Chapter 306: About To Depart
As for the others, Chang Ning didn’t consider them at all.
Due to Group B’s positioning, theoretically only He Da Dui and Gao Zhong Dui could contact them.
A certain Commander Fan looked at the Lone Wolf Special Assault Team with envy to tears; he also wanted to build such a team.
Of course, the premise was that with his security clearance, he could know of the Lone Wolf Special Assault Team’s existence.
While Chang Ning was racking his brains guessing why He Da Dui was looking for him or what mission he was going to be sent on, Gao Zhong Dui brought Chang Ning to the front of a tightly closed meeting room.
“Go in by yourself.”
Standing at the entrance, Gao Zhong Dui clearly had no intention of going in with Chang Ning, so upon seeing this, Chang Ning had no choice but to place his hand on the doorknob and push hard.
He wanted to see what ghosts and monsters were inside, making it so mysterious.
Chang Ning pushed the door open and was somewhat surprised to see the person sitting inside; it was someone unexpected.
He didn’t see any ghosts and monsters, but instead saw Miao Lian, whom he hadn’t seen for a long time.
If it was Miao Lian, everything made sense.
Not to mention that he had personally sent both him and Xiao Zhuang into Wolf Fang, Miao Lian himself had worked in Wolf Fang’s predecessor and was familiar with most of the military commanders here, and it was possible he had even participated in building the Lone Wolf Special Assault Team, so it was only natural that He Da Dui agreed to Miao Lian borrowing Group B.
Moreover, the Lone Wolf Special Assault Team had just recently completed the “Jungle Wolf” operation, and since He Da Dui could let them cooperate with the Provincial Department, there was no reason not to cooperate with the provincial anti-drug squadron.
Seeing Miao Lian and combining it with the intelligence he had, Chang Ning already had a clear idea of his upcoming mission.
Chang Ning pretended to be very surprised and happy to see his old company commander and hurriedly stepped forward, saying: “Miao Lian! How did you get here? I thought Gao Zhong Dui was taking me to see someone, making it all mysterious and making me nervously guess.”
“It’s clearly because your mental fortitude isn’t up to par, how come you’re blaming me instead?
I think you’re about to turn the world upside down, do you think that since I transferred out of service, I can’t discipline you anymore?”
Miao Lian laughed and scolded, not angry at all about Chang Ning’s complaints.
He looked at Chang Ning, dressed in Jungle Hunter Camouflage, his eyes full of gratification, as well as a trace of regret and unwillingness deep in his eyes.
If he hadn’t been injured and didn’t meet Wolf Fang’s standards, he should now be training rookies in Wolf Fang or serving as a staff officer for Old He.
These thoughts didn’t affect Miao Lian’s work; after joking with Chang Ning for a bit, he said seriously: “Do you still remember what we talked about when you were in the hospital?”
“Of course I remember; my memory has always been good.”
Knowing they were getting to business, Chang Ning instantly switched expressions, the playful look on his face disappearing completely, now all serious.
“Good that you remember; now is the time for you to help.
For this matter, I shamelessly asked Old He to borrow you, luckily Old He still recognizes me as an old comrade.”
Listening to Miao Lian ramble on about the process of borrowing him, although Chang Ning’s face showed no inappropriate expressions throughout, in his heart he was full of complaints.
‘I know you have a good relationship with He Da Dui, but is this something I can hear?
Can’t you keep the matter of trading favors and going through the back door from this junior? Knowing too many confidential things is very stressful.’
“Sorry, I went off topic a bit too much.
The matter I mentioned at the hospital last time has now reached the executable stage. I want you to assist the police; do you have any issues?” Miao Lian stared into Chang Ning’s eyes and said seriously.
“I’m always ready, not to mention that you gave me a heads-up in advance, Miao Lian.” Chang Ning agreed to Miao Lian without thinking.
While Chang Ning was speaking, Miao Lian kept staring into his eyes. Seeing Chang Ning’s gaze firm without the slightest wavering, Miao Lian was extremely satisfied.
“Good, that’s the kind of man from my Night Tiger Reconnaissance Company! Well done!”
Miao Lian was very happy to see Chang Ning agree to assist the police; with Chang Ning joining, they would be even stronger!
“This is our plan; familiarize yourself with it first.”
“Okay.”
Chang Ning didn’t stand on ceremony with Miao Lian; since he had agreed to help, he naturally had to show a professional attitude.
Moreover, the work involved was extremely dangerous; if perfunctory, he might lose his life.
Who would think their life is too long?
But after Chang Ning opened the operation plan and read its contents, he didn’t know how to evaluate the author of this plan.
