IJWTRQ Chapter 138

January 2, 2020, Martyrs’ Cemetery, B City.

The rare blue sky in B City, with a few veil-like white clouds fluttering in the sky, looking up at the light blue sky, will be dazzled by the bright sunshine.

“The weather is so nice…” Cui Heyu was dressed in a black suit, holding a bouquet of white lilies in his hand, because it hurt to look directly with the sunglasses, he stretched out his hand to cover the glasses.

A drop of water splashed on the lily petals, Cui Heyu’s palms were wet, he wiped his face vigorously, and wiped away the water marks from the corners of his eyes.

“I thought it was supposed to be cloudy and rainy on days like this.” Yan Yongfeng put his arms around Cui Heyu’s shoulders, “But there’s not even a haze today, why is it not raining?”

“Yeah, why doesn’t it rain?” Cui Heyu smiled bitterly, it would be nice if it rained, it wouldn’t be known whether it was tears or rain that fell on their faces.

“It’s almost time for the funeral, where is Liang Xian?” Qiu Qizheng also held a bouquet of lilies in his hand, he looked at the newly built tombstone, engraved with Tan Yan’s life experience, from his arrival to this world to leaving in December 2019, the first part is his contribution as a civilian police officer in Ping County, and the latter part is his experience after joining the Ministry of State Security.

Tan Yan’s life’s brilliance is written in each simple word.

“Liang Xian said he wouldn’t come.” Ah San came over, the name tag on his chest read ‘Supernatural Team, Gong Tianhua’.

This was the first time Yan Yongfeng saw the name tag: “I’ve known you for so long, but this is the first time I know your name, so your surname is not Chai.”

“At that time, when doing a special mission, our team generally didn’t use real names to avoid family members being found based on name information.” Ah San smiled bitterly for a moment, “So he didn’t even know my real name in the end.”

“Liang Xian once said that longing is also a kind of quantum entanglement, and the consciousness is strong enough to be detected by close people, and many sixth senses are born from this. He’s so powerful, as long as you focus on thinking, he will feel it.” Tu Zishi’s voice is a bit hoarse.

“Then… as long as my consciousness is strong enough, is it possible…” Ah San said haltingly, his voice a little blocked, he rubbed his temples with his hands, knelt down weakly, and said, “It’s really good to be a water-type supernatural being, can control tears with consciousness.”

“Can’t cry today,” Qiao Zhixue, with a white flower pinned to his chest, walked over, followed by a little deer wearing a black veil on his right foreleg and a black tablet on his antlers, “If his consciousness still exists, he will be attracted to us, he can see us, he hopes that even without him, we can overcome the end times, what he wants to see is not a crying soldier, but us who turn grief into motivation.”

After Qiao Zhixue finished speaking, he hammered his fist hard on his chest, as if doing so could make him feel less depressed.

“Where’s Liang Xian?” Minister Yu who presided over the funeral came over and asked.

“He won’t come,” The voice of Tian Shen II was no longer as excited as before, and said in a low voice, “He doesn’t recognize the funeral, and Mom will continue to look for Dad, by the way, Uncle Tan agreed to let me call him dad.”

Minister Yu touched the tablet and the antlers of the little deer, and said in a hoarse voice, “If don’t want to come, then don’t come, the time is up, everyone goes and line up.”

Minister Yu walked up to the podium step by step, and couldn’t help recalling what happened a few days ago.

Liang Xian frantically pressed the alarm, and all the members of the supernatural team gathered in Tan Yan’s room within one minute.

“Adjust the surveillance!” Liang Xian said, “There is a surveillance camera in front of Tan Yan’s door, can find out where he’s going with it, find him, must find him, what is it to run away after kissing, find…”

He was trembling all over, he was obviously a strong and young soldier, but at this time, the strength of his legs couldn’t support Liang Xian to stand up. He said while squatting down, almost begging everyone to help him find Tan Yan in a pleading tone.

“I, I have filmed it.” Tian Shen II suddenly said, “Mom refused to let us follow them and drove us to another room, I used remote operation to secretly open the laptop on Tan’s dad’s desk, and the built-in camera captured it.”

After Tian Shen II finished speaking, he played the video at that time, everyone looked at the tablet screen, and saw Tan Yan kissing Liang Xian, while using the candle in his hand to light the extinguished candle.

The moment he touched Liang Xian, his body suddenly disintegrated, blown away like flying ashes, his arm disappeared, the candle fell to the ground and went out, and the picture finally freezes on Tan Yan’s smiling face.

Qiao Zhixue immediately collected the air in the room for analysis, and found many rare elements that do not exist in the air but belong to the human body.

