In reality, General Ji and Speaker Long weren’t unreasonable people.
Gu Nianzhi was even more so.
She was so sensible that it gave him a heartache.
Huo Shaoheng’s heart gradually warmed upon thinking of how understanding and supportive the people around him were.
He put down the hairdryer and stroked her long, smooth hair, which had just been washed. He whispered in her ear,”… Wait for me to come back.”
Gu Nianzhi nodded. Her concern for his safety had overshadowed her unhappiness.
It was a lie to say that she was in a good mood, but they had been together for so long, and she couldn’t bear a grudge against him.
Compared to before, Huo Shaoheng’s behavior was much better.
Besides, Huo Shaoheng probably didn’t mean to neglect her this time.
His eyes had dark circles, his chin had stubble, his body reeked of cigarettes, and his face was thinner than before. It was clear how busy he was, and she could tell how stressed out he was.
Gu Nianzhi didn’t know what important mission Huo Shaoheng had, but judging from how he looked like he was about to face a great enemy, it probably wasn’t an ordinary errand.
Moreover, with Huo Shaoheng’s current status, he wouldn’t be needed for small errands.
“You have to be careful.” Gu Nianzhi reminded him again. “Okay, I’m fine now. You can go back and have some good rest. You look like you didn’t sleep last night, did you?”
Huo Shaoheng’s eyelids were actually so heavy that he could barely lift them.
He couldn’t take it anymore and said, “I’m just going to lie down here. Don’t mind me. “As he spoke, he sent a text to Fan Jian, telling him to go back first and pick him up at six in the morning.
Fan Jian received the text and drove off.
Gu Nianzhi got up and went to the closet to get the quilt. She turned around and saw that Huo Shaoheng had fallen asleep on the sofa in the bedroom.
She wanted him to sleep on the bed, but after she pushed him twice, he still didn’t wake up.
Huo Shaoheng seemed to have fallen into deep sleep in a second.
Gu Nianzhi had no choice but to carefully remove his shoes, lift his legs onto the sofa, and cover him with the quilt. She quietly returned to the bed to sleep.
She laid on the bed and looked in Huo Shaoheng’s direction. She sighed in her heart, then closed her eyes and fell asleep.
When she woke up the next day, it was already eight o’clock in the morning.
The sofa on the other side of the bedroom was empty. It was clean and tidy, without even a quilt.
It was as if everything that had happened last night was just her imagination.
Huo Shaoheng didn’t come, didn’t apologize to her, and didn’t sleep on the sofa the whole night.
Gu Nianzhi blinked and got up from the bed. She went to the closet and opened the door to take a look.
The quilt that she had taken out of the closet last night was neatly folded and placed on the cabinet like a piece of tofu.
Gu Nianzhi pursed her lips into a smile.
It wasn’t her imagination. Huo Shaoheng had indeed been here last night.
No one but Huo Shao could fold it like such a neat tofu.
Gu Nianzhi smiled. She had just closed the closet door when she heard her phone ring again.
She walked over to pick up her phone and saw that it was He Zhichu calling. She quickly answered the call.
“Good morning, Professor He.”
He Zhichu frowned. Yesterday he was still Big Brother He, but today, he was Professor He again.
But he didn’t say much about it. He felt that Nianzhi was still getting used to it.
“Nianzhi, about the engagement party…”
Gu Nianzhi quickly said tactfully, “Professor He, Major General Huo has already told me about this. If it’s delayed for a month, then so be it. I’m not in a hurry anyway.”
Her tone sounded very different from yesterday.
He Zhichu was sharp and perceptive, so he quickly thought of the reason. His face darkened as he said, “Huo Shaoheng looked for you yesterday? Nianzhi, you can’t do that. Your anger can’t subside just because he cajoled you a little. That way, he’ll neglect you more and more in the future!”
They were both men. So how could He Zhichu be unaware of the bad habits of men?
Gu Nianzhi smiled. “Brother He, I know you’re doing this for my own good, but Major General Huo does have a mission right now, I understand. Even if I want to argue, I’ll have to wait for him to come back. I don’t want to get into a fight with him when he’s about to go on a mission and distract him.”
She was unhappy, and Huo Shaoheng hadn’t completely coaxed away her anger last night, but she knew what was the priority. In her heart, nothing was more important than Huo Shaoheng’s safe return.
He Zhichu was speechless. He couldn’t say that Gu Nianzhi was wrong, even though he was still upset. He could only say, “It’s good that you’ve thought it through. I’ll follow up on the rest. I’ll tell Old Master Xie about this.”
Gu Nianzhi quickly said, “Forget it, old master Xie might not know. Why misinterpret his good intentions?”
She didn’t want He Zhichu to be unhappy, so she quickly changed the topic. “Brother He, I’ve been researching the ‘quantum communicator’ that my father invented. I really regret not studying high-energy physics when I was in college.”
He Zhichu: “…”
His anger was instantly extinguished by the mention of the ‘quantum communicator’. After a moment of silence, he said, “Take your time. I still have things to do.”
He hung up the phone.
Gu Nianzhi didn’t mind. Intending to teach herself, she took out a high-energy physics textbook that Song Jinning had forcibly given her before.
However, she probably didn’t have the talent for it. After reading for a while, she felt sleepy again, so she threw the book down and went back to bed.
