Chapter 8
Jiang Yun's eyes were icy cold, and the rare brilliance in his eyes disappeared.
What also disappeared was the restless agitation of the Alphas.
Jiang Yun used a word and a look to bring the undercurrent atmosphere back on track.
The three Alphas, either because of awakening, fear, or guilt, temporarily controlled their pheromones.
Ian sat back down in disappointment; Morris and Miyazawa took a big sip of ice water at the same time.
Jiang Yun could ignore the pressure from Congress and the military, but Lu Zhengqing was different.
Even someone as arbitrary as Jiang Yun had to face up to the demands from her late husband's grandfather.
It is indeed a good plan to use Lu Zhengqing's longing for his grandson to force Jiang Yun to submit and agree to Olin's conditions.
"Marshal Lu?" Gong Ze seemed a little surprised. "How did he know about Colonel Lu's body?"
Currently, only the alliance's top brass and Aolin's faction knew that Lu Huai's remains were on Ice Wasteland Star γ. Jiang Yun had always prioritized confidentiality, and under his powerful tactics, no insider could quietly enter Cynthia's sanatorium and reveal Lu Huai's whereabouts to Lu Zhengqing.
Unless, that "insider" was originally a member of Cynthia's nursing home.
Ian sighed twice, seeming to lament, "A former Alliance hero with such illustrious military achievements can only spend the rest of his life in a nursing home. Marshal Lu is truly pitiful, as he's so old and still has to think about his grandson who sacrificed his life for his country."
Jiang Yun ignored Ian's sigh and continued, "The leaker has been identified."
Ian looked at Jiang Yun's increasingly red face and asked with interest, "Hmm? Who could it be?"
"Cecil," Jiang Yun said, "a Beta caregiver working at Cynthia's nursing home."
Ian uttered an "Huh?" and said, "Strange! How could a mere nurse know such a top-secret secret?" Then, Ian teased, "Diplomat Jiang, your alliance's confidentiality work doesn't seem to be very good."
"That's up to you, Sir Ian." His temperature continued to rise, and the butler AI kept sending out warnings. Jiang Yun maintained the calm tone expected of a negotiation. "Who do you think told Cecil about this and asked him to pass it on to Marshal Lu?"
Ian pretended to be in deep thought, tapping his fingers on the table. "I think it's the Palace Speaker."
Morris was startled: "What?"
Miyazawa narrowed his eyes: "Hmm?"
Ian turned his attention to the Alliance Congress and said, "Hasn't Speaker Gong always wanted to facilitate negotiations between Olin and the Alliance so that he could get Colonel Lu's body back as soon as possible? It's no surprise that he would bring in Marshal Lu as a backup in order to get Foreign Minister Jiang's approval."
Gong Ze pushed his glasses up and analyzed calmly, "Marshal Lu is surrounded almost entirely by Foreign Minister Jiang's men. Any agent from any faction who dared to leak secrets to Marshal Lu in the sanatorium would be exposed."
In other words, Cecil had already prepared to expose himself.
"Sacrificing an agent for greater benefits is indeed the style of your Empire." Miyazawa concluded calmly, "Cecil is yours, Sir Ian."
"My people?" Ian smiled and asked, "Okay, where's the evidence? You should have interrogated Cecil. Did he tell me my name?"
Jiang Yun said coldly, "Cecil shot himself immediately after being exposed and destroyed all the information about himself."
"Ah," Ian said with a look of regret, but he lazily leaned against the pool chair, looking confident of victory. "That's such a pity."
At this point, even Morris, who was not very politically sensitive, could see who was the real driving force behind the whole thing.
But even if everyone present knew the truth, they couldn't do anything to Ian without evidence.
Morris suppressed his anger and couldn't help but ask, "Sacrificing a life casually for a mission, is this the imperial system that Olin advocates?"
Ian burst into laughter as if he had heard a ridiculous joke. "Stop being childish, Mr. Lieutenant Colonel." Halfway through his laughter, he gave Morris a look that almost seemed to pity him, and said something that pierced Morris's heart: "With your current state, do you still dream of replacing Lu Huai in Foreign Minister Jiang's heart?"
Mosley: “!!!”
Ian came prepared, Jiang Yun was in poor condition, and the alliance could not produce any other evidence for the time being. Miyazawa unilaterally judged that continuing this conversation would only be increasingly disadvantageous to the alliance.
"It's getting late, let's call it a day." Miyazawa said calmly, with his usual soothing power: "Foreign Minister Jiang, do you need me to take you home?"
Morris immediately shook off his emotions and stood up eagerly: "I'll see him off."
Jiang Yun raised his hand to reject Gong Ze and Morris, nodding slightly toward the chairs, motioning them to sit down. His eyes remained fixed on Ian. "Indeed, exposing an agent for the benefit of the Empire is nothing to you. Just like the 1223 Star Track Heist, you also felt that sacrificing a few hostages was harmless, right?"
