After learning that sothing had happened to Qi Xiang, Ye Nan found an excuse to slip away from the others and quietly left the camp.
Half an hour later, Ye Nan took out another special personal terminal from her storage space and sent a ssage.
Before long, soone contacted her.
It was the old Family Head of the Qee Family, Qee Lianshan, who had retired to work behind the scenes for many years.
Ye Nan froze, not expecting the old patriarch himself to be the one contacting her this ti.
She bit her lip, took a deep breath, and answered the call. "Grandpa..."
"I heard sothing happened to Qi Xiang." Qee Lianshan cut her off, his aged face stern and impersonal. "What’s going on? Didn’t I tell you to secure those things? Was it your mother..."
"It wasn’t." Ye Nan was already deeply unsettled. Hearing the old patriarch ntion her mother, Ye Xin, she forced herself to focus, straightened her spine, and denied it flatly. "She doesn’t know about this."
Qee Lianshan narrowed his eyes, his sharp gaze exuding imnse pressure. Ye Nan nervously pursed her lips.
She looked at the imposing, indifferent old man on the screen and forced herself to remain calm. "Grandpa, what happened to Qi Xiang isn’t necessarily related to that... item."
In fact, Ye Nan had been to this place just a few days prior.
She had secretly taken so items from the laboratory. Afterward, to avoid arousing suspicion, she had returned to the convoy and deliberately jamd their signal, causing the team to lose its way in the wilderness.
But as it turned out, her team was full of hidden experts. Soone had ended up guiding them to a "coincidental" encounter with Gu Xi’s convoy in the wilderness.
It wasn’t until the convoy returned to this location that Ye Nan finally understood. The sudden appearance of those mutated people, forcing her convoy into a safe encampnt, had likely been a ploy to make the Special Service Team co for a rescue.
It was all a way to buy more ti.
You had to hand it to him; the old were always the most cunning.
The old patriarch had probably arranged everything from the start.
Realizing all this, Ye Nan suppressed her horror and forced herself to et the old patriarch’s sharp gaze. "Grandpa, I already gave those things to the person you designated a few days ago, just as you instructed. Didn’t he take them back to the Central Base?"
Qee Lianshan stared at her with narrowed eyes for a mont before saying coldly, "Go back now. Find a way to get a blood sample from Qi Xiang..."
...
By the ti Ye Nan returned to camp, she found it under a complete lockdown, with countless drones circling the periter.
Li Shen, who was on periter duty, saw her returning from outside and did a double take. "Xiaonan, what were you...?"
Ye Nan lowered her head slightly. "I guess I was underground for too long. I felt a little sick, so I ca out for so air."
Before Li Shen could press further, Ye Nan took the initiative to ask, "What’s going on? Why does Mr. Yang have all his drones out?"
Li Shen explained, "It’s the leader’s orders."
"Did sothing happen?" Ye Nan frowned, a bad feeling creeping into her heart.
Li Shen lowered his voice. "Sothing’s happened to Qi Xiang... After we reported it, headquarters notified us that soone at the base is in trouble, too. The symptoms are similar to Qi Xiang’s, but their condition is much more serious..."
Ye Nan’s face instantly paled as she rembered what she had seen a few days ago. "How is Qi Xiang?"
Li Shen glanced at her. "Don’t worry, Qi Xiang is fine. Miss Gu has already helped her get it under control..."
"Wait." Ye Nan couldn’t hold back her shock and blurted out, "You’re saying it was Gu Xi who helped get Qi Xiang’s condition under control?"
Sothing seed to dawn on her, and Ye Nan grew anxious. "Mr. Li, I’ll let you get back to your work. I’m going to check on Qi Xiang."
Watching Ye Nan’s retreating back, Li Shen thought for a mont, then pressed the comm on his shoulder.
...
anwhile, Ye Nan had just gotten back inside the camp when Ye Junhan strode toward her, his brow furrowed. "Where have you been?"
