Chapter 9: Murder Game

  "Where have you two been? Didn't you hear the alarm that just sounded? Luckily, you've run back now. If you'd been a bit later, before roll call, you two would have been listed as suspects and subjected to investigation!"

  I let out a loud cry of "lucky" in my heart, secretly wiping away the cold sweat on my forehead. I glanced at Zhang Sun Ting, who also looked like he had narrowly escaped disaster. If it weren't for Bu Shanna finding us in time, my brother and I would have been done for. I leaned against the window to look outside, where squad after squad of armed soldiers rushed out of the gate in military vehicles.

  At least three reinforced companies of troops were densely arrayed near the satellite receiving station, with armored vehicles temporarily forming a defensive belt. Three heavy machine guns were mounted on simple sandbag emplacements, forming a firepower blockade line. In some hidden corners, soldiers carrying red-tasseled Type 5 short-range surface-to-air missile launchers had already donned helmets equipped with infrared guidance systems.

  A loud rumbling sound came from above, and I ignored Zhang's warning to open the window and look up. Three heavily armed helicopters had already landed on the mountain peak where we were just now, and special forces troops rappelled down the ropes one by one, quickly gathering together in formation to begin a thorough search of the entire slope.

  "Damn it, looks like those separatist terrorists are at it again!" Zhang Bansheng said indignantly: "They're causing such a ruckus, and our whole school has to be on high alert for days. Every day they think about independence, Outer Mongolia has been independent for so many years, but now it's still poor and white, crying and begging to come back and freeload. The country has invested so much money in these regions, what more do they want?!"

  "So in our army, we should have more people like Zhang Zhen, the Iron Blood Eagle. I believe that the vast majority of Xinjiang compatriots are patriotic, but there is a small handful of people who have been instigated by *Stan's reactionary forces, plus professional soldiers from Afghanistan, who incite large numbers of ignorant masses to create chaos, and they take advantage of the situation. The 1997 Ili '2.5' riot was exactly like this, wasn't it? Those rebellious elements even placed bombs on bus No. 2 in Urumqi. In such a situation, we must use the most iron-blooded methods to eradicate them completely, in order to prevent similar incidents from happening again."

  "Yes," I gazed out at the three armed helicopters returning east after dropping off all the soldiers, and said in a low voice: "I came to Xinjiang to join the army precisely because I hoped to quickly grow up in war, to train myself into a real man who can shoulder any heavy burden. Faced with these bastards who have ulterior motives, hoping to establish some kind of republic by splitting Chinese territory, all we need to do is stretch out our iron fist and smash it directly into the eighteenth level of hell, never to be reborn!"

  Chang Sun Ting stretched out his own right hand and said proudly: "Good, then we two brothers will compare, if on the battlefield who killed more people!"

  I stared at Zhang Sun Ting's hand stretching out in mid-air, and suddenly stretched out my own to give him a loud slap. "You're definitely going to lose!" I laughed loudly. "To be honest with you, before joining the army, I had already killed a professional bodyguard, so I've already experienced the feeling of fighting and death. Just because of this, I will win over you!"

  Chang Sun Ting burst into loud laughter: "Hmph, you're so pleased with yourself after just killing one person? Let me tell you, before I joined the army, I took down four robbers in one go. Later on, I found it wasn't worth using my skills on such trash, so I came to Xinjiang Military District. Meeting strength with strength is Chang Sun Ting's survival rule!"

  "Good, you're quite bold! Alright then, let's look forward to a war. At that time, we'll compare and see who can kill more enemies!"

  Squad leader Zhang stared blankly at the two of us, our hands clasped tightly together. He wanted to laugh, but his throat was stuck and he couldn't make a sound no matter how hard he tried. From the cold glint in the eyes of the two soldiers, he understood that their oath and competition were serious. He couldn't help but think to himself with a bitter smile: "Captain, when did I ever offend you? You've sent me two bloodthirsty killers, it would be better to assign them directly to the assault vanguard squad!"

