Everything was easier with money and the construction of Thunder Horse Manufacturing's military production plant quickly began with the funds in place. The construction company moved its equipment and workers onto the plot to level the ground and build walls. Xia Lei had specially partitioned off 0.1334 hectares for the construction company to build a villa and a flower garden.
This villa was for Annina to live in. Her status was rather special and she could not show her face - she needed protection too. Giving her a patch of land in the factory grounds would put her under the guard of the troops protecting the place.
They had also entered the process of buying equipment for the military factory. Most of the equipment came from Russia and Ukraine. Annina handled the purchases personally, with Xia Lei acting as translator to negotiate and trade with the Russian and Ukrainian equipment suppliers.
They were both staying on-site at the military factory in a temporary wooden hut. While waiting for the Russian and Ukrainian equipment, they modified the domestically-made lathes. Both were excellent machinists - Xia Lei did complicated high-precision parts processing and Annina was in charge of assembly. With the two of them working together, the domestically-made lathes were turned into world-standard lathes, on par with the most advanced from Europe and America.
Xia Lei did not stop practicing the two Tang techniques he had learnt during this time either. He would spend at least an hour practicing Qinggong and using hidden weapons every morning and evening. With his godly learning ability, he naturally got better and better each day.
A fortnight passed in a flash.
The setting sun sank in the western horizon and the site of the military factory was bathed in golden light. The mountains and forests behind the construction site seemed to have been dusted with gold powder and the world sparkled - it was so beautiful one could not bear to blink.
Xia Lei climbed to the top of a rock on the mountain with a sniper rifle in front of him. This was the sniper rifle Tang Yu-Yan had asked him to modify for her. He had quietly modified it a little here and there in his free time during the past two weeks and finally finished it without getting distracted from his own official matters.
Now, Xia Lei wanted to test the effectiveness of this sniper rifle.
Annina knelt next to Xia Lei, her hips held high. Her full, round buttocks when seen from behind would make men drool. She looked down the barrel of the sniper rifle but saw just a patch of forest; she had no idea what Xia Lei was aiming at.
"What do you want to shoot, Lukas?" Annina lost her patience after seeing Xia Lei not move for quite some time.
"A bird," said Xia Lei.
Annina's eyes widened and she took a look. "Where's the bird?" she asked gloomily.
Xia Lei abruptly removed the scope from the rifle and handed it to Annina.
Annina took hold of the scope and held it in line with the gun's barrel. She saw two white-ish figures entangled in the mountain forest opposite. One was a boy and the other a girl, probably lovers from the nearby village. She immediately understood what Xia Lei meant by 'bird' and her face flushed. She then slapped Xia Lei on his butt and said in embarrassment, "Lukas, is this what you wanted to show me? You're such a bad boy!"
Xia Lei chuckled. "Aren't you blushing even when you call me bad?"
Annina rolled her eyes at Xia Lei, then continued to spy on the young couple with the sniper scope. "That couple is so romantic. I wish them happiness."
People from different cultures were so different - if this were the Middle East that couple would've been stoned if they were discovered. In China, their names would spread all around town and they'll be the hot subject of gossip.
"Lukas, I want to shoot." Annina put the scope in her hand on the ground and looked at Xia Lei with a red face.
"Wait for a bit. A gunshot now will scare that couple."
"The sniper rifle is not the gun I want to shoot." Annina bit her lip gently.
Xia Leo was surprised. "I don't have any other gun. What gun do you want to shoot?"
Annina threw herself in Xia Lei's arms and reached down. "You know what gun I want to shoot," she said with a giggle.
Xia Lei was speechless.
Xia Lei had never done this sort of thing in the wilderness and he was hesitant and nervous. Zip! Annina unzipped him and convinced him in three seconds. She was so persuasive he could not refuse her.
Two more entangled figures appeared under the light of the setting sun. The gentle wind blew under the blue sky, carrying with it the message of love.
Ten minutes later, Xia Lei lay on the rock again. He didn't have to use the scope to see the situation in the forest opposite. The young couple had long crept off and the forest was empty. He could even see the tissues the couple had thrown on the ground with his left eye.
Xia Lei lifted the gun barrel a little. The tissue could serve as a target for him but the distance between himself and the target was just 800 metres and that was not enough to test the range of this sniper rifle. He moved the barrel to point at a tree further away.
Xia Lei had his own tool to measure distance, and that was his left eye. He only needed to set a reference object and look at it to calculate the distance.
