Inside the sweltering makeshift tent of the field hospital, Jiang Ciyou focused on debriding the raw wound of a newly admitted soldier.
Squatting beside her, Xiao Ning handed over the surgical instruments, his eyes darting to her face every few seconds.
Moments later, he could no longer hold back. His voice dropped to a whisper, laced with a pleading undertone. "Summer... are you really leaving?"
"Mn." Jiang Ciyou didn't look up. Half a month had passed, and the organization had finally completed the procedures to arrange their return home.
The rims of Xiao Ning's eyes turned red instantly. "Can't you stay? The war is almost over..."
"You could just stay nearby, or even at the base. You're so amazing... the Captain doesn't want you to leave either."
Jiang Ciyou's hands didn't pause for a second. As she wound the gauze layer by layer, her tone remained calm and frank. "I can't, Xiao Ning. There are so many other places, so many other people just like you, waiting for someone like me."
Her senior, who was assisting nearby, cast a complicated glance at her but said nothing.
It wasn't until Xiao Ning couldn't take it anymore and ran off with a choked sob that he finally spoke. "Look at that. You've broken the poor kid's heart. He'll probably cry himself to sleep tonight."
Jiang Ciyou smiled faintly. "Like you said, he's just a kid. Feelings come quickly, and they fade just as fast."
"And what about Raven? The man is swamped, yet he personally escorted the medical supplies just for you... He even let you handle the sidearm he never lets out of his sight."
"You're reading too much into it. Raven was just grateful for our assistance."
Jiang Ciyou's tone was calm, though her expression stiffened slightly. Fortunately, her senior didn't notice.
He switched to a joking tone, though a hint of worry underpinned his words. "Hey. You aren't planning to spend your whole life married to Doctors Without Borders, are you?"
After all, Jiang Ciyou was his junior and his best friend.
"Is that not allowed?" Her eyes curved into crescents, her smile so faint it was almost invisible. "It is a great and glorious cause, after all."
Jiang Ciyou straightened up, signaling that the patient could leave, and peeled off her bloodied gloves.
Her senior sighed and patted her shoulder. "Fine, fine. But if there's no Nobel Peace Prize involved, count me out."
Jiang Ciyou laughed at his joke. The two shared a moment of silence, looking at each other. She paused, then finally spoke softly.
"Actually, a long time ago, I loved someone... I loved him to the point of madness. I committed so many wrongs for his sake."
"It was only after learning a brutal lesson that I realized... that wasn't love. It was just loneliness. It was just my own unwillingness to let go."
She said the words lightly, but they landed like thunder in her senior's ears.
He asked in disbelief, "Who? We've known each other for nearly six years. Why have you never mentioned him?"
Jiang Ciyou's eyelashes trembled. She looked down at her fingertips, saying nothing.
Just as he thought she wouldn't answer, she spoke slowly.
"Someone who cannot be spoken of... But it's all in the past now."
That man was her Shifu, the one who had raised her.
Merely mentioning him felt like a sin.
Fortunately, she had let it go. The tragic end of her past life had awakened her. Love was about fulfillment and letting go, not possession.
Outside the tent flap, Raven stood frozen. He looked at the girl inside, then silently withdrew the hand he had raised to lift the curtain and walked away into the night.
After packing her belongings, Jiang Ciyou sat alone on the rooftop, lost in thought.
Gazing up at the vast expanse of stars, a phrase suddenly drifted into her mind: "We are all looking up at the same starry sky."
Only... were the stars shining just as brightly where Xie Chi was? Was Wen Zhishao by his side, admiring them with him?
Without her in his life, he must have finally found happiness, right?
She desperately wanted an answer, but not disturbing him was the last thing she could do for Xie Chi.
Two hundred kilometers away from the camp, deep in the unforgiving desert.
Xie Chi swallowed the last drop of water. He lay weakly against a sand dune, his strength fading. The vast, boundless galaxy was reflected in his eyes, yet it offered him no direction home.
In this moment, he finally accepted the truth.
Perhaps he would never find Jiang Ciyou.
He was going to die.