The Invasion Day – Chapter 102

Table of Contents | Character Guide

Chapter 102

An autumn rain came down, carrying with it intense coldness.

In the darkness, it started to drizzle.

In the middle of the barren land that had gone through a fierce battle, a piece of the ground suddenly swelled up, and something that looked like a steel shell poked up, shaking off the gravel around it.

Tang Xuhai’s eyebrows furrowed as he picked up the smell of blood mixed in the rain.

The fact that Geng Liangguan suddenly asked the driver to fire at them was truly beyond his expectation.

However, this was indeed the way people like them would act. If it were Tang Xuhai before he was discharged from the army, he would make the same choice.

But now… Tang Xuhai looked down at Fu Shiwu, whom he had shielded with his own body. He might not choose such a ruthless method.

Through Tang Xuhai’s skin, the steel shell he had put up as an emergency response was slowly absorbed back into his body.

He propped his upper body up, clueless as to how long Fu Shiwu and he had been knocked out by the impact earlier. But in short, after Tang Xuhai got back to his consciousness, neither the aliens nor the armoured vehicle was in sight.

“Shiwu?” Tang Xuhai called out Fu Shiwu’s name.

Only when Tang Xuhai’s eyes managed to slowly adjust to the darkness did he realise that a trace of blood was dripping from Fu Shiwu’s mouth.

This had Tang Xuhai startled. Caught completely off-guard, Tang Xuhai didn’t know where Fu Shiwu had gotten hurt and thus didn’t dare to rashly move him around.

Tang Xuhai could only prop himself on top of Fu Shiwu to cover him from the rain and wait for him to wake up.

“Cough cough.” Some time later, Fu Shiwu finally opened his eyes.

Tang Xuhai was thrilled, for he was still afraid that Fu Shiwu might just pass out for real.

“How are you feeling?”

“Cough cough…” Not yet in the clearest state of mind, Fu Shiwu simply lay there and looked at Tang Xuhai blocking the rain above him. He glanced left and right to find that everything around him was stark silence. He could no longer see the light from the armoured vehicle. His glasses had been smashed the moment the Level-3 alien attacked him, and he had no idea where they had fallen off to. Right now, his vision was blurry.

“What about the others? And the aliens?”

Tang Xuhai said: “I don’t know. When I woke up, there was nothing left.”

Fu Shiwu took a breath with difficulty, feeling as though his chest was being smothered. He said: “Pei City’s crisis should have been solved. Finally, our mission is completed.”

“Are you injured anywhere?” Creasing his eyebrows, Tang Xuhai asked.

Although he was also knocked unconscious by the impact of the explosion, Tang Xuhai felt that he wasn’t severely hurt, but he had no idea why Fu Shiwu was bleeding.

Fu Shiwu carefully tried to feel it and said: “Except for the tight feeling in my chest, everything else should be fine.” 

Hearing this, Tang Xuhai finally felt at ease, and he directly pulled Fu Shiwu to sit up.

Perhaps he might have used too much force, or for whatever reason that was, Fu Shiwu opened his mouth and a lump of blood gushed out.

But since it was all too dark, Tang Xuhai didn’t know that he had spurted blood. He only saw Fu Shiwu turn his head to one side and lower it, then a coughing sound followed. When the blood that Fu Shiwu coughed up splashed on his arm, that warm sensation made Tang Xuhai finally realise what was wrong.

“You coughed up blood?!” Tang Xuhai almost jumped out of his own skin.

“Cough cough…” Fu Shiwu lightly choked: “I’m okay. Maybe it’s the blood that pressed on my chest earlier. I feel much better after spitting it out.” 

Tang Xuhai felt a tad suspicious, but he didn’t dare to randomly touch Fu Shiwu any further.

Fu Shiwu felt funny to see Tang Xuhai acting like he was facing a huge crisis, but simultaneously, he also felt as though something hot was being stuffed into his chest. The sensation was painful yet warm and comfortable at the same time.

“I’m really okay.” Fu Shiwu tried his best to reassure Tang Xuhai.

Only with this effort that Tang Xuhai reluctantly accepted Fu Shiwu’s words. Fu Shiwu carefully stood up, but every breath and movement was causing throbbing pain in his chest.

Fu Shiwu felt uneasy, but he didn’t want to reveal that to Tang Xuhai at such a moment and in such a place. He just said nonchalantly: “Let’s go back.”

Tang Xuhai looked up at the pale-red sky veil and hesitated for a second, but still, he replied: “Let’s wait a while more, we should go back once dawn breaks. It’s too dark now, and your eyesight isn’t great. You won’t see the road.”

