After being separated from my family, I became a darling of the military region thanks to my medical

The midday sun shone through the glass windows of the special clinic at the North City Military Region General Hospital, making the terrazzo floor gleam and illuminating the row of green-painted metal cabinets filled with medical records against the wall.

Gu Zheng carried a three-layer aluminum insulated lunchbox in his hand, his "defense green" military uniform was crisp and straight, and his hard-soled leather boots made a steady and powerful sound as he walked in the corridor.

He pushed open the slightly ajar door, closed it tightly behind him, strode to his desk, and skillfully unscrewed the lunchbox layer by layer.

The bottom layer is thick millet porridge steaming hot, the middle layer is braised pork and potatoes with glistening oil, and the top layer is a dish of spicy and sour cucumber strips garnished with red chili threads.

Ye Zhen had just put down her pen and rubbed her sore wrist when her gaze swept over the excessively lavish lunch on the table.

"Eat it while it's hot." Gu Zheng pulled out the iron pipe folding chair with artificial leather cushions opposite him and sat down, handing her a pair of white bamboo chopsticks.

Ye Zhen took the chopsticks, picked up a piece of potato soaked in meat juice, put it in her mouth, swallowed it, and then looked up at the man opposite her.

"Li Changqing from the magazine just called." Ye Zhen picked up her millet porridge, took a sip, and stirred the steam with an aluminum spoon as she recounted the events of the morning. "People from Gore, posing as representatives of Cambridge University Press, went to the editorial office and spent $60,000 to buy out the magazine's exclusive overseas rights for the next three years. They played word games in the contract, allowing the agency to unilaterally decide the publication date. In other words, as long as they withhold the contract and don't translate or typeset it, the academic community in Europe and America won't see a single Chinese radical in these three years."

She put down her spoon, picked up the enamel mug on the table, and took a sip of warm water.

"But their efforts were in vain. Good wine needs no bush, and in the end they only shot themselves in the foot."

Hearing this, Gu Zheng didn't stop his hands, steadily picking out a small piece of ginger from the braised pork for her.

"Sixty thousand US dollars, these foreigners really went all out. Back home, that would be enough to make several millionaires." Gu Zheng chuckled, accurately flicking the ginger slices he had picked out into the wastebasket next to him. "They lost everything on the operating table and are trying to make up for it through underhanded means, to completely lock your painstakingly written thesis inside the country."

Ye Zhen wiped her mouth and leaned back comfortably in her chair.

"They think they can fool the world with these despicable business tactics, but little do they know they're just giving us a free international press release." She watched Gu Zheng screw the lunchbox lid back on. "I'm going to publish this story in the next issue of the magazine, so that doctors all over China can see the greedy faces of these foreign companies."

Looking at her confident demeanor, Gu Zheng's cold and hard eyebrows instantly softened, and the corners of his mouth couldn't help but turn up.

"My wife has such a broad perspective; she doesn't care about a few tens of thousands of US dollars at all." Gu Zheng stood up and deftly fastened the empty lunchbox layer by layer.

He carried the lunchbox to the door, and before leaving, he turned around and took a deep look at Ye Zhen, who had already reopened the thick medical record.

Gu Zheng opened the door and walked out, then closed it tightly behind him.

The moment the door closed, the smile on his face vanished completely, his thick, dark eyebrows drooped sharply, and he exuded a murderous aura that could kill at any moment.

He strode down the stairs with his lunchbox in his hand and walked straight to the jeep outside the outpatient building.

The bodyguard, Xiao Wang, was leaning against the car door smoking a cigarette when he saw the leader come out. He quickly threw the cigarette butt on the ground and crushed it out with the sole of his canvas shoe.

"Sir, has your wife finished her meal?" Xiao Wang asked solicitously as he opened the car door.

Gu Zheng didn't get in the car. Instead, he leaned against the hood of the jeep, took out half a pack of Daqianmen cigarettes from his military uniform trouser pocket, and skillfully put one in his mouth.

"Xiao Wang, go to the guesthouse and find out what those foreign devils are up to."

Twenty minutes later, Xiao Wang drove back, kicking up dust.

"Sir, we've got the facts! Those people are frantically packing their bags and hiring a car to head to the airport to return home."

"Go, notify the logistics department to bring out those two ten-wheeled trucks that carry military supplies from the garage, and also call a squad of brothers to come with me with their gear to take care of some personal business." Gu Zheng struck a match, held the flame to light a cigarette, and took a deep drag.

Xiao Wang was stunned after hearing this. He looked at Gu Zheng's eyes, which gleamed coldly through the smoke, and instinctively shuddered.

"Sir, it's the middle of the day and the sun is blazing. Where are we going in this big truck?" Xiao Wang asked boldly.

"Let's go stop those foreign bastards who used US dollars to swindle our official seal." Gu Zheng exhaled a puff of gray smoke, his finger holding a cigarette pointing directly towards the East City Airport. "They went to great lengths to get the contract, and now they're in such a hurry to run away? Dream on."

Upon hearing that an outsider dared to swindle the official seal on Chinese territory, Xiao Wang's eyes blazed with fury. He gave a crisp military salute and turned to sprint towards the logistics department.

Half an hour later, on the only road leading to the Capital Airport.

Two ten-wheeled trucks, covered with thick military-green canvas canopies, stood like two steel behemoths, blocking the middle of the road filled with yellow dust and gravel. This road was the widest main thoroughfare in the city leading to the airport, with tall poplar trees on both sides swaying bare in the cold March wind.