Ian looked at Jiang Yun, his lips curling up slightly, like a victor examining his defeated opponent. "I suggest that the great diplomat get an injection of suppressant first. Otherwise, if you're still wandering around in front of me even though you know your estrus is coming, I'll misunderstand that Foreign Minister Jiang is throwing himself at me."
Morris's anger could no longer be suppressed. He clenched his fists tightly, as if he was about to hit Ian in the face in the next second.
Miyazawa finally abandoned his hypocritical diplomatic mask and said sternly, "Ian, this is our last warning to you. If you continue to speak rudely to our diplomats, we will regard it as a blatant military provocation from the Olin side."
Jiang Yun watched the Alphas' tense confrontation with cold eyes, his expression not changing at all, as if all this had nothing to do with him.
Ian was provoking him, and Morris and Miyazawa seemed to be defending him, but all they could do was express anger and give warnings.
A speaker and a lieutenant colonel.
What are the uses of these two Alphas?
Jiang Yun's shoulders slumped slightly, and he spoke slowly, "What if Cecil isn't the only one?"
Ian paused slightly, and suddenly had a bad feeling: "What did you say?"
Jiang Yun took out a sealed document from the inner pocket of his suit, pressed it on the table with his fingertips, and slowly pushed it to Ian.
Just like when Ian pushed the old photo to him at the negotiating table that day.
Ian took the document: "This is..."
The document was only one page with just a few lines, but it made the red-haired Alpha's expression change suddenly. He put down his crossed legs and sat up straight.
It's a name.
Including Cecil, Jiang Yun gave him a total of six names.
He was extremely familiar with every name.
The owners of each name were carefully selected by him, patiently trained, and then spent huge manpower and financial resources to secretly send them to the capital of the alliance.
How did Jiang Yun discover them?
Ian's face turned pale, and he kept looking back and forth at the names, trying to find a flaw that could lead to a counterattack.
He was sure that these spies were well hidden and would never take any action without his orders.
And there was only one order he had issued recently.
Cecil was just a low-level spy. He did not give orders directly to Cecil. It was Cecil's superior who received his orders, and then Cecil's superior conveyed them to Cecil.
Unless Cecil had been under Jiang Yun's strictest surveillance, how could Jiang Yun have noticed the moment other agents contacted Cecil?
Everything was a trap set in advance.
Jiang Yun lured him and he jumped step by step into the trap that had been set a few years ago.
Ian the Fool never imagined that one day he would be fooled by someone else besides Lu Huai.
And this person is actually Lu Huai’s widow!
Ian's signature frivolous smile was no longer visible on his face, and his ease from earlier was gone. "What did you do to these people?"
Jiang Yun said lightly: "Don't worry, they are luckier than poor Cecil, they are still alive for the time being."
Ian breathed a sigh of relief, forcing himself to remain calm with a cold sneer. "So you've already figured out Cecil's true identity, and you kept Cecil around on purpose to catch bigger fish. Marshal Lu acted like he missed Lu Huai so much, but he was just playing along, wasn't he?" Ian called out Jiang Yun's name for the first time, word by word, as if he wanted to crush it between his teeth and swallow it into his bones. "Jiang, Yun."
"Yes," Jiang Yun rarely told Ian the truth, "but Marshal Lu's longing for Colonel Lu is not an act."
"So I promised him that I would bring Colonel Lu back at the lowest cost."
As early as when Cecil interviewed Cynthia's sanatorium, Jiang Yun and the Intelligence Bureau had already confirmed his identity as Agent Olin.
The Alliance Intelligence Agency originally wanted to follow the clues and catch more Olin agents. However, the communication between these agents was very secretive, and they might not contact each other for a year or two. The clue seemed to be cut off with Cecil.
After obtaining Lu Zhengqing's consent, Jiang Yun let Cecil stay in Cynthia Sanatorium.
Jiang Yun and the Intelligence Bureau have been waiting for an opportunity, an opportunity to force Agent Olin to contact each other.
On that sunny afternoon, Jiang Yun pushed Marshal Lu for a walk in the sanatorium. He told Marshal Lu about his plan and hoped that Marshal Lu would cooperate with him.
Marshal Lu, who was terminally ill, was speechless. He just nodded and wrote a sentence on Jiang Yun's palm.
——Lu Huai cannot become the enemy’s bargaining chip.
"Not only have we not paid the price, but we've made the other party pay an even greater price." Miyazawa couldn't help but sigh, "If the Olin side hadn't been so anxious to use Marshal Lu to put pressure on Foreign Minister Jiang, these five agents wouldn't have been exposed so quickly."
