The First Order

Other people might not have noticed that woman leaving her shop, but Yan Liuyuan noticed. Of their entire family, Ren Xiaosu and Yan Liuyuan were the wariest of their surroundings. Ren Xiaosu could feel most reassured of Yan Liuyuan on this aspect.

He quietly said to Ren Xiaosu, “Bro, I think that woman next door might be up to no good.”

Ren Xiaosu glanced at the woman’s receding figure. He thought for a moment before saying, “It’s alright, there’s nothing to be afraid of.”

While they were packing, Wang Fugui cheerfully brought over the store’s ledger to Ren Xiaosu and said, “Our grocery store’s income has been really steady. The town’s residents from near and far are all coming to our place to make their purchases. Here, Xiaosu, please check the transactions.”

Ren Xiaosu laughed and shot Old Wang a glance. “Hey now, it’s the New Year! Why are we checking the accounts? I have nothing to worry about with you taking care of things here. Get in the truck already. I’ll take all y’all to the outpost to have a look-see and then take y’all back on the eighth day of the New Year.”

Although the outpost was a nice place, it was still a location with defensive duties. There shouldn’t be any inspections during the New Year, but if anyone discovered they had brought over their family members when the festivities finished up, it could get pretty troublesome.

Besides, Wang Fugui and the others were also living good in town now. The impish Yan Liuyuan had even become a friend of the women and used those relationships to find out a lot of information.

Yan Liuyuan whispered from next to him, “Bro, why has the Li Consortium also issued an arrest warrant for Xu Xianchu? Was it you

again?”

“Ahem!” Ren Xiaosu looked at Yan Liuyuan. “Don’t tell anyone.”

“Mhm.” Yan Liuyuan nodded cleverly. “Don’t worry, my lips are sealed.”

Right at this moment, the woman from the grocery store next door led a group of soldiers in a hurry back to the store. Even from far away, she was already pointing at Ren Xiaosu and shouting, “It’s those two. When they came to town last month, that older guy was still wearing the uniform of the private army. But this time around, he’s dressed in the military uniform of the Li Consortium. What’s more, he’s even a captain!”

Most people would not recognize what ranks the soldiers were from their shoulder marks. But anyone who ran a grocery store at the entrance of the stronghold would definitely be observant of people, so how could she not know about such things?

That group of soldiers surrounded Ren Xiaosu and company. A lieutenant walked forward and faced Ren Xiaosu. “Which division are you two from? Produce your military IDs.”

Ren Xiaosu and Li Qingzheng exchanged a glance. When Ren Xiaosu reached for his military ID, the sound of guns being cocked rang out and more than a dozen black barrels were suddenly pointed at them.

The woman from the grocery store smiled joyfully. If there were any problems with this young man’s military ID, Wang Fugui’s shop would surely not be able to continue operating, right?

Ren Xiaosu smiled as he produced his military ID from his pocket and handed it to these soldiers before him. He said calmly, “Not too many people dare conduct a spot check on those of us in the Office of Special Investigations these days.”

Li Qingzheng gasped at this. He realized Ren Xiaosu was not panicking one bit. Moreover, he even learned to speak in the same condescending tone Hu Shuo used when he spoke. It was way too similar.

When the officer facing Ren Xiaosu heard the words “Office of Special Investigations,” he frowned. He opened up the military ID book and was indeed greeted by Ren Xiaosu’s photo, the stamp, the serial number, as well as the striking words that said “Military: Office of Special Investigations.”

If these were normal times, he would definitely be panicking by now. If anyone were hauled to the Office of Special Investigations, they would never be seen again!

But after considering everything, there were far too many suspicious aspects to Ren Xiaosu and Li Qingzheng. Regulars had a different bearing and posture while standing after they went through training. The sloppy way Li Qingzheng was wearing his uniform made it seem like they were imposters.

The officer said coldly, “We need to verify it first before we can confirm whether you’re really from the Office of Special Investigations.”

He then ordered his subordinate to take out a palm-sized device. That soldier inputted Ren Xiaosu’s military identification number into it, and a picture of Ren Xiaosu was displayed.

The officer gasped, spun around, and gave that grocery store woman a slap that sent her flying to the ground. Following this, he turned around and bowed to Ren Xiaosu, “My apologies, sir!”

Ren Xiaosu took back his military ID and examined him. “I now suspect that you’re a double agent who’s trying to persecute our Li Consortium’s officers. Is that watch on your wrist a comms device you use with other spies?”

In response, the officer immediately removed his watch and handed it to Ren Xiaosu. “Sir, please take this back for investigation. Consider it a little souvenir from me.”

“Mhm.” Ren Xiaosu’s gaze swept over the others. “Are there any suspicious items on the rest of you? I suspect you might be smugglers.”

This time, one of the soldiers said hesitantly, “Sir, I don’t think the Office of Special Investigations covers smuggling, right?”

Ren Xiaosu fell silent for a moment. “We’re going to start investigating that now!”

When Li Qingzheng witnessed this from nearby, he remembered how he was the one who was recently receiving bribes. But from the looks of it, Ren Xiaosu was even better at

it.

This group of soldiers had approached them so aggressively at the beginning, but they were now standing in a row with their heads down. All of the money in their pockets had been confiscated by Ren Xiaosu for evidence.

“Alright,” Ren Xiaosu waved them off. “You may go back now. I suddenly think that you do not look suspicious anymore.”

Truly, this position Hu Shuo arranged for them was really useful.

The woman who had been smacked to the ground was still a little dizzy. After coming back around, the officer slapped her again. “Bring this insolent woman back with us!”

The group of soldiers carried the woman away. When Ren Xiaosu saw them leaving, he said with a sigh, “How nice of them to bring us so many souvenirs. They’re such honest people!”

With that, he handed the watches to Wang Fugui. Wang Fugui had given away his own watch to Li Qingzheng in order to waive the manual labor obligations of the girls.

Li Qingzheng hesitated for a long time before saying, “I already sold off the watches you guys gave me. Why don’t I pay y’all back?”

Ren Xiaosu laughed and said, “Then wouldn’t you have helped us for nothing? Just keep it for yourself. We’re not that petty.”

“Oh, alright!” Li Qingzheng said happily. However, why did something feel wrong? Why did it suddenly feel like Ren Xiaosu was the platoon commander instead of him?

On the way back to the outpost, Yan Liuyuan laid down in the back of the truck and said excitedly, “Bro, is it any fun at your outpost?”

“It’s pretty fun,” Ren Xiaosu said with a smile.

“What do y’all do every day?”

“We get to attend classes and eat meat daily. Occasionally, we’ll take a stroll into the mountains where we can pick wild vegetables and mushrooms or catch some rabbits.” Ren Xiaosu said, “There are a lot of rabbits in the mountains. When we get there, I’ll teach you how to build snares to catch some.”

All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu thought of something. Even though Yan Liuyuan was also a supernatural being, he did not have any skills to defend himself with. He thought that maybe he should also gather some nanomachines for Yan Liuyuan to use.

When they got back to the outpost, Ren Xiaosu saw Hu Shuo cradling a satellite phone and explaining into it, “Our Office of Special Investigations does not investigate smuggling. Yes, yes, that’s right, we really do not investigate that. It must be a misunderstanding. We don’t intend to seize authority from the Audit Department…”