Brother, just how powerful is our family?

Just as Chen Shao lifted his foot, three men in black suits walked over.

The leader was a middle-aged man in his thirties with an ordinary face but sharp eyes.

He walked straight up to Chen Shao and smiled slightly: "Mr. Chen, why are you out so late?"

Chen Shao's heart tightened, but he forced himself to remain calm: "You've mistaken me for someone else, haven't you?"

"Liu Xiaojun?" The middle-aged man glanced at the passport in his hand, his smile unchanged. "Mr. Chen, or should I call you...Young Master Chen?"

"I don't understand what you're talking about." Chen Shao tried to walk around him. "My flight is about to take off, please make way."

The middle-aged man didn't step aside. Instead, he took out his identification from his pocket and unfolded it in front of Chen Shao: "Ministry of State Security, Special Investigation Division. Mr. Chen, please come with us. We need your cooperation in some investigations."

Ministry of State Security.

These three words struck Chen Shao's heart like a heavy hammer.

His last shred of hope was utterly shattered.

"I...I really didn't..." He tried to struggle, but his voice was already weak.

"You'll find out when you get there," the middle-aged man said calmly. "Don't worry, it's just a routine inquiry. If we've truly admitted our mistake, we'll apologize and arrange the fastest flight for you to leave."

Chen Shaohua was "invited" into a black minivan.

Before getting on the bus, he glanced back at the bright lights in the terminal and at the security checkpoint that was so close yet forever out of reach.

......

At 4 PM on April 20th, at the Black Continent Global Group base.

The scorching sun of the tropical savanna baked the tarmac until it was sweltering, but the hearts of the ten members of the observation group were chilled by the sight before them.

Two transport planes from the Chinese Air Force had just landed when the members of the observation group filed out.

They were all dressed in uniforms of general officers and formal attire of senior civil servants, the stars on their epaulets glittering in the sunlight.

Leading the group was the Vice Minister of the Ministry of State Security, followed by the heads of the General Armaments Department, the General Staff Department, the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, and several top experts from strategic think tanks.

Qin Feng stood at the very front of the welcoming team, dressed in a simple khaki hunting outfit, which contrasted sharply with the solemn military uniforms opposite him.

Behind him were ten guards, also dressed in civilian clothes, but their posture and eyes revealed a sharpness no less than that of soldiers.

"Welcome everyone." Qin Feng stepped forward to shake hands, his smile gentle. "You must be tired from the long flight."

The vice minister sized up Qin Feng; this young man was younger and more composed than he had imagined.

At the age of twenty-six, he had already wielded the power to change the world order.

It's a very strange feeling, like seeing a baby holding a nuclear launch button.

"Mr. Qin, you're too kind," the deputy minister replied. "We are very much looking forward to today's visit."

"I won't let you down." Qin Feng gestured for us to proceed. "Let's set off now."

The members of the observation group exchanged glances.

Departure? Where to? This is already the core area of ​​the African base. Could there be an even more secretive place?

Qin Feng did not explain, but led them to an open space at the edge of the helipad.

There was nothing there except the cement ground that had been bleached white by the sun.

But when he raised his hand and made a gesture, the air above the open space began to distort and ripple, like the mirage of heat waves on a road in the height of summer. Then, a colossal object slowly materialized.

It was an indescribable aircraft.

The streamlined, silver-gray hull is about fifty meters long, with a smooth, mirror-like surface and no visible seams or rivets.

It had no wings, no tail, no engine nozzles; it was like a giant drop of mercury suspended half a meter above the ground, eerily quiet.

"This is a shuttle boat," Qin Feng explained. "We will use it to travel to our destination."

The members of the observation group were dumbfounded.

They had seen stealth technology before, but this kind of aircraft that was completely optically invisible and could also hover vertically was beyond their comprehension.

"This...this is anti-gravity?" an Air Force lieutenant general couldn't help but ask.

"That's one way to understand it," Qin Feng said without elaborating. "Please board the boat."

A hatch slid open on the side of the shuttle without making a sound.

The interior features a spacious cabin with leather seats, panoramic windows, and a small bar.

Everything looked like the cabin of a top-of-the-line private jet, except... the view outside the window was of the tarmac, indicating that the aircraft was indeed hovering.

The members of the observation group boarded the boat with mixed feelings.

They found that even when walking around inside the boat, there was no shaking or weightlessness, just like standing on the ground.

"Please be seated, everyone. We're about to set off," he said casually, as if he were about to go on a road trip.

The next second, the members of the observation group felt a slight acceleration, very slight, but enough for them to realize that the aircraft was moving.

Through the porthole, they saw the ground rapidly receding, the African grasslands unfolding beneath their feet, then shrinking, and then... the arc of the earth appearing in their field of vision.

"Are we... on the rise?" a civil servant murmured.

"Yes." Qin Feng sat down in the seat opposite them. "Our destination is the asteroid belt, and the estimated journey time is three hours."

"Three hours?!" A major general from the General Armaments Department exclaimed in disbelief. "From Earth to the asteroid belt? That... how fast would that take?"

The asteroid belt lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, and at its closest point to Earth, it is about 1.5 astronomical units—about 2.25 million kilometers.

Even traveling at the speed of light, a one-way trip would take 12.5 minutes.

Three hours means... the shuttle's speed is close to 0.07 times the speed of light.

"Specific technical parameters are classified," Qin Feng smiled slightly. "But you can rest assured, the shuttle is very safe."

The members of the observation group fell silent.

They looked out the porthole; the Earth had transformed into a blue marble sphere, suspended against a black void.

Clouds, continental outlines, ocean reflections... everything was so familiar, yet so strange.

This is the first time they have seen the Earth from this angle.

Beautiful, fragile, and insignificant.

"There's gravity?" the experts from the Science and Technology Bureau suddenly noticed. "We're in space, so why is there still gravity? And... why aren't we experiencing the overload that should be present during acceleration?"

Under normal circumstances, when accelerating from the ground to nearly one-tenth the speed of light, the human body will experience enormous G-forces.

But inside the shuttle, everything was so calm, just like sitting on a sofa at home.

"Inertial damping and simulated gravity technology," Qin Feng explained simply, "are also classified."

It's classified again.

The members of the observation group stopped asking questions.

They knew that Qin Feng would show what he wanted to show, and asking about what he didn't want to say was pointless.

The voyage proceeded in silence.

Outside the shuttle is the eternal starry sky.