Just as I reached for the dagger, my vision blurred, and suddenly my wrists were seized. With a sharp crack, I was handcuffed before I could even offer any resistance. This… isn’t this the biggest joke in the world?

I felt as if I’d been plunged into an ice cellar, a chill permeating right to the bone. "You?!" Though terror and shock warred within me, my mind was still functioning. Using the handcuffs, I swung wildly at the short man in front of me.

He dodged it effortlessly. "Since you won't make the call, then I'll speak to your Commander myself." Before the words even faded, Zhuomayangjin entered the room. "I know who you are." Her face showed fear, yet she stood her ground, walking directly up to the short man and waving a hand, sending her four burly subordinates outside. "You're from the Ninth Branch of the State Security Bureau."

"What!" I thought I must have misheard. "You said they are???? Impossible!" The Ninth Branch of State Security! As far as I knew, no such department existed. "Yangjin, are you…?" She was shrewd; I suspected she was playing some kind of trick, trying to bait the enemy into revealing themselves.

Zhuomayangjin’s expression turned ashen. "Someone already informed me that people from your superiors were coming."

The short man stared at me, his face unreadable. After a brief pause, he pulled out an utterly unremarkable mobile phone and placed it before my eyes, slowly dialing a number. He asked me, "Do you recognize this number?"

I shook my head blankly. The short man scoffed dismissively. "Oh, I forgot. You're just a minor Lieutenant. How would you know anything about this?" Saying that, he pressed the dial key. The call connected quickly. "This is *, I'm taking Luo Lian from your Military Region." Whatever was said on the other end, the short man frowned in annoyance. "Won't you check his file? Why ask me? His file number is ***." After a prolonged silence on the other end, the short man finally spoke again. "Oh... I know who you are. Mr. Zhang. I’m informing you about this matter. He’s one of your subordinates. Come, speak to him for a moment."

The man he called by name, Mr. Zhang, was none other than the Commander of our Military Region.

The phone was close to my ear, the voice startlingly clear. "Platoon Leader Luo. Follow their arrangements; you don't need to return to Lhasa for now. I will have my secretary handle matters here."

I seriously suspected this was a trap. How could they so easily find the Commander's number? Who were these people, speaking to the Commander so casually? And using a department that didn't even exist to deceive us—it had to be a setup, a trap! As a mere platoon leader, barely out of the academy, how could I possibly meet the Commander? And how could I even tell if that was his voice?

However, the short man's skills were exceptionally sharp. Forget being cuffed; even under normal circumstances, I might not have been his match.

"Yangjin, you should leave." It seemed these two bore no malice toward Zhuomayangjin. I urged her to understand the situation, leave first, and then figure out a way to bring more people to rescue us.

Zhuomayangjin wasn't stupid, but now her face was etched with worry, looking at me with tearful hesitation. "Luo Lian…" she began, unable to finish.

The situation was overwhelmingly against us, yet she was lingering with this display of affection. My annoyance with her resurfaced.

"They are…" Zhuomayangjin hesitated, "They seem to be…"

I cut in, asking with heavy sarcasm, "The Ninth Branch of State Security? Is that a department you established?"

Before the words were finished, we heard Old Li’s frantic struggles from outside the door, "Let go! Let go! Let go of me!" mixed with the sound of handcuffs clanging. In an instant, he burst into the room before me. "Technician Luo?" Old Li was astonished. "How are you?"

But before I could react, three or four people dressed identically to the short man and his crew, albeit with less complicated insignia, flooded in from outside. The short man slightly shifted aside to make way, and they immediately grabbed my shoulders and began dragging me out. Their grip was so forceful I couldn't resist; I could only stumble and stagger along.

As I was pulled out the door, I heard the short man politely say to Zhuomayangjin, "Princess, please return. We will not harm him. Perhaps we will meet again, perhaps we will even cooperate."

I didn't hear Zhuomayangjin's reply, as I was already brought before Old Li, who was facing the same fate. We exchanged a look and could only offer wry smiles.

...

Outside the hotel, an inconspicuous domestic SUV was parked. In broad daylight, these men shoved both Old Li and me into the vehicle and then sped off, slamming the accelerator. I glanced back accidentally and saw a charcoal-gray sedan following, whether intentionally or not.

"Not bad, they actually dared to follow us," the short man remarked casually to the driver. "Lose them."

Hearing this, I immediately realized it must be Zhuomayangjin's car. She certainly wouldn't stand by and watch me be taken away under such mysterious circumstances. She had extensive connections and means; she would surely find a way. In fact, all she needed to do was relay the news back to our unit. It wasn't just the disappearance of a high-ranking officer and a third-class sergeant; even if it were just a common soldier, they wouldn't stand idle.

Thinking this, I felt somewhat relieved.

