Deadly Trap.

Chapter 22. To pacify external enemies, one must first secure internal stability.
No sooner had Quenxus finished speaking than the conference room door was opened from the outside. The assembled officials immediately stood up. From afar, Dai Zexian saw that Gu Mufei was unharmed and composed. He breathed a sigh of relief and also stood up to make way for him.

Under the gaze of more than a dozen pairs of eyes, each with its own expression and hidden thoughts, Gu Mufeng moved unhurriedly, as if he had never been absent, and gently swept past the crowd.

Only he knew that Su Li's scent was ever-present. Confined under house arrest, this woman had no choice but to worry about being thrown away by him.

Almost desperately, he took a steady step across the conference room, adjusted his breathing, forcefully cut off this slight distraction, and sat down directly in his seat in the center.

"sit."

He casually pressed down with his right hand. The cadres standing on either side immediately sat down neatly again. Dai then handed the completed weekly report to Gu Mufeng.

"Dai Ze, thank you for temporarily taking over the meeting."

Without giving Dai Ze a second glance, Gu Mufeng lowered his eyelids and scanned the thick report in front of him: "Tell me, what did you all talk about?"

His expression was composed and indifferent, yet even more enigmatic.

"We were discussing the nursing home fire and the disappearance of Vain from the special forces team." Dai responded, slightly embarrassed. "Someone actually said there was a mole within the group..."

"Oh?"

After Dai repeated the story, the room fell silent again. This time, however, everyone's gazes no longer darted away, but instead all turned to Gu Mufeng.

His black shirt sleeves were rolled up, revealing the veins and blood vessels on his forearms. Completely at ease, Gu Mufeng rested his elbows on the table, his fingers interlaced, obscuring his lips.

Finally, he lifted his gaze from the paper, calmly scanning from one face to another. Finally, he spoke clearly:

"Don't you all want to know where the bullet holes in my car door came from?"

An uproar erupted in the conference room.

The bullet holes, like depth charges, instantly created a tidal wave. The cadres were abuzz with discussion. The hot-blooded militants lost control, slamming their fists on the table and rising in anger.

But Gu Mufeng wasn't in a hurry to calm things down. On the contrary, he seemed to be watching a good show. Besides him, there was another person present whose face had turned pale. The latter huddled in the crowd, nervously rubbing his hands together.

"Wei." With a half-smile, Gu Mufeng glanced at Wei and tapped his fingers lightly on the table.

The man's subtle actions did not escape Gu Mufei's keen eye: "As an IT consultant, what are your thoughts?"

"Me? Boss, I'm afraid—"

The man named "Wei" shrugged. Always timid, he adjusted his glasses and stared blankly for a moment. After a long pause, he finally answered hesitantly:

“I understand what the boss means. The special operations team's whereabouts can only be known through internal team tracking. But—”

"Hey, Song Weiyuan, what do you mean by that?"

Before Gu Mufei could speak, Bran, sitting opposite Vain, couldn't sit still any longer. He and the missing Vain were both veterans of the martial arts faction before FN's whitewashing. He was an impatient man who hated beating around the bush.

"How could it have been done by one of our own people?!"

"Who knows?"

A light, ambiguous female voice, tinged with a half-smile, posed a rhetorical question from Lilith, the captain of the foreign aid team. This openly gay, fourth-tier actress was stunningly beautiful, but nicknamed "Troublemaker."

The atmosphere in the conference room became tense once again. Even before Gu Mufeng arrived, Bran and Lilith were already locked in a fierce battle of wits.

At this moment, Lilith was deep in thought, Gu Mufeng watched from the sidelines, and Dai was filled with surprise: Lilith had actually stolen his role in stirring up trouble. Meanwhile, Song Weiyuan stared intently at his hands, as if everything was none of his concern.

"Lilith, don't exaggerate!"

Bran held the roar in his mouth:
"Even if some dogs barked at the Chief of Staff, it's probably Welsh and his men who exposed his whereabouts. I don't see what this has to do with spies. You bastard, don't spout nonsense with Wei!"

"Even if you feed the truth to a gorilla whose brain is all about building muscle, he will still be a fool."

Lilith, not to be outdone, raised her head and shook the long snake earring.
"You don't think that just because Vain is missing, you can take the top position in the special forces just by verbally pledging your loyalty, do you?"

"you!"

With a "whoosh," Bran jumped up, his face flushed red.

"Hey, stop it." Seeing things were getting out of hand, Dai immediately intervened. If this continued, it would never end.

"Should I listen to you, Lao Dai? Who does she think she is!"

"Bran." Forced by the scent, both the woman and the bruises flashed through Gu Mufeng's mind. Forcing himself to push her and his emotions away, he calmly interrupted:

"I'd like to hear what Wei has to say."

"Chief!"

Turning around, Bran met Gu Mufeng's eyes. Gu Mufeng seemed unusually charismatic tonight. Bran's imposing aura vanished instantly.

Realizing his lapse in composure, he pleaded, "Chief, could you let me say one more thing? Lilith's words were so rude, I just had to get them off my chest."

"speak."

Having already gained Gu Mufeng's approval with just one word, Bran puffed out his chest:

"I know that we militants are simple-minded and can't understand complicated things; but we don't want to either!"

