The undercurrents in the Dark World were surging.
It was also turbulent in Zhongzhou State.
In the last ten days of June, in a hidden place that no one knew about, something that seemed accidental but actually made sense was carried out in full swing.
Zhongzhou State, East Island, Northern Europe, and North America…
In the nervous atmosphere before the storm, the whole Dark World seemed to become a big chessboard, a big general trend.
It was impossible to figure out or take control over.
For the players on the chessboard of Zhongzhou State, they had to spend most of their time on meetings in the last ten days of June.
The meetings of Decision Making Committee, the meetings of Army Headquarters, the special warfare meetings of Kunlun City, the internal meetings of all the combat agencies, and all the joint meetings of several agencies…
Busy!
Under the peaceful surface, everyone was busy with something.
Chaos!
Nothing really happened, but everyone felt an uncomfortable sense of chaos.
But there were orders in the chaos.
After every meeting, the whole plan of Zhongzhou State would take a step forward. Under the messy surface, every step of improvement was clear and steady. The general trend was a mess, but every insider of Zhongzhou State was full of confidence.
The special warfare force of the entire Zhongzhou State seemed to enter a state of madness. For a bright future, Zhongzhou State used all the resources they could find and brought down the possibility of failure as much as they could.
Then it was the input.
The continuous input.
In the process of using all the resources in the country to fight against East Island, speaking of craziness, the Commander of Zhongzhou Eastern Theater of Operations, General Ning Zhiyuan was the craziest of them all.
His behavior surprised all the insiders in the country, and they were dumbfounded by what he did.
As the biggest supporters of this war, among the first group of about two thousand special warfare elites of Zhongzhou State that sneaked into East Island, five hundred elites with the best combat capability came from the Eastern Theater of Operations.
With the partic.i.p.ation of the five theaters of operations, Kunlun City, all the special warfare agencies and the two Special Warfare Academies, one fourth of the manpower came from the Eastern Theater of Operations.
Just when everyone was in awe of how crazy this was, the list of the second group of elites that sneaked into East Island got sent to every insider.
The first reaction when they saw the list was, Ning Zhiyuan had gone mad.
Among the six hundred superiors in the Fire-flaming Realm, one hundred and eighteen of them came from the Eastern Theater of Operations!
While there seemed to be less than one hundred and thirty of them in total in the entire the Eastern Theater of Operations.
What did he want to do?
At the moment, minus the five hundred elites that were sent away, the combat capability of the elites in the Eastern Theater of Operations was at the lowest trough in decades.
In the five theaters of operations, the Eastern Theater of Operations was always considered the second powerful big theater of operations to the Central Theater of Operations. But after the two decisions Ning Zhiyuan made, the status of the Eastern Theater of Operations dropped sharply, and it almost dropped to the bottom of the five theaters of operations.
And this kind of strength couldn’t be supplemented in a short time.
After all, this wasn’t as simple as just sending people to East Island. When they sent the people out, the files of the elite soldiers subordinate to the Eastern Theater of Operations in the database of the Eastern Theater of Operations would be destroyed.
From this perspective, every elite from the Eastern Theater of Operations that got into East Island could be considered a member of the Snowdance Corps.
Even if the Southeast Group wanted to use this power to take partial control of the Snowdance Corps, they didn’t have to send people over just before the final battle was about to break out. After all, the Snowdance Corps took orders mainly from Kunlun City. In the final battle, a decision from Kunlun City could cause these hundreds of elites subordinate to the Eastern Theater of Operations heavy losses. The Southeast Group must understand this, but why would they make a decision like this now?
If one said everything Ning Zhiyuan did was for serving his country, not even a fool would believe in this.
But after every insider observed all the groups in Zhongzhou State, they hardly noticed any undercurrent.
People usually thought that this was a battle among the Southeast Group, Special Warfare Group, and other groups. But right now judging from the surface, all the groups were working together for Zhongzhou’s big fight.
At least President Li Huacheng had praised Ning Zhiyuan for his patriotism more than once on different occasions.
But w.a.n.g Tianzong, the big boss behind Ning Zhiyuan and the head of the w.a.n.g family of Beihai, stayed silent the whole time.
w.a.n.g Tianzong became more and more silent.
Slowly, people with intention switched focus to Ning Zhiyuan.
The general trend in the Dark World was surging rapidly, but everything was perfectly normal in Zhongzhou State.
