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

Ling Qiao's breathing was heavy.

For the first time, her usually icy expression crumbled beneath the gas mask.

The large net woven from steel wire and barbs, and the monkey that died a gruesome death, shattered the professional confidence she had built up over two decades.

Data, analysis, artificial intelligence... all of these are a joke in the face of a stone casually tossed by that boy.

"Mr. Su is... absolutely right!" Wang Hu stood ramrod straight, his voice brimming with barely suppressed excitement and admiration. "We should listen to him!"

"Shut up!" Liu Jianjun roared, his face turning ashen.

He stared intently at Su Ming, his eyes no longer showing any contempt, but instead filled with extreme vigilance and confusion.

As a seasoned veteran who had spent years traversing the border, he considered himself intimately familiar with jungle traps. But what he had just witnessed was completely beyond his comprehension.

That wasn't a trap, that was art. A deadly trap that exploited animal instincts combined with indiscriminate chemical attacks.

Ignoring their astonishment, Su Ming squatted down, picked up a bit of soil, and gently sniffed it.

"Let's go." He stood up, pointed in a direction, and said, "Go around this way; it'll be about two kilometers more."

Ling Qiao took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down. She pressed the communicator and gave a brief order to the other team members waiting on the perimeter: "Plan changed. Everyone stay put and await instructions on the new route."

Then, she looked at Su Ming with a complicated expression: "Lead the way."

This was the first time in her career that she had handed over command to an "outsider".

"Stay close."

Su Ming uttered three words and then plunged into the dense bushes.

Liu Jianjun and Wang Hu flanked them in a triangular formation, protecting them from behind. Ling Qiao brought up the rear, gun at the ready, her gaze fixed on Su Ming's slender back.

There are no paths in the rainforest. The tangled tree roots, slippery moss, and hanging vines make every step extremely difficult.

Liu Jianjun displayed amazing jungle marching skills, barely lifting his feet as he glided silently through the vegetation like a snake.

But he soon discovered that Su Ming, who was ahead of him, was walking much more easily.

Su Ming's steps appeared casual, neither fast nor slow, yet he always landed precisely on the most stable stones and easily avoided the muddiest puddles. He didn't even need to use his hands to push aside the branches and leaves blocking his way; his body could always slip through the gaps at an incredible angle.

He walked with a leisurely pace, not at all like someone on a military march.

Liu Jianjun thought to himself: Is this kid a slippery eel?

After walking for about ten minutes, Su Ming, who had been silent all along, suddenly stopped and raised his right hand.

Everyone froze on the spot, holding their breath.

"What's wrong?" Ling Qiao asked in a low voice.

Su Ming pointed to the grassy area ahead: "Minefield."

Liu Jianjun's pupils contracted, and he immediately squatted down, took out a handheld metal detector from his backpack, and carefully extended it forward.

"Drip—drip—drip—"

The detector did not respond.

"Report: No metallic reaction." Liu Jianjun frowned. "It might be a non-metallic pressure-activated grenade, or..."

"No need to try," Su Ming interrupted him. "There are seven in total, M-23 ceramic pressure-activated grenades specially made by Viper, each weighing 15 kilograms when triggered, arranged in a quincunx pattern, sealing off this area."

Liu Jianjun's eye twitched slightly.

Wang Hu grew anxious and whispered to Liu Jianjun, "Brother Liu, if Mr. Su says it exists, then it definitely exists!"

"Shut up! I'm the demolition expert here!" Liu Jianjun glared at him. On the battlefield, a wrong judgment is more deadly than the enemy.

The M-23 ceramic pressure-activated mine, with almost no metal parts, is one of the most troublesome booby traps in jungle warfare. He knew about this mine, but... how did Su Ming know its model, quantity, and even deployment method?

Does he have X-ray vision?

"How...how did you know?" Ling Qiao's voice trembled slightly.

"I can smell it."

"...Smell?" Liu Jianjun nearly choked. He felt like he'd heard the funniest joke of the century. "You smelled it? You think you're a dog... no, were you ever a military dog? Smelling landmines? What's it smelling like? Strawberry or vanilla?"

Su Ming did not answer, but simply picked up a bit of soil and sniffed it.

