Curly Hair placed the thing between his teeth beside Fang Zhao’s feet before scampering back off to the fields. In the blink of an eye, he came back with another.
Fang Zhao put on a pair of gloves, picked up the thing beside his leg, and examined it. “Seems like it is really a little different.”
After studying them, Fang Zhao placed the two animals that Curly Hair had caught on the ground. Even if these two hadn’t been smashed dead by Curly Hair, they were probably dazed and half-dead. Song Ping was also standing watch at the side holding some equipment and stomped on them once more. Song Ping definitely wouldn’t go easy on these sorts of pests.
Mitisy squatted down and examined this new species curiously.
Woo Tianhao watched as Curly Hair went off to catch pests again. He itched to give it a try too so he followed after.
Seeing that everyone wouldn’t be resigned unless they gave it a try, Song Ping said, “Go on, just pay attention to not damage the crops.”
“Understood!” Woo Tianhao even specially ran over to a warehouse at the side and rummaged through it for a tool he felt was useful before heading to the fields.
It was “monkey see, monkey do” for Zaro, and he grabbed a farming tool which he had no idea of how it functioned before running over to the field and joining in the fun.
Barbara got herself a stool and wiped it over 10 times before gracefully sitting on it. Getting down in the dirt and hunting pests wasn’t something for a noble young lady like her.
Half an hour later.
Woo Tianhao did a few tumbles before catching one with some difficulty and damaged some crops in the process. Mitisy took more caution around the crops and wasn’t able to let loose. As a result, he wasn’t able to catch any. On the other hand, Zaro didn’t care about the crops in the field either. However, he lacked Woo Tianhao’s experience, and it seemed more like he was a pest rather than a pest exterminator.
Upon seeing the situation, Song Ping hurriedly called the few of them back. If this went on, he didn’t know how many of these crops that had been so painstakingly cultivated would be damaged.
Compared to Woo Tianhao’s performance, Curly Hair brought over pest after pest as Song Ping watched on.
If he hadn’t experienced it for himself, Song Ping would have thought that these pests were easy to catch!
Woo Tianhao glanced at the one he caught, then eyed the bunch laid out by Curly Hair on the ground and felt as if he had been dealt a blow. He couldn’t help but admit the reality that he couldn’t be compared to a dog. However, when he saw Mitisy and Zaro… Hahahaha they still can’t be compared with me!
Woo Tianhao immediately felt much better.
“Such an impressive dog has definitely got to be from Muzhou!” Song Ping eyed Fang Zhao enviously. Song Ping had eyed those work dogs bred in Muzhou for some time already. He had heard that these dogs were especially impressive. Unfortunately, the application difficulty to get them here was too high, and they also couldn’t compete with the people from larger military districts who wanted them.
“Hahahaha you guessed wrong!” Woo Tianhao roared with laughter. “It’s a Yanzhou dog!”
Woo Tianhao then raised two fingers. “It’s worth 200 million.”
Song Ping shuddered. He had thought of borrowing the dog from Fang Zhao but quickly gave up the idea. He couldn’t afford to borrow it! What if he damaged it by accident? How much would he have to compensate?
In less than half an hour, the ground before Fang Zhao was littered with the field pests that Curly Hair had brought back. After coming back once more, Curly Hair no longer went scampering off.
“This is all for the time being,” Fang Zhao said while diverting the other’s attention to the corpses on the ground. He casually pushed a remnant of a pest’s tail that was hanging by Curly Hair’s mouth in.
Eating on the sly yet not knowing how to cover your tracks!
Song Ping’s attention was completely absorbed by these pests laid out on the ground and didn’t notice Fang Zhao’s actions. Right now he felt like he had received a blow, yet he was also pleasantly surprised.
“…This already isn’t easy!”
As he gazed at the row of creatures that had wrecked their fields every day, Song Ping wondered whether to issue Curly Hair a little pest exterminator award.
Song Ping went back to the warehouse to bring some instruments out. He picked a fat specimen out to dissect and showed their body structures to Fang Zhao and the others. He explained how these things were able to be so nimble within the soil because of their body structures. Catching them under normal circumstances was really difficult. Curly Hair was a “special case”.
After the demonstration, Song Ping heeded Zaro and Woo Tianhao’s suggestions about not wasting resources and making the most of what they had, so he roasted these pests.
There was little meat and it didn’t taste good. They only tried it for the novelty.
Eating was secondary. Photos were the main point.
Woo Tianhao and the others took a number of photographs and looked forward to showing them off on their social media when they received internet access.
Afterwards, Song Ping still showed Fang Zhao and the others around some small factories. Of course, Planet Bu’s factories weren’t limited to these, and there were surely a few that weren’t for their eyes. A lot of the things that Song Ping said might not have been entirely true either.