  At this time, Er Hu zi spoke up with a dazed expression: "Can I be counted as one? The village chief's son wanted to take liberties with my future wife, so I went to stop him and he hit me with a wooden stick. I didn't know how, but I pushed him against the wall and killed him. In the end, the court ruled that it was self-defense, but my mother was afraid of the village chief's revenge, so she sent me to join the army in Xinjiang. If I can kill a few enemies and get a medal, I'll take it back to the village and never be afraid of the village chief's revenge again."

  He sank his head in thought for a moment, then continued: "I've never killed anyone! I'm very timid, our village often fights with the neighboring village, and I only dare to hide behind and throw some stones or bricks. Everyone usually scolds me for being useless. Later, I tried to make something myself, that is, mix gasoline, iron sand, sulfuric acid and other things together in a bottle, light it up and throw it far away."

  Facing our astonished gaze, Da Tou's face turned red with embarrassment: "But that gasoline bottle is very inconvenient to use and the power is too small. Throwing it over can only ignite a small area, the power is really limited. I usually like to read books, occasionally also go online to find something, later I accidentally learned that solid gasoline bombs are made of rubber and gasoline, so I went to the military website to search for formulas, after finding the materials and experimenting dozens of times, I finally mixed out an incendiary bomb.

  In the mountains behind our village, there is a plant called Black Snake Tendril. The juice extracted from it contains a highly toxic substance. In the past, hunters in our village used this toxin to coat their arrowheads when hunting wild boars. I ran up the mountain and gathered some Black Snake Tendrils, dried them out, chopped them up, and mixed them into gasoline bombs. I had no idea what kind of effect it would have. Later, our two villages got into a big fight, and I threw several of my homemade incendiary devices with a try-it-and-see attitude. As a result, over 90 people from the other village were hospitalized that day. Our village chief praised me, saying I did a great job, and that I was a talented person. Later, he found ways to send me to the army, wanting me to hone my skills in killing enemies...

  All around was quiet, Zhang the squad leader rolled his eyes and suddenly let out a heavenward wail: "Heavens, what have I brought with me - a cooking squad or a concentration camp of violent thugs who will stop at nothing?"

  I and Zhang Sun Ting finally experienced what it means to be on high alert, with roll calls every half hour instead of three times a day. It was so annoying that even going to the bathroom required at least three people, and we had to carry weapons before being allowed to move. Before we prepared dinner for everyone, a special task force wearing white uniforms and gas masks brought in several wolf dogs and desktop detectors to carefully inspect all our food supplies. Only after they issued us a certificate of approval did Captain Zhang dare give the order to start cooking. As a result, that night we didn't finish making a simple meal until 10 pm, leaving everyone hungry for three or four hours.

  Watching the comrades in the squad eating porridge and steamed buns, they finished all their rations before the stir-fry was even cooked, then with green eyes they searched everywhere for something to fill their stomachs. Chang Sun Ting poked me and whispered: "I just went out to take a look, more than half of the squad still hasn't eaten, if others find out that this big event is caused by us two brothers, I'm afraid we'll really have to fight with tens of thousands of starving professional soldiers."

  At the current level of vigilance, the division is likely to send a reconnaissance company equipped with metal detectors to conduct a thorough search of the military camp, to prevent 'terrorists' from leaving behind any threatening weapons. By then, our secretly hidden work will be exposed. Taking advantage of their attention not having shifted there yet, tonight we must go and thoroughly eliminate all evidence, or else things will take a turn for the worse!

  I stood at the window, gazing out at the massive searchlights on the military camp's sentry posts, and whispered: "Do you have confidence that we can successfully evade the security net formed by the soldiers on duty tonight? If things go wrong, it might even be X Corps' most elite special forces unit that gets mobilized for level-one alert!"

  Chang Sun Ting said in a low voice: "Enough nonsense, whether we live or die, you and I two brothers have to gamble this time, it's better than waiting for death!"