But the seeming normal was the biggest abnormality.
When everyone focused on the general trend afar, some minor changes happened near them. They might not be obvious, but could be extremely important.
More and more people started to study Ning Zhiyuan.
He was low-key, quiet, kind, tough to the outside and soft to the inside, good at compromising and abandoning, good at dealing with complicated situations…
This was the impression Ning Zhiyuan left on everyone.
In the past many years, he had always been this way.
And right now.
It seemed that he was the same.
The afterglow of the setting sun shone on the horizon.
The bright moon started to rise, while the sun hadn’t disappeared entirely.
The darkness and the dim yellow in the sky mixed up together.
In the ancient capital Jinling, inside the courtyard of the Eastern Theater of Operations, Ning Zhiyuan, who was in a sharp military uniform, walked to his number three small building quietly.
On the way, there were some guards on patrol saluting him, and Ning Zhiyuan always saluted back seriously with the perfect gesture.
He was considered a top figure in the Zhongzhou Military, and he had average body shape and appearance. In the approaching night time, the military uniform he wore with military rank on it didn’t make him any more intimidating. On the contrary, it made him look more down-to-earth.
In most of the time, Ning Zhiyuan’s facial expression was soft, not serious or deep. He didn’t look kind or ordinary but looked like he was always thinking about something. People thought that he was weak or low-key, but they never doubted his control over the Eastern Theater of Operations.
After many compromises in years, the real power figure in the Eastern Theater of Operations from other groups changed from one to another, but no one had the ability to make Ning Zhiyuan give in. Even Tan Qinghua, the powerful general from the Prince Group, didn’t gain any extra advantage when fighting against Ning Zhiyuan. Tan Qinghua not only lost his son but was also forced to leave the Eastern Theater of Operations, which he had run for years. And everything happened to him was the result of Ning Zhiyuan’s seeming compromises.
His methods were the result of his wisdom.
This military general that w.a.n.g Tianzong trusted his life with, was definitely a real power figure that everyone should study carefully. But imperceptibly, he became the figure that everybody subconsciously ignored.
The night was getting darker and darker.
Ning Zhiyuan and the guards on patrol pa.s.sed through each other, then he continued walking to his residence.
The guards stood there and watched Ning Zhiyuan for a while, then shook their heads and continued to go on patrol.
The transfer of a large group of elites and superiors in the Eastern Theater of Operations wasn’t a secret. The regular soldiers didn’t know where had they been transferred to, but everyone knew that they left the Eastern Theater of Operations.
The last few days in June, not only the top officials in the whole Zhongzhou State were studying Ning Zhiyuan, but the guards in the Eastern Theater of Operations were also very curious about Ning Zhiyuan’s behaviors.
Ning Zhiyuan opened the gate of the number three building and walked into the hall.
His wife wasn’t here on normal days. Moreover, his son had already fallen out with him and cut him off. He lived in this two-story wooden building alone. It was so quiet that it felt chilly, but Ning Zhiyuan already got used to it. He walked past the hallway and was about to turn on the light.
“The light is too bright, and it’ll hurt my eyes.”
A voice suddenly rang out from the living room. The voice was light, soft and tender. The person had amazing control over his voice. His words reached Ning Zhiyuan’s ears and then stopped spreading.
Ning Zhiyuan’s hand froze on the light switch.
The last bit of afterglow of the setting sun outside the window disappeared completely.
The light, the shadows, and the silence filled up the living room.
Ning Zhiyuan walked into the living room with a calm face. Through the light and shadow, he could faintly see that there was a human figure sitting on the couch.
He just sat there in silence. He didn’t drink the water or touch the fruit plate in front of him, just sat there.
“You shouldn’t come here.”
Ning Zhiyuan walked over and sat across him, then he frowned and said.
In the dark, the black shadow that had been sitting there for G.o.d knew how long suddenly smiled in silence, with unknown intention.
Ning Zhiyuan seemed to notice that he might have said the wrong thing, then he sighed and said quietly, “At least now, you shouldn’t come here. If you need anything, we can communicate through the emergency channel, or we can meet somewhere else. Anywhere is safer than here.”
“I know you have been busy, and so many people are watching you right now. Do they keep track of how many times you go to the toilet? How are you? Are you under a lot of pressure? Can you carry on?”
The black shadow let out a soft laugh. In the dark, his voice got softer and softer, with heart-warming intimacy.
