Light Fortress
Chapter 175 - 162: Secret Key, Gu Shen

Chapter 175: Chapter 162: Secret Key, Gu Shen

Old town, Lion Alley.

An abandoned mansion, the stone lion at the entrance mottled and dust-stained.

Song Ci, wearing slippers, squatted in front of the lion statue, eagerly devouring a boxed meal.

"It’s been so long without any movement... Has the lady fallen asleep?"

After finishing his meal, he carefully pushed open the mansion’s large doors; the courtyard was silent, and one could hear a pin drop in the side rooms.

After thinking it over, Song Ci withdrew his hand from knocking. He did not disturb Lu Nanzhi but returned to the front of the mansion, joining the stone lion in guarding the ancient courtyard.

Separated by a mahogany door.

Lu Nanzhi leaned on the bed and slowly opened her eyes.

She felt only fatigue... After the nomination election for the reserve member had ended, she had come here, or rather, hidden away here.

This was the house Old Lu had bought in the old town district where he would bury his name and conduct fun and interesting experiments before Nan Jin was born. Before Nan Jin left Da Du, this had also been their "base"... Later, when she became the renowned lady of Da Du, entangled in trivial matters, she would return to this mansion whenever she experienced pain, depression, distress, or irritability.

The time within this mansion stood still, burying her childhood.

She had completed the emergency meeting of the Ancient Literature Society.

She could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

Hiding here... was because she didn’t want to see anyone.

Regarding the reaction from the Hua Zhi side, she could somewhat guess; her taking a stance directly in the nomination election was no different from delivering a heavy blow to Hua Zhi’s "New World" project... The major shareholders should already be causing a fuss about withdrawing their investment.

"073 is from the Lin Family..."

Lu Nanzhi recounted the scenario during the meeting, "Being able to utilize the Lin Family’s influence to force the delay of laws in East Continent, only a direct descendant of the Northern Fortress Lin Family could achieve such a feat..."

The identity of 073 suddenly became clear from being vague.

"But then, who exactly is 031?"

Lu Nanzhi rubbed her temples, feeling a headache coming on, exactly as 031 had said, every meeting in the conference room over the years was treated as if it were the last.

This conference room in the deep water area was able to exist and operate independently.

It was because of the "Red Gate" that Old Lu left to her, which held unique privileges in the deep waters of Deep Sea.

But Deep Sea was undergoing one round of self-renewal after another.

No one knew... how long the Red Gate could hold up as this evolution continued?

If the conference room were ever discovered, then with Deep Sea’s computing power, reconstructing everything that happened inside might not be an impossible task... With this in mind, everyone was hiding their identities.

was a high-ranking individual from the Northern Cause and Effect Fortress.

was most likely a greenhorn.

As for 031... the impression he left was contradictory; he appeared as a young boy, seemingly unreliable and flippant, yet he was a regular at every meeting, hardly ever absent, and his words conveyed a "profoundly unfathomable" sense.

This was a poor disguise.

But it was also the most brilliant disguise.

"I can’t fathom 031’s identity..."

Lu Nanzhi tried to sift through the notable figures of the East Continent in her mind, but from a positional standpoint, none of those opposed to the legal motion matched the image of 031.

"It seems he has already pegged my identity..."

The lady, somewhat frazzled, supported her forehead and murmured, "Am I really not mistaken, have I really come into contact with the key?"

At that moment.

A commotion arose outside the courtyard.

...

...

At the front of the ancient mansion in Lion Alley, there weren’t many passersby.

Because of a past bloody incident, Lion Alley had been evacuated, leaving the entire alley uninhabited, making it particularly quiet daily, not to mention in the bleak, chilly mid-autumn.

The dead leaves twirled in front of the stone lion seat, blown by the wind.

Song Ci, frowning, looked up as he picked his teeth in slippers at the doorway, observing the dark mass of people before him.

"Sorry... have you gone the wrong way?"

Song Ci regretted speaking as soon as he had opened his mouth.

He regretted not wearing a well-tailored suit because, surrounded by a group of sturdy men in suits, his floral shirt looked so shabby and poor, especially as he stood up from squatting, seeming even shorter by comparison.

