“Cousin, I used to think that you’re a ‘female Bao Gong’ who carries light in your heart and is upright, never stooping to flatter. It has never crossed my mind that you’re also so… so… how should I say this…” Amidst the muttering of the lanky woman, a short-haired girl wearing a white coat with the look of a researcher walked out grinning and whispered in a peculiar tone.
“Stop being so childish, Caiying. Nobody is living in a ‘vacuum’ in this world. If you don’t have the corresponding ‘experience’, I’ll tell Uncle to cancel the idea of sending you here. However, since you have been studying and specializing in Stanford University’s Department of Natural Sciences for several years, I certainly have no reason not to give this opportunity to someone close to me, don’t I? Well, this is society. What’s more, even if I object, Second Uncle will still pull you here so why should I assume the pretentious air of being lofty that is hated by everyone for no reason?” the lanky woman replied with a black expression.
“But the thing is I can’t do anything either even if you give me this opportunity. I can only stand here everyday! That time, if it was not for the fact that I wanted Chuhe to have an opportunity to meet that bastard Wang Zhaosheng, I wouldn’t have come here to this scum of a place in the first place!” the short-haired girl opened her mouth and said indignantly.
A hurricane blew the yellow sand all over to cover the entire campsite. The lanky woman, who had been nonchalant all along finally, was pissed by her cousin’s unreasonable disruptment. Frowning slightly, she turned her head. “Looks like Uncle has spoilt you a lot. Do you know? In order to transfer that little friend of yours into the research group…”
As she was speaking, she realized that her unreasonable cousin was staring off in the distance as though she had just seen a ghost, with her eyes widened and mouth agape, not giving a damn to the sandstorm.
“Caiying, what’s wrong? Caiying?” Looking in the direction of the short-haired girl’s gaze, the lanky woman saw thousands of people wearing casual clothes, who had just reached the campsite, walking in a scattered manner to the corner of the camp. When she suddenly remembered the rumored identity of that group of people, her heart gave a jolt as she shouted with a loss of coolness.
“I-It’s nothing!” The short-haired girl snapped back to reality and stuttered. “It’s just that I was suddenly blown by the wind and I-I can feel a headache is coming. Cousin, can I return to the tent to rest for a while?”
When the lanky woman saw her cousin, who was just complaining about how she did not want to idle her time away doing nothing, had suddenly wanted to continue to rest, she could not help but feel suspicious.
However, when she saw that the girl did not say anything more, she nodded instead. “Is that so? In that case, go back to the tent then. Rest well and drink more water.”
“I’ll go back first then!” The short-haired girl turned and walked back to the tent. Before entering the tent, she pretended to ask inadvertently, “Oh yeah Cousin, I’ve heard Big Brother Song complaining a few days ago about how the campsite is already full of people but why are there so many people coming all of a sudden? Not only that, they’re casually clothed so what exactly do they do?”
“Those people are the non-governmental researchers from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.” the lanky woman hesitated for a while before exhorting with a sullen expression. “It’s said that they are people with supernatural powers. Not only that, there’s also gossip saying that they’re the descendants of the Witchcraft Gate that has been passed down for thousands of years at the border provinces of Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Hainan. I know that this sounds ridiculous, but even foreign worlds have appeared now. There are just too many things that science can’t explain. In short, it’s better to just believe in their existence rather than not but don’t ever come in contact with those guys, understood?”
The short-haired girl had her eyes widened as she exclaimed loudly in shock, “Witchcraft Gate? C-Cousin, are you sure?”
“Not sure, but this is not a baseless rumor either!” the lanky woman replied. All of a sudden, an anxious call resonated from the wireless headset in her ears. “Director Liu, the result of the latest sound analysis of the beast’s roar is out. When can you come over?”
“Right away!” The lanky girl was astonished. After answering, she waved to the short-haired girl and said, “I’ll go to work now! Go back and rest immediately!”
Then, she strode to the distance.
The short-haired girl watched her cousin’s back disappearing under the gradually dying sandstorm. Turning her head to the direction where the large group of wizards disappeared in the camp, disbelief filled her face as she muttered, “People with supernatural powers? The descendants of the Witchcraft Gate of the ancient frontier? How can Zhang Lisheng possibly be inside this group of people as well? Has my vision gone blurry and played a trick on me?”
