Before the Great Spikes' blanket invasion, it would have been easy to understand why Young Master Shiheng had not shown himself. Back then, most news was still confined to the world of source energy, and he might not have known that Stream Vanguard had grown so formidable.
It had been the same three months ago. At that time, the outcome of the Zenith War was still uncertain; even if he had come, he would not have been of any use and would only have become a liability.
Now, however, the Zenith War was won, the world had temporarily returned to peace, and Qingzi and Stream Vanguard had made such an enormous commotion…
"Given Young Master Shiheng's brains, personality, and thick skin, there's no way he wouldn't come looking for them," Wen Jifei said, voicing his thoughts aloud.
"Could it be that he's hiding away in some desolate wilderness and hasn't heard the news from outside yet?"
Yang Qingbai chimed in with the question. His interaction with Liu Shiheng had mostly been limited to the first half of their time in boot camp, so he knew him comparatively less.
At his question, everyone present shook their heads.
"Impossible," Rusty Sister said. "Someone like the Young Master would demand a life of luxury even when fleeing and in hiding. He would never hole up alone in some barren mountains."
"Exactly," He Tangtang agreed, nodding beside her. "It has to be lively. There have to be wine and women, feasts and revelry."
In their original circle, He Tangtang had spent the most time hanging out with Liu Shiheng. Day in and day out, the Young Master had spun endless tales about the wonders of the glittering secular world, even promising that once victory was won, he would take him all over the world to live in total luxury.
He Tangtang remembered it vividly. Raising his head, his voice grew slightly choked. "That bastard… could something have happened to him?"
The moment he brought it up, the atmosphere in the room turned heavy. Considering that Young Master Shiheng was still on Azure's list of suspected casualties, what if that "suspected" was no longer suspected…?
Certain things were just like that. When people were at ease, they thought nothing of it, but the moment they began to suspect something was wrong, the more they dwelled on it, the more amiss it felt and the more uneasy they became.
At the same time, the more one cared about someone, the easier it was to assume the worst.
A call was quickly patched through to Tu Zi, asking him to discreetly find a way to locate Liu Shiheng's family.
With Azure's current global influence, this posed no difficulty at all.
Just an hour later, in Gangcheng, at the Liu family residence. Liu Shiheng's parents sat on the sofa of their luxurious mansion, having brewed tea, looking warily yet politely at the Azure officer who had suddenly arrived before them.
At first, the elderly couple had assumed the visitor was here to deliver a commendation, and they had even prepared to take the opportunity to ask him to help look after Liu Shiheng. After all, just a month ago, Father Liu had decisively donated sixty percent of his family's fortune to the human resistance effort.
Over four years ago, their son had returned home once. Right before their eyes, he had smashed a coffee table to splinters with his bare hands, telling the two elders that he had developed superpowers and was now working for a secret government agency.
Later on, it had not been hard to deduce that their son was in Azure. Deep down, both elders understood, so when the time came to donate, they had not felt particularly pained.
However, this was no commendation. The Azure officer, who had actually slipped into the Liu estate in secret, held out a specialized communicator and spoke directly:
"The person who wishes to speak with you is Second Lieutenant Wen of Stream Vanguard."
Second Lieutenant Wen? The God of Guns?! Father and Mother Liu exchanged glances. The hands they reached out to take the communicator trembled slightly, for the words "Stream Vanguard's Second Lieutenant Wen" undoubtedly carried immense weight now.
"Hello," Father Liu said. Having moved from the mainland in his youth, his Mandarin was quite passable.
"Hello, Uncle Liu. My name is Wen Jifei, from Stream Vanguard," Wen Jifei introduced himself politely on the other end. "We are all Shiheng's comrades and his closest friends."
"Ah, hello, hello!"
Their son was actually part of Stream Vanguard, a friend of Major Qing and Second Lieutenant Wen! This news far surpassed their original expectation of him being an ordinary grunt or minor officer in Azure…
Halfway through his delighted, warm greeting, Father Liu froze suddenly and asked with a trembling voice, "My Shiheng…?"
