Chapter 5: Lost

  Peng Sizhe almost got hit by the car, but just as Peng Sizhe dodged to the side, a SWAT officer holding a window breaker rushed to the side of the vehicle and raised the breaker to smash the car's glass!

  The SWAT team's window breaker was not the small one commonly equipped on ordinary police cars, but a large axe similar to a fire axe. With one swing, the car window glass shattered and Commander Gao rushed over, sticking his gun into the window and yelling at the people inside: "Turn off the engine! Get out of the car!"

  As the special police took strong measures, the people in the pickup truck panicked. The driver pushed open the door and tried to run, but Cheng Te Li blocked his way, causing the driver's legs to weaken and fall to the ground. A special police officer stepped forward to control the driver. Of the two people in the car, one was already pale with fear and didn't dare get out of the car, while the other tried to escape from the back of the car. Commander Gao saw this and ran around to the back of the car to chase after him, with Peng Si Zhe hurrying over to provide support.

  "Halt!" Captain Gao saw that he wanted to run into the traffic flow, fearing accidental injury to the crowd, and did not dare to open fire, so he could only shout.

  The other party didn't listen, Peng Sizhe rushed up and shouted at the top of his lungs: "Halt! If you run again, I'll shoot!"

  The crowd that had gathered to watch the scene dispersed in an uproar as the sound of gunfire intimidated the opponent, causing him to stumble and fall. Commander Gao rushed up to him, just as he was about to get back on his feet, but before he could do so, Commander Gao kicked him down again from behind. Then, sitting on his back, he twisted his arms around and pinned them behind him. Peng Siche hurried over, put the gun on safety and tucked it into his waistband, pulled out a pair of handcuffs, and together with Commander Gao, they subdued him and dragged him away. By this time, the two remaining people in the pickup truck had also been brought under control.

  Several SWAT officers inspected the pickup truck. Cheng Te-li took people into a transport vehicle for an emergency interrogation. However, no matter how Cheng Te-li asked questions, the other party remained silent.

  "Head, found something." Commander Gao knocked on the door of the transport vehicle, his voice didn't sound optimistic.

  Cheng Te-li opened the rear door of the transport vehicle and saw him carrying two snakeskin bags. He asked: "What is it?"

  The commander tossed the snakeskin bag onto the floor of the transport vehicle, opened it up for Cheng Te-li to see, and said gruffly: "Here's the thing..."

  Inside the snakeskin bag was a dead half-grown wild boar, already stiffened, and inside another snakeskin bag were two homemade fire guns, it's clear that this wasn't what he wanted to catch!

  "We're just going up the mountain to hunt...do we need so many people to catch us?" someone whispered.

  Cheng Teli was furious, throwing the snakeskin bag to the ground: "Take it away!" Commander Gao took away the snakeskin bag. Cheng Teli turned around and fiercely said to the three villagers: "Illegal possession of firearms, poaching, assaulting a police officer! I think you'll be sitting in prison for a long time!"

  The villagers were temporarily detained, and it wasn't up to Cheng Teli to decide whether they could leave or not. He had only spoken out of anger, but the necessary checks still had to be carried out. However, after this incident, the drivers of the cars behind became much more obedient, and the traffic slowly began to move again. By around 10 pm, most of the cars had passed the inspection, and traffic was starting to return to normal. It was only then that Cheng Teli remembered that he hadn't eaten or drunk anything since lunchtime! The local police station had also been unprepared, thinking it was just a temporary inspection that would be over soon, and hadn't even considered the possibility of a nighttime check. This had left the special police officers exhausted! But although they were angry, they couldn't just beat up the police officers at the station, could they? Cheng Teli had to think of another solution.

  The logistics support after the special police operation is usually quite strong, but this time it was a hasty departure, and apart from the compressed biscuits and self-heating food on the transport vehicle, there really wasn't any other food. Since we are not far from Jinju Town, no one wants to eat that soap-like compressed dry ration, and everyone expressed their desire to have boxed meals instead.

  Eating boxed meals is no problem, a few kilometers away is the night market of Jinju Town. Cheng Te Li saw that there were fewer and fewer vehicles, and the pressure to check was not great either. He planned to let a local police officer lead the way to buy some midnight snacks to reward everyone, but after touching his pocket, he found that when he set out, he had changed into training clothes, and there was no money on him...

  Cheng Telu was a bit embarrassed, the police from the station were waiting, and as soon as Commander Gao heard there was food, he volunteered to go with the car to buy some. He took off his bulletproof vest and ran to Cheng Telu's side, jumping up and down: "Boss, give me money! I'm starving!"

