Ren Yuanyang frowned, his expression grave. "This is an order, not a game!"
Hearing such a serious tone, Qin Haonan and Jin Ziyu immediately straightened up, responding in unison, "Yes, Boss!"
But the two still couldn’t see eye to eye.
Seeing their behavior, Si Youqin stepped forward and said, "Boss, if you’re worried about them, let me go with them!"
Ren Yuanyang pondered for a moment, then nodded. "Alright. Si Youqin, you’ll go with them."
"Okay!" Si Youqin replied happily.
For Ren Yuanyang to agree to let her go on a mission was a sign of his trust.
"Boss, when do we leave?" Qin Haonan asked.
"Eleven o’clock tonight," Ren Yuanyang replied. "It’s about a three-hour journey. You’ll arrive at two in the morning, which is the perfect time for reconnaissance and a surprise attack."
The three of them nodded.
"Go prepare what you’ll need for the road. Make sure to pack extra diesel," Ren Yuanyang instructed.
"Yes, sir!" Qin Haonan responded, then headed out.
"You two should get some proper rest when you have the time. Let others handle the work." Ren Yuanyang left Si Youqin and Jin Ziyu with these words before turning and leaving the yacht.
"Yes, Boss!" Si Youqin and Jin Ziyu replied respectfully.
After Ren Yuanyang left, Jin Ziyu remarked with a sigh, "I never thought I’d be going back to Dawn Base again so soon."
"Yeah... but that place holds so many painful memories for us," Si Youqin sighed.
"How about I talk to the Boss? You don’t have to go. I won’t let my personal feelings compromise the mission," Jin Ziyu said with a frown. "I’m sure the Boss will agree."
Si Youqin shook her head. "Some things you just have to face. I’m not that fragile. Besides, I want to see how Dawn Base handles this move from our Boss!"
"Sister Qin, Ziyu, come and eat!"
Jin Ziyu, who had just been empathizing with Si Youqin, immediately turned and walked toward the dining table upon hearing this.
Si Youqin paused for a moment, then smiled, shook her head, and followed.
Wang Feng had also gotten his meal from the yacht and brought it back.
Inside the shipping container, Ren Yuanyang and a few others were sitting around the dining table.
"Sir, I’ve brewed the licorice soup to be as concentrated as possible, but it still can’t fully mitigate the harshness of the Purification Potion." Hua Lingfang’s brow was tightly furrowed. "We need higher-quality licorice."
Ren Yuanyang nodded slightly. "Did the high-concentration licorice soup increase the lab mice’s survival time?"
"It did!" Hua Lingfang affirmed with certainty. "The more concentrated the licorice soup, the longer the mice lasted when injected with the mixture containing the Evolution Potion. Unfortunately, they still ultimately couldn’t withstand the potion’s effects."
"Have you considered lowering the concentration of the Evolution Potion?" Ren Yuanyang suggested.
Hua Lingfang paused, then shook his head. "We haven’t tested that yet."
"Then test it. We don’t have any higher-quality licorice at the moment," Ren Yuanyang replied.
"Understood!" Hua Lingfang responded, then asked, "Didn’t you say the Aircraft Carrier Base has licorice? Should we ask Captain Wang for some?"
"Based on the quality of our current licorice, how many times better would it need to be to be effective?" Ren Yuanyang asked after a moment of thought.
Hua Lingfang paused, frowning in thought for a good while before answering, "At least three to four times better."
"Could you find herbs of that quality in the traditional medicine markets before the floods?" Ren Yuanyang pressed.
Hua Lingfang shook his head decisively.
"Even if we got licorice from the Aircraft Carrier Base, I’m afraid it still wouldn’t meet the requirements for making the Evolution Potion," Ren Yuanyang continued.
"It seems we really do need the licorice plant itself!" Hua Lingfang lamented. "But that Dawn Base is just despicable!"
"Don’t worry, Elder Hua. I’m going to mess with them tonight. Maybe I can stir up some chaos within their base!" Qin Haonan chimed in.
Hearing this, Lu Jiamei and the others were all stunned.
"You’re going to Dawn Base tonight?" Lu Jiamei asked, her brow furrowed.
"Mhm, it’s the mission the Boss assigned me." Qin Haonan nodded, then explained Ren Yuanyang’s idea and plan.
Everyone’s faces lit up with understanding.
"If you do that, Dawn Base really won’t have a moment’s peace," Lu Jiamei said with a light chuckle, shaking her head.