“Tan Yan should be… his body has reached its limit, and his consciousness can no longer support this remnant body that should have died long ago. This body has been in a forced peak state, and after the collapse, it can no longer compensated by sudden aging or death, every molecule in this body has reached its limit, and even the state of the molecules cannot be maintained, that’s why this kind of disintegration happens.” Qiao Zhixue held the test sheet and said in a low voice, “In fact, Tan Yan has long been unable to maintain his physical condition, if it weren’t for his extraordinary consciousness, he might not even be able to lift his arms.”

No matter how everyone searches, they can only collect some trace elements in the air, Tan Yan just disappeared.

Liang Xian believes that even if the body disappears, Tan Yan’s consciousness must still exist. Because the sun’s energy is too strong, the consciousness will be injured by the sun, he immediately sealed all the windows of the room, and stayed in the room waiting for Tan Yan to come back to him.

No one stopped his almost crazy actions, everyone hoped that Tan Yan hadn’t disappeared completely, if there was a consciousness entity, they could also find a way to make Tan Yan reappear.

But one day, two days… 2019 passed, and the New Year’s Day of 2020 ushered in, Tan Yan never appeared.

Everyone gives up.

Qiao Zhixue tested the energy fluctuations in that room and confirmed that there was no strong energy reaction. The consciousness of supernatural beings is different from that of ordinary people, and can be captured by the instruments. But there is no one in the room, and the little deer, who has had quantum entanglement with Tan Yan, has never received a signal, all the facts prove that Tan Yan’s consciousness dissipated along with his body.

Even if no one wants to believe it, they still must admit the fact that Tan Yan has left.

Since there is no body, Minister Yu can only carve a tombstone for Tan Yan in the martyrs’ cemetery, write his life on it, and set up a tomb.

On the day of the funeral, more than twenty thousand supernatural soldiers, supernatural teams, members of the research team, and Ministry of State Security logistics personnel were all present, and even national leaders came to attend the funeral.

Standing on the podium, Minister Yu said in a heavy voice: “Today, we deeply mourn a revolutionary martyr who fought for the country and the people all his life——Comrade Tan Yan, he left us forever in the early hours of December 23, 2019, leaving us in infinite grief.

Comrade Tan Yan joined the People’s police force at the age of 18, he is not afraid of sacrifices, difficulties, and hardships, he has guarded the world for forty-one years with perseverance and commitment, and in the last days of his life, he cultivated more than twenty thousand supernatural soldiers for the country, leaving behind valuable experiences and abilities that enable all human beings to fight against the end times.

For forty-one years, the value of the country and people’s property that Comrade Tan Yan has guarded cannot be counted¹不計其數 cù jì qí shù: lit. their number cannot be counted; fig. countless; innumerable., he silently made contributions beyond the scope of his duties on his post, but never asked for credit, was not extravagant, and did not show off, like a nail in the post burning his own residual heat.

What Comrade Tan Yan left us is not only strength and experience, but also the perseverance to never give up in the face of difficulties, the courage to stand up in desperate situations, and the fighting spirit to overcome everything on the journey of human evolution. Losing him is a huge loss for the country, the people, and even the entire human race, his existence gives all the supernatural soldiers and even us logistics staff spiritual support, with him, we have nothing to fear.

We who put all the responsibility on him are cowardly, the moment he left we panicked, I and everyone here can’t even imagine what we would do without him, do we have the ability to continue on this road full of thorns?

I think the answer is yes, because although Comrade Tan Yan is gone, his spirit will always exist with us. Each of you is a soldier he cultivated, a spark lit by him with the afterglow of his life, and a hope that can start a prairie fire to light up the darkness in the future. Tell me out loud, can you do it?”

“Can!” The voice of more than twenty thousand people is like a great bell, startling the wild geese flying in the sky.

“I am very pleased that our soldiers have such determination, and I also believe that we will fight a bloody road. This is what Comrade Tan Yan taught us, and it is also what every revolutionary soldier must possess. The road of evolution is long, perhaps within my life, your life, and even your children’s children will never see the end of it, but I believe that, like Comrade Tan Yan, we will pass on our courage, and after countless generations, we will finally achieve the evolution of all mankind.”

Minister Yu took a deep breath, suppressed the tears at the corner of his eyes, solemnly and respectfully raised his right hand, and turned to Tan Yan’s tombstone in front of him: “Salute to Comrade Tan Yan!”

“Salute to Comrade Tan Yan!”

The uniform salute, the right hand at the same level as the temple, seems to promise Tan Yan that we will go all the way, no matter how hard it is, we will never forget our original intention, keep our mission in mind, and pass on the spirit of never giving up.

