The next morning, before seven o'clock, Ling Chen and Nanrong Wanqing boarded a private jet to Beijing, accompanied only by Zhong Wei and Liang Zhao Hui.
Half past eight, the plane landed on time at Beijing International Airport.
After leaving the airport, Ling Chen first dropped Nanrong Wanqing off at the hotel, then hurried by car to the Ghost Base.
When Ling Chen arrived at the manor, the once bustling estate was in ruins, with broken walls and rubble everywhere, the site scorched black. Over a dozen firefighters were cleaning up the debris.
Ling Chen frowned, quickly surveying the surroundings before walking alone towards a detached villa two hundred meters away.
The manor was the main entrance to the Ghost Base; the villa in front of him served as an emergency exit. Arriving at the villa, Ling Chen pressed the doorbell.
Soon after, the door opened, and a tired Tang Yuan appeared.
Seeing Ling Chen rush over, Tang Yuan squeezed out a faint smile and said, "You got here quite fast."
"Cut the chit-chat, how is everyone? Are the General and Mr. Han alright?" Ling Chen asked impatiently.
"They’re all fine, it’s just that..." Tang Yuan’s voice trailed off, choked with emotion, and he fell into silence.
Unable to restrain himself, Ling Chen urged, "Just what? Spit it out."
With his head hung low, filled with sorrow, Tang Yuan’s voice choked up as he said, "When the manor exploded, Uncle Mu and Mrs. Chen were in the room... they... they didn’t make it out in time..."
Hearing this, Ling Chen felt as if struck by lightning, blanking out instantly and standing dumbfounded at the door for a long time, unable to snap back to reality.
Tang Yuan composed himself, looked at the dazed Ling Chen, and said softly, "Ling Chen..."
"They... they’re dead? No! That can’t be. They can’t be dead. Old Tang, you must be lying to me, right? Tell me, are you lying to me?" Ling Chen cried out, grabbing hold of Tang Yuan’s collar and shouting hoarsely.
"Ling Chen, I wish I was lying to you, but..."
Ling Chen, pale-faced, released his grip as if sapped of all strength, his legs weak, leaning helplessly against the door frame, the color of grief spilling uncontrollably from his eyes.
"Uncle Mu, Mrs. Chen... why did it have to be you..."
Ling Chen muttered to himself, tears streaming down uncontrollably. At this moment, all his strength had crumbled, leaving only boundless sorrow in his heart.
Mu Zhiyuan and Chen Ping, a married couple, both retired secret agents of the Ghost Organization, were responsible for guarding the access points of the Ghost Base and were the base’s first line of defense.
After Ling Chen joined the Ghost Organization, he often received care from Mu Zhiyuan and Chen Ping, who treated him like family, providing meticulous care. Before meeting Nanrong Wanqing, this couple gave Ling Chen his first taste of warmth, akin to family.
All members of the base knew that Ling Chen had a very close relationship with the Mu couple, referring to them as family was no exaggeration.
Therefore, Tang Yuan was well aware of how devastating the death of the Mu couple was to Ling Chen, and the grief he bore was far greater than that of anyone else.
"Ling Chen, a person can’t come back to life after death; don’t be too hard on yourself," Tang Yuan comforted.
Ling Chen wiped away his tears and looked up to ask, "Where have Uncle Mu’s and Mrs. Chen’s bodies been kept?"
"They are inside the base. The General knows that you had a deep relationship with Uncle Mu and the others, so he wanted you to see them one last time."
Ling Chen nodded, gathered his emotions, and followed Tang Yuan in a secret elevator to the underground base.
Arriving at the base, Ling Chen noticed that the interior had been damaged to varying degrees, and there were still uncleaned bloodstains on the ground.
"Old Tang, what happened here?"
"We’ll talk about it later."
While speaking, Tang Yuan brought Ling Chen to the outside of a room and pointed to the door, "You go in by yourself; I’ll wait for you outside."
Pushing open the door, Ling Chen saw two bodies covered with white cloth lying on the bed. An overwhelming sadness filled him, and his eyes moistened.
Standing in front of the corpses for a long time, Ling Chen’s expression was complex, filled with sorrow and rage. After a while, he slowly raised his right hand, his tone resolute as he spoke, "Uncle Mu, Mrs. Chen, rest assured, I will make the murderer pay this blood debt with their own blood."
Coming out of the room, Ling Chen looked at Tang Yuan and asked, "Old Tang, tell me what exactly happened?"
"Yesterday evening, the base was attacked by the God Organization. There were over thirty people, all agile, specially trained individuals, and they had also taken enhancement drugs. Less than a minute after the invasion began, Uncle Mu, who was responsible for the first line of defense, sounded the alarm, but when the internal personnel tried to lock down the base, they found a system malfunction, unable to seal off the entrances and exits."
"Traitor!" Ling Chen said coldly, clenching his teeth.
"Exactly," Tang Yuan nodded and said, "Without an insider working with them, they couldn’t have breached our defenses so easily, and moreover..."
At this point, Tang Yuan’s expression suddenly turned ugly.
Ling Chen frowned and asked, "And what?"
"There’s more than one traitor." Tang Yuan let out a self-mocking laugh, saying, "We always thought that Ghost Organization’s security measures were very tight, but what happened last night told us that Ghost had long been infiltrated by outsiders; we just didn’t know."
"Have the traitors been identified?"
"One is Wu Jun, another is Yang Tao."
"Them?" Ling Chen was shocked. He knew Wu Jun, a veteran within the Ghost Organization. As for Yang Tao, he was even more familiar. Back then, when Yang Tao’s mission failed, he and Tang Yuan risked their lives to rescue him from Cyprus. He didn’t expect him to be a traitor.
Tang Yuan explained, "Wu Jun is an operative for the God Organization, but Yang Tao was bought by Mr. Yun. Wu Jun is primarily responsible for this attack; Yang Tao isn’t related to this incident."
"How was he exposed?"
"Because of Mr. Yun. Mr. Yun was captured by the Ghost Organization, and Yang Tao worried that he would betray him, jeopardizing his future. So, he sneaked into the prison intending to kill Mr. Yun to eliminate the threat, but was discovered by the patrolling staff."
"Where are they now?"
Tang Yuan said helplessly, "Wu Jun fled with the people from the God Organization, and Yang Tao has been captured by us, but... Mr. Yun was severely injured and is currently undergoing emergency treatment, it’s uncertain if he will survive."
After speaking, Tang Yuan changed the topic, "Let’s go, I’ll take you to meet the General. Since its establishment, Ghost has never suffered such a severe blow. You can imagine how the General feels; try to console him."