Chapter 1235 Lu Chong's Deep Thoughts

"Damn it! I died again!" Lu Chong cursed angrily as he stared at the grayed-out "GAME OVER" message on the screen, then casually tossed the game console onto the sofa.

He rubbed his fingers, which were stiff from working for so long, before his gaze fell on the coffee table, where a glass of iced cola was instantly drawn to him.

The water droplets condensed on the outside of the glass were crystal clear under the office ceiling light. In the dark brown liquid, ice cubes floated and sank, and tiny bubbles were rising merrily along the glass wall.

"Hey, you're the one who understands me best!" Lu Chong grinned, the frustration from his earlier game failure instantly disappearing.

Without hesitation, he reached for the cup, its icy coldness making him squint comfortably.

He first brought the glass close to his mouth, took a deep breath of the cool aroma that was a mixture of sweet caramel and pungent carbonation, and then tilted his head back and gulped down two large mouthfuls.

"ha--!!!"

The icy liquid, carrying countless tiny, bursting bubbles, rushed down my throat like a thousand horses, reaching my stomach and instantly dispelling the heat and dryness caused by focusing on the game.

The extreme coolness and the slight stinging sensation from the carbonation made him unable to help but exhale a long, refreshing breath, as if every pore on his body had opened up.

"Awesome!" Lu Chong smacked his lips, took another satisfied sip, then put the cup back on the coffee table, leaned back into the sofa, and his face regained its usual rugged yet shrewd expression.

He looked at Jia Daiquan, his gaze falling on the unopened can of Coke in his hand: "You drink your own can too, why are you being so polite with me?"

Jia Daiquan then opened his can of Coke as instructed, took a symbolic sip, and the icy sensation helped him concentrate better.

“Speak, Xiao Jia,” Lu Chong wiped his mouth with his sleeve, his eyes becoming serious, but his tone remained casual:

"They rushed over in a hurry and insisted on saying it in person. Even when that kid Zhigang relayed the message, he acted as if he were facing a major crisis."

"What, have some troublemakers in Beibei gotten into trouble again? Or has your supervisory bureau really messed up this time, and I have to clean up their mess?"

As he spoke, he picked up his Coke and took another sip, seemingly nonchalant, but his eyes were keenly observing Jia Daiquan's expression.

Jia Daiquan put down the Coke can, took a deep breath, and straightened his back. He knew that the relaxed atmosphere had come to an end.

He took a phone out of his pocket, opened the photos he had just taken in the car, and presented them to Lu Chong with both hands, his voice more composed than before:

"Reporting to the commander! It's not about the Supervisory Bureau, nor is it a security issue in Beibei. It's... about a person, and this photograph!"

Oh?

Lu Chong raised his eyebrows in confusion, then casually took the phone from Jia Daiquan, his gaze falling casually on the photo.

In the phone photo, a young man stands on a bridge, a stream bridge, holding a long black umbrella... His profile is sharply defined, and his eyes calmly gaze at the distant mountains.

Upon seeing this, Lu Chong's pupils contracted almost imperceptibly.

As a senior general in the Central Plains Theater, he had many direct contacts with Chairman Gu Chengyuan, attended meetings with him, and received his orders. His young yet dignified face was etched into his very bones.

Although the person in the photo has a more youthful and calm demeanor, lacking the imposing presence of someone now wielding power, he would never mistake that unique profile and the charm in his eyes.

It's the leader... and it's what the leader looked like before the apocalypse, when he was even younger.

Lu Chong was only slightly surprised when he first saw it, but he quickly calmed down.

These days, there are plenty of people who have photos of high-ranking officials: official standard portraits circulating within war zones, work photos in certain internal documents, and even some images circulating privately among the public.

A photo of a leader during his student days or the early days of the apocalypse, while relatively rare, is not exactly earth-shattering.

He subconsciously squinted, shifting his gaze from the photo to Jia Daiquan, whose expression was tense and even carried a hint of barely perceptible fear.

Lu Chong quickly placed the phone back on the coffee table, leaned forward slightly, and stared sharply at Jia Daiquan:

"An old photo of a high-ranking official, though not common, isn't exactly rare either. Xiao Jia, why did you go to such lengths and act so mysteriously just to show me this?"

Lu Chong's tone carried a hint of scrutiny and doubt, clearly indicating that he believed things were not so simple.

Jia Daiquan took a deep breath, knowing that the crucial part was about to begin.

He pointed to his phone, then gestured towards the window, his voice lower but clear and forceful:

“Sir, the photo itself may not be unusual, but the person who has the photo and the way she presented it are extremely unusual.”

He organized his thoughts and began to give a detailed report:

"This afternoon, at the seventh water collection point in Beibei, my men discovered a girl behaving strangely. She..."

Jia Daiquan carefully considered his words: "She was extremely beautiful, but her eyes were empty, her behavior was very different from ordinary people, she was full of curiosity about her surroundings but seemed to lack basic knowledge. She didn't even know how to get water."

“More importantly,” Jia Daiquan emphasized, “she displayed…inhuman physical abilities….”

"How inhuman?" Lu Chong became interested upon hearing this.

"My intuition tells me she's extremely dangerous, and conventional methods would be almost ineffective against her at close range..."

Conventional methods are almost ineffective at close range...

Upon hearing such an absurd evaluation from the battalion commander of his air assault brigade's infantry battalion, Lu Chong immediately became serious, his brows furrowed, his fingers unconsciously tapping the sofa armrest, and his eyes signaling Jia Daiquan to continue.

"To avoid a conflict breaking out in a dense crowd and causing uncontrollable casualties, I managed to take her away from the scene."

"In the car, I tried to communicate with her and ask about her background. It was at this moment..."

He pointed to his phone: "She suddenly took out this photo, and the movement was so fast that I almost didn't see it clearly before she held it up in front of my eyes."

Upon hearing this, Lu Chong's gaze darkened completely. A mysterious girl with bizarre behavior, inhuman strength, holding an old photo of the Chairman, and trying to find the photo's owner...

This combination is too bizarre, and too sensitive...

Finally, Jia Daiquan revealed his core conjecture, his voice tinged with uncertainty yet unusually solemn:

"Sir, I have thought about this repeatedly, and I believe there may be an extraordinary connection between this mysterious girl and the Chairman, which is why I have taken the liberty of coming to report to you!"

...

Lu Chong remained silent, his fingers tapping the armrest at a slower and slower pace until he finally stopped. He picked up the iced cola but didn't drink it, only feeling the coolness emanating from the glass.

A few seconds later, he put down his cup, looked up at Jia Daiquan, his eyes regaining their usual decisiveness and composure: "Where is he? Where is he now?"

“It’s downstairs, in my car. Staff Officer Xu has already mobilized nearby sentries and patrols as I requested, forming an invisible encirclement, but has strictly ordered them not to use force first,” Jia Daiquan replied immediately.

Lu Chong nodded, slowly stood up, his tall figure casting a shadow in the office.

He walked to the window and looked down at the parking lot. Although he couldn't see the SUV from this angle, he could vaguely make out a line extending from the Chongqing Military Region headquarters all the way to the theater command headquarters...

Just then, there was another knock on the door:

"Report! Urgent telegram from the war zone headquarters!!"