Under the moonlight

The mercenaries then led them out of the room and onto the coastal road, where several other mercenaries watched over them and prevented them from moving around freely.

Seeing that their lives were no longer in danger, the men became smug again. One of them ripped open the buttons on his shirt and said, "Damn, I knew we shouldn't have come out. They sealed off the airport, and we haven't seen a single thing!"

"Hmph, nobody's begging you to come out!"

"Damn it, it was all your fault for coming up with this terrible idea!"

"You think you can just listen to me like that? Are you a dog?!"

"Holy crap, who are you talking about?"

"Enough!" Huang Meng shouted angrily as she watched them about to start fighting again.

"Are you two ever going to stop? You're all grown men, why weren't you so brave just now? If it weren't for the clothes you're wearing, you'd probably be thrown into the sea to feed the fish by now. You still have the nerve to argue here? If you're not ashamed, take off your clothes before you start arguing!"

"Damn it, you little brat, who are you calling spineless!" The man who was being insulted stood up and tried to grab Huang Meng, but Huang Meng stubbornly refused to back down. However, before his large hands could reach her, a hand with distinct knuckles grabbed her and pushed her back.

The man staggered back a few steps, looking at the tall Xu Ao standing in front of Huang Meng. His eyes were cold and his chilling aura was overwhelming. The man touched his arm that had been grabbed, snorted, turned around, and squatted down to the side without saying another word.

Huang Meng reached out and grabbed Xu Ao's arm. Although she hadn't seen the expression on his face just now, she could imagine his anger just from the fact that he had managed to intimidate that troublemaker.

Everything was originally planned smoothly, but their selfishness not only disrupted the plan but also tarnished their country's reputation. Why should we sneak away? Upright citizens of China can leave with dignity even if they are imprisoned; it's just a matter of time, as long as they believe in their country. They're just used to comfort and can't endure a few days of hardship.

Huang Meng reached out and gently placed her hand on Xu Ao's clenched fist. His hand was so big that her small hand couldn't hold it at all, so she could only rub the back of his hand to relieve his anger.

This trick worked. He quickly loosened his fist, extended his palm, and took her small hand in his. Xu Ao calmed his breathing, turned to look at Huang Meng beside him, the coldness in his eyes receding, and his gaze softened as he looked at the delicate girl in front of him.

They were surrounded by several mercenaries with guns, while a few men who had sneaked out gathered together and squatted on the ground, with Huang Meng and Xu Ao standing to the side.

Xu Ao glanced at them, then slowly walked to their side. The mercenaries beside him immediately became alert. Xu Ao squatted down next to the men, looked at them, and said, "Tell me, how did you come up with this terrible idea, hmm?"

The men, knowing they were in the wrong, just chuckled and remained silent. The troublemaker glanced at Xu Ao and said disdainfully, "Hmph, a terrible idea? If it weren't for these mercenaries, I would have run away long ago. Damn, they're ruthless; they're trying to trap us here to die. Am I supposed to stay here and die with them instead of trying to escape? A terrible idea? Do you think I like dressing like this? Damn it, what kind of clothes are these? They're so uncomfortable!"

Xu Ao looked at the man, his hands clenched into fists on his knees, the veins on his forehead throbbing, but he held back. He lowered his head, pushed up his glasses, and tried his best to suppress the urge to curse. He explained patiently in a calm voice, "This political turmoil was something we couldn't have predicted. No one expected them to blockade the main city and cut off contact with the outside world. All we can do is trust our country in this difficult environment. They certainly won't abandon us. All we can do is be patient and stay calm. After all, you're not just yourself out there." Xu Ao finished speaking, his eyes fixed on the man in front of him. He practically gritted his teeth and said each word carefully.

The man in front of her still had the same disdainful expression, and seemed not to have taken Xu Ao's words to heart at all. On the other hand, the men next to her lowered their heads in embarrassment.

Xu Ao looked at the man and continued, "We are now representing Country C. Your skin color, your language, and this uniform you're wearing that makes you extremely uncomfortable—that's what prevented you from being shot the moment you were caught, do you understand?"

