Chapter 67: Clumsily Hit by a Door

white floral Bohemian skirt and looked as beautiful as a princess, surrounded by people who showered her with praise and admiration. His own mother could not even get close enough to praise her among...Chapter 67: Got Clowned

The one who came to the door was Lin Zouwu. Upon seeing Su Can, he wasn’t surprised and nodded at him. He said that Uncle Wang Weiwei and Wang Bo weren’t here; before coming over, Su Can noticed lights on in the second floor, so he thought that either Wang Bo was in his room or in his study. The recent events made Wang Bo rather quiet when at home, and Lin Luoran and Lin Zouwu wouldn't disturb him.

After inviting Su Can in, Lin Zouwu went to his own room to play a game on the TV set. Meanwhile, Lin Luoran sat at the dining table wearing a T-shirt with a Winnie-the-Pooh design printed on it. She seemed to be working on some problems and wrote for a while before lifting her head to take two sips of turtle jelly from a cup beside the table. Her hair was tied up in a bun, and she looked at Su Can, saying, "You're here." Then he patted the table next to him, signaling for Su Can to sit down.

Su Can sat down as Lin Luoran pushed another glass of turtle jelly toward him, saying, "There. Open it yourself." The cool turtle jelly was refreshing, and after taking a couple of sips, Su Can looked at the focused Lin Luoran in front of him. She frowned from time to time and pursed her lips now and then; there was no trace of her usual carefree and whimsical demeanor.

Lin Luoran wrote some problems and when she noticed that Su Can was staring at her, she quickly looked down again. However, the geometric problem’s logic had just appeared but vanished once more, causing her to frown involuntarily as she struggled to analyze it. Yet, she couldn’t ignore Su Can’s movements or breathing beside her; this distraction made her lose her train of thought again. She inwardly cursed herself for letting Su Can sit next to her.

Fortunately, the phone rang at that moment, and Lin Luoran breathed a deep sigh of relief as if she had been freed from something. She hurriedly went over to answer it, but Lin Zouwu rushed out first and picked up the call. He joked, "Second Uncle, you have to tell Dad I don’t want to go back; it’s so boring following him around. Wanting to shirk my duties No way! Didn't you say from a young age that one should be independent That's exactly what I'm aiming for—to walk my own path and fly freely like a bird. Tell Dad not to worry, Uncle Wang isn’t dealing with anything major here; small issues will soon pass! Okay, got it, I'll remember."

"I’ll hand the phone over to Luoran now!"

Lin Luoran took the call and chatted with Lin Guozhou for a while. When she mentioned that Su Can was there too, Lin Guozhou asked him to take the call.

"Su Can," said Lin Guozhou after pausing briefly, his voice heavy.

Su Can’s mood instantly darkened as well; Lin Luoran stared at their conversation with great seriousness. Seeing Su Can's slightly narrowed eyes, her heart skipped a beat—she had been casually leaning on the sofa before but now sat upright without realizing it.

"Uncle Lin, I'm listening." Starting from today, no matter what your thoughts are or what you want to express, you mustn’t get involved in any related matters anymore," said Lin Guozhou. His words were somewhat ambiguous, but they clearly meant that Su Can should refrain from commenting on the Southern situation starting from now.

Lin Guozhou's statement suggested that he was under tremendous pressure; the current silence in newspapers and media—including online—actually indicated a significant impact far away, resulting in aftershocks. And these aftershocks eventually affected Lin Guozhou as well.

Su Cen sighed inwardly, "Then, Uncle Lin."

Lin Guozhou seemed to know what Su Cen wanted to say and continued, "Our views and perspectives."

"Although they may not be accepted by others, this doesn’t mean that I will give up. Let’s talk about it again after a few days," he said.

Su Cen was taken aback, "Which place are you talking about"

Lin Guozhou was also surprised for a moment and then his voice dropped slightly, "Of course, the embassy of South Union! Lin Zaizhou still plans to go to the embassy!"

Su Cen was shocked. The list of casualties in the embassy incident in the future didn’t have Lin Guozhou’s name on it. However, Su Cen did not know whether Lin Guozhou had stayed in the country or had already left for South Union at that time. If his own words caused him to leave the country and arrive at the South Union embassy, this would be a huge turning point. If something were to happen to Lin Guozhou, wouldn’t it mean that he was indirectly responsible for his death!

Thinking of this, Su Cen disregarded everything else and said, "Uncle Lin, although that commentary may not be entirely reliable, anything is possible. An air strike is merely a hypothesis. Right now, there’s a war over there, and the actions taken during wartime are often incomprehensible. I hope you will carefully consider this matter."

Lin Guozhou was silent for several seconds before saying, "This trip out is precisely about this matter; Ambassador Pan has already discussed it with me. We’re going to figure out how to handle the situation appropriately. Our embassy has considered evacuating South Union as well, but since there are still Chinese residents who haven’t left, we can’t evacuate either! I will deal with everything properly."

Su Cen finally breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that this time Lin Guozhou was unable to withstand the pressure and might now be isolated due to this matter. This trip out was likely his last attempt at resistance.

The bombing of the South Slav embassy occurred in May of the future, leaving less than ten days from the current timeline.

Su Cen worried that his comments would cause a chain reaction and affect various aspects of this matter. If the air strike were canceled, it would be best. However, if it happened earlier, things could become very serious. But at present, he was powerless to do anything about it.

Su Cen asked Lin Guozhou whether he could leave a contact number once he got there. After some consideration, Lin Guozhou left Su Cen his phone number. However, due to the ongoing bombing of South Union, communication would be affected to varying degrees. Sometimes, it could only take place within fixed time periods, making conditions very difficult.

