Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Gu Nianzhi wasn’t Gu Xiangwen’s biological daughter?! This piece of information was too much. Even someone like Huo Guanchen was taken aback. He could control himself to such an extent because he had been trained so well in the army for many years. Therefore, his sense of self-control was beyond that of others. He did not lose control and let out a scream.
However, he couldn’t help but reveal some sense of shock on his face. Seeing that Gu Yanran was looking at him curiously, Huo Guanchen clenched his fist and pretended to be coughing. “Miss Gu, you said that Nianzhi isn’t Gu Xiangwen’s biological daughter? How… is this possible?” He had never known about this before. Huo Shaoheng had never mentioned it to him, not even a word.
“How is it not?” It was Gu Yanran’s turn to be shocked before coming to a realization. “You didn’t know? I thought Huo Shao or Doctor Chen had already told you!” Then she mumbled, “How can it be? No one knew about this? I thought everyone did… Damn. Me and my big mouth…” She slapped herself, full of guilt.
However, when Huo Guanchen heard that Huo Shaoheng knew about it, he believed the authenticity of the information, and he immediately understood why Huo Shaoheng wanted to keep it from everyone… Had he not done that, his marriage approval would not have gone through so easily.
Huo Guanchen had been against it all along. Therefore, he did not know that Huo Shaoheng had already gotten it done… If General Ji had not let the cat out of the bag today, he wouldn’t have known that not only had Huo Shaoheng gotten approval, he had also gotten Gu Nianzhi’s background check done! The latter was the tough one to clear.
This cunning man! Even though Huo Guanchen was extremely angry, he secretly felt proud of his son, because Huo Shaoheng should be the only person who was able to mess around like that with the management of the military supreme council, and he was his son—his biological son. Therefore, after knowing about the entire incident, he had no choice but to continue planning for him.
“I see. So is Nianzhi your father’s daughter? I mean… under the law. Are they considered father and daughter?” Huo Guanchen calmed down quickly and asked kindly with a smile on his face, seemingly not perturbed by the information he had heard just now.
“Oh. Yes, she is. Of course she is my father’s daughter. Definitely so under the law,” Gu Yanran said confidently. No one could hide nor deny that. She had no intention of going to that extreme, either.
“Oh. Then that should be fine,” Huo Guanchen said happily. “Even though she isn’t his biological daughter, as long as Mr. Gu loves her like his own, then that’s enough. She is worthy of us using all our resources to rescue her. Thank you and goodbye.” With that, Huo Guanchen turned and left. He stood straight and proud as he walked away, and Gu Yanran watched him for a while before leaving as well.
…
Upon returning home feeling gloomy, Gu Yanran saw that Ye Xuan was fiddling with his technical things again. She couldn’t help but want to talk to him. Sitting down, she hugged Ye Xuan’s arm and leaned her head on his shoulders. “Xuan, I’m sad.”
“What’s wrong?” Ye Xuan did not even turn around. Fingers flying across the keyboard, he was typing different commands into the computer. No one knew what he was up to. Maybe he was only enjoying his time using the internet.
“I don’t know if I did the right thing today.” Gu Yanran looked down in guilt. “Why do you think lady luck is always on Nianzhi’s side?”
“What’s with her?” Ye Xuan looked at Gu Yanran. “Given her situation now… You consider her lucky still?”
“Know what? Major General Huo and Major General Ji knew that Gu Nianzhi was missing.” Gu Yanran sat up straight and used her hand to support her head on the computer table. “They are going to use the best resources from the country to rescue her, even after finding out that she isn’t my father’s biological daughter.”
“Whatever.” Ye Xuan chuckled. “You think they’ll definitely be able to find her just because they’re going to use the best resources? Why did you tell them that she isn’t Uncle Gu’s biological daughter, though? Must you be the one to do it? Didn’t they already know?”
“I did not do it on purpose.” Gu Yanran was extremely troubled. “I really did not do it on purpose… What’s more, that Major General Huo said that they’d still do their best, even if she wasn’t his biological daughter. He also said that as long as my father treated her like his own, it showed something.”
Ye Xuan stopped typing on his laptop and looked up. “To be honest, Major General Huo was right. Remember you used to complain to me that Uncle Gu loved Nianzhi more?” He turned around to hug Gu Yanran. “Remember how I used to comfort you?”
