Chapter 87: Rainforest

Qin Qing had neither a passport nor a visa.

But since this was official business with government backing, the procedures were processed rapidly.

Not knowing how long she’d be away, Qin Qing went home to inform her family. She didn’t elaborate, only said she was going on a business trip.

At the studio, Wuyong was holding down the fort. Although not as precise as Qin Qing, her techniques were sufficient to handle most situations.

In the sub-bureau, only the bureau chief knew the specifics of Qin Qing’s mission.

Even Lin Feng only knew she was assigned to an external task.

Any task involving the military couldn’t possibly be a simple one.

Before leaving, Lin Feng came by in his usual laid-back manner to see her off and conveniently snatched two packs of sea salt crackers from her.

In the end, he half-joked, “If you happen to stumble into a firefight, you better hide well. I won’t laugh at you.”

“Alright, I’ll hide somewhere even cats can’t find.”

She traveled south from the southwest in a military helicopter.

This trip included no family members.

Although the military was providing protection, that region was ultimately chaotic, and it was best for ordinary people not to go.

Even if physical safety was guaranteed, most people couldn’t mentally withstand the stress.

Ever since Qin Qing unlocked the “Trajectory” attribute, she no longer needed the subject’s family to be within 50 meters for tracking.

Someone arranged for her to meet with the wife of the target individual.

Of course, the meeting only applied to Qin Qing—she saw the woman, but the woman didn’t see her.

After extracting the coordinates from the woman’s relationship graph, Qin Qing stored the coordinate data directly in her notebook.

The target’s dynamic movement path could now be tracked in real time.

Much more useful than a compass.

Unfortunately, the notebook couldn’t be separated from her, and no one else could see what was written on it.

Otherwise, she wouldn’t even need to make this trip.

Now, Qin Qing also learned the name of the lieutenant colonel she had previously met at the sub-bureau: Yang Anguo.

He confirmed with her multiple times, “No family present—will that affect your judgment? If we realize too late that we need them, it’ll be impossible to return to China and fetch them.”

Qin Qing assured him, “Don’t worry, Lieutenant Colonel Yang. I know what’s important.”

“Alright. I won’t question your decisions further, to avoid disrupting morale. I leave this mission to you. If you need anything, make a list and I’ll get it done.”

In truth, Qin Qing didn’t need to prepare anything.

The helicopter landed at a camp on the edge of the rainforest.

The area was packed with military tents.

Upon arrival, they didn’t rest. She was immediately led into the largest camouflage tent.

Inside were numerous electronic devices. In the center stood a long table, around which a meeting was underway.

A graying officer in camo stood at a whiteboard, writing something.

Yang Anguo stood at attention and saluted. “Commander, mission accomplished. Requesting to rejoin the team.”

The graying commander turned, raised his hand in salute.

“Permission granted.”

Yang Anguo saluted the others present, and they returned the gesture.

Qin Qing, the only unfamiliar face, drew everyone’s attention.

She greeted them calmly, “Good day, commanders.”

Yang Anguo found her an empty chair to sit in.

Someone asked the graying commander, “Sir, is this the outside help you brought in?”

“Yes. You all couldn’t solve the problem on your own and told me to find someone capable—so here she is.”

The commander wasn’t exactly polite to his subordinates. Qin Qing had just arrived and already he was drawing resentment toward her.

He even made some small talk with her: “Qin Qing, right? Thanks for making the trip.”

Clearly not used to this sort of thing, his tone was stiff.

Fortunately, he didn’t say much more and quickly started the meeting.

One of the officers present briefed Qin Qing on the current situation.

The mission was to rescue a high-ranking government official who had approached a local tycoon under the guise of another mission.

The meeting point was a banquet hosted by the tycoon.

Only local business magnates were invited to the banquet.

However, before our operative could initiate talks, the banquet was attacked by an unknown group.

All the tycoons at the banquet were kidnapped.

Our support team responded as soon as the attack began and contact was lost.

The official had a tracking device on him.

But soon afterward, our team found nothing but the victims’ discarded clothes and belts in a nearby garage.

The kidnappers had taken the captives away in completely new outfits.

This caused quite a stir locally.

Yet the kidnappers made no contact with the families of the tycoons, and their demands remained unknown.

Given that all the victims were wealthy, it was presumed the motive was money.

However, there was no activity in the suspects’ accounts.

It had been three days since the kidnapping.

The situation was bleak.

We didn’t care about the local tycoons’ lives—but we had to retrieve our operative, dead or alive.

At present, our forces had reached an agreement with the local warlords, allowing us to conduct rescue operations in their territory.

The problem was, both sides had been searching for days without finding a single clue.

The commander concluded, “Even if it’s a corpse, we will bring our man back to the soil of our homeland.”

The atmosphere turned somber.

Amid the silence, Qin Qing spoke.

“He’s still alive.”

All eyes turned to her.

“How do you know?” asked the officer who had just briefed her.

Qin Qing replied, “If he were dead, I wouldn’t be able to see him. The person you’re looking for is still alive—just very weak. He’s definitely suffered these past few days, but he’s not in mortal danger yet. Just some torment.”