Fu Shiwu paused and simply let out an “uhm”.

It wasn’t so dark that they couldn’t see their fingers, but they were in an unfamiliar mountain ridge. The explosions had made a mess out of the whole place, and there were corpses of aliens and humans at every corner.

The whole path was littered with smashed rocks or broken tree branches. If the two of them walked ahead without any lighting, they would certainly suffer injuries or scratches. Besides, Fu Shiwu was now half-blind, making it even riskier.

Tang Xuhai fumbled around to find a way to leave this barren land that was formed due to the blast, half-supporting and half-pulling Fu Shiwu. Very slowly, they moved to a place whose state had turned dreadful due to the battle earlier.

“Shiwu, are you hungry?” Tang Xuhai licked his dry lips.

From yesterday till now, apart from some food and water during lunch, Tang Xuhai only ate some rations inside the armoured vehicle. But Fu Shiwu was different; he didn’t even have dinner last night.

Before Tang Xuhai finished his words, Fu Shiwu’s already-numb stomach churned. The grumbling of his stomach and the sensation of hunger made him feel weak at the knees.

Even without him saying any words, Tang Xuhai knew that he was famished.

Tang Xuhai supported Fu Shiwu to stand aside. It was raining and the entire ground was wet, so there wasn’t exactly any place to sit down. Tang Xuhai had no choice but to let him stand there.

In Fu Shiwu’s blurry vision, Tang Xuhai directly used his metal ability to create a structure that looked similar to a large-size umbrella stand. Tang Xuhai thrust it into the ground, then turned around and started to snap big branches from the lush tree next to him.

The lingering rain kept falling and the coldness in the air made Fu Shiwu pull back his neck.

In the beginning, he couldn’t figure what Tang Xuhai was doing, but when Tang Xuhai started to put leaves on the umbrella stand and tightly blocked the rain from Fu Shiwu’s head, he realised that Tang Xuhai was building a temporary shelter.

After Tang Xuhai made several adjustments and, ascertaining that not a drop of water could leak into the spot where Fu Shiwu stood, he nodded in satisfaction: “You stay here. Wait for me.”

Fu Shiwu was taken aback: “What are you planning to do?” 

Tang Xuhai gazed at Fu Shiwu being securely surrounded by the fruits of his labour and said contentedly: “I’m going to find something to eat. Don’t move.”

Fu Shiwu frowned and said anxiously: “No! Don’t go!”

Right now, his eyesight was very bad. Earlier, the two of them only walked a small distance and were already scratched multiple times by fallen branches and fragmented rocks. If it weren’t Tang Xuhai pulling onto him, Fu Shiwu would have stumbled.

Tang Xuhai smiled reassuringly, but since it was too dark for Fu Shiwu to see that smile, his mind couldn’t quite be put at ease.

“It’ll be okay. I’ll search only nearby.” Tang Xuhai then thought of something and slapped his own head with chagrin. He lowered his head and switched on the light on his watch.

A faint light shined on a small area around them.

“It’s a pity that the light is too small.” Tang Xuhai said with a hint of regret.

The light, which was embedded under the dial, could only illuminate the watch’s periphery. It was still enough to see the numbers on the watch, but the light would start blurring at their feet.

“Really, just wait for me here.” Tang Xuhai lifted a finger, pointing at himself.

In order to ensure that the short-sighted Fu Shiwu could see him clearly, he also deliberately moved closer and waved his hand.

Rather unwillingly, Fu Shiwu nodded.

Inside Fu Shiwu’s field of view, a tiny light continued to flicker, and following Tang Xuhai’s movement that kept getting further away, it became fainter and fainter.

Fu Shiwu hugged his arm, only to feel an excruciating pain creep up. It echoed the pain that came from inside his body, as though they were all vying for his attention.

As he tilted his head downwards and stroked his arm, the sensation of a slippery, viscous liquid travelled up.

Fu Shiwu smiled wryly. Really, nowhere on his body was left unharmed.

Then he thought of Geng Liangguan’s resolute look before dying and heaved a long sigh, a complicated feeling surging from his heart.

He could understand Geng Liangguan’s indifference to the others’ life and death and how that led him to command the rounds to be fired, but he couldn’t simply accept it with calmness.

He hadn’t yet reached the point of despair. And with Tang Xuhai here, he himself had enough energy to keep on fighting. They could always come up with a solution. 

However, it all ended under another man’s order.

