Chapter 171: The Truth That Keeps Getting Closer
In a remote and quiet bamboo sea valley, the grass grows lush and the oriole flies, with spring bamboo shoots already peeking out. At dusk, an elderly woman dressed in loungewear is digging for bamboo shoots alone in the forest.
Slowly and meticulously, she strives to ensure that each shoot excavated from the earth is in the best state possible, showing great respect for these gifts from nature.
“Old Ancestor, Third Uncle is still asking if we really need to do this… If we completely cover up the hyacinth, the Wang family will take the blame.”
A baroness dressed as a housekeeper appeared not far away, bowing respectfully to inquire.
“Girl, being able to do things well is more important than anything else. These ugly matters, whether they happen today or tomorrow, will always emerge. Those who walk along the riverbank will inevitably get their shoes wet… Life has been too comfortable.”
“The hyacinth must not be exposed. This is also a good opportunity to test if there are people helping to cover them up in the shadows. It would be nice if everyone understood without needing words…”
The old lady from the Wang family sat down on the ground, picked up a kettle made from bamboo for sitting, and wore a faint smile on her face, as if such matters were not something she needed to concern herself with.
“What about Old Jiu? How’s the progress over there?”
After resting for a while, the old lady suddenly turned her head to ask.
“It’s said that the workload is quite large, Uncle Jiu has been living at the medical research center…”
The housekeeper had long been prepared and quickly lowered her voice: “According to the analyzed data we have at the moment, it is highly likely that Jiang Yan is the Empress. Uncle Jiu’s meaning is to see if we can invite Jiang Yan to the medical research center as a guest.”
“No! The two kids must not know anything right now! It may not be agreed upon by Wan Yatou either. She is very clever and should guess what the Wang family is planning to do.”
The old lady from the Wang family decisively waved her hand to interrupt the younger generation’s speech, her expression unusually serious: “Once Old Jiu has results, I will naturally have another chat with Wan Yatou. This little girl is proud and clever.”
“Understood.”
The housekeeper quickly fell silent, bowed deeply, and turned to leave.
…
Late at night, Wan Yue was still at the Jinhe Club, staying alone by Zhao Peng’s side, not even having come out for dinner.
“Master, how about I accompany you to the food street at Fuhua?”
At an unknown time, Zhong Jing knocked on the door, standing in front of Wan Yue with a faint smile.
“You’ve chosen the perfect time; Jiang Yan and Jiang Yao just left, and you arrived right after.”
Wan Yue turned her head, glanced at Zhong Jing, then shifted her gaze to Zhao Peng on the bed. “Speak, how did the negotiations with Su Xiaomeng go?”
Zhong Jing sat by the bed and said softly, “The Wang family will take the blame. The body of Zhou Ping will be retrieved by the Wang family. All exposure leads regarding Sister Ai and Jiang Yao will be handled by people sent by the Wang family.”
Once finished, Zhong Jing fell silent, only pulling out her phone to chat with someone.
Aside from the ticking sound of a medical monitoring device by the bedside, no one was speaking, making the atmosphere in the room a bit heavy.
“You’re quite clever, tossing the information my way and then hiding away.”
Wan Yue spoke up, a teasing expression on her face: “Do you think the sky will fall and I’ll have to bear it? Or do you think this loud and conspicuous after-the-fact response of mine is too obvious?”
“Master, I really have no way… Once I got concrete evidence that Zhou Ping was compromised, I knew…”
Zhong Jing took a deep breath, put aside her phone with a somewhat helpless expression: “When I found a cockroach at home, it meant they had already multiplied. When I heard those few sentences, it indicated that Zhou Ping had already fallen into the trap. Besides, I can’t keep watching her all the time.”
Yes, that’s the reasoning. Therefore, my only remaining choice is to give everyone an attitude, proving that the hyacinth will not abandon any of them. However, Zhou Ping’s outcome is far worse than I expected…
Wan Yue stood up, walked to the window, opened the curtains, pushed the window open, lit a cigarette, and her face turned self-mocking: “Let’s stop discussing her and find a suitable place for a proper burial. After all, this is my bottom line promise to everyone.”
