One Week Later
The week moved quietly, but Blackhawk Security did not.
The moment the five systems finished integrating, George stopped sleeping like a normal person.
He saw their potential instantly — and he chased it with everything he had.
He worked the phones relentlessly.
Reached out to old clients.
Pulled favors no one remembered owing.
Knocked on doors that should've stayed closed.
Tracked down every corporate contact who had ever whispered about needing "something discreet."
He even met potential clients outside office hours, crisscrossing the city fueled by caffeine and sheer willpower.
And the results came fast.
Very fast.
Background checks — jobs that normally took two full days — were now completed by Blackhawk in under an hour.
Not rushed.
Not lazy.
More detailed than anything competing firms could produce.
Word spread quickly.
One satisfied client became three.
Three became nine.
Nine became a steady, growing stream.
By midweek, Blackhawk was processing over two dozen E- and D-grade cases:
background verifications, digital footprint audits, asset tracing, internal sweep requests — the kind of low-profile jobs that made a company's name.
But the shock wasn't the speed.
It was the accuracy.
Reports generated through HawkSeer and RavenTrace read like something compiled by national-level analysts, not a private startup barely a week old.
Every successful case strengthened the next.
Momentum built — clean, quiet, unstoppable.
Then the higher-tier inquiries arrived.
A bank discreetly requested a silent digital audit.
A mid-sized firm needed help tracing an internal leak.
A wealthy client wanted a private sweep of his vacation property.
None of these were flashy.
None made headlines.
But they were C-grade — and in the private security world, C-grade cases separated real firms from pretenders.
Blackhawk handled them cleanly.
Effortlessly.
Clients were impressed.
Connections deepened.
George leveraged it all without hesitation.
By the end of the week, Blackhawk had tripled its mission load, doubled its client list, and carved out a presence that made people whisper — not loudly, but with respect edged in uncertainty:
"Growing too fast…"
"That level of detail? That's not normal for a civilian firm."
"Where did they find a tech team like that? Ex-military? Ex-intelligence?"
From his room in Longhai, Li Feng monitored the data flow through Nexus — calm, unreadable, almost indifferent.
This was only the beginning.
Blackhawk had found traction.
And it was accelerating exactly the way he intended it to.
---
2:47 AM — Li Feng's room
The house was silent, submerged in the thick stillness unique to the hours before dawn.
Li Feng sat cross-legged on his bed, a thin blanket draped over his legs, the soft blue glow of his phone the only light in the room. He wasn't studying—there was no need. Midterms would start in a few hours, but to him, they posed less pressure than brushing his teeth.
He flicked open Blackhawk Nexus for one last check before sleeping.
A new notification pulsed across the screen:
[New Case Accepted — Grade A]
[Case Type: Missing Corporate Researcher]
[Client: Arkline Technologies — R&D Division]
[Time Received: 2:46 AM]
[Lead Assigned: George Hart]
Li Feng's brows lifted slightly.
A corporate case at 3 AM… It should be 2am in Bear country... George is pushing hard.
He tapped into Observer Mode, the quiet feature only accessible to Level 3+.
Instantly, the mission dashboard unfolded:
***
[MISSION OVERVIEW — Grade A]
Client Summary:
Arkline Technologies — a reputable mid-tier tech company in Bear Country with a clean record and a strong R&D pipeline.
Incident:
Dr. Nathan Cole, senior researcher attached to their micro-automation prototype lab, failed to return home and went dark at 11:40 PM. His phone was last active near the industrial district.
Estimated Risk: Significant
(Not life-threatening yet, but time-sensitive. If foul play is involved, stakes escalate into S-grade territory.)
Blackhawk Team Deployment:
• 1 field squad (4 operatives)
• 1 cyber desk lead
• 2 cyber juniors
• CEO George overseeing personally
***
Feng scrolled calmly.
This… was reasonable.
Ambitious, but within Blackhawk's capacity.
He continued watching.
---
THE CYBER UNIT (LIVE FEED)
HawkSeer was already running.
Its window pulsed with expanding data threads:
— last phone ping
— habitual travel patterns
— Dr. Cole's known workplace routes
— flagged communications in the past 24 hrs
— reconstructed probability paths
— predicted dump-sites / safehouses in the industrial district — potential witnesses in the area
Accuracy: 89%
(Rather high for a first pass.)
Li Feng tapped his finger once against his knee.
Not bad.
On another window, PhantomGrid swept the industrial district, triangulating silent devices:
— inactive comm towers
— satellite phones
— rogue WiFi beacons
— encrypted local networks
— cheap scramblers in the vicinity
The cyber lead was using the tools aggressively—occasionally too aggressively—but he understood the workflow.
---
THE FIELD TEAM
Through Blackbox Ops, he watched the squad navigate dim industrial streets.
Their camera feeds updated in clean frames:
— No panic
— No wasted movement
— No tactical sloppiness
He approved.
---
Minutes later
RavenTrace flagged two dark-web posts referencing "industrial pickup," timestamped from roughly the same area.
Coincidence?
Possibly.
But the cyber team correctly tagged both for correlation without assuming relevance.
Li Feng's gaze softened slightly.
Good instincts.
