Courtyard House: Initial Donation of 50 Million

November 1958, Beijing Special Service Bureau.

The relentless, all-night blitz had left the entire headquarters building visibly exhausted. With the support of the Imperial Cavalry's secret files, Li Keqin led his team to sweep through the domestic spy network, capturing dozens of veteran enemy agents who had been deeply entrenched for years. The upstream and downstream chains collapsed one after another, and a series of long-standing cases and hidden conspiracies were solved.

Just as the large-scale arrests and interrogations came to a temporary end, and Li Keqin was finally able to catch his breath and prepare to sort out the remaining classified files and organize the results of the operation, an emergency transfer order from the General Office of the Central Committee was sent directly to the General Administration.

A major emergency case file, compiled and archived by the Central Security Bureau and signed and reported at each level, was delivered directly to Li Keqin's desk.

The case file title is striking and somber—A special review of the assassination and treason attack at the wedding banquet in Courtyard No. 95.

This is precisely the major incident that occurred during the wedding banquet of Sha Zhu and Yu Li, when enemy agents launched a surprise attack.

Previously, the nationwide purge of espionage networks was a higher priority, and this case was temporarily shelved. Now that the overall situation has stabilized, this vicious assassination case, which nearly severely damaged the foundation of China's industry, has been brought up again by the central government and handed over to Li Keqin for a thorough investigation.

The case file opens with a clear recap of the enemy's entire assassination plan that day, revealing their malicious intentions.

This group of elite agents who infiltrated from abroad had a very clear target: Wang Huanbo, the chief engineer of Red Star United Industrial Corporation.

The enemy agents devised a double-pronged plan to eliminate Wang Huanbo. The first plan was coercion and kidnapping: to seize Wang Huanbo's wife, Lou Xiao'e. At the time, Lou Xiao'e was pregnant, which was Wang Huanbo's greatest weakness. The enemy agents intended to use the lives of the mother and child as leverage to force Wang Huanbo to compromise and hand over China's latest and most advanced industrial technology data, including three-axis CNC machine tools, arc reactors, microcomputers, and complete sets of vehicle manufacturing equipment, thereby coercing him to betray his country.

If the kidnapping plan fails, the second kill plan will be activated immediately: assassinate Wang Huanbo on the spot.

The core strategic objective of the enemy agents was to eliminate this key pillar supporting the rise of China's industry and electronic technology, thereby disrupting the pace of domestic industrialization and informatization, halting countless scientific research breakthroughs and industrial innovations, and returning China to a backward and passive situation.

At the wedding banquet that day, the situation was on the verge of collapse. Dozens of armed agents raided the courtyard house. With clear division of labor and well-trained, they quickly broke through the outer perimeter and rushed straight to the core area of ​​the wedding banquet in the central courtyard. They locked onto Lou Xiao'e and pressed forward step by step, ready to forcibly abduct her in an instant.

The guards and security personnel on site rushed forward to intercept them. The alleyway was narrow and the distance between the enemy and our side was extremely close, and the situation quickly spiraled out of control.

Just when everyone thought Lou Xiao'e was bound to be kidnapped and the tragedy was irreversible, Wang Huanbo, who had been quietly following the guards to avoid the ambush, suddenly erupted.

No one expected that this top chief engineer, who spent years buried in scientific research and was known for his gentle and refined demeanor, actually possessed terrifying combat power.

Amidst the astonished gazes of everyone present, Wang Huanbo flashed forward, unleashing astonishing speed and ruthless skill far exceeding the limits of ordinary people. His movements were crisp and clean, each strike deadly, without the slightest hesitation. Within a few breaths, several elite agents who had approached Lou Xiao'e were instantly killed, extinguishing all kidnapping threats on the spot.

The remaining enemy agents who broke into the courtyard at No. 95 and put up a stubborn resistance were subsequently wiped out by the combined efforts of soldiers from the Central Security Bureau and officers from the Security Department of the Red Star United Industrial Corporation. The entire subversive assassination and kidnapping operation was ultimately declared a complete failure.

Although this battle successfully defended Wang Huanbo and preserved the future foundation of China's industry, it still came at an extremely heavy price.

Police officers, bodyguards, and factory security personnel on duty suffered heavy casualties, their blood staining the courtyard. Many factory colleagues and neighbors from the No. 95 courtyard who came to attend the wedding banquet were also injured or killed in the chaos.

