Undercurrents
Steve leaned against the headboard, watching his eldest son walk into the ward with an upright posture, as if he were about to give a speech on a stage. He smiled, his eyes narrowing, feeling that his eldest son always walked with a radiant aura.
"What are you grinning about?" Chen Chao asked him as he sat down on the edge of the bed.
"Boss, you're so handsome."
Chen Chao paused for a moment, then subconsciously raised his hand and gently placed it on Steve's forehead: "You're getting more and more lawless."
Steve looked into Chen Chao's eyes and laughed even more unrestrainedly: "Isn't it all because you spoiled him, boss?"
"Then I should reflect on this." Chen Chao deliberately lowered his voice and composed himself.
“Boss, you won’t,” Steve said confidently.
Chen Chao felt that he was completely under this guy's thumb, so he stopped arguing with him and asked seriously, "How are you feeling?"
"Great, I think I can be discharged tomorrow."
"Nonsense!" Chen Chao tapped Steve's forehead with his finger. "Take good care of yourself. Do you know how scared you were when your heart stopped beating?"
"I'm perfectly fine now, the King of Hell won't take me for something like this." Steve looked at Chen Chao and smiled nonchalantly.
Chen Chao withdrew his hand and placed it on his lap, his gaze towards Steve becoming somewhat serious. Steve knew this was about to be a serious matter, so he also dropped his joking expression.
"Do you want to see Raman?" Chen Chao asked him.
Steve paused for a moment, then asked hesitantly, "Is he trying to negotiate?"
“No, the surgery was successful, his two young sons are beginning to recover, and he is starting to fulfill his promises. Wanting to see you was an additional request he made privately,” Chen Chao explained.
“Then I won’t see him. Boss, I have nothing to do with him except for DNA. I have no reason to see him.”
Chen Chao nodded knowingly: "I'll help you refuse. It's understandable that he wants to fulfill his responsibilities as a father in his middle age."
“No.” Steve said solemnly, “He just thinks it’s not bad to get a son out of wedlock. And I’m so healthy, I might even be able to help him prolong his life in his old age.”
Chen Chao secretly felt that Steve's words were a bit too harsh, but he also knew he couldn't offer any more advice. Everyone has wounds in their heart that cannot be healed and deserves respect.
"I will protect you from all contact from West Africa from now on."
"Thanks, boss." Steve breathed a sigh of relief, then asked with concern, "How's the investigation into the attack going? You said you had a lead last time, was it the Song family?"
"I guess so."
"Consider it?" What does that mean?
"The direct perpetrators are drug dealers."
"But why isn't drug trafficking under the jurisdiction of the Special Security Bureau?"
"Do you remember when you went to that small eastern town a few months ago to help Chen Jiu deal with some trouble?" Chen Chao asked Steve.
Steve pondered for a moment and retrieved the simplest of tasks from his memory.
At that time, he had just finished a mission and returned to sign the mission handover form with Chen Chao. Then, Chen Chao ordered him to go to the east to assist Chen Jiu in handling a kidnapping case.
It was a very simple mission; he only fired one shot throughout, and the entire mission was completely safe. At the time, he didn't understand why this mission required such a large-scale deployment of two agents.
"That was actually a side job. The person who was kidnapped was a family member of Chen Jiu's boyfriend, and he was quite concerned about it, so I asked you to go and help out on your way." Knowing that Steve remembered, Chen Chao added.
"Oh, what happened to that?" Steve still didn't think those kidnappers were capable of attacking Chenchao.
"The kidnappers you took down were the lowest-level drug dealers. Since Chen Jiu was involved, I did some research on him and gave the police a lead."
But like you said, drug trafficking isn't our jurisdiction. After I submitted the tip, I didn't follow up on the police investigation's progress.
Steve listened attentively.
"After months of investigation, the police finally caught up with the drug cartel and recently raided its headquarters. The one who attacked me this time was a fish that the police missed during the arrest operation."
"Huh? If he wanted to retaliate, why didn't he call the police? And how did he know about you, boss?"
“Yeah, he can’t even find out where the narcotics officers live, so how could he know that I gave the clue to the police, and how could he know exactly which car I was in?” Chen Chao looked at Steve, his eyes gleaming.
"Someone deliberately leaked the information? Song Zifeng?" Steve realized. "But how could he..."
“Chen Jiu told me before that he felt something was wrong. Nutag has always been very strict in its anti-drug efforts, and the control of the southwestern border has always been strict, but offline distribution has somehow infiltrated the east without us even realizing it. Don’t you find that strange?”
"So the drug dealers were able to operate so successfully in the East because of the Song family. That's why Song Zifeng knew it was you who gave the police the tip, and why he was able to instigate the drug dealers to retaliate against you." Steve finally understood.
“Before, because we didn’t deal with drug trafficking, I didn’t think much of it. Now that everything has been reconciled, it all makes sense. Song Zifeng knew that some clues could only be obtained by special agents, not by the police. He probably realized this when the police were making their arrest, and then sent that idiot to try his luck.”
