Huo Shaoheng looked down at the lighted cigarette between his fingers.
In the darkness, he couldn’t see or hear anything apart from the spark between his fingers,
Whenever his hearing and vision were restricted, his mind became agile.
This spark was like a prairie fire.
Huo Shaoheng suddenly came to an understanding. He said with certainty, “… other than us, there are other people who know about Nianzhi’s constitution. The people who kidnapped Nianzhi are among them.”
Chen Lie looked up abruptly. “Ah? There are other people? Since they kidnapped Nianzhi, don’t tell me they want… ?!”
Huo Shaoheng sneered and took a drag of his cigarette. “Don’t tell me they want something? Don’t tell me they don’t harbor the same thoughts as you and me?”
“What thoughts?” Chen Lie stuttered.
Huo Shaoheng looked at Chen Lie and asked, “Are you still playing dumb? Can you really guarantee that it won’t happen again in the future? You’ve made a promise before, but when it came to Xiao Ye, you broke your promise.”
“You can’t guarantee it because the temptation is too great.”
“If Nianzhi can really help Xiao Ye repair her limbs, then if we really save her in the future, can you stop yourself from looking for her if one of us gets injured?”
“How much bone marrow does a person have? How long does it take to recover?”
“If the bone marrow cells are no longer useful, will we have to start studying her other cells? Body cells, stem cells, and reproductive cells?”
“Gradually, will she no longer be a person in your eyes? Instead, she will be a medicinal herb that can provide a medical miracle.”
Chen Lie was frightened out of his wits when he heard that. He shouted, “Stop it! I won’t!”
“You won’t?” Huo Shaoheng sneered. “Why have we been tacitly protecting this huge secret about Nianzhi for so many years? It’s so that she can grow up like an ordinary person and live among the masses!”
Wouldn’t it be a great tragedy for Gu Nianzhi if this secret could no longer be kept?
“This is different.” Chen Lie struggled with his last breath and said weakly, “For us, we hope that Nianzhi can help others with good intentions. Nianzhi has a choice, we won’t force her.”
“But if she falls into the hands of those people, she can only be a guinea pig. Do you think we might become like them?”
Huo Shaoheng stared in the direction of Chen Lie’s voice, his eyes sharp. “Nianzhi really has a choice? Chen Lie, in my opinion, is moral blackmailing. It’s more detestable than the people you look down on.”
These words sounded too harsh.
Chen Lie held his head in his hands and hid in the corner.
He silently pondered over Huo Shaoheng’s words, and cold sweat gradually broke out on his back.
In the past, he had thought that he was different from Ye Zitan. But now he really didn’t appear any different…
Perhaps the only difference was that he could get all sorts of resources through proper channels, while Ye Zitan didn’t have as many resources as he did, hence Ye Zitan could only take the risk.
Now that he was facing the same situation as Ye Zitan, and he had unknowingly walked the same path as Ye Zitan.
“Do you finally understand?” Huo Shaoheng let out a long sigh and tossed the cigarette stub in his hand into the trash can. “We all made a mistake just now. We coveted things that didn’t belong to us, and we even thought of taking action.”
“Tell me, what’s the difference between this and the criminals who know that there are treasures in a jewelry exhibition and steal it?”
Chen Lie hit his head with his hand, tears streaming down his face. “I was wrong, I was wrong. Huo Shao, I won’t use Nianzhi’s bone marrow. I will use my own abilities to save Xiao Ye. Before Nianzhi comes back…”
“Before Nianzhi comes back, you’d better not touch her bone marrow sample.” Huo Shaoheng said calmly. “Xiao Ye’s life is not in danger, and she won’t be so crippled to the point that she can’t move. Her injuries can wait, you don’t have to help her recover immediately.”
At the very least, they had to wait for Gu Nianzhi to come back.
They had no right to make decisions for her.
The two of them stood motionless in the darkness, calming their turbulent emotions.
After a while, Chen Lie stood up with his hands on the wall. He touched the switch on the wall and turned on the lights.
The light drove away from the darkness, and both of them felt as if a heavy burden had been lifted off their shoulders.
They had finally managed to balance the remorse they felt for their comrade-in-arms with the guilt they felt for Gu Nianzhi.
Everyone wanted to take shortcuts, but every shortcut had its own consequences.
Chen Lie took out a bottle of mineral water and handed it to Huo Shaoheng. “Drink it, you’re sweating a lot too.”
Huo Shaoheng’s summer clothes were drenched in sweat.
Huo Shaoheng took the bottle of mineral water, unscrewed the cap, and gulped it down.