Zhong Jing shrugged, which could be considered a silent acknowledgment of Wan Yue’s stance.
She understood better than anyone about the hidden hierarchies within the hyacinth, especially individuals like Zhou Ping, who appeared cheerful but were extremely sensitive due to their qualifications, fearing being abandoned by the hyacinth over certain matters, which led to a cowardly sense of lucky avoidance.
“Have you been avoiding Jiang Yao these days?” Suddenly, Wan Yue said to Zhong Jing, “Old Jin told me some things about you and Hejian Qingya. You seem quite composed; care to share your plans?”
Zhong Jing’s expression remained calm as she shook her head with a smile, glancing at the phone she had left on the bed: “There’s so much I need to do from now on; I’m worried she won’t be able to handle it…”
Wan Yue turned around, looking at her nominal disciple with great interest: “You wouldn’t seriously consider her a little sister, would you? Those insincere words can’t fool even you, let alone her.”
“Don’t be fooled by her clumsiness. She may seem childish, but she’s quite perceptive. She’s just disguising herself as a child to enjoy the feeling of being protected by others.”
Zhong Jing was taken aback, then smiled wryly and nodded repeatedly: “Yeah… So I’m afraid I might take it seriously.”
Wan Yue let out a giggle, her laughter vibrant.
After a while, she regained her serious expression and quietly approached Zhong Jing, lowering her voice: “Hejian Qingya has eavesdroppers from the Fujihara family around her, so I allow you to access all confidential content to listen to what she has to say for me.”
“Let’s go find another place to talk. We need to clarify the Engel family’s interactions with you and Hejian Qingya’s plans to see if there’s anything we can use.”
Casting a glance at Zhao Peng, who was asleep on the bed, Wan Yue walked toward the door.
“Master, during your last trip to the south with Jiang Yan… did you meet my elder brother?”
Suddenly, Zhong Jing asked softly from behind Wan Yue.
Wan Yue paused, contemplating for a moment, and slightly turned her head: “Hmm… Your brother is quite fortunate; he was rescued by a certain girl. Is there something wrong?”
Zhong Jing’s eyes brightened, but a second later, they dimmed again: “I want to ask, will you protect him like you do Jiang Yan and Jiang Yao?”
“That depends on what he makes of himself… He carries too many burdens. Understanding this world and himself may be more difficult for him than anyone else.”
Saying this, Wan Yue opened the door.
…
February 17, Monday.
In the capital, Xifeng National Forest Park, a secret underground base.
New progress has been made; as usual, Wu Zhongxian, the chief strategist, personally arrived to understand the situation, accompanied by Han Jieqian, a junior.
Wu Zhongxian summoned Han Jieqian back from City C under the pretext of training grassroots officials at headquarters.
Behind the thick transparent glass wall was a vast laboratory space, and the massive cylindrical glass culture dish in the center was as shocking as ever.
Han Jieqian was already familiar with the upper part of the base but did not expect that there was such a terrifying secret experimental base underground, along with a startling number of researchers.
From the moment they entered the core experimental work area, Han Jieqian’s mouth had barely closed.
After a complex and specialized explanation, aside from the excited researchers, Wu Zhongxian and Han Jieqian mostly remained silent, and they could hardly find any angle to ask questions.
Once the communication wrapped up, Wu Zhongxian dismissed the researchers, leaving only himself and Han Jieqian at the scene.
“Do you find this unbelievable? You are one of the four members of the Ge Cao team; Han Wei should have told you about some of the core secrets of the special operations team.”
Wu Zhongxian found Han Jieqian’s previous performance somewhat amusing, secretly sighing that the other party was still too young.
“Chief, that… is that the sample of Plan Genesis One from the classified documents, obtained from my grandmother?”
Han Jieqian’s face was nearly pressed against the glass wall, staring intently at a small clump of tissue culture, about one centimeter in diameter, inside the cylindrical dish.
“Strictly speaking, it is a muscle tissue proliferation culture derived from my deceased grandmother.”
