The First Order

“You won’t be running off to do other missions again, right?” Zhou Yingxue stared intently at Ren Xiaosu’s expression, as though she were trying to figure out something.Ren Xiaosu was unhappy. “How can you use the word ‘run’? I also have proper business to attend to!”

“What proper business?” Zhou Yingxue was curious. She really wanted to know why Ren Xiaosu had caused all that trouble today.

“The D and C-rank missions, of course,” Ren Xiaosu said seriously.

Zhou Yingxue felt really helpless upon hearing that. ‘You’re already a legendary supernatural being, so why are you still competing with the D and C-rank hitmen for their missions? Are you not ashamed?’

Ren Xiaosu asked, “How did the four of them do today? Did they behave strangely?”

“Nothing out of the ordinary. They just scouted the vicinity of the villa at Red Pine Lane in preparation for the assault tonight. As the streets were emptied of pedestrians after the gunshots rang out, we decided to retreat first,” Zhou Yingxue explained.

“Alright.” Ren Xiaosu nodded. Then he ordered, “Be careful of these four people. I think that if any accidents happen during the mission, they’ll likely join forces and try to turn us in.”

“Yes, Master.”

Zhou Yingxue suddenly stopped speaking. The moment she said those words, she instinctively felt that something was off!

Ren Xiaosu looked at Zhou Yingxue in surprise. “What did you just say?”

“Nothing.” Zhou Yingxue nearly cried at her own stupidity. “Slip of the tongue.”

Ren Xiaosu gazed at her silently for half a minute. “Let’s eat. I’ve cooked your share.”

The two of them walked back into the house. Zhou Yingxue immediately turned cold and aloof. “Assistant, bring me my food.”

Ren Xiaosu was speechless. Zhou Yingxue did not even need any cooldown time for her to switch roles? Wu Tong, who was next to Ren Xiaosu, looked at him and said, “Bring us our food too.”

But Zhou Yingxue said calmly, “I’m the only one who can order my assistant around. You guys aren’t allowed to. If you want to eat something hot, go make it yourself. You’re all grown men, so why are you commanding my assistant?”

From Zhou Yingxue’s point of view, Wu Tong and the other three people had deliberately not shared their method of getting into the stronghold, and there were still other things they did not discuss with her. They were clearly trying to draw a line between them, and there was nothing wrong with doing so. ‘But since you’re being so clear about it, I definitely have to be clear as well.’

Moreover, she was worried that if Wu Tong really forced Ren Xiaosu to cook for the four of them, they might not need to eat in the future.

Ren Xiaosu said, “Sorry, I only prepared enough for two.”

The dishes were simple: spicy and sour shredded potato, scrambled eggs with tomato, and stir-fried wild boar.

This wild boar was that herd Ren Xiaosu had encountered on his way here from the Northwest.

Wu Tong and the others ended up dryly chewing on hardtack next to Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue as they quietly watched them enjoy their hot meal. Wu Tong said coldly, “This is a safe house. We have to be careful, so don’t use the kitchen as you like.”

Ren Xiaosu said, “Since this safe house is a home, don’t you think it’ll look suspicious if no one cooks when the lights are on at night, or if the stove’s gas tank isn’t even changed once a year? Don’t underestimate the observation skills of your neighbors. They know full well the situation of your house. They probably even remember which day you made dumplings on.”

Zhou Yingxue asked as she ate, “Did your informant say what Zhou Xilong’s next plans are?”

Wu Tong glanced at her. “What’s the maximum effective range of your sniper rifle?”

Zhou Yingxue said arrogantly, “Any target within two kilometers won’t be a problem.”

Ren Xiaosu was shocked when she said that. He only had Master Firearms Proficiency, not Perfect like Yang Xiaojin. ‘What a bold claim on my behalf!’

When Wu Tong heard what Zhou Yingxue said, he felt relieved. “Tomorrow, Zhou Xilong will be heading to Liberation Park as per his original plan. He’ll be meeting a VIP there. It’s a private meeting. When the time comes, the intelligence agency Zhou Xilong commands will be all over the entire park, so there might be over a 100 people there.”

“That many?” Zhou Yingxue asked with doubt, “Then shouldn’t we execute the plan another day?”

Wu Tong looked at Zhou Yingxue and Ren Xiaosu. “When there’s a lot of people, the enemy’s vigilance will be at its lowest. We’ll have to rely on Ms. Zhou’s sniping this time.”

…

At 4 AM sharp, a number of sanitation workers entered Liberation Park to empty the trash cans there as well as clear the fallen leaves and litter.

However, the sanitation workers today seemed a little special as they were all made up of strapping young men.

Outside Liberation Park, a few ice cream trucks were already parked in the lot early in the morning. They looked like they were here to sell ice cream, but in fact, there were more than a dozen staff members busily working inside them.

“Position 10, test the audio equipment again,” someone inside a truck said into an earpiece.

Then he heard a voice say “testing, one, two, three” in his earpiece. The person in the truck said, “Audio equipment checks are complete. Set up the next surveillance point.”

Such work was a common occurrence for intelligence agencies all around. They were setting up the location for surveillance to avoid any problems during the private meeting to be held later in the day.

It so happened that the surveillance points had blocked all of the entrances and exits of the park, as well as any “infiltration points” within Liberation Park.

When dawn broke, some of the field crew in the vehicles changed into sportswear and took turns heading to the park for a morning jog. They looked just like normal stronghold residents going about their daily activities. Only five people remained inside the vehicles to monitor the surveillance feeds. When they discovered any suspicious people, they would immediately lock on to the target’s appearance in the surveillance footage and run it through their database records.

Such work continued for nearly six hours before Zhou Xilong’s convoy arrived at the entrance of Liberation Park. After he got out of the car, he slowly walked in with two bodyguards protecting him. It was already 10 in the morning.

Zhou Xilong was a middle-aged man, and his hair had already greyed. He was dressed in a navy blue suit that made him appear especially solemn. The bodyguard next to him was still deploying the field crew by giving orders into his earpiece. “Position 6 needs to be filled by a squad. Position 7, pull out, you guys aren’t blending in at all. Go back and write a self-criticism and submit it to me.”

This person was just like the “director general” for Zhou Xilong’s operations, with all the field resources being deployed by him.

Zhou Xilong sat down on a bench in the park. The nearest high ground was 1.2 kilometers away, and the snipers from the field team had already occupied two high-rises within that range.

But the person Zhou Xilong was meeting did not appear even after a long time. However, Zhou Xilong was not in a hurry either. He just sat calmly on the bench while his bodyguard stood right behind him.

Not only that, but there was also a fully armed secret service on standby for orders in the nearby bushes.

It wasn’t until 11 AM that Luo Lan’s convoy suddenly appeared at the park’s entrance. That plump figure led 12 of his subordinates into the park casually. When he encountered the field crew dressed in plainclothes, it was as though he did not see them at all.

Luo Lan was wearing a pair of sunglasses while Zhou Qi was yawning behind him. There was even a lipstick mark on the back of his neck that had not been wiped off.