Dare to shirk responsibility? This adorable little one will tear down your military district!

Looking at his daughter's mischievous and greedy expression, Gu Changfeng swallowed his anger. He tucked his Type 54 pistol back into his waistband and gave Ya Ya a big pat on the head.

"Go! Be quick, don't leave any loose ends." Gu Changfeng turned to Niu Dan and gestured with his chin, "Keep an eye on Ya Ya, and draw your sword immediately if anything happens."

Niu Dan nodded emphatically, gripping the cast iron boning knife like a little bodyguard who had received a military order, and followed closely behind Ya Ya as she slipped out the door.

Lin Wanrou shook her head as she watched, then flicked Gu Changfeng's arm with a dry towel: "What kind of father are you, letting a five-year-old girl cause trouble like this? What if they run into bandits?"

Gu Changfeng moved a chair and barred the door shut again. He sat down on the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed) with an air of authority and snorted coldly, "My son, Gu Changfeng's son, can't stand being treated like a coward. These people dared to put poison in our food; they'll have to taste what it's like to be worse than dead."

It was a dark and windy night outside, and the backyard of the Huangsha shop was completely dark. Taking advantage of its low profile, Ya Ya nimbly darted along on its short legs, following the wall all the way to the kitchen window.

Niu Dan, like a stealthy wildcat, peeked through the crack in the door twice, then turned around and gestured: "Boss, there's no one inside. The soldiers' meals were taken to the front yard a long time ago, and there's still half a pot of mutton offal stewing on the stove. It smells like a treat they left for themselves."

"Heaven is on my side!" Ya Ya unwrapped a White Rabbit milk candy, stuffed it into her mouth, her cheeks bulging, and then stepped over the threshold and slipped inside.

The kitchen reeked of the pungent smell of mutton, with scattered embers glowing beneath the large stove. In a smaller iron pot, a large cascade of mutton offal was bubbling away, alongside several dishes of chopped garlic and coarse salt.

Ya Ya moved a small stool covered in black ash to stand on, and peered into the pot from the edge. She reached into the pocket of her tactical vest and pulled out the tan paper package.

This is a mutated croton seed, fed with highly concentrated spiritual spring water in a 200-square-meter personal space. Its medicinal properties are so potent that even an elephant couldn't withstand it. Ya Ya didn't hold back at all, shaking open the paper package and pouring all the grayish-white powder inside into the pot of mutton offal.

The powder dissolved in water, and the mutton fat had an unusually strong smell, completely masking the slight bitterness of the croton oil. Ya Ya picked up the large, rusty iron spoon next to her and stirred it in the pot a couple of times.

"Done, let's go." Ya Ya jumped off the stool and clapped her hands.

The two of them went back the way they came, without saying a word all night.

In the middle of the night, a series of pig-like screams suddenly erupted from the front yard of Huangsha Shop, followed by sounds of looting and smashing.

Gu Changfeng heard everything clearly inside the room, but he didn't even lift his eyelids. Instead, he tucked the quilts around Lin Wanrou and Ya Ya tighter.

The next morning, just as dawn was breaking, Gu Changfeng pushed open the door to the main room.

A stench assaulted his nostrils, and Gu Changfeng instinctively covered his nose, his brows furrowing into a deep knot.

The compound was in complete chaos. Platoon Leader Li, holding a semi-automatic rifle, stood with several elite soldiers at the ventilation shaft in the corridor, each of them pinching their noses and looking like they'd seen a ghost.

"Chief of Staff, this Huangsha Inn is haunted!" Platoon Leader Li strode over, his voice muffled by his hand covering his mouth. "This morning we got up and found the innkeeper and a dozen or so employees collapsed at the entrance to the outhouse in the backyard!"

Gu Changfeng walked over with a cold face. When he arrived at the open space outside the outhouse, the scene was truly horrific.

The boss with the mustache was slumped on the ground, his legs shaking like leaves, and a yellowish-brown stain was dripping down his trousers.

Several bandits wielding large machetes were so weak they didn't even have the strength to pull up their trousers. They lay sprawled on top of each other, foaming at the mouth and their faces as white as if they had been covered in flour.

