Top edge chapter 30
Bombing time
Not long after Shen Siwei hung up the communicator, a familiar figure appeared in the corner of the balcony.
klet climbed down the balcony and entered the room, calmly asking, “What do you mean an attack?”
His eyes seemed hollow, as if something inside had been emptied, leaving only an empty shell without a soul. Shen Siwei couldn’t put it into words, but he felt that the current klet seemed different from before they parted.
“The industry raid failed,” Shen Siwei said, “Therefore the military has decided to bomb this city.”
klet walked to the couch without much reaction and resumed playing the paused SpongeBob SquarePants episode.
Shen Siwei: “?”
Is it time to watch SpongeBob now?
He walked in front of the couch, blocking the TV screen, and frowned at klet. “This place will be bombed in an hour. Are you sure you still want to watch cartoons?”
klet glanced indifferently at Shen Siwei. “You’re blocking the screen.”
It was only at this moment that Shen Siwei finally realized that something was off with him.
“klet,” Shen Siwei felt it necessary to explain, “The ambush on you and Nightingale was my superior’s idea. I didn’t tell anyone that the two of you would meet.”
klet blinked his eyes slightly and finally looked at Shen Siwei. “Why didn’t you disclose it?”
“Because…” The words were on the tip of Shen Siwei’s tongue, but he swallowed them back.
He understood klet’s suspicion. They were in opposing positions, and it didn’t make sense for him to withhold such important information. It was illogical.
But Shen Siwei found it difficult to say it out loud. Perhaps since the moment he slept beside klet, his had become more conflicted.
“Because?” Klet smirked. “You’re trying to deceive me again.”
“I’m really not deceiving you this time.” Shen Siwei couldn’t stand seeing klet in such a dejected state. He leaned on the back of the couch with one hand and grabbed klet’s collar with the other. “We need to evacuate the civilians immediately.”
“Is that so?” klet pried Shen Siwei’s hand off his collar without much expression, and continued to look at the TV screen. “Then maybe you can ask your superior not to launch the attack.”
klet still didn’t believe Shen Siwei and couldn’t be bothered to figure out what Shen Siwei was up to.
Under different circumstances, not being believed wouldn’t bother Shen Siwei since he was the one who lied first.
But the current situation was an emergency.
He slapped klet’s face, forcing him to turn and look at him, and said in a low voice, “If I wanted to deceive you, I wouldn’t have helped you drive away the desert wolves.”
That was clearly strong evidence.
The moment he took action, he exposed himself. If Shen Siwei still had intentions of deceiving klet, why would he willingly help?
klet’s eyes flickered, showing signs of being convinced.
“My superior is already displeased with me,” Shen Siwei straightened his posture, waved his hand to turn off the TV. “Are you willing to join forces with me now?”
klet’s eyes gradually regained their usual depth, as if his brain had been offline for a while but finally started working again.
“I wouldn’t lie to you again.”
“You’ve lied to me countless times before.”
Although he said so, Klet still opened the communicator and contacted Malken. And within five minutes, an emergency evacuation notice popped up on Shen Siwei’s mini computer.
Malken’s face in the video was covered in oil, presumably still repairing the defense system of the outer wall.
“Dear residents of Zone Z in the Western District, first of all, I have good news for everyone. The Desert Wolf Pack has been driven away, so you don’t have to worry about becoming lunch for the monsters. But here’s another piece of bad news for everyone: the military will launch a bombing in fifty minutes. Please pack your belongings and evacuate in an orderly manner.”
As soon as the evacuation notice was broadcasted, the outside of the windows became noisy.
Shen Siwei came to the balcony and took a look. He found that many civilians were already rushing in the direction of the neighboring city, dragging their suitcases.
Many civilians had already left the city when the refugees stormed the Tree of Life, so there were not many civilians in need of evacuation now, and there was little chaos on the streets.
Forty to fifty minutes was enough time to evacuate, so Shen Siwei temporarily breathed a sigh of relief.
He turned to look at Klet, who had just hung up the communicator, and asked, “Will the refugees return to the Tree of Life?”
The defense systems of other cities had not been breached, so the refugees could only enter if they forge their identities.
“Knock and Avis will be taken away by the Nightingale,” Klet said. “The others should return to the Desert Underground City.”
“Come and take a look.”
With that, Klet jumped onto the roof of the adjacent building and then turned back to make a gesture to Shen Siwei, indicating for him to follow.
