With a series of Bureau of Paranormal Investigation credentials clearing our way, we took the special no-inspection channel directly and boarded the Bureau's special plane. After takeoff, Gao Liang and the others were discussing plans to encircle and block Huang Ran's group. During the discussion, Director Hugo repeatedly suggested coming over to our side to eliminate Satan's friends — that giant wolf named Fenrir. But Gao Fatty stopped him: "Don't worry, the few of them in the room are enough, nothing will go wrong."
Director Hao Wenming also wanted to hold a small meeting to discuss the details of exterminating the wolf pack, since the local garrison would be involved. In the end, it was summed up in one word: "Fight!" As for how to fight, that would be decided on the spot.
We changed into military uniforms on the plane. After changing, Sun Fatty kept commenting beside me: "Director Hao, no offense, but how did you manage this? At your age, only a captain? At best, you're a small battalion officer. Not many people would believe a battalion officer at your age. Isn't there anyone with a higher rank? Yang Jun, your white hair won't be covered by any hat; you should have dyed it earlier." Director Hao Wenming was annoyed by these remarks, then snapped a few words to silence Sun Fatty: "Sun Fatty, shut up. Keep talking nonsense and I'll use you as bait to lure the wolves out."
Five hours later, the plane landed at Yining Airport in the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture. We didn't know if it was good or bad luck; just as the plane stopped, snowflakes began to fall, and the snowfall grew heavier by the minute. In a short time, the entire Yining Airport was covered in a blanket of white. Several planes waiting to land circled for a while but eventually flew away to other airports.
After disembarking, we split into two groups to leave the airport. Director Gao and his team were taken away by several large buses on the tarmac. Director Hao Wenming led the rest of us through the no-inspection channel into the airport terminal. Due to the heavy snow, almost all scheduled flights had been diverted. The terminal was deserted except for a few ground crew and, most notably, a second lieutenant in his early thirties standing at the arrivals gate.
He held up a cardboard sign cut from a Tianshan fragrant pear box, with carbon marker writing: "Welcome Comrade Hao Wenming and party to our unit for guidance." Luckily, the terminal was almost empty; otherwise, with such a shabby reception, we would have been too embarrassed to approach and greet. Sun Fatty looked at the sign and said: "Director Hao, no offense, but this is really disrespectful. At least glue some paper over the sign; the first two characters 'Welcome' and 'Tianshan fragrant pear' are written overlapping, so at a glance, it looks like 'Tianshan fragrant pear Comrade Hao Wenming.' Not to mention, that nickname is really unflattering."
Before Director Hao could respond, the second lieutenant holding the sign called out, "Are you Comrade Hao Wenming? Which one is Comrade Hao Wenming?" Aside from Yang Jun, the three of us—Sun Fatty, Po Jun, and I—pointed to the person they were looking for. The officer came over, saluted crisply, and said, "I am Ruan Liang, responsible for this unit's reception. Welcome, Comrade Hao Wenming, to our unit for guidance."
Director Hao returned a very standard military salute and said expressionlessly, "Guidance is an exaggeration. We're here on a mission, basically coming together as brother units to contribute to the local herdsmen." Then Director Hao introduced us: "Let me introduce. These three are elite marksmen selected by our unit; all have ranked in previous competitions. This is Shen La, the tall guy beside him is Po Jun, and the white-haired one is Yang Jun."
When he mentioned Yang Jun, Ruan Liang glanced at his white hair in surprise. Although he didn't say anything, his expression showed it. Director Hao explained, "His white hair is pathological. Yang Jun had a severe illness as a child, and after recovery, it remained like this."
Then he introduced Sun Fatty: "This is Captain Sun Desheng from the Integrated Law Enforcement Brigade of the Autonomous Region Forestry Police. He also came because of the wolf disaster, and we happened to be on the same flight." Sun Fatty chuckled, "I'm here to learn. Honestly, when it comes time to actually fight the wolves, don't count me in."
