An Lei watched Tian Xing Jian gaze at the photo of her father on the grave with his tears dripping down. These two men were the most important men in her life, yet they had parted for far too long. The next time they had met, it was actually in this form, with the heavens separating the two forever.
She took out a letter that had already started turning yellow before placing it beside Tian Xing Jian. This had been the letter written by Father An for him. Looking at Tian Xing Jian, who was crying and sniffing in front of her father's departed spirit, she felt relieved of a burden; it was as if her father was alive once again and the image of the two were merging together right before An Lei's eyes.
Wiping her tears, An Lei silently walked towards the flying car. She did not want to disturb the two of them. Her elegant figure began leaving further and further, and her footsteps became lighter and lighter. She knew that he had found the answer in front of the departed spirit.
Tian Xing Jian tore open the letter:
"Little Jian [1], we have never blamed you for that matter. An Lei wasn't hurt at all, but do forgive Father An's harsh treatment to you. Life is as such. Everyone must experience difficulties before they can find an answer that belongs to them.
I'm truly happy that you could finally read this letter. I trust that you know what it means to be brave as a man. Do remember to never forget the responsibility you hold eternally.
Perhaps your personality might not make you a hero, but I believe that my child will still be an ordinary warrior.
Right now, I'll pass to you the first responsibility you should have in your life—that is to take good care of Mother An and An Lei. This was originally my responsibility, but the heavens had taken away the rights for me to do this.
I am very sorry."
The letter was short; Tian Xing Jian read the letter again and again with his blurry eyes before those tears finally made the paper so wet that the words on it had started to smudge.
Father An, I know what I should do. In front of the grave, a fatty was bawling out on his knees.
Only after quite some time did Tian Xing Jian finally calm down. Sitting by the grave, he spoke and paused while retelling all his life experiences in the past two years to Father An.
After so many years, that knot in his heart had finally been untied. Fatty felt truly free for once; shaking his body, it was as if he had lost 50 kilograms of weight.
Suddenly, he thought of Russell's letter. Fatty took it out as he wanted to know what this chap wanted to tell him.
On the letter, there was beautiful penmanship. Just like Father An's letter, this made Tian Xing Jian feel comfortable as personally writing a letter represented his respect for him.
The letter wrote:
"First Lieutenant Tian, you are the teenager who has the greatest military talent among all those I've met. From your eyes, I could see that you are truly confused about war and that you have some innate resistance against the career of a soldier who treats killing as the main aspect of the job. This point is something I've experienced similarly in the past.
Let's cut to the chase. I only wanted to tell you this—war isn't decided by the people's willpower. Since people can not decide when a war would start, then as a soldier, we are destined to make a decision as to when it would end.
The good and bad outcome of wars would affect all your loved ones, your friends, and your nation. This might sound cliché, but this is a fact. Look at Miracolo Planet. If your loved ones are on this planet, then would you be willing to see the scene of them crying amidst their heavily damaged home?
Regardless of whether one is a soldier or not, everyone has to shoulder the responsibility of protecting their loved ones and their home. This responsibility is something we can not escape from. You could always be an ostrich that buries its head in the sand, but the moment you bring your head up, you will only discover that all your loved ones have fallen by your side as your country is being destroyed by the fires of war.
War represents death. Soldiers are the tools causing these deaths. This logic is irrefutable. But do remember this—being merciful to your enemy means being cruel to yourself. Your responsibility now is to protect your own hometown and not sigh with sorrow about how precious life is when facing the enemy's sword.
You have the talents and the capabilities, and as such, you must uphold the responsibility of learning how to protect your comrades, your loved ones, and your nation during war.
Do remember that only the victors have peace, and do remember what your responsibility is.
The enemies have their own responsibilities, and you have yours!"
After reading this letter, Tian Xing Jian pondered for a really long. Maybe the logic behind Russell's words was something he understood, or maybe the word "responsibility" had given Tian Xing Jian a spark, but he decided to become Russell's student.
Tian Xing Jian finally returned to the An's home. Mother An had cried. The three of them meeting could be considered as a family reunion. This one month of leave passed really fast. During this month, Fatty had completely become the "househusband" of the family. Everyday, he would go out and buy food before cooking them happily, spending his days chatting with Mother An and hearing her nag about all sorts of things. An Lei had decided to just return and stay back at her original home; however, she had thrown away all those spying equipment, causing Fatty to feel a heartache.
An Lei thought that throwing those things away would mean that she would be safe, yet she hadn't realized what Fatty was now—he was someone from the special forces with a machinery engineer background! Would fiddling with things to create a spying equipment be that hard?
Just that after Fatty saw those things, he had hurt himself in the end, as he could not sleep for a few days—those white darlings remained in front of his eyes, and he was perpetually having a nosebleed and almost died from loss of blood.
As Miracolo Planet had already turned into a gigantic forward command base for the Federation Army, many military departments would have to set up a branch over there, and this included the Intelligence Department too. An Lei had been assigned over to Jialipalan as someone responsible for some intelligence reporting job, thus when his holiday ended, Tian Xing Jian decided to bring Mother An and An Lei together to Jialipalan. After all, nobody would be taking care of Mother An if she stayed in the capital alone.
After finding a place to settle down, Fatty became worried. Now that An Lei was living in Jialipalan, what if she met Milan? His future days would be really hard to live through. He would most certainly be burned as an offering in front of the grave of Father An.
However, Milan was truly innocent. Ever since the past, he was quite the hooligan. And there were also Mei Duo and Ni Ya who would still call him from time to time. Damn, everything was calculated perfectly as a chance encounter, but he regretted not meeting any one of them earlier. Most likely, he would turn into a eunuch in the future.
Father An, you should tell me, how should I shoulder this responsibility!? Fatty's head was turning white.
Matters which he could not resolve in his mind would be left forgotten. The house was really big, and even after the An Family's mother and daughter stayed there, there was still some space left. Fatty decided to just agree to Mother An's request of staying with them. Firstly, it would be easier to take care of Mother An. Secondly… losing blood sometimes would be good and strengthen his body and heart.
After returning to the academy, Tian Xing Jian had thought that he entered the wrong place.
Jialipalan's military academy's new academic year was already planned. These days were just nice, as they were the days for registrations. The entrance to the academy where the registrations booths were at was filled with noise and was bustling with activity.
Fatty put on a silly expression as he entered the crowd, rubbing and touching others. He was in bliss, yet in his heart, he also felt regret; he should have just continued living in the academy's dormitory, especially when there was a dream heaven of Fatty here—the female's living quarters.
[1] A form of endearment meaning—Xiao refers to Little and Jian is his name. So in other words, Little Jian.