After Crossing Over, I Marked the Empress

Chapter 208 : The Empress's Reinforcements

Four full days had passed since Shen Han's disappearance.

During this time, Gu Junwan spent every day in the temporary command center at the hotel.

Her intervention directed Solan's anger towards the correct target and legitimized the detention of the Yin Country delegation.

A series of swift, decisive measures ensured smooth progress on various fronts.

Except for Shen Han's situation.

None of the multiple reinforcements Gu Junwan had mobilized could bring her alpha back.

Through tracking, they could only confirm that Shen Han was in enemy hands.

As for how badly she was injured or if she had been mistreated by the enemy, no one could answer.

Using Kitahara Tei as a breakthrough point, Gu Junwan extracted the location of the Yin Country support team's camp in the foreign forest.

She borrowed troops from the Jiying Empire, sending them like arrows towards the destination, successfully taking control of that small area.

However, the results that came back disappointed Gu Junwan once again.

Takeda Tatsuya's team had not arrived, and there was no satellite phone for communication between the two sides.

In this situation, no matter how anxious Gu Junwan felt, there was nothing she could do.

In the vast mountains and dense forests, without precise positioning, finding a person through searching would be as difficult as ascending to heaven.

She could only maintain the appearance of normalcy in the recently captured area, set up an ambush, and wait for the enemy to walk into the trap.

Xu Zhao, Ning Xi, and others stayed by the Empress's side at all times, their concern for Shen Han far exceeding that of others.

But when they saw the increasingly haggard Empress, the balance of their worry shifted significantly towards the latter.

On the surface, the current Empress, apart from a colder aura, didn't seem much different from usual in her words and actions.

In reality, those who truly knew her and had the opportunity to be by her side could clearly sense her abnormality.

The current Empress was like the sea surface before a storm.

Sunlight pressed into the clouds, the water slightly rippling, exuding a mysterious calm.

Such a sea was undoubtedly the most terrifying.

When the potential energy hidden beneath the calm fully erupted, it would undoubtedly bring a devastating disaster.

Watching her Empress sit in the command center waiting for feedback from various sources, Xu Zhao felt both heartache and deep concern.

She looked at the Empress staring at the holographic sand table lost in thought, silently praying: Dog, you must come back safely!

……

On the evening of the fifth day.

Shen Han followed the Yin Country team to a gathering place.

This was a riverside area surrounded by deep mountains.

Scattered treehouses were spread throughout, roughly twenty households by estimation, resembling an ancient village.

Seeing plots of farmland divided on the fertile soil by the riverside, Shen Han couldn't help but feel a glimmer of joy.

If this place was a settlement of mountain folk, she might be able to find a way to leave some clues or get someone to help her send a message out.

But soon, she abandoned the idea she had just conceived.

What was planted by the riverside were all drug source plants.

This was not a united and friendly mountain dweller's residence, but a place of evil providing raw materials for drug dealers.

At first, Shen Han thought this was the location of the camp meant to receive Takeda Tatsuya and his group.

Later she realized that they had no acquaintances here either.

Many details could corroborate this point.

For instance, when Takeda Tatsuya led the team to the edge of the village, they were blocked and driven away by the "villagers."

It was only through the intimidation of the Yin Country soldiers' weapons plus negotiation that both sides avoided a firefight.

Another example, after successfully entering the village area, Takeda Tatsuya paid a small gold bar before the "villagers" allowed them to set up tents.

Though Shen Han received this information, she couldn't use it.

Evil robbers couldn't be trusted!

Moreover, she was now covered in injuries, in extremely poor physical condition, barely holding on by a thread.

The only reason she could still move on her own was sheer willpower keeping her going.

Shen Han didn't dare let herself collapse.

This place was filled with traces of drug use, hiding dangers everywhere. She had to keep her mind clear and alert.

The simple campsite was quickly set up.

To Shen Han's surprise, the Yin Country soldiers erected three tents.

One of them, a very rudimentary single-person military tent, was actually prepared for her.

The soldier responsible for guarding her chained her to a wooden peg inside the tent, then went to the side to help start a fire and boil water.

The wooden peg was hastily whittled, about a meter tall.

Shen Han's wrists were bound at the top of the peg. She couldn't crouch down, nor could she exert force to pull out the peg.

She could only shift her body's center of gravity to the fist-sized peg top, recovering her strength while quickly thinking.

'That old fox wouldn't do anything meaningless. This arrangement must have some purpose.'

'Could it be that he doesn't want to expose my existence too much?'

'The people here grow drug source plants, so other drug dealers must come to collect. If my disappearance has already caused a stir in the outside world, then the old fox's behavior of hiding me would make sense.'

As she thought, Shen Han realized something was amiss.

Because if Takeda Tatsuya had such concerns, he shouldn't have come to this drug dealer gathering place at all.

This wasn't the Yin Country team's camp; he actually had no compelling reason to come here.

'Perhaps the old fox has some trading task here?'

'Pushing me into the tent can both prevent others from noticing me and cut off my observation of his movements.'

After pondering for a while, Shen Han stopped racking her brain.

She closed her eyes, leaning against the wooden peg, adjusting her state through rest.

