Chapter Ninety-Eight: Jin Yaowen

Commander Liu?

Zhang Mingyang rubbed his eyes and swayed a little as he stood up. “I’m sorry, everyone. I just got back from a work trip, and I’ve been working nonstop without any rest.”

Liu Jiangcheng smiled as he looked at him. “No matter. Once I’ve finished asking my questions, you can go back to sleep.”

At his side, Wang Bowen lowered his head in embarrassment, scratching at it awkwardly. Nie Zihao, however, laughed; the boy did seem refreshingly honest.

Zhang Mingyang patted his face to wake himself up a little. “Commander Liu, what would you like to ask?”

“I heard you only returned from the Moon Palace Base a few days ago.”

Zhang Mingyang nodded. “That’s right. I got back to the base just a few hours ago.”

Liu Jiangcheng asked again, “I also heard that you and the man beside you uncovered a spy who had been lying low at the Moon Palace Base for a whole year?”

Zhang Mingyang nodded. “We did uncover him, yes. But he got away through a tunnel.”

“Then can you give us a detailed account of this spy?”

“Of course.”

Zhang Mingyang carefully recounted everything that had happened at the Moon Palace Base over those few days.

“All right, you may sit down for now.”

After Zhang Mingyang finished, Liu Jiangcheng turned to the others. “Everyone, I trust you all understood what this young man just said?”

“Mhm.”

“Understood.”

“...”

Liu Jiangcheng said, “What does it mean when a spy can pass rigorous screening, infiltrate the Moon Palace Base for an entire year, sabotage the relay launch tower, and still escape through a tunnel two kilometers long?”

“It means our security system is terrible. Right now we face spies inside and formidable enemies outside. Inside, everything is in chaos, management is lax, inspections are careless, and it is as if we would gladly invite every spy in the world to come live here.”

“Outside, the people of Country M are watching us like tigers eyeing prey. They are practically hoping something goes wrong for us as soon as possible. Our intelligence personnel and spy satellites have already discovered a new factory building near the Skunk Works facility in California. From internal photos, we have learned that a new model of spacecraft is already under construction, and its pace matches ours.”

“Besides the people of Country M, there is another man who interests me greatly.”

With that, Liu Jiangcheng looked toward Wang Bowen. “Director Wang, why don’t you introduce Jin Yaowen to everyone?”

“What!”

At the name, Wang Bowen stared at Liu Jiangcheng in shock. “Commander Liu, you know this man?”

Liu Jiangcheng took a photograph from his pocket and held it up before everyone. In the picture was a young man of about thirty, with short hair, glasses, a thin face, and a confident smile. “This man is Jin Yaowen. This is a photo taken twenty years ago. He belonged to an organization called Black Hole.”

“As for this Black Hole organization, I’ll let Director Wang explain it.”

With that, Liu Jiangcheng sat down.

Wang Bowen glanced at Nie Zihao beside him. Both of them were visibly startled. After a moment, Nie Zihao nodded at him, as if to say, Go on, tell them.

Wang Bowen thought for a moment, then gave up. Some things could not be concealed forever. Looking at everyone, he said, “Jin Yaowen was originally one of the scientists at our base. He was extraordinarily intelligent and worked in many fields, including space science, electronics, energy, and cosmology. The initial design for the Far Ocean was completed by him. Twenty years ago, he was about the same age as Wang Huairen, and our base referred to the two of them as the Twin Stars.”

“What?”

Everyone looked at Wang Bowen in surprise. They had never even heard that such a person existed.

Minister Mi asked in astonishment, “Director Wang, how come you never told me about this man?”

Wang Bowen replied, “He left long before Wang Huairen disappeared.”

Minister Mi frowned in confusion. “You let someone that brilliant go?”

Wang Bowen shook his head. “It wasn’t that we let him go. He left on his own after a conflict with Wang Huairen.”

“How could that be?”

Minister Mi knew Wang Huairen too, and she had heard many things about him: optimistic, cheerful, gentle-tempered. How could such a man possibly clash with others?

Wang Bowen continued, “Wang Huairen was indeed exactly as you described, but only with other people. When facing Jin Yaowen, he became a different person entirely. Still, in the first few years of their collaboration, the two of them worked very well together, and their relationship was harmonious. No one knows what happened, but all at once they became as incompatible as fire and water. Whenever they met, they would argue. When they disagreed, they even came to blows. Yet in most cases, it would turn out that Wang Huairen had been right.”

Listening to Wang Bowen’s account, Minister Mi could hardly believe it. Wang Huairen had such a side to him?

She was not the only one who found it unbelievable. Zhang Mingyang did too. Ever since he arrived at the base and learned that name, all he had heard were words of praise and admiration. People spoke of him as refined and gentle. How had he suddenly become an irritable, explosive man?

Minister Mi asked, “Director Wang, did Jin Yaowen leave simply because he quarreled with Wang Huairen?”

Wang Bowen nodded and shook his head at once. “Yes and no. Their quarrels were one part of it, but the most important reason was that, later on, Wang Huairen became extremely disrespectful toward Jin Yaowen. Before Wang Huairen ever came to the base, Jin Yaowen was one of our rising stars. If he had stayed on, then the one sitting before you today would not be me, but him.”

“However, everything changed a year before Wang Huairen disappeared. In the later stages of their collaboration, the two of them hardly even saw each other anymore. Their assistants passed messages back and forth to get the work done. I remember that after the Far Ocean was completed, Jin Yaowen could no longer endure Wang Huairen and submitted his resignation, then left the base.”

Only then did everyone, hearing Wang Bowen’s account, learn that Wang Huairen had once had such a past.

Minister Mi asked, “Director Wang, then what exactly is this Black Hole organization?”

Wang Bowen replied, “Black Hole was founded a month after Jin Yaowen left the base. It is a large organization with a complicated makeup: spies, entrepreneurs, and a great many scientists. But its sole purpose is to destroy everything Wang Huairen left behind.”

“Destroy everything Wang Huairen left behind?”

Minister Mi thought for a moment. “You mean Jin Yaowen wants to destroy everything Wang Huairen created?”

Wang Bowen gave a bitter smile. “Not only that. He wants to erase the very history of Wang Huairen’s existence.”

A sharp intake of breath passed through the room.

Just how deep must that hatred run for a man’s very existence to be erased?

Zhang Mingyang felt a chill creep over him as well. Just how much hatred, how much ruthlessness, would it take?

Minister Mi asked again, “Then the spy at the Moon Palace Base was one of Jin Yaowen’s men?”

Wang Bowen did not dare make a certain judgment. “I can only say the odds are very high that he was sent by him.”

“Then why didn’t you try to capture this man?”

At that moment, Liu Jiangcheng spoke. “Of course we wanted to capture him. But for more than twenty years now, he has vanished as if into thin air. There has not been the slightest trace of him.”