Ice skates forward, regardless of east or west.

1

At 3:17 a.m., the encrypted channel inside the hospital ship was triggered, and a sharp alarm broke the silence.

Ling Wuwen was jolted awake from a light sleep. Despite the excruciating pain from his abdominal wound, he maneuvered his wheelchair and rushed into the command room.

Dr. Schmidt was already in front of the screen, his expression grave.

"Top-level encryption, the sender can't be tracked, but the receiving code is internal to us—someone has cracked the first layer of firewall." The doctor handed over the tablet.

The screen displays an 87.4MB video file:

Filename: LAST_WARNING.mkv

Decryption key: GU_XIDONG_0807 (Gu Xidong's name in pinyin and his birthday)

A blatant provocation.

Ling Wuwen took a deep breath and pressed play.

The screen went completely black, and then three audio recordings played:

1. Three years ago, a spirited Gu Xidong discussed choreography with "Ling Wufeng" on the ice rink, laughing heartily.

2. In a German hospital ward, Ling Wuwen, after undergoing vocal cord surgery, laboriously begged the doctor to let her look at the snow outside the window.

3. A dozen hours earlier, Gu Xidong swore to the unconscious Ling Wuwen on the speedboat that he would crush his enemy and finish the dance.

Three of my most private moments were stolen.

Then, a mechanical voice, processed by a voice changer, rang out:

"Your conversation is interesting... but the story should end here."

The screen lit up, and three shots made Ling Wuwen stop breathing:

1. A panoramic view of the hospital ship "Aurora" at dusk, with its ship number clearly visible.

2. In the command room, Ling Wuwen's back is visible as he sits in a wheelchair.

3. A photo of Dr. Schmidt at his clinic in Munich, Germany, in which the young "Lin Wufeng" smiles brightly.

The voice changer's voice sounded again, cold and mocking:

"You guys are good at hiding. At sea, in Germany, even in South America... but we can find you."

The screen switches to a satellite map of East Asia, with three red dots flashing to indicate its location:

1. Real-time coordinates of the hospital ship.

2. Dr. Schmidt's clinic in Germany.

3. In the suburbs of City A, at Ci'en Sanatorium—the place where Ling's mother lived.

Ling Wuwen's fingers suddenly gripped the armrests of the wheelchair tightly.

The mechanical sound continued:

"Gu Xidong, we know you're on the 'Golden Plantagenet.' Your performance was good, the waiters were very convincing. But guess what would happen if we made an anonymous call to the cruise ship's security department right now and said you were a spy carrying listening devices?"

The scene cuts to the live surveillance footage of the banquet hall on the gambling ship, focusing on Gu Xidong carrying a tray.

The camera zoomed in, clearly capturing the miniature camera on his bow tie and the GPS device on his watch.

A dialog box popped up on the right, displaying the internal communication channel of the casino ship's security department. A line of text was being typed:

[Alert: Suspicious individuals have been spotted in the banquet hall carrying illegal audio and video recording devices. Immediate action requested.]

The cursor is blinking, but nothing has been sent. It's waiting.

Finally, the scene switches to the nighttime surveillance footage of the Ci'en Nursing Home. An elderly woman with white hair (Ling's mother) walks down the corridor accompanied by a caregiver, her eyes vacant.

A line of blood-red text appeared on the screen:

"Next time, it won't be the ice rink that burns down."

The video ends, the screen goes black, and a countdown begins:

59:59

59:58

59:57

One hour. If Gu Xidong does not leave after one hour, the gambling ship's security department will receive an alarm, and something "wrong" will happen at the Ci'en Sanatorium.

2

Ling Wuwen remained motionless, his face pale, his lips trembling slightly, but his eyes were deathly calm.

Dr. Schmidt picked up the dropped tablet, his hands trembling: "How could they..."

"They can," Ling Wuwen interrupted him, his voice as soft as a sigh, "because they've controlled everything from the very beginning."

She pushed her wheelchair to the porthole and gazed at the blurry lights of the gambling ship in the distance.

"Doctor," she asked softly, "if I die, will Gu Xidong give up?"

"No. He'll go even crazier."

"What if I let him go? Order him to leave and accept their terms..."

"He won't listen," the doctor said. "You know him."

"I understand," Ling Wuwen said with a wry smile. "He's as stubborn as a bull."

She glanced at the countdown timer flashing on the control panel:

55:43

55:42

"So there's only one choice." She took a deep breath, enduring the sharp pain from her wound, "We have to strike before they do."

"What should we do?" the doctor asked anxiously. "The sanatorium is in City A, 300 kilometers from here. The gambling ship is in international waters, and Gu Xidong is isolated and helpless. We don't even have time to transfer the medical ship—they definitely have ships watching us."

Ling Wuwen did not answer. Her mind raced, processing every frame of the video and every threat.

