The War Is Not Over

When the explosion knocked Xu Jiming off his bed, and the torn glass and sirens filled his eardrums, he knew that war was never just lines on a map. It was the falling ash, the broken windows, the cold and familiar "commands" on the late-night channel, the dead breath held when the red dot of the drone swept over, and the faces around me that were full of panic but still running forward. The enemy forces are approaching from the sky and radio waves at the same time, and a deeper shadow is quietly spreading from within. Call signs were counterfeited, orders tampered with, and retreat routes turned into precise death traps. When trust becomes the first weapon to be penetrated, who can tell whether the voice in his ear is a comrade or a hunter?