Huaxia! Huaxia!

I'm really not in good shape today, feeling quite down! I might have caught a cold from the rain, my head hurts, and I apologize. This will be the only update for now; the next will have to wait until tomorrow. Thank you for your support!

“Wang Zhongwei!”

“Here!”

“Come over and see if this is the man the Foreign Ministry was looking for last time.”

Inside the command room of the Jiangzhou warship.

Lu Qian's expression was grave.

On the screen, two figures dashed rapidly across Highway 88, heading due north, moving with remarkable speed.

With a resolution of up to 0.5 meters, even 0.3 meters, the advantage was obvious at times like this. As the most advanced high-altitude unmanned reconnaissance drone in the country, the Rainbow No. 1 was equipped with state-of-the-art photographic equipment.

Thus, Lu Qian and Luo Yaocheng could distinguish from the close-up image that the running figure was Chinese—precisely the man the Foreign Ministry had previously transmitted satellite data to identify.

The information officer, Wang Zhongwei, quickly moved to the console and typed rapidly, his fingers flying. Several facial recognition windows immediately popped up on the display. The results were swiftly synthesized and a green data point appeared.

99.80% match!

An almost perfect match!

“Report: this is the person the Foreign Ministry is seeking.”

With a sharp slap of his left fist into his right palm, Lu Qian frowned, deep in thought.

“Old Luo, do you have any ideas?” Lu Qian’s face grew more somber.

A Chinese national appearing on the Libyan battlefield, infiltrating a US military rapid response operation—this was not a good sign. One careless step and the country could end up on the back foot.

As the current captain of the Jiangzhou, and a naval officer being groomed by the nation’s leadership, Lu Qian and Luo Yaocheng were privy to classified information.

This evacuation operation had been nearly perfect, almost flawless.

But, according to intelligence gathered by the Defense Ministry, there were still missing persons in Libya, one of whom had just appeared in the Rainbow No. 1’s reconnaissance footage.

Li Changjiang.

In addition, two other Chinese nationals with somewhat special backgrounds were also missing within Libyan borders. When the war first broke out, agents had secretly been sent in to search, but they found nothing.

Now, with this discovery by Rainbow No. 1, Lu Qian surmised with acute sensitivity that the sudden US military action might be related to the other two missing Chinese.

As for Li Changjiang—

He was probably just an accident.

Luo Yaocheng seemed to sense something as well, his face growing equally serious.

“I suggest we contact the Foreign Ministry and the Special Operations Command immediately.”

The two exchanged a look, and Lu Qian nodded gravely.

Meanwhile, on the outskirts of Highway 88, inside Libya—

In a sandpit.

Once the Libyans had left, Li Changjiang and Elisa scrambled out of the pit and sprinted away. To Li Changjiang’s surprise, Elisa’s speed and endurance were nothing like those of an ordinary woman.

The two ran in silence.

After an unknown stretch of time, a burst of intense gunfire erupted ahead.

He tensed, instantly dropping flat to conceal himself. Crawling slowly over a sand dune, he was stunned by what he saw.

Boom!

Tat-tat-tat!

Bang bang!

Thud, thud, thud!

He rolled quickly to the side, staring at a row of bullet holes—cold sweat broke out all over his body.

That was close! If he hadn’t instinctively dodged, he would already be a corpse. He panted heavily.

Sure enough, the American troops ahead had been intercepted again!

Finding a new vantage point, Li Changjiang watched the scene, secretly astonished.

Not far away, over a dozen American soldiers were huddled behind a dune, corpses of Libyan fighters piled up before them. Nearly a hundred men on the other side kept firing.

If he was correct, these were still rebel forces—the modified pickup trucks were unmistakable.

This time, the Americans didn’t hold out long, not even putting up much of a fight.

With no reinforcements and running low on ammunition, capture was all but inevitable.

Li Changjiang watched as Major Anderson, the American officer, was shot dead. The remaining US soldiers surrendered and were hooded and herded onto pickup trucks by the Libyans.

Including the two Chinese.

When the smoke cleared, Li Changjiang was utterly exhausted.

After fighting off an ambush and then running for kilometers, he was spent.

“Li, what now? Are you still following them?” Elisa held a canteen to Li Changjiang’s lips, letting him take a small sip before capping it, ignoring his murderous glare.

“The nearest city is nearly a hundred kilometers away. We have to ration our water if we want to make it out alive.”

Glancing at the desolate expanse of desert and wasteland, Li Changjiang could only nod helplessly.

Damn it all.

“We have to go! Do you know where they’re headed?”

“That way—Misrata!” Elisa pointed ahead, naming a place Li Changjiang knew well.

Misrata.

Just as he thought.

It seemed the rebels’ actions had long been premeditated.

That bastard Khamis!

And Barty Sanchez!

Half of Caesar’s people had already gone missing, likely having left the convoy back in Tripoli.

It was now midday.

The sun above was scorching.

Li Changjiang’s legs grew heavier with every step, as if dragging lead. His throat was parched, nearly burning, and he’d tied a filthy rag around his head to ward off the sun’s brutal rays.

Without sheer will to survive, he doubted he could go on.

“Li, look!”

Elisa suddenly grabbed his arm and pointed overhead.

Li Changjiang squinted into the sun.

Suddenly, his mind cleared.

He immediately tackled Elisa to the ground.

A plane!

No—something about it seemed familiar—

Aboard the Jiangzhou.

Watching the two figures suddenly drop to the ground on the magnified screen, Lu Qian’s expression was odd.

This guy’s got sharp instincts!

“Old Luo, it seems the intelligence Commander Xiang sent was likely true, but I still have my doubts. For someone with no formal military training to show such keen awareness—and look, his physical endurance is impressive, nearly eighty kilometers by now!”

Luo Yaocheng nodded.

He too had reservations about the information, even if it came from Commander Xiang—he’d withhold judgment until he saw it for himself.

“What now?”

“Captain, these are the latest instructions from headquarters.”

Speak of the devil.

Lu Qian scanned the orders, handed them to Luo Yaocheng, then made his decision.

“Orders: Tell the frogman unit to assemble immediately for a combat mission. Let them know—this time, it’s the real thing!”

“Yes, sir!”

Pressing his lips together, Lu Qian’s expression was resolute, even a little excited.

“You’ve made your decision?” Luo Yaocheng asked.

“I have. All these years, the purpose of building a strong military and a strong nation has been for this very day—to be the strongest shield for every Chinese citizen.”

(Thank you to “Chen Zhiyang,” “Ordinary Doctor,” “Single Fellow,” and “Ice Soul” for your generous support!)