Campus Alliance-Never Fall North Star

The glass door of the "North Star" coffee shop is always open. There is a faded wooden sign hanging on the lintel. The white chalk words are a little blurred by the wind and rain, but the words can still be seen clearly:

“I have felt the wind you have felt, but does that count as hugging you? I have seen the moon you have seen, but does that count as sleeping with you?”

People passing by can't help but stop to look. Students with their backpacks on their backs whisper to each other, office workers stop for a moment with their cups of coffee, and even the elderly taking a walk will squint and say, "There are so many thoughts hidden between the lines."

The wind chimes jingle when you push open the door. The store does not have the solemnity of a traditional bookstore, but rather feels like breaking into someone's living room.

The warm yellow light leaked out from the wicker lampshade and fell on the old bookshelf against the wall. There were not many books on the shelf, but each one had a warm and soft feel after being read for a long time.

The aroma of freshly ground coffee wafts from behind the bar, and there are some handmade biscuits in a bamboo basket next to it. They are crooked in shape, but they are very sweet.

The walls were covered with Polaroid photos, a girl in school uniform holding an ice cream and smiling with her fangs showing, a white-haired old couple snuggling together and watching the falling leaves outside the window, and a young man in military uniform giving a standard military salute to the camera.

These smiling faces are crowded together, like the sunlight shining on the wall, but if you look along the photos to the corner of the bar, you will find several photos in glass frames.

The most eye-catching one is a group photo, which shows several young people wearing camouflage training uniforms. Everyone in the photo is smiling openly, as if they want to put all the happiness of their lives into that moment. The other photos are wedding photos with a red background.

"Welcome to the North Star. This is where our dreams begin and where your hope begins..."

At three o'clock in the afternoon, the old-fashioned stereo in the corner of the bar started on time. The female voice was as clear as a stream, with a barely perceptible tremor at the end of the voice.

Regular customers all know that this is the voice of the proprietress, but she rarely comes out in person.

When new customers curiously ask about the people in the photos, the apron-wearing waitress always pauses for a moment, stroking the coffee stains on the counter with her fingertips, and then whispers after a while: "The boss said that some of them can't come back."

The clerk just shook his head, looking a little sad, and said, "I heard from the boss that they can't come back."

The sunlight shines through the glass window, casting a warm spot of light on the photo. The boy in training clothes in the photo is smiling brightly. No one knows in which jungle he was buried later.

"Smoking again?" Ren Qifeng snatched the cigarette from Lu Yan's fingers and pressed it into the ashtray on the windowsill. "Hai Chen hated the smell the most back then."

Lu Yan didn't say anything, looking out the window at the sign of the North Star Bookstore. The late autumn wind rolled up the fallen leaves, making the words "I blew the wind you blew" sway. He came back at this time every year, as if to keep an unspoken appointment.

"The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl can only meet once a year, but you don't even stay for two days after you come back." Ren Qifeng poured them a cup of hot tea, "Is it that sea that you can't let go of?"

"It's not that I can't let go." Lu Yan held the teacup, his fingertips turning white, "It's just that only there do I feel that he is still there."

The sound of the flood still seemed to be in his ears. He always saw Xiang Haichen in his dreams, sitting alone on the reef, turning his head and smiling at him, exactly the same as seven years ago. He knew it was an illusion, but he was reluctant to wake up.

When Xiang Haichen pushed him for the last time, the temperature of his palm burned his heart, like a red-hot iron that hadn't cooled down after all these years.

"Actually, I know he won't come back." Lu Yan suddenly smiled, but his eyes were red. "But I want to try my luck and look for him again. I think he just went on a long trip."

Ren Qifeng sighed and stopped trying to persuade her. He understood this obsession.

The rain in the jungle became heavier, and the camouflage uniforms were soaked with mud and water.

Lu Yan wiped his face, and the light of the tactical flashlight pierced through the rain curtain, illuminating the figure in the fog ahead.

"Captain, be careful!" Lin Zhouqi's nervous voice came from the communicator, "The team ahead said there's an ambush here!"

Lu Yan raised his hand to signal the team to stop, his fingers clasped on the gun at his waist.

The man in the mist stood against the light, his figure as straight as a pine tree, exactly like the image of Xiang Haichen standing at military posture in his memory. His heart skipped a beat, and he rushed over almost instinctively.

"Hai Chen?"

The man turned around suddenly, his eyebrows and eyes blurred by the rain, but he opened his eyes wide the moment he saw Lu Yan clearly.

