The Midnight Guard Duty

At 8 PM, Ming Fa and Huang Kai were responsible for standing guard. Prior to them, from 6 PM to 7:59 PM, it was Peter and Christine. Ming Fa was convinced that this playboy must have used a lot of sweet talk with Christine during their guard duty hours. Poor Christine.

Around them was a dark night sky, devoid of stars, moons, or suns. There was nothing but the blackened land and the sea that blended seamlessly with the night.

Beside Ming Fa, Huang Kai was cheerfully downing his third bottle of alcohol, at a speed that made one suspect he was trying to get alcohol poisoning.

"Are you still smoking?" Huang Kai suddenly asked in a deep, grizzled voice, filled with the ruggedness of someone who had seen it all.

"I'm smoking right now," Ming Fa exhaled a puff of smoke, letting the scent waft from his mouth. "Want one too?"

"Give me one," Huang Kai extended his hand. "Free one."

"These all free, dude," Ming Fa took out a small box, pulled out a cigarette, and placed it in Huang Kai's hand. "Need any extra service?" Ming Fa took out a black lighter and shook it a couple of times in front of Huang Kai.

"Sure do." Huang Kai put the cigarette's end in his mouth and then let Ming Fa light it before taking a drag and exhaling a puff of smoke.

Then, they fell into a long silence.

"How's it going with your girlfriend?" Huang Kai broke the silence, starting a conversation for Ming Fa to dive into.

"You mean Christine?" Ming Fa asked, and Huang Kai nodded twice, so Ming Fa sighed. "She's not my girlfriend."

"But Peter and I often see you two together."

"Can't help it. When you live with someone in the same room, you become more and more familiar with them, and everyone else starts to feel like strangers."

"That makes sense."

"Yeah."

"Since you're just treating each other as strangers, why do I feel like you've been despising Peter all this time?"

"He's too arrogant, which is very annoying."

"Confidence is a good thing. Without confidence, you can't go on bravely."

"But excessive confidence on the battlefield will only get everyone killed. Sooner or later, he's going to get us into trouble."

"He likes trouble. He often tells me, 'If a person's life is ordinary, even if their name is remembered by others, it's not worth remembering.'"

"That's a weird conclusion to draw from something..."

"Although he might, as you say, get us into trouble, don't forget that this guy often leads us to defeat trouble unscathed, right?"

Ming Fa agreed with that statement. After all, if he couldn't figure things out for himself, he wouldn't have been able to single-handedly break out of a robot army.

"Hey, Ming Fa, look over there." Huang Kai suddenly pointed at the sea's surface. He seemed to have seen something, but Ming Fa couldn't see anything except for the darkness darker than the night.

However, Huang Kai pressed the alarm button.