The most heartbreaking story is that of Sha Zhu's father, He Daqing. In a critical moment, in order to protect the panicked He Yushui, he sacrificed himself to shield her, but was unfortunately hit in the back by a stray bullet, suffering serious injuries and nearly dying on the spot.

A joyous wedding banquet turned into a bloody battlefield, leaving neighbors grieving and hearts shaken.

Such a vicious, precise, and targeted assassination attempt, aimed directly at the nation's core technological lifeline, thoroughly enraged the top leaders in the central government and even alarmed the instructors.

The central government has characterized this case as a highly deliberate and targeted national-level subversion operation by foreign forces, rather than a sporadic act of sabotage by enemy agents.

The instructor personally appointed Li Keqin, the king of Chinese special agents, to take full charge of the case. He was given unlimited manpower and resources to thoroughly investigate and trace the source of the problem, and to eradicate all the hidden enemy agents in the country who were involved in the planning, information sharing, and coordination, and to eliminate any future troubles!

Li Keqin sat upright at his desk, his fingertips gently stroking the surface of the case file, his expression growing increasingly solemn.

The latter half of the case file includes a special observation report from the Central Security Bureau, which is also the most bizarre and inexplicable point of contention in the entire case.

The report meticulously recorded every detail of Wang Huanbo's battle that day: from the stride frequency from initiation to close combat, the angle of his punches, the trajectory of his strikes, the accuracy of his kills, even his breathing rhythm and fluctuations in mental state throughout the fight—all were clearly marked. Li Keqin had spent half his life in intelligence work, had seen the army's top special forces soldiers, and had interrogated elite agents from the CIA and the Special Higher Police. Yet, he asked himself honestly, even the best fighters he had ever seen might not have been able to kill four armed elites in a few breaths in a narrow alley, protecting a pregnant woman behind them, without sustaining a single injury.

That wasn't the level of someone who had practiced martial arts for a few years; it was the instinct to kill ingrained in one's bones and blood, honed through more than a decade of life-and-death battles.

This report caused Li Keqin, a seasoned spy with extensive experience in dealing with people, to feel a deep sense of doubt and apprehension for the first time.

He immediately got up and personally went to the confidential room to retrieve Wang Huanbo's complete set of top-secret personnel files, resume, and background information. He returned to his office and checked them word by word, not even letting go of the notes on the edges of the files, trying to find any clues.

The more he looked, the deeper his doubts and the stronger his sense of contradiction became.

Wang Huanbo's resume is impeccable, making him a pillar of the nation recognized nationwide and personally praised by his teachers.

Born into a patriotic overseas Chinese family, his father, Wang Jinshan, has been rooted in the United States for decades. He is a long-established patriotic overseas Chinese who is devoted to his homeland and dedicated to serving his country, and is by no means a henchman of foreign forces. The Wang family has deep roots in North America, owning tens of thousands of acres of farms, a complete agricultural and livestock industry chain, supermarkets and security industries. With abundant financial resources and a solid foundation, they are a major landowner and capitalist with great influence in the United States.

Furthermore, the Wang family wields significant influence within overseas Chinese communities and the Hongmen (Triad) system. Wang Huanbo's paternal aunt, Wang Jinshui, married Situ Nianhua, the nephew of Hongmen tycoon Situ Meitang. This powerful marriage forged a deep bond between the Wang family and the North American Hongmen, ensuring their shared destiny. For many years, the Wang family, in conjunction with the Hongmen, has repeatedly broken through external blockades, sparing no expense to supply China with massive quantities of urgently needed industrial, medical, and strategic materials, providing vital support to the nation for many years—a truly meritorious service.

Today, the various automobiles and machinery products mass-produced by the Red Star United Industrial Corporation are all sold through the vast sales channels of the Wang family and the Hongmen in Southeast Asia, earning the country a huge amount of valuable foreign exchange. It was one of the most core sources of foreign exchange in the early stages of China's industrialization, and its contribution is irreplaceable.

Wang Huanbo himself was the ultimate example of serving one's country.

A top graduate of MIT, a leading engineer, holding a high-paying overseas position and a senior management role in his family business, enjoying a life of luxury and privilege in the United States, he resolutely gave it all up and returned to China alone. Upon his return, he brought with him a staggering $50 million in foreign exchange reserves, leaving not a single penny behind and handing it all over to the nation.

After returning to China, he started from scratch and worked day and night to tackle numerous disruptive technologies, single-handedly shouldering the responsibility of leading the rise of China's industry and electronic technology.

