The three sentences were like three hard stones that jumped out of the air, smashed into the ground, and then bounced up. Even if they eventually shattered, they refused to be deformed in the slightest. Their valiance and stubbornness were hard to describe.
Huai Caoshi was silent for a moment. She, who was confident and arrogant under her ordinary face, did not care about the impassioned Xu Le on the sickbed at all. However, when she heard the three stiff sentences, she could not help but feel a sense of vigilance. If the soldiers of the Federation were all tough people like this, the war that was about to come might not be easy to fight.
"I promised you that I would let you die with dignity." She put down the coffee cup in her hand, looked at his unusually thin face, and said slowly, "Since you believe that this way of dying is not dignified, and have decided on another way yourself, I can only accept it. If a completely paralyzed captive cannot provide the corresponding benefits for the Empire, the Empire will naturally not keep you for nothing. "
"I can't say that I look forward to the arrival of that day, because there is no one who is not afraid of death. However, since that day is bound to come, there is actually not much meaning to what you are saying."
Far away from his home galaxy, alone in the depths of the Empire's enemy territory, Xu Le, whose life and death were unpredictable, or perhaps destined to die, seemed to have found some of the shadow of the orphan on the Clock Tower Street back then in his last moments. He raised his eyebrows, looked at Huai Caoshi with a rather playful smile, and said, "However, it seems that you have won that bet."
"The bet between you and me was not fair from the beginning." Huai Caoshi replied. Then, she took out a small booklet and asked, "This is what we found on you when we captured you. Can you explain it?"
Xu Le glanced at the old booklet, and his thoughts instantly returned to the planet full of ice and snow before the New Year like a movie.
After being captured and brought to the Empire's Tianjing Planet, he had never seen the sky above the enemy's headquarters. He had only seen the endless darkness and the snow-white ceiling of the ward. The people around him were all enemies, and the air was filled with the smell of a foreign land. He missed the past more than any other moment in his life.
The subordinates of the Seventh Division, the small team of the Nutshell Engineering Department, the mecha group that silently advanced in the snow … He even missed the monster Iron Seventh Division trained by Du Shaoqing, the highland valley at 3320 meters, the glacier forest at 5460 meters, the road lost in the snow and the deep pits beside the road, the corpses of countless Federation civilians in the pits, the diary of an Empire officer, and the gray eyes of a little Federation girl that couldn't close …
"I believe you have already read this booklet." Xu Le replied, "This officer named Arthur was executed by your own people because he was unwilling to carry out the expeditionary army's order to kill. I have to say, he's the first person from the Empire that I wouldn't describe as a beast."
Huai Caoshi narrowed her eyes, and the coldness gradually grew, but she didn't say anything.
Xu Le didn't seem to feel that pair of cold eyes at all. He continued to frown and said, "You asked me earlier about my unwillingness. In fact, I really do have a lot of unwillingness."
He calmly looked into Huai Caoshi's eyes and said, "You are the butchers of the universe. It's a great regret that I can't completely destroy you."
Huai Caoshi was silent for a moment, then shook her head and said with slight mockery, "I thought that after taking you to Li Ban to read our textbooks, you would have a relatively objective and clear understanding of history. I didn't expect you to still be a piece of trash that was brainwashed by the Federation."
"Don't you think it's a bit ridiculous for the Empire's princess to say the words' brainwashing 'to a Federation citizen? Or do you think that the role of the Imperial expeditionary force's royal supervision group is only to direct the chorus? "Xu Le refuted without any trace of politeness.
"This is war." Huai Caoshi coldly said, "There has never been a just war in the history of the universe, especially when this war is between the Empire and the Federation. You have even less of a moral chip to take out."
"War is naturally only war. George Carlin has said this many times," Xu Le stared into her eyes and said, "but war is definitely not about slaughtering civilians."
"Your Federation's army isn't all a model of morality like you." The mockery on Huai Caoshi's lips grew even stronger. "If you flip through the history of the Empire's resistance against invasion, you can find countless examples that show that your comrades are actually no different from wild beasts."
Xu Le was silent for a very long time, then he slowly replied, "What's wrong is wrong. This has nothing to do with who's wrong or which camp they belong to."
"If you encountered this kind of situation in the army, how would you deal with it?" Huai Caoshi looked at him like she was looking at an idiot.
"I don't know." Xu Le replied very honestly. "But don't misunderstand. I'm playing the role of a moral pretentious prick right now. I've always lived according to my habits. Whether it was assassinating Macklin or fighting you on the front lines of the West Woods, I simply thought that these things should be done … so I did it."
"Prince Macklin is the most outstanding member of the royal family in the history of the Empire, and he is also my uncle," Huai Caoshi said calmly.
