Courtyard Houses: Longevity Since the War of Resistance

The next day, Gongqiao woke up in a VIP ward, his neck still aching. He sat up abruptly, the movement triggering a soft alarm on the connected monitoring equipment.

The staff member standing by immediately peeked out and, seeing that he was awake, breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly went to call the doctor.

The doctor arrived quickly, performed a simple examination, and confirmed that he only had some neck muscle contusions and a rapid heart rate caused by emotional excitement, and was otherwise fine.

"I want to be discharged." Gongqiao threw back the blanket, his tone leaving no room for argument.

"Chief Gong, you've just woken up and need to be observed..." the staff tried to dissuade him.

"I told you, I'm being discharged!" Gongqiao's voice was filled with anxiety and lingering fear.

Just then, the ward door was pushed open, and two middle-aged men in plainclothes, but with a capable demeanor, walked in. The one in the lead flashed an identification: "Comrade Gongqiao, we are from the Ministry of Security. Regarding the security incident that occurred at your residence last night, we need to get the details from you."

Gongqiao looked at them, his eyes flashing with a complex emotion for a moment, before regaining his usual composure. He waved his hand and said, "I have urgent business to attend to right now."

The security personnel could only take a brief statement. After that, Gongqiao ignored the doctor's advice, changed into his own clothes, and left the hospital. Instead of returning to his residence, he had his driver take him directly to a secret contact point.

There, he met three other people: Hong Li, Zhao Zhi, and the only female member, Hai Lan.

"Are you alright? I heard you were in trouble last night..." Hong Li spoke first, his gaze fixed on Gong Qiao's slightly pale face.

Gongqiao took a deep breath and interrupted him, his voice low and serious: "I saw the ghost last night."

One sentence made the air in the room freeze instantly.

"What?!" Hong Li exclaimed, Zhao Zhi looked up abruptly, and even Hai Lan, who had seemed calm all along, clenched her fingers.

Bowbridge recounted his experiences from the previous night in detail, from the appearance of the masked man to the silent elimination of all the guards, and then to the warning.

"He finally said, 'Give us one day to stop everything and step down voluntarily. This is our last chance.'" After Gongqiao finished speaking, the room fell into a deathly silence.

Hong Li licked his dry lips, forcing a calm smile, but his eyes darted around: "Are you sure this isn't some kind of ghost story? Ghostly exorcism? Li Feng is definitely dead. So many people confirmed it back then. How could this be?"

Zhao Zhi remained silent, but his tightly pursed lips and the slightly bulging veins on his forehead showed that he was far from calm.

Hai Lan didn't respond to Hong Li's words. She raised her eyes, her gaze sweeping over the other three. Her voice carried an unusual calmness, even a hint of unease: "If... if the Ghost Suppressor really exists, then it will only be in the hands of that man. Li Feng trusts him the most. You all know that if I hadn't confirmed Li Feng's death, I wouldn't have gotten involved at all."

She swallowed hard, making up her mind. "Now, I'm backing out. I believe in exorcism. Li Feng is too terrifying; I can't let my child get into that kind of trouble."

She stood up, picked up her handbag from the side, and said resolutely, "I'm going home to take care of the kids. What about you?"

After saying that, he turned and left the room without looking at the complicated expressions on the other three people's faces.

The remaining three looked at each other, the air thick with frustration, resentment, and panic caused by Hailan's decisive departure.

"That cowardly woman!" Hong Li cursed under his breath, trying to mask his unease with anger.

"What do we do now?" Gongqiao looked at the remaining two. Although he was still a little scared, no one would easily give up their years of ambition and the power that was about to be obtained.

Zhao Zhi finally spoke, his voice hoarse: "Let's go find General Mu Hu, he must have a way." This was the only lifeline they could think of at the moment, so the three of them set off immediately without hesitation.

However, when they were informed and led into that familiar study, they were met with a scene that nearly froze their blood.

The masked man was sitting comfortably on the sofa on one side of the study, while General Muhu, whom they regarded as their greatest reliance, sat solemnly in the main seat. The two were separated by a coffee table, and the atmosphere was so eerie that it was suffocating.

