Jiang Zhiming and Kong Yunhong didn't know what had happened. They couldn't spot any threats, just the occasional cry of a raven.
The sound must have been quite a distance away and would have been barely audible. Even Xiao Luo had only inadvertently heard it as they drove by only moments ago. After a while, Xiao Luo finally determined its position and distance when the sound carried on another gust of wind. He opened his eyes, turned his head to the northwest, picked up his sniper rifle, and stepped out of the car without a word.
Jiang Zhiming didn't say a word but used his hands to direct the Special Operations team members to follow in battle formation and stay vigilant.
...
...
About five hundred meters to the northwest of where Xiao Luo and the others were, five slovenly-dressed local thugs surrounded a woman.
She was an attractive and well-limbed woman with a trim waist and slender legs that were very eye-catching. She wore a tank top and mini-shorts and had wavy blonde hair as well as graceful features. Although her face was not especially attractive, in a war zone, she was like a delicious meal.
Next to her, an obese man laid in a pool of blood. He looked like he had been stabbed more than a dozen times as blood flowed copiously from his body, soaking the ground around him. His glazed eyes, gaping mouth, and the twisted look on his face was evidence that he had died a horrific and painful death.
"I... I am a journalist of Hua nation, if you... you guys dare to lay a finger on me, the troops from my country w-will... will come and tear this place part..."
The woman spoke to them in fluent English, but she was so terrified that she trembled, and her voice shook. Seeing her companion, the cameraman, brutally murdered by these thugs, she was almost on the verge of breaking down.
But her assailants could not understand a word she said, and they didn't need to understand either. Their eyes glinted with nothing but lust. They were talking in a language that the woman couldn't understand and touching her all over.
"What are you doing... Don't touch me!"
The woman's body could not stop trembling in fear and despair, like a deer surrounded by five drooling beasts. She was overcome by the vile and pungent bodily odors of these thugs. It was the stench of filth as if they had not changed their clothes or bathed for a couple of months. She could even see the dried yellowish crusts that had formed around the corners of their eyes.
They were so filthy, they were stank!
She wasn't like a teenage girl just out of society. How could she not know precisely what these thugs intended to do to her?
The woman struggled as she fought back and screamed hysterically. One of them was enraged by her resistance that he brutally pushed her to the ground. Suddenly, the woman became aware that her right foot was being pulled by a large, rough hand, and the next thing she knew, she was dragged across the ground. Obscene laughter filled her ears as the other thugs crowded around her, and she felt a burn on her back from being violently dragged across the graveled ground.
"Let go of me, you bast*rd! Let go of me...!"
She was screaming at the top of her voice, but there was nothing she could do. She felt like a pig being led to the slaughterhouse by a rowdy crowd of butchers. She was unable to fight them off and break free. She knew what was to come, but what could she do? Tears flowed from her eyes, and she suddenly realized how far away from the civilized world she was.
Her head was in a spin, her hair was disheveled, and all she could hear was their evil laughter...
"No... Stop it... No, please..."
Someone slapped her across her face, and it sent her into a daze. Her face throbbed, leaving a trace of blood at the corner of her mouth. It broke down any resistance she had to offer as she just laid on the ground sobbing desperately. Tears streamed from her cheeks, and her makeup was smudged.
The five thugs gulped excitedly at the sight of the scantily clad woman on the floor.
They were so engrossed that they did not even realize they had been surrounded. One of the men got on top of her.
Suddenly, a cold, black muzzle was pressed against the back of his head, and the realization of what was happening instantly washed away any lecherous thoughts he had. The thug raised his head and found a group of soldiers in camouflage uniforms standing around him. He then noticed that his companions were also held at gunpoint and had lifted their hands above their heads, looking at him in horror.
"Gulp!"
The rebel thug gulped again and immediately broke into a cold sweat. A chill shiver ran down his spine.
The thug, who was atop the woman, stared wide-eyed in shock and slowly raised his hands up.
"How fu*king dare you bully the women from our Nation, are you tired of living?"
Kong Hongyun was so enraged that he slammed the buttstock of his rifle into the head of this thug.
Filled with rage, he used a large amount of force, and when the buttstock hit the thug's head, blood spurted out, and the man was thrown off the woman's body, collapsing in a heap on the dusty ground.
