The Road Home

Chapter 39

Once Lu Yanchen was in Kunming, he joined up with the task force.

He took a glance over the name list that he was given. There were four people of Chinese nationality and another twenty-four ethnic Chinese.

This could be considered a small-scale non-combatant evacuation operation. The task force members were all in the first small van. A second van followed with plainclothes officers in it, while at the very rear was an empty bus. The smaller the team, the safer it would be.

When Lu Yanchen arrived in Kunming, one of his colleagues from the military base had also just gotten there. Seeing Lu Yanchen, that colleague grinned, "Let me tell you, that batch of trainees that you taught sure missed you when they were leaving. They were all asking whether they would get a chance to see you again. Here, these are for you. The person who picked me up told me to pass these on to you." The colleague pulled out a stack of cards from his black crossbody bag. They were all from the trainees Lu Yanchen had taught for a little more than a month.

"I heard your wife is having a baby soon? The boss wants me to relieve you for a bit."

"It should be around next week or so."

"Perfect. Once we've brought the people back, you should be heading back, too, to report in and hand off the completed assignment."

It would be about time, yes, Lu Yanchen was also thinking. Within the next two or three days.

This colleague had also been appointed to come here on this task. He had actually only just returned from the southern hemisphere and stepped out from customs in Beijing when, while he was still retrieving his luggage, he received this assignment. Taking the airplane ticket, he had headed straight to the domestic departures gates and then come here to Kunming. When the two of them were getting into the van, he was even joking continually that he had not showered yet and wasn't sure whether he reeked or not. Even if his outer clothing did not stink, he had been stewing for two flights already and his underwear was something that definitely should not be smelled...

As he was saying this, he climbed into the van, where he saw two young women giggling after hearing his words. Only now did his mind catch up and clue in that the vehicle for this trip was not carrying a bunch of macho men from their military base and, rather, held in it people from the foreign affairs office as well as the doctor who was travelling with the team. Then, lifting his eyes and sweeping a look around, he discovered that it was all women sitting in this vehicle.

This man who had still been speaking about the problem with his underwear instantly shut his mouth.

The vehicle had driven for an hour. In that time, everyone had gradually gotten to know one another.

"This is my third time participating in a civilian evacuation operation, but it's the first time for me where the team has been given a bomb specialist to come along," one of the young women remarked with a feeling sigh.

Lu Yanchen's colleague was a chatterbox, and he straightaway jumped in with a reply. "That's for 'just in case.' That place has too many random landmines lying around, and if you really do run into any, you can't expect people from another country to come save you. It's just best if you bring your own people. Don't worry, don't worry. Drillmaster Lu and I are just like two spare tires. We're like Doctor Zhao, here only to give all of you peace of mind."

Those girls laughed at this and gave some mineral water to the two of them.

A bottle of water was handed over to where Lu Yanchen was.

His head was down and he was in the middle of flipping through his text messages when he saw that Gui Xiao had sent a message to him in reply: That's because you haven't slept with me very often and haven't seen any other colours. When you're back, I'll try all of them on for you to see, you big lech!