Fu Shiwu’s mind was swamped with chaotic thoughts, and he couldn’t help but think back to the situation at that time and how they could have dealt with it.

He knew that this tragedy couldn’t be undone, but he wasn’t able to control himself and kept pondering the thought.

Fu Shiwu hugged his shoulder with his unwounded arm and looked into the distance with his eyes wide open.

As the rain soaked his hair, the wet strands stuck to his forehead, making him somehow look a few years younger, while his big, deep-black eyes gazed into an unknown place without any particular focus. His face was incredibly pale, and his lips didn’t even carry any tinge of red. Yet despite this frail appearance, with his upright stance and slightly raised chin, he didn’t seem fragile at all. Rather, it revealed his unyielding will.

The faint light from the watch reached his face, and the reflected light made it seem as though in the dark, his body was emanating a divine glow.

Tang Xuhai stood on the side, and just like the time he accidentally caught sight of that surreal picture at Shuijing Lake, he felt inexplicably suffocated.

He totally didn’t realise that he was seemingly not breathing until his face turned red from the lack of air!

“Cough cough cough!” Tang Xuhai gasped hard for air, suffering a bad choke.

Only then did Fu Shiwu snap out of the journey he was having in his mind. He turned around to look in the direction of the light and asked with worries: “Xuhai? Are you okay? Why are you coughing so much?”

Embarrassed, Tang Xuhai rubbed his nose with one arm and took a few deep breaths, and when his breathing finally stabilised, he said: “I’m okay. I accidentally breathed in some rainwater.”

“Oh.” Fu Shiwu’s big, blank eyes looked at his direction.

As Tang Xuhai’s heart started racing in his chest, he stretched out one hand to cover Fu Shiwu’s eyes.

“?” Utterly confused, Fu Shiwu blinked at the palm of Tang Xuhai’s hand: “What are you doing?” 

He raised his hand to pull down Tang Xuhai’s.

Summoning all his remaining patience, Tang Xuhai gritted his teeth: “Everything’s okay. I’m just thinking where I can quickly get you a pair of glasses!” Fu Shiwu’s Cuteness Index has overshot, okay!  This is a sin, a sin!

Fu Shiwu had absolutely no idea what was going on, and Tang Xuhai refused to explain it to him.

After Tang Xuhai searched around, he was lucky enough to find a patch of land with wild grapes, but unfortunately, the grapes had been horribly trampled on. Tang Xuhai only managed to find a few small bunches that were still intact.

He rubbed the grapes against the rain with his fingers, roughly cleaning them up..

“Eat. At least they’ll fill your stomach.” Tang Xuhai handed the grapes to him.

“You eat too.” Fu Shiwu picked up one grape and put it in his mouth.

The grapes had turned thoroughly ripe, overly sweet and full of juice.

“I’ve eaten. You eat.” Tang Xuhai said, his expression unflinching.

Fu Shiwu glared at him. This trick of yours is too old already, okay.

So he directly picked a grape and stuffed it into Tang Xuhai’s mouth.

“Ouch!” As the intense sweetness assaulted Tang Xuhai’s mouth, his eyebrows twisted fiercely.

Fu Shiwu was about to stuff another grape into his mouth, but Tang Xuhai quickly pressed his hand down: “I’ll do it myself.”

Are you trying to kill me?! This is too sweet.

Seeing Fu Shiwu gleefully gulp down the grapes with no expression on his face, Tang Xuhai felt truly amazed. The brat had one seriously sweet tooth.

Perhaps Tang Xuhai’s expression earlier was too agonising, Fu Shiwu eventually didn’t insist and ‘eliminated’ all the grapes by himself.

After eating the last one with much satisfaction, Fu Shiwu licked the corner of his mouth with a tiny hint of discontent.

Tang Xuhai raised his hand to look at the watch and said: “It’s four o’clock in the morning, two more hours till dawn. Do you want to sleep a bit?”

Feeling a little hesitant, Fu Shiwu asked: “Here?” 

“Uhm.” Tang Xuhai nodded, and without wasting another word, he stretched out his hand. Piece by piece, the metal stand branched out, swiftly transforming into a small tent.

Fu Shiwu exclaimed: “You’re getting better and better at applying your metal ability. This is splendid!” 

Being praised by Fu Shiwu, Tang Xuhai couldn’t help but feel sincere happiness from inside out.

With a chuckle, he made four metal feet prop up against the ground, separating the tent from the wetness of the ground.

“It’s just that the floor will be a bit hard. Let’s make do with it.” Tang Xuhai said, then he brought Fu Shiwu inside.

