reflexively refused, but the boy just smiled, his blonde hair and blue eyes gleaming as he showed his white teeth.

“Ma’am, these are military orders.”

She mounted the back seat, holding on while maintaining a subtle distance as the street scenes flew past.

            

“What’s your name?” The boy looked young, barely twenty, but his driving skills were excellent. Despite the narrow alleys with their rough stone paths and pedestrians and vendors on both sides, he maintained steady control.

“Mike.”

The boy turned back and saw her smile, her hair floating gently in the wind, a mature and charming woman.

            

“What is it, ma’am?”

Lu Qingshi just remembered how she had once helped another boy named Mike retrieve a massage device stuck in a door.

“Nothing, thank you.”

            

In no time, they arrived at the Doctors Without Borders facility. Mike stopped the bike, Lu Qingshi dismounted, and Akai Ryo was already waiting at the entrance.

“Ma’am, I told you my name, but I still don’t know yours?”

Lu Qingshi waved at him, mouthing the words: “I’m Lu Qingshi.”

            

The boy, both friendly and gentlemanly, addressed her directly by name: “Then, goodbye Qingshi.”

“Bye,” she waved, walking into the hospital with Akai Ryo.

The new station’s conditions were poor, with just a few makeshift tents surrounded by fencing. Lu Qingshi took a white coat from a nurse and put it on.

            

Akai Ryo worriedly looked at the marks on her neck: “Lu, are you alright from last night?”

Lu Qingshi came to her senses, her face reddening as she instinctively adjusted her collar: “I’m fine, I need to get to work.”

After that, she didn’t see Gu Yanzhi for about a month or two. Instead, Mike frequently visited the station, and they gradually became familiar. Mike told her he was British, eighteen years old, and had come to the Middle East right after becoming an adult. He was now the team’s demolition expert.

            

Lu Qingshi asked him: “Don’t you want to go home? Why did you come here?”

The cheerful young man fell silent, pulling at some unknown grass growing between the soil cracks: “My girlfriend was studying at M University, when it was bombed at the start of the war.”

At eighteen, an age of carefree youth back home, the boy’s thin shoulders now carried a gun, coming from his peaceful homeland to protect peace in another country.

            

“Although I’m not a native of M country, I have deep feelings for this land. My girlfriend told me that this place, like China, has four thousand years of history.”

The boy pointed into the distance. In the yellow dusk, the mosque’s silhouette became hazy in the twilight, reflecting against the golden sand dunes in the distance, creating a scene both desolate and tragic.

“That mosque was built in 705 CE, and is one of the most famous ancient buildings in M City.”

            

The boy seemed to recall something, his eyes filled with nostalgia: “My girlfriend and I once took a photo together in front of the arch. Now it’s all turned to ashes in the flames.”

In that moment, Lu Qingshi thought of many things: Lin Zexu’s [林则徐 | lín zé xū | 1785-1850, Chinese scholar-official who destroyed opium at Humen] opium destruction, the ruins of the Yuan Ming Yuan [圆明园 | yuán míng yuán | Old Summer Palace destroyed by Anglo-French forces in 1860], and the Nanjing Massacre [南京大屠杀 | nán jīng dà tú shā | 1937-1938 massacre resulting in over 300,000 Chinese civilian deaths]…

Though she hadn’t experienced that era herself, these wounds were carved into the blood and bones of every Chinese person like physical pain.

            

As history’s wheel kept turning in repeated cycles, she couldn’t help but ponder: why must there be killing between people?

Why could those people harm their fellow humans?

Don’t they have parents, relatives, and friends?

            

She believed the boy had already deeply contemplated these questions, but he simply said: “I came here to prevent barbarism from trampling civilization.”

“What about you, Qingshi? Why did you come here?”

She sat on the sand dune, watching the recovered children in the camp below jumping and kicking a can, their joyful voices carrying far into the distance.

            

This wasn’t just a Doctors Without Borders facility; it also sheltered many homeless children.

Growing up under the shadow of war, they were destined to be a generation marked by hardship.

But the doctor just smiled and said: “Hippocrates [希波克拉底 | xī bō kè lā dǐ | father of medicine, 460-370 BCE] taught me not to discriminate based on religion, nationality, race, politics, or status. Where there’s light, there’s warmth to share, even though the world won’t necessarily become better because of it.”

            

“Sir, let’s take a rest.” Returning from headquarters through a desert town, still two hundred kilometers from M City, they were exhausted from the long-distance mission, and their motorcycle was almost out of fuel.

