"Not just me, but Wen Nian as well...you forgot, my husband is the President."
Song Lili looked at Lu Xiaoer with confidence.
Lu Xiaoer was indeed a bit agitated, but Song Lili’s words calmed her down.
She slung her backpack over her shoulder and climbed out of the mountain stream, standing on high ground to give an instruction,
"Stay inside and do not come out. Use rocks to block the entrance."
After Zhongli Wuzhi responded, Song Lili headed off in the direction they had come from.
Lu Xiaoer stared blankly at Song Lili’s departing figure, feeling uneasy in her heart...
One after the other, they crawled into the cave, with Zhongli Wuzhi piling up stones around the entrance to block it as much as possible.
Zhongli Wuzhi padded a spot with clothes for Xiaoer, then, using the light from his cellphone’s flashlight, gave her medicine,
Lu Xiaoer leaned against the damp and cold stone walls inside the cave.
"Zhongli... Xiao Li, she... she won’t be in danger, right?"
"...She’s so confident, nothing will happen."
Zhongli Wuzhi also leaned against the wall, still struggling with his phone to see if it could be used...
He just wanted to smash the useless device.
"It’s all because of you two’s names."
"What’s wrong with our names?"
After taking her medicine, Lu Xiaoer set the water aside, hugged her knees, and murmured,
"Both your names contain the character ’Li’... Why carry a character like that..."
Zhongli Wuzhi quickly said,
"What kind of prejudice is that? The Zhongli in my name Zhongli Wuzhi is a surname of the highest honor! As for her, Song Lili... Ah Nian never had such negative thoughts as you."
"Lili on the field, a year of wilting and flourishing; wild fires cannot erase it, spring breeze brings it back to life! Haven’t you read the poem?"
"She is very tenacious...stop thinking nonsense."
Zhongli Wuzhi reached out and pulled Lu Xiaoer into his arms...
He thought to himself, perhaps everything he had experienced in Country M wasn’t a bad thing personally... If they could return safely, he swore to become stronger, much stronger.
The two huddled together for warmth, with neither of them able to let go of their worry for Song Lili. Even though they were hiding, both listened intently for any noises coming from outside the cave.
After about twenty minutes, Lu Xiaoer whispered,
"Has it been so long...does that mean everything’s fine now? Those people shouldn’t be chasing us—"
Before Lu Xiaoer could finish speaking, gunfire erupted not a hundred meters away; the continuous shots made it easy to imagine a firefight had broken out.
As for who was involved...
Lu Xiaoer covered her mouth and widened her eyes,
"They really came after us..."
At this moment, Zhongli Wuzhi was fully alert, recalling every word Song Lili had said before leaving, not forgetting a single one.
Even if Song Lili hadn’t mentioned it, protecting Lu Xiaoer was something he had to do!
With one hand on a hand grenade and the other tightly gripping a gun...
Lu Xiaoer was in complete disarray, her heart racing up to her throat.
Were they really going to stay in this cave, waiting for the gunfire outside to stop?
But what would it mean when it stopped?
Was this something she and Zhongli Wuzhi could endure?
Caught in the storm of bullets, Song Lili hadn’t expected that after observing from a tree for twenty minutes, she’d still be faced with these stubborn rebel army pursuers.
Just because of one dead soldier, they had dispatched a squad to chase after them?
How many men did they have to spare?