He wiped the sweat off his forehead with his sleeve. He said calmly, “Let’s go back to what we talked about earlier. The other party sent a text message to sow discord. Originally, they wanted to kill two birds with one stone, but it also exposed his identity and purpose, allowing us to discover an important clue.”
This was probably something the person who sent the text did not expect.
“What identity?” Chen Lie was confused. “You know who it is? Then can you get Nianzhi back immediately?”
Huo Shaoheng looked at him as if he was looking at an idiot. He said calmly, “Of course not.”
“Then what do you mean?”
“Although we don’t know who it is yet, the scope has been narrowed by a lot.”
Chen Lie, “???”
“Think about it, how many people in this world know that Nianzhi has a special constitution?”
Chen Lie frowned and counted with his fingers. “You, me, and Nianzhi’s family, which is her father…”
“No.” Huo Shaoheng put his hands behind his back and walked to the window of Chen Lie’s office. “Gu Xiangwen didn’t know. He always assumed that Nianzhi’s illness hadn’t recovered. Don’t forget, his last words were filled with guilt.”
“Yes… I remember now…” Chen lie wiped the sweat from his forehead. “Then what happened? I thought it was Gu Xiangwen… After all, he’s so powerful…”
Huo Shaoheng extended his finger. “We can summarize all the suspicious points related to Nianzhi in a chronological order.”
“Firstly, seven years ago, Gu Xiangwen’s plane was hijacked and forced to land in the Cape of Good Hope. He used hypnosis to escape with his wife and hid in the submarine that he docked there. But in the end, he wasn’t able to escape the Japanese torpedoes. The submarine had been at the bottom of the sea for seven years.”
“Secondly, Gu Yanran said that Gu Nianzhi had gone missing after learning about Gu Xiangwen’s accident. She had taken the boat out to sea by herself and had disappeared in the Caribbean Sea.”
“Thirdly, that was also the year that Nianzhi was 12 years old. She had clearly disappeared in the Caribbean Sea, so why did she end up sitting alone in a car in the downtown area of C City in our country?”
“Fourthly, who brought her from the Caribbean into our country? How did she enter our country? We couldn’t find her immigration records.”
“Fifth, who was the driver of the car? Where did she go? And why did the car she was in suddenly catch fire and explode?”
Huo Shaoheng stared at his five fingers and said thoughtfully, “Of course, the premise of these questions is that Gu Yanran didn’t lie.”
If she lied, then the second and third points would not be valid.
Chen Lie patted his head and sighed, “Boy, the special operations force is really not a job for humans! Your logical analysis and memory must be excellent…”
“Don’t flatter me.” Huo Shaoheng was unmoved, “But regardless of whether Gu Yanran lied or not, Nianzhi’s illness was definitely cured. So, there’s still one more person, at least one more person, who cured Nianzhi’s illness. Perhaps, Nianzhi’s special constitution might be related to him.”
Chen Lie’s eyes widened instantly. His round eyes were like two small lanterns behind his round lenses.
“Oh my God! You’re saying that there’s another person! This person not only knows about Nianzhi’s special constitution but could also be the person who cured her illness?!”
“That’s amazing! That’s amazing! Doesn’t that mean he’s a genius who is even more amazing than Gu Xiangwen?!” Chen Lie circled around the office excitedly. “No, this person is a true genius in medicine! I really wish I had the chance to get to know him!”
Huo Shaoheng closed his eyes. He didn’t want to see Chen Lie like this, he calmly said, “Let’s just assume that this person exists. He cured Nianzhi’s illness and knew that she had a special constitution. Then what? Will he kidnap Nianzhi? Will he use such a clumsy method to provoke us and try to expose Nianzhi’s special constitution to the public?”
Chen Lie was exhausted from spinning around and finally calmed down. He sat in his swivel chair, crossed his arms in front of his chest, and muttered, “No.”
“How do you know?”
Chen Lie started speaking viciously. “First of all, if this person cured Nianzhi’s illness and allowed Nianzhi’s constitution to improve in a heaven-defying way, then this person’s ability is not on the same level as ours. It’s comparable to the difference between a human and a gorilla. When have you ever seen a human being jealous of a gorilla? “and show off their abilities and capabilities in front of a Gorilla?”
Huo Shaoheng, “…”
Chen Lie continued angrily, “But the person who sent the text message was obviously not the one who cured Nianzhi. That’s because he wasn’t even sure how far Nianzhi’s special constitution could go. Their understanding is about the same as us!”
