Wei Tianyang and Starbucks sat together in the back seat of a blue sedan; the driver was still the silent middle-aged man who had brought him over yesterday.
"Yaha said we are going to get guns?" Wei Tianyang asked.
"To be precise, it’s about bringing back the guns we’ve obtained. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have sent just us," Starbucks replied.
"Where did he... get them from? It’s wartime now. Isn’t it tough to get military supplies?" Wei Tianyang was somewhat surprised.
Chicken Snake Country was already at war; even its military was short of weapons and ammunition. How had Yaha managed to get hold of guns?
"Yaha used his connections, bought them from the conservative army. The money’s already been paid. We just need to go to the city’s bus interchange and drive back the bus filled with weapons," Starbucks said.
"That’s a significant connection..." Wei Tianyang felt slightly apprehensive.
As the car left the artificial forest and turned onto a dirt road, Starbucks handed Wei Tianyang a small black pistol with two magazines.
He toyed with the compact, delicate murder weapon in his hands.
The gun felt surprisingly heavy for its petite size. The grip had two wooden patches wrapped in a blue cloth strip probably for antislip purposes and to make it more comfortable to hold.
The magazine was small, with six light brown, small-caliber bullets loaded inside.
"Carry it for self-defense," Starbucks said.
"It’s a bit small," Wei Tianyang commented.
"This is a 20th-century classic model, the Walther PPK. Of course, the one you’re holding was replicated in the last decade or so. It’s small precisely so it can be easily concealed. At close range, it can really do damage no one can withstand," Starbucks explained.
Compared to the AK47 that Du Yan gave him, this small pistol seemed all too shabby. He even felt that this gun might not be as effective as a right hook from him.
Better than nothing, he supposed.
"Right, you don’t know how to use a gun, do you?" Starbucks asked.
"It’s just a matter of pulling the trigger, right?" Wei Tianyang said with a smile.
"Here, give it to me," Starbucks reached out his hand.
He handed back the PPK to Starbucks, who skillfully manipulated it, ejecting the magazine.
"Remember three things. First, after obtaining a weapon, inspect its condition."
"Pull back the slide to eject any bullets in the chamber, then press the button next to the grip to remove the magazine."
"That way, the weapon is safe. Many careless people don’t check the condition of a firearm and just want to use it after picking it up. That’s very amateurish."
Starbucks reinserted the magazine into the pistol grip; with a crisp clicking sound, it locked into place. She pulled the slide to chamber the weapon.
"Second, always engage the safety."
"The safety is generally near the thumb grip on the handle. Before inserting the gun into a holster, always ensure it is locked in the safe position."
"You wouldn’t want to accidentally fire a bullet through your rear while walking, right?"
She toggled the safety on the left side of the grip, and Wei Tianyang nodded, now realizing a gun had so much to consider.
"What’s the third?" he asked.
Starbucks handed the pistol back to Wei Tianyang and smirked, "Don’t easily pull out your gun. If you pull it out and don’t fire, people will think you’re incompetent."
The car drove into the city. Compared to yesterday, the streets were more crowded with refugees, making the already narrow roads even more congested. The driver shook his head toward the back seat, and Starbucks decided to get out and walk.
Wei Tianyang and Starbucks got out of the car, the driver drove back first, and they slowly made their way through the crowd of refugees towards a repair shop on the street corner.
Peacekeeping troops maintained order by the roadside, guiding the refugees toward relocation sites. However, some chose to break away from the group, moving toward the border area between Yin Country and Chicken Snake Country.
Kongse was the largest border city between Chicken Snake Country and Yin Country. At the border, there was a significant flat grassland area where many had tried to scale the wall and cross over during the civil war.
However, Yin Country’s border defense forces had reinforced and heightened the border wall, even increasing the number of border guards and deporting many who attempted to cross.
Starbucks wasn’t interested in politics, but situated at the forefront of events in Kongse, she end up knowing many things as she commuted to the city daily, whether she wanted to or not.
Their destination was Kongse’s local bus transfer station, but as Starbucks needed to buy coffee beans, they took a detour and first visited the only Starbucks coffee shop still open in the city.
The shop was located on a street corner; it would have been an excellent spot if not for the war. On its brown-black facade, eight holes caused by 7.62 mm rifle bullets made the green Starbucks logo look like the goddess was crying while smiling.
In reality, Starbucks’ official employees had long evacuated. This store was merely abandoned and occupied by local people.
The equipment inside the store remained, but the coffee beans sold were those of local vendors. Starbucks said these beans were produced in Yunzhou City, Yin Country, and were no different from the various types of beans sold in Starbucks coffee shops, yet they were cheaper.
The seating inside the shop was full, next to each seat neatly placed was a well-maintained, old AK47. The people there all had fatal gunshot wounds; some even had half their heads blown off, yet they still sat there, playing poker with their companions.
Starbucks negotiated with the coffee bean merchant inside the shop while Wei Tianyang walked to a long table deeper in the shop, tossing a photo of Li Fei and Du Yan onto the messy pile of poker cards.
The game halted abruptly.
"I’m looking for this woman. You must know her," Wei Tianyang said.
The guerrillas said nothing.
After a moment of silence, a fat man in black sitting next to Wei Tianyang played a pair of kings.
His opponent played a pair of aces.
"Is this the behavior of the Liberation Front?" Wei Tianyang asked.
A rumbling commotion ensued, and all the guerrillas in the shop stood up, dragging their wounded bodies, and glared at Wei Tianyang with eyes filled with rage, as if they wanted to tear him apart.
"What the fuck did you just say?!" the fat man in black shouted.
Wei Tianyang saw his lower abdomen flesh turned inside out, his intestines dragging on the floor.
"I want to find the woman in the photo, and then, let her win this war," Wei Tianyang slowly said.
The fat man in black, unable to contain his anger, for some reason, suppressed his fury and slowly sat down.
The others also sat back down.
"The war is over, we are all dead, they won. That’s it," the fat man in black said.
Wei Tianyang shook his head, "Dead? You call this being dead?"
"Otherwise? It’s been over a decade, only you can see us," the fat man in black said.
"After a decade, you finally meet someone who can see you, and this is your attitude?" Wei Tianyang asked, smiling.
"I... We can’t do anything, neither can Li Fei, she’s under house arrest, the guerrillas were wiped out, traitors took over the homeland, what can you do if you find her?!" the fat man in black challenged.
"You tell me where she is held under house arrest, and you don’t need to worry about the rest," Wei Tianyang said coldly.
"Hmph... She’s under house arrest at He Mountain Villa, the only mountain in the city. The villa is surrounded by prisoner-of-war camps, we won’t help you," the fat man in black said.
"I don’t need your help. Compared to the guerrillas I’ve seen, you are far inferior," Wei Tianyang said.
His wrist was suddenly pulled by someone; turning his head, it was Starbucks, clutching a box of coffee beans.
She furrowed her brows, a look of worry on her face as she whispered, "Is the Black Medicine syndrome acting up? I have the antidote here..."
"No need, is everything taken care of?" Wei Tianyang asked in response.
Starbucks nodded and pulled him out of the coffee shop.
As they left the store, Wei Tianyang glanced back one more time; the dead still played their poker game.