Wild Game

"You're saying you did that because you saw a flock of birds? Did you get a clear look?"

Lei Hu found it hard to believe when he heard what had happened.

By the time birds in the air became visible to a pilot, it was usually already too late to react. How could Li Zhi possibly have landed without a scratch?

Almost everyone's first reaction to the news was disbelief, which was why the control tower had restricted Li Zhi's movements.

They had already been generous in allowing him to return to the 1st Division to land.

"I'm absolutely certain!"

Li Zhi trusted his judgment. Although he wasn't sure whether they were birds, there had definitely been something there.

"Get some rest first. As for the other things, don't..."

"Sir, 201 Airport called. They said they've gotten to the bottom of it. A flock of pigeons at the airport did interfere with Captain Li!"

Lei Hu had just been about to offer Li Zhi a few words of comfort when his orderly, Xiao Wang, brought the news.

"All right, I understand. Those people at 201 made a mistake in their own work and put my man through all that. I'll have to have a word with them!"

The matter had been cleared up, proving that Li Zhi hadn't done anything wrong, but Lei Hu wasn't very happy.

If they hadn't gotten to the bottom of it, wouldn't Li Zhi have been falsely accused for nothing?

"Xiao Li, go on back. I'll make sure the people at 201 give you an explanation!"

Lei Hu certainly wasn't going to let the matter drop. After all, if Li Zhi hadn't spotted the problem in time, 201 would have been in serious trouble!

"Sir, I didn't suffer any losses, so there's no need to..."

"Don't worry about this. Leave it to me. Go on back!"

The military was protective of its own to begin with, and Li Zhi was a soldier Lei Hu held in especially high regard. There was no way Lei Hu would let this go.

"Yes, sir!"

Since his superior had told him not to worry about it, he naturally wouldn't disobey the order.

Besides, Chicken Coop Base was under heavy patrol pressure, and they were waiting for him to return and take a shift. He had no time to waste on this matter.

After saying goodbye to Lei Hu, Li Zhi went to the airport beside division headquarters. His fighter had already been taken to the hangar and was undergoing maintenance.

The fighter hadn't used much fuel, and the base wasn't far from here, so it hadn't been refueled.

Lei Hu had already spoken to the control tower, so Li Zhi took off without any trouble. After all, he had been "escorted" here by two fighters.

Without Lei Hu's orders, there was no way Li Zhi could have left!

Back at an altitude of ten thousand meters, Li Zhi felt no different. He trusted his judgment and believed the organization would uncover the truth.

After leaving the 1st Division's base, Li Zhi contacted his base's control tower. The base didn't yet know what had happened and told him to land as originally planned.

As Li Zhi landed on the runway, Liao Yifei, who had no assignment today, came over to the side of the runway.

When Li Zhi taxied his fighter to the hangar, Liao Yifei came up to greet him. Of course, he hadn't come specifically to wait for Li Zhi.

As soon as Liao Yifei came up, he reached out to touch Li Zhi's aircraft, but Li Zhi, who had just climbed down, slapped his hand away.

"What are you doing? That's my 'wife'!"

"You won't lose anything if I touch her a couple of times. Don't be so stingy!"

Anyone could see the envy on Liao Yifei's face. The ground crew nearby were all struggling not to laugh, and the two men's conversation really did leave plenty to the imagination.

In the end, when the ground crew towed the fighter away, Liao Yifei still hadn't managed to get his hands on Li Zhi's "first wife."

"All right, you'd be better off spending that time pestering Captain Xu to let you go fly your own aircraft back!"

Chicken Coop Base was a classified combat unit, so the pilots had to fly their fighters back themselves.

"There's no use pestering him. A helicopter can't come all this way just to pick me up."

The base's supplies had to be transported by helicopter, but helicopters couldn't come whenever they wanted.

"Don't worry. The airport only gave us three days. You'll definitely get to fly yours within three days!"

"Really?"

"Really!"

With that news from Li Zhi, Liao Yifei finally stopped thinking about Li Zhi's "first wife."

Captain Xu and Zeng Yuan had gone out on patrol. Liao Yifei was supposed to be on duty in the combat readiness room, but when he heard that Li Zhi had returned in a new fighter, he couldn't resist coming over to take a look.

Li Zhi's flight suspension had only been lifted today, and he hadn't been assigned a duty shift, so he could still get a full day's rest.

Li Zhi tried to read in the dormitory, but he couldn't settle down. He felt just like an ordinary person who had just bought a new car.

One moment, he worried whether the ground crew were properly maintaining his aircraft; the next, he worried that it might get scratched or scuffed.

After he ran over to the hangar twice and got in the way, the ground crew finally lost patience and threw him out.

Even then, he couldn't resist frequently sneaking a look from a distance, choosing to ignore the ground crew's impatient expressions.

Only after Xu Feng and the other pilot returned did things gradually improve.

"Li Zhi, you take the patrol tomorrow morning, and I'll relieve you in the afternoon. Let those two brats go fly their fighters back. They're driving me up the wall!"

"Okay!"

That wasn't actually how tomorrow's duty roster had been arranged. Captain Xu had made the change on the spur of the moment, and Li Zhi had no objection.

It had been over a week since he had seen his counterparts over at Peacock. To be honest, Li Zhi missed them a little!

"We're having something extra tonight, especially to celebrate your achievement. The ground crew even went out to the runway and caught a few rabbits!"

In fact, even if they weren't celebrating Li Zhi's achievement, the wild rabbits and pheasants around the runway needed to be cleared out anyway.

The fence around the airport kept the small animals' natural predators out. With no predators, they reproduced at an astonishing rate, and the base had to organize at least two hunting drives every year.

Everyone except the pilots could take part in the activity. After all, the pilots were precious, and everyone was afraid they might get hurt.

"Captain Xu, aren't you just offering someone else's flowers to Buddha?"

Li Zhi saw right through him. During his flight suspension, Li Zhi had wanted to take part in the activity, but Captain Xu had forbidden him.

"Whatever the case, it still counts as a celebration for you!"

Li Zhi: "..."

That evening, everyone at the base got to enjoy some rare wild game. Airports were practically the only places where pheasants could be hunted, since people couldn't just hunt them wherever they pleased!

There were no flight missions that evening apart from combat readiness duty, so the four pilots had a rare chance to get together.

Normally, they didn't get to eat this kind of fatty, oily food. Today was an exception.

Pilots' aircrew meals sounded mysterious, but they actually didn't taste very good. Apart from their balanced nutrition, there wasn't much else to praise about them!