Chapter Thirty-Seven: Secret Base

  Tang Qiulei told everyone about the situation he and Shantou encountered, and after a simple discussion, they decided to wait until dawn to see what it was. After the matter was settled, it was already very late, and after a battle with those devils, everyone felt very tired, and one by one, they rested.

  This night, Tang Qiuli was destined to be sleepless, too many thoughts and urgent problems to be solved made him unable to fall asleep.

  Although I'm exhausted to death, my brain is still in an excited state. The recent events have been replaying in my mind like a movie, and I feel that I've thought some things through too simply, just like today's situation, which is very dangerous. It seems that before pulling the team together, we must have a period of high-intensity training, especially tactical movements and live-fire shooting, or else this team will become the enemy's living target. But where can we find a place to accommodate dozens of people without letting the devils and traitors sniff out even a hint of our presence?

  Looking at the girl lying beside him, sleeping peacefully, with a sweet smile on her face in her dreams, Tang Qiuli couldn't help but feel a surge of affection in his heart. He reached out to gently stroke her shiny black hair and carefully examined the face that had long been etched in his mind. Perhaps feeling her lover's caress, the girl leaned even closer into Tang Qiuli's embrace, and he smiled silently in the darkness.

  The wind and snow outside were still raging wildly, while in another tent came the faint sound of snoring. Autumn's brother and the others had already fallen asleep, after all they were just eighteen or nineteen years old, and having experienced a thrilling life-or-death battle tonight, it was only natural that they would feel physically and mentally exhausted. The bonfire had dimmed somewhat, and in the darkness, Tang Qiuli's eyes shone like bright stars. If Little Ling woke up at this moment, she would be surprised to find that after just one night, on Tang Qiuli's still youthful face, there was a hint of maturity and determination.

  With countless thoughts, the warm breath of the girl beside him infected Tang Qiuli, and he gradually entered a daze.

  After an unknown period of time, Tang Qiuli felt emptiness around her, startling in her heart, and suddenly woke up from a daze, smelling the fragrance of food.

  Autumn brother and the others have gotten up, busy packing things, Xiaoling is busy by the fire pit preparing breakfast for everyone. Seeing Tang Qiuli walking over, she smiled sweetly at him. It seems that this little girl slept very well last night, her face was rosy and radiant, even more charming. Tang Qiuli looked at Xiaoling with a happy expression, his mood greatly improved, last night's worries and troubles seemed to have vanished. He greeted Autumn brother and the others, then took big strides out of the cave.

  The wind and snow have completely stopped, the violent blizzard that had raged for three days and nights seemed to have exhausted all its energy, and finally calmed down. The sun has risen, casting a warm glow over the endless snowy landscape. The ancient land of Kwantung, at this moment, is like a kind and quiet old man, silently savoring the passing of time, as if the three days of violence had nothing to do with him. My hometown in Kwantung, I love you and respect you!

  This ordinary Kanto morning, however, made Tang Qiuli feel particularly invigorated in her heart, with a different feeling, perhaps due to the contrast with last night's excessive heaviness. Taking a breath of the clean and refreshing air after the snow, gazing at the distant mountains and nearby forests covered in white snow like sculptures, the sunlight entering her eyes, body, and heart was like a warm current, cleansing every corner of her heart, and also like a lover's caress, touching that sensitive spot on her heart. Ah, who wouldn't cherish this moment of tranquility after experiencing three days and nights of fierce winds and heavy snow?

  He rolled around in the snow, and the earth wrapped him in soft white snow. He scooped up a handful of pure white snowflakes and applied them to his burning cheeks. A surge of vitality filled Tang Qiuli's heart, and he rushed into the cave, shouting loudly: "It's stopped! The snow has stopped!" The people inside the cave looked at him with strange eyes, knowing that the snow had stopped, but why was he making such a big fuss? You're not seeing snow for the first time, are you? Why are you so excited? Did you think you'd made some major discovery or something?!

  The mountain tigers and others glanced at Tang Qiuli a few times, lowered their heads without any expression, and busied themselves with the work in their hands. Tang Qiuli himself also felt a bit awkward. Xiaoling called everyone to eat, it's okay, this pot is quite sturdy, last night's big impact didn't leak, what a miracle!

