Chapter Sixty Companions and Missions

  "Your turn!" Tian Wenliang handed me the steering wheel and jumped into the back seat.

  "I've never learned how to drive!" I exclaimed in a panic.

  Tian Wenliang roared: "Just step on the accelerator, hold onto the steering wheel and go." As he spoke, he picked up an oil barrel from under the back seat and laughed loudly: "I've left it all for you guys."

  The oil barrel was opened, and the pungent gasoline splashed loudly onto the back of their heads, drenching three motorcycles.

  Tian Wenliang evilly pulled out a matchbox, winked at the three motorcycles and shouted: "Three, two... one!"

  The motorcyclists looked at each other, shook their heads and turned around to leave.

  Tian Wenliang was over the moon, just then, a dull thud sounded, and the fierce horse stalled. He fell forward, his face instantly turning black: "Can you drive or not!"

  I'd like to beat him to death, and angrily shouted: "Your ears are on your butt, I said it, I won't open it!"

  I hastily gave up the driver's seat, and Tian Wenliang, out of breath, restarted the Hummer and headed towards a small county town at the foot of the mountain.

  Fortunately, there were no more pursuers encountered during this period.

  Hummer drove to the backyard of an inconspicuous store, changed into a motorcycle seized from the Japanese army, covered his face and sped down a small road. As soon as we left, the big Hummer was jumped on by two little boys who came out of nowhere, vroom, and drove off in another direction.

  An hour's rugged mountain road, arrived at a remote mountain villa, we changed to a bamboo raft arranged by Tian Wenliang in advance and went downstream. Another hour later, we reached the shore, and Tian Wenliang mysteriously opened a military tent from the dense forest and pulled out a large bicycle.

  I and Tian Wenliang took turns riding a bike, one person rode while the other sat, switching every half hour. After three hours of sweating profusely, we finally arrived at a remote mountainous area with few human footprints.

  Next, we couldn't ride our bikes anymore, so bus No. 11 started moving and we hiked up the mountain on foot.

  Tian Wenliang led the way in silence, and there was no road in the mountain. He only saw him counting with his fingers, as if he was calculating the number of steps he had taken. I didn't disturb him and followed closely behind.

  When we arrived at a huge cave hidden in the midst of towering mountains, the sky had gradually darkened.

  "This is an airport!" I couldn't believe my eyes, the outside of the mountain 'cave' was just right for a takeoff runway, and it could accommodate a small to medium-sized propeller plane taking off without any problem.

  "Come with me." Tian Wenliang pushed me inside.

  Suddenly, the dark 'cave' was brightly lit. A row of seven or eight fully armed ground crew members were already standing there quietly.

  "Director Tian, the others have arrived and are resting in the waiting room," a man who appeared to be the leader saluted.

  Tian Wenliang nodded slightly, as if in response. With his head held high and a swaggering gait, he didn't even give anyone a proper look, and strode loudly into the inner quarters.

  "Hmph, I knew you'd pretend!" I sneered, flipping my hair and following closely behind, imitating Tian Wenliang's mannerisms. No choice, now that I'm also a military officer. Without some semblance of authority, how can I lead the troops in the future?

  "Who is that?" a ground crew member whispered to his companion, who clicked his tongue and speculated: "What's the point of asking? Anyway, he'll be sent to the mainland to die soon."

  I glared at them, it was too ominous. The mountain "cave" is very large, and many rooms have been excavated along the stone wall of the "cave". Of course, most of the mechanical parts are still scattered around the edge of the runway. This project is huge, and it's not something that can be completed in a short period of time. I couldn't help but wonder if this mountain "cave" airport was built so secretly, and the construction cost had already exceeded the actual value of the airport itself, unless there were other unknown purposes.

  Upon entering the resting room carved into the mountain, after the 'door' opened, what came into view was a yellow-colored leather sofa and an office desk. On the left were several small chairs. Sitting on them were five people, three men and two women. Of the two women, one was very young, wearing tight-fitting American camouflage, with a fiery figure that looked refreshing and eye-catching. The other woman was less than forty years old, wearing a sable coat, heavily made up, with an air of worldliness about her.