Tang Xuhai lay down and adjusted it slightly so that the bottom of the metal tent conform better with the human body’s curvature, thus making it less uncomfortable to sleep while lying down.

“Huff —” Fu Shi Wushu breathed out, closing his eyes.

Although he was exhausted and terribly sleepy, Fu Shiwu couldn’t fall asleep.

The clothes on his body were damp and the surroundings were a tad too cold, not to mention the blood loss. All this made Fu Shiwu unable to drowse off.

Tang Xuhai didn’t realise that he was cold at first, until he accidentally stumbled on Fu Shiwu’s cold arm.

“Feeling cold?” Tang Xuhai’s voice suddenly came.

Fu Shiwu remained silent for some time, then finally let out a sound of acknowledgement.

Tang Xuhai hesitated for a moment before deciding to pull Fu Shiwu over and hug him in his chest.

Fu Shiwu’s whole body immediately froze.

Tang Xuhai’s voice came again: “Don’t be bothered by this. Under extreme environments in the wild, my comrades-in-arms and I also keep each other warm like this. It’s normal.”

But Tang Xuhai didn’t know whether he was telling this to Fu Shiwu or to himself.

Whatever the case might be, Fu Shiwu considered that these words made sense.

Tang Xuhai’s body had always been warm, and the heterogeneous molecules had completely changed his physique. Even after fighting for one day and night, apart from the fatigue, the rain didn’t make him feel cold at all.

Fu Shiwu exhaled comfortably and twisted his body slightly to shift to a comfortable posture, then fell asleep soon after.

As Fu Shiwu’s body temperature was slowly heated up by Tang Xuhai’s very own, Tang Xuhai started feeling a tad strange.

Why was his body getting hot?! His heartbeat had also gotten out of control, jumping and pounding energetically.

Tang Xuhai froze. It didn’t feel right to release his arm that was tugging around Fu Shiwu, but holding him closer felt even wronger!

At this very juncture, as though feeling a tinge of discomfort, Fu Shiwu tilted his neck and shoved his head into Tang Xuhai’s sturdy chest. Beside the fact that he had moved closer, he was breathing directly at Tang Xuhai’s neck.

As all the hairs on Tang Xuhai’s body stood up, his nerves instantly got stimulated and his blood raced like mad.

F**k!

Clenching his teeth tightly, Tang Xuhai cursed in silence. Observing firsthand how his body was reacting, Tang Xuhai was this close to shedding tears.

He really did spend the night with his comrades-in-arms in the snow to warm each other, but he never had such strange reactions!

Perhaps because this whole period had been too harsh and Tang Xuhai had been constantly staying with Fu Shiwu and the others, there was no opportunity for him to deal with his needs. So the moment such a warm body was leaning against his chest, the beast inside him woke up.

Since Tang Xuhai had consciously discovered the reason, he quietly shouldered the Eight Points for Attention1八大紀律 [ba da ji lu] is part of the [Three Rules of Discipline and Eight Points for Attention], a military doctrine that was issued in 1928 by Mao Zedong and his associates. and relentlessly recited all odds and ends of military songs he often sang with his comrades-in-arms.

Slowly, his restless body finally calmed down. He was tremendously tired, and coupled with the torture his mind was being put through, Tang Xuhai fell asleep with much unease.

Then he had a weird, convoluted dream.

After waking up in the morning, all the contents of the dream were completely forgotten, but subconsciously, he felt that something would turn out bad.

Tang Xuhai opened his eyes dazedly, his arm stiff after staying in one pose for too long.

He moved his neck, raised his arm that was feeling so cramped that he wished it didn’t exist, and pushed Fu Shiwu out.

Yet even with such a big move, Fu Shiwu didn’t wake up.

Tang Xuhai’s heart sunk heavily and he sat up at once, but the tingling sensation brought by the blood that was circulating again in his arm didn’t pique his attention at all.

“Shiwu!” Tang Xuhai probed Fu Shiwu lightly with his arm.

Fu Shiwu was breathing very coarsely, with soft groans intermittently leaving his lips.

Tang Xuhai hurriedly placed one hand on Fu Shiwu’s forehead, and a moment later, when the numbness completely faded, he finally could feel the heat that came from Fu Shiwu.

Tang Xuhai’s expression changed at once. Fu Shiwu had passed out from a fever!

He dared not delay even a second. After absorbing back all his metal creations, he carried Fu Shiwu on his back and hurried towards Pei City.

