Chapter Eighteen: The Terrorist Base

  Being caught again made me have great doubts about my own judgment and also gave me a new understanding of my abilities.

  Facing a fully armed and ruthless ****, I was like a lamb to be slaughtered, completely losing the ability to resist.

  This time, in order to prevent me from escaping, they threatened me with Song Jiabao's life and repeatedly warned me: "If you dare to escape again, we will immediately kill Song Jiabao and the other hostages."

  I knew that this time there was no possibility of escape, so I cooperated very well and replied to them: "As long as you guarantee the recovery of Song Jiabao, I will not run away again."

  "Don't worry, we'll definitely do what we promised, but your friend Song Jiabao is seriously injured. The medical conditions here are too poor, so we can only send him to our base for treatment."

  I furrowed my brow: "Your base?"

  Li Huan nodded: "If you're still worried, then go with Song Jiabao together. After Song Jiabao's injury heals, you can come back."

  I'm really curious: "Why don't you go back to your base? Instead of fighting with the government army here, why not just go back..."

  "Older brother" coldly interrupted my words: "You little brat, don't come here to disturb the military's mind with this set of tricks. Honestly, I'll tell you, we came here this time just to establish a new base here and have a good fight with your dogshit government."

  "I couldn't help but say: 'Although your weapons are excellent and you have a considerable number of people, if you want to confront the government's army, I'm afraid it's still...'"

  Li Huan interrupted me: "Your government is either a bunch of incompetent fools or corrupt officials, they are not even our match. If your government didn't have control over a large number of troops, we would have eliminated you long ago."

  I knew they were all brainwashed, full of hostility towards the government in their hearts. Whatever I said, they wouldn't listen, so I changed the subject: "Let's not talk about this anymore, when are we leaving for your base? Song Jiabao needs urgent treatment, can't delay any longer."

  Li Huan glanced at "Lao Da" and said: "I'll contact the base immediately. If everything goes smoothly, we can leave by noon."

  "Old Big Brother" nodded: "Wu Old Four and Li Huanhuan return to the base together, be more careful on the road. I heard that our enemy has assembled a large number of armed helicopters to participate in this war, you must try your best to avoid them on the way."

  Li Huanhuan and Wu Laosi responded in unison: "Yes, boss!"

  I looked at the reverence and adoration in their eyes for "Lao Da", and sighed silently, knowing that they had been completely brainwashed, and it was too difficult to change them.

  I originally planned to find a breakthrough within them, rescue the captured hostages and, if lucky, might even get some valuable intelligence out of it, but now it seems my idea is hard to achieve.

  Song Jiabao and I were taken aboard a helicopter that looked like it was for civilian use, and we quickly left the area with its endless mountains and mining tunnels.

  I stayed in this place for only a few dozen hours, but when I left, I felt a hint of reluctance. I don't even know what I'm reluctant to leave behind, maybe it's the mountains here, or maybe it's the trees and grass, or perhaps it's just the people who are still here with whom I've shared hardships.

  The helicopter flew for about three hours before landing in a remote area.

  We were escorted onto a cross-country vehicle that had been waiting there all along. Before the helicopter even left, Wu Laosi drove away.

  The rear seats of the off-road vehicle were all removed, and a simple bed was temporarily added to one side of the back row. Song Jiabao was placed on the bed. I and Li Huanhuan sat opposite the bed, convenient for taking care of Song Jiabao.

  Wu Laosi was driving and didn't say a word all the way, as if he was thinking about something.

  The car had been driving for less than half an hour when Wu Laosi suddenly turned his head and said: "Li Huanhuan, let's get off here."

  "Have they arrived?" Li Huanhuan nodded and asked.

  Wu Laosi responded with a grunt, stopped the car and got out: "Jin Cang, bring down Song's treasure."

  I hastily helped Wu Laosi carry Song Jiabao down from the vehicle, and as I looked around, all I saw was desolation in every direction, with endless yellow sand stretching out before us - we had somehow ended up in the middle of a desert.

  I didn't notice it on the bus, but now that I suddenly see the desert, my heart can't help but panic. From childhood to adulthood, I have never been to a desert before, and the desert is quite unfamiliar to me.

  For an unfamiliar environment, humans usually have a natural fear, and I am no exception, especially under the current circumstances.

  "I couldn't help but complain: 'How did you bring us to such a godforsaken place? With Uncle Song Jiabao's injury so severe, how could he come here? You guys don't keep your promises...'"

  Wu Laosi heard my words and was about to get angry, but Li Huanhuan quickly said: "You don't know the situation, so don't talk nonsense. This is just one of our transit stations, our destination is not in this desert."

  I suddenly realized and thought to myself: "I knew it, how can people live in a place like this? Moreover, Song Jia Bao's injury is very serious and needs urgent treatment, how can there be doctors in a place like this?"