Wu Zhongxian glanced at the dozens of top-security researchers behind the glass wall and sighed heavily: “Actually, once a grandmother is seeded, the main body will die. We still couldn’t accept this, having spent nearly a hundred billion, and this is all we’ve managed to achieve.”
“These documents were actually provided to us by comrades from the former Soviet Union seventy years ago, but it was only last year that we truly saw even this tiny bit of its true nature.”
“Even now, we are still exchanging information with Russian secret agencies, but they have always held back a part, preventing us from grasping the full scope of the Genesis Plan.”
Han Jieqian withdrew his gaze and quickly flipped through the folder in his hand, frowning slightly: “Chief, according to the intelligence provided by the former Soviet secret agencies, the Genesis Plan is supposedly a secretive research initiative for war-related blood family technologies disguised as a promise of immortality to ordinary people. This conclusion seems somewhat unreasonable.”
Wu Zhongxian was evidently very pleased with Han Jieqian’s question: “Indeed, your thinking is quite sharp; you’ve pinpointed the crux of the issue immediately!”
“At that time, Chief Zhu, oh, your great-grandmother, raised a question: The blood families rely on our world for survival. Theoretically, they should prefer a healthy and stable world rather than one without limits that leads to destruction. What motive do they have to actively introduce the risks of war into the world?”
Han Jieqian stroked his chin, deep in thought: “Are you saying that any war risk created by the blood families will ultimately backfire on them?”
“Can I presume that if the Genesis Plan is advanced for the purpose of war, it serves merely the ambitions of a few individuals vying for world hegemony, rather than the core interests of the blood families?”
Thus, the true Genesis Plan should be advantageous to certain blood families, merely distributing some minor benefits to ordinary people to attract capital oligarchs or even ambitious people into colluding with the blood families… for instance, like the Third Reich and Japan back then.
Having figured something out, Han Jieqian finally revealed a look of sudden comprehension.
Indeed, Chief Hang partitioned the Genesis Plan into three layers according to her understanding: the first layer exploits the ordinary elite’s greed for longevity to acquire vast research resources. The second layer uses hegemonic ambitions to gain behind-the-scenes support from certain powerful governments. The third layer is related to the core interests of the blood families. As for whether there is a fourth layer, even she hadn’t figured that out.
At this point in the conversation, Wu Zhongxian’s face began to twitch slightly: “Back then, the Tanaka family in Japan obtained some research samples from the Genesis Plan from the Goebbels family, collaborating with the Japanese military to establish a secret research base in Northeast China, subsequently pushing for a full-scale invasion of China.”
The Tanaka family didn’t just support those inhumane human experiments behind the scenes; they were also conducting secret blood feeding cultivation of the grandmother, causing great harm to the Chinese blood families as well.
At that time, not only our predecessors from Dark Arrow but also the Wang family among the Chinese blood families pressed forward resolutely, using their blood and flesh to shatter the ambitions of the Tanaka family, but they still managed to smuggle some results out.
However, North America was quite decisive, completely eradicating the Tanaka family with two nuclear bombs before the Soviet army could enter Japan, also robbing us of the best opportunity to uncover the truth.
Nonetheless, we can never forget this grudge. This is also the reason why Chief Zhu and others are so fixated on the Genesis Plan, resolving to get to the bottom of it unreservedly.
That harrowing yet stirring history of struggle for national survival, repeated a thousand times, still drives one to rage and blood boiling; Han Jieqian’s hands clenched tightly.
You should have reviewed the contents regarding the decryption of this strategic task by now, right?
A few minutes later, Wu Zhongxian regained his composure, sat down, and made a gesture towards Han Jieqian: “You’re sharp; have you picked up on any clues now? Can you derive any information about the insider?”
Task One, Codename: Magnifying Glass, Seed Codename: Red Rocket, the third-generation scarecrow is my third uncle. Task content, responsible for collecting intelligence on the Genesis Plan domestically.
Task Two, Codename: Crystal Ball, Seed Codename: Red Magic, the third-generation scarecrow is Director Ye of the Intelligence Bureau. Task content, responsible for collecting intelligence on the Genesis Plan abroad.
As for Task Three, Codename: Necklace, Seed Codename: Red Diamond, the third-generation scarecrow is my fifth uncle; as for the task content… it’s probably best not to mention it since everyone would consider it complete.
