Chapter 153: The Base Under Attack

Arriving at the hot pot restaurant, Zhang Mingyang followed the waiter into a private room.

"Mutton, beef, spinach..." He casually named a few items.

"I'm starving to death. I'm going to eat a lot tonight." Bai Muqing hurriedly arranged the bowls and chopsticks to get ready for the meal.

Meanwhile, Zhang Mingyang stared at his phone, continuing to study the star map displayed on the screen. He needed to figure out what this could possibly mean.

Before long, the simmering broth and the dishes were served. Bai Muqing urged him to put down his phone and eat first, telling him he could look at it later.

Zhang Mingyang used one hand to swish the mutton in the pot while his other hand held the phone, scanning the messages from the past couple of days.

"I almost forgot!" Zhang Mingyang asked Bai Muqing to let him use her communicator.

"What for?" Bai Muqing looked at him suspiciously, thinking he wanted to check the private messages on her device.

"Where is your mind at?" Zhang Mingyang smiled. "It's not that my communicator is broken; I just want to log into my account using yours to see if there are any messages."

"Fine." Bai Muqing logged out of her account first and handed the device over to him.

Taking the communicator, Zhang Mingyang quickly logged into his own account.

*Ding, ding, ding!* Dozens of missed calls and unread messages popped up all at once.

"Good grief! So many?" He hurried to check who had been calling. "Tian Wenyuan! Tian Wenyuan! Still Tian Wenyuan!"

"Why are all these calls from Senior Brother Tian?" He checked the timestamps and saw they were all placed last night—around the time he figured he must have been inside the cave.

"I need to call him back right away to see what's wrong!" Since Tian Wenyuan had called so many times in a row, it must have been an emergency.

*Beep... beep... beep!*

"Hello! Mingyang, you're finally answering!" Tian Wenyuan's voice sounded extremely anxious on the other end.

"What's wrong, Senior Brother? My communicator malfunctioned."

"Jin Yaowen has been rescued!"

"What?" Hearing this news, Zhang Mingyang bolted to his feet, startling Bai Muqing, who was sitting right beside him. "What is it, Mingyang? Is it an emergency?"

"Jin Yaowen was rescued?" Thinking he might have misheard, Zhang Mingyang asked again.

"You heard me right, Jin Yaowen was rescued! Last night."

Confirming the news, Zhang Mingyang's mind went completely blank. "Senior Brother, didn't you say he was being held in the most secure part of the base? How could he possibly be rescued?"

Tian Wenyuan fell silent on the other end of the line for a moment before replying, "At one o'clock last night, a team of armed militants descended from the sky and raided the underground warehouse where Jin Yaowen was being detained. While rescuing him, they also attacked the Energy Department's storage facility and looted four tons of dark matter."

"What? What did you just say?" Hearing this, Zhang Mingyang was utterly dumbfounded. Four tons of dark matter! At the current rate of production, that was enough energy for half of a starship. Even if they worked at full capacity in the second half of the year, they would only be able to gather two-thirds of the required energy by the time of the starship's launch.

"Senior Brother, how could this happen? Were there any casualties?" Zhang Mingyang could never have imagined things would turn out this way.

Over the phone, Tian Wenyuan fell silent once more. "Junior Brother, we'd better talk about this after you return to the base."

Judging by Tian Wenyuan's tone, Zhang Mingyang suddenly had a sinking feeling that his senior brother was keeping something from him. "Senior Brother, is there something else you're hiding from me?"

"Just wait until you get back!" With that, Tian Wenyuan abruptly hung up the phone.

"Hello? Senior Brother? Senior Brother...?"

Seeing that Tian Wenyuan had disconnected the call, Zhang Mingyang slumped limply back into his chair.

Sitting next to him, Bai Muqing noticed his expression and quickly asked, "Mingyang, did something happen at the base?"

Zhang Mingyang stared blankly at her for a moment before replying, "The base has been attacked!"

"What? The base was attacked?" Bai Muqing was equally stunned by the news, completely unable to fathom how such a thing could happen.

Zhang Mingyang sat in his chair and thought for a moment. "No! I have to get back immediately!"

With that, he started to rush toward the exit. "Wait!" Bai Muqing grabbed him by the arm. "Mingyang, your injuries haven't healed yet. You can't go back right now."

"I have to go back!" The moment Zhang Mingyang thought about the base being attacked—especially the Energy Department—his mind instantly went to his teacher. In his heart, he desperately prayed that his teacher hadn't been on duty last night.

Shaking off Bai Muqing's restraint, Zhang Mingyang bolted outside. Realizing she couldn't stop him, Bai Muqing hurriedly gave chase. "Mingyang, wait for me, I'm coming back with you."

After rushing out of the hot pot restaurant, Zhang Mingyang hailed a cab and headed straight for Jiyang Airport.

In the car, Zhang Mingyang asked Bai Muqing to contact someone in their logistics department to inquire about casualties. Bai Muqing nodded quickly and began reaching out to her colleagues.

Meanwhile, Zhang Mingyang used Bai Muqing's communicator to call his teacher, but the line kept ringing with no answer.

This made him even more nervous. Why wouldn't his teacher pick up? He tried to reassure himself that perhaps his teacher was just busy.

On the phone, Bai Muqing was carefully asking about the situation at the base. "Mingyang, the base was attacked last night, and they've already recovered over a hundred bodies!"

"Over a hundred dead?" Hearing that number, Zhang Mingyang's heart leaped into his throat. He hurriedly urged Bai Muqing to ask if someone named Lin Guangming was among the victims.

Bai Muqing quickly put the question to her colleague, then shook her head and replied, "It's still unclear. The base hasn't released the list of the deceased yet, and things are completely chaotic inside!"

With no name list available and his teacher refusing to answer the phone, Zhang Mingyang could only pray that nothing had happened to him.

Half an hour later, the car arrived at the airport, and the two of them bolted out and headed straight for the military passageway.

At the military security checkpoint, Zhang Mingyang presented the identification issued by the base, and an officer promptly escorted him to the inner dispatch room.

Inside the dispatch room, Zhang Mingyang explained his situation and requested a military aircraft to fly him directly to the base.

Upon learning the purpose of his trip, a field-grade officer immediately notified the forward control tower to ready a small transport plane, and then arranged for an officer to escort the pair to the tarmac.

An officer led the two of them in a brisk jog all the way to the transport aircraft. Before boarding, the officer had Zhang Mingyang sign a dispatch form.

Once the paperwork was signed, the two hurried aboard, and the transport plane taxied down the runway and took off.

Inside the cabin, Zhang Mingyang sat in his seat, his leg shaking uncontrollably. He was far too tense; his mind was racing with what he should ask and what he should say the moment he saw his teacher.

Sitting beside him, Bai Muqing understood his anxiety. She had long known about the close relationship between Lin Guangming and him. She took Zhang Mingyang's hand to comfort him. "Mingyang, your teacher will be fine. The reason he didn't answer the phone earlier might just be because he's tied up with work. Think about it—the Energy Department was attacked, so he must have a mountain of matters waiting for him to handle."

"Right!" Listening to Bai Muqing's words, Zhang Mingyang tried to reassure himself. His teacher must be fine; he was just working—he was busy working.

The journey from Jiyang to the base took an hour and a half, and the whole time, Zhang Mingyang kept reminding himself that his teacher would be all right, and that he would see him very soon.