Ye Zitan stayed beside Song Jinning’s operating chair in order to take care of her, while Chen Lie was responsible to for recording the data with the instruments. Such incredible data made Chen Lie both happy and cautious as he carefully made backups of the data outside Song Jinning’s personal file. Just like the last the last incident with the H3AB7 viral antibody, Gu Nianzhi’s name had not been included in the records submitted to the military. Only Chen Lie and Huo Shaoheng knew about it; not even Gu Nianzhi was aware that she had a special body composition. Gu Nianzhi’s significance to the military was the mystery surrounding her background, and neither Huo Shaoheng nor Chen Lie wanted others to discover her special ability. If the military found out, Gu Nianzhi would only end up as a rat locked in a lab and subject to secret experiments. In this regard, Huo Shaoheng and Chen Lie had a mutual understanding that they would agree to keep this secret for her. Since discovering her special physique six years ago, they had begun protecting her further. Huo Shaoheng had even resorted to not going home so that Bai Jinyi and the others could focus on Song Jinning and not notice there was something peculiar about Gu Nianzhi. They had hoped that Gu Nianzhi could help treat Song Jinning, but it wasn’t as simple as that. In order to have Gu Nianzhi help treat Song Jinning, Gu Nianzhi herself would firstly have to agree. It wasn’t right for Chen Lie to assume that Huo Shaoheng would have Gu Nianzhi rescue his mother, regardless of what Gu Nianzhi wanted to do. If Gu Nianzhi didn’t agree, Huo Shaoheng would never force her. He had never thought about forcing her to save his mother, nor had he wanted her to contribute to the entire Huaxia Empire. He was a soldier himself and would be willing to give up everything, including his life to for the nation. But Gu Nianzhi wasn’t a soldier and he wasn’t even certain if she was a citizen of the Huaxia Empire—there was no way he could decide for her and make her sacrifice everything. This would be contrary to his principles as a man and his beliefs as a soldier.
…
Huo Shaoheng was sleepless the entire night and sat alone on the single seater sofa next to the bed. He worked on his laptop while checking on Gu Nianzhi from time to time. At around midnight, she developed a fever. It was only a low fever and wasn’t anything serious. Chen Lie came over to look and didn’t even need to provide any medication, only saying that she could bear through it. Huo Shaoheng checked the temperature of her forehead every 15 minutes to make sure the fever didn’t climb. Gu Nianzhi slept restlessly. The surgery in the afternoon had been so painful that she had nearly passed out, but in order to prevent Huo Shaoheng from feeling more stress and guilt, she had decided not to say anything. She liked him…no, she loved him and she hoped he loved her too—but she didn’t want Huo Shaoheng to be with her out of guilt. However, the pain still left a mark on her and caused her brain to be in a constantly stressful state. When she broke into a fever at midnight, she fell into a long lost nightmare.
Pain was coursing through her body everywhere. Someone was chasing her and she screamed and cried for her mother, hiding in the rubble. In the dream, a woman’s blurred face appeared at her side. She seemed to be the figure she’d desired to be with the most in her childhood—but when Gu Nianzhi ran towards her, she was coldly pushed away. She opened her mouth and wanted to call after that woman, but found that she couldn’t make a sound. In the end, she softly cried out, “Dad!”
Huo Shaoheng looked up at Gu Nianzhi lying on the bed. In the dim night light, her small pale face was beaded with sweat: her fever seemed to have broken. Huo Shaoheng brought a towel to wipe her face.
Gu Nianzhi continued to murmur, “Dad, Uncle…”
Huo Shaoheng’s hand paused as he gazed at Gu Nianzhi before picking up the towel again to dab at her forehead. He suddenly asked quietly, “Nianzhi, what’s your dad’s name?”
