Chapter 66 – Coaxing
Novel Title: 龙血 (Dragon Blood)
Author：水千丞 (Shui Qian Cheng)
Translator: K (@kin0monogatari)
Protagonists: 单鸣 (Shan Ming -MC), 沈长泽 (Shen Changze -ML)
*Please read at Novels Space.space, the original site of translation. TQ*
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Shan Ming didn’t sleep for a long time. He was suddenly woken up.
Koski, who was in charge of the night watch, came in and told Tiger Shark that Captain House wanted to see them. Shan Ming immediately opened his eyes when he heard the name.
Shen Changze said, “I’ll go and take a look.”
Tiger Shark waved his hand to stop him, “He came in alone. If not, we won’t let him come in.”
Koski nodded in agreement. After a while, he brought House in. House was still on crutches but Shan Ming felt that he was faking it. After all, he was knocked off his kneecap in public. With the speed of human recovery, he should not get better too soon.
Shen Changze looked at him hostilely. He bared his teeth slightly at him as if he wanted to rush forward like a little leopard.
House rolled his eyes helplessly, “Listen, I’m not here to fight with you. I wanted to discuss cooperation.”
Tiger Shark said: “What can we cooperate with?”
“I’m on a mission this time. Someone in our country’s key scientific research project sold our research results at a high price in order to make money. This person made drugs that will stimulate human’s potential in a short period of time. After several investigations, we finally found this place. I have been undercover here for more than a month. I finally gained Kafar’s trust and became his most popular fighter. We are closing the net step by step, hoping to find out the mastermind behind the scenes. It turned out that we were out of luck. You guys came and blew up the entire fighting arena as soon as you arrived. A lot of evidence was buried in the ground.” House’s tone sounded quite rude and his expression displayed utter dissatisfaction, “According to reliable sources, due to the Moroccan government’s comprehensive implementation of air interception, they can’t go out for now. In order to prevent being exposed by the media, many viewers of the fighting arena have fled into Western Sahara, hoping to leave Morocco from there. Kafar as well.” House glanced at Shan Ming, “Nesis should be there too. Shan Ming said that he was also here for a mission. Although there is no specific investigation yet, I assume it is probably related to the kidnapping of Moroccan government reporters and officials by the Independence Party. Now, our people also need to enter Western Sahara. But we are not familiar with this place. We don’t have any resources so we need help from the government. How about we help you rescue the hostages together? And you can let us have Kafar.”
Shan Ming smiled slightly, thinking that he was actually kidnapped here and he had lied to House that he was on a mission. But now, he really has a mission. So he won’t be ridiculed by House. But he still feels a little ashamed in his heart. Fortunately, no one exposed his lies.
Ayer snorted, “That’s funny. Why do you think we need your help?”
“Wouldn’t it be a good thing for a few more people to help you guys for free?”
“Who knows what ulterior motives you have. We will not agree to this matter. We don’t need anyone’s help. If you want to get in there, just figure it out yourself.”
House shrugged, “Let me say it this way. Kafar has a lot of money with him. I installed a GPS tracker on him. Now, only I can find him. After finding him, all the money will be yours. How about that?”
Al’s eyes lit up when he heard the word ‘money’, “Really? How much money are we talking about?”
“About… I’m not sure. There should be around seventy to eighty million dollars.”
Ayer blinked his eyes and was about to open his mouth. But then hesitated and thought of Tiger Shark beside him. He looked at Tiger Shark with a look of reluctance.
Tiger Shark folded his hands in front of his chest, sitting on a chair with his back straight. He was like a big statue with tangled muscles. Seeing Ayer looking at him that way, Tiger Shark raised his eyebrows with the scar and said smoothly: “You are the boss of ‘Peregrine Falcon’. Why are you looking at me?”
Ayer smiled coquettishly, “It’s because you’re handsome.” Then he said to House, “How many of you are there?”
“How many people would you like me to bring?”
“I’ll give you one car at most.”
“Okay. Just one car is enough.”
“Follow our arrangements after entering the country.”
“As long as it doesn’t affect our mission, we will follow your arrangements. But don’t make our soldiers do terrible things.”
Ayer clapped his hands, “That’s that then.”
Shen Changze glanced at Ayer speechlessly. He couldn’t help but ask, “Ayer, what do you want so much money for?”
Ayer became furious and patted his head, “To feed you!”
The next morning, four military Humvees provided by the government and two officers as guides arrived. House took five people and got into one of the vehicles. The ‘Peregrine Falcon’ had a total of sixteen people on this mission. Job was injured. Pell stayed in the hotel with Job while the remaining fourteen people and the officers sat in the remaining three cars.
Originally Ayer wanted Shan Ming to stay in the hotel with Job and Pell. Job was shot in the thigh and couldn’t move. But Shan Ming insisted that he wanted to catch Nesis himself. He insisted on following.
