Two guesses immediately popped into Xue Yanchen's mind.
Firstly, the person opposite him, like him, was sent by his superiors to help find the stolen fuel sample. However, for some reason, the military did not notify him and Zhao Jun in advance, probably to prevent them from revealing their identities.
If that's the case, then he'd better treat the other person as an ordinary person. Even if they get to know each other, they shouldn't talk about anything related to this mission. They should continue to do their jobs well.
Secondly, the other party was sent by the enemy to find the lost special badge. This means that there was already a traitor within their ranks who passed the information to the enemy, which prompted the enemy to take action. It's unknown whether the traitor informed the enemy about his and Zhao Jun's secret mission here.
Only two people in the unit knew his and Zhao Jun's true purpose in coming here, and he hoped that the traitor was not one of those two.
He guessed that if it was the first possibility, it might be okay, but if it was the second possibility, it would be extremely dangerous.
If it's the second scenario, did the other side only send this one person, or did they have other companions? Where are these companions? How many are there? Will they come openly, or will they disguise themselves and do something in secret?
He thought it over and considered all aspects in advance, but the most important thing now was to find out the other party's identity first.
To determine whether he is a friend or foe.
He and Luo Jingyan had already bundled the firewood they had collected. Luo Jingyan didn't plan to stay on the mountain any longer. She picked up a bundle of firewood and prepared to carry it down the mountain.
Xue Yanchen said, "My bundle isn't enough. I'll pick up some more. I'm going to make the trip anyway, so I might as well pick up as much as I can. It'll be more worthwhile that way."
Upon hearing this, Luo Jingyan put the firewood back on the ground and joined him in gathering it.
"Okay, let's pick them up together. Pick up so many that you can't even carry them all."
"I could carry you on my back too," the man said with a smile.
“Then you carry the firewood later, and I’ll cook it.”
"Sure."
"No." Luo Jingyan shook her head: "I'm afraid you'll drop me."
"Then forget about firewood, just carry your wife on your back."
"Haha, so what are we doing up the mountain?"
"Come and spend some time alone with your wife."
The two joked around as they seemingly leisurely gathered firewood.
While Xue Yanchen was inspecting the firewood on the cart, his gaze remained fixed on the person opposite him. He appeared relaxed, but in reality, he was anything but.
Furthermore, he slowly approached the person while gathering firewood. Upon seeing him and Luo Jingyan, the person immediately stopped and stood still for a moment, his expression seemingly complicated, as if he were urgently pondering something.
A few seconds later, he turned and left in the opposite direction from Xue Yanchen and Luo Jingyan. Xue Yanchen noticed his abnormality again, as if he was afraid to see people.
Seeing that the other person was about to leave, he called out to him in time: "Hey brother, don't go yet."
The man heard the shout. There were only three people there: himself, Xue Yanchen, and Luo Jingyan. It was obvious that Xue Yanchen was calling him.
He really didn't want to have too much contact with irrelevant people, but he couldn't appear too indifferent either, so he stopped, turned around, looked at Xue Yanchen, and asked, "Were you calling me?"
"Yes." Xue Yanchen nodded.
"What's the matter?" he asked again.
Xue Yanchen took a few steps toward him and asked, "I want to ask you, are you going down the mountain to go home? Is your home also in Shengli Brigade?"
"Hmm." The man nodded. "What's wrong?"
Xue Yanchen gestured with his eyes to the firewood he had collected and said, "It's like this, we've collected too much firewood. I'd like to ask you if you could help us carry a bundle down to the foot of the mountain?" Then he immediately added, "I won't let you work for free. I'll give you a dime for carrying a bundle."
A bundle of firewood, worth a mere cent, stands in the distance. The village's laborers toil away in the fields, working themselves to the bone all day, only to earn ten work points worth a little over two cents. This reward is simply too tempting.
Luo Jingyan turned to look at Xue Yanchen, not understanding why he did this.
He has always been calm and composed, and would not drag strangers along for no reason.
"Why should I need someone else to carry it for me? I can do it myself," she said.
Xue Yanchen said, "I don't want you to do so much work. Let him carry your bundle."
Luo Jingyan looked at the person again and saw that the person's appearance was somewhat familiar. She thought about it and realized that the person's features were somewhat similar to those of the Lai family, especially his eyebrows and eyes, which were quite similar to those of Lai Chunming, the Party Secretary. Could he really be a member of the Lai family?
Lai Chunyang had his own secrets. He didn't want to meddle in other people's business and avoided contact with certain people, especially strangers whose true identities were unknown. He thought it best to be careful.
So he refused Xue Yanchen: "I'm sorry, comrade, I still want to hunt some game here and I don't plan to go down the mountain now, so I'm afraid I can't help you."
Xue Yanchen did not back down because of his refusal. He immediately pretended to be interested in hunting, walked up to Lai Chunyang, and asked, "Since you want to hunt, have you set any traps? If not, I can tell you where the traps are over here. You just need to put your tools and bait in them."
Lai Chunyang had only used hunting as an excuse to avoid the two men in front of him, but he didn't expect the man to take it seriously.
Xue Yanchen's gaze quickly moved downwards, glancing at Lai Chunyang's hand seemingly unintentionally, before swiftly shifting his gaze elsewhere, as if he wasn't particularly interested in looking at Lai's hand. Moreover, the speed was so fast that it was difficult to notice.
Lai Chunyang said, "I just came back from school on leave. When I was a child, I often went hunting in the mountains. Every time I came back, I would search for prey in the mountains. It has been more than half a year since I left here last time. I really don't know which places still have old traps and which places have new traps."
“I know, I’ll take you there.” Xue Yanchen was very helpful. He turned to Luo Jingyan and said, “I’ll go with this young man to check out the trap. Do you want to come? Or, you can wait for me here.”
Luo Jingyan wasn't interested in other people hunting, so she didn't want to go. She sat lazily on the firewood and said, "You guys go ahead, I'll wait for you to come back here."
"Okay, we're not far from here. Just call me if you need anything."
"I see."
After explaining things to Luo Jingyan, Xue Yanchen tugged at her arm and found that it was stiff, as if she had been trained.
"Brother, let's go over there."
"oh."
In order to find out Xue Yanchen's background, Lai Chunyang chatted with Xue Yanchen as if they were having a casual conversation.
"I've never seen you before. You must be a newly arrived educated youth."
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