Journey to the Rose

In the short seconds of waiting for the answer, the blizzard outside the window seemed to be getting bigger.

The boundless darkness spread its wings like a giant black bird, and the snowflakes between its feathers were billowing white foam.

The wind blows the score extra sharply.

The crisis lurks under the huge silence, and Ruan Xi keenly senses that the situation in Bingcheng has changed.

There was a sound of metal equipment colliding, and Lu Zhenghe sat up vigilantly from the bed, took the heavy combat coat and put it on.Seeing his movements, Ruan Xi didn't hesitate at all, and quickly ran to the stacked clothes, grabbed the clothes and put them on her body.

Ruan Xi has been served by someone since she was a child, and Ruan Xi has already developed her speed in basic necessities of life, and can install all the equipment in two or three strokes.He jumped to buckle the tactical gun/holster on his thigh, and said while checking: "Let's talk about it after this pass."

"You mean not to divorce now." Lu Zhenghe said an affirmative sentence.

Ruan Xi was not used to hearing the word "divorce".

If it were changed to the days when they were together before, he and Lu Zhenghe didn't even mention the word "breakup". It never occurred to me to separate.Now when mentioning separation means "divorce", Ruan Xi spent a lot of effort but couldn't digest this word.

"Right now we don't have any real relationship. We're going to..."

Treat each other with respect.

Yes, that's the word!

Unexpectedly, Lu Zhenghe answered the words very naturally: "We must cultivate slowly."

Ruan Xi: "..."

If the other party doesn't speak, Lu Zhenghe will take it as his acquiescence.

"Have you got all your clothes on?" Lu Zhenghe buckled the belt around his waist, and then checked the number of stocks in the magazine.

He went to the window and opened the curtains, and looked outside, but it was pitch black, and only traces of flying snow could be seen vaguely. Crackling sound.

"It's ready," Ruan Xi fastened the last button of the neckline, with the scabbard scarred from fighting on his back, narrowing his eyes, "What are you looking at?"

"A blizzard is coming."

Lu Zhenghe looked very calm, "You grew up by the sea, have you heard of sea ice disasters? Now that the land is sinking, the sea water is pouring back, and the weather in the ice city is so bad, it is very likely that the ice city will split in advance and the sea will freeze completely. There's sea ice. We wouldn't be able to get out of here if that happened."

sea ​​ice?

Ruan Xi tried hard to recall this unfamiliar word.In his impression, no matter how cold the winter in Ablaze City is, at most it is raining and blowing wind in the city, the air is humid, and he has never seen sheets of ice on the sea.

After imagining that scene, Ruan Xi shuddered and realized the seriousness of the problem.

The reason why "glacier" is called this name is because it has the meaning of a river. The original ice city was not facing the sea. There was only a wide river winding to the next city, and occasionally boats sailed through it.

Now that the end of the world is coming, everything has changed. After the previous city-states were destroyed, the Ice City was the first to bear the brunt. The river channel was merged into sea water, and even became a more magnificent coast due to the fission of the ground.

"It's winter again now," Ruan Xi trotted to the window, her head squeezed together with Lu Zhenghe, "The sea water should freeze soon."

Lu Zhenghe nodded: "Regardless of winter or summer, Bingcheng looks the same."

As he ran, his cheek "accidentally" stuck to Lu Zhenghe's ear.

Ruan Xi was taken aback by the ice, and subconsciously reached out to touch her own cheek, which was warm.He put the back of his hand against Lu Zhenghe's ear again, it was cool.

Wear less?

Thinking of this, Ruan Xi grabbed Lu Zhenghe's hand very naturally, confirmed that the other party was catching a cold, and said softly, "You should add some clothes."

As if he didn't expect to be suddenly cared about, Lu Zhenghe froze for a few seconds before nodding and agreeing: "Okay."

"Bang bang bang-"

There was a slight sound of wind and snow flapping. Although it was not loud, it was obviously much louder than the noises heard before.

At first glance, it was so dark outside the window that it was impossible to sleep peacefully at such a night. Behind them were lovers, friends, and countless city-states that had not set foot in them, as if there were huge waves pushing behind them. Walk forward.The state of mental stress and tension has passed, and Ruan Xi gradually began to get used to this kind of life.

"You stay in the room, eat some biscuits to replenish your energy," Lu Zhenghe quickly arranged things after adding a leather jacket to Ruan Xi, "I'll go find Uncle Liu."

Ruan Xi stood up abruptly, pressing her palm on the scabbard, "I'll go with you."

The not-so-bright light in the room fell obliquely on his face, shadows appeared on the side of his nose, and his eyes became deeper and bottomless.

Together they opened the door.

The corridor is like the sky outside, dark and bleak.

Lu Zhenghe held the unburned small candle on the table in his hand, and all the light gathered here.He looked at the long corridor stretching as far as the eye could see, and looked around cautiously.

Afterwards, Lu Zhenghe turned around, stretched out his arms, hooked his fingers at Ruan Xi, and spread his palms upwards, motioning him to approach.

Black combat gloves covered half of Lu Zhenghe's palm, and his slender fingers were particularly eye-catching.