Without the Chief of Staff, there's no Fri-Night, and we're still dogs for the underworld. We were all scapegoats, driven here. Who in the militant faction doesn't know that?

As he spoke somberly, several people in the audience nodded in agreement; and Bran was also deeply moved:
"I don't know any 'big shot,' but I guarantee the rights of all the militants here! There are no traitors among us who have forgotten our roots!" With that, he solemnly took his seat. The other militants in the conference room were also filled with excitement and applauded.

"Let's put aside the militant faction for now." Amidst the lingering applause, Dai seized the opportunity to regain his composure:

“There’s definitely something wrong with us. Not only is this mission unusual, but only Mu Fei, myself, and Vain knew about it. And then there was the time Miss Su was kidnapped…”

Nervously, Dai Ze licked his lips. Seeing Gu Mufei's calm and acquiescing approval beside him, Dai Ze continued:

"The hospital is so big, yet the location tracking failed? It seems only high-ranking officials could log into the internal network, causing interference on-site. Am I right, Wei?"

Without saying a word, Song Weiyuan nodded solemnly.

"Therefore, none of us here, including myself, can be ruled out as suspects."

"That's certainly suspicious. But what about Boss?"

At some point, Gu Mufeng glanced at Yi Heng at the table. The latter was the captain of the finance team. He gave a barely perceptible nod of approval.

Immediately understanding, Yi Heng's gold-rimmed glasses flashed, and he said calmly:
"This method could indeed be used to ambush Miss Su and Senior Vain. But no one except the Boss himself could know the Boss's location, right?"

At this moment, seemingly casually, Gu Mufeng responded with a ripple-like laugh, a subtle warning:

“I deliberately exposed my location. After all, I’ve wanted to catch that dog for a long time. But…” Suddenly, a murderous glint flashed in his cold eyes as he swept over everyone, “I didn’t expect it to be so effective.”

"Boss, I still find it hard to believe that anyone here would be a mole."

Despite his inner turmoil, Bran still spoke hastily:
“We’ve all worked together for a long time. Even if we don’t talk about the combat faction, Yi Heng, Wei, and the intelligence team X were all handpicked by the Chief of Staff; as for the sniper team Slayer, if she wanted to leave, she would just walk away.”

Suddenly, Bran seemed to have a flash of inspiration:
"Maybe it's a vulnerability in the team's network. Hacking is nothing new—"

"No way!"

Hearing this, Song Weiyuan, who had just looked pale, suddenly burst out with a resolute shout. He sprang to his feet, quickly realizing his lapse in composure, but his anger left him in a difficult position.
"Slander...! I built FN's network myself. To break it, you'd have to hack the police as well! Who has the ability to mess with me!"

Song Weiyuan braced his fists against the edge of the table:
"You think writing code is so easy? Bah!"

"If someone were to drill holes in my precious network, would I just turn a blind eye? Would I not fight back? As an expert, how dare you say my network is no good?"

Everyone present was stunned. It was nothing unusual for a roughneck like Bran to swear so vehemently; but for an honest man like Kewei to suddenly erupt in anger for the sake of his pride was truly astonishing.

"Wei, that's enough," Gu Mufeng said slowly.

"Trust me, boss! Trust my abilities!"

“Song Weiyuan, no one questions your abilities and work results,” Gu Mufeng said calmly. “I believe in you.”

Song Weiyuan stood frozen in place, like a fish out of water. He looked around at the stunned crowd, paused for a moment, then sat down again, unsure of what to do with his hands and feet, and returned to silence.

"Mu Fei, it's ten o'clock," Dai Ze reminded him in a very low voice, while gently pointing to his watch.

"I see."

"So, about the mole?"

Gu Mufeng placed his fingers on the table and stood up: "The task for the next month."

Gu Mufeng acted as if he hadn't heard Dai Ze's words at all.

Upon hearing the word "task," the cadres immediately sat up straight.

"Starting tonight, security within the group will be handled separately by the sniper and security teams. The sniper team will keep a close watch on the personal safety of Yiheng from the finance team and X from the intelligence team."

"The finance, tax, and intelligence teams will continue as usual, but they will report to me every night. The debt collection team will investigate the debtors' deficits; the external support team will screen all the universities; and you are in charge of private lending."

"dimension."

"boss……"

"Stay after your meeting."

Song Weiyuan's face remained deathly pale. He merely nodded slightly before disappearing back into the crowd.

"Then, meeting adjourned."

"In addition, Dai Ze."

Taking advantage of the noise as everyone left the conference room, Gu Mufei suddenly called out to Dai Ze beside him, saying in a calm tone, "Wait for me in my office."

Dai was slightly taken aback.

Gu Mufeng's gaze swept over him briefly, pausing for a second. Rarely, a resolute urgency to withdraw flashed deep within his eyes.

“After I’ve dealt with my family matters,” he paused, emphasizing very softly and slowly, “I will naturally have things to ask you.”

>>>>>
Next Chapter: Tears at the High Wall
[Author's Note | Chapter Twenty-Two]

Dai Ze: Wait... Gu Mufeng has family matters to attend to?
Today, President Gu is juggling family and business matters, and he's also thinking about how Su Li needs to quickly find the mole. Su Li's kidnapping has been brought into the open; how can this not be considered a public announcement of their relationship? (Author's note: This is a bit of a dizzying thought.)

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(End of this chapter)