Miao Lian, who had been watching Chang Ning, immediately noticed something off about his expression and asked: “Is there something wrong with the plan? You can give opinions; don’t worry about me.”
This kind of life-risking job couldn’t have any carelessness; as a frontline cadre, Miao Lian was even more cautious.
“No issue; the overall idea of the plan has no major flaws, but when it comes to details, it’s full of loopholes.”
“Oh?
Which parts have problems? We can discuss them.”
Miao Lian had no doubts and looked serious.
So Chang Ning used a pen to point at a certain page in the thick plan book and said: “Here, the plan says the undercover needs to approach Ma Qitong under the name of an international killer, because he likes her.
I just want to say, did the person who wrote this plan watch too many romance dramas? Even if Ma Qitong believes, would her brother Ma Yunfei and her father Ma Shichang believe?
Isn’t this blatantly making them suspicious?
Moreover, using the name of an international killer, they’re not stupid and will investigate; don’t underestimate their intelligence network. In the Dark World, their intelligence network might be even faster than ours.”
Hearing Chang Ning’s analysis, Miao Lian also felt it made sense, so he asked Chang Ning how to revise it.
“Simple: make it real.”
Chang Ning calmly said the word “real”; what could be more convincing than a real identity with verifiable battle records?
When he heard those two words from Chang Ning, Miao Lian instantly understood what he meant.
Chang Ning wanted to make his killer identity real, which meant taking on a few big jobs.
But wouldn’t that violate discipline? In the worst case, it would be illegal.
There were too many things to consider; once the operation plan was revised, previous arrangements would need to be redone.
Not only would their previous work be wasted, but improper handling could lead to serious consequences.
If the operation plan wasn’t revised, as Chang Ning pointed out, there were too many flaws; if discovered, it would alert the enemy and endanger the life of Chang Ning, the undercover.
But if the plan was revised, most of the previous work would need readjusting, delaying the operation time.
The benefit was a more perfect plan, with high probability of taking down the Ma Family Criminal Group in one fell swoop, but one misstep as the person in charge of the entire plan meant he would have to remove his police uniform and might even go to prison.
Thinking of the Ma Family Criminal Group that had been wreaking havoc for years, Miao Lian’s blood surged, and he made this difficult decision in his heart.
Do it! At worst, remove the police uniform and go to jail; compared to taking down the Ma Family Criminal Group, this huge gain made everything worth it!
“Then we’ll do as you say; let’s discuss the details of the plan again.”
Seeing Miao Lian agree to his suggestion, Chang Ning laid out all his ideas.
“Miao Lian, here’s what I’m thinking: first, we need to change the killer identity a bit.”
“Tell me.” Miao Lian didn’t rush to refuse; he wanted to hear Chang Ning’s ideas first.
“From the information you brought, Ma Yunfei once paid his own way to Blackwater Company for military training, where there were soldiers from all over the world.
Think about it: he spent every day with these soldiers and is already familiar with the smell of soldiers. The moment I appear before him, he’ll smell the soldier scent on me.
So the killer identity is very inappropriate; it should be changed to mercenary.”
At this point, Chang Ning couldn’t help asking: “Miao Lian, tell the truth: did the person who wrote this plan get too obsessed with novels? How could they write such an unreliable operation plan?”
“Let’s not talk about irrelevant topics; when I get back, I’ll definitely criticize that person harshly.”
Having such subordinates made Miao Lian extremely embarrassed; he didn’t want to dwell on this with Chang Ning.
Seeing Miao Lian didn’t want to say, Chang Ning didn’t pursue it; he was just curiously asking offhand.
Whether Miao Lian said or not didn’t matter; anyway, he wouldn’t see the author of the plan.
“Even the best plan has loopholes; at this stage, we can only ensure that my battle record as a mercenary is real, but that previous blank period of experience needs you, Miao Lian, to personally oversee and fill it in.”
Virtual identities have this drawback: they require massive effort to fill in details.
Otherwise, if the Ma Family checks and finds this person popped up recently with a blank history before, isn’t that clearly telling them something’s wrong?
As Chang Ning said, mixing real and fake is the most deceptive; the Ma Family won’t find any key flaws for a while.
If they persistently dig into Chang Ning’s background, he’s not afraid.
Because by the time the Ma Family finds something, Chang Ning would have already closed the net with the police; by then, even if they discover he’s an undercover, what use would it be?
Now the problem was tossed to Miao Lian; the biggest difficulty in the plan was solving the issue of Chang Ning becoming a mercenary, which required not only convincing He Zhijun but also the Southeast Military Region’s leaders.
After all, executing this plan had no precedent; letting an active excellent special forces soldier become a mercenary seemed like a pipe dream no matter how you looked at it.