  Three men, the one closest to us had a particularly robust build, nearly two meters tall, with muscles full of explosive power, and a thick beard covering his face, giving off a hint of northern minority ethnicity, making this northeastern Han boy like me swallow my saliva in awe. The other two were obviously twins at first glance, with clear eyebrows and eyes, slender figures, looking like they had just graduated from university.

  "Lao Tian, you're actually alive! I thought I'd have to collect your corpse. You really are going to be the death of me!" The older woman batted her eyelashes and flirtatiously hooked her arm around Tian Wenliang's shoulder, scolding him with a smile.

  "Haha, the Jianghu people call her 'not old' Xu Niang, Xu Erniang. I, Tian Wenliang, can't bear your concern for me, so spare me. Tian Wenliang casually brushed away Xu Erniang's hand and pointed at me with a sly expression: "Hehe, take a look at this little brother."

  Xu Erniang's peach blossom eyes had been fixed on me for a long time, she slightly pursed her red lips and smiled: "Not bad, you're my type."

  I felt a chill and hastily retreated several steps back.

  Tian Wenliang burst out laughing, seeing my embarrassed face, and immediately changed the subject, pointing at me and introducing in a serious tone: "Everyone, his name is Hong Xingdong, he's the main member of this mission, your companion. In the next few days, you'll all be entrusting your lives to each other, so I ask you to communicate well and avoid unnecessary conflicts." He didn't forget to glance at Xu Erniang, saying: "No conflicts are allowed, at least not until the mission is complete."

  "Disgusting." Xu Erniang shouted, giving me goosebumps. At this age, I think only Tian Wenliang likes this kind of afternoon yellow flower.

  Next, Tian Wenliang briefly introduced these people to me. It turned out that the burly man was called Balza, a Mongolian, a descendant of the Golden Family, from a humble background, and joined the Military Bureau during the Anti-Japanese War, specializing in killing Han traitors. As for the twins, the older brother was named Xie Qi, and the younger brother was named Xie Ba, originally from Zhejiang Zhoushan, had studied in France, and was said to be well-versed in intelligence studies. The older, flirtatious woman that Tian Wenliang mentioned was called Xu Erniang, the last of the Eight Great Hutoong's light opera small class in Beiping, a junior of Xiaofengxian, with an stage name seemingly called Saiying Ge, had enchanted countless warlords, but how she joined the Bureau of Secrets was unknown.

  These four are all undercover agents of the Secret Bureau, with military ranks above captain, and Balza is even a lieutenant colonel. Normally, they each have their own strengths, engaging in fields such as assassination, espionage, and military intelligence. They don't often intersect, but this time we were called together for this mission.

  According to Tian Wenliang, we are all carefully selected 'elites', the hope of the party and the country. Anyway, I don't know what special talents I have that make me worthy of being chosen, I'm not a self-deprecating person, but I do know my own weight, or maybe the party and the country have no bottom line for talent to this extent.

  What caught my attention the most was that young and beautiful female soldier. She wasn't from the Secret Bureau, and there was hardly any introduction about her. Tian Wenliang only whispered one sentence in my ear: "Her name is Cai Lingchen, Cai Lingyu's own sister!"

  My pupils contracted, and I cast a shocked glance at Cai Lingchen. Sneaking a peek at her, coldly disliking to say another word, the air between her eyebrows was faintly visible, and upon closer inspection, she really did bear some resemblance to the real Cai Lingyu.

  "They don't look very much alike, do they? Why did you bring her in?" I whispered to Xiang Wenliang, afraid of being heard by Cai Lingchen.

  Tian Wenliang shrugged and said helplessly: "None of them were chosen by me, they all have big backers behind them. Only you are the one I chose."

  I secretly thought you wouldn't be interested in me because I'm easy to control. But since Tian Wenliang said that, I have to keep a closer eye on the others.

