Searching for someone in northern Myanmar, and you call that earning tuition fees?

A piercing metallic wail echoed through the canyon.

The once-arrogant armed hovercraft, the moment it was hit by the boulder, instantly turned into a runaway dehydrator, wreaking havoc in the floodwaters.

The mercenaries on the ship were thrown about, screaming in agony.

"Stay steady! Maintain the rudder!"

The fanged creature gripped the handrail tightly, its roar choked back by the billowing black smoke. It was no use!

The hovercraft, having lost power, spun wildly in circles before crashing sideways onto a reef with a loud bang, becoming completely stranded and resembling an iron coffin.

"Ah! My leg!"

The machine gunner clutched his thigh and howled in pain. A shard of a flying fan blade had torn a large gash in his leg, and the blood that had just gushed out was washed away by the torrential rain.

"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!"

Venomous Fang watched helplessly as the two broken bamboo rafts were swept downstream by the rapids, and in a fit of rage, he drew his pistol and fired three shots into the sky.

"Boss, stop shooting! The spent cartridge is burning my face!" the driver screamed, clutching his face.

"Shut up!" Venomous Fang pressed the scorching barrel of his gun against the driver's forehead, his eyes bloodshot, his voice hoarse and terrifying: "Investigate! I need to know who that kid is! I can't sleep until he's dead!"

Several hundred meters downstream.

Jerry lay on the half-destroyed bamboo raft, his fat face still jiggling, looking around at the floodwaters with lingering fear.

He touched his head, then touched his buttocks.

"Brother Su...we...won?"

"They didn't win; they lost."

Su Ming threw away the pole he was holding and replaced it with a new one—the previous one had cracked into a broom because of excessive force.

He glanced at the still-smoking wreckage of the hovercraft behind him and said calmly, "The more sophisticated the gadget, the less reliable it is in a godforsaken place like this. Bamboo from our ancestors is still the best—durable and durable."

"This works too..." Jerry glanced back at the monkey on his back. The way the monkey looked at Su Ming was practically begging for his life.

"Monkey King, you also think this is outrageous, right?"

Monkey: "Squeak."

……

Five kilometers away, on one side of the border.

Inside a makeshift tactical tent, Zhao Gang, the captain of a special operations brigade in the southern border region, was drawing circles on a map with a solemn expression.

"The rain is too heavy, the helicopter can't get in! The satellite thermal images are all just puddles of cold water, a complete blur!"

Zhao Gang slammed his pencil down on the map and glared irritably at the corner. There, Liu Jianjun, who should have been assisting in the core area, was leisurely sitting cross-legged on an ammunition box, eating a bag of self-heating rice with great relish. Xiao Wang next to him was even peeling garlic for him with an admiring look.

"Old Liu! Why are you back?! You still have the nerve to eat?!" Zhao Gang's temper flared up instantly. "The experts told you to wait two hours and then withdraw, and you really left? Weren't you worried about Ling Qiao and the others' safety at all? Those are Venomous Fangs, madmen with heavy weaponry!"

Liu Jianjun didn't even look up, chewing his rice and mumbling, "What's there to worry about? Poison Fang is a madman, Mr. Su is... a god."

The voice just fell.

Boom—!

A loud bang carried by the wind through the canyon, and even several kilometers away, it still made the camp lights inside the tent sway twice.

Zhao Gang was startled and grabbed the walkie-talkie: "What's going on? Where did the explosion happen? Did Venom use some kind of bomb? Go check it out!"

The communications officer and staff officer inside the tent immediately became flustered.

Only Liu Jianjun stopped eating, listened intently, and then revealed a mysterious "I knew it" smile on his face.

"Brother Jun, what's all this commotion..." Xiao Wang said nervously.

Liu Jianjun popped a clove of garlic into his mouth, chewing it loudly, and calmly waved his hand: "What's the panic? This isn't a bomb."

"Not a bomb?" Zhao Gang's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. "If that commotion wasn't caused by a bomb, did you detonate it?"

Liu Jianjun swallowed his rice and said slowly, "If I could crack that loudly, I would have killed Venomous Fang long ago. Would Mr. Su have needed to do it?"

"Team Leader Zhao, your vision is too narrow."

"This is not a bomb."

"This is the voice of knowledge."

Zhao Gang's blood pressure spiked. If it weren't for military discipline, he would have shoved the atlas into Liu Jianjun's mouth on the spot and made him eat it with garlic.

Liu Jianjun continued, "I guess Mr. Su thought the road was too difficult to travel, so he made a little noise to clear it. Maybe he caused a landslide or changed the course of a river. It's standard procedure. Sit down, everyone sit down."

Zhao Gang: "..."

Everyone inside the tent: "..."

With eyes full of admiration, Xiao Wang exclaimed, "Brother Liu, I'm completely impressed. Mr. Su's 'routine operation' always opens my eyes."

Liu Jianjun snorted: "This is nothing. Last time in the desert, everyone saw him... never mind, that's classified information, I can't say."

Zhao Gang's temples throbbed: "Old Liu, can you stop bragging? We're on a rescue mission, not listening to a storyteller!"

"Save people?" Liu Jianjun scoffed, calmly finished the last bite of his meal, then stood up, dusted himself off, and looked out at the dark rain outside the tent, his eyes filled with fervent trust.

"Captain Zhao, you've got it wrong. We're not going to rescue Mr. Su."

"We're going to collect the body from Venomous Fang, and we're also helping Mr. Su carry his bag."