SCOM - Chapter 112
Chapter 112
After Zuo Luohuan finished speaking, Guan Yuan completely stiffened. He struggled, wanting to stop them, but with so many people in the conference room, not a single one was weaker than him.
By the time Guan Yuan was pressed down onto the table again, Zuo Luohuan and Ji Yuezhi had already walked out.
“When did you figure it out?” Zuo Luohuan tilted her head to look at Ji Yuezhi, wanting to take his hand.
Ji Yuezhi pulled his hand away slightly. “I’ll have the others go search. You… go get your wound treated.”
Zuo Luohuan replied subconsciously, “It’s already been treated.”
Seeing Ji Yuezhi remain silent, she followed his gaze down to her chest and noticed a corner of her black combat suit was damp. It was blood.
Having smelled so much blood along the way, Zuo Luohuan had long since ignored the scent of it on herself.
“…It probably split open earlier.” Zuo Luohuan was at a rare loss for words.
Ji Yuezhi wanted to ask if she didn't feel pain, but the words that came out were: “Go to the infirmary and get it treated again.”
Medical supplies at the port were limited, so Ji Yuezhi had previously instructed the few people leading teams out that if they had the capacity, they should search for medical supplies to bring back. As of now, they had brought back a considerable amount.
Zuo Luohuan watched Guan Xue, Luo Shaoyuan, and the others go out to find the discarded optical computer, then asked Ji Yuezhi with a smile, “Will you help me?”
Ji Yuezhi turned and walked toward a medical room ahead, leaving only his back for her to see.
Zuo Luohuan stood watching him for a moment before stepping forward and once again taking his hand. “Don’t be angry.”
“I’m not angry,” Ji Yuezhi said, his lips pressed tightly together.
“Right, not angry.” Zuo Luohuan went along with his words, her thumb gently stroking his knuckles in a comforting gesture.
Ji Yuezhi couldn't refuse. His tightly pressed lips relaxed slightly, and he lowered his gaze to the ground.
Day had broken. The light shone from behind them, casting their shadows, one in front of the other, close together.
The two walked to the medical room. Zuo Luohuan sat on a nearby chair. Ji Yuezhi finished grabbing supplies, turned around, and reached out to slowly unfasten her jacket.
It was an ordinary blade wound, but it had been stabbed close to her heart, which made it serious no matter what. It was thanks to the healing agent that the wound had been sealed, which was why it had only split open during a night of high-intensity fighting.
Ji Yuezhi carefully used an alcohol-soaked cotton swab to clean the blood around the wound, then slowly applied medicine to it.
“I’m fine.” Zuo Luohuan looked up at the bent-over Ji Yuezhi. They had only been apart for one night, yet it felt like a long time. To distract herself from her emotions, she asked again, “When did you realize there was a problem with Guan Yuan?”
Ji Yuezhi lowered his gaze and helped her button her clothes. “In the North District, I heard his roommate and others mention that Guan Yuan has two comms.”
“Just because of that?” Zuo Luohuan asked, standing up.
Ji Yuezhi lowered his hands. “During the time the warship was entering the port, Guan Yuan disappeared.”
Zuo Luohuan raised her eyebrows slightly. She hadn't noticed that. Everyone's attention had been on the port ahead; no one noticed that someone was missing from the control room.
“I checked the surveillance footage. He went to the restroom,” Ji Yuezhi said. “Twice within half an hour.”
There were surveillance cameras everywhere on the warship, except inside the restrooms. They were in a state of combat at the time, with the constant possibility of crashing or exploding. No normal person would go to the restroom then, unless it was to evade surveillance.
Guan Yuan never expected Ji Yuezhi to check the surveillance footage right after coming down.
After checking the footage, Ji Yuezhi didn't immediately question Guan Yuan. He just had someone secretly monitor his movements. Unexpectedly, Guan Yuan once again hid in an isolated spot, trying to contact someone.
Before long, Guan Xue's side did indeed find a optical computer, a corner of which had been damaged by a light gun.
“I guess he was so nervous about being discovered that he missed his shot,” Guan Xue said, handing the optical computer to Ji Yuezhi. “It still works, but I don’t know what he might have exposed.”
