When Gu Nianzhi turned around and saw Huo Shaoheng, her first reaction was that she had missed him so much she was hallucinating…
After all, Huo Shaoheng shouldn’t have appeared there at a time and place like this, right?
Wasn’t he on a mission?
Or had he already come back from it?
Gu Nianzhi had never thought that Huo Shaoheng would have already been imprisoned in detainment because of Hong Kangquan.
If General Ji hadn’t desperately protected him, Huo Shaoheng’s career would have stopped there, even if he had eventually been cleared of the false charges.
As for what Gu Nianzhi had done for him, this had cut off any possibility of future trouble. He would never have to worry about someone using the incident in the United States to discredit him or force him to retire.
As Huo Shaoheng looked at Gu Nianzhi, the smile on his face gradually grew bigger.
Gu Nianzhi blinked her eyes and opened the door to move outside. She cocked her head and looked at Huo Shaoheng. “Huo Shao? You’re really back?”
“Yeah, I’m back.”
“You came to see me as soon as you came back from your mission?” Gu Nianzhi’s eyes glittered, her entire face beaming.
At a moment like this, Huo Shaoheng deeply regretted the monitoring in the room. Otherwise, he would surely embrace her in his arms and be very affectionate towards her.
He sighed from the bottom of his heart and maintained a safe distance from Gu Nianzhi as he replied calmly, “You’re very busy with work here?”
Gu Nianzhi shook her head in surprise. “I’m not busy though? I just started working so they haven’t given me much to do yet. Why do you ask?”
“Has your injury healed yet?” Huo Shaoheng continued to ask questions. “…You’ve lost a lot of weight.”
“I’ve lost weight?” Gu Nianzhi touched her cheek, her face full of joy. “How wonderful! I don’t need to lose weight anymore!”
Huo Shaoheng had nothing to say to that.
His brows began to furrow unhappily. “Lose weight? Don’t even think about it.”
Gu Nianzhi didn’t respond.
“If you want to lose weight, then I think you can start by doing three-mile weight-bearing cross-country runs every morning.” This wasn’t the right place to chat, so Huo Shaoheng glanced at his watch. “I’ll come find you tonight and discuss more ways to ‘lose weight.’” As he said this, he slightly inclined his chin at her before turning to leave.
Gu Nianzhi watched Huo Shaoheng’s strapping figure leave. Clutching her hand to her chest, she discreetly curled her lips into a smile.
Hugging the folder, she headed to Speaker Long’s office in a better mood than ever.
The tension and anxiety from the past few days dissipated at that moment.
She knew Huo Shaoheng spent most of his energy and thoughts on the military personnel, so it was very rare for him to make the gesture he had that day and be so conscious.
Gu Nianzhi was almost humming when she arrived at Speaker Long’s office.
Special Assistant Zhuang was frowning at the door. When he heard she was still humming a strange melody, he couldn’t help but relax his brows and ask with a smile, “You’re singing? What song is it? It sounds pretty nice.”
Gu Nianzhi replied with a smile, “‘Fireflies Fly,’ a children’s song.”
Special Assistant Zhuang didn’t have much to say to that.
Opening the doors to Speaker Long’s office, Special Assistant Zhuang inclined his chin at the room. “Go inside.”
He entered Speaker Long’s office with Gu Nianzhi before casually shutting the door.
They walked to Speaker Long’s desk and stood still before it. “Speaker Long, what instructions did you have?”
Speaker Long pointed to the two chairs in front of him. “Sit down, there actually is something.”
Gu Nianzhi and Special Assistant Zhuang sat down. They both saw a printed email on Speaker Long’s desk.
Gu Nianzhi’s eyes were keen, so she could already see that it was an email in English. The header appeared very familiar—it was the logo of the US Congress.
She had interned at the US Congress for six months, so she remembered the official document templates very well.
Speaker Long glanced at her. “Nianzhi, do you know what this is?”
Since Gu Nianzhi had been an intern at the Senate Secretariat, she had certainly gone through a background check. Speaker Long also knew about her interning experience at the US Congress.
Gu Nianzhi nodded quickly. “This is an email from the US Congress?”
“Right.” Speaker Long nodded with approval. “Nianzhi, I know that you interned at the US Congress, so that is a great advantage for our own work. You must make full use of this advantage and help us.”
“Of course.” Gu Nianzhi expressed it was no problem. “What do you need me to do?”
“Well.” Speaker Long had printed two copies of the email, so he gave one copy to Gu Nianzhi and the other to Special Assistant Zhuang. “The Speaker of the US Congress has sent me an email in protest and claims that our nation waged cyber warfare against the United States and caused significant losses in United States property.”
Gu Nianzhi was blank.
This was still going on?!
She frowned discreetly.
Special Assistant Zhuang also expressed confusion. “What on earth is going on? Since they said it’s cyber warfare, that means it was a confrontation between two armed forces. They should realize that it was their own bad luck to have lost the war, so what are they trying to do?”
Gu Nianzhi was someone who had experienced the entire cyber war that night. She had also hacked into the server of the American Skull and Bones Society and taken a look around, then inserted a Trojan virus in the Americans’ download folder.
No one knew better than Gu Nianzhi what losses the United States had suffered this time.
But while she knew this well, did that mean she had to fall into their net and admit to her crimes?!
Gu Nianzhi flicked the email and raised her brow. “Let them protest then. We don’t need to pay any attention to them.”
Merely reading their email was already showing respect.
How could a defeated general be considered brave?
Speaker Long and Special Assistant Zhuang laughed in amusement, then shook their hands and used their hands to cover their coughs. “I could certainly ignore it if the US Congress was the only one to send me a letter. Not only did they involve the US Senate, but also the US Department of Justice and the US Military.”
Gu Nianzhi was at a loss for words.
Special Assistant Zhuang was bursting with questions.
“This is an email from the Speaker of the US Senate in protest of the huge losses to their national interests from our nation’s cyber warfare. They reserve the right to make claims,” Speaker Long said suggestively. “Also, I just received notice that the US Military has also sent an email of protest to our Supreme Military Commander, General Ji. He’s demanding for us to compensate the United States for their losses and also promise to never wage any future cyber warfare against the United States, under any circumstances.”
Gu Nianzhi was extremely speechless. “They were shameless enough to make such a ridiculous request?!”
Speaker Long laughed.
Nations never considered each other’s shame, only interests.
“Compensate for their losses?!” Special Assistant Zhuang also grew agitated, since he was rather keen on numbers. “How are they defining the value of losses?”
“It’s an astronomical figure, of course.” Speaker Long clasped his hands atop the email from the US Congress, his expression growing stern. “In addition, the US Department of Justice has sent an email to our nation’s interim cabinet. On behalf of the United States as a nation, they have explicitly named 27 of our nation’s military personnel and filed a lawsuit. They are accusing these people of stealing important technical information from the US Military and demand for our nation to extradite these 27 soldiers to the United States for trial.”
Gu Nianzhi was completely floored.
Twenty-seven soldiers?!
That number seemed very familiar.
Wasn’t that the exact number of Special Operations Forces Personnel that had been in the cyber counterattack alongside Gu Nianzhi and Huo Shaoheng in the central control room that night?!
If these were really the same 27 Special Operations Forces personnel from that night, then how had the United States obtained this intelligence?!
