From salmon sashimi to stir-frying, there was also cream, cabbage, salmon, salmon eggs, and sea urchins. Dozens of different dishes were made with salmon as the main ingredient. Vancouver's Salmon Festival was indeed the specialty of the foodies of the Empire.
Qi Rui, who was lucky enough to participate in the Salmon Festival, was dressed in civilian clothes and ate at every stall with the guards. Because he had taken a shallow approach, Qi Rui's footsteps were light. The guards, on the other hand, could not resist the temptation and walked with difficulty with their full stomachs. From the corner of his eye, Qi Rui saw the guards secretly loosening their belts twice.
Qi Rui pretended not to see it. These kinds of things would usually change even if they were not beaten. If they did not change, then they would continue doing it next time. The experience of growing up in life was to continuously do stupid things that one could not believe, and then continuously move forward in shame. If the person involved felt that he had done a good job, it would be useless no matter what others said.
The guards were attracted by the food, and Qi Rui was enjoying the feeling of ordinary life. Although he still felt that there was an invisible barrier between him and this bustling world, this barrier was finally thinning, at least enough for Qi Rui to relax. Walking on the street with non-military people, the feeling of being separated from a lifetime had disappeared.
"Pi li pa la! Crackle! Bang! Bang! Bang! "A rapid sound and a muffled explosion rang out.
Qi Rui's first reaction was to immediately find a place to hide, while the guards nervously blocked in front of Qi Rui, trying their best to determine the source of the sound in the shortest time possible. These two had been in the command center for a long time, and although their reactions were sharp, it was still the response of the command center. About one-tenth of the people in civilian clothes on the street were already lying on the ground, while three-tenths of the people in civilian clothes hid behind trees, houses, or stalls that could be immediately concealed. This four-tenths of the people naturally had ugly expressions. Apart from them, three out of ten people were also very nervous. One look at their faces and you could tell that they had come from the battlefield.
The sound of firecrackers and fireworks continued to be set off not too far away. Some of the retired soldiers who felt humiliated shouted angrily, "It's not the New Year, why are you setting off firecrackers?!" At the same time, they headed towards the place where the culprits were. At first, Qi Rui felt it was very funny, and he even smiled. However, he still reacted to the sounds of the explosions. Even if it was not his brain's reaction, the intense nervousness, excitement, and fear left in his memories of moving through the flames of war, as well as the urge to fight to the death to get rid of these strong negative emotions made Qi Rui feel very painful.
Even though Qi Rui had learned many hypotheses about the connections between neurons in the brain from his father, he still believed that the connections between neurons were formed under the impact of strong electric signals. Even if he believed that these were just analogies of how the human brain operated. Even though he knew that it wasn't a real danger, but something similar to an illusion, he still couldn't help it. But Qi Rui couldn't deny that he felt a strong pain.
Could it be that he couldn't get used to a life with firecrackers in the future? Qi Rui was a little worried. In Qi Rui's memory, his father Vézé had no interest in firecrackers. However, Qi Rui couldn't tell if his father Vézé had too many scars on the battlefield, or if he just didn't like this kind of noise.
After walking forward for a short distance, the sound of firecrackers and fireworks stopped abruptly. Although he wanted to turn around and see if the angry retired soldiers had played a role, Qi Rui finally resisted the impulse. He was an active Major General, and it was better not to get involved in these things.
In addition to salmon, Vancouver also featured wine produced in vineyards on the hillsides of the Rocky Mountains. In China, there was land that could not be fertile due to lack of water, but there was no such thing as barren land with abundant water. With the help of earthworms, the land used by the Chinese in the Rocky Mountains quickly improved the fertility of the land, and the mountainous land produced excellent grapes. The wine was so delicious that even Qi Rui, who wasn't a fan of drinking, thought it was very good.
After eating and drinking, Qi Rui got on the train. In the past, he had to take a ship from Vancouver to Portland by sea, but now the railway from Vancouver to Portland was open to traffic, and he could get to his destination after a night's sleep. When the train pulled into Portland in the morning, the staff saw that Qi Rui, who was still in casual clothes yesterday, had changed into a military uniform. Such a change was not surprising. Everyone knew that most Chinese in North America had been in the military. It was also not surprising that he had a Major General epaulette, as there were hundreds of generals active in North America. However, such a young Major General was really rare. For a moment, the orderly on the train even wondered if Qi Rui's epaulette was fake.
