#shiwang

Shi Qiang hears about Operation Guzheng's success through Xu Bingbing.

He would've liked to be there himself— it would have been amazing to witness Miaomiao's flying knives in action, but his condition was worsening— Miaomiao, with his sharp mind would've seen through him in an instant if he, with his weakened state, had followed them to Panama.

(The nosebleeds and dizzy spells have grown more frequent, had become harder to play off, lately).

So he had simply told Wang Miao that Lao Chang, that slave driver, had ordered him to stay in China, and asked the professor to pass the old Colonel a pack of his cigarettes instead.

Idly, he wonders if the coward is alright.

He hadn't meant to— or he did, albeit reluctantly— coerce Wang Miao into using his nano tech as a weapon, knowing the professor's soft heart. But it had been the best available option, and he knows that Wang Miao knew it too. It was what he brought him to the meeting for, after all. To let him listen in and see for himself that he was the best they had.

"Xu Bingbing—"

"No."

"Hey, who do you answer to! If I ask for a smoke, you should get me one, don't you think!"

"I answer to General Chang. And he agrees with the doctor." Xu Bingbing answers, stoic and unflinching as ever. It doesn't escape Shi Qiang that her eyes are red-rimmed again, and his heart softens despite himself.

The girl is still green, she likely hadn't lost anyone to the force yet— and as much as Shi Qiang had readied himself to die on the job, he felt slightly sorry that his would be the first death that Xu Bingbing witnesses.

(And by extension, the first that Wang Miao—)

Shi Qiang lets out a sigh in frustration, feeling a headache building. When was the last time he went this long without a cigarette? He'd argued against suddenly cutting him off from smoking, but the damned doctor hadn't budged an inch on the restriction. Something about how it would "hasten his worsening condition", which in his opinion, was a load of bullcrap, but Xu Bingbing had been sufficiently frightened and had stolen his box of cigars while he was asleep.

"Is Professor Wang okay?" Shi Qiang asks instead, plotting the route to the nearest convenience store for a quick smoke once Xu Bingbing left.

"He's on the way back now. There were no casualties on our side." Xu Bingbing straightens, unable to mask the hint of accusation in her tone.

So, Miaomiao may be alright physically, but not mentally.

Still, "Professor Wang is an adult, he knew what he was getting into when he agreed to join the operation." Shi Qiang reminds her, picking up an apple to peel for lack of anything better to do.

No matter how weak the professor looked— it was all those skipped meals, in his opinion— there was a flash of steel under the soft exterior that set even Shi Qiang on edge at times, the same strength that kept allowed Wang Miao to walk himself into the lion's den time and time again.

(Even when Shi Qiang himself had let slip his worry, Wang Miao had resolutely faced forwards, and delivered himself straight to the ETO, out of his surveillance radius.

He had realised, then, just how much this coward Professor meant to him).

"He might have thought he did," Xu Bingbing argues, her tone clipped.

—Have you ever considered certain philosophical questions? Where do we come from? Where do we go? Wang Miao had asked him, the fire in his eyes returning as he sought answers from Shi Qiang. Answers that he proceeded to seek out himself, despite the unknown enemies standing in his way. When you look at the stars, don't you feel curious and awed at all?

"He won't let it affect him," Shi Qiang says. For someone who thought as much as Professor Wang, surely he had a thousand and one reasons to continue living, to continue in their war against the Trisolarians. He may stumble and cry along the way, but Shi Qiang would be there to support him and ply him with wine, to drag him out to his hometown to relax in the countryside fields and stare at those stars he liked so much.

That sort of life sounded good.

Shi Qiang snorts at that mental image, startling Xu Bingbing, who had fallen into a trance like state, staring at his hospital charts.

If only he could live long enough to see it come through— if not, then in their next life, perhaps.

---