Song Ci could not remember where he had heard that during a standoff, the side that spoke softly seemed more imposing.

But the effect was very poor this time.

The contrast in attire and stature made Song Ci feel like a timid underdog.

He straightened his clothes, seeing that the suit-clad toughs showed no indication of backing down, he sighed softly, beginning to twist his wrist.

"Don’t fight."

An old voice came from behind the crowd.

"It was me... I just wanted to see Nan Jin."

Song Ci was taken aback.

The suit-clad thugs standing solidly like a copper wall and iron barrier uniformly made way to create a path.

Cui Zhongcheng pushed his wheelchair slowly to Song Ci’s front.

Zhao Xilai earnestly looked at the Crow guarding the front of the residence, knowing this young man was very capable of fighting... If they started a conflict today, the people he brought with him would not be enough to give Song Ci a fight.

Song Ci’s expression was strange.

He thought to himself could this old fellow be a dog... with such keen senses? Hidden in the old city district yet he could swoop in so quickly?

"I’m sorry."

Song Ci shook his head, "The lady said she is not seeing anyone."

"Regarding the issue with the councilor election... she needs to give me an explanation," the old man sighed softly, "I don’t want to make things difficult for you, or for her. Just a meeting to talk, that shouldn’t be a problem, right?"

Song Ci hesitated a bit.

A voice from Lu Nanzhi rang out from inside the residence.

"Since you have chased up to the front of this residence, you should understand, between us... what is there left to talk about?"

Having heard this voice, Song Ci understood the lady’s intention, his demeanor composed as he stood at the door, merely crossing his arms and no longer speaking.

"..."

Zhao Xilai fell silent for a long time, then said softly, "Please open the door, it’s not convenient to talk here."

"No... Councilor, there is nothing inconvenient about talking here,"

Lu Nanzhi corrected, "This is my deceased father’s heritage home, and right outside is where he fell. It is said that he was once your closest companion, what words can’t be spoken in front of him?"

Zhao Xilai fell silent.

"Today marks the tenth anniversary of his passing... If you’ve come to persuade me to give up the councilor seat, then please give up. This week, I do not wish to see anyone, nor will I leave this place."

After Lu Nanzhi said this, she did not speak anymore.

This was not an expulsion order.

Yet it worked better than an expulsion order.

"The freedom dance is one week away..." Cui Zhongcheng leaned down and whispered to Zhao Xilai, "There’s still time. Do we need to talk again?"

The old man lowered his gaze to the ground beneath his feet.

The bloodstain in front of Lion Alley had long since dried, washed clean and drained by over three thousand days and nights of wind and rain. Nothing was left here but the empty, echoing sound of the wind, like the moaning of wandering spirits.

"We’ll meet again in a week."

A slight sigh.

From crowded with figures, Lion Alley once again became cold and silent.

Lu Nanzhi leaned against the wooden door of the old residence, as the entire world returned to tranquility. She slowly walked towards the wing room.

Standing in front of the residence, Song Ci, nervously asked, "Madam... really not seeing anyone for a week, not even leaving the yard?"

Lu Nanzhi was about to speak.

"Ding-dong—"

An email arrived, sent from a newly registered email address, displaying the name 031.

Lu Nanzhi’s pupils constricted.

Crazy... Crazy?

dared to send her an email under Deep Sea’s monitoring?

After the email arrived, a countdown began to appear on the icon...

"5... 4... 3..."

At the last second, Lu Nanzhi’s fingers stiffly clicked the email... The email was unusually brief, so brief that it only needed a second to read.

The email contained only four words.

"The key, Gu Shen."

Five seconds later, the email automatically deleted itself, and no matter how Lu Nanzhi tried to search and find, there were no clues.

All records of the email, related information, had all disappeared.

Like a pebble dropped into the deep sea.

From above the sea’s surface, countless ripples undulated, a pebble’s fall, never happened.

"...Madam?"

Song Ci, standing outside the residence, waited for a long time without a response, he spoke again.

Lu Nanzhi came back to reality as if from another world.

She said softly, "I need to see someone, right now."