"Thank you." Xu Le said very seriously. With these two simple sentences, he understood the true identity of the seed of the Empire who had died under his pen. He also understood that for him to have killed Macklin with his own hands to have a relatively dignified death, this princess by his bedside must have put in a lot of effort.
Huai Caoshi gently placed the diary of the Empire's military officer on the table, then looked at the old diary cover in silence for a long time. Perhaps she was imagining everything that had happened in the West Woods that year in her mind.
"The temperature in the ward is not bad." She woke up from her thoughts and looked at the beads of sweat on Xu Le's forehead. She said calmly, "Do you feel very hot?"
At this moment, beads of sweat the size of soybeans were continuously pouring out from the roots of Xu Le's hair and then dripping down from the corners of his eyebrows, instantly wetting the entire pillow. His thin cheeks were abnormally pale, and his tightly pursed thin lips were trembling non-stop, but the smile in his eyes was still so natural.
"Not hot." Xu Le's voice became more and more hoarse.
Huai Caoshi finally could not help but frown and shake her head. She said, "Why hold it in?"
After saying this, she turned and left the ward.
Just as the ward door closed, Xu Le's spirit suddenly relaxed. Although his paralyzed body could not show anything, the sweat pouring out of his thick black hair suddenly increased. His brows were tightly furrowed, and there was no longer any smile on his face. His lips were painfully pulled open, revealing a mouth full of white teeth. Blood continuously seeped out of his gums, making him look extremely wretched.
Ever since he woke up from his near-death coma, he had been enduring immense pain. His body could not move, but his internal senses had become even more sensitive. The collapsed power channel had become countless sharp fragments, wantonly cutting in all directions. His nervous system had been severely damaged, but he could very sadly clearly feel the pain of these small knives cutting into his flesh.
There was also the mysterious burning power that had finally broken through the barrier. Although it was no longer suppressed by the power of Huai Caoshi's finger, it could no longer be controlled. It ran up and down his body chaotically, turning into thousands of tiny scalding whips that lashed at every cell in his body, making him feel even the tiniest sensation.
It was not a death by dismemberment, but it was even worse than that. Xu Le's pain was unbearable. Even if he gritted his teeth until they were broken, he could not hold on for much longer. If Huai Caoshi had not left just now, he might not have been able to hold on any longer.
In order to die with dignity, one must first ensure one's own dignity. He insisted on this, so he smiled and mocked the conversation, refusing to let the muscles on his cheeks twitch because of the endless pain.
Sweat flowed down his body like a river, wetting his pillow and bedding for an entire night. It was only when the unfamiliar morning light of Tianjing seeped in through the window that he, whose face was extremely pale and weak, realized that he had been fighting that kind of pain for an entire night.
How many people in this world could endure this kind of pain?
To be able to endure something that ordinary people could not, they were naturally not ordinary people. This kind of person would most likely achieve great things in the end, as long as they did not die in an accident in their career. This was because they had too strong of a willpower and will that supported them to fight to the death against something that they could not endure.
Xu Le could endure it because he was unwilling.
He had not worn his general's uniform and returned to the dark and boring Donglin mining area to take a look at the café, the pub, the library, the big recuperation center, the long-legged policewoman and the police officer called Bao Longtao.
He had not seen the men and women on S1 complete their stories. Tai Zhiyuan had not gotten married. How was Miss Bai going to wrap things up? Would Zou Yu carry little Liu Huo and stand under that building to wait for someone to return home?
He had not personally caressed Jian Shui'er's black hair. He had not once again used Shang Qiu's greatness to warm his lonely right hand. He had not yet returned the kindness of that beautiful girl. He had not yet found out the truth behind that uncle's death.
He had not yet driven the turbocharged MXT to the road in the middle of Lin Mountain to have a crazy race with that bunch of idiotic sons of the senators. He had not yet concealed his identity and gone to some crazy place to dance and have fun.
He had not yet forced Bai Magnolia to cut off that annoying strand of hair that floated in front of his forehead. He had not yet brought Xiong Linquan to carry Da Lin's gun to help Da Wensi snatch his sister from the thirteenth floor. He had not yet gotten sick of singing that song with Shi Qinghai.
He had not yet had the time to tell everyone that he was Xu Le, the orphan of Donglin Xu Le, and not the soldier Xu Le.
How could he be willing to die?
Suicide was a battle, but it was also a new gamble. In a situation where he had nothing to lose, he could only gamble with his own life on this last gamble.
With difficulty, he turned his head to look at the first ray of morning light from the willow tree outside the window. Xu Le breathed rapidly and tiredly. An abnormal blush appeared on his pale face.
In the Empire, this ray of morning light should be called the white belly of a fish. Only a dead fish would show its ugly white belly to fishermen or tourists.
He was not dead yet.
This was good.
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