Chapter 838: Ulterior Motives
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Admiral Laris stopped in his tracks, clutching his chest and bending over painfully. His subordinate ran over to support him. “Mr. Admiral, could you have already been shot? He didn’t count to three yet…”
Admiral Laris only had one thought on his mind right now—He Zhichu meant what he said: he would shoot at him. The moment he looked down, he already saw that the other man’s scope had targeted a little red dot onto his heart! Laris didn’t know what kind of weapon He Zhichu used so that merely locking on the target enabled exertion of immense pressure. He felt like his heart had suddenly jumped to a strangely quick rate, and his blood vessels were about to burst. He didn’t dare move another step, so he allowed his subordinates to carry him off just like that.
He Zhichu put away his gun and called out, “Admiral Laris understands the time and situation, so I won’t trouble you either. Goodbye.” He angled his chin at Little A. “Start the car. Have the toll booth let us through.” The personnel working at the highway toll booth were scared silly, so they did whatever Little A’s men asked them to do. They were terrified that these men would raise their guns to shoot as soon as they became unhappy. He Zhichu’s vehicle fleet pa.s.sed the checkpoint at the highway toll booth to quickly speed toward Salt Lake City International Airport. Admiral Laris slumped inside the car. Although his chest no longer hurt, he had been slighted by He Zhichu so he might as well continue to be “in pain.”
…
When Little A’s vehicle fleet had taken He Zhichu and Ye Xuan to Salt Lake City International Airport one hour later, He Zhichu received news that Navy Admiral Laris suddenly had a heart attack and was immediately rushed to the Johns Hopkins Hospital near Was.h.i.+ngton for treatment. He snickered and shook his head at Little A. “This Admiral Laris sure is full of drama. You should be more careful. This man is incredibly petty.”
Little A waved dismissively. “It’s fine. He doesn’t even know I’m the one escorting you.” Little A never revealed his face from beginning to end, so only his subordinates had faced the people from Admiral Laris’s side.
He Zhichu thought Little A was too careless. He gave him a sidelong glance and replied dryly, “I don’t understand how you can be a mercenary. With your behavior, you should’ve died a hundred and eighty times by now.”
“Haha! Mr. He doesn’t need to be concerned about that.” Little A snapped his fingers. “Mr. He, you’d better get on the plane.” He wanted He Zhichu to leave as early as possible. The truth was, he was also secretly anxious because he never expected He Zhichu to face off against Naval Admiral Laris. Although He Zhichu treated it as nothing, Little A couldn’t do the same. He still needed to work in the United States, so he couldn’t afford to offend these big bosses. He Zhichu didn’t make things difficult for Little A and only turned around to speak briefly to Ye Xuan before taking him to the airport security area. Ye Xuan’s pa.s.sport and visa had been confiscated by the courts before, and they had been returned to him upon his acquittal. Thus Ye Xuan didn’t have any other items but carried things on him like his pa.s.sport and visa. With the connections from the Whitewater Security Company, He Zhichu and Ye Xuan were able to get through security and arrive before their private jet. He had coordinated the take-off time and flight plan with the airport air traffic control long before. They had rushed to the airport at any cost and even offended Naval Admiral Laris because they needed to make it for the coordinated time. If they missed this time, then they couldn’t take off until 12 hours later. Also, the longer they stayed in the United States, the longer the nightmare would continue. “Little A, thank you this time around.” He Zhichu made an exception by shaking hands with Little A. “I’ll leave this gun for you.” He gifted the magnetic storm grenade gun to Little A.
Little A quickly pushed it back and said, “I don’t dare to use this high spec version and can’t afford to accept it either. It’s fine if you maybe give me a low spec version.”
He Zhichu smiled. “I already took out the chip inside and destroyed it, so now this gun is a low spec version and no longer has magnetic storm and signal blocking functions. It’s only a normal grenade gun, but it is a bit stronger than the grenade guns in the US military’s laboratory.”
“Oh? It’s that amazing?” Little A was ecstatic and cheerfully accepted the gun from He Zhichu’s hand then put it in the box. He kept standing in the air traffic control building of the airport until he witnessed He Zhichu’s private jet taking off before leaving Salt Lake City International Airport and going back to report for duty.
…
Gu Nianzhi hadn’t slept well for the past two days. She often dreamt of gory images, so her heart kept pounding. She finally sighed in relief when she received the text from He Zhichu. Although the United States had not reported any “major news” from their side, Gu Nianzhi still had been keeping her eye on news from Salt Lake City the entire time. From her attention on Twitter and Facebook, she learned that there was a small commotion in Salt Lake City two days ago. Those people had posted only a few pictures and said that the vehicle fleet of the naval Admiral Laris who had been visiting Salt Lake City’s Air Force base had been attacked. They then admonished the terrorists. There were a scant number of people who reposted this, and the major American media such as ABC, CBS, NBC, as well as CNN and Fox hadn’t reported any of it. After carefully a.n.a.lyzing the few photos, Gu Nianzhi determined that they were real and that mainstream media hadn’t reported because it might have been “harmonized and censored” by relevant parties. Right—there were also such things as “harmonizing and censors.h.i.+p” in American media as well.
Gu Nianzhi mulled over this piece of news for a long time before finally thinking that this “terrorist attack” should have nothing to do with Ye Xuan and He Zhichu. However, a naval admiral going to the Air Force base of an inland state still made her feel a bit strange. Gu Nianzhi suddenly became curious so she looked up the biography of this Admiral Laris. The results shocked her—this person was a j.a.panese American and currently led the entire US Pacific fleet. Not long ago, he had started many disputes in the South China Sea and gave much trouble to the Huaxia Empire. At dinnertime, Gu Nianzhi mentioned this person to Ma Qiqi and even commented, “Americans are pretty insidious. Look at them using this admiral to create rifts in the South China Sea. It kinda sounds like they’re ‘using barbarians to subdue barbarians.’”
Ma Qiqi took a casual look but wasn’t very interested. She frowned as she pulled out food from the bowl and put the chopsticks in her mouth to mumble vaguely, “Who cares about him? He didn’t get to curry favor anyway. What are you doing, searching about an American Naval admiral all of a sudden?”
Gu Nianzhi tasted a piece of sweet-and-sour spareribs she had picked from the plate with her chopsticks, “Do you think I like to search him? I did this because I was paying attention to my case and accidentally looked him up. He went to Salt Lake City all of a sudden; tell me if that’s strange? For a naval admiral to go off and inspect an Air Force base, it’s practically writing the blatant words ‘ulterior motives’ right on his forehead!”
Ma Qiqi giggled from her words and put down her chopsticks to drink a bit of water, “Ok, so what about Professor He and his men? Did they come back yet?”
Just as Gu Nianzhi was about to shake her head, she heard her phone chime once. A smile bloomed on her cheeks as she read the text. “‘Qiqi, your orders are strictly enforced, once given!’ Professor He and Ye Xuan arrived at the Imperial Capital International Airport!”