  "Ah, just one more thing, no big deal." Tian Wenliang glanced around at everyone and continued: "Next, I'll briefly introduce the task content for this time."

  Under the leadership of a ground crew member, everyone came to a projection room. As soon as we entered, the 'door' was locked from the outside.

  The lights were turned off and the projector was spinning under Tian Wenliang's control, casting a video onto the screen. Everyone held their breath and watched in silence.

  There is no sound in the video, and the screen is shot from a high altitude, very steep. It should be an aerial photograph on the plane. The line of sight is a continuous mountain range, with nothing in sight, and the same picture has been going on for nearly five minutes.

  We're sleepy and drowsy.

  "Is it over yet? What's with this crappy video, Old Tian?" Balza urged impatiently.

  "Hurry up, open your eyes and take a good look." Tian Wenliang said in a low voice.

  Another minute passed, and suddenly a blurry giant shadow flashed across the screen, cleverly hidden in the gap between two mountains.

  We all stood up at once, and Xu Erniang shouted: "It's a human figure!"

  Tian Wenliang didn't stop the screen, a huge figure flashed by, and after a minute, the screen suddenly dropped straight down, accompanied by a violent shaking, and then stopped abruptly.

  "The plane has crashed." Tian Wenliang said calmly.

  "What's going on?" I asked Tian Wenliang with a mind full of questions.

  He merely 'touched' a cigarette, and with a bright flame, he 'pulled out' a long, irregular smoke ring.

  "Stop pretending and speak up, you're killing me!" Xu Erniang said angrily.

  "This is a Flying Tiger P-40 fighter that deviated from the Hump Route, aerial footage taken 10 minutes before it crashed." Tian Wenliang introduced slowly and calmly: "The only pilot at the time was lucky to have survived, bringing this roll of aerial film out of the forest, after... six years. After being passed around several times, this footage finally fell into our hands." His face turned serious, shaking his head slightly: "As for that Flying Tiger pilot, he mysteriously disappeared, it's very possible that he fell into 'their' hands. In other words, the information we have is far behind others."

  "Anyone else?" everyone asked in unison.

  Tian Wenliang sneered, "It was those people who ambushed you halfway. I and Hong Xingdong also encountered them. Which faction they belong to, I still can't tell you now. You only need to know that their power is very strong, even the upper levels of the Secret Bureau have their people."

  My ears twitched, and indeed they did. I glanced sideways at the three men and two women, including Tian Wenliang himself, and wondered if there was really a traitor among these six people?

  Balza was displeased, pouting and muttering: "Old Tian, you know I, Balza, am an expert in assassination, never fighting a battle without being sure of winning. You're being mysterious and secretive, hiding and concealing things, how can I feel at ease following you?"

  Others, including me, chimed in.

  Tian Wenliang's mouth corners rose, and he pulled the screen back to a blurry giant shadow, froze it, and said in a low voice: "The purpose of our mission this time is to find this place before they do, and to investigate the secrets that exist there. Mission level... extremely confidential, mission code name... Dì Yǎn Action."

  "What is this place, worth making such a fuss about?" I asked curiously, my eyes fixed tightly on the gigantic black shadow resembling a human body, feeling an inexplicable sense of oppression. Estimating its size by comparing it to the surrounding mountains, this blurry human figure was at least 200 meters tall. If it were some ancient person's work, it would be even more impressive than the Leshan Giant Buddha. The pose of this figure was even stranger, as if it were squatting in the middle of two great mountains, its hands spread wide to prop up the precipice of Weiwei Mountain Cliff, as if it were about to shout: "Brother, got paper?"

  Tian Wenliang dug into his pocket, "fished" out a small thing, and spread it out for us to see. He said with a serious expression: "The purpose? Hehe, because that place has a lot of this stuff."

  "Huh, a broken stone? What's so special about it." Xu Erniang looked at the stone in Tian Wenliang's hand with suspicious eyes, full of doubt. Tian Wenliang just smiled and didn't say anything.

  The moment I appeared on the stone, my whole body shook violently, it's a stone, it's just a stone!