Chapter 678: The Flag

Willow Town.

Li Qingshan pushed the wooden gate open hard.

*Creak—*

The harsh friction echoed in the courtyard.

Li Qingshan, who had been sprinting all the way, breathed heavily, his forehead covered in beads of sweat. He walked into the courtyard anxiously, his eyes scanning the surroundings.

After parting ways with the two Floating Life Painting members, Li Qingshan hadn't stopped for a moment as he ran back to Willow Town. Just as those refugees had said, the people of Willow Town had basically all left. Along the way, he only saw countless empty houses, and the whole town was quiet... This made the unease in Li Qingshan’s heart grow even stronger.

"The Yang family generals sacrifice their lives to protect the homeland, their loyal and heroic names spread for ten thousand years~~~ Protecting the country and the people, bearing the mission, the landscape is like a painting as the years go by~~~"

The squeaky opera music from the radio came from the small house, just as it was in his memory, swirling above the courtyard. Although sometimes hoarse and unclear, it could give people a sense of familiar security.

Hearing this sound, the heart that Li Qingshan had been holding finally settled down. A look of joy appeared on his face, and he walked quickly to the door of the house and pushed it open.

"Grandma!"

In the dim room, an elderly woman with white hair was leaning against the head of the bed, her eyes closed, listening to a recording of an opera. She was shaking her head involuntarily, as if intoxicated by it.

She didn't hear Li Qingshan push the door open, nor did she hear that surprised call, just listening to the music on her own, a trace of nostalgic smile still on the corners of her mouth.

Li Qingshan knew his grandmother’s hearing was poor, so he simply walked up quickly and called out again:

"Grandma!!"

The old woman’s eyes opened slowly. Seeing the familiar face before her, she seemed a bit surprised, "My dear grandson... you're home??"

Her only remaining, farsighted right eye looked Li Qingshan up and down for a long time, and her wrinkled mouth curled into a smile,

"My grandson has gotten chubby... and this flowery opera costume... it's beautiful!"

Li Qingshan’s opera robe was still stained with the blood from the fight just now, which looked like red butterflies dancing and embellishing it, indeed possessing a unique beauty.

In this situation, Li Qingshan had no time to discuss this with his grandmother, so he immediately asked loudly:

"Grandma!! What about Teacher Qian next door? Didn't they come to find you?"

Before leaving home, Li Qingshan had specifically asked Mr. Qian’s family next door to take good care of his grandmother. He was a highly respected teacher in Willow Town with good character, and on top of that, Li Qingshan had given him money, so he should have taken good care of her...

But now, the family next door had already left, and his grandmother was still left here alone.

"Little Qian? He came... He wanted to take me to some... city, but I didn't want to go. I just lay on the bed and poked him with my cane!" Grandma waved her hand. "Later, he just left!"

"Ah? Why didn't you want to go?"

"I'm old... my home is here... I'm not going anywhere!"

As she spoke, Grandma lay back down on the bed, her head swaying gently with the melodious opera music, her mouth murmuring along as she sang.

Seeing this, Li Qingshan sighed helplessly.

To an old person, she didn't understand what the Realm War was, nor did she understand what fleeing to the Main City meant... She only knew that she had lived in Willow Town all her life, and this was her home. Grandma’s age was considered long-lived even in the entire Red Dust Realm. At this point, she no longer cared about life or death... She just wanted to stay on her native soil.

This stubborn persistence of the elderly made her the last person to stay in Willow Town, which in turn protected her.

Actually, from the moment Li Qingshan stepped into Willow Town, he vaguely felt that it was different from before... Even though the flowers and plants had withered, strands of embroidered silk were still floating on the branches. They emitted a mysterious and powerful aura, as if they were guarding against something.

Just as Chen Ling said... now, Willow Town was the safest place.

Regardless, knowing his grandmother was fine, Li Qingshan relaxed completely. He sat down by the bed:

"Grandma, did you receive the money I sent you during this time?"

"Received it, my dear grandson!" A kind smile appeared on Grandma’s face. She stroked Li Qingshan’s hair, "My grandson has become successful... earning so much money. Grandma hasn't touched a cent; I've saved it all for you to marry a wife!"

As she spoke, she got up, dragged a heavy, locked box from under the bed, took a key from under her pillow, and opened it with trembling hands.

In the top layer of the box was something wrapped tightly in cloth. After opening it, inside were numerous neatly stacked banknotes, like solid bricks... This was the money Li Qingshan had earned in the Main City during this time. Every time he received his salary, apart from keeping a very small amount for his own use, he sent everything else back here.

His original intention was for his grandmother to use this money to improve her life, eat something good, and buy a new radio... He didn't expect that it had been kept here without a single cent being touched.

Li Qingshan sighed deeply. Just as he was about to say something to his grandmother, his peripheral vision suddenly fell on the bottom layer of the box, and a flash of confusion crossed his eyes.

"What about this box underneath... what is it?"

"This? This is our family’s heirloom treasure!"

Li Qingshan was stunned, "Our family is so poor we have nothing... where would we get an heirloom treasure?"

Grandma smiled mysteriously, the wrinkles on her face piling up. She tremblingly moved out the dust-covered box, rubbed it in her arms for a moment as if it were a treasure, and then handed it to Li Qingshan.

"My dear grandson, open it and take a look."

The confusion in Li Qingshan’s heart grew even stronger. He opened the box, and a musty smell of dust and time rushed into his nose... He endured the strange smell and looked inside, stunned for a moment.

In the box was a piece of cloth folded neatly... or rather, a flag.

"What... what is this?"

Li Qingshan carefully took out the flag. The surface of the flag was somewhat smooth, as if it had been soaked in some kind of oil, but even so, the flag itself was extremely hard and fragile, and he didn't know how many years it had been preserved.

Li Qingshan tried to spread the flag out, but found that its area was simply too large... Helpless, he could only walk into the courtyard and restore and unfold it bit by bit on the spacious ground.

It was a huge flag that required at least two people to hold the poles separately to be fully raised in the air. Its width was equivalent to more than a dozen people standing shoulder to shoulder in a row. After Li Qingshan fully unfolded it, it almost covered the entire courtyard...

The vast majority of the flag was covered by a large number of signatures. Some were serious and square, others were crooked, but they all had one thing in common...

These names were written in blood an unknown number of years ago.

Beneath these dense signatures, which had oxidized to a black-purple color, several lines of vibrant, sweeping characters seemed to contain countless shouts, engraved in the long river of history.

"「We, as children, as parents, and as those who carry burning hearts, take this oath」"

"「We voluntarily offer our youth, our bodies, and our lives to pave the way for the future of human civilization, to lay the foundation for the stability of our descendants, to step into the wasteland, and to rebuild our home」"

"「We will go forward without hesitation, we will be invincible, we will go and never return」"

"「May the tower we build restore the glory of humanity」"

Li Qingshan’s pupils contracted slightly.