From rejecting the beautiful female CEO to becoming extremely powerful

When dinner was served, Gu Nanqiao had not yet returned.

Ye Zhiwei sat at the table, her legs wrapped in bandages, holding chopsticks in her hand, but she didn't move for a long time.

Bai Wantang put down the last bowl of soup and looked up at Lu Yunzhou.

Lu Yunzhou picked up a piece of fish and put it into Ye Zhiwei's bowl.

"Have a meal."

Ye Zhiwei lowered her head and took a couple of bites, her movements a little faster than usual.

Bai Wantang picked up the soup bowl, and halfway through drinking it, her phone vibrated.

She glanced at the screen and immediately turned it off.

This reaction did not escape Lu Yunzhou's notice.

He put down his chopsticks and asked bluntly, "Why have you been avoiding Ning Shuang?"

The room came to a stop.

Ye Zhiwei's hand holding the chopsticks paused, and her shoulders tensed.

Bai Wantang placed the soup bowl back on the table and held it down by the rim.

"Her name used to be Nightingale."

Lu Yunzhou looked up.

He had already guessed part of the answer.

What really bothered him was that Bai Wantang and Ye Zhiwei would always deliberately avoid mentioning Ning Shuang, and even Gu Nanqiao rarely brought it up herself.

Bai Wantang continued, "Nightingale was her code name in the Raven Feather Twelfth Squad. She was in charge of intelligence, surveillance, and elimination; most of the squad's secrets passed through her hands."

Ye Zhiwei put down her chopsticks, her expression darkening.

"She was also one of the first people to come into contact with Grey Tower."

Bai Wantang looked out the window, her hands resting on her knees.

She had kept that past event hidden for too long, and her voice still tightened when she brought it up again today.

When Ning Shuang joined the Raven Feather Twelve Team, she already possessed strong intelligence capabilities.

She can find a contact point in a bill and judge whether someone is lying from a phone call.

When the team goes on a mission, she often spends half a day in advance to find out the route and mark the evacuation points for everyone.

She also has a lover.

That person handled her identity and funds outside the queue, and also knew where her family lived.

Before the incident, Ning Shuang had given the other party a list of transactions for Gray Tower for safekeeping.

The list includes Grey Tower's overseas contacts, as well as several mid-level managers in charge of human trafficking.

After the list was leaked, Ning Shuang's family members were the first to be harmed.

My parents, my younger brother, and my uncle's family who lived in the same house all perished.

The gray tower was cleaned up very well, leaving only the lovers' tire tracks at the scene.

Ye Zhiwei picked up the water glass, took a sip, and the rim of the glass touched her teeth, making a soft sound.

"When she arrived at the scene, no one in the house could speak."

After that day, Ning Shuang changed.

She stopped accepting regular assignments and ignored the team's arrangements.

She covered the entire wall with the Gray Tower list, crossing off a name from the list each time an investigation was completed.

When someone advised her to stop, she smashed a glass on the table, cutting her hand on the shards, but she didn't even flinch.

Lu Yunzhou stopped picking up food with his chopsticks.

Bai Wantang said in a low voice, "More than a year ago, she found out the whereabouts of her enemies and prepared to take action on her own."

"Sister Lan won't allow it."

Did she listen to me?

Ye Zhiwei raised her face, her eyes blazing with anger. "She deceived everyone and went overseas by ship."

Ning Shuang did not inform any of her team members about that operation.

After Bai Wantang and Ye Zhiwei discovered that she had gone missing, they followed the old contact point.

Upon arrival, Ning Shuang had already stormed into the manor where her target was hiding.

The manor is equipped with heavy weapons, as well as two experts sent by the Gray Tower.

When they arrived, Ning Shuang was trapped in the underground warehouse.

Bai Wantang and Ye Zhiwei led their men to force their way in and tear open an exit for her.

During the evacuation, the team was blocked by fire, and two core members fell on the dock and never got up again.

Ye Zhiwei pressed her palm against the table, her knuckles tense.

"Those two people could have lived."

She gritted her teeth, her tone growing increasingly harsh: "If Ning Shuang had followed orders, that ambush would never have happened. In her quest for revenge, she dragged the entire team into a trap."

Bai Wantang did not refute.

After that operation, Ning Shuang disappeared.

She did not attend the funeral, nor did she leave an explanation.

The remaining members of the Raven Feather Twelve Squad searched for her for several months, but ultimately only found out that she had returned to Great Xia.

When they met again, she had become Ning Shuang, the risk control director of Fengming Group.

Lu Yunzhou leaned back in his chair, his gaze sweeping across the two faces.

"You want to bring her back?"

Ye Zhiwei nodded without hesitation: "Take them back and hand them over to Sister Lan for interrogation. Two lives can't be wasted."

After she finished speaking, her chest heaved slightly, and her eyes still held suppressed anger.

Bai Wantang looked at her: "Ning Shuang did make a mistake back then, but after she infiltrated Fengming Group, she never harmed us."

"She hasn't contacted us either."

Ye Zhiwei responded coldly.

That's why we need to investigate.

Bai Wantang turned to Lu Yunzhou and tapped her finger lightly on the table: "She's infiltrated the Fengming Group, and her goal might not be just revenge. She might still be investigating the Gray Tower, or she might be looking for some unseen mastermind."

Ye Zhiwei frowned: "You're still making excuses for her?"

"I'm stating the facts."

Bai Wantang looked up to meet her gaze. "Ning Shuang always leaves herself an escape route. During that operation, even though she knew it would implicate the team, she still prepared an evacuation route in advance. If she only wanted to die, she wouldn't have needed to leave us an exit."

Ye Zhiwei opened her mouth, but couldn't reply immediately.

Lu Yunzhou picked up the teacup and ran his fingertip along the inside of the cup.

Ning Shuang has been infiltrating the Fengming Group for some time now.

She had been involved in the Old Port project and had also investigated Yuanchuan's related-party transactions.

If she only wanted to kill one enemy, she wouldn't need to put herself in a business group, nor would she need to shield Fengming from risks time and time again.

There's more to this than meets the eye.

Lu Yunzhou put down his cup: "Let's find out what she did at Fengming Group first."

Ye Zhiwei stared at him: "And then what?"

"We'll decide whether to arrest her after confirming whether she has harmed any of our own people."

Ye Zhiwei lowered her brows: "She killed two team members."

"I didn't erase this debt for her."

Lu Yunzhou spoke calmly, but his gaze darkened: "After finding out the truth, I will hand her over to Sister Lan. What responsibility she should bear will be decided by Sister Lan."

Bai Wantang gripped the spoon, her shoulders relaxing slightly.

Ye Zhiwei remained unconvinced, clenching her fist on the table, but ultimately gave up arguing.

Dinner was served again.

Lu Yunzhou added a bowl of soup for each of them, then took out his phone and looked up Ning Shuang's information.

The risk control director of Fengming Group has a clean overseas resume, and his joining the company was around the same time as Nightingale's disappearance.

There was only one ID photo in the document.

Ning Shuang was wearing a white shirt, her hair was tied back, and her face was expressionless.

Lu Yunzhou noticed a detail in the lower right corner of the photo.

She wore no jewelry on her left ear, but had a small old scar on her earlobe.

That was a mark left by the nightingale.

Lu Yunzhou turned off his phone, got up, and walked towards his study.

Bai Wantang looked up: "Investigate now?"

"Check the internal transfer records of Fengming Group tonight."

Lu Yunzhou picked up his coat and turned to look at the two of them: "List out all the people Ning Shuang has been in contact with in the past. Don't leave any out."