Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Soldier

All the puzzles were suddenly solved, and Ding Jun’s mood instantly turned incredibly light; he longed to escape his predicament and return to Toling Temple immediately. The mural of the Sixteen Vajra Dancing Maidens covered a significant area, and finding something hidden within it would be no easy task.

"We’ve waited so long, and yet we haven't seen Shi Miaoshou appear. Where on earth did that guy go?" The man with the small eyes rambled on. "For the past few nights, I’ve turned this house upside down hundreds of times, and every morning, I’ve painstakingly restored the furniture and dust to their original states. It’s been exhausting. Although I haven't found anything, I always feel that there must be a greater secret beneath the Shi residence. For instance, you can’t find a single snake, insect, rat, or ant within a hundred paces of the courtyard, both inside and out. The moss underground has changed color from green to a purplish-red. And then there’s that strange smell we’ve been picking up here; we can’t identify its cause, nor have we smelled it anywhere else... Once Lady Xue arrives, I will report everything to her truthfully. With her intelligence, she will surely find more clues."

The man with the long gun kept his eyes fixed on Ding Jun, who was trapped in the rope net, his rifle resting across his knees and pointed at the man with the small eyes. The one-eyed man nodded and smiled from time to time, seemingly listening to the small-eyed man with great focus.

"Look at that pipe—" The small-eyed man pointed toward the corner of the room above the copper plate.

A copper pipe with a diameter of no more than an inch was embedded in a crack in the wall, with half a foot exposed, extending vertically downward. The pipe’s placement was very strange; if it were a water pipe or a ventilation duct, it should have been thicker, and the outer edge of the opening would necessarily have screw threads.

"I’ve heard some strange sounds coming from that pipe before: the bubbling of water boiling, the mournful howling of a strong wind passing through a curved passage, the creaking of countless insects gnawing on each other, the sound of someone chanting incantations loudly... and so on. Now there’s a sound coming through again, listen—" The small-eyed man stood up.

The one-eyed man twitched his ears, listening intently for a moment, then shook his head blankly: "I don't hear anything. Nothing at all."

The small-eyed man walked forward to the copper plate, suddenly leaped up, grabbed the copper pipe with both hands, and pressed his ear against the opening, hanging in mid-air like a giant ape.

"This time it’s crying." He narrowed his eyes, almost trying to stuff his entire right ear into the pipe. "It’s very clear; it’s a baby crying. I can tell—the child is hungry and needs to be fed..."

The long-gunner suddenly raised his weapon, aiming at the back of the small-eyed man’s head. The one-eyed man grabbed the barrel, slowly pushed it down, then raised his hands and made a gesture of grabbing and twisting sharply.

"How could that be? A baby crying? Is it a cat or the wind..." the one-eyed man said with a smile.

The small-eyed man listened for another dozen seconds, released the copper pipe, and jumped back to his original spot.

"Your maternal instinct is showing again. No wonder you are the favorite of Lady Xue and the High Priest; it’s because your body secretes too much estrogen. You look like a man on the outside, but you’re actually a woman, right? Hahahaha..." The one-eyed man laughed heartily.

The small-eyed man seemed surprisingly pleased by this: "What’s wrong with being half-man and half-woman? The High Priest said that women are inherently nobler than men, which is why matrilineal clans existed in the early primitive societies."

The one-eyed man let out a laugh: "Fine, fine, I can't argue with you. Lady Xue is almost here; never mind the baby crying or the wild cat wailing. Come over, let’s discuss what to do next!"

The small-eyed man walked to the table, and the one-eyed man suddenly pointed behind his back: "Look, it really is a baby—"

The small-eyed man fell for the trick and turned around. The one-eyed man clapped his palms together, pinning the other man’s head and chin, and twisted with force. With a loud crack, the small-eyed man’s cervical spine was rotated ninety degrees, and he collapsed limply without a sound.

The one-eyed man laughed: "See? Killing someone this way leaves no trace. Don't always think about shooting; that leaves blood all over the floor. How would we explain that to Lady Xue later?"

The long-gunner remained silent and dragged the corpse away.

The one-eyed man walked slowly to the copper plate, leaned over to look at Ding Jun, and smiled grimly: "Originally, killing you would have been a trivial matter, but my superior said your life is still useful. People who are too smart always die young; it’s better to be a bit dumber and lazier. I just do what my superior tells me. You saw it just now; killing a man is easier for me than pinching a mosquito, so you’d better behave and don’t provoke me. Now, tell me, why didn't you just stay in Toling Temple instead of rushing here?"

Ding Jun couldn't guess why the three of them were turning on each other, so he replied cautiously: "The situation with Siqin at Toling Temple is very dangerous, and I couldn't find Uncle Shi, so I came to Toling Town to try my luck. Running into you was entirely accidental."

The one-eyed man paced back and forth, seemingly pondering whether Ding Jun’s words were true or false.

"I heard you were comrades with Shi Hai?" he asked again.

Ding Jun nodded with difficulty, feigning the exhaustion of someone unable to break free from his restraints: "Yes... we served together on the battlefield in Afghanistan."

"What kind of person was he?" the one-eyed man asked, leaning closer.

"He was—" Faced with the question, Ding Jun suddenly self-reflected, his mind recalling the image of Shi Hai.

Overall, Shi Hai was a smart, studious, and motivated young man. In every combat skills assessment, his scores were on par with Ding Jun’s, the best in the Delta Force. However, Shi Hai’s mood was never stable. According to the psychological counselor sent by their superiors, Shi Hai’s assessments were consistently below average.