Ruan Xi hurriedly followed, but unexpectedly, the other party stretched out his hand.

He froze in place, trying to lower his voice: "What's wrong?"

Lu Zhenghe pursed his lips and said seriously: "The road is too dark, I'll hold you by the hand."

·

They walked down a corridor like a deep well.

One zero two, one zero three...

Lu Zhenghe found the door of the room where his comrade-in-arms lived, and knocked lightly on the door.For the safety of a sudden attack, Li Shen was arranged to sleep with Gu Zirong temporarily, and Song Shumian slept with Wen Kai.

"Who?" A serious and vigilant question came from inside the room.

"I," Lu Zhenghe said, "pack up all of your things immediately and gather in one minute."

As soon as the voice fell, the door opened.Li Shen and Gu Zirong were standing behind the door neatly equipped, with guns and "ghost crossbows" in their hands, as well as a depressive drug specially used for alphas in the army.

"Little Lord!"

"Little Lord."

"..." Lu Zhenghe saw the sleepy faces of these two people, "If you don't have a good rest, what are you doing here?"

Gu Zirong stood still and reported in a low voice: "Report, the captain wants to listen to the movement next door."

"What's going on next door?" Ruan Xi couldn't bear to watch the excitement, so she interjected.

When he leaned over, Gu Zirong dodged to the side in obvious fear.Lu Zhenghe noticed this detail, but he just frowned and didn't make it clear.

"Next door..." Li Shen pointed to the wall, "Wen Kai and the others."

Gu Zirong saluted Lu Zhenghe, and followed suit: "We are protecting Omega!"

After finishing speaking, there was a violent blow from the other side of the wall, as if someone had punched the wall with a fist.Wen Kai's voice came through the wall: "Are you sick?"

"You took advantage of everything," Li Shen curled his lips, and thumped the wall back, not to be outdone, "I also want to be a flower protector." After he touched his lips, there seemed to be dust falling from the ceiling, "Bah."

"Okay, stop messing around," Lu Zhenghe rubbed his temples with a headache, "Clean up quickly, I will take Ruan Xi to Liubo's place. I will see you all packed up and waiting for me at the door of the room when I come back. "

Li Shen raised his hand and asked: "Young master, are we going to spend the night in the ice city tonight?"

Lu Zhenghe shook his head: "Not here."

"I just said that there was something wrong with me, and I didn't dare to sleep," Li Shen said, his alertness and sensitivity to the situation were strong enough, "Young master, go and come back quickly! Look at this non-stop look." , After a while, the snow will fall even more."

Ten minutes later, Lu Zhenghe hurried back with Ruan Xi.

Song Shumian's eyes fell on the hands of the two people who were clasped together.

Somehow he remembered his lover who had died in the first disaster.He remembered that the sky was as dark as tonight, and the ground was cracked, and many people fell down as they walked.

Noticing Song Shumian's depressed mood, Ruan Xi reached out and patted him on the shoulder.

Song Shumian nodded, and shook Ruan Xi's hand back.

·

That night, they prepared to leave the ice city.

Uncle Liu did not deny the possibility of a sea ice disaster, and he did not keep them anymore. Instead, he took the initiative to send an icebreaker to them from the port of Bingcheng, saying that only by this can they break through the ice that has formed on the river. .There is only this waterway from the ice city to the next city. No matter whether they go tonight or not, they must pass through this real glacier.

In the early morning, Liubo's icebreaker came.

The lighthouse not far away emitted strong light, and the light swirled round and round, illuminating the port area brightly.

Li Shen has only seen this kind of ship specially used to break the ice on the water surface in the illustration book.

The icebreaker is painted in pure white, like a cloud floating on the ice. The whole body is supported by compact steel and reinforced with alloy steel. Some parts that have not been painted emit a silvery white luster in the sun.

There are propellers on the bow, side and stern of the ship. Liu Bo said that this energy is enough to break icebergs several meters high.

In the whole land, only glacier has boundless glaciers and glaciers.

Although the north is far away and mysterious, and there is a snow mountain called Miracle, but there is only white snow there, and there is no river for icebreakers to navigate.Most of the northern alliance's operations were based on land and air, so Li Shen had never seen such a large ship.

"Where's the car?" Li Shen watched Gu Zirong send his luggage up one after another, then turned to look at Lu Zhenghe, "What about our car? There are still some weapons in the car."

"Wen Kai and Ruan Xi are driving here."

Lu Zhenghe pointed to the small road on the other side of the port, on which an off-road vehicle and a pickup truck were driving at high speed.

Li Shen thought he heard it wrong. He looked at the main deck of the icebreaker, which was not spacious enough, and said in disbelief, "Go on board?"

"The next move," Lu Zhenghe frowned, "we have to have a car in the next operation. By the way, remember to find a place to refuel when we wait for the next city."

Li Shen clasped his hands together and murmured, "Pray that our boat won't sink."

Lu Zhenghe pushed him: "Don't curse yourself."

Li Shen was thoughtful, and touched his chin with his hand: "But it's already this time, where is there a gas station?"

