Chapter 569: Chapter 569 Acting Underhandedly
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Gu Nianzhi snapped back to reality and wasn’t satisfied with her current condition, either. She understood what Yin s.h.i.+xiong had said. She thought that she was prepared in the past, but when she was actually faced with it, she realized that just the phrase, “I understand,” wouldn’t help much.
Due to Huo Shaoheng’s rank and the nature of his job, going out for missions and being uncontactable did not happen often. However, it did not mean that it wouldn’t happen at all. This was because he was still young, and he had founded the Special Forces. Therefore, he still had to oversee many things and handle them personally. This was an obstacle that she had to cross on her end.
“Professor He’s suggestion is quite good, actually.” Gu Nianzhi tilted her head and smiled. “Let me go back and think it through. It’s the summer holidays now! I really should have something meaningful to do.” Otherwise, she’d be too free, and her thoughts would definitely wander. It would only drive her crazy.
“Okay. Inform me immediately once you’ve come to a decision so I can make arrangements.” He Zhichu nodded and picked up a book. “That’s about it. You can go back now.”
Gu Nianzhi stood up, picked up her backpack, and left He Zhichu’s office. The moment she left his office, He Zhichu made a call back home. Holding his phone, he said slowly, “Father, I have some unsettled matters, so I won’t be coming back soon.” His tone was gentle instead of frustrated like last time.
Mr. He, on the other end of the line, hadn’t heard his son talk to him so gently in a long time. Therefore, he was quiet for a long while before replying softly, “Okay. Then I won’t be able to celebrate your birthday with you.”
“Yes, I know.” He Zhichu felt his father’s love and felt his cold heart melt a little. “You can give me a belated celebration when I’m back.”
“Yes… Sure… I’ll definitely do a belated celebration for you.” Mr. He sounded almost like he was tearing up.
He Zhichu sighed in his heart and hung up, expressionless. However, the moment he hung up, his mobile phone rang. He looked at the number and saw that it was from home. He slid his phone open and answered the call.
Wen Shouyi’s voice came through. “Mr. He, are you really not coming back? Mr. He has prepared for your birthday for a long time. Cancelling just like that really isn’t nice…”
Perhaps he felt that he had let his father down, so He Zhichu did not get upset over Wen Shouyi’s supposed manners. “I’ve been rather busy recently. I’ll come back and stay for a longer period of time after I’m done with the things here,” he replied coldly.
“Oh, really? That’s great! Mr. He will be so happy to know. I’ll tell him!” Wen Shouyi’s voice was bright and happy, and she blushed slightly.
He Zhichu did not continue the conversation and hung up. Ma.s.saging his temples, he got up to look at the emails from his law firm in America. Gu Nianzhi had already categorized the emails nicely. He could read the emails according to importance.
After spending some time on the emails and finding that there weren’t any interesting cases, he sent an email to his secretary in America to ask if there was any case interesting enough to follow up on.
…
After leaving He Zhichu’s office, Gu Nianzhi roamed around in school for a bit before returning to the dormitory. Most of the foreign students had gotten train or air tickets and would be returning home for the summer break. Those who stayed were the minorities or the locals from Di Capital. Her roommate, Ma Qiqi, was a local. She was looking for a place to intern during the break and had already decided that she would only go home on weekends.
Gu Nianzhi returned to the dormitory and saw her hugging half a watermelon while scooping it out with a large spoon. It looked so delicious, she wanted some, too. Ma Qiqi knew what was going through her head the moment she saw Gu Nianzhi at the door. Pointing to the refrigerator, she said, “There’s still half of it in the refrigerator. Let’s eat together!”
Gu Nianzhi grabbed a large spoon and lugged the other half of the watermelon out of the fridge. She sat down beside Ma Qiqi and began eating the watermelon. “Qiqi, you’re really not going home?” Gu Nianzhi asked curiously. “It’s the holidays… Everyone’s going home.”
“My parents send me off on countless blind dates every time I go home. I’d rather stay here.” Ma Qiqi smiled. “What about you? You’re not going back, either?”
If Huo Shaoheng was in Di Capital, Gu Nianzhi would definitely go to the headquarters to spend her holidays. However, he wasn’t there now, so Gu Nianzhi wouldn’t be able to stay there, anyway. On the other hand, she could visit every other day. Gu Nianzhi had a feeling that that was the only place she would have a chance of finding out where Huo Shaoheng was and when he’d be back. Therefore, she didn’t say anything concrete. “Yes, I’m going back, too, but after I finish all the things on hand first.”
Ma Qiqi nodded and did not probe further. She scrolled through Weibo while eating the watermelon and said, “The investigation of the murder of that student who went to Germany to study has Minister Bai’s financial support now. Her parents will be able to go to Germany now, won’t they?”
“So what if they go? They’ll still be bullied if they don’t get a good lawyer.” Gu Nianzhi shook her head. “Let’s hope that Minister Bai keeps his word and gets them a good lawyer.”
