Chapter Ninety-Four: Zhu Lan’s Temper

The special police froze at once. For all their skill, when they truly faced a ruthless man, they did not dare act recklessly.

“Who exactly are you?”

Zhu Lan took out an identification card and tossed it in front of them.

The man in charge felt nothing was wrong and ordered one of his people to pick it up, while the others remained wary of the three of them.

“Captain!” The man who picked up the card looked at it, then hurried to his captain and handed it over carefully.

“Major Zhu Lan? Intelligence Security Division?” The captain was puzzled by the information on the card, but after a closer look he confirmed it was genuine. He recognized a military identification card. As one of the important economic cities of Huaxia, Sky Capital often conducted exercises with military units so that, when necessary, there would be no needless trouble.

“So you’re one of us. My apologies.” Realizing Zhu Lan was military, the captain ordered his men to lower their weapons.

Zhu Lan stepped forward and took back his identification. Kang Nuo and Yu Dangdang also lowered their weapons, but kept their fingers near the triggers, ready to react at any moment.

Seeing this, the captain said nothing. He knew it was simply a soldier’s caution.

“Who is your superior?”

“I’ll have our battalion commander come up at once.” Knowing that, as a major, Zhu Lan was beyond his own authority, the captain replied respectfully, then spoke into his radio.

Very soon, several people came out of the elevator—police officers, special police, and government officials.

“Hello, sir!” one man came up to Zhu Lan, saluted, and spoke with deference.

A major was a very high rank.

Zhu Lan returned the salute. “At ease.”

“Yes!”

“Major Zhu, may I ask what happened here?” A middle-aged police officer nearby looked at the corpses strewn across the floor and the bullet holes in the walls, visibly shaken. As an economic center of Huaxia, the city’s security forces, both seen and unseen, were no less formidable than those of the capital. And given the present situation, the weapons the attackers carried were terrifying. If they had not targeted military personnel but ordinary citizens instead, the consequences would be unimaginable.

“Are you from the city police bureau?”

“Yes, yes, yes. I’m the deputy chief of the city police bureau, Long Dong!”

“Hmph. Your city police really are living off the state. Such well-equipped enemies managed to slip into the city center so easily—what a waste of national grain.” Zhu Lan naturally had no good feelings toward Long Dong. If not for Red Queen’s timely warning, he might already be a corpse or have been taken away.

The fantasy system might be powerful, but without time to prepare, it was no more than worthless air.

Cold sweat kept running down Long Dong’s face. This was already a central district of the city, surrounded by the most prosperous area, with many large corporations headquartered here. He could hardly imagine how dire the consequences would be if today’s incident spread.

As a force tasked with protecting the city, the police had somehow allowed a large number of weapons into the city center. In Western cities, that might not be much, but in Huaxia, where even buying a kitchen knife required registration, guns were almost mythical objects. Yet now, not only had they been brought in large numbers to the center of the city, but a firefight had even broken out.

Though no civilians had been injured so far, the police bureau would bear enormous responsibility for what followed.

Long Dong took out a cloth and wiped the cold sweat from his face, not daring to answer Zhu Lan.

At that moment the elevator opened again, and several soldiers stepped out.

“Hello, I’m from the reconnaissance battalion of the military district. Major Zhu, please come with us.”

Zhu Lan saluted and nodded. “Find out exactly who these people are. I’ll be waiting for your answer.”

After speaking to Long Dong, Zhu Lan led Kang Nuo and Yu Dangdang into the elevator, followed quickly by the three soldiers.

Once outside the hotel, the entire area had already been sealed off. Police, special police, and military personnel were standing guard.

“Major Zhu, please.”

Zhu Lan nodded. “There are two sniper bodies upstairs on that side. Take care of them.”

One of the soldiers nodded. “Understood.”

Zhu Lan got into the car, and several military vehicles drove off toward the distance.

Zhu Lan removed the equipment from his body, and Kang Nuo and Yu Dangdang did the same.

The journey had gone very smoothly. With military escort vehicles, no one dared target Zhu Lan.

He had not brought Kong Yan with him. Zhu Lan had already sent her to investigate who exactly wanted him dead.

If they had intended to capture him, they would not have used sniper rifles. There was only one answer: they wanted him dead.

“Zhu Lan, welcome.” As soon as he stepped down from the car, a general came forward to greet him.

Recognizing the man, Zhu Lan’s expression soured. “General Qin. I never expected to find you here.”

Qin Jun, a major general in the overseas expeditionary forces, wielded even greater power than an ordinary lieutenant general within the country. The overseas expeditionary forces were a department within Huaxia specifically responsible for all of Huaxia’s military power overseas, including peacekeeping units, all of which fell under its jurisdiction. In Europe and America, this department was more often called Huaxia’s Overseas Military Command Center.

Qin Jun smiled at Zhu Lan. “I happened to be nearby. When I heard something happened to you, I rushed over.”

Of course Zhu Lan would not believe Qin Jun had simply happened to be there, but he did know one thing: Huaxia had recently been making frequent moves overseas, especially in naval affairs, and Qin Jun seemed to be in charge of that area. His presence here was not strange.

“This is Commander Xu Gangan of the city military district.” Qin Jun introduced the man beside him to Zhu Lan.

“Hello, Commander Xu.”

“Zhu Lan, I’ve heard quite a lot about you.” Xu Gangan was very easy to deal with.

“Enough. Let’s talk inside.”

Once inside the building and Zhu Lan had just sat down, Qin Jun’s expression changed. “Speak. What happened this time?”

