books44 Chapter 1035 Are you treating Director Zheng like a village elder in an RPG?
Chapter 1035 Are you treating Director Zheng like a village elder in an RPG?
As morning mist enveloped the area, the Darian base slowly awoke in the hazy vapor. The distant factory buildings emitted sporadic machine hums, while nearby vegetation was adorned with glistening dewdrops, the air thick with the faint scent of grass and diesel fuel. At the entrance to the secluded courtyard where Jiang Xia resided, Old Wang stood solemnly like a guardian deity, his brow furrowed, his eyes filled with apprehension.
The ground beneath his feet had been trodden with shallow marks from his repeated pacing. Director Zheng and Baoqiang stood to the side, but he still didn't dare to push open the half-closed door.
Jiang Xia stayed up all night again, and only fell asleep curled up in bed just before dawn. There were still dark circles under his eyes, and his breathing was shallow and tired.
Old Wang dotes on people, especially Jiangxia, this "golden nugget." He wishes he could take on all the trivial matters for him, so how could he bear to wake him up just as he closed his eyes?
But Director Zheng brought an urgent mission from Bureau 701, a matter of great importance, where even a second's delay could lead to problems. Director Zheng glanced at his watch, gently patted Old Wang's shoulder, and said in a calm tone, "Wake him up. The situation is urgent; we can't afford to delay."
Old Wang gritted his teeth, but in the end he couldn't bring himself to push the door open. He simply raised his hand and knocked lightly on the door three times, his voice very low: "Jiang Xia, wake up, it's important."
There was no response from inside, only the sound of even breathing. Old Wang knocked again, his tone carrying a barely perceptible coaxing tone: "It's the comrades from Bureau 701. It's urgent."
A moment later, a rustling sound came from inside the room, followed by the door being pulled open. Jiang Xia, with a messy head of hair sticking up, had his eyes half-open and half-closed, and dark circles under his eyes that looked as if they had been stained with ink. He looked listless.
Just then, a slightly abrupt wisp of "white smoke" drifted over from behind Director Zheng, accompanied by a faint "hissing" sound, and dispersed in the morning mist like a miniature steam locomotive.
Baoqiang used dried eggplant vines as makeshift "cigarettes." After lighting them, the smoke was thick and pungent, carrying a strange herbal smell that made him frown, but he still kept them in his mouth and couldn't bear to throw them away.
"Hahaha! Kid, you look like you've been burned to a crisp!" Baoqiang swaggered over, a burning eggplant vine dangling from his mouth, and chuckled indistinctly, "You were working on the blueprints all night again? Look at those dark circles under your eyes, you're almost a panda!"
As he spoke, he held out another piece of dried eggplant vine to Jiang Xia, the smoke wafting straight into Jiang Xia's nose: "Want an eggplant vine? It's ten times stronger than a cigar, it'll wake you up instantly!"
"Get lost, you're choking." Jiang Xia frowned and dodged, raising her hand to rub her sore eyes, dispelling the lingering sleepiness. Her gaze swept over Director Zheng and Baoqiang, her eyes full of surprise. "What brings you two here? Is it about Bureau 701?"
He had just fallen asleep and his mind was still not fully clear. He had no idea that the two of them would find this secluded courtyard so quietly.
Well, this Director Zheng is even more troublesome than me. Every time he shows up, nothing good ever comes of it.
Jiang Xia silently grumbled to himself, his brows furrowing even more.
Eh?
No, that's not right. Last time, although Director Zheng brought that old sixth brother to his side and caused a lot of trouble, he at least got a genius programmer as a bonus, who helped him sort out a lot of computer problems.
I wonder if Director Zheng will bring out any useful people or things during his visit.
Thinking of this, Jiang Xia snatched the eggplant stalk from Baoqiang's hand and took a big bite without thinking.
Instantly, a pungent, irritating smell of herbs rushed down his throat and into his lungs, mixed with the astringent and burnt smell unique to dried plants, choking him and causing him to cough violently. Tears welled up in his eyes instantly, and his throat felt dry and sore, as if it had been rubbed with sandpaper.
"Cough cough... What the hell is this thing!" Jiang Xia's hand trembled and the eggplant stalk fell to the ground.
He stomped on it hard, bent over coughing incessantly, his face turning red. It took him a long time to recover before he grinned at Baoqiang, "Was that a firewood stick you smoked? It's stronger than diesel! It's good for staying awake, but it almost killed me!"
Baoqiang was amused by his disheveled appearance and burst into laughter, bending over and slapping his thigh: "I told you it's stronger than a cigar! You didn't believe me and insisted on trying it, so don't blame me!"
"Pah! There's some kind of alkali in these eggplant vines, be careful not to get a stomach ulcer if you smoke too much!"
"Really? Then I planted a whole bunch of eggplants..."
"You big idiot Qiang, you can grow crops now?"
"No, I got a handsome young man surnamed Yuan from the Agricultural Research Institute to help me with it. He said he wanted to graft tomatoes onto eggplant vines!"
