Translator: CinderTL
Jiang Cheng felt a warm breath against his ear. "Mr. Jiang," Nan Jin hesitated for a moment before whispering, "You didn't actually see my father, did you?"
Jiang Cheng paused at her words but remained calm. "Why do you say that?"
"I know my father," Nan Jin replied, resting her chin on Jiang Cheng's shoulder and staring blankly at their reflections in the glass window. "He wouldn't risk his life to save others... except for my mother and me."
"Your heart is racing," Jiang Cheng said, his voice barely audible. Their upper bodies were pressed close together, and Nan Jin, already sensitive, could clearly feel the rapid beating of his heart.
"But thank you anyway," she continued. "I know you were just trying to comfort me."
After leaving the Nan Family and settling into a taxi, Jiang Cheng sent a message to the club owner. The reply came quickly: Lin Wan'er was doing well, had just eaten something, and he shouldn't worry.
"Thank you for your trouble," Jiang Cheng replied.
Great Capital City.
Suburbs.
Beneath a dense, lush forest, a group of five or six people stood. Leading them was a young man wearing gold-rimmed glasses.
The young man was clad in a jungle camouflage uniform that seemed completely out of character for him. Strangely, through the sealed zipper of the camouflage jacket, one could see a well-tailored white suit underneath.
The young man knelt on the ground, examining the scattered pile of bones before him.
"These are them," said a man with a rifle slung over his shoulder and draped in camouflage netting. His gravelly voice had a rough texture. "These are the two Specialists. I never thought they'd escape our encirclement and sneak into this forest."
Judging by the tattered remnants of clothing clinging to the bones and flesh fragments, as well as the personal belongings scattered around, there was no doubt these were the two Researchers.
"What were they doing here?" someone asked, puzzled. "This forest isn't even on their escape route."
No one suspected they had simply gotten lost. After all, anyone who could break through their tight encirclement couldn't possibly be a fool.
On the contrary, they were highly trained, with sharp reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance skills.
Their combat skills must have been exceptional as well.
Yet such capable individuals had died here under mysterious circumstances.
"Could their true objective have been to infiltrate this forest?" the man in camouflage netting suggested.
"This place is desolate. What would they come here for?" another asked. "We didn't even set up any traps in this forest."
As he spoke, the others involuntarily glanced into the depths of the dense woods.
This place was located in the foothills of a mountain range, perpetually dark, damp, and uninhabited. They couldn't fathom the researchers' purpose for being here.
"I wouldn't overthink it," one man said, rubbing his arm. "They're both dead anyway. Still, they met a truly gruesome end."
The two mangled corpses, even pieced together, wouldn't form a complete human figure. Limbs and fragments were scattered far apart.
The remains they had found so far were all collected nearby.
It was likely they were ambushed by a tiger, caught completely off guard. After the tiger had its fill and left, other carnivores came to scavenge.
If it had been only the tiger, the scene wouldn't have been so utterly horrific.
They also discovered numerous animal claw marks in the vicinity.
"Hmm?" The young man wearing gold-rimmed glasses picked up a strangely shaped bone from the jumbled pile of remains.
It was a scapula, still clinging to a small amount of flesh.
But what truly startled the young man was the missing chunk of the scapula. The break was clean and even, as if severed by a massive axe in a single, decisive blow.
The young man continued sifting through the pile of bones and soon discovered several severed ribs.
A hazy image began to form in his mind: two figures secretly trailing a group of people, only to be discovered.
A clash erupted. No, not a clash—a massacre!
The disparity in strength was overwhelming. The battle ended in an instant. A figure wielding a massive folding knife descended from above, the blade's force immense. With a single stroke, it cleaved through a man's neck, severing him in two.
The fractured scapula and the smooth, clean cuts on the severed ribs provided irrefutable evidence.
Few could achieve such precision. Yet, the young man happened to know the most formidable among them.
"What do you think?" someone asked, since he was the de facto leader of their group, thanks to his close ties with Mr. Gong.
The young man rose without a word, casually kicking the bones he had just picked up back into the pile. Brushing his hands, he said, "Nothing special. They died at the jaws of beasts—just bad luck. Since they're dead, let's pull out all our men."
"Why don't we search the area?" the man draped in camouflage netting asked in surprise. "I have a feeling..."
"Search for what? There's nothing to search for. We... we all follow Mr. Qin's orders," Fatty, a leering, obese man, interrupted, first stopping the man and then turning to the young man with a fawning smile. "Mr. Qin, do you have any further instructions?"
"After the bodies are completely burned, scatter the ashes in the nearby lake. Send reliable people to do it cleanly," the young man said before leaving.
Only after leaving the dense forest did the gloom on the young man's face begin to lift slightly. Unlike the others, he wasn't puzzled by the two Specialists' motives.
The situation was now clear: they had been tailing him and Mr. Gong into the forest. But they had underestimated Mr. Gong's methods.
Mr. Gong had only disappeared briefly—just before entering the Stone Cabin in the Woods—during which time he had dealt with the two tails.
As expected...
Mr. Gong's initial guess was correct: they were indeed after the Stone Cabin in the Woods, and most likely for Fatty!
But he had interacted with Fatty before and hadn't found anything particularly special about him. At most, he was a bit slick, hardly the type to be a formidable opponent.
Had he misjudged him?
Or did Fatty possess some extraordinary secret that even the Night Watch Executive Department wanted to get their hands on?
Yet Mr. Gong had explicitly stated that Fatty was clean.
Puzzled, the young man returned to the villa. The convoy that had brought the two Specialists had already been cleared, leaving the villa's front yard deserted.
The deaths of the two Specialists were already a difficult problem to resolve, and both sides needed to leave room for negotiation. After all, they shared a common enemy, and a complete breakdown in relations would be unwise.
The young man knocked softly on the gate. "Mr. Gong?"
"Come in."
Pushing open the Gate, Gong Zhe sat upright in a chair, his expression unreadable in the dim room. The curtains were drawn halfway, and even with the young man's sharp eyes, Gong Zhe's face was barely visible.
"Have there been any developments?" Gong Zhe asked, his voice as deep and oppressive as ever.
"We found the two Specialists, but they're dead," the young man replied respectfully. "Fang Gui and his team discovered them in the Mountain. They were attacked by wild animals, and their bodies were so badly mauled that they're unrecognizable."
"I've already instructed them to dispose of the remains as quickly as possible."
"Did you find anything at the scene?"
"Yes," the young man nodded. "We recovered their personal belongings, including blueprints and documents. However, the contents are encrypted and require decryption before they can be read. I've already—"
"Anything else?" The young man suddenly felt a heavy gaze fall upon him. Gong Zhe raised his head. "Didn't you find anything... else?"
That's all for today, brothers. Get some rest.
(End of the Chapter)
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