Shen Jingwei and his group were laying an ambush on a steep slope. What is a steep slope? On a snowy plain, steep slopes are places that can kill. The accumulated snow there is thicker than elsewhere and has poorer cohesion. It’s similar to an avalanche on a mountain. A little external force, like loud footsteps or a falling bird on the slope, could cause the snow to slide down. The volume of snow in such places can reach hundreds of cubic meters. If it falls, it could flatten a regular POLO sedan.
No one would be foolish enough to ambush here. Not even the army, it’s just an exercise, no need to risk lives. But unexpectedly, Shen Jingwei and the other two rookies hid here.
Descending a ten-meter high snowy slope was like being a sitting duck; Shen Jingwei wasn’t foolish. He walked along the ridge to the other side of the Red Army’s headquarters, where supply vehicles were passing by, and also the main entrance of the base. Walking here was the safest yet most dangerous route.
Soon, from the other side of the slope, two supply vehicles arrived. Shen Jingwei was secretly surprised; the exercise was almost over, why were they still transporting so much supply here? Thoughts aside, Shen Jingwei didn’t hesitate; he rolled under the transport vehicle and grabbed the crossbeam, his nose filled with the smell of diesel and his face hit by splashing snowflakes. He simply closed his eyes and let the transport vehicle take him wherever.
Shen Jingwei kept track of the time in his mind. When he counted to two thousand eight hundred sixty-four, the vehicle stopped. He opened his eyes and saw a neat arrangement of gas barrels. It looked was the Red Army’s fuel depot. But he thought it had been destroyed earlier; how could there still be more here? The Red Army broke the rules! That was Shen Jingwei’s first thought.
A sense of being played washed over him, and Shen Jingwei’s stubborn heart was stirred once again.
As a few people talked, several pairs of legs appeared behind the vehicle, unloading various boxes. Shen Jingwei glanced at them and saw "CM" sprayed in green paint, marking them as military goods.
While moving things, it was also a time for rest and chat. The soldiers started talking.
"Those two from the Blue Army, still causing trouble till now? In my opinion, air-drop and a carpet-style search could settle it immediately. No need to drag it out here."
"Heh, you don’t understand."
"What do you mean? Sounds like you know the inside story."
Another soldier, evidently proud, said, "Everyone knows but you. The people from the Blue Army this time are being selected to enter the national department. This exercise was supposed to be routine, but it got messed up by these three guys. The parts that were rehearsed beforehand also got completely disrupted, so they just had to improvise."
"So you mean they’re using the whole latter half of the exercise to train them?"
"Train them my ass! You think a few soldiers can take on an army alone? Dream on. It’s just a lesson for them to take it easy."
"Not much stuff, right? Still talking about the day before yesterday."
The few soldiers simultaneously put down their stuff and their feet came together, adopting the standard salute posture.
"Alright, hurry up and move the goods."
A flurry of hurried footsteps echoed in the warehouse.
Shen Jingwei’s fingers clung tightly to the vehicle’s crossbeam until everyone had left, then he let go and walked out from under the vehicle.
"Brother, is everything moved?"
There’s someone else!
Shen Jingwei panicked for a moment; he had waited under the vehicle for nearly a minute before coming out, and except for the oil barrels and some wooden boxes, there was no one in the whole warehouse. How could there still be someone talking?
"Brother? Is everything moved?"
Shen Jingwei turned around and breathed a sigh of relief. It was the driver sitting in the vehicle, peering toward Ye Tian through the window.
"If it’s all moved, I still have other stuff to transport. Oh, by the way, where are those discarded oil barrels you all mentioned last time? I forgot."
Shen Jingwei smiled and said, "Let’s go, brother. I’ll take you there, it’s on my way."
The driver looked at him and paused before beckoning, "Alright then, come on up. There’s heating in the vehicle; warm yourself up."
Shen Jingwei was thanking him while grinning and climbing into the vehicle.
"Here, brother, have a cigarette."
Shen Jingwei didn’t shy away from accepting the cigarette, and then pointed ahead saying, "Just go straight, yes, then turn right, the barrels are up ahead, temporarily placed there."
The driver turned his head to look at him, his hard stubble clearly visible on his chin and sides, his face plump like a melon. In the army, people with this face shape were either cooks or drivers; obviously, this man was the latter.
"Kid, a rookie, huh?"
"Looking at your clothes, a combatant? Not simple. I have served for ten years and can count on one hand how many times I’ve handled a gun, and damn it, they were guns without bullets. At the shooting range, damn it! Ten shots scored twenty points, averaging two points per target. Heh, embarrassing isn’t it! I got angry, felt like it wasn’t a way to continue here, knew it would be , I wouldn’t have joined the army at all. I just couldn’t sleep, night after night unable to sleep, my comrades said I liked to get up in the middle of the night and sleepwalk, taking a broken broom to practice aiming on the ground, heh, sounds dumb, right?"
Shen Jingwei smiled and remained silent.
"Later, our platoon leader came to me, asking, Melon-head, still want to stay in the army? I said I wanted to, otherwise why would I sleepwalk? Our platoon leader then said, can we not shoot? I said that’s not possible, my grandfather was part of the Eighth Route Army, my dad fought in the Vietnam War, how could I not handle a gun?"
"So how did you end up driving then?"
"Our platoon leader said, a soldier who can’t drive is not a good soldier. I fucking believed that, then started fixing cars, driving at night, starting..."
The driver stopped talking in mid-sentence, stretched his neck to look around, his voice uncertain, "This is the headquarters, right? How did we end up here?"
Shen Jingwei chopped his hand down on his neck, and Melon-head collapsed onto the steering wheel, and a pair of newbie hands took hold of the square steering wheel.
Don’t worry, old squad leader, I won’t wreck your vehicle.