Jiang Zhiming quickly took off his camouflage uniform and covered the woman lying on the ground, helping her sit up. "It's over, you're safe!" he said, assuring her.
Hearing a familiar language, the woman opened her teary eyes in surprise. When she saw that there were markings of the Hua nation on their camouflage smocks, she cried tears of joy and threw herself into Jiang Zhiming's arms, weeping uncontrollably. She was still in shock and was lost for words, just crying her eye out. What she had just experienced was like a terrifying nightmare that would haunt her forever.
Xiao Luo was the first to detect what had happened here, yet the last one to turn up. He thought that Jiang Zhiming and his squad were more than capable of dealing with the five thugs who had taken advantage of the war to commit this horrendous act. But when he got closer to her, he found that this woman looked quite familiar. "Are you... Tang Wantian?" he asked.
The woman was still in tears, nuzzled Jiang Zhiming's arms, and when she gazed at him, she was shocked. "Xiao Luo?" she cried.
They stared at each other briefly in stunned silence. Xiao Luo never thought that he would come across Tang Wantian in Libya. He remembered the last time they met was at a class reunion in Jiangcheng last year. At that time, he recalled her telling him that she was a journalist.
*****
It suddenly dawned on Xiao Luo what a small world this actually was. Despite not seeing an old acquaintance for a long time, there was always a chance of bumping into them again someday.
For Xiao Luo, in most cases, he'd end up meeting old classmates as most of them worked in the same area since graduation, so it wasn't hard to meet them by chance. But, in Tang Wantian's case, it was different.
He furrowed his eyebrows and asked, "What are you doing here?"
"I-I..."
Tears started rolling down Tang Wantian's face right after he asked her. She looked forlorn and full of regret. All the things that she had experienced was a nightmare that she would never forget for the rest of her life.
After talking to Tang Wantian, Xiao Luo was able to get a rough idea of how she got there. Tang Wantian had spent some money to hire a black ship and found her way to Libya. She came with her cameraman, and her goal was to capture and record the war in Libya to give viewers an on-the-ground report of the conflict. This assignment would give her career a significant boost and set her on the way up the hierarchy.
"Oh, God, how did you even dare to come here!"
Xiao Luo could understand her passion for journalism but shook his head at her preparation for such an assignment. To him, it was not bravery but foolishness. "This is a war zone. To think that you're wearing such a revealing and sexy outfit—do you think this is some tourist spot? Have you gone mad, Tang Wantian?"
He was quite piqued and lost control of his emotions somewhat. They had been university classmates and spent four years together, so he still treated her as a friend. It was a fact that couldn't be erased no matter how much time had passed.
Tang Wantian put her head down and had nothing else to say. She did consider her safety before coming here, but she also heard that the Libyan government and rebel army had their principles and would not hurt the innocent. So, she gritted her teeth and came here, in the hope of getting the latest news and updates on the Libyan war—it was her path to becoming a gold-level reporter. It was also this dream that kept driving her to achieve more in the industry. But she had not expected to experience something as cruel and horrifying as this incident in a small town.
Seeing that her entire body was still trembling, Xiao Luo couldn't bring himself to reprimand her anymore. Bearing in mind that she was almost raped by the five thugs earlier on, it was undoubtedly a terrifying experience for any woman.
Jiang Zhiming walked over to Xiao Luo. "Mr. Mie, how should we deal with the five of them?" he asked.
There was no doubt that he was the person in charge of this team, but the encounter with the Libyan rebel army group in the afternoon changed all that. Xiao Luo naturally was seen as the alpha of the Special Operations group, and therefore he decided to ask Xiao Luo for his opinion.
"We'll have to give them a good beating, of course. How dare they try to bully a woman from Hua Nation. If I don't break them apart, there's no way I can swallow this anger," Kong Yunhong growled.
The other members of the Special operations team grunted in agreement as they all felt that these five thugs could not be let off that easily.
Xiao Luo looked skyward, and his eyes seemed focused in the far distance. He had a stern look on his face that appeared like he was harboring a thousand-year-old vendetta. His eyes glowered with cruel intent. After a brief moment of silence, he opened his mouth and said, "Kill them all!"
What?
Kill? Kill them?
Jiang Zhiming, Kong Yunhong, and the other group members from the Special Operations team shuddered at the thought. They eventually managed to calm themselves down but were quite shocked by the decision that Xiao Luo had made.
