Book Synopsis
Book Tags
Donation Rankings
Comment
0 Comments
You May Also Like
墨書 Inktalez
Leixu is actually a character with some background. His father, Leiming, is a deputy Camp Commander in the Mingguo Party's army. However, this deputy Camp Commander has had a rather unremarkable career. Leiming is over fifty years old and has served in the Mingguo Party's military for more than thirty years. He was already in the army when the Mingguo Party retreated from the Heavenly Pride Nation. After all these years, he finally managed to reach the rank of deputy camp level, but being a deputy means he has no real decision-making power and is merely a figurehead who must cater to others' whims. Leixu currently holds a position equivalent to that of a Company Commander at a Border Station, which his father secured for him after spending a significant amount of money. However, Leixu aspires for greater things and is not content with being just a Border Station commander in such a remote area; he aims to mingle with the higher-ups of the Taiwan Army and bring glory to his family's name.
Leixu is quite clever. For instance, during his last visit to the capital, he "accidentally" met someone influential. This person's significance does not stem from their military rank but rather from their position in a department that wields considerable power throughout Taiwan—the Mei Organization. The Mei Organization serves as Taiwan's intelligence agency, possessing vast authority; they can investigate, monitor, track, arrest, and even assassinate individuals across any institution or department in Taiwan. They also handle missions against hostile nations. The Mei Organization operates independently and reports directly to President Jiang Jiwen, essentially functioning as Jiang Jiwen's private armed force to eliminate opposition.
The person Leixu "accidentally" met is named Cao Borin, who is a section chief in the Mei Organization's Intelligence Division. During their conversation, Leixu exhausted all his resources over the years to establish a friendly relationship with Cao Borin. Cao Borin mentioned that if Leixu truly wanted to join the Mei Organization, it was possible; he could help facilitate it. However, it would require a substantial amount of money as operational expenses for connections. To gather this large sum, Leixu racked his brain and decided to raise this year's customs fees for sugarcane at the Border Station. However, this was just pocket change; the quickest way to make money at the Border Station was through smuggling and capturing illegal immigrants. The Border Station where Leixu worked was located in a remote area with limited smuggling opportunities—mostly local agricultural products—which hardly counted as smuggling. Naturally, he couldn't rely on that for wealth; thus, capturing illegal immigrants became his only option. During this time, Leixu eagerly awaited any illegal immigrants so he could extort them. So when he heard rumors of illegal immigrants appearing one night, he was overjoyed and thought it was divine intervention—what he wished for had come true.
Despite twelve soldiers already having died and no sign of any illegal immigrants yet, Leixu did not give up or feel discouraged. He believed this could be a turning point in his life; perhaps among those illegal immigrants were some extremely important figures.
Leixu urged four dejected soldiers to navigate through the jungle when suddenly one soldier spotted a leopard lying on the ground ahead and panickedly turned back to run. After yesterday's encounter with the Jungle Python, these soldiers had become jumpy; seeing a leopard made them prioritize their escape. The soldier ran straight into Leixu, who shouted angrily, "What the hell are you running for? Is there a ghost chasing you?!"
"B-Brother! A leopard!" the soldier stammered in fear.
"A leopard? Where?" Leixu felt a surge of anxiety—why did trouble always find him? But he had guns; what was there to fear? He had dealt with that giant python yesterday; how could he be afraid of a leopard? With that thought reassuring him, he scolded the soldier: "Look at you! What’s there to be afraid of? I could take it down with two shots! Where is it? Lead me over there!"
The soldier had instinctively run away out of fear but now regained his composure after hearing Leixu's words. Yes, he had a gun! Although leopards were fierce, they were no match for his Carbine. So he straightened up confidently and replied, "Brother! I just wanted to come back and report to you so you could deal with it yourself! Your shooting skills are unmatched by any of us! It's right up ahead! I'll take you there."
Leixu knew this soldier was just trying to save face but didn’t mind since he needed people right now and found comfort in what the soldier said. He waved his hand and said, "Let’s go! Lead me there!"
By now, the other soldiers had gathered together; they loaded their guns cautiously and moved toward where the leopard had been spotted. Sure enough, not far ahead lay a Clouded Leopard about one meter long on the ground. Leixu knew that this Clouded Leopard was native to this jungle area; although small—only about one meter long and weighing around twenty to thirty kilograms—it was still a fierce carnivore. In fact, relative to its body size, its canine teeth were longer than those of any other leopard species, allowing it to hunt prey much larger than itself.
