Chapter 433

Chapter 433 The People and Events Behind Those Choices

Hearing Su Rui’s words, Ding Muyang’s expression grew complicated. His face flushed red, and he seemed at a loss for words.

“Too embarrassed to say it? Then let me say it for you.”

Su Rui looked at Ding Muyang, a mocking glint in his eyes: “At the time, it was a critical moment for leadership reshuffling in the National Security serious crimes division, and you were busy, couldn’t get away.”

“At the time, I was overseas. Even though I couldn’t come back in person, I still did what I was supposed to do. And you?”

Su Rui stared hard at this former comrade and said, “Maybe you were really busy back then, but it’s been over a year now. Have you completely put this whole thing out of your mind?”

Ding Muyang was speechless, his entire body drenched in sweat.

“So please, don’t say any more high-sounding words. You’re not the Ding Muyang you used to be. For the sake of your own future, betraying your brothers and going back on your word is no big deal to you anymore.”

“I really want to know, who put you up to this, to sell me out?” Su Rui said coldly. In that moment, the icy gleam in his eyes had sharpened to a degree that sent chills down one’s spine.

“I didn’t sell you out, I just……” Ding Muyang started to speak but stopped himself, because he realized his rebuttal was utterly feeble.

“You just lent the National Security interrogation room to a bunch of fake cops? Let them torture a confession out of me however they pleased? Even kill me here? Did you think I was already as good as dead?”

As Su Rui spoke, he kicked the office desk, sending the heavy solid wood table crashing hard into Ding Muyang’s chest, knocking him to the ground again.

“Tell me, what reason could possibly drive you to disregard the life of a former comrade?” Su Rui was still seated on the stool, but the flames of fury had begun to burn in his eyes.

They were once men who could entrust their backs to each other on the battlefield, and now one could turn around and shoot the other in the back. How could Su Rui not feel a chill in his heart?

Ding Muyang clutched his chest and said nothing. He was already in the wrong, and on top of that he was no match for Su Rui in a fight, so fighting back would have been pointless anyway.

Su Rui stood up, dragged Ding Muyang’s body out from under the desk, and threw him hard onto the sofa.

“Talk!”

Ding Muyang’s body hit the sofa and then tumbled to the floor. He coughed a few times face-down before lifting his flushed face.

“Someone got hold of evidence of my misconduct. If that material were handed to the disciplinary committee, it would mean at least ten years.” Ding Muyang said with great difficulty.

“So you were going to trade my life for those ten years?”

Su Rui growled, like a wounded beast.

If the person who had schemed against him from behind wasn’t Ding Muyang, even if it had been some random stranger, Su Rui wouldn’t have been this furious.

Ding Muyang had changed completely. He was no longer the comrade whose life Su Rui could entrust with his own, but a scheming opportunist who would stop at nothing to climb higher.

“I know, this was all my fault. I regret it, but I also know there’s no medicine for regret in this world.”

Ding Muyang struggled to prop himself up, leaning against the sofa with his gaze lowered: “For doing something like this, I don’t dare ask for your forgiveness, and I don’t expect you to still consider me a friend. If killing me would make you feel better, then go ahead.”

Although Su Rui had sensed Ding Muyang’s change long ago, he had always been unwilling to face that fact directly, and had often chosen to avoid it.

But now, forced to confront it head-on, he found that it was all so much harder than he had imagined.

“Kill you?” A cold smile appeared in Su Rui’s eyes: “If killing you could turn back time, I’d be willing to try.”

Su Rui’s meaning was clear: whether or not he killed Ding Muyang, none of it mattered anymore.

The two of them could never go back to the way things were. It was over between them.

“Tell me, who has the evidence of your misconduct?” Su Rui was silent for a long moment before he spoke.

Ding Muyang let out a self-deprecating laugh: “At this point, there’s no use hiding it any longer. It’s Nangong Shun. He came to me from the very beginning, wanting to use me to get rid of you.”

“Nangong Shun?”

Su Rui narrowed his eyes slightly, repeating the name to himself, then said: “The reason he wanted to control you to get rid of me was to show off in front of the old man Nangong, adding weight to his own smooth rise to power. But with his level of intelligence, that’s about as far as he could go. If you told me this trap was something he laid out in advance, I wouldn’t believe it for a second.”

Su Rui knew that Nangong Shun had once sent people to surround and kill him, but he and Nightingale had fought back and cut them all down, even leaving the life of the master fighter Mai Taishan behind.

Now, old man Nangong was practically a vegetable and had been hospitalized for a long time. Nangong Shun had nearly taken control of the entire family, and at this point he had absolutely no reason to fight Su Rui to the death, as it would only drain him faster.

Of course, from the very beginning, Su Rui had never planned to let this guy off the hook.

“I don’t believe in his intelligence either, but this really was his idea.” Ding Muyang’s expression was conflicted: “At least, that’s what he told me himself.”

“Are you lying?” Su Rui stared into the eyes of his former comrade, expressionless, as if looking at a stranger.

Ding Muyang’s gaze flickered, as if stung by Su Rui’s eyes and his question. He raised his head with a trace of sorrow: “I have no reason to lie anymore.”

“Alright then, I’ll go find Nangong Shun and get some answers.”