A gunshot rang out suddenly. Without thinking much, Lu Yan rushed over and pinned the man under him.

The moment the bullet penetrated his body, he smelled the familiar scent of soapberry, the same one that Xiang Haichen always used back then.

"The sun..." He held the other's hand tightly, blood flowing from the corner of his mouth, "You finally came to pick me up..."

This time, the person in Lu Yan’s dream appeared before him.

At this moment, God was blessing him.

The boy saw the person he loved, and he could find that person even in the vast crowd, even in the mist.

Lu Yan ignored the shouts around him and walked straight towards the man with the brightest smile.

Lu Yan stepped forward to block the bullets fired by the other side for that person.

Lu Yan hugged the other person tightly, thinking of the countless sleepless nights, crying and laughing while calling out a name: "Sun..."

"sun……"

"My sun... you finally came to pick me up..."

"sun……"

While murmuring, Lu Yan slowly closed his eyes. He held the other's hand tightly and refused to let go, his nails almost digging into the other's flesh.

I can't let it go again this time. I let it go once seven years ago and it hurt for seven whole years.

"Brother! Don't sleep! Don't sleep!!"

He could vaguely hear someone calling him, and the voice sounded like Han Fengyang's.

Han Fengyang, who was still in shock, shouted, "If you don't let go, let's go to the emergency room together, quickly!"

The man was sent to the emergency room with a limp.

The smell of disinfectant is choking and unpleasant.

Lu Yan suddenly opened his eyes and found the ward empty.

The sunlight came in through the gaps in the curtains, casting a thin strip of light on the floor, like a cordon that someone had pulled up.

"Nurse!" Lu Yan struggled to get out of bed, the IV needle was pulled so hard that it hurt, "Where's the person who brought me here yesterday?! Where's the person I arrested!!"

The nurse pushed the door open and came in, holding a medical record in her hand: "Captain Lu, are you awake? The one who brought you here yesterday was your team member. He just received a call and said he had an urgent mission and had to leave first. He asked you to call him back when you wake up."

Han Fengyang?

Lu Xun was stunned and looked down at his hands.

He clearly remembered grabbing Xiang Haichen's hand, with calluses on his palm and a scar on his knuckles. That real body temperature and the appearance of a human being couldn't be an illusion!

Lu Yan's steps were still unsteady.

His body, which had just been released from the emergency room a few days ago, was trembling as he ran wildly. With every step he took, the wound on his chest felt like it had been cut by a blunt knife, causing him to feel dizzy in pain. But he didn't dare to stop. The incandescent lights in the corridor shone into a blurry light band above his head, just like the past - he also ran like this back then, shouting Xiang Haichen's name, but the only response he got was the endless wailing of the wind.

The draft from the hall on the first floor blew over with the smell of fallen leaves, and Lu Yan suddenly stopped.

The man in the backlight is bending over to sweep the fallen leaves, with a corner of his white shirt lifted by the wind - that's him in the background!

The rustling sound of the broom sweeping across the ground hit Lu Yan's heart again and again.

He stood there, his fingers curled into fists, his nails almost digging into his palms.

For seven years, he had seen this figure countless times in his dreams and fantasized about it countless times when he was awake. But when the real person stood before him, he felt as if all his strength had been drained away, and even his breathing trembled.

"Sun..." He tried to call out, but his voice was hoarse as if it had been sanded by sandpaper.

The man paused in sweeping the floor and slowly turned around.

The wind blew up the strands of hair on her forehead, revealing her eyebrows and eyes, which were exactly the same as in her memory, except that her face was extremely pale, with a faint dark spot under her eyes.

When he saw Lu Yan, he frowned, with a look of complete strangeness in his eyes, as if he was looking at an inexplicable intruder.

Lu Yan's heart suddenly tightened, as if it was being gripped by an icy hand. He rushed over and grabbed the man's arm - it was so thin that it hurt his hand, and the bones at the wrist were clearly visible. It was a whole circle thinner than when he was on the training ground that year.

"Stand still, don't move!" His voice was tense, and his fingertips turned white from the force, "Look at me, Haichen, look at me!"

Xiang Haichen staggered when he was grabbed by him, his brows furrowed even more tightly, and he raised his hand to shake him off, but Lu Yan held him even tighter.

"Who are you?" His voice was hoarse as if he had just woken up, and there was a hint of offense and coldness, "Let go."