Chapter 154: Chapter 144: The End of Half a Month of Chaos At the Strategy Research Room base, Chen Na was in a room, staring blankly at the ceiling.
A full day had passed since she was found by the officials and brought here.
During this time, she had been questioned twice about her background, her relatives, her reasons for joining the mysterious organization, what she knew about it, and the process of contacting Shadow... She told the truth about everything.
Afterward, the officials told her she was in the clear and that they would bring her mother to see her. So, she waited with eager anticipation.
CLICK.
The door made a sound. Chen Na looked over and, in the next moment, saw her mother, Wang Yan, enter the room. She was instantly overcome with emotion.
"Mom!"
"Nana!"
Wang Yan immediately ran over to hug her daughter. Seeing this, Dr. Zhang, who was at the door, gently closed it and left them alone. He didn’t come back until about half an hour later.
"Are you two doing okay?" Dr. Zhang asked with a smile as he entered.
By now, both Wang Yan and Chen Na had calmed down from the joy of their reunion. Wang Yan gripped Dr. Zhang’s hand tightly in gratitude. "Thank you. Thank you all for saving my daughter!"
"Please, don’t mention it. Have a seat," Dr. Zhang said. "Actually, the ones who saved your daughter were her friends, the webmaster of that site, and, of course, Shadow... I imagine Chen Na has already told you all of this?"
Wang Yan nodded. In the past half hour, her daughter had told her everything.
"If your daughter hadn’t been so righteous and notified the outside world about that evil organization, who knows how many more people it would have harmed. You could say your daughter performed a great service."
Hearing this, Wang Yan shook her head. "A great service or not, all that matters to me is that my child is safe and sound. That’s all I could ask for."
Dr. Zhang asked, "Do you have any plans for the future?"
"I just plan to go back with my daughter and live a quiet life. I’m not thinking about anything else," Wang Yan said, squeezing Chen Na’s hand.
Chen Na nodded vigorously. "Yeah! I’m never leaving Mom’s side again!"
Hearing this, Dr. Zhang’s expression grew a little awkward.
Wang Yan noticed, and her heart skipped a beat. She asked tentatively, "What is it, Dr. Zhang? Is there something wrong with my daughter?"
"Well," Dr. Zhang began to explain, "your daughter herself is fine. The main issue is that while the base was destroyed, the founder of the organization has not yet been identified... We can’t rule out the possibility that this person will seek revenge. If that happens, both you and your daughter would be at high personal risk if you were to go back home."
"Oh, this...!"
Wang Yan hadn’t considered that, but hearing Dr. Zhang’s explanation, she was suddenly overcome with worry.
"Dr. Zhang, what should we do? I’m not afraid for myself, but my daughter..."
"I have a proposal," Dr. Zhang said. "Your daughter’s ability is quite special, and very powerful. I’m the one in charge of training for the official Ascender teams, and I’d like to invite your daughter to join our official training program."
"As for you, Ms. Wang, if you’re willing to stay here, I can also arrange a job for you. That way, you and your daughter can remain together, and your safety will be guaranteed."
Wang Yan was ready to agree on the spot, but she looked at Chen Na first. "Nana, what do you think?"
But Chen Na’s little face showed a hint of resistance. "Do I have to start training again? I..."
Dr. Zhang knew the organization’s forced-growth style of training must have left psychological scars on a child like Chen Na. He said gently, "Chen Na, don’t worry. The training here won’t be like what you went through in that organization."
"Then... then I’m willing to stay here with Mom."
"That’s wonderful," Dr. Zhang said with a smile. "I’ll go create your files right away. And Ms. Wang, I’ll also take care of your resignation from the Yunhua Public Security Bureau."
"Oh, thank you for your trouble, Dr. Zhang."
After Dr. Zhang left, Chen Na said with some reluctance, "Mom, I don’t really want to train anymore... It’s so tiring. I wish I could just go back to school like before."
"Silly girl," Wang Yan said, ruffling her daughter’s hair. "In a society like this, there are no schools to go to anymore. At least this is an official government base, so everything should be properly managed. If you get tired, just tell me. That Dr. Zhang seems very reasonable; I’m sure he won’t force you to train."
"Mmm..."
"Oh, right," Wang Yan said, suddenly remembering something. "Once everything is settled here, you need to call Guan. He was very concerned about you. And besides, you lied to him last time. You need to apologize, you understand?"
"Mhm, I know. I’ll apologize," Chen Na nodded, embarrassed. The memory of lying to Guan Tong on the phone made her feel very guilty.
...
Inside a hospital room, two people stood before a bed.
On the bed lay a young man, unconscious. The tops of his legs were wrapped in thick bandages, but below them was only empty space. It was Jiang Ming, whose legs had been severed by Guan Tong just before he teleported.
The two people by the bedside were a young woman with short hair in a business suit and an elderly woman with white-streaked hair dressed in simple, handmade clothes.
"Commander-in-Chief, his life is saved," the young woman said. "But we haven’t been able to acquire any medicine or recovery items capable of regenerating limbs. We also haven’t found any Ascenders with a similar healing ability yet."
The Commander-in-Chief listened, her expression unreadable.
The young woman continued, "The destruction of the Yongzhou Base has been confirmed as the work of the Ascender known as Shadow. Furthermore, according to our inside sources, the reason Shadow found the base was because someone on the inside leaked its location. The informant was one of our own squad members, Chen Na."
"Chen Na. The little girl with the Perception Ability, correct?" the Commander-in-Chief said slowly.
"Yes."
"An entire base as large as Yongzhou, destroyed by a child’s hand," the Commander-in-Chief sighed. "Han Ling, you have disappointed me greatly."
Hearing this, a flash of pride crossed the young woman’s eyes. ’If the Commander-in-Chief had put me in charge of Yongzhou Base instead of Han Ling,’ she thought, ’this would never have been the result.’
"However, Han Ling died without saying anything she shouldn’t have. In that, she fulfilled her duty."
"...But Commander-in-Chief, it was her mismanagement that led to the destruction of the Yongzhou Base."