allonlinenovel Chapter 823 A Salute to You, Nanyang Mechanics!
Chapter 823 A Salute to You, Nanyang Mechanics!
Just as Ah Kun was stunned by this unexpected counterattack, and Grandpa Chen was annoyed that he had "missed the mark"—
At the end of the path through the rubber plantation, two young men, dressed in typical local short-sleeved shirts but exuding a sharp and capable air, appeared out of nowhere.
One of the older, more muscular men put down his binoculars, a fierce glint in his dark face. He turned to a younger man who looked more refined and said, "I've taken care of those three troublemakers. Can you handle the aftermath?"
The younger man smiled helplessly, pulled out a badge hidden in his shirt and waved it: "Brother Ru, don't worry, in this area, the CIA's name is sometimes more useful than a local police license. It's just a bit troublesome, you have to prepare a report… You need…"
Before he could finish speaking…
The older youth, known as "Brother Ru," had already swiftly raised the "Eight Big Grains" that he always carried at his side:
"Clap! Clap! Clap!"
Three crisp, rapid bursts of fire rang out almost simultaneously! The marksmanship was terrifyingly accurate!
Three crisp, clean gunshots rang out, their precision terrifying. The first shot knocked away the powder gun Ah Kun had just raised; the second grazed the scalp of the henchman wielding the knife, ripping off his hat; and the third shot pierced Ah Kun's crotch, embedding him in the mud between his legs.
Then, the same sound rang five more times until the "eight-round" magazine automatically ejected, making a crisp "ding" sound.
"Damn it! Bro! I wasn't finished speaking!" the young man exclaimed in surprise. "A title is useful, but making too much noise can be troublesome! We came here on a mission!"
Ru Ge curled his lip in disdain, revealing his signature smile with half a missing front tooth, and spat on the ground: "What's the rush? He's not dead! I'm a sharpshooter."
The two men quickly approached, and the younger one breathed a sigh of relief upon discovering that the three men were indeed alive.
As for Brother Ru, seeing that the others were still able to move, he pouted in annoyance. After glancing at the rifle's sights, he muttered with some dissatisfaction, "Damn, I missed... I was going to flick half of his ear off."
The artsy young man shuddered...
Wait a minute. The newcomer's surname is Ru? And he's missing half a front tooth? Plus, his marksmanship is phenomenal…
Isn't this Squad Leader Ru, the apprentice of Company Commander Tang, the Heavenly Killer Star?
How did he suddenly appear in this foreign land thousands of miles away?
It turned out that after he accompanied Chief of the Guards to escort the prisoners back to Beijing, he did not stay. Instead, according to the plan he had made earlier, he went directly south to Hong Kong to meet up with Mulan.
Do you remember the idea that Jiang Xia discussed with Company Commander Tang on the special train about reassigning some of the demobilized soldiers?
These experienced veterans were originally headed to the company founded by Mulan, where they would use their experience and courage to help her gain a foothold in the complex world of Hong Kong and deal with some of the more troublesome situations.
However, Tang, the company commander, was dissatisfied that Cheng, the sergeant, and others had put Jiangxia in danger when dealing with enemy situations. Therefore, he strongly requested his superiors to stay with Jiangxia temporarily until he returned to Beijing safely before heading south.
Therefore, Sergeant Ru led a group of his men to Hong Kong ahead of time.
To their surprise, shortly after their arrival, they received a massive purchasing list brought back by Uncle Jin. So, they split into two groups and began their journey to find the goods.
It was thanks to Uncle Kim's keen intuition and accurate intelligence analysis that he deduced the bald eagle was very likely to personally intervene in Jiaozhi.
The world's largest archipelago nation is also one of the world's most important producers of natural rubber. If the conflict escalates, the price of this strategic resource will inevitably skyrocket, while domestic industrial development, especially in manufacturing sectors like tires, also has a huge and urgent demand for rubber.
"Now, before the news spreads completely and prices take off, we should buy and stockpile in large quantities. Whether it's to stabilize domestic costs or... well, for necessary market operations, it's a sure thing! This is called being prepared for a rainy day!" Uncle Jin said in the secret telegram. His far-sighted planning and shrewd calculations were truly impressive.