The latrines were clearly insufficient. One of the men couldn't hold it in any longer and bent over under the crooked tree in the backyard, spewing out a horrifying stream of yellow liquid with a series of loud "plop" sounds. When the wind blew, the entire inn became even more nauseating than a latrine.

"Ouch... my goodness..." the mustachioed boss groaned, rolling his eyes. "Help... my intestines are about to burst..."

Gu Changfeng turned back to the main room, picked up the just-woke-up Ya Ya, and held her in his strong arm, afraid that his daughter's shoes would get dirty from the ground.

Ya Ya poked her little head out, looked at the terrible scene outside, covered her mouth with her two little hands, and laughed so hard that her shoulders trembled.

"Old man, this big pot of food at your house doesn't look very nutritious!" Ya Ya shouted in her childish voice, her clear, childlike voice particularly jarring in the stench-filled yard.

Upon hearing the commotion, the mustachioed shopkeeper laboriously opened his triangular eyes. When he saw that Gu Changfeng and his soldiers were all in high spirits and unharmed, he immediately understood everything.

The sleeping pills they tried to use evaded them, but after eating the mutton offal they'd saved for supper last night, they all turned into vomiting machines, having diarrhea so badly they wouldn't recognize their own parents. These soldiers are too ruthless!

Gu Changfeng's military boots clicked on the clean flagstones as he stopped three steps away from the old man. He had lost all interest in drawing his gun; dealing with these dehydrated, useless, dirty hands was pointless.

"This is called 'good and evil will eventually be rewarded'." Gu Changfeng looked down at him, his voice cold and hard. "The amount of sleeping pills in that bowl of mutton soup yesterday was quite substantial. According to military regulations, anyone who dares to lay a hand on soldiers can have their entire establishment wiped out right now, people and all."

Upon hearing this, Platoon Leader Li pulled back the bolt of his rifle with a "click." Thirty elite soldiers simultaneously raised their guns, the dark muzzles pointing directly at the boss and his men on the ground.

The old man was so frightened that he wet himself on the spot, but unfortunately his stomach was already empty, and he managed to squeeze out two drops of yellow fluid. He crawled forward a couple of times on his hands and feet, and howled in a hoarse voice, "Sir, spare me! Sir, spare me! I was blind and didn't recognize your greatness! Don't shoot! If you spare my life, you can have all the money in the shop!"

"Who cares about your bloodstained, worthless money?" Gu Changfeng kicked away the shopkeeper's filthy hand and got straight to the point. "I'll ask, you answer. We need to get into the heart of the Taklamakan Desert. Who in this town has the best camels? Whose guide knows the way best?"

Searching for gold in the desert without experienced horses or drought-resistant camels is tantamount to suicide.

The boss dared not hide anything any longer, and with trembling lips, he confessed repeatedly: "Yes! Yes! Three miles west of the town, there's a dilapidated earthen fort. An old man named Old Ma lives there. He's the most knowledgeable desert expert for the entire area, and he keeps fifty or sixty good camels under his command."

At this point, the old man swallowed hard, glancing cautiously at Gu Changfeng: "But sir, this one-eyed old Ma has a very strange temper. He doesn't care whether you live or die in the desert, and he doesn't accept money or tickets. He only accepts jobs if you specify that you need high-quality gold coins and silver dollars. In recent years, foreign merchants and bandits who have gone to the desert to prospect for minerals have all had to be mindful of his wishes."

Gu Changfeng frowned upon hearing this. Gold bars? He didn't have any such hard currency. But what he didn't know was that his daughter's tactical vest contained several large boxes of real gold and silver confiscated from the spy's hideout.

"Platoon Leader Li," Gu Changfeng turned and ordered, "Take two men and lead all the camels away from this shop as compensation for the drugging. The rest of you, assemble and set off in five minutes. Go to the west to find that one-eyed old horse."

"yes!"

Gu Changfeng, supporting Ya Ya with one arm, beckoned Lin Wanrou and Niu Dan onto the military truck. The truck spewed black smoke, its tires crunching over the gravel road of Hongshan Fort, heading straight for the earthen fortress in the west of the town. Ahead, yellow sand swirled in the air; who exactly was that one-eyed old man who seemed indifferent to life or death?