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nTranslator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

nShe was finally asking about what had happened last night.

n“You had a serious headache last night and it hurt so much that your body protected itself by passing out.” He Zhichu waved his hand. “It’s fine to go rest for a week; don’t overwork yourself.”

nGu Nianzhi still wanted to find out about the doll. She rested her hand on the door handle, hesitant to leave, then made the decision to ask, “Professor He, can you tell me why you would have that kind of doll and also, why that doll… looks so much like Teaching Assistant Wen?” Objectively speaking, it resembled Wen Shouyi when she was a child, Gu Nianzhi had realized then. Although she was now an adult, her features were still very similar. Gu Nianzhi had recognized the resemblance right away.

n“You really want to know?” He Zhichu was silent for a long time and finally said, “Actually you already have an idea, right? You just want me to confirm it for you.”

n“If I could recall my past, I would certainly not be repeatedly asking Professor He about it. But, Professor He clearly knows and yet refused to tell me—what is the reason for this?”

nA smile tugged at the corners of Professor He’s mouth. “I’m not telling you? Is that totally my fault? Who is the one who bolts like a rabbit whenever they see me? I couldn’t even find a chance to tell you, but now you’re saying I’m not telling you?”

nGu Nianzhi flushed crimson but her desire to know the truth overwhelmed anything else. She pushed her embarrassment aside and insisted, “I didn’t think too much about it before!”

n“Why are you thinking about it now?” He Zhichu was not easily fooled; each of his statement’s dug at the deepest parts of Gu Nianzhi’s heart. Sometimes, Gu Nianzhi felt that there some things she couldn’t say to even Huo Shaoheng, but looking into He Zhichu’s intense eyes, she blurted out, “I need to know right now.”

n“For what purpose?” He Zhichu’s voice grew colder.

nSure enough, Gu Nianzhi’s face grew redder and she stammered, “B-because, I want to be together with Huo Shao! if my background can’t be investigated, I’m afraid…” she trailed off helplessly.

nSo this was the reason. He Zhichu felt his heart being torn to pieces. He looked at Gu Nianzhi steadily and finally said, “Why? Why does your background have to be investigated before you can be together with him?”

n“This is a rule with his work,” Gu Nianzhi answered honestly. “Since I want to be with him, I must accept everything about him.”

n“So, you would force yourself to do things that you’re reluctant to follow?” He Zhichu keenly pointed out. “Don’t you think you’re the one sacrificing too much here? Have you thought about how long this kind of relationship will last?”

nGu Nianzhi’s heart stung at his words. It wasn’t as though she too hadn’t worried about this over and over. She also felt that the screening of a marriage candidate was outdated and suppressive. She raised her head though, and said levelly, “To me, love is love. I don’t think about who is sacrificing more. We both contribute to our respective happiness first while pursuing the happiness of our relationship together.”

nGu Nianzhi’s words was a sharp blade that carved into He Zhichu’s chest. It left his heart a bloody mess, with wounds he was sure would never heal.

nHe Zhichu rolled back his shoulders and answered stiffly, “I see. You may go now.”

nGu Nianzhi grew even more flustered.

n“Professor He! You still haven’t told me anything yet.”

n“I have to think about it and also get someone else’s permission before I can answer you.”

nGu Nianzhi froze. She’d originally thought that He Zhichu knew the entire truth and that, as long as he was willing, her lost memories would quickly be recovered. She had never expected him to not be personally involved. So had he come to find her at the request of someone else? Gu Nianzhi’s head started to hurt but she stubbornly stared at He Zhichu.

n“Professor He, do you or do you not know about my past?”

nHe Zhichu looked at her and walked two steps towards her before resuming his typical sharp tone. “You didn’t know the truth before and were fine all these years. Now, because of a man, you can’t even wait one day? Did you ever think about how your family felt? Did you ever search for them for your own self?”

nGu Nianzhi hung her head. She was deeply ashamed by He Zhichu’s words. In the past six years, she truly hadn’t thought about her parents. She wasn’t a cold-hearted person and she had always made it a point to care for others, a child who’d been bullied for being an orphan. At school, for example, she would remember all the classmates who showed were even the slightest kindness to her; it didn’t make sense for her to shun her family to this extent. She mumbled, “Professor He, I really made mistakes with this situation, but if it’s possible, I want to make things right.”