"Serves them right! They’re the ones who’ve been making our lives miserable," Xin Wan cursed.
After lunch, Ren Yuanyang planted the Sound Boxes, which had grown into small saplings, in the ten spots that Qin Haonan and Wang Feng had cleared. Then he returned to his room to get some rest.
He didn’t have to go out tonight, but he needed to direct the operation remotely.
’I had originally wanted to go out myself, but ultimately decided against it.’
’I’ll go out once I become an Evolver and can protect myself.’
Back at Dawn Base, ever since Ren Yuanyang had posted that mission, the Captain had been on edge. He now saw a potential assassin in everyone. He was even too preoccupied to dote on the young starlet he had just added to his ’harem’.
’Damn it, this is so infuriating!’ the Captain cursed under his breath. He then asked aloud, "Is there anything unusual at the base right now?"
The secretary waiting just outside the door immediately replied, "No, everything is normal."
The Captain nodded slightly and pulled up the surveillance feed from the laboratory, starting to review the footage of the licorice.
He saw that Lin Mu only trimmed the licorice plant and did nothing else out of the ordinary.
Only then did the Captain close the surveillance feed, relieved.
’I hope I’m just being paranoid.’
Aside from the botanist, Lin Mu, everyone else who knew about the mission posted by Peach Blossom Base was one of his trusted confidants.
While his confidants might not get to eat their fill at every meal, at least they never went hungry. The probability of them betraying him was indeed low.
If Lin Mu hadn’t been a botanist with genuine skills, the Captain would have had him killed on the spot.
Now, it seemed Lin Mu wasn’t acting strangely at all.
After transferring the licorice to Jianghu, Lin Mu went about his work cultivating plants and conducting experiments as usual.
In the afternoon, on his way to the break room, he revealed the 2 a.m. operation time to Jianghu and reminded him to get plenty of rest during the first half of the night.
But Jianghu tossed and turned in his bed, unable to fall asleep.
He finally managed to drift off. He wasn’t sure how much time had passed when he suddenly jolted awake and quickly looked at the clock beside him.
One in the morning!
’Thank goodness I didn’t oversleep,’ Jianghu thought, relieved.
He glanced at his colleagues around him and saw that they were all sleeping soundly.
And the guards outside the door were dozing off.
’Now I just have to wait for Lin Mu to make his move. I hope everything goes smoothly for him.’ Jianghu listened intently to the sounds outside.
There was nothing but the sound of the wind and rain.
Lin Mu was a researcher, while Jianghu was an Evolver. The two of them did not rest in the same cabin.
Half an hour slowly passed. Lin Mu’s eyes snapped open. He rose slowly, careful not to wake his colleagues or the guards. He crept to the laboratory. Using a stolen key, he opened the storage room for flammable and explosive materials. He covered the camera, then opened all the chemical containers and poured them onto the floor.
Just as he picked up a barrel of alcohol to prepare a fuse, he suddenly heard the voices of a patrol team outside the door.
"The control room says something is blocking the camera in the flammables and explosives storage. Let’s go check it out!"
"Why are the guys in the control room so lazy? Can’t they go take a look themselves?"
"Whatever. We’ve got nothing better to do. Think of it as a stroll."
As the voices grew closer, Lin Mu felt he was done for this time. There was no escape.
’A scholar like me definitely can’t fight a patrol team!’
Just as he was considering whether to take them down with him, a broadcast suddenly blared from outside.
"Attention all members of Dawn Base! We at Peach Blossom Base have issued a mission. Whoever can kill the Captain of Dawn, our base guarantees you’ll never have to worry about food or drink again. Now is the best time for you to make your move! Peach Blossom Base is waiting on the perimeter to extract you!"
Those few short sentences instantly woke up everyone in Dawn Base.
"Have they no decency? Blasting a broadcast this late at night! Are they trying to keep people from sleeping?"
"What’s going on? Did I just hear something about an assassination mission?"
"Assassination? Assassinate who?"
"I think... our Captain!"
"I must be dreaming, or someone’s playing a joke! With our abilities, how could we possibly assassinate the Captain?"
"But Peach Blossom Base said that if we kill the Captain, we’re guaranteed to never worry about food or drink again!"
"You don’t actually believe that, do you? It’s just something they said."
"But what if it’s true? I’m so hungry my stomach is touching my spine!"

Comments

Loading...