I told Ah Bei, "Tell me before you go so we can prepare. If anything unexpected happens, find a way to notify me."
I gave him some more details, then told him to get some rest.
Back in my room, I told the Taoist brothers to have one of them stand guard while the other two of us rested.
I don't know how long I slept, but I heard voices outside. It was Brother Hui's subordinate telling Ah Bei to go see Brother Hui.
I sat up abruptly and told the two of them, "You two stay outside the room for a while to prevent Brother Hui from getting suspicious and acting. You two handle the situation as it unfolds. I'll go scout the surroundings."
With that, I went out of the room first.
I saw Ah Bei following the man in black towards the large house in front.
Behind the large house was a row of camphor trees. The large house had no back windows, only solid red brick rear walls.
It was evening. There was not a soul in the spacious courtyard. The sky had already darkened, and only a dim light bulb hung at the corner of the large house.
After I had only walked a few steps, a figure suddenly flashed out from behind the trees, instantly grabbed my neck, and pressed a sharp knife against my throat.
I didn't dare to act. I needed to figure out his intentions for controlling me.
"Don't you know that's a restricted area? What are you doing here?"
"Big brother, I just arrived today. I don't understand where the restricted area is."
I tried my best to speak with the local accent.
"Didn't your leader tell you when you arrived? Who is your leader?"
"Ah Bei. I'm with Ah Bei. I had something to look for him. I saw him heading this way, so I followed. I really didn't know I shouldn't come here."
His grip loosened a bit, but the knife remained at my throat.
"Get back to your room quickly. If I see you here a second time, I'll make sure you don't see tomorrow's sun."
I quickly pretended to be terrified and said, "Thank you, big brother, for sparing my life. I'll never dare to again."
He finally let go, kicked me, and sent me sprawling. "Get out!"
I feigned extreme fear, not daring to get up, and scrambled back to the room hunched over.
The two of them were standing at the doorway with the door ajar. Seeing me run back, they quickly asked, "What happened?"
"When I approached the large house, I encountered a man in black. You two keep watch at the door. If things go badly, we'll make a break for it."
They nodded, their eyes nervously fixed on the outside.
A short while later, Ah Bei returned.
Ah Bei said to the Taoist brothers at the door, "You two stay here for a while and watch out for suspicious individuals. I need to speak with the boss."
"Boss, Brother Hui asked me about our fighting skills. He wants to recruit some of us to his killer team."
"Oh, so that's what it is."
This was not part of the plan I had designed. Perhaps seeing that we had successfully brought Zhou Yingying back, he suddenly decided to move us from the periphery to the forefront.
He must be truly desperate for people to put complete strangers by his side.
"However, he wants me to give him our personal information for him to review."
I still underestimated Brother Hui. I knew he wouldn't trust people easily.
Fortunately, this was within the scope of our deduction with my senior. I asked Ah Bei for paper and pen and wrote down our village and personal information.
This is a completely isolated village. With his current resources, he wouldn't have the energy to verify it.
I stumbled upon this information during our last infiltration of Wu Guodong's barracks. Now that Wu Guodong has surrendered to the military government, that place has changed hands, and small gangs are constantly fighting for territory, leading to widespread chaos.
It was said that people from here would have a higher probability of survival.
I handed him the information I had written. He glanced at it, picked it up, and left.
The three of us were named Xu Changhe, Liu Dafa, and Chen Dong, all from the same village.
Our resumes included our history of serving in Wu Guodong's army. Later, when the army was reorganized, we were unwilling to go south, so we deserted and sought refuge here.
A moment later, Ah Bei returned, holding a few black uniforms. He told us to change into them and follow him to see Brother Hui.
Ah Bei himself also changed into a black uniform and waited for us at the door.
We then proceeded to the main hall we had visited during the day. Brother Hui had shed his ferocious demeanor from earlier, but he wasn't smiling either. Seeing us enter so casually, he frowned slightly.
Brother Hui said nothing. He waved his hand, and a man in black suddenly appeared from behind him. With a swift movement, he dashed in front of me and struck my left chest with a palm.
I instinctively dodged, but I still couldn't avoid it and was hit squarely.
The man in black didn't stop. He struck the two Taoist brothers successively.
The two Taoist brothers, caught completely off guard, took a palm strike and stumbled back several steps. One even fell to the ground.
The man in black stepped back and stopped, looking at us with disdain.
Brother Hui said, "You call yourselves soldiers? What kind of soldiers are you? Like stalks of sorghum, falling over with a push? If I put you by my side, you wouldn't be able to block a knife, let alone fend off unarmed attackers!"
I replied sheepishly, "We usually just do drills. No one has taught us any martial arts, but we all know how to shoot, boss. Don't worry!"
Brother Hui ignored my explanation and said to the man in black who had tested us, "A Zhan, you don't need to do anything else these few days. You're responsible for training these guys and teaching them the basics."
The man in black, A Zhan, bowed to Brother Hui and agreed.
Then, Brother Hui waved us away, signaling us to leave.
The palm strike A Zhan delivered earlier used about five or six tenths of his strength. Although I deliberately showed weakness, if I had resisted with full force, I could have only managed a draw. It seemed dealing with the people around him wouldn't be too easy either.
Fortunately, with the identity of men in black, our actions would be much more convenient.
We returned to the room. I told everyone to do nothing for the next few days but to patiently accept A Zhan's training. Our goal was to be accepted by Brother Hui as soon as possible, and then we could seize the opportunity to act.
The next day, after breakfast, Ah Bei led us to another building. This building was adjacent to Brother Hui's house, with a passage of about two meters between them.
Ah Bei was already standing at the door. Seeing us approach, he led us into the room.
The room was similar in size to Brother Hui's, but it was devoid of any furniture. Along the back wall was a row of wooden racks, adorned with an assortment of cold weapons like swords, sabers, spears, axes, hooks, and forks.
In the center of the room lay a large square carpet, presumably for training.
We stood there, looking at A Zhan, waiting for his command.
However, he didn't rush us into training. Instead, he called another man in black to take us on a tour.
He told us that the first lesson would not be physical training but ideological education.
We looked at him, puzzled. He offered no explanation and waved us to follow the man in black.