Five days ago.

Shang'an Garden, six downstairs.

A red BMW X6 drove into a parking space at a constant speed and came to a steady stop.

The car door opened, and a man about twenty-five or sixteen years old, about 1.85 meters tall, got out of the driver's seat, turned around and walked to the hall on the first floor, his movements were crisp and neat.

His face is thin, his eyes are calm but faintly condensed, with steady steps and seemingly casual but rhythmic arms swinging, the whole person has a cold temperament. Although the body is thin, it does not look thin, but it is a kind of lean after a long period of training, like a sharp long sword.

As he passed by the hall downstairs, he habitually glanced at his inbox, ready to be as empty as ever. Logically speaking, few people have ever contacted him, and letters are rarely used nowadays, so ordinary people have long ignored the dispensable inbox, but after many years in the army, he still maintains a high degree of vigilance against the surrounding environment after retiring, and observes everything related to him at any time. After a few glances, his body remained unchanged, and he suddenly moved forward today, and a strange black letter with a different difference was stuffed in the mailbox, half of the corner was exposed, and it seemed that he was waiting unhurriedly for the master to pick it up.

He squinted his eyes very seriously, comrades-in-arms, relatives, and for a while couldn't think of anyone who would send him such a strange letter. Then he walked over, looked around habitually, and after making sure that no one was there, he raised his hand and took out the letter.

At a casual glance, the black envelope did not have a single character except for the block letters of "Sword Bearer Invitation" in the center of the front.

If it's a job advertisement, the design is pretty good. As he entered the elevator, he tapped the letter in the palm of his left hand with the forefinger of his right thumb and index finger.

When he got home, he put the letters on the computer desk in the study and went to take a shower and cook. The huge three-bedroom living room has all the household equipment, but except for him, the sound of the action, the house is quiet, and even the TV and speakers that set off the lively atmosphere are standing there silently, silently. It seems that he is a man who is used to being alone and quiet.

Soon after, he sat down at his computer desk and carefully opened the letter along the back of the envelope. Whether it was out of professionalism or curiosity, he had a reason to open the letter, even if it was just an ingenious advertisement.

Inside is a piece of letterhead that can't be judged but feels very good, and the envelope is the same black paper and white letters, and the three lines of block letters with just the right thickness are neatly arranged in the middle part of the letterhead

Mr. Li Ziyang

We sincerely invite you to join the Temple of Extreme Evil and become an excellent sword bearer, 100 Changqing Road in this city, waiting for your visit.

Temple of Evil

Could it be that an invitation was sent out by a comrade-in-arms who was going to get married? Or was it the opening celebration of a newly opened place? It was unreasonable, and it was impossible for the invitation to have no date. He rarely fell into deep thought, and this time he thought seriously and overturned several of his guesses.

Maybe it's just an inconsequential advertisement, after several judgments were denied, he put the letter aside, opened WeChat and took a photo and sent it to a former comrade-in-arms, who retired with himself and is now running an advertising agency, and should be familiar with these things.

"Captain Ziyang, it's really a shame to be here today, haha. He quickly replied to him, and it had been almost two years since he retired, and a group of old comrades-in-arms back then were still used to calling him captain.

"What is this ad sent to me for?" asked again.

Seeing that the comrades-in-arms who had not been in touch for so long were still so kind, and the past military career came to mind again, Li Ziyang couldn't help but feel warm in his heart. When he said it was an advertisement, his heart sank. Although at first his intuition felt that this letter was not simple, and he always felt that it would set off a wave in his peaceful life, but now that it was confirmed, he was a little disappointed. Maybe it's because the calm of the past two years is too boring compared to the things I used to do when I was a soldier, and my blood has never stopped surging.

It seems that he really has to adapt to the hard-won life quickly, while thinking like this, Li Ziyang replied to his old comrade-in-arms, "This advertisement is quite creative, Lao Chen, you can learn from it." ”

"It's simple, it's eye-catching, it's really good. But then again, this Lanhu Garden is really average, most of the units are three-bedroom, four-bedroom, and the spacing between the buildings is too small, which is far worse than your high-end community, and even several properties for sale in the suburbs have advantages over it. Lao Chen replied.

Seeing what Lao Chen said, Li Ziyang's eyes lit up. Lao Chen and he are comrades-in-arms who have fought side by side for many years, with excellent ability and high military literacy, even if they retire now, they will bring these things that will not be lost in their lives to life, and there is a situation of replying to the wrong information, which is a fatal mistake on the battlefield. He and Lao Chen don't joke often, they belong to the type of lifelong friendship but little contact, and the gentleman's friendship is as light as water is the best description of them.

Li Ziyang felt that his initial hunch was right, and this letter was indeed not simple. Thinking of this, he actually had a trace of excitement that he hadn't seen for a long time, and he didn't know if it was an occupational disease or his own dissatisfaction. Either way, he decided to check the current situation first.

"Is the photo I sent you an advertisement for the Lanhu Garden?"

Sure enough, Captain Ziyang still didn't care about these advertisements. You won't look at the lake on the renderings as big as that, and it's baroque and think it's the third phase of your community, haha, Mr. Captain, the intelligence judgment is wrong, and you will be fined 25 kilometers of weight-bearing off-road. Lao Chen returned.

Looking at Lao Chen's words, it doesn't look like he was joking with himself, it seems that the messages he received were different from those he sent. Ordinary people may feel very strange when they encounter this kind of thing, but for a battle-hardened veteran like Li Ziyang, who has climbed from recruit to captain step by step, this is likely to be just an information encryption and transcoding technology. If that's the case, who would use this to vote for themselves such a letter, is it still a test game for old comrades-in-arms?