nHe Zhichu’s pity for her grew at these words. Why am I giving her a hard time? It’ll only make things harder for me, he thought.

n“Ok, I know. Go back first and prepare for the teaching assistant exam tomorrow. I won’t make you wait very long on this other matter.”

nWith He Zhichu’s promise, Gu Nianzhi left in relief. When she returned to her dorm, she kept thinking about how no matter what happened, she would still be one step closer to her goal…right?

nOne could only hope, and Gu Nianzhi was hoping with all her heart.

n…

nThe next day, Gu Nianzhi performed as excellently as usual on the exam. She was familiar with He Zhichu and also the workload of a teaching assistant, so combined with her exemplary grades, all these factors padded her score. As expected, Gu Nianzhi scored the top marks and became He Zhichu’s temporary teaching assistant. When He Zhichu posted the notice of employment on the B University Faculty of Law website, the entire faculty was turned upside down once again. He Zhichu had made two exceptions for Gu Nianzhi and she was suddenly famous within the faculty. Her stellar grades during her undergraduate years at C University were well-known to everyone. For the B University students, what they respected the most wasn’t background or appearance, but intelligence and grades. As soon as Gu Nianzhi’s glowing academic history was revealed, all the opposition faded. Not only that, but as soon as a jealous student claimed that Gu Nianzhi had abused her connections, another person defended her, saying, “She could have used her connections or her looks, but she chose to crush everyone with her grades and hard work.”

nGu Nianzhi hadn’t thought that the revealing of her past grades would have such a positive effect. Once she started as He Zhichu’s teaching assistant, she had to go to He Zhichu’s once every day to help him organize his emails, sort out materials, make schedules, and even create case studies for his undergraduate students.

nHe Zhichu saw Gu Nianzhi almost everyday now and, although his indifferent attitude didn’t change, he had fewer mood swings than before.

n…

nHuo Shaoheng wasn’t surprised that Gu Nianzhi had become He Zhichu’s teaching assistant. He only wanted to find out about the He’s history in South America as soon as possible, however he was half a planet away from the continent of South America. In order for the personnel to investigate as Huo Shaoheng requested, some time was needed.

nDuring this waiting period, everyone at the Special Operations Forces headquarters base was particularly cautious to avoid angering their boss. The South America investigation was still ongoing and there were no conclusions for the time being. Several of the major countries on the continent had been able to confirm the existence of the Huaxia Imperial Special Operations Forces from Xu Piaohong’s leakage case. The Empire neither denied or admitted this, which was unlike its past stance. The election for Prime Minister was ongoing and the Special Ops had no special mandate, therefore, they couldn’t intervene in domestic affairs. While the other domestic government organizations were very busy, the Specials Ops personnel were as relaxed as though they were on vacation. At 5pm, Zhao Liangze and Yin Shixiong, sitting at either of the office, kicked back and placed their feet on top of their desks as they snacked and bickered.

n“Little Ze, you’ve been surrounded by those sisters for so long now. How many times did you get lucky?” Yin Shixiong winked.

nZhao Liangze threw a book over at Yin Shixiong’s desk and shouted, “Big Xiong you filthy animal! We’re ust friends—what do mean how many times did I get lucky?! A pure person like me doesn’t understand what you mean at all!”

n“Just look at how pissed off you are. Could you’ve not gotten lucky yet? How about this big brother give you a few lessons?” Yin Shixiong slapped the table and cackled.

n“You’d better deal with your Lawyer Jin first! She’s calling for you day and night, and even though she says it’s about Xu Piaohong’s case, everyone can see that’s not her true intention!” Zhao Liangze attacked Yin Shixiong with the insults.

n“I’m confused now. What’s so great about you anyway? Why would that girl be chasing you?”

n“What’s good about me is none of your business! At least someone is chasing after me, whereas you can only save your pride with twisted words and chase after her heels!”

nZhao Liangze rolled his eyes and was just about to fire a retort back when he saw Bai Yueran’s text. He opened it immediately and saw that she was politely refusing his invitation to dinner once again. Zhao Liangze deflated right away; he looked at Bai Yueran’s reply and thought bitterly, I’ve invited her three times and she only agreed once. Is she interested in me or not?