  Cheng Teli is now the highest commander here, and he is responsible for eating, drinking, pulling and farting. According to convention, he has to pay first and then reimburse later, but Cheng Teli really doesn't have money now. He stared at Gao Commander with wide eyes: "No money!"

  "What's the joke, Captain? Hurry up, I'm starving, everyone is starving!" Commander Gao thought that Cheng Deli was playing a prank on him.

  "I really don't have money, I just came out to change clothes..." Cheng Te Li was very embarrassed.

  "What the...?!" Commander Gao's eyes widened bigger than a copper bell. Was he supposed to go hungry for another night?!

  "Ask others, I'll just borrow it first." Cheng Te Li also had no way out, he wasn't Sun Wukong who could conjure up RMB.

  "Does Peng Siche have any money?" Commander Gao asked Peng Siche beside him.

  "I... just lost to you." Peng Sizhe said slowly while opening a compressed biscuit.

  As soon as he saw the compressed biscuits, his stomach cramped up. He was most afraid of eating this thing. He turned his head to look at Qin Xiaoyu, and Qin Xiaoyu patted her pocket: "I don't have any either..."

  "Who has money, who has money, take it out quickly." Commander Gao was anxious. But the special police searched their pockets and couldn't find a single penny.

  It's really a rich man, a poor man is difficult. Commander Gao looked at Cheng Te Li with an air of "you go borrow for me".

  He'd rather let Chengte Li go and borrow money from the local police station, but he couldn't bear to lose face like that. The other special police officers looked at each other, knowing they wouldn't be able to eat dinner tonight, and reluctantly picked up the compressed biscuits.

  "What's wrong with you all......" Commander Gao was very depressed.

  "Ah! Gaoling, I just lost 300 yuan to you with Peng Sizhe, that's enough for our midnight snack." Qin Xiaoyu suddenly remembered this.

  "That's my money! Damn it! You guys think what?" As soon as they heard that Commander Gao had money on him, the special police officers cast their eyes on him, as if they wanted to devour him.

  "Damn it, you little brat! You have the money but don't take it out! And yet you ask me for it?!" Cheng Te Li's earlier embarrassment was swept away, and he shouted at Commander Gao with a clear conscience.

  "Come on... you guys talk about reason... this is what I've worked hard for..."

  "Alright, alright, don't be stingy, is eating a chicken leg that hard? Hurry up, this is the most extravagant you'll get, if you don't treat us, heaven and earth will not tolerate it!" Qin Xiaoyu put the compressed ration back into his pocket, the other special police officers looked at each other, and put away the opened and unopened compressed rations, with a "Commander Gao, if you don't treat us, we'll all starve to death here" expression.

  "Alright, alright, consider it my treat...". Commander Gao really couldn't take their gaze anymore, and took out the money he had just put in his pocket a few hours ago: "That's all I have, spare me some..."

  It's true, but more than a dozen SWAT team members were hungry for half a day, 300 yuan was not enough. The prices of things in the night market were obviously higher than during the day, and Commander Gao felt heartbroken when he saw the prices. --- In the SWAT team, one or two big men had super large appetites, and after being hungry for half a day, even with an average of 30 yuan per person for dinner, Commander Gao couldn't make ends meet. He and the police officer from the police station went to the night market to find some cheap things to fill their stomachs, but they still overspent, so Commander Gao had to borrow 100 yuan from the police officer with a thick face...

  Seeing the food arrive, the special police rushed over and divided it up like hungry wolves, without any gentlemanly demeanor. Commander Gao held two pancakes with a mournful face, reminiscing about the 300 RMB that had passed away...

  Special police set up checkpoints to search for vehicles, and the armed police force responsible for searching the mountainous area found the site of the exchange of fire under the leadership of villagers, but the other party had already left. Under the roadbed was that off-road vehicle which had been burned into an iron shell, and it is estimated that the two policemen were in a precarious situation.

  The armed police are searching the mountains with a dragnet, and checkpoints have also been set up outside the mountains. However, everyone knows that so much time has passed, and the criminals are likely to have escaped without a trace. The top priority now is to find Lao Wei and Xiao Bin, whether they are dead or alive!

  After Xiao Bin crawled out of the canyon, he was in a primitive jungle. Anxious, he walked with one foot deep and one foot shallow, trying to find a direction, thinking that as long as he found a road, he could follow the mountain road down to seek help. However, on this dark night, Xiao Bin got lost in the dense forest, not knowing which direction to go or where he was. He tried several times to climb to the top of the mountain to find a cell phone signal, but even after his phone ran out of power, he still couldn't find any signal. Xiao Bin had no food or water on him, and anxiety drove him to rush forward in the dark without regard for anything. But by the second half of the night, Xiao Bin still hadn't found the right direction. The sky was full of clouds, and the moon was hidden somewhere. A few unknown stars twinkled in the clouds, and a strong north wind blew through the forest, making a rustling sound. Xiao Bin's physical strength had been severely depleted, but he continued to move forward, relying on his will to seek help.