The masked man's gaze swept through the three people frozen in the doorway, his voice laced with undisguised mockery: "Oh ho, all the supporting characters are here. Looks like you didn't listen to a word I said last night, still not giving up."

He casually raised his hand, "Then don't stand, sit down, it's a good opportunity for General Mu Hu to hear it too."

The three of them moved mechanically to the chairs next to them like puppets, not daring to breathe.

The masked man turned his gaze back to Mu Hu, who sat at the head of the table. His tone became calm, yet carried a condescending scrutiny: "General Mu Hu, our captain once praised you, saying you were an expert in warfare, adept at charging into battle and conquering territories. But he also said you weren't good at politics. He advised you to stay in the army, lead and train your troops well, because there will be many tough battles in the future, both around the country and in the world, that will require generals like you."

He leaned forward slightly, an invisible pressure looming over him: "But judging from the actions you're taking now, it seems you didn't heed our captain's advice back then."

General Muhu's face was so gloomy it could drip water. He had been in a high position for a long time, and had never been taught such a lesson before.

His eagle-like eyes were fixed on the mask, trying to pierce through the barrier: "Kid, you're talking to me while hiding behind this thing, are you afraid I'll recognize you?"

Faced with this obvious provocation, the masked man seemed to chuckle lightly, and without any hesitation, he raised his hand, decisively removed the mask from his face, and casually tossed it onto the sofa.

Beneath the mask was a completely unfamiliar young face.

General Muhu's gaze swept back and forth across the face like a searchlight. His brain worked at lightning speed, filtering through all the influential figures he knew who might be connected to the demon-suppressing spirit, but he couldn't find any information that matched the person in front of him.

"What?" Li Feng tilted his head, his tone slightly mocking. "General Mu Hu, would you like to touch it yourself and see if it's a genuine leather mask?"

General Mu Hu snorted coldly, forcibly suppressing his surprise and doubt: "There's no need. The fact that you dare to show your face in front of me means you have enough confidence that you're not afraid of me recognizing you, or that you're confident I can't do anything to you." His eyes became even more profound.

"You people who suppress ghosts have always been so arrogant. Where exactly are you hiding? My intelligence department has searched almost every corner, but we can't find a single trace of you."

"General Muhu, please stop with these empty formalities and stalling tactics." He pointed to the doorway. "Those groups you arranged next door, in the corridor, and at the back of the courtyard won't be coming today."

"Impossible!" Gongqiao blurted out instinctively, his voice trembling with tension. "We were clearly let in normally just now!"

Li Feng didn't even bother to look at him, and simply said to Mu Hu, "Why don't you go out and take a look now?"

Gongqiao looked at Muhu, and after receiving a signal from the latter, he immediately got up, walked quickly to the door of the study, and carefully opened a crack in the door to look outside.

He only glanced at it, but he froze on the spot as if struck by lightning, his face turning as pale as paper.

What he saw were guards lying haphazardly on the ground, silent and still, as if asleep, just like the scene at his own mansion the night before!

His legs went weak as he retreated back to the study, closed the door, leaned against it, and gasped for breath. He nodded with difficulty to Mu Hu.

General Mu Hu's heart sank. He instantly understood. The opponent wasn't blindly confident; their ability to clean up so quickly was truly remarkable. The reputation of the Ghost Suppressor was well-deserved.

"Are the other ghosts not coming in?"

Li Feng put his mask back on. "Forget about them. I'm a fairly easy-going person. But if we let those brutes in, what do you think would happen to the three of us sitting here?"

The eyes behind the holes in the mask swept over the trembling Gongqiao, Hongli, and Zhaozhi, "Are they still alive?"

These words were like ice picks, piercing the hearts of the three men from Gongqiao.

They believe it!

They had no doubt!

Resisting R, civil war, resisting M, self-defense counterattack against YN, self-defense counterattack against YD.

The demon-suppressing army has never been defeated.

There is no task that cannot be completed.