Chapter 29.1: The Promised Land
There were two cars outside the airport, one was used to load luggage, and Lin Banxia and the other three sat in the other. In the car, Li Ye was talking to the man in Russian. It seemed that the atmosphere was okay. Song Qingluo stared at his phone and seemed to be communicating with someone. Only Lin Banxia had nothing to do. He yawned and asked where this place was and how far it was?
“That place is very remote. We can’t go there until tomorrow.” Li Ye answered him, “It takes at least eight hours to drive from the city. We will stay here at night. It’s not safe here like in China. Don’t run around at night.”
Lin Banxia obediently said, “Yes.”
Song Qingluo asked, “Is there still no news from Li Su?”
Li Ye was silent for a while before uttering two words: “No.”
Song Qingluo stopped asking questions.
Half an hour later, the car stopped in front of a B&B in the middle of a town. Lin Banxia also saw Russian street scenes along the way. The time of the country seemed to be frozen in a glorious era. Most of the buildings were full of old-fashioned style. The streets were very clean and there were not many pedestrians on the road.
It was already dark. Li Ye put away his luggage and went to the balcony. He looked at the lights on the street silently, it was unknown what he was thinking.
Lin Banxia sat in the room and looked at his back, stood up and walked to his side, took out a cigarette from his pocket and handed it over: “Do you want to smoke?”
Li Ye glanced at him, took the cigarette, and thanked him.
“How long has it been since you came back?” Lin Banxia asked. In fact, he was very curious about Li Su and Li Ye’s experiences. He felt that these two people had many stories.
“Twelve years.” Li Ye said, “After I left, I never came back.”
Lin Banxia said: “Oh, I went out to work and never went home.” He smiled, “My parents died early and I didn’t miss my hometown at all.”
Li Ye was silent for a moment and said, “What a coincidence… Me too.”
Lin Banxia was also a little surprised.
“It’s chaos here. My parents were killed and the murderer has not been found.” Li Ye looked calm as if he was telling someone else’s story. “I became an orphan when I was six years old. I had no relatives. I lived on charity from neighbors and by stealing things.” .”
Lin Banxia smiled and said, “I’m a little luckier than you. At least my relatives were willing to give me food.”
Li Ye didn’t answer any more. He finished smoking the cigarette, turned around and entered the house. Before entering the house, he said the last words of the night. He said: “If you are luckier than me, you wouldn’t be standing here.”
Lin Banxia was dumbfounded and found that he could not refute. To a certain extent, his luck didn’t seem to be any better than Li Ye’s, but at least for now, it seems to be much better than he expected. Lin Banxia had always been a person who was easily satisfied, so he laughed and said, “I think it’s pretty good now.”
***
Spring in Russia always came late, so even in May, the air was cold everywhere.
The streets were deserted in the early morning. Lin Banxia got up early and had a simple breakfast with Song Qingluo and the others. Song Qingluo got some rich-tasting ice cream from somewhere and handed one to Lin Banxia. Lin Banxia took it in surprise and licked it happily.
“The quality of dairy and meat products here is very good.” Song Qingluo.
“It’s delicious.” Lin Banxia asked Li Ye, “Do you want some?”
Li Ye shook his head, showing no interest in this. Elena and Sergey also smiled and refused. Looking at their expressions, they obviously felt that Lin Banxia and Song Qingluo were not here to do business, but rather to travel, but this made the atmosphere in the team relax a little.
After eating the ice cream, Lin Banxia sat in the car heading to their destination with satisfaction.
This huge country had a population of only 140 million, making it truly vast and sparsely populated. This also meant that in the suburbs far away from the city, no one can be seen for dozens of kilometres.
The scenery outside the car window became more and more desolate, and eventually no buildings could be seen. The surrounding area was an endless wilderness, and you could even occasionally see hares jumping by the roadside.
The atmosphere in the car was very quiet, and no one wanted to talk.
After a long journey of eight hours, they finally arrived at their destination, which was cordoned off by the police. As soon as they got out of the car, people in police uniforms came forward to receive them, but they all spoke Russian. Lin Banxia was a little bit lost since he couldn’t understand.
He had nothing to do and simply observed the situation around him.
This seemed to be the entrance to a village. A blocked path extended deep into the bushes, still filled with a desolate smell. If they hadn’t seen the unintelligible street sign next to it, probably no one would have thought to go in. The police set up sentries and blocked this section of the road. Unfortunately, the effect seemed to be of little avail, because the protective line could only stretch a certain distance, and it was impossible to completely block off the entire area.
Li Ye talked with the person in charge for about ten minutes, then came back and told them that they could go in in the afternoon, but the police suggested that it was best to go in tomorrow morning because they didn’t know what was going on inside. If it was night when they went in, the risk would be very high.
Song Qingluo glanced at Li Ye and said, “What do you think?”
Li Ye said: “I will go in soon, but you can prepare a little more.”
Song Qingluo said: “How many recorders did they assign you?”