She glanced again at her open notebook.

Compared to the previous day when she met his wife, his health score had dropped slightly, but was still above 60—quite healthy.

Judging by the others’ reactions, the officers didn’t know her exact identity.

The commander said, “Good. That’s very good news for us.”

He explained further, “Comrade Xiao Qin’s… expertise lies in locating people. She’s never failed in the past.”

The officers exchanged glances, then looked at Qin Qing, visibly stirred.

From the commander’s wording, Qin Qing understood.

Her identity as a fate master wasn’t suitable to be spoken of in this camp.

The commander asked, “Comrade Xiao Qin, if you’ve got any leads, feel free to speak.”

Qin Qing didn’t waste words. “Do you have a map?”

A paper map was quickly brought and spread out on the table.

Qin Qing knew that every inch of this mountainous rainforest was dangerous, hiding armed outlaws in who-knew-which crevice.

So her usual method of following a compass while pretending to be mystical wouldn’t fully apply here.

Although the hostage was safe for now, he was surrounded by bandits. Anything could happen next.

They needed to act fast and get him out.

It had to be a one-shot strike—right to the heart.

Qin Qing picked up a marker.

Standing at the table, everyone gathered around, watching her and the map.

She opened her mouth. Everyone looked at her expectantly, anticipating some grand speech.

She asked, “Where are we right now?”

Several people turned to the commander, their expressions plainly saying, This is it?

Yang Anguo cleared his throat and pointed. “Our camp is here.”

“Okay. And the place where the hostage was taken—where the banquet happened?”

Yang Anguo pointed again.

Qin Qing adjusted the scale of the trajectory map in her notebook to match the physical map, then picked up two pens of different colors and began to draw.

To be precise, she was tracing—copying.

With the red pen, she drew a winding, erratic line from the banquet location to the hostage’s current position.

With the black pen, she drew from the current camp to the hostage’s location.

She marked two different black routes.

The black routes came from a new attribute she had exchanged for overnight using Energy Points to prepare for this mission.

The attribute was called “Map.”

As long as she selected any other individual as an anchor point, the map’s properties would depict the walkable routes from her current position to that anchor, also indicating with color whether each route was safe or risky.

Green signified safety, red indicated danger.

Just like how real-world navigation systems show traffic conditions through color codes.

Qin Qing had seen this feature long ago in the Energy Mall, but since she’d always been in peaceful zones, it had felt rather useless—not to mention it cost 5 Energy Points.

But in areas plagued by disorder or in active war zones, this feature was incredibly useful.

So before setting out, she reluctantly spent her Energy Points in exchange.

Qin Qing then grabbed a blue pen and pointed to the location of the hostages.

She explained, “The person we’re looking for is right here.”

Then she introduced the meaning of the red and black routes.

Pointing to the black line, she said, “This longer route is entirely safe. The shorter one has a small section that may pose some risk.”

Using a red pen, she circled the light red segment shown on the notebook.

“I can only tell there’s a risk in this section. But I don’t know the source. It could be rough terrain, wild animals, or even stationed firepower. Also, the risk levels of these routes only apply to the current moment—they may change later. So the final route decision is up to you.”

After she finished, no one responded.

“Did I not explain clearly? I’ll repeat it—”

The Commander interrupted her: “No need, we understood.”

Looking around, the others stared at Qin Qing as if they were observing an alien freshly arrived on Earth.

“You…”

They tried to speak but didn’t know what to ask or where to start.

So they simply said nothing.

The Commander handed the map Qin Qing had marked to a soldier holding a laptop who hadn’t spoken the entire time.

“Take a look.”

Seemingly having nothing to do for now, Qin Qing shrank into a corner to lower her presence.

The Commander said, “We’ll study the map first. Xiao Qin, if there are no more leads, you can go rest and grab something to eat.”

Qin Qing thought for a moment. “There’s a bit more info, but it might not be accurate. Give me a blank sheet, I’ll write it down and let you all study it.”

Once the paper arrived, Qin Qing began writing furiously, quickly transferring everything the hostage had observed on the enemy’s territory.

Perhaps out of concern for his own safety, the hostage had recorded everything he deemed important into his logs.

The hostage was being held in a mountain stronghold. Either out of overconfidence or because they never intended to let the hostages live, the captors had arrogantly removed the hoods from the prisoners inside the camp.

After Qin Qing was led out by someone arranged by the Commander, the others finally picked up the so-called “not entirely reliable” A4 paper filled with fine handwriting.

It read:

A mountain stronghold in a remote area, surrounded by mountain ranges and complex terrain. It is located in a valley stretching east-west, with steep mountains on both sides making climbing extremely difficult. To the south of the stronghold runs a river roughly ten zhang wide—difficult to cross directly. The surrounding forests provide excellent concealment. The nearest town is about thirty li away, and there are no known formal military outposts nearby.

