"Please, I beg you..." Hong Lian Zhiwu sobbed, raising her head. Her swollen eyes were teary, and she pleaded with sorrow, "Please save Xingchen Ge! I have no other way!"
Hong Lian Zhiwu's hands trembled involuntarily. She wanted to cover her face to hide her crumbling expression, but the electromagnetic handcuffs held her tightly to the armrest of the chair.
Shi Mingjun calmly asked, "Clarify yourselves. Why should we save the culprit who attacked Xianxia?"
Dou Mei also found it incredible, frowning as she asked, "Do you know what you're saying? You want us to save the greatest war criminal who invaded Xianxia. Are you out of your mind?"
Tian Quan, filled with righteous indignation, glared with murderous eyes, wishing he could draw his gun and shoot Hong Lian Zhiwu right then and there.
"I know, I know!" Hong Lian Zhiwu said, tears streaming down her face. "Please take him back to Xianxia, whether he's alive or dead. Xingchen Ge... he dreamed of coming back! He's from Xianxia!!"
"You're talking nonsense!!!" Tian Quan couldn't sit still any longer. He shouted, stood up, and immediately drew his gun.
Shi Mingjun immediately stood up and covered the muzzle of the gun with his hand, forcibly taking it away. "Tian Quan! Calm down!!!"
Tian Quan glared fiercely at the man and said, "Deputy Commander Shi! This demon woman is talking utter rubbish! How could a Xianxia person defect to the Black Star to slaughter Xianxia people!! This is slander, this is the most serious blasphemy!!"
Shi Mingjun nodded slightly with a cold expression, appeasing Tian Quan with a few low words. After they sat down, he said, "Hong Lian Zhiwu, the crimes you have committed are countless. Even if you lead tens of thousands of surviving Xingchen Army to defect to Xianxia, it is not enough to appease the national anger."
Hong Lian Zhiwu nodded with cold despair in her eyes and said softly, "Whether alive or dead, as long as Xingchen Ge can return to Xianxia, I can tell you the troop deployments of other Black Star Empire cities, as well as detailed information on the armies of the allied nations. I will tell you everything I know."
The four fell silent for a long time before Shi Mingjun finally spoke, "This matter requires discussion. I will draft the necessary information as soon as possible and report it to Xianxia City."
Dou Mei's expression was calm. She silently got up and walked out first.
Tian Quan didn't want to stay in the same room with Hong Lian Zhiwu for another moment. He resentfully got up and left.
Only Shi Mingjun, Ye Ying, and Hong Lian remained.
"You deliberately waited for me to kill you, just to surrender to Xianxia, so that Xianxia would save Mu Ye Xingchen?" Ye Ying asked softly.
Hong Lian Zhiwu looked at Ye Ying with a tired bitter smile and nodded.
Shi Mingjun asked, "Hong Lian Zhiwu, you are a native of the Black Star Empire. Why do you betray your own country?"
Hong Lian Zhiwu gave another bitter smile and said coldly, with disgust, "My country? Heh. If it weren't for Xingchen Ge, I would have starved to death or frozen to death in the garbage dumps of my country."
"I wandered with Xingchen Ge since I was seven years old. It wasn't until I was fifteen that Xingchen Ge became a mid-level officer in the Black Star Army, and our lives became slightly better. Having followed him for twenty-one years, I had long ago abandoned my identity as a Black Star person in my heart."
Shi Mingjun asked softly, "You say Mu Ye Xingchen is from Xianxia? Is this true?"
Hong Lian Zhiwu's eyes flickered with panic for a moment, as if she had thought of a secret she couldn't reveal. She lowered her head and said nothing more.
Seeing that nothing more could be extracted, Shi Mingjun and Ye Ying left the detention room together.
Dou Mei had not yet left. She met Shi Mingjun and said softly, "I have already sent people to investigate Mu Ye Xingchen's background. If it involves top-secret information, you'll need to put in a good word with your superiors."