Li Ziyang decided to take this letter tomorrow to meet another comrade-in-arms in the city, anyway, there was nothing to do on the weekend except for fitness and reading. After saying goodbye to Lao Chen, I made an appointment with my old comrade-in-arms Wang An, and when I saw him tomorrow, I got off WeChat.

Holding the letter again, Zhao Ziyangzai looked at it carefully, he found a filter to try to find the information of special treatment, and even tried to divide the page of letterhead into two pages from the middle, but the results were unsatisfactory, the letter was still the same, ordinary, ingenious, and inexplicably gave him a strange feeling.

"Find out tomorrow. After packing the envelope and the page of letters in a file bag, Zhao Ziyang left the study to rest, and after nearly an hour of searching on the Internet without any useful information, some related words were also recommended by novel websites, and he decided to put it down for the time being.

Li Ziyang and Wang An made an appointment at a steakhouse in the city center. Although the shop is small and the waiters are small, the owner and chef are very attentive, the environment is elegant, and the cooking is excellent in terms of ingredients and techniques, so even if the price is high, it is still full of customers. Wang An was a member of Zhao Ziyang's regiment headquarters at the time, proficient in network technology and communication encryption, so he must have a unique understanding of this letter and give some important clues - at least it can be determined whether this is a joke or not.

Soon Wang An drove to arrive. Now he works as the chief engineer of an Internet company in the city, and he is usually busy, and rarely goes to dinners. But Li Ziyang's appointment is different, on the one hand, he is the most trusted and respected person over the years, on the other hand, he generally does not take the initiative to ask others, unless there is something important, as has always been the case for so many years.

"Brother Yang, long time no see. After taking his seat, Wang An laughed, he didn't like to call him Captain Ziyang like others, and of course he wouldn't call him "Ziyang Zhenren" or "Master Li" by playful nicknames.

"It's been going well this time, right?" Li Ziyang poured Wang An a cup of tea.

"It's all good, it's simpler than I thought before, but I always feel that I am not as enthusiastic as in the army, and sitting in front of a bunch of communication instruments every day is like playing chicken blood. ”

"Haha, we are all retired soldiers, Comrade Wang An, you have to adjust your mental state in time!" Although he was making fun of Wang An like this, Li Ziyang himself was not frustrated with the current life that was the same and like a pool of stagnant water!

"By the way, Brother Yang, do you need help with anything other than us having a small get-together this time?" He didn't want Li Ziyang to have something to help himself, so he had to speak in person.

"I went to work and rested all day, nothing happened, but I happened to receive a little strange letter yesterday, maybe it was encrypted technology, I didn't discuss the results with Lao Chen, today just happened to have a meal with you on the weekend, by the way, help me take a look." With that, he took the file bag out of his pocket.

Wang An carefully opened the file bag and looked at it carefully and over and over again.

After a while, he looked puzzled and seemed puzzled, so he took out his mobile phone, took a photo and sent it to a special software for identification.

After about half a minute, the doubts on Wang An's face deepened. He put down the letter and mobile phone, looked at Li Ziyang, and inadvertently intertwined his fingers.

"Brother Yang, this letter is normal, it's just a real estate advertisement for Lanhu Garden, I can't see the hidden information from the letter itself, and the information transcoding and recognition software developed by our company does not recognize other information. ”

After listening to him, Li Ziyang's heart trembled, he had never felt this way after retiring for so many years. The feeling at this moment is exactly the same as the feeling when I met those people on the last mission back then—an inexplicable uneasiness envelops my heart. His hand holding up the teacup stopped in mid-air, and after a gentle pause, he brought the cup to his lips and took a sip, his face not changing.

"Looks like I'm overthinking. Alas, to be honest, after retiring, I have always inadvertently tensed my nerves in the past few years, and it seems that I still need to adjust and adapt. Li Ziyang showed a relieved expression.

"Brother Yang, are you still thinking about that incident back then? That situation is too abnormal and sudden, no one can predict the death of Liuzi and the muffler, and even the division headquarters has ordered to block the information, don't blame yourself too much. Thinking back to the last attendance, Wang An's head sank, as if the tombstones of his two comrades-in-arms were pressed on his heart. He also knows that Li Ziyang has been carrying the responsibility on his shoulders for so many years and has never let go.

"The past is long gone, it's okay, don't worry about me, I'm not so fragile yet. Li Ziyang put away the letter as he spoke, he stuffed it into the file bag indiscriminately, and threw it aside without sealing it, not wanting Wang An to think that he cared very much and worried about something.

After they talked about their experiences in the past few years, he knew that Wang An had grown a lot, and now he was no longer shy and introverted, and he could already take charge of himself, maybe that incident had a big impact on him who was still young at the time. Li Ziyang talked to him about his future plans, and the two planned to have a comrade-in-arms gathering after a while, after all, many people who handed over their backs and lives back then have not seen each other for several years.

After eating, it was already three o'clock in the afternoon, and the two said goodbye and left, and then drove home.

Li Ziyang lay on the sofa and glanced at the letter thrown on the table. When I met with Wang An today and talked about the past, many episodes of that day clearly emerged.

Suddenly, he stood upright, tore the file bag with both hands, pulled out the letterhead, stared at the words "sword bearer" with both eyes, clenched his fists with both hands, and his muscles burst out. At this moment, he decided to go to this place even if he died.

"Something that doesn't have long eyes, be the soul of my four-star sword-bearer!"

This was the only word spoken by the figure who killed the six sons and the muffler.

That was the last time his team attended, and that time there were two more tombstones, except for the medals.