Qi Rui had long known that his identity could easily cause trouble, so he especially agreed with his father Vézé's political ideals. To build a society where everyone was equal, everyone would only be different in their work, not in their status. In such a world, Qi Rui would no longer have to worry about getting into trouble because he was Vézé's son, and others would not treat him differently because he was Vézé's son. The reason why Qi Rui changed into a military uniform was not because he wanted to show off, but because he had to go in and out of military areas, and active soldiers had to wear military uniforms.
After entering the military academy in Portland, Qi Rui finally recalled his experience here. The once lively military academy compound was now quite deserted. Thinking of the strong desire of the soldiers to return to a peaceful life, Qi Rui was not surprised at all. The staff who stayed behind at the military academy still remembered Qi Rui. After coming forward and shaking hands with him, he brought Qi Rui back to his original office. Entering the door, Qi Rui found that other than a thick layer of dust, there was no change at all.
"Director Qi, after you and your comrade went south, there were not many people left here. We are the only ones left here. I was wondering if you could make a report to the higher-ups and make a decision on whether we should stay or leave. Every day, I'm wasting my time here, and I'm getting anxious, "the staff member nagged. They were all young people, so the staff couldn't help but say what was on his mind. "These two years of guarding here, I actually didn't learn much. If I had retired back then, I would have earned at least a few tens of thousands of yuan by farming for two years now. "
Such a realistic conversation made Qi Rui couldn't help but nod slightly. He very much agreed with this attitude. Everything had to be done with all his might. Hanging in the air with neither the sky nor the ground, other than discomfort, there was nothing else he felt. But agreement was agreement, and Qi Rui didn't say anything. These few days, he really enjoyed the feeling of not saying anything. Thinking back to the past, Qi Rui only felt that he was a car running wildly on the track, moving forward bumpily according to the rules set by others. The invisible armor formed by silence isolated him from the surrounding world, allowing Qi Rui to calmly make the choice he liked.
Seeing that Qi Rui didn't say anything, the staff didn't dare to say too much. The gap between the two was so big that Qi Rui could ignore the staff. After handing the key to Qi Rui, the staff left first. Qi Rui silently began to take out the things in the room and began to pack. Qi Rui didn't need the books and decided to leave them to the school. The documents and records were taken away by Qi Rui when he went south. The rest were some official documents and correspondence documents.
Taking the iron sheet iron, Qi Rui opened the letters and tore them apart after reading them. In the past, Qi Rui felt that some things needed to be kept, but now he felt that he didn't want to keep anything. If he could remember it, he would naturally remember it in his mind. If he couldn't remember it, it meant that he didn't want to remember it at all. Such a calm way of handling things made the guards feel a little puzzled. The guards who were a few years younger than Qi Rui couldn't understand Qi Rui's views on these things. Such a cold way of handling things even made the guards feel that Qi Rui was really too ruthless. The flames of war raged in the sky, and the letters from home were worth ten thousand gold. Even if he hadn't heard this poem, the guards felt that the letters with too many memories were so precious. He couldn't burn them so coldly.
When he saw Chu Xue's letter, Qi Rui finally stopped. He didn't know whether he should open it again or not. In the past year, he felt that he didn't remember Chu Xue. But thinking about it again, Qi Rui actually didn't remember any other relatives. When the purpose of sleeping was to maintain the minimum needs of the body, every day of life was only to achieve victory in the war, memories were not helpful to achieve this goal.
One day, he actually refused to read Chu Xue's letter. For a moment, Qi Rui didn't know what was going on. But his whole body looked coldly at the letter in his hand. If it wasn't for his subconscious control, Qi Rui's body would probably tear it up and burn it like the other letters. So, Qi Rui put the letter in the imported briefcase to avoid this kind of thing from happening.
Finally, he showed his human side. This action unexpectedly made a good impression on the guards. In the end, Qi Rui only brought a few things out of the office in Portland. When he left, Qi Rui recorded in his notebook, "If there's a chance, I'll confirm whether Portland Military Academy will continue to exist." Even if he didn't agree to the staff's request, Qi Rui still felt that it was good to care about this matter. After the war ended, the military really didn't need to waste everyone's time.
Qi Rui didn't return to Vancouver. Instead, he reported to the local military in Portland and bought a ticket back to Asia. Before leaving, he had to send a telegram to the country. It was one of the obligations of a soldier to let the country know the whereabouts of a major general. If even their own general didn't know where he went, it would be a disgrace to the army.
Now, there were more and more passenger ships between North America and Asia, and the ships were getting bigger and bigger. The direct result was that the first-class cabin was very comfortable. When the ship left the port, Qi Rui boarded the still empty high-level platform and took out the letter sent by Chu Xue from his bosom. Seeing Chu Xue's familiar handwriting, Qi Rui felt that his blood couldn't help but start to flow faster. This feeling was very familiar. In the past, when it involved things related to Chu Xue, Qi Rui would have such a reaction. But unlike before, Qi Rui's mental state was very calm. No matter how excited his body was, Qi Rui's mental world was calm.