"No, he's fine," Wen Jifei reassured him hastily, having prepared for this. Then, adhering to their planned pretext, he continued, "It's just that the situation has settled down recently, and while he was out carrying out some minor tasks, he suddenly started spending lavishly. Rumors have spread outside claiming he's been secretly pocketing donations from wealthy magnates…"
"Which damn punk is talking such nonsense?!" The voice on the other end of the communicator spiked sharply.
Father Liu sprang to his feet, fuming with righteous indignation. "I've donated over a hundred million here! If they claimed my Shiheng had any other flaws, I might actually give it some thought and believe them, but money? There's no way in hell he would take anyone else's money! Our family isn't short on cash!"
"Right, right, right. That's exactly what we thought, and we all felt it was impossible. Has he asked you for money recently?" Wen Jifei followed up.
There was a moment of hesitation on the other end before Father Liu replied, "Well, no, but he already has tens of millions of his own spread across various accounts."
"Oh, understood… Has he contacted you recently, then?"
"No, not for a long time. Over four years ago, he came home for a visit, and then over two years ago, a letter was suddenly slipped into the house in the middle of the night, saying he was doing well and telling us to take care of our health."
"…" From the sound of it, the Young Master had still been living comfortably and with room to spare at least over two years ago, only avoiding frequent contact out of fear of implicating his family.
And after that, he had not reached out to his family for over two years.
Naturally, Wen Jifei did not know that the subsequent letter had actually been delivered by Ye Jian on Liu Shiheng's behalf. Thinking of this, he grew increasingly uneasy.
"By the way, does my Shiheng have time to come visit us this time? Or, if it's convenient, we could go see him instead," Father Liu asked cautiously over the line.
"We… will do our best to arrange that," Wen Jifei said, doing his utmost to keep his tone steady.
"Good, good, thank you. And thank you for sending so many people to secretly protect us outside our home a few months ago. In truth, it's quite safe here, but it was very considerate of you, Second Lieutenant Wen." Father Liu gave a warm laugh. "My wife and I were even saying at the time, how could he possibly have the ability to mobilize so many people to protect us? So it was all thanks to Second Lieutenant Wen…"
A few months ago, when the Great Spikes' blanket invasion struck, Gangcheng had not actually been among the targeted cities. Even so, two squads comprising over eighty source energy warriors had suddenly appeared around the Liu family's luxury estate one day.
It was clear at a glance that they had come to protect them.
Yet when the two elders tried to communicate with them, ask about Liu Shiheng, express their gratitude, or offer food and lodging, those fighters completely ignored them.
At this moment, Father Liu had no idea that his final expression of gratitude was actually the most informative and shocking clue of all.
***
"Shiheng should still be alive," Wen Jifei said immediately after hanging up.
"And he's very likely joined some organization and is doing quite well for himself," the Little Prince followed up.
That armed source energy force sent to discreetly protect the Liu family had come neither from Azure nor Stream Vanguard. Gangcheng had not been in grave danger at the time, and even if it had truly been necessary, Stream Vanguard's response would not have been to deploy guards, but rather to bring the family to the Third Fixed Exploration Site.
With that deduction, the Little Prince's conclusion was clear.
"Judging by source energy combat strength, there is a ninety percent chance that the entity capable of mobilizing such a force is Snow Lotus," he continued.
Hearing this, Han Qingyu was startled. Over the past few days, he had already learned what kind of organization Snow Lotus was—they were enemies. "You mean Liu Shiheng joined Snow Lotus?"
Weren't they comrades, and one of their closest brothers? Deep down, Han Qingyu found it somewhat hard to accept the notion that Liu Shiheng had defected to the enemy. Although he currently had no memory of him, he hesitated before asking:
"Could he really do that?"
"He absolutely could." Several people on the scene, including Wen Jifei and He Tangtang, answered in unison, yet surprisingly, their tones held not the slightest trace of blame or indignation.
Han Qingyu turned to look at Wu Xu.
Wu Xu nodded. "He can."
Liu Shiheng could defect to the enemy.
"For Young Master Shiheng, defecting to the enemy isn't something that requires deep thought or causes any surprise. He could make that decision anytime, anywhere. And that doesn't mean he truly turned traitor or anything…"
Rusty Sister explained earnestly, doing her best to convey to Han Qingyu just what kind of miraculous existence their comrade Liu Shiheng really was.
Chapter 725