Light Speed ​​War

Chapter 248: The Shadow of War

When the two arrived at Panna's house, Uncle Pan wasn't home. Zhou Yuan started looking for usable long bamboo poles or wooden strips to make a mosquito net frame, but Uncle Pan didn't have any. Zhou Yuan thought for a moment, realizing he didn't have any at home either, and suddenly remembered that there was a small bamboo grove outside his fifth aunt's yard.

Zhou Yuan arrived at his fifth aunt's house, knocked on the courtyard gate, and his fifth aunt opened the door.

"Oh my, great talent, what brings you here?"

"Fifth Aunt, there's something I'd like to ask you for a favor."

"What's up?"

"Yes, my mom said she needs a few bamboo stalks and asked me to come and find you."

How many do you want?

"Four."

"No problem, wait a moment."

After saying that, Aunt Wu took a knife from the house, and the two of them went around the courtyard wall.

"Great talent, which ones do you want?"

Zhou Yuan thought that since he didn't need bamboo that was too thick or too tall to make a mosquito net frame, he pointed to four bamboo stalks. Aunt Wu quickly felled the four bamboo stalks; they were all quite straight, just the right thickness for a mosquito net frame.

Aunt Wu deftly trimmed away all the branches and leaves from the bamboo, leaving only the bamboo stalk.

Zhou Yuan took four bamboo poles, and Aunt Wu took bamboo branches and leaves, and they returned to Aunt Wu's yard.

"Fifth Aunt, this is what my mother asked me to give you." After saying that, Zhou Yuan took out a few small bills from his pocket and tried to stuff them into his fifth aunt's hand.

"Xiao Zhou, your mother is really something. We're all family here, what's a few bamboo stalks? If you give me any more, I'll get angry." Aunt Wu's words were stern, and she refused to accept the money no matter what.

"Thank you, Fifth Aunt."

Zhou Yuan took the four bamboo stalks to Pan Na's house. When Pan Na saw Zhou Yuan holding the bamboo, she exclaimed, "Brother Zhou, you're really something!"

"I got the bamboo from my fifth aunt's house." Then he picked up a watermelon.

"Brother Zhou, where are you going?"

"Go to Aunt Wu's house. If you offer her money, she won't take it. Give her this watermelon instead."

Panna watched Zhou Yuan turn around, then stared blankly at his back.

A little while later, Zhou Yuan returned. "Auntie Wu is really something. She refused to take the watermelon no matter what. I told her I had some at home, and she reluctantly accepted it."

"Brother Zhou, can we start work now?"

"Sure, check if you have any rope, thin wire, or anything like that at home. Oh, and also look for a sickle."

"it is good."

Zhou Yuan moved the bamboo into Panna's room, opened the mosquito net, and began to mentally calculate the size of the frame.

A short while later, Panna brought over a sickle, scissors, some thin wire, and rope.

Panna placed the bamboo on the edge of the bed, measured the height of the bed with a thin rope, measured the bamboo with her arm, and then cut off a small section from both the tip and the tail of the bamboo.

Zhou Yuan and Pan Na worked together and finally got the mosquito net up and running, and it worked quite well. Pan Na got into bed, put down the mosquito net, lay down, looked at Zhou Yuan, and excitedly stomped her heels on the bed.

Only then did Zhou Yuan notice Pan Na's long, fair legs, her firm body, and her perky breasts. Suddenly remembering Xiao Mei from the day before yesterday, he felt a burning sensation in his nose and hurriedly reached out to cover it.

"Brother Zhou, what's wrong?" Pan Na hurriedly lifted the mosquito net and got out of bed.

"Your nose is bleeding!" Pan Na exclaimed, quickly taking a tissue from the table and stuffing it into Zhou Yuan's nose. Zhou Yuan remembered Xiao Mei's method of pressing on his nose the day before yesterday, and pinched the soft nasal bone with his right hand in the same way. It seemed to help a little. Pan Na quickly went to the bathroom, mixed cold water with hot water in the washbasin, soaked her own washcloth, wrung it out, and then ran to her room to apply a warm towel to Zhou Yuan's nose.