The Special Ops had been trained to induce an interrogation during a person’s sleep. This method was highly effective and extremely confidential. When the person woke from the dream, they would not recall having been interrogated in the dream at all. Gu Nianzhi was having a nightmare because the lingering pain from the surgery in the day had stimulated her brain. Since her mind wasn’t at ease, it was easy for her to reply to Huo Shaoheng in the dream, “Dad… Dad is Dad.”
Huo Shaoheng’s heart skipped a few beats before thumping furiously, his voice trembling slightly, and he asked again, “What’s his name?”
Gu Nianzhi didn’t reply and seemed to fall asleep again. It looked like it was the same as before and yielded no results.
Huo Shaoheng removed the towel and was about to get up when Gu Nianzhi softly said, “Xiangwen.”
Xiangwen? Gu Xiangwen?” Huo Shaoheng inhaled deeply, amazed at the breakthrough. He had finally found an important clue to Gu Ninzhi’s background. “Which two characters?”
“Xiang for luck, Wen for culture.” Gu Nianzhi obediently answered. She was as obedient in her dream as she was in the day.
Huo Shaoheng’s brows relaxed. It would be much easier to investigate with a name. They could go to the household registration agency of the Huaxia Imperial Administration to conduct a nationwide search for, “Gu Xiangwen,” and then cross check the DNA. Huo Shaoheng suppressed his thundering heart; he still couldn’t believe what he was hearing. After six years, they had finally gotten to the tip of the iceberg. “What about your uncle? What’s your uncle’s name?” Huo Shaoheng asked softly again.
Gu Nianzhi closed her mouth and didn’t speak again. Huo Shaoheng inquired a few more times, but she didn’t respond. She was actually very vigilant in her sleep as well, Huo Shaoheng realized. If it hadn’t been for the extreme pain during the day, perhaps she wouldn’t have slipped up so easily.
Huo Shaoheng stood in the middle in the room, lost in his thoughts. From Gu Nianzhi’s father’s name, he should be someone from the Huaxia Empire. However, they had searched for six years and investigated all of Huaxia Empire for people involved in it, yet didn’t find anyone with DNA similar to Gu Nianzhi. There weren’t even distant relatives. How could it be possible then, that her parents were still alive in the Huaxia Empire? They had once entertained the thought that Gu Nianzhi wasn’t from the Huaxia Empire. However, Gu Nianzhi had been questioned by him in her dream, so what she said must be true and was impossible to fabricate. These were things that, while forgotten by the person when they were awake, were actually kept in the deepest recesses of their subconscious.
Gu Nianzhi losing all her memories before the age of 12 was the best example of this, so questioning her during a dream could make her recall things hidden deeply in her memories. Even if her answers were ridiculous and shocking, its truth couldn’t be questioned. If Gu Nianzhi’s answer was true, then there must have been something wrong with their previous investigation. However, he’d never imagined that Gu Nianzhi was an actual citizen of the Huaxia Empire.
Huo Shaoheng gathered his wits and placed the towel back in the bathroom, returning to his massage chair to continue working. At around two in the morning, Zhao Liangze sent him a message, saying, “Mr. Huo, General Huo is here. Do you want to see him?”
“My father is here?” Huo Shaoheng looked up from his laptop. “What’s he doing here?”
“I don’t know, but he’s already at the entrance of your official residence and getting out of the car right now.” Zhao Liangze watched the surveillance footage on his monitor as he reported to Huo Shaoheng, then shared the video with him. On Huo Shaoheng’s laptop screen, a black bulletproof car was shown to have stopped in front of the official residence. The car door opened and Huo Guanchen emerged wearing plain clothes. He crossed his arms as his sharp gaze scanned Huo Shaoheng’s official residence.
Huo Shaoehng pressed his lips tightly together as he watched the video for a while before speaking to Zhao Liangze. “Open the door and let him in.” He closed the laptop and got up to check on Gu Nianzhi, turning away to leave when he saw that her fever had passed. Stepping calmly from the second floor bedroom to the living room, Huo Shaoheng saw that Huo Guanchen was already waiting there.