Chapter Fourteen: Breaking Out of the Encirclement for the Fourth Time

  Lin Ruo-lan and Yang Xin-xin both heard the gunshot coming from behind them.

  "How come the people chasing us from behind started fighting each other?"

  "I didn't hear it clearly, but it seemed like another group of people came, with the sound of AUG assault rifles, but it's definitely not our military." Yang Xinxin listened carefully with her ear tilted to one side, she wasn't very familiar with foreign firearms.

  "Could it be that the two groups of mercenaries are fighting each other for Mr. Mark?" Lin Ruo Lan looked back with concern.

  "Just now we encountered the special forces of Country M, not mercenaries." Yang Xinxin also turned her head back, thought for a moment and didn't dare to take risks stopping, "Let's hurry up, we don't have any support."

  Mr. Ma heard Lin Ruolan's translation and also felt that no one would come to rescue them at this time. If they wanted to leave this dangerous place quickly, they could only rely on themselves. Yang Xinxin ran ahead, supporting the almost fallen Lin Ruolan closely behind him.

  The dawn broke, and Lin Ruo Lan and the others approached the edge of the thicket. The sky had turned a pale blue, and the trees were slowly becoming clear. Yang Xinxin removed her night vision goggles, and the trees in front of them gradually became sparse. A vast expanse of sparkling wetlands appeared before their eyes, with a refreshing breeze carrying a sweet and salty scent blowing towards them. The expansive water surface was covered with dense sedge grass, with emerald green and brown sedge intertwined to form a large patch, shimmering with an otherworldly glow. Under the grass, the water sparkled brightly, flowing gently. A river flowed slowly through the grassland in a southeastern direction, with bare cypress trees standing upright in the water, surrounded by a layer of crimson moss, looking eerie and mysterious.

  Yang Xinxin stopped, with no way forward and pursuers behind. What to do? She carefully searched for a path, pushing aside a blocking poisonous plant, and finally found a small trail at the intersection of the swamp and forest that was only wide enough for one person to pass through. The leaves and stems of the plants on both sides of the road had signs of being broken by people, she hesitated for a moment, cut a long branch to probe the path, and the surface was hard. Yang Xinxin's heart was glad, "Follow this small path."

  However, Yang Xinxin had only walked less than fifty meters when she felt something was off. She lifted the vines that blocked her view and saw a trunk of a cypress tree covered in animal carcasses staring back at her.

  "Minefield!" Yang Xinxin exclaimed, involuntarily taking a step back.

  Mr. Mark, who was walking behind her, didn't understand what she said and took a step back when he saw her retreat. Lin Ruolan, at the end of the line, was caught off guard and quickly stepped to the right into the bushes to avoid being knocked over. "Ka!" A soft sound came from under her right foot. "Don't move!" Yang Xinxin shouted loudly. Lin Ruolan immediately stopped in her tracks and asked in confusion: "What's wrong?"

  Yang Xinxin's cold sweat flowed down her face, and she said in a tone that tried not to startle Lin Ruolan: "Don't move at all! You've stepped on a landmine!"

  Lin Ruo Lan's mind went blank for an instant, and after more than a minute, she asked in a trembling voice: "Why didn't it explode?"

  "It's a loose rein! You'll only trigger an explosion if you lift your foot." Yang Xinxin let out a long sigh. "You crouch down first, keep the pressure on your feet, I'll send Mr. Mark to a safe place and then come back to help you."

  Lin Ruo-lan slowly crouched down, and Mr. Mark cooperated with Yang Xinxin to move away from the killing radius of the landmine towards their original route. Yang Xinxin helped him find a hiding spot, then immediately ran towards Lin Ruo-lan, but Lin Ruo-lan waved her hand to stop her: "Don't come over, you guys hurry and leave, don't worry about me."

  "No way, I don't have the habit of abandoning my comrades and running away alone." Yang Xinxin squatted beside her, calming down her intense heartbeat, and began to clear mines with a bayonet. She gently lifted the moss layer under Lin Ruolan's right heel, carefully removing the soil around it, and a cylindrical anti-personnel jump mine appeared before their eyes.

  "Yang Xinxin, you must ensure Mr. Mark's safety, so leave here quickly! The pursuers may arrive soon!" Lin Ruolan was anxious.

  "Don't move, keep your body balanced." Yang Xinxin didn't even lift her head, as if she hadn't heard what was said to her.

  Lin Ruo Lan let out a sigh and looked around. The swamp was unusually quiet, with the rising sun shining brightly across the land, and one could faintly hear the distant calls of birds. Listening carefully, aside from the gentle rustling of leaves caused by the breeze, there were no other sounds.