Just when Guo Caiying was feeling puzzled, the elders and young Deacons from the Three Gates of Witchcraft of Life, Death and Sacrifice were led by that bald Director Guo to meet with the commander of the military
“The sandstorm in Gannan is really horrible. It’s no wonder that my brother-in-law would say that only you can stand upright here, General Wang.” The moment Director Guo entered the command center, he could feel the solemn atmosphere created by the owner of this place right away. Scratching his bald head, he chuckled and said, “Come, General Wang, I’ll introduce a few helpers to you. This is Inspector Li, Inspector Wang and Researcher Chen from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. They’re all veteran experts and old scholars. These few here, on the other hand, are young experts who are specially invited by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. They can be said as rising stars… Haha… Rising stars…”
Upon hearing Director Guo mention the word ‘brother-in-law’, the chief of the command center, who did not turn his head around and was staring at the projection and data analysis of the giant beasts that looked like a sci-fi movie poster on the white screen, froze all of a sudden. As his back gradually relaxed visibly, he slowly turned around.
A golden bean sitting on his shoulder gleamed with brilliance. In China, if the owner carrying this bean had a position in a high-level military academy, it meant that he might only be the department head or head of the research office. However, if the owner had a position in a field army unit, it meant that he must be the authority general who had troops consisting of tens of thousands of soldiers under him who could affect the destiny of the nation in a certain degree.
The two of them could not be mentioned in the same breath, as their mettle, majesty and bearing were completely different.
“Old Guo, you…” After the commander of the Temporary Defense Zone of China’s Oasis World, Hua Chaowu, who was the commander of the 7875th Regiment of the All-Mechanized Force claiming to be the First Iron Army in Ganzhou Military Region in China’s Seven Great Military Regions, turned around, he reached out a hand to point at Director Guo. Even though his imposing manner had eased a lot, it still made Guo Huaihai’s actions of scratching his head become stiff.
Without any flattering, Guo Huaihai smiled wryly and said, “Chaowu, this is also the order of the Central Committee and the Military Commission. As the executive deputy director of the Office of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, I’m really sitting in between two candles here…”
To his surprise, his sincere attitude provoked Hua Chaowu’s rage instead. “The order of the Military Commission? How could I possibly not see the telegram? From what I can see, you’re assuming unwarranted authority on the basis of some pretext! Song Nanxing! you’re in charge of logistics so tell me, how many people have been to us this time?”
“Commander, 21 full buses arrived. Each bus has 65 people so there’s a total of 1365 people. There are 22 SUVs, of which 21 were completely filled. 4 people sat in a car, so the total is 109 people. The total of both added up together is 1474 people! According to Inspector Li, a second batch of ‘students’ will arrive in succession. The number of people is about two to three times greater than the first batch. That’s all to my report, Commander!” The colonel standing by the side stood up straight, saluted and shouted out loud. With a rough glance he could actually calculate the number of Gate of Witchcraft’s people clearly.
“1474? 1474? Two to three times the number of people are coming soon? Looks like we have quite a family reunion here then!” When Hua Chaowu heard the number of people, he was stunned for a while before howling in an even more infuriated rage.
Seeing that the situation in front was about to fall out soon, the door of the command center was suddenly pushed open. A tall and thin high-ranking officer, who was also wearing a golden bean on his shoulder, came in with a smile and added to Hua Chaowu’s words, rescuing the situation in a flawless manner. “Our 7875th Regiment was very grateful for the leaders of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences who took their students, and their entire family, here to support us. What a tightly knitted family spirit here in the army. Commander, we’ll have to entertain our comrades from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences tonight, especially these old leaders who came from the academy.”
“Old Yao, y-you haven’t slept for three days and two nights already so why did you suddenly wake up after resting for only a few minutes? Sigh! C-Can your body even stand this?” When Hua Chaowu saw his extremely exhausted look, he no longer cared about getting angry but asked in concern instead.
“I’m the political commissar of the 7875th Regiment so how can I possibly shut my door and sleep now that the leaders from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences have arrived? It’s a basic manner for me to come meet them. We’ve worked together for more than 20 years so how could you not know my body well, Commander Hua? Even though I’m thin, it’s all lean muscles you know!” The tall and thin general made a joke and made the almost stagnated atmosphere in the room ease up right away.
