Chapter 20: Ran into a Blackhearted Store

  "My god, this is too perverted!" The three of them sat on a stone bridge at the edge of a small village with embarrassed and amused expressions...

  It wasn't until they followed the GPS instructions and walked in a straight line to the first checkpoint that they found themselves on the edge of a small village.

  "It's here, it's here." Wang Jin looked at the coordinates displayed on the GPS and stopped moving.

  Three people looked up and searched around, on the ground... nothing; on the wall... nothing; on the tree... um, this "I was here" can't be considered a special mark, right?

  Three people ignored the puzzled eyes of several old ladies sitting on the edge of the village basking in the sun, and began to search around carefully, almost turning over every stone on the ground. Finally, Wang Bin drew a circle with a diameter of about ten meters on the ground according to the GPS coordinates, comparing it with the coordinates on the test paper, saying: "Even if the instructor's coordinates are not accurate to three decimal places, it should be around this size. If we go beyond this circle, it's definitely not this coordinate."

  Ma Xiaotian said dejectedly: "Where did that special mark go? It's not possible that the teacher didn't write it, could we have looked in the wrong place?"

  Qiu Mingjun also scratched his head, this is strange, a mark, in order to let people see clearly, it's impossible to write too small, but after turning around this area, I really didn't see anything like a mark. This ten-meter circle just surrounds a stone bridge, two trees, three walls, what else?

  Wait, bridge? Stone slab bridge?

  Qing Ming Jun hastily ran to the bridge, and under the bridge there was only a culvert with a height of just above his knee. It's really an exaggeration to call it a bridge, as it's actually just a concrete culvert with a concrete slab on top. Normally, it's only used for water to flow through when it rains, otherwise it's dry.

  Qu Ming jumped down and looked around with his head bowed. Wang Jin and Ma Xiaotian also followed him to check carefully.

  It wasn't until Qu Mingjun walked around to the other side that he finally found Duan Ni.

  Hey, this is really infuriating. The mark was actually written on the inner wall of the cave. Looking at the side wall, a circle was clearly painted horizontally with white paint, and inside the circle were a few words that read "Brave and Tenacious". In the lower right corner of the circle, in letters, was the English abbreviation for the People's Liberation Army, "PLA", which must be the so-called special mark.

  Three people crouched down and copied the marks, then went up to sit on the stone slab bridge. You looked at me, I looked at you, and couldn't help but burst out laughing.

  Qu Mingjun glanced at his watch and found that the time had exceeded his budget, so he hastily called Wang Jin and Ma Xiaotian to hurry up and leave. The three of them were tired and thirsty, and they quickly set off in the direction of Liangshan Town.

  Unfortunately, on the straight road ahead, there were ordinary people's terraced fields. Although there was no harvest in winter, it didn't matter if they trampled on them. However, there was a layer below that directly led to a dry ditch. It was easy to jump down, but it would be difficult to climb back up from the other side. The three of them had no choice but to take a detour, which wasted even more time.

  After arriving at Liangshan Town, the three of them discovered that it was just a small town, actually just a slightly larger village. There were only two small restaurants in the town, and they had already closed for the night. With no other choice, Qu Mingjun and Wang Jin took off all their luggage and handed it over to Ma Xiaotian to watch, while the two of them carried three thermoses that still had some hot water left to find a place to heat up some water, and also take a look around the shops to see if there was anything else they could eat.

  Qu Mingjun and Wang Jin walked along the road for a while before finding a small shop, which was actually a farmhouse built on the side of the road. The front room sold goods, while the back rooms were used as living quarters.

  "Boss, boss? Is anyone there?" The shop was empty, and Wang Jin opened his mouth to shout towards the door covered with a cloth curtain.

  "What's all the commotion? Here I am." A woman lifted the door curtain and walked in, still holding a cup of water.

  "Oh, it's still the two soldier brothers, what are you buying? This woman is heavily made up and can't tell her age, but she must be older than Qu Mingjun and his friends. The two people being called 'soldier brothers' have slightly red ears."

