1 Chapter 1

"Ah Xiu, are you going back home this summer?" a woman's voice coming out from the other end. Ye Xiu smiled.

"Are you?" he asked back.

His fingers keep dancing on the keyboard as he talked. His eyes never once leave the monitor.

No response was heard. Ye Xiu raised one of his eyebrows, hovering the mouse cursor over the QQ chatroom, he clicked it open and saw that it's still connected.

"Xue? Still there?" he called out.

Not even a minute later, he heard a steady dut, dut, dut coming out from his headset. Surprised, he hovers the mouse back to the game and clicked the minimized window. No, there was no one playing guns nearby and his character was positioned inside a safe zone.

His heartbeat raised significantly. The sound changed to a loud boom. His heart skipped a beat. Quickly, he opened the QQ chatroom again. The game was left in the background.

Still connected.

But other than the loud boom and the shouts, there is no woman's voice coming out.

He stayed on his chair, staring unmovingly at the chatroom page. Occasionally he can hear cracking sounds of a gun echoed through his headset. His grip on the mouse tightens as he heard one crack after another crack.

His breath hitched every time he heard a bang echoed in the background. Outwardly, his face is still as impassive as ever.

Another minute passed. One minute, two minutes, five minutes, ten minutes...

At last, a quarter-hour later, everything went silent. It's so quiet that he can hear his heartbeat clearly.

He waited, still staring unmovingly at the monitor.

A second later, a click was heard.

His heart skips a beat.

Disconnected.

At that moment, he moved the cursor to his friend list. Typing out "Ye Qiu", he immediately clicked on the call button.

Three rings later, a grumpy voice greeted him.

"Is it going to rain pigs tomorrow for you to call me today?"

"Qiu, does Xue told you where she is?" Ye Xiu immediately asked.

"No, as usual. Why? Did something happen?" Ye Qiu's voice came out from the other end.

"The call was suddenly disconnected," Ye Xiu answered.

He was greeted by silence. Not long later, a long sigh was heard.

"I'll try asking Father to contact the commander. The commander should know where she is." Ye Qiu said.

"Trouble you, Qiu." Ye Xiu thanked him.

A grunt was heard from the other end before the call ended. The room went silent again.

Ye Xiu swept his left hand to the side. He took the cigarette box and tried to take a cigar out, only to find out that there is no cigarette left. He raked his fingers through his hair in frustration. Gripping the cigarette box, he took his jacket and went out of the room.

He missed the blinking QQ icon on his monitor.