Chapter 1 A Nightmare

In the dimly lit office, Jing Yan felt unbearably thirsty. He immediately got up and walked to the water dispenser next to him, but as he turned around, he suddenly saw five or six pale faces looking at him from the window.

Jing Yan was so frightened that goosebumps rose all over his body, and he turned to run.

The people floating outside the window rushed in, their expressions twisted as they grabbed Jing Yan's neck and shouted loudly, but he couldn't hear anything.

Jing Yan felt like he was suffocating, his eyes bulging as he struggled, but his hands couldn't muster any strength. Just as he was about to be strangled to death, he saw Zhao Weihu's figure appear outside the window, the latter watching him with gloomy eyes, motionless.

"Flap!"

In a bedroom, Jing Yan suddenly sat up, covered in sweat. He realized he had just had a dream and instinctively glanced at the window with the curtains drawn. Seeing nothing unusual there, he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Whew!"

Jing Yan exhaled a long breath and buried his face in his hands, vigorously wiping away the sweat.

After sitting on the bed for a long time to calm down, Jing Yan's emotions still hadn't settled, and he even found it difficult to fall asleep. So he directly picked up his phone and dialed a number: "Hello, tell Xiao Ying to come over, yeah, go pick her up...!"

After making the call, Jing Yan lay back on the bed, his eyes gloomy as he stared at the ceiling.

...

Inside the Kasalo Chi Army base.

After participating in the hostage exchange, Su Tianyu did not leave immediately, because the Chi Army was holding a celebration banquet to celebrate the successful conclusion of the Dragon City incident and the rescue of important investors of the Chi Army.

But this kind of celebration banquet was actually just to boost morale, because objectively speaking, although Zhao Weihu achieved his goal in this trip to Dragon City, he also paid a great price. It was a pyrrhic victory, far from meeting the standard for holding a celebration banquet. However, appearances had to be maintained.

At the celebration banquet, Su Tianyu drank some wine, because his minor burns had almost healed, and he had stopped taking medicine yesterday. Having a couple of drinks was no problem, and many people from the Chi Army came to toast him, expressing their gratitude.

Inside the dining hall, Su Tianyu was bragging to Liu Mang and others when a soldier suddenly walked over and patted him on the shoulder: "Mr. Su, the Commander wants to see you!"

Su Tianyu immediately stood up: "Where is he?"

"He's outside, come with me!"

"Okay!" Su Tianyu responded and quickly followed the soldier out of the hall. They exited through the back door and came to a large open area behind the courtyard.

Zhao Weihu had also drunk some wine, but not much. He stood under the moonlight, smoking a cigarette, taking a stroll.

Su Tianyu hurried over and asked with a smile, "Commander, you wanted to see me?"

"Yeah, just wanted to chat." Zhao Weihu replied, his hands behind his back.

"Ah!" Su Tianyu followed to Zhao Weihu's left, walking forward, while the guards automatically dispersed, guarding the surrounding area.

The lawn in the backyard was covered in dew, and the temperature was slightly low. After walking a few steps with Zhao Weihu, Su Tianyu felt that his sneakers were soaked.

Zhao Weihu was a heavy smoker, lighting another cigarette after finishing one: "There's something I'm curious about. Yu Jinrong is gone, why do you kids still want to run this association? Is it just to make money? Considering Yu Mingyuan's family, he shouldn't be short of money, right?"

Su Tianyu was silent for a moment: "Brother Yuan continues to do it because he's not convinced, and we're doing it because we're not convinced either."

Zhao Weihu found this interesting and turned to look at Su Tianyu: "What do you mean by 'not convinced'?"

"Brother Yuan is definitely not convinced that he lost his father. Uncle Yu had ambitions for his political career, but he was killed by villains. Brother Yuan doesn't want to slink back to the First District like that, so he has to keep going." Su Tianyu looked up at the night sky, paused slightly, and continued: "And me... I'm not convinced either."

"What are you not convinced about?"

"I'm not convinced that I shed blood and risked my life on the independent battlefield, but came back with a stain that prevents me from ever being employed by the government!" Su Tianyu said, his voice hoarse, looking ahead: "I'm also not convinced that my father fought in so many battles, spending the first half of his life and energy on the Chinese Expeditionary Force, but was killed by his own people for supporting Dragon City's political independence. I'm even more not convinced that my mother, such an honest and law-abiding person, eventually died depressed... I have resentment in my heart, so I want to make a name for myself, I want to stand up, it's that simple."

Zhao Weihu looked at him with some surprise: "Your parents are also soldiers?"

"My mother wasn't a soldier, she was involved in pharmaceutical science, but my father was a soldier, in the Chinese Expeditionary Force, the Old Southern Shanghai Legion, a senior colonel staff officer in the Third Army," Su Tianyu replied truthfully.

"The Third Army...!" Zhao Weihu paused: "That unit's predecessor was the most elite unit of the Southern Shanghai Legion, formerly the 63rd Army, Li Bokang's trump card!"

"The trump card wasn't very useful. Back then, due to Zhou Xingli's stubbornness and single-minded focus on internal strife, the 63rd Army was crushed on the Yemen battlefield. Later, after Li Bokang died, it was reorganized," Su Tianyu sighed.

Zhao Weihu nodded slowly, his hands behind his back, and commented: "Your 'not convinced' is interesting! I'm not convinced either, otherwise I wouldn't have come to Kasalo, to the Sinaloa region to engage in armed activities."

"Commander, if I didn't have such a big family to take care of, I might have done the same as you," Su Tianyu said, his eyes bright. "Born in a chaotic world, kings and generals, are they born with a silver spoon in their mouths!"

These words struck a chord in Zhao Weihu's heart. He looked at Su Tianyu, raising his eyebrows, and replied: "You're right! Young people like you, with ambition in your hearts, shouldn't just drift with the current, letting others slaughter you! Although I didn't join the army as early as your father, I've also experienced a lot of things. I know better than anyone how difficult it is for us overseas Chinese to get where we are today! We fought in the civil war and were branded with the label of betraying the nation, which we can never remove. In the Battle of Yemen, countless people died and were injured. In the War of Independence, our compatriots fell in the hail of bullets, but in the end, they didn't know who they were fighting for... The political environment in Dragon City is complex, and the departments in charge are rife with corruption. If things continue like this... then our previous battles were fought in vain."

"That's right!"

"Setting up the association is the right thing to do. It can unite people and unite their wills." Zhao Weihu looked at Su Tianyu happily: "Your kids' 'not convinced' has a stubborn streak. I think you can make something happen."

"We'll do our best. Where we end up depends on fate!" Su Tianyu said with emotion.

"I always keep my word!" Zhao Weihu looked at Su Tianyu, saying each word carefully: "In the regulatory committee building, you gave me the information that indirectly saved three hundred of our people, but I didn't touch Jing Yan and Gu Baisun! That's not right. Let's do this, I owe you a favor, and I'll repay it when you need it!"

Su Tianyu glanced at Zhao Weihu and immediately clasped his fists and said, "Commander, by the time you repay this favor, I don't know if our Tongji Association will still exist. Promises that are too far off, I'm afraid I won't be able to wait!"

"Then what do you mean?!"

"I don't think we should wait for you to repay the favor." Su Tianyu stepped forward and said with a smile: "If you think highly of me, I'll recognize you as my big brother. Then we won't have to talk about favors anymore. Isn't it only right for brothers to help their big brother?"

"... Damn!" Zhao Weihu was speechless.