Ruan Liang took Sun Fatty's words as politeness and didn't pay much attention. Turning to Director Hao, he said, "Our superior instructed that after your arrival, Director Hao, the task of dealing with the wolf disaster will be under your command." Director Hao was straightforward and nodded, "No need to waste words. Let's go directly to the site; anything else can be discussed there."
When we left the airport, everything outside was still a white expanse. Ruan Liang drove an old Jinbei van, and no one bothered to look at the snowy scenery outside. As dawn was approaching, except for Yang Jun, the rest of us took the chance to nap in the van. I have no idea how long I slept, but when I opened my eyes, the snow had stopped, and it was already bright outside. Looking through the window, everything was still covered in snow, and it was impossible to tell where we were.
"Comrade Shen, you're finally awake," Sun Fatty laughed from the back seat behind me. "Honestly, I thought it was altitude sickness and was worried about getting you an oxygen tank." I rolled down the window a bit, took a deep breath of the cold air, and instantly felt much clearer. Director Hao and Po Jun were already awake and questioning Ruan Liang about the wolf disaster. Yang Jun suddenly produced an encyclopedia from somewhere and leisurely flipped through the pages.
I asked Sun Fatty, "Big… Captain Sun Desheng, where exactly are we now?" As soon as the words left my mouth, I felt the question was pointless—how could Sun Fatty know? Unexpectedly, he wiped the frost off the window and said, "We're probably at the foot of the Tianshan Mountains." I glanced at him, "You're just guessing, right? You've never been here before, how would you know?" Sun Fatty made a funny face, "Just guessing."
Just then, Ruan Liang driving the van said, "Captain Sun isn't wrong. We are indeed at the foot of the Tianshan Mountains. After we get out and hike for two or three hours, we'll reach the area where the wolf pack often appears." He paused and continued, "There's a post on the mountain, and the officers coordinating with you to eliminate the wolves are already in position."
Po Jun asked, "How many people do you have in total?"
Ruan Liang replied, "Four, including me." Afraid we might be dissatisfied with the number, he quickly added, "There's been a heavy snowstorm recently, and the army has deployed a lot of personnel to help with disaster relief in various regions. We still have to maintain a minimum garrison, so it's really hard to spare more men. But don't worry, the few of us are all professionals, and we're well equipped. I won't claim to be a sharpshooter, but hitting a few wolves from a hundred meters out isn't a problem."
Hao Wenming looked at Ruan Liang and suddenly chuckled. "No offense, but you've misunderstood. It's not that I'm worried you have too few people—I'm more worried you have too many."
Ruan Liang didn't get it and asked a few more questions in confusion, but Hao Wenming only smiled without answering. Ruan Liang eventually gave up and pretended he hadn't heard that comment.
The van drove on for another twenty minutes until the road ahead completely disappeared under the snow. Ruan Liang stopped the car and turned to us. "We've arrived."
We were at the foot of a mountain. Before us, the high ridge stretched out in a series of undulating peaks, the entire landscape blanketed in white after the heavy snow. After getting out of the vehicle, we looked around but couldn't see any visible path into the mountains. The snow had fallen so thick that all the trails were buried. The weather was strange too—when it had been snowing, the wind was so fierce that the snowflakes had spun wildly as they fell. Now that the snow had stopped, the wind had vanished as well, leaving only a biting cold.
Ruan Liang was the last to get out of the van. From the moment he stepped down, his expression looked off. At first, he kept glancing around. Then he climbed back into the vehicle and honked the horn a few times, constantly checking his watch. His brows gradually furrowed into a deep knot as he kept peering up the mountain, muttering, "It's almost noon... why haven't they come down yet?"
Hao Wenming glanced at him. "Someone from the mountain is supposed to come down and escort us up?"
"Yes," Ruan Liang replied. "There's a sentry post on the mountain that protects a military facility. The soldiers I mentioned earlier are stationed there. I informed them in advance—they were supposed to come down by eleven. It's been nearly an hour now."
Po Jun said, "Try calling them. Maybe they got tired of waiting and went back up."