Shi Mingjun avoided Ye Ying and said quietly, "Hong Lian Zhiwu still has many secrets she hasn't revealed. This person cannot be killed. We must wait until she has fully confessed before making a judgment. I will carefully consider the report to higher authorities."
Then, Shi Mingjun pulled Dou Mei a couple of steps away to a place where no one else was, and said in an extremely low voice, "Use your Special Ninth Section channels to investigate Mu Ye Xingchen's background. I have a feeling there's a bigger secret behind this."
Dou Mei nodded without saying anything, and Shi Mingjun left alone.
After finishing his official business, Dou Mei walked up to Ye Ying with a kind smile, looking her up and down with admiration, and said with a smile, "Gu Ya is truly blessed."
"Are we really going to save that Mu Ye Xingchen?" Ye Ying asked calmly.
Dou Mei smiled slightly and said, "That's a matter for the decision-makers. It's not for us to worry about. By the way, I've already smoothed things over with the Mechanical Division. You can freely enter and exit Gu Ya's room."
"Gu Ya refused so many admirers for you. Now that you're finally together, go spend more time with him. Don't leave any regrets."
After speaking, Dou Mei turned and walked towards the exit. Ye Ying didn't see the hint of reluctance and wistfulness that appeared on Dou Mei's face.
"Buzz—!" A melodious signal sound rang out.
The waterproof alloy plating on the outer edge of the mecha carrier slowly rose, gradually covering the azure sky.
As the large protective plates on both sides merged, the carrier began to slowly descend, sinking into the depths of the ocean, with everything around enveloped in darkness.
Immediately after, the hundreds of spotlights on the inner side of the top of the protective plates and all the corridor lights in the command tower lit up, bringing back light.
Looking through the massive floor-to-ceiling windows, Ye Ying glanced at the battered Nightingale mecha parked on the deck, then thought of Gu Ya, who was in mortal danger, and felt an inexpressible sadness.
The reunion did not bring joy, but rather a more perplexing future.
Compared to life-and-death mecha battles filled with murderous intent, the power struggles between people were more dark and complex.
From a simple interrogation, Ye Ying glimpsed an unsettling atmosphere. In a small, permanently calm battle zone, so many undercurrents were hidden, with military and intelligence factions seething and contending in secret.
The higher-ups were the same, let alone those below.
Ye Ying brushed aside these miscellaneous thoughts and looked up, only to realize she had arrived outside the room where Gu Ya was being guarded.
The Mechanical Division guards standing outside did not stop Ye Ying. Instead, they considerately opened the locked metal gate for her.
Gu Ya lay alone on the hospital bed. In the entire room, only a pale, shadowless lamp cast its light upon him.
The pained expression that occasionally flashed across his face made Ye Ying's heart clench.
She moved a chair to Gu Ya's side, gently took his calloused, cold, and thin hand into hers.
Her mind flickered, and a clear, distant voice flashed in her mind: "He can win... can win... win..."
"Bai Ying?" Ye Ying whispered.
"Don't worry..." Bai Ying suddenly materialized as a transparent, blurred figure of a silver-haired, white-browed maiden. Like a ghost, she appeared on the other side of the bed, her expression blank, and slowly lowered her head to look at Gu Ya.
As the extent of her lean increased, Bai Ying finally bent over, her upper body hanging vertically downwards, allowing her brain and Gu Ya's brain to overlap.
Her head was clearly pointing downwards, yet her silver hair remained neatly on either side of her ears, not falling with gravity.
After Bai Ying pulled her head out of Gu Ya's head, she calmly said, "Soon."
As Bai Ying quietly disappeared into the air, Ye Ying tightly grasped Gu Ya's hand, her worried expression gradually easing.
Suddenly, a heart-wrenching alarm blared from outside.
"A large number of Black Star enemy forces have been detected three hundred nautical miles ahead. All combat personnel prepare. Repeat..."
The horn of battle sounded. Ye Ying cast a reluctant glance at Gu Ya, released his hand, and hurried out of the infirmary.