Tiger Shark said bluntly, “You are a burden now.”
Shan Ming stared at him feeling completely unconvinced. But he didn’t dare to curse at him casually. Tiger Shark would beat him up.
Shen Changze frowned and said, “I’ll be responsible for Baba’s actions. And I will protect his safety. I won’t let him drag you down.”
Shan Ming grinned. He raised his chin towards Tiger Shark proudly with a look of ‘See? I have a son and you don’t’.
The four vehicles drove all day and arrived at a secret base after sunset. The towns in Western Sahara they passed along the way looked desolate and this secret base was no exception. This sandcastle-like town didn’t seem to have many people at all, exuding an uncomfortable dead air. The burned Moroccan flag was planted on the wall of the town and there were obvious marks of tanks passing by on the ground.
They parked the car in a hidden place one kilometre away from the base and the officer used the radio to contact the people in the base. After a while, an average-looking man came over on a particularly broken motorcycle. The officer got out of the car to talk to him about something. They then followed the motorcycle around the town for more than twenty minutes and finally stopped at what looked like a sand dune.
The original base is located underground.
They hid the car behind the dunes and entered the underground base.
The base is as simple as its appearance with only about twenty people inside. Looking at the surrounding equipment, it should mainly play the role of communication and espionage distribution centre. The armed forces are not of importance here.
According to the instructions of their superiors, the officers in charge of the base gave them a detailed account of the current situation, including the number of kidnapped people, their identities, and where they might be hiding. They also made some analysis on the numbers and strengths of the people in the Independence Party. They then surrounded a map to strategise.
Shan Ming and his son sat aside. Shen Changze and Pell had developed a medicine bag made of traditional Chinese medicine some time ago. It was specially used to relieve severe muscle damage. Now, Shan Ming had this medicine bag wrapped around his arm and there was a splint on the outside to prevent his bones from breaking.
After Shen Changze untied the splint, the smell of the medicine bag spread out in the underground base. The smell was very strong and bitter. It was not very pleasant and everyone couldn’t help but to look at them.
The arms were swollen. Shen Changze began to massage Shan Ming along the direction of the meridians. His hands were strong and every time he pressed, Shan Ming grinned in pain.
Shen Changze felt distressed when he looked at him. It hurts him even more to see his two little arms that were swollen, looking bigger than his legs. He whispered: “Baba, bear with it.”
Sweat broke out on Shan Ming’s forehead as he gritted his teeth and said, “It’s okay. Just get it done.”
“Who made your arm like that? House?”
“No. The one who did it is dead.”
House was dissatisfied: “His hands were already like that when I was in the ring with him. Basically, I didn’t do anything too harmful. You broke my kneecap already. Are you not satisfied?”
Shen Changze turned his head and glared at him. He then said meaningfully, “It would be great if it could be permanently broken.”
House curled his lips. Not knowing what he thought of, he suddenly said with emotion, “You have changed a lot. You’ve grown up a lot.” There seemed to be some relief in his words.
Shen Changze turned his head away and ignored him.
During dinner at night, House came over to them again. Seeing that there was no one around, he whispered: “Have you been in contact with Colonel Tang? It looked like he taught you a lot of useful things. Your progress is better than I imagined. How old are you now?”
Shen Changze gave him a cold look, “Don’t disturb my meal time with Baba.” After speaking, he scooped up a spoonful of soup and put it into Shan Ming’s mouth.
Shan Ming opened his mouth and swallowed it. He then shook his head, “I’m not eating.”
“Eat some more. You haven’t finished the soup yet.”
“I won’t eat it. It’s so unpalatable and sticky. I can’t eat more of this. Bah!” Shan Ming showed a disgusted expression.
After he finished ‘bah’, he saw two Moroccan officers on the opposite side looking at him in amusement. Shan Ming glared at them fiercely and they immediately lowered their heads.
Shen Changze scooped up another spoonful, “The conditions here are limited. Baba, stop being a picky eater. Come on and eat some more.”
Shan Ming turned his head resolutely, “Don’t want to eat.”
Shen Changze coaxed him and put the spoon to his mouth, “Baba, take another bite. Just one more bite. I will cook Chinese food for you when we go back. I’ll make it for you every day. So, just one more bite.”
Shan Ming glanced at him and forced his mouth open. He drank the strange soup.
House was dumbfounded. Although he had just started learning Chinese and his level was not that good, if he understood correctly, this scene was similar to that of a parent coaxing his child to eat.
Shen Changze wiped Shan Ming’s mouth. He then turned his head to House and said angrily, “What did you ask about just now?”
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☝🏻Military humvees
*GLOSSARY:
Next update: 2023.06.20
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