Time was pressing, and Si Nian approached Huo Rou, ready to take her away.
"A few minutes?" Huo Rou had heard part of the conversation earlier and roughly knew it was related to a bomb explosion. She didn't hesitate much, just asked in a deep voice, "How long?"
Si Nian narrowed his eyes, "There should only be four minutes left now."
He pulled Huo Rou and they headed for the exit.
Huo Rou's eyes flickered, and she followed him to the staircase.
Si Nian knew Huo Rou never lingered in battle and never looked back. She understood priorities, so she would leave with him after weighing the pros and cons.
In this, they had always been alike.
But the other person was Qin Ningyi. Huo Rou had a child with him, which might make her heart ache even more?
Si Nian spoke to comfort her, "Don't worry, Qin Ningyi isn't someone who lacks discretion. Since he stepped up himself, he must have some confidence."
"Your choice is the right one. Staying here now would only distract him, and then neither of us would be able to leave."
Si Nian chattered on as he ran.
Just as he pulled Huo Rou down the stairs, Huo Rou suddenly wrenched her hand free and ran towards the center of the factory.
"Huo..." He was about to shout her name when he saw Huo Rou turn back and make a "shushing" gesture at him.
Her voice wasn't loud, but in the vast, silent factory, it reached his ears, "No lingering, no looking back."
"Si Nian, you should leave quickly."
Her voice was gentle, like a fragile flower whispering in the wind, but this flower had never been blown down.
And what she said was the same as back then.
That year, they were both covered in wounds, and after he took a bullet for her, he was too heavily injured to move.
She handed him over to their comrades, and had said only this one sentence, telling him to leave.
And then...
Then she fought a brilliant battle and cleared out the entire hideout.
But now it was different. They didn't have time to do any follow-up actions now. The number of people ambushing them wasn't large, and she had likely dealt with most of them along the way. What was she going to the interior for now?
"Huo Rou! Where are you going?" Si Nian's voice was urgent and low.
"You go quickly." Huo Rou's voice was already lost within the dark factory.
The other few people who had come with Huo Rou had been instructed on the way to follow Si Nian.
Even knowing that time was short, military orders were difficult to disobey. At this moment, they all looked to Si Nian, waiting for his decision.
Si Nian stared in the direction Huo Rou had disappeared, as if for a long, long time. But time did not allow him to hesitate further. He made the difficult decision, "Let's go!"
He couldn't stop what Huo Rou intended to do, so he could only try his best to save more people.
No lingering, no looking back.
Huo Rou, relying on her memory, arrived at the room in the center containing the explosive device.
If the remote control could trigger all the devices to start their timers, this room should be the same.
If her guess was correct, and Qin Ningyi had indeed disarmed the bomb pack on Jieles, he would have come here to deal with the explosives here to buy them time.
But with the back and forth, unless disarming it only took a few seconds, it would be too late.
He was staying with a death wish, how could she not see that.
Since she saw it, how could she convince herself to do as Si Nian said and not look back.
In the past, she was cold and resolute, and perhaps she could have done it, but now...
She couldn't.
Taking out her incredibly sharp knife, she broke down the door and went straight to the timed bomb.
Looking at the display screen, there were five minutes left. It wasn't synchronized with the one on Jieles.
Huo Rou breathed a slight sigh of relief. She quickly checked the device and, confirming it was only a timer, she picked up the bomb and ran out.
The power of this bomb seemed manageable. As long as it was kept away from the pile of gasoline, everything would be fine.
As she carried the timed device outwards, she began analyzing the wires in her mind.
She wasn't proficient at disarming bombs, being somewhere between average and good. That was why she had inevitably ended up with her face blown up during that operation.
She reached the staircase where she had parted ways with Si Nian. She had finished her analysis in her mind and decided it was worth a try.
Stepping outside the factory, the moon had emerged from the dark clouds. Under the moonlight, she raised her knife and aimed it at one of the wires.
Suddenly, she recalled the scene of the bomb explosion. The blinding light, the searing heat that rushed towards her, the sharp fragments whistling through the air...