Chapter 37: Emotional Resonance

Xu Yan’s voice trembled slightly with agitation, carrying genuine pain and fury.

"Those were my comrades! I watched them bleed, I watched Mingjie’s arm nearly get severed! You think I don't feel pain?!"

"But does pain help?! You tell me!" Xu Yan’s voice rose sharply, his eyes flashing with indignation.

A cold snort escaped his nostrils. "What about the Special Forces mission? Are we supposed to complete it or not?"

"The mission wasn't finished, the interference source was still up there! Did you want me to hold them and weep while we all got blown into the sea by 'Redeem's' artillery?!"

"In the end, the mission would have failed! That’s how you wanted it, isn’t it?"

As the final accusation hung in the air, Xu Yan turned abruptly toward Zhou Zheng. His eyes burned with a sincerity that bordered on tragic defiance:

"Investigator! That device is an untamed beast! I know its dangers better than anyone! Using it was a gamble with our lives!"

"In that desperate situation at the 'Storm Tower,' the only thing I could do was utilize it to snatch a sliver of opportunity for a counterattack!"

"I evaluated it because I had to squeeze every last bit of value out of it to create a chance for my teammates to survive!"

"This is the battlefield, damn it! Not a laboratory! This isn't a place to talk about feelings! Only by surviving and completing the mission are you qualified to talk about anything else! That is my 'instinct'! The instinct of a Jinjiang Special Forces soldier!"

Xu Yan’s outburst, reeking of gunpowder and the raw bloodiness of the battlefield, instantly shattered the cold, calculated atmosphere of the interrogation room. The pain, anger, and remorse for his comrades' injuries in his eyes were incredibly authentic.

Yet, while the remorse was real, the reason was not what Ouyang Nan imagined.

He had skillfully framed the coldness of his "evaluation" as a ruthless calculation to extract every drop of utility from a last-resort lifeline—precisely the quality expected of an elite soldier in a life-or-death moment!

Ouyang Nan was stunned by his sudden eruption and sharp questioning. Looking at the genuine pain and fury in his eyes, she was momentarily speechless. The challenge she had prepared died in her throat, her gaze clouded with confusion and the erosion of her own confidence.

Could it be… that she was truly being too sensitive?

Had she misinterpreted his choices in that life-or-death crisis?

The sharp, probing intensity in Zhou Zheng’s eyes also softened slightly.

Xu Yan’s defense, filled with raw grit and logic—especially the final line, "Only by surviving and completing the mission are you qualified to talk about anything else"—struck precisely at the core values of an interstellar soldier.

He stopped tapping his fingers against the table.

"Emotional outbursts cannot cover up the questionable facts," Zhou Zheng’s voice remained cold, but the aggressive pressure had been diluted by Xu Yan’s explosion.

The tone was now more like that of a bureaucratic duty, lacking the personal dismissal of the person being questioned.

After a pause of several seconds, Zhou Zheng said flatly, "Regarding the technical details, we will let the data speak. All personnel involved are to remain at the base, pending further investigation. You are not to leave your respective dormitory areas without permission."

He waved his hand, signaling the end of the interrogation.

Xu Yan and Ouyang Nan were escorted out separately.

Stepping outside the cold metal door of the interrogation room, Xu Yan’s back was soaked in cold sweat. That performance had exhausted every ounce of his mental energy.

He glanced slightly to the side, catching a glimpse of Duan Peng at the end of the corridor, being led toward another room by two gray-clad inspectors. Duan Peng looked at Xu Yan with eyes filled with worry and gave a firm, encouraging nod.

The storm had not ceased; it had merely been temporarily held back by a fragile levee woven from blood, lies, and extraordinary perception.

Blue Star society was built primarily upon emotional bonds. His "confession," which could have won a top acting award, was based on the core conflict that constantly plagued the hearts of special forces soldiers.

Before becoming soldiers, they were ordinary Blue Star citizens. Even in the future, once they left the special forces, they would remain ordinary Blue Star citizens.

This was a point that even many heroes had reflected upon in their memoirs—the instincts built up over time clashing with the choices forced by uncontrollable inner emotions.

No one could provide a definitive answer as to which was correct.

But one thing was beyond doubt: all special forces members had to treat the mission as their core objective.

And Xu Yan had expressed the contradiction between suppressed emotion and mission priority in a way that was both agonizing and conflicted.

Although he had seemingly extricated himself for the moment, he had little confidence in how long it would last.

Beneath the levee, dark currents surged, threatening to break through at any time.

Today it was Ouyang Nan’s "righteous destruction of family," and tomorrow, it might be another teammate "upholding justice."

The fate of the captain, himself, and Duan Peng was hard to predict.

But the very nature of the Special Forces left Xu Yan with no countermeasure.

Under the lockdown, the Jinjiang base was like a stagnant pool, calm on the surface but swirling with treacherous undercurrents beneath.

The figures of the gray-clad inspectors moved like ghosts, silently weaving between the barracks, training grounds, and administrative buildings.

The oppressive atmosphere made every breath feel heavy with an invisible weight.

Confined to his cramped dormitory, Xu Yan was effectively under house arrest, even if not formally in solitary. Aside from the official notice of the investigation, the reality was much the same.

Outside the window lay a gray, overcast sky and a corner of the training ground bisected by barbed wire. He sat cross-legged on the hard bunk, his fingertips unconsciously tracing the cold edge of the bed, sketching out the incomplete energy field resonance model belonging to the Ram system.

Every heartbeat was accompanied by the echo of Zhou Zheng’s cold, scrutinizing gaze and Ouyang Nan’s accusations in the interrogation room.

*‘Review of the logical chain has locked onto the core technology of the energy field. Estimated progress of reverse engineering: 17 days. Risk threshold critical.’* The covetous stream of consciousness was cold and precise, like an ultimatum.

Seventeen days!

In seventeen days, the lies Jing Zhimin had woven would be shredded by cold, hard data.

The "Cocoon Weaving" project would be classified as a severe violation, the core technology would be confiscated and sealed, and it might even be reverse-engineered and buried forever.

As for him and Jing Zhimin, the best outcome would be stripping off their uniforms and ending up in prison.

The worst… Xu Yan dared not think about it.

The covetousness that had been discovered would be a disaster more terrifying than any enemy.

Despair, like a cold tide, threatened to drown him.

Just then, a rhythmic knocking sounded at the dormitory door—three long, two short. It was Duan Peng!

Xu Yan rose immediately to open the door.

Duan Peng slipped inside and quickly shut it.

His face showed signs of weariness and a flicker of hard-to-conceal anxiety. He lowered his voice: "Old Xu, things look bad. 'Lynx'... Captain Zhao has woken up, but his injuries are too severe. He may... never be able to return to active duty. Wu Mingjie’s arm injury will also affect his fine motor control. The 'Fat Cat' faction is spreading rumors that for the next major joint exercise, our Jinjiang unit might not even qualify for the reserve team!"

He caught his breath, his eyes burning with a desperate, all-or-nothing intensity. "Damn it, I can't just sit here and wait to die like this! You’ve got a sharp brain, think of something! If it comes to it, I’ll break you out of here, even if I have to raid the prison!"