Hearing what he said, Huang Meng slowly walked forward, stood in front of the man, and looked at him with a cold gaze, saying, "I was the last one to arrive at the embassy. When I arrived, they had already sealed off the main city area. I was only able to enter the embassy with my identification documents. Even so, they still took all my other belongings. Also, before me, there was a man who tried to communicate with them and get them to leave. Guess what happened?"

The man looked up at Huang Meng without speaking. Huang Meng slowly squatted down, half-clenching her fist and extending her thumb and forefinger. The man, seeing her pointing a gun at his forehead, instinctively flinched back, losing his balance and falling to the ground. The momentary embarrassment made the man spring up as if pricked by a needle, glaring fiercely at Huang Meng. Xu Ao stood up and stood sideways in front of her.

Huang Meng stood up and looked at him, saying, "This is your result. If you don't believe me, take off these clothes and see if they will do anything to you. If you go to the embassy, ​​since you are a citizen of Country C, of ​​course they won't make things difficult for you. But if you force your way through their blockade, do you think they will let you challenge their bottom line? They only care about money, not life."

After Huang Meng finished speaking, she looked at the man. Although he was still silent and looked very unconvinced, Huang Meng's words had at least had some effect. He was no longer as arrogant as before and quietly squatted to the side. Seeing this, the others stood up and gathered around Xu Ao. One of the men, who looked rather honest, chuckled and said to Xu Ao, "Hehehe, young man, don't blame us for breaking the rules. Well, since we've come this far, I'll tell you the truth."

A few of us came here together to do business, buying and selling their handicrafts back home. It's not our first time here; we're pretty familiar with the area and know a few local business people. Before, they always brought translators to do business with us, and we just brought the money. This time, we thought we'd bring our own translator. That way, after we finish our business, we can go sightseeing, hehe~”

Huang Meng could roughly guess what he meant by "strolling around" from the man's smirk. She looked at Xu Ao, who was still frowning and staring coldly at the man, nodding to signal him to continue.

"We came here intending to stay a few more days, so we brought a translator. After finishing our business, we drank with some local business owners. This deal was quite big, and both sides were very satisfied, so we drank a few more glasses. Perhaps the locals weren't good drinkers, because they got tipsy before they even had a chance to drink much. We overheard one of the business owners telling us to leave as soon as possible after we finished our business, saying that there was going to be an explosion or something. At the time, we just assumed he was drunk and didn't take it to heart."

Who knew he'd ship the entire shipment the very next morning? He immediately started pressuring us for payment. We figured we were just staying for a couple of days, so we'd let him wait. But he seemed really anxious. He left us an account number, and then he'd already flown away. We didn't think much of it at the time, assuming he was just worried about us delaying payment because he had a large order. So we had the payment transferred to him from our home country.

"So you're saying that person knew about the explosion and ran away beforehand?" Huang Meng asked, arms crossed.

"Yes, that's what he said when he was drunk, but who would take it seriously? Nobody would have thought there would actually be a bombing attack."

"Are you guys the ones who went to the embassy after drinking before the explosion?" Xu Ao asked, staring at them for a long time.

"Yes, it was a few of us. That night we were drinking with girls at a bar, oh no, no, I mean with some local friends. They said that some rich people they knew had been flying abroad on private jets in the past few days. One of the beauties said that a boss who often visited her joked with her before leaving that the city was going to be bombed into a honeycomb. At the time, we just thought it was a joke."

But the more I thought about it, the more uneasy I felt. It was a bad premonition, like everything was converging on this explosion. We discussed it and decided that regardless of whether it was true or not, we had to leave. I remember it was already past 8 pm. I called people in China to book flights, but they said there were no tickets left, the earliest being 10 am the next day. So I called a car to the airport, and guess what?

The man looked at Huang Meng and Xu Ao with feigned mystery, but the two of them didn't respond at all. One had her arms crossed, and the other stared at him with a cold face. He swallowed and continued, "They said there were no tickets back, but there were several private jets parked at the airport. I noticed that the people on those planes all seemed to be traveling with their families and didn't have any luggage. They didn't look like they were going on vacation. That's when I realized something was wrong. We quickly went back and discussed it. Since we couldn't go back, we decided to go to the embassy. So we went to the embassy, ​​thinking that no matter if there was an explosion, staying there was better than staying in the city."