Seizing this opportunity, Guo Huaihai quickly chuckled and introduced, “This is our political commissar, General Yao Biwu, stationed in the Oasis World’s Temporary Defense Zone, who is also the political commissar for the 7875th Regiment. He has worked together with Commander Hua for 27 years and they were an excellent combo who are completely invincible, known as the Two Great Generals of the Iron Army. Political Commissar Yao, this is Inspector Li, Inspector Wang and Director Chen from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, as well as some of the young experts who are specially invited by the academy, who are also known as the rising stars.”
“Oh Inspector Li, welcome! Welcome!” Yao Biwu shook hands with the Grand Wizards named by Guo Huaihai one by one and nodded at the other Gate of Witchcraft’s people with a smile. In the end, he sighed. “We’ve been looking forward to greet all of you here to support the 7875th Regiment with open arms. However, the passage of this Oasis World is indeed located in a remote desert area. The transportation is inconvenient and the environment is bad. Sometimes, there’s even no guarantee that all of our commanders, fighters and even scientific research personnels, could get any drinking water. Just yesterday, the freshwater well of 1,000 meters deep that has just been dug out by our engineering troop has flowed backward and now it’s no longer usable. The geographical structure here is very complex, particularly when it comes to water sources. Sigh… That’s right, Nanxing. We still have a few wells that are usable in our camp. If it’s not enough, we’ll have to cut down the water consumption of our officers today so that the leaders of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences can take a hot bath and eliminate their exhaustion.”
Song Nanxing had serviced the 7875th Regiment for 20 years already so he had long become accustomed to the good-cop, bad-cop working method of the commander and the political commissar. suppressing his laughter, he stood upright and reported, “Political Commissar, there are only 27 wells that are usable. I’ve ordered the Logistics Department to fully guarantee the water used by the Academy of Social Sciences today.”
“Excellent! You’re indeed our great butler who fixes all the leakages and drains in the troops and who thinks greatly ahead before we do!” Yaobi nodded his head consecutively and turned his attention to the Grand Wizards who had the positions of Inspectors in the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. “Inspector Li, Inspector Wang. the environment here is tough so I hope all of you can understand.”
“Cousin, I used to think that you’re a ‘female Bao Gong’ who carries light in your heart and is upright, never stooping to flatter. It has never crossed my mind that you’re also so… so… how should I say this…” Amidst the muttering of the lanky woman, a short-haired girl wearing a white coat with the look of a researcher walked out grinning and whispered in a peculiar tone.
“Stop being so childish, Caiying. Nobody is living in a ‘vacuum’ in this world. If you don’t have the corresponding ‘experience’, I’ll tell Uncle to cancel the idea of sending you here. However, since you have been studying and specializing in Stanford University’s Department of Natural Sciences for several years, I certainly have no reason not to give this opportunity to someone close to me, don’t I? Well, this is society. What’s more, even if I object, Second Uncle will still pull you here so why should I assume the pretentious air of being lofty that is hated by everyone for no reason?” the lanky woman replied with a black expression.
“But the thing is I can’t do anything either even if you give me this opportunity. I can only stand here everyday! That time, if it was not for the fact that I wanted Chuhe to have an opportunity to meet that bastard Wang Zhaosheng, I wouldn’t have come here to this scum of a place in the first place!” the short-haired girl opened her mouth and said indignantly.
A hurricane blew the yellow sand all over to cover the entire campsite. The lanky woman, who had been nonchalant all along finally, was pissed by her cousin’s unreasonable disruptment. Frowning slightly, she turned her head. “Looks like Uncle has spoilt you a lot. Do you know? In order to transfer that little friend of yours into the research group…”
As she was speaking, she realized that her unreasonable cousin was staring off in the distance as though she had just seen a ghost, with her eyes widened and mouth agape, not giving a damn to the sandstorm.
“Caiying, what’s wrong? Caiying?” Looking in the direction of the short-haired girl’s gaze, the lanky woman saw thousands of people wearing casual clothes, who had just reached the campsite, walking in a scattered manner to the corner of the camp. When she suddenly remembered the rumored identity of that group of people, her heart gave a jolt as she shouted with a loss of coolness.
“I-It’s nothing!” The short-haired girl snapped back to reality and stuttered. “It’s just that I was suddenly blown by the wind and I-I can feel a headache is coming. Cousin, can I return to the tent to rest for a while?”
