Chapter 359: Unified Statement
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Hearing Gu Nianzhi’s sneeze, Huo Shaoheng instinctively touched her hand. Her tiny hand was soft and boneless, yet very chilly. “Are you cold?” Huo Shaoheng reacted immediately and said to Fan Jian in the driver’s seat, “Turn the heat to the maximum.”
“It’s fine.” Gu Nianzhi pulled Huo Shaoheng’s hand and said with concern, “I’ll be fine if I wear my down coat. But if the heat is turned up you’ll get hot and it’s cold and gusty outside. You’ll catch a cold.”
Huo Shaoheng looked at her with a new feeling in his heart. The Gu Nianzhi he had nurtured and raised now knew how to care for others, and that person happened to be himself. He had to say that the experience was a first for him, so he wasn’t too accustomed. However he didn’t reject it at all.
Fan Jian in the front of the car also agreed with Gu Nianzhi’s logic, so he didn’t turn the heat up right away and only glanced in the rearview mirror to ask, “Chief, do you still want to turn the heat up?”
Gu Nianzhi was first to respond, “That’s fine, I’ll put on a down coat.” She grabbed the jacket and draped it on her body. She didn’t wear it earlier because she thought she could bear through it and also didn’t want Huo Shaoheng to know she was cold. Huo Shaoheng would know right away if she put it on, but since he already found out without her wearing it, she didn’t have to worry anymore. Gu Nianzhi quickly draped the jacket on and warmed up right away.
Huo Shaoheng looked at her intently for awhile then put her hand in his larger one to hold tightly. He reached his other arm out to pull her into his embrace and kept holding her hand with the other, “Are you still cold?”
Gu Nianzhi didn’t think that Huo Shaoheng would hug her with Fan Jian and Yin s.h.i.+xiong in the front of the car. She was nervous and wanted to squirm away, but couldn’t bear to do it. Huo Shaoheng’s arms were warm and toasty so she reveled in his heat.
In the front of the car, neither Fan Jian nor Yin s.h.i.+xiong spoke. Fan Jian didn’t think anything was amiss since Gu Nianzhi grew up under Huo Shaoheng’s care anyway, and they had also watched her since she was a child. There was nothing wrong with him warming her hands. On the other hand, Yin s.h.i.+xiong was aware that Gu Nianzhi liked Huo Shaoheng so much she couldn’t stop herself. Not only did she love him, but also wors.h.i.+p him blindly so Yin s.h.i.+xiong didn’t doubt her feelings for Huo Shaoheng. But he had no confidence in Huo Shaoheng’s feelings towards Gu Nianzhi. He still recalled that Huo Shaoheng had already had intimate relations with a women and he was also not the type to sleep with just anybody. With Huo Shaoheng’s abilities to fully conceal that woman up to even now, it must mean that he loved her deeply. Also, with Huo Shaoheng’s position he would never be able to marry Gu Nianzhi or even publicize their relations.h.i.+p. Gu Nianzhi’s unknown past was like the sword of Damocles hanging over their heads–it can fall down anytime and kill their hopes.
Yin s.h.i.+xiong pulled out his phone to text Zhao Liangze, Little Ze, how is the investigation on Gu Xiangwen coming along?
Zhao Liangze, I’m still working on it, what is it? You have news? Zhao Liangze replied instantly so must be working online.
Yin Sixiong sighed quietly as he quickly typed on his phone to reply. No, I’m sending Nianzhi to school so I’m in the car right now. The Chief is here too.
Zhao Liangze saw the text and understood what Yin s.h.i.+xiong was implying right away. He scratched his head with frustration as he sat in front of the computer and muttered, “The target list has been reduced to a few hundred people. But I don’t think a single one of these people meet the requirements..” Do they seriously have to get all these hundreds of people in for DNA tests?! That was impossible. The more people were involved the more likely there would be a leak that compromised the confidentiality. The Huaxia Empire divided the confidentiality of information into five levels of of top secret, confidential, secret, sensitive and public knowledge. Each level was further divided into five sub-levels indicated by stars. Five stars was the highest level and one was the lowest. Gu Nianzhi’s past was cla.s.sified as a secret of two stars, so it wasn’t particularly confidential. But to normal people, this meant it wasn’t information the general public could access. As difficult as the task was, Zhao Liangze had no way of backing out. In order to help Gu Nianzhi and Huo Shaoheng, he must think of a way to filter out relevant information from these hundreds of people and further reduce the number of people that needed to be tested. After considering it for a long time, he replied to Yin s.h.i.+xiong.
Zhao Liangze, I’ll try to reduce the range as soon as possible and provide a list of people.
Yin s.h.i.+xiong saw the text and was a little relieved when he out away his phone.
In the back seat, Gu Nianzhi had warmed up quite a bit and poked her head out from Huo Shaoheng’s embrace to watch the scenery and streams of traffic outside the car window. She suddenly remembered something and whispered to Huo Shaoheng, “Huo Shao, are you going to be working in the Imperial Capital from now on?” She previously went to university in C City, so Huo Shaoheng moved the majority of his work to there. In order to make it easy for Gu Nianzhi to interact with her cla.s.smates, Huo Shaoheng bought an apartment for her that she could return to on the weekends. During the summer and winter break, she went back to the Special Operations Forces base.
Huo Shaoheng looked down at her, “Yeah, I’ll be stationed here now unless there is a mission.” His rank was already very high but the nature of the Special Ops’ work was unique. As the highest commander of the Special Ops, Huo Shaoheng had to personally attend certain occasion and couldn’t be in his office all the time. Of course, he had fewer opportunities to go missions compared to his subordinates because he was only required to be personally dispatched on top secret related tasks.