“I’m Okay.”
Ning Zhiyuan sighed, then shook his head and said, “There always will be pressure. But I have to do what I have to do.”
He rubbed his temple, then took out a piece of folded paper from his pocket and handed to the black shadow. “I have a headache, and I hope I can sleep well tonight. Please leave if you don’t need anything else. The longer you stay, the more I worry about it.”
“Don’t worry.”
The black shadow shook his head gently, smiled and said, “You sent out most of the superiors in the theater of operations, and the rest of them can’t track me down. And now the night just started to get dark, it’s not the right time to leave. I’ll wait till later.”
Ning Zhiyuan frowned but didn’t say anything.
The black shadow lowered his head and unfolded the A4 paper.
In the dark, the A4 paper was fully written with words, which seemed to be names. Nearly every name was underlined with some simple marks in black and red color.
The dim blue light flashed in front of the black shadow.
The light lit up the names on the paper, then immediately went out.
“I know the result already, but I have to say, you’re crazy for doing this. This list is worth our risky meeting tonight.”
The black shadow shook his head and sighed. His tone got softer and gentler.
Ning Zhiyuan snorted but didn’t say a word.
“How did you convince Tianzong?”
The black shadow suddenly asked. There was pure curiosity in his tone, and he meant no harm.
“He…”
Ning Zhiyuan shook his head. “He wasn’t in the right state lately and might be worrying about Shengxiao. Tianzong hadn’t even come to me to talk about the decision I made. Besides, this is the power of Zhongzhou State, after all. It belonged to the Southeast Group, but it wasn’t the private army of the Southeast Group. The president had stated his stand clearly, and it wasn’t right for him to say anything anymore.”
“Well…”
In the dark, the black shadow stayed silent for a short while, then nodded. “Shengxiao… Firmament and Black Pupil had been in East Island for almost a week. And Kunlun City can’t remain silent anymore. Furthermore, Ice Crystal and Ice Frost had left Zhongzhou State. Hey, everyone is looking for their successors. If they know they would end up like this earlier, then they wouldn’t do what they did back then.”
Ning Qiancheng remained silent.
“This list…”
The black shadow hesitated for a bit. “Is this your decision? After I leave tonight, it’ll be too late for you to regret, now…”
“Now what?”
Ning Zhiyuan said calmly, “Regret? Am I qualified to regret?”
The black shadow went silent.
Was Ning Zhiyuan qualified to regret?
There was no one that could give an exact answer to this question but himself.
“But you, you should think about your future. When everything is exposed, what are you gonna do?”
Ning Zhiyuan said in a plain tone, “Domestic slave of three families. It isn’t a nice t.i.tle.”
“To h.e.l.l with the domestic slave of three families.”
The black shadow laughed. “I only have one standpoint. After all these years, have I changed?”
The two remained silent in the dark.
“Anyway… We have put in so much work, and we’ll get what we want someday.”
After a while, the black shadow opened his mouth and said in a hazy voice.
“I believe in you.”
Ning Zhiyuan nodded and said in a cold tone, “But comparing what we have given and what we want, is it really worth it? Especially for you?”
“Worth it… Not worth it… Worth it…”
The black shadow mumbled, then suddenly let out a cold laugh. “Worth it or not, does it matter? What is dead is dead forever!”
He said it in a cold tone. But in his coldness that rejected everything, there was a kind of sadness and guilt deep to the bone.
Ning Zhiyuan twitched the corner of his mouth. He couldn’t see the black shadow’s face, and he suddenly lost the gut to look at him.
“I’m sorry…”
The general opened his mouth and said in his dry and raspy voice, “I’ve wronged you.”
“Back then… It was my decision, for the bigger picture.”
The black shadow shook his head and said in a deep voice, “If you can, thank Qiancheng for me.”
Ning Zhiyuan shook his head while smiling bitterly and didn’t say anything else.
“I’ll take the list.”
The black shadow stood up and waved the list in his hand. “Someone wants me to say thank you to you.”
“Who?”
Ning Zhiyuan’s gaze suddenly froze.
“Everyone. Everyone owes you a thank you, and it’s what you deserve.”
In the calm voice, there seemed to be light shining faintly into the living room outside the window.
The darkness in the living room faded away, and the black shadow who held the list had disappeared completely.