Gu Yanzhi picked up the fuel container and strode into the desert: “Rest here for thirty minutes, then we continue.”

Fortunately, this small waystation had a gas station that was about to close down. The prices were ridiculously high – everyone was waiting to profit from the war.

            

She handed over the container: “Fill it up.”

The owner was dozing in his rocking chair when customers unexpectedly arrived. His shrewd eyes sized up Gu Yanzhi before hurriedly taking the container. While Gu Yanzhi was checking her compass, the owner mixed in some low-grade diesel fuel.

He even tripled the price.

            

Gu Yanzhi smiled coldly, reaching into her pocket. The green bills flashed between her fingers, but what landed on the counter was a sharp knife.

The owner’s soul nearly left his body in fright. Looking again at Gu Yanzhi, who wasn’t in full uniform but only wearing camouflage short-sleeve training clothes, he noticed the intricate pattern carved on the knife.

“Desert Eagle!” the owner exclaimed, rushing inside to bring out several large cans of engine oil, placing them down with a loud “clang.”

            

His cunning face now all smiles: “No charge, a gift for the Desert Eagle!”

Gu Yanzhi still pulled out some bills, but the owner insisted on refusing. Then she noticed the shop sold other items – hair clips and small trinkets, as well as betel nuts and dried fruits.

She picked up an aluminum-wrapped box: “The chocolate, I’ll take this.”

            

She left two packs of cigarettes in exchange, carefully tucked the slightly melted chocolate close to her body, mounted the motorcycle, secured her helmet, and continued toward M City.

The new Doctors Without Borders station was twenty kilometers from M City. Being far from the frontlines and under Desert Eagle protection, it was relatively safe, attracting a constant stream of refugees.

Government troops guarded the town entrance, checking all passing vehicles and pedestrians.

            

Around four or five in the afternoon, as the sun descended and temperatures dropped, the day reached its liveliest period.

The war continued, but people still needed to live. A small market formed in the town, selling colorful scarves, fruits laid out before ruins, and daily necessities and food.

The bustling, noisy atmosphere gave Lu Qingshi a nostalgic feeling of temple fairs [庙会 | miào huì | traditional Chinese festival markets] from her childhood.

            

These were among the few peaceful moments in the desert.

She picked up a bunch of orange-yellow bananas: “How much?”

The vendor showed five.

            

Lu Qingshi put them down disappointedly.

Akai Ryo approached: “Do you want them? Let me buy them for you.”

As he reached for his money, Lu Qingshi smiled and walked away: “No need, I’ll look over there.”

            

“Hey?” Before he could extend his hand, she had vanished into the crowd like a deer darting into the forest.

Mike patted his shoulder sympathetically.

In the sunset, a street musician played a hand drum against a wall, singing an unknown song in obscure Arabic. His voice was clear and profound, carrying an inexplicable desolation in the twilight.

            

A girl in a long dress danced to his song, their voices harmonizing, occasional glances crossing, tender emotions flowing in blue eyes.

Lu Qingshi remembered the song she had sung to her, her eyes welling up. She quickly averted her gaze and hurried away.

Shortly after she left, an old pickup truck slowly entered through the town gate. In the crowded streets, it moved slowly, passing Lu Qingshi.

            

The driver’s bearded face reflected in the tinted glass made her frown as she watched the vehicle move into the center of the crowd.

Desert Eagle often returned in similar vehicles, with excited children climbing on the doors, chattering away, and women vendors gathering around.

Lu Qingshi smiled and shook her head, turning away when suddenly something felt wrong. Her body’s instinctive response to danger made her roll into a nearby drainage ditch, managing to grab a child playing by the roadside.

            

In that instant, flames erupted behind her.

The car’s wreckage scattered in the explosion.

The ground shook violently.

            

Everything around turned to chaos.

Screams, crying, curses, prayers…

Interspersed with scattered gunfire.

            

Mike, who was buying cigarettes, saw the massive mushroom cloud rise over the city in the direction Lu Qingshi had gone.

The young man’s eyes reddened with panic. Forgetting the cigarettes, he grabbed the rifle from his shoulder and pushed Akai Ryo: “Sir, return to the hospital. I’ll find Qingshi.”

He ran toward the explosion site, finding blood everywhere, scattered limbs, convulsing children on the ground, weeping mothers, and the blood-stained hand drum by the wall.