  Li Huanhuan raised her hand to cover her forehead, taking a glance at the vast expanse of yellow sand: "It wasn't like this before. Our organization built a base here and had over 5,000 people... Unfortunately, three years ago, someone betrayed our organization and brought government troops to attack us. We suffered heavy losses in the unguarded state... Since then, we moved our base to its current location. To prevent such a thing from happening again, we had to take risks to find a second place to establish a second base, just in case."

  I nodded slowly, thinking to myself: Your organization does not follow the law, and you are ruthless and violent in your actions, causing social unrest and making it difficult for ordinary people to live and work in peace, so of course the government will send troops to attack you...

  I dare not say these words out loud, but as for their experiences, I don't feel the slightest bit of sympathy for them. On the contrary, I have some secret delight, after all, one less **** means one more safety for the common people.

  Li Huanhuan is indeed a very clever person, she almost saw through my thoughts at a glance, and said coldly: "You don't have to be happy, our current personnel has long surpassed the original. We now have more than 10,000 people, not counting the old and young. We have our own army, schools, hospitals and other institutions, as well as our own land, we have mountains, fields, rivers, mines... Our strength is enough to confront your government. Unless your government recognizes the legitimacy of our existence, otherwise, we will continue to attack your government, including all those who support that government."

  I was shocked, I didn't expect these **** to have such great power. It seems that our government needs to speed up the elimination of these ****. Otherwise, when their strength becomes even stronger, it will be more difficult to eliminate them.

  Song Jiabao originally didn't have much strength to speak, but now he was also startled and couldn't help asking: "What is your organization... called?"

  Li Huanhuan was taken aback: "You've been fighting us for so long and you still don't know the name of our organization?"

  Song Jiabao and I both shook our heads, we really didn't know.

  Since the terrorist attack, I have either been on the run or recovering from injuries, and I really haven't heard anyone mention which organization launched this terrorist attack.

  Li Huan's face was full of disbelief, but he still said: "We are called the Wanlong Association, remember that." He paused for a moment: "Our Wanlong Association is divided into four major factions: Red, Yellow, Green and Purple. In addition, there is the White Dragon faction, which is our disciplinary department, equivalent to your public security bureau."

  I feel refreshed, as if I were in the midst of those old societies' underworld organizations. I couldn't help but ask: "What are the differences between the Red Dragon Society, Yellow Dragon Society, Green Dragon Society and Purple Dragon Society?"

  Li Huanhuan didn't hide it: "Our Red Dragon Society is our army, currently with over 8,000 warriors and extremely strong combat power. Your government troops are no match for us. As for the Yellow Dragon Society, it's our economic department, responsible for managing everyone's food, clothing, shelter, as well as various weapons and equipment and other facilities."

  Looking at Li Huanhuan's somewhat proud appearance, I couldn't help but secretly sigh: this Wanlong Association has such a rigorous organizational structure, coupled with such strong combat power and such deep cohesion, wanting to easily annihilate them is really difficult.

  Li Huan continued, "I am a member of the Purple Dragon Association. Our association is a comprehensive department that handles all sorts of difficulties, disputes, and conflicts that we face... The Green Dragon Association is our liaison department, but I can't say more about this."

  "Wu Lao Si said at this time: 'What's the point of telling them these things? They're not our people anyway.'"

  Li Huanhuan didn't answer, she just looked at me with a glance, and her eyes seemed to have some blame in them.

  I didn't ask anymore and looked at the desert scenery, quietly waiting.

  Before long, a rather noisy sound came, and when I looked up, I saw a helicopter flying in the sky.

  This time the helicopter that came was an armed helicopter, looking like it was fully loaded with ammunition, majestic and very eye-catching.

  Li Huanhuan waved his hand towards the sky, turned around and said to me: "It's our people who have come to pick us up, now I can tell you, my base is at sea, if you don't know how to swim, be careful."

  I was taken aback: "How did you know I couldn't swim?"

  Li Huan smiled: "I guessed it, you really can't swim? That's good, I don't have to worry about you running away anymore."

  I could only smile wryly: "So that's what you meant, I thought..." My voice was completely drowned out by the helicopter's engine roar.

  I was pushed onto the plane, carefully taking care of Song Jiabao. His injuries were getting heavier and heavier. Although he had received some treatment before, due to poor medical conditions, there was not much effect. Seeing his wound still bleeding, I just hoped to arrive at **** base as soon as possible to treat Song Jiabao's injury urgently.

  In the past, I would have tried every means to get as far away from this base as possible. But today, I'm actually looking forward to entering it as soon as possible. Not for any other reason, just so that I can repay the kindness Song Jiabao showed me by helping him recover.

  To repay kindness with kindness and to avenge injuries with injuries is the way of men in our village.

  The armed helicopter was still flying very fast, and after a few hours, I saw a large sea appearing on the ground not far away.

