Starting to Gain Experience from Push-Ups Chapter 1363 - 659

Five in the evening.

The security gate at the Special Search Team Headquarters compound slowly slid open to both sides.

People in the offices began packing up files and shutting down computers, streaming out of the building in twos and threes.

They casually took off the blue work badges hanging around their necks, put them into their bags, chatting about buying groceries for dinner and picking up kids from school.

The time clock in front of the guard booth kept flashing green, emitting a rapid series of "beep-beep" sounds.

This massive state machine, bathed in the glow of the setting sun, slowly shed its solemn sharpness and revealed a worldly air no different from any ordinary office building.

Fang Cheng turned the steering wheel, Driving the black Land Rover SUV out of the underground garage, and slowly pulled up at the back of the line of cars waiting to exit the gate.

Ma Donghe sprawled in the passenger seat, roughly wedging his aluminum crutch into the gap between the car door and the seat.

He felt that driving his own second-hand clunker to Headquarters was embarrassing, so he simply tossed the car keys to his junior, Zhang Yingjun.

He planned to save up enough in a while to swap it for an off-roader; for these few days he shamelessly hitched a ride with Fang Cheng.

Hou Peng also benefited, slipping into the spacious back seat.

"Damn, these genuine leather seats are really comfortable."

Hou Peng stroked the soft seat back, looked around at the luxurious walnut interior, and couldn’t help sighing:

"Brother Fang, your family’s doing this well, driving a million-yuan luxury car, and you still came to take the Special Search Team exam to suffer like this."

"If it were me, I’d already be eating, drinking, having fun every day, traveling the world and enjoying life."

Hearing that, Ma Donghe leaned back and let out a snort, turning his head to mock:

"What the hell do you know! My junior is ’experiencing life,’ he’s got big ambitions! Unlike you, you weakling with no ambitions, content just to sneak into the Intelligence Department and be some keyboard-tapping clerk."

"What’s wrong with tapping keyboards, huh? Intelligence work is the eyes of the Special Search Team, it’s important as hell."

Hou Peng retorted with an awkward laugh.

Listening to the two bicker, Fang Cheng smiled faintly and didn’t bother to explain anything.

He glanced at Hou Peng through the rearview mirror.

From what had come up during their earlier small talk, Hou Peng was from Yu State; his ancestors had produced a famous Spirit doctor, and his family still ran a fairly large traditional medicinal herb shop.

Not only that, the kid had also practiced the family’s Baji Fist with his elders since childhood, so he could be considered someone who cultivated both Medical Skill and martial arts.

When there’s a chance later, he could find an excuse to spar with him in Medical Skill and boxing, using it as an opportunity to probe his depth.

The Land Rover SUV exited the compound and merged onto the main road.

It was right in the middle of the evening rush hour, and traffic in the city was a mess, the flow of cars inching forward at a turtle’s pace.

The brake lights up ahead almost formed a continuous, glaring red dragon.

The summer evening was already stuffy and oppressive, and being stuck in traffic made people all the more irritable.

"This damn road’s moving slower than me with a crutch!"

Seeing this, even Ma Donghe couldn’t help grumbling.

Looking at the motionless line of cars ahead, Fang Cheng reached out and pressed a button on the center console, turning on the car stereo.

Gentle, soothing jazz flowed through the cabin, cutting off the racket outside the windows.

Fang Cheng leaned back in his seat, his fingers lightly tapping on the steering wheel in time with the music.

Back when he worked as a sparring partner at the Global Elite Fighting Club, his hours had always been flexible.

Usually he’d saunter into work around ten in the morning and leave early at three or four in the afternoon.

Being like this now—properly stuck in the evening rush along with tens of thousands of office workers—was actually a long-lost experience.

"How was it for you two in your departments today?"

Fang Cheng casually tossed out a topic, breaking the heavy mood in the car.

"Don’t even mention it, those animals in the Action Department are not human."

Ma Donghe perked up immediately, gesturing animatedly with spit flying:

"Those guys in Fourth Squad have dumbbells and all kinds of workout gear piled all over their desks."

"There’s this big guy called Black Bear who insisted on arm-wrestling me. With my leg injured I couldn’t put any power into it, so I just used one hand and wrestled with him for five minutes, and in the end I still forced him down."

"I’m telling you, the way those people looked at me after that totally changed, they all started calling me Brother Dong!"

Listening in the back seat, Hou Peng’s face was full of admiration; he nodded repeatedly in support:

"Brother Donghe’s build and strength are rock solid, of course those guys in the Action Department were stunned by you."

Then he scratched the back of his head and sighed:

"Compared to the liveliness of the Action Department, our Information Section in the Intelligence Department is pure torture—hundreds of computers running non-stop, screens full of colorful code."

"I stared at them all afternoon and my eyes almost went blind. But the operators there all speak very softly, the atmosphere’s actually pretty nice."

Following the thread, Fang Cheng smiled:

"My Medical Division was pretty laid-back. I basically just sat in the office in the morning flipping through files."

He really hadn’t done any actual work today in the Medical Division.

The head nurse named Li Man had taken very good care of him; not only did she tidy his desk until it was spotless, she even washed a plate of grapes and brought them into the office, fussing over him so he wouldn’t feel constrained as a new hire.

The whole morning, he had stayed in the office, leisurely going through various rules and regulations and past injury recovery records, and at the same time familiarizing himself with the logistics department’s organizational structure.

Around noon, Wei Zheng found time to come to the Medical Division to look for him, then took Ma Donghe and Hou Peng along, and the four of them grabbed a simple meal together in the Headquarters cafeteria.

The food at the Special Search Team was indeed as Wei Zheng had said: not only was there lots of variety, they were also very generous with the ingredients.

The fist-sized braised lion’s-head meatballs were stewed until soft and flavorful, and the freshly baked lamb chops were sprinkled with cumin, sizzling with juice the moment you bit into them.