Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Yin Shixiong had indeed entered the relationship with Ma Qiqi with the intention of marrying her. However, hearing Huo Shaoheng mention marriage, he was stunned for a moment. “Mr. Huo, it’s going to be Lunar New Year soon.” Yin Shixiong held onto the table and stood up slowly. Then, he stammered awkwardly, “Haven’t met parents yet… my parents.” To put it more accurately, Ma Qiqi had not met Yin Shixiong’s parents yet; only Yin Shixiong had met Ma Qiqi’s parents.
Yin Shixiong’s father was the mayor of one of the cities in the South, and his mother was a lecturer at a university. His family background was slightly higher than Ma Qiqi’s but still compatible. He had intended to bring Ma Qiqi home during Lunar New Year to meet his parents.
His parents would definitely not object to her. Putting aside that Ma Qiqi was a master’s student at a prestigious university like B University, even if she were a high school dropout, his parents would still not object. Both of them had been yearning for their son to get married so much so that all their hair had turned white. Their expectations had been lowered too many times, until their current expectations were that as long as she was a female, had no previous criminal record, and her age was compatible with Yin Shixiong’s, that would suffice. They would even consider accepting a divorcee with a child.
Huo Shaoheng knew about all that. It was because he was Yin Shixiong’s superior. Yin Shixiong’s parents wanted him to get married. When they could not find Yin Shixiong, they would always call Huo Shaoheng, hoping that he, as the person in charge of Yin Shixiong’s workplace, would care about the personal matters of his subordinates. They had even tried to find out if Yin Shixiong’s sexual preference was normal…
Huo Shaoheng used to be single as well, and therefore, did not care too much about requirements like those. He would never force his subordinates to go on blind dates in order to get a wife…
However, it was different now, of course. That was the reason why he looked at Yin Shixiong with an expression that showed nothing but amusement. “Are you actually worried that your parents will not agree to it? With an amazing girl like Qiqi, your parents will be asking you to get married immediately after seeing her.”
Yin Shixiong chuckled. “That’s why I want to bring her home so as to give them peace of mind. As for the marriage request, I will have to discuss it with her first. No matter what, she has to agree to it before I submit anything. Moreover, I have not even proposed yet…”
Huo Shaoheng began to look uneasy. He narrowed his eyes slightly and looked at Yin Shixiong, seemingly full of thoughts, and lowered his head and continued looking at the documents in front of him. Then, he asked softly, “Propose?”
“Of course. Little girls care about this the most. How can she marry you if you haven’t proposed? Dream on, that’s what I would say!” Yin Shixiong told Huo Shaoheng about his plan happily and rubbed his hands together eagerly. “That’s why I need to bring Qiqi back to my place first, then prepare a grand proposal ceremony for her. I have already spoken to Qiqi’s parents. They’ll be spending their Lunar New Year at my place. I have to give Qiqi a grand proposal, so that she won’t be able to wait to marry me!”
Huo Shaoheng pursed his lips and flipped a page of the document casually. All of a sudden, he sounded cold. “Alright. Go out. Do not let your mind wander when you’re working. You are a soldier of the people in the Hua Xia Empire. Do not forget your responsibility.”
Yin Shixiong was confused by Huo Shaoheng’s sudden stern lecture. “Mr. Huo, what have I done? Weren’t you the one who wanted me to submit my marriage request? Or…” He looked at Huo Shaoheng suspiciously, and his heart skipped a beat. Had he shown off too much about how sweet and blissful he was, and Mr. Huo couldn’t take it anymore?! No matter what, Nianzhi had been wanting to break up with Mr. Huo all this time…
That couldn’t be. Hadn’t they already made up that day? He even saw it with his own eyes! If that wasn’t the case, how would he be that insensitive to still rub salt over the wounds of others?!
Yin Shixiong asked carefully, “Mr. Huo, will it be your and Nianzhi’s turn… soon?”
