CHAPTER 689: LOST MAN IN THE VILLAGE

Somewhere in Fangkai county...

"Major Lan! Someone had been reported missing. They were last seen scouting Dawang villages ahead with their group."

"Only a single person? No one was with him? They just came back to the camp without him?"

As Major Lan questioned the reporting soldier, he awkwardly scratched his head, as he didn’t know the answer to it.

"I’m not sure, sir... Should I tell the unit leader to go back and investigate the matter?"

"Tell him to come over here. I want to hear him explain it to me."

"Yes, sir!"

As the reporting soldier headed off out of the balcony, Major Lan turned around to look towards the wall in the distance.

It was already fully built, a five-meter-tall reinforced concrete wall that separated them from whatever was coming from Guangxi.

"Major Lan, why aren’t you asleep yet?"

"Wen Zhang, what have you thought about my offer? Are you accepting it or not?"

Major Lan asked, ignoring the man’s question as he walked up to the balcony with a can of Coca-Cola in hand.

"I’m still thinking about it. Just give me one more day and I’ll give you the answer tomorrow."

"You said that for the sixth time now. If you keep delaying it, I’m going to be forced to send you back to the safe zone."

"Just trust me. I’ll give you the answer you wanted... You want it?" Wen Zhang offered as with his already half-finished can.

"I’m good... This is the last time. If you don’t give me the answer by tomorrow morning, I’ll have one of the soldiers send you back."

"Fine, fine... I’ll give you the answer tomorrow morning."

Just as Wen Zhang turned around and was about to leave, Major Lan turned around before asking him a question.

"Why are you delaying it so much? Didn’t you want to leave at the start?"

"I... I did want to leave. But I just have a bad feeling. I haven’t been wrong a single time since I got here."

"Then you should leave even sooner. Why would you want to stay in an area that gives you a bad feeling?"

This time, Wen Zhang didn’t respond. He only turned around and left, leaving Major Lan alone on the balcony as he looked up to the moon.

"Almost full moon again... I wonder how my parent doing."

Major Lan quickly shook his head as he turned his attention back towards the lighted area in front of the wall.

Although there was no one there, he himself had a weird feeling tonight. The more he thought about it, the weirder he felt.

"Why did Wen Zhang have a bad feeling? Why do I have a weird feeling?"

Unable to understand it, Major Lan shook it out of his head before the reporting soldier finally came back with another soldier.

"Commander! Sergeant Liang reporting for duty!"

"What happened to the lost soldier? Why did you come back without him? I want to hear the full story."

"Um..."

As Liang looked over to the reporting soldier, Major Lan quickly waved him away before the two of them stood alone on the balcony.

"Commander, that’s what I don’t get either. He just vanished out of thin air. Not a single one of his peers could remember where he went."

"You’re telling me he has some sort of magic?"

Seeing Major Lan not believing him a single bit, Sergeant Liang quickly took out a phone from his pocket.

"Commander, look at this... One of the soldiers took a picture of a house, right? You see this soldier here?"

As Liang pointed at a man standing next to two other soldiers in the middle of the night, Major Lan nodded his head.

"This is the soldier who went missing?"

"Yeah. This picture was taken just an hour ago, before he vanished... Do you notice something a little off about this picture?"

Taking a closer look, Major Lan couldn’t tell anything different about it. It was just a house with three soldiers standing in front of it.

"I don’t see any issue."

"Commander, who’s taking the picture?"

Major Lan froze for a second as his brain quickly realized what was wrong. The army had specifically confiscated all phones during on-duty missions.

The only person who had a phone was the radio operator, who was always sitting in the base, let alone going out into the village to scout ahead.

"Did a soldier find a phone on one of the scouting missions or something?" Major Lan questioned as he accepted the phone from him.

"Could be... But here’s the issue: I went on to ask the two other soldiers who went on the mission alongside the missing soldier.

They said they never had a phone or even took a picture. When I showed this to them, they were completely shocked."

"You sure they aren’t lying?"

"I’m sure of it. We already went through all the houses in that village a few days ago. There’s not a single phone there."

"Wait, how did you get this phone?" Major Lan questioned as he quickly realized the hole in the whole story.

"I picked it up just as I was doing a roll call to get ready to leave for the night... That’s when I figured out someone was missing."

"You’re telling me you just happened to walk into the phone. That’s too big a coincidence to be true."

"That’s the truth, Commander. Whether you like it or not. I’m not lying... I really just found this when I was walking to the front to do the roll call."

Examining the phone itself, Major Lan himself couldn’t find anything truly unique. It was just a typical smartphone that had a third of its battery.

The only thing that’s off was the fact that it looked brand-new, with only default apps inside and nothing else.

There was not a single thing in the storage other than the photo that had been taken. Still, it didn’t mean much without any concrete evidence.

"You can go back to your unit. I’ll personally investigate this tomorrow morning."

"Yes, sir!"

As the Sergeant headed out of the balcony, Major Lan started checking the setting before noticing something really off about it.

The activation date was tonight—the same time when this picture was taken. In the middle of the night at 9 PM.

"Someone must have planned this. But why did they take a photo of the victim? Who could have a phone around here?"

The more he thought about it, the more confused he became... until the realization hit him.

"It can’t be... Why would he do this? What does he get out of it? There’s no reason for him to do this."

Just as Major Lan was about to come up with an actual reasoning, he immediately turned around with his gun raised as he felt a chill down his spine.

"Whoa. What is this for? I’m coming here to give you an answer. Why are you pulling the gun on me?"

"Wen Zhang, where did you go tonight?"

Major Lan questioned, his gun still pointing at Wen Zhang, who stood right at the balcony entrance with both hands raised.

"I was at my house the entire day... Why are you asking that?"

"Do you have any proof that you’re in the house for the entire day? Any witnesses that was with you?"

"I was alone at home. Why would any of your men be with me? You okay? You look a little nervous——"

"Don’t walk any closer. I’ll shoot if you don’t stay back."

"Okay, okay. I won’t walk any closer. Why are you pulling the gun on me? Did something bad happen or something?"

"Someone went missing tonight."

"Oh shit. So my bad feeling wasn’t wrong... Are you trying to suggest that I did it?" Wen Zhang questioned.

"You’re the only one who’s not with another soldier... Tell me, do you recognize this phone?"

As Major Lan showed the phone that the sergeant had picked up, he immediately noticed Wen Zhang’s eyes widening for a second.

"Is it yours or not?" Major Lan questioned again after noticing him just standing there in silence.

"It’s... It’s not mine. But I do recognize it. I think I know how your soldier might have gone missing."

Noticing him sighing and looking a little depressed, Major Lan started to lower his guard a little as it seemed he wasn’t the perpetrator, as he had thought.

"Who is it?"

"It’s a long story... Do you remember how I said my family was dead? They aren’t exactly fully ’dead’ as you might think."

"Huh? What do you mean by not fully dead... Wait, are you telling me they turned into zombies?"

Major Lan questioned as he couldn’t understand what Wen Zhang meant by it until he took out an exact-looking phone from his pocket.

"The people who made your soldier disappear might have been my family... They are still alive in Dawang village."