Huangfu Huazhang clenched his teeth.
The tir ticked away, leaving him no ti to hesitate. He resolutely shouted out that date!
At the sa ti, he entered the series of numbers into the keyboard, and sure enough, the keyboard responded by opening, revealing the final layer of five wires!
Shi Nian was stunned in place, unable to breathe.
The keyboard opening proved that Huangfu Huazhang was correct. But how could Jieyou’s birth be on this date?
That particular date was clearly the day she married Xiang Yuan!
How could she have been in labor on that day?
Shi Nian couldn’t help but scream: "Sir, tell , what is going on? Is Jieyou not my child?"
But how could that be?
She loved Jieyou so much. Every ti Jieyou lay in her arms, it made her heart tremble with tenderness.
Those maternal bonds, that telepathic connection between mother and daughter, how could it be fake?
But then how could the question of that date be explained?
She couldn’t help but rember her previous little cat—could Jieyou be just like that little cat? She gave her all to love it, only to love wrongly?
It was Tang Yanqing who tily spoke: "Don’t overthink! Of course, Jieyou is your child. You can’t understand that date because Jieyou was born through surrogacy!"
Shi Nian breathed heavily.
In the era of technological advancent, she had heard of such things. But for it to happen to her, it felt unreal.
"Why did this happen, sir, tell !"
Huangfu Huazhang shut his eyes in despair. He didn’t want to say it, never wanted her to know, but at this critical mont, he had no choice but to reveal it!
George won, George viciously grabbed all his weaknesses, forcing him to face it all.
He took a deep breath: "There are still five wires. Once this is all over, I’ll tell you!"
His dreams shattered.
His expectations for the future ended.
He suppressed the blankness before his eyes and the roaring in his ears, cautiously lifting each wire with scissors, observing one by one.
What more was there related to colors?
The tir quickly shortened, and Huangfu Huazhang’s mind couldn’t grasp what it should be. Staring at the constantly changing numbers, his heart was in chaos, and he shouted: "Nian, Tang Yanqing, help !"
Shi Nian struggled to control her emotions, focusing her thoughts intensely.
At this mont, she followed her intuition, imdiately speaking wherever it led her.
"Regarding five colors, I always think about China’s forr national flag: the Five-Colored Flag. Nearly a century ago, when the ancestor of the Tang family took office as the supre commander of the land and naval forces, the national flag was the Five-Colored Flag."
"What connected the Tang family and the Ford family was the ancestor’s daughter. So I think this final challenge must be related to both the Tang and Ford families."
"But that’s not right." Tang Yanqing, thinking quickly, blurted out: "The Five-Colored Flag was red, yellow, blue, white, and black, different from the current wire colors."
Huangfu Huazhang added: "No white, plus one green."
Shi Nian concentrated, "White—do you recall the white horse? That night you took to the Tang family on the white horse, giving the horse as a gift to the Tang family, essentially declaring war!"
Huangfu Huazhang squinted: "Indeed. What about green?"
Shi Nian closed her eyes, hesitant to speak.
Tang Yanqing imdiately continued, "George hates you so much, he would use this to allude to our relations. He’s trying to mockingly highlight your proclamations of Shi Nian being your girlfriend, your child’s mother, your wife; but in reality, Shi Nian ended up with ..."
"So white turned to green, implying that although you gave my Tang family a white horse, you received a green hat in return."
If it weren’t life and death, Tang Yanqing wouldn’t have spoken so bluntly.
Sure enough, finishing the words, Huangfu Huazhang suddenly coughed, then covered his mouth.
Shi Nian asked in shock, "Sir, are you alright?"
Huangfu Huazhang gasped heavily, "I’m fine.
He couldn’t tell Shi Nian that just then fury struck his heart, and beneath the choked cough, he had spat blood into his palm—George had ensnared him, George had succeeded in destroying him...
Indeed, his entire life, he once thought the day his mother killed his father was the most unbearable; but actually, it turned out the girl he loved had always been with Tang Yanqing.
No matter how much scheming he used over the years, how many thods he employed, in the end, everything turned out to be in vain.
It turned out that what he obtained was not what he wanted; and what he wanted, he had never gotten.
.
At this mont, after uncovering so many things, Shi Nian’s feelings towards Huangfu Huazhang were complicated.
