Chapter 56: Midnight Crisis, the Mysterious Man in Black!

The rise of Longhai University was no longer that of a newly dawning morning sun, but rather a blazing sun suspended dead in the center of the sky, its glare blinding and scorching everyone's nerves.

On the official website, the total donation amount marked in blood-red font had long since broken through the two-billion mark.

There was not the slightest sign of it stopping.

The numbers were still leaping upward at a terrifying speed that made countless capitalist giants feel their hearts convulse.

Behind this string of numbers was no longer merely a torrent of hope; it had evolved into a nearly fanatic faith. It was a high-stakes gamble waged by the entire Nanhe Province, and indeed the entire Huaxia, on a dream named "Future."

The more scorching the light, the deeper and colder the shadow it cast.

This overly dazzling light was also precisely projected onto the dirtiest, most rotting corners of the city, illuminating those bloodshot pupils lurking within the darkness.

Desperadoes had smelled the bloody scent of money.

In Nanhe Province, a windowless basement.

The turbid air had almost solidified into a solid mass. The sour, pungent stench of cheap alcohol, mixed with the choking tar smell of burning inferior tobacco, tightly clutched the throat of every intruder.

A man sat on the sole sofa, his upper body bare, a ferocious tattoo of a descending fierce tiger coiled across his knotted muscles. With each of his breaths, the tiger's eyes seemed to flash with a man-devouring, murderous intent.

The thumb-thick gold chain around his neck reflected an oily sheen beneath the dim lightbulb.

He was "Brother Leopard."

In the underworld of Nanhe Province, this name was synonymous with violence and death.

His fingers gripped his phone so tightly that his knuckles turned white from excessive force. The cold light of the screen reflected the churning, blood-red hue of jealousy and greed in his eyes.

On the screen were the latest reports concerning Longhai University and He Yu.

That excessively young face, which still retained a lingering trace of scholarly aura, contrasted with the scalp-numbing astronomical figure to form a scene that was both utterly absurd and fatally tempting.

"Damn it!"

Brother Leopard violently smashed his phone onto the wooden table in front of him.

Bang!

The cheap glass cup bounced, the ice cubes inside emitting a dying chime.

His tongue unconsciously swept across his dry lips, tasting that scorching greed.

"Over two billion! Cash! This damn thing is a mobile vault!"

Beside him, a man so thin he was stripped of his frame, resembling a skinned monkey, immediately bent over with a fawning expression, holding a lighter in both hands to ignite the cigarette hanging from Brother Leopard's mouth.

"Brother, this makes money way faster than us cracking bank vaults."

The monkey smiled flatteringly, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth. "Those things—the police wind is tight, the cops watch them like hawks, and you might lose your life without getting a few bucks in the end."

Brother Leopard took a fierce drag of his cigarette, the crimson ember alternating between bright and dim, making the flesh on his face twitch neurotically.

In his eyes, this young man named He Yu was no educator, nor any kind of genius.

He was a miracle.

A perfect miracle tailor-made by the heavens specifically for him, Brother Leopard.

A student who popped up out of nowhere, completely rootless and backgroundless.

A fool stupid enough to place himself all alone within a massive, remote construction site where security forces were virtually zero.

This was no longer a fat sheep laying golden eggs.

This was a fat sheep that had washed and stripped itself, voluntarily lying on the chopping block, even wearing a smile and inviting the butcher to wield the blade!

Brother Leopard's pupils suddenly contracted, leaving behind only the most primitive savagery.

"Go."

His voice wasn't loud, yet it carried an irrefutable, chilling coldness.

"Call up the guys."

"Get ready for the feast."

The cigarette butt was ruthlessly crushed into the ash tray by him, sparks scattering and instantly extinguishing.

Through a week of meticulous scouting, Brother Leopard's gang had carved every corner of the "Valley of Hope" into their minds.

Their conclusion had inflated the confidence of these desperadoes to the absolute limit.

The security system of the entire construction site—all surveillance, infrared sensors, and alarms—was strictly concentrated in the warehouse area where expensive building materials and precision equipment were piled.

And the temporary office building where He Yu resided was simply a joke.

A naked, undefended empty shell forgotten by the entire security system.

The perfect prey.

The perfect hunting ground.

The time to strike was set for a torrential, rain-soaked midnight.

The lead-gray canopy of heaven was torn apart by a ferocious breach.

The storm poured down.

Raindrops the size of beans were no longer threads, but falling stones, pouring wildly from the edge of the sky, fiercely striking every inch of land in the "Valley of Hope" and splashing countless muddy water flowers on the muddy ground.

The howling wind whipped up sand and gravel, crashing against the iron sheeting of the temporary sheds. The sound produced was the ultimate symphony for nocturnal creatures.

The massive sounds of rain and wind formed an indestructible natural barrier, sufficient to completely swallow and mask every subtle, abnormal sound in this world that should not exist.

Five black shadows moved silently under the cover of the night.

Their movements were even quieter than the night itself.

From head to toe, they were tightly wrapped in black waterproof tactical gear, with balaclavas revealing only their eyes, making them look less like human beings and more like evil ghosts crawling up from the depths of hell to claim lives.

The leader stopped at the outer perimeter of the construction site, raised his hand, and clenched it into a fist.

A simple tactical hand signal.

The team instantly froze, five shadows perfectly melting into the darkness as if they had never appeared.

One team member silently glided out of the formation, drawing a custom insulated hydraulic cutter from his tactical waist pouch. Without the slightest hesitation, he precisely clamped down and cut a nondescript junction box on the outer wall.

Snap.

A crisp click, so faint it was almost imperceptible.

A fleeting, ghostly blue electric arc flashed in the torrential rain, swallowed into endless darkness within a ten-thousandth of a second.

In the office building area, the very last surveillance cameras went dead in synchronized pitch darkness.

They were Brother Leopard's most elite and ferocious fighters.

Every single one of them had danced with the Grim Reaper in the jungles of the Golden Triangle, and every single one of them had more than one human life on their hands.

Tucked into their waists were military daggers capable of easily piercing three layers of Kevlar.

The plan had been rehearsed hundreds of times in their minds.

Simple, brutal, efficient.

Infiltrate silently.

Subdue the target with maximum speed.

Kidnap and take him away.

Then, extort a massive ransom sufficient for them to enjoy a king's life of extravagance in any corner of the earth.

Under the cover of night and storm, the five men crossed the muddy construction site like five ghosts, silently infiltrating the office building area where He Yu was located.

Their movements were uniform, brimming with cold tactical proficiency.

One person stood guard on the perimeter, eyes scanning like night-vision devices for any possible threat.

The remaining four formed a standard diamond-shaped alternating cover-and-attack formation.

The distance between each other was strictly maintained within a single step.

This distance guaranteed instant mutual support in the event of an emergency while preventing overcrowding from hindering movement.

In their view, this operation carried no possibility of failure.

A student with no ability to truss a chicken.

Facing five fully armed, battle-hardened professional ruffians.

The ending had been sealed the moment they stepped foot onto this construction site.

There would be no suspense whatsoever.

Foolproof.