After they got off, security was still everywhere.
Cha Yifeng was the first to jump out of the vehicle, and he hurried straight for the restroom.
The way he hurried along with his legs pressed together looked just like a student who'd been holding it in too long and was about to let loose right there.
There were quite a few students who looked like that.
Everything seemed perfectly normal.
But Xu Tui knew something was wrong.
Cha Yifeng had gone to the restroom three hours earlier.
And during the three hours after that, as far as Xu Tui could tell, Cha Yifeng had barely drunk any water, only occasionally wetting his lips with bottled water. He hadn't eaten anything, either.
Of course, it was also possible that Teacher Cha was simply a little more delicate in that department.
Taken on its own, there was nothing wrong with that.
But combined with what Xu Tui had noticed before, there were far too many suspicious points surrounding Cha Yifeng.
And because he'd confirmed his suspicions, Xu Tui didn't dare follow too closely.
If Cha Yifeng really was up to something, it wouldn't be good if he noticed Xu Tui.
Cha Yifeng hurried along with his legs pressed together, moving so fast that he was almost among the first wave of people off the vehicle to rush into the restroom.
Xu Tui hurried after him.
As soon as he entered the restroom, Xu Tui saw Cha Yifeng duck into a large stall at the very back.
He was fast, all right.
Still walking, Xu Tui surveyed the room and ducked into another large stall.
It was only one stall away from the one Cha Yifeng was in.
Enduring the stench, Xu Tui gently exhaled and concentrated his mental power. In an instant, the scene inside the large stall two meters away appeared in his mind again.
Xu Tui saw Cha Yifeng had just stuffed something into his mouth.
He chewed it a couple of times.
Xu Tui was stunned. The guy had moved too fast; he'd only caught a glimpse of what was happening.
He was at it again, eating in a large stall.
This wasn't just weird. Something was definitely wrong!
He didn't take a dump, just let out a tiny trickle, then Cha Yifeng left the restroom.
Xu Tui swept the area with Mental Induction and found nothing unusual in the large stall Cha Yifeng had used.
After Cha Yifeng had gone some distance, Xu Tui came out and went straight into the stall he'd used, examining it with both his eyes and his mental power.
He found nothing.
A dozen seconds later, Xu Tui walked out of the restroom, looking puzzled.
In the distance, Cha Yifeng was holding a boxed meal and eating with gusto.
By the time Xu Tui found Cheng Mo, the guy already had five empty meal boxes in front of him.
Only He Mingxuan, who'd just changed his clothes and shoes and come over to eat, moved a little farther away from Xu Tui when he saw him.
He looked thoroughly resentful!
Absentmindedly picking at his food, Xu Tui kept glancing toward the escort command vehicle.
He wondered whether he should report this suspicious discovery to the commander of the escort unit.
After thinking it over for a while, Xu Tui decided that safety was no small matter.
He quickly finished his boxed meal and headed straight for the escort command vehicle nearby.
But before he could get close, the sentry stopped him.
"Student, we're currently operating under wartime regulations. Don't wander around, and don't go snooping," the guard warned.
"I noticed something unusual and want to report it to the commander."
"Something unusual?"
"What kind of unusual?"
"I want to see the commander of the escort unit," Xu Tui insisted.
The guard thought it over, then reported the matter over the military channel.
Soon, a captain came jogging over.
"The commander is busy right now and doesn't have time to see you. If you've got something urgent to report, you can tell me and I'll pass it on.
"You can also write it down, and I'll deliver it to the commander," the captain said.
After thinking it over, Xu Tui didn't press the matter. He nodded.
"I'll write it down."
Xu Tui felt that if he told the captain outright that he'd seen a teacher traveling with them chewing something in the restroom, the man might take it as a joke.
1. At both supply stops, the teacher traveling with us, Cha Yifeng, went into a large restroom stall. When he came out, he seemed to put something in his mouth and chew it. 2. Teacher Cha Yifeng barely drank any water or ate anything, but kept going to the large stalls. 3. Teacher Cha Yifeng seemed a little nervous.
After writing it down, Xu Tui looked over the three points he'd listed and suddenly began to doubt himself.
Was he just being paranoid?
This looked more like a bad joke than important intelligence.
Even so, Xu Tui handed the note over.
The captain glanced at it, then at Xu Tui, and his mouth twitched.
Was this kid here to make jokes?
But out of a sense of duty, he still nodded. "I'll pass the report on to the commander. If we need to follow up, we'll contact you privately."
"All right, thank you."
Xu Tui left politely, grabbed another boxed meal, and finished it before boarding.
As they were getting on, Cha Yifeng, who was counting people by the door, suddenly stopped Xu Tui.
"Xu Tui, what kind of trouble are you stirring up now? Why'd you go to the escort unit?" Clearly, Cha Yifeng had noticed Xu Tui acting strangely.
