In a luxurious villa in the western hills of Yanjing, Zhang Libao stared at his father, dumbfounded. “Dad… what did you say? Which Xu Ze?”
“Hmph! Which Xu Ze? Who else but the one you raced against back then…” Zhang Yanzheng glared at his son, who spent his days fooling around with that group of spoiled second-generation rich kids, and couldn’t help but feel frustrated. “Look at him—he’s about your age, and he’s already a senior colonel. And look at you—what are you compared to him?”
“That kid’s really a senior colonel? Damn…” Zhang Libao was taken aback for a moment, then looked up at his father, who rarely showed such anger, and snorted indignantly. “That’s your fault anyway—you just had to send me to Renmin University. If you’d sent me to military academy, I could join the army in a couple years and at least be a field-grade officer…”
Just thinking about Xu Ze made Zhang Libao’s blood boil. That country bumpkin—what made him better than him at everything? Even Sun Lingfei had fallen for him.
It was all because his old man wasn’t pulling enough weight. That Xu was only where he was because Old Man Li had pulled some strings—how else could he have become a senior colonel? Zhang Libao vented his jealousy and resentment loudly: “That Xu guy is only riding on the Li family old man’s coattails! Otherwise, he’s just some country kid from some backwater town—how could he ever climb to senior colonel? If you’ve got the guts, just get me into the military too! If you’ve got the chops, make me a senior colonel as well!”
Hearing this, Zhang Yanzheng was so furious he nearly coughed up blood. He pointed at his son, his hand trembling for a long moment, until he finally couldn’t hold back and slapped Zhang Libao across the face, leaving him frozen in shock. Then he roared in anger: “You little beast! You think everyone’s like you, relying on their elders? His achievements are hard-earned—bought with real blood and sweat!”
“His first promotion to major came from thwarting our family’s plans! His lieutenant colonel rank came from curing General Zuma! And his senior colonel rank—he earned that by fearlessly hauling a rifle, taking down three Black Hawks and two F-16s, and protecting General Zuma all the way back to his country!”
Zhang Yanzheng thought about how his family, across two generations, had led a loyal group of subordinates, risking the danger of never recovering from a fall, guarding that secret for so many years, pouring so much effort into it—all for these ungrateful descendants. His eyes reddened with fury. Pointing at Zhang Libao, he continued his tirade: “That Xu Ze isn’t even a blood member of the Li family—just a god-grandson. But do you know how proud Old Man Li is of that? It shows everyone that even a god-grandson of the Lis can achieve so much… But you—what have you ever done for this family?”
“Can’t even win over that Sun family daughter—if you’ve got the skills, go win her for me!” Zhang Yanzheng was still seething about failing to plant someone in that critical position within the Sun family’s ministry, and the failure had stung deeply. Recalling that his son had once pursued that girl, he lashed out again: “Our family wants that position the Sun family holds, but the Lis are shielding them. If you’ve got any ability, go win me that Sun family daughter!”
“Don’t you always brag to your good-for-nothing friends about how good you are with women? If you’ve got the guts, go win the Sun family’s daughter over. If you can do that, at least it’ll prove you’ve got some skill, and that you’ve done something for this family!” Zhang Yanzheng berated him, full of frustration.
“Fine, I’ll do it! Who says I can’t win her? I only backed off before because that Xu saved my life—I wasn’t going to compete with him. Just watch—I’ll win her over and show you. She’ll be your daughter-in-law—will that make you happy?” Zhang Libao clutched his stinging cheek, eyes red, and after spitting out those harsh words, he stormed out…
Time flew by quickly. Xu Ze had already been at the General Staff Headquarters for over half a month. During this time, with Lieutenant Colonel Yang Jie’s help, he had become thoroughly familiar with his work there.
The work at the General Staff Headquarters was indeed quite leisurely. With the end of the year approaching, special training assignments had dwindled even further, so Xu Ze was happy to take it easy. After finishing his daily tasks, he devoted as much free time as possible to cultivating his energy circulation…
With this unprecedented level of dedication, his progress was indeed quite rapid. Though it hadn’t been long since he’d broken through to the thirty-third cycle, Xu Ze felt that if he could keep up this pace, by the time the New Year arrived, reaching the thirty-fourth cycle would be entirely within reach.
During this time at the General Staff, Xu Ze had also gotten to know the Operations Department inside out—from Lieutenant General Luo Jiang, the department director, all the way down to some junior logistics lieutenant in some random section. He could recognize just about everyone.
And the entire Operations Department had taken a liking to this youngest-ever senior colonel. Despite his boundless prospects and extraordinary abilities, he had absolutely no airs about him. He often joked around with officers close to his age.
Whenever he was egged on to treat everyone to a meal, he never refused—whether it was Quanjude roast duck or whole roasted lamb… there were few among the junior and mid-level officers who hadn’t been treated by him at least once.
