Chapter 303 - 303: The Sound of Laughter in the Middle of the Night
Catastrophes are definitely a catalyst for growth for a man.
Especially for a soldier.
The more he experienced and saw, the heavier his heart became.
In an army truck, three rows of people were squeezing and sitting together .
They were heading back.
They heading out on the 31st. Today was already the 17th.
18 days of flood fighting and emergency rescue had made the smiles on the faces of the people in the car disappear.
Usually, the driver of the transport vehicle would not drive as smoothly as today.
Even if he really showed off his driving skills and sent the soldiers sitting behind him flying, they would not forget to chat and joke.
Even if they couldn’t take it anymore, they would still curse at the driver before they vomited.
But today, the car was very quiet.
Many people shut their eyes to rest. Some people didn’t close their eyes, but they just sat there in a daze with a dull expression.
Wang Ye was the same.
He sat in the car with his eyes closed. His body swayed with the car, he did not make a sound nor open his eyes.
After 18 days of fighting floods and dealing with emergencies, Wang Ye had experienced something that he had never experienced in his previous life.
Fatigue and hardship.
It was the most unbearable to see the people being displaced and seeing them die, especially when their death happened right in front of your eyes and you just watch helplessly.
Unfortunately, on the evening of the day before yesterday, Wang Ye and the others had experienced it once.
It was at a village’s river bank, where a portion of the dam had collapsed.
There was a bridge not far from where Wang Ye and the others were working.
Due to the continuous flood for half a month, the rising water level made it impossible for people to see the exact situation of the pier below.
Therefore, when the bridge collapsed, there was no indication of the terror below.
At that time, Wang Ye and the others can only hear a loud bang.
Then, he turned his head and saw with his own eyes that a pier in the middle of the bridge had collapsed, along with two sections of the bridge above.
Some places wouldn’t let people on the bridge when the flood was released, but some bridges were places where traffic must pass.
Under such circumstances, only those old and dilapidated bridges would be prohibited from pedestrians crossing.
As for the other bridges, they could only inform everyone not to use them unless it was absolutely necessary.
Unfortunately, the bridge couldn’t withstand the impact of the flood. What was even more unacceptable was that there were 2 people riding a motorcycle on the two sections of the bridge when it collapsed.
Once the bridge collapsed, they fell into the water along with the motorcycle.
Then, he did not give Wang Ye and the others a chance to save them at all.
After the two of them fell into the water, only one of them appeared more than ten meters downstream of the bridge.
However, when Wang Ye and the others wanted to go save them, they didn’t see anyone coming out of the river anymore.
There was no way to save them even if he wanted to.
This was the first time Wang Ye had witnessed the disappearance of life in this flood.
It was also a scene that Wang Ye could still vividly remember when he closed his eyes.
It was as if a stone was pressing down on his heart.
“We’re here. Come down!”
The car stopped at the 4th Company. Wu Jian Feng did not blow his whistle outside. He only called everyone down with a tired voice.
After everyone got out of the car, the whole team counted. Then, he looked at everyone and said,”Everyone is very tired, so I won’t say too much. The bathhouse has already prepared hot water. Everyone, go wash up. After you’re done, all the squad leaders will go to the health worker to get some medicine. Everyone, please help each other change the medicine.”
After a pause, he said again,” Everyone should rest well after dinner today.
We’ll talk about other things after we rest well tomorrow.””
Wu Jian Feng didn’t say much. He was also very tired. Even though he was a soldier who had been in the army for many years, this was the first time he had experienced such a disaster.
He also needed rest to ease the fatigue in his body and heart.
Immediately, the entire company was dismissed.
In Class Eight, including the platoon leader Meng Wenbin, only 7 people returned to class.
Yes, there were only 7 people.
Peng Yu hang and Luo Yang were hospitalised midway.
Peng Yu Hang had a skin disease, vomiting, diarrhoea, and a high fever. Luo Yang had accidentally sprained his foot when he was moving the crowd underwater, which caused his foot to fracture.
The two of them had not been discharged from the hospital yet.
In fact, after everyone returned, none of them were in good condition.
Wang Ye’s feet, hands, and shoulders were bandaged.