Ye Nan already had a guilty conscience. Facing the full, oppressive aura of a high-level ability user, her face grew even paler. "Jun Han, I..."
Just then, Xu Hai walked over and casually positioned himself in front of Ye Nan. "Mr. Ye, the base commander wants to speak with you."
Ye Junhan looked down and activated his personal terminal.
Once the video call connected, the kind, amiable face of Base Commander Gu Yumin appeared on the Light Screen.
He first asked after everyone’s well-being before requesting the video files related to the underground laboratory from Ye Junhan.
He was particularly interested in the footage of when Feng Xiao and Qi Xiang first discovered the lab.
Ye Junhan didn’t agree imdiately. Instead, he said respectfully, "Base Commander, please wait a mont. I need to seek authorization for this."
Gu Yumin’s gaze swept briefly over Ye Junhan’s personal terminal before he smiled and nodded. "Of course."
Ye Junhan, however, turned to Zhou Qian. "Contact headquarters."
Zhou Qian nodded, quickly established contact with headquarters, and explained the situation.
After receiving approval from headquarters, Ye Junhan looked toward Yang Liu. "Compile all the previous footage."
"Yes, Leader." Yang Liu understood the unspoken command. He began compiling the previously recorded videos, secretly deleting certain segnts that appeared after Gu Xi showed up.
After receiving the video files, Ye Junhan reviewed them one more ti before transmitting them to Gu Yumin. "All the footage is here. Please take a look."
Gu Yumin didn’t view the files imdiately. Instead, he smiled and asked, "I heard soone was injured during this incident. Is it serious? Would you like the base to send a transport plane over...?"
"That won’t be necessary, Base Commander." Qi Xiang suddenly appeared on cara, greeting Gu Yumin with a smile. "I just got a small cut by accident. It’s fine now, so there’s no need to waste the base’s rescue resources."
As she spoke, she tapped Ye Junhan’s hand, prompting him to aim the cara at her calf. Then, turning away from the others, she whispered, "Mr. Gu, you can rest assured. I’m really fine..."
The mont the cara moved away, Ye Junhan suddenly sensed soone watching him. He turned his head and t Gu Xi’s gaze.
Since the base commander had wanted to express his concern for the whole team, Ye Junhan hadn’t activated the privacy mode for the call. Thus, Gu Xi, who was on the other side of the room, had also heard the man’s voice.
And she recognized it instantly.
’Soone from the Gu Family...’
’Li Ming never liked anyone from the Gu Family, even if Gu Yumin was just an adopted child from a branch of the family.’
Thinking of Li Ming, Gu Xi walked over to Qi Xiang and spoke slowly. "I treated Qi Xiang’s wound myself. There won’t be any complications."
’She didn’t want to suspect anyone, but there were so things she needed to get to the bottom of.’
Ye Junhan glanced at Gu Xi. The emotion in his eyes was complex and vanished in a flash, leaving Gu Xi unable to decipher it.
On the other end of the call, Gu Yumin heard the voice from the Light Screen and froze. Although he had long known that Gu Xi was with Ye Junhan’s team, hearing her voice again after so many years still left him montarily dazed.
But he was the base commander, after all.
He recovered quickly and asked Ye Junhan with a hint of hesitation, "Jun Han, who was that who just spoke...?"
The cara refocused on Ye Junhan.
Gu Yumin’s gaze darted around him, but he didn’t see the person he was expecting.
"Jun Han?" Gu Yumin’s eyes returned to Ye Junhan.
"Gu Xi." Perhaps unsure how else to introduce her, Ye Junhan simply turned the communications Light Screen to face her.
On the other end, Gu Yumin looked at the young woman’s vaguely familiar face on the Light Screen. For a mont, his emotions were in turmoil, but his expression remained perfectly normal. "Gu, hello. I’m Gu Yumin."
Gu Xi raised her eyes, studying the man on the screen intently for the first ti in many years.
’Soone from the Gu Family.’
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