25: Du Yuesheng's olive branch

"Company Commander! Company Commander! Come quickly and look!"

A Soldier responsible for guarding the back door rushed in, scrambling on all fours with a ghostly look of wild joy on his face.

"At the door... someone, I don't know who, has sent us several crates of things!"

Shangguan Zhibiao was counting ammunition. Hearing this, he jerked his head up, his brow furrowed.

"What kind of things? Did you see clearly? Don't let it be a trap set by the Little Japs!"

"No! It's not a trap!" The Soldier was so excited he could hardly speak straight. "It's food! And medicine! It's all stacked neatly, but the person is long gone!"

Food? Medicine?

These two words were like two invisible hands, instantly seizing the hearts of all the Soldiers present.

Shangguan Zhibiao dashed out in a single stride.

At the back door of the warehouse, in a relatively safe blind spot, several large wooden crates rested quietly against the wall.

A few bold Soldiers had already pried open one of the crates.

A rich aroma of meat, mixed with the unique alcoholic scent of Western medicine, wafted out from the crate.

The crate was stuffed with soy-braised beef wrapped in oil paper, white flour buns, and boxes of well-packaged Sulfonamide powder and Yunnan Baiyao.

"Meat... it's meat!"

A young Soldier looked at the glistening soy-braised beef, swallowed hard, and his eyes instantly reddened.

Since being besieged, the things they had eaten most were moldy biscuits and wheat bran porridge boiled with river water. Many had almost forgotten what meat tasted like.

"Damn... which God of Wealth has descended to earth?"

Shangguan Zhibiao was also in a daze. He picked up a packet of Sulfonamide powder, looking at the foreign writing printed on it, knowing that this stuff was a life-saving medicine that couldn't be bought outside even with money.

So many supplies, worth a fortune; this was definitely not something ordinary citizens could scrape together.

"Company Commander, there's also a card here!"

A Soldier fished out an exquisitely made visiting card from under a crate filled with canned goods.

The cover of the card was a dark red hard shell, with nothing written on it.

Shangguan Zhibiao took it and opened it.

On the snow-white Xuan paper, written with a high-quality brush in a flamboyant style, were five large characters.

"Guardian Deity of Sihang."

At the signature, there was no name, only a vermilion seal of a strange pattern forming the character 'Fu'.

"Guardian Deity of Sihang?" Shangguan Zhibiao muttered, then realized, grinned, and handed the card to Chen Xi, who had rushed over upon hearing the news. "Mr. Chen, this damn thing is written for you."

Chen Xi took the card, equally confused.

"Guardian Deity?" He didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "Who is this? Giving me such a high honor?"

He turned the 'Fu' character seal over and over; no matter how he looked at it, it seemed like a radish stamp carved by an elementary school student—crooked and completely lacking in aesthetic appeal.

Xie Jinyuan was also alerted. He looked at the batch of precious supplies, then at the vaguely worded card, his brow furrowed tightly.

"It seems Mr. Chen's actions in the warehouse have already spread," he said in a low voice. "However, the other party only left a seal without a name. Their intention is hard to discern."

"Who cares about their damn intention!" Shangguan Zhibiao told the men to quickly move the supplies into the warehouse, saying boisterously, "As long as they're a friend and not an enemy, it's fine! With this batch of medicine, the brothers can hold out for a few more days!"

Chen Xi didn't speak.

He felt that this matter wasn't that simple.

This method of gift-giving carried a strong 'Jianghu' air, like some kind of underworld slang or secret code.

He subconsciously opened his livestream panel.

After the previous visual bombardment of "melting tanks" and "slingshot snipes," the livestream currently maintained a terrifying popularity of nearly a hundred million.

On the bullet screen, viewers were also cheering for this "supply drop from the heavens."

[Holy crap! An air drop! This game even has NPCs sending warmth?]

[Soy-braised beef! White flour buns! Sulfonamide! They really went all out for this!]

