Water everywhere, bodies everywhere...

"Who's following you? This road doesn't belong to you!"

The other man got up too, brushing off the dust as he backed away.

He was trying to run.

Song Ning swung the long broom at him.

"What's the rush? Explain yourselves before you leave!"

The man beside her tried to snatch her broom, but Song Ning kicked him in the chest, knocking him to the ground again.

She thrust the long broom at the one trying to escape and knocked him down too.

The two men lay tangled together on the ground, utterly incapable of putting up a fight and groaning nonstop.

Song Ning frowned. "Who sent you? You can't even take a few hits!"

"Nobody sent us! We were just walking along! Y-you're being completely unreasonable..."

Seeing that he was still making excuses, Song Ning had no patience left to waste on them.

She brought the broom down several times, beating the two men until they shrieked.

Then she began counting down. "I'll count to three. If you still won't talk, you're going straight to the police station!"

"Three!"

"Two!"

"One!"

Before either man could react, Song Ning turned toward the street and shouted:

"Help! Someone catch these hooligans!"

"I'll talk! I'll talk! Miss! Ma'am! Please stop shouting!"

Both men begged for mercy at once.

Getting beaten up was one thing. Being arrested for hooliganism was another matter entirely.

"Talk!"

The two exchanged a glance before speaking in low voices.

"I-it was Brother Yang who sent us! He just told us to find a chance to scare you!"

"Who's Brother Yang? Why does he want to scare me?"

"Brother Yang is... he's Military Doctor Chen's boyfriend!"

Song Ning sneered. Well, well. Chen Yuting again. Looks like she has quite a bit of influence in the Military District!

So many people are standing up for her!

But where did this boyfriend come from?

She looked at the two men on the ground, stepped forward, and gave each another kick.

"Take a message back to your Brother Yang," she said coldly. "If he has a grievance, he should go after the person responsible. His girlfriend is the one who set her sights on someone else's husband-to-be. Does he even know that?"

Neither man dared say another word. Clutching their backsides, they ran off.

Song Ning tossed the broom aside and headed back.

The more she thought about it, the more baffling it seemed.

Brother Yang? Could he be that gangster boyfriend Chen Yuting used to have?

Hadn't Chen Yuting gone after that new recruit afterward, then caused such a stir with Lu Changqing? Was he that out of the loop? Why was he still calling himself her boyfriend?

Besides, he should take this up with Chen Yuting! Or, failing that, Lu Changqing!

What was the point of sending people to scare her?

She arrived at the hospital just in time. The doctor had finished making rounds.

While she was still outside the ward, she saw through the window that the young nurse was hanging an IV bottle and talking to Lu Changqing.

"Company Commander Lu! Didn't you say your fiancée was here? How come she hasn't come to take care of you?"

Lu Changqing smiled. "She... she just went to regimental headquarters to get my clothes!"

"What I mean is, with your injury, this is when you need someone looking after you. It would be more convenient to have someone by your side!"

"Heh! The doctors and you nurses here are all very responsible, and you've been taking good care of me. I haven't had any trouble!"

As Song Ning entered, the young nurse was pushing her cart out. She greeted Song Ning when she saw her.

"Hello, comrade! The patient's leg is injured, so it's best not to leave him alone!"

The young nurse spoke with an air of righteous conviction, leaving Song Ning utterly puzzled.

The moment she entered the ward, Old Zhang in the next bed complained that the room was stuffy and asked Li Huilan to help him outside for a walk.

They greeted Song Ning and went out.

Lu Changqing gave Song Ning an embarrassed smile.

"I spoke to Brother Zhang beforehand. I told him I wanted to discuss our marriage when you came, and that I was worried you'd feel shy."

Song Ning frowned at Lu Changqing, feeling distinctly uncomfortable. She couldn't understand why, even now, he was deliberately creating the impression that they were about to get married.

"You've read the letters, haven't you?"

Once the ward was quiet, Lu Changqing asked the question himself.

Song Ning nodded.

"I know you have a lot of questions. Sorry for the trouble, but could you close the ward door? I'll explain everything."

Without a word, Song Ning closed and bolted the door, then returned to sit beside his bed.

Half reclining against the hospital bed, Lu Changqing began recounting the past, his expression solemn...

"On August 8, 1975, a typhoon brought torrential rain. Henan Province suffered an unprecedented series of dam failures, with around fifty reservoirs collapsing one after another. The devastation was beyond anything you could imagine.

"The Military District sent troops to support the disaster areas, and I was among them. My unit was sent to a place in Henan Province called Ye County.

"To this day, I can't forget what I saw. Water everywhere, bodies everywhere..."

"I remember it was August 20, more than ten days after the torrential rain had caused the first wave of dam failures.

"That night, our squad received word that another reservoir less than ten kilometers from us had collapsed. We were needed immediately to search for survivors. My comrades and I split up to carry out the search. We searched for three days, but rescued only a handful of people.

"The people downstream of that reservoir had already been evacuated. Compared with the earlier disaster, the situation wasn't actually that serious.

"By the afternoon of the third day, I had finished searching my assigned area. I was about to head back according to the return time we'd agreed on before setting out when a faint beam of light from below ground caught my eye.

"I followed the light and found a man lying in a crevice in the cliff beside a waterway.

"The light came from a flashlight he was carrying.

"I called out to him, but he didn't respond at all.

"Three days had passed since the reservoir collapsed. If the flood had washed him into that crevice, his chances of surviving for three days were slim.

"I decided that, no matter what, I had to find out whether he was alive or dead.

"I had a rope with me. When I lowered myself down into the crevice, I found that he was already unconscious.

"His flashlight was smaller than the ones we normally used, and it was tucked upright in his jacket pocket.

"It had been soaked in water, and several days had passed, but it was still shining.

"When I checked his breathing, though, I found he was still alive.

"I tried to tie the rope around him and haul him up, but he woke up and stopped me.

"He said several of his ribs were broken, and that he could live a little longer if he didn't move.

"I understood what he meant. In his condition, hauling him up with a rope could drive his ribs into his internal organs and kill him even sooner.

"I didn't want to give up. I fed him some of the dry rations I was carrying and told him to wait while I went out to find a way.

"I climbed back out of the crevice. By then, it was nearly dark. My teammates had returned to the unit on schedule, and there was no one else anywhere nearby.

"The unit was still ten kilometers away. Too far.

"I ran toward the nearest evacuation shelter, hoping to find a doctor who could come and help.

"When I arrived, I found injured people everywhere. The doctors were rushed off their feet, working nonstop.

"It wasn't that they didn't want to help. There were simply too many injured people for them to cope.

"In the end, only one older comrade was willing to come and take a look. I heard them call him 'Doctor Song.'

"He was your grandfather, Song Huaide.