Then, she grasped the key.

"The surveillance footage of the gambling ship in the video is real-time," she said.

"right."

"But they didn't report Gu Xidong immediately; they waited." Ling Wuwen's eyes lit up. "Why? If the goal was to eliminate him, wouldn't it be simpler to just report him directly?"

The doctor frowned: "Perhaps they want to capture him alive?"

"No." Ling Wuwen shook his head, pointing to the screen displaying images of the sanatorium.

"That's what they want. To threaten him with Gu Xidong's mother, to force him to leave me, to force him to give up his revenge. What does that tell you?"

The doctor thought for a moment, then his expression changed: "So that means they... are scared?"

"Yes." Ling Wuwen's lips curled into a cold smile.

"They're afraid Gu Xidong will continue his investigation. They're afraid he'll get the evidence from the gambling ship, afraid he'll get the lighting log from the sports center. This shows it's not a threat, it's panic. They're using this as a last resort to cut off Gu Xidong's connection with me."

"But why now? Why not earlier?"

Ling Wuwen fell silent. She looked in the direction of the gambling ship, and a terrible guess took shape.

"Because..." she said slowly.

"Gu Xidong has already obtained something. Or, he's about to obtain it. That's why his threat level has suddenly increased."

As if to confirm her guess—

The communicator rang.

This is Gu Xidong's emergency channel.

3

Ling Wuwen answered the call immediately.

"No questions asked." Gu Xidong's voice suppressed excitement. "I got it."

"A sign-in sheet?"

"Not only that," he said quickly.

"I got the sign-in sheet. When I left, I went into an unlocked office, opened a safe with a simple combination (the combination was today's date), and there was a USB drive inside."

He paused, his breathing rapid.

"The USB drive contains all of 'Heart of the Abyss's' transaction records over the past three years. This includes transfers to Chen Guodong and Zhou Wentao, share allocations for 'Under the Ice Club,' and... a complete execution plan for 'Final Judgment.'"

Ling Wuwen's heart pounded wildly.

"What does the plan say?"

"They said they wanted to create an 'accident' at the ISU Grand Prix of Skating in China." Gu Xidong's voice turned cold. "The target was me. They wanted to make a 'crazy, retired skater trying to take revenge on society' 'suddenly have a mental breakdown' during the competition, attacking the judges and spectators with his skates. Then, the 'heroic' security personnel would 'have no choice' but to shoot me in the right chest, seriously injuring me but not killing me. This would both eliminate me and establish Zhou Wentao and his team's image of 'decisive crisis management'."

Ling Wuwen gripped the communicator tightly.

So that's how it is. A public execution, a bloody stage play.

"Where are you now?" she asked.

"On the speedboat, heading towards rendezvous point three. But I just received a signal that the hospital ship's encrypted channel has been triggered. Has something happened?"

Ling Wuwen looked at the countdown on the screen:

48:21

48:20

"Gu Xidong," she said, her voice unusually calm, "Black Swan sent us a video, threatening you with your mother, demanding you leave me within an hour, or else she will harm you."

There was silence on the other end of the communicator. A deathly silence.

A few seconds later, Gu Xidong's voice came through, eerily calm: "Send me the video."

"No, your current device is not secure—"

"Send it to me," he repeated. "Encrypt and compress it, with a password. I need to see the whole thing."

Ling Wuwen looked at Dr. Schmidt. The doctor nodded and began the procedure.

One minute later, the video was successfully sent.

The sound of Gu Xidong watching a video came through the communicator.

Ling Wuwen could hear his breathing, from steady to rapid, and finally into a suppressed, beast-like growl.

The video has finished playing.

4

Another silence.

Then, Gu Xidong spoke:

"Is the footage from the nursing home from real-time surveillance?"

"Judging from the angle and lighting, it should be tonight's," Ling Wuwen said, "but I'm not sure if it's a loop recording."

"What about the surveillance cameras on the gambling ship?"

"It's real-time. They can report you anytime."

Gu Xidong laughed. The laughter was short, cold, and tinged with blood.

"So they panicked. Because I got the USB drive, and they knew that if I made it public, their 'final judgment' would become a joke."

"But they're gambling," Ling Wuwen said, "gambling that you'll give up for your mother."

"They don't understand me," Gu Xidong's voice suddenly became very soft, "nor do they understand you."

"What are you planning to do?"

"Stand by the original plan," Gu Xidong said. "Go to the sports center and get the lighting log. Then..."

He paused.

"Then we went to the sanatorium."

Ling Wuwen's body jolted violently: "What?"

"Aren't they threatening me with my mother?" Gu Xidong said. "Then I'll go get her. I'll take her to a safe place, somewhere they can't find her."

"That's too dangerous! There's definitely an ambush at the nursing home now!"

"I know," Gu Xidong said calmly.