Three-axis precision CNC machine tools, Hongxing brand civilian cars, Hongxing Jiefang heavy trucks, Hongqi high-end sedans, Hongxing Mengshi off-road jeeps, three popular civilian motorcycles, China's first microcomputer, Fangzhou micro reactor, Hongxing Xiaogangpao multi-functional small tractor... Each and every one of these is a core technology that fills domestic gaps and catches up with or even surpasses international levels, thus advancing China's industrialization process by several years, or even more than a decade.

Whether from the perspective of family background, personal experience, patriotic actions, scientific research achievements, or national contributions, Wang Huanbo is a flawless, patriotic, and top-notch talent, a core pillar that the country focuses on protecting and cultivating.

Li Keqin even went so far as to review the entire timeline of his studies in the United States and his return to China. Every point in time had witnesses, records, and corresponding trajectories, all of which were seamlessly connected. There was no gap in the timeline that could have been used to receive systematic special operations training.

The records in the archives contain very few entries that are related to "force".

Note: He lived in a courtyard house in Beijing during his youth and studied under a folk wrestling master with his childhood friend He Yuzhu, learning basic folk wrestling techniques. He has no record of any formal special operations training, intelligence training, or military training.

That's it.

Hacken Lee put down the file, leaned back in his chair, and tapped the table unconsciously with his fingertips, his mind racing with countless thoughts, going over and over again.

The first guess that popped up was that Wang Huanbo was a top secret agent secretly trained by the CIA and returned to China.

But as soon as the idea popped into his head, he rejected it point by point.

For money? He himself is one of the heirs of the Wang family, with a net worth of hundreds of millions. He even handed over 50 million US dollars upon returning to China. There are no spies in the world who would pay to infiltrate the country.

Seeking power? He is now the chief engineer of Red Star United Industrial Corporation, holding core industrial resources of the entire country. His status is far beyond that of an ordinary special agent, so there is no need for him to take this path.

Stealing technology? Even more absurd—the three-axis machine tool, the arc reactor, and the microcomputer he developed are all more advanced than current US technologies. Why would he need to infiltrate back to "steal" his own stuff?

Moreover, judging from the classified documents, this assassination and kidnapping operation by foreign enemy agents was itself a subversive plan orchestrated by the United States and other foreign forces. If they were on the same side, they would never have used assassins to carry out such a deadly attack, let alone spare his pregnant wife.

All the logical chains pointing to "foreign agents" are contradictory and completely untenable.

But if he wasn't a secret agent, where did he get these skills from?

Folk wrestling? Absolutely not. Li Keqin has seen too many folk martial arts masters. They may be good for physical fitness, but when it comes to facing armed elite agents, they would never have such clean and efficient instant-killing techniques, let alone the calm and decisive battlefield mentality.

He even had a ridiculous thought: Could the "Decade Knight" that was delivered to the room full of secret files some time ago have some connection with this unassuming Chief Engineer Wang?

But the next second he shook his head, feeling that he had been staying up too long and was being overly sensitive.

Wang Huanbo's status is too upright and his weight too heavy. He is a pillar of the nation, praised by his teachers. To doubt him with such unfounded speculation is not only irresponsible, but also a desecration of a national hero.

But his professional instincts kept reminding him: something was definitely amiss. A person who is so perfect that there are no flaws is the biggest flaw in themselves.

The suspicious points remain numerous and cannot be dispelled.

How could a chief engineer who has been deeply engaged in scientific research for many years and who is physically weak, and an ordinary person with only childhood wrestling experience, possess top-notch combat power that is enough to crush elite agents?

He is usually gentle, calm, low-key and reserved, never showing off, but in times of crisis he can instantly kill powerful enemies and kill with unparalleled skill.

An overly perfect resume, an overly extraordinary talent, and an overly hidden strength.

It was so perfect that it inspired a sense of awe and a sense of unfathomable mystery.

Hacken Lee closed the thick stack of files, pressed his fingertips lightly against his brow, and looked on with a deep sense of doubt.

He couldn't find any problems or find any flaws, but his espionage intuition honed over half a lifetime told him that Wang Huanbo was definitely not as simple as he appeared.

A pillar of the nation whose achievements were unparalleled and who was praised throughout the country possessed unfathomable skills and whose origins remained a mystery.

Beneath this major assassination attempt against him, there seems to be a hidden mystery shrouded in mist.