Huo Shaoheng looked up at him and had already returned to normal. He looked at Yin Shixiong, whose face was flushed but quickly drained of color, and asked, “Big Xiong, were you just trying to attempt to get confidential information from your superior? Do you want to enter the detention barracks, or do you want to remove the star you just got during your promotion?”
“Mr. Huo, I was merely asking. I have absolutely no intention of getting confidential information from you!” Yin Shixiong quickly shook his hands in an attempt to explain himself. “Don’t worry. I will definitely put my all into my job. That Ishihara Taro, should I get someone to keep an eye on him?”
Huo Shaoheng shook his head and said calmly, “Why should we? Did he have any past records of being a traitor?”
“How is he not?! He was full of reasons for having eyes on another’s girlfriend!” Yin Shixiong was feeling his blood boil. “Who knows what else he will do?! What if his ultimate intention wasn’t what it seemed? For example, getting closer to Nianzhi by getting close to Qiqi?!”
Yin Shixiong rambled everything out to Huo Shaoheng without as much as blinking. He thought, I shall see how much longer you want to pretend for! By not allowing me to keep watch on that jerk, you’re totally using official matters for revenge!
It seemed like Huo Shaoheng saw through his thoughts. Sternly, he said, “Big Xiong, we have important responsibilities on us. We cannot use them to solve personal problems. You cannot use official methods to take someone down just because that person has his eyes on your girlfriend. Could you get past your conscience if you did that?”
If I don’t do that, then I really wouldn’t be able to get past my conscience… Yin Shixiong thought but did not dare to disobey Huo Shaoheng’s orders. Moreover, he knew that Huo Shaoheng was talking sense. If he didn’t have solid evidence that Ishihara Taro was doing things that could threaten the benefits of the country, the Special Forces would never be able to move. If Ishihara Taro was merely interested in Ma Qiqi, it truly didn’t threaten the benefits of the country. It had only threatened the benefits of Yin Shixiong.
Heaving a long sigh, Yin Shixiong admitted defeat with his head lowered. “It’s my fault, Mr. Huo. Please punish me.” His thoughts just now had been really over the limit. As the vice president of the Special Forces, he had thoughts of using official weapons for his personal gain. He really deserved a punishment.
Huo Shaoheng looked at him for a moment before saying slowly, “It’s good that you’re able to figure things out on your own. Go back and write me a reflection of 5,000 words, and you’re to be suspended from duties for a month. Reflect on yourself.”
“Yes, sir!” Yin Shixiong was not unhappy upon hearing that. Instead, he was happy. Huo Shaoheng was actually helping him. Yes, they were unable to use what the Special Forces could do just because Ishihara Taro had his eyes on Ma Qiqi. However, as a person, Yin Shixiong could keep an eye on Ishihara Taro and not allow others to get close to his girlfriend.
The one month of suspension that Huo Shaoheng had given him would end on the last day of the Lunar New Year. He was giving Yin Shixiong a long break in another way! Yin Shixiong left Huo Shaoheng’s office happily and headed off to squeeze out his 5,000-word reflections.
As for Huo Shaoheng, he had personally gotten in touch with the soldiers who were based in Japan. He got them to look further into whether the Ishihara Corporation had any connections with the Kasahara family.
Ishihara Baisan was Gu Xiangwen’s classmate. This piece of information was totally new to them, and they hadn’t gotten it from Gu Xiangwen’s side. They had gotten it from the Ishihara side instead. It was because Ishihara Baisan had used a nickname when he attended college in America. It was a western name and had no relationship to his original Japanese name.
And it was also pure coincidence for the soldiers who discovered the connection between Ishihara Baisan and Gu Xiangwen. The reason was that the Ishihara family held Gu Xiangwen in extremely high regard. Ishihara Wakashi especially had always used Gu Xiangwen’s academic records to motivate his offspring to work hard and supersede Gu Xiangwen. Therefore, some of the domestic helpers in the Ishihara family knew about this. Had it not been like that, no one would have known about this except for the people within the family.