  However, the good times did not last long. As soon as Yang Xinxin used a bayonet to dig out the mud around the bomb, a faint hissing sound entered the ears of the two women. Lin Ruolan slowly turned her head to look to the left, and her body immediately stiffened to the extreme: a 6-meter-long, black and brown eye-patterned snake with white stripes was slowly crawling towards them, now less than ten meters away!

  "Snake... run fast... there's a snake!" Lin Ruolan said incoherently and tremblingly.

  Yang Xinxin suddenly turned around to look, this action startled the snake, its front body stood up high, the neck on both sides bulged, spitting out a thin and long, forked tongue, as it gradually approached, Lin Ruolan had already seen the yellow and white flower pattern on its abdomen.

  Yang Xinxin subconsciously reached for her gun, but suddenly remembered that it was out of bullets. Her face turned pale and she whispered: "Don't... don't move... snakes only attack active targets."

  Two people stared motionlessly at the approaching glasses king snake, their faces pale, and they didn't even dare to breathe.

  The cobra seemed hesitant, unsure of who to attack first. It spat out its forked tongue and moved forward two or three meters, making a threatening "hiss" sound, signaling that it was about to strike. The distance between them was getting closer and closer, and Lin Ruo Lan could even smell the nauseating stench emanating from its body.

  "Don't come any closer... please... just leave quickly!" Lin Ruolan trembled and whispered. The snake's head immediately turned towards her with its movement, she was so frightened that her legs went soft and she fell to the ground, the thunder in her feet made a very slight "ding" sound, she hurriedly supported herself on the ground with both hands to maintain her balance.

  The sudden movement thoroughly enraged the glasses king snake, it "hissed" out a blood-red tongue, its body suddenly leapt forward, opening wide its mouth to reveal sharp fangs and a blood-red oral cavity, its body soared into the air, pouncing straight at Lin Ruolan's face.

  In Yang Xinxin's terrified scream, the snake fang was less than twenty centimeters away from Lin Ruolan. She closed her eyes in despair and quietly waited for the arrival of death.

  At the critical moment, a sharp dagger with strong power and wind-like speed broke through the air, almost brushing against Lin Ruolan's nose tip, piercing the snake head and nailing its body to a tree trunk half a meter away. The glasses king cobra was nailed firmly to the tree trunk, painfully coiling its body several times before hanging straight down. The dagger's throwing power and angle were calculated just right, and the glasses king cobra sprayed out 1 meter of toxic liquid without a single drop splashing onto the two women.

  "Captain!" Yang Xinxin was overjoyed and burst into tears.

  Lin Ruo Lan suddenly opened her eyes, she raised her hand to cover her mouth, and the tears that had been held back for a whole night finally burst out. She stared unblinkingly at Jin Hua as he rushed towards her, and in that moment, love made weakness taste different, and fear seemed to have become a kind of comfort.

  Mr. Mark, who was anxious and unable to help, let out a sigh of relief, drawing a cross on his chest: "Almighty Lord, thank you for your merciful blessings."

  Jin Huang's heart was racing, not from excitement, but from fear. He couldn't imagine the pain of losing his loved one if he had arrived just a second later. In the past, he thought that ideals and happiness were far away, and with youthful recklessness, he would give up everything to chase them, wandering the four seas. In the past, he thought that weakness and fear were for cowards, and that romance was a hero's shortcoming. But because of her, he began to fear loss, and even started learning to be afraid.

  Jin Hao Ke suppressed his emotions, smiled at Lin Ruo Lan and said softly: "Don't be afraid, this thunder will pass soon." Those deep eyes had a strange magic power, easily calming down Lin Ruo Lan's frightened and uneasy mood, she became calm under his gaze. Who said that? A man's charm lies in the strength of his inner heart, in his ability to give women a sense of support.

  "This might be an ambush, there must be a patrol team nearby!" Jin Huan knelt down beside Lin Ruolan, clearing a patch of ground with his plastic steel mine probe and unshouldering his backpack. He whispered orders: "Monkey on the left flank, Lightbulb on the right flank, set up defensive positions in my five o'clock direction! Nightingale protects the guest, positioned centrally to respond to both flanks. If shots are fired, don't engage in a firefight, immediately move back along our original route! I'll remove the landmines and follow your trail markers to catch up, got it?"

  "Understood!" The three team members responded in unison, and Xu Mingliang threw the captured guns to Yang Xinxin. The three of them picked up the guns and dragged Mr. Mark towards a nearby banyan tree with lush growth.