  "Is there boiled water, boss? Can you give us some?" Wang Jin said. Qu Mingjun was smoked by the smoke from the coal stove in the house and didn't want to speak.

  "What? Boiled water? We don't have that. We have drinks, want one of those?" The woman heard they weren't there to buy anything and felt displeased.

  What to drink on a cold winter's day, something cool. Besides, who doesn't even have hot water at home? Who would believe that? Qiu Mingjun and the others were very annoyed in their hearts, but what could they do? They couldn't just go knock on other people's doors. Not buying wasn't an option either, since they still had a long way to go in the afternoon.

  Wang Jin scratched his head and looked at Qu Mingjun, "Alright then, bring two large bottles of Sprite."

  "Here! Six yuan a bottle, twelve yuan in total." The female boss quickly took out two bottles of Sprite from under the counter.

  "Six yuan?" Wang Jin exclaimed loudly, "Outside they're all 5.50, why are you asking for six yuan here?"

  "Hey, it's a fixed price here. It's not convenient for us to transport goods from far away either. Do whatever you want." The female boss said lazily, she had already figured out that these two soldiers with canteens must be thirsty, and if they didn't buy her drinks, that would be weird, so the price naturally went up.

  Qu Mingjun pulled out a stunned Wang Jin, took out 50 yuan and said: "Alright, take two bottles, and also get us two of those Dao Kou roasted chickens."

  The female boss smiled and picked up the 50 yuan, still not at ease, she took it to the window to bask in the sunlight, then quickly packed drinks and roasted chicken for them.

  Until he quickly walked back to Ma Xiao Tian's side, Wang Jin was still indignantly saying: "Damn it, what kind of black-hearted store is this? They're asking us for over thirty just for these few things. Damn it, if I were at home, one phone call would get them shut down."

  Qu Mingjun now thinks that he should hurry up and finish eating to go to the second checkpoint, there are still four checkpoints left, although they are not too far away, but the road is not easy to walk, can't wait until the final assessment to get a failing grade.

  Three people sat down, took out the bread, opened the drinks and roasted chicken, ready to start eating. The first roasted chicken was okay, but as soon as they opened the second one, everyone's eyes widened in shock. What kind of roasted chicken is this? Inside the vacuum-sealed bag was a pair of chicken bones, with no meat on the body, only a chicken head and two chicken feet with some meat on them.

  "What the heck is this? Is this thing fake?" Wang Jin suddenly jumped up and said, "I'll go exchange it with her."

  Qu Mingjun was also furious, and the drink didn't even taste like the real thing. Damn it, selling fake goods for a higher price than the real thing, this person is really something else. So he didn't stop him either, watching as Wang Jin ran off into the distance.

  Qu Mingjun and Ma Xiaotian were still waiting here when they suddenly heard a commotion from over there, then saw Wang Jin rushing towards them with four men chasing after him.

  Damn it, they are chasing and beating Wang Jin, and they are actually using rods to chase and beat Wang Jin!

  Qu Mingjun suddenly jumped up and ran while shouting: "Ma Xiaotian, pack your things! Wang Bin, hold on!"

  In a few breaths, Qu Mingjun ran to Wang Jin's side and didn't have time to say anything. He jumped up with a whip kick and swept it across. With a loud "bang", the fat man holding a folding stool next to Wang Jin was heavily smashed into the wall on one side, then softly fell to the ground.

  Qu Mingjun landed and immediately grabbed a guy with a stick next to him, who had a thick beard. With a fierce knee strike, the hard kneecap hit the bearded man's chin, making a "ka-la" sound that Wang Jin clearly heard from the side. This kid's chin was probably done for.

  Qiu Ming's fists were swift as a hurricane and fierce as thunder, striking twice to send the two men attacking Wang Jin lying on the ground unable to get up. Especially that guy with the whiskers, he was sprawled on the ground convulsing, with several teeth scattered around his mouth and fresh blood gushing out of his mouth nonstop, the scene was terrifying.

