The White Olive Tree

Chapter 63

Returning to Cangdi, everything had changed.

The war in Candi City didn't fully end until early May this year. Now, two months had passed, and the city had yet to recover from the ruins.

Scaffolding lined the streets, piled with construction materials. Bulldozers and cranes echoed through the air. The whole city felt like one enormous construction site.

Only the white Cangdi Temple stood quietly on the eastern horizon, undamaged; even the outline of its marble dome looked soft, reflecting the blue sky, stunningly beautiful.

"Could I go take a look?" she asked suddenly, leaning against the car window.

Major Harvey followed her gaze and understood, "Of course, no problem."

After the terrorists withdrew, Cangdi Temple was cleaned inside and out and had now been restored. Many locals came to worship and pray, with foreign faces mixed in the crowd, whether journalists or tourists.

Following the long path, Song Ran walked towards the grand and majestic Cangdi Temple, its snowy white structure shining under the sunlight like a delicate treasure box placed under the blue sky. She took off her shoes and stepped onto the cool marble floor, feeling the coolness in the air and the dim light.

Colorful beams of light poured down from the skylight like a waterfall.

She looked up, and on the dome fifty or sixty meters high, Cangdi's king and his queen were depicted, surrounded by various deities. The sunlight shone on the huge circular stained glass, dazzlingly vibrant. Many civilians knelt beneath the dome reciting scriptures.

Song Ran climbed the stone steps to the fourth floor and found the observation deck behind the temple. It was a small compartment, the surface of the marble walls cleaned of bloodstains, but the natural stone absorbed marks. Large patches of dark bloodstains permeated the floor, walls, and even the ceiling like spilled ink.

The wind rushed in through the window, sending a shiver down her spine. She leaned over the window, feeling dizzy; she tried hard to remember something. But that night when she was hit, she felt nothing, couldn't remember anything.

Behind her, Major Harvey asked, "Are you feeling unwell?"

"No, I'm fine," Song Ran replied, turning around. "Let's go."

Song Ran quickly settled in Cangdi, but the search wasn't easy.

She visited refugee camps in Cangdi one by one, looking for him; she looked at countless refugees and disabled soldiers' faces but never saw Li Zan's figure, not even those who had seen him. She found it somewhat absurd; he had sacrificed so much for this city, yet not a single person knew or remembered his face.

She centered her search on Cangdi, radiating out to the surrounding cities. Time flew by from early July to the end of July, and there was still no news of Li Zan.

On July 30th, a government operation against terrorist strongholds erupted eighty kilometers north of Cangdi's national border.

Song Ran rushed there upon hearing the news.

The stronghold was destroyed, and the government army rescued some of the prisoners. These prisoners were tortured beyond recognition, their minds in disarray.

Song Ran scrutinized their faces one by one, asking, "Did you see an Asian man?"

No one could provide an answer.

When the last prisoner was brought out, Song Ran's heart sank.

The government soldiers who came out told Harvey that there were many corpses of prisoners inside, some of whom had just been killed by fleeing terrorists.