  After finishing dinner, they brought everything with them and several people crawled into the cave from yesterday. Under the light of the torches, several people followed the path that Tang Qiu and Shan Hu had taken, and soon arrived at the stone seams discovered last night.

  Everyone gathered around to observe carefully, outside the fog was thick and nothing could be seen clearly, but it felt warmer inside the cave, even wearing cotton-padded clothes made them feel hot. What place is opposite?

  Even with a gap in the stone, it's still impassable. The gap is quite wide, but people can't pass through, not even someone as slender as Xiaoling. What to do?

  Some people say that sometimes, those with simple ideas have higher efficiency in getting things done because they don't have all those messy thoughts and can solve problems more easily. Look, Shan Hu has come up with a plan - what plan? The usual approach: use hand grenades to blast open the rock crevices, just like opening a hole, and he even cited last night's example.

  Everyone listened and thought, yeah, this is absolutely a good idea, how come we didn't think of it? The tiger is really great, several people praised the mountain tiger, and the mountain tiger laughed with a big smile, and also volunteered to take on the blasting task.

  Others are busy holding you down, okay, okay, last night that one time, almost took our lives away, if we let you operate again, who knows what earth-shattering things you'll do? For the safety of Hu Zi and others, get out!

  The mountain tiger was muttering to itself, looking like that, didn't get the job, and wasn't very satisfied. This idea was thought of by me, why can't I do it? Oh heavens, how big a nerve is that, just stay over there!

  Finally, Tang Qiuli took the initiative to take care of the remaining seven hand grenades. He chose a thinner seam in the rock and carefully arranged them, using a long rope to tie the detonation strings together. Everyone retreated backwards until they reached a bend, having learned from last night's experience with the shockwave. No one dared to try again this time!

  Tang Qiuli saw that everyone was hiding well, and with a sudden pull of the rope, there was a loud "rumbling" sound. The ground under their feet shook violently, and broken stones flew everywhere, hitting the walls with a loud crashing sound. This momentum was not as small as last night's. After a while, the broken stones stopped flying, the smoke dispersed, and several people rushed over to see a huge cave entrance appear before their eyes, large enough for two people to walk through shoulder to shoulder. Shan Hu was the first to rush through the cave entrance, followed by everyone else, who came to the originally misty and mysterious place that had been out of reach!

  Everyone stood there in shock, what kind of place is this? It's also too far beyond human imagination, right? Didn't expect to come to such a place?

  Tang Qiuli's first reaction was, "Crossed over again? Could this be the legendary immortal realm?"

  Presented before everyone's eyes is a vast mountain valley, with a large lake quietly lying in the nearby mountains. At this time, the high-rising sunlight dispersed the layer of fog that originally shrouded the surface of the lake, and the mysterious lake, which had been sleeping deep in the mountains for who knows how many years, revealed its true face!

  The lake is roughly elliptical, with a diameter of about 400-500 meters. The calm and serene blue water surface is like a mirror, surrounded by dense aquatic plants growing along the lake's edge. In this harsh season in Kanto region, it shows vigorous vitality, and there are also some unknown wildflowers dotted among them. Upon closer inspection, there are also many fish swimming leisurely in the water.

  A few people stood by the lake, and suddenly felt like it was early summer. They found that their woolen clothes could no longer be worn, and they were so hot that they couldn't bear it, so they all took off their woolen clothes.

  It wasn't until then that a few people woke up from the dream-like feeling they had just experienced, recovered from their initial shock and found themselves not in some fairyland but standing firmly on solid ground, living in reality, only everything here seemed too strange, giving one an unreal feeling!

  A few people continued to walk along the lake, suddenly coming from the icy coldness of the snowy sky to this wonderfully warm place like early summer. Above their heads was a bright red sun, they took off their thick down jackets, and several young hearts couldn't help but fly high. They jumped, laughed, ran and rolled on the fluffy green grass, fully enjoying the rare warmth in the severe winter.

