It was finally the day of the New Year celebration, or the day before the year end as the event is planned for the night before new year.

    Everyone was given a day off in the public sector as well as militia and soldiers. Except for few who were paid overtime to stay as garrison.

    As the night approaches, the five of them went out at five o''clock. The same time where the stalls and event is starting soon.

    The five of them walked between the stalls as the street was super crowded.

    "Man the street are so crowded, its not even Chinese New Year." Nami commented as she held Lily''s hand.

    "Well its the second holiday of the town, or the first holiday for most people in the town." Yuqi responded as she held Xiaoyun''s left arm.

    "Yeah, and I planned most of it! I-I didn''t expect this much people to show up." Yunyun held Xiaoyun''s right arm.

    "Where''s Leyan anyway? She left home since the noon." Xiaoyun noticed Leyan was missing.

    "I asked her to manage all the cooking. We had set it up to be a buffet instead of the usual food on the table as we can''t be sure what people like. So they going to prepare it until the event start." Yunyun responded.

    "I see." Xiaoyun focused back to the two.

    "let go play that one!" Yunyun dragged the two to the carnival game.

    It was an shooting target to get a toy.

    Yunyun stepped up to play first. She perfectly landed all five of the moving target and wins a small teddy bear.

    "Yes, I got it!" Yunyun excitingly hold the ticket in her hand.

    "Let me try." Yuqi stepped up and took five shots.

    Unfortunately Yuqi missed every single shot as she barely remember her training days.

    "I want one!" Yuqi pushed Xiaoyun forward.

    "Fine fine." Xiaoyun picked up the BB gun and only landed four out of five.

    "Shit... I really need to go back to practice." Xiaoyun was too rusty.

    "How unfortunately." Yunyun laughed at both of them who only got a participation stress ball.

    "I want to try!" Nami and Lily both took their turns to play, but both performed three and two hits, respectively and got a stress ball as well.

    "Hmph! Whatever. Look like just some toys for children anyway." Yuqi angrily squish the stress ball.

    Yunyun secretly gave the teddy bear to Xiaoyun.

    "Come on, create one for her." Yunyun whispered.

    Xiaoyun create one in his other hand, then handed the original one back to Yunyun.

    "Hey Yuqi look!" Xiaoyun handed the new teddy bear to Yuqi.

    "Oh my god! Where you get that?" Yuqi quickly grabbed the teddy bear as she held it in her arm.

    "Yunyun gave it to me and I created another one for you." Xiaoyun didn''t bother hiding it.

    "Ah! Thank you Yunyun, I am so sorry I was just in the heat of the moment, I didn''t meant it." Yuqi walked up to Yunyun to apologized.

    "It''s all good, I shouldn''t of poke fun of you first." Yunyun apologized back.

    "They look like a lovely couple." Anna commented in German.

    "Yeah they do." Kate replied back.

    "Where the alcohol?" One of the Russian asked as he looked around, only to see none.

    "I think they serve it at the dining later." Kate replied back.

    "Let go play that one, that look like some sort of drink." The three Russian walked to one of the stall.

    ---

    Meanwhile at the wall, several soldiers were staying on duty patrolling the walls.

    This including Jixi and Gantian who were guarding the entrance duty.

    "Hey Jixi, why are we staying at the garrison today? We could of asked for a break and join in the celebration." Gantian asked.

    "Too much people... you can go join them." Jixi lean back onto the battlement as he took out a picture from his wallet.

    The picture was a family picture of young Jixi with his wife and son.

    "Nah, I don''t even have a girlfriend to go like most people there. Beside, its double payday to stay here." Gantian thought about it for a second but decided to stay with Jixi.

    "Jixi is that a family picture?" Gantian noticed Jixi holding a picture.

    "Yeah... I lost contact with them since the outbreak." Jixi put the picture back inside his wallet.

    Gantian didn''t know how to comfort him, but just patted him on the shoulder.

    "At least you are still alive... there''s always hope that they are still alive out there." Gantian finally thought of some word.

    "There''s always hope..." Jixi pulled out his canteen and drank.

    "Hey I thought we can''t drink alcohol while on duty." Gantian noticed the color of the liquid almost look like some sort of alcohol.

    "Yiming isn''t here anyway. Here, have a sip." Jixi handed him the canteen.

    Gantian hesitated for a second, but took a sip anyway.

    "Shit, this is strong." Gantian can feel the burning sensation in his mouth.

    "I saved up for a week to buy this." Jixi took back the canteen and took another sip.

    "Man, the sky is so clear today, we can see the entire full moon." Gantian looked up in the sky.

    "Yeah." Jixi replied as he looked up as well.

    The two fell back into silent until Gantian asked a question.

    "Hey Jixi, do you want to go back to the military?"

    "Nope, I like it here. It feel a lot more welcoming than the military." Jixi replied back.

    The two fell into silent again until Gantian spoke up.

    "I just realized, if Major never gotten injured, we probably would of came here for help."

    "Yeah." Jixi took another sip.

    This time the silent lasted for the entire night.