To demonstrate his excellent shooting skills in front of his subordinates, Leixu held his breath and raised his gun elegantly to aim at the Clouded Leopard. With two crisp gunshots ringing out, dust mixed with dry leaves flew up from the ground several feet away from the leopard—but it remained motionless on the ground. Seeing that both shots had missed their mark made several soldiers want to laugh but they dared not; they could only stifle their laughter desperately while one soldier pinched his thigh hard to distract himself from bursting into laughter. Meanwhile, Leixu showed no signs of embarrassment; calmly inserting his gun into his waistband while pointing at the leopard said: "That’s just a dead leopard! How could you all be scared like this? Pathetic! I wanted you guys to see my shooting skills but it seems there's no chance for that now—what a pity!"
"What was your purpose in firing those two shots earlier?" asked one sharp-witted soldier quickly following up on Leixu's words.
"I fired those two shots earlier to scare it into jumping, and then I shot its eyes... that's how it's interesting; what's the point of shooting a lifeless thing lying there?" Leixu said mysteriously.
"Well, big brother is indeed big brother! Even showing off his marksmanship is so impressive! We admire you! Hahaha..." Although the soldiers knew that Leixu was bragging, none of them dared to call him out. Instead, they flattered him to the utmost. Those who had just held back their laughter finally seized the opportunity to burst into laughter. At this moment, such laughter was permissible.
As everyone flattered Leixu, they walked over to the corpse of the leopard. The leopard's blood had already congealed, and a swarm of flies was buzzing around its body, busy laying their offspring on this organic matter so that their young could absorb sufficient nutrients from the start. Leixu pretended to examine the wounds on the Clouded Leopard and called for the soldiers to turn the leopard's body over. The wound on the throat area was pierced by a Triangular Bayonet, so it still retained that triangular shape, making it easy to identify what weapon caused the injury. Leixu looked at it and said, "This Clouded Leopard was killed by at least three people attacking from both sides. The fatal wound is this stab in the throat; judging by its shape, it must have been stabbed by a Triangular Bayonet. As for the two small wounds on its hindquarters, they were definitely inflicted by two people stabbing from behind with daggers or similar sharp weapons... Hmm, from this we can conclude that the smugglers we are after do not have guns, only a few rusty knives. Therefore, we will surely be able to capture them easily!"
"Yes, big brother is right! Big brother is truly like Detective Conan, spotting so many clues at a glance! Amazing! Truly amazing!" The soldiers eagerly flattered him. However, they were anxious inside; these smugglers had managed to kill a Clouded Leopard known for its agility and ferocity with just a few knives. Wasn't that skill enough to be alarming? They wondered who these formidable individuals were and hoped that they really didn't have guns; otherwise, they would be no match for them.
Before long, they found Xin Yi and their campsite from last night. Leixu boldly made another deduction, earning yet another round of praise and admiration from everyone before he floated away with his four defeated companions.
At this moment, Xin Yi and his group were also trudging through the jungle not far ahead of Leixu's group. Due to Roxy's poor mental state today, Xin Yi deliberately slowed down their pace while enjoying the scenery along the way. The sights in the jungle were quite captivating, especially with various rare plants and animals that dazzled the eyes. Along the way, Yanming Shop Elder acted as a guide for everyone, identifying creatures like lazy monkeys, white-cheeked gibbons, Antelopes, red-crowned cranes, white-throated kingfishers, brown-necked kingfishers, crested kingfishers, bear monkeys, macaques, pig-tailed macaques, Philippine tarsiers, pangolins, otters, golden cats, sika deer, water deer, wild chickens, white herons, green peacocks, pheasants, and Komodo dragons. Whenever Yanming Shop Elder spotted a species, he could name it and explain its habits clearly—he was like a living dictionary of the jungle. Xin Yi and his companions enjoyed listening to Yanming Shop Elder's explanations; learning more was always beneficial. Especially for Topology, who originally lived in the desert and had never even heard of many plants and animals much less seen them in person; everything in the jungle felt incredibly novel to him. Even at over forty years old, he was as excited as a child.
Suddenly Topology pointed excitedly at an animal ahead and exclaimed: "I know that one! That's a tiger! Right, elder?"
Everyone looked up and indeed saw a tiger's head peeking out from behind some bushes; it was staring intently at their group. Yanming Shop Elder kindly replied: "Yes indeed; that's a South China Tiger—fierce by nature and bloodthirsty—but we might be in a bit of trouble."
"Oh no! Right! Tigers eat people! What should we do?" Topology suddenly realized from his earlier pride in recognizing the tiger that they might indeed be in some trouble now.
Comment 0 Comment Count