Chapter 154: A Double Blessing Before the Decisive Battle

"Are you serious? My mom is coming to Paris in person?"

Lu Ye felt a surge of barely-contained excitement. He was finally going to see his mother!

Wu Qing nodded. "Yes. Everything she has done has been leading up to this day."

Cheng Qimeng had assumed a false identity to infiltrate Y6, enduring hardships and plotting in the shadows for decades to climb to her current position. Leveraging Y6's resources, she had gathered intelligence from all corners of the globe and used it to suppress the Hongying Society.

Through a silent and flawless coordination between mother and son, the Hongying Society had been completely dismantled.

Immediately afterward, she had locked her sights on two major organizations simultaneously: the Holy Envoy Corps and Y6. Leaving virtually no breathing room, the pace was so relentless that it left no time for anyone to look deeper into her motives.

Lu Ye could already clearly discern his mother's ultimate goal.

She intended to wipe out the Hongying Society, Y6, and the Holy Envoy Corps all in one fell swoop, and then retire to her homeland draped in glory!

Wu Qing asked, "Brother Lu, do you have any thoughts regarding the layout of the battlefield?"

Lu Ye replied, "This game of chess is nearing its end. There's no need for any fancy tricks."

"I'm dropping the pretense. I plan to lay my cards on the table and go straight to war!"

"I'll use my identity as a member of S.H.I.E.L.D. to contact the European Section Six and have them dispatch reinforcements. Once Y6 and the Holy Envoy Corps start fighting in Paris, we'll flatten them both."

Wu Qing and Zhou Tao both frowned. "Isn't that a bit too straightforward?"

Lu Ye smiled. "If we don't make the stakes big enough, how are we going to draw out the person pulling the strings behind my mom?"

"We don't entirely understand, but we'll follow your lead."

Over the course of the following week, Su Qianqian hardly caught a glimpse of Lu Ye.

He traveled continuously across several European countries, lobbying local peers to join the operation.

Lu Ye's official reputation was far from insignificant. Not only was he S.H.I.E.L.D.'s premier warrior, but the resounding fame he had earned on the Middle Eastern battlefields still commanded awe and praise among his contemporaries.

He was a living war god, and fighting side by side with him was a rare and precious honor.

The five elite European agent squads lobbied by Lu Ye all confirmed their participation, trailing closely behind him back to Paris for deployment.

With everything in place, they only waited for Cheng Qimeng to lure the fish into the net.

Two days after completing the deployment in Paris, Wu Qing received word: "Confirmed. The Queen will stage a feigned defeat in three days and flee to Paris. The people from the Holy Envoy Corps will undoubtedly pursue her at all costs!"

"Good."

...

The next two days passed with the eerie tranquility before a storm.

Lu Ye acted as if he had not a care in the world, accompanying Su Qianqian to the Yiren Group's branch office every single day. No one could detect anything out of the ordinary.

Prosperous Paris bustled with traffic as usual, brimming everywhere with an atmosphere of romance.

Not a soul could have imagined that a massive battle was about to erupt within the city.

On the third day.

Lu Ye woke up bright and early, personally stepping into the kitchen to prepare a lavish breakfast for everyone before returning to the bedroom to gently wake Su Qianqian.

"Wife, you've been working here continuously for over a month. Why don't you stay home and get some proper rest today?"

Su Qianqian immediately sensed that a tempest was about to break. Rubbing her hazy eyes to force herself awake, she probed cautiously, "Shouldn't I be packing our luggage to go home?"

Lu Ye smiled and nodded. "Mhm. Barring any accidents, tomorrow night we'll be able to enjoy a family reunion dinner at our home in the mountainside villa."

Yet Su Qianqian seemed unable to muster any joy. She clutched Lu Ye's hand, rubbing her palms against his over and over, hesitating and stopping herself repeatedly.

"Stay safe. Please don't let anything happen to you."

With that, Su Qianqian touched her lower abdomen and murmured, "I don't want our child to be born without a father."

*Crash!*

A bolt of thunder exploded in Lu Ye's mind!

"Wife, what did you just say?"

"Y-y-you... are you pregnant?"

Blushing fiercely, Su Qianqian nodded. "Mhm. Both yesterday and the day before, I took tests and they both came back with two lines."

Suppressing his excitement and thrill, Lu Ye placed two fingers on Su Qianqian's pulse...

"Holy shit, I'm going to be a dad!!!"

This wild roar shook everyone in the apartment building. They swarmed to the doorway of the bedroom, asking with anxious concern, "What is it? Did Qianqian get pregnant?"

