Time evaporated slowly like water on a heated pot.
The twenty-odd square feet room held twelve captives. It wasn’t particularly crowded, but the narrow space was suffocating.
The sound of a dagger scraping against the hemp rope hissed through the air, which was thick with restless tension.
During this time, Zheng Caisheng had come in once. Everyone smartly kept their hands behind their backs, not making a sound. He had simply swept them with a glance and then left again.
The dagger made its rounds, with Qing Luo being the last one to have her ropes cut.
As Qing Luo freed her hands, everyone breathed a sigh of relief and their expressions grew more focused as they looked towards Song Lili, waiting for her instructions.
And Song Lili was waiting...
After her hands were released, she immediately stuffed the wireless communication earpiece into her ears and could clearly hear the response from the remaining three people in Liu Fan’s team.
She repeated the same string of Morse code which one of the soldiers understood.
Moreover, Song Lili had pretty much determined from the location reported by the soldier and from the tone of his voice that they had not yet discovered Liu Fan and Camel hiding in the cavern by the mountain stream.
"When are we going to wait until?"
Qing Luo asked quietly, echoing the question on everyone’s minds.
Song Lili simply closed her eyes and listened to the messages coming from the wireless communication device, then opened her eyes and glanced at her watch.
It was one-thirty in the afternoon.
Of the eighty people who had joined the selection, along with Luo Shengnan, three had dropped out due to injuries and physical conditions. Adding them to the twelve of them, thirty-six captives had already been taken. If the soldier’s intel was correct, and one ambush team was targeting two groups of people...
At this rate, they might be reduced to single digits before nightfall.
The smugness of the ambush soldiers and their disdain for the new recruits were evident from the communication device.
Listening to this, Song Lili couldn’t help feeling a lump of frustration in her chest.
While these veteran soldiers were arranged to ambush them, the five ambush teams were also competing against each other as if the team that "slaughtered" the most rabbits would gain the most face!
This wasn’t just information from what Liu Fan had said, but also a desire that shone through Zheng Caisheng’s intense gaze.
Half their chance relied on this critical relationship point with the enemy.
It was coming soon...
When the hour hand pointed precisely at two, the report from the soldier came through the communication device,
"Captain Liu, we’re in position. Where are you and Camel being held?"
Song Lili immediately responded with Morse code.
It wasn’t long before there was noise coming from the roof.
— There’s only one ventilator on the wall, you can’t get in. Just throw in the weapons.
Following that, everyone in the room heard noises from the direction of the ventilator. After a few rusted screws were removed, the window frame was taken down, and at that moment, Song Lili saw the soldier hanging upside down behind the ventilator.
Covered in dust, his small eyes were bright and spirited. His dark eyes swiftly scanned the room, but the row of people along the wall where the ventilator was situated remained out of the soldier’s line of sight.
— Throw it down, I can see you.
Song Lili put the wireless communication device behind her and tapped out another string of code.
The young soldier hesitated,
"Captain Liu, there are so many people here. If I throw all the weapons down, won’t these new recruits snatch them away?"
— They’re all tied up! Hurry up, later you guys outside will cover us, take down Zheng Caisheng and his team, and all the captives here will be ours.