nZhao Liangze mulled over it. As he did so, he tapped on Bai Shuang’s photo and sent her a text. “Shuang, are you busy tonight? If you’re free, I’ll take you out to dinner.”

nBai Shuang was overjoyed by his message and replied right away, “Ok! Where should we go?”

nUpon seeing the response, Zhao Liangze’ wounded pride recovered a bit. He smiled and sent Bai Shuang the address to the restaurant he made a reservation at.

nOn the other side of the office, Yin Shixiong’s phone also rang. Jin Wanyi was calling again in an attempt to convince Gu Nianzhi to settle with Xu Piaohong outside of court. Huo Shaoheng had already refused to settle a long time ago and Gu Nianzhi also had no intention of doing it, so Yin Shixiong could only repeatedly refuse Jin Wanyi and tell her there was no way they’d settle outside of court.

nRefusing to give up, Jin Wanyi was continuing to urge him to change his mind over the phone. “Big Xiong, this matter is serious but not catastrophic. The key point is that it hasn’t caused serious consequences—”

nBefore Yin Shixiong could even reply, Zhao Liangze suddenly interrupted.

n“Big Xiong, hurry! There’s an important alert from Japan! It’s an orange alert!”

nAn orange alert was the most serious level of emergency for the Special Ops. “What?! An orange alert?!” Yin Shixiong immediately hung up the phone and began to work. Soon after, they cracked the code to the encrypted orange alert from the Special Ops unit in Japan. Reading the message from the head of the Japanese unit, their’ eyes widened.

n“Holy sh*t! I’ll kill the bastard who leaked this!” Yin Shixiong yelled as they cursed and ran to Huo Shaoheng’s office. He knocked and announced, “Mr. Huo! We have an orange alert in Japan!”

n“Come in.”

nThe two men opened the door and walked into Huo Shaoheng’s office; they grimly place the orange alert on his desk. It read: “There has been an internal leak. We have lost our entire unit in Japan. The Yamaguchi-gumi plans to intervene with the Imperial Prime Minister’s election—!” The message evidently hadn’t been completed; as to why that was, everyone understood implicitly.

nHuo Shaoheng stood up rapidly and made several commands: “One, assemble the B Team in Japan to confirm the safety of the A Team members. Two, order all the members of the Special Operations Forces to be on a Level One alert; members abroad are to suspend all activity temporarily. All ongoing, local activity is to be terminated immediately. Third, I will personally report the Yamaguchi-gumi’s plan to intervene with the Imperial Prime Minister elections and await instructions from the superiors.”

nYin Shixiong and Zhao Linagze immediately answered, “Roger, Chief!” As the two younger men turned to leave, Zhao Liangze thought of something and asked, “Mr. Huo, then what about the personnel in South America…?”

nHuo Shaoheng stayed silent for a whole minute before replying, “Temporarily suspend their activities as well.”

n…

nTen minutes later, the B Team of the Special Ops unit in Japan reported that nearly all the members of the A Team had been exposed. Half had been killed and a few others had been secretly arrested—what awaited them was torture more horrible than death.

nHuo Shaoheng slammed the desk furiously and grit his teeth. “An eye for an eye! Pass along my order to arrest all high ranking Japanese personnel lurking within the Huaxia Empire and execute the same number of men that we have lost! For every soldier we’ve lost, we’ll make them pay with interest!”

nYin Shixiong mumbled, “Doesn’t the same number mean that we are to execute the same number of men as they did with our soldiers?”

n“One Huaxia soldier is equal to two of theirs. Do you have a problem with that?” Huo Shaoheng replied without looking up as he put red check marks next to the names of the high ranking Japanese personnel. All countries planted spies within other countries, but to suddenly execute all the spies like Japan did was a rare case. It could only be said that certain countries were especially bloodthirsty and should never be underestimated. Huo Shaoheng’s car sped away to the Supreme Military Council. Anger raged in his heart—the worst fear in their field of work was betrayal from within the organization. And now, the person who had betrayed them certainly wasn’t of a low rank—there was no way they could have obtain such classified information under the guise of a temporary position.

nWhen his car neared the Supreme Military Council, Huo Shaoheng received Gu Nianzhi’s call. “Huo Shao, when are you coming to pick me up?”

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