Chapter 102 Clearance and Anchor
In the next few days, Huo Shen displayed an efficiency and ruthlessness that Su Yan had never seen before, which was almost terrifying.
He began to operate with precision and efficiency like a completely enraged war machine.
First to be purged were all remaining Zhou Mingchen influence within the Huo Group. Under the guise of a data security review for the "Dawn Project," Huo Shen personally issued dozens of suspension, investigation, and arrest warrants, acting with swift and relentless force. Regardless of their background, all mid- and senior-level managers who had previously had close ties with Zhou Mingchen were purged, sending a sense of unease throughout the group.
Externally, Huo Shen mobilized all available commercial and legal resources, launching a devastating attack on several peripheral companies and institutions known to have collaborated closely with Zhou Ming on the "Prometheus" project. Commercial sniping, patent lawsuits, and the exposure of damaging information... The tactics were drastic, but the goal was clear: to completely sever all funding and technical support channels potentially related to the "consciousness experiment."
Su Yan could clearly see the trajectory of this purge through the internal system. Huo Shen hadn't hidden anything from him; he'd even sent him a copy of some of the instructions he'd given. This was a silent reminder, but also a deeper bond—allowing him to witness firsthand the bloodbath unleashed by the truth they'd jointly discovered.
Su Yan spent most of his time in the study of his apartment, continuing to dig deeper into the data clues in "Initial Sequence: Mirror Image." Huo Shen sent a more professional team of security experts and data analysts to assist him, but the core decryption and correlation analysis work was still led by him.
He became a relatively calm but crucial information processing center in this external storm.
Occasionally, late at night, Huo Shen would return to the apartment, still simmering with anger and the smell of gunpowder. He no longer went to the study to watch Su Yan work, and sometimes he wouldn't even turn on the lights, just sitting silently in the darkness of the living room, like a lion licking its wounds between hunts.
When he returned, Su Yan would pause his work, walk to the living room door, and quietly watch the shadowed figure for a moment. He would not approach, nor would he ask, but simply confirm his presence before quietly retreating to the study.
A strange tacit understanding flows between the two people.
Huo Shen needed this "pure land" maintained by Su Yan, where he could focus on solving puzzles, to balance the mental exhaustion brought about by the bloody purge outside. And Su Yan needed Huo Shen's strong external sweep to ensure that he could focus on the internal breakthrough without distraction.
That night, Huo Shen came back even later than usual, the chill in his body almost condensing into substance. He didn't even sit down, but walked directly to the door of the study, leaning against the door frame, looking at the still lit screen inside and Su Yan's focused profile.
"Zhao Dong from Zhao's Industrial," Huo Shen's voice was filled with a subtle hint of fatigue and cold murderous intent. "Today, he tried to pass a message through an intermediary, hoping to use an overseas shell company under his son's name to take the blame and clear himself of any involvement."
Su Yan raised his head from the screen and looked at Huo Shen. In the dim light, Huo Shen's face looked a little haggard, but his eyes were still as sharp as a knife.
"What are you going to do?" Su Yan asked.
"Take the blame?" Huo Shen twitched his lips, his smile devoid of warmth. "His son isn't qualified. Zhao Dong himself was responsible for providing special biological agents to an overseas laboratory of Zhou Mingchen three years ago. Analysis of the uses of those agents showed a high degree of consistency with certain consciousness suppression markers in the 'Mirror Image'."
His words were plain, but they revealed the coldness of deciding his life or death.
Su Yan was silent for a moment. He didn't sympathize with Zhao Dong, but he once again clearly realized how determined Huo Shen was to avenge Ah Xiao and...regardless of the cost.
"On my end," Su Yan changed the subject, turning the screen towards Huo Shen, "I've tracked down a clue. Some encrypted environmental markers point to a deregistered private medical research center called 'Bianhua'. Its registered legal person is fake, but the initial capital flow overlapped with a venture capital company that Su Chen controlled in his early years."
He sent a compiled briefing to Huo Shen's internal account.
"Su Chen..." Huo Shen's eyes glared. He took the tablet from Chen Mo and quickly scanned the briefing. The fatigue on his face was instantly replaced by a cold sharpness. "He really is involved. I just didn't expect him to be involved so early."
He raised his head and looked at Su Yan: "Keep digging and find more direct evidence of the connection between him, 'Higanbana', and Zhou Mingchen."
"I understand." Su Yan nodded.
Huo Shen looked at him, his gaze lingering on his slightly pale face for a moment, and suddenly asked, "Are you afraid?"
Su Yan was stunned for a moment, then realized what he was asking. Was he afraid of being drawn into this ever-deeper, ever-widening vortex? Or was he afraid of the near-indifferent coldness that Huo Shen was displaying?
"I'm afraid," Su Yan answered truthfully, his voice calm. "But compared to the fear I felt before when I knew nothing and could only passively wait for the outcome, this fear... at least I know where the enemy is and what I'm doing. It's much better."
Huo Shen looked at him deeply and said nothing more. He turned around and prepared to leave, but his steps paused.
"...Don't stay up too late." He turned his back to Su Yan, said this in a low voice, and then strode away.
Su Yan looked at the empty doorway, a little stunned.
These words, which sounded stiff and hardly caring, carried a strange weight when spoken by Huo Shen at this moment.
He returned his attention to the screen.
Huo Shen uses ruthless means to eliminate enemies outside, while he uses data as a weapon to dig out the truth inside.
They were like two people jointly steering a ship through turbulent waves. Huo Shen was the captain at the helm, determining the course and cutting through the waves; while he was the anchor who kept a close eye on the compass in the storm, ensuring that the ship would not deviate from its course or even sink.
A crazy and dangerous anchor point, but it is also the only anchor point Huo Shen can trust at this moment.
Su Yan knew that when external threats were eliminated one by one and internal clues increasingly pointed to Su Chen, what they were about to face might be the final and most fierce showdown in the eye of the storm.
And the bond between him and Huo Shen, woven from secrets, pain, exploitation, and an inexplicable dependence, will also face the final test.
------
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
