WHOOSH...
RUSTLE...
Under the sun, the treetops lining the river swayed in the wind, their leaves brushing against each other with a soft rustle.
A man, about five-foot-nine, with a gold stud in his ear, a white T-shirt, and blue jeans, had his hands stuffed in his pockets as he kicked a small pebble on the ground.
PLOP.
The pebble flew through the air and landed in the river with a small splash.
The man with the gold stud tore his gaze from the river’s surface and turned to his companion.
"According to the schedule, wasn’t that guy supposed to be here by now? He’s still not here. You don’t think something happened to him, do you?"
The one he asked was a tall man, at least six-foot-three, wearing sunglasses and dark green casual clothes.
"Don’t be so anxious. Just be patient. If something happened to him, we would’ve heard about it already," the man in sunglasses said with a yawn, his tone relaxed.
"Meeting out in the middle of nowhere on a day this hot is torture! Can’t we pick a cooler spot?" the man with the gold stud complained.
"Times have changed. The Superpower Administration Bureau is cracking down hard these days. If we met in the city, we’d probably get nabbed by an Investigator. For safety’s sake, it’s a bit of a pain meeting out here, but it’s better than getting caught by an Investigator," the man in sunglasses said.
"Sigh... Life is getting tougher and tougher." The man with the gold stud sighed, recalling a friend who had been arrested a month ago.
As the two men chatted idly, a group of people watched their every move from their hiding spot in the distant woods.
The hottest part of the day is between two and three in the afternoon.
At two-thirty in the afternoon, the temperature in the city had already reached forty-two degrees Celsius, while out in the suburbs, it was forty.
The two men stood in the shade of a large, leafy tree by the riverbank. Just as they were growing impatient and about to call to see if something was wrong, a sudden disturbance broke the calm surface of the distant water.
The slowly flowing river water suddenly erupted in a huge wave.
SPLASH...
The water churned, and a figure in a diving suit surfaced.
"He’s finally here." Seeing the figure in the diving suit, the two men waiting on the bank broke into happy smiles.
The man in the diving suit swam quickly to the bank. Once he was ashore, the man with the gold stud and the man in sunglasses, who had been waiting for so long, immediately walked over.
"We’ve been waiting forever. We didn’t see you, so we thought something happened. What made you so late today?" the man with the gold stud asked.
While removing the waterproof bags strapped to his body, the man in the diving suit explained the reason for his delay to the man with the gold stud.
"Fucking bad luck. I was driving to the drop-in point when I ran into some asshole who doesn’t know how to follow traffic laws. He scraped my car, and not only did he not apologize, he had the nerve to blame me first, getting out and yelling his head off. I lost my cool and got into a shouting match with him for a bit, which is why I couldn’t get here on time."
Hearing this, the man with the gold stud chimed in with his own curse, "The same thing happened to me a month ago. I really don’t get it. How can people have so little class these days? Following traffic laws is basic, isn’t it?"
"Yeah! I have no idea how those bastards even passed their driving tests..." the man in the diving suit said.
"Maybe those assholes bought their licenses. I hope those jerks who don’t follow the rules get into a major accident," the man with the gold stud said, his voice full of malice.
The man in sunglasses stood quietly to the side without a word, but his thoughts were far from as calm as his expression. He was internally roasting the two men chatting heatedly in front of him.
’The two of you are so righteously condemning those assholes who don’t follow traffic laws, but what you’re doing right now is way worse.’
After a few minutes of work, the man in the diving suit had removed all the waterproof bags from his body. He gathered them together and handed them to the man with the gold stud.
"This is the last of this batch of goods. There won’t be any more for the next month. As for when we’ll meet again, wait for the notification."
The man with the gold stud took the waterproof bags, but instead of immediately opening them to inspect the goods, he asked with some confusion.
"Why no more goods for the next month? Business is great right now. We’ll lose a lot of money if the supply is cut off for a month!"
"What other reason could there be?" the man in the diving suit said with a grimace. "The Superpower Administration Bureau’s special summer crackdown is seriously threatening all the shipping channels. If we keep moving goods, it’d be like running straight into a storm. The risk is just too high."
Hearing this, the man with the gold stud nodded in understanding, then began to inspect the goods.
He opened one of the waterproof bags, revealing a plastic-sealed pouch of what looked like drugs. The man with the gold stud nodded in satisfaction.