After hanging up, Lin Guozhou knew that he had no other choice now. He estimated that there was at least an 80% chance of NATO potentially harming the embassy. The main reason wasn’t what Su Cen’s commentary said about hitting South Slav’s resistance psychology through bombing the embassy but rather a secret operation taking place at the embassy, which had touched off NATO’s intelligence and increased the likelihood of an attack by this hegemonic bloc.

Thinking back to the criticism he received during the foreign affairs meeting for being too extreme and that his actions were unacceptable, Lin Guozhou couldn’t help but smile wryly. He suspected that everyone now knew about the jokes circulating regarding him as the second son of the Lin family.

When his older brother Lin Chu called, he merely sighed softly. Perhaps Lin Chu was somewhat surprised by Lin Guozhou’s current stance. Writing such a provocative article might be thought to demonstrate his younger brother’s reluctance to accept life’s placidity over the years But in the end, Lin Chu didn’t say anything.

Then came a series of calls from various systems within the Lin family, although all these calls carried an advisory nature. However, Lin Guozhou could tell that many people in the core circle of the Lin family were now disappointed with him.

Loran's mother also called to ask if he was okay and whether she should bring Loran over to her place. At least this showed that she had been keeping an eye on his situation.

Under the night sky, Lin Guozhou looked up at the heavens, realizing that there was no turning back for him now.

A few days later, Lin Guozhou boarded a special flight bound for Yugoslavia.

The provincial government soon published an article轉載自《人民日報》>, using sharp and incisive theories and viewpoints to thoroughly refute Su Cen's article from beginning to end. The writing style was powerful and seasoned, leaving no room for criticism and making it seem as though the article titled "The Nightingale No Longer Sings" was merely a casualty of this wave of public opinion.

This article directly targeted Su Cen's comments, peeling away layer by layer to expose many inadequacies in his theories.

Thus, when Political Studies teacher Gong Fulu cited the content of that article and, with a forced smile, gave Su Cen a so-called "correct" political education on a slightly hazy afternoon, he was actually using this as an opportunity to criticize Su Cen for retaliating after losing face recently.

Su Cen simply stood there in silence.

Chen Lingshan watched him with some regret. Her former deskmate was Tang Wu; now that she had left, Li Weimei found Su Cen inflexible and stubborn at times, deliberately opposing Gong Fulu, which made her feel uncomfortable listening to his mocking remarks. If she had let him have his way back then, she wouldn't be enduring this humiliation now, so she secretly grumbled, "Gong Fulu's insults are truly sour!"

The class members like Zhang Xilie and Li Ai were naturally gloating over Su Cen's misfortune, thinking that it greatly dampened his arrogance.

Su Cen read the article and recognized immediately that it came from a renowned expert in the field with strong backing. Even though he had the advantage of rebirth and background, commenting was not something on par with these experts; his sole reliance was his foresight into the future.

As dusk fell and the bell rang for dismissal, after refuting Su Cen for almost half a class period, Lou Fulin spoke a few more words before declaring the end of school with a sense of victory that left him unsatisfied.

The month of May was rather calm; the easing situation regarding NATO bombings in Yugoslavia made Su Cen doubt his own judgment. Since he couldn't remember the exact bombing times, he had been tossing and turning at night recently. However, what temporarily put his mind at ease was that during recent conversations with Lin Guozhou, he learned that Ambassador Pan from the diplomatic mission had communicated adjustments to ensure that all staff members transferred their workstations to a subterranean area within the embassy—a facility for both working and recreational purposes—and crucial documents were relocated. During intense nighttime air raids, staff would reside in nearby interstate hotels.

The days passed, but Su Cen began to worry about how his mother, Zeng He, would react when faced with the exorbitant phone bills.

This night, Su Cen found himself tossing and turning again. Xiahai City had entered summer; the night sky was filled with dazzling stars, so tranquil that even the breeze carried a hint of warmth. Uncharacteristically, Su Cen dragged Liu Rui and Xue Yiyang up to the rooftop. Each held a bottle of beer, sitting atop the building as they gazed at the cityscape dotted with lights.

Xue Yiyang knew that Su Cen had recently been rather gloomy, mainly due to Tang Wu's departure. Back then, many people talked about what happened on campus for days after; Xue wanted to cheer up Su Cen and said, "You know yourself, why did you go against Gong Fulu’s 'panda person' just because of that article You knew following his words would bring good results, but going against him is suicide!"

Liu Rui, confused about the situation, asked for a rough explanation. He was not concerned with politics; discussions on political matters at Erzhong were nowhere near as intense as those at Zhongyi High School, where more students cared about such issues. After learning the basic context, he pointed to Su Cen and said, "You argued politics with your teacher And you even agreed with NATO’s theory of bombing embassies! I understand why you did it, but it seems like you got hit by a door!"

Su Cen smiled. “Maybe so.”

It was May 7th on the Beijing time.

The sky over Xiahai City transitioned from azure to deep blue as stars shone brightly. The three boys were mere shadows on the rooftop, while in Yugoslavia it was GMT 2:07 on May 7th, mid-morning.

Five hours prior, at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, USA:

A stealth bomber carrying JDAM guided bombs, named "Kansas Ghost" with serial number 84-1339, one of the most advanced and covert bombers in the world, had taken off from the airbase. This ghost-like aircraft was currently crossing the Atlantic Ocean for a ten-hour flight to Yugoslavia.

Target: No.2 Art Street, Cherry Blossom Road, Republic Embassy, Belgrade City.the connections were in place, it might just lead to a reconciliation scenario which would make him appear somewhat weak.A burst of laughter and chatter came from the neighboring table beside their pr...