Xiao Qing was a perceptive person. Seeing that Xiangbin had fallen silent, she could tell what was on her mind from her expression. She went over and took Xiangbin's hand, without saying a word, but squeezed it firmly to comfort her.
Champagne looked up and saw Xiao Qing's gentle gaze, which warmed her heart: "Thank you, I'm fine."
Xiao Qing sighed; she wanted to sit here and wait with everyone.
But she knew there was nothing she could do by just waiting. Besides, the old man had arrived and was already staying at a nearby hotel, and she needed to go and settle him in. At the same time, the old man must still have some questions for her about Chen Xiao, so she couldn't stay here any longer. She was hesitating about how to say goodbye.
Just then, a gasp came from behind the coffee shop: "Ah..."
The voice was filled with surprise and excitement; it was the fat man's voice.
Then the fat man stumbled out from behind, his chubby face full of excitement.
Bai Cai was in a bad mood, and seeing the fat man's state, she couldn't help but angrily say, "Hey. People here are heartbroken, what are you yelling about?"
The fat man hesitated for a moment. He was a rough and unrefined man; how could he possibly understand the gravity of Chen Xiao's disappearance? In his mind, a real man should simply leave. Since he was gone, he must have his own things to do; why should he explain himself to the women at home? Perhaps he would naturally return in a few days; what was there to worry about?
She ran out, and seeing Ya Ya crying her heart out, her face immediately fell. Heartbroken, she quickly took a few steps forward, rubbing her hands, and said, "It's my fault. I frightened you. Um, Miss Ya Ya, don't be sad. Are you hungry? I'll make you something to eat?"
Ya Ya cried her heart out and had no appetite. She just kept shaking her head, tears streaming down her cheeks, her eyes swollen and red like peaches, which left the fat man speechless.
The cabbage next to him angrily said, "Hey, Fatty, I'm talking to you! What were you yelling about just now?"
The fat man was jolted back to reality when the cabbage called his name beside his ear: "Ah. News, big news! Good heavens, the internet is exploding..."
After saying that, he slapped his forehead, turned around and rushed back to the back, then came running out with a laptop and placed it on the table: "Look! Look!"
On the screen was the news page of a well-known portal website, with a huge picture and a scarlet headline next to it.
The girls assumed it was just another "building collapse" or something similar, and had no interest in such things. Just as Bai Cai was about to push the computer away, Xiang Bin, sitting behind her, glanced at the screen, her expression suddenly changed, and she screamed, lunging forward to hug the screen: "Ah...she...she..."
Seeing the strange look on Champagne's face, the group focused their attention on the screen, where a large headline was prominently displayed:
"Sasebo Port suffers a terrorist attack by a mysterious force..."
"What is Sasebo Port?" Xiao Qing asked, somewhat confused. Bai Cai, however, knew the answer. She thought for a moment and said, "It seems to be a military port in Japan, the largest military port on the west coast of Japan, located in Nagasaki. Hmm, I think we talked about it in history class a few days ago."
Below the title was a huge image. The image was a hazy gray, as if surrounded by thick smoke. In the distance, there appeared to be two figures. One of the figures had long, black wings, whether shrouded in smoke or their true color, was unclear. The figure's form was quite exaggerated, and it was carrying someone in its hand.
What caused Champagne's expression to change drastically was the person who was being kicked in the hand.
The photo was blurry, clearly taken hastily by someone from a great distance, but you could still vaguely make out the person being held in someone's hand—a tattered kimono with long hair. From the silhouette, it looked like a girl, but to Champagne, it was a completely different story.
The color and style of the kimono, and the blurry figure in the distance, bore a striking resemblance to the powerful woman he had encountered in the chaotic battle before.
Upon realizing this, Champagne immediately exclaimed, "It's her! It looks like her. It's that woman. That..."
In her agitation, her words were somewhat incoherent, but after finally managing to explain the situation, she took a breath: "This woman has also disappeared. She might be connected to Chen Xiao. If it really is her, then maybe Chen Xiao..."
The girls immediately got excited, and Bai Cai even pushed the fat man aside. The group of girls, all high and mighty, took over the computer and quickly opened the news feature.
Clearly, this is not an official news release, but rather an unofficial piece of gossip that somehow leaked online.
However, after clicking on it, there was not much text description, but rather a series of shocking pictures...
The picture clearly shows a military port, but it is filled with smoke and fire. Steel behemoths on the dock are engulfed in flames and smoke that almost blocks out the sky.
On the dock, Japanese sailors in military uniforms ran back and forth, and in the distance, several warships lay silent on the sea.
Seven or eight photos in a row, all of the same, except for the different shooting angles and the fact that they were taken in a hurry. Many of the images are blurry, and the camera used to take them is obviously of high resolution, as many of the images become a blurry grid when zoomed in slightly.
However, such a tragic and horrifying scene left even the girls stunned.
If... if...
If you remove the titles from these pictures, and ignore the titles, and aside from the fact that the soldiers in the photos are clearly Japanese, you might think it's a replay of the Pearl Harbor attack...
The most crucial one is the last photo.
This photo was taken from the sky. In the sky, a winged figure is carrying a girl in a kimono, high above, its outline blurred, as if quietly looking down at the disaster below.
This news almost immediately went viral across the internet.
In no time, almost every portal website, news section, BBS, and major forum reposted it like crazy.
In this peaceful era, the fact that Japan's largest military port on its west coast has suffered such a large-scale "terrorist attack" seems like a replay of Pearl Harbor. Seeing the heavy losses suffered by Japanese Self-Defense Force naval vessels, and the Sasebo military pier almost reduced to ruins, is like dropping a nuclear bomb on the internet…
The group quickly searched for a lot of related news.
I don't know how this news broke. At first, nobody believed it. Some commenters even thought it was a scene from a blockbuster American movie. But soon, some film enthusiasts pointed out that no known film had such a scene. Others immediately found screenshots from other suspected films like *Pearl Harbor* from a few years ago for comparison, and there were no similarities whatsoever.
The subsequent discussion was that some people suspected this was a newly filmed movie, and the production company deliberately released this kind of gimmick to promote the new film.
At first, it was a huge argument.
However, it was soon discovered that the original source of this news article was a Japanese website.
In this era of information overload, this news quickly went from being scorned as fake news without hesitation to being met with skepticism. Once the news was confirmed to be true through various channels, the world was in an uproar…
The source of the news was a Japanese journalist. The day of the incident happened to be the monthly open day of the military port, which coincided with the conscription period in Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan. In order to cooperate with the government's conscription propaganda, the media entered the military port to take pictures to promote military power, and that's when they encountered this incident.
The Japanese journalist had previously worked as a war correspondent, spending two years in both Afghanistan and Iraq. He quickly snapped a few photos and immediately posted them online.
Moreover, the journalist, who was quite knowledgeable about military affairs, also had some understanding of naval warships. He clearly stated in his report that, based on his eyewitness observations, the lost warships included at least: one Kongo-class cruiser, two frigates, one of which was a missile frigate, two Shirogane-class destroyers, six Maru-class military transport ships, and multiple fortifications and anti-aircraft missile towers around the naval port and dock.
An uproar ensued...
Against the backdrop of overall peace in Asia, the massive attack on a Japanese naval port and the resulting devastation shocked the world.