Gu Yanran blushed.
Of course she remembers. Ye Xuan told her, “You have me.”
It was that night after he told he that, that she… Gave herself to him…
“Xuan, I’m so lucky that I still have you.” Gu Yanran returned the hug.
…
Huo Guanchen returned to his office and thought about the incident from the beginning. Eventually, he picked up the phone and called General Ji. “General Ji, there’s something I don’t know if you know.” Huo Guanchen sighed. “Nianzhi isn’t Gu Xiangwen’s biological daughter.”
“Ah?! She isn’t?!” General Ji’s heart sank. “Who told you this?! You cannot say things like that just because! What era are we in now? You say she isn’t, and we have to believe you?! Have you tested their DNA?!”
Laughing bitterly, Huo Guanchen continued, “Precisely because we’re in this era, and there’s DNA tests. We don’t believe what people say just like that, therefore, people don’t lie.”
“What?! But when they brought Gu Xiangwen back from Barbados, they also said that they had evidence that Nianzhi was Gu Xiangwen’s biological daughter!” General Ji stood up. “What on earth is going on?!”
When General Ji said that, Huo Guanchen was confused as well. However, upon realizing that it could be his son who was being tricky, he understood. Chuckling, he replied, “Perhaps we were mistaken? They said that they had evidence to prove that Nianzhi was Gu Xiangwen’s daughter, but did not specify that she was his biological daughter. I’ve asked Gu Yanran, and she confirmed it. Nianzhi is Gu Xiangwen’s adopted daughter.”
With official documents to support the adoption process, of course she was officially Gu Xiangwen’s adopted daughter. He had to put it that way instead of saying that Huo Shaoheng was mistaken or was intentionally trying to hide information. At most, it would be a case of miscommunication…
General Ji’s brows furrowed. How could Huo Shaoheng not mention such an important thing to me? What is this guy up to?
However, he had to confirm this first, that Gu Yanran was telling the truth, before making any decisions. Moreover, General Ji was thinking about something even deeper. He believed that Huo Shaoheng would never keep it from him forever. When he got what he wanted, he would definitely come clean with General Ji. However, he was uncomfortable with being kept in the dark by the person he had trained. Moreover, if he had known that Gu Nianzhi was only Gu Xiangwen’s adopted daughter, he wouldn’t have helped Huo Shaoheng pass Gu Nianzhi’s background check so eagerly.
Now that everything was done, General Ji realized that he had been tricked… He couldn’t explain what he was feeling. He really admired Huo Shaoheng for this, but at the same time, he was extremely furious. How could this guy hide things from me because of a girl?! He couldn’t allow things like that to continue. Just like a gardener who had put a lot of effort into his garden, when he realized that the tree he had put in so much effort to grow had grown slanted, what would he do? Of course, he would take a clipper and snap it away!
One would need effort to groom a successor in order to benefit the people below. However, it was really tough to find a suitable candidate! General Ji made up his mind as he was brooding over this.
Since Huo Shaoheng cared about Gu Nianzhi so much that he could hide important information from his superior, General Ji, General Ji had decided to take note of how influential Gu Nianzhi might be to him.
Since the olden days, even heroes were unable to resist a beauty. However, Huo Shaoheng had to overcome this. Even if he were to kill the beauty, Huo Shaoheng had to overcome this! Just take it to be a lesson for Huo Shaoheng this time around and a wake up call to Gu Nianzhi, that the most important thing to Huo Shaoheng should be the country and the army. Not a woman, not her! As for Huo Shaoheng, I’ve got to let you remember this as well. Then I’ll see if you’ll still dare to hide things from me!
However, General Ji also knew that this matter could not be blown out of proportion. If it was, it wouldn’t be just him being unhappy. The entire management of the Supreme Council would be furious and replace Huo Shaoheng with someone of their own in a matter of seconds. Albeit capable, Huo Shaoheng wouldn’t have made it this far had General Ji not presented him with all the opportunities to go on missions and to prove himself.
Just within the short time that Huo Guanchen was informing General Ji of the information, he had already run the entire incident in his head a couple times and had made up his mind on the attitude that he wished to portray.