"So we need a plan. A plan that can both take my mother away and turn the tables on her."

Ling Wuwen looked at the countdown on the screen:

41:33

41:32

"There's not enough time," she said. "If they don't see a message that you've left the casino ship in an hour, they'll make their move."

"Then let them think I've left," Gu Xidong said.

"Doctor, can you forge a CCTV video from the kitchen passageway of the casino ship? It needs to look like I sneaked away."

Dr. Schmidt paused for a moment, then nodded:

"Sure. The casino ship's surveillance system has vulnerabilities; I've studied their coding methods before. Give me twenty minutes, and I can create a convincing fake video and send it to their monitoring backend."

"Okay," Gu Xidong said. "Wuwen, what about you? The location of the medical ship has been exposed; we must move immediately."

"It's already being done." Ling Wuwen looked at the doctor.

"We have a backup plan – there is a fishing boat disguised as a fishing vessel ten nautical miles away, and some of the medical equipment has been transferred. We can complete the evacuation of all personnel within half an hour."

"And what about you?" Gu Xidong asked. "Your body..."

"I won't die," Ling Wuwen said.

"But you should be careful when you go to the sports center. It's definitely a trap now."

"I know." Gu Xidong paused, "No questions asked."

"Um?"

"If...we fail this time, if we all..."

"There are no 'ifs'," Ling Wuwen interrupted him.

"We must succeed. Because failure doesn't mean either me or you die."

She looked at the surveillance footage of Ci'en Nursing Home on the screen, and at the old woman who was holding a rag doll and muttering to herself.

"Failure means that we have dragged a mother who has already lost her son once into losing him a second time."

Gu Xidong's voice came through the communicator as he took a deep breath.

"You're right," he said. "So we have to win."

"Gu Xidong," Ling Wuwen suddenly called out to him.

"What's wrong?"

"In the video, they said you are..." she paused, ""You are my light."

Gu Xidong was stunned.

A few seconds later, he said, "That's what I said when I was at sea. When you were unconscious."

"I know," Ling Wuwen said softly, "but I want to tell you..."

She looked out the porthole, at the deep sea, and at the gradually brightening horizon in the distance.

"You are my light too."

"That was true three years ago, and it is true now."

So, you came back alive.

On the other end of the communicator, Gu Xidong remained silent for a long time.

It went on for so long that Ling Wuwen thought the signal had been cut off.

Then his voice came, hoarse but firm:

"Um."

"I will definitely come back alive."

"Then we'll finish the dance together."

Communication ended.

Ling Wuwen put down the communicator and leaned back in his wheelchair.

5

The sky outside the window began to turn white, and the first rays of dawn pierced the sea surface, dyeing it a pale gold.

A new day begins.

The countdown continues:

32:11

32:10

Dr. Schmidt came over and placed a transfer plan on her lap.

"All personnel are already being evacuated. Seventy percent of the medical equipment has been transferred, and the rest are non-essential items. The fishing boat will set sail in forty minutes, heading to a private dock on Jeju Island, South Korea, where our people will meet us."

"And you?" Ling Wuwen looked up at him.

"I'll go with you," the doctor said. "To pick up Gu Xidong, to the sports center, to the sanatorium—wherever you go, I'll be there."

Ling Wuwen looked at the old man who had been by her side for three years.

"I might die," she said.

"I'm seventy years old," Dr. Schmidt smiled. "And as a doctor, I've long been accustomed to life and death."

He crouched down to examine Ling Wuwen's abdominal wound. There was fresh bleeding on the gauze, but it wasn't serious.

"But you have to promise me one thing." The doctor looked up at her, his eyes serious.

"What?"

"After this is over, no matter what, get a full course of treatment," he said earnestly. "Not for revenge, but for yourself. For the life your sister gave you."

Ling Wuwen fell silent.

She looked out the window at the increasingly bright sky.

Then she nodded.

"it is good."

I promise you.

The doctor stood up and began packing up the important equipment in the command center. Ling Wuwen maneuvered his wheelchair to the control panel and pulled up the satellite map one last time.

The three red dots are still flashing:

Hospital ship, German clinic, Ci'en Sanatorium.

She stared at the red dot of the sanatorium, at the place she had never set foot in, yet which carried half of her bloodline.

Then, she closed the map.

A new program has been opened.

That was something she had secretly developed over three years, something she had never used before—

Tracking and countermeasure system.

Enter the encryption signature of the Black Swan video.

start up.

The system started running, and lines of code scrolled rapidly across the screen, like a silent war.

Dr. Schmidt walked over: "What is this?"

"A gift," Ling Wuwen said, "a return gift for their threats against us."

She looked at the countdown on the screen:

18:44

18:43

There are 18 minutes left until the ultimatum is issued.

There are only eighteen minutes left until the final battle.