Zhu Lan gave a helpless bitter smile. “I suddenly received intelligence saying someone wanted to kill me. I never expected them to have such a background—carrying more than a dozen automatic weapons, plus sniper rifles.”

“Why didn’t you seek help from the military?” Qin Jun frowned.

“I don’t trust you.” At Zhu Lan’s words, both Qin Jun and Xu Gangan frowned.

“My movements may not be strictly secret, but coming from Lan City to Sky Capital was entirely a spur-of-the-moment decision. Normally, nobody could have known where I was going. And the moment I arrived, the enemy followed right behind me. They even brought so many weapons. If I hadn’t always been on guard and made preparations, the thing you’d be seeing now might be my corpse.”

Qin Jun shook his head helplessly. He had not expected that one day the military of Huaxia would be untrusted.

“All right. We’ll set that aside for now. Where did your weapons come from?”

“I made them myself,” Zhu Lan said solemnly.

Bang.

Qin Jun slammed the table. “Zhu Lan, this is no time to joke. Your situation is serious!”

“What’s serious about it? When have you ever considered my safety? If I hadn’t looked out for myself, I’d already be reporting to the King of Hell!” Zhu Lan glared back without yielding to Qin Jun at all. He was not afraid to answer sharply.

Xu Gangan could only smile wryly beside them. Neither man was someone he could afford to offend. He naturally knew Qin Jun’s identity, while Zhu Lan’s was more mysterious. But since Zhu Lan could face Qin Jun without the slightest fear, he was clearly no ordinary man. Xu Gangan could only watch. Observe more, speak less. Move less. Say nothing.

“Zhu Lan...” Qin Jun looked at him in irritation. Zhu Lan was as stubborn as an old stone—stinking and hard.

Zhu Lan merely snorted in reply and had no desire to say more to Qin Jun. Back in the capital, he had been thoroughly wronged by Qin Jun, so naturally he would not give him a pleasant face.

Qin Jun knew Zhu Lan did not think well of him, but there was nothing to be done.

“Zhu Lan, this is far too serious. I’ll report it to the higher-ups.”

“Suit yourself.” With that, Zhu Lan stood up and headed for the door.

“Zhu Lan, stop right there!”

“What do you mean by this? Do you think this is a place you can come and go from as you please?”

Zhu Lan stopped, turned around, and brought his hands together in front of him. “Oh? General Qin, are you going to arrest me?”

“You...” Qin Jun was furious.

Zhu Lan sneered. “If you have the time, go investigate instead. I’ll investigate on my side as well. If I find out who’s stabbing me in the back, don’t blame me for being rude.”

He turned and left at once.

“Oh, and that’s game footage being researched by Fantasy Technology. You have no authority to interfere!”

“Damn it!” Qin Jun watched Zhu Lan leave, wanting to stop him, but unable to think of any excuse.

“Qin Jun, what exactly is Zhu Lan’s background? He doesn’t even give you face.” Xu Gangan finally asked. Zhu Lan’s attitude was far too arrogant.

Qin Jun sighed helplessly. “Zhu Lan, as you know, is the founder of Fantasy Technology. The enhanced serum type three you’re testing now was contributed by him. To put it plainly, the gene enhancement fluid was developed by him.”

“What?” Xu Gangan was stunned. He had always believed the gene enhancement fluid was secretly developed by the state. He had never imagined someone else had created it.

After Zhu Lan handed over the gene enhancement fluid to the state, the country’s existing technical reserves, vast talent pool, and the research of countless scientists, combined with the enormous volume of materials Zhu Lan had contributed, quickly enabled the state to imitate the finished product of the gene enhancement fluid he had provided. But that was still not enough, because the finished product had flaws.

Still, this was no problem. Huaxia had already conducted research in this area. Though not as fast as Zhu Lan’s work, it was superior to him in many aspects.

By combining its own research with the materials on the gene optimization fluid, the state quickly developed an improved version of the gene enhancement fluid.

After extensive live trials, the gene enhancement fluid passed safety tests and could move on to the third phase of experiments. Due to production cost, large-scale testing was impossible, and the city military district was fortunate to receive an experimental quota.

Qin Jun was in the city specifically to supervise the results of the third phase of experiments. Aside from the city, the northeastern military district was also conducting trials, making the two military districts the only first batch of test sites.

One was Huaxia’s major economic center; the other, its industrial heartland. Both experiments were given priority.

“But that doesn’t make sense. If that were the case, Zhu Lan shouldn’t have had such confidence, should he?”

Qin Jun sighed and shook his head. “You don’t know this, but Fantasy Technology controls many excellent things, and the higher-ups are very interested. On top of that, someone previously attacked Fantasy Technology in business, which made Zhu Lan very angry at the government. And since we never provided him with any assistance, Zhu Lan also has strong opinions about the military.”

“Zhu Lan is troublesome, yes. But he really is a genius. If his temper weren’t so terrible, perhaps he could have walked a smoother path. Unfortunately, he’s too hard-headed.”

Though Xu Gangan did not know exactly what Zhu Lan held, for even Qin Jun to be helpless before him, it must be something immensely important—at least to the military’s upper echelon.

“Boss!”

“Hm? Come here.”

Zhu Lan called out to the man who had delivered them here.

“Hello, sir!”

“Take us to the airport.”

“Sir, without orders from above, I...”

“Hmph. Then go ask for instructions. Do I need to teach you how to do that?”

Seeing Zhu Lan’s anger, the man answered yes and hurried off to seek approval.

Zhu Lan’s temper was terrible right now. No wonder—he had only been trying to quietly work on his project proposal, and then someone tried to assassinate him. How could his mood possibly be good?

To be continued.