“It’s just me.” Li Ye said. “It’s safer to have the recorder follow you.”
Song Qingluo pondered for a moment: “Then go in now. The situation may not get better if you delay it until tomorrow. If you go in early, there may be a turn for the better.”
Li Ye said, “Yes.”
Then, several people started to pack their luggage. Lin Banxia was a little surprised to see a gun in Li Ye’s bag. Li Ye explained that it is legal to carry guns in this country, and that the area they entered had some large creatures such as bears and wild boars. In order to ensure their own safety, they had to bring these things with them. However, Lin Banxia had never practiced with firearms, so he was only equipped with cold weapons.
Lin Banxia nodded and had no objection to this.
After packing their luggage, they also met the recorders assigned to them. There were three people in total, two of them were Sergey and Irina who picked them up yesterday, and there was also a young man named Alexei. His Chinese was good, so it seemed that he must have been specially selected. He had beautiful short red hair, and he was an enthusiastic Russian boy. When he saw Lin Banxia and Song Qingluo, he happily greeted them and tried to talk to them in Chinese, saying that he welcomed them to the beautiful Russia.
Then, after confirming that all the equipment could be used normally, Song Qingluo took out the two dice, one black and one white, from his pocket and signalled Li Ye with his eyes.
Li Ye said something to Irina and Sergey, you should come first or something like that, and the two of them picked up the dice one after another and rolled out their numbers. Then came Alexei, Li Ye and Song Qingluo. When they arrived at Lin Banxia, Song Qingluo still put the dice back into his pocket like last time without letting him dice.
“Don’t you need it?” Alexei stopped recording and asked in surprise.
“He doesn’t need to.” Song Qingluo said without explaining why.
Alexey hesitated to speak, but seeing that Irina and Sergey didn’t look curious at all, he stopped and silently recorded the data belonging to the group in his own notebook. In fact, it wasn’t his turn to get the job this time. Fortunately, his Chinese was good, and the two supervisors who came this time were both Chinese, so he squeezed out another senior and successfully signed the contract. Agreement. Alexei naturally knew that this trip was very dangerous, otherwise he would not have been offered a price of more than one million, but so what if it’s dangerous, he needed this money badly…
After taking notes, the six people drove in two cars. They passed the blockade and headed toward the village along the path.
Lin Banxia held a map in his hand, which roughly marked all the places for human activities in this area. The area involved was very small, and it could be seen that not many people settled in this area. This was also a good thing. After all, the current situation of the residents living there was not optimistic.
There were no tall plants in the desolate plain, so the sharp wind blew sand and dust in people’s faces. Song Qingluo sat in the car and stared at the communication device in his hand. Unsurprisingly, he found that after they drove for almost three or four kilometres, the signal on the mobile phone was almost completely gone.
“How long have you been here?” Alexei was a smart young man. He could tell at a glance that in this team Song Qingluo and Li Ye were not easy to get along with, so he came to Lin Banxia and started talking curiously.
Lin Banxia said: “I arrived in Russia yesterday afternoon.”
Alexei said: “Oh, so fast. Do you know that the people in the last team who entered here have lost contact?”
Lin Banxia said: “I know, there are friends of mine inside.”
Alexey was surprised: “There is actually a friend in there? Is he… okay? But… are you really not scared at all?”
Lin Banxia found it a little strange: “Are you afraid? Then why did you take this job?”
Alexei smiled and said: “It’s all because the salary is high.”
Lin Banxia thought to himself, then you are really a bit like me.
Unlike the enthusiastic Alexey, the other two Russians were silent for a long time, probably because they could not understand Chinese. They would only talk to Li Ye when necessary. Judging from their expressions, it was obvious that they were not optimistic about this trip. The sorrow between their brows almost turned into reality.
After driving forward for about ten minutes, some changes occurred in the surrounding desolate landscape. Some tall, lush pine and cypress trees appeared on the surface. They became more and more dense, and eventually formed a small jungle. After the jungle, there were faint and intricate trees. They saw some low buildings and thought that if they walked through there, they would be able to reach the village.
Vehicles could not drive on the next road, so they had to park the car nearby and walk through the woods. Walking in the woods, Sergey suddenly said something to Li Ye. Li Ye turned around and translated: “Sergey found bear excrement on the ground. There may be large wild animals nearby. Please be careful.”
After everyone heard this, they all became more alert.
After about ten minutes, the nervous group successfully passed through the jungle and reached the village safely, but even so, everyone could not let go of their suspense, and instead became even more nervous. The village was quiet and deserted, with no one around. The doors of every house were wide open, but the villagers who were supposed to live there were nowhere to be seen.
Lin Banxia quickly checked several rooms and made sure that they were all empty. He said, “Everyone is gone.”
“Look for any other clues.” Song Qingluo quickly gave a plan, “Monitors and recorders work in pairs, don’t separate.”
Although Lin Banxia was working for the second time, he was also a genuine monitor, so he was assigned to Alexei. He had a good impression of Alexei, so he had no objections.
Translator’s comments:
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