After Crossing Over, I Marked the Empress

837th Street, Fourth District, Ancient Medicine Preserve.

In a cramped storage room, 7-8 people sat groaning against the walls.

A gaunt old man was deftly bandaging and setting bones for the injured.

These dozen or so people in the small cabin were the thugs who had just attacked Shen Han and the others.

Each of them bore injuries of varying severity.

The most seriously wounded was the one who had pulled out a trihedral scraper to stab Tang Yucai and was then kicked away by Shen Han.

His right wrist bone was shattered, and three ribs were broken.

He now lay barely conscious on a rough plank bed, his eyes still filled with viciousness.

The gaunt old man finished treating him roughly, wiped the sweat from his brow, and said to a man squatting nearby smoking a cigarette, “Hao, you lot should stop doing this kind of thing in the future. The people you targeted today are clearly not to be trifled with. If they hadn’t shown mercy, I doubt any of you would have made it back in one piece.”

Hearing his grandfather’s admonishment, Yan Hao took a deep drag on his cigarette and said impatiently, “Alright, alright, I get it! We’ll be more careful next time.”

He spat on the ground and continued, “We were set up this time. They only said the targets had bodyguards, not that they could fight like that!”

Hearing these complaints, the old man knew his grandson wasn’t listening to a word he said.

He shook his head with a sigh and went back to treating the others’ wounds.

Just then, the wooden door of the small room creaked open from the outside.

A tall man wearing a baseball cap strode in.

As soon as he saw this person, Yan Hao immediately stood up.

Gritting his teeth, he confronted the man in the cap, “Damn it! You really screwed us over this time. Look what a mess my brothers are in! We won’t be able to work for at least three months.”

The capped man’s expression didn’t change at this intimidation.

He gently closed the wooden door, then walked into the room and casually surveyed the injuries of the wounded, speaking softly, “You’ve certainly had a tough time of it this round. But don’t worry, I’ve brought ample compensation. Never mind three months, you can take it easy for quite a while.”

As he spoke, the capped man held out the leather briefcase he was carrying.

Seeing the substantial size of the case, Yan Hao’s expression improved somewhat.

He lit another cigarette for himself and reached out to take the briefcase. Its hefty weight softened his attitude even further.

“That’s more like it. My brothers just want to make a living, not get into too much trouble. Don’t come looking for us again if you’ve got jobs like this in the future.”

The capped man nodded slightly and quietly agreed.

Yan Hao, cigarette clenched between his teeth, pressed open the briefcase’s clasps.

However, when he looked inside with excitement, he was shocked to see a case full of neatly stacked joss paper.

He suddenly looked up at the tall man before him, “What do you mean by-”

Before he could finish saying “this,” a military dagger had already pierced his throat.

The man in the baseball cap kicked the body away with one foot, then continued killing the second person, the third person, his bloody dagger in hand.

The 3:40 PM sun was at its fiercest, its rays penetrating through cracks in the roof.

But what it illuminated was a sea of blood.

Over a dozen thugs lay in pools of blood flowing from their own bodies, clearly feeling themselves sinking into the cold depths of hell.

In less than two minutes, the only people left alive in the small wooden cabin were the tall man wearing the baseball cap and the gaunt old man who had come to help his wayward grandson.

“You’ll face retribution! The gods in heaven are watching!” exclaimed the gaunt old man.

Hearing these words, the tall man laughed deeply.

“Is that so? But I feel that the gods of this world are the sharp blade in my hand.”

With that, he smiled as he pierced the old man’s carotid artery.

The capped man flicked the blood off his dagger and kicked the briefcase at his feet. “This money should last you a lifetime down there.”

At the same moment.

In a residence at a certain sanitarium in the Second Northern District.

An elderly man with graying temples sat at a desk, staring at the many intelligence reports spread out before him, and began issuing orders methodically.

“There’s no unusual activity at the base, and no pre-positioned agents from Gu Junwan in the herb market. This probe mission was very successful. Now, immediately initiate the hunt operation.”

“Red Fox, get your people moving. We’ve trained for a thousand days to use them for an hour. For those who sacrifice themselves, the heroic monument of our great Dayin nation will remember them forever!”

Rewinding time slightly.

Just as Shen Han and the others were finishing their fight at the herb stall, Gu Junwan, in her office at headquarters, had a vague feeling that she had overlooked something.

This feeling had actually been present since last night when she had video-called her two mothers.

And at this moment, the sense that something had slipped out of her control was becoming increasingly apparent.

She didn’t wait for this unease to continue fermenting in her heart.

Once again, she dialed her Omega mother’s number.

The call connected quickly, and Gu Qianqiu’s slightly weary voice came through the line.

“What is it?”

Gu Junwan was silent for a moment, then asked directly, “Mother, are you hiding something from me?”

On the other end of the phone, the former empress laughed lightly, “Don’t tell me Yucai is giving your girlfriend a hard time? You know what she’s like-”

“Mother!” Gu Junwan interrupted her joking, “You dare not answer my question and attempt to influence my judgment with my girlfriend. What exactly are you planning? Does it have to be this way?”

On the other end of the phone, Gu Qianqiu’s smile faded. After a long while, she replied, “Yes, it has to be this way.”

Hearing this, Gu Junwan knew her mother wouldn’t reveal any more information to her.