The peaceful situation continued until nightfall.

At 11 PM, Shen Han suddenly heard slight commotion coming from outside the tent.

The sound of men grunting and falling, hurried footsteps, intense fighting...

And the noise of bullets passing through silencers!

These mixed sounds surrounded her, and Shen Han sensed them immediately.

The soldier guarding her outside the tent fell to the ground with a thud.

The next instant, the tent flap was lifted, and several flashlight beams crisscrossed around.

There was no moonlight tonight, and those interweaving light beams seemed brighter than the stars.

"Captain Shen! We're special ops members sent by the Empress for search and rescue. Can you still move? Do you have any injuries that need urgent treatment?"

Shen Han stared at the man who approached her and quickly said, "I can move, but you need to find a way to get this thing off my hands."

As she spoke, she slightly raised her wrists locked by handcuffs and shook them.

The man who came to rescue her wasn't tall and had camouflage paint on his face.

He first used a knife to cut the connection between the handcuffs and the peg top, then supported Shen Han's arm as they walked out, instructing his team members along the way, "Check the bodies for the handcuff keys."

Shen Han was led by him, quickly leaving the campsite.

A faint smell of blood was carried by the night wind into her nostrils, not too pungent.

"How many people did you kill?"

Hearing Shen Han's question, the man beside her immediately answered, "Three. The others ran away in the chaos. We didn't pursue because our most important task right now is to rescue you, Captain Shen."

As he spoke, a team member had already run to their side.

The man who seemed to be the captain took the keys and swiftly removed Shen Han's handcuffs.

Shen Han gently rotated her wrists and asked again, "What's your name?"

"Ah... I'm Wang Senyuan, a platoon leader from the Fierce Explosion Special Operations Brigade of the Third Army Group."

Shen Han had heard of the Fierce Explosion Special Operations Brigade but wasn't very familiar with it.

After a pause of two or three seconds, she reached out to the side, "Did you bring water and food? I've been surviving on leaves and sour fruits these past few days."

Wang Senyuan unhooked his military canteen and took out a small bag of compressed biscuits from his pocket, handing them to her, "We came in a hurry and didn't bring much rations. Make do with these for now, Captain Shen. When we reach a safer place, I'll get you some hot food."

Shen Han didn't speak. She took the water and food and began eating unhurriedly.

It wasn't because she wasn't hungry.

After several days of continuous fasting, the stomach would have shrunk, and she couldn't suddenly start eating ravenously.

The common saying "long hunger can't be satisfied with a full meal" explains this principle.

This rescue team wasn't large, only seven people including the platoon leader named Wang Senyuan.

But their coordination was very smooth, retreating in tactical formation the entire time, their movements crisp and efficient.

After walking for ten minutes, Shen Han reached out again, "Give me another bag."

Wang Senyuan was stunned for a moment, then said with full sincerity, "Captain Shen, please hold on a bit longer. Let's leave this area first, and we can continue eating when we rest."

As soon as he finished speaking, Shen Han, who had been walking with the team, suddenly stopped.

She tilted her head back, took two sips of water, and looked at "Wang Senyuan" walking beside her, "Let's stop here. I don't want to waste any more energy."

As she stopped, the entire tactical team also halted in place.

But clearly, no one around understood the meaning behind her words.

"Wang Senyuan" frowned and said, "Captain Shen, we're not out of danger yet. We need to quickly regroup with the main force."

Shen Han sneered, "Not bad acting, but don't do it again next time."

Her voice wasn't loud, but it sounded particularly clear in the quiet night.

After a moment of silence, "Wang Senyuan" suddenly lashed out with a kick towards Shen Han's chest and abdomen, "You're fucking with me?"

Shen Han dodged, rationally choosing not to counterattack.

Seeing the anger-filled people around her closing in, she immediately spoke up, "You left two very obvious flaws."

Hearing this, the man who looked like the captain raised his arm, stopping his subordinates' preparatory beating movements.

He narrowed his eyes at the woman before him who remained calm in the face of danger and asked coldly, "What flaws?"

Shen Han: "First, your fighting didn't attract the attention of the local residents, which is extremely abnormal."

"Second, you told me earlier that you killed three people, but there wasn't much blood smell permeating the scene, which also made me suspicious."

In fact, the problems Shen Han detected were far more than these two points.

Leaving aside other details, if Gu Junwan could determine her location, she would definitely come personally instead of just sending a seven-person squad.

"You're quite interesting," the captain-like man lit a cigarette for himself and continued, "Anyone else in that situation wouldn't have paid attention to such flaws."

To be fair, his last sentence wasn't wrong.

A person about to drown, upon seeing a plank of wood floating by that could save their life, would undoubtedly grab it without hesitation rather than first checking if the plank was solid or if it had splinters.

After this brief exchange, footsteps could be heard coming from the nearby woods.

Takeda Tatsuya approached with the Yin Country soldiers, one of them carrying several headless rabbits.

"Chief Aluk, thank you for your trouble. I will pay in full what I promised you earlier."

Takeda Tatsuya smiled slightly at the smoking man, then turned to instruct his soldiers, "Chain her up again. We march through the night."