When the lanky woman saw her cousin, who was just complaining about how she did not want to idle her time away doing nothing, had suddenly wanted to continue to rest, she could not help but feel suspicious.
However, when she saw that the girl did not say anything more, she nodded instead. “Is that so? In that case, go back to the tent then. Rest well and drink more water.”
“I’ll go back first then!” The short-haired girl turned and walked back to the tent. Before entering the tent, she pretended to ask inadvertently, “Oh yeah Cousin, I’ve heard Big Brother Song complaining a few days ago about how the campsite is already full of people but why are there so many people coming all of a sudden? Not only that, they’re casually clothed so what exactly do they do?”
“Those people are the non-governmental researchers from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.” the lanky woman hesitated for a while before exhorting with a sullen expression. “It’s said that they are people with supernatural powers. Not only that, there’s also gossip saying that they’re the descendants of the Witchcraft Gate that has been passed down for thousands of years at the border provinces of Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Hainan. I know that this sounds ridiculous, but even foreign worlds have appeared now. There are just too many things that science can’t explain. In short, it’s better to just believe in their existence rather than not but don’t ever come in contact with those guys, understood?”
The short-haired girl had her eyes widened as she exclaimed loudly in shock, “Witchcraft Gate? C-Cousin, are you sure?”
“Not sure, but this is not a baseless rumor either!” the lanky woman replied. All of a sudden, an anxious call resonated from the wireless headset in her ears. “Director Liu, the result of the latest sound analysis of the beast’s roar is out. When can you come over?”
“Right away!” The lanky girl was astonished. After answering, she waved to the short-haired girl and said, “I’ll go to work now! Go back and rest immediately!”
Then, she strode to the distance.
The short-haired girl watched her cousin’s back disappearing under the gradually dying sandstorm. Turning her head to the direction where the large group of wizards disappeared in the camp, disbelief filled her face as she muttered, “People with supernatural powers? The descendants of the Witchcraft Gate of the ancient frontier? How can Zhang Lisheng possibly be inside this group of people as well? Has my vision gone blurry and played a trick on me?”
Just when Guo Caiying was feeling puzzled, the elders and young Deacons from the Three Gates of Witchcraft of Life, Death and Sacrifice were led by that bald Director Guo to meet with the commander of the military
“The sandstorm in Gannan is really horrible. It’s no wonder that my brother-in-law would say that only you can stand upright here, General Wang.” The moment Director Guo entered the command center, he could feel the solemn atmosphere created by the owner of this place right away. Scratching his bald head, he chuckled and said, “Come, General Wang, I’ll introduce a few helpers to you. This is Inspector Li, Inspector Wang and Researcher Chen from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. They’re all veteran experts and old scholars. These few here, on the other hand, are young experts who are specially invited by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. They can be said as rising stars… Haha… Rising stars…”
Upon hearing Director Guo mention the word ‘brother-in-law’, the chief of the command center, who did not turn his head around and was staring at the projection and data analysis of the giant beasts that looked like a sci-fi movie poster on the white screen, froze all of a sudden. As his back gradually relaxed visibly, he slowly turned around.
A golden bean sitting on his shoulder gleamed with brilliance. In China, if the owner carrying this bean had a position in a high-level military academy, it meant that he might only be the department head or head of the research office. However, if the owner had a position in a field army unit, it meant that he must be the authority general who had troops consisting of tens of thousands of soldiers under him who could affect the destiny of the nation in a certain degree.
The two of them could not be mentioned in the same breath, as their mettle, majesty and bearing were completely different.
“Old Guo, you…” After the commander of the Temporary Defense Zone of China’s Oasis World, Hua Chaowu, who was the commander of the 7875th Regiment of the All-Mechanized Force claiming to be the First Iron Army in Ganzhou Military Region in China’s Seven Great Military Regions, turned around, he reached out a hand to point at Director Guo. Even though his imposing manner had eased a lot, it still made Guo Huaihai’s actions of scratching his head become stiff.
Without any flattering, Guo Huaihai smiled wryly and said, “Chaowu, this is also the order of the Central Committee and the Military Commission. As the executive deputy director of the Office of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, I’m really sitting in between two candles here…”
To his surprise, his sincere attitude provoked Hua Chaowu’s rage instead. “The order of the Military Commission? How could I possibly not see the telegram? From what I can see, you’re assuming unwarranted authority on the basis of some pretext! Song Nanxing! you’re in charge of logistics so tell me, how many people have been to us this time?”