"I guess he's got a sore throat; it's so hot today."

Zhou Yuan could almost feel the warm breath from Panna's nose, which was pressed close to his body. Panna used a hot towel to wipe Zhou Yuan's nose and face several times.

Half an hour later, Zhou Yuan felt much better in his nose, so he slowly pulled out the wad of paper from his nose and carefully washed it with warm water.

Suddenly, there seemed to be a lot of noise outside the courtyard. The two went out of the courtyard and found that many people were running towards the exit of the alley, and many children were following behind the adults and calling out.

Zhou Yuan saw Uncle Zhang ahead, holding his eldest grandson's hand. Zhou Yuan quickly pulled Pan Na along and ran over, "Uncle Zhang, what are you doing?"

Uncle Zhang turned around and saw Zhou Yuan and Pan Na.

"Xiao Zhou, Xiao Na, go check on the tanks. It looks like war is about to break out."

"War?!" Zhou Yuan and Pan Na were taken aback.

"Uncle Zhang, how did you know there was going to be a war?"

"Xiao Na, I experienced this when I was about your age. Can you two feel the ground shaking with your feet?"

Zhou Yuan and Pan Na calmed down, and Earth could indeed feel a slight tremor under its feet.

"You two take your time to figure it out, I'm going to go check it out first." With that, Uncle Zhang left the two of them behind, grabbed his eldest grandson, and quickly left.

Zhou Yuan and Pan Na followed the crowd and ran towards the alley exit. From afar, they could feel the earth trembling and hear a series of rumbling sounds.

When Zhou Yuan and Pan Na arrived at the alley exit, the place was already crowded with neighbors, and some adults were carrying their children on their shoulders.

Zhou Yuan and Pan Na looked at the crowd from the side of the alley exit. Both of them were tall, and they were shocked when they saw them.

A line of troop carriers rolled past, each carrying a young soldier. The soldiers stood tall and proud, their bayonets gleaming brightly in the sunlight.

Zhou Yuan pulled Pan Na's hand and struggled to squeeze through the crowd. Once they were out of the alley, he half-squatted and moved to the left, finding a more open space before standing up straight.

The two were shocked to see that the wide asphalt road, including its end, was lined with troop transport vehicles.

Troop carriers slowly passed by from west to east. After a large number of troop carriers, rows of armored vehicles followed, with machine guns pointing towards the sky. Soon, thick smoke billowed from the end of the road, and the earth trembled even more violently. Tanks came towards them, their treads making a periodic rattling sound that struck Zhou Yuan's heart.

Everyone watching fell silent. Even the children who were usually playing and shouting were now quiet, staring in disbelief as the armored torrent disappeared from the east and reappeared from the west.

Is war really about to break out? Or is it just a regular troop movement? Zhou Yuan wondered.

Zhou Yuan and Panna held hands. Zhou Yuan could feel that Panna's palms were sweaty, and he guessed that it was the first time Panna had seen so much and so many weapons.

"Look, airplanes!" someone shouted, pointing to the west in the sky. Zhou Yuan looked in the direction the person was pointing, and sure enough, in the west, fighter jets flew by rapidly, whizzing overhead. Behind each group of fighter jets were a large number of armed helicopters, and behind the armed helicopters were a massive formation of bombers.

This grand spectacle lasted for nearly an hour and a half. Only after all the armed vehicles had disappeared did the blocked asphalt road reopen to traffic.

Everyone walked back with heavy hearts, whispering among themselves as some children began to play and chase each other, unaware of the adults' worries.

"Brother Zhou, is it really going to be a war?" Zhou Yuan sensed that Pan Na's voice was trembling.

"I don't know, but judging from the situation, it probably is."

"Who are you going to fight?"

"do not know."