  The helicopter continued flying and about an hour later, Li Huanhuan suddenly pointed to a cruise ship on the sea surface and said loudly: "We're here!"

  I vaguely heard her words and finally understood why Li Huanhuan said their base was at sea.

  What is this base, it's clearly a very large cruise ship. However, this cruise ship is indeed very, very big, at least I've never seen such a huge passenger ship, almost as big as an aircraft carrier.

  As for the ship, I'm not very familiar with it, but I estimated that this ship is at least 300 meters long and at least 60 meters wide, the whole ship looks like a small piece of land.

  But can it hold over 10,000 people? I have a question in my mind.

  The helicopter landed quickly on the elevator platform at the front of the cruise ship, and after we all got off the helicopter, it took off again.

  I couldn't help but ask Li Huanhuan: "It's impossible for this ship to hold over 10,000 people as you said?"

  Li Huan smiled: "Who said there were over 10,000 people here? Many of our people are scattered in various places, and only a part of them are here."

  I wanted to ask again, but then I saw a few ordinary-looking people walking towards us. They shouted from afar at Li Huanhuan: "Are you back? Was it smooth?"

  Li Huanhuan and Wu Laosi were also very happy, saying loudly: "You're back! Are you all okay?"

  Those people came over and took a look at me and Song Jiabao, then turned around and smiled at Li Huanhuan: "Who is this little guy? Can't be your boyfriend, right?"

  Li Huan was taken aback, then smiled and said: "They are our hostages. This time things didn't go very smoothly, we brought back some hostages. Right, hurry up and take us to see Dr. Hua, this person is seriously injured and needs surgery immediately."

  Those few people didn't say much more and immediately lifted Song Jiabao and left.

  I hurriedly followed up, but Li Huanhuan pulled me back and gave me a look, indicating that I shouldn't leave in a hurry.

  I thought she wouldn't let me follow her, so I honestly stayed in place.

  Wu Laosi glanced at Li Huanhuan and didn't say anything, then turned around and left.

  Li Huanhuan said at this time: "Dr. Hua has a bad temper, let's not go over there, if we annoy Dr. Hua, no one will save your friend."

  I nodded: "Then how can I know about Song Jiabao's treatment situation?"

  Li Huanhuan thought for a moment: "As soon as I have any news, I will let you know, don't worry."

  I suddenly felt she didn't seem too bad after all, so I smiled and thanked her.

  Li Huanhuan looked at me strangely and said in a bad tone, "Who cares about your thanks? We're not on the same road. After your friend recovers, you'll still be our hostage."

  I was at a loss for words and just felt that this person was unreasonable.

  Li Huan saw that I didn't respond, and unexpectedly said: "Don't think I'm helping you, I just feel that if you die like this, it's not worth it...I don't have any good feelings towards you..."

  I smiled wryly: "I know."

  Li Huanhuan turned around and raised his hand, shouting loudly: "Purple Dragon Li Huanhuan, bringing one hostage back to the team, requesting instructions."

  A voice came from a small room on one side of the deck: "Take the hostages to the hold, someone will make arrangements."

  Li Huanhuan nodded and led me down to the bottom hold of the cruise ship. Everywhere on the cruise ship, you could see **** holding guns, still wearing their uniform headgear, making it impossible to discern their facial features.

  When we reached the bottom of the hold, we saw Wu Laosi also in the hold. He was talking to a middle-aged woman at this moment. When he saw us, he pointed at me and said to the woman: "He is the hostage we brought back this time, named Jin Cang. You must pay attention to him, he is very good at escaping, and has escaped from our hands several times."

  The middle-aged woman raised her head and looked at me coldly, saying: "Once you're here, unless you want to feed the sharks, don't think about escaping."

  I nodded and couldn't help but glance at Li Huanhuan, yet said to the woman: "I don't know how to swim, I won't be able to run away."

  Li Huan couldn't help but laugh: "This is indeed the truth. Aunt Li, arrange for him to go to Zilong Association to help out, he's very capable."

  It turned out that this middle-aged woman was called Aunt Li. Aunt Li said, "No way, new comers must pass our test before they can work in various branches."

  Li Huanhuan said "oh" and looked at me, saying: "Behave well, maybe we'll meet again."

  I shook my head: "I just hope you can really cure Uncle Song Jiabao."

  Li Huanhuan wanted to say something else, but Aunt Li urged: "Jin Cang come with me, you can leave, no idle personnel is allowed in here."

  I followed Li Shu into a small room. She turned around and said, "Every room here has a camera that can see your every move at any time, so I advise you not to have any bad ideas."

  As I looked up, there was indeed a camera in one corner of the ceiling: "My friend is still in your hands, I won't run away."

  Aunt Li looked at me and said no more, turned around and went out, locking the door behind her.

