In late June, the Sino-X border.

The primeval forest stretches for dozens of kilometers. It is close to the tropical area and the scorching sun is scorching. The sun shines a blue sky to make it white.

On the horizon, the shadow of a military helicopter goes from far to near.

As we approached, the propeller made a rumbling sound, one after another.

The special forces on the plane were fully armed, combat uniforms, armor vests, utensils, guns and ammunition, helmets and masks.

Li Zan stood by the hatch door, pulled the mask to his chin, looked down, and shouted: "Go down again."

The helicopter fell vertically at a distance, and the wind raised by the propeller stirred the trunks and branches of the forest like deep in the whirlpool of airflow. It startled a group of birds spreading their wings and left.

"Lift!"

The helicopter called back for a distance, and the rolling treetops below calmed down slightly, shaking slowly like waves.

Li Zan made a ok gesture to the pilot, pulled the mask back up, grabbed the downhill rope beside him with one hand, and jumped out of the helicopter.

His agile figure quickly fell into the forest and disappeared again.

After half a minute, the rope shook and sent a signal.

His comrades jumped off the helicopter one after another and descended to the forest. Until the last teammate landed, he untied the rope. Several ropes were collected together, and the helicopter raised a distance and flew towards the horizon.

And where I just stayed, the trees were still and everything was as usual.

Only the scorching sunlight was left, as if nothing had happened.

...

During the whole of June and July, Li Zan never came to the Imperial City again. Song Ran had no way to see him.

Separating from another place, she didn't even know where he was.

She wasn't worried about the long absence of news.

Although she knew that Li Zan was a very powerful special forces soldier, she was performing a mission after all, and she didn't have any bullets, so she was afraid that there would be something wrong. But the news was also chaotic during this period. Sometimes the police were assassinated, sometimes the criminal police were hit by a homemade gun, and sometimes the drug police died in the battle.

As soon as she saw the police and soldiers dying in her post, she couldn't help but be frightened.

Even if you don’t scare yourself, you will miss him and think very well.

But perhaps this is part of what she has to endure and get used to with Li Zan.

The place where he performs the mission is at the border, so the signal is almost the same. Once he enters the mission state, it is impossible to contact the outside world.

Song Ran would occasionally send text messages to him, but he couldn't see it in time.

In two months, he only called her twice, but he did not use his cell phone, but also displayed strange numbers and garbled codes.

The first call was at the end of June. The two had just separated shortly after they were passionate and sticky. They chatted for almost half an hour. They didn't hang up in a hurry until he was about to assemble.

The second time I called was in mid-August. I haven't contacted each other for the past two months, and I'm a little unfamiliar with each other.

When she first received the call, Song Ran reacted a little slow and didn't say much. As soon as he stopped talking, she was silent. She was clearly talking, worried, afraid, and missed her, but she didn't know where to start; she was even more worried that she would only add to her worries.

There were only light breaths in each other in the microphone, and the sound of summer insects chirping on his side.

Li Zan waited for a while, smiled faintly, and said, "Don't you remember me?"

"Remember." She nodded.

On a quiet night, he listened to the rustling sound of her nodding in the microphone and asked, "Who am I?"

"Boyfriend." She replied obediently, "Ah Zan."

His heart softened, he didn't speak for a moment, and laughed lightly, saying, "Hey."

Her face turned red, and she gradually recovered and asked, "How are you?"

“All are pretty good.”

“What tasks are you doing?”

He did not answer the specific content and said, "It's similar to what you usually train. It's not difficult. Don't worry."

"Oh. Then were you injured?"

He said with a relaxed tone: "No."

She then felt at ease and quickly said sadly: "There are always police dying in the news recently..."

"The police are the police, I am me."

"Your side is more dangerous than the police," she whispered.

Li Zan paused for a moment and comforted him: "Ran Ran, I have nothing to do here. Everything is fine. There is no minor injury at all. Really. Oh no, some people got up last month and their head hit the bed board on the upper bunk and it was swollen."

