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

On the military transport plane returning to Jiangnan City, Gu Changfeng and his bodyguards enjoyed hero treatment, with military doctors treating their wounds and distributing high-energy nutrient solutions.

Unlike the hustle and bustle here, in a corner of the cabin, Su Ming had already put on an eye mask and was fast asleep.

Zhao Gang, wrapped in a military overcoat, looked at the boy sleeping like a log with a complicated expression. His worldview had been repeatedly shattered and rebuilt over the past few days, and his mind was still a complete mess.

Slingshot to shoot down airplanes...

These five words played on repeat in his mind like a demonic chant. He felt that all his years as a special forces soldier had been for nothing.

He took out his phone; the signal had already been restored. He needed to talk to someone, otherwise he suspected he would go crazy. He opened a WeChat group with only three members, named "Northwest Wolf Warrior F3," which contained his two retired comrades who had risked their lives together.

Zhao Gang quietly snapped a photo of the endless sea of ​​clouds outside his window. He thought for a moment, edited a message, revising and rewriting, and finally sent only a few words:

"I came back alive, but I was with a deity, and I was almost scared to death."

A comrade replied instantly: "Old Zhao? Weren't you supposed to be on a rescue mission in the desert? Did you run into some tough guys again?"

Zhao Gang smiled wryly. How to describe it? A tough nut to crack? Was that armed helicopter a tough nut to crack?

He flipped through the photo album and found a picture he had secretly taken—Su Ming was driving that simple "wind-powered sand sled," gracefully drawing an arc across the sand dunes, with a hazy yellow sandstorm behind him.

This picture is incredibly impactful.

He inexplicably added a thick layer of blur to the photo, leaving only a blurry figure and the outline of a sled, and sent it over.

"Here, this is our means of transportation."

The group chat fell silent.

One minute later.

"Holy crap! Brother Zhao, you've switched to making movies? These props are amazing!"

"Is this some kind of joke? Sailing on the sand? Newton must be turning in his grave!"

Zhao Gang looked at his comrade's teasing and didn't reply. He just silently turned off his phone.

Unbeknownst to him, his comrade, a frequent visitor to military forums, thought the picture was incredibly cool and promptly shared it in a small group of off-road enthusiasts, captioning it: "Sent by a friend from the front lines. Are rescue teams getting this fancy now?"

A screenshot began circulating wildly on the internet. After being forwarded several times, it was seen by a student from Jiangnan University.

"Wait... why does that back view look so much like our school's top student?"

……

That afternoon, on the Jiangnan University online forum.

A dormant post has resurfaced: "Let's talk about that top scorer from our school who disappeared before military training was even over!"

Original Poster: "Brothers, I'm back! We haven't heard from the top scorer, but I managed to get a photo that looks like him!"

Below is a blurry, heavily compressed image. In the picture, a thin young man is riding a makeshift sled that looks like it's pieced together from junk, drifting at high speed across the vast desert with an incredibly arrogant demeanor.

"Wow! What is this? A Photoshop genius?"

"Hilarious! That silhouette does look a bit like Su Shen, but the location is wrong! Isn't this the desert? Didn't our Su Shen go home for a part-time job? Going to the Taklamakan to carry bricks?"

"Upstairs, is it possible that Su Shen's part-time job is... desert surfing?"

"Are you kidding me! Didn't Su Shen go missing? The counselor is already prepared to call the police!"

"The tech genius is here! I analyzed it, and the lighting and sand refractive index in this image don't seem photoshopped! And look at the structure of that sand sled—sail and rudder—theoretically, it could indeed glide under certain wind conditions! This guy's a genius!"

"Wait a minute! Last time it was a beat-up fishing boat on the high seas, this time it's a junkyard in the desert... I get it! Is Su Shen's side job collecting junk?!"

"Case solved! Last time it was 'One Piece,' this time it's 'Desert King'! I declare, Su Ming, you are the 'Environmental Conqueror' of Jiangnan University! I bet a pack of spicy strips that his next part-time job will be skiing on Mount Everest!"

However, after an anonymous user with the screen name "Zhao's Bodyguard Who Doesn't Want to Reveal His Name" posted a clearer video in the thread, the entire forum exploded.

This video was filmed inside the car.

In the video, the face of Gu Changfeng, chairman of the Gu Group, which frequently graces the covers of financial magazines, is clearly visible.