["Guardian Deity of Sihang," hahaha, I give Master Xi's new nickname a perfect score!]

[That 'Fu' character seal is so ugly. Could it be sent by some elementary school fan?]

Chen Xi scanned the bullet messages, hoping to see if any history buff could recognize the origin of this seal.

Just then.

The bullet messages in the livestream suddenly underwent an anomaly.

In an instant, tens of thousands of identical, meaningless bullet messages crazily flooded the screen as if they had made an appointment!

"Master Xi V587!"

"Master Xi is the most handsome in the universe!"

"Master Xi is awesome PLUS!"

This kind of "screen-flooding comment control" behavior immediately caused dissatisfaction among other viewers.

[What's going on? Which celebrity's brain-dead fans ran here for a group activity?]

[Where's the moderator? Hurry up and ban these bots!]

Chen Xi also frowned, preparing to have the system block this spam.

Suddenly, a red warning box popped up on the system interface in his mind.

[High-intensity, regular information flow detected. Suspected encrypted communication. Activate "Decryption" module?]

Encrypted communication?

Chen Xi's heart stirred, and he immediately chose "Yes."

In the next second, those crazily flooding bullet messages quickly became transparent and faded in his eyes.

And hidden at the very bottom of this spam flow was a single message, composed of countless special characters and garbled code. It was precisely captured and magnified by the system, then converted into Chinese characters he could understand.

The sender ID of this message was a name that made his heart skip a beat.

Descendant of the Dragon.

The content of the message was just one short sentence.

"The 'Fu' character seal is the highest secret order of the Green Gang. 'Fu' can be broken down into 'one mouth, one field, one person,' meaning 'everyone has food to eat.' The other party is testing your background; whether they are friend or foe depends on your response."

Boom!

It was like a bolt of divine lightning from the ninth heaven, striking Chen Xi right on the crown of his head!

His entire body froze.

A cold current surged from his tailbone straight up to his cerebral cortex in an instant.

Green Gang... secret order... everyone has food to eat... testing... each of these words was like a bullet, shooting into his brain and exploding into a mess of confusion.

But what shocked him the most wasn't the Jianghu secrets hidden behind this card.

It was... this bullet message itself!

Descendant of the Dragon!

The mysterious big shot who had been at the top of the donor list since shortly after he started broadcasting—generous, yet extremely calm and professional in his speech!

Not only did he understand this top-tier Jianghu secret code from 1937 Shanghai.

He even used an unheard-of encryption method to penetrate the barriers of time, space, and the system to deliver this crucial intelligence precisely before his eyes!

What did this mean?

It meant that in 2026, in his own world.

The ones watching this livestream were definitely not just a group of ordinary viewers looking for excitement!

A powerful, organized force with terrifying intelligence analysis capabilities and technical means had already intervened!

They were the "National Team"!

Chen Xi's heart began to beat uncontrollably fast.

He had always thought he was just an unlucky guy caught in an alternate timeline, a lonely player struggling to survive in the torrent of history.

But now he understood.

He was not fighting alone.

Behind him, in the future where he belonged.

His motherland was watching him.

His compatriots were escorting him!

An unprecedented, massive, and burning emotion instantly filled his chest.

It was a sense of belonging, knowing he was no longer alone.

It was a sense of pride, having his country as his backer!

It was a sense of... responsibility, carrying the expectations of hundreds of millions of compatriots, a responsibility he could not lose!

"Mr. Chen? Mr. Chen?"

Shangguan Zhibiao's voice woke him from his intense emotional fluctuations.

"What's wrong with you? Why do you look so pale?"

Chen Xi took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the surging tides in his heart.

He looked up, and in those eyes that always carried a hint of cynicism, there was now only an unprecedented gravity and determination.

He looked at the card in his hand, at that strange 'Fu' character.

His gaze had completely changed.

He knew how he should respond now.

Not just to deal with the Jianghu test before him.

But even more, to respond to that heavy expectation from his motherland, eighty-nine years in the future.