Although he warned himself against losing his temper and knew he had to keep it under control, Huo Shaoheng still continued to provoke him into revealing the truth. When He Zhichu saw Gu Nianzhi curled up in his arms and looking at him with tearful yet hopeful eyes, he couldn’t restrain himself anymore.
He Zhichu coldly jeered, “That’s right, I am very close with Nianzhi’s family. Haven’t you already known about this for quite a while? I already told you, but did you even believe me back then?”
“Why wouldn’t I believe you?” Huo Shaoheng asked honestly. “How would you know we wouldn’t believe you if you didn’t even tell us anything?”
“You’d believe me if I told you? Fine then, I will tell you once again – Nianzhi is my fiancée, and our marriage has been arranged since we were young. Can you give her back to me?”
He Zhichu already knew that Gu Nianzhi was married to Huo Shaoheng, but she didn’t want other people to know yet. They were still hiding their marriage from others.
Because of Reinitz’s presence, He Zhichu wanted to spare Gu Nianzhi the embarrassment and didn’t directly reveal that she was already married to Huo Shaoheng. He merely found a subtle way to express his desire to be with Gu Nianzhi.
He Zhichu was able to immobilize Gu Nianzhi with only one hand as he used the other to point at Huo Shaoheng.
He Zhichu felt incomparable pleasure when he saw Huo Shaoheng’s face turn as pale as a sheet.
“Haha, you don’t believe me now? See for yourself, when do you ever tell me the truth? You are only choosing to selectively believe the things that benefit yourself, but ignore or even refuse to admit the things that don’t. Huo Shaoheng, you created this trap to fool me into telling you the truth. Do you think you can actually accept the whole truth?”
He Zhichu laughed as he made sure to take out a small packet of wet wipes from his pocket. Tearing the package open, he removed a tissue to wipe the tears streaming down Gu Nianzhi’s face.
Huo Shaoheng balled his hands into tight fists behind his back and used ironclad will to restrain himself.
He couldn’t risk saying things that he would regret.
He Zhichu carefully wiped Gu Nianzhi’s face clean and didn’t even look up as he continued to sneer at Huo Shaoheng.
“…Why aren’t you talking now? Aren’t you all-powerful? I will tell you straight right now. I am willing to tell you everything. But the condition is that you give Nianzhi back to me! I will be able to tell you everything if you can do this for me! I’ve lived all my life without ever being afraid of any threat made towards me!”
Aside from threats concerning Gu Nianzhi.
But Huo Shaoheng likely shared the same weakness.
So, He Zhichu felt very confident saying such things to Huo Shaoheng.
Huo Shaoheng’s fist tightened and relaxed again behind his back. If the others were any closer, they would be able to hear his bones cracking.
Reinitz had no idea that He Zhichu was actually Gu Nianzhi’s fiancé. If this had happened in the past, he would not hesitate to take the opportunity to mock him and cause trouble, but now he wasn’t in the mood to do any of those things.
As someone who had grown up throughout his entire life under the strict control of others, how was he in any position to drag another person into his life?
When his godfather Li Dexi gave him the secret order to bring Gu Nianzhi back to Germany and marry her, Reinitz’s heart had been filled with unspeakable joy despite not vocally expressing any opinions.
He didn’t know how deep his love for Gu Nianzhi even went, but he couldn’t help but imagine their day to day life as soon as Li Dexi had said they were going to get married.
They would cook together, do laundry, have children, argue about their children’s education, worry about their children’s future marriages, then grow old together. When their hair turned white, they would watch the sunset on the balcony together…
But the truth Huo Shaoheng revealed today made him too frightened to ever imagine such a future again.
The true tragedy would be if Gu Nianzhi actually ended up with him, right?
He was a product of the Nazi race optimization eugenics program, and Gu Nianzhi probably was too, since she was Gu Haoze’s granddaughter.
So that was the reason why Li Dexi wished for them to get married? Was it to produce even more optimal offspring?
Reinitz’s lips curled into an icy sneer when he thought of this.
Originally, the Germans were only allowed to marry and have children within their own race.
But now Li Dexi was allowing Reinitz to marry and have children with a woman of pure Chinese descent. It was obvious just how badly they coveted Gu Haoze’s genes.
Reinitz inhaled deeply, the sensation finally returning to his legs.
Although his feet were still shackled, and he was unable to escape, his regular movements were not affected at all.
Rubbing his kneecaps, his expression darkened.
An otherworldly beauty suddenly appeared on his angelic and handsome face.
…
In the face of He Zhichu’s ridicule, the corners of Huo Shaoheng’s eyes twitched once. Pursing his lips, his voice sounded a bit hoarse when speaking.