"He almost succeeded," Steve thought, still shaken.
"Don't worry, even the King of Hell won't take my life so soon." Chen Chao smiled coldly, his brows exuding a chilling aura. "Drugs are something that shakes the foundation of the country. If Song Zifeng dares to touch them, then he should be willing to bear the consequences."
"Boss, what are you planning to do?"
"Get some rest, and don't meddle in things that aren't your business." Chen Chao glanced at Steve with a hint of reproach, but his voice had softened and was no longer cold.
Steve looked at Chen Chao with a slightly aggrieved expression. He really felt better and didn't want to lie in bed anymore. He wanted to find something to do.
"One week. If you can be discharged after one week, you will be allowed to start some level of rehabilitation. I will let you know if there is anything that can help you then."
"Okay, boss, I guarantee I'll complete the mission." Steve smiled happily.
Chen Chao finally left the observation room and returned to Meishan Villa with his bodyguards. During Steve's recovery, the outside world had descended into chaos, and he had reached his limit working in the observation room for so many days.
In the living room on the first floor of the villa, Trot and the elite core members under Chenchao were already in place, with documents and equipment neatly arranged, clearly indicating that they were prepared to stay permanently.
"I'll go upstairs and sleep for three hours. Give me the compiled report after three hours. I have a business dinner tonight, so you guys can just take your regular shifts here," Chen Chao instructed Trot as he went upstairs.
Everything changed the moment he was attacked and survived.
The assassination of the heirs of the six major families within the capital's borders is not only a slap in the face to the Chen family, but also to all the members of the six major families.
Every family is wondering who has the audacity to do this.
The rules of upper-class society are different from those of a brawl between brutes. There are tacitly agreed-upon boundaries and bottom lines in every exchange. Above these lines, success or failure depends on individual ability, but if one crosses the line and resorts to underhanded tactics, they will be jointly punished by the families who uphold the rules.
After all, rules are meant to protect everyone.
Although no one has made any explicit moves yet, Chen Chao knows that other families are waiting for the Chen family to make a statement. As the direct victims and investigators, the Chen family's conclusions are crucial to determining the nature of the incident.
The Chen family's attitude will determine the extent to which other families will intervene in this matter.
Actually, not long after the incident, Chen Fei had asked Chen Chao for his opinion, but at that time Steve's condition was still unstable, so he didn't have the mind to deal with these messy matters and deliberately suppressed the matter. Anyway, the initiative was in his hands now, and the Song family wouldn't have peace of mind as long as he didn't express his opinion, so it wasn't him who was in a hurry.
Now that Steve has finally settled down, he can start focusing on his work.
For the next period of time, he would be meeting frequently with the heads of the other major families, requiring him to change his clothes according to the occasion, so he couldn't always work in Tean's office. Therefore, he moved the entire team to the villa to accommodate his schedule.
Anyway, the first floor of his villa was originally designed for office use.
Assassination attempts may be significant, but in his position, this incident cannot disrupt the daily operations of special security. International and domestic intelligence surveillance cannot be relaxed because of this.
These past two days, the handling of daily affairs and the investigation of the Song family incident have put his time management to an extreme challenge, making sleep an incredibly precious thing.
After taking a short three-hour nap in his bedroom upstairs, Chen Chao washed his face, changed his clothes, and went downstairs.
Downstairs, Trott had already compiled the documents that needed his review. Seeing him come down, Trott went to his side and reported them to him point by point. After listening, Trott nodded, spent two hours processing the relevant information, and then left.
Today he is to meet the head of the Popov family, Landpopov.
"Xi Shi" is a property under the Popov family, a well-known high-end restaurant in the country, where the average cost per person is often in the five figures. Chen Chao, accompanied by bodyguards, entered Xi Shi's VIP elevator and went straight to the top-floor private room. There, Landpopov was already waiting for him.
When Chen Chao came out of the elevator, Lande remained seated and did not get up. Although he was of the same generation as Chen Chao, now that he had officially taken over the family business, he did not need to stand on ceremony with Chen Chao.
Chen Chao clearly had no intention of being polite to Land. He left his bodyguard outside, walked straight to Land, sat down opposite him, and poured himself a glass of water.
"I'm truly honored that your first official outing since the attack is to see me. But what's this? Didn't your special agents even get a drink of water?"
Chen Chao rolled his eyes at Lande and replied irritably, "Yeah, the water in Tean is nowhere near as good as the water here."
Chen Chao and Lande were among the best friends of their generation. Even after Lande officially took over the family business, they could still joke around without any formality.
"Don't worry, I have plenty of water here. You can drink as much as you like."
"What, tell me, who's got a problem with you and wants to make a scene in the capital?"
Chen Chao put down his empty water glass, looked at Lande seriously, and said, "I'm hungry."
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