On the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month, Tangdu Town held its market day. Tong Haojing had long received word about the new recruits reporting in. He went to the People's Armed Forces Department and received his soldier's uniform. Town officials were pinning large red flowers onto the soldiers, while parents, relatives, and neighbors crowded around to see them off. Drums and gongs echoed through the entire street. Tong Haojing anxiously searched the crowd. How he wished he could see his mother, but he had never told her about this at all. She would not come. At this moment of parting from his family, his eyes were full of sorrow. Then, a familiar figure in the crowd made him burst with excitement.
"Uncle Mumu! Uncle Mumu!" Tong Haojing ran over excitedly, his eyes brimming with grateful tears.
Uncle Mumu was stunned by the sudden shout.
"You're joining the army too?!" Uncle Mumu felt both love and resentment. Unable to stop himself, he scolded, "You brat who doesn't know his own limits!" Though Uncle Mumu was somewhat angry, it was clear that he still cared deeply for Tong Haojing. He had long put Tong Haojing's runaway marriage behind him. Now that the boy was joining the army, perhaps he might even become a general someday! The thought nearly made Uncle Mumu laugh. In truth, he knew that Tong Haojing had gone to enlist. The town had come to question him as the village chief, but he had not had time to tell Wang Xiyue and her son.
"Uncle Mumu, did my mom come to the market?" Tong Haojing asked quietly, without much hope.
"Your mom didn't come?!" Uncle Mumu found it strange. Could it be that this boy's mother doesn't know at all? Ever since Tong Haojing had left home, Uncle Mumu had not spoken to Wang Xiyue. Whenever they met, both looked awkward. Fortunately, a few days later, Uncle Mumu's daughter, Mei Tingyu, left to work along the coast, and the two of them pretended nothing had happened.
This boy secretly joined the army without telling his mother. It isn't a bad way out. That was what Uncle Mumu thought. "How about I go get your mother and have her come see you off?" As he spoke, Uncle Mumu hurried outside. Afraid Tong Haojing's mother would not make it in time, he looked more anxious than anyone else.
Tong Haojing waited with desperate longing, anxiously hoping for his mother to appear. A bus to transport the new recruits arrived, and everyone boarded one after another. Tong Haojing sat by the window and looked toward home. His mother still had not come. After several blasts of the horn, the bus started moving, kicking up clouds of dust. Tong Haojing shed tears of disappointment. With everything before him dim and gray, he no longer knew whether his decision had been right or wrong. At that moment, even if he had a thousand things to say, there was no way to say them.
By the time Wang Xiyue and Uncle Mumu arrived at the entrance of the People's Armed Forces Department, panting for breath, the bus carrying the recruits had already left and the crowd had dispersed. Several bright red drums and gongs still stood at the entrance, while scraps of paper that had fallen from the red flowers littered the ground. Wang Xiyue stood frozen before the People's Armed Forces Department, dazed and distracted. Only after a long while did she come to her senses and cry out, "Tongtong, why didn't you tell Mom? It's not like I wouldn't have agreed!"
Seeing Wang Xiyue heartbroken, Uncle Mumu felt a trace of sadness as well. He thought of his daughter Mei Tingyu, who had gone south alone to work, and wondered when she would return. Still, in front of a woman, Uncle Mumu had to show a man's strength. Pretending to be calm, he said, "Tongtong is grown up now. Maybe he's even got what it takes to become a general!"
Wang Xiyue wiped away her tears. Uncle Mumu's words made her laugh, and a bitter smile appeared on her face. Turning toward him, she sighed, "Sigh, when children grow up, they have minds of their own. You can control them for a while, but not for their whole lives. Let him go!" Wang Xiyue cried and laughed at once, her expression growing somewhat unnatural. She seemed to want to say something, yet held herself back.
Uncle Mumu saw it and seemed to understand. He spoke before she could. "No need to thank me. All roads lead to Rome. Joining the army is also a way out for a boy!" In fact, Uncle Mumu had wanted Wang Xiyue's thanks. A few days earlier, his daughter Mei Tingyu had written to tell him that Tong Haojing wanted to enlist, asking him to go to the town and speak with the People's Armed Forces Department. As the village chief of Dafang Village, Uncle Mumu had frequent dealings with town officials, and his words carried some weight.