"Nothing. I just thought we were heading in the wrong direction and not toward Xi'an Prefecture, so I went over to ask. They had me fill out a form."
Xu Tui had a pretty good knack for lying; the words came easily.
"Let me warn you: we're under wartime regulations right now. Don't pry, and don't go making trouble. Don't cause problems for me," Cha Yifeng warned him.
Xu Tui bared his teeth in a grin.
He was about to get on the vehicle when a thought struck him. His mental power focused sharply.
"Teacher Cha, how many boxed meals have you eaten?"
"What?" Cha Yifeng was taken aback, his mouth slightly open.
The moment Cha Yifeng's mouth opened, Xu Tui could make out what was inside.
Xu Tui's Mental Induction couldn't currently penetrate the human body.
In short, when Cha Yifeng kept his mouth shut, Xu Tui couldn't see inside it.
But when Cha Yifeng opened his mouth, that was no longer a problem.
Just now, Xu Tui had noticed something.
Cha Yifeng had two false teeth.
One on top and one on the bottom, lined up perfectly.
They were made of a very unusual material.
They weren't the common porcelain teeth, nor gold teeth, alloy teeth, or resin teeth. They were made of an unfamiliar material Xu Tui had never seen in daily life or in his textbooks.
Xu Tui wondered whether adding this detail to his earlier report might catch the commander's attention.
Unfortunately, the convoy was about to set off, and Xu Tui, watching from the vehicle window, didn't see anyone from the escort unit come over.
Maybe they haven't seen it yet.
Xu Tui tried to reassure himself.
Inside the temporary mobile command post.
Although Xu Tui's report was ridiculous, the captain had still done his duty and handed the note to the commander.
"Report: A student from Vehicle Three noticed something unusual about one of the teachers traveling with them and reported it to us."
Colonel Liu Tianhu, who had been studying the electronic map, looked up and took the note. He glanced over it, raised an eyebrow, and looked ready to lose his temper.
But in the end, the words "Vehicle Three" stopped him from blowing up. Instead, he tossed the note to an intelligence officer beside him.
"Check the teacher traveling with Vehicle Three, Cha Yifeng, and look into the basic situation on Vehicle Three."
"Understood."
The intelligence officer immediately went over to the side. Several officers began working at once, fast-forwarding through the special surveillance footage inside Vehicle Three.
Although the ultra-micro radiation particle generators had been activated inside every transport vehicle, cutting power to electronic components and blocking their signals, special communication and surveillance frequencies had been left active.
The goal was to make any potential enemy blind and deaf.
But they themselves couldn't afford to be blind, much less deaf!
A few minutes later, the intelligence officer reached a conclusion.
"This student started making trouble as soon as he got on board, and the teacher traveling with him, Cha Yifeng, reprimanded him twice.
"He seems like a bit of a troublemaker.
"My assessment is that either the student is nervous, or he's trying to get back at the teacher.
"Also, Cha Yifeng's record is clean. He served in the military and retired from an off-world battlefield. He was in a third-line unit."
Liu Tianhu nodded, then continued watching the feeds from the escort teams transmitted by the satellite.
So far, not a single team had run into trouble.
As long as things stayed that way and they rendezvoused with the Ningyin Prefecture team, he would have completed the mission successfully.
And earned a merit!
"What should we do? Should we bring this teacher in and ask him about eating in the restroom?" the intelligence officer asked cautiously.
"Do what? Question him? Are you out of your mind?"
"If we investigate every teacher just because a student reports him, how are we supposed to escort them?"
"Did you even look at the report?"
"Suspected of eating in a large stall, with chewing motions. I move my jaw a little after taking a dump, too. Does that make me suspicious as well?"
"Can you people use your heads for once? Try making my job a little easier!"
After a long, furious dressing-down, the captain who'd delivered the report and the intelligence officer both stood there red-faced.
Back on Vehicle Three, the bus Xu Tui was riding in.
When the commander failed to show any interest or ask him about the matter, Xu Tui could only hope he'd been overthinking things. At the same time, he kept a closer eye on Cha Yifeng in secret.
About forty minutes into the trip, Xu Tui, who'd been keeping an eye on Cha Yifeng, suddenly noticed the man's mental state grow much more tense.
Through Mental Induction, Xu Tui noticed the muscles in Cha Yifeng's cheeks twitching slightly.
His teeth were probably moving.
Xu Tui had experience with this.
His upper and lower teeth are moving in rhythm, on the right side. Those two false teeth are on the right. What is he planning to do?
The moment he noticed this, Xu Tui couldn't sit still any longer.
He had to do something!
Yesterday, someone submitted a bonus chapter as a little easter egg, and Zhu San proudly picked it. I've heard they've already received their rewards. Anyone interested can keep joining in. I'll slow down the picks later so they don't affect your reading experience.
Before you continue