Oh, Uncle Kim, I'm so upset! While getting freebies, he also managed to stockpile strategic supplies at home...
Thus, Squad Leader Ru and Johnson, tasked with both "procurement" and "exploration," appeared on this land rich in rubber.
……
Johnson and his companion quickly approached the three people.
First, he kicked Ah Kun, who had just gotten up, so hard he fell face-first into the dirt. Then, Johnson, in his newly learned Javanese, stammered:
"Get out... Get out of here right now! If you come again... If you come again, beat... Beat them to death!"
The pronunciation is a bit strange, and the way the final sound floats around is extremely awkward.
But Ah Kun wasn't in the mood to laugh. He scrambled and crawled into the rubber plantation with his follower, disappearing in the blink of an eye.
Grandpa Chen, holding onto the railing, hesitated as he walked down from the terrace. He looked at the two young men in short-sleeved shirts who didn't seem to be of local Chinese descent, his brow furrowed, and asked in fluent Javanese, "Who are you? Why are you helping me?"
Johnson was dumbfounded...
He only knew a few words in the Javanese he had hastily learned: "roll," "hit," and "money." He couldn't understand a single word of the old man's string of words. He could only scratch his head and look at Class Monitor Ru with a blank expression: "What... what did he say? I don't understand."
Squad leader Ru suppressed a laugh and patted him on the shoulder: "Didn't you say you were cramming for lessons? Turns out all you learned was the word 'get lost'?"
Johnson scoffed. He could have easily said he'd kill her. Too bad, that wasn't necessary in the current situation…
The awkwardness is spreading...
Johnson was so anxious that his face turned red, fearing that Grandpa Chen would misunderstand them as bad people. In his haste, he suddenly blurted out in Cantonese, "Grandpa, don't be afraid! We're not bad people!"
Upon hearing this, Grandpa Chen froze. His ancestral home was Meixian, Guangdong. Although he had lived in Java for over fifty years and his Cantonese was no longer fluent, the familiar accent still struck him like an electric shock. He took two shaky steps forward and replied in broken Cantonese, "You...you can speak Cantonese? You are...are Chinese?"
Johnson's eyes lit up; he had finally found someone he could communicate with. He quickly nodded and spoke in Cantonese, gesturing as he said, "Yes! We're from China! We've come here to buy rubber to help develop industry in the country!"
Squad leader Ru stepped forward and added in slightly broken but clear Cantonese: "Grandpa, we know that overseas Chinese have a hard time. We saw that local bully bullying you, so we stepped in to help you."
Johnson, the young man, looked at Class Monitor Ru in surprise: "When did you learn to speak Cantonese?"
Squad Leader Ru, with his nose sticking out high, said, "Is it that hard? A little bit..."
Grandpa Chen stared into their eyes for a long time, his cloudy eyes gradually welling up with tears. He had heard too many languages in his life—Javanese, Malay, Dutch—but only Cantonese, with its familiar accent, made his heart burn.
He wiped his face, his voice choked with emotion: "Really... really a young man from China? I... I thought I'd never see a fellow countryman again in this lifetime..."
"Yes, Grandpa!" Johnson quickly steadied him, afraid he'd fall from his excitement. "We're sent by China to purchase rubber... There's a severe shortage of rubber for tire and seal manufacturing in China, and we want to buy it from the Chinese first. The price they'll offer is definitely fair!" (Um, I'm using Mandarin here because I'm afraid you won't understand.)
"However, they're using the CIA name! Don't let that slip!"
Grandpa Chen shakily led the two men into the house, poured them a cup of cold tea, and remained silent for a long while. Suddenly, as if he had made up his mind, he looked up at them and said, "Young men, I can sell you the rubber at a low price, or even for free... But could you help me exchange it for some weapons? I reckon getting a CIA identity shouldn't be too difficult!"
Johnson and Class Monitor Ru exchanged a glance, both somewhat surprised.
Sergeant Ru asked, "Grandpa, what do you need the weapon for?" Johnson, however, put his right hand into his pocket and began to survey his surroundings.
