Chapter 140: Review And Reflection
In Wolf Fang, you can always trust Flying Wolf’s helicopter piloting skills. This guy was an ace pilot in the Army Aviation before coming to Wolf Fang.
Receiving the hint from Gao Zhong Dui, Flying Wolf maneuvered the airplane in the air with several high-difficulty maneuvers.
The sudden change in the fuselage caused Chang Ning and the B Team members in the cabin to tumble around, looking extremely disheveled.
“Damn it, what the hell are you doing, Flying Wolf?”
Chang Ning straightened his crooked hat, his face grim.
If you’re going to show off your skills, at least give a heads-up. Pulling this without warning to make everyone look bad—is that fun?
“What’s with the fuss? Our airplane encountered anti-aircraft interception in this airspace. The pilot quickly maneuvered to evade and saved your lives. That’s perfectly reasonable, right?”
Seeing Gao Zhong Dui smiling kindly at him, Chang Ning would have to be brainless if he still didn’t know what was going on.
“Indeed reasonable.”
Putting away his displeased expression, Chang Ning hugged his gun and leaned against the cabin pretending to sleep.
Since he couldn’t afford to provoke Gao Zhong Dui, then out of sight, out of mind.
Seeing Chang Ning playing ostrich, the others knew there was no good show to watch and showed obvious disappointment. Even someone as bold as Chang Ning didn’t dare to stroke the tiger’s whiskers, so they certainly wouldn’t either.
Gao Zhong Dui was B Team’s direct superior, unlike Chang Ning who was just nominally subordinate as a lone wolf.
If they pissed off Gao Zhong Dui, back at Wolf Fang he could cancel the rest plan and suddenly give them extra training at night—what then?
Having just returned from the mission, everyone was fully focused on getting some good rest.
The cabin fell into long-lost calm. Seeing the team members all obediently closing their eyes and no longer making noise, Gao Zhong Dui and Gray Wolf exchanged a smile, very satisfied with the newcomers’ performance.
Chang Ning didn’t know how long he had slept. When he opened his eyes again, the airplane had already begun hovering on Wolf Fang’s hangar.
Seeing Chang Ning wake up on his own, Gray Wolf instructed him: “Wake up the others. We’ve arrived.”
After everyone was fully awake, the medic sitting by the cabin door pulled it open. The group disembarked in sequence, then formed ranks.
“At ease.”
“Attention.”
“Today’s mission is successfully completed. Go back, shower, and rest. Come to the meeting room tonight for a review together, and don’t forget to write the mission report.”
“Dismissed.”
Hearing they had to write the mission report, Ostrich was the first to cry tired. With someone leading, others naturally followed. Chang Ning went with the flow, calling out a couple times about hardship and fatigue. Reports were something you skipped if possible.
“Don’t want to go back to shower and rest? Well, that’s just fine…”
Gao Zhong Dui was too lazy to explain anything to these guys in front of him. Having led soldiers for nearly ten years, he’d seen all kinds. He knew exactly how to handle newcomers.
“No, no, we’ll go right now.”
Sensing something bad brewing, Geng Jihui was 100% sure that if they didn’t leave soon, they really wouldn’t be able to later. Gao Zhong Dui would drill them until they couldn’t get up.
As soon as he finished speaking, Geng Jihui gave Chang Ning and Lao Pao a look. The three of them teamed up to drag the remaining four away and fled.
“These guys really have vitality!”
Gray Wolf looked at Chang Ning and B Team’s disheveled figures and sighed. Every time he saw these newcomers, he felt like he was getting old. He was only in his thirties, in his prime.
“What? You’re already acting old?”
Gao Zhong Dui knew exactly what his old partner was thinking. This was the most critical time for Wolf Fang Special Forces Detachment—nobody could drop the ball, especially not a grassroots non-commissioned officer like Gray Wolf.
Noticing Gray Wolf’s off mood, Gao Zhong Dui teased him on purpose.
“No way, I can keep going on the front line for at least another ten years!”
Hearing Gao Zhong Dui tease him, Gray Wolf immediately stated his position. He had just been sighing about how fast time passed—absolutely no intention of acting old.
“Good. I haven’t retired yet, so you can’t drop the ball.
Comrade Gray Wolf, who can keep going for another ten years, come with me to see the Captain.”
Some minor accidents happened during the mission. As Wolf Fang’s representative, Gao Zhong Dui had to explain face-to-face to He Da Dui. The written document would be submitted tonight at the meeting along with the team members’ reports.
