Ding-dong!
With a crisp chi of the doorbell, the security door was opened from inside. A woman in her forties sized Ling Chen up and asked, "Who are you looking for?"
Ling Chen smiled and said, "Hello, I’m here to see the old General."
"The old General is about to take his lunch nap. How about you co back another day?" No sooner had the woman spoken than Qiao Zhen’s voice ca from inside the house: "You little punk, you finally rembered to co see this old man."
With Qiao Zhen saying that, the woman didn’t dare block Ling Chen anymore and hurriedly ushered him in.
In the living room, Qiao Zhen was wearing a loose Tang suit and sitting on the sofa, his back straight. Even though he had already stepped down from his post, the aura of a soldier still radiated from him.
"Old General." Ling Chen grinned, handed the gift in his hand to the woman, then walked up to Qiao Zhen.
"I thought you’d forgotten this old man. It’s been so long and you didn’t even make a phone call."
Ling Chen said, a bit embarrassed, "That’s my fault, I’ve been too busy lately. See, the mont I got so free ti I rushed over to visit you."
"Enough! You think I don’t know what you’ve been busy with? I may have retired from above, but my eyes aren’t blind and my ears aren’t deaf. I know very well what’s been going on. To be honest, you really stir up trouble. There’s nothing going on that doesn’t have your shadow in it."
Ling Chen couldn’t help but laugh. "Old General, are you praising my capabilities in a roundabout way?"
"All this ti and you’re still the sa, haven’t changed one bit." Prodded by Ling Chen, Qiao Zhen also laughed. "I heard from Pang Jiulin that for Zhu Hong’s matter, you ca all the way from East Sea City to Beijing."
When Qiao Zhen ntioned Zhu Hong, the smile on Ling Chen’s face faded a lot. He said solemnly, "Old General, how much do you know about this matter?"
"I asked a few old friends around, but ca up empty-handed. The water around that ancient tomb is too deep. Everyone keeps their mouth shut and doesn’t dare talk much about it. However, as far as I know, the governnt has long since stopped getting involved."
"Why?" Ling Chen asked in confusion, "Didn’t the governnt send people to take over that ancient tomb back then? Why are they ignoring it now?"
"Because the impact of this matter is bad. The governnt has explicitly banned promoting superstitious ideas. An immortal person—don’t you think that’s superstition? If sothing like that gets out, who knows what kind of chaos it will cause. Besides that, although a lot of data was left in that tomb, all indicating that the tomb’s owner lived for several hundred years, there’s no living person and no corpse. Just so docunts—what can they prove? So the governnt isn’t interested in wasting effort on this, and they’ve already withdrawn their people."
"But I heard that the military has taken over this matter?"
"Correct." Qiao Zhen nodded. "To be precise, it’s been taken over by the military’s research institute. In short, information on this whole thing is sealed up tight, not a word leaks out, so I can’t find anything useful either. Kid, I suggest you don’t wade into this muddy water, or you’ll just bring a pile of trouble down on yourself that’s hard to clean up."
Hearing this, Ling Chen gave a bitter smile inwardly. If he could, of course he didn’t want to get involved. But since it concerned Zhu Hong and Ling Gengqiu’s severed limbs, he had no choice.
"Right, I almost forgot to tell you sothing." Qiao Zhen said, "Lonely Wolf might be disbanded."
"Disbanded?" Ling Chen asked in surprise, "Why?"
"Whether it’s Ghost or Lonely Wolf, they were created to fight the God Organization. Now the God Organization has completely vanished, and the mastermind behind it has also disappeared without a trace. So there’s no more value in Lonely Wolf continuing to exist."
"What about Instructor Pang, Mr. Han, and Old Tang? How is the governnt planning to place them?"
"They’ll be assigned into special forces units in the army as officers. With the battle rits they’ve accumulated, they’ll at least be field-grade officers. Also, Pang Jiulin and Han Bing are both key contributors to Ghost and Lonely Wolf. Given a chance to groom them, it’s only a matter of ti before they’ve got General Stars on their shoulders. After working so hard for so many years, they deserve this. It’s a pity you pulled out of Ghost so early. Otherwise, with your record you could at least be a lieutenant colonel by now. With a few more years of advanced training, you might’ve beco the youngest general."
Ling Chen said with a smile, "It’s fine, I’m doing pretty well now too. Compared to being a soldier, I still prefer a free and easy life."
Qiao Zhen sighed with emotion. "Seeing all of you making sothing of yourselves, I truly feel happy for you. All that effort I put into you back then clearly wasn’t wasted. Kid, co visit more when you have ti. I’m getting on in years; I don’t know how many more years I’ve got."
"Old General, please don’t say that. With your health, you can easily live another twenty years."
"Twenty years?" Qiao Zhen laughed heartily. "If I could live another twenty years, that’d be great. Lately I’ve been thinking, while my body’s still holding up, I should travel around a bit, and make a trip to East Sea City to visit the Chief."
Ling Chen knew the "Chief" Qiao Zhen ntioned was He Ziyun. Back then, He Ziyun was the one who founded Ghost, and Qiao Zhen was his successor.
"Old General, whenever you want to go, just tell . I’ll co to Beijing and pick you up right away."
"Alright, it’s a deal then."
After staying at Qiao Zhen’s ho for about two hours, Ling Chen took his leave. Qiao Zhen had originally wanted to keep him for dinner, but Ling Chen received a call at the last minute and had to go.
Leaving the military compound, Ling Chen sat in the back seat of the car, took out his phone, and dialed a number.
"Hey, it’s . I was just at the old General’s place, so it wasn’t convenient to talk. We can talk now—what exactly is going on with Zhu Hong?"
Tang Yuan’s voice ca from the other end of the line. "I just got so intel. Zhu Hong will be flying to the research institute in North County tonight. Soone will quietly escort him to the airport. If you want to settle this once and for all, this is your only chance. Once Zhu Hong reaches North County, you won’t have any chance to get to him."
Hearing this, Ling Chen’s brows lifted. "Old Tang, are you egging on to commit a cri?"
"What, you’re not interested?"
Ling Chen pondered for a mont and said, "When I went to visit the old General just now, he told the water in this matter is too deep, told to take it easy and not throw myself in. That research institute is operating under the military’s na. If I act rashly, it’s the sa as going up against the military. Putting aside whether I’m okay with that, if the old General finds out, he’ll tear into ."
"Fine! In that case, pretend I never said anything just now." With that, Tang Yuan directly hung up.
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