LRAB Chapter 20: Carrying the "Old Fox" off a cliff, Fan Tianlei was so frightened he saw his g
Chapter 20: Carrying the "Old Fox" off a cliff, Fan Tianlei was so frightened he saw his g
The aroma of tea still lingers inside the command tent of the Wolf Fang Special Operations Brigade.
Li Erniu slowly finished his cup of Longjing tea, even chewing the tea leaves in a serious manner before looking down at Fan Tianlei, who was tied up like a "big rice dumpling".
Fan Tianlei's eyes were wide open like copper bells, and the tape over his mouth allowed him to only make muffled "ooh" sounds.
He had spent his life in the military, and had cheated more people than Li Erniu had eaten rice. But he never expected that one day he would be "killed" in his own command post by a newly enlisted cook, and in such a humiliating way.
"Old Fan, don't glare at me like that. There's a saying in my hometown: 'Debts must be repaid with money, debts must be repaid with lives... cough, debts must be repaid with pits.' Although this pit wasn't dug for me, hehehe..."
"Those guys outside are keeping a tight watch. If I take you out through the main gate, I'll be delivering food to them."
Li Erniu bent down, picked up Fan Tianlei like a chick, and slung him onto his broad back.
He skillfully used ropes to firmly bind Fan Tianlei to his body.
"Old Fan, hold on tight, we're about to 'land'."
Li Erniu walked to the crack in the tent that had just been torn open.
It was late at night, and the searchlights from the command post swept across the room periodically.
Using his individual radar, Li Erniu accurately located the blind spot of the searchlight. In the instant the two beams intersected, he carried Fan Tianlei to the so-called "dead zone"—the edge of the Black Tiger Ridge cliff.
"Waaaaah! Waaaaah!"
When Fan Tianlei saw the bottomless, pitch-black abyss below, his eyes nearly popped out of his head, and his body twisted wildly.
It's true that he's a special forces soldier, and he's skilled in high-altitude parachuting and cliff rappelling, but all of that is done with professional equipment and safety guarantees!
What now?
A cook, carrying him on his back, standing on the edge of a 90-degree cliff without any safety harness—is this suicide or murder?!
"What's all the noise about? What's all the noise about?"
Li Erniu disdainfully ripped the tape off Fan Tianlei's mouth. "We're far enough away from those sentries now. You can say whatever you want, just don't shout. If you scare me so much that my hand trembles, we'll really become earthbound spirits."
As soon as the tape was torn off, Fan Tianlei's voice, which had been suppressed for so long, finally burst out. Although he tried his best to keep his voice down, the fear and collapse in his tone could not be concealed.
"Li Erniu! You son of a bitch! Are you crazy? This is a cliff! Ninety degrees! Below is nothing but a rocky wasteland!"
Fan Tianlei's voice trembled. He could feel Li Erniu's feet firmly planted on the loose soil at the edge of the cliff. "Let me go! I'll accept my fate as 'dead,' okay?!"
"Old Fan, don't be afraid! I'm confident I won't let you fall!"
Li Erniu chuckled, then suddenly stepped into the void with his right foot, and his whole body plummeted straight down into the abyss!
"Ah—!! Holy crap! Li Erniu, I curse your ancestors... Ouch, holy crap!"
Fan Tianlei screamed in agony. The feeling of weightlessness made his heart stop beating instantly. At that moment, he felt as if he could really see his great-grandmother waving down below.
However, the anticipated fatal fall did not occur.
After falling about five meters, Li Erniu suddenly reached out with his left hand and hooked it into a crevice in the rock like a steel hook.
The enormous impact caused rocks to fall from the cliff face, but Li Erniu remained as steady as a mountain.
[God-level Climbing] - [Monkey Hanging on the Wall]!
Li Erniu, hanging from the cliff with one hand, swayed his body and said calmly, "Old Fan, that shout just now was quite loud, full of energy."
Fan Tianlei looked as if he had been pulled out of the water, his camouflage uniform soaked with cold sweat.
He looked down and saw the clouds swirling beneath his feet. This feeling of hanging in mid-air, on the verge of death, was something he had never experienced before in his life.
"Erniu...Brother Niu! You're my own grandfather!"
