Chapter 895: Following A Lead

"Boss, the report is here."

"Just put it on the desk."

As the file was placed on the table, the man in black quickly left the room, leaving a young woman sitting in the room all by herself.

It was no other than Yueyue, the secretary of State Security ℯℯ𝑙.

"Let’s see..."

Inside, it was a recorded transcript between two individuals. The location was at the very edge of the Zhaoqing metropolitan area.

Although the name of the individual wasn’t there, the blackboard behind her was full of pictures and strings attached, indicating who she was searching for.

"One thousand lunch boxes and forty meals... What could the codename imply?"

Turning back, Yueyue started looking.

A man named Min, with a single strand connected to the biggest salvage groups, who themselves were interconnected with all kinds of organizations.

Further down were more phone logs and photos. All of them seemingly had been taken by someone standing far away.

Soon, Yueyue found the thing she was looking for.

"This cargo here... Do the lunchbox and the meals imply this thing?"

Yueyue quickly turned back around, going over to her computer as she started typing in several keywords.

Multiple results came up.

"Going to make a meal with Zhuang-style cuisine near Zhaoqing... What could all this possibly mean?"

Sitting in the chair, she couldn’t come up with any leads... Until she noticed the map across from her seat.

"Wait, can they be doing something at the Zhuang and Yao Autonomous County?"

The more Yueyue looked at the map, the more suspicious it became.

It perfectly explained the reason why they chose to be in Zhaoqing out of all places. A city that was far away from their control.

Combined with the salvage group’s choice to relocate out of Shenzhen, which had far more valuable material to be sold.

Everything was leading to Lianshan as the main base of operation.

Their main hideout. A place that a salvage group has no reason to keep unless they were doing something.

Something illegal.

"Hm..."

Looking back over to the board, Yueyue rips one of the pages as she attaches it to a string next to the man named Min.

"Should I execute the operation right away?"

After thinking for a bit, Yueyue dismissed the idea. Something tells her she needed to wait for a bit longer.

Everything about this operation just felt too surface-level for one singular salvage group. She could easily bait out something bigger.

However, a concern soon popped up.

One right near the very end of the phone log she hadn’t finished, right at the last page of the file that the agent had left.

"Start cooking for the boys after the wedding... Whose wedding could they possibly be implying?"

Just as Yueyue was about to figure something out, her phone suddenly started ringing. Picking it up, it was Leyan.

"Hello?"

"Yueyue, are you busy right now?"

"Not really."

"Great. Can you come back home first? I need to make sure the bridesmaid clothes fit your body size."

"Okay, I’ll be back in a few."

Ending the call, Yueyue suddenly froze as she looked down at the file in her hand. That was the wedding she had been looking for.

Too big a coincidence.

"How do they know about the wedding... Wait, Mom did say the wedding was going to be televised tomorrow?"

With all the pieces connected inside her head, she finally got a clear understanding as she quickly sent Leyan a text.

Yueyue: Sorry, Mom. I can’t come back home. Something came up at work. Don’t worry, I’ll be at the wedding tomorrow.

---

"She really is too busy today?"

As Leyan sent back a text to ask why, there was no response. Putting the phone away, she quickly shifted her attention back to the moment.

"Kate, do you think this looks good?"

"Could be better."

Kate and Anna weren’t the only ones changing their clothes in the living room, as all of Xiaoyun’s wives were here... Other than Yueyue.

Over on the sofa, there were piles upon piles of clothes dumped on top of the sofa, with various kinds of styles and sizes.

Xiaoyun was sitting on the sofa dressed in a full black suit. His eyes were closed, and his head was resting on top of the sofa.

"Try this one. I think you probably look better with this."

As Yuqi picked out one of the dresses for Anna, Leyan slapped it out of her hands before speaking up again.

"Don’t look too nice. Remember you aren’t the main focus of the wedding. Don’t take others’ spotlight."

"Whatever."

Just as Xiaoyun was about to doze off into a dream out of pure boredom, his phone suddenly started ringing.