But to take down the Ma Family Criminal Group this cancer, Miao Lian still agreed to this new plan and tried to convince He Zhijun.
As for the Southeast Military Region’s leaders, the Provincial Department’s comrades would handle the negotiations.
Time was life to Miao Lian; after the new operation plan was ready, he couldn’t wait to get up and rush back to the Provincial Department to redeploy taking down the Ma Family Criminal Group.
After parting with Miao Lian, Chang Ning also returned to the 026 Logistics Warehouse; the next time they met would be when the plan started executing.
“How did it go? What did Gao Zhong Dui want with you? It wouldn’t be some mission, right?”
Back at 026, Chang Ning was immediately surrounded by his comrades; Xiao Zhuang was asking him repeatedly.
“Don’t rush; at least let me have a drink of water. Even the emperor doesn’t starve his soldiers.”
As soon as Chang Ning finished speaking, a cup of cooled boiled water was placed in front of him. Looking along the direction the cup came from, it was Qiang Zi.
Seeing Chang Ning not drinking but staring at him instead, Qiang Zi pretended to be angry: “I cooled this in advance. What’s wrong? You look down on it?”
With the words put this way, Chang Ning felt it would be impolite not to drink.
Qiang Zi, annoyed, might lash out.
Chang Ning picked up the water cup, took a sip to moisten his throat, and in his heart didn’t forget to complain about Miao Lian: he had perfected the operation plan for him, yet Miao Lian didn’t even give him a sip of water.
Complaints aside, he still had to satisfy his comrades’ curiosity; couldn’t they see everyone was waiting eagerly?
“Indeed, just as Xiao Zhuang guessed, a mission came down, and due to the mission’s special nature, I’m chosen to execute it.”
Chang Ning looked at everyone apologetically; this was specified by Miao Lian, and he had no choice; who made him the one with contact with Ma Qitong.
Actually, Xiao Zhuang was also a good candidate, but ultimately didn’t have as good a relationship with Ma Qitong as Chang Ning.
This time, because of Chang Ning, Ma Qitong’s favorability toward Xiao Zhuang wasn’t as high as in the original plot; at most, they were acquaintances who had just met and nodded.
Plus, Chang Ning was just a bit more handsome than Xiao Zhuang, so Ma Qitong’s favorability toward Chang Ning was naturally higher.
Ma Qitong’s personal information was very clean; the Ma Family’s businesses were cut off from her, making her equivalent to a wealthy ordinary rich woman.
Therefore, obtaining intelligence that Ma Qitong had a favorable impression of Chang Ning was no difficulty for Miao Lian; this was the key reason he chose Chang Ning for the undercover mission.
Heroes have always struggled to pass the beauty trap; similarly, the same goes for dealing with women— the honey trap still works wonders.
After hearing Chang Ning say the mission specified him alone, the B Group members looked at him with full envy.
They could only envy; everyone didn’t pry into the mission content out of curiosity.
Don’t ask what shouldn’t be asked; they still had that level of confidentiality awareness.
Since that last meeting between Miao Lian and Chang Ning where they revised the mission’s operation plan, Chang Ning hadn’t seen Miao Lian again.
There wasn’t even any related news; it was as if the mission never existed.
Since Miao Lian wasn’t coming to find Chang Ning, Chang Ning was happy to have leisure.
Executing the mission ultimately carried life risks; no one wanted to take that risk.
Chang Ning was just an ordinary person, at best with better physical condition and more military skills.
In the end, he still couldn’t take bullets with his body; one bullet could take his life, so he was just an ordinary person.
Chang Ning wouldn’t think he could be arrogant just because he had a cheat; he wouldn’t think the sky is old, the earth is second, and he is third.
Until now, Chang Ning had always maintained a humble and cautious attitude.
This day, while doing 400-meter obstacle course training on the training ground, Chang Ning was summoned by Gao Zhong Dui again.
After more than half a month, Chang Ning knew it was time to meet Miao Lian again, and time for him to leave Wolf Fang barracks to execute the mission.
Looking at the spirited Chang Ning before him, Gao Zhong Dui said: “You’re maintaining good condition; I don’t need to say more—you must have guessed why I called you.”
“Gao Zhong Dui, I’m always ready; I won’t disgrace Wolf Fang.” Chang Ning said.
“Execute the mission well; remember, preserving your life is key—you still can’t disgrace Wolf Fang yet.”
Gao Zhong Dui unusually instructed Chang Ning to stay safe; as the commander of the Lone Wolf Special Assault Team, his authority wasn’t low, so he naturally could see the revised and perfected operation plan by Miao Lian and the others.