Fan Tianlei chickened out, completely chickened out.
Faced with a real threat of death, what are Wolf Fang No. 5 and Pit King? They're all just fluff.
"Can we...can we not go this far? Hurry up, please hurry up! I'm begging you, I'm an old man and I want to live a few more years."
Fan Tianlei clung tightly to Li Erniu's neck, his grip so tight he seemed to want to embed himself into Li Erniu's flesh. "How did you even get up here? There's nowhere to put your weight on!"
"As I said, I'm a chef, and this is a technique called 'Wall-Hanging Smoked Meat'."
As Li Erniu spoke, he switched his right hand to his left, descending rapidly down the almost vertical cliff as if walking on flat ground.
"Old Fan, you know, your command post setup is pretty bad. You think just putting a minefield behind it makes everything safe? Don't you know there's a type of person in this world called a 'mine clearance expert'... cough, or 'naturally lucky'?"
Fan Tianlei was in no mood to listen to his rambling. He closed his eyes and muttered to himself, "You can't see me, you can't see me... Oh my god, it's so high... Erniu, you just missed a step! To the left! There's a protruding rock on the left!"
"Hey, don't give me orders, I know better than you."
Li Erniu pushed off with his toes, shifting three meters laterally along the cliff face to avoid a fragile support point weakened by weathering: "Old Fan, let me ask you something. Is your Captain Chen Shanming usually this obedient to you? When I saw him chasing me, he was like a mad bull."
Fan Tianlei was on the verge of tears: "He was just doing his duty! Who knew he'd run into a monster like you. Erniu, I admit defeat. You send me down, and I promise... I promise no one in Wolf Fang will ever mention the name 'Li Erniu' again, okay?"
"That won't do."
Li Erniu chuckled, "I haven't invited you to our Iron Fist Regiment for braised pork yet. My grand-nephew Gong Jian must really want to see what you look like now."
When they were about two-thirds of the way down the cliff, the wind suddenly picked up, causing the two of them to sway slightly in mid-air.
Fan Tianlei felt a churning in his stomach, and he almost spat out the cup of Longjing tea he had just drunk.
"Erniu... what do you think the directing department will write if we really fall?"
"How else could it be written? 'The commander of the Wolf Fang Special Forces Brigade and a cook, due to family disputes... no, due to tactical differences, together threw themselves into the embrace of nature.'"
Li Erniu joked, but his hands moved quickly.
Finally, with a dull thud, it landed.
Li Erniu carried Fan Tianlei and landed steadily in the grass at the bottom of the cliff.
Li Erniu untied the ropes and carried Fan Tianlei, who was limp and pale, behind a tree to hide him.
Fan Tianlei lay on the ground like a dead fish, kissing the earth profusely: "The earth...it really is the earth...oh my god, I'm alive again."
Li Erniu dusted himself off and felt a sense of satisfaction looking at the once shrewish old fox in his disheveled state.
"Old Fan, stop lamenting. Chen Shanming and the others are probably about to realize something's wrong. We need to move quickly."
……
At this moment, at the Wolf Fang Command Post.
The sentries outside remained standing ramrod straight, occasionally exchanging a few words in hushed tones, discussing when Captain Chen would be able to bring back that annoying "Shadow".
In their view, the command tent was brightly lit, and Number Five was probably still studying the map or leisurely enjoying tea.
Until ten minutes later.
A technical officer hurried to the tent entrance with an urgent intelligence report in hand.
"Report five! Satellite has captured images of Kang Lei. Requesting assistance..."
There was no response.
"Number Five?" The officer paused, then raised his voice.
It remained completely silent.
He felt a sudden tightness in his chest and, with a surge of courage, lifted the curtain.
Inside the tent, the lingering aroma of tea still lingered.
The tea leaves in the teacup on the table were not completely dry.
But the strategist "Number Five" disappeared.
The officer's gaze searched the tent, finally settling on the perfectly regular crack cut open by a sharp blade at the back.
A cold wind blew in through the crack, making the map rustle.
"Oh no!! Number Five has been kidnapped!!"
A piercing scream shattered the tranquility of the Wolf Fang command post.
The entire command center was blown up.
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