Picking it up, it was a familiar number. Yet he couldn’t recall where he had seen it before for some weird reason.

"Hello?"

"Is this Commander?" A female voice appeared on the other side.

"Yes, this is?"

"I’m the assistant to Miss Houqin. I’m calling to confirm the request from the Secretary of State Security for heavy weapons."

"Heavy weapons? What? Give me a second."

Xiaoyun quickly texted Yueyue, only to get a smiley face. He thought about it for a second before answering back.

"I had approved it."

"Okay... The permission had been granted. Thank you for answering, sir... Tell Miss Houqin to have a good wedding."

"Will do."

As Xiaoyun hung up the call, everyone was looking towards him, seemingly waiting for an explanation from him.

"What are you all looking at me for?"

"You aren’t going to explain what that call is for?" Yuqi immediately questioned first before Leyan could.

"It’s just some work stuff—"

"Does it have something to do with Yueyue?" Leyan asked this time.

"Nope. Just some military stuff."

Seeing him close his eyes and lean back down onto the sofa, they rolled their eyes as he didn’t elaborate any further.

---

Back over at Yueyue’s office...

"Boss, everyone is in position, and we have located the target. Should we strike now or should we wait?"

A male voice appeared as Yueyue quickly pressed one of the buttons before speaking up herself.

"Wait until five... And remember to tell everyone to keep their body camera on during the operation."

"Yes, sir."

As the call ended, Yueyue quickly got up from her chair, walking over to the rows of cabinets and unlocking the top one.

A full-body cloak in her hands. The same invisible cloak that Xiaoyun had given to her a long time ago.

"Time to clean up the kitchen..."

An hour later.

Looking out the front window, Yueyue could see a small town in the distance, with a small bit of smoke coming from the inside.

A wide, smooth plain, surrounded by two pairs of hills on either side, with no other way to go other than forward and backward.

Far in the distance were mountains and forest, with untapped wilderness endlessly stretching into the horizon.

It was a perfect place to build a base, far from any cities and any zombie threat, with chokepoints that could be easily defended.

A single regiment of a thousand people could have the whole place under lockdown, preventing anyone from entering or leaving.

Yet, she only had 50 agents for this mission.

None of them were visible... Unless somebody stood there and stared towards the nearby trees and hills.

All fifty of them were wearing ghillie suits, with green-coated rifles. They had blended so well that Yueyue herself almost couldn’t tell.

"Boss, it’s five. Should we start the operation?"

"Wait three more minutes. You can start after."

"Yes, sir."

As Yueyue ended the call, she turned her phone to silent as she exited the car, wearing a black cloak over herself.

In the blink of an eye, she was gone.

Only a very thin footprint on the dirt path revealed her movement towards the small town ahead.

After walking for exactly three minutes, Yueyue was at the very edge of the town, where a wooden fence stood in her way.

Looking up, men wearing military fatigues were standing on an old steel watchtower, their hands holding binoculars scouting for threats.

The clothes looked so similar that anyone who walked past would assume this to be one of the military outposts from Xiaoyun’s army.

"Really? They mimicking the army for what?"

As Yueyue slowly sneaked past one of the open gates unnoticed, she got an even closer look at what was inside.

There were hundreds of tents, enough to house thousands of soldiers. Yet, the place was surprisingly empty, with only a few guards patrolling.

More importantly, she found the evidence she had been looking for. Armed guards walked around with a rifle in hand.

"AKs in a salvage group’s hands?"

Noticing one of the tents had an armory label at the top, she quickly decided to walk towards it to see what was inside.

However, before she could enter it, a gunshot suddenly rang out.

"Shit! What the fuck was that?"

"Watch out!"

"East side! Everyone, go to the west side!"

As the guards started running over to the western side of the base, it gave Yueyue the perfect opportunity to continue.

Once inside the armory tent, she was shocked. There were crates. Hundreds of crates of explosives.

From grenades to RPGs, there was enough to equip a small army. Fully visible to her, as some of them had their covers removed.

"What the fuck are they planning?"