Parker was sitting in the back of a rented black Volga sedan, clutching the leather briefcase containing the copyright contract tightly in his arms.

He glanced down at his Swiss mechanical watch every now and then, impatiently urging the driver to hurry up. Once he was on the plane and brought the contract back to the European headquarters, his position at Gore would be unshakeable.

Van der Hearst sat beside him, eyes closed, a high-end custom-made silver monitoring box at his feet. Lynch sat in the passenger seat, idly flipping through a newspaper.

Suddenly, "Squeak!"

The Volga sedan's tires screeched shrilly on the gravel road, and the car slid forward uncontrollably for a long distance before finally coming to a stop less than ten meters from the military vehicle.

Caught off guard, Parker slammed his head against the back of the seat in front of him, nearly knocking his briefcase off his hand.

"How do you drive?!" Parker yelled at the driver, clutching his bruised forehead.

The driver turned pale with fright, pointing at the military trucks blocking the road ahead, his teeth chattering: "The road...the road's been blocked by the soldiers!"

Parker rolled down the car window with some skepticism and leaned out to take a look.

On the dusty road, a dozen soldiers in military overcoats, armed with guns, were methodically setting up wooden roadblocks.

Gu Zheng, dressed in a crisp military uniform, arms crossed, peaked cap pulled low, leaned against the hood of the large truck, coldly staring at the Volga as if it were prey.

Parker's eyelids twitched. He recognized the extremely domineering Chinese officer in the hospital at a glance, and a chill ran down his spine.

He pushed open the car door and reluctantly got out. Seeing this, Lynch quickly opened his car door as well and jogged after Parker to bolster his courage.

"Mr. Gu, what do you mean by parking your car in the middle of the road? We need to get to Beijing Airport to catch our international flight back home." Parker straightened his slightly disheveled suit jacket, trying to maintain the haughty demeanor of a representative of a large company, and turned to signal Lynch to translate his words.

Gu Zheng straightened up and slowly patted the dust off his military uniform.

"Going to Beijing to catch a flight?" Gu Zheng sneered, pulled a crumpled piece of paper from his jacket pocket, and swung it around in the air with a rustling sound. "Go sit in jail and reflect on your actions."

Parker couldn't understand the heavily accented Chinese, but Gu Zheng's tone made him feel very panicked. He turned his head and urged Lynch with his eyes.

Lin Qi was also completely confused, so he quickly stepped forward with a big smile in Chinese to ask for the specific reason.

Gu Zheng took two steps forward, his black leather boots making a crisp sound on the pebbles. He shook the letter in his hand and his cold gaze swept over the three foreigners in front of him.

"We received a report from the public with their real names, that some foreign criminals are using the guise of publishing a medical journal to engage in speculation and profiteering on Chinese soil, seriously undermining the great process of socialist economic construction." Gu Zheng's voice was extremely loud, and every word was emphasized.

Upon hearing the words "speculation and profiteering," Lin Qi's face, which had been wearing a fake smile, instantly turned deathly pale, and cold sweat streamed down his forehead and cheeks.

In early 1980s China, these four words were not something to be joked about. They were a heavy burden that could crush a person. If legal responsibility were pursued, going directly to prison or labor camp would be the least of one's worries.

"Commander Gu, there must be a huge misunderstanding here." Lin Qi swallowed hard and stammered as he tried to explain.

Gu Zheng looked at him with an expression as if he were an idiot.

"Misunderstanding?" Gu Zheng scoffed dismissively. "You guys carry around tens of thousands of dollars in Standard Chartered bearer checks and throw money around at people. Do you really think all Chinese people are blind?"

Lynch turned his head, lowered his voice, and quickly translated these words to Parker in English, emphasizing the terrible nature of the charge of speculation.

Upon hearing that he was about to be classified as an economic criminal by the Chinese police, Parker's carefully maintained arrogance instantly crumbled. He jumped up and down in a panic, pointing a trembling finger at Gu Zheng and protesting loudly.

"This is an utterly baseless and absurd accusation. We are foreign citizens protected by international law, and we enjoy absolute diplomatic immunity in China!" Parker gasped, trying to use his status as a foreign guest to intimidate the other party.

Lin Qi quickly translated the original words, his voice trembling noticeably and trying to ingratiate himself with Gu Zheng.

Gu Zheng laughed heartily, as if he had heard the biggest joke in the world. His loud laughter echoed across the empty dirt road.

"Foreign guests?" Gu Zheng stopped laughing, his face turning cold and hard. He stepped closer to Parker, looking down at the Englishman who was half a head shorter than him. "You people are impersonating Cambridge representatives and going to our Chinese magazines to swindle people. This is not a legitimate academic exchange. In our law, this is called fraud."

He extended a long, bony finger and poked Parker's shoulder with such force that the guilty Englishman couldn't help but take two large steps back.

"Within the defense zone that I, Gu Zheng, am responsible for protecting, whether you are a high-ranking foreigner or an ordinary citizen, as long as you commit a crime that harms the national interest, you will have to obediently go to the police station and sit there eating cornbread. Even if the King of Heaven himself came today, he couldn't save you." Gu Zheng declared, word by word, his military aura pressing down on the other party.

Parker was so overwhelmed by this overwhelming aura that he couldn't utter a word. He clutched his briefcase tightly with both hands, his face even paler than the freshly painted walls.