That evening, He Da Dui drove to the 026 logistics warehouse. Tonight, a seminar and intelligence exchange meeting on the new international crime organization “Satan,” along with a review of this hostage rescue mission, would be held here.
The team members who participated in today’s mission sat upright in their seats. Seeing He Da Dui enter with Gao Zhong Dui and Gray Wolf, Geng Jihui shouted loudly: “Stand up!”
Everyone stood up, the whole process neat and uniform as if rehearsed countless times.
“Sit down, relax.”
He Da Dui smiled and waved, signaling everyone to sit.
As for the superior saying to relax, everyone just heard it—who dared take it seriously?
After everyone sat, He Da Dui slowly spoke: “Overall, I’m satisfied with your performance in this hostage rescue mission. At least no one made mistakes.”
Defining this operation as “no mistakes” was the highest praise for Lone Wolf B Team on their first mission.
Their profession meant they couldn’t afford mistakes, because every error would bet lives against the Grim Reaper—and the Reaper usually had the upper hand.
The leader’s affirmation was certainly something to be happy about, but not a single person in the room, including Chang Ning, showed a joyful smile.
They were waiting for He Da Dui to say a turning phrase. The leader didn’t keep them waiting—the two sides shared perfect tacit understanding at that moment.
“But you wasted too much time during the operation, causing the assault team’s stamina to plummet, leaving your assault team lacking maneuverability in subsequent actions and reducing the margin for error.
Imagine if Chang Ning had missed and failed to kill Gao Sen immediately—only your assault team could have quickly followed up.
Because at that time, the assault team and Chang Ning appeared around Gao Sen simultaneously. If the assault team had been a beat slow due to stamina issues, allowing Gao Sen to harm the hostage, you wouldn’t be sitting here comfortably in a meeting right now!”
He Da Dui’s tone wasn’t heavy when saying this, but the team members listening below had long lost the joy they felt upon returning.
Especially Geng Jihui—his face was extremely grim. He knew most of the issues the Captain mentioned were on him.
The Captain was right; he had indeed been overly cautious.
If he had chosen Chang Ning’s action plan from the start, they wouldn’t have wasted so much time, and the assault team’s stamina wouldn’t have been depleted.
“Report!”
Though the issues the Captain raised were objective, under Xiao Geng’s leadership everyone had perfectly completed the mission. Chang Ning felt it necessary to speak up for Xiao Geng.
He Dui smiled and asked: “Chang Ning, do you have anything to supplement?”
“Captain, Xiao Geng was the commander of this operation. It’s only natural he considered things comprehensively when planning.”
With Chang Ning leading the way to speak for Geng Jihui, others followed suit pleading for him. Especially Xiao Zhuang and Qiang Zi—they outright said that stamina failure during the mission was due to insufficient usual training and had nothing to do with Xiao Geng’s command.
Watching the crowd below anxiously pleading for Geng Jihui one by one, making the scene seem “full of righteous indignation,” He Da Dui in the center of the podium just laughed.
Chang Ning saw it clearly—He Da Dui was indeed laughing. Normally, in such a scene, they would face the leader’s reprimand to cool the heated atmosphere and sober everyone up, teaching them who’s boss.
But now He Da Dui showed no anger at all, and even Gao Zhong Dui, who was usually extremely strict with them, showed no sign of a dark face.
“Chang Ning, sit down first.”
As soon as He Da Dui spoke, the meeting room fell quiet again. He waited until the team members stopped talking before continuing: “I’m not disciplining Geng Jihui—why are you all so worked up? You’re still too young, can’t keep your cool.”
Hearing He Da Dui had no intention of pursuing it, everyone showed embarrassed expressions. Chang Ning also felt his face heat up. Luckily, with daily wind and sun exposure on the training ground, his slightly dark skin hid any blush easily.
“Geng Jihui, do you have anything to say?”
Seeing the Captain call his name, Geng Jihui shot to his feet with a resounding tone: “Regarding this mission, I do have many shortcomings, such as: not decisive enough in formulating the action plan, and not fully understanding my teammates.”
From successfully rescuing the hostage until now, as commander, Geng Jihui had been reflecting on himself and constantly reviewing. In his mind, he simulated what the rescue site’s situation would have been without Chang Ning.
The result was disheartening: without Chang Ning, their choice would have been to find an opportunity on the bandits’ escape route to take them out. Given the bandits’ prior caution, their success probability would be under 50%!
“Having this realization shows you did deep reflection after the mission. That’s commendable.”
