Chapter 428: 427
He poured so gasoline on the fire, making it burn even more fiercely. The light of the fire painted their faces red. Chu Tianying, holding a firewood, was fiddling with the fire to keep it lively. He took off the white camouflage suit he was wearing and threw it aside, placing two sleeping bags next to the fire, “They’re new, haven’t been opened yet, afraid of dampness.”
Seeing him speak, Ye Tian also started speaking, “Do you co here often? You seem well-prepared.”
“I don’t, this is my first ti. After all, it’s my own country. These were prepared by others, I just use them occasionally, but not often.”
“Oh.”
Ye Tian looked around.
This place could practically serve as a small base—ammunition, food, plenty of calories. Without any accidents, two or three people could hide here for a month and a half.
“Is that your water source?”
Ye Tian pointed at a corner where water was dripping.
“That’s naturally ford; later we just placed a bucket there, and it beca our source. However, it’s not very clean; needs filtering.”
“It’s not mountain water?”
“Heh, you think it’s still the old plateau glacial water? Tourist activities, developnt, factories, each one pollutes. Here, heat up the noodles with this water.”
Chu Tianying threw two instant noodles into the cooking pot, just adding water to the compartnt allowed it to heat directly because li was stored inside. This was first invented in the United States. Ye Tian, as a mber of a study group visiting abroad, had seen such stuff before, and later Huaxia also adopted so for use but only within so special forces.
Water ready, both set aside their cooking pots, and Chu Tianying tossed over a package of cookies.
“You really stick to your old tastes.”
Ye Tian saw that he was holding Oreo cookies, rembering this guy loved Oreos the most, claiming twisting, licking, and soaking them was the tastiest way to eat them. Ye Tian had always found it disgusting.
“Weren’t you still disgusted by ?”
Reminded of the past, Chu Tianying chuckled.
“What have you been up to lately? I an, after you ‘ca back to life’?”
Chu Tianying chuckled, touching the scar on his face, “You’re asking how I ‘ca back to life’, right?”
Noncommittal.
“I haven’t told anyone about this, but after I ‘ca back to life’, I went to Europe, beca a rcenary in Italy, but the job market there wasn’t great, often didn’t get paid. Then I happened to take a job in the United States; things were better there. After all, being under the umbrella of ‘world police’ made it easier to handle issues, and the pay was good. You know, all those dirty tasks always need soone like us to deal with, they have the money, and we earn a lot.”
“Why did you co here then?”
“Smoke a cigarette.”
Chu Tianying lit one for himself and handed another to Ye Tian, “If I ever get old and have nowhere to go, I’d definitely co here to retire.”
“Heh, always welco.”
“Go on.”
“Coming here was because that guy suddenly had another assignnt, and they couldn’t find soone else to substitute on short notice, so I ca. Didn’t expect I’d run into you actually.” His face bore a self-mocking wry smile.
“Have you been working as a rcenary all this ti?”
“Yeah, always. Got to find a job that keeps one alive. See this scar on my face? Got it from shrapnel from a mortar in Syria. The mortar directly hit our Land Rover military vehicle, after all, it couldn’t withstand a close-range RPG attack. Five of us, four died, and I was the only survivor.”
Interesting.
“You’d say I’ve got quite the luck, huh?”
“That’s really lucky indeed.”
A savory aroma wafted from the cooking pots, Chu Tianying lifted his to take a big bite of the noodles, “Just lacking so seasoning, military quick al packs always have this problem; convenient but damn hard to eat.”
“Years of the sa complaint, and you’re still at it.”
Ye Tian also started eating, although just instant noodles, they were far more nutritious than those available comrcially, and retaining heat was crucial in a cold region.
While eating and talking, “You haven’t finished your story just now, how did you ‘co back to life’?”
At this point, Chu Tianying fell silent.
“Alright, then let talk about myself first. When I woke up, I was in a cave, then covered by a shield of light, and just like that, I realized I was alive again.”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
Chu Tianying focused on eating his noodles, no longer minding him.
…
In the vicinity, Mao Niu found nothing on the bodies except so drug traffickers’ cross-border routes and so photos, the routes were important, but those photos even more so, depicting mistreatnt of Tibetan minorities. If these photos got out, it would likely spark another major international debate on Huaxia’s human rights issues.
Political impact always cos first; no country wants to be in the center of that storm.
Mao Niu carefully tucked these items in his close-fitting pocket, then continued wandering around, but didn’t discover anything noteworthy.
“Platoon Leader Chen, any findings?”
The head of the Ard Police Corps ca over with a cigarette and handed one to Mao Niu, who took it and lit it for himself.
“Captain Zhang, I need to take these items back; thought it best to tell you.”
Ye Tian took out the items from his pockets, but Captain Zhang stopped him, “We’re all family here, you know what to take and what not. We owe this resolution to your help, otherwise, just with our few crappy guns and n, I really wouldn’t know what to do.”
Mao Niu waved his hand, “It’s our duty, part of being a soldier is to fight. If there’s anything in the future, just say the word.”
Captain Zhang smiled, “With your word, I feel at ease. Anything you need, just order; we still hold so sway over local matters here.”
Hearing this, Mao Niu suddenly shifted his thought and tentatively asked, “Captain Zhang, do we have any high-power radios or transmitters around here?”
“What do you need it for?”
“Nothing much, just want to test our new signal transmitter, it’s newly issued above, and since it’s idle anyway, might as well give it a test.”
Although this is a military area, basic living and security facilities haven’t been greatly improved. The Tibetan area has always been a hard and tough place, major equipnt and construction facilities simply can’t be brought in, and construction of signal towers has always been in a blind spot. The only tower we have was captured from the enemy during the counter-attack against Vietnam.
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