Chapter 5: The Wind Keeps Blowing
Chapter 5: The Wind Keeps Blowing
Su Qingqing watched the short-distance bus leave—
It turned out that not only was Ling Yi’s personal account frozen, but his credit was also blacklisted.
He couldn’t take planes or trains. When he tried to buy a ticket earlier, he couldn’t even purchase a long-distance bus ticket that required ID.
He could only choose a short-distance bus that didn’t need identification, bouncing his way bit by bit towards Spring City, over a thousand miles away.
Su Qingqing pressed her lips tightly. Behind her sunglasses, her swollen, reddened eyes grew wet again. Tears streamed silently down her delicate cheeks.
She didn’t want to cry in front of Ling Yi. It wasn’t that she was afraid of being laughed at; she didn’t want to make him even sadder.
Ling Yi was two years younger than her, but he had always acted more like her older brother.
The year they met, she was ten. Eight-year-old Ling Yi was wandering around with four-year-old Ling Yun, who still didn’t understand anything.
At that time, she was trapped in a filthy alley by several even filthier punks.
Someone who hadn’t lived that kind of life could never imagine the despair she felt then.
Just as she was about to fight for her life, Ling Yi, who was collecting trash to sell, used a knife—so sharp she still found it unbelievable today—and slashed one punk’s thigh.
Blood gushed out, along with the punk’s insane howling.
It echoed through the alley.
People peered from the ends of the alley, but no one dared to step in—she didn’t know why she remembered it so clearly. Even after all these years, she could vividly describe everything that happened, every single frame.
The other punks closed in, holding flick knives and bricks, wanting to beat Ling Yi to death.
But Ling Yi stabbed the injured punk again, harder.
This time, in the stomach!
That finally scared the group away. They fled in panic, even abandoning their injured companion.
From then on, the helpless and lonely Su Qingqing “latched onto” that brother and sister pair.
Wherever they went, she followed.
Ling Yi never drove her away.
If there was only one bite of food, she and Ling Yun shared it.
He would rather go hungry than beg for food.
He collected trash to sell money, struggling to get by while dragging her and little Ling Yun along.
Back then, eight-year-old Ling Yi was the backbone for all three of them.
He said they had to save money, to put her and Ling Yun through school. He said people who didn’t study would become stupid, especially girls. They had to study more to avoid being fooled in the future.
Two years later, Ling Yi finally saved enough money. He said as long as they solved the identity issue, he could send the two of them to school.
But for three homeless children, how could solving their identity issue be easy? For Ling Yi, that was even harder than saving money!
Fortunately, not long after, the three of them met their Adoptive Father. From then on, they finally lived a stable life, and all three finally got to go to school.
She was grateful to her Adoptive Father, endlessly grateful!
If her Adoptive Father died, she would do anything to avenge him.
But she was even more grateful to Ling Yi. She couldn’t even describe their relationship with just the word “gratitude.”
If one day only one of them could live, she would kill herself without hesitation!
After crying silently for a while, Su Qingqing got into her car. She stepped on the gas, and the car shot forward again.
She returned to the Military Headquarters in the shortest possible time, rushing like the wind straight to the main building.
She went to the top floor, came to the door of one of the offices, and without hesitation, knocked and called out a report.
A deep voice came from inside: “Enter.”
She pushed the door open and saw someone inside seemed to be giving a report.
Su Qingqing, full of things to say, stood at the door and saluted an old man with sharp eyes sitting in a seat.
The old man nodded slightly and said to a middle-aged officer across from him, “You may go first.”
The middle-aged officer acknowledged, glanced at Su Qingqing, gave a slight nod, and walked out.
“General…”
The old man waved his hand: “There are no outsiders here. Sit down, girl.”
Su Qingqing looked at the old man: “I have something to say!”
“Then sit down and say it,” the old man said calmly, looking at her.
Left with no choice, Su Qingqing sat straight-backed in the chair opposite the desk.
“Speak,” the old man said.
“Why won’t you intervene? My dad… well, he left too suddenly, that’s one thing. But what about Ling Yi? What right does Zongwu Academy have to expel him? Why should he suffer those false accusations? Three hundred million… Have Zhao Tianping and his gang lost their minds?”
Su Qingqing wasn’t a woman who liked to throw tantrums. Especially working in a place like the Military Headquarters that stressed discipline, she understood reason. But right now, she really couldn’t hold back.
“How can I intervene?” The old man didn’t beat around the bush with Su Qingqing, nor did he pretend not to know. Instead, he calmly asked a question in return.
“What do you mean, how? What right does Zongwu have to expel him! What right do they have to smear him? He’s the person you’ve been wanting to recruit into the army all these years!” Su Qingqing said, looking at the old man, somewhat agitated.
“But now… he’s ruined,” the old man sighed and said quietly.
“You…” Su Qingqing was speechless. She sprang to her feet, her face dark as water. “General Zhang, your subordinate is fine now. I’ll return to my duties!”
“Sit down,” the old man looked up at her. “Grown adult, acting like a child. So childish.”
“I…” Su Qingqing looked at the old man, who was gazing at her calmly, and helplessly sat back in the chair.
“It’s not that I’m heartless, girl. Your Adoptive Father and I were like brothers. Your bond with Ling Yi was built up since childhood, over a dozen years. But the bond between me and your Adoptive Father was forged on the battlefield, sharing life and death! The year we met, he was twenty-three, I was nineteen. That was fifty years ago now! Ling Yi was his adopted son, as dear as a biological child. Do you really think I would just stand by and do nothing?”
