The officer soon left.
Chen Shouyi closed the door, sat on the edge of the bed, and stared blankly into space.
A few minutes later, he stood up and began packing. At last, he moved the sleeping Shell Girl into his briefcase, zipped it shut, picked up his luggage, and opened the door.
When he reached the hotel entrance, Xu Zhangtian and Lu Lingbo were already there.
"Chief Chen!"
"Chief Chen!"
The two greeted him.
Chen Shouyi nodded.
After that, the three fell silent.
In a sense, they were all deserters, even though the evacuation had been ordered from above.
Before long, a car pulled up outside.
Two military martial artists jumped out.
"Where's Zhang Zhaoping?" Lu Lingbo asked as soon as she saw them.
"We haven't found him yet. He should be here soon!" The speaker was named Wang Shiwei. Like the Wang Mingyu beside him, he was one of the new military martial artists who had joined last time.
"How's the front line?" Chen Shouyi asked. Two days earlier, he, Xu Zhangtian, and Lu Lingbo had switched to night duty.
Hearing Chen Shouyi's question, Wang Shiwei quickly replied, "There was no movement when we left!"
"Do you think the higher-ups are being too cautious? The war's been going on for so many days already," Wang Mingyu said gravely.
"They must have noticed something," Xu Zhangtian said.
As they were talking, a muffled BOOM came from far away, like a sudden clap of thunder on a clear day.
Chen Shouyi's heart jolted. He abruptly looked up at the sky and saw a ball of fire burst open in midair.
A warplane had exploded.
A second one followed, then a third.
His keen eyesight let him clearly see that the planes were being attacked by enormous boulders. The other aircraft