Ruan Liang shook his head helplessly. "This is a dead zone for signal. You'd have to reach the relay point halfway up the mountain before you get any reception. Besides, this was a direct order. No one would dare disobey and just return after waiting only an hour."
Just as he said this, Hao Wenming pulled a cigarette from his coat pocket. He lit it, but instead of smoking it, he simply held it between his fingers, letting the smoke trail slowly into the air.
That cigarette wasn't ordinary—it was custom-made by Hao Wenming himself. Back when he made them, all of us—except Yang Jun—helped out. The cigarette looked like an ordinary Zhonghua, but inside the tobacco core, he had inserted a thin thread of spiritual incense. This incense burned at the same rate as the cigarette and produced a smoke that lingered unnaturally in the air. If there was any trace of malevolent energy nearby, the smoke would drift toward it and start to gather. Hao Wenming had crafted these cigarettes specifically for situations like this, where outsiders were present.
Ruan Liang was too distracted to notice Hao Wenming's unusual smoking habits. He just kept anxiously looking up the mountain, as if staring hard enough might magically bring someone down to meet us. Meanwhile, the rest of us quietly followed the trail of smoke from the spiritual incense. (Yang Jun was the first to spot that the smoke wasn't dispersing normally and realized something was up.) The thin wisp of smoke had started to drift toward the snowy mountain. At first, we thought it would float deep into the mountain range, and we even prepared to follow it in.
But just then—BOOM!—a thunderous sound echoed from the mountaintop. At the same moment, the smoke was abruptly disrupted as if struck by an invisible force and instantly vanished into the air.
We all froze. A beat later, we instinctively looked around, but the snow-covered mountain remained exactly as it had been—no visible changes. I glanced at Hao Wenming and Yang Jun, hoping to glean something from their reactions, but both wore identical blank expressions, like faces cast from the same mold.
Ruan Liang thought we had spotted the soldiers coming down from the mountain. He rushed over, following our line of sight. "What was that sound just now? Did you see something?"
Hao Wenming turned to him and asked, "Have you been to the sentry post before?"
Ruan Liang hesitated. "A few times, but only in good weather. Now with the roads buried, I'm not confident I could find it."
He added, "In these conditions, if we got lost in the mountain, we'd really be in trouble."
Hao Wenming thought for a moment and said, "Let's head up anyway. Even if we only make it halfway, we can use the phone once we get signal. It's not like we can call anyone from here."
I chimed in, "Comrade Ruan Liang, Captain Hao is in charge now. We should follow his lead. As long as we get to where there's signal, we can call your sentry post and figure out what's going on up there."
Ruan Liang seemed to realize he had no better options. He stared at the mountain for a moment, then nodded. "All right. Let's try. If we're lucky, maybe we'll find the post."
He meant to take the lead, but Hao Wenming quickly stepped in front of him. "I'll go first. You can guide me from behind."
Ruan Liang was briefly stunned but followed anyway. Behind him was Po Jun, then Sun Fatty and me, with Yang Jun bringing up the rear. Sun Fatty sidled up to Yang Jun and chatted a bit, and Yang Jun, ever accommodating, didn't hesitate—he took the gun case off his back and handed it to him.
We hiked for over two hours. The heavy snow made it difficult to distinguish the paths, and the trail split in many places. Whenever Ruan Liang hesitated about which way to go, Hao Wenming would subtly signal Sun Fatty, who always made the right choice. When we reached the point with phone reception, Ruan Liang tried calling the sentry post several times but got no answer. He consoled himself, "Maybe they're busy with something urgent."
Thanks to Sun Fatty's freakish luck, we eventually spotted the post—two hours later.
Calling it a sentry post was generous—it was really just three brick-tile houses and a small yard. From a distance, we could see the yard was piled high with firewood and coal. But it was eerily quiet. Too quiet.
Ruan Liang was about to rush ahead when Hao Wenming stopped him. Narrowing his eyes, Hao stared at the post. "Hold on. Something's not right."
Ruan Liang had sensed it too. "You're right. Something's wrong. The guard dogs are gone." The post usually had two dogs guarding the yard—but now they were nowhere in sight.
