Special Mission

"Haha, you two really had your fun this time. I can just imagine the Peacock pilots' faces!"

The two of them had just landed and were treated like heroes.

Most of the people at the base had watched the entire "live broadcast" of the game of hide-and-seek. Everyone felt a sense of satisfaction at seeing Li Zhi and Liao Yifei run circles around the Peacock pilots.

Before Li Zhi arrived, a close comrade of theirs had said goodbye to the skies forever. Not one of them had any fondness for Peacock.

"That was a great idea. I'll try it tomorrow too!"

The speaker was Zeng Yuan. In his three or four years here, he had dealt with Peacock fighter jets plenty of times, but he had never played with them like that!

"If we do this every day, they'll curse us to death, haha!"

"Who cares? It's not like I can hear them."

"Hahaha!"

It was easy to imagine what the Peacock pilots would go through from now on, but no one would feel sorry for them.

"Have your fun, but be careful. It's best not to stir up any trouble lately, understand?"

Xu Feng warned Li Zhi and the other two. There were some things he couldn't tell them outright, but he still gave them a subtle reminder.

"Don't worry, Captain Xu. We know our limits!"

Liao Yifei still didn't catch Xu Feng's meaning. It had to do with his personality: he laughed and joked all day long, like a child who had never grown up.

Only Li Zhi and Zeng Yuan exchanged a glance, both guessing that something big must be happening soon.

Both men were tight-lipped. They certainly wouldn't go around talking about their guesses, nor would they discuss them. It was enough that they understood.

"All right, you two get some rest. All the fighter jets are undergoing maintenance tomorrow, so everyone has the day off!"

Zeng Yuan's hopes of learning what Li Zhi and Liao Yifei had done were dashed.

It was very rare for an entire base to suspend flights for maintenance. It meant another base would have to take over the area they were responsible for, which was very difficult to coordinate.

Even Liao Yifei sensed something was wrong now. It was his first time encountering maintenance on such a large scale.

"Captain Xu, this..."

"Don't go asking about things you shouldn't. Everyone, dismissed!"

Liao Yifei had just been about to ask something when Xu Feng cut him off. He knew Liao Yifei all too well and shut down his question before he could ask it.

Including the afternoon and the next day, Li Zhi had a day and a half off. But here, having time off seemed no different from not having it.

The base was surrounded by uninhabited forests, with no one for miles around. Even on their days off, everyone could only stay at the base.

Since Captain Xu had told them not to ask questions, even Liao Yifei, the most talkative of them all, didn't discuss it. Everyone kept it to themselves.

When he had nothing else to do, Li Zhi generally liked reading books about air combat.

As long as pilots hadn't retired, they were constantly learning. None of them dared claim they had learned everything and no longer needed to study.

The book Li Zhi had in his hands, A Record of Air Combat Maneuvers, had been written by a very famous foreign ace. Li Zhi found much of it useful, so even though he had read it several times already, he was still reading it.

Time spent studying always passed quickly. A day and a half was just enough for Li Zhi to read through the book in his hands.

The airspace under Chicken Coop Base's responsibility had been temporarily handed over to Wolf's Lair. All the fighter jets at Wolf's Lair Base had completed a major overhaul three days earlier.

While Li Zhi was holed up in the dormitory reading, Xu Feng came to see him alone.

"Li Zhi, don't go on any missions tomorrow or the day after, and don't do anything else either. Get plenty of rest!"

"Old Xu, I haven't done anything wrong, have I? Why can't I fly again?"

Li Zhi's first thought was that he had been grounded again!

He had only played a game of hide-and-seek with the Peacock pilots. It had caused a bit of a stir, but surely it wasn't enough to get him grounded!

"You seem pretty smart, so why are you being dense when it matters?"

"Get some rest. I've got a mission for you in two days!"

Xu Feng glared at Li Zhi. He had been giving both direct and indirect hints these past few days and had thought Li Zhi would guess something, but to his surprise, he was just like Liao Yifei.

"Yes, sir!"

Li Zhi perked up. He had been reading all day, so his head was a little foggy, and he hadn't caught on at first.

Hearing that he had a mission in two days, he immediately came to life.

If it were an ordinary mission, such as a patrol or a transfer flight, Xu Feng certainly wouldn't have come over just to tell him. It had to be a very important and confidential mission.

It might even be a combat mission!

Thinking of the recent developments, Li Zhi became more and more convinced that it was very likely a combat mission, and that it definitely had something to do with Peacock!

"Don't let your imagination run wild. Get plenty of rest and face the challenge in your best condition!"

"Yes, sir!"

After telling Li Zhi about it, Xu Feng turned and left the dormitory. He had been quite busy himself lately.

"By the way, keep this a secret for now!"

"Don't worry, Captain Xu!"

Of course Xu Feng trusted Li Zhi. In fact, there was no need for secrecy at the base. The entire base was cut off from the outside world, so there was no possibility of a leak.

Li Zhi's guess wasn't wrong. Dragon Country had indeed been taking action against Peacock lately. Of course, it wasn't going to start a war outright; that was impossible.

It all went back more than thirty years, when Dragon Country's national strength naturally couldn't compare with what it was now.

Back then, Peacock Country had Eagle Country's backing, and Dragon Country was facing other challenges as well. Without any warning, Peacock seized part of Dragon Country's territory.

The area lay on the far side of the Great Snow Mountain. Dragon Country's reach couldn't extend that far at the time, and with the Great Snow Mountain in the way, even supplies were a problem.

Though Dragon Country was furious, there really was nothing it could do at the time.

In recent years, as Dragon Country's national strength grew, it naturally wanted to wipe away that old humiliation and take the territory back!

Dragon Country had begun planning a year ago and had been making preparations for it.

But no secret could be kept forever. Peacock also sensed that something unusual was afoot and immediately sent more troops to the border.

From then on, minor clashes between the two countries had never stopped.

They continued until just before Li Zhi arrived at Chicken Coop Base. After losing several pilots in succession, Peacock finally settled down.

But Dragon Country certainly wasn't going to let the matter rest. After preparing for so long, how could it simply call everything off?

The actual operation didn't require pilots like Li Zhi and the others to participate. If fighter jets were deployed on a large scale, things wouldn't be so easy to resolve.

Dragon Country only wanted to take back what belonged to it. It had no intention of going to war with Peacock.

But if Peacock was too blind to see reason and insisted on taking Dragon Country head-on, Dragon Country certainly wouldn't be afraid of it.

Fighter pilots like Li Zhi and the others were there in case their opponents were driven to desperate measures!

Of course, Li Zhi had another mission as well. That was why Xu Feng had come to him and told him to rest for two days.