Chapter 46: Solace
Let’s turn the clock back a little. After Mo Heng was finished showing off to his friend outside, he returned from his trip only to find the written request for leave Cillin had left behind in the workshop. His face had immediately turned from sunny to gloomy in an instant. Everyone in the research division was dead silent because of this. It was obvious that sir Mo was feeling down; very, very down.
Knowing some of the details of this military op, Mo Heng had restrained himself from contacting up until the point he heard that the mission had reached the final stage. Moreover, it was only when he heard that Cillin had analysed more than a hundred antibodies singlehandedly to completely trump over the fifty plus station researchers that his feelings improved just a tiny bit. Using vice headmaster An Ting’s words, the old fox’s tail was raised just a little taller.
But Mo Heng did not expect to hear Cillin in danger the moment communication was established. His already cloudy feelings immediately turned into a thunderstorm, and as he listened to Huo Neil’s explanation, his expression had only darkened even further.
“You’re telling me that my disciple made such a huge contribution while injured only to be stabbed in the back?!”
Huo Neil kept quiet. With his understanding of Mo Heng’s personality, it would be best if he said nothing right now.
“How is he now?” Mo Heng’s voice grew deep and heavy; so heavy that it was almost unbearable.
“The doctor says that he has stabilized somewhat after resuscitation…”
“I’m worried. I’m bringing some men over right now…”
Huo Neil was on call at a rest room beside the emergency room. Just as Huo Neil was sweating all over himself trying to deal with Mo Heng, a medic knocked on the door and walked inside. Huo Neil had told him earlier to inform him the moment there was any progress in the ER. Seeing that Huo Neil was on call, the medic passed over the tablet to him.
After reading the contents of the tablet, Huo Neil immediately felt a little more emboldened than before.
“Elder Mo, I’ve just received news that Cillin is now stable.”
Seeing Mo Heng’s obviously distrustful gaze, Huo Neil took the communicator and headed into the ER, showing Mo Heng the vitals on the instruments and the color of Cillin’s face. It wasn’t until he moved the communicator back and forth for a long time that Mo Heng finally believed him a little, but he still demanded that Huo Neil send Cillin back to Seven Lights as soon as possible. He couldn’t not worry otherwise.
“I’m telling you, this old man wouldn’t blink once even if all the bastards in the station were eaten by those mice. You can put them all together and their sum value would not compare even to a shred of my disciple’s! Why should someone else pay with their lives for the havoc they caused due to their incompetence – Pooh, pooh, fuck me he’s alive what am I talking about – I mean, why should someone else clean up their shit, huh?!”
The moment sir Mo got angry, that temper of his immediately rose to the surface as well. His son General Mo Qing also fully inherited this trait from his father. Back in those years, both Huo Neil and Gerrard had tasted the brunt of General Mo’s temper before. The moment his temper appeared, it would be difficult for anyone to stop him from whatever he wanted to do, not to mention that any statements that came out of his mouth were the absolute opposite of political correctness.
Someone like Mo Heng might put on the appearance of a kind and friendly senior academician when he was in a good mood in a normal day. But if his temper was to bare its fangs, then it was every man for himself.
This was what people meant to be bull-headed. The world they faced were big, but the world inside their hearts might not necessarily be big as well. Therefore, one must not stop them when they were protecting their own. Huo Neil knew this very well, which was why he kept quiet when Mo Heng flew off the handle and spittled his extreme remarks. Let’s have them enter one ear and exit the other. Otherwise, it would affect sir Mo’s kind image if this was spread to the public…
Thank goodness that the medic who came in just now had already left, otherwise… Sigh, let’s not go into that.
After instructing Huo Neil for a while, Mo Heng finally cut off the communication with much reluctance. However, before an hour was up, Huo Neil would have to report Cillin’s condition to Mo Heng. Otherwise, if Mo Heng had run over here with his own men, how would he dare to excuse him…
Mo Heng’s face did not improve by much after cutting off the communication. Ever since he decided to take Cillin as his direct disciple, he had made some investigations into the Douance family. He knew about its familial conflicts and all the tricky and dirty stuff that followed behind it. The Douance Family could be considered rather influential at the ten trade Sectors, but to Mo Heng, it amounted to exactly nothing. Mo Heng valued the ability of the person in question, not their background nor the benefits their identity could bring. He even wished that Cillin could detach himself from the Douance family and have no background at all, so he would not be involved in those dirty infightings.
That being said, now that something like this had happened, Mo Heng ain’t gonna sit by and watch his disciple suffer. Someone had to pay the price.
While Mo Heng might be engaged in academics, the truth was that iron flowed inside his heart. Just look to General Mo Qing; if the old man could bring up someone like General Mo, then how could he possibly be a soft boiled egg?
Mo Heng entered a new signal transmission code into his communicator and called…
Someone had extended their hands too deep and lorded over the ten trade Sectors for too long that they forgot how big the universe was!
Huo Neil, Knight and the others had commenced their investigation of the poisoner, and before long, they heard that the woman had injected cyanide into herself at the medical depot and committed suicide. Moreover, she did not bother avoiding the depot’s security cameras and injected a large amount of cyanide into herself right in front of it. She knew that she was a goner after failing the mission and exposing herself. She never figured out how Cillin survived until the very end despite being injected with poison for such a long time.
How did the woman slip into the hospital ship? And who was covering for her? The interrogation and examination of the medical personnel were also stricter than others. She most definitely had cohorts, and more than one no less. It could be a soldier, a researcher, a medical personnel…
Huo Neil also understood the complexity that laid beneath this matter, and the moment he remembered his own assurance to Mo Heng, he immediately decided to send the wounded back to Seven Lights, and Cillin, Pride and the others would have specially-assigned personnel to protect them. There must not be even the slightest trouble in between, or he would have to lose the badge on his shoulders.
While everyone was busying about, Cillin was still in bed. But, although he was sleeping, his mind was very clear. He knew about what was happening around him; knew about Mo Heng’s concern for him; knew about Knight, Hard and Sird standing by outside the door during the entire time he was in the ER.
He would be lying if he said he wasn’t touched. When Cillin was still very young, Genya had already told him that man is a social animal. The amount of people he would come across or glanced over by in the entire galaxy exceeded hundreds of billions, and yet those who would truly treat you well could only be counted by fingers. This was a kind of wealth that could not be earned no matter how much money or time was spent. Even those who were used to being loners hid a deep longing inside their hearts.
This drama had developed according to Cillin’s predictions. He had predicted that those people would have a backup plan, and the moment he saw the woman holding the medicine tray on the camera, he knew that backup plan had arrived. That was why he had left the communicator on so that Knight would have a lead to trace after, and even if the lead had met a dead end, it would be enough to force the killer to her death. The only way out for such a killer who failed her mission and exposed herself was death.
However, this matter had also caused Cillin to feel a long-lost warmth. Solace had come to him again after Genya and Hena had passed away. At the least, there was someone watching over him at the other end of the door while he lied on a sickbed.
As someone his age, he had experienced too much.