Su Rui looked at Ding Muyang, who had lost all his spirit and vitality, and said quietly: “Ten years ago, you saved my life on the battlefield. From today on, we owe each other nothing. It’s over between us.”

With that, he turned to walk out of the office.

When he heard those words “it’s over between us,” Ding Muyang’s whole body trembled, his eyes filled with nothing but anguish.

For the sake of his own selfish gain, he had finally paid a devastating price.

Having harmed his own brother, what face did he have left to go on living in this world?

“Su Rui, don’t go, please don’t go! If I were Nangong Shun, I would have laid a net waiting for you!” Ding Muyang shouted urgently: “If you stay in the National Security headquarters building, your safety is guaranteed. No one would dare touch you there!”

Su Rui turned his face back, a mocking look in his eyes: “Staying in the National Security headquarters building guarantees my safety?”

“I can guarantee it!” Ding Muyang growled.

“But those people almost killed me in this very building today. That’s your guarantee?” Su Rui gave Ding Muyang a long, deep look: “In my eyes, Nangong Shun isn’t even worth the dirt on my shoes. So what if he lays a net for me?”

Su Rui had no intention of heeding this former comrade’s advice. Before stepping out the door, he said one last thing: “I hope this is the last time we ever see each other in this lifetime.”

…………

Su Rui left National Security without looking back, striding through the night. No one knew what was going through his mind at that moment.

His thoughts were a mystery, but his direction was clear: the Nangong family estate on the outskirts of the capital.

As Su Rui walked, a car slowly pulled up alongside him.

The window rolled down, revealing Xiang Feng’s face.

“Brother Rui, get in. I’ll give you a ride.”

Looking at Xiang Feng’s sincere face, Su Rui, who had just left Ding Muyang carrying a weight of boundless sorrow, suddenly felt a wave of warmth rise in his heart.

Even when some people betray you, the world never runs short of genuine feeling.

“This will drag you into it.”

Su Rui knew that if he got into Xiang Feng’s car, people with ulterior motives would surely talk. He had far too many enemies in the capital, and it could very likely affect Xiang Feng’s path to promotion.

Even knowing what Xiang Feng’s choice would be, he couldn’t bring himself to accept the gesture.

“Brother Rui, saying that makes you sound like a stranger to me.”

Xiang Feng kept driving, slowly keeping pace beside Su Rui: “We’re all from the classified operations unit, risking our lives for this country, yet there are always people who like to stir up trouble behind the scenes. They need to face the consequences. Brother Rui, I came knowing full well what might happen, but I don’t care about any of that.”

Hearing this, Su Rui stopped walking.

Seeing this, Xiang Feng immediately hit the brakes.

Su Rui pulled open the car door and sat in the back seat.

But as he got in, he looked in the rearview mirror and saw more than a dozen cars appearing one after another.

Every single one bore National Security license plates.

Seeing this, Xiang Feng pumped his fist with excitement.

These cars had pulled out without anyone’s approval, without any group discussion. It was entirely spontaneous, a spontaneous show of support for Su Rui — or perhaps, they were standing up for what was right.

No matter how cold the surface of society may appear, warm-hearted people make up the vast majority.

Even though this country can sometimes seem a little disappointing, justice will one day reclaim its glory.

On that point, we all need to hold onto our own faith.

Su Rui may have only crossed paths with these National Security agents briefly, perhaps not even knowing their names, but these passionate men were willing, at this critical moment, to make their stance known through the simplest of actions, stepping forward to lend him their support.

Watching the convoy following behind, it would be a lie to say Su Rui felt nothing.

In truth, he was not alone.

What was clearly a private action had, because of these vehicles, almost taken on the appearance of an official National Security operation.

There were few pedestrians on the road at night, but every night traveler who caught sight of this convoy couldn’t help but marvel and speculate, guessing that National Security must be carrying out some major operation, otherwise why would so many vehicles be moving together on such a large scale in the middle of the night?

“Brother Rui, the guys really came through.” Xiang Feng said: “Actually, every office in National Security has surveillance cameras. They’re usually not turned on, but after the guys went back just now, some of them were worried, so they switched on the cameras in Director Ding’s office.”

At this point, a layer of coldness crept into Xiang Feng’s voice.

“None of us expected that Director Ding would actually……”

Clearly, Ding Muyang’s betrayal of his comrade had disgusted Xiang Feng and the other agents alike.

“Everyone makes their own choices. He and I are strangers now.” Su Rui’s eyes narrowed slightly, as if endless smoke and fire from the battlefield were drifting before him.

…………

At that same moment, Ding Muyang stood before the glass window, watching the National Security convoy following Su Rui, his eyes filled with desolation.

He opened his phone’s email app and forwarded a very large attachment stored in his drafts to Su Rui’s inbox.

The attachment was enormous. Even on the National Security headquarters network, it still took over half an hour to finish sending.

Once it was sent, Ding Muyang deactivated the email account, then took apart his phone, snapped the storage chip in two, and threw it out the window.

In this age where information technology had advanced to a staggering degree, all data deleted or even wiped from computers and phones could be recovered through technical means. There was only one way to ensure that data could never be dug out again, and that was to physically destroy the storage media that had held it.

“This is some material I gathered after you went overseas. I hope it can be of help to you.”

With that, Ding Muyang took one last lingering look at the starry sky outside the window.