Darkness is Coming

"The tiger wanted to play cards, but the little cat and the little bear didn't dare to play cards with him, because the tiger was so powerful that it could eat them at any time. At this time, the tiger said, I tied my own claws and put on braces. , so I can't kill you, you can't eat you, and you can run away at any time. Come on, try to play cards with me once."

"Kitty, Puppy, and Bear after thinking about it and agreeing, because this is an opportunity to have a good relationship with the jungle tyrant. If you can become a card friend with the tiger, you will be backed by the big tree in the future to enjoy the shade. So everyone sat down and played cards together, In the first set, the tiger and the kitten won the puppy and the bear. In the second set, the tiger and the puppy won the kitten and the cub, and in the third set, the tiger and the cub won the kitten and the puppy.”

   "Uncle, do you understand?"

  The short-haired boy said while rubbing the eagle-shaped brooch on his left chest with his index finger, which is the badge of the S-rank team Falcon.

Sitting beside him, Qi Lie thought for a while, and said after a while: "I understand. This is a scam. The tiger disguised himself as harmless, and created a kind of atmosphere for the kittens, puppies, and bears. The illusion of winning. But the truth is only the tigers keep winning."

"It's inappropriate to say that." Qi Xinwu shook his head and said, "Using this children's story as a metaphor for the Awakened Council is too superficial, the members of the council come from various forces, and it is impossible for the Awakened from each force to be united. The entanglement of interests is a million times more complicated than this. However, think about it from another angle, for the kittens, puppies and bears, they have indeed won, so they are willing to stay and continue.”

   "But according to the arrangement of the tiger, the kitten, the puppy, and the bear have each lost twice before winning once?" Qi Lie patted his head, unable to understand.

"Uncle, everyone has a gambler's mentality. As long as they win once, they always want to win the second time. Besides, the Awakened Council doesn't really play cards. What they use on the poker table is fixed chips. Of course I don't want to continue playing if I win only once. But the council is different. Some of the chips that are useless to you can just be used to 'lose', which will pave the way for the next 'win'. Hey, I will also I can only understand it to this extent. I can’t speak any further, and I don’t understand politics. I can’t even guess what Commander Liu and President Yang are thinking.” Qi Xinwu lifted the bangs on his forehead and suddenly sighed. breathed.

   Qi Lie's mind is not complicated, but he knows a lot about his nephew, who was brought up by himself, and in the blink of an eye, he wants to understand why Qi Xinwu sighed. Qi Xinwu is a natural child prodigy. He can speak English at the age of three, and can write poetry at the age of eight. Since childhood, he has been the first in every exam, first in the whole school, first in the district, and first in the city. There has never been an exception. Therefore, Qi Xinwu became famous in the city when he was still in junior high school. It is difficult for young people to be arrogant when they are famous. Although Qi Xinwu did not show it, the people around him could feel that implicit arrogance.

When the disaster broke out, Qi Xinwu broke other people's comments on him as "a nerd can only read books", killed corpses to save people, became an awakened person, and saved dozens of classmates. His evaluation of himself is more important to others. Infinitely improved under the eyes of reverence.

   But before he could show his grand plan, the two monsters Liu Yuanzhou and Yang Xiaoqian were born out of nowhere. It's just a Liu Yuanzhou. After all, Liu Yuanzhou is much older than Qi Xinwu, and he is the deputy director of the city security department. No matter how amazing his performance, Qi Xinwu can comfort himself and say, "After ten years, Not necessarily worse than him."

But Yang Xiaoqian, who is younger than Qi Xinwu, has never heard of this person before the disaster, but he was able to build up such a behemoth in a short period of time, with more than 20 awakened people and thousands of soldiers. , holding the lives of tens of thousands of people, on an equal footing with Liu Yuanzhou and Jiang Haichao.

   Qixin's achievements that I am proud of are in front of him, like the light of a firefly and the bright moon, so every time I think of this, I feel unwilling and lost in my heart.

   "Okay, it's not good to always sigh at a young age." Qi Lie stood up and patted Qi Xinwu on the shoulder, "You are busy with yourself, I will go to Geng Zhiping first."

   Qi Xinwu nodded in agreement and continued to devote himself to his busy work. Awakened people from other forces are about to arrive in Xinyuanjiang one after another. As the host, they must be well entertained.

   When Qi Lie walked slowly into Geng Zhiping's office, Geng Zhiping was sitting in a chair watching a video. But Qi Lie could see at a glance that Geng Zhiping was not watching movies or TV series to pass the time, because Geng Zhiping's sitting posture was too upright, and he usually put his legs on the table.

Qi Lie stepped over to Geng Zhiping's side and glanced at the screen. The picture was blurry and dim, and it seemed to be a video recorded by someone with a mobile phone. In front of him was a large crowd of people surrounded by a high platform, and only one person was standing on the platform. figure, talking.

   "Maybe many people think that we are over the crisis now, but that's not the case. We still live in an island with little material abundance, in exile in the ocean."

   "Many soldiers burnt their lives, bringing us a huge beacon that lights up the light of hope, and lights the road ahead, but the long night that imprisoned the freedom of the soul has not ended, and the road is still full of thorns."

   Hearing only these two sentences, Qi Lie jammed the words he was about to say in his throat, straightened his back, stood straight beside him, and watched this video with Geng Zhiping.

   "As long as there is one compatriot who can't eat enough to satisfy his stomach and has clothing to cover his body, we will never be satisfied!"

  …

   "One day, we will realize the dream of Yuanjiang in our hearts!"

  …

   "On that day, the bumpy and tortuous road will finally become a smooth one, and the radiance will cover the clouds, and the darkness will be dispelled!"

   "On that day, the sound of joyful singing and laughter will spread all over the streets and alleys, and thousands of lights will illuminate the world!"

  Qi Lie could hear Geng Zhiping's heavy breathing, looked down, his hands on his knees were tightly clenched into fists, so hard that his knuckles began to turn white.

   In the video, one after another, the troops of the Yuanjiao Society drove under the high platform, and their power was overwhelming. Immediately afterwards, the figure on the high platform raised his right hand and began to swear.

First there were the soldiers of the Far Rescue Society under the stage, then the corpse hunters outside the blockade, and finally the ordinary residents of the island. When the voices of tens of thousands of people sounded together, Qi Lie's mood climbed to the top, with excitement and regret. , regretting that he was not able to be there at the time.

A few minutes later, when he saw the steel monument turned into a sword, the video ended. Geng Zhiping lifted the mouse to turn off the player, covered the laptop screen, turned his head to Qilie and said, "What we just watched was from the Yuanjiao Society. During the swearing-in meeting, there were a lot of people recording the video on the spot, but this is the only one that can come out. This is a confidential matter, don't leak it."

   "I know." Qi Lie nodded, knowing that this video was sent back simply because Yang Xiaoqian was willing to let them watch it. None of the nails placed on Jiangxin Island by other forces could successfully send back the video.

"This guy didn't notify me in advance, sigh." Qi Lie complained in a sullen voice. Although he is not a member of the Far Rescue Association, he belongs to the oldest group of corpse hunters. The "Ash" team is one of the only four S-rank corpse hunting teams. Yang Xiaoqian didn't notify him in advance to invite him to the ceremony, which made him very depressed.

   Geng Zhiping's focus was on another matter. He stared deeply at the computer on the table with an inexplicable gaze, and was silent for a long time before asking a question.

   "If we die, will the name be engraved on that monument?"