Chapter 50: Assassin Arrives
The night was pitch black like ink. Without the faint starlight from the sky, Chang Ning wouldn’t dare wander around the forest alone; he was afraid of twisting his ankle.
It had been fine in the afternoon, but who knew that after the sun set, the weather turned overcast, with the moon completely blocked by a thick layer of clouds.
But this was actually good. He couldn’t see the road clearly, and neither could the Blue Team’s pursuers. Heaven was equally fair to everyone.
“I wonder if those people have given up pursuing me?”
Chang Ning thought of the stunned expressions on the faces of the Sharpshooter Fourth Company soldiers when they reached his sniper position and found nothing, and he couldn’t help but laugh unkindly.
In the pitch-black forest, green fluorescent lights occasionally drifted between the grass and leaves. It was filled with the calls of unknown creatures and rustling sounds, and with Chang Ning’s laugh, it was enough to scare the pants off anyone timid.
Even the person involved felt a chill. At this moment, Chang Ning’s mind recalled the plot of《 Mr. Zombie》, with occasional intrusions from Miss Sadako.
Chang Ning felt his scalp tingling, goosebumps rising all over his body.
“Eh! What am I thinking about?”
Chang Ning tried hard to drive those messy thoughts out of his mind, rubbing his arms vigorously with both hands, hoping to dispel the cold.
On a night in early spring, if you didn’t wear enough clothes, you could still feel a bit of chill, as if winter was reluctant to leave and wanted to linger a little longer in the mortal world.
After Chang Ning successfully escaped, the sky had completely darkened. What he cared about most now was whether the Sharpshooter Fourth Company had sent people to continue pursuing him.
If they gave up the pursuit, that would naturally be the best.
Because of the weather, the night road was hard to navigate, so Chang Ning didn’t dare go back to confirm. Moreover, he had barely escaped; going back might get him caught, and then it would truly be delivering himself right to their doorstep from miles away.
‘I should keep moving.’
Since he wasn’t sure if there were pursuers behind him, he wouldn’t stop. Chang Ning just didn’t believe that the Iron Fist Regiment would have no missions in the combat zone between the two sides.
Merely decapitating Kang Regiment Commander could only cause some trouble for the Iron Fist Regiment, far from paralyzing it. The military rank system wasn’t for show!
With Kang Regiment Commander, a colonel, gone, there were still lieutenant colonels and majors below to take over.
Now, as long as the acting regiment commander of the Iron Fist Regiment had a functioning brain, they wouldn’t keep chasing him at a time like this.
Chang Ning analyzed his situation in his mind. He decided that no matter whether the Sharpshooter Fourth Company people were still chasing him, he couldn’t stop to rest now.
Only by truly running out of the Iron Fist Regiment’s barracks range would he be temporarily safe.
……
In fact, Platoon Leader Wang had been closely tailing Chang Ning with the remaining members of the Sharpshooter Fourth Company, with the straight-line distance between them not exceeding three kilometers.
Unfortunately, with the darkness, even though the Sharpshooter Fourth Company soldiers were using flashlights, it still made it quite difficult for them to search for traces of Chang Ning.
Although Chang Ning was a scout who had enlisted less than a year ago, his counter-reconnaissance skills definitely couldn’t compare to veterans like Squadron Leader Gao.
But compared to soldiers from the Sharpshooter Fourth Company, he still had some advantage.
After all, the soldiers of the Fourth Company were only better in marksmanship than soldiers from the same level of companies; reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance weren’t their professional fields.
So it made sense that Chang Ning could escape under pursuit from dozens of people by taking advantage of the night.
“Old Wang, we can’t chase anymore. The mission is more important!”
Platoon Leader Chen saw that it was completely dark, yet Old Wang still wasn’t willing to return to the barracks, so he advised him earnestly.
“Alright.”
The conditions really didn’t support continuing the chase. No matter how unwilling Platoon Leader Chen felt inside, he had no choice but to return to camp.
“I know you’re not willing to let it go. With this incident, everyone in our company feels the same—who would be happy about it?”
Seeing that Old Wang still wasn’t speaking, Platoon Leader Chen sighed and continued, “But so what if we’re not happy? We can’t throw away the essentials over a minor setback. Helping the Blue Team win this exercise or catching that Red Team scout—which is more important? I don’t need to say more; you know it in your heart.”
Platoon Leader Chen thought the reason Old Wang wasn’t speaking was because he hadn’t caught that scout and was sulking.
So he kept nagging on and on, just to help Old Wang see things clearly.
Platoon Leader Wang: “Stop! Can you stop talking?”
“What’s wrong?” Platoon Leader Chen asked.
“You’re good at everything, except you have this nonstop mouth.”
Well then, he was trying to console him, but not only did he not appreciate it, he even disliked him!
This hurt Platoon Leader Chen deeply. It was misplaced trust after all. If he had known his good intentions would be taken as ill will, he should have ignored Old Wang and let him stew in his frustration, instead of adding to his annoyance.
“Fine, count me as meddling.”
Since the other person disliked him, he wouldn’t stick his warm face to their cold buttocks anymore.
“Uh, Old Chen, sorry! Sometimes I don’t speak nicely, but I appreciate your good intentions.
We know what’s more important. I wasn’t speaking earlier because I was just a bit tired.”
