Love, death, and false man

Chapter 23. The Soft Drink Revolution
Fragrance, subtle scent, an incomprehensible oppression, a melancholy waltz of restlessness, anxiety, and burgeoning restlessness, and a noisy forest path with a weary dizziness.

9/21—20:01
Located in the eastern part of Binhai City, this is a rare stand-alone apartment building in the business district. The ground floor storefronts are all private garages, and the building has 11 floors.

Fang Yan sat anxiously on the fabric sofa, scanning the entire room. There was no main light; instead, there were track lights. It was a so-called industrial retro mixed style of decoration. On the distressed brick background wall hung a bass guitar and some other instruments that Fang Yan couldn't name.

The room wasn't exactly tidy; items were piled up in a somewhat messy manner, and many of the opened packages contained metal parts from unknown machines.

What caught Fang Yan's eye the most was the large projection screen, the various game consoles in the living room, and the two speakers with solid wood casings that looked quite expensive.

But that doesn't matter.

The sound of running water in the bathroom made Fang Yan restless. He hadn't heard the door lock click shut. What did that mean? He calmed down.

Logically speaking, it's possible. Although we've only known each other for a short time, our experiences have been quite unique. Is this an implication?
of course not……

She is a very assertive person. Thinking back carefully, since we came out of the singularity, we have been following her arrangements. So far, all our conversations have been quite rational, just normal work communication. There has been no progress at all. We are just colleagues.

Furthermore, this woman is not easy to deal with. Her hair color is so striking, and she's a tough character who wears a leather jacket, drives a Harley, and uses a steel pipe to cause explosions. She can't be judged by ordinary standards.

We must find a way to avoid being overwhelmed by this woman's domineering nature and to gain control of the conversation.

The sound of the shower water abruptly stopped, and Fang Yan was on high alert. To be honest, most women are quite uninhibited, like the yoga pants he encountered in the park before.

She's about to go! If she comes out wrapped only in a bath towel, it's an indication that she needs to show some presence.

As the bathroom incisors rotate.

This was completely unexpected by Fang Yan.

Quite normal, Xia Bing was wearing an oversized T-shirt and hot pants, and slippers. After coming out, she dried her long red hair with a towel.

"Sorry, the room is too messy. You seem a little uncomfortable. I bought some men's clothes for disguise for special missions, but I've never used them. They're one size fits all, so you can wear them."

Xia Bing brought out a pile of clothes from the walk-in closet and placed them on the sofa, letting Fang Yan choose for himself, her attitude indifferent.

"Oh... okay."

"The water heater temperature is 42 degrees Celsius. If you don't think it's suitable, you can adjust it yourself."

Xia Bing sat on the sofa and started drying her hair with a hairdryer.

Fang Yan felt somewhat desperate.

No, there's still a chance! If she hasn't changed into her outdoor clothes when she comes out later, it means she's in combat mode, and there's definitely hope!

After washing up in ten minutes, Fang Yan came out wearing only shorts and no shirt.

however……

Xia Bing was fully armed. Apart from her stockings, her outfit consisted of unisex clothing: a white shirt, a gray-brown jacket, denim shorts, Doc Martens, and a golf club backpack slung across her shoulder, which was filled with steel pipes and a submachine gun.

"Go ahead and change, I'll wait for you in the elevator."

After leaving those words, Xia Bing left through the front door.

Fang Yan was in utter despair.

Twenty minutes later.

The torrential rain in Binhai City gradually subsided, but a light drizzle continued, almost negligible.

There's a barbecue stall not far downstairs, with plastic chairs and folding tables.

We only ordered mushrooms and chives as vegetables, along with eggplant and starch sausage; the rest were all meat skewers. We also ordered four bottles of beer, just enough for a light sip.

Fang Yan stood there, stunned.

"I haven't eaten breakfast or lunch, I'm starving, aren't you hungry?"

Xia Bing always uses chopsticks to pick the skewers off the bone and eat them.

"I'm okay."

Fang Yan was in a low mood. He was having terrible luck with women. The other woman was also a member of the Salvation Army. Like him, she was also being interfered with by real-time synchronized language information generated by the base station, making it impossible to read his thoughts.