She ended the call and dialed Shen Han’s number instead.

No answer.

She tried calling her Alpha mother, with the same result.

At this point, she immediately realized that the situation slipping out of her control might be even more serious than she had imagined.

“Xu Zhao, get me in touch with Colonel Ping Jiashi of the Third Army Group right away!”

While Gu Junwan was racing against time and deploying troops against an unseen enemy, Tang Yucai, in the herb market district, looked down at her phone where all signal bars had disappeared, her expression suddenly turning grave.

She said to a nervous Alpha beside her, “The big fish I’ve been baiting has taken the hook!”

Shen Han, wearing a dejected expression, forced a smile, “Dad, I didn’t know you liked fishing. Can I accompany you to fish at sea in the future?”

Tang Yucai pulled her along, walking briskly towards another part of the herb district.

Her voice carried obvious urgency, “Listen carefully. In the coup that Junwan faced before, we were all set up by someone. Even her sister was unknowingly used. Over the past year, we’ve been investigating in secret, trying to find the person behind it all. The situation involved is very complex, and I can’t say much now.”

“I came here this time to draw out the person behind it all. If we don’t root out this person, the entire Federation will fall into even greater chaos in the future. Now those people have started to act. The signal jamming is the prelude to their real move.”

“Can you help me get through this most dangerous hour or two?”

As Tang Yucai spoke, Shen Han didn’t interrupt her with a single word.

By now, she had realized that her ‘dad’ had kept this from her girlfriend and was about to stir up a huge storm here.

Her mind raced, analyzing the information that the other had just conveyed to her.

She knew that what she needed to do – and could do – now was to continue following the other’s original plan.

Rather than taking it upon herself to vie for command of this battle.

In this situation, much of the information she understood was separated by barriers.

She couldn’t stand at a high enough vantage point to oversee the entire situation.

“Dad, tell me what we should do now. I’ll do whatever you say!”

Tang Yucai irritably patted her head lightly, “Stop calling me that! Have I agreed to marry my daughter to you? I haven’t even settled accounts with you for earlier.”

“Now, keep that S-class Alpha with you, and have the rest of the people disperse and hide in the residential buildings on both sides. Not only will they be unable to help if they follow, but they’ll also become targets for the enemy later.”

“What we need to do now is not fight, but escape. Throw away those burdens, and we’ll pick them up again after this is over.”

Shen Han glanced at her sideways.

She thought to herself, ‘Are you serious about the word ‘burdens’? Why does it feel like you’re describing trash? Throwing away and picking up again.’

After this mental grumble, she immediately issued orders to the team members.

Military orders were absolute, and even if the team members were confused in their hearts, they wouldn’t question their captain’s orders.

Ma Haoyu ducked into a nearby shack.

Looking at the three gradually retreating figures, he felt as if he had returned to that battle on the New Li Country border.

Although the location had changed and the people around him were different, that sense of imminent danger was just the same as before.

They hadn’t gone far when Ning Xi, at the rear of the three-person formation, suddenly exerted force, knocking down the two in front.

A burst of bullets almost grazed her back as they flew towards the front, hitting the mud wall at the end of the street.

After falling, the three rolled on the ground and then crouched low, following Tang Yucai as she turned into a narrow alley.

They passed through sideways, quickly scraping their shoulders against the walls, causing dust to fall.

The hot breath from their noses had barely left their nostrils before it was bounced back by the wall mere inches away.

Shen Han couldn’t help but think that it was fortunate all three of them had slim builds.

Someone a bit bulkier might not even be able to squeeze through this gap between the walls.

Tang Yucai seemed very familiar with the terrain here, leading Shen Han and the other through constant turns into left and right alleys.

The sound of gunfire was incessant in their ears, yet not a single bullet managed to hit them.

“Once we’re out of this building complex, there’s a relatively long stretch of wasteland ahead. It’s easiest to get hit by stray bullets there. We’ll run across it at top speed. Once we reach the abandoned factory at the end of the grassland, we should be relatively safe.”

As soon as she finished speaking, an explosion sounded not far above their heads.

Shrapnel flew out like a violent rainstorm, hurtling towards them.

Shen Han quickly pushed Tang Yucai forward.

She and Ning Xi rolled to avoid this sudden attack.

Tang Yucai’s martial skills were not as good as those of the guard team members. Even with Shen Han’s push just now, her left calf was still wounded by the flying shrapnel.

In an instant, blood gushed from the wound, spilling a bright red on the ground.

She gritted her teeth without making a sound.

Shen Han, however, cried out anxiously, “Dad, are you alright?”

This shout made Ning Xi, who had just gotten up, weak in the knees, almost kneeling before the two of them on the spot.

“It’s nothing! Keep running!”

Tang Yucai had no time to correct the other’s form of address now. She was about to push herself up from the ground.

But Shen Han was faster, bending down to hoist her up and running straight for the wasteland not far away.

“Dad, your leg is injured. I can run faster carrying you.”

Ning Xi chased after her captain’s silhouette, quickly entering the waist-high grass, occasionally firing back as they ran.

Although they were fleeing for their lives, her heart was filled with an inexplicable sense of confusion.

“That Teacher Tang is the Alpha mother of the boss’s girlfriend, right? Who exactly is this mysterious Omega partner of hers?”