Yet, she unhesitatingly walked into the cell, squatted beside Huangfu Huazhang, and gently supported his shoulder.
"...Sir, take a rest, give the scissors."
Tang Yanqing heard this and nervously asked, "How much ti is left? Also, which wire have you decided to cut?"
Shi Nian hesitated for a mont, then resolutely said, "Since it’s the principle of the Five-Colored Flag, we cut all five wires open!"
"But you need to pay attention to the order of cutting. It’s not about cutting them sequentially, but cutting all five wires simultaneously with one cut, rember!" Tang Yanqing was so anxious she wished she could dive into the basent herself to do it for Shi Nian.
Shi Nian beca even more nervous. The scissors could cut one wire without issue, but to cut five together, she couldn’t guarantee whether the blade could cut all five wires at once without any problem!
"Let do it," Huangfu Huazhang steadied himself, pushing Shi Nian outward: "As long as I’m here, I won’t let you take the risk."
Shi Nian glanced at the tir again and exclaid, "Sir, there are only fifteen seconds left!"
Huangfu Huazhang aid the scissors at the five wires simultaneously, yet still paused.
"Sir, what’s wrong?" Shi Nian was so anxious she covered half of her eyes.
Huangfu Huazhang took a deep breath: "Think again. Nian, do you dare to gamble with once?"
Shi Nian closed her eyes.
She breathed deeply: "Okay, I trust you, Sir!"
10, 9, 8...Shi Nian raised her voice to Tang Yanqing: "You get out quickly! Jieyou, my mom, and everything else needs you."
Tang Yanqing replied quickly: "Tang Yanxi, did you hear? It’s all up to you!"
Tang Yanxi was about to lose his mind, shouting: "You all..."
Before the words were finished, the tir already stopped at 0.
The bright red numbers were like they were stained with blood.
Huangfu Huazhang and Shi Nian both stared intensely at those numbers...
However, what followed was not a huge explosion, but the number suddenly switched back to 5 minutes!
Huangfu Huazhang excitedly punched the air: "Peacock flying southeast, pausing every five miles! You said this tir was a cyclical countdown, it really is cyclical. We were tricked by George with the previous two locks!"
Surviving a disaster, Shi Nian covered her face with both hands, two streams of hot tears rolling down.
Huangfu Huazhang got up and ca out, embracing her tightly.
Tang Yanqing outside, surrounded by blinding incandescent light, wiped his face, discovering it was already drenched in tears.
After a mont of relaxation, Shi Nian still said: "Even if the tir might be cyclical, we can’t neglect cutting the final wire. Otherwise, the danger on the door cannot be clearly resolved, and we can only remain stuck in the basent indefinitely unable to leave... eventually starving here just the sa."
Huangfu Huazhang raised his eyes and gazed at Shi Nian, layers of tenderness in his look.
"If it cos to that, it wouldn’t be so bad. Can’t live wrapped in the sa quilt, only wish to die sharing the sa grave."
Shi Nian was shocked at the thought. That’s right, he was willing to choose this.
George’s design precisely grasped Huangfu Huazhang’s psychology. He gambled that even reaching this final step, Huangfu Huazhang might abandon all prior efforts to die together with her.
Moreover, with Tang Yanqing right outside the door, this only intensified Huangfu Huazhang’s inclination to accept such an outco.
Anyway, for George, regardless of the outco of the battles of wits and courage during the defusing process, as long as Huangfu Huazhang ultimately dies, George remains the final winner.
Shi Nian knew that she was the only one who could still arouse Huangfu Huazhang’s fighting spirit at this mont.
She then laughed: "I didn’t realize I myself was an ill-fate. Six years ago, my captivity killed my dad, drove my mom mad; and this ti around, it might drag the sir down, leaving Jieyou alone in this world!"
"Thinking like this, I have no damn idea what’s the point of being alive this lifeti. I can’t save myself, let alone save my parents, and now can’t help you, sir, or save our daughter!"
After speaking, Shi Nian couldn’t help but erupt in sobs.
Huangfu Huazhang was stunned. Regardless of others, there was still his Jieyou.
Shi Nian cried, resting on Huangfu Huazhang’s shoulder: "If the two of us die here like this, what will happen to Jieyou, sir, tell !"
A little girl becoming an unsupported orphan, such tragedies they had seen too many. Would there co a day this would replay on their own child?
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