---
Finally
PhantomGrid picked up an anomaly:
Unregistered device — 38 meters from Dr. Cole's last ping.
Signal dampened.
Likely underground or in a shielded space.
The cyber team triangulated the position.
The field team moved.
No hesitation.
Within minutes—
Dr. Cole was found — unconscious but unharmed — inside a derelict storage unit.
Cause:
Forced sedation by unknown parties.
Intended victim pickup likely interrupted.
The case ended smoothly.
---
Li Feng
He closed Observer Mode.
He navigated to Internal Notes and drafted two separate feedback entries:
To the Cyber Unit Lead:
— commendation for correct use of prediction models
— three corrections on scan layering
— one suggestion for delaying secondary sweeps to reduce tool load
— recommendation to increase manual cross-checking for high-stakes missions
To George:
— acknowledgement of solid mission structure
— note that Grade A missions require extremal efficiency
— suggestion to maintain mixed teams for flexibility
— small reminder to train juniors to rely on their thinking, not the automation
No scolding.
No lectures.
Just precise improvements.
He sent them quietly.
Then set his phone aside.
Midterms were only hours away.
Li Feng lay down and closed his eyes with a simple exhale.
Blackhawk grew.
Handled a Grade A case.
And he didn't need to intervene once.
Exactly as planned.
---
Morning
The alarm hadn't even finished its first ring when Li Feng opened his eyes.
He didn't need it—he was already awake.
Not from anxiety.
Not from stress.
Just habit.
Outside, the first light of dawn was stretching across the Second Branch courtyard, brushing pale gold onto the tiled roofs.
By the time Li Feng stepped into the dining room, the smell of breakfast had already filled the air.
Li Xue sat at the table, hunched over her notes with a level of intensity reserved only for exam days. Her hair was tied in a neat ponytail, her pen tapping restlessly against her notebook.
She looked up the moment Feng walked in.
"You didn't study this morning," she said accusingly.
He blinked once. "I don't need to."
She made a face. "Must be nice."
Before Feng could answer, Li Guohua walked in, straightening his tie while holding a cup of tea that was clearly still too hot to drink.
He froze mid-sip when he saw Feng.
"…Did you sleep at all?"
"Yes," Feng said.
"For how long?"
"Long enough." Li Feng said with an innocent smile.
Guohua sighed. "That is not an answer."
Xue snorted into her drink.
He set his tea down and looked at them—first at his daughter, who was practically vibrating with nerves; then at Feng, who looked like midterms were just a mild inconvenience sandwiched between bigger priorities.
"Alright," Guohua said, rubbing his temples. "I know you two are… different types of smart. But midterms are midterms. They still matter."
Feng nodded once. "I'll do well."
"That's not the point," Guohua said immediately. "You always do well. I'm telling you not to slack. Even geniuses need to show their genius on paper."
Xue pointed at her brother with expert timing.
"See? Dad agrees with me."
Feng raised an eyebrow. "I didn't disagree."
"Your face disagreed."
Guohua pinched the bridge of his nose. "Xue, eat your eggs."
She grumbled, but obeyed.
He turned back to Feng. "I know you're confident. And I trust your skill. But don't get complacent. Teachers are cruel during midterms—they love trick questions. Especially when they think a student is 'talented.'"
Feng's lips twitched. "Understood."
"Promise me you'll take it seriously?"
"…I will take it appropriately seriously."
"That's not—"
Guohua stopped.
"Fine. I'll take that."
Xue leaned sideways, whispering dramatically, "Dad loses to you every time."
"I HEARD THAT," Guohua said.
Her smile widened.
Breakfast finished quickly—they needed to leave early.
As they stood by the door putting on shoes, Guohua placed a hand on each of their shoulders.
"Good luck," he said softly. "I'm proud of both of you. Just do your best."
Xue nodded with determined seriousness.
Feng gave a small nod back.
"Let's go," Feng said, opening the door.
The morning air was crisp.
Xue inhaled deeply.
"I feel like I'm walking to my execution."
"You'll be fine," Feng replied.
"I won't. But thank you."
He almost smiled.
They stepped into the waiting car.
The gate closed behind them.
Midterms had begun.
---
Li Estate — Patriarch's Study
Morning light filtered through the blinds as Li Zhonghai flipped through the latest branch reports.
First Branch: stabilized.
Third Branch: compliant.
Fourth Branch: PR back on track.
Every crisis that had shaken the Li Family was finally settled.
He opened the last folder.
[Second Branch — Activity Log]
Page after page of uneventful routine.
No unusual movements.
No reactions to Silent Hands.
No attempts to counter the Fourth Branch's PR narrative.
Nothing that matched Li Feng's confidence from that night.
Too calm.
Zhonghai closed the file slowly, eyes narrowing.
Was the boy bluffing…
or did he truly have nothing to fear?
He pressed the desk buzzer.
An aide appeared at the door.
"Patriarch?"
Zhonghai spoke only one sentence:
"Once the midterms end… bring the Second Branch to the main estate immediately."
---
Hello, Author here,
Thanks for reading — Leave a comment to tell me what you think about this chapter, and drop a Power Stone if you're enjoying Li Feng's story so far! Let's grow this story together.