Chapter 73: Operation High Command

Hearing Gangzi worrying about food, Zhang Xingmin felt a twinge of guilt. Over these past two days, he had come to realize just how hard it was to get something to eat in this place. Gangzi had stockpiled only items that could be stored for a long time—who knew how long it had taken him to gather them all, only for the three of them to eat their way through his stores.

“Brother Long! Gangzi’s looking for you!” Zhang Xingmin called into the room.

Hearing his name called, Yang Dalong strode out in three quick steps. He had taken a liking to this Shao Gang fellow—the thing he admired most was his straightforwardness, the kind of man who never beat around the bush.

“What is it? Can’t bear to be apart from me for even a moment?” Brother Long joked shamelessly.

Zhang Xingmin saw that Brother Long was still gnawing on an ear of corn. He snatched it away, saying, “Still eating? You’ll turn into a pig if you keep this up!”

“What’s wrong with eating corn?” Yang Dalong grabbed the corn back and kept chewing.

“We’re out of food. Once we’re done here, we need to go get more,” Zhang Xingmin said, his tone unusually serious.

Hearing that they were out of food, Yang Dalong suddenly understood why Gangzi had seemed so downcast since that morning.

“Isn’t it possible to buy food here?” Brother Long asked, as if testing a theory that had just occurred to him.

“The food we’ve eaten the last couple of days was indeed brought in from outside! But, it’s not impossible to buy things here, just very troublesome. You know how it is—money from outside is useless here. You have to barter, and it has to be something useful. Gold, silver, and jewels are worthless,” Gangzi explained, holding nothing back.

“Wait a sec!” Yang Dalong finished off his corn and shouted inside, “Xiaofeng, bring our bag out here!”

“In broad daylight? We’re not going anywhere, why bring the bag?” Lin Xiaofeng grumbled, but came out lugging a huge mountaineering backpack.

Brother Long snatched up the bag, unzipped it, and rummaged around for a long while, apparently not finding what he wanted. Then, he simply tipped the whole thing upside down and dumped everything out. A jumble of items tumbled onto the ground.

“What’s all this?” Gangzi asked, hesitating.

“Let’s see if anything’s useful. We’ll take something to trade for food first,” Yang Dalong replied readily.

Gangzi looked over the pile. What Brother Long had dumped out was a hodgepodge of just about everything—like an entire general store emptied onto the floor. Clothes, socks, underwear, flashlights, batteries, razors, scissors, even screwdrivers and wrenches.

“Everything here is tradable except maybe the underwear—especially this leather jacket. If I’m not mistaken, it’s the limited edition released two years ago. That could fetch a lot of good stuff here! But something so valuable, you might want to keep it for yourself,” Gangzi suggested, sounding uncertain.

“I have plenty of clothes! It’s fine, let’s just trade for food first!” Brother Long glanced at Shao Gang, who was staring at the jacket in a daze, then looked him over and understood at once—this kid probably loved that biker style. A thought occurred to him, and he said, “If you don’t mind, I’ll just give you this jacket. I barely wore it, and it’s still pretty new.”

Without giving Shao Gang a chance to refuse, Brother Long slipped the jacket onto him, patted his shoulder, and said, “It really suits your style! Just take it. We’ve been eating and drinking off you these days, can’t do that for nothing. It’s not brand new, so don’t feel awkward.”

Shao Gang hadn’t expected Brother Long, who seemed so rough and careless, to be so thoughtful. He was a little moved. He’d been moping over his depleted supplies just a moment ago, but now they’d turned around and given him something so valuable. He remembered when that jacket was released as a limited edition—he’d queued for days and still hadn’t managed to get one!

Since they were so generous, he certainly couldn’t be stingy. He told them to wait a moment, then went back to gather a few things of his own, and set out with Damin, Xiaofeng, and Brother Long to get supplies.

In stark contrast to the leisurely pace of the Falcon team in Golden Rooster Ridge, the Ministry of State Security had been thrown into chaos these past few days. First, the Falcon squad lost contact, their fate unknown; then, the other investigation teams also went silent one after another. But even this wasn’t the most troubling news.

What was worse was that Interpol had come knocking. According to their intelligence, a disappearance in France three years ago was linked to the Dark Organization’s mermaid experiment now underway in China, and they requested assistance with the investigation.

They couldn’t just brush off Interpol’s request, but they already had their hands full with urgent matters. There was no time to spare for helping Interpol. After painstakingly receiving a message from the Falcon team with valuable clues, the team had immediately gone missing, vanishing as a group.

After heated debate, they decided they could wait no longer. With the Dark Organization’s mermaid experiment already underway, who knew what else could happen if they delayed further? For safety’s sake, they resolved to act immediately and launch a direct assault on Golden Rooster Ridge. Though it might result in heavy losses and possibly even international censure if they failed, they had no other choice.

But just as they were about to dispatch the hastily assembled forces, the Falcon investigation team sent in a report on the progress of their recent work, with special emphasis on Zhao Nana’s betrayal and a request for a thorough check to see whether Zhao Nana had been switched after the Da Huang Mountain incident.

Learning that the Falcon team was making good progress, the Security Council decided to stick with the original plan—following the trail to the enemy’s headquarters—while keeping the assembled troops on standby. Additional personnel were assigned to investigate the traitor, requiring all government officials, regardless of rank, to undergo scrutiny. After yet another defection, the Ministry of State Security’s reputation was at stake.

But the Falcon team couldn’t care less about the Ministry’s reputation. What really concerned them now was food.

The four of them, packs on their backs, followed Gangzi to the only marketplace in the Ivory Tower. To call it a marketplace was generous—it couldn’t even compare to rural markets from decades ago. It was just a makeshift shelter with many stalls inside, no taxes or fees, and anyone wanting to set up shop could just claim a spot. Some people simply walked around with their wares, bartering on the spot if they found a match.

“Boss! How much for your jerky?” Gangzi called out as soon as he entered, spotting something good. It was prime beef—rare in this place.

“Twenty pounds of rice for one pound!” the stall owner replied without so much as lifting his eyes.

“Twenty pounds of rice? That’s outrageous! A pound of beef is worth maybe ten pounds of rice at most!” Zhang Xingmin began haggling with the vendor.