"Yes, so we have to thank Mr. Ian for giving us this opportunity." Jiang Yun picked up the wine glass and toasted to Ian sincerely, "Our years of waiting have not been in vain."
"Very good, very good." Ian silently squeezed the wine glass in his hand, leaving a tiny crack. His anger was already on the verge of exploding: "Jiang Yun, you and Lu Huai...you really are worthy of being husband and wife."
Miyazawa shook his head helplessly and said with a smile: "Foreign Minister Jiang was well prepared, but he scared us."
Ian took a deep breath, trying his best to maintain basic composure. "Tell me, what are your conditions? Do you want to exchange these five people for the safe return of Olin in exchange for Colonel Lu's body?"
Sacrificing one Cecil is nothing, but Jiang Yun has five people under his command, including Prince Polit's most beloved youngest son. As Olin's Foreign Minister, he cannot just sit back and do nothing.
"You're joking, Mr. Ian. I can't help but wonder if you've had too much vodka to propose such an outrageous condition." Jiang Yun smiled faintly, leaning back in his chair. His pure white shirt was already soaked with sweat, but his posture remained relaxed and calm. "Even if you are willing to hand over Colonel Lu's remains and 85% of the proto-nuclear mining rights, I can only guarantee that these five people can survive in the alliance for the time being."
85%? The league initially required only 65%!
The air around them suddenly stagnated, and even Miyazawa showed a look of surprise.
The waves of the nearby swimming pool kept crashing against the pool wall, just like the rage that was constantly surging within Ian. The red-haired Alpha fixed his gloomy gaze on the Omega, practically gritting his teeth as he said, "Eighty-five percent... Jiang Yun, you're really asking for too much."
Jiang Yun met the Alpha's gaze, which seemed to want to devour him alive, without dodging or evading, and said calmly, "Really? But I don't think so. According to your country's concept of the supremacy of imperial power, the prince's most beloved youngest son should be worthy of this price. What do you think, Sir Ian?"
“——Jiang Yun!”
Ian couldn't bear it any longer and stood up with a ferocious look on his face, as if he wanted to rush towards Jiang Yun regardless of everything and vent his anger on that unattainable and stunningly beautiful Omega.
Miyazawa and Morris stood up at the same time and immediately stood in front of Jiang Yun, one on the left and one on the right.
"People of Orin, don't forget that you are now on the Alliance's territory." Morris warned in a deep voice.
Miyazawa narrowed his eyes behind his gold-rimmed glasses: "Sir Ian, do you want to provoke a war between the two countries?"
Three Alphas of similar size confronted each other without giving in. Pheromones stirred up a storm in the vortex, and the oppressive feeling created was enough to make every Omega willingly bow their heads and surrender.
But in Jiang Yun's view, this confrontation seemed like a ridiculous and childish farce.
Even though it had reached the point where violence was imminent, the two Alphas could only express anger and give warnings.
"No rush, Mr. Ian, you can take your time to think about it. I look forward to your reply." Jiang Yun stood up behind Morris and Gong Ze, with a polite smile: "Everyone, I'm sorry for leaving now."
Halfway through the walk, Jiang Yun seemed to have thought of something: "Oh, right." He stopped and looked back at the three Alphas, his lips curled up into a captivating, almost glamorous smile: "It seems that no other Alpha tonight can understand my taste. It seems that if you want to know, you can only ask my late husband, Sir Ian."
Ian: “!!!”
Under the gaze of all the Alphas, Jiang Yun strode out of the hotel. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs' special car had been waiting at the hotel entrance for a long time.
After Jiang Yun got in the car, he immediately asked the driver and the guard to leave work early, and he was soon the only one left in the car.
Jiang Yun loosened his tie with one hand and quickly took out the inhibitor from his pocket with the other.
The cold liquid entered his blood vessels, and Jiang Yun breathed a sigh of relief, allowing his tense body to relax. His sweat-soaked back sank completely into the soft sofa.
……it's over.
"Good evening, Mr. Jiang." The AI's voice sounded from inside the car. "What is your next destination?"
Jiang Yun's eyes were lost under his wet eyelashes. He looked towards the roof of the car, suddenly feeling dazed.
Unable to get a response, the AI asked again: "Mr. Jiang, where do you want to go?"
When the work is over, where should he go?
Today is a holiday and the twins are at home. He can't let the children see their father in such a miserable state.
He also has an apartment specially prepared for the estrus period, which is equipped with everything an Omega needs to survive the estrus period.
He should go to the apartment to spend the next few days as usual.
This is undoubtedly the most correct choice.
AI: "Mr. Jiang?"
Jiang Yun closed his eyes and whispered a place name to the AI: "... No. 5 Qianshui Road."
No. 5 Shallow Water Road, where he lived with Colonel Lu for two months.
That was their former wedding room.
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