The stronghold is surrounded by a concrete wall about five meters high and one meter thick, with barbed wire and sharp obstacles on top. Outside the wall is a three-meter-wide, two-meter-deep trench with no water, containing simple traps. Inside are three eight-meter-high forts positioned to the east, west, and north, along with several watchtowers around the perimeter.

There is only one main entrance, located in the south. It has two heavy metal gates secured with locks and barricades. Armed guards are stationed at the gate. No obvious secondary exits have been found, but hidden passages cannot be ruled out.

Based on food consumption and shifts, total enemy personnel is estimated at around 200. They are equipped mostly with Type 97s and imitation Type 81s, with a few M16s and AK47s.

Their communication methods primarily rely on walkie-talkies and signal flares. The command structure is simple, consisting of one leader and four key sub-leaders. The leader and some of the heads often spend time in nearby towns; only two remain on guard at the stronghold.

Weapons and ammunition are stored in a dedicated warehouse in the northwest area, exact quantities unknown. There are no professional medical facilities—only basic drugs and first-aid supplies.

Several observation points are set up inside the stronghold. Their warning system is gunfire. No specialized intelligence-gathering operations have been detected so far.

From conversations among the guards, it was learned that the stronghold’s economy is based mainly on smuggling, extortion, and gambling. The reason for setting up base here appears to be the presence of a small nearby gold mine. The laborers are black market miners, captured from various places. Some of our own people may be among them, but their number is unknown.

Everyone silently read through it, speechless for a long while.

This wasn’t some “unreliable” intel—it was clearly a detailed military deployment map.

After several minutes of silence, one officer finally turned to Yang Anguo, who had brought Qin Qing.

“This young comrade—what’s her background? Is she a walking satellite?”

Yang Anguo didn’t answer. He was just as shocked.

Even after studying Qin Qing’s personnel file, reviewing her past cases, and interacting with her in person—his astonishment hadn’t lessened one bit.

So this… was the ability of a Fate Master?

Could so-called “feudal superstition” really be this powerful? Could fortune-telling predict exact enemy weapon models?

At this moment, Yang Anguo knew better than anyone:

This external expert he had personally invited had been hiding her true abilities in every prior case.

What she knew definitely went far beyond what was written in her file.

Yang Anguo looked at the veteran Commander. The Commander didn’t say much.

Just one sentence: “Everyone, sign a confidentiality agreement.”

And the topic was dropped.

“Now, analyze this reconnaissance data.”

Everyone forced themselves to stay calm and treated the intel purely as military data for analysis.

A young soldier was assigned to guide Qin Qing around the camp.

Qin Qing noted his dark skin, bright eyes, neat white teeth, and cheerful energy. His smile was infectious.

She guessed he wasn’t very old.

“Not that young—I’m the same age as most of my squadmates. I’m twenty-two. Name’s Cheng Duoyu, but everyone calls me Fishy. You can call me that too.”

Qin Qing found him quite chatty, so she chatted with him for a bit.

“Cheng Duoyu? That’s an interesting name.”

Fishy laughed. “Nah. I’ve got an older sister. My parents hadn’t planned on having more kids. I was a surprise, technically over quota. So my dad gave me that name—meant I was the ‘extra one’ in the family. I was mad when I was little, so I joined the army on impulse.”

“How so?”

“Well, no one complains about ‘extra’ soldiers when it’s time to fight.”

Fishy didn’t say it, but Qin Qing noticed many of the young soldiers in the camp were from a certain special forces unit and had already served there for several years.

It was one of the most active forces in real combat, even during peacetime.

These people had almost no private lives.

Their days were spent on regular training, high-intensity drills, or executing missions.

Fishy led Qin Qing to a small tent.

“Comrade Qin, you’ll be staying here. Your supplies are already inside. If anything’s missing, let me know—but the conditions here are limited, so we might not have it.”

They were in the heart of a rainforest—what more could she ask for?

Qin Qing had been mentally prepared.

If she needed something, she’d find a way to make do—her aim was not to trouble the soldiers.

Inside the tent was a folding bed, already made up, with a perfectly squared-off military blanket.

There was also a folding table with bottled water on it, and toiletries stored underneath.

Fishy said, “Check it out first. I’ll go get you a meal.”

Meal was a bit generous.

It was a military ration pack.

There were no open flames in the camp; everyone ate the same thing.

Qin Qing had assumed it would be bland and barely edible, but to her surprise, it tasted pretty good.

The compressed biscuits were tough as bricks, but not at all hard to bite through.

It tasted fragrant, with a distinct satisfaction from the blend of grains and animal fat.

Just half a piece was enough to feel full.

There were also self-heating noodles, ready-to-eat canned meat, dried fruits, and other items she hadn’t had time to open yet.

Worried she might not get a chance to eat later, she decided to have a bit more this meal.

So she opened a bowl of self-heating noodles—braised beef flavor.

And surprisingly, the topping was pretty good.

Just not quite flavorful enough.

So Qin Qing opened her luggage and took out the only item she’d brought besides clothes and essentials.

A jar of chili sauce.

The kind that made even insoles taste delicious.