The Rise of a Special Forces Soldier Abandoned by a Wealthy Family

Ye Feng walked to a corner of the factory, away from the crowd, took out an encrypted communicator, and dialed Zeng Long's number.

The call was answered quickly.

"Boss," Ye Feng's voice came through the radio waves, still steady, but with a hint of barely perceptible seriousness, "the other party has a deadly poison in their mouth."

"He committed suicide."

Study room in the villa.

Zeng Long stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, the cigarette between his fingers burned to the end, a long ash about to fall.

The night view of Beijing outside the window was as dazzling as a galaxy, but his gaze was unfocused, staring through the glass into the endless darkness.

Hearing Ye Feng's report, he remained silent for two seconds.

Then, he let out a soft sigh.

The sigh was soft, yet it seemed to carry the weight of a thousand pounds.

"understood."

After hanging up the phone, Zeng Long remained standing in the same spot.

The ash finally broke off and landed on the clean windowsill. He stubbed it out in the crystal ashtray, his movements slow and steady.

In his mind, Wu Jun's file information flipped through page after page:

The eldest grandson of the Wu family. One of the three young masters of the capital.

He retired at the height of his career at the age of 26.

Controlling a global listed company yet having no overseas travel experience. A top-tier club serving foreign dignitaries and royalty.

Having such fearless and well-trained former soldiers under his command...

He is deep in thought and cunning in his schemes.

He has a distinguished status and access to all kinds of resources.

His subordinates were elite soldiers and madmen willing to die for their cause.

How many unseen tentacles are behind this? How many intangible forces are there?

Zeng Long felt a rare... solemnity.

It's not fear. Those who have crawled out of hell have long forgotten what fear is.

It's a concern.

He is no longer the lone "Zero".

He has family members he needs to protect: Xiaoyu, Zeng Yuan, Zeng Ke, and the Zeng family he has never acknowledged.

He has brothers who would share life and death with him: Ye Feng, Tie Zhu, Xiao Ya, Fang Rong, Tang Long... as well as those madmen from overseas.

He has the Longyu Group, which has just set sail and carries the expectations of countless people.

He has a newly established bond of interests and emotions centered around him.

If he were still the "Zero" who struck fear into the hearts of the underworld, then no matter how mysterious or powerful Wu Jun was, he would still be nothing more than a game of chess that required some effort to unravel.

He can stop at nothing; he can infiltrate, assassinate, and use all available foreign resources to launch attacks at any cost.

But not now.

This is the Dragon Kingdom, this is the capital city.

Everything must be within the rules, or at least the surface rules.

The Imperial Court will not allow two top powers to start a bloody battle to the death without solid evidence.

That would destabilize the situation and trigger countless uncontrollable chain reactions.

evidence.

He needs evidence.

The evidence can be put on the table and judged by the rules themselves.

However, he still doesn't know what Wu Jun is targeting. Even if he finds evidence, what can he do? What can it prove? Does it only prove that he was being monitored? That's equally futile and harmless in the face of the law.

Three former soldiers, choosing to commit suicide by biting into poison sacs rather than utter a single word… this in itself demonstrates the terrifying power and intimidation employed by Wu Jun. These three were likely merely pawns that Wu Jun could discard at any time, the outermost pawns in a vast shadow.

"Wu Jun..." Zeng Long murmured the name, his eyes deep and unfathomable.

He was unaware that Wu Jun was intricately connected, and perhaps even directly related, to the darkest turning point in his life—the conspiracy that led to his being switched and enduring countless hardships.

If he knew...

If he knew that all those years of suffering, the separation from his family, and his hellish childhood and adolescence might all be related to this man named Wu Jun, or the forces behind him...

So, will "evidence" still be important?

Will rules still be a constraint?

Once that bottom line is crossed, Zeng Long will not hesitate to... return to "Zero".

In the world of "Zero," there is no trial, no evidence, only the most primal and naked—revenge and destruction.

The laws of the dark world are simple and cruel: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

At this moment, Zeng Long still believed that his relationship with Wu Jun was merely an escalation of previous conflicts and grudges, a contest of interests and power, a battle between a powerful outsider and a local bully, and a clash between the business world and the shadows.

The matter has not yet been touched upon... a blood feud.

He snapped out of his thoughts, picked up the phone again, and gave Ye Feng further instructions:

"Bring their communication devices and all their personal belongings back as soon as possible. Have Xiaoya do her best to crack the code and see if she can find any clues."

"clear."

Just as Ye Feng and Xiao Ya were leaving by car with the collected items, and the security personnel had completed the initial cleanup of the site and were preparing to evacuate—

Outside the abandoned factory, hundreds of meters away, in the shadow of a dense forest.

A figure had appeared there without anyone noticing.

He was dressed in a dark gray tracksuit that blended into the night, with a hood up, his face hidden in the shadows. Only his eyes, coldly peering through the gaps in the trees, gazed at the faint beams of flashlights and the headlights of cars gradually driving away in the direction of the factory.

His breathing was so steady it was almost silent; he was like a lifeless rock.

He only moved slowly after all the vehicles had disappeared at the end of the road and the factory had returned to deathly silence and darkness.

He raised his left hand, and on his wrist, a seemingly ordinary sports watch dial displayed a preview of a newly received, multi-layered encrypted message. The message came from a number that could never be answered again.

At the end of the preview are five words:

[Found, now evacuated]

The mysterious figure in the darkness also quickly sent out a message.

Meanwhile, Wu Jun sat in his office chair, looking at the information on his phone, a cold and amused smile playing on his lips.

"Zeng Long..." The deep voice was almost inaudible, as if he were talking to himself, or as if he were talking to the deathly silence of the office, "You use the sky as your chessboard, and your moves startle the wind and rain."

"I use the land as my chessboard, and the capital city... is my chessboard."

"No matter how much you, this dragon crossing the river, stir up trouble, no matter how many hidden traps you lay..."

"It will always fall on my chessboard."

"And on the chessboard..."

"I am the one who plays the game."

He stood up, opened the tightly closed curtains, looked into the darkness that was even deeper than the office, and then dialed a number...

The darkness remained unchanged, the night wind still howled, as if nothing had happened.

But the seeds of hatred have already been sown, the web of schemes is silently spreading, and pieces are being placed in the shadows.

Two men standing in different shadows, their confrontation has moved from probing to a deeper, darker, and more dangerous... the eve of a battle.

The chessboard is ready.

All that remains is for the player to make their move.