At noon, Hong Fei and Frank boarded a plane bound for the other side of the Earth.
Frank wore a suit, paired with a clean, short buzz cut and a chiseled face. His demeanor had suddenly upgraded from that of a worker to a crime lord.
Hong Fei's attire, on the other hand, was simpler. His casual style made him look like a college student.
"Frank, next time we go out, put on some sunglasses and stand behind me."
Frank curled the corner of his mouth. "You want to be the boss?"
Hong Fei said, "It's not that I want to, it's that I already am!"
"That's right, you are indeed the boss." Frank replied with a smile, though his tone didn't sound sincere at all. Hong Fei simply put on an eye mask and laid down to rest. The plane took off, crossing over land and ocean. After several transfers and more than twenty hours later, the two arrived at their destination, Afghanistan, while it was still bright outside.
Upon leaving Kabul airport, Frank said, "I never thought that one day I would voluntarily return to this godforsaken place."
"Life is just that strange."
"Where are we going next?"
Hong Fei hailed a taxi and said, "To sleep, of course. I haven't seen night for over twenty hours."
Checking into a hotel, the two fell asleep the moment their heads hit the pillows.
At nine in the evening, they went out.
The hotel staff handed a leather bag to Hong Fei.
Opening the bag, there were only two keys inside.
Frank frowned. "You spent these two days preparing just this?"
Hong Fei smiled. "Don't be impatient."
Leaving the hotel, the two walked, turning left and right, until they arrived at a desolate suburb where shipping containers were everywhere.
Staring at the numbers on the containers, Hong Fei finally stopped at a certain spot. After inserting the key, he turned his head and said, "Are you ready to witness a miracle?"
Frank kept a sullen face and remained silent.
The iron door made a clanging sound, and inside was pitch black.
Hong Fei's eyes turned slightly red; everything in the dark night became perfectly clear. With a click, he pressed the switch, and the lights at the top of the container immediately illuminated.
Instantly, an off-road vehicle with an earthy yellow exterior and incredibly rugged lines came into view.
"This is good stuff. It's out of production, so it's hard to buy." Hong Fei sighed, then turned and walked toward the container next to it. After opening this one, the items inside finally made Frank deeply moved. From goggles to helmets, from pistols to assault rifles, from light and heavy machine guns to sniper rifles, piles upon piles of ammunition, crate after crate of various throwing grenades; RPG shells were stacked from the bottom all the way to the top of the container. He even discovered a mortar behind the packed crates!
"Are you crazy?" Frank looked at the large amount of military supplies in disbelief.
"Crazy?" Hong Fei raised an eyebrow. "I think you misunderstand me, and you might even misunderstand yourself. What did you think I brought you here for?"
Frank turned to stare at Hong Fei, his eyes wide.
"What exactly do you want to do? I can help with intelligence, but there's a limit to what I'll do!"
"I know that, of course. A bottom line is a good thing; everyone should have one. I absolutely won't cross my own. Do you know what the first rule of my code of conduct is?"
Frank continued to glare at him.
Hong Fei said, "Rule number one: When you don't have to kill, absolutely do not kill. How about that? Isn't that a little higher than your bottom line?"
Frank narrowed his eyes, catching the subtext of Hong Fei's words. He knew that when Hong Fei acted, he rarely left anyone alive.
The argument ended, and the two entered the container to change into their gear.
When they reappeared, they were fully armed from head to toe. At first glance, they looked more elite than many countries' special forces.
No reason other than the fact that they spent too much money!
Hong Fei touched the equipment on his body, which had many components, and found it quite novel. In reality, if it weren't for Frank, he might not have even known how to put the gear on.
Frank was an undisputed veteran, a soldier with excellent military training.
He reached out to adjust the infrared thermal imager on Hong Fei's helmet, and couldn't help but say, "Wearing this kind of equipment is a waste on you."
"Hey, I'm telling you, don't go too far. I paid for this!"
Frank sighed, turned his head to look at the large amount of equipment in the container, and after pondering for a moment, furrowed his brows and asked again, "What exactly do you want to do? If you don't say it now, I can't adjust the equipment. There are only two of us; we can't possibly take everything."
It wasn't impossible!
Looking at Frank's serious expression, Hong Fei held back a smile.
"This isn't a kidnapping in the true sense. In fact, our target will first encounter an attack by local armed militants, and our mission is to snatch him back after the attack. They are the mantis stalking the cicada, and we are the oriole behind them."
"I am not a bird."
"I didn't say you were a bird, you illiterate!"
Next, Frank began to select from the large quantity of weapons. He took the most machine guns and ammunition, followed by RPG ammunition.
The more Hong Fei watched, the more he felt something was wrong, so he finally took matters into his own hands.
Frank immediately called a halt. "Wait, what are you doing?"
"Helping!"
"Are you sure we need that thing?"
In front of Hong Fei was the only mortar in the entire container.
"Of course, this cost me quite a bit of money; wouldn't it b..."
"Its power is indeed not small," Frank said, "but we only have one vehicle. Taking it means we have to take the shells, which will compress the carrying capacity for other weapons and ammunition."
"It won't be much less. We must take it. Isn't firing one shot from that more useful than you aiming for half a day?"
This was the core philosophy Hong Fei had always upheld. Unlike challenges or sparring, if the purpose was purely lethality, then Hong Fei could abandon the use of personal force without any pressure and instead embrace modern weaponry. In his previous life, this was also a point for which Master Hong was highly criticized.
Put in the current context, that meant if it could be solved with a cannon, he would absolutely not use a gun.
"The enemy won't just stand there stupidly and let you fire shells at them."
"Then don't let them discover us."
"Do you know how to use it?"
"No, but don't I have you now? Don't tell me you don't know how. Also, we don't have much time left. Are you sure you want to keep agonizing over this?"
Frank sighed heavily, turned his head away, and continued to move the ammunition.
In the early morning, the vehicle loaded with ammunition set off, driving toward the wilderness.
Frank asked, "Do you know the exact location?"
"Roughly."
"There is no 'roughly' in the military!"
"Alright, this isn't the military either. I'm almost starting to regret bringing you here." Hong Fei quipped, then added, "Kunar Province isn't big. There aren't many armed forces active in this area, and there is only one that has the guts and the capability to snatch people from the U.S. military. Their previous activity range was a narrow strip. Although it's hard to pinpoint their exact location in the desert mountains, if you add the U.S. military's activity area, the two overlap, and a route they must pass through emerges."
Frank pondered for a moment, then said, "Even if everything you said is correct, how can we find the enemy's detailed location? They are more familiar with these desert mountains than we are, and driving a car will sooner or later lead to us being discovered."
Hong Fei clicked off the headlights.
In the dark night, there was only dim moonlight, and it was difficult to see anything more than a few meters away.
Hong Fei said, "You can't see, but I can. Also, I forgot to tell you, I am a mature hunter, and I have unique tracking techniques."
The Eyes of Death activated once again. Beyond the clear black-and-white image in his vision, there were also exceptionally distinct white trails. They spread out across the ground, either straight or twisted. At the end of the trails, one could often find a red body—those were the animals active in the desert at night.