  Xiao Bin perked up his ears, trying to catch any suspicious sounds, but except for the wind, Xiao Bin only heard his own heavy breathing. He strained his eyes wide open, attempting to find a hint of human presence in the darkness, even just a hunter's trail or a distant light, but the darkness responded with silence. He tried to use the constellations to get his bearings, but the cloud cover blocked out this last hope, leaving only a few faint, unknown stars twinkling mockingly at him.

  Xiao Bin had no training in wilderness survival, nor did he have any training in wilderness orientation. He was now in a precarious situation, walking at night without a light source, and in unfamiliar wilderness, but he didn't know that. All he wanted to do was walk out as quickly as possible, find reinforcements, and hope for a miracle - that Old Wei would still be alive when the reinforcements arrived.

  Xiao Bin walked in the dark, and suddenly found a white thing in front of him. At this time, anything slightly different could excite Xiao Bin, he didn't care about the pain in his feet, and ran quickly to get closer, but it was just a dead tree with its bark peeled off, which couldn't provide any help to Xiao Bin, such trees were common in the forest, Xiao Bin would carve marks on the dead trees he passed by to prevent getting lost.

  Xiao Bin lit the lighter and picked up a sharp stone, intending to carve a mark on the tree. However, as he approached the flame, he suddenly sat down on the ground and burst into loud sobs - there were artificial marks on the trunk of the tree, and those marks were exactly what Xiao Bin had carved earlier. Xiao Bin realized that he was indeed lost, and all his efforts, adventures, and hardships were shattered by this small mark...

  Xiao Bin hated himself for not stopping Lao Wei at the time, hated himself for being so nervous during the fight, hated himself for getting lost, and hated himself for abandoning Lao Wei and running away...

  I am the only hope for Lao Wei, but I've lost my way and become so disappointing. The longer time drags on, the slimmer Lao Wei's chances of survival become. People are like this, even though they already know the outcome, they still expect a miracle to happen. But at this moment, Xiao Bin has given up all hope. I should have stayed with Lao Wei and defended the valley together, and died there with him - that would be better than now!

  Xiao Bin tried to recall which dead tree he had passed, in his impression, he had made 6 marks, but now he couldn't remember which one it was. He lit the lighter again and carefully identified the marks on the trunk, but still couldn't remember. The wind whizzed past his ears, making a sound like laughter, as if mocking him. After a while, the wind stopped, and the dark forest fell into an eerie silence again. Xiao Bin's ears picked up the faint sound of running water nearby.

  Xiao Bin plucked up his courage, although he had not received any wilderness survival training. However, he knew that where there was running water, there was a path to life. Following the flow of water would allow him to leave the mountainous area. He extinguished his lighter, perked up his ears and tracked the intermittent sound of running water.

  But the wind played a trick again, cutting off Xiao Bin's last connection with the water flow. Xiao Bin made an effort to judge the direction of the flowing water and felt his way in the dark, taking deep and shallow steps to search for that last thread of hope...

  The wind seemed to be very dissatisfied with Xiao Bin's persistence, the cloud layer it brought from the north grew thicker and thicker, the wind grew stronger and stronger, the treetops shook violently under the wind's ravages, the tree trunks also seemed unable to withstand the wind's devastation, creaking and groaning as if begging for mercy from the strong wind. Xiao Bin could no longer hear the sound of the water flow, he followed the direction of the slope, guessing the direction of the water flow and heading down, perhaps quickly, perhaps going wrong, but he had no right to choose, he could only find the water flow.

  The wind seemed to be tired and needed a rest, the trees stopped their mournful sighs, Xiao Bin perked up his ears and clearly heard the sound of "gurgling" water. This sound was a thousand times more pleasant than any beautiful music! Not far away, just tens of meters ahead! Xiao Bin quickened his pace, the sound of the water grew louder, Xiao Bin's mouth was dry and parched, finding water meant finding hope for survival!

  Xiao Bin stumbled and staggered towards the creek, suddenly his foot slipped, his aching leg couldn't support his weight, he instinctively reached out to grab a nearby vine, but in the darkness, he grabbed nothing. Before Xiao Bin could react, he felt like his body had lost its weight, everything around him seemed to have frozen in that instant, and Xiao Bin fell heavily downwards...