Most importantly, at the end of the video, the camera pans across Su Ming, who is carrying his backpack, and calmly says to the camera, "...Settle the final payment."

If the picture was "suspected," then this video is solid evidence!

"Holy crap! It really is Su Shen! And isn't that Gu Changfeng, the chairman of the Gu Group, next to him?!"

"Case solved! Su Ming's part-time job was as a bodyguard for a billionaire?!"

"Bodyguard? Your bodyguard is taking the boss sandboarding in the desert! He's clearly on a rescue mission!"

"Wait a minute! Didn't you guys see the timestamp in the bottom left corner of the video? It's from the day before yesterday! I just checked, and Lop Nur issued its highest-level red alert for a sandstorm the day before yesterday! Holy crap, they're really risking their lives!"

Suddenly, a student who claimed to have relatives on the border weakly replied: "Um... my cousin said that their unit brought back a college student from Lop Nur... and he... shot down a helicopter with a slingshot..."

The post was quiet for a moment, then it was flooded with even more messages.

"???"

"Shooting down airplanes with a slingshot? Dude, there's a basic principle to bragging! Why don't you just say he can build Gundams by hand?"

"I don't think I'm browsing the school's online forum; I've accidentally wandered into a novel's comment section."

"Hahaha, that's hilarious! Is the next thing they're going to say is that Su Shen is actually a cultivation master who's currently undergoing tribulation?"

"No, officer, is this part-time job... really legal?!"

"Our school's reputation is terrifying!"

The post spread quickly.

Lin Xiaoyue silently scrolled through the posts, and when she saw that blurry yet familiar back view, she couldn't help but smile knowingly.

This guy always manages to do something unexpected.

Meanwhile, in dormitory 407.

Zhang Hao was lying in bed, scrolling through Tieba (a Chinese online forum) while laughing so hard he was pounding the bed.

"Hahaha, these netizens are so talented! Desert drifting... How is that possible... Huh?"

He immediately stopped laughing.

The dormitory door creaked open.

A figure carrying a worn-out backpack, covered in dust, with a few grains of sand mixed in with his hair, appeared at the door.

The man looked at him, grinned, and revealed a set of white teeth.

"Haozi, I'm back."

Zhang Hao's eyes widened instantly, and his phone slipped from his hand.

He looked at the video on his phone, then at Su Ming standing at the door, and felt like his CPU had just burned out.

"Su...Sususu...you...youyouyou..."

"You really went desert drifting?!"

Su Ming froze, his scalp tingling.

"How...how did you know?"

His gaze fell on Zhang Hao's phone, which had fallen onto the bed. The screen displayed a screenshot of that video.

"I... damn it."

Su Ming sighed deeply, covering his face in despair.

He slammed his heavy backpack onto the desk with a loud thud.

He was exhausted, both physically and mentally, and all he wanted to do was take a quick shower and then fall into a deep sleep.

"Holy crap! You actually went!" Zhang Hao sprang to his feet and rushed to Su Ming, circling him like he was watching a monkey.

"Awesome, bro! You're a legend on our forum now! 'Desert Drifter'! 'Slingshot Man'! They're all betting on whether you'll be digging up dirt on the moon next!"

Su Ming's head was throbbing from the noise, and he didn't even bother to lift his eyelids. He simply unzipped his backpack and started taking things out.

A pile of dirty clothes covered in sand.

A small bag of yellow sand sealed in a plastic bag.

Then... there was a palm-sized, deep blue metal lump with several indicator lights faintly flashing on it.

"Holy crap!" Zhang Hao's eyes lit up instantly. "What is this thing? It even lights up! A game controller? Or some kind of high-tech toy?"

He reached out to take it.

"Don't touch it."

Su Ming reacted quickly, slapping his hand down with a "snap," his tone unusually serious.

"This thing... is a bit expensive."

"How expensive?" Zhang Hao asked dismissively.

Su Ming thought for a moment and answered seriously, "Probably... enough to buy several of our schools."

Zhang Hao: "???"

"Are you fucking kidding me!" He abruptly pulled his hand back, looking at the metal lump as if it were a miniature nuclear bomb.

Su Ming didn't explain further, but simply stuffed the thing into the deepest part of the drawer and locked it with a small lock with a "click".

"I just grabbed a souvenir; I'll have to return it in a couple of days."