Song Ran chuckled: "Are you stupid?"

He heard her laugh and followed her.

She asked again: "Then have you had enough rest every day? Is it hard?"

"Not hard work." He said in a casual tone, "It's good to rest, just..."

He stopped.

She waited for a few seconds and asked, "What is it?"

"I miss you very much," he said.

Song Ran's cheeks pressed against her phone were getting hot, and the air conditioner was turned on inside.

"Do you miss me?" he asked.

"I think about it." She answered buzzingly.

He took a light breath, calmed his emotions, and asked again: "How are you doing?"

"It's pretty good. Oh, let me tell you, you may not know that there is yet. But "Our Flag" has been broadcast online."

"So fast?"

"Yes. The response is very good. Many young people are watching it, and they also like it very much. Many people talked about it some time ago. This time, they worked with the column team and felt deeply. They were too serious and meticulous, and they were very efficient. They didn't look like they were in Liangcheng at all." She talked, counting a lot of work and small interesting things.

He listened quietly and seriously, and when he reached the interesting point, he couldn't help laughing.

"...Oh, by the way." As she talked, the little strange and small depression that had been gone before had long disappeared. "There was an episode of the show about a former sniper who is now a colonel. His wife is a writer and a novelist. It's amazing."

Li Zan said in a gentle voice: "What's so magical about this? Later, someone interviewed Colonel Li, and my wife was still a famous reporter from Pulitzer."

A word he confessed accidentally, and a faint tone came through the phone line, which made her hear it in her heart. Her heart thumped and she flipped around the thin air conditioner quilt and said, "They have been together for more than 20 years, and their relationship is still very good now."

He listened and laughed slowly.

"What are you laughing at?" she asked.

He said: "Think about us twenty years later."

Song Ran also thought about it for a moment, pursed her lips and smiled: "I hope that by then, we will be as good as we are now."

"Yes." He said with certainty, and asked again, "How is your mood recently?"

"All are pretty good."

"What have you been doing during this period? Writing a book?"

"Well. I've been thinking and organizing the framework. The prototype has come out, so I'm just waiting to fill in the content. Oh, because "Our Flag" has been broadcast, many column teams have come to me. But I'm still too busy."

"Take it all, don't be too tired."

"I know."

As he was talking, Ran Yuwei's cough came from outside the room.

The two of them were silent for a second at the same time.

Li Zan asked: "Why is your mother still coughing?"

Song Ran was also a little puzzled: "It was obviously better before, but I didn't cough anymore."

"Repeatedly, find an expert to ask."

"good."

After talking on the phone reluctantly, Song Ran got up and went out: "Mom?"

"Huh?" Ran Yuwei just returned home, and a burnout sound came from the bathroom. She was removing her makeup. She was too busy with work recently, so she worked overtime almost every day.

Song Ran leaned against the door and frowned: "Why are you coughing again? Isn't it all gone?"

"Last time was gone." Ran Yu said quietly, "But a few days ago, it was raining heavily in summer, and I had a wind. I caught a cold again. You can order takeout to bring me some medicine."

"I'd better go to the hospital tomorrow. Why do I feel like taking medicine and I'll get sick as soon as I stop?"

"It's not as complicated as you said. Maybe it's because I've been too tired in the past two years and have a bad physical condition. I'll be prone to colds when the climate changes."

"Let's go to the hospital tomorrow. I doubt if you have bronchitis." Song Ran said.

"I'm fussy. I don't know about bronchitis?" Ran Yuwei gave her a look in the mirror, but perhaps because she took off her makeup, her face was a little haggard, and her eyes were far less sharp than usual.

Since moving to Dicheng to live with his mother, Song Ran found that Ran Yuwei's temper has been softer. Although she still can't change her aggressive personality in many trivial matters of life, for some reason, living here is more comfortable than living in Song Zhicheng's house.
To be continued...