"What is this?"
Just as Zhu Guangyu finished speaking, he felt a warm flow from his nostrils…
Then he felt time and space spinning before his eyes, and his legs went weak.
"You've been poisoned," Lin Xiao said, taking his hand and feeding him an antidote pill.
"Oh…"
After taking the antidote pill, Zhu Guangyu quickly sat down cross-legged. After a while, he broke out in a sweat all over his body, and only then did he feel much better.
"Thank you, sir."
He stood up and quickly thanked him.
"There's no need to thank me for this."
Lin Xiao shook his head. "After all, I was the one who poisoned you just now."
"…"
Zhu Guangyu opened his mouth, feeling like he had a lot to say, but he couldn't. Lin Xiao's words, and the slightly dark hand at the center of Lin Xiao's palm when he moved it earlier, made him understand that the poison was in his superior's palm.
Lin Xiao found a restroom to wash his hands thoroughly before leaving with Zhu Guangyu.
As they parted ways, Lin Xiao stopped Zhu Guangyu.
"Sir, is there anything else?" Zhu Guangyu stood ramrod straight in front of Lin Xiao, awaiting his reprimand. It was a respect etched into his very bones.
Without Lin Xiao, he didn't know how many times he would have died.
"…" Lin Xiao wanted to say something, but the words got stuck in his throat. He simply shook his head and sighed, then said, "If you have time, go back and visit the brothers underground."
"Yes, sir!" Zhu Guangyu replied loudly. At this moment, he was like a raw recruit, not one of the heads of the National Security Bureau.
Mentioning the brothers underground, Zhu Guangyu's eyes reddened slightly.
To call them "underground" was an understatement. Whether the brothers were truly buried underground was uncertain, as many of their bodies were never found.
The reason he left Beijiang and chose the National Security Bureau was partly because the bureau was truly short-handed, and partly because he couldn't bear to experience such life-and-death partings again.
Comrades who had been drinking and chatting with him after training just two days prior, suddenly vanished into dust…
He couldn't take it anymore.
"Let's go."
Lin Xiao waved his hand, signaling Zhu Guangyu to leave. He then returned to his car, lit a cigarette, and smoked in silence.
Scenes from the past flashed before his eyes. How many brothers who trained with him… and what was the result? In the end, of that same batch of brothers, only he and Ye Chen had survived.
All had died in battle, sacrificing themselves for the country.
Later, the men he led had also suffered heavy casualties.
But all of it was worth it.
Without their sacrifices, the entire Long Nation would not be so peaceful, and there would not be so many happy families.
But…
If he could, how he wished he were a little stronger, so that his brothers could also have had happy and fulfilling lives, instead of having a cenotaph erected in a place that couldn't even be called a grave.
He still remembered the day Zhu Guangyu left, how he had cried uncontrollably in front of him…
That kid Zhu Guangyu didn't want to leave, didn't want to leave Beijiang like this. He was cursed out by his comrades and then forced to leave.
He didn't want to drive Zhu Guangyu away, but rather that the burden of Beijiang shouldn't fall on them.
Some things were better left to him to handle himself.