There was no clear path in this mountain ridge, only a messy trail that had been formed by the armoured vehicle, and Tang Xuhai decided to run along this trail.

Because of the rugged mountains and awful road conditions, no matter how he tried, Tang Xuhai couldn’t run very fast.

When the anxiety almost got the better of him, a group of people suddenly appeared in the direction of the highway that linked to the mountain ridge.

Shaking like a leaf, Tang Xuhai quickened his pace.

As soon as they spotted him, the group of people felt both dumbfounded and exhilarated.

“Xuhai!” “Hai ge!” “Deputy Commander Tang!” 

His name, called out in many different ways, rang in his ears.

Amidst this calling, Tang Xuhai heard a familiar voice.

“Lao Wen!” Tang Xuhai shouted back.

“Xuhai!” Catching sight of him, Wen Zhaoming was overjoyed, then his gaze shifted to the face on Tang Xuhai’s shoulder. When he recognised that it was Fu Shiwu, his smile froze. He staggered a little, almost falling to the ground: “How is Fu Shiwu?!”

“A fever!” Tang Xuhai said quickly.

Having no time to chit-chat any further, the two sides quickly joined forces and Tang Xuhai jumped into the car Wen Zhaoming and the others were driving, heading towards Pei City.

Back at the city wall, Wen Zhaoming was clueless about what sorts of reckless venture ​​Fu Shiwu and Tang Xuhai were planning. By the time he learnt of the news, the two had already left Pei City with the special squad.

Wen Zhaoming was truly worried, but there was nothing he could do. The battle at his side was getting fiercer, and there was no other manpower available.

After an hour of intense fight, the Level-2 aliens on the west side were pushed back and the whole team was so exhausted that all their muscles went sore. They couldn’t lift even one arm.

Wen Zhaoming insisted on finding Captain Zou and forcing him to reach out to the special squad. By the time they found a way to contact the special squad, the entire squad had reached a dead end with the driver firing the last rounds.

The news that everyone was dead and only the driver survived dropped on Wen Zhaoming like a bombshell.

The people of the Dragonbone Corps and Ping Nan were all immensely distressed. By the time the aliens withdrew, the sky was slowly lighting up. The battle finally came to an end.

Wen Zhaoming looked for someone to arrange a car, and, following the direction given by the driver who eventually returned to Pei City, he found the way there. On one hand, he refused to believe that those two just died like this, and on the other hand, he wanted to at least collect their bodies. Wen Zhaoming couldn’t bear to think that Fu Shiwu and Tang Xuhai still had to lay among the aliens even after they died.

After discussing all follow-up matters with Tang Xuhai, with his usual bold mannerism, Wen Zhaoming stepped forward to get the best doctor and hospital ward for Fu Shiwu.

Staying up for one whole day and night, Wen Zhaoming waited until the doctor confirmed Fu Shiwu’s injuries and conditions. Thereafter, he finally couldn’t hold it anymore and dozed off too.

In addition to a high fever, various scratches on his body and a deep laceration on his arm — which caused severe blood loss due to the wound’s repeated opening, the remaining damages were minor cuts that gave rise to a slight contusion in his internal organs. Other than that, Fu Shiwu received no fatal injuries.

Tang Xuhai only managed to react when it dawned on him that the impact Fu Shiwu had to suffer was caused by his armour that weighed more than 200 kilograms. His face thus turned completely black.

As Fu Shiwu woke up from the fever and saw Tang Xuhai wear such an unsightly expression, he felt especially puzzled.

“Are our people okay?” Fu Shiwu was munching on some visitor’s gift with one hand, having an IV drip on the other.

The dejected Tang Xuhai said with a gloomy voice: “Except for some bodily damage, there was no death.”

Although the people defending Area F22 were gravely wounded, since other ability users from Ping Nan arrived on time, the team bore no casualties.

Comparing this with others, the Dragonbone Corps getting some injuries was actually the best outcome. During this alien siege, some corps were entirely annihilated, and the fatalities that Pei Cheng suffered were also awfully heavy.

Summing up both the special ability users and ordinary people, there were more than 20,000 deaths in Pei City. This was certainly a devastating number. 

---

The author has something to say: As I wrote this chapter, a picture always popped up in my head:

Fu Shiwu crouched on the ground hugging his knees, looking up blankly, and Tang Xuhai was holding lots of oversized leaves above his head. One after another, the leaves were released and they fell down, covering up Fu Shiwu, while Tang Xuhai kept chanting in his heart, I need to hide him, I need to hide him…

This picture my whimsical imagination came up with was too cute that my nose bled…