51: Chapter 51 Liu Yuyan: I'm sorry, I was actually just a messenger.

Sun Bonian had just hung up with the CFO. Before he could even process the shock of the EU raid and the stock price plummet, a second call exploded in.

The voice of the group's legal director came from the receiver, carrying a distinct tremor.

"Mr. Sun, the International Medical Ethics Committee and Doctors Without Borders have just issued a joint statement! They are publicly condemning Sun Medical for allegedly illegally detaining Nobel laureate Professor Henry Bernstein! They are demanding that we release him immediately and submit to an independent investigation!"

"BBC, CNN, and Reuters have all picked up the story simultaneously; it's spreading across the entire internet!"

Sun Bonian's ears buzzed.

He had handled the detention of Henry with extreme secrecy.

He had changed the estate's security three times and routed all communications through encrypted lines; even the servants only knew that there was an honored guest staying over.

Fewer than five people knew about this, and each one was a trusted confidant who had been with him for twenty years.

Now, the whole world knew.

Who had this kind of capability?

Sun Bonian's brain raced, his fingers gripping the phone with the cracked screen so tightly that his knuckles protruded.

EU antitrust, Southeast Asian drug access, Wall Street short-selling, international organization condemnation. Four fronts, four continents, all detonated simultaneously.

This was not something a single competitor could achieve.

This was a global web, quietly woven without him ever noticing, and then tightened in the very same second.

The phone vibrated a third time.

The screen displayed three words: Liu Yuyan.

Sun Bonian stared at the name for three seconds, the veins on his forehead throbbing twice.

He answered.

"Head of the Sun Family, long time no see."

Liu Yuyan's voice was cold, steady, and polite to the bone, with a blade hidden beneath every word.

"I heard that you invited Professor Henry Bernstein to stay as a guest. As it happens, Professor Henry has some history with my Liu Family. Back when my grandfather was critically ill, the professor traveled thousands of miles from Zurich to Jingzhou to treat him, and we have always remembered that kindness. I wonder if it would be convenient for you, Head of the Sun Family, to let us invite Professor Henry over to catch up?"

Sun Bonian clenched his molars, pulling his mouth into a curve, but he pulled too hard, causing his muscles to twitch.

"Ms. Liu, you have excellent methods. This was a beautiful play."

He spat out the word "beautiful" as if chewing it to pieces. "I just wonder, who exactly leaked this information about my Sun Family?"

There was a second of silence on the other end. Liu Yuyan's voice came through, her tone unchanged, as if she were stating something that had nothing to do with her.

"That is a rather biased statement, Head of the Sun Family."

"If you don't want people to know, don't do it in the first place."

Silence. Oppressive silence.

Sun Bonian hung up. The phone slid from his palm, hit the Persian rug, and bounced. The screen faced up, and the name "Liu Yuyan" in the call log flickered on the shattered screen.

The surrounding assistants and security guards held their breath, standing against the walls, not daring to even move their feet.

Sun Bonian closed his eyes. Revenge? No. He had to stop the bleeding now!

The Frankfurt branch raided by the EU was Sun Group's core hub in Europe; once the data was taken, the ensuing implications would be enough to destroy the entire group.

The suspension of drug access in Southeast Asia directly cut thirty percent of their revenue. If the short-selling wave on Wall Street wasn't contained within forty-eight hours, half of their 200 billion market value would evaporate.

He had to stabilize the situation first! As for the Liu Family... Sun Bonian's knuckles tightened.

Elder Liu was still alive, an eighty-year-old fox whose prestige and network were worth more than the Liu Group itself.

To shake the Liu Family head-on, he would need to join forces with the other two major families. The Sun Family could not afford that price right now.

But if he didn't move against the Liu Family, the technology behind Liu Yuyan that could cure late-stage cancer was a sword hanging over the Sun Family's head. It was cutting him today, and tomorrow it might stab him straight through.

Sun Bonian turned to look at Henry Bernstein. The professor stood by the window, his blue-gray eyes watching him quietly.

"Professor, there is an old saying in China: 'Those who understand the times are the wise ones.'"

Sun Bonian's voice returned to a steady tone as he squeezed out a smile. "You understand the principle of 'a man who treasures a jade ring commits a crime.' I hope that after you return, you will seriously consider cooperating with my Sun Family. Whatever the Liu Family can give you, my Sun Family will offer double."

Henry understood. Letting him go on the surface, but threatening him in reality.

The sixty-two-year-old Nobel laureate had a gaunt face, his gold-rimmed glasses reflecting the light from the window. He did not answer, instead turning and walking straight toward the door.

The sound of his leather shoes on the floor was clear. Behind him came Sun Bonian's exasperated roar.

"Investigate! Find out who leaked this! Turn over every single one of the Liu Family's intelligence lines for me!"

In the west of Jingzhou, in a side room of a courtyard house, Lin Xiaoman had a strawberry-flavored lollipop in her mouth, her feet crossed on the chair seat. Her ten fingers danced rapidly across six screens.

The Sun Family's security system was non-existent in front of her. All confidential documents, overseas fund flows, and illegal pricing emails were packed up and sent by her to major global media outlets and regulatory agencies.

She pressed the final Enter key and stretched. "Done. If you dare to touch someone the President wants, I'll make sure you don't even have your underwear left."