Ji Yuezhi looked down at the optical computer, at the unfamiliar communication number on it. Most of the calls were incoming, but the remaining few, concentrated in the last few days, were all outgoing calls made by Guan Yuan.
“Give me the optical computer,” Zuo Luohuan said to Ji Yuezhi, holding out her hand.
After Ji Yuezhi handed it to her, Zuo Luohuan turned and walked toward the conference room. Guan Yuan had already been restrained, with Jiang Hong and the others watching nearby.
Zuo Luohuan looked down and dialed the number. At first, no one answered. She made several consecutive calls before someone finally picked up.
“Uncle Guan, are you alright?” Zuo Luohuan asked the person on the call with a ‘well-intentioned’ look on her face.
Guan Yuan's father had a grim expression. “We are in the process of urgently restoring some communications over here, but it’s unstable. Have you reached the port? The Military Committee is in danger right now.”
The camera even shook deliberately.
Guan Yuan's father said, “You must be careful…”
“Uncle Guan, don’t be in such a hurry to hang up.” Zuo Luohuan leisurely switched the comm’s camera view to focus on Guan Yuan, who was restrained in a chair. “Take a look.”
Guan Yuan looked shocked. “You… what are you doing?”
Zuo Luohuan was happy to continue the act with him. “What are we doing? We’re traitors, of course. But Guan Yuan refuses to cooperate. He keeps talking about defending the Federation, how the First Military Academy is the Federation’s sharpest blade, and that he’d rather die than bend. Uncle Guan, what do you think we should do?”
Guan Yuan’s father’s expression turned exceptionally ugly. He was also a graduate of the First Military Academy; how could he not know its code?
If he couldn't understand Zuo Luohuan's blatant sarcasm, he wouldn't be fit to lead an army group.
Guan Yuan’s father’s face fell. “There are only about ten thousand of you. Zuo Luohuan, your mother is in my hands. I advise you to think carefully before you act.”
Zuo Luohuan showed no reaction and walked over to Guan Yuan. “So the Twenty-sixth Army has also rebelled? What are you after?”
Guan Yuan’s father didn’t answer the question, only saying, “If you release Guan Yuan, I will bring your mother to you.”
Zuo Luohuan raised an eyebrow. “Uncle Guan, before we make a deal, you should at least let me see my mother.”
Seeing him hesitate, Zuo Luohuan knew. Her mother wasn't in Guan Yuan's father's hands at all.
Guan Yuan’s father was about to say more when the screen went black. The connection on their end had clearly dropped.
“The Twenty-sixth Army turned traitor?” Cha Lili didn’t quite understand why. In recent years, the Twenty-sixth Army’s reputation had nearly eclipsed that of the Seventeenth Army. What more could they want that they had to stir up trouble with Ren Pingbo?
Zuo Luohuan pulled the anesthetic she had swiped earlier from her pocket, injected Guan Yuan with it, and watched him fall into a deep sleep before saying, “Ren Pingbo is in the capital.”
“So there really was a problem with the Twenty-sixth Army’s munitions expenditures?” Jiang Hong asked her.
“What expenditures?” Ji Yuezhi hadn’t heard about this.
“The Twenty-sixth Army’s munitions expenditures have been huge these past few years.” Zuo Luohuan looked at Ji Yuezhi and explained, “I previously thought an army group in the capital was selling light guns to the Gashiro Empire. Now it seems it wasn’t selling, but rather… Ren Pingbo is in the capital, controlling the transport of light guns and developing new types of robot dogs.”
They hadn't been discussing in the conference room for long when Yan Yan, who had been outside organizing the civilians with the instructors, suddenly ran in. “General Captain! Senior Zuo, you have to come out!”
Zuo Luohuan and Ji Yuezhi exchanged a look and walked out together.
“What is it?” Ji Yuezhi asked.
Yan Yan caught his breath and said, “Outside, on the street, Ren Pingbo has appeared on the advertising light screens! He’s speaking.”
Hearing this, Zuo Luohuan frowned and immediately headed outside with Ji Yuezhi.
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