Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
The wind howled along the endless wasteland, sand dunes, and a few oil wells that were barely visible. There wasn’t any sign of living things.
Two desert-colored military jeeps drove on the sand-covered highway, one in front of the other.
This was the center of the Junggar Basin, the second largest desert in China—Dzoosotoyn Elisen Desert.
There was no life to be found here.
As Wang Peng looked into the distance, he squinted and said happily, “The weather is pretty nice today.”
Lu Zhou: “… You call this nice?”
“At least there’s no sandstorm, it’s pretty nice,” Wang Peng said while holding the steering wheel. He smiled at Lu Zhou, who was sitting in the back seat, and said, “Do you know what Dzoosotoyn Elisen means?”
Lu Zhou didn’t know a lot about liberal arts, so he asked, “What does it mean?”
Wang Peng: “In Mongolian language, it means infested with wild boars.”
Lu Zhou looked out the car window and said, “How come I’m not seeing any boars?”
Forget about boars, he couldn’t even see a cockroach.
There were only camelthorn bushes and half-dead tree branches.
Wang Peng: “The meaning came from a long time ago.”
Lu Zhou: “You know so much.”
Wang Peng smiled and said, “I just heard about it from someone else.”
Director Li was also sitting in the backseat with Lu Zhou. His face was tightly wrapped with a desert neck scarf. He coughed and said, “Are we there yet?”
Wang Peng looked at the car navigation system and said, “It says that there’s ten kilometers left, so we’ll be there soon.”
Director Li sighed in relief.
His old body couldn’t handle this trip any longer.
It took a whole day to take the train from Beijing to Wushi. Then it took another half a day to go from Wushi to this desert.
Honestly, Lu Zhou had never been to this area. If he didn’t have something important to do, he would have gladly vacationed here for a bit. However, it was not the time for vacation yet; there was a very important research task waiting for him.
The jeep was borrowed from the local Wushi army. Wang Peng was in the driver’s seat, Doctor Yan was in the passenger seat, Lu Zhou and Director Li were in the backseat.
The jeep in front of them was filled with soldiers from Regiment 150. They were here to lead the way and escort them.
Even though this area was rural, it wasn’t safe.
Not only did Wang Peng have a QBZ-95 gun next to him, but even Yan Yan also had a pistol.
Lu Zhou wanted to borrow a pistol for fun. Even though he wasn’t interested in weapons, he was still curious.
However, Wang Peng didn’t let him. He insisted that it would be more dangerous for Lu Zhou to carry a gun, but he promised to let Lu Zhou play with the gun when no one else was around.
…
They quickly completed the ten-kilometer journey.
They got off the main highway and drove on the hamada until they reached a temporary campsite.
Wang Peng followed the jeep to the main gate. He then opened the window and took out his credentials.
After the gun-carrying soldier checked everyone’s credentials, he saluted and pointed toward the direction of the checkpoint. After the boom barrier was raised, the jeeps drove inside.
On the way to the center of the camp, Lu Zhou looked out the window and saw soldiers patrolling. He then asked in surprise, “Why is the security here so strict?”
“It has to be strict,” Wang Peng said as he followed the jeep in front of him. He skillfully parked the jeep and turned off the engine. He then said, “The Jinling launch attracted the attention of the entire world. The thing you threw from low-orbit couldn’t be seen by ordinary people, but it didn’t escape satellites and radar. Guess how much your stuff was priced on the black market?”
“How much?”
“Two hundred million.”
“Two hundred million?!”
Lu Zhou couldn’t help but think.
F*ck…
Is it really that expensive?
Why did no one tell me?
I would make a fortune selling it on the black market.
Wang Peng didn’t know what Lu Zhou was thinking, but he did see how surprised Lu Zhou was as he got out of the car. He smiled and said, “It’s also in USD.”
“That’s right,” a man in military uniform said. He walked over to the jeep and smiled. He said, “Yesterday, we caught some criminals disguised as tourists.”
Lu Zhou looked at him and said, “There are people that come here?”
“Ah, guess what we found in their van?” The man in military uniform smiled and gestured with his hands. “Two RPG-7s, quite a bit of firepower.”
Yan Yan naturally asked, “No one was hurt, right?”
“No, of course not,” said the man. He looked at Wang Peng and opened his arms. “Long time no see! It’s been so long since you were discharged, how have you been?”
Wang Peng hugged his old friend and patted him on the shoulder. He said, “I’m good, I’m a lot paler now! You’ve been doing pretty well over the last four years, and you even made it to the battalion commander rank.”
Lu Zhou wasn’t very interested in their small talk, so he looked around and asked, “Where is the stuff?”
“It’s in the middle of the camp, I’ll bring you guys there.” Battalion Commander Li smiled at Lu Zhou and reached out with his hand. He said, “Let me introduce myself. I’m Li Gaoliang.”
Lu Zhou shook Battalion Commander Li’s hand and said, “Lu Zhou. You can call me Professor Lu.”
“I know, we all watched the news on New Year’s Day, and I also saw you on TV a few days ago.” Battalion Commander Li smiled and said, “How was space? Was it fun?”
“It’s pretty interesting.”
Battalion Commander Li was an interesting person. Even though he had been in the military for a long time, he was easy to talk to. They chatted while talking. Shortly thereafter, they arrived at the center of the camp.
In the center of the camp, there was a fenced-off sand dune. On the west slope of this sand dune, there was an “iron coffin”, which was around 2.5 meters high.
Four parachutes of different sizes lay quietly next to the iron coffin. The troops tried not to touch the iron coffin, but in order to stop the sandstorm from blowing it away, the troops placed some fixed weights for stability.
Wang Peng looked at this strange thing and murmured, “What’s this…”
Lu Zhou smiled and replied, “Lightning… Escape capsule. Remember when I talked about the thousand-kilometer sky-dive? This makes it possible.”
