“Why?”
Upon hearing Song Shaodao’s words, Gu Qinghan and Qin Long looked puzzled.
“Shen Lang, you must know why, right?”
Song Shaodao didn’t answer Gu Qinghan and Qin Long’s questions, his gaze fixed on Shen Lang as he spoke.
“It’s simple. The moment Alice proposed getting on the helicopter before revealing the bomb distribution map and defusal methods, Old Song guessed Alice’s scheme.”
“However, I have a small question. Can Old Song clarify it for me?”
Shen Lang looked at Song Shaodao and asked, “You had Qin Long move against Alice. If Alice had disregarded everything and detonated the bombs remotely on the spot, how would you have responded?”
“Alice infiltrated Nanling to rescue someone, not to carry out a terrorist attack. Based on this alone, she would be hesitant. Unless she could guarantee her own safety and that of the person she wanted to save, she wouldn’t detonate the bombs easily.”
“Of course, if she had truly chosen to detonate the bombs, I wouldn’t be afraid either.”
Song Shaodao pointed to the bomb disposal vehicle nearby and said, “In that vehicle, there’s the strongest signal jamming equipment available. Any electronic device within three hundred meters of it will lose signal reception. Even if she pressed the remote, the bombs wouldn’t detonate.”
“What?”
Hearing Song Shaodao’s words, Shen Lang was startled. No wonder Song Shaodao was as calm as an old dog and so quick to confront. He had a contingency plan.
“I also have a question, Old Song, please answer it.”
After Song Shaodao finished speaking, Gu Qinghan interjected, “Even if you successfully captured Alice and ensured the bombs wouldn’t explode, there are still eight members of the Sha Dao Association and hundreds of hostages inside. Think about it, if my brother hadn’t made arrangements in advance to drug everyone into a state of paralysis, and if the eight Sha Dao Association members inside had acted, wouldn’t hundreds of hostages have been slaughtered?”
“Little Gu, can you think of it, but can’t I, an old man, think of it?”
Song Shaodao chuckled, “While we were dealing with Alice, Shadow had already slipped inside without a sound. If the eight Sha Dao Association members inside had truly attacked the innocent hostages, she would have already eliminated all the enemies.”
“Shadow?”
Hearing Song Shaodao’s words, Gu Qinghan and Qin Long’s faces turned ashen.
There was an extremely mysterious person in the Wu Wei Department. No one knew her identity or her origins. Just like her name, she was like a shadow, omnipresent.
Gu Qinghan and Qin Long had witnessed Shadow’s terrifying prowess before.
A year ago, Gu Qinghan and Qin Long, in a joint operation against a tomb-robbing syndicate, pursued them to the border. The syndicate, however, had a reinforcement of a hundred mercenaries.
Gu Qinghan and Qin Long, leading less than thirty men, armed mostly with Type 56 pistols, stood no chance against the heavily armed mercenaries and quickly suffered heavy casualties.
Just when Qin Long and Gu Qinghan believed they were doomed, a woman dressed in black, wearing an ice-sculpted mask, suddenly appeared.
Facing the well-equipped mercenaries with heavy weaponry, the woman in black, with a single sword and a crossbow, annihilated all hundred of them.
Except for Gu Qinghan, Qin Long, and their men present at the scene, others could not fathom the terrifying strength the black-clad woman displayed fighting a hundred men alone.
With a crossbow in her left hand and a saber in her right, she moved like a wraith, piercing through enemy lines repeatedly. Every arrow she shot, every saber strike, claimed a life.
What was most terrifying was that there was no emotion in her eyes or on her face as she killed, as if she were merely weeding, her coldness chilling to the bone.
If Song Shaodao hadn’t mentioned this name today, Gu Qinghan and Qin Long would have almost forgotten about this person.
No, it wasn’t forgetting, it was that they dared not recall her easily.
“Old Song, you old fox, if you knew everything was under your control, we wouldn’t have worried so much.”
Gu Qinghan changed the subject and said to Song Shaodao, “You made us worry for so long. Tell us, how will you compensate us?”
“Compensation?”
Song Shaodao heard this and laughed, “I am a man of integrity, with nothing but my salary and bonuses. As soon as they hit my account, they’re all donated to the Nanling Orphan Aid Center. I don’t even have money to treat you to a meal.”
“Old Song does charity work?”
Hearing Song Shaodao’s words, Shen Lang was slightly surprised and asked.
“I’m not particularly interested in charity, but my sister is. She can’t stand it.”
Song Shaodao sighed, “Her own son’s whereabouts have been unknown for years, so she likes to adopt abandoned orphans. She says it's to accumulate merit for her son.”
“Her son’s plane crash has been a mystery for twenty years, and she’s been adopting orphans for twenty years. She’s already raised a large group of adopted children.”
“But it’s fine for her to do charity, she doesn’t take money from Shen Tianjun. She’s always extorting from me.”
“I originally had tens of billions in assets, but I couldn’t withstand her spending. After twenty years, I, her brother, have become a pauper.”
“But it doesn’t matter. As long as she’s happy, it’s all worth it.”
Song Shaodao looked at Shen Lang, his tone filled with elder affection, “I don’t know why, but from the first time I met you, I felt that the aura in your eyes was very similar to my sister’s, and even more so to Shen Tianjun’s. It’s quite possible you are her son.”
“Old Song is joking.”
Shen Lang heard this and smiled, “Your sister’s son went missing in a plane crash, and I’ve been begging in Nanling City since I can remember. It’s unlikely her son’s plane crash happened in Nanling, right?”
“What if I told you that it was indeed so?”
Song Shaodao spoke, “Twenty years ago, she was returning to her maternal home from Longdu with her six-year-old son to pay respects to her parents. When they were over Nanling, the plane suddenly malfunctioned and began a rapid descent.”
Finally, the plane crashed into the Ming River in Nanling. She was fortunately rescued, but the son in her arms was swept away by the river, his whereabouts unknown. A month of searching yielded no trace of him.
“Your sister is truly a pitiable soul.”
Hearing this, Shen Lang felt an involuntary respect for the sister Song Shaodao spoke of. “If there’s a chance, I must get to know her. After all, there aren’t many mothers in this world as kind and persistent as her.”
Thinking of this, Shen Lang felt a pang of loss. Song Shaodao’s sister searched for her son who crashed into the river for years, but what were his parents doing?
Perhaps they had long forgotten that such a child existed, or perhaps they had intentionally abandoned him, eager to distance themselves. There was no room for longing.
“Shen Lang, what are you thinking about?”
Seeing a flicker of sadness on Shen Lang’s face, Song Shaodao asked curiously.
“Nothing, I just suddenly recalled some unpleasant memories.”
Shen Lang cleverly concealed his inner disappointment and replied.