Looking at a personal progression chart in front of him, Huo Shaoheng added a new piece of information on it. This was Gu Xiangwen’s progression chart. Huo Shaoheng was working hard to put all the information he knew onto it, so that he would be able to decipher the things that had happened.
After a day, Huo Shaoheng called Gu Nianzhi and told her about the things that he had discovered. When Gu Nianzhi heard that Ishihara Baisan was Gu Xiangwen’s classmate in college, she suddenly understood why Ishihara Taro’s academic records seemed so eye-catching to her. That feeling was inexplicable before, but she had gotten her answers now.
“It seems like the Ishihara family had been looking upon my father as their biggest competitor all this time.” Gu Nianzhi chuckled, her tone was full of nothing but disgust.
Huo Shaoheng smiled and replied gently, “Only people who can never surpass someone would take that person as a competitor. Ishihara Baisan must have not been better than Mr. Gu.”
Gu Nianzhi nodded seriously as she edited her thesis on her computer and replied to Huo Shaoheng casually, “That is definite. Who knows, he might have committed suicide because he couldn’t be better than my father academically. Don’t all these Japanese have something about having the qualities of a ‘Samurai’? Haha, to put it bluntly, they are just a group of cowards who are unable to face any forms of failure.”
Huo Shaoheng’s heart skipped a beat. He sat up straight and asked, “What did you say just now again? Repeat.”
Gu Nianzhi’s hands stopped typing. “What did I say?”
“The sentence at the beginning.”
“He committed suicide because he couldn’t be better than my father academically?” Gu Nianzhi raised her beautiful full brows. “It was merely a passing casual remark. There’s no evidence behind it! You’re taking it for real?”
Of course Huo Shaoheng wouldn’t take it for real all because of a mere sentence. He must have had evidence. All they could gather about Gu Xiangwen online was nothing but his academic records. Eventually, he even stopped publishing articles altogether, and therefore, there was no more news of him.
And in his existing academic records, his first major discovery was the breakthrough in the research of the blue star’s magnetic field. It was during the same year that Gu Xiangwen had that breakthrough that Ishihara Baisan committed suicide.
That year, Gu Xiangwen was only in his twenties. However, Ishihara Baisan was already over 30 years old. Although both of them were classmates, it was clear that Gu Xiangwen was more of a genius than Ishihara Baisan.
Huo Shaoheng told Gu Nianzhi about this discovery.
Gu Nianzhi snorted. “Ishihara Baisan was really such a sore loser? Was he doing research on the same thing as well?”
Huo Shaoheng looked at the information that the soldiers based in Japan had sent back and nodded. “Not only was he doing research on the same thing, he had all the help he wanted from the Japanese government.”
However, Gu Xiangwen was doing the research based solely on his own resources.
He had much fewer resources compared to Ishihara Baisan, but his results were a knockout compared to Ishihara Baisan’s.
What did this mean? It meant that Gu Xiangwen’s capabilities were also an instant knockout compared to Ishihara Baisan’s. With all that, there was a possibility that Ishihara Baisan would be so mad that he couldn’t bear to live with that inferiority and just took his own life.
When Ishihara Baisan died, the research of the blue star’s magnetic field that was funded by the Japanese army had to come to a halt, because having a breakthrough discovery in physics was different than having a breakthrough discovery in biology.
In order to achieve a breakthrough discovery in biology, one could utilize the help of many by investing their time and effort so that they could have some progress. However, when it came to high energy physics, it was an area that could only be improved upon by a genius who specialized in that area.
Each and every major breakthrough in high energy physics was a major contribution from the genius scholars. And to have such geniuses, a country would be considered lucky if they could have one in a period of time.
Therefore, when Ishihara Baisan took his own life, the experiment on the blue star’s magnetic field could not be continued. The Japanese army had no choice but to let the entire research go to waste.
After explaining all that, Huo Shaoheng fell silent. He had remembered that there was research that was a collaboration between the Hua Xia Empire’s army and the institute of high energy physics. If he remembered correctly, it had something to do with magnetic fields as well…