The others weren’t any better.
During the 18 days of fighting the flood, the local hospital had organized a physical examination for everyone while they were resting.
This included the fact that everyone had gone through a checkup and changed their dressing before they came back today.
After fighting the flood for so many days, it was impossible for them to not have any injuries.
The skin on their hands and feet was broken, and their bodies was also bruised and injured. It was normal for people to get infected because of the flood.
In fact, there were also many people who were hospitalised for treatment midway. However, many of them returned to the team after two or three days of treatment.
“All! Quick, that side has burst!”
At night, just as Wang Ye was sleeping soundly, a sudden exclamation from the dormitory woke him up.
“Where, where ~”
Wang Ye immediately sat up and wanted to get out of bed.
In fact, he was not the only one. He could even hear banging sounds in the dormitory.
Someone rolled off the bed.
Even if soldiers were tired and slept soundly, their vigilance was still trained.
Of course, the main reason was that Wei Qing Hai’s voice was really loud.
At this moment, Wang Ye seemed to hear the response from the class next door.
“Damn, we’re back!” Someone suddenly woke up in the middle of putting on his clothes.
“Aiyo, Wei Qinghai, what kind of wild dream did you have?”On the ground, Zhuo Zi Cheng rubbed his head and sat up.
He was one of the people who fell off the bed just now.
Wang Ye was a little speechless for a moment.
He also sat up.
However, just as he was about to put on his clothes, he suddenly realised that they were in their dormitory, so he stopped.
“Hehe, I…Sorry, brothers, I… I had a nightmare!” Wei Qing hai said in embarrassment.
“It’s alright, I understand.” Meng Wen Bin smiled bitterly and put his clothes back.
“Sigh, we’ve been too tense recently!”
“Go to sleep, go to sleep. It’s already over!”Zhou Qi added.
In the dormitory, everyone smiled bitterly.
It was a big mistake, but after lying down again, Wang Ye realised that he couldn’t fall asleep.
Obviously, he was not the only one.
“Class monitor, platoon leader, 1 want to smoke…” Suddenly, Wei Qing Hai spoke.
The others were only shocked by him, but he was even more frightened by his own dream. He still had lingering fears.
Therefore, he couldn’t fall asleep for a while.
“Go ahead!” Zhou Qi said.
“Give me one too!” Meng Wen Bin suddenly sat up and made a sound.
When Wang Ye saw this situation, he simply sat up.
“Come, take mine!”
Wang Ye pulled his clothes over and took out a pack of Chinese dumplings from his pocket.
“Hehe, that’s good.”Wei Qing Hai’s cigarette was already in his mouth, but he immediately put it down with a smile.
Everyone in Class Eight knew that although Wang Ye rarely smoked, he basically carried a lot of cigarettes with him…
Wang Ye sat on the bed. After quickly opening the cigarettes, he threw one cigarette at each of them.
In the dormitory, all seven of them were awake and not asleep.
Very quickly.
“Click ~”
In the dormitory, the sound of lighters were heard one after another.
In the middle of the night, the entire class was smoking in the dormitory.
One of them was the platoon leader…
If it was another time, this was basically impossible.
After all, there were also officers doing ward rounds at night, and there were even patrollers coming over.
But tonight, no one cared about that.
“All, I suddenly feel much more relaxed!”
Halfway through his cigarette, Li Bing suddenly exclaimed.
As soon as he finished speaking, Luo Yang’s voice also became relaxed and said,”Indeed, the dormitory is still more comfortable. Old Wei’s shout seems to have driven away the gloominess in my heart!”
“Hehe
Everyone laughed, including Wang Ye.
Indeed, he felt it too.
After everyone came back last night, no matter if it was bathing, eating, or even helping each other change their bandages, no one smiled. Everyone was very silent.
But now that he had made such a mistake in the middle of the night, he suddenly felt much more relaxed.
It was the feeling of being alive again.
Previously, everyone’s mood was too heavy. Everyone was still immersed in the disaster and had not snap out of it.
Now, with this ruckus, everyone realised that the disaster had really passed.
Everyone was back, back to the military camp that belonged to them…