After Huo Guanchen was done, General Ji chuckled. “I see. He doted on her more than his biological daughter. This is interesting. Sometimes, indeed, one’s adopted parents are closer than biological ones. Maybe it applies to Nianzhi as well. Hahaha… oh, I have a call coming in. I’ll answer that now. I’ll call you again, Guanchen.”
Seeing that General Ji did not seem to mind, Huo Guanchen breathed a sigh of relief. He was worried whether General Ji would begin to suspect Huo Shaoheng after this incident, as the importance of this was rather subjective. However, it seemed like General Ji wanted this to be as quietly resolved as possible. Right now, those were Huo Guanchen’s exact sentiments as well.
At this juncture, Huo Guanchen and General Ji both were taken aback at one piece of information. They had not expected Gu Nianzhi to have reached that level of importance in Huo Shaoheng’s heart. They had thought that Huo Shaoheng was willing to marry Gu Nianzhi because of the benefits of the nation…
It seemed otherwise now.
Since his son was grown up, it was good to have his preference. However, focusing too much on relationships wasn’t what a man should be doing. Huo Guanchen hung up and looked at his rescue plan. After contemplating, he struck out “highest rank of importance” and replaced it with “middle rank of importance.”
Had he not been considering that Huo Shaoheng might be unable to pull himself together if anything were to happen to Gu Nianzhi, Huo Guanchen wouldn’t even use “middle rank of importance” on her. He was extremely tempted to just make a call to the Hua Xia Empire Embassy based in Munich and inform them not to do anything drastic, that Gu Nianzhi was merely a normal citizen. All they had to do was to get the local police to investigate, as they were unable to interfere with the governing in another country, yada yada…
Of course, he was merely toying with the idea. Had he really done that, the already horrible relationship between Huo Shaoheng and himself would be thoroughly ruined.
And their relationship was already on the rocks.
…
Upon ending the call with Huo Guanchen, General Ji looked at the profile of the three Gu family members. He summoned his personal secretary, Secretary Cao. “The Gu’s family profile doesn’t have DNA reports. Get them from Chen Lie.”
Secretary Cao knew that the profiles of the families that the army deemed important all had to have DNA reports. This was to prevent people from changing their appearance and being unable to support their identity.
“Yes, sir. I’ll give him a call immediately and see if Doctor Chen has them.” Secretary Cao nodded, noting the task. After Secretary Cao exited the room, he picked up his black mobile phone and called the Special Forces Headquarters. General Ji had only hung up the call just now with an excuse so that he could get someone to check on the truth.
Picking up the phone, Secretary Cao said politely, “Front desk, I am Secretary Cao from the first office of Special Forces. Please connect me to Doctor Chen Lie. I have something to confirm with him.”
The front desk secretary was so shocked that she did not even dare to breathe. “Yes, sir!” she replied breathlessly. She called Chen Lie’s office, but the person who answered the call was Ye Zitan.
“Doctor Ye, is Doctor Chen in?” the front desk secretary asked urgently.
“Doctor Chen is currently doing an experiment and is unable to leave it at the moment. Is there something I can help you with?” Ye Zitan smiled.
The front desk lady sounded disappointed. “But General is waiting to speak to Doctor Chen!”
“The General? Which one?” Ye Zitan was worried now. “We cannot make the General wait too long…”
“It’s Secretary Cao from the first office of Special Forces,” the front desk lady replied quickly, not wanting Secretary Cao to wait even longer.
“Oh? Connect him, then. I’ll speak to him,” Ye Zitan replied quickly and sat down in Chen Lie’s seat.
“Sure. Please hold on.” The role of the front desk officer was merely to connect phone calls. Of course, whether or not Secretary Cao wanted to speak to Ye Zitan was entirely up to him.
She put Ye Zitan on hold and asked Secretary Cao, “Sir, Doctor Chen is currently doing an experiment and is unable to leave it alone at the moment, but Doctor Ye Zitan said that you could ask her anything you needed confirmation with.” To the front desk officers, the secretaries of major generals were major generals as well.
Upon contemplation that Ye Zitan was Chen Lie’s assistant and was also one of the main doctors caring for Gu Xiangwen, Secretary Cao nodded. “Okay. I’ll speak to Doctor Ye.”
The front desk officer connected the calls.
