A Clear Conscience

What should one do when faced with a Red Scarf Bandits standing right before them? Zhang Tie was asking himself this very question. Some people ask the heavens, some ask the earth, some ask the times, some ask the momentum, and some ask others; but Zhang Tie, he was asking his own heart!

If the heart has no regrets, then life has no regrets! Zhang Tie told himself this silently, and a clear answer slowly surfaced in his mind.

The classroom was rowdy, and the smile on Captain Colin's face gradually became more pronounced. Captain Colin reached out a hand, and the classroom instantly fell into a deathly silence. Everyone watched One-Eyed Dragon, waiting to see what he would say.

"Alright, now that everyone has made their decision, everyone, stand up!"

With a clatter, everyone in the classroom rose from their chairs.

"Those who want to charge up and have a go at the Red Scarf Bandits, stand to my left..."

The animals in the classroom scrambled to the left. Zhang Tie also stood up, but having already made his decision, he simply watched those running to the left. Very few people remained in their original spots. To Zhang Tie's surprise, the fat pig Barry had been about to step to the left, but for some reason, his face paled, and he pulled his raised leg back to its original position, standing still. Doug and Baghdad had been the first to run to the left, while Light and Sista were so fast that by the time the fat pig Barry lifted his leg, they were already on the left. Seeing the fat pig didn't follow, they looked a bit dumbfounded. Shavin, who always followed the fat pig Barry, also stayed behind. In the end, only three people from the Airplane Brotherhood remained in their original spots. Including one other person who hadn't moved, only four students in the entire class remained standing where they were. In that kind of atmosphere, even those who had other thoughts would usually get swept up in the heat of the moment and run over.

Seeing that Zhang Tie hadn't moved, Barry was slightly surprised, staring hard at Zhang Tie's face as if trying to find a flower blooming there.

"Very well, has everyone decided?"

Everyone nodded, and those standing on the left cast looks of contempt at those who remained in place.

Captain Colin didn't look at those on the left, but instead looked at the four who hadn't moved. He pointed his finger, which looked like a heavy club, at Shavin, who was sitting in the front. "Tell me, why didn't you charge up like the others?"

Shavin was sweating nervously by now. Seeing that club-like finger pointing at him and feeling the weight of One-Eyed Dragon's stern gaze, he swallowed hard twice before weakly pointing at the fat pig Barry. "He... he didn't go, so I followed him!"

"And you?" Captain Colin shook his head slightly, his club-like finger pointing at the head of the fat pig Barry. The fat pig's chubby face broke into a smile like a chrysanthemum, and he nearly bowed and scraped. "If I saw a Red Scarf Bandits, the first thing I'd think of is to find a magistrate or Captain Colin to report it, not to charge at them!"

For some reason, the moment he saw the fat pig's sycophantic expression, Captain Colin felt a wave of nausea. The finger pointing at the fat pig seemed to recoil as if afraid of touching something dirty, and he quickly shifted direction to point at someone else. "And you?"

That guy hesitated for a moment. "If they can take down the Red Scarf Bandits by going up there, then I won't go and steal the credit. If they can't, adding me won't make a difference!"

"You mean, if you see a Red Scarf Bandits, you'll be prepared to run away!" Captain Colin emphasized the words "run away," his expression turning serious as a wave of pressure radiated from his body.

Under Captain Colin's pressure, the guy being pointed at felt as if he were facing the harshest of accusations, and he began to buckle. "I... I..." It took real courage to say the words "run away" in front of Captain Colin. The guy wasn't sure if he uttered those words, the enraged Captain Colin would jump up and slap him against the wall. Everyone knew that a tough guy like Captain Colin hated cowards the most.

Seeing that the guy couldn't speak, a trace of imperceptible disappointment flashed in Captain Colin's eyes. He turned his finger toward the last person, the standing Zhang Tie. "What about you? Are you going to run away too?"

"Yes, I will run away," Zhang Tie replied without any psychological burden.

As soon as Zhang Tie said this, a wave of whispering and contempt came from the group on the left.

"Why? They are all charging up, why would you turn and run?" Captain Colin pressed, the gaze in his single eye sharpening. "Don't you want to charge up like them and rid the people of a scourge? Even if you consider something more realistic, the head of any Red Scarf Bandits member is worth a lot of money!"

"They are just going to their deaths for nothing. With their current strength, even if they swarmed them, and even if there were twice as many of them, any member of the Red Scarf Bandits could easily wipe them all out in a short time. I've heard that the most ordinary trash among the Red Scarf Bandits is at the level of a five-level Battle Soldier. They are all blood-soaked, with incredibly rich combat experience—they've killed their way to where they are. A group of people who aren't even first-level Battle Soldiers facing a Red Scarf Bandits with a minimum level of five, charging up empty-handed—they aren't even worth being called cannon fodder!"

