Xue Yanchen and Zhao Jun were definitely not looking for wild fruits or mushrooms native to this mountain. Were they looking for precious medicinal herbs such as wild ginseng and lingzhi?

If it were just wild fruits and wild mushrooms, which have no value, they wouldn't need to spend so much effort searching for them.

Xue Yanchen hadn't even told her about this, and coincidentally, she had those wild ginseng and lingzhi mushrooms in her space.

She called out to Xue Yanchen, "Yanchen."

Xue Yanchen knew who was calling him as soon as he heard the voice. He was somewhat surprised by Luo Jingyan's arrival and turned to look at her: "Why are you here?"

"I brought Black Tiger here for a stroll." She walked up to Xue Yanchen and said, "Yanchen, I just came here and saw you and Zhao Zhiqing looking for something. You must be looking for precious wild ginseng and lingzhi. Let me tell you, ginseng and lingzhi are not easy to find here. If they were, they would have been dug up by those who often go up the mountain. It would be difficult for you to find them again. Even if you continue to look, it will probably be a waste of effort."

"Ginseng? Lingzhi?" Xue Yanchen frowned slightly, revealing a puzzled expression.

Luo Jingyan also frowned, realizing that Xue Yanchen wasn't looking for these things.

"If you're not looking for ginseng or lingzhi, then what are you looking for? He Shou Wu, or some other rare medicinal herb?"

"I'm not looking for medicinal herbs. I'm just like you, out for a casual stroll, hoping to hunt some wild game to improve my life."

"What about Zhao Jun? Why don't you two take a walk together? It would be so nice to chat with each other. Isn't it boring to walk alone?"

"I just had a little argument with him, and now neither of us wants to talk to the other. Since you're here, why don't you keep me company while we take a walk and chat?"

Luo Jingyan felt that Xue Yanchen's words were becoming increasingly unreliable. He and Zhao Jun's actions just now clearly showed that they were looking for something, so why wouldn't they tell her?

Could it be that the thing is something shameful and secretive, which is why Xue Yanchen didn't even let her know about it?

Xue Yanchen must still be hiding something from her.

Could it be that he and Zhao Jun are really spies, like Lai Chunyang, secretly sent over by the enemy? On the surface, they look no different from ordinary people, but in fact they are hiding many secrets.

All his righteous actions were merely a cloak to embellish his darkness, a means to deceive others; the true darkness lay hidden within.

If he and Lai Chunyang were in cahoots, then why was Lai Chunyang arrested while he and Zhao Jun remained unharmed?

Another possibility is that he and Lai Chunyang were enemies, and that he deliberately approached Lai Chunyang in order to investigate Lai Chunyang's misconduct and identity.

Lai Chunyang was an enemy agent. Besides the public security officers, military personnel were also specifically tasked with opposing enemy agents.

Besides being an educated youth sent to work in the countryside, does he really have another identity?

Luo Jingyan quickly analyzed her conjectures. She thought of some novels and movies about spies that she had read in modern times. In those movies, spies would usually hide their identities when carrying out missions. Could Xue Yanchen be the same?

Both he and Zhao Jun were veterans who had served in the military, and coincidentally, they were both discharged because they made mistakes in the army.

Xue Yanchen is meticulous; if she deliberately tests him, he probably won't tell the truth.

We have to find another way.

If Xue Yanchen and Zhao Jun came here to find something, as long as she finds that thing and puts it in front of them, she should be able to solve the mystery.

Furthermore, she also wanted to help Xue Yanchen find what he was looking for.

However, there is still one problem: if Xue Yanchen is indeed a soldier as she thinks, and given her sensitive identity and the policy implications, she should seriously consider her options.

She didn't dare to think too much right now; she just wanted to figure things out as quickly as possible. Since she had guessed some things, she couldn't just sit idly by and wait for her fate, deceiving herself and thinking about the future later.

She instructed Black Tiger: "Search carefully in these mountains for anything unusual."

Yes, Master.

Upon receiving the command, Black Tiger immediately released an energy wave and began searching for its master's treasure.

But before it could move, it sensed the abnormal energy fluctuations around it. The source of the energy wave was actually the two shoes on Xue Yanchen's feet.

In other words, those weren't ordinary shoes; they contained something special.

Adhering to the principle of unwavering loyalty to his master and reporting every detail, Black Tiger immediately told Luo Jingyan what he had sensed.

[Master, I've noticed something unusual about the shoes Brother Xue is wearing. They're not ordinary shoes; they seem to be made of some special material. There are at least three kinds of metals hidden in the soles, as well as other materials, which I'm not sure what they are.]

【ah?】

Luo Jingyan was startled when she heard this.

Xue Yanchen was standing next to her. Seeing her unusually pale face, he quickly asked, "What's wrong?"

Luo Jingyan was processing the information she had received and didn't have time to answer his question. Instead, she subconsciously glanced at the shoes on his feet and noticed that the soles of those shoes were indeed thicker than those of ordinary shoes, something she had never noticed before.

What kind of shoes would need so many complex things hidden in the sole?

Xue Yanchen noticed that Luo Jingyan was staring at his shoes. Why was she staring at his shoes for no reason?

"Jingyan, what's wrong? You keep looking at my shoes, do you think there's something wrong with them?"

Luo Jingyan didn't look away, her gaze still fixed on his shoes.

"I feel like your shoes are a bit different from the usual ones."

Xue Yanchen raised the sole of his shoe slightly: "It's thicker than the sole of a regular shoe. These are marching shoes issued by the army. Soldiers often have to do training and field exercises, so they wear out shoes a lot. We made the sole thicker and added some iron plates inside to make them more wear-resistant and puncture-proof."