  Jin Huan pulled out a steel probe and cleared the mud around the bomb, he had to dig a hole deeper than 20 centimeters to determine if there was another trigger mine under the bomb. The entire body of the landmine soon appeared before his eyes, Jin Huan let out a sigh of relief and smiled without lifting his head: "Consider yourself lucky, you didn't step on a double-triggered pit."

  Lin Ruo Lan's completely numb right leg started trembling uncontrollably, and the landmine beneath her feet went "click click" twice, scaring her so much that she immediately froze up. Jin Huang reached out with one hand to rub her numb and senseless right leg, softly comforting: "Just hold on a bit longer, it'll be fine soon."

  Lin Ruo Lan opened her mouth wanting to speak, but couldn't utter a single sound, and could only nod with a sob.

  Jin Huan's hand slid down the thunder body and dug into the bottom, touching the bolt that installed the delayed ignition fuse. His thumb and index finger pinched the bolt tightly and twisted it three times, loosening the bolt. As the bolt was removed, Jin Huan forcefully rotated the fuse, and the "clicking" sound under his feet disappeared. "Okay, move your foot away."

  Lin Ruo Lan sat on the damp ground with a thud, her military uniform completely soaked in sweat. The numbness and pain in her right leg made her groan, but as Jin Huan gently massaged it, she gradually regained some sensation, truly feeling that she was still alive. She wrapped her arms around Jin Huan's neck, burying her face deep in his shoulder, tears streaming down to wet his collar.

  Jin Hao's arms tightly wrapped around her, as if she was a skylark that might fly away at any moment. His eyes shone with the joy of being reborn, and he slowly buried his face in her disheveled short hair. "I won't let you out of my sight again!" The emotions conveyed by these words surpassed those of thousands of sweet nothings, a selfless devotion that required no reciprocation.

  Love is actually simple: no need for grand vows, no need for diamonds or gold, throw away deliberate embellishments. Love is waiting, love is thinking of each other, love is caring, love is accompanying, love is - from now on, through life and death, inseparable, never abandoning.

  Her emotions slowly calming down, Lin Ruolan suddenly left Jin Huang's embrace, "Geng Guohui..."

  "I know, I'll avenge him." Jin Huan's voice became exceptionally heavy, gently stroking her back, looking down at her scraped elbow and knee, his heart feeling like it was being twisted by a rope: "Can you walk? We need to leave quickly, we can clean your wounds when we get to the campsite."

  Lin Ruo Lan tried to exert some strength on her right leg and nodded: "I can walk now."

  Jin Huang cautiously observed his surroundings, then pulled her up from the ground and rushed towards the defensive circle established by the team members.

  "Hunter, this is a high-power electronic shielding area. Our personal tactical radios are also being interfered with and cannot function normally."

  Cheng Xiaopeng leaned in, speaking in a low voice: "Hunting leopard, everything is normal, no enemy tracks have been found for the time being. I've set up a fifty-meter radius of trap defense circle, and on the front, nine infrared alarm sensors arranged in a cross pattern were discovered, but no pinhole cameras!"

  "It's that many? Looks like we can't get through the front door." Jin Huan settled Lin Ruolan on a dry patch of ground, beckoning Yang Xinxin over with a wave of his hand. She immediately crept over silently. Jin Huan pointed to the marked location on the map: "Fall back to our previous position, head west, and cross the river at 19:00. After crossing the river, follow the rainforest along the riverbank northward. I estimate we'll meet up with Eagle by around 22:00. Monkey's vanguard, my rearguard, keep a distance of forty meters between the vanguard and the main force. Once we leave the danger zone, look for a place to set up camp."

  A gentle breeze blew across their faces as team members began to prepare their backpacks.

  Xu Mingliang suddenly lifted his head, like a hunting dog, his nose sniffing the air with force. A few seconds later, he pushed Mr. Mark, who was about to stand up, back down to the ground and said in a low voice: "Leopard, there's a smell of smoke, someone is walking this way."

  Jin Huang raised his binoculars and observed for a while, then coldly laughed: "What's coming has finally arrived, 2 o'clock direction, five-man patrol team, prepare for battle!"

  "Yes!" The team members gently pulled the trigger.

  "Nightshade stays back, Monkey and Bulb flank left and right, I'm in the front, sniper's mine. Prepare to clear!"

  "I understand!"

  "Action!" With a single command, Jin Huan silently moved horizontally to the back of a giant fir tree, kneeling and aiming his G3SG sniper rifle at the sniper who was holding an M40 sniper rifle.