That tree was in a straight line roughly 3,000 metres away.
"That's the one." Xia Lei aimed at a withered branch on the tree.
Next to Xia Lei, Annina touched-up her lipstick in her makeup mirror. She glanced over occasionally at Xia Lei's muscled shoulders and a satisfied smirk appeared in the corners of her lips. Intuition-ists were said to be easily satisfied and happy and she had proven this theory with herself.
At that moment, Xia Lei abruptly moved the gun barrel 20 degrees and he grew tense.
"Come on, fire. The sky's getting dark." Annina put away her mirror and lipstick.
"Shh!" Xia Lei gave up on using the scope and raised his head a little to look at that patch of forest directly.
Annina drew close to Xia Lei's side and asked curiously, "What is it?"
A flash of light came suddenly from the forest opposite.
Xia Lei grabbed Annina roughly by the scruff of her neck and hid behind the rock with her.
Bang! Sparks flew up from the rock. Pieces of rock flew in all directions like flying knives. A flying piece of rock cut Xia Lei on the cheek and fresh blood flowed.
Annina's body coloured too. A piece of rock had torn through her clothing and left a shallow wound on her shoulder.
"Th, There's…" Annina wanted to say 'gunman' but she could not speak normally in her shock and terror.
"Don't move and don't lift your head." Xia Lei held onto Annina by her neck, as if afraid that she would be hit in the head by a bullet if she moved.
"Wh, Where is he?" asked Annina nervously.
"In the mountain forest opposite." Xia Lei relaxed his grip on Annina, then used a twig to pull the sniper rifle closer to himself. He cautiously pulled the sniper rifle from the rock.
Xia Lei felt a little more reassured with the sniper rifle in his hands. He moved his head slowly to the side of the rock but did not stretch his head out. He used his X-ray vision to look through the edge of the rock and straight at the forest opposite.
He had only coincidentally glimpsed someone in the forest earlier but his alertness and instinctive reaction had let him dodge the first attempt. He had already seen the enemy clearly in that split second - yellowed skin, crescent eyes, short but sturdy body frame, characteristics common of a South Asian. The South Asian sniper was hidden in a bush and his sniper rifle was trained on Xia Lei and Annina's hiding place.
There was a receiver in the sniper's ear and the black wire went down past his neck and into his jacket pocket. He was saying something but Xia Lei did not understand South Asian languages and could not use lip-reading on him. However, the receiver in his ear and him talking told Xia Lei that he was not alone!
The South Asian sniper did not give up after his failed shot - he did not even change his position. It looked like he wanted to hold Xia Lei and Annina in place while he waited for his colleague to attack from another place!
"Oh no… There's no signal here!" Annina held onto her mobile phone and looked anxious.
"Don't move. It's okay, don't be scared," comforted Xia Lei as he slowly moved the gun barrel to point it at the South Asian sniper.
The enemy had colleagues and Xia Lei did not know what their positions were but he was sure that they wouldn't be able to move instantly. This gave him the time and opportunity to take out the sniper opposite who'd locked-on to his position.
Xia Lei's sniper rifle peeked out from a crack in the rock and past a patch of grass to aim at that South Asian sniper. This was a very strange sniping method as there was a rock blocking him from in front and the sniper scope in this situation was just a decoration. The enemy's hidden position was also about 1,800 metres away. A situation like this would make even the best sniper helpless but it was no obstacle to Xia Lei!
Aim. Squeeze.
BAM! A gunshot rang out and there was a bloody explosion in the bush 1,800 metres away.
The sniper in the bush had half his head blown away. It looked like a watermelon which had been struck by a bullet.
Even in death, the sniper could not comprehend the result - he had already had Xia Lei in his sights and he had a chance to kill Xia Lei once he stuck his head out, but his own head had exploded instead without him seeing even a hair on Xia Lei's head.
There was no one on Earth who could rival Xia Lei in a sniping battle!
"Quick, go down the mountain and call Long Bing!" Xia Lei climbed to his feet after killing the sniper and pulled Annina up too.
"That sniper…" Annina was frightened half to death.
"He's dead, but he still has colleagues. Leave this place, quick. I'll hold his colleagues back!" Xia Lei pushed Annina.
"But you…" Annina's face was full of worry.
"Do you want us both to die here? GO!" roared Xia Lei.
Annina bit her lip and turned to run down the mountain path.