Ning Zhiyuan sat there, and the military rank of the General was shining with golden light at night. He sighed deeply, which sounded tired and powerless. He was like a sculpture full of cracks.
…
At the same time.
In Youzhou.
At Diaoyutai State Guesthouse.
A Benz car that had been specially refitted drove into the antique-flavored gate of the guesthouse with the guard of some other cars, then it finally stopped before the number twelve building.
The well-trained driver got off the car immediately. After looking around instinctively, he bent down and opened the rear door.
A tall, thin middle-aged man got off the car and b.u.t.toned up his black suit.
The middle-aged man looked like he was around forty. He had a lean and handsome face with a calm expression on it. He slightly pursed his lips, looking stern. But the biggest attention drawer was his eyes.
At night, he lifted up his head and looked at the light at the door of number twelve building. He slightly narrowed his eyes, it was a pair of eyes deep like the abyss, full of wisdom, depth, and unfathomable calmness.
A young girl with an extremely quiet and clever appearance followed the middle-aged man and got out of the car. She was blinking her big eyes and looking at the guesthouse in front of her curiously, then she said, “Dad, why did you bring me here?”
The sound of high heels clicking on the floor rang out inside the building.
An extremely elegant and gentle woman appeared at the door of number twelve building. The woman was wearing a pair of golden wire-rimmed gla.s.ses, looking fair and pretty. She looked mature and wise without all the teenage features. Her every move radiated the charm and confidence of a mature woman.
“Oh? Auntie Ning? Why are you here?”
The quiet girl next to the middle-aged man widened her eyes.
The woman froze too. Even if she looked mature now, she was far from an auntie. But then she smiled and said, “Xinyan, what are you doing here instead of staying put in Huating? Ha, did your dad trick you here? I’m telling you, it’s not too late to leave now. Your dad is planning on something evil, and I bet he brought you here and set you up with a blind date. There are a couple of young men from Europe and North America upstairs, which are all first-cla.s.s handsome men, but…”
She stopped for a second, then said while looking at the middle-aged man with a smile, “Old Han, you have the wrong plan this time. The young men upstairs are all circling around the real G.o.ddess right now. They are too shy to get near her, as if what a big honor it is if the G.o.ddess takes a look at them. Xinyan won’t like what she sees. I’m telling you, My Houlong is pleasing to look at than any of them.”
“Professor Ning must be joking.”
The middle-aged man smiled softly. “I, Han Donglou, am not some kind of big deal, but my daughter doesn’t need to find a man by a blind date. Today, I only bring Xinyan here to have some fun.”
Ning Xinyi, the vice princ.i.p.al of Huating University, the School Master of the Business School, a famous professor of economics in Zhongzhou State, the daughter-in-law of the wealthy Zhang family in Huating, was also the biological aunt of Ning Qiancheng.
And the middle-aged man was the Patriarch of the Han family from Huating, the founder of Flourishing Age Fund, the biggest fund inst.i.tution in Asia, and the infamous super financial tyc.o.o.n in the international financial market.
The Han family was a neutral wealthy family, but they had known the Zhang family all along and they had a good relationship with each other. If it wasn’t for the fact that the successors of the two families, Han Xinyan and Zhang Houlong didn’t click well together, maybe they could really unite together through a marriage.
“Auntie Ning, what are you talking about? What G.o.ddess? What blind date?”
Han Xinyan looked confused.
Ning Xinyi let out a soft laugh, then said mysteriously, “You’ll see when you get up there.”
“Everyone is here, right?”
Han Donglou asked casually while walking into the number twelve building.
“It’s not the appointed time yet.”
Ning Xinyi shook her head. “A couple of them haven’t arrived. The Prime Minister is on the way, and the representative from the w.a.n.g family of Beihai is with the Prime Minister.”
Han Donglou nodded. Then they reached an exquisite conference room, opened the door and got in.
A couple of young people were sitting in the conference room.
There were three men and two women. The conference room wasn’t a big one, but only three people in it still made it cold and cheerless.
The three young men in their thirties were all westerners with white skin, blonde or brown hair, tall figures, sword-shaped eyebrows, and bright star-like eyes, looking fresh and dashing. They were indeed first-cla.s.s western handsome men.
When Han Donglou and the rest of the people walked in, across the three western men, on the seat closest to the main seat sat a woman that looked like she was in her early twenties. She said something carelessly.