The old man was also moved. He sighed heavily. “First, this matter was too sudden! Who could have expected he and Ling Yi would run into something like this? It gave us no time to react at all! Second, do you know how many years the Academy faction has been preparing for this day?”
Su Qingqing fell silent. As a mid-level officer in the Military Headquarters’ Intelligence Department, she certainly knew many things outsiders didn’t.
“The Monarch is getting old…” the old man suddenly murmured with emotion. “Compared to expanding territories, he prefers peace and prosperity.”
Su Qingqing continued to remain silent.
The old man looked at her. “Right now, nearly the entire Cabinet, the vast majority, stands on their side. Of course they act with confidence, knowing they have backing. Ling Yi is wronged, but isn’t Zhang Chenggong wronged too? Isn’t Meng Xu wronged? And all those people who worked hard at Zongwu Academy for years, only to be kicked out overnight… aren’t they wronged?”
“With the Cabinet backing them, and the Monarch lacking his former ambition, if they don’t use this chance to strike at the Military with a heavy hand, when would they find a better opportunity?”
“At a time like this, who knows how many eyes are watching us. They want to provoke us, then wait for us to make a mistake ourselves.”
“As for Ling Yi, the kid is indeed unlucky. But not because he’s Old Shen’s adopted son. It’s because he happened to get injured right at this time!”
“If not for this incident, believe me, Zhao Tianping would never have treated him this way. On the contrary, he would have tried hard to win him over! He would have tried every way to make Ling Yi one of them!”
Su Qingqing looked at the old man and couldn’t help saying, “That’s impossible…”
“Why impossible? That kid never wanted to join the Military Headquarters! You tried again this time, right? And he refused again, right? I’ve heard Old Shen say it before. Ling Yi’s dream was to teach at Zongwu.”
“So Zhao Tianping and his gang didn’t even need to win him over. He never wanted to get involved in any strife. Of course, that’s not a bad thing. From a personal feelings standpoint, I also don’t want Old Shen’s child to go to the battlefield in the future.”
The old man said with a sigh, “But he just had to get that ‘death sentence’ from that foolish Old Chen at a time like this! A ruined genius, caught in a storm—aside from being kicked out, giving some amusement to those who hated Old Shen, what other path was there?”
Su Qingqing’s chest heaved with anger. “But they didn’t have to go for total annihilation, did they? That three hundred million…”
The old man shook his head and smiled bitterly. “That three hundred million is a pit they dug for us, just waiting for us to jump in.”
“What do you mean?” Though clever, Su Qingqing, lacking in experience, looked at the old man in confusion.
“This matter, anyone with eyes can see it’s a frame-up. But believe me, they will fabricate evidence to such an extent that even Ling Yi himself would be speechless if he saw it!”
The old man looked at Su Qingqing. “If we speak up now, they will immediately show face and let it go.”
“But do you know? That wouldn’t just mean handing them a huge handle over us. One day, maybe not that far off, they would impeach me, a big shot in the Military, saying I used my power to bully others!”
“Three hundred million—even I can’t shoulder that responsibility!”
“And even if they don’t do it right away, they’ll record this incident. When the time comes, it will be a sharp blade pointed at us!”
“So we just swallow this bitter pill in silence?” Su Qingqing asked unwillingly.
“We’ll get it back,” the old man said calmly. “There will be a chance. Maybe it won’t even take too long.”
How long “not too long” meant, Su Qingqing didn’t ask, and the old man didn’t say.
Actually, she knew the old man had already made an exception today. This iron-faced General Zhang Yanwang of the Military Headquarters wasn’t treating her as a subordinate, but purely as the daughter of a departed old friend, feeling pity for her. That’s why he had, unprecedentedly, talked to a young girl like her so much.
This wasn’t just answering her questions; it was also teaching her!
This was a favor, a huge favor. She understood.
“That three hundred million…” Su Qingqing looked at the old man.
The old man said disdainfully, “Three hundred million, my foot! Let it be a debt!”
Su Qingqing: “…”
“That kid went back to his hometown, right? Once his injuries are healed and he’s thought things through, have him come to the Military Headquarters. Being ruined is even better, saves him from going to the battlefield later. Someone from Zongwu is more than enough for clerical work!”
The old man looked at Su Qingqing. “Any more questions?”
“No, Uncle Zhang. Thank you!” Su Qingqing stood up and bowed to the old man.
“Uncle Zhang when you need me, General Zhang when you don’t. Now get out of here if there’s nothing else!” the old man gave his order to leave.
…
Capital City, Ministry of Truth.
Even through the heavy wooden door, angry roars could be heard inside—
“Who gave them the right to spout such nonsense? How could they bear the responsibility for the terrible impact and damage? They have no respect for the law! Where is the person in charge of the radio station? Have him come see me immediately! I want an explanation!”
The radio station supervisor, who had been waiting outside the door trembling, knocked and then entered.
A middle-aged man sitting in a chair glared coldly at the person who entered. “What was with today’s traffic radio news about Shen Xiaowu?”
The radio station supervisor was almost in tears. “It… it was their own initiative…”
“Where is their discipline? How did you select such people? Where are those people now? And what have you done about it?” The usually gentle and refined Minister of Truth was like a snarling terrier now, his voice shrill, his expression twisted.
“Those people… have already resigned on their own.”
Smash!
A glass cup was thrown fiercely to the floor. It shattered with a crisp sound, water splashing everywhere.
“Bastards!”