Everyone held their breath and listened in silence.
"His squad leader said Chen Ze was always smiling. Whenever someone needed help, he was the first to step up. After finishing his own drills, he'd help the new recruits who couldn't keep up. We used to tease him, saying he was born to work himself to the bone."
"He was stingy, too. He couldn't bear to spend a penny of his monthly allowance. If his clothes tore, he mended them himself. If his shoes came apart, he glued them back together and kept wearing them. None of us knew what he was saving for."
"He sent every penny home—to pay for his bedridden mother's treatment and save up tuition for his younger sister, who was still in school."
Soft sobs rose from the crowd.
Chen Nian could no longer hold back. She covered her mouth as tears slid silently down her cheeks.
Yue Xiaofei's eyes reddened too.
"In the final seconds of Chen Ze's life, he didn't cry out in pain or fear."
"He just gripped the hand of the soldier beside him and used the last of his strength to say the final words of his life."
"'Help me... take care of my mom... and my sister.'"
Yue Xiaofei could say no more.
The eyes of the more than two hundred soldiers of the 800th Company had turned red. Some were already sobbing too hard to speak.
It was as though they were back on that battlefield, seeing their kindhearted brother lying in a pool of blood.
A vast grief settled over the entire cemetery.
Rain mingled with tears as it ran down every face.
A long time passed before Yue Xiaofei spoke again, his voice firm and ringing!
"Let loyal bones rest wherever they fall beneath these hills. Why