"Where there is demand, there is supply. Find a way. We can't delay any longer."

After finishing speaking, Lu Zhenghe jumped down from the first floor deck, half-kneeled on the ground and lowered his head, counting the remaining weapons/ammunition/ammunition one by one.He counted for a while, wiped off the sweat from his forehead, and felt that the temperature around him was rising and it was a little hot.

Li Shen is a bitter and hateful person, every day he worries about what is there and what is not.

He turned around the main deck with his hands behind his back, looked up at the main bridge again, and shouted at Wen Kai who was fiddling with the control console: "Wen Kai! How does our ship move forward? It won't break down. Bar?"

Wen Kai ignored him at all.

"Can you stop making bad assumptions," Lu Zhenghe explained, "multi-propeller diesel engine."

Li Shen made an inch of progress: "Young master, you ignore my second question!"

"Wealth and wealth are sought in danger," Lu Zhenghe paused, his right hand formed a fist, and hit Li Shen's chest all at once, "survival is the same."

·

The icebreaker set off with vehicles and people, and its whistle blew.

The hull sailed unstable, wobbly, and sailed slowly. Wen Kai explained that it was repeatedly breaking into the ice.The propeller drives the hull forward and gives power, and the stem at the bottom is sharpened, splitting the ice and smashing it with power.

Ruan Xi heard a series of crackling sounds of the ice breaking, like a rainstorm quietly falling in a sunny day.

Looking at the night scene in front of him, Song Shumian couldn't hold back the emotion of missing his hometown for a while.

Brushing away the broken hair that was blown to the brows by the wind, he made a trumpet shape with his hands and shouted towards the moving glacier in the distance.

Immediately, he raised his head, rhythmically, humming some melodies that Li Shen and others had never heard before.This tone is melancholy and long, as if entrusting the tranquility and mourning of the sea.

Ruan Xi recalled that every year from January to April, people from every household would drink half a bowl of wine before going to sea at the port pier, and then sprinkle the remaining half bowl into the Suli Sea, representing awe and respect for the ocean.After drinking, they will gather together to sing this song, hoping that they can safely end their missions at sea and return to their hometown to reunite with their relatives.

"What is he humming? Have you heard it?" Li Shen stood on the mast and took the lead.

"It should be the folk song of Ablaze City!" Gu Zirong pricked up his ears to listen carefully, and shouted to answer.

"Does it sound good?" Song Shumian finally had some light in his eyes.

Everyone cheered and replied: "It sounds good."

"Ruan Xi sings better. When I was young, I used to hide cats and cats in the garden. When we were tired, we would lie on the lawn in the garden and bask in the sun... There will be many small desserts and drinks on the table. I closed my eyes and listened to Ruan Xi Sing some songs about the sea, and feel like I'm floating on a ship." Song Shumian closed his eyes, as if in a dream.Fortunately, it is really on the ship now.

The garden...is it the back garden that I have been to?

It's a pity that there was too little light that day, and the situation didn't allow him to observe too much, and he couldn't even see the whole Ruan's Manor clearly.

Lu Zhenghe's tense expression relaxed a bit, he bumped Ruan Xi lightly with his arm, and teased him: "When will you sing to me?"

Ruan Xi looked at her ex-boyfriend in disbelief: "What will I sing to you? Damn love?"

Lu Zhenghe: "..."

The light of the lighthouse is on and off for a while, illuminating the boundless glacial river in a roving manner.

The light on the icebreaker is also sometimes dark and sometimes bright.

The two walked slowly to the railing on the first floor deck.

Seizing the gap in the dimming of the light, Lu Zhenghe leaned a little towards Ruan Xi, catching him with fishing-style questioning: "I didn't hear what you just said."

Ruan Xi turned her head: "I don't want to say it a second time."

"What love?"

"It's nothing."

The patrol light of the lighthouse is like a straight sword, illuminating the icebreaker.

Within a few seconds, this burst of light passed from the bow to the stern, pointing to another direction.Lu Zhenghe turned his face sideways, looked at Ruan Xi's face in the dark, and said softly: "The light is dim."

"Huh?" Ruan Xi turned her head to look at him.

Lu Zhenghe approached boldly again, and found Ruan Xi's lips in the darkness above the glacier.

At this moment, the breath of the two people is hot, the temperature is enough to melt ice and snow.Ruan Xi was in a daze.

Then Lu Zhenghe kissed it decisively.

For a moment, she was so shocked that she didn't know where to put her hands, and Ruan Xi didn't even have time to close her eyes.

In addition, the icebreaker was working, and the hull was constantly shaking. He couldn't grasp the railing all of a sudden, and subconsciously grabbed the fabric around Lu Zhenghe's waist with both hands.

Since Ruan Xi was not a thin type, and his body was still a bit heavy, Lu Zhenghe was caught and almost couldn't stand still. He snorted, but didn't let him go. Instead, he put his palm on the other's shoulder, deepening the kiss.

When the lips/lips parted, the light from the lighthouse shone again.

Lu Zhenghe could clearly see the soft love in Ruan Xi's eyes.

Holy·41 "Isn't love enough to bother you?"