Especially the dozen or so civilian affairs lieutenants and training field-grade officers in the Special Training Section—they adored their new boss. Even Chief Zhang Zuo, who was normally stern and strict with his subordinates, had grown increasingly fond of his superior. Under Xu Ze’s influence, Zhang had also eased up a bit on the officers under him.
The reason was that during the year’s only small-scale special training exercise for a certain Yanjing Military Region special forces unit, the deputy director had volunteered to come along for inspection…
Initially, the troops in that unit—though surprised by how young the deputy director was—had some who weren’t entirely convinced. However, due to the rank gap, none dared to show disrespect toward Xu Ze. But during the inspection, they did let their guard down a little…
Little did they expect that Senior Colonel Xu Ze, watching their training from the sidelines, found their performance rather mediocre. Unable to take it anymore, he walked over, casually grabbed a couple of the soldiers, and tossed them aside. After giving them a harsh scolding, those previously arrogant troops became utterly obedient, throwing themselves into the training with everything they had just to earn a nod of approval from Senior Colonel Xu. Only then did they finally breathe a sigh of relief…
So although Zhang Zuo still wasn’t entirely sure of the full extent of his superior’s abilities, he had at least grudgingly acknowledged the man’s competence in his heart. Xu Ze was no rich young master just here to pad his resume—he had the goods. And on top of that, he was incredibly easy to get along with. Naturally, Zhang was more than happy to put on a friendly face every day.
Though Xu Ze had gotten on good terms with the entire Operations Department, he still sensed that Lin Beijia kept a certain distance from him. But overall, their collaboration was still pleasant enough.
After all, Lin Beijia came from a field operations background. Though he was in his fifties, he embodied the straightforward, no-nonsense soldierly type. Working with someone like that naturally didn’t present too many problems, and Xu Ze genuinely enjoyed dealing with such people—so he didn’t dwell too much on the subtle friction.
The days rolled by, one after another. Before he knew it, the winter break at the school was approaching, and Sun Lingfei would soon be back in Yanjing. Xu Ze figured that once she returned, he’d have to swallow his pride and pay a visit to the Sun family’s house… at the very least, he needed to show his face around Sun Lingfei’s father more often, call him “Uncle” a few times, and smooth over the awkwardness from the past year.
Otherwise, no matter how much Sun Lingfei’s father—a ministry-level official—was no longer actively opposing him, Xu Ze still needed to make the effort and give the elder some face so everyone could move on gracefully.
One day, as noon approached, Xu Ze was tidying up his desk, planning to head to lunch, when his phone rang. He glanced at the screen—it was a number from Xingcheng. Not sure who it was, he answered the call.
As soon as he picked up, he heard a girl’s sobbing voice on the other end. Xu Ze paused, finding the voice somewhat familiar, and said, “Hello?”
Then the girl spoke through her tears: “Brother A-Ze… it’s… it’s me, Lin Wei…”
Hearing the name, Xu Ze immediately remembered—she was Xiao Hao’s girlfriend, wasn’t she? What happened? She’d never called him before. Had something gone wrong? He quickly asked, “Xiao Wei… what’s wrong? Don’t cry. Did Xiao Hao bully you? Brother A-Ze will set things straight for you.”
“Brother A-Ze… Haozi… Haozi has gone down the wrong path…” Lin Wei sobbed as she explained the whole situation.
It turned out that ever since Xu Ze had started giving Xu Hao a living allowance this year, the kid had come into money and had really begun to stray. There were a few well-off, popular rich kids at school who, after seeing that Maserati Xu Ze had driven, assumed that Xu Hao came from a well-to-do family and deemed him worthy of joining their little circle.
They started inviting Xu Hao to their activities regularly. And since those usually untouchable rich kids were giving him so much face, Xu Hao began to get carried away, hanging out with them more and more.
Gradually, he picked up bad habits—smoking, drinking, and spending money recklessly. What was worse, under the influence of those rich kids’ showing off, he even started dabbling in “K”—as in ketamine…
When Lin Wei discovered this and tried to talk some sense into him, Xu Hao blew her off, accusing her of embarrassing him in front of his friends, and became very displeased.
In just a short period, he blew through the ten thousand yuan living allowance Xu Ze had given him. To save face, not only did he use up Lin Wei’s allowance as well, but he also lied to Xu Qing’er to get money from her.
Now, having spent all the money from Xu Qing’er, Xu Hao had even taken the laptop Xu Ze had given him and sold it…
Seeing that her attempts to reason with Xu Hao were going nowhere, Lin Wei had no choice but to remember that Xu Hao was usually pretty scared of his brother. So she called Xu Ze, hoping he could think of a way to handle this.
Listening to Lin Wei’s tearful account, Xu Ze’s face darkened, his expression as grim as could be. He comforted her in a gentle voice: “Xiao Wei, don’t cry. It’s okay. I’ll deal with him soon. Don’t worry—it’ll be fine… Stop crying… I promise you’ll have a well-behaved, sensible Xiao Hao back by tomorrow.”