In truth, Zhou Yuan knew perfectly well that this was likely another conflict with the Western Turks. The Eastern Turks generally didn't provoke other countries; if they were to go to war, their enemy would undoubtedly be the Western Turks, because currently, only the Western Turks possessed the power to provoke the Eastern Turks. Take, for example, the small-scale war forty-two years ago, which was instigated by the Western Turks. Although the Western Turks were more advanced in weaponry than the Eastern Turks at the time, their army attacked the Eastern Turks by land, relying on the passage of their allies. Because the Western Turks' supply lines were too long, they suffered heavy losses, and their entire army was annihilated by the Eastern Turks. Afterwards, the two countries remained in a state of cold war for a long time. Knowing it was in the wrong, the Western Turks did not take further military action.

The relationship between the Western Tu and the Eastern Tu only began to improve ten years ago. Zhou Yuan clearly remembered seeing a poster at Qing Teng University in April this year to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the normalization of relations between the two countries.

Panna pulled Zhou Yuan into her yard. The two cleaned up the remaining bamboo pieces in Panna's room. Panna sat on the edge of the bed, and Zhou Yuan moved a chair over. The two looked at each other, and Panna seemed to want to say something but hesitated.

Just then, the sound of the courtyard gate opening rang out. "Nana!" Pan Na heard her father calling her and quickly answered loudly, "Dad, I'm in my room."

Uncle Pan arrived at Panna's room and knocked on the door. Zhou Yuan stood up to open the door. "Little Zhou, you're here too?"

"Hello, Uncle Pan," Zhou Yuan greeted him.

"Dad, Brother Zhou helped me set up the mosquito net, take a look."

Uncle Pan noticed that the mosquito net was supported by bamboo and thought to himself that Zhou Yuan was really something.

“Nana, I just went to the community to answer the phone. Your mother said she’s arriving in Beining tonight and that you’ll both be taking a plane back to China tomorrow morning. Honey, you should go back quickly.”

"Dad, what's wrong?" Panna seemed unhappy.

"Child, haven't you realized it yet? War is about to break out."

What does war have to do with me?

“Child, everyone outside is saying that we’re going to war with the Western Turks. You’re a citizen of the Western Turks. Please go back soon, or you won’t be able to leave even if you want to.”

"Dad, then I won't leave."

"My little darling, don't talk nonsense. Once we go to war with the Western Kingdom, anything can happen here, and I might not be able to protect you then," Uncle Pan said anxiously, like an ant on a hot pan.

"Nana, you should go back. It's not safe for you here."

"Brother Zhou, are you going to kick me out too?" Pan Na was almost in tears.

“Nana, that’s not what I meant. Uncle Pan is right. Anything can happen when two countries go to war. There might be attacks targeting the people of the Western Kingdom. We really can’t protect you.”

When will we be able to see each other again?

Uncle Pan felt a pang of sadness. His own daughter, instead of saying when they would see each other again, was speaking to Zhou Yuan like this. But then he thought about how he had been visiting the widow's house these past two days, completely neglecting his daughter. For example, he hadn't even thought of setting up a mosquito net for her. The mosquito net they had now was bought with Zhou Yuan's help. Thinking of this, Uncle Pan felt another wave of guilt, realizing he couldn't blame his daughter.

"Child, listen to your brother Zhou, go home as soon as possible."

Panna's eyes welled up with tears. She looked at her father, then at Zhou Yuan.

Zhou Yuan glanced at Uncle Pan, then sat down on the edge of the bed next to Pan Na. "Nana, we'll meet again, I promise."

“Brother Zhou, you’re lying to me. It’ll probably be many, many years before we meet again. I won’t do it.” Pan Na said like a little girl.

"Nana, what do you want?"

"Brother Zhou, I want to stay with you forever."

Zhou Yuan was stunned. He saw that Uncle Pan's face had darkened.

"Child, don't act rashly. You need to understand that this is no child's play." Uncle Pan's voice trembled slightly.

Pana seemed very determined, "Dad, I'm 20 years old, I know what I'm doing."

"But you two are still young, you don't know how much the world is..."

"Dad, I've decided, I'm not going back." Pan Na interrupted her father, turning her head away defiantly, refusing to look at Uncle Pan, her eyes fixed firmly on Zhou Yuan.

Zhou Yuan turned slightly to look at Pan Na, and when he met her determined gaze, he couldn't help but feel a tremor in his heart.