Extra Chapter - Ji Lu Wushuang - The Journey

That year.

A project of the Foundation in Country S came to a temporary close.

Lu Qianqian decided to return to China to prepare for the next phase.

Ji Wushuang also received a rare period of leave.

As usual, she returned to Tangzhou.

This time, she didn't tell her parents the exact time.

She didn't want them waiting anxiously at the high-speed rail station.

The train pulled into Tangzhou.

Outside the window was the same familiar, grey skyline.

But it seemed somehow different.

Exiting the station,

Ji Wushuang didn't take a taxi.

She boarded the bus back to her residential compound.

The bus wasn't crowded, filled with people speaking the Tangzhou dialect she knew so well.

The bus slowly entered the No. 3 Living Area.

Ji Wushuang got off.

The scene before her was completely different from her memory.

The once potholed road was now paved with smooth asphalt.

Neat rows of greenery lined both sides.

The exterior walls of the buildings had been repainted.

Though still grey,

it was a fresh, clean grey.

New street lamps and benches for resting had even been installed.

A few elderly people sat on the benches, chatting in the sun.

The entire old compound was brimming with a new vitality.

She knew what had brought about these changes.

It was the money she had sent back.

She had asked Zhang Qi to donate it to the Tangji Community in the name of an anonymous charity fund.

For improving the living environment of the old residential areas.

Out there, she was guarding a grand, distant "horizon."

She also wanted to guard this small hometown of hers in her own way.

She wheeled her suitcase into the familiar tube-shaped apartment building.

The corridor was also clean and bright now.

The walls had been painted white.

Motion-sensor lights were installed in the stairwell.

She walked to her family's door and took out the long-unused key.

Inserting it into the lock, she gave it a gentle turn.

The door opened.

It was quiet inside.

Her parents weren't home.

She changed into slippers and walked in.

The overall layout of the rooms was the same as ever, full of the atmosphere of lived-in life.

Just then,

she saw a household stepladder set up in the middle of the living room.

A man stood on the ladder,

looking up as he installed a large ceiling light.

That back was familiar.

Broad, solid.

Ji Wushuang's footsteps halted.

The man on the ladder heard the door open.

He didn't turn around.

Thinking it was Ji Wushuang's parents returning, he said while tightening a screw,

"Uncle, Auntie, you're back."

"Don't worry, I'm almost done."

His voice was steady and natural.

As if he were a part of this family.

Ji Wushuang stood there.

Watching his focused, earnest profile.

Watching the fine beads of sweat on his forehead.

Watching him, in the days she was away, maintaining this home bit by bit in the most unassuming way.

She was out there, in the distance.

Facing poverty, conflict, humanity's vast, shared challenges.

And this man was here, behind her.

Silently, guarding her small, specific family.

In that instant,

all hesitation, entanglement, and uncertainty vanished like mist.

She knew what she wanted.

The man on the ladder finally tightened the last screw.

He let out a long breath.

Slowly, he climbed down from the ladder.

He turned, ready to greet the returning uncle and aunt.

Then, he saw Ji Wushuang standing at the door.

He froze completely.

Forgetting to even put down the tool in his hand.

His eyes first held disbelief and shock.

Then, irrepressible elation.

"Wushuang..."

His lips parted, but only a hoarse sound came out.

Ji Wushuang didn't speak.

She set down her suitcase and walked forward.

Step by step.

Until she stood before him.

Then, she reached out her arms and hugged him tightly.

Chen Lei's body went completely rigid.

He could feel the warmth and slight tremor of the form in his arms.

Could smell the familiar-yet-strange scent of distant dust and wind in her hair.

It felt like a dream.

"Wushuang..."

He murmured her name, his voice low.

Ji Wushuang's voice was slightly muffled.

"Chen Lei."

"Let's get married."

This time, her voice held no impulse, no confusion.

Only a kind of settled certainty.

Chen Lei didn't answer.

He just slowly raised his arms.

And hugged her back just as tightly.

He didn't refuse again, didn't want to refuse anymore.

He released her, looking at her.

At her face, so spirited and peerless.

At her eyes, which seemed to have witnessed the world's vicissitudes yet remained bright.

Clumsily, he lowered his head and kissed her lips.

The kiss was unpracticed, even a little clumsy.

Carrying years of longing and suppressed emotion.

Also carrying a trace of the rough tenderness unique to this city of steel and industry.

It wasn't a romantic kiss, but it was true.

Like the sky over Tangzhou, like the factory whistles, like this man's silent guardianship over more than a decade.

...

A few days later,

Ji Wushuang and Chen Lei obtained their marriage certificate.

There was no grand ceremony.

Just a meal with both sets of parents and a few closest relatives.

At the dinner table,

Ji Jianguo drank too much.

He took Chen Lei's hand and cried.

This man who had been rough and tough all his life cried like a child.

He could finally rest easy, entrusting his "peerless" daughter to another.

The holiday was soon to end.

Parting approached once more.

Only this time, Chen Lei didn't just see Ji Wushuang off at the Tangzhou high-speed rail station.

He accompanied her to the international airport in Jingzhou.

Chen Lei was still that quiet, somewhat taciturn man.

Even at the final farewell, what Chen Lei said was,

"Wushuang, I'm an engineer at Tangji."

"I can provide help with most mechanical problems."

...

Ji Wushuang truly remembered Chen Lei's parting words.

In fact, many projects "on the horizon" didn't involve much high-tech equipment.

Chen Lei's expertise was indeed a great help.

One year, two years...

Silently, imperceptibly, Chen Lei had become integrated into Ji Wushuang's work.

...

The footsteps of the "Horizon Foundation" trod onto even more difficult land.

The Sahel.

A land scorched repeatedly by conflict and drought.

Here was more dangerous, more desperate, than any place they had been before.

Chen Lei watched the news every day.

He would search for every keyword related to the Sahel region.

Coup d'état, armed clashes, famine.

Each word was like a needle pricking his heart.

His calls with Ji Wushuang became increasingly difficult.

The signal was intermittent.

She always said, "Everything's fine, don't worry."

But from her increasingly weary voice, he heard something different.

Until one day.

On an international news website, he saw a photograph.

A "Horizon Foundation" camp had been attacked.

In a corner of the photo, he saw a familiar figure.

Ji Wushuang.

She was using her own body to shield Lu Qianqian, moving through crossfire.

In that moment, Chen Lei's heart seemed to sink.

He turned off the computer and sat in the dark for a long, long time.

The next day.

He submitted an application for a "leave without pay" to the Tangji Research Institute.

He was going to find her.

He was no longer that anchor point, passively waiting in his hometown.

He would become another arrow, fighting side by side with her.

He began making all sorts of preparations.

He researched all the equipment models used by the Foundation over there.

Water pumps, generators, transport vehicles.

He pored over every blueprint and repair manual he could find.

He used all his savings to purchase the most professional tools and the spare parts most likely to be needed.

He spent a month learning basic first aid and the local dialect.

Then, he set off.

...

High-speed rail, plane, another plane, on foot, off-road vehicle.

Chen Lei traversed half the globe alone.

As his off-road vehicle sped across the endless wilderness of the Sahel,

he felt an immense calm.

Finally, a cluster of white tents appeared on the horizon,

and a flag fluttering in the hot wind.

It was the flag of "Yuǎn Fāng" (The Faraway).

It was also the direction of his home.