At that moment, the SUV driver suddenly executed a sharp turn and swerved into a narrow alley packed with shops. After a series of twists and turns, he banked left again. Ignoring how dizzy and disoriented we were from the jarring ride, he immediately drove onto a winding dirt track. In just those two maneuvers, the sedan following behind had vanished without a trace. It was probably Zhuomayangjin’s driver, brought from Tibet, who wasn't familiar with this area, and so they were quickly shaken off.

But it didn't matter. As long as Zhuomayangjin knew about this, she would definitely find a way. Besides, there was that fellow Xu Zhiwu; his connections were vast. Wasn't this vacation we were on arranged by him pulling strings?

With these thoughts, I felt even more reassured. No matter how powerful they were, they wouldn't dare take our lives, right? "Old Li, where is Yanzi?" I asked, trying to sound flippant, attempting to appear relaxed. "That young girl was quite nice."

Old Li completely ignored the others in the car and played along: "I thought so too."

Just as I was about to reply, the short man sitting in the front passenger seat let out a cold laugh. "You still have the mood to talk about women. I’m afraid soon you won't even have the mood to cry." As soon as he finished speaking, the two men sitting next to us immediately pulled out strips of black cloth and tightly bound our eyes.

The cloth was pulled so tight it made my eyes ache. "Loosen up!" I retorted, unceremoniously ramming my elbow into the ribcage of the man next to me. The impact of my elbow hitting his bone sent a sharp pain up my own arm; he must have been hurting too. The man grunted in pain, and I braced myself, expecting retaliation. Unexpectedly, after a couple of moans, he didn't strike back. Furthermore, the short man seemed entirely unconcerned, even casually instructing him not to tie it too tight and to be careful not to hurt our eyes.

I was momentarily baffled, unsure what these people were planning.

The car bumped along incessantly, suggesting we were likely traveling on mountain paths. The place we were going probably wasn't in the bustling center of some major city; perhaps it was sparsely populated.

...

Indeed, just as my backside felt like it was about to break from the jolting, the car stopped with a loud creak. Then someone grabbed my arm and roughly dragged me out.

The air felt cold, and I shivered, a genuine fear creeping into my heart. It was deathly quiet; even the sound of them extinguishing the engine and closing the doors echoed for a long, long way, accompanied by a faint reverberation.

We must be deep in an uninhabited, dense forest. This meant if they decided to eliminate us here, no one would ever know.

"Old Li!" I yelled, a note of panic entering my voice.

The tall man answered me, his voice surprisingly gentle. "No need to call out. Your places of confinement are separate. Let's go." Two men immediately seized my shoulders from either side and began pulling me along, almost lifting me off the ground.

"Let go! Let go! Who are you people! What do you want! Do you realize you've captured a state military officer!" I struggled with all my might while shouting, "Our people will be here soon!"

No one paid attention. No matter how much I yelled or fought, they held me tightly, quickly navigating the uneven terrain.

I could feel we were ascending, and the two men holding me were gradually finding it harder, but their pace didn't slow. Because the tall man kept urging them, "Faster, faster! They're in a hurry for the person over there."

Hearing that, my heart sank.

...

After about half an hour, when I was already feeling dizzy and weak, the tall man suddenly announced, "We're here. Take him to Unit 175. I'll report to Forty-three."

Forty-three? Using code numbers? Like a triad? I suddenly felt like laughing. So they were just a bunch of shadowy figures pretending to be important. No matter how powerful they were, what could they really do to me? With that thought, my confidence returned. I would meet their moves with inaction; I’d wait to see what they truly intended first.

The two men holding me responded in unison, "Yes!" Then they dragged me into a room.

Clang! That was the sound of an iron door opening. Immediately, the two men released their grip and shoved me forward; my head was spinning, and the push sent me stumbling!

But thankfully, after a few wobbles, I managed to keep from falling. Once I stabilized, someone immediately came over to untie the black cloth over my eyes. The light inside the room was so intense that I couldn't adjust my vision right away, unable to open my eyes fully.

When my eyes finally adapted to the normal light, I took in the room’s situation. It was a standard fifteen or sixteen square meter space: one desk, one chair, a single iron-frame bed, military-green blankets folded with excessive neatness, and a simple washstand nearby. Everything seemed normal, except for the overly perfect folding of the blanket; otherwise, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

I didn't even look at the two men standing by the door and commanded them, "Take off my handcuffs."

One of them was relatively polite, saying properly, "Eighty-seven hasn't returned. We cannot make decisions on our own." This meant I still had to wear the cuffs.

I sneered, "I figured as much; you're nothing more than two mindless running dogs."

The two men, despite being insulted, didn't get angry. They silently closed the door and stood stock-still, not even letting their eyeballs move, standing perfectly straight.