Shen Siwei also jumped up, and the two of them jumped on the rooftop one after another. They quickly reached the edge of the city.
By that time, many civilians had already passed through the roadblocks and arrived at the industrial area.
Klet stopped at the closest building to the roadblock and squatted at a corner of the rooftop, watching the direction of the crowd from a distance.
Shen Siwei crouched down next to Klet and followed his gaze, catching a glimpse of the sunset.
The orange sunlight shone on both of them, casting long shadows on the rooftop. A gentle breeze blew through the air, making the world seem peaceful and beautiful.
But this was just a momentary calm before the bombing.
Shen Siwei changed his posture, sitting on the edge of the rooftop with his hands supporting him behind his back and his legs dangling, swinging back and forth. Occasionally, his heels would bump against the wall.
He turned his head and looked at Klet’s profile. “You didn’t seem right this afternoon.”
Klet withdrew his gaze from afar and glanced at Shen Siwei. “You mean after i realized that i had been deceived for so long?”
“You know, I was on a mission,” Shen Siwei shrugged. “I also didn’t want to pretend to be weak.”
For some reason, Klet smiled faintly, took a deep breath, and said, “It doesn’t matter.”
The two of them continued to silently watch the sunset. By this time, most of the civilians had evacuated to the industrial area.
“So what will happen to your mission?” Klet suddenly turned his head to look at Shen Siwei.
Shen Siwei also let out a breath and said, “It doesn’t matter.”
Having said that, he turned his head to meet Klet’s gaze. Time seemed to slow down, and the scene turned into slow motion as both of them held each other’s gaze without looking away.
Putting aside the deceptions, perhaps it would be nice for the two of them to get to know each other again, Shen Siwei thought.
However, the mood of the moment was disrupted by a notification on the communicator.
Shen Siwei pressed the call button. “It’s me.”
“Why are the civilians evacuating?” Moran’s impatient voice came through. “Why are you still in City Z?”
“Because I’m evacuating the civilians,” Shen Siwei replied calmly.
“You—” Moran took a deep breath. “What do you mean ? Are you defying the orders from your superiors?”
“Yes,” Shen Siwei said. “I should have defied them last time too.”
The words were clear, and Moran’s voice carried a hint of gritted teeth. “So you remember now.”
“Yes,” Shen Siwei said, a mocking smile on his face. “Shameless.”
Of course, he was referring to the fact that Moran had pretended to be his lover. But Klet didn’t know about it, and he looked at Shen Siwei with some surprise, not understanding how someone could speak to their superior like that.
“You may not know yet,” Moran suppressed his anger and said, “there’s a control chip installed in your brain. I can put you to sleep anytime I want.”
“Whatever,” Shen Siwei said indifferently. “I’m with Klet now. If you want to never see me again, you can try.”
Having said that, Shen Siwei couldn’t be bothered to waste any more words and added Moran to his communication blacklist.
“Superior?” Klet asked.
“Yes,” Shen Siwei nodded.
“Heh,” Klet smiled, a glimmer of light flashing in his eyes. “You remind me of someone I once knew. He was also on a mission but eventually switched sides.”
“On a mission?” Shen Siwei seized the key point.
He continued to ask, “Is it the person from the military you’ve been looking for?”
“Yes,” Klet finally let go of his guard and took out a dagger from a leather sheath on his calf. “This is something he left for me.”
The silver-black steel dagger reflected an orange light under the sunset.
A string of numbers flashed by.
888714
Shen Siwei was instantly stunned because he couldn’t be more familiar with this string of numbers.
All sorts of thoughts suddenly rushed in Shen Siwei’s mind.
No wonder Klet had Sara’s records at home, no wonder he said he had no childhood, no wonder he was looking for someone with black hair and black eyes…
So the person he was looking for was Shen Siwei?!
“Klet,” Shen Siwei looked at the person next to him in disbelief, faintly glimpsing the shadow of that little boy in his handsome brows.
“What’s wrong?” Klet asked.
“You…”
Too many complex emotions surged in his heart, and Shen Siwei didn’t know where to start.
He no longer had any family or friends by his side, and the only person he cared about was that little boy whose fate was uncertain back then. And now, the little boy was right in front of him, transformed into an adult fully capable of protecting himself.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Klet asked, puzzled.