Tang Wantian opened her eyes wide and was stunned as well. The Xiao Luo she saw in front of her now felt so unfamiliar and cold. Those eyes were sharp and intimidating. Though the five deserved to die, she found it hard to remain calm when she heard Xiao Luo give the kill order so nonchalantly. It was as if he was the Grim Reaper responsible for the life and death of these men. He stood high above everyone else and was shrouded in enigma.
"Team Leader Jiang, why are you hesitating?" Xiao Luo turned around and looked at Jiang Zhiming with both of his hands behind his back.
Looking into Xiao Luo's eyes, Jiang Zhiming trembled a bit. He was reminded of his old instructor, who had taught him how to snipe.
"Kill them all!"
Jiang Zhiming turned around, grabbed, pointed his gun at the five thugs, and gave the command without any expression on his face.
"Team leader, this... this is not according to the rules, we've already taken them down, and we're holding them captive..." Kong Yunhong responded, trembling and showing a slight hesitation.
The five thugs could also tell that they were about to die soon. The color on their faces turned pale, and they started begging in their local tongue, pressing their heads on the ground as they pleaded.
Jiang Zhiming took one step forward and kicked Kong Yunhong to the ground. "Follow your orders!" he yelled, looking at his troops, and emphasizing each word, "As soon as we made landfall, we ceased to be soldiers capable of only charging into battle in training. We are now true warriors capable of facing the cruelest opponents out here. If you want to finish this mission with outstanding results, then you'll first have to turn yourselves into demons—if you show them mercy, then who's going to show us mercy?"
He pointed to the corpse of the cameraman on the floor and said, "Then who is going to pity our friend here who lost his life doing his job?"
With those words, the eyes of the special operations soldiers hardened, and it felt like something in their minds had been awakened and unleashed. This was not a training exercise, but this was war—and they were not soldiers living in an era of peace, but killing machines that had to dispatch their enemies in conflict.
"Kill them all!" Jiang Zhiming repeated.
"Ahhhh!"
With a ferocious cry drawn from the depths of their soul, five of the soldiers, including Kong Yunhong, pointed their guns to the head of the thugs. Then, they pulled the trigger. Five gunshots reverberated in the quiet street, and five thugs fell in a pool of their own blood after letting out a muffled cry.
Tang Wantian screamed in horror, and she fell back sitting on the ground.
The members of the Special Operations team sighed as they looked at the sprawled bodies of the men, and the stress of carrying out the command showed clearly on their faces.
Xiao Luo patted Jiang Zhiming's shoulder and said, "You're now competent enough to lead your team. I believe that under your leadership, the probability of success for this team to return to the coastal base alive has gone up!"
Since the day they embarked on the mission, he had never really acknowledged Jiang Zhiming. Xiao Luo felt that he lacked situational awareness, and his Special Operations team was constantly falling short. This killing was their baptism by fire, and from hereon, this band of soldiers would undoubtedly become a force to be reckoned with after the war.
Jiang Zhiming forced a smile on his face and said, "Mr. Mie, what were you doing before you joined the NSA?"
"Working in the private sector," Xiao Luo replied, giving him a wry smile.
...
The journey back could very well turn out to be dull and uneventful. Tang Wantian was to be embedded into the Special Operations team now. She changed into an army uniform and tied her hair neatly into a ponytail, making her look all sweet and soldierly at the same time.
She glanced at Xiao Luo occasionally and had a heap of questions in her head.
What was Xiao Luo doing here? Was he not the boss of Luo Workshop?
What did the NSA do?
Why are these soldiers addressing Xiao Luo as "Mr. Mie?"
As for the killing, why was Xiao Luo so calm back there? Had he killed many people before?
All these questions hung like a cloud of doubt over her and were bothering her. She couldn't figure anything out, but one thing she knew for sure, her university classmate was not an ordinary person. She realized she didn't recognize him anymore—he was just an enigma.
She carefully opened her mouth to ask, "Xiao Luo..."
"I know you have a whole bunch of questions, but please don't ask me anything at all. Even if you do, you're not going to get a proper answer. And, please don't tell anyone that you met me here when you return back home. You can report on the Libyan war, but you must remove any part of me from your report, do you understand?" Xiao Luo said.
Tang Wantian was a little bit shocked initially but then nodded her head. "Hmm, I got it," she replied.