Fang Zhao was well aware of all of this.
Take for example the cars and other mechanical equipment at the base that didn’t require crude oil as power. But what about other stuff? What about the chemical industry aspect?
When Zaro had first arrived on the base, he had asked questions regarding these.
However, when Fang Zhao saw that the Planet Bu personnel hadn’t bothered to explain further, Fang Zhao just treated it as nothing.
Things that were too confidential such as the chemical industry, military affairs, and others couldn’t be revealed to external people. Planet Bu was no exception. Every single base was just like this and would only let guests see the most basic things. Other aspects weren’t something outsiders could come into contact with. How could a planet that was garrisoned for so long have just the few things that Song Ping had shown?
“Wah! What is that!” Woo Tianhao’s eyes lit up as he pointed at a car parked inside a warehouse.
“The car is used by soldiers nearby for transporting small-scale goods,” Song Ping explained.
“It looks like the dune buggies we toyed with at the beach some time back, right Zaro?” Woo Tianhao said.
“A little, but there are weapons attached on top of it.” Zaro scanned the installations on the car and touched the broad tires. “The tires are a little different from the ones we used back then.”
“It looks even more impressive! Brother Ping, what is this sort of car called?” In Woo Tianhao’s opinion, this sort of car ought to have a name like “Wild Dog”, “Wild Bull”, “T-Rex”, or something else wild and ferocious.
“We call it ‘Little Electric Donkey,'” Song Ping said.
“…An electric-powered car? Little Electric Donkey then, so be it. Can I try it?” Woo Tianhao rubbed his hands together.
“Sure.” There were five cars in the warehouse. Song Ping locked the weapons systems on these vehicles before letting them use it.
Woo Tianhao and Zaro were all old hands. Upon getting on, they sped off into the desert.
After consulting Song Ping, Mitisy slowly drove the car out of the warehouse.
“Fang Zhao, you…” Song Ping had just seen Mitisy drive out and turned around, preparing to ask Fang Zhao when he saw Curly Hair hop on.
“Hic…you have no qualms bringing the dog along?” There wasn’t any form of protection on the car. What would happen if the car flipped and squashed the dog? 200 million!
Fang Zhao glanced at Curly Hair squatting in the storage seat and wagging his tail before turning to reply at Song Ping, “No problem, he isn’t afraid.”
Song Ping: “…” But I am afraid!
Song Ping felt his heart rising up into his mouth as he watched Fang Zhao drive out.
Sighing, Song Ping turned to the last special guest inside the warehouse.
Barbara extended her hand adorned with jewels and neatened her flowery summer hat, put on a pair of shades, and smiled elegantly. “I will be taking a walk nearby.”
A young lady of nobility doesn’t ride this sort of coarse car!
Song Ping sighed once again as he watched Barbara lift the hems of her skirt and leave with her assistants and bodyguards. Song Ping then got soldiers to follow and protect these five guests.
Fang Zhao didn’t drift like Woo Tianhao and Zaro when he drove out. He kept a speed that wasn’t too fast or too slow as he surveyed the surroundings. Moving further ahead, he couldn’t see a single plant anywhere.
Gusts of wind blew, sweeping up huge sheets of sand.
Curly Hair stuck his tongue out as if playfully licking the golden sand all around.
Approximately 20 minutes later, they received a notice from Song Ping.
“Urgent warning, we have to return. There’s a storm nearby.”
Fang Zhao didn’t delay upon receiving the notice. He turned the car around and headed back.
Zaro and Woo Tianhao had driven far out, but because of their speed, they managed to return quickly, even before Fang Zhao.
However, Zaro tried to show off his drifting when coming to a stop.
After a beautiful arc, Song Ping, Barbara, and her entourage were hit with a spray of sand.
Song Ping was still fine. He had long gotten used to it, and his body was always full of sand every time he went out. Barbara couldn’t stand it and shouted while patting away the sand on her body. There was no place to shower here, and she hadn’t brought along any clean clothes. She could only make do with glaring as if she wanted to kill Zaro.
Noticing that a situation was going to occur, Song Ping hurriedly drew everyone’s attention away. “The wind is getting strong. Let us hurry up and leave. Get on the car!”
The Little Electric Donkeys were parked and the warehouse was locked. The party hurriedly got on the car and left.
After a while in the car, Barbara had finally gotten rid of all the dirt on her face. She was admiring herself in the mirror when she realized her ring was missing from her finger.
“My diamond ring!” Barbara wailed.
Every accessory Barbara wore on her body was specially custom-made. The value of the gems on them weren’t ordinary either. What Barbara loved the most was the design of the ring, and nothing could compare to it.
She anxiously searched on the car and didn’t find it.
“I definitely lost it while patting away the sand on my body! It was definitely still there before that!” Barbara shot Zaro a murderous look.