At that moment, the three young men that looked cool a second ago all bent down their bodies a little at the same time, and their smiles got warmer. In the middle, there was a man with blonde hair who almost raced to be the first one to answer the woman. His bright smile reminded Han Xinyan of the pug she kept a few years ago which liked to wave its tail at her.
The change was so obvious that it made Han Xinyan subconsciously open her mouth in shock.
She turned around subconsciously.
In her sight, on the seat closest to the main seat sat a young woman that made her lose all her words.
The woman was wearing a black suit and white blouse, showing her snow-white neck. Her hair was casually coiled up. In front of the pet-like pleasing smiles of the three young men, her exquisite yet sharp face looked cold and distant, but she still managed to look beautiful like a fantasy.
Han Xinyan had never seen this kind of beauty.
The kind of extreme beauty made people fear.
That was a sense of aggression that no one could resist, no matter if it was a man or a woman.
The G.o.ddess!
Thinking of Ning Xinyi’s comment on her, Han Xinyan nodded subconsciously, showing approval to her comment.
If there was a G.o.ddess in the world, she would look exactly like her.
A comforting fragrance filled up the conference room. It smelt natural and rich, like the rare natural body fragrance of a woman.
Han Xinyan felt like she was in a trance.
It wasn’t the first time that she saw this woman in front of her.
About two months ago, at the night when Ning Qiancheng killed Tan Xilai, she had shown up there.
At the time, someone called her Boss Qin…
She…
Was she that guy… that Li… Li Tianlan’s girlfriend?
Han Xinyan felt confused inside out of nowhere. What was more, she felt ridiculous about this.
Would such a proud, cold and dream-like woman have a boyfriend?
She shook her head hard.
And Ning Xinyi started to laugh softly and said, “Everyone, allow me to introduce.”
She pointed her finger at Han Donglou, smiled and said, “This is Mr. Han Donglou, the founder of Flourishing Age Fund. I’m sure everyone is familiar with him.”
The three western young men froze. They just realized Han Donglou who was walking in. The three of them seemed a bit awkward thinking about their behaviors just now. But they stood up anyway.
“h.e.l.lo, Mr. Han. I’m Luke Hubbs from Germanic Empire.”
The young man on the left stood up with a smile and reached his hand toward Han Donglou. His light green eyes looked crystal-clear. His every move after he got back from a trance seemed to radiate a kind of serious, stern aura.
Han Xinyan was a little bit shocked.
The Hubbs family from Germanic Empire?
It was a leviathan-like family in the Germanic Empire, or even in the entire Europe.
Looking at Luke Hubbs’s clear, soft smile, suddenly Han Xinyan couldn’t relate him to that pug, no, that three pugs.
“I’m Raymond Westminster.”
The young man on the right also walked over with a smile and shook hands with Han Donglou. His brown hair was tidy and mildly shining, making him look dashing as well.
Han Xinyan twitched the corner of her mouth again.
Westminster was an old wealthy family from America. Even in the entire North America, it could be considered one of the top-notch wealthy families.
“I’m Hugh.”
The young man in the middle who looked like a young G.o.d opened his mouth last. Under the shiny blonde hair, there was a handsome, pretty and confident face. “Hugh Rothschild.”
Han Xinyan had gone numb inside.
Rothschild.
This last name represented more than just a Grand Duke of United Kingdom of Great Britain. It was highly possible that most of the ordinary people were aware of how important this name was to the international financial market, let alone the upper-cla.s.s society.
Tyc.o.o.n.
They were the real tyc.o.o.ns.
But what was the reason they had a meeting with her father tonight?
Han Donglou shook hands with the three of them with a calm facial expression and greeted them in a polite tone.
“This is…”
Ning Xinyi hesitated for a bit, then laughed and said, “Since Everyone is in Huating, I wonder if the two of you have met each other. Mr. Han, this is Qin Weibai, Boss Qin.”
She stopped for a second and thought that she couldn’t ignore the bodyguard that stood next to Qin Weibai like she was invisible, but she wasn’t sure how to introduce her. So she just gave a vague introduction. “This is Shadowless.”
Qin Weibai stood up and put a mild smile on her cold face. “h.e.l.lo, Boss Han.”
“h.e.l.lo. Boss Qin.”
Han Donglou also gave a simple greeting.
Qin Weibai didn’t reach her hand.
And neither did Han Donglou.
—