–

“I have discussed with the national leaders and decided to disclose the ‘void’ matter to the public, and to make public the details of Tan Yan’s life, his dedication cannot be buried, and the country cannot continue to hide like this.” Minister Yu has a solemn expression, “This is a disaster for all mankind, everyone has the right to know.”

No one objected, only Qiao Zhixue sighed: “It will cause chaos.”

“It won’t.” Minister Yu looked at him solemnly and said, “I will give speeches all over the country, while Cui Heyu will monitor the network at all times, police and armed forces will be on standby across the country at all times, once there is any sign of turmoil, immediately arrest the source of inciting chaos, uncover the black sheep hidden in various parts of the motherland, and clear all obstacles for the revolutionary road.”

“You want to use the supernatural power?” Qiao Zhixue asked.

“Yes.” Minister Yu is the first person in the world to awaken supernatural powers, after he followed Tan Yan back from the lava world, he had the power to control people’s hearts. It’s just that Minister Yu is an upright person, he believes that people’s hearts are free, he has never used this ability, and doesn’t want to brainwash people in such a tough way.

But now, on the premise that all the people know about it, he must suppress all disturbances, and not allow the ordinary people to be incited by those who have their own agenda. For this reason, he has to personally take action to stabilize people’s hearts and ensure that ordinary people in society will not be confused by other people’s words.

“Bring Qiu Qizheng and a few soldiers with strong consciousness with you,” Qiao Zhixue instructed, “It’s difficult for you to influence too many people with your own power alone, it will be much easier to have them assist you during the speech.”

“I can do it.” Minister Yu’s expression was serious, obviously he had made up his mind.

“There are enough soldiers with supernatural powers, and even if there is a ‘void’, Liang Xian is here, it doesn’t matter if you’re not on the base. But Liang Xian is now…” Qiao Zhixue thought of Liang Xian’s almost crazy appearance, not sure if he could complete the mission.

“He can do it.” Minister Yu was never worried about this, “He’s my son, and also the first student Tan Yan taught, he can be depressed and frustrated at ordinary times, but in times of crisis, Liang Xian will never forget his mission and responsibility. While I was away, he commanded the supernatural team and led everyone to continue to fight against the ‘void’. I understand that Tan Yan’s departure made everyone flustered, but even if I leave tomorrow and Liang Xian also leaves, the road of revolution will never stop. As long as there is still one of us alive, we can keep fighting.”

After leaving these words, Minister Yu left with Qiu Qizheng and the others, while Qiao Zhixue continued to mass-produce defense memory chips, the first batch of 10,000 chips was taken away by Minister Yu, and he will properly distribute these chips.

Everyone has their own tasks, and so does Liang Xian.

The earth will not stop turning when someone leaves, even if sorrowful, even if sad, they still have to move forward.

Liang Xian didn’t know how many days he had stayed in the room, he had been using his consciousness to find Tan Yan’s whereabouts, but found nothing.

He once thought that even if Tan Yan’s body disappeared, he could find a way to get another body, analyze it, reorganize it, whatever it was. But when the consciousness is gone, there is really nothing to do.

But has Tan Yan’s consciousness really dissipated? Liang Xian didn’t believe that such a powerful person, even if the world were destroyed, Tan Yan will not die, how could his consciousness disappear?

But he is such a gentle person, if his consciousness is still there, how could he bear to watch everyone grieve for him, how could he not tell everyone through the little deer?

Liang Xian squeezed his trembling hands tightly, he couldn’t remember how many days he hadn’t eaten, such a useless look, would Tan Yan scold him when he saw it?

It would be great if he could be angered and live again… Liang Xian smiled bitterly.

The door of the room was opened, and Gong Tianhua, also known as Ah San, stood outside the door and said to Liang Xian: “The ‘void’ appeared, in Qinhuangdao. It’s now 15:34 in the afternoon, and the ‘void’ appeared for the first time in daylight, thankfully it’s an uninhabited area, and no one was caught in it. But if it continues, it may not be so, we have to bring weapons and continue to fight, Yang Da Ma cried almost to death at the funeral, but she still wants to participate in this operation, what about you?”

“I’m going.” Liang Xian did not hesitate, but said it simply.

Ah San raised his eyebrows: “Are you in a good state?”

“If I don’t go, Tan Yan’s iron fist will probably come again.” Liang Xian touched his own face, “He couldn’t bear to see me degenerate myself.”

“It’s good if you know, change clothes to get the equipment, we’ll show up in a helicopter right away, you have 3 minutes and 26 seconds to get ready.”

Liang Xian quickly stood up, suppressed the pain in his heart, and showed his most capable and energetic side to the soldiers.

When he left the dark room, he closed the door and locked it, whispering: “Wait for me to come back.”

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  不計其數 cù jì qí shù: lit. their number cannot be counted; fig. countless; innumerable.