“I understand, General Ji. Since the elections are being restarted, I will have the Special Operations Forces field personnel around the world pay attention to important local people. We will not allow them the possibility of disrupting our nation’s elections.”
This was actually exactly within the scope of Huo Shaoheng’s responsibilities and also the reason why General Ji had especially asked for him. General Ji was very pleased with how he didn’t need to say the words for Huo Shaoheng to understand what he needed to do.
“Ok, I’ll leave the issues abroad to you. The next thing is, in order to vigilantly prevent any accidents from occurring, the military will mobilize a group of reserve personnel to monitor the election polls in various places. Last time, they had requisitioned the Special Operations Forces’ Central Control Room to monitor the polls. This time, Old Long’s intention is to ask you to help once again by monitoring one more time.”
General Ji chuckled as he picked up the Kung Fu tea cup on his desk and took a sip of the sweet and fragrant Dahongpao tea.
Huo Shaoheng raised a brow. “The Central Control Room still needs to be requisitioned? Then I’ll say it straight out. I must be the only one allowed to monitor from the inside. Anyone outside, whether from the senate, cabinet, or the military’s five military regions cannot intervene.”
“That’s certain.” General Ji instantly agreed.
Last time, there were all sorts of inappropriate people entering the Central Control Room. Huo Shaoheng had conducted a massive cleansing upon his return, and there were still lots of people locked up in military detainment even now. They could not be released without explaining the entire situation.
“That’s alright.” Huo Shaoheng nodded. “Then I ask you and Speaker Long to please jointly sign a special command to me, and I will immediately make the arrangements.” Huo Shaoheng knew that in order to do any work within the country, he must have transparency. He must complete all required procedures and have all required certifications.
General Ji had prepared for this long before. He took the documents out to show Huo Shaoheng and laughed. “I’ll have Secretary Cao send this over to you. Can you rest assured now?”
“General Ji is too humorous. I’m only trying to make other people shut up.” Huo Shaoheng smiled faintly and glanced at his watch to see it was already 12pm.
“The news broadcast is about to start. I need to find someone to deploy the reserve forces. Since we have decided to restart the elections, we only have a week’s time to prepare under these emergency circumstances.” General Ji picked up his army cap to put on. “Shaoheng, I’ll be relying on you for the matters abroad.”
“Please rest assured, chief!” Huo Shaoheng rose to give a standard military salute.
General Ji’s connection to the video call soon broke off. Huo Shaoheng turned on the wall-mounted TV in the study and so happened to see all the TV channels had interrupted their regular programming to begin a livestream of the senate’s decision.
He thought about it, then pressed on the communicator to say to the orderly outside, “Ask Colonel Yin and Miss Gu to come to my study.” The orderly loudly affirmed, then raced downstairs to the dining room to call Yin Shixiong and Gu Nianzhi upstairs.
Yin Shixiong and Gu Nianzhi walked in one after another. They were still chatting about something and giggling from time to time, so they appeared to be in very good moods.
Huo Shaoheng glanced at them before saying dryly, “Close the door.”
Yin Shixiong quickly closed the door to the study and asked in confusion, “Huo Shao, did something happen?”
“Yeah, watch the TV.” Huo Shaoheng clasped his hands together before leaning back against the tall, soft back of the chair.
Gu Nianzhi and Yin Shixiong were speechless. They stared at each other, unsure what Huo Shaoheng was plotting.
“Sit down. Why are you standing?” Huo Shaoheng pointed to the two swivel chairs in front of his desk. “This is important breaking news.”
“Oh?” Yin Shixiong’s heart tightened, and he wiped the giddy expression off his face. “Is this something to do with Prime Minister Tan’s incident?”
Huo Shaoheng grunted, but his eyes quickly swept over Gu Nianzhi’s face. Gu Nianzhi appeared very calm. However, if it wasn’t for the barely imperceptible fluttering of her butterfly wing-like eyelashes, even Huo Shaoheng wouldn’t have detected the nervousness in the bottom of her heart.
Yin Shixiong obviously didn’t notice anything amiss at all. With a smile, he sat down on the swivel chair on the left and beckoned to Gu Nianzhi. “Come here, Nianzhi. Sit.”
Gu Nianzhi smiled as she sat down on the swivel chair on the right. At this time, the huge wall-mounted TV on the opposite wall had already begun to air images of the senate.
The seats were arranged in a fan shape in the splendid senate hall. From low to high, they encircled the small square podium in the front. White-haired yet youthful-faced, Speaker Long wore a formal black tuxedo and a white bow tie. Standing behind the podium, his expression was grim as he began to speak.
“Ladies and gentlemen present, and all the TV audiences across the country, hello. On behalf of the upper and lower house of the Hua Xia Parliament, I would like to begin by wishing all the citizens of our nation a Happy Lunar New Year.”
After a rattle, the senate hall resounded with thunderous applause. Speaker Long’s expression relaxed. He paused to wait for the live audience’s applause to quiet down before continuing to speak.
“I believe that everyone already knows about the incident that occurred yesterday evening, so I won’t repeat it here. I want to emphasize that we will certainly pursue the initiators of this incident to the end. We will use legal means to protect the interests of the nation and its people. However, the great international and domestic impact caused by this incident and the conclusions drawn from careful technical certification have convinced us that Mr. Tan Dongbang no longer upholds the eligibility and ethics to continue as the prime minister of our nation.”