After hearing what he said, Huang Meng felt a chill in her heart. Around 8 o'clock, she was still helping others translate documents.

She had already finished her scheduled work that morning, and in the afternoon she planned to wander around the city so that she could meet up with friends for a late-night snack after landing in Beijing that evening.

Unfortunately, after lunch, the other translator who was supposed to be working with her didn't arrive on time. Since this part-time job was introduced by someone else, she couldn't just leave, so she thought it wouldn't hurt to stay another day and helped out for the rest of the afternoon. She even worked a little overtime in the evening before it was finally over.

She was in the office with several other local university students. Because she spoke S language very fluently, she could talk to them very easily. They chatted and worked at the same time. When they came out, it was already past 9 p.m. They had dinner together at a nearby restaurant. While eating and chatting, they didn't realize it was almost 11 p.m.

On their way out of the restaurant, they were discussing going to a bar to relax later. Huang Meng shook her stiff neck and said to Gary, "You guys go have fun. I just want to hug my pillow and my soft blankets." Gary laughed beside her, saying she was like an old woman who didn't know how to enjoy her youth. Huang Meng smiled but didn't say anything. The next second, one of the boys walking in front of them suddenly shouted, "Wow, a shooting star!"

Everyone looked up to see, and Huang Meng was especially excited, standing on tiptoe. She had always wanted to see a meteor shower. Although she didn't believe in the romantic notions that wishes made upon meteor showers could come true, she still longed to see the fireworks display from the universe, which streaked across the sky and then gradually dimmed before falling to earth.

Although she had never seen a meteor shower, the thing in front of her, which was approaching the ground in a straight line without slowing down at all and burning with sparks, seemed to have nothing to do with a meteor falling from the sky.

As everyone watched the few bright stars slowly fall from the sky, just as they were wondering what was going on, a deafening explosion suddenly rang out from where the stars had fallen, followed by billowing smoke and towering flames.

They stood there dumbfounded. At first, no one connected the falling and exploding of those "stars" with the fact that they looked so much like meteors. They streaked across the sky with the brilliance of meteors, and people on the ground only saw their beauty, which made them shine in the night sky like meteors. No one thought that their beautiful appearance had such powerful destructive force.

The second time they saw those dangerous "stars," followed by deafening explosions and a sky full of fire and smoke, then came heart-wrenching screams. This time, the "stars" fell right where they could see them. As they fell, flames shot into the sky, destroying everything around them. The shrill screams rushed towards them like a tidal wave.

She even saw a pile of bloody, mangled flesh lying a hundred meters ahead. It all happened so suddenly that someone shouted, "It's an explosion!" and everyone came to their senses and started turning around and running away.

Huang Meng only remembers that there was chaos all around her, and everyone was running around aimlessly. They were quickly scattered by the crowd, and only Gary was left holding her arm and running.

The explosion grew closer, and the flames from it even made her back feel a burning sensation. The pitiful cries were right next to her ears. Her brain seemed to freeze, and she stopped thinking. Her legs were running at full speed, driven only by the instinct to survive.

Even so, fragments of bombs kept flying overhead—fragments of bombs, destroyed buildings, blown-up vehicles, or shattered pieces of corpses…

As Huang Meng ran, she raised her hand to shield her head, dodging the flying debris and pebbles. Suddenly, she felt her right arm, which had been being pulled, become lighter. She turned her head and saw that her arm was empty, and Gary was no longer beside her.

She wanted to stop and search, but the scattering and chaotic crowd, along with the desperate fear in her heart, forced her legs to keep running. The first explosion lasted for half an hour. Only when it finally quieted down behind her and there were no more fragments and rocks above her did her body slowly recover from the rapid run. As her brain restarted, her senses slowly returned to her body, and she felt the dull pain coming from her ankles. Her legs, which had stopped running, suddenly reacted from the numb state, and a wave of soreness hit her. Her legs were already overburdened, and even taking a small step forward was extremely difficult.