Farming Life Starting in Africa

Rosen was very generous. The box of gold he put away, though not very big, weighed at least a ton. He was on the verge of achieving financial freedom.

Several vehicles drove back along the river at a fairly fast pace. Ma Xiao followed Rosen into the Bigfoot pickup truck. During the few days he had been imprisoned, his body odor was indescribable, making the air inside the truck quite unpleasant.

Rosen sat in the passenger seat, resting his hand on the window to enjoy the breeze, and patted the driver, Miao Feng, on the shoulder with a smile: "Hey, I've noticed something—Ma Xiao doesn't smell as bad as you."

"Get out of here!" Miao Feng's face darkened instantly. He had obviously remembered the embarrassing incident where he was forced to "solve the problem" before, and his fingers gripped the steering wheel tightly.

"Look at this, is this how you treat your savior?" Rosen turned his head and winked at Ma Xiao in the back seat. "Sigh, people's hearts are not what they used to be! The world is going to the dogs! I risked gunfire to get him out, and I still get scolded."

Ma Xiao, sitting in the back seat, couldn't sit still any longer. He leaned over, his face full of gossip: "Old Miao, what's wrong? What happened?"

"He's the one I rescued today too—" Rosen took over the conversation, ignoring Miao Feng's frantic winks from the driver's seat, and briefly recounted Miao Feng's ordeal.

Miao Feng's face darkened further. After listening, Ma Xiao's expression shifted from shock to sympathy, and finally to a deep "brother, I understand you" look. He reached out and patted Miao Feng on the shoulder: "Old Miao, I've been there too, I understand."

"You don't understand anything!" Miao Feng said through gritted teeth.

To be honest, Ma Xiao's situation was indeed worse. Miao Feng was locked in the cellar, and apart from the unpleasant matter of not being allowed to use the toilet, everything else was alright; at least he didn't have to do any work.

Ma Xiao had to do real work in the mine. Not only was he often hungry, but he was also frequently beaten up, and he didn't even have a pair of shoes to wear.

It was already broad daylight. The sun rose from the eastern horizon, turning the entire desert golden. The outlines of the sand dunes in the distance looked particularly soft in the morning light, like rows of golden camels lying down.

Occasionally, one or two withered poplars would flash past the car window, their bare branches stretching towards the sky, as if they were giving the heavens the middle finger.

Ma Xiao peered out the car window for a while, then suddenly asked, "My wife... how is she? Is she alright?"

"She's fine," Rosen said, looking down to take out his cigarette case, pulling one out and putting it in his mouth. "She should be with the evacuation team now, heading to the port of Ohafa in Ivia. There are embassy staff there organizing the evacuation."

Ma Xiao leaned forward eagerly. "Xiao Luo, can I borrow your phone? I need to contact her and let her know I'm safe. She must be worried sick."

Rosen smiled and took a satellite phone out of the glove box, tossing it in his hand.

"Five hundred dollars a minute!" Rosen's smile was as bright as the desert sun.

Ma Xiao's face immediately darkened, just like Miao Feng's had been. Suppressing the urge to curse him as heartless, he said, "Make it cheaper!"

Now he's under someone else's roof and has no choice but to bow his head. Besides, Rosen just pulled him out of that dark, sunless mine; he owes him a huge favor.

Looking at Ma Xiao's face, which was on the verge of tears, Rosen handed him a lighter. "Here, light a cigarette for me. Call me 'brother,' and I'll waive your phone bill."

Ma Xiao looked at the young face that was teasing him, his lips twitched, and he took the lighter and obediently lit his cigarette. "Brother Sen, can I borrow your phone?"

Rosen immediately laughed and tossed the satellite phone into his arms. "Hurry up and contact Sister Pan to let her know you're safe. Don't you think I'm a very generous person?"

Ma Xiao hurriedly answered the phone and was dialing Pan Wenjia's number when the satellite phone in his hand suddenly rang by itself.

"Buzzing—buzzing—"

Ma Xiao paused for a moment, glanced at the string of numbers displayed on the screen, and obediently handed the phone back: "You can answer it first."

Rosen took the phone, glanced at the caller ID, and raised an eyebrow. It was his unscrupulous businessman uncle, Qian Bida, calling.

"Feed? What's wrong?"

"Why can't I get through to your phone?" Qian Bida's voice came through the receiver. "Where are you now? Still in Uller?"

"I just escaped from the Iron Army's territory. What's up? Long story short, satellite phones are expensive."

After a long pause and several seconds of silence on the other end of the phone, his voice finally came through: "Do you remember Aunt May from Ivia?"

Rosen's mind raced, and he instantly thought of Deng Mei. She was Qian Bida's old flame, the benefactor who helped him get free shipping containers every month.

"Huh! What's wrong?"

"I just received a text message from her; she might have been kidnapped. Do you have any friends in Ivia? Can you help me get her back? I'll pay any price."

"Holy crap! I just rescued one group, and now someone else has been kidnapped? Is Africa some kind of chain store run by kidnappers?"

Qian Bida sighed on the other end of the phone, "Sigh—Xiao Senzi, please help me. I'm begging you."

Upon hearing the nickname "Little Moriko," Rosen's skin crawled instantly.

"Stop, stop, stop!" Rosen quickly interrupted him. "Do you have information about the kidnappers? Who did it? How much money do they want? Have they given us a deadline?"

"I don't know either. There was only one SOS text message, and then nothing. I can't get through to her phone; it's switched off."

Rosen scratched his head in frustration. "There's no information at all. How am I supposed to save them? Oh well, I'll think of something."

After hanging up the phone, he tossed it to Ma Xiao in the back seat, then stared blankly out the window at the desolate desert rushing past for a long while, a cigarette dangling from his lips.

Rosen suspected that Operation Red Sea had begun.

If the Iron Army was considered amateur players, then the Zaka organization was professional players.

They have everything there: hundreds of well-trained militants, several tanks, light and heavy machine guns, rocket launchers, mortars, snipers—you name it.

Sending him to Basem to rescue people? That's fucking asking the wrong question.

He was able to take down the poor bastards from the Iron Army who wore slippers and carried old AKs, thanks to the bulletproof vest he was wearing.

Zaka's gang was equipped like a regular army, with tons of guns and cannons. Even body armor couldn't withstand that much bullet damage. He's not Superman; one wrong move and he'd be a complete mess.

However, if the Navy's Jiaolong Commando Unit were to come and help, the chances would be much greater.

But the biggest problem now is the lack of intelligence. He doesn't know if Deng Mei has been captured by Zaka's men, where she is being held, the exact number of kidnappers and their equipment, the terrain, or even how to contact the navy. He's completely in the dark and can't do anything.