"What did you say, you coward!" someone in the crowd on the left cursed angrily.

"That's right, stop making excuses for your cowardice! Coward, even if we die in battle, it's still better than a coward like you who turns and runs!"

"Pah..."

"Shut up!" Captain Colin turned his head and shouted. The world was instantly quiet. Captain Colin stared at Zhang Tie and asked another soul-crushing question. "So, you are very afraid of death? Don't you think it's shameful to turn and run when facing an enemy? Aren't you afraid of being labeled a coward?"

"When I know there is no chance of winning and it's just throwing my life away for nothing, I don't feel it's shameful to turn and run from an enemy stronger than myself, and I am certainly no coward! If possible, I would take more people with me to run away..." Zhang Tie looked fearlessly into Captain Colin's increasingly stern gaze. "What is truly shameful is them." Zhang Tie pointed at the people on the left, causing another wave of anger from that side, with everyone rolling up their sleeves, ready to teach him a lesson after class.

Zhang Tie suddenly exploded in rage, cursing at the people on the left. "Shut up, you bastards! You charge up and hand your lives over to the enemy to be ended at their whim, never once considering the feelings of your parents and families. The enemy turning you into corpses takes only a flick of a wrist, but your parents spent decades of blood and sweat raising you. You get your thrill, performing a meaningless sacrifice in a way you think is heroic and great, but you leave the long, lingering pain to your families and parents! Do you know how painful it is for parents to lose their son? Do you know how miserable they will be when they hear the news of your death? Have you ever seen what your parents look like when they cry for you? You know nothing..." The people on the left fell silent, each lost in thought, while Zhang Tie continued his outburst, cursing, "A bunch of bastards with nothing but muscles and hormones in your brains! What is truly shameful is you. Not only are you shameful, you are a bunch of idiots! If I were a Red Scarf Bandits, I would love to have opponents and enemies like you. Killing you is easier than killing pigs. Even a group of pigs would run all over the mountains under the blade, but you bunch together and stretch your necks out to be slaughtered. Is there any enemy more adorable than you? I would run. As long as I am alive, I can keep causing trouble for the enemy, forcing him to divert his energy and time to deal with me. If the enemy is careless enough, I will find other ways to kill him. I can use fire, use poison, lure him into dangerous places. I will grow, making myself harder and harder to deal with, until one day, when my strength surpasses his, I can turn the tables and kill him! By the time I can kill the enemy, the grass on your graves will be tall enough to graze cattle! You idiots who aren't even as good as pigs!"

Damn it, these bastards. I did a good deed this morning by wiping the seats for you, and you still called me an idiot. If I don't take this chance to curse back, I'll be stifled with internal injuries. I'll just take this opportunity to curse you on behalf of your parents. While his mouth felt good, Zhang Tie felt good in his heart too.

After cursing for a long while, there was finally no sound in the classroom, save for the heavy, ragged breathing of Zhang Tie, who had finished his rant.

"Did anyone in your family ever sacrifice themselves while serving?" Captain Colin, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly asked Zhang Tie a question.

This question caught Zhang Tie off guard. He hadn't expected Captain Colin to be so sensitive. The question stirred up many memories for Zhang Tie. Finally, Zhang Tie lowered his head. "I should have had two older brothers, but now I only have one. That bastard met the war between the Andaman Alliance and the Scots in his second year of service. He was very brave, and in every battle, no matter what enemy he faced, he would charge to the front. So, in the end, all he left for his family was a box of ashes and a Medal of Courage!"

Because the family had already lost one, he understood the pain of losing a loved one. That was why Zhang Tie's name included the character for "iron"—it was his parents' hope that Zhang Tie's life would be as hard as iron. This topic was a permanent taboo in the Zhang Family. Zhang Tie had never met the brother who was no longer there; he had only seen his mother and father silently weeping over a photograph twice. His parents' sorrow left an indelible mark on Zhang Tie's heart. Later, Zhang Tie learned that he had originally had a bastard older brother named Zhang Yong. Because of his outstanding strength and performance, he was promoted to second lieutenant in his second year of service, becoming an officer, and then he encountered the war between the Andaman Alliance and the Scots. It was said that the bastard charged to the front line in every battle, until he turned himself into a box of ashes...

Zhang Tie and his older brother Zhang Yang had once sworn that in this lifetime, they would never let anyone deliver another Medal of Courage to their mom and dad. So, what did running away from a strong enemy matter? If necessary, even surrender was not entirely unacceptable. He had never thought about being a great hero who saves the world. His life goal was just to make his mom and dad happy, to make the people around him happy, to make the people he liked happy. As for the rest, what Red Scarf Bandits, Green Scarf Bandits, what did that have to do with him...