Song Ping felt his head hurting more. The things these little brats wore definitely wasn’t cheap.
“Should I send men to search for it?” Getting the car to turn around to everyone search for it was impossible. They could only roughly estimate the changes to the desert atmosphere, but it wasn’t too precise. All along, they had always needed to make the necessary preparations beforehand. If they were to return now, what would happen if they were to encounter any unforeseen events?
Barbara took a look at the screen displaying the weather conditions and said with a gloomy look. “No need, let’s return to the base first!”
Turning back now was too risky. Her heart ached from losing the ring, but not to the point where she would let the soldiers risk their safety to help her look for it.
“If I lost it, then so be it. Zaro will compensate me!” Barbara glared coldly and stared more daggers at him.
Zaro was so angry he nearly leaped down from his seat. “You lost it yourself! What has it got to do with me! Look at yourself for wearing so many accessories! Unreasonable demon!”
“If you had eyes on your head and didn’t spray me with sand, would my precious ring have gone missing?!”
“Ha! Surely that ring of yours was sick of you and took the opportunity to escape! Look, why haven’t you lost your other rings?”
Song Ping’s head hurt as the two bickered. Luckily, Barbara didn’t insist they turn around to search for it, and everyone returned to the base safely.
The two were still arguing when they got back to base.
“How about this? After the storm subsides, we’ll return to search for it,” Song Ping said. Actually, deep down he knew that in such a place, the odds of finding a tiny ring after the storm subsided would be extremely low.
“Tsk, it’s just a tiny ring. Look at how miserly you are.” The corner’s of Zaro’s mouth curled upwards.
“Diamond ring! The only one of its kind in the world. A large, diamond, ring!” Barbara emphasized.
Zaro seemed to think of something and his tone changed. “Only one of its kind in the world? Wait here!”
After that, Zaro returned to his room for a bit. When he came out, he threw a box at Barbara. “Compensation!”
After tossing the box at Barbara, Zaro quickly returned to his room and locked the door.
Barbara was apprehensive of the box that Zaro tossed over. She stood a distance away and got an assistant to open it.
Inside the room, Zaro’s agent asked curiously. “What was in the box? A real diamond ring?”
Zaro replied gleefully, “She wanted a large diamond ring? I gave her a large——ring. A special variant of Planet Wai’s garlic. In the entire world, this species exists only on Planet Wai. It’s one of a kind too,even I couldn’t bear to eat it.[1.The chinese characters for diamond and garlic sound similar. Diamond is zuan, while garlic is suan.]
Agent: “…” Are you courting death?
Program team staff resting area.
The director was holding on to a cup of hot tea as he discussed the script. He didn’t think that these high-profile special guests would follow their script entirely. Neither did he hope to assign any special roles to these guests. All he hoped for was that these few would follow the general outline.
Didn’t General Renault say this already? Let Zaro suffer some hardship.
Endure some sandstorms, be vegetarian for a period, and experience an arduous and dull life. This should be considered tough for these bunch of aristocratic young masters.
“How are things going on at that side?” The director asked a staff member.
“It seems…still fine,” the person said weakly.
“What sort of reply is that? Say ‘alright’ if it’s alright and say ‘no’ if it isn’t. What is ‘seems still fine’?” The director was displeased with the staff member giving him this sort of reply.
That staff member also didn’t bother to explain and showed the director the messages he received today.
What he saw was a series of photographs.
In the first photo, the five special guests were surrounding a simple platform as they watched Song Ping dissect a creature. Apparently that creature was a pest.
In the second photograph, the five special guests were gathered around a grill. On it were a number of pests that had been gutted and cleaned. It was as if the director could hear the sizzling of oil and the fragrance of roasted meat.
Everyone in the program team that spent the day as vegetarians started salivating.
Further on were photographs of Zaro and the others drifting joyfully in the desert. They even made victory signs towards the camera. Even that dog by Fang Zhao’s side seemed to be happily sticking out its tongue and playing in the sand.
The members of the program team whose bodies hadn’t yet fully adapted and were cooped up in the base for the entire day: “…” They felt so envious.
“Does this count as enjoying in spite of suffering?” A staff member muttered.
Director: “Hehe.”
How is this suffering?!
At a glance, it really seemed like a vacation. Every one of them were happily having so much fun!
If this went on, the mission General Renault gave him would not be completed.
The director clapped slapped the script in his hands and regained his self-confidence.
“Just let them have fun while they can. From tomorrow onwards, we will follow the arrangements made by the program team. Those that can move, move. We will be starting to film ahead of schedule!”
After he completed issuing his instructions, the director sat down beaming as he looked at the script with a cup of hot tea. Mhmm, that’s right. I am the one who controls everything.