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

The guests had all left, and the noise had subsided.

Inside the hall, only Grandpa Zeng Rong, Zeng Sheng, Zeng Yong, and the real protagonist of the night—Zeng Linglong—remained.

Zeng Linglong's gaze slowly swept across the faces of his loved ones, finally landing on his grandfather Zeng Xu's face.

His eyes were calm as a deep pool, yet contained a tenacity strong enough to melt steel.

"Grandpa," he began, his voice carrying an undeniable, penetrating force, "now, there are no outsiders. Please... tell me everything—"

"Every detail of what happened from the time I was born until I was switched at birth."

"And every single clue you've uncovered over the years, no matter how small or insignificant."

His gaze was sharp as a knife:

"I need to know everything. Every step, every person I've contacted, the direction and results of every investigation, even failed attempts or contradictory points of doubt."

"Only by mastering all the fragments can I try to piece together the outline of the black hand behind it all."

Upon hearing his grandson's question, Grandpa Zeng's already turbulent emotions were suddenly overwhelmed by even more intense anger and pain!

This old general, who was tough all his life and remained calm even when Mount Tai collapsed in front of him, suddenly had bloodshot eyes and veins on his forehead bulging like dragons!

"Bang--!!!"

A deafening explosion suddenly erupted!

The old man slammed his right palm hard onto the solid mahogany tea table beside him! The teacups on the table jumped up, splashing tea everywhere!

"Beasts! A bunch of beasts who deserve to be torn to pieces!!!"

The old man suddenly stood up, his chest heaving violently, his voice hoarse and trembling with extreme anger.

His eyes were bloodshot as he stared intently at a point in the void, as if he wanted to travel through time and drag out those enemies hidden in the shadows to devour them alive!

He described in detail the situation at the hospital at the time, the list of staff on duty, and the medical personnel he actually came into contact with.

In order to cover up the truth, he used the excuse of being physically weak and needing to be isolated, and in the end, he managed to deceive the entire Zeng family.

Further investigation revealed that the surveillance cameras happened to be in that area, and the power supply 'coincidentally' malfunctioned!

The old man's cold laugh sent chills down one's spine.

"All the 'coincidences' have come together! It's flawless! If this wasn't premeditated and meticulously planned, I'll change my name!"

He recounted how the Zeng family was furious after the incident and mobilized all their resources to thoroughly investigate the entire hospital.

How to conduct a comprehensive investigation and control of all possible medical staff, cleaners, and even visitors at that time.

The old man's voice suddenly became even angrier, even carrying a hint of indescribable frustration and coldness:

"But... before we could dig deeper into these clues..."

"Those people! All the dozen or so people initially listed as prime suspects, those directly or indirectly connected to the incident..."

"Right under our noses, in the capital, under the Zeng family's all-out investigation..."

The old man abruptly closed his eyes, then violently opened them again, his eyes filled with raging anger and a hint of lingering fear.

"They...they've all vanished into thin air!"

"Like water vapor! Vanished without a trace! No exit record, no long-distance travel history, no unusual contact with any known relatives, nothing at all!"

"It's as if they had never existed in this world!"

As Zeng Linglong listened to his grandfather's story, the calm on his face vanished.

His fingers began to tighten unconsciously, his knuckles forming a trembling iron fist that contained destructive power!

The veins on the back of his hand were clearly visible, as if suppressing a volcano about to erupt.

Deep within his eyes, ice and fire intertwined, frantically digesting and analyzing every fragment of information.

When he heard that all the key suspects had vanished as if they had evaporated, his clenched fist suddenly loosened, then quickly clenched again, repeating this several times, before finally his palm snapped open, his five fingers like hooks!

He raised his head and looked at Zeng Rong:

"So, to this day, not a single person in the hospital directly connected to my being switched has been found? They just... completely and mysteriously disappeared?"

"Yes!" This time, it was the father, Zeng Sheng, who took over the conversation. His voice was equally heavy, filled with weariness and resentment.

"Xiaolong," Zeng Sheng walked up to his son, his eyes filled with pain and seriousness:

"After the incident, your uncle, your uncle Li, and I mobilized all the resources we could at the time—"

"The military, the intelligence system, and even some gray-area forces conducted a years-long, carpet-bombing secret investigation."

He shook his head, his voice filled with helplessness:

No. Not a single trace.

"Just like your grandfather said, he vanished into thin air. Your Uncle Li searched through almost every possible exit record, smuggling route, and even information on black market population movement, but found nothing."

Zeng Sheng frowned:

"Later, we changed our approach and conducted comprehensive monitoring and investigation of the immediate family members, close friends, and colleagues of these missing persons for about two years."

"We're monitoring communications, analyzing finances, and observing their movements... hoping to find some clues about their clandestine connections."

