225: Chapter 225 Heartfelt Respect for Su Mingyuan

The specially customized bulletproof car drove further inside, the roads of the base lined with military vehicles.

Armored vehicles, troop carriers, and some things with very long barrels that she couldn't name.

Row after row, white painted numbers on the vehicles flashed past her window.

The sound of propellers echoed overhead, and she instinctively looked up—

A formation of at least thirty attack helicopters flew past, flying so low she could clearly see the equipment mounted underneath their bellies.

In the distance was an open field where several aircraft were parked.

Their wing shapes were strange, unlike any aircraft she had ever seen on the news.

Ground crew members wearing orange vests walked about nearby, while tow trucks moved equipment around.

Jiang Wanting had watched military parades on TV a few times and always thought they were quite intimidating.

Only now, sitting in the car and driving right through all of this, did she realize how insignificant what she saw on TV really was.

The vehicles in military parades were squeaky clean and lined up immaculately.

But the vehicles here had scuffs and mud spatters on their bodies, their barrels aimed at varying angles, looking as if they had just returned from somewhere—or were ready to head out at any moment.

Jiang Wanting withdrew her gaze from outside the window and glanced at the security personnel next to her.

She had wanted to ask a few things about Su Mingyuan, but the man kept his eyes fixed straight ahead with a strictly business-like expression, making it obvious he wouldn't say a single extra word to her.

"Fine, I won't ask. I'm going to settle scores with Su Mingyuan face-to-face in a moment anyway."

The car passed a large building.

It wasn't particularly tall—only five stories—but it had a wide facade, a full glass curtain wall, and a grand entrance.

Soldiers stood guard at the entrance, and a plaque hung above the doorway, though the letters were too small to read.

However, the main lobby was open, and the angle of the car as it passed happened to allow a view of the inner wall through the glass doors.

A row of photos hung on the wall.

Jiang Wanting stared instinctively; the car wasn't moving fast, giving her about three or four seconds.

The photo right in the center—was Su Mingyuan.

She recognized him. Although Su Mingyuan in the photo looked a bit different from her memory—his hair was shorter, his facial features appeared sharper, and he wore a formal military uniform she had never seen before.

But she knew that face. She had looked at it for years; there was no way she could misidentify it.

There was a line of text below the photo.

Because the car was moving quickly, as it drove past, she only managed to catch the last three words—"...Person in Charge."

Her mind went blank for a moment.

Then she started looking at the adjacent photos.

They were also of Su Mingyuan, standing alongside several other people.

She didn't recognize two of the people in military uniforms, but their shoulder epaulets were loaded with insignia, looking like high-ranking personnel.

Another photo showed Su Mingyuan in a conference room with a large screen behind him, standing right at the front and facing a room full of people.

In every single photo, he occupied the central position.

The car continued forward, leaving that building behind.

Jiang Wanting brought her gaze back inside the car, stared at the back of the front seat, and swallowed hard.

Her throat felt dry; the parched sensation from downing too much alcohol at the KTV hadn't faded yet, drying out everything from her throat all the way to her stomach.

The special vehicle came to a stop as it reached a guard post.

The security guard in the front seat rolled down the window and handed a card out.

The soldier inside the guard post took the card and swiped it, then bent over to glance inside the vehicle and asked, "Going to see Group Leader Su?"

"Yes."

The soldier's attitude instantly changed.

It was hard to put into words what changed, but his entire posture snapped straight as if pulled up by something—his back straightened, his expression became stern, and he stepped back, raised his hand in a crisp, standard salute, and waved them through.

From entering the base until now, they had encountered many people along the way.

The sentries at the gate, security at the checkpoints, patrolling soldiers on the roads, and the guard in the booth just now.

Every single one of them reacted the exact same way upon hearing the words "Group Leader Su," as if possessing a deep, genuine respect for Su Mingyuan from the bottom of their hearts.

The car turned into a new area, and the buildings on both sides changed.

No longer looking like administrative buildings or dormitories, there was now a neat row of glass curtain wall structures. Each building was massive, with ceiling heights significantly taller than normal buildings.

She could see inside through the glass walls.

Colossal equipment and machinery occupied the entire space, some two or three stories high, their surfaces covered in cables and ports.

People in white lab coats paced back and forth inside—some staring at screens, others operating control panels.

There were easily several hundred people by her estimate, and this was just one building she could see.

On the doorway of an adjacent building hung a plaque bearing a serial number she couldn't comprehend at all—a combination of numbers and letters.

But she could understand the two red characters in the bottom right corner of the plaque.

"Top Secret."

There were more than a dozen such buildings lined up in a row.

Soldiers carrying guns stood guard at the entrance of every single one.

Jiang Wanting suddenly felt her palms turn cold, waves of chill seeming to emanate outward from her stomach.

She couldn't describe the feeling, but a thought popped into her head—the place she had come to might not be somewhere she belonged.

The thought flashed for only a brief moment.

The car turned another corner, and before she could dwell on it further, she saw four colossal doors.

Calling them "doors" wasn't quite accurate.

The structures were four or five stories high, without frames or supporting structures—just four massive, standing rings of light.

But what truly made her scalp go numb was what was happening right in front of those light rings.

A heavy truck was driving straight toward the leftmost ring of light.

Upon touching the luminous surface, the front of the truck didn't stop, nor was there any sound of collision; instead, it sank inward inch by inch—the cab disappeared, the truck bed disappeared, and after a final flash of its taillights, the entire vehicle vanished.

Ripples spread across the luminous surface, and a few seconds later, the gateway of light returned to normal, as if nothing had ever happened.

Then came the second vehicle, and the third.

Not just trucks.

Armored cars, troop transports, and those long-barreled machines were queuing up and driving inside one after another.

Jiang Wanting's mouth hung open, her jaw slack, unable to squeeze out a single word.

A fully loaded heavy truck melted into that layer of light right before her eyes, vanishing without a trace.

Goosebumps broke out across her back, and her palms were slick with sweat.

Those four door-like objects shouldn't exist in this world.

The bulletproof vehicle didn't stop and kept driving forward.

The four light rings were no longer in sight, but Jiang Wanting's heart rate hadn't slowed down, and her fingertips were still tingling.

The car had been driving for nearly thirty minutes now.

Jiang Wanting didn't know where the core zone was, but a thirty-minute drive meant the base extended at least a dozen kilometers deep.

This was no longer something that fitted the concept of a mere "base."

Sitting in the back seat, watching the buildings, equipment, and personnel flash past outside the window, her thoughts began to shift.

Her initial shock and anxiety gradually receded, replaced by something else.

It was something difficult to sum up in a single precise word.

Perhaps it was—secret joy.