Gu Nianzhi broke into a smile and asked, “Then what will I do on the weekends from now on? Directly go back to your official residence?”
Huo Shaoheng smoothed her hair, “Where do you want to go?”
“I’m ok with anything, and of course I want to go to your place.” Gu Nianzhi pursed her lips and stammered, “Then at school… At school.. What should I tell my cla.s.smates and professors?” He Zhichu and Wen Shouyi already knew about Huo Shaoheng’s true ident.i.ty so Gu Nianzhi probably wouldn’t be able to continue pretending she was “an ordinary orphan girl adopted by distant relatives.” She smiled slyly, “How about you change my ident.i.ty?”
Huo Shaoheng tightened the down coat around her and glossed it over, “No need to change it. Your parents work far away and you are being fostered in our home. That’s the truth too.”
Gu Nianzhi, “!!!”
Fan Jian, “…”
Yin s.h.i.+xiong, “???”
The three other people in the car were speechless. After a long moment, Gu Nianzhi asked again, “Then what kind of work does my parents do?”
Huo Shaoheng glanced at her, “What do you mean?”
“You said my parents work far away, so what if my cla.s.smates ask what they do? How do I answer? Or in other words, we need a unified statement so the lie doesn’t get exposed?” Gu Nianzhi c.o.c.ked her head, her carmine and curvy lips moving as she spoke to reveal the neat and pearly teeth to truly demonstrate what a pretty mouth looked like.
Yin s.h.i.+xiong snickered from the front pa.s.senger seat and turned around, “Nianzhi, are you going to write a script and make us memorize it?”
“I’ll write it if you want, who’s afraid of who?” Gu Nianzhi winked at Yin s.h.i.+xiong, “How about I write that my parents are… professionals, and as to what profession I’ll do some research on campus to complete the character design.”
Huo Shaoheng ignored their silly bantering, his eyes compelled by Gu Nianzhi’s teeth. He reached out to lift up her delicate chin and brushed his thumb across her lips as he replied calmly, “From the looks of your teeth, you must’ve had braces when you were younger. Your family must’ve been at least middle-cla.s.sed if they could afford braces for you before you turned 12. How about we say your parents are doctors?”
“Doctors?” Gu Nianzhi nodded, “That’s good. Doctors are professionals too. So where do they work?” Gu Nianzhi propped her chin on Huo Shaoheng’s body, her large doe eyes blinking and made her long and lush lashes appear very touchable.
“You can say they work in Europe.” Huo Shaoheng said nonchalantly. “Don’t need to go into too much detail.”
“What if someone asks me where in Europe?” Gu Nianzhi continued to let her imagination wander.
Huo Shaoheng lost interest and turned to look out the window. He didn’t want to indulge in Gu Nianzhi’s imaginative thoughts. Yin s.h.i.+xiong snickered from the front, “Nianzhi, why would you have such nosy cla.s.smates, are you just talking about yourself?”
“Hmph! You’re the one talking about yourself!” Gu Nianzhi was distracted by Yin s.h.i.+xiong and no longer wanted to think about this question.
Fan Jian stepped on the brakes and called out, “We’re here.”
Gu Nianzhi looked up to see the south entrance of B University before her eyes. “Nianzhi has lots of stuff, we should drive inside.” Yin s.h.i.+xiong looked back to ask Huo Shaoheng’s opinion.
Huo Shaoheng nodded, “Go directly to her dorm building.”
Gu Nianzhi immediately asked, “I haven’t signed in yet and don’t even know my dorm number. How would we know where I’m living?”
“I know.” Yin s.h.i.+xiong turned around to make a silly face at her, “Mr. Huo asked me to complete your enrollment procedures yesterday and I also got your room key.” He dangled it in front of her.
Gu Nianzhi gasped with gratefulness and shook Huo Shaoheng’s hand, “Huo Shao thought of everything.”
“Hmph, clearly I was the one who did all the work. Nianzhi, you can’t be that obvious with how unfair you are?” Yin s.h.i.+xiong purposely made a jealous expression and rolled his eyes.
Gu Nianzhi leaned on Huo Shaoheng’s shoulder with a giggle and replied to Yin s.h.i.+xiong, “I’m unfair like this, so what are you going to do about it?”
“Hmph! What are you going to do about it!” Yin s.h.i.+xiong gestured a knife with his hand then took out a permit for the security at the south entrance of B University to verify. The security looked at it and allowed their car in.
A few personal vehicles weren’t allowed through the entrance so everyone was trying to find out whose vehicle dared to come in when the SUV drove in. The south entrance of B University was notorious for only recognizing certain plates and had no regard for whoever was inside. Te SUV didn’t have a university license plate. Everyone asked around and a knowledgeable person remarked in amazement, “That looks like a military license plate.”
“Oh–!” The crowd finally sighed in relief with the sudden realization.
Gu Nianzhi didn’t know what was happening from inside the car. She peered at the campus scenery with curiosity and didn’t look away until the car stopped in front of a dorm building. There were several different types of dorms for post-grad students in B University. Gu Nianzhi’s building was especially arranged by He Zhichu, it was on the sixth floor of the newly finished post-grad dorm. Her until faced south and had two bedrooms and one living room that housed two people. She also had her own bathroom. Gu Nianzhi got out of the car to watch Fan Jian and Yin s.h.i.+xiong help her move her things inside.
Huo Shaoheng didn’t come out and said to her from inside the car, “I’ll pick you up on the weekends and you can stay there for a bit. Once the new apartment is furnished, you can live there.”
Gu Nianzhi nodded, but her stomach turned as she asked shyly, “…Am I living alone in the new apartment?”