            

“F*ck! F*ck! Where’s Qingshi?!” he shouted.

Only chaos answered him throughout the streets. Government troops quickly controlled the scene, evacuating people while the car still burned fiercely. Desert Eagle members arrived to help extinguish the fire.

Feeling slight tremors in the sand beneath, Gu Yanzhi planted her foot down, stopping the motorcycle: “Binoculars.”

            

Her deputy handed them over.

Looking toward M City, her eyes blazed with fury as she furiously threw the binoculars back.

“Full speed ahead!”

            

Being too close to the explosion site, even though she’d cleverly rolled into the low-lying drainage ditch, the blast wave still knocked her over, slamming her with a face full of flying dirt and debris.

Lu Qingshi’s eardrums rang, her head splitting with pain before she quickly lost consciousness.

When they dug her out of the dirt pile, she was still clutching a child.

            

Both were taken to the hospital together.

She awoke in a hospital tent, surrounded by people whose lips moved without sound. She stared blankly at the blue patterns on the tent canvas, hearing nothing.

Explosion, fire, bodies…

            

She frowned, covering her ears.

As the crowd dispersed, Akai Ryo found her: “Too close to the blast point. There might be hearing damage. With our limited facilities here, we can’t do detailed examinations. It might recover soon, or…”

Gu Yanzhi understood her meaning, lowering her eyes and clenching her fists.

            

“Thank you.”

Someone lifted the tent flap to enter. Though she couldn’t hear, she felt the breeze and saw her IV tube move.

Someone adjusted it to a better position.

            

The dazed doctor looked up. Seeing her, she couldn’t quite smile, her lips quivering as she held back tears despite feeling wronged.

Gu Yanzhi pulled out a small tin-foil wrapped chocolate from her chest pocket. It had melted, feeling sticky in her hands. She hesitated apologetically about whether to give it to her.

The doctor on the bed looked at her expectantly.

            

As she extended her hand, Lu Qingshi happily accepted it, opening to find two pieces of chocolate stuck together – a common snack back home but a luxury here.

It had been a long time since she’d had any sweets.

Her fingertips picked up one piece, still sticky. Lu Qingshi didn’t mind at all, offering the remaining piece back to her.

            

Gu Yanzhi shook her head, pushing it back. After several refusals, the doctor seemed to grow impatient: “If you don’t eat it, I’ll be angry.”

Only then did she accept it, putting it in her mouth. The sweet taste melted on her tongue, warming her cold heart slightly.

“When did you return?”

            

Gu Yanzhi wrote in her palm: “Just now.”

Her palm tickled as Lu Qingshi’s lips curved into a slight smile: “Was the mission successful?”

“It was fine.”

            

“Was the chocolate good?” she wrote.

“Good,” she answered.

“Then I’ll buy you more next time I’m on a mission.”

            

“Okay.”

They exchanged ordinary questions, neither mentioning what happened that day. Her expression remained normal, with a faint smile at the corners of her lips.

She had noticed long ago that Director Lu, who rarely smiled in front of others, showed many more smiles in her presence.

            

Lu Qingshi’s indulgence of her ran as deep as still waters.

While she accommodated her willfulness, she too wrapped her sharp edges with her softer side.

The gentle, soft parts of her personality and the violence buried in her blood would be soothed one by one in her presence.

            

She would still kill terrorists, but now calmer, a clear battle plan emerged in her mind.

She needed to prepare thoroughly.

After she fell asleep, Gu Yanzhi left the tent. Mike was waiting outside: “Sorry, Sir, I couldn’t protect her…”

            

The woman had traveled over two hundred kilometers today, dusty and travel-worn, dirt in her hair, still in unchanged clothes. She patted Mike’s shoulder: “It’s fine, you did well. Come on, leave guards here, we’ll return to camp to discuss battle plans.”

Mike nodded, guilt written across the young man’s face.

After walking a few steps, Gu Yanzhi suddenly seemed to remember something: “What did she buy at the market today?”

            

“She looked at scarves, desert caps, fruit stalls…” Mike slapped his forehead, remembering something: “Qingshi seemed to be looking for some jewelry.”

Jewelry.

The ring…

            

The tall white soldier saw his commander stop abruptly, clenching her fists, shoulders trembling, her silhouette desolate.

He tentatively spoke: “Sir…”

The woman said nothing, wiped the corner of her eye, and continued striding forward with head held high.

            

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