"There's a faint but noticeable odor of nitroglycerin and stabilizer in the soil," he explained calmly. "Seven odor sources, each with a different concentration, which gives you a rough idea of ​​the distance. As for the placement method, I've read all of Viper's squads' mine placement manuals, including the one by their commander, 'Venom.' He likes a quincunx pattern; it's his signature."

Ling Qiao and Liu Jianjun were both stunned.

Determining components by smell? Measuring distance by odor concentration? And you even read their internal layout manual?

Is this even human language?!

The bodyguard, Wang Hu, was already used to it. He leaned close to Liu Jianjun's ear and whispered in a tone that implied, "Brother, you're still too young," "Brother Liu, you'll get used to it. Last time in the desert, Mr. Su could tell from the wind which direction the US armed helicopters were coming from."

Liu Jianjun: "..."

He felt that his understanding had been completely overturned.

"The country invited me here, for two hundred million." Su Ming turned to look at Ling Qiao, "not so that any of you would end up on the list of martyrs returning home because of a piece of junk worth a few dozen US dollars."

"The nation's money should be spent wisely. Every well-trained agent is more valuable than my reward."

His tone was calm, yet it carried an undeniable power.

Ling Qiao's heart skipped a beat, her anger vanished, and she was filled with mixed emotions.

"I'll tear them down now."

As Su Ming spoke, he took out the roll of thick hemp rope from his backpack, pulled out one strand, and then took out a small woodworking knife.

"Are you crazy?! You're defusing a mine with your bare hands?" Liu Jianjun exclaimed.

Su Ming ignored him, simply holding the hemp rope, and slowly walked towards the deadly meadow. With each step he took, his toes would lightly tap the ground in a peculiar rhythm.

Ling Qiao was so nervous that her heart was in her throat.

Su Ming walked to a spot and stopped, gently parting the grass with a woodworking knife to reveal a cleverly disguised ceramic grenade.

He squatted down, skillfully wrapped one end of the hemp rope around the hair-pressing device several times, and then pulled hard!

Click.

With a soft click, the fuse was deactivated, and the landmine was rendered ineffective!

He did the same thing, and in less than five minutes, he turned all seven landmines into seven useless ceramic lumps using a hemp rope and a woodworking knife.

Liu Jianjun stared blankly at the scene, and the detector in his hand fell to the ground with a "clatter".

He had spent half his life in the military, defusing at least eighty or a hundred mines, but he had never seen such an unbelievable method of mine clearance! That wasn't technology, that was magic!

Su Ming clapped his hands and threw the broken fuse into his backpack.

"Let's go."

He turned to look at the three stunned people and frowned slightly.

The next hour was the most incredible experience of Ling Qiao and Liu Jianjun's careers.

Su Ming was like a human radar, leading them through an unbelievable serpentine route in the seemingly safe jungle.

Finally, after passing through a dense thicket of bushes, Su Ming stopped.

"Alright, the first line of defense has been breached."

He turned around and looked at Ling Qiao and Liu Jianjun, who were already drenched in sweat and under intense tension, his gaze remaining calm.

"Now, do you understand why the government spent 200 million yuan to hire me?"

He pointed to the way they had come, where he had marked at least a dozen deadly traps.

"Because compared to giving your entire squad a compensation payment, my price is very fair."

"It also saved the country a lot of money on funeral expenses."

Liu Jianjun jolted awake, his feet pressed together, and facing Su Ming's retreating figure, he straightened his back abruptly and roared, "Mr. Su! I was wrong!"

Su Ming waved his hand: "No need to apologize, just follow orders from now on."

Liu Jianjun nodded vigorously, his gaze toward Su Ming shifting from initial contempt to near-fanatical worship.

Wang Hu leaned closer to him, nudged him with his elbow, and lowered his voice, his face full of pride: "Brother Liu, do you believe me now? Let me tell you, this is nothing. Last time in the desert, Mr. Su..."

"Shut up!" Liu Jianjun glared at him, then added in an almost reverent tone, "Don't disturb Mr. Su's thinking! Every thought Mr. Su has is a matter of life and death for us!"

Wang Hu: "..."

He suddenly realized that Brother Liu seemed to be even more completely insane than he was.