In the evening, when Wang Yuexi returned home from work, Hu Xiaobai was still unaware that Ren Xiaosu had been dismissed. She hurriedly asked, “How did the young man next door do on his first day of work?”
When Wang Yuexi heard his wife mention this, he got so angry he laughed on the spot. “How did he do? I guess you don’t know yet, but he got the sack immediately this morning.”
Hu Xiaobai was shocked. “Why? What happened?”
“News of this has almost spread throughout the entire administrative center. During lunch, in the cafeteria, everyone was laughing so hard they nearly flipped tables.” Wang Yuexi said, “In the morning, I arranged for him to be attached to the Civil Affairs Division to handle the marriage registration process. In the end, when a couple went over to apply for their marriage certificate, he said to them that since they had been dating for six years, maybe they should reconsider getting married….”
“Hahahahaha.” Hu Xiaobai laughed hard. When she saw Wang Yuexi’s expression, she realized she shouldn’t be laughing now.
“This is outrageous.” Wang Yuexi said, “Did he even intend to work? It’s obvious to me that he doesn’t want to work and didn’t know how to reject your good intentions. That’s why he played such a trick. What a pity for Ms. Xiaojin. How did she end up with a person like him?”
Hu Xiaobai also sighed and said, “He intends to have Xiaojin support him for the rest of his life.”
Ren Xiaosu starting work after lazing around for such a long time was a subject of discussion among the neighbors.
But by the evening after Ren Xiaosu was dismissed on his very first day of work, this became new gossip material for them.
Everyone’s focus was on what a pity it was for Yang Xiaojin to have met such a person.
…
At this moment, in the garrison base outside Stronghold 144, Zhang Xiaoman welcomed Wang Yun into the conference room with a smile.
After more than a month of recuperation, Wang Yun’s complexion was finally looking better again.
In order to identify Jiang Xu’s murderer, Wang Yun’s health was affected after staring at monitors for six days straight.
After recuperating, Zhang Xiaoman and the Great Hoodwinker immediately had other plans for him.
Zhang Xiaoman personally brewed a pot of quality tea for Wang Yun and said with a smile, “How’s your recent break been?”
“Not bad, it’s just been quite boring.” Wang Yun took a sip of tea and said, “By the way, have you heard any news from Future Commander? If he doesn’t show up soon, everyone will feel like there’s no one to lead them. I wonder what he’s up to.”
Zhang Xiaoman said with a smile, “Since you’re bored, why don’t I find you something to do?”
Wang Yun looked at Zhang Xiaoman from the corners of his eyes. “Oh, and I was wondering why you suddenly called me over. Go ahead, what is it?”
“Awesome!” Zhang Xiaoman shouted to the outside of the conference room, “Carry the stuff in!”
With that, a large group of soldiers came in. Some of them started installing screens on the wall while others adjusted equipment.
Seeing that this situation was exactly the same as when they were looking for the murderer a month ago, Wang Yun was instantly shocked. “What are they doing? Is the future commander launching another sting?”
“It’s not our future commander launching another sting but that we want to find all the spies hiding in Stronghold 144. So we collected all the surveillance footage from the past month and brought them here.” Zhang Xiaoman said with a smile, “Now that Stronghold 144 is under my watch, I can’t possibly let those spies operate under my nose, right?”
After experiencing what happened a month ago, Wang Yun felt a little nauseated when he saw the screens. He thought for a moment and said, “Can you let me take a longer break?”
Zhang Xiaoman said righteously, “Think about it, we’re Northwesterners now, so how can you bear to see people with ulterior motives operating under our noses? The future commander has disappeared for almost a month, so isn’t it better that we sniff out the spies now and give him a surprise when he returns?”
“Then surely it’s no hurry and we don’t have to do it in the next few days, right?” Wang Yun rejected.
“Have you forgotten our aspirations?” Zhang Xiaoman said solemnly, “The Prosperous Northwest!”
The Prosperous Northwest referred to a place where everyone performed their duties, focused on improving infrastructure, paid attention to the livelihoods of the people, raised the level of the military, and captured all spies.
P5092 also came into the conference room with great interest. He said to Wang Yun with a smile, “I agree with Brigade Commander Zhang’s plan. You also know the Wang Consortium is progressing very quickly in their annexation of the Central Plains. Once they complete the unification of the entire Central Plains in half a year, the Wang Consortium’s next target might be the Northwest and Southwest. So we have to find all the spies in advance and carry out our strategic deployment. If the spies are not found and our strategic deployment plans get leaked, that’ll be a huge threat.”
“That’s right.” Zhang Xiaoman applauded in agreement. “Look at the Wang Consortium. They clearly know that we’re experiencing a food shortage, yet they still cut off all food trade with us. This indirectly shows that the Wang Consortium has some designs on the Northwest.”
Wang Yun gave it some thought and sighed. “Indeed. Let’s get to work then!”
The screens in the conference room were refitted on the wall and would probably not be taken down again for some time. After the spies from Stronghold 144 were found, there would still be other spies to identify from Strongholds 145, 146, 143, 142, and others.
In short, the Great Hoodwinker and Wang Fengyuan’s idea was to have Wang Yun plow through all the security footage of the entire Northwest first.
Before the spies were aware of what Wang Yun was capable of, the Northwest would have to act quickly!
Zhang Xiaoman said to Wang Yun, “We don’t have to be in such a rush this time. You can take your time to go through the footage. The higher-ups’ plan is to identify all the spies within a year, so we’re in no hurry.”
“It’s good as long as it’s no hurry.” Wang Yun heaved a sigh of relief.
All the screens on the wall lit up with images from Stronghold 144.
Compared to the previous time, the mission this time was much easier. Wang Yun only found three suspicious people after checking through the footage over and over again. “Pause Screen A11. That person is carrying a gun. Investigate and see if there’s a problem with him.”
“C31, pause. The middle-aged man in the surveillance footage looks a little suspicious…”
Wang Yun slowly went through all the surveillance footage. However, there were many fewer spies in the Northwest than in the Central Plains. This was probably because the various consortiums did not prioritize their intelligence gathering efforts here.
But the next day, while Wang Yun was eating the food Zhang Xiaoman had personally brought him, he suddenly stopped moving and fell into a daze.
When Zhang Xiaoman realized Wang Yun’s chopsticks had stopped moving, he asked, “What’s the matter? What did you discover?”
However, Wang Yun ignored him and said to the soldier assisting them, “A16, pause! A28, pause!”
After a while, he said, “C29, pause!”
Zhang Xiaoman had a look of confusion on his face. There were too many screens on the wall, and he did not even know the positions of the screens Wang Yun mentioned.
“What’s the matter? Have you discovered a spy ring?” Zhang Xiaoman asked, “Should I lead my troops into the city? Are there many of them—”
Before he could finish speaking, Wang Yun suddenly stood up holding his boxed lunch in hand. “It’s Future Commander! He returned to Stronghold 144 over half a month ago!”
When Zhang Xiaoman heard this, he jumped to his feet. “Where? Where’s Future Commander?”
“Anning East Road!” Wang Yun said firmly, “It’s the old military neighborhood!”
Right afterwards, everyone in the military base heard Zhang Xiaoman shout at the top of his voice, “Prepare the vehicles, quickly get the vehicles running! Hurry up, don’t delay me from meeting with the future commander!”