Su Qianqian's face turned as red as a beetroot down to the roots of her neck, and she nodded in confirmation.

Everyone was thrilled for the young couple!

"Captain, congratulations!"

"Brother, congratulations, congratulations!"

"Qianqian, you need to take care of your health from now on and not push yourself too hard with work!"

Chen Xi paced anxiously back and forth across the room.

"What do I do? What do I do?"

"Your big sister here is a single dog; I've never been a mother and I have no idea how to take care of Qianqian. I heard that postpartum confinement and all that stuff is terribly complicated!"

Lu Ye soothed her, "Sis, could you not be so high-strung? Aren't we going to pick Mom up and bring her home today, after all?"

"Oh, right!"

"Today really is a double blessing!"

During breakfast, before Su Qianqian could even speak, the members of the Apostles of Justice began patting their chests to reassure her one by one.

"Don't worry, Qianqian. We will definitely protect the Captain."

"We'll bring him back out the exact same way we take him out today, without a single missing limb. You can set your mind completely at ease!"

Su Qianqian smiled generously. "Then I'll leave him in your hands. I'll pack your luggage at home, and tomorrow when we return to Mingzhu City, everyone come over to our place for the reunion dinner, okay?"

In unison, everyone replied, "No problem!"

After breakfast.

Su Qianqian consciously returned to the upstairs bedroom to stay out of the way of everything that was about to unfold.

Meng Meiren hauled several large suitcases out from the basement, containing the Apostles of Justice's custom-made agent gear, armed to the teeth with live ammunition.

Even Liu Yiyi, who was not skilled in combat, donned military attire, fully equipped with self-defense weapons.

Before setting off, Lu Ye assigned the specific tasks one by one: "Just like usual, Sister Yiyi will remain behind at the base to provide us with intelligence support."

"We must establish a real-time translation communication network with the squads from the other five countries, keeping intelligence flowing without obstruction to avoid delaying military opportunities."

Liu Yiyi stated solemnly, "I finished debugging the communication network yesterday. It's ready for use at any time."

Lu Ye nodded and continued, "Everyone else will be divided into Squad A and Squad B."

"I will be the leader of Squad A, with Lin Zhongze, Zhang Li, and Zhang Bo as team members."

"Chen Xi will lead Squad B, with Meng Meiren, Luo Ying, Wei Xin, and Yang Qing as team members."

"Once contact is made, I will lead Squad A and the five-country squads directly into frontal combat. Squad B will remain mobile to guard against any unforeseen contingencies. Do you all understand?"

Everyone nodded. "Understood!"

"Move out!"

...

For today's operation, Lu Ye had long since transported two Dongfeng Mengshi vehicles over from the domestic front.

How sturdy were these beasts?

Driving them head-on into a tank might not even result in a loss!

Bulletproof?

Bulletproofing was child's play.

These two Dongfeng Mengshi vehicles could withstand even an RPG rocket strike and keep everyone inside safe and sound.

Lin Zhongze drove the lead vehicle, while Wei Xin piloted the other carrying Squad B about two hundred meters behind.

Liu Yiyi's voice came through the earpieces clearly.

"They are currently crossing the English Channel. Y6's people are fleeing ahead in three hovercrafts, and the Holy Envoy Corps is tailing them closely in dozens of speedboats. They are expected to make landfall in twenty minutes at the abandoned pier in the Old Port of Marseilles."

"Received!"

Lin Zhongze slammed his foot all the way down on the accelerator. The Dongfeng Mengshi beneath them let out a resounding roar, tearing through the streets of Paris like thunder and hurtling toward the Old Port of Marseilles.

...

The English Channel.

A grand drama of speed and passion was playing out across the sea surface.

A large hovercraft running at full throttle kicked up layers of waves as it raced toward the opposite shore.

Dozens of speedboats in the rear pursued like a pack of wolves, cutting through the waves and closing in relentlessly. The two sides were biting at each other's heels, ready to erupt into a fierce firefight the moment they hit land!

Cheng Qimeng had chosen their landing site with careful consideration.

The Old Port of Marseilles was an ancient harbor built in 1880, suitable only for docking shallow-draft wooden sailing ships from the age of sail.

Due to the numerous underwater reefs and shallow waters, modern mega-ships displacing tens or even hundreds of thousands of tons could never navigate into this harbor, causing it to fade into the dust of history.

The area around the Old Port was sparsely populated, frequented only by a few fishermen.

Fighting the decisive battle here would reduce the threat to Paris to the absolute minimum.