He was still unable to shoulder the burden of He Zhichu’s request.
Though he was someone insistent on sticking to his principles, he had no choice but to retreat now.
He said, “…Fine, you don’t need to answer my questions. But are you going to tell Nianzhi what she wants to know? Was her grandfather Gu Haoze the successful result of Operation Borrowed Seed, just as Reinitz claimed?”
Huo Shaoheng recalled that Reinitz had shouted, “They had succeeded, they succeeded once before,” when he was having a near mental breakdown earlier…
He Zhichu coldly retorted, “Nianzhi’s genes do not contain genes characteristic of Japanese people. She is not Japanese, but of pure Chinese descent. This proves that her grandfather was also a pure-blooded Huaxia man without any Japanese lineage. I don’t know what you are trying to do by insisting that Gu Haoze had any connection to that disgusting Operation Borrowed Seed.”
“…According to our data, the last phase of Operation Borrowed Seed was conducted using pure-blooded Huaxia people to mate and produce offspring,” Huo Shaoheng said. He was very concerned about that particular point.
If this was the actual truth, that meant the data being pursued by Reknits belonged completely to the Huaxia people.
That type of data could absolutely never fall into the hands of foreigners.
…
Gu Nianzhi composed herself gradually as she listened to the conversation continue.
She almost had a breakdown when she heard Reinitz say Operation Borrowed Seed had succeeded once before because she immediately thought about her grandfather, Gu Haoze, who was a master of psychology.
But after the initial shock passed, she began to analyze the situation on her own and considered every word Reinitz had said along with all the data Huo Shaoheng presented.
Pushing away He Zhichu’s hand, she stood next to him and asked Reinitz thoughtfully, “Reinitz, going by what you know, did Operation Borrowed Seed only succeed once before?”
Reinitz nodded subtly. His pleasing baritone voice conveyed a trustworthy and gentle tone as he said, “That’s right. Our bureau’s predecessors examined the data, and the answer to this question was very apparent. The operation only succeeded once before, and they said that your grandfather, Gu Haoze, was the only result.”
That was why they couldn’t bear to subject him to any abuse or even use him in any experiments.
The biologists in the Japanese numerical unit viewed Gu Haoze as a perfect piece of artwork, so they believed that he must be perfectly preserved and passed along.
This mentality allowed Gu Haoze to emerge from the concentration camp in the Northeastern region of the Huaxia Empire unscathed and arrive at the Gestapo headquarters in Europe.
At the Gestapo headquarters, he underwent a complete series of analyses and observations.
Reinitz finally finished by saying, “But it was very unfortunate that all the analyses and observational data from that time were all taken by your grandfather. Otherwise, I would be able to tell you even more information.”
Gu Nianzhi shook her head in amusement as she said, “That’s fine. This is good.”
Reinitz hesitated, but still managed to say, “Your grandfather was only 19 years old when he left, so he was about the same age as you are right now.”
He actually didn’t need to go into such detail, since he only had to say he didn’t know anything else.
After all, all the data had indeed been stolen by Gu Haoze.
But when he saw Gu Nianzhi suffering so badly earlier and almost breaking down, perhaps he had a desire to repent for his earlier evil attitude. He still elected to tell her everything he knew about Gu Haoze.
He Zhichu added from the sidelines, “After your grandfather left the control of those people, he finally got married and had children. Your father was born in France. Your grandparents passed away a long time ago, but I really don’t know where your father is right now. Nor do I know if he’s actually dead or alive.”
These were all the things that He Zhichu knew about the Gu family.
But the information he possessed did not indicate that Gu Haoze was a genius at all.
Perhaps after Gu Haoze escaped from the clutches of the Gestapo and Japanese, he chose to live in anonymity as a normal person.
While it was very difficult to get away with pretending to be a genius, it was incredibly easy for a genius to masquerade as a normal person.
Gu Nianzhi nodded, then looked at Huo Shaoheng to calmly say, “I understand now. After thinking about what both Professor He and Reinitz said, I am still certain that Operation Borrowed Seed never actually succeeded, not even once. Huo Shao, what do you think?”
Huo Shaoheng’s eyes flickered momentarily. “And why do you say that?” he asked.
He absolutely didn’t want the Japanese to have succeeded with Operation Borrowed Seed either, but he had to remain impartial and cautious. He couldn’t immediately exclude any possibilities of their success. He couldn’t act emotionally like Gu Nianzhi.
He could understand why Gu Nianzhi felt that way, but he required evidence to convince him of the conclusion she was drawing.
Gu Nianzhi’s mind began to quickly remember the inspiration she had momentarily felt before.
After a while, she looked up with a smile and said, “I thought of it.”
