Chapter 453: The Highest Importance Received from the National Defense Science and Technology Commission

Gu Pingan slowed down his chewing of the apple and looked down at his toes.

"Then...then I'll go apologize to him tomorrow."

Gu Beichen turned to Gu Ningjing.

"Ning Jing, if someone tries to steal your doll, will you give it to them?"

Gu Ningjing immediately hugged the ugly doll in her arms tightly: "No way! It's mine!"

“Yes, that belongs to Fat Tiger, he has the right not to give it to you.” Su Yue chimed in, wiping her hands with a tissue. “You can fight for what you like, you can trade, you can even come back and tell Mom, and Mom will take you to buy it. But you can’t think that someone is wrong just because they won’t give it to you. Not all good things in this world have to belong to you.”

Gu Ningjing sniffed, somewhat reluctantly, but still nodded.

"I'll go apologize too."

"Alright, dismissed." Gu Beichen waved his hand. "Tomorrow morning, everyone write a self-criticism, no less than one hundred words, you can use pinyin instead."

The two siblings felt as if they had been granted a pardon, and they grabbed the apples and ran back to their room.

The Gu family courtyard is more lively on weekends than usual.

Under the old banyan tree, a huge straw mat was laid out.

Yang Yiyi and Chu Jingya came to visit with their child. The three women sat around a plate of chilled watermelon, chatting enthusiastically.

Gu Pingan and Gu Ningjing had long forgotten about the previous "kindergarten incident" and were now focused on the two babies.

Yun Ting is already six months old. He has a chubby face and arms that are as thick as lotus roots.

He was lying on the straw mat, struggling to turn over, drool dripping all over the floor.

“Look at him, doesn’t he look like a big turtle that can’t turn over?” Gu Ping’an lay down next to him and poked Yun Ting’s butt with his finger.

Yun Ting yelled, whether in protest or joy, and kicked Gu Ping'an in the face.

Gu Ping'an wasn't annoyed. Instead, he grabbed the chubby little foot and smelled it: "Hmm, it smells like milk."

On the other side, Gu Qing was much quieter.

He was raised by Chu Jingya to be fair-skinned and clean-cut. He was sitting in a walker, holding a paintbrush in his hand—a discarded brush that Chu Jingya had specially given him. He was scribbling on the paper in a very professional manner.

Gu Ningjing took the ugly doll that had "started the war" and generously stuffed it into Gu Qing's arms.

"Little brother, here you can play. This won't bite."

Gu Qing blinked her big eyes, glanced at the doll with a missing leg and unevenly cut hair, then looked at Gu Ningjing, grinned, and revealed her pink gums.

"It seems our Ning Jing has really grown up and learned to share," Yang Yiyi said jokingly, spitting out a watermelon seed.

Su Yue leaned back in her recliner, fanning herself with a palm-leaf fan, watching this scene.

"This is called learning from one's mistakes. Yesterday, Gu Beichen took the two of them to apologize to that fat tiger. You didn't see the scene."

"What?" Chu Jingya asked curiously.

"Gu Ping'an gave all the bullet casings he had collected to that fat guy, and Ning Jing gave him a box of chocolates. As a result, that fat tiger immediately betrayed him, hugged Ping'an's leg and called him big brother, saying that he would sit on anyone who bullied Ning Jing in the future."

Several women laughed so hard they were doubled over.

Gu Beichen, Yun Mu, and Gu Beixiao, three grown men, were repairing the leaky roof tiles.

Hearing the laughter below, Gu Beichen straightened up and glanced down.

Sunlight filtered through the leaves, casting dappled patterns on Su Yue's face.

She smiled relaxedly, her eyes constantly glancing at the children out of the corner of her eye.

This is the scene he was willing to risk his life to protect.

There was no smoke of gunpowder, no scheming, only the lively atmosphere of cooking in the courtyard.

"Old Gu, are you stunned?" Yun Mu handed him a tile and followed his gaze downwards. "Su Yue is really something. I never expected her to be able to fool those foreigners so well. I heard that Blue Ocean Factory's orders are already booked until next year?"

“That’s skill, not empty talk.” Gu Beichen took the tile and carefully wedged it into the gap. “There’s nothing she can’t do if she sets her mind to it.”

Gu Beixiao sat on the roof ridge, holding a hammer in his hand, staring absently at Chu Jingya in the courtyard.

"Brother, do you think our date is set?"

The contrast between the cutthroat competition of the capital and the tranquil life on the island was so stark that it sometimes felt like a dream.

"Whether you decide or not is up to you." Gu Beichen dusted off his hands, jumped off the roof, and landed steadily in the courtyard.

Su Yue happened to look up and saw him jump down. She wasn't alarmed; she simply handed him the palm-leaf fan in her hand.

"Is it fixed?"

"Hmm." Gu Beichen took the fan, but instead of fanning himself, he gently waved it at her. "I'm not afraid of heavy rain anymore."

"Mom! Look!"

Gu Ningjing suddenly screamed and pointed at Yun Ting.

The chubby boy, who had been struggling to turn over, finally turned red in the face, and with a sudden effort, flipped himself over onto his back on the mat, giggling out loud.

All eyes turned to them.

At that moment, time seemed to stand still on the island's afternoon.

The children's innocent laughter, the cicadas' chirping, and the sound of the wind rustling through the leaves intertwined to create the most beautiful melody.

The melody still lingered in my ears, but the night had already swallowed the island.

At two o'clock in the morning, the sea breeze made the coconut grove outside the Blue Ocean Pharmaceutical Factory dance wildly.

The factory area was deathly silent, with only a few patrolling security guards shining their flashlights, the beams of light lazily sweeping across the concrete ground.

The lights were off in the monitoring room.

The fluorescent light from a dozen black-and-white monitors reflected on Su Yue's face, outlining her features with a somewhat cold and eerie quality.

She sat cross-legged on the chair, holding a bag of shrimp chips she had swiped from Huo Wenxuan, and snapped one off with a snap.

Gu Beichen stood behind her, one hand on the back of the chair, staring at the screen in the center.

On the screen, a black image slid along the wall of Workshop No. 3 like a gecko.

The man moved extremely quickly, avoiding all the visible cameras; he was clearly a trained fighter.

"Here you are." Gu Beichen's voice was low, with a hint of sleepiness in it.

He reached for the pistol at his waist.

Su Yue slapped his hand away and stuffed a shrimp cracker into her mouth: "What's the rush? The show hasn't even started yet."

On the screen, a dark figure stopped in front of a heavy iron door.

There was a red warning sign hanging there that read "Core Microbial Culture Bank - No Unauthorized Entry".

The man took out a set of tools from his pocket, first attaching the stethoscope to the electronic lock disc, and then skillfully turning the knob with his right hand.

In less than ten seconds, the electronic lock, which was supposedly imported from Germany and could only be opened with the factory manager's fingerprint, clicked open.

"Professional," Su Yue commented. "It seems Lin Zhihong didn't hire those thugs who only know how to throw bricks this time; he went all out and hired an international master thief."

Gu Beichen glanced at his watch: "The engineering company has surrounded Workshop No. 3. As long as he can't get the item, he won't be able to escape."

“Who said he didn’t bring anything?” Su Yue patted the crumbs off her hands and leaned forward. “How could I not prepare some local specialties for him after he’s come all this way?”