  I feel like I've been sentenced to life imprisonment, standing alone in a small room. It's really lonely and boring. If it weren't for that one dim yellow light, I would have gone crazy.

  There wasn't even a single chair in the room, so we could only stand or sit on the cold floor. The floor was made of steel, and it must have been uncomfortable to sit on, but there was no other choice, so we had to make do with sitting down.

  Compared to prison, the environment here is even worse, it can be said that there is almost nothing. Around dinner time in the evening, a big man wearing a hood threw me a bag of instant noodles and a small bottle of water from a small hole on the door, coarsely saying "dinner", and then walked away without even opening the door.

  I stared at the instant noodles on the ground, the kind that cost one yuan per bag. Normally, I couldn't get full even with three bags, but now I only had one. No choice, I wolfed down the instant noodles and drank the small bottle of water, then lay down on the cold steel floor to sleep early.

  If you don't eat enough, you need to sleep more. Otherwise, the consumption will be greater and you'll get hungrier. This is my experience summed up over the past few days.

  Maybe it's because I haven't had a good rest recently, even lying on the cold floor, I fell asleep quickly.

  I slept very well that night, I don't know if it's because I felt like I was already in the depths of a tiger's den and things couldn't get any worse, so my mood relaxed and I slept very soundly.

  When I woke up, the big man who delivered food had already thrown a bag of instant noodles and a small bottle of water into my room.

  I knew this was going to be my breakfast, so I hastily finished it in a few mouthfuls, tore open the bag and spread it out on the floor. The bag may be small, but if there are many of them, they can still cover an area for me to sleep on, at least better than lying directly on the floor.

  I spent seven days in this "prison", and with the instant noodle packaging from the night I arrived, I have collected 22 of them. I laid them all out on the ground, and surprisingly, it was like a simple bed that could be used for sleeping.

  For seven days, no one has entered my room except for the person who brings a small amount of food and water every day. On the second day at noon, the big man who brought lunch also gave me a chamber pot.

  Alas... this is a life I never imagined, and yet I'm living it now. The elderly often say things like "why are things so forced, being coerced into helplessness", and that's exactly my situation now - being coerced into helplessness, living a life akin to that of primitive humans.

  Today is the ninth day since I arrived at this place in the morning, I feel a stench on my body and also feel itchy all over my body, can't help but want to scratch, stretched out my hands and found that both of my hands are full of black dirt, which makes me feel sick.

  It's been nine days now, and it's already the ninth day since arriving at this **** base. I don't know how Song Jiabao's injury is doing, but if everything goes smoothly, he should be recovering by now.

  I quietly count the days, and also quietly think about everything in the past. In the past, I often felt that I was unfortunate, lamenting how hard I worked, and even sometimes complaining about others being unfair to me... Now looking back, I just find it all very amusing. At the same time, I feel that my past self really didn't know how good I had it. Nowadays, having fallen to this state, although it's unexpected, it has given me a lot of inspiration and reflections on life.

  I secretly made up my mind: if I can survive and return, I will study even harder, never skip a class again; when doing chores at home, I will not be lazy anymore; when seeing parents and relatives, I will definitely be friendly and courteous; even if I see an enemy, I will not argue with them...

  Unfortunately, can I still go back?

  Going back, whether it's back to school or back home, has become the most luxurious thing for me right now!

  Only those who have lost their freedom can appreciate its preciousness.

  Time passed day by day, and soon I had been in this base for a month. In this month, I couldn't take half a step out of this small room, nor could I eat any other food - except instant noodles.

  So I got sick, just last night, I was originally sleeping on the floor, and suddenly something woke me up. When I fully woke up, my head felt very painful, as if I had caught a cold.

  The rest of the night was spent in suffering and panic. In the past, when I had a cold, I would take some medicine, cover myself with a blanket and sleep it off, but now there was no medicine or blanket. With a high fever, all I could feel was wave after wave of chills, and I couldn't help but shiver all over. Adding to my worry that this minor cold might be the end of me, my mind began to wander and I started to panic.

  The next morning, I couldn't wake up and lay dazed on the cold floor, unable to move.

  The big man who delivered food finally opened the door to the room, he walked in and kicked me with his foot, saying loudly: "Pretend to be dead, get up and eat. A month has passed, you can go out now."

  I want to move, but I feel like I really can't move anymore. My hands and feet are numb all over, as if I've lost all sensation.

  I forced myself to open my eyes and took a glance at Da Han, but didn't say anything.

  It wasn't until then that Da Han realized something was wrong with me. He hastily reached out to pull me up, but I only slightly moved and struggled to stand up weakly.

  The big fellow finally became anxious and shouted loudly: "Someone come here! There's someone sick here!"

  I heard a series of footsteps approaching, someone was talking about something in a confused manner. I felt like I had been carried on someone's back, and when I tried to see clearly, everything spun around me, and then I lost consciousness.