"You've got a lot of connections... Did this handsome young man start by grafting sweet potatoes?"
"Hmm, you know him? But I heard he got scolded by his teacher recently, and now he's been searching for some kind of castrated rice in the fields. Those eggplant plants are neglected, they're just growing stalks..."
Jiang Xia thought Baoqiang was lamenting that the eggplants were growing too long and wanted to give him some advice.
Baoqiang then raised his caterpillar-like eyebrows and said, "That's perfect for me! I cut off a section, and it grows back a section. I cut and cut, and it grows and grows..."
"That way, I'll have an endless supply of eggplant vines!"
Damn it, you're mistaking an eggplant stalk for a chive sprout!
Director Zheng watched the two bickering, shook his head helplessly, stepped forward, opened the briefcase on the stone table, took out the eleventh draft of enemy communications, and his tone instantly turned serious: "Stop fooling around, let's get down to business. This is an encrypted telegram sent from Phnom Penh to a remote island in the southeast, with three layers of nested encryption. Our people have been working on it for days and nights without any clues, so we can only come to you for help."
After catching her breath from coughing, Jiang Xia wiped away the tears that had welled up in her eyes from Bao Qiang's anger, picked up the manuscript, and her sleepy eyes gradually cleared.
"Dynamic code table switching trigger signal, phase shift interference, and invalid padding characters... It's somewhat similar to the encryption logic I've encountered before, but more complex. We need to strip away the interference and reverse-engineer it first."
"Damn, how did you figure it out so quickly? You didn't actually create countless generations of Dahuang and stuff them into your brain, did you?!" Baoqiang exclaimed in surprise.
Jiang Xia twitched her lips and ignored him.
Others thought Baoqiang was talking nonsense, but Jiang Xia secretly gave him a thumbs up.
Damn it, there are amazing people in China! Jiang Xia really felt that the system, which had no presence, was just a descendant of Huang, who knows how many generations ago.
However, now is not the time to discuss these things. Let's take a look at what's written on this secret telegram.
The scratching sound of pen and paper echoed in the courtyard. Jiang Xia's pen tip flew across the paper, spreading out a dense array of formulas and derivations.
Deciphering such encrypted messages requires precise calculations at every step. It involves verifying the check value of the shift key and eliminating interference from invalid characters, making it a tedious and mentally taxing process.
Deep in the calculations, he looked up at Baoqiang, who was idly swinging his legs while chewing on another piece of eggplant vine, and pulled him to his side: "Don't just stand there, come and help me calculate. Call out the numbers and check the verification value of this shift key. If you get even one number wrong, we have to start all over again."
"Why?"
Baoqiang pouted and struggled, looking unwilling, almost dropping the eggplant vine from his mouth. "I'm the 'Wind Listener,' not your personal calculator. If you want to calculate, calculate it yourself!"
Jiang Xia didn't waste any words with him. He simply took out the Red Dragon's Eye from his pocket and placed it on the stone table.
"Wow! What's this amazing thing? It looks even cooler than the encrypted radios in the station!"
Although Baoqiang was carefree and irresponsible, he was particularly sensitive to these kinds of novel gadgets. He lightly pressed the button with his fingertip and felt the crisp feedback, which piqued his interest even more: "Okay, okay, it'll do! But you have to tell me, what is this thing used for?"
"Stop talking nonsense, just do as I say." Jiang Xia didn't explain, but simply pushed a set of numbers in front of him.
Baoqiang didn't press the matter, and after studying it for a while, he understood the purpose of the Red Dragon's Eye.
He immediately sat up straight, stopped smoking the eggplant stalk that was choking on the smoke, and followed Jiang Xia's calculation steps. He pressed the buttons by intuition and was able to keep up with the rhythm accurately. He would occasionally announce the values displayed on the screen, which saved Jiang Xia a lot of checking time.
The two were busy with their own things when hurried footsteps came from outside the courtyard gate. Secretary Liu rushed in, panting, and immediately saw Director Zheng and Baoqiang. Her steps faltered, and the anxiety on her face was instantly replaced by astonishment.
He ran as fast as he could, but Zheng and his men still beat him to it. How did they manage to bypass the base's security and find Jiang Xia so precisely?
Wait, wasn't that emergency notice just issued? Have these two mastered the skill of using telephone lines like the Badge Warriors?
The thought of surprise flashed through his mind for only a moment before he quickly composed himself and strode forward: "Director Zheng, Comrade Baoqiang, why are you here ahead of time? I was just about to inform Comrade Jiang Xia about the emergency assistance request from Bureau 701..."
Director Zheng waved his hand, interrupting Secretary Liu's formulaic small talk.
He reached out and pulled Secretary Liu and Boss Wang in front of him: "The notification will be sent later, don't ask so many questions."
"See those six skilled fighters? Blackie from the bureau, you're in charge of them."
"If someone attacks..."
Old Wang grinned maliciously and continued, "We'll make sure he never leaves alive!"
"clever!"