At this point, Old Wang slyly sidled up to Platoon Leader Chen and whispered, “What company do you think that kid is from? Pretty good marksmanship.”
“What? You interested?”
Platoon Leader Chen nonchalantly pulled away to create some distance from Old Wang; he wasn’t used to being too close to another man.
Old Wang felt a bit awkward upon seeing this; the distance between them had indeed been a little too close just now.
“Cough cough, isn’t that obvious? A soldier with such good marksmanship naturally belongs in our Sharpshooter Fourth Company.
Our company is known as the sharpshooters; he’s a perfect match.”
Old Wang suddenly spat out a trendy term, but it didn’t hinder Platoon Leader Chen from understanding the whole sentence.
“For this matter, you need to talk to the company commander first, then have him report to the regiment commander.
Besides, who doesn’t want good soldiers? Why would he come to our company? And he’s a scout; maybe he doesn’t even look favorably on us.”
A basin of cold water poured over his head, and Old Wang’s fiery heart instantly cooled. Yeah, they really didn’t have much competitiveness.
“It’s all about human effort. If that scout is willing to come, we’d hit the jackpot!”
Old Wang muttered softly, though his confidence was somewhat lacking.
“We’ll talk about this later. Our company still has a mission. Now that the regiment commander and company commander have both been eliminated, I reckon taking Hill 522 won’t be that easy.”
The Iron Fist Regiment was now facing a huge test. Platoon Leader Chen was somewhat pessimistic about this operation, looking worried.
“Nothing to worry about. We just need to do our own mission well.
You, you’re just worrying about things that aren’t your business—a platoon leader fretting over the camp commander and political commissar’s matters.”
Compared to Platoon Leader Chen, Old Wang was more open-minded about it. A platoon leader was an officer, sure, but only a bit higher than a squad leader; on this frontal battlefield, they really couldn’t decide much.
Since he couldn’t change anything, why waste the effort!
‘Indeed, why think so much? Just do my own job well. Other matters are for the political commissar and camp commander to consider.’
“Hurry back. I bet we’re in for a good scolding.”
Platoon Leader Chen said.
“Pfft, scold if they want; it’s not like it’ll cost me any flesh.”
Old Wang was like a tough nut, looking utterly indifferent; clearly, this guy was usually a rogue.
The two led the Fourth Company’s soldiers, flashlights in hand, quickly returning to camp.
After parting ways with Captain He, the Assassin hurried nonstop toward the 322 area.
That was the last place Chang Ning appeared. Only by going there could he have a chance to find the traces Chang Ning left behind.
Halfway there, he suddenly realized this was Blue Team’s territory—why go on foot? Wouldn’t taking a vehicle be better?
Better late than never to mend the fold after the sheep is lost.
The Assassin opened the map and headed to the nearest logistics supply point, found the person in charge, and after much persuasion, finally convinced them to lend a vegetable transport vehicle.
Actually, the Assassin had robbed the vehicle. Seeing the person unwilling to lend it, he took it when no one was looking.
If anyone has objections, go to the command post and find Captain He.
By the time the Assassin arrived at the scene, the traces left by Chang Ning were already hard to make out.
This bit of difficulty was nothing to the Assassin. He was the best soldier in Wolf Fang in individual combat; without some real skills, how could he command that group of proud and fierce soldiers in Wolf Fang.
Following the traces, the Assassin was slowly closing in on Chang Ning’s position.
On the road, the vehicle radio called out. The Assassin drove with one hand and picked up the walkie-talkie with the other.
“Assassin?”
“Yes.”
Confirming it was the Assassin on the walkie-talkie, the person then said, “Just got news: the Red Team scout you were pursuing decapitated Iron Fist Regiment’s Kang Regiment Commander. You should find something where you’re headed now.”
Upon receiving news of Chang Ning, the Assassin turned the vehicle around and floored the accelerator.
Chang Ning’s route to the Iron Fist Regiment wasn’t a straight line, so the Assassin, tracking the traces he left, had taken quite a few detours and wasted time.
Arriving near the Iron Fist Regiment’s camp, the Assassin didn’t go in; instead, he pulled out the map to analyze which direction Chang Ning would flee.
“This is the combat zone; he definitely won’t cross the battlefield unless he wants to be eliminated.
So he certainly won’t go east; the other three directions are all possible.”
Since Chang Ning hadn’t been away from the Iron Fist Regiment camp for long, the traces here were very obvious.
The Assassin easily determined the direction of Chang Ning’s escape by following the traces.
“West?
Hill 522? That’s indeed a good place to go.”
Chang Ning had stumbled into it by chance; in fact, he was completely in the dark about the situation on the frontal battlefield.
Running west was purely random; at the time, he was almost eliminated by the Sharpshooter Fourth Company soldiers, the battle situation was critical, and he didn’t have time to analyze.
Having determined the direction of Chang Ning’s escape, the Assassin stowed the map and sped after him along the traces.
The Assassin had no time to play with a rookie now; he just wanted to find that scout, take him out, and then he could return to Wolf Fang for training.
One day without training, and his condition would decline. Even if negligible, remember that constant dripping wears away stone; over time, he might lose his Assassin title.
ps: There’s more at ten o’clock tonight