  The two remaining men were clearly shocked by Qu Mingjun's thunderous methods, and Qu Mingjun coldly swept them with a glance. The two people immediately became frightened and retreated backward, and although it was the middle of winter, beads of sweat as big as beans could be seen on their foreheads.

  Suddenly, a shrill cry shook the sky and broke the silence. That "ah", with its high pitch, bright tone, and sufficient aftertone, could make even the world-class tenor Pavarotti blush.

  Qu Mingjun's face scrunched up in distaste, he looked up to see the boss of the small shop standing at the entrance, still holding a rolling pin. Apparently, she had just rushed out of the house and witnessed Qu Mingjun brutally beating the fat man and the whiskered man, and was now frozen in fear at the entrance of the small shop.

  Qu Mingjun glared over at him, scaring the treacherous female boss so much that she sat down on the ground with her back against the wall, not daring to make a sound.

  Seeing this, Qu Mingjun hastily pulled Wang Bin, who was still covering his lower back, and dragged him to run towards Ma Xiaotian. After the three of them met up, they didn't dare stay for long, grabbed their things and ran out of Liangshan Town. It wasn't until then that they heard a woman's voice shouting hoarsely from inside the town: "The soldiers have killed someone!"

  Three people ran along a small path and into the nearby mountains, running for twenty minutes without stopping until they were sure no one was following them.

  "Heh heh...... Heh heh heh!" Wang Jin covered his sore back and couldn't help but laugh.

  Ma Xiao Tian panted and said angrily: "Laugh... what are you laughing at? Are you stupid from being beaten?"

  Nothing... nothing, hehehe, just thinking about that girl being scared by Qu Ge and sitting on the ground makes me want to laugh. Unfortunately, it's winter and she's wearing too much, can't see clearly, don't know if she peed her pants or not. If she did, hehehehe. Wang Jin sat on the ground laughing non-stop.

  Qu Mingjun was led by Wang Jin's words and also smiled slightly, then frowned and asked: "Didn't you go to change the roast chicken? How did you end up fighting?"

  "Damn, don't mention it again. I was being polite and courteous when I went there, but as soon as I mentioned that the chicken had a problem, she got all worked up. Later on, she insisted that either this chicken wasn't the one she sold to us or we were trying to scam her after eating the meat." Wang Jin was still fuming as he recounted what had just happened.

  "It didn't have to come to blows," Ma Xiaotian said.

  "I didn't know that woman was so fierce, I just cursed and said isn't this place a black shop? She beckoned to the several men behind her to rush over, and each one of them had something in their hands. I could only run, but unexpectedly they chased me out. Wang Jin said up to here, covering his lower back with his hand, "Ah, damn it! They really went all out. They almost killed me。I'm telling you, Brother Qu, that woman should be taught a lesson!"

  Qu Mingjun let out a sigh and said, "Forget it, I'll just let them off cheaply. Besides, I've never hit a woman."

  "Wow, don't mention it. Qu Ge, your two kicks were too powerful. That fat guy was kicked out by you in an instant. Teach me, okay?" Wang Jin suddenly became excited.

  Qiu Mingjun glanced at Wang Jiong, curled his lips and said, "Why didn't you study hard when we opened the combat skills class? You still have the nerve to say that, letting a few ordinary people chase and beat us, it's really embarrassing for our reconnaissance department."

  "I... I'm not afraid, it's just that, what if we hurt them? We should at least have some discipline and not clash with the common people." Wang Jin's face turned red as he explained, in fact, the martial arts class had only been open for a short time, and even if Wang Jin practiced diligently, he was still far from being able to hurt anyone.

  "What's with you always getting into fights? Isn't fighting a conflict? Oh, so having discipline means not conflicting with ordinary people? Are you saying that even if someone beats you to the point of bloodshed, you still won't fight back? What kind of ridiculous logic is this?" Qu Mingjun scoffed.

  "Alright, alright. Poor mountains and evil waters produce outlaws, let's just consider ourselves unlucky." Ma Xiao Tian rushed out to mediate, "Besides, Qu Ge taught those two guys a lesson, let's hurry to the second checkpoint."

  Wang Jin grunted a few times and stopped talking.