The breakfast of bread, mutton and pulao made Xia Lei burp. The owner of the shop refused his money when he tried to pay, and even invited Xia Lei and Tang Yu-Yan to his home to be his guests. They were flustered by his invitation. 

Tang Yu-Yan had been speaking with the owner in Urdu all this while and Xia Lei understood not a word. The owner also uttered some Chinese words once in a while but it was pronounced weirdly and full of errors. 

‘Looks like I’ll have to learn more foreign languages. The popular languages I’ve learnt are not enough. Tang Yu-Yan’s Urdu seems well-practiced and this tells me that she must be very familiar with the situation in the Middle East. This should also be the reason why she was sent on this mission, and not Long Bing,’ thought Xia Lei. 

They left the restaurant and Tang Yu-Yan continued on the road towards the Afghan border. 

“What language do they use in Afghanistan?” asked Xia Lei casually. 

“Pashto and Persian - I know both,” said Tang Yu-Yan. She then said a sentence of similar meanings from each language and looked rather...