“Commander, 21 full buses arrived. Each bus has 65 people so there’s a total of 1365 people. There are 22 SUVs, of which 21 were completely filled. 4 people sat in a car, so the total is 109 people. The total of both added up together is 1474 people! According to Inspector Li, a second batch of ‘students’ will arrive in succession. The number of people is about two to three times greater than the first batch. That’s all to my report, Commander!” The colonel standing by the side stood up straight, saluted and shouted out loud. With a rough glance he could actually calculate the number of Gate of Witchcraft’s people clearly.
“1474? 1474? Two to three times the number of people are coming soon? Looks like we have quite a family reunion here then!” When Hua Chaowu heard the number of people, he was stunned for a while before howling in an even more infuriated rage.
Seeing that the situation in front was about to fall out soon, the door of the command center was suddenly pushed open. A tall and thin high-ranking officer, who was also wearing a golden bean on his shoulder, came in with a smile and added to Hua Chaowu’s words, rescuing the situation in a flawless manner. “Our 7875th Regiment was very grateful for the leaders of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences who took their students, and their entire family, here to support us. What a tightly knitted family spirit here in the army. Commander, we’ll have to entertain our comrades from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences tonight, especially these old leaders who came from the academy.”
“Old Yao, y-you haven’t slept for three days and two nights already so why did you suddenly wake up after resting for only a few minutes? Sigh! C-Can your body even stand this?” When Hua Chaowu saw his extremely exhausted look, he no longer cared about getting angry but asked in concern instead.
“I’m the political commissar of the 7875th Regiment so how can I possibly shut my door and sleep now that the leaders from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences have arrived? It’s a basic manner for me to come meet them. We’ve worked together for more than 20 years so how could you not know my body well, Commander Hua? Even though I’m thin, it’s all lean muscles you know!” The tall and thin general made a joke and made the almost stagnated atmosphere in the room ease up right away.
Seizing this opportunity, Guo Huaihai quickly chuckled and introduced, “This is our political commissar, General Yao Biwu, stationed in the Oasis World’s Temporary Defense Zone, who is also the political commissar for the 7875th Regiment. He has worked together with Commander Hua for 27 years and they were an excellent combo who are completely invincible, known as the Two Great Generals of the Iron Army. Political Commissar Yao, this is Inspector Li, Inspector Wang and Director Chen from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, as well as some of the young experts who are specially invited by the academy, who are also known as the rising stars.”
“Oh Inspector Li, welcome! Welcome!” Yao Biwu shook hands with the Grand Wizards named by Guo Huaihai one by one and nodded at the other Gate of Witchcraft’s people with a smile. In the end, he sighed. “We’ve been looking forward to greet all of you here to support the 7875th Regiment with open arms. However, the passage of this Oasis World is indeed located in a remote desert area. The transportation is inconvenient and the environment is bad. Sometimes, there’s even no guarantee that all of our commanders, fighters and even scientific research personnels, could get any drinking water. Just yesterday, the freshwater well of 1,000 meters deep that has just been dug out by our engineering troop has flowed backward and now it’s no longer usable. The geographical structure here is very complex, particularly when it comes to water sources. Sigh… That’s right, Nanxing. We still have a few wells that are usable in our camp. If it’s not enough, we’ll have to cut down the water consumption of our officers today so that the leaders of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences can take a hot bath and eliminate their exhaustion.”
Song Nanxing had serviced the 7875th Regiment for 20 years already so he had long become accustomed to the good-cop, bad-cop working method of the commander and the political commissar. suppressing his laughter, he stood upright and reported, “Political Commissar, there are only 27 wells that are usable. I’ve ordered the Logistics Department to fully guarantee the water used by the Academy of Social Sciences today.”
“Excellent! You’re indeed our great butler who fixes all the leakages and drains in the troops and who thinks greatly ahead before we do!” Yaobi nodded his head consecutively and turned his attention to the Grand Wizards who had the positions of Inspectors in the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. “Inspector Li, Inspector Wang. the environment here is tough so I hope all of you can understand.”
