A carefree soldier king in the city

Chapter 723 How Embarrassing!

The poor "elite group" was truly suffering in silence. Ever since they saw that it was Chao Bufan and his group who returned from the secret passage, instead of the colonel, they knew something terrible was about to happen. Especially after seeing Wang Zi and Zhang Yi return triumphantly with a stack of the colonel's "personal experiences" at the bathhouse, and that piece of paper with those gruesome photos, they were even more certain of their doom. Thankfully, it was just a slap and not an immediate "execution"!

In his rage, Colonel Tian Baguang berated his five incompetent subordinates for nearly half an hour before issuing his final ultimatum: "Immediately gather more information and find the real secret passage. Give it to me by noon tomorrow, or you'll all be executed!"

"Yes, Sir!"

The five "elite team" members, who had been thoroughly scolded, dared not slack off and immediately took action.

"Ahem!" Chao Bufan coughed lightly, then called out to the "elite team" members who were about to go out to do some remedial work: "Hey you guys, don't rush to do your work yet, I have something to say."

Colonel Tian was already furious. These damned brats had known about it but hadn't reported it, which was truly hateful. But then he thought that even if they had "reported the truth," he wouldn't have believed them. Therefore, he had no reason to be angry with them, but he just couldn't swallow his anger. "You knew all along that the secret passage was wrong, so why didn't you report it?"

He had to genuinely admire the abilities of these kids; they had actually discovered that the passage was fake, while his once-proud "elite team" had...

With a beaming smile and an honest expression, Chao Bufan said, "Colonel, you can't blame us for this. We wanted to tell you, but we were afraid you wouldn't believe us. What do you think?"

“Uncle, please don’t take it to heart. Since something like this has already happened, we swear to God that we will never tell anyone…”

"You little brat, try saying that again!" Colonel Tian Baguang's face turned red. He had finally calmed down, but he just had to bring up the very thing he didn't want to talk about.

Just then, Ge Dawei casually opened a drawing, held it above his head, and asked while looking at it, "Everyone, do you think this 'A8' design drawing is real or fake?"

But Chao Bufan answered seriously, "It's probably true. Otherwise, the priest wouldn't have hidden it in his study. What do you think?" He then asked the others.

“I also think it’s true, otherwise, we would have wasted our time all day. What do you all think?” Wang Dakeng asked the others.

"Makes sense."

"You—" Colonel Tian Baguang was utterly astonished when he saw the contents of the blueprints in Ge Dawei's hand. "My God! You actually managed to get your hands on it." His jaw dropped. Even the five members of the "Elite Team" were completely incredulous, their jaws practically dropping to the floor.

"Uncle, could you please take a look and see if this is the drawing?" Ge Dawei handed the drawing to his uncle.

Unexpectedly, Colonel Tian Baguang snatched the blueprints from Ge Dawei's hand as if grabbing them, looked them over from left to right, and after a moment exclaimed excitedly, "It's real, it's real! Good, good!"

Colonel Tian Baguang initially thought it was just a hallucination, but the facts were undeniable. They had managed to obtain the item without any intelligence from above, and even managed to retrieve it from the heavily guarded Vatican.

Colonel Tian Baguang, who was never one to easily submit to anyone, was now truly convinced of their abilities and utterly admired them. "How did you manage that?" he asked.

“It’s actually quite simple,” Chao Bufan laughed. “We just had the priest and Zhou Gong meet, and then we got the stuff. It’s that simple.”

Colonel Tian Baguang understood what Chao Bufan meant by "meeting the Duke of Zhou" (a euphemism for falling asleep). His opinion of them had completely changed. No wonder the higher-ups had repeatedly emphasized involving these kids; they actually had real talent. "What about the twelve zodiac animal oil paintings? Did you get them too?"

"That's for sure, there's never anything we can't get." Wang Dakeng had a smug look on his face, and his smug expression made you want to go over and strangle him to death.

"Good, you kids, you've done an excellent job." He was full of praise. "Then hand over the stuff! We can go back and report as soon as possible."

"Well... Colonel, you know perfectly well that we traded our precious lives for these things!" Zhou Weihua said seriously.

"And then?" Colonel Tian Baguang immediately understood what these kids meant.

“Dear Uncle,” Ge Dawei said with a smile, “I wonder if Grandpa has told you about the final payment in our compensation.”

These so-called little devils operate on the principle of "cash on delivery".

Colonel Tian Baguang took out a bank card and said, "This card is internationally accepted. You can withdraw money from any country. Your final payment is all in there, not a penny less. Do you want to check it?"

Ge Dawei took it without hesitation, putting it in his pocket as he laughed, "Uncle, you're being too polite."

"You bastard—"

"Dear Colonel, all twelve paintings are in here. Please take a look!" Before the colonel could get angry, Wang Zi and Zhou Weihua placed a wooden box at his feet.

Colonel Tian Baguang couldn't wait to open the box and start looking at the clothes one by one.

"You little rascals, you've got guts." He said approvingly, but when he turned around, he found that Chao Bufan and the others had already left.

Faced with such an unexpected result, Colonel Tianbaguang didn't know whether to be happy or sad. His well-trained "elite group" had actually lost to these few audacious and wicked brats! It was truly unexpected.

“Colonel, your nephew said they’re not going back with us and that we shouldn’t worry about them,” said a member of the elite team.

Colonel Tian Baguang nodded, then plopped down on the sofa, muttering to himself, "Truly, the younger generation surpasses the older, each one stronger than the last! Are you all convinced now?"

"Colonel, these young men are indeed quite capable." The five members of the elite team genuinely admired these young men.

"Heh." Colonel Tian Baguang gave a bitter smile and said, "An elite team of ours actually lost to a few young brats. What a disgrace!"