He read one letter after another. The two actually rarely exchanged letters, so it didn't take long for Qi Rui to see the last letter. The two pieces of paper in the envelope were divided into two parts, and the content was completely different from the previous letter. This made Qi Rui vaguely remember that he didn't seem to have finished reading this letter at the time. As for why he didn't have time to finish reading it, Qi Rui couldn't remember. But he knew that he deliberately didn't finish reading it at the time.
Browsing the first page again, Qi Rui saw an ordinary greeting that was no different from the previous letters. It was like the feeling of sporadic snow falling on the face, there was a little bit of coolness, but after a while, there was nothing. After experiencing the test of life and death, looking at these ordinary lives, Qi Rui only had this feeling.
He opened the second page, and it was still the greeting language. Seeing that Chu Xue finally asked when Qi Rui would return to China, Qi Rui raised his head and looked at the horizon in front of him. On the ship back to China, seeing Chu Xue's expectation of reunion, Qi Rui finally felt a warm feeling in his heart. Even if he had to report to Beijing first, it wasn't too far from Beijing to Nanjing.
As he continued to read, Qi Rui was stunned. "… Qi Rui, after thinking about it, I still want to have a child. So you have to take care of yourself. When you come back safely, you can probably see that I have become a mother … "
Even if he had gone through life and death on the battlefield, even if he had experienced so many dangers, even if he had seen hellish scenes. Qi Rui's calm spirit couldn't continue to maintain Qi Rui's calmness. A strong sour breath rushed from his chest to his throat, making it difficult for Qi Rui to breathe. The sour breath continued to rise, and Qi Rui felt that his entire face was numb. When the sour breath rushed to his head made Qi Rui feel dizzy, and his hair almost stood up, the pain he had never felt made the young major general clench his teeth and unable to breathe. Under the pain of drowning, Qi Rui finally managed to catch his breath. Then he heard himself make a low moan. The last time he made this sound was when Qi Rui accidentally fell from the horizontal bar and fell heavily on the mat. At that time, Qi Rui thought he was going to fall to his death and made this sound in pain.
The view and structure of the world that he learned from his father was very effective in protecting the spirit of the soldier Qi Rui. But in the face of love, this kind of protection was obviously not effective. However, Qi Rui was like a sophisticated machine, still trying to find a solution to the dilemma in front of him.
"The reason why the pain in the heart is difficult to resist is that when you feel that your heart is hurting, it is not an illusion, but real …"
"I personally think that this is also one of the functions of human beings can survive. Comparing failure to intense pain can make us have a deep impression of failure … "
"If you want to know yourself, you must first admit that your existence is material. This is the basic concept of materialism. Only by admitting this fact can you admit the problem, and then there is a possibility of solving the problem … "
Those words that played a key role in the journey of Qi Rui's life hovered in Qi Rui's mind, trying to let Qi Rui's spirit regain control in the buzzing of his ears, so as to calm the abnormal movement of the body that was formed half by nature and half by nature. But not only did this effort not succeed, but it also doubled Qi Rui's pain.
Just when Qi Rui felt that the pain almost made him explode, he could not bear the torture anymore and began to cry. All the emotions found a way to vent, turning into tears and gushing out. Even at such a moment when his emotions had completely won, Qi Rui's spirit still stubbornly defended the final position. In Qi Rui's mind, there seemed to be a figure that said calmly with a hint of mockery, "Looks like solving problems can also be done in a natural way, even if children's crying is just to express their emotions."
After this reaction, the last bit of rationality was tactfully hidden under the tide of emotions. Qi Rui covered his face with his hands, lying on the railing of the high-rise rooftop and sobbing softly. At the top of the rooftop staircase far away, the guard quietly watched Qi Rui's twitching shoulders, listening to the faint sobbing in the air. A kind of feeling filled the guard's heart. 'Such a calm and self-controlled person would also cry like us ordinary people.' Not only did the guard not have the thought of mockery, but he was also very touched.
Just when Qi Rui felt that the pain almost made him explode, he could not bear the torture anymore and began to cry. All the emotions found a way to vent, turning into tears and gushing out. Even at such a moment when his emotions had completely won, Qi Rui's spirit still stubbornly defended the final position. In Qi Rui's mind, there seemed to be a figure that said calmly with a hint of mockery, "Looks like solving problems can also be done in a natural way, even if children's crying is just to express their emotions."
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