“He already announced it to the public. How could he go back on his word?” Ma Qiqi showed Gu Nianzhi her phone. “Look. Someone said that Minister Bai was incorrigible by using someone’s murder case to increase his popularity. They say that he’s shameless…”
Gu Nianzhi did not even bother to look up and ate a mouthful of watermelon from her spoon. “I detest such people. No matter what intentions Minister Bai has, whether it is to increase his popularity or to raise awareness for his campaign, he truly did this of his own accord and helped the entire family. Isn’t that enough? Those keyboard warriors only know how to criticize others. Did they offer a single cent to help others in times of need?”
“That’s true. Who cares what motive they have as long as they’ve helped the people in need, right? ‘Cause it’s doing something nice, no matter what.” Ma Qiqi nodded. “I’ve replied. The next time people like that comment again they’ll be banned. To be honest, it’s people like them who make others not want to help anymore. If you help, they’ll say that you’re trying to gain attention. If you don’t, they’ll say that you’re heartless. What bullsh*t! Anyway, their mouths belong to them. They’re free to say what they want. They just can’t wait for everyone to be like them, onlookers, in order to make them feel special. These are the people whom we should detest!”
Both of them returned to their rooms after they were done with their watermelon.
…
Over in America, the all-time enemies CIA and FBI worked together for the very first time to capture the criminal who had escaped right under their noses. Every harbor, airport, train station, and long-term parking lot was covered with uniformed and plain clothes police officers. CIA and FBI agents were all over the place, too. Every single car rental company was being watched as well, in order to prevent him from renting a car and escaping.
“Remember, the person you’re facing isn’t a normal criminal. He’s someone highly experienced in intelligence work, the mastermind of an international intelligence department.” The highest-ranking CIA officer ordered personally, “You have to capture him. Bring him back if he’s alive, and bring his body back if he’s dead.”
His subordinates looked at the screen with the extremely good-looking Asian man on it and shook their heads. “Sir, are we supposed to capture him based on this picture?”
“Of course not. He wouldn’t be so silly,” the officer replied. “He must definitely have undergone some form of transformation to hide his ident.i.ty. All of you have to be careful.”
“Hahaha…” They chuckled in the meeting room.
“Then sir, do we have a picture of how he’ll look like after the transformation?”
“Of course we don’t,” the officer replied matter-of-factly. “Why would I need all of you if I had the picture?” This reply made so much sense that no one could retort. Eventually, all they could do was to take the picture of the “criminal” around with information on his approximate height and fingerprints for the search.
However, someone with a height of about six feet was too common in America. They couldn’t be capturing everyone around that height, could they? Of course, they eventually narrowed their targets to Asian men who were around that height. That would be much easier. There weren’t many Asian men with that height in the Hua Xia Empire, much less in America.
Therefore, they increased the frequency of electromagnetic interference and call monitors, and placed more than enough men along the main streets of America to do a thorough carpet search for the man. Every suspect’s fingerprints and faces would be immediately sent to the CIA’s central control system to look for a match. However, after two days, the man seemed to have evaporated from the earth. No one could find him.
…
After destroying all the electronic equipment that could be tracked by America’s satellites, Huo Shaoheng went to the beach and waited until daylight before carrying his dismantled machine gun and sniper rifle wrapped in his jacket and returning to town with a couple thousand US dollars in cash. When they went on missions, the soldiers from the Special Forces would usually prepare cash in case of emergencies. He found a high-end shop and bought luggage, a backpack, two sets of clothes, some daily necessities, a laptop, a machine that was able to produce new identification, and a new mobile phone.
After exiting the shop, he settled into a motel. He took a shower and changed into the clothes he just bought, then took the dismantled guns out of his jacket and placed them in the luggage. Then, he connected his laptop to the free WiFi that was provided by this motel.
His technical skills were comparable to Zhao Liangze’s. Therefore, the moment he was connected, he masked his IP address, making it appear to be one the motel’s employees used, and logged into a university platform in Europe. He took that IP to be his own and began to hack into the New York DMV’s central vault. “DMV” stood for the Department of Motor Vehicles. This was the department in charge of handing out driver’s licenses and identification cards.
It took Huo Shaoheng all night, but he managed to crack the pa.s.sword. He entered the DMV of New York and began to look through the data. He skimmed through the details quickly and familiarized himself with the number sequences before making up a social security number for himself and uploading a picture of himself in disguise. With that, he successfully managed to create an ident.i.ty in New York that was “officially acknowledged” by the authorities. Using this number, he made himself a New York driver’s license with the machine he had bought.
The next day, he took this driver’s license and successfully managed to rent a Hummer SUV from a rental company. The CIA officer that was stationed in this car rental company totally did not realize that this tall man was the “criminal” they were looking for, because Huo Shaoheng had put on a special pair of contact lenses and turned himself into a white, blue-eyed, mixed-blood man from New York.