  Tang Qiuli's childlike heart suddenly arose, and he picked many bright flowers from the grass, weaving them into a beautiful flower garland. Without saying a word, he put it on Xiaoling's head. The beautiful flower garland, her black long hair, and lovely face made Xiaoling look like a fairy standing between the green grass and blue sky. Tang Qiuli and the others were all stunned, wondering if they had seen a celestial maiden descend from the ninth heaven. Seeing their silly appearance, Xiaoling smiled slightly. This smile was not trivial, as Tang Qiuli's heart suddenly started racing violently, and he suddenly thought of those few lines of poetry he admired: "In the north, there is a beauty, one glance can topple a city, another glance can topple a nation! Alas, I do not know about toppling cities and nations, but it is hard to find such a beauty again!" Many years later, Tang Qiuli still wondered why he thought of those lines of poetry at that moment. Perhaps in the depths of his heart, it was a sign of fate, making him suffer for a lifetime.

  As they saw Tang Qiuli and Xiaoling gazing at each other, Qiu Sheng led the three of them to quietly walk away into the distance, leaving this corner of the world to the young lovers.

  Tang Qiu suddenly had a strong impulse and fear.

  He tightly hugged Xiaoling's plump body, as if afraid she would suddenly disappear like a light mist in the morning sun. In the darkness of night, they slept embracing each other, but when dawn broke, he was gone, leaving only an empty pillow. He had never felt such deep-seated fear before, and it made his whole body tremble. Xiaoling felt something unusual in Tang Qiuli's arms and looked up at him with a puzzled expression. Tang Qiuli held Xiaoling for a long time, as if trying to merge her into his own body, almost suffocating her. Xiaoling weakly leaned against Tang Qiuli's chest, listening to the loud beating of his heart, which was stirred by her presence. A sense of pride rose in Xiaoling's heart, a small but proud feeling that only a girl could have.

  After a long while, Tang Qiuli finally calmed down and loosened his iron-like arms, giving Xiaoling an apologetic smile. Xiaoling playfully hit him, "You rascal, you almost choked me to death! You're going to break my neck!" Tang Qiuli didn't say anything, but instead pulled Xiaoling's hand and started running on the grassland.

  The farther they walked, the more astonished they felt. Along the way, they saw many tall fruit trees laden with fruit. Tang Qiuli picked a few and they tasted extremely good.

  The two of them caught up with Mountain Tiger, and the three of them continued to move forward, searching ahead. They saw Xiaoling's rosy cheeks and her eyes curved like a crescent moon as she smiled. The three of them couldn't help but exchange sly glances and burst out laughing in an unnatural way.

  All the way, I found a very useful place near the foot of the mountain. There are many spacious and dry caves that are suitable for living and storing things. There are also several holes that are simply natural targets. Inside the cave, there are small holes, just like someone deliberately dug them out. The cave can accommodate 200-300 people without any problem. In one of the caves, I even found a waterfall with a large drop in water level. Installing a hydroelectric generator here would be no problem!

  It's great, Tang Qiuli is almost crazy with happiness, where can I find such a good place?

  Stationing troops and training are not a problem, the most important thing is that here the four seasons are like spring, along the lake can be opened up to 400-500 acres of land, at least one year two harvests or three harvests, the logistics problem is solved, no need to bother going outside to get food. What did Journey to the West say? "Flower and Fruit Mountain blessed place, Water Curtain Cave heavenly world!" This is my Tang Qiulü's blessed place heavenly world! It was chosen here as the secret base of the Blood Hand Gang!

  They stayed here for a day and discovered three secret exits, all leading down the mountain. The entrances were hidden and easy to defend, with many forks in the road that could easily get people lost. What a great natural defense fortress, an excellent place to station troops! Everyone was excited and cheered at finding such a good spot.

  The second day after the snowstorm stopped, Tang Qiu decided to leave and hurry back to gather his troops and bring them here for training, so as to quickly form a combat force!

  Cover the original cave entrance, a few people broke out of the newly discovered entrance, carefully erased the traces, and came to a mountain on the opposite side. Looking far away, that secret base was just like an ordinary mountain peak here, not showing any unusual signs at all, it's really hidden. They seriously remembered the landmark, this is not a joke, if they come again and can't find it, it would be a big deal! A few people might as well dig a snow pit and bury themselves!

  Everything is ready, and they have got their direction home. Several people, like swallows flying out of their nest, are rushing towards the warm home they have been missing for several days, leaving behind two parallel tracks in the snow.

  A new page is about to be turned!

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