There was only dead silence both on TV and outside the TV broadcast. Aside from all the people of the country, all the people of the world were probably following the special meeting held by the Hua Xia Imperial Senate.
“But unfortunately, Mr. Tan Dongbang has refused to resign as Prime Minister of the Hua Xia Empire after discussions. Under these circumstances, in order to protect the dignity of both the leader of our nation and the nation itself, both houses of the parliament held an emergency meeting this morning. We reached the unanimous decision to authorize the dissolution of the cabinet and the restarting of the election.”
As soon as Speaker Long said this, Yin Shixiong leaped up. He shrieked, “What?! Dissolve the cabinet?! Doesn’t that mean we no longer have a government after the Lunar New Year?!”
“Only the cabinet has been dissolved. How can you say we don’t have a government?” Gu Nianzhi glanced at Yin Shixiong coolly. “Are you excluding the senate and military from the government?”
“What I mean is the administrative departments, alright? Logician!” Yin Shixiong glared at Gu Nianzhi. “I was just saying. Can you not take it so seriously?”
“How can you run your mouth about things like that?” Gu Nianzhi was feeling a bit guilty, so she was relentless towards Yin Shixiong. “This is the basic principle of national affairs. Don’t say one thing and make the entire government sound paralyzed.”
“Fine, fine, fine. I can’t talk around you.” Yin Shixiong waved his hand nervously, then turned to look at Huo Shaoheng. “Huo Shao, what do you need me to do?”
Huo Shaoheng nodded. “As the Deputy Chief of the Special Operations Forces, notify all our field personnel around the world. The operation code is ‘Nighthawk.’ Pay attention to relayed local people and do not allow anyone the possibility of undermining our election.”
“Roger, chief.” Yin Shixiong stood up and saluted before striding outside. The door banged shut, and the noise was so deafening it made Gu Nianzhi’s heart tremble.
Pursing her lips, she slowly got up and smiled. “Huo Shao, I’ll be going too, since you’re busy.” As she spoke, she turned around to leave.
Huo Shaoheng didn’t stop her. He quietly watched her open the study door and walk outside. Soon after, he heard the door of the suite outside open and close.
Huo Shaoheng lowered his eyes to the keyboard before him and casually typed in two commands to check the network data from the official residence over the past two days. As he expected, the network data from Gu Nianzhi’s room was a bit abnormal. Huo Shaoheng picked up the cursor and opened the surveillance program to take a closer look.
Gu Nianzhi had connected to an external system from the Special Operations Forces’ intranet. Although it was very difficult to check what she did after leaving the intranet, he was still able to see her first destination. What did Gu Nianzhi need to do that she was required to log into the server of a library of a certain small European town from the intranet?
Huo Shaoheng’s hands quickly hammered on the keyboard as he discreetly wiped away all of Gu Nianzhi’s network traces from last night. Shutting down the computer, Huo Shaoheng came to Gu Nianzhi’s suite.
The living room of the small suite was silent. The curtains hung silently, and the sunlight filtered brightly through the white curtains, the tiny particles of dust dancing in the light. The bedroom door was ajar, and Huo Shaoheng walked inside.
Gu Nianzhi was currently focused on keying in programs one by one. Huo Shaoheng walked behind her and bent over to brace his arms on the desk in front of Gu Nianzhi. Surrounding her in his arms, he asked calmly, “What are you doing?”
Gu Nianzhi was so terrified her entire body shuddered as she was nearly about to jump up. Huo Shaoheng reacted quickly by clamping down her shoulders into the seat, preventing her head from slamming into his chin.
“Let go of me.” Gu Nianzhi moved her shoulders with great discomfort in an attempt to escape from Huo Shaoheng’s hands.
“What if I say no?” Huo Shaoheng leaned forward, his cheek gently brushing against Gu Nianzhi’s earlobes.
Half of Gu Nianzhi’s body turned numb for a second. She was truly too frightened, so she had no spare energy to think about this unusual contact. “What are you doing here? I still have something to do.” Gu Nianzhi tried to speak calmly, but her voice trembled slightly at the end to reveal her true feelings.
Huo Shaoheng cocked his head to look at her, then sighed quietly. Reaching out with his large, warm hands, he held each of Gu Nianzhi’s hands. “What are you afraid of?”
“I’m not afraid…” Gu Nianzhi purposely feigned relaxation and curled the corners of her lips to try her best to smile. Her lush, curvy lips curled up, yet the dimples at the corners of her lips didn’t appear.
Huo Shaoheng continued to lean his body forward and held both her hands. He looked at her quietly until he could see a transparent bead of sweat fall from her temple. He could only imagine how much mental pressure she was enduring. Huo Shaoheng sighed before kissing her cheek and saying quietly, “Don’t be scared. Nothing will happen with me here.”
“What… what could happen?” Gu Nianzhi was nearly in tears. She was completely befuddled as to how Huo Shaoheng found out she was responsible for that incident! She had clearly wiped away all traces completely!
“Nianzhi, you can trust me.” Huo Shaoheng’s arms tightened, and he enveloped her in his embrace through the back of the chair. “Tell me, what did you do?”