We observed a while longer but found nothing out of the ordinary, so we cautiously approached. The closer we got, the more lifeless the place felt—no sign of human presence whatsoever.
Ruan Liang was visibly shaken. His face turned pale and beads of sweat covered his forehead. He paced around both inside and outside the buildings, even checked the vegetable patch behind the house, but found nothing. At last, he turned to us and asked a bizarre question:
"Do any of you know where they went?"
There was a moment of silence. Then Hao Wenming furrowed his brow. "Ruan, not to be rude, but we've been with you the whole time. How would we know where your comrades went? Don't panic. Maybe they got an emergency order and had to rush off without informing anyone."
Ruan Liang stared intently at Hao Wenming, and when the latter finished speaking, Ruan let out a cold laugh. "Who are you people, really?"
The question hit us out of nowhere. We were all startled and instinctively glanced at him—just that reaction alone was enough to show we weren't clean.
That reaction seemed to confirm Ruan Liang's suspicions. He suddenly grabbed a rifle from the weapon rack and chambered a round with a loud click, shouting, "I was in the division's marksmanship trials too, and I never heard of any 'special-grade sharpshooters' like you. I was at the airport to pick you up, and there was no flight listed on the arrival board. And this post has been peaceful for decades—now suddenly it's empty? Don't tell me you're not the wolves we came to hunt."
We didn't expect Ruan Liang to be this sharp. Though his conclusion was wrong, the fact that he caught our inconsistencies from the start was impressive. Was this really the same young lieutenant who had greeted us at the airport holding a sign that said "Xinjiang Fragrant Pears – Hao Wenming"?
We had no idea how to answer. We couldn't exactly tell him about the Bureau.
The standoff dragged on.
"Fine. I'll tell you the truth. Not worth dying over a misunderstanding." Sun Fatty gave a helpless laugh. But the phrase "tell the truth" coming from him sounded oddly like a fairy tale. He glanced at Hao Wenming—who didn't object, a sign of tacit approval.
Sun Fatty continued, "You got it right—they're not soldiers. We're all from the same department. I am a cop, but not from the Forestry Police. I'm Sun Desheng, Chief of the Narcotics Division's Special Affairs Section. They're all my colleagues. We're here tracking down three drug traffickers."
Ruan Liang sneered. "Why not say you're from Zhongnanhai? If you're going to lie, at least make it a good one."
Sun Fatty exhaled heavily and tapped his chest. "There's an ID in my pocket. Take it and see for yourself."
Ruan Liang pressed the rifle to Sun Fatty's forehead. "Any sudden moves and he dies first," he warned, then cautiously reached into Sun Fatty's pocket and pulled out the ID.
I recognized it—it was the one Sun Fatty had gotten after the Water Curtain Cave incident when he was briefly promoted to Chief. He never turned it in after resigning, kept it as a souvenir. Never thought it'd come in handy now.
Ruan Liang checked the photo and confirmed it was legit, but he still looked unconvinced. At that moment, Hao Wenming said calmly, "If you're not sure, call back to your unit and verify our identities."
That made Sun Fatty visibly nervous. His tone was much less confident now. "Yeah… call them. Go ahead…"
We weren't sure what Hao Wenming was planning, but he seemed confident. We had no choice but to play along and see what happened.
Ruan Liang made the call. His voice grew quieter the longer he talked. When he hung up, he lowered his rifle and muttered, "Cops are cops… why pretend to be soldiers?"
Hao Wenming smiled faintly. "So, you got confirmation?"
"Not really," Ruan Liang replied. "They didn't say much, but they did confirm you're cops, said you're on some confidential mission."
Hao Wenming nodded. "Next time, don't be so quick to draw a gun. You could hurt someone innocent."
As he spoke, something flickered across his face—a strange expression—but it vanished quickly. Then he looked up at the ceiling and dragged out his words:
"But seriously… something isn't—"
He suddenly shouted the last two words—
"RIGHT HERE!"