Inside the cabin, the air seemed to solidify into heavy lead, making it hard to breathe.
Howard's tall figure exuded an invisible sense of oppression, completely enveloping Mingzhao.
His sharp, hawk-like gaze locked onto her clear yet unfathomable eyes, and his icy question, "Did he train you before?!" hung between them like a poisoned icicle.
Mingzhao tilted her head back, meeting the shock, scrutiny, and piercing sharpness in Howard's eyes.
She could clearly feel the power hidden beneath his taut muscles and his undisguised vigilance.
How could she explain it perfectly? Her brain raced. Several difficult points stumped her.
1. Language barrier: She couldn't use the language he could understand in this era to describe the Interstellar Alliance's research system, her genetic defect, the Alliance's upbringing, and how she was intercepted by space pirates and forced to cross a wormhole. This sounded even more like a fantasy than "spy training."
2. Source of drawings: Saying "I memorized it at a glance and could even optimize it"? In the 1970s, this would only make her seem more suspicious, more like a carefully cultivated "tool".
3. Original Owner's Memories: In Mingzhao's memories, apart from hunger, pain, and cursing, there were no fragments of blueprints or technology. Huang Weiguo could not possibly "teach" her anything; Li Hongmei would only use her as a tool.
All avenues of explanation were blocked. She opened her mouth, but only a faint breath escaped her throat, like a dying cub. The wound on her forehead throbbed with tension, making her face even paler.
In Howard's eyes, her silence was more like a silent acquiescence, or... perhaps a deeper form of resistance.
Howard's heart sank little by little.
He had long known that entering into a contractual marriage with this girl, whose identity was sensitive and whose origins were shrouded in mystery, would inevitably be accompanied by enormous risks and troubles.
But he never expected that trouble would be exposed to him so quickly and so blatantly in this way!
Her blueprints! That simplicity and efficiency, so ahead of their time! They were completely different from the fighter jet analyses and displays he had ever encountered!
This is something a country girl who grew up in abuse and can't even speak could imagine out of thin air!
Huang Weiguo is a spy, and he has the blueprints. So, did he... really train Mingzhao in secret?
To make her a "dumb tool" for transmitting intelligence?
Was her "chance encounter" and "falling down to hand over the map" by the river that day part of a mission? Or... a ruse?
That can't be!
Countless dark thoughts were growing wildly in Howard's mind.
He values relationships and loyalty, and is willing to risk his military honor to vouch for the trust placed in him by his comrades.
But he is also the border defense commander, and his strong vigilance and keen perception are ingrained in his very being! Any potential threat to national security is enough to make him instantly erect all defenses!
He looked at the thin, pale girl before him, with a wound on her forehead and eyes that seemed to hold only emptiness, and his heart was torn apart. Pity and doubt, protectiveness and vigilance, were like two ferocious beasts fighting in his chest.
Time ticked by in a suffocating silence.
Howard's fist was clenched so tightly that his knuckles turned white from the force. He saw the fleeting pain in Mingzhao's eyes when she couldn't help but rub the wound on her forehead, and he also saw that beneath that unfathomable calm, there seemed to be a trace of... misunderstanding and an inexplicable unease?
Howard suddenly woke up! What was he doing?!
She was just a seventeen-year-old girl! A child covered in old and new scars, severely malnourished, diagnosed by doctors as having suffered long-term abuse, and almost completely lost her ability to speak!
Even if Huang Weiguo really did take advantage of her, it was when she was completely powerless to resist!
She has just escaped the tiger's mouth and can barely utter the word "book". Is he going to use the interrogation method of a spy to force her back into that shell of fear and despair?
Then what's the difference between him and scum like Huang Weiguo?!
"Hoo..." Howard exhaled a heavy, silent breath, as if trying to force down the dark suspicions churning in his chest.
His piercing gaze slowly softened, his tense body relaxed slightly, and he took a small step back, widening the suffocating distance between them.
"Feel sorry."
Howard's voice was low and hoarse, carrying a hint of barely perceptible fatigue and... self-loathing, "I... I was too hasty."
He did not explain why he was in such a hurry—was it for national security or for her situation?
He looked away, ceasing his pressure, and instead gazed at the rapidly evaporating, blurry watermark drawing on the table. The lines still retained their startling outlines.
"These drawings... even though you drew them,"
Howard's tone returned to its usual composure, but with a hint of complexity. "But that doesn't prove anything. Huang Weiguo is a spy, he has these things in his house, and you... you probably just saw them by chance, you just have a good memory. Is that right?"
He offered an explanation that seemed reasonable but was actually full of loopholes.
How could a mute person, a mute person who has been abused for a long time and whose mental state is worrying, have such terrifying graphic memory and comprehension?
But he chose to suppress the question for the time being. He needed time, he needed to observe, and he also needed to... give her a chance.
"You just said...you wanted a book?"
Howard looked at Mingzhao again, trying to make his tone sound calm, "What kind of content do you want to see? Basic? Mechanical? Or... physics?"
He asked tentatively, his eyes fixed on her reaction.
The blankness and tension in Mingzhao's eyes rippled slightly when he heard the word "book," like a pebble thrown into water.
She nodded vigorously, her finger instinctively pointing to the disappearing lines of the blueprint on the table, and uttered that difficult but clear word again: "Book!"
She needs knowledge! She needs to understand the underlying rules of this world! Only by mastering these can she shed the labels of "mute" and "suspicious person," truly gain a foothold, and even... become herself again!
Howard looked at the pure, almost obsessive thirst for knowledge in her eyes and felt a slight tremor in his heart.
That look in his eyes doesn't seem feigned. Would a trained spy be so eager to understand basic physics and mechanical principles?
“Okay.” Howard made the decision, his voice carrying an unquestionable promise. “I’ll try to find some this afternoon. Basic ones, mechanical ones, physical ones… you… just stay put for now.”
He didn't mention the blueprints again, as if the tense confrontation had never happened.
But the probing and wariness deep in his eyes did not completely disappear; they were simply covered by a deeper sense of caution.
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