Under the moonlight

Xu Ao paused here, turning to look at Huang Meng beside him. Her face was as calm as before, but her small hands, hanging by her sides, were clenched into fists.

Xu Ao calmly grasped her clenched fist and slowly pried open her tightly clenched fingers. A dry, warm sensation slowly spread through her palm to her entire body. Huang Meng gently exhaled and opened her palm to grasp the warmth in his hand.

Xu Ao continued, "Those bombs all landed precisely in the main urban area. As the light disappeared, there was a deafening explosion. We stood in the courtyard, staring blankly at everything, completely unable to react."

It wasn't until the light from the explosion gradually faded that I realized what was happening and began to act. We sounded the emergency alarm, and everyone was frantically making preparations. The embassy was in a state of unprecedented chaos.

I directed their actions. Several of the new young people were terrified. They probably never imagined that one day they would be so close to war. I can't blame them, after all, they were born in China and had only ever seen such scenes in war movies.

However, they reacted quickly. The embassy has always had good defense and vigilance measures and often provides them with relevant training. In the past, they always complained to me that these were just superficial work and procedures.

However, these seemingly tedious and procedural tasks are the lessons learned and accumulated by many people through experience.

As Huang Meng listened, she nodded in agreement. She had experienced it firsthand. Even if a person's brain can react in time during an explosion, their body will always be a beat slower. Only through continuous training to form muscle memory can one react in time to the brain's response.

Xu Ao tightened his grip on the small hand he was holding, as if to comfort her, and continued, "Later we discovered that they were dropping bombs in batches at different times, and the target was the main urban area. I think their purpose wasn't to attack, but more like psychological torture. Dropping bombs at irregular intervals, it's like..."

"It's like trapping a beast in a cage and whipping it intermittently to provoke it, making it frantic, tense, and fearful, but with nowhere to escape. The constant attacks keep its nerves taut until it finally collapses from exhaustion." Huang Meng calmly finished speaking, continuing Xu Ao's words.

Xu Ao looked down at the petite body beside her, which was tense and whose palms were unconsciously clenching tightly around her.

After Huang Meng finished speaking, she let out a soft breath. She looked up into Xu Ao's eyes, a faint smile appearing on her lips, revealing a shallow dimple on her left cheek.

"Go on."

Xu Ao continued, "Yes, that's the feeling you described. It's like they're tormenting the city. I thought of those people. We were all shocked after the explosion, but those people were unusually calm, as if they had expected it."

They sat huddled together, watching the explosion in the distance. Perhaps because they weren't directly involved, they seemed unusually quiet. I later asked them why they insisted on coming into the embassy before the explosion, and whether they already knew about the attack.

But they remained silent, only saying they were too drunk to remember anything and were terrified during the explosion, which explained their behavior. Later, I observed them more closely. Aside from eating together, they barely interacted, rarely speaking to others. They mostly stayed in their rooms, but the more they did this, the more I felt they were deliberately avoiding each other.

After Xu Ao mentioned it, Huang Meng seemed to have some impression of the men he mentioned. She always looked around warily, her expression serious and tense. She never joined in the fun and always kept her distance from the crowd.

Huang Meng suddenly thought of that woman. She looked up at Xu Ao and asked, "That woman, the one who lives in the room on the left at the end of the corridor, do you remember her?" From this angle, Huang Meng could only see his smooth jawline.

Xu Ao frowned, thought for a moment, and said, "Is it the woman who was caught hiding food that day?"

"Yes." Huang Meng nodded, looking at her toes and waiting for Xu Ao to speak.

“She was brought back by our colleagues. It must have been the day after the bombing. She was found unconscious outside the wall in the early morning by our colleagues on duty. They had her identification documents in their hands, so we brought her in.”

At this point, Xu Ao seemed to remember something, turned to look at Huang Meng beside him, and said earnestly, "You, you also fainted at the door that day, and I was the one who found you." His tone sounded like he was trying to take credit?

Huang Meng blinked at him and said in a serious tone, "Thank you so much!"

After saying that, they both laughed. It turned out that this man was a completely different person when he smiled compared to when he had a serious face. Now, when he smiled, he revealed a small tiger tooth, and his eyebrows and eyes no longer had the sharpness of when he was serious. Instead, they were gentle and tender. This word suddenly popped into Huang Meng's mind.

She turned her head away from him, the wind blowing through her hair, her long hair dancing in the air. She casually brushed her unruly hair aside, inadvertently letting him notice her reddened earlobes, like ripe cherries, making his heart itch.

The two remained silent, and as they approached the embassy entrance, they took a deep breath, exchanged a glance, and then stepped through the embassy gates.

Sure enough, there were quite a few people sitting together chatting in the lobby on the first floor. When they saw them come in, they quickly stood up and surrounded them. Xu Ao slightly turned to the side to protect her.

"So, what did you say?"

"Could they let the boat in?"

"Didn't you even ask if you could let us to the airport? Is the airport also under lockdown?"

Faced with a barrage of questions, Xu Ao suppressed his frustration and said loudly, "We didn't see their superiors today. We'll go find them tomorrow. I can't answer the rest of the questions." With that, he pulled Huang Meng toward the stairwell.

"Hey, hey, what's going on with you guys?"

"Exactly, they go out for a trip and come back without saying a word."

"Hey, is it even possible to get this done?"

Hearing the various questions emanating from the crowd behind her, Huang Meng kept turning around to try and explain what was going on, but Xu Ao kept pulling her forward. Once they reached the second floor, Huang Meng suddenly shook off Xu Ao's hand.

"Why didn't you explain this to them?"

"What good would it do to explain? In their eyes, as long as we don't bring back the message they want, the result will always be the same: endless complaints."

Huang Meng looked at Xu Ao with his hands in his pockets and a gloomy expression, and could tell that he was in no better mood than she was.

She was doing her best, but all she got in return was doubt and misunderstanding. If it were her, she could have just washed her hands of it and ignored whether they had enough to eat or whether they could go back to Country C! But he was different. Wearing this uniform meant taking on these unseen responsibilities.

Huang Meng bit his lip; he must be feeling very confused right now. So many people need to eat, and if the supplies are delayed by even one day, it will cause them another day of trouble.

Not to mention the men who found the embassy before the explosion, the rest of them were able to find the embassy and seek asylum before her, so they must all have some ability. These people must have the most thoughts.

Xu Ao noticed that the little girl beside him remained silent, so he turned to look at her, as if she were in a daze.

He reached out and ruffled her hair, then said with a smile, "It's alright, I'm not so easily angered by them. If these things made me angry, I wouldn't need to stay in this embassy."

After he finished speaking, his hand unconsciously reached out and pinched her cheek. Huang Meng could tell from the confident smile in his eyes that this person must have the ability to manage all the affairs of the embassy.

Seeing that he was still pinching her face and had no intention of letting go, Huang Meng frowned slightly and muttered, "Stop pinching, it hurts."

Xu Ao smiled and let go of her hand. The two stood for a while, and only went downstairs to eat something simple after the people downstairs had dispersed. Then he went to the office to discuss the day's events with his colleagues, and in the end, everyone agreed to go to the dock.

Although there might be some danger, the mercenaries wouldn't dare to act rashly given their badges. They would also send two colleagues to follow behind them and keep in touch. After finalizing the arrangements, they went back to their rooms to rest. No one knew what would happen tomorrow; they would have to adapt to the situation.