Grandpa Chen sighed, pointing to the rubber plantation outside the window, his tone full of helplessness: "Recently, the locals have been looking at us Chinese with increasingly fierce eyes. That Ah Kun isn't the first one to cause trouble. I used to tolerate it, but I have a grandson to raise, and I don't want him to live like this in the future, living in fear in other people's land."
Grandpa Chen clenched his fists, a resolute glint in his eyes: "It's better to rely on yourself than on others. With some weapons to protect ourselves, at least we can safeguard this manor and my grandson."
A long string of Cantonese made the novice squad leader, Ru, frown, but Qiang Sheng readily agreed: "We can find you weapons, but only hunting rifles and bullets for self-defense, not heavy weapons, lest you get into even bigger trouble. We won't shortchange you on the rubber; that's the rule, it's the motherland's way of showing its love to its fellow countrymen."
Huh? You young upstart, already taking on so much responsibility? There's something fishy about this old man! Didn't you see him get the idea for weapons only after you said the CIA?
Squad Leader Ru glared at the young man, Qiang Sheng, but then, following Qiang Sheng's signal, Squad Leader Ru noticed the smiling young man on the wall behind the old man.
Compared to the photo upstairs, the young man in this photo is wearing work clothes, which are covered in oil stains, and even his face is covered in black and white patches.
The young man, still holding a wrench, grinned broadly at the camera after crawling out from under a truck. A flag lay in the distance in the photo.
The bald eagle's...
"Comrade! Is your son a mechanic from Southeast Asia?"
Squad leader Ru stood up abruptly and gave the old man a straight look.
"Greetings, veteran! The former People's Army of China salutes you!"
Grandpa Chen had some difficulty understanding Mandarin, but somehow, those seven words sent a shiver down his spine.
Those words sounded so familiar; he'd only ever heard them on the radio before. Now, the person who uttered those seven words was right in front of him…
"Waaaaah... Has the motherland sent its own child?"
It turns out that Grandpa Li hadn't thought that much about it; he was just instinctively drawn to his local accent...
The herbal tea steamed on the table, and in the rubber forest outside the window, the wind carried the familiar scent of home, gently rustling the leaves, as if singing a warm song for this reunion of compatriots who had crossed mountains and seas.
……
Meanwhile, at a pharmaceutical factory in Northeast China.
"Waaaaah... The higher-ups finally sent someone to help? But why is he so small..." A little girl wearing black-rimmed glasses burst into tears as she looked at someone whose hair was twitching wildly from being jostled around by the mule.
Jiang Xia, who had just regained her footing, was taken aback by this sudden "personal attack." She subconsciously raised her hand to tidy up her disheveled hair, trying to make the tuft of hair lie down.
It's a pity that if it could lie flat, it wouldn't be called a cowlick.
He cleared his throat somewhat awkwardly:
"Hey, comrade, you're making me lose face..." Jiang Xia tried to make his expression look more mature and reliable. "My youthful appearance is because my mother gave me good looks! That can't be considered a flaw, right?"
"Waaah... But... But..." The little girl couldn't listen to anything, and her tears fell even harder. She felt that the factory's future and her own efforts were all in vain.
"Tsk, stop crying," Jiang Xia, who had been single since birth in both her lives, was at a loss and could only resort to grand principles:
"Isn't it said that women hold up half the sky? Your crying makes me seriously doubt your professionalism."
Jiang Xia clumsily tried to provoke him, while simultaneously changing the subject, and put on the kindest possible smile: "By the way, this crybaby comrade, what is your surname?"
The little girl sobbed, wiped away her tears forcefully, and answered loudly with a nasal tone, "I... my surname is Zhang!"
“Oh, Comrade Zhang…” Before Jiang Xia could finish speaking, the young girl, as if to prove something, suddenly puffed out her chest and, with a tearful yet unusually loud voice, completed her self-introduction:
"Call him Cheng Gui!"
The boy's knees buckled a little. "Okay, Comrade Zhang, no problem. Comrade Cheng Gui, should I kowtow to you?"