"Big work will come in half a month. Do I really have to die without experiencing sex?"
"As I said before, we need to establish social connections to fool the 0-1 base station; otherwise, our contact will seem unnatural. Do you usually listen to music?"

“Rarely.” “Then you’ll have to pretend you like rock music. I’m a keyboardist in a band, and I usually perform at bars in Binhai City. I’ve also released some albums. Our next performance is next Tuesday, and you have to come. This is the only way I can think of to reach you. You can pretend to be my fan. Of course, you can also suggest better ideas.”

"What's the name of that rock band?"

Fang Yan became interested. No wonder Xia Bing had such a striking hair color and those gothic cone-shaped earrings; it turned out she had certain work requirements for it.

"The soft drink revolution."

"To be honest, it's a really strange name..."

“People who play rock music are all crazy. I originally suggested calling it Gasoline Revolution because gasoline is the most dangerous explosive that ordinary people can come into contact with. I thought it fit our style, but the lead singer said it wasn’t restrained enough or catchy enough, so we changed it to this.”

Seeing that Fang Yan didn't drink much, Xia Bing drank straight from the bottle herself.

"Now that you mention it, it sounds incredibly cool, wow."

Fang Yan was dumbfounded. No... this girl is too cool, but... bro, you smell so good.

"Are you famous? Do you make money?"

Fang Yan pressed on with his questions.

"It's alright. I'm considered quite influential within my small circle. Making money is secondary. Sometimes, the pay is even higher than... you know, salary."

Xia Bing was being conservative; a private's pay was 50,000 yuan a month, but the money was useless to the Salvation Army. If it was needed for a mission, they would report it to the liaison officer, and any number of zeros could be added.

This made Fang Yan, who was already insecure, even more insecure. Fang Yan was beautiful, fair-skinned, had long legs, and was talented, while he was just a murderer who had survived by chance, with no source of income other than his military pay, and had to wear a mentally challenged school uniform to study every day.

"What exactly does a keyboardist do?"

"I do some harmonies and sound effects, it's quite comprehensive. I usually handle the lyrics and composition, and I also fill in for anyone who's absent. What's your role? I know you're hiding your age, but let's be honest, this is for your safety, it's not something to joke around with."

Although this person looked ruthless, Xia Bing could tell that he clearly lacked experience and was probably not very old. Perhaps he wasn't very fair-skinned because of too much sun exposure, but his skin looked far too young. Was he in college? Probably a freshman or sophomore.

Fang Yan knew he couldn't hide it anymore.

"I am a second-year high school student at Binhai No. 6 Middle School."

Fang Yan told the truth that he could only stay in the QQ group that Wang Ying gave him until he died.

Xia Bing's hand holding the wine bottle suddenly stopped. This guy was still a minor, wasn't he? She was a full half-generation older than him. The youngest agent she had ever met was nineteen years old. It seemed that the situation was already very bad, with the conscription standards being lowered to this extent.

The three forces are now united, which means... other forces are starting to infiltrate universities, which is quite terrifying.

Is this guy only a high school sophomore?
Why do you say you're twenty years old?

"What's wrong with wanting to experience sex before I die?"

Fang Yan couldn't hold back any longer either.

"Just because of that? I can help you with that."

"Is this true?"

"Of course it's fake. So you actually had that idea. I'm sorry, I can't help you. I already have a boyfriend."

What kind of person is he?

“It sounds nice.”

Xia Bing took out her phone and showed Fang Yan the photos, also with a bit of a boastful attitude, "Our band's lead singer, what do you think, isn't he handsome?"

Fang Yan looked at the beautiful woman on his phone. It was a screenshot from a live performance. She was also a tall woman with gothic-style blue hair.

"Are you fucking kidding me?"

"Of course not, we've been together for a long time. If you don't have a better proposal, just do as I say. I'll send you the location next Tuesday. Come to the show, play in a band. It's normal for there to be some 'skinny guys' willing to sacrifice themselves. I'll just ask you to play the role. We might have frequent contact in two weeks. You need to have a stable social relationship, otherwise you'll be detected by the 0-1 base station."

"I'm so fucked out."

Fang Yan used his teeth to open the beer bottle cap, touched it with Xia Bing's, and then drank it down as well.

(End of this chapter)