Unable to resist, Shen Siwei reached out his hand and gently touched the side of Klet’s face.—how could that adorable little boy grow up to be such a hot-tempered man?
And the tattoo on his chest, Shen Siwei couldn’t help but laugh and cry. How did he end up with the impression of a gorilla?
Klet looked at Shen Siwei in confusion.
Recalling the little Klet who cried and didn’t want to be separated from him, Shen Siwei burst into laughter, his eyes filled with a gentle glow.
“Klet,” he laughed, “so you were just a little brat.”
Klet furrowed his brows, looking displeased. “What do you mean?”
“You were looking for—”
Before Shen Siwei could finish his sentence, a sudden “swoosh” sound came from a distance. He saw a black wristband swiftly flying towards him and attaching itself to his wrist—the hand that was touching Klet.
The wristband shimmered with a black light representing strong magnetism. It was usually used to recover extremely difficult-to-recover items.
Shen Siwei quickly looked in the direction from which the wristband came. He saw three military aircrafts arriving ahead of schedule. At the same time, another black wristband flew directly towards his other hand.
Shen Siwei quickly jumped off the rooftop, dodging the black wristband. “Go protect the civilians!”
After landing on the ground, Shen Siwei originally intended to run towards a nearby building to minimize the impact of the directional magnetic pole on the wristband. However, at this moment, the wristband had already started to take effect, and a tremendous magnetic force pulled him into the air. He had to use his other hand to grab onto a street lamp pole to resist the force.
And at this moment, something that shocked Shen Siwei happened.
The bomber didn’t fly into City Z at all; it dropped bombs in the industrial area.
The area was densely packed with recently evacuated civilians, and the bombs landed accurately among the crowd. The sound of screams rose and fell, while thick smoke created a scene of hell on earth.
Some people began to fight back, but their efforts were in vain. Shen Siwei could only see a group of people wearing Nightingale masks from a distance.
Seeing a few people about to be crushed to death, Klet’s figure quickly appeared and forcefully held up the falling stone.
“Run!” Klet shouted.
The few people rolled and crawled out from under the stone, but countless rocks fell again. Klet didn’t have time to escape and was buried under.
“Klet!!!”
Shen Siwei stared blankly at the scenes nearby and in the distance, immense anger surged in his heart, causing him to tremble uncontrollably.
He resisted the powerful magnetic force on his wrist with all his might, and his golden hair and blue eyes unconsciously turned a deeper shade of crimson.
When he accumulated enough strength, he released the pillar of light in his hand, letting the magnetic force carry him at high speed towards the aircraft.
Shen Siwei was already starting to feel dizzy ,he bit his tongue to fight it, and the color of his hair and eyes turned even darker red.
“Wait, he’s not asleep!”
“Suspend the retrieval, suspend the retrieval!”
It was already too late.
Shen Siwei entered the aircraft with the magnetic pole and threw the two pilots from the sky .
He sat in the pilot’s seat, following the coordinates on the screen, and maneuvered the aircraft to collide with another aircraft.
One of the pilots on the other aircraft reacted quickly and used the ejection seat to escape before the two planes crashed.
But just as he was relieved to have saved his life, he saw a figure flying out from the flames, landing on the armrest of his seat.
“H-Help… me…”
The person in front of him had red hair and terrifying bloodshot eyes.
“Go to hell,” he muttered, parting his lips.
The next second, he was ripped apart.
Only one pilot remained, but Shen Siwei was already on the verge of collapsing.
His mouth was filled with the taste of blood, and his tongue was numb from biting it. However, the dizziness was overwhelmingly strong.
He needed a stimulant…
Klet… You must still be alive, right…
Come and help me…
The wristband flickered with black light once again, and the falling body was suddenly pulled towards the remaining fighter jet.
It seemed that Moran had indeed prepared thoroughly,
Can’t sleep…
I mustn’t sleep…
There’s something I still need to tell Klet…
“negotiator!”
Klet’s voice sounded in his ears, and his eyelids, which had closed, opened once again. Shen Siwei looked down with bloodshot eyes, seeing Klet standing above the ruins, calling out his name.
“Klet…”
Shen Siwei had no strength left to speak. He also knew that Klet couldn’t help him because there was a great distance between them.
Within a second, Shen Siwei was sucked into the aircraft,
Shen Siwei held on until the limit, but in the end, he closed his eyes and fell asleep.