He Da Dui approved of Geng Jihui’s approach.
“Not being decisive enough is a common issue for all newcomers—after all, too little experience.
It’ll improve after a few more missions. But I hope you don’t lose this caution from today in future missions.”
“Yes.”
After commenting on Geng Jihui, He Da Dui turned to Chang Ning. If there was a best performer award for this mission, it would undoubtedly go to Chang Ning.
When the mission hit a snag, Chang Ning stepped up with a new action plan, served as vanguard to fire the first shot—fast, accurate, ruthless—taking out Gao Sen to break the deadlock. This ensured the hostage’s life safety and laid the foundation for rescue success.
“Your turn, Chang Ning. Tell us, what made you propose such an aggressive action plan?”
He Da Dui looked at Chang Ning with a smile, giving him a spring-breeze feeling.
“Report. When the plan formed in my mind, I didn’t think too much about it—everything was based on the hostage’s life safety.
We were facing desperate bandits who disregarded life and death. Who could guarantee they wouldn’t harm the hostage the next second?
The hostage was just a five- or six-year-old girl. Every second in the bandits’ hands would impact her physically and mentally. I didn’t want to rescue a child plagued by nightmares.”
After hearing Chang Ning’s account, He Da Dui just nodded for him to continue. First, Chang Ning’s action logic—or starting point—was correct; nothing to criticize.
As for the plan being too risky, that was a false issue. Before execution, it was just a plan with no impact on the action.
Besides, Chang Ning wasn’t the commander—any mistakes fell first on Geng Jihui, while Chang Ning only had suggest rights. The final decision was commander Geng Jihui’s.
Seeing He Da Dui want him to continue, Chang Ning had no choice but to steel himself and spill all his thoughts, good or bad.
“Of course, without conditions to implement the plan, I wouldn’t have voiced it—execution difficulty was quite high.”
At this point, Chang Ning saw the three leaders on the podium all smile in unison. In such situations, whatever the leaders did, he just followed suit. So Chang Ning grinned too.
Of course, the leaders didn’t leave Chang Ning confused. Gray Wolf Ma Da on the right said: “So you knew your plan was risky.”
Stirred up by Chang Ning, the meeting’s atmosphere became even more relaxed. Chang Ning had unconsciously eased the pressure He Da Dui brought.
Leaders were leaders in any setting. Even if He Da Dui tried to seem approachable, the aura forged on the battlefield wasn’t easily concealed.
B Team members didn’t meet the Captain often and couldn’t yet habituate like Gao Zhong Dui and Ma Da, so everyone felt somewhat unaccustomed facing him.
“Continue.”
He Da Dui urged Chang Ning.
“In my view, the plan’s support points boil down to three: timing, terrain, and teamwork.
First, Gao Sen’s gang committed the crime on Chinese soil—they lacked confidence against us; that’s timing. Second, Gao Sen himself broke the fast food restaurant’s display window, providing convenience for the assault team to throw stun grenades inside; that’s terrain. Finally, teamwork is my trust in my marksmanship and tacit understanding with my comrades.”
At this, He Da Dui’s smile faded. Chang Ning was too confident in his marksmanship. He’d reviewed the mission brief beforehand and knew the issues.
Honestly, the marksmanship required in that situation was very high—even an experienced top marksman would hesitate.
But Chang Ning’s impression was of strong marksmanship, changing He Da Dui’s view of him somewhat.
‘Oh no!’
Seeing the Captain’s expression sour, Gao Zhong Dui immediately knew the issue. Without seeing Chang Ning’s latest CQB training scores, he wouldn’t believe Chang Ning could pull it off either—thinking him overconfident.
“Captain, Chang Ning has that strength. Due to the sudden events, I haven’t submitted Chang Ning’s latest training scores yet.”
Gao Zhong Dui leaned close to the Captain and whispered. He couldn’t let the Captain misunderstand Chang Ning.
Hearing Xiao Gao’s explanation, He Da Dui’s expression eased.
“Well said, very thorough summary.”
After signaling Chang Ning to sit, He Da Dui added: “The hostage rescue mission review ends here. Chang Ning and Lone Wolf B Team members, remember to submit your mission reports when you return so I can claim credit for you with the higher-ups.”
Hearing this good news, everyone quickly applauded.
“Now, second agenda item. Please turn your materials to the third-to-last page.”
Following Ma Da’s words, Chang Ning flipped to the page. Seeing the text clearly, he showed an “as expected” expression.