At the entrance of the Sun Family estate, a black Audi Q7 was parked ten meters outside the iron gate. Liu Yuyan sat in the driver's seat, having just ended a call. The person on the other end was Su Chen.

"President, Professor Henry has been released. Should I bring him to see you?"

On the other end of the line, Su Chen's voice came through, unhurried. "No need."

The pen in his hand tapped on his notebook. "From now on, do not reveal any information about the Kindling. If Professor Henry asks about the treatment method, ask him one question in return."

Su Chen said the sentence. After listening, Liu Yuyan was silent for two seconds. "Understood."

She hung up and leaned back against the driver's seat. That sentence had passed through her mind three times.

What the President gave was not an answer, but a scrutiny.

The estate gate opened. Henry Bernstein walked out.

His white hair fluttered in the cold wind of Jingzhou's late autumn, his gold-rimmed glasses perched on the bridge of his nose, and his shirt was still buttoned to the very top. Even after being under house arrest for half a month, he had not lost a shred of a scholar's dignity. But his steps were not as steady as when he had walked in. The foundation of his heart had loosened.

Liu Yuyan got out of the car and walked up to Henry. "Professor Bernstein..."

Henry looked at her, his lips moving slightly. "Ms. Liu. Thank you. If you hadn't intervened, I don't know how much longer I would have been locked up."

Liu Yuyan shook her head. "Back when my grandfather was critically ill, it was you who traveled thousands of miles from Zurich to Jingzhou. Although the treatment plan you prescribed did not reverse his condition, it held him over during the most critical period. The Liu Family remembers this kindness."

"But I didn't actually do anything."

"If it weren't for your plan holding onto my grandfather's last breath, he wouldn't have been able to hold on until..." Liu Yuyan's voice cut off. She didn't continue.

He wouldn't have held on until that person appeared. He wouldn't have held on until that dark golden pill melted in his mouth. He wouldn't have held on until the golden light enveloped his grandfather's withered body, causing the cancer cells to evaporate into thin air within thirty seconds. She could not say these things.

Henry understood the omission in the pause. He looked straight into Liu Yuyan's eyes.

For forty years, he had read the eyes of countless patients and their families. Fear, expectation, despair, gratitude. Liu Yuyan's eyes did not contain these things. They contained the knowledge of some answer, but it was suppressed by something heavier than the answer itself, leading her to choose silence.

This young woman knew the truth. And her silence blocked any possibility of exploration.

Henry Bernstein stood there for a long time. The wind blew through the fallen leaves of the French plane trees, making a rustling friction sound. He spoke.

"Ms. Liu." His voice was dry, carrying a long-suppressed desire to know. "What exactly was it that saved your father?"

Liu Yuyan was silent. Three seconds. Five seconds. She looked up, meeting Henry's eyes, her voice dropping half a degree, every word incredibly clear.

"Professor Henry, you have saved countless lives throughout your life. Your papers and your research results have saved tens of thousands of lives around the world." She paused for a beat.

"If you were given a chance to trade ten, or even twenty years of your life for a pill that could cure any disease, would you be willing?"

Henry was stunned. This question, coming from Liu Yuyan's mouth, did not sound like Liu Yuyan's own words. The wording, the rhythm, and the way it handed the choice back to the other party felt more like the scrutiny of a superior.

"I would." Henry blurted out without hesitation.

Liu Yuyan smiled. It was not the polite smile used in business, but one that carried an unfathomable meaning.

"Professor, anyone can say pretty words, but when it truly comes time to pay the price, how many people can actually do it?"

Henry was choked up. His resolute answer from a few seconds ago became pale in the face of this statement. He felt a scrutiny like never before.

Liu Yuyan did not continue to press. She took something out of her trench coat pocket. A bronze piece. It was no larger than a thumb's nail, with a verdigris color and worn edges. Two archaic characters were engraved on the front: Kindling.

She placed the bronze piece into Henry's palm.

"If you truly want to find the answer," Liu Yuyan's voice blended into the cold wind of late autumn, "then go to the battlefield and become a battlefield doctor." "Everything has its own destiny."

Henry looked down at the bronze piece in his palm. The metal was ice-cold, digging into his palm lines. He did not recognize the two characters engraved on it. But the weight of these two characters far exceeded their physical mass.

Liu Yuyan turned and opened the car door. "Professor, I have arranged a car to take you to the airport. Leave China and go where you should go."

The black Audi started and slowly drove away. Henry Bernstein stood alone on the street outside the estate gate. He clenched his fist, the edges of the bronze piece stinging his palm.

He had spent his life pursuing empirical science, using data and clinical trials to fight death. Liu Hongde's recovery had shattered his scientific faith. Now, a brand new, unknown path was laid out before him. Go to the battlefield. Go face the most cruel death.

He looked up at the gray, hazy sky. "I will find the answer." He whispered to himself.

In the west of Jingzhou, in the courtyard house, Su Chen sat under the ancient tree and closed his notebook.

The seed of Henry had been planted. When the true apocalyptic catastrophe broke out overseas, and when modern medicine was helpless in the face of casualties caused by the weird, this Nobel laureate would welcome his own transcendence on the battlefield of blood and fire.

Su Chen stood up, his gaze cast toward the void of the sky. This was exactly what he wanted.

The Kindling could not be a babysitter forever. Humanity had to show the will to survive so that the epic of salvation he fabricated could have the most solid foundation. The chess game had only just begun.