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

1:40 a.m.

Although the sandstorm had subsided somewhat, a thick yellow fog still loomed over the base.

Two military jeeps were parked at the garage entrance, their lights off and engines silent, while the security personnel pretended to be in a chaotic and busy state.

A square wooden box sat quietly on the table.

The sentry on duty yawned and glanced down at the register.

At the end of the corridor, the dull sound of rubber wheels rolling over the concrete floor suddenly came.

Ma Chenggui pushed the repair cart over.

The vehicle contained cable cutters, insulating tape, spare light bulbs, and a bulging old canvas tool bag.

The sentry looked up alertly.

"Squad Leader Ma, are you still fixing this at this hour?"

Ma Chenggui cursed under his breath.

"The backup light in Lane 3 is flashing again. The security department is in a hurry, and your convoy needs to leave in the middle of the night. Who will be responsible if the streetlights go out?"

Without thinking much, the sentry waved his hand and raised the release barrier.

In the shadows, Xiao Wang's hand had already silently pressed against the holster.

Gu Zheng stood in the heavy shadows, as immovable as a hidden sculpture.

Ma Chenggui pushed the cart into the garage. He first squatted down by the wall and pretended to twist the wire connectors with pliers.

After confirming that no one was watching outside, he immediately got up and walked quickly to the wooden box on the table.

Unzip the canvas bag, and you'll find a wooden box that's exactly the same size and shape hidden inside.

He reached out to replace the box on the table.

Click.

The garage ceiling lights instantly came on, casting a blinding white light across the corners.

Gu Zheng stepped out from the shadows.

"Squad Leader Ma, is the box heavy?"

Ma Chenggui froze on the spot.

The next second, a ruthless glint flashed in his eyes. He slammed the fake box at Gu Zheng and then turned and lunged at the repair truck.

The gun was hidden in a lining of the canvas bag.

He had barely touched the cold grip of the gun when Gu Zheng had already stepped in front of him with a gust of wind.

Gu Zheng kicked the repair cart over, scattering tools all over the ground.

Ma Chenggui gritted his teeth and drew his gun. The muzzle had barely risen half an inch when Gu Zheng's left hand gripped his wrist like an iron clamp, and his right knee slammed violently into his ribs.

A dull cracking sound rang out, and Ma Chenggui let out a muffled groan as his pistol slumped to the ground.

Unwilling to give up, he tried to struggle and break through the side door to escape.

Gu Zheng grabbed his arm without hesitation and slammed him against the mottled iron gate of the garage.

"Want to enter the sandstorm zone?"

Ma Chenggui's face turned blue with pain, and cold sweat poured down his forehead, but he still gritted his teeth and struggled desperately to get out.

With a cold face, Gu Zheng raised his hand to remove the magazine from the pistol, then deftly chambered the round and ejected the bullet from the barrel.

The gleaming metal bullets struck the concrete ground with a crisp sound.

Xiao Wang and his men rushed forward immediately and handcuffed Ma Chenggui's hands tightly behind his back.

Ma Chenggui was breathing heavily and cursing loudly.

"Commander Gu! What right do you have to arrest me! I've worked at the base for sixteen years, what right do you have to treat me like an enemy agent!"

Gu Zheng bent down to pick up the fake box from the ground, his eyes as cold as ice.

"Because you switched the goods in the middle of the night."

"I came here after receiving a maintenance order!"

"So what's the deal with this box?"

The interrogation room was located in a cold, underground bomb-proof room.

There was nothing extra on the table.

Gu Zheng sat opposite him with an air of authority, while Ma Chenggui was forced into a chair, his hands cuffed to the armrests, his face half-bruised and looking particularly disheveled.

Commander Peng, Section Chief Zhou, Qin Baoquan, and others all stood to the side.

Section Chief Zhou's face was extremely grim; he still seemed unwilling to believe the truth.

"Old Ma, explain yourself clearly. Is someone forcing you with something? Don't be confused."

Ma Chenggui raised his head, his eyes darting away.

"I didn't do anything."

Gu Zheng didn't say anything, but pushed the first transparent evidence bag in front of him.

Inside was a fragment of black alloy.

"The composition of the insulating paint has been tested, and it is completely consistent with the coating in the temporary maintenance light box of Channel 3."

The second document was then placed on the table.

"The day before the explosion, you were the only one in the entire base who had applied for permission to enter that passage."

The third small glass bottle containing the blood sample was placed down heavily.

"This is a blood clot extracted from Mr. Liang's drainage tube. The drainage tube under the hospital bed was deliberately compressed."

Ma Chenggui's breathing instantly became heavy.

Gu Zheng leaned back in his chair, his aura pressing down on him as if it were a tangible force.

"No rush. You can deny it if you want, but these things on the table are enough to send you to a military court and have you shot."

Ma Chenggui's handcuffed hands began to tremble uncontrollably.

Section Chief Zhou, his eyes red with anger, shouted out his curses.

"Old Ma, are you out of your mind! What did Engineer Liang do to wrong you? Zhou Jianjun is only twenty-four years old. He rushed forward to shield Engineer Liang from that blow, and you actually went to the ward and wanted them dead!"

Ma Chenggui lowered his head deeply, his entire shoulder trembling.

After a long while, he finally spoke, his voice hoarse and dry.

"I didn't intend to kill Zhou Jianjun."

Gu Zheng's piercing eyes were fixed on him.

"You only want to kill Engineer Liang."

Ma Chenggui closed his eyes in pain.

"They told me that if Engineer Liang hadn't died, the Northwest project would have been completed within three years. They said that once that thing actually went into space, many people's plans in the West would be completely ruined."

Upon hearing this, Commander Peng flew into a rage and slammed his fist on the table.

"Who ordered you to do this?"

Ma Chenggui swallowed hard, his throat bobbing up and down.

"I never saw his face. The contact was at the Jiayuguan Guesthouse at the time. He always wore a gray hat to cover his face and spoke with a heavy southern accent. He only gave me a code name."

Gu Zheng leaned forward slightly, like a cheetah about to pounce on its prey.

"What's the code name?"

"Sand Sparrow".

The moment those two words were uttered, the already cramped interrogation room suddenly became extremely heavy.

Ma Chenggui's psychological defenses completely collapsed, and he began to confess everything in a rambling manner.

Two days before the sandstorm arrived, he received a smuggled imported radio. Inside the back cover of the radio was a thin piece of paper with a detailed wiring diagram of a directional detonation device.

On the night the sandstorm raged, he secretly hid the device in the explosion-proof light box of the No. 3 passage under the pretext of inspecting the lighting.

When Engineer Liang reached that critical location, he coldly switched on the switch at the backup circuit maintenance port in the distance.

The explosion wasn't intended to collapse the experimental area at all; from beginning to end, the target was only Engineer Liang's heart.

Gu Zheng held the pen and recorded all the statements on the form without any expression.

"You were the one who pressed down the drainage tube in the ward, weren't you?"

Ma Chenggui suddenly raised his head, his face showing a desperate and reckless expression.

"If he doesn't die, I won't live."

Gu Zheng closed the folder containing the interrogation records, stood up coldly, and looked down at the traitor.

"From the moment you pressed the switch for your own selfish desires, you were no longer a clean person."

Without giving him any further chance to argue, Gu Zheng turned and walked towards the door.

"Xiao Wang, take him away and transfer him to the military court for strict trial overnight."

As the iron gate slammed shut, the sandstorm outside continued to rage, but the deadly tumor hidden inside the base had been completely removed.