"Brother Lin Tian, your thinking is exactly the same as the instructor’s. No problem with this. Recon and scouting are our strong suit." Thunder Wolf agreed very readily.

"Be careful when you go check it out, don’t make too much contact. And when you bring people over, don’t use force. Scaring them a bit is fine, but if you tie people up and they kick up a fuss, it’ll be bad for us." Lin Tian reminded him.

Thunder Wolf nodded to show he understood: "Relax, we’re not bandits. How could we go around kidnapping people."

"Good. Oh right, have you eaten yet?" Lin Tian asked again.

"Uh... not yet." Thunder Wolf said hesitantly.

"Lin Tian, I already prepared food for them when they came. Let them eat with us." Xiao Manxuan poked her head out from the kitchen, smiling sweetly, looking every bit the virtuous wife and loving mother.

"Uh... this... this doesn’t seem quite right." Even a rough guy like Thunder Wolf got embarrassed.

Lin Tian didn’t waste words, he just dragged him straight to the table: "Sit. You come to my place and I still let you go out on an empty stomach, I’d look down on myself."

"Alright then." Thunder Wolf wasn’t the shy type to begin with, and besides, the Thunder Wolf Team had fought side by side with Lin Tian many times; everyone was already very familiar with each other.

But the moment this guy sat down, he started gossiping like an auntie: "Bro, the Second Lady of Xiao is so virtuous, you’re blessed. But what about our instructor?"

"What do you mean ’what about’? I’m still single." Lin Tian said with great disdain. This guy couldn’t stay serious for more than three seconds.

"Oh, got it, got it." Thunder Wolf put on an "I understand" face, though Lin Tian really couldn’t tell what exactly this guy thought he understood.

The other team members all wore a "I’m so jealous of you" expression, making Lin Tian really want to beat them up. Luckily Xiao Manxuan quickly brought out the dishes and stuffed these guys’ mouths.

"Xuanxuan, if I come back late next time, just eat first. Don’t starve yourself waiting for me." Before they finished eating, Lin Tian reminded her. It was already after eight; the little girl had waited for several hours, she must be starving.

"No, I’m going to wait." The little girl lifted her chin, speaking in a cute, proud tone.

Thunder Wolf looked over at Lin Tian and waggled his eyebrows. Lin Tian glared at him: "When the instructor comes back, I’m going to suggest she give Thunder Wolf Captain a special training regimen."

"Ahem, eat, eat." Thunder Wolf immediately straightened his back, putting on a "I didn’t say anything just now" look, then gave a very serious order: "Raise chopsticks, eat!"

The Thunder Wolf Team picked up their chopsticks in perfect unison. The movement was as neat as when they practiced marching in step. Lin Tian and Xiao Manxuan exchanged a smile, their eyes full of admiration. This was a truly disciplined team that obeyed orders without question.

Originally Lin Tian was going to bring out some liquor, but Thunder Wolf refused, saying they couldn’t drink while on a mission. Lin Tian knew this was their rule, so he didn’t insist.

The Thunder Wolf Team also ate fast. Lin Tian had just finished one bowl of rice when the six people opposite him had already put down their bowls and chopsticks.

"Brother Lin Tian, thanks a lot for the hospitality. We’re off to work." Thunder Wolf said heartily.

"It’s already pretty late." Lin Tian checked the time. It was past nine. There was no real rush to start the mission right this second, was there?

"It’s fine, we’re used to it." Thunder Wolf smiled, then called out, and the team members walked out of the living room in formation.

Watching their backs as they left, Lin Tian suddenly thought of a saying: "There is no such thing as a world that’s peaceful by default; it’s just that someone is carrying the load and marching forward for you."

Xiao Manxuan blinked. Clearly their minds were in sync; she had thought of the same thing as Lin Tian.

She smiled lightly: "There’s a girl in my class from Jinghua City. During the sports meet, she and her older brother went to the stadium to watch a game. Her brother had a Zippo lighter on him, and they weren’t allowed to bring it in at security."

"There wasn’t time to run it back to the car, and it’d be a shame to throw it away. So the girl had a brainwave, took the lighter, walked over to a flower bed, and decided to bury it in the soil first, then dig it back out after the game."

"She had just dug a small hole when a big guy in black walked over and asked what she was doing. My classmate said, my brother’s lighter isn’t allowed through security, so I’m leaving it here and will come get it after the game."

"That guy in black picked up the lighter, checked it over, handed it back to her, then pulled out a walkie-talkie from behind him and said something that made her break out in a cold sweat."

When she got to this point, Lin Tian asked curiously, "What did that guy in black say?"

"The guy in black said, ’Sniper, this spot is secure.’" Xiao Manxuan said.

Lin Tian froze for a second, then understood. The security guy had thought the girl was planting a bomb. In some unseen corner, the girl had been targeted by a sniper rifle and didn’t even know it. Once she figured that out, it was already pretty good that she didn’t faint from fright.

"Peace doesn’t fall from the sky. The reason we can’t see the darkness is because someone is using their body to block the darkness and danger from the places you can’t see." Lin Tian sighed.

The reason ordinary people could happily and peacefully watch the game was because someone was silently holding up a sky for them.

"Thunder Wolf and the others are exactly those kinds of people. That’s the mission of a Guardian." Xiao Manxuan also said with emotion.

By the time they finished cleaning up the dishes, it was already very late. Lin Tian had basically eaten two meals in one go, but for him this amount of food wasn’t much.

He cultivated, slept, and early the next morning, he and Xiao Manxuan went to class together. It was still a big general course, Advanced Math. There were students from Bio Class One and from Xiao Manxuan’s class as well, but Zhao Weitao was destined to miss it.

He was still lying in the hospital. Of course, the other classmates still didn’t know what had happened, and just thought he’d simply gotten heatstroke.

Lin Tian, the remedial-student, was chatting with Ning Wenbin when the always-early He Xiaofei showed up late for once.

"Sister Xiaofei, you almost came in late." Xiao Manxuan joked.

He Xiaofei put down her books and sat in the seat next to them before saying, "Dad only got back at midnight last night. Our whole family woke up, so I almost overslept."

"Did Professor He figure anything out?" Mu Binglan asked anxiously. This matter concerned Qiao Xiaoyi, who’d landed in the hospital to save her.

"Not really. But Dad said the parasite might be carrying a very ancient virus. There’s no information on it in any of the existing databases. Dad is trying to find Professor Hu from the paleontology program. His research direction is ancient organisms, so he might have some useful data."

He Xiaofei spoke quickly, and Mu Binglan was hit by a wave of disappointment.

But Lin Tian caught another meaning in her words and couldn’t help asking, "Professor Hu is the one who bumped into you outside the Life Sciences lab last time, right? He’s not on campus?"

The paleontology program with its five-generation single line of inheritance—when it came to this legendary major in the School of Life Sciences, Lin Tian of course had heard of it.

"No, he isn’t. He often goes down into all sorts of ancient tombs with archeological teams. Last time he just vanished all of a sudden, and more than ten days later the students found out he’d gone off with the archeology department again." He Xiaofei said helplessly.