Wang Xiyue had held in her apology for a long time and wanted to speak her heart, but after hearing Uncle Mumu's words, she felt something was off. Could Tongtong's departure to join the army have been arranged with Uncle Mumu?
"You knew Tongtong was going into the army?" Wang Xiyue looked at Uncle Mumu suspiciously.
Uncle Mumu realized he had said the wrong thing and felt embarrassed. "I went to see Cadre Liu at the People's Armed Forces Department. He readily agreed, but Tongtong didn't know about it!"
Wang Xiyue suddenly understood. She had been kept in the dark about all of this. The two stood in awkward silence, not knowing what to say. In the end, Wang Xiyue still spoke the words she had been holding back. "It was my fault. You can't force a child's life."
For a long time, no one from the Big House Clan had seen Tong Haojing or Mei Tingyu. Somehow, rumors began to spread that the two had eloped. Uncle Mumu and Wang Xiyue were happy enough to hear it. Deep down, they hoped the two would end up together, so they could not be bothered to pay attention to such gossip.
In the blink of an eye, several years passed. Mei Tingyu was the first to send news from outside. She mailed Uncle Mumu one hundred thousand yuan and asked him to rebuild the house. The entire Big House Clan was stirred into excitement. Yet there was still no word from Tong Haojing. Wang Xiyue went to the People's Armed Forces Department more than once to ask after him, but learned nothing. Then one day, the town post office delivered a letter from Tong Haojing, saying that he had been promoted to an officer. Only then did Wang Xiyue finally relax, though she still felt uneasy deep down.
After Tong Haojing left, he was assigned to Unit A. Because he was physically strong, sharp, capable, and willing to endure hardship, he was soon selected for the Special Operations Unit. On the eve of August 1st Army Day, the Special Operations Unit held a ten-kilometer field march on an urgent-march mission. The starting point was Yunding Pass outside Hexi University. The task of Tong Haojing's four-man team was to cross Yunding Mountain Canyon within an hour and reach the designated location.
At ten in the morning, Tong Haojing set off with his teammates. They had traveled less than two kilometers into the canyon. Ten minutes earlier, the sky had been clear and cloudless, but in an instant the weather changed. Dark clouds gathered, and soon torrential rain began to pour down, triggering a mountain flood. Danger lurked everywhere. Just as they were seeking a solution, a heart-wrenching cry for help came from the canyon. "Help... Help..."
Everyone was startled by the voice and immediately stopped moving. Tong Haojing turned and looked at the soldiers behind him. "Something's wrong," he warned. He listened carefully, and the distant cries for help were faint.
"No matter what's happening, we have to push through. We can't get distracted, or we won't complete the mission!" another soldier urged sharply, his steps firm and steady. At the front, Tong Haojing sensed that something was wrong. He immediately took off his radio and asked the captain for instructions. "Captain, someone's crying for help ahead. What do we do?"
The captain pondered again and again. If they rescued the person, they would fail the mission. If they did not, they would disgrace the name of the Special Operations Unit. For the safety of the entire team, he had no choice but to act cautiously. He stopped the team from advancing. "Hold your positions!"
The situation was extremely urgent. A stubborn surge of determination rose in Tong Haojing from nowhere, and his eagerness to act became unusually intense. Just as the captain was about to request instructions from his superiors, Tong Haojing lost his temper. He clenched his fists, his teeth grinding together. In his eyes, it seemed there were no leaders anymore. Everyone felt he was becoming unruly as he began shouting, "Forget it! Life comes first! Save them!"
One teammate quickly tried to stop Tong Haojing. "Are you out of your mind, kid? Shut that filthy mouth!"
Tong Haojing knew the stakes. In the face of such a natural disaster, time was life. With the raging flood bearing down and the lives of ordinary people under threat, he had no reason to retreat. Tong Haojing decisively chose to find whoever was calling for help and lead them out of the canyon, even if it meant failing the mission.
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