…
Huo Shaoheng did wake up on time at six in the morning. He washed up quietly, tidied up the sofa, and planted a kiss on Gu Nianzhi’s forehead before leaving quietly.
Xiao Ye waited for him in the living room and whispered, “Don’t worry, Major General Huo. I won’t leave Miss Gu’s side. Anyone who wants to harm Miss Gu will have to step over my dead body.”
Huo Shaoheng was slightly taken aback. He said pleasantly, “I know what Colonel Xiao is capable of. I believe you can protect Nianzhi as well as yourself.”
“Yes, sir!” Xiao Ye’s heart warmed, and she saluted him with great emotion.
With such a superior, how could they not follow him wholeheartedly?
They would do their best and die without any regrets.
Huo Shaoheng came out of the elevator of Gu Nianzhi’s apartment on Sanhuan Road and went straight to the parking lot below.
Fan Jian’s car stopped there on time and brought him back to the headquarter of Special Operation Forces’ encampment ground.
He went back to work for another two days, and the results of the political review returned one after another. The personnel had all been confirmed.
The Huaxia Empire’s research ship and escort fleet were already in place. They were quietly parked in the military port at the southernmost tip of the Huaxia Empire and ready to go.
Before leaving, Huo Shaoheng stood in front of the window of his office. He looked out at the blue sky, the red sun, and narrowed his eyes.
He didn’t know why, but he felt that something was wrong.
But he couldn’t tell what was wrong.
Everything was reasonable and logical. They had connected all the clues they had found over the past seven years.
If they had to say that something was wrong, it would probably be that many clues that they hadn’t found in the past seven years had suddenly appeared in the past two months, and finally converged in the Cape of Good Hope area that they had their eye on since early on.
But it could also be said that it was a quantitative change that caused a qualitative change.
Their seven years of hard work had finally shown results at this moment.
Huo Shaoheng looked down at the empty square outside the window. He put on his Bluetooth headset and said to Zhou Qiyuan, “Make the arrangements. I want to see Gu Yanran immediately.”
He still needed to make a final confirmation.
Gu Yanran was the only person in the world who had claimed to have seen the plane crash after the entire world searched for it for so many years. However, the father that she had “rescued” wasn’t Gu Xiangwen.
When she had been tried last year, she had already confessed that when she had found the wreckage of the crashed plane, her “father” had already died, so she cremated him and his wife together, then thew their ashes into the sea.
The place where the plane had crashed was in the Cape of Good Hope.
That was also the reason why Huo Shaoheng had sent Zhao Liangze to search for the islands in the Cape of Good Hope even though he didn’t believe her words.
That was because they had learned from the lie detector that Gu Yanran’s words were partially true.
For example, the place where the plane crashed was most likely on that island.
However, Zhao Liangze had yet to find the exact island at the Cape of Good Hope.
Before he found the island where the plane crashed, Huo Shaoheng had obtained another coordinate from Luo Jialan’s phone. Zhao Liangze had used that coordinate to find a small mini submarine that had sunk to the bottom of the sea, but hadn’t found the wreckage of the plane.
From all aspects, only Gu Xiangwen had the ability to build this mini-submarine. Therefore, they felt that salvaging this submarine would be the closest clue to finding Gu Xiangwen.
However, as for how Gu Xiangwen had switched from the plane to the submarine, Huo Shaoheng felt that there was still an important link that couldn’t be connected.
The only person who could possibly know what had happened was Gu Yanran.
Aiko Yamaguchi might have been there before, but according to the report and DNA analysis from Japan, the middle-aged woman killed by the sniper at Qingshui Temple in Kyoto was Aiko Yamaguchi.
Huo Shaoheng pressed down on his military cap, turned around, and walked out of the office building to the place where Gu Yanran was being held.
The Huaxia Empire was the place where Gu Yanran was convicted. Gu Yanran was a foreigner, and because she had a close relationship with the Gu family, she was being held in the Special Operations Forces’ secret base until Gu Xiangwen’s whereabouts were confirmed.
..
The heavy metal doors opened to the left and right with a clang, and Huo Shaoheng’s bulletproof car drove in.
Gu Yanran’s eyes were covered with a black cloth, and she was taken to a small room with no windows and only a door.
After a while, someone came in and untied the black cloth on her eyes.
The sudden light was too blinding, and Gu Yanran hurriedly covered her eyes with her hand.
After a while, her eyes adjusted to the light and narrowed.
Standing in front of her was a tall, handsome man. It was Huo Shaoheng.
Under the military hat, his breathtakingly beautiful face had the ability to make people fall head over heels in love with him for the rest of their lives.
Gu Yanran saw it was him and smiled slowly. She said meaningfully, “You’ve finally come to find me. I’ve been waiting for this day.”
“Really?” Huo Shaoheng sat down in front of her and lit a cigarette. He toyed with the Zippo lighter that Gu Nianzhi had given him while trying to get her to say something. “You’ve finally thought it through. Then tell us everything, so we don’t have to waste our breath.”
His attitude was calm and composed, and his expression was calm as usual. There was no sign of panic at all.
Gu Yanran’s heart skipped a beat. It was different from what she had imagined…
She looked at him suspiciously and said,”… What did you say? Didn’t I already say what I needed to say?”