He took a deep breath, exhaling an even deeper disappointment:

"The result... was still zero. These people seemed to have been completely wiped out from their social networks."

Zeng Sheng clenched his fists as well:

"Our final conclusion is that there are only two possibilities."

"First, before we discovered it, they had already been silenced in batches by the mastermind behind the scenes, and the bodies were disposed of so thoroughly that even with the help of the state, we couldn't find them."

"Secondly, they were imprisoned in batches or collectively in some absolutely secluded and isolated place, and to this day... they may still be alive, but they are even harder to find than if they were dead."

At this moment, Old Master Zeng sighed heavily, picked up the conversation, and his voice carried even deeper doubts:

"Initially, I suspected that hostile foreign forces, in collusion with certain forces within the capital that had a grudge against our Zeng family, jointly planned this insidious operation targeting the Zeng family bloodline."

"However, Wei Guo carefully examined all suspicious entry and exit records from the two weeks before and after the incident, including those of diplomats, business people, and even suspected smugglers... but still found no clues that could be directly linked to them."

The old man's eyes became complicated:

"Before we found your exact whereabouts, your father and I even thought... you might have already...."

Zeng Rong's voice choked, and he didn't finish his sentence, but the sudden dimming in his eyes and Zeng Sheng's clenched fist said it all—

They had assumed that Zeng Linglong had already been murdered.

Zeng Sheng composed himself and continued his analysis, his tone tinged with confusion:

"So, if it wasn't a bloody retaliation by hostile foreign forces, what was the motive?"

If the other party's target is the Zeng family, or even me personally—

It doesn't make logical sense that they would go to such lengths to switch a baby instead of taking more direct and effective measures.

What's even more paradoxical is that if they hate us so much that they'd harm a newborn baby...

So, how could they possibly have any good intentions and let you live after you were switched out?

"This is completely contrary to the common sense of retaliatory behavior; it's more like... an inexplicable logical deadlock."

A somber silence fell over the hall.

Three generations of the Zeng family felt a deep sense of powerlessness and anger over this event, which was full of contradictions and mysteries.

However, none of the Zeng family members, including Zeng Linglong, whose brows were furrowed and whose mind was racing, could have imagined—

The truth is far darker, more accidental, and more... full of the irony of fate than their common-sense speculations suggest.

The mysterious force that carried out the switch mission did indeed receive the original instructions to have this newborn descendant of the Zeng family—

Zeng Linglong has completely "disappeared" from this world. He has eliminated all future threats, leaving no trace.

The operation went smoothly, and the baby was successfully taken away from the hospital.

However, something went wrong in the final processing stage.

The person specifically responsible for "handling" the matter:

I wanted to leave as soon as possible, and I wanted to do some good deeds so I wouldn't kill the newborn baby with my own hands!

They casually tossed Zeng Linglong into a garbage dump, letting him perish on his own.

So, in the cold, late night, he wrapped Zeng Linglong in swaddling clothes—

They were carelessly thrown into that remote, stinking, and filthy large garbage dump, just like discarding trash.

In such an environment, a newborn baby, without food or warmth, exposed to extreme cold and danger... has a zero chance of survival.

From the perspective of the executioner, this was no different from him killing himself, and even "cleaner"—it was "natural death" and "accident".

He left in a hurry, thinking he had completed a "relatively less bloody" mission.

but……

It seems that fate had already reserved a completely different stroke for this child on the long scroll of destiny.

Just as that baby's faint cry was about to be swallowed by the cold wind and deathly silence—

A tall figure, exuding an aura of gunpowder and wildness, appeared like a ghost at the edge of the junkyard.

He didn't come here on purpose; he was just passing through on a mission when he was drawn by a faint trace of life that didn't belong to this place.

He walked over, brushed aside the dirty waste, and saw the tiny life in the swaddling clothes, its face bluish-purple, its breathing weak, yet still stubbornly clinging to life.

This figure is Baroque—one of the founders of the Hellfire Mercenary Group, which is renowned throughout the underworld.

At that moment, Baroque was also filled with astonishment. In a place like this, what were the odds of a living baby appearing?

Later, the child he took in had no name, only a code name. The code name Baroque gave him—

(Zero.)

It signifies a child who was discovered and survived in a situation where the chance of survival was zero.

This code name accompanied Zeng Linglong throughout his dark childhood and adolescence, until he became the renowned "Zero," became Zeng Long, and finally... returned to being Zeng Linglong.

The dusty knife marks still bleed, but Zero's origins began with a cold "mercy" and a chance "passing by".

The seeds of hatred are buried deep, and the first key needed to unlock them may lie hidden in the starting point where extreme contradictions and coincidences intertwine.