Ding Jun had seen it with his own eyes: sometimes Shi Hai was as violent as a wild horse, and other times as humble as a lamb. When manic, he wouldn't sleep for days and nights and could complete any high-difficulty combat mission; when depressed, he would act like a man suffering from severe clinical depression, spending his days curled up in a quilt in the barracks, sleeping.

He had never suspected anything malicious, merely assuming that those ups and downs were due to Shi Hai’s reclusive personality, just as he had never suspected that Shi Miaoshou was a bad person, seeing him only as a desperate, protective elder.

Now, being asked by the one-eyed man, Ding Jun’s heart sank, but he remained calm and continued: "He was my good brother and an excellent special operations soldier."

"Haha... hahahaha..." The one-eyed man clutched his stomach and laughed.

Ding Jun remained silent, watching the one-eyed man.

"He was... he was an excellent special operations soldier... Haha, you’re killing me. To be honest, he was actually a 'Soldier-Man'—a Soldier-Man, do you understand?" The one-eyed man stopped laughing and returned to his grim expression.

Ding Jun shook his head, indicating he knew nothing. In a predicament, the more one plays the fool, the more one can lower the enemy’s guard.

In fact, he knew exactly what the term "Soldier-Man" meant.

During the long Cold War era after World War II, major powers were all developing high-tech soldiers, attempting to embed various advanced biotechnologies into soldiers to turn them into pain-free, super-strong, high-intellect, and highly controllable super-soldiers.

According to some leaked intelligence files, the United States was the first to develop such Soldier-Men around 1962 and first deployed them in the Vietnam War, achieving quite satisfactory tactical results.

The files stated that in May 1961, to prevent the collapse of the Ngo Dinh Diem regime in South Vietnam, the United States sent 100 special operations soldiers code-named "Green Berets" into South Vietnam. Their primary duties were to assassinate enemy leaders, destroy enemy ammunition depots, and perform other "dagger" operations, dealing dozens of heavy blows to the North Vietnamese army while the Green Berets suffered zero casualties. Consequently, on February 8, 1962, the U.S. established a Military Assistance Command in Saigon, commanded by General Paul Harkins, to have full authority over these special forces.

Ding Jun had extensive combat experience and knew that where there is war, there are casualties. In every operation, he had witnessed his own comrades fall to gunfire one after another.

Special operations soldiers are human, not gods, so the myth of the zero-casualty rate for the hundred Green Beret soldiers during the Vietnam War definitely had an ulterior secret. The only explanation journalists could find was that they were "Soldier-Men," not ordinary Green Berets.

The real full name of the Green Berets is the United States Army Special Forces. It is the largest special operations unit in the U.S. Army and the most favored by the U.S. President. The unit is equipped with various infantry weapons, transport helicopters, and highly advanced communication equipment, including satellite communications and light gear with a range of up to 3,200 kilometers. They are frequently sent to many countries around the world to carry out various missions.

The unit’s crest features a silver face on a black background, embroidered with the Spanish phrase "De Oppresso Liber," meaning "to liberate the oppressed." Above it is an icon: two crossed arrows representing the Green Berets as arrows shot from a string, thrusting into the enemy's heart in unconventional warfare; a combat knife is laid across the intersection of the arrows—a deadly weapon used by American Indians, embodying the Green Berets’ upright, honest, and open-minded qualities.

Regarding "Soldier-Men," various countries had made films on the subject after 1980, with mixed quality and reviews. But regardless of how the Americans denied it, Soldier-Men were real.

Ding Jun had a premonition that, although they were both called Soldier-Men, the ones the one-eyed man spoke of were by no means the same as the high-tech individual soldiers developed by the Americans.

"It is a 'Soldier-Man' refined through sorcery and various drugs, possessing immense power and a unique mindset. Their brain development level is hundreds of times that of an ordinary person, and they can survive and lurk in the harshest desert environments just like scorpions or lizards..." the one-eyed man said with a sinister cackle.

"But he is already dead," Ding Jun said.

Shi Hai’s death had been sudden, and the process was bizarre. Investigators within the Delta Force could not explain the incident at all and could only categorize it as a special case and shelve it.

"That’s because he wasn't a qualified 'Soldier-Man,' but a defective product. Soon, his replacement will be created, and I am the witness and beneficiary of this grand event! It’s a very interesting thing, do you want to hear it—" The one-eyed man laughed crazily.

"You talk too much." The long-gunner had returned and stood on the steps, stopping the one-eyed man’s words in time.

"What does it matter if I tell him? He’s a dead man anyway!" the one-eyed man laughed.

The long-gunner walked over, looking worried, leaning his rifle against the ground with a grim face: "I fear the most that we have chosen the wrong side this time. Look, even Old Jin, who was so strong and arrogant, was willing to submit to the High Priest. If we two make a mistake, we will definitely..."

The one-eyed man patted the long-gunner’s shoulder hard: "It’s fine, it’s fine, this time we will definitely succeed. Think about it, how beautiful the colorful world outside is! Who wants to waste their precious life in the vast, snowy mountains? We are living, breathing people, not cold, lifeless rocks. Once we leave the snow-capped mountains and the Tibetan region, we can go to the metropolises in the southeast of the continent, or even Europe and America, to indulge ourselves—beautiful women, good wine, applause—after this is done, those good days will be ours!"

The long-gunner pointed at Ding Jun and made a throat-slitting gesture: "Then, let me kill him first to eliminate any future trouble, okay?"

Ding Jun quietly twitched his fingers, the blade on the razor facing outward. If the other party made a move, he would definitely not hold back.

"Don't be impatient, he’s still useful. Stay calm, wait a bit longer, Lady Xue will be here soon," the one-eyed man replied.

Suddenly, a sharp cry of a baby came from the copper pipe, note by note, crystal clear.