Task Four, Codename: Demon Hunter, Seed Codename: Fearless Warrior, the first-generation scarecrow is me. Task content, responsible for tracing and dealing with Xia Yan and Gu Yao.
Han Jieqian quickly recounted all strategic tasks with a grave expression: “Chief, the biggest doubt lies in the fact that the Red Rocket, initially responsible for domestic infiltration tasks, unexpectedly appeared in Europe for unknown reasons and confirmed to be dead last year. Meanwhile, the Red Magic has gone silent.”
I suspect that the Red Rocket and Red Magic must have revealed their identities to each other and exchanged tasks under certain circumstances. After all, the esteemed great-grandmother never clarified whether the three seeds were acquainted until her passing.
According to our intelligence exchange with covert agencies in the European Union, the confirmed time of sacrifice for the Red Rocket was roughly mid-July last year, precisely two months after the X497.4.30 operation. The body remained in a refrigerated state and was discovered at the end of November last year in a black faction stronghold in the Netherlands.
July is a particularly nuanced time because that was when we had just confirmed the connection between the Tang family and the Genesis Plan, along with preliminary conclusions on the blood invasion states of Samples One and the two individuals, Xia and Gu.
Wu Zhongxian stroked his chin, his expression serious as he interrupted Han Jieqian: “Wait, the Red Rocket was sacrificed in July last year… and that just happened to coincide with when Dark Arrow internally officially confirmed the intelligence concerning the Genesis Plan…”
Han Jieqian quickly nodded, smiling mysteriously: “Yes, once we reacquired the clues for the Genesis Plan, it exposed the Engel family’s conspiracy and significantly increased the probability of the Red Rocket being revealed, yet it seems unlikely that it would have been recognized so quickly.”
Then, there is only one possibility: At the beginning of July, the special operations team confirmed that the Tang family in City D was the executor of the grandmother’s blood feeding plan, re-establishing the connection of information that had been interrupted for decades. This message must have been known by an insider and passed on to the Engel family. The insider must certainly have known everything about the Red Rocket.
As soon as the words left his lips, Wu Zhongxian got to his feet, pacing back and forth with a puzzled expression on his face: “Since the insider knows the true identity of the Red Rocket, why would they wait for the Genesis Plan and the Tang family to be exposed before making a move? Isn’t that redundant?”
This is precisely the key point I am about to deduce…
Han Jieqian cleared his throat, sitting up straight with a focused gaze: “It indicates that the Engel family had long been aware of the Red Rocket’s identity but deliberately turned a blind eye, even transmitting false information through the Red Rocket.”
However, they never imagined that another predecessor had uncovered the truth and, by fulfilling the plan, at a critical moment, utilized the Wang family as a stepping stone to deliver intelligence regarding the Tang family to us without alerting the insider.
Yet this will inevitably lead to the Red Rocket losing its value for use and thus being eliminated by the Engel family! Therefore, the identity of the insider should be traced back to the period just before the Tang family’s investigative report was released in July. Who knew about the Genesis Plan’s clues appearing within the Tang family?
Wu Zhongxian’s expression shifted from heavy to becoming more animated as he took several large steps towards Han Jieqian, vigorously patting the other person’s shoulder, laughing uproariously: “Well done, you little rascal! To think you organized the line of thought like that!”
Great, great, Han Wei is indeed lucky to have found such a talent!
Wu Zhongxian was very excited, but Han Jieqian’s expression suddenly turned serious as she slowly removed her military cap, showing signs of sadness.
What’s the matter? Do you still feel I haven’t praised you enough? Wu Zhongxian was somewhat curious.
No… I just wonder if that mysterious predecessor who passed intel to the Wang family understands that once the true clues of the Genesis Plan are exposed before Dark Arrow, the Red Rocket is undoubtedly doomed.
Or rather, the Red Rocket might have known that he was exposed; he had been merely covering for that mysterious predecessor, also known as Red Magic!
Wu Zhongxian’s smile froze, and he slowly took off his military cap, his eyes brimming with tears for a moment.
