"This cannot be happening."
Huojin was pacing back and forth in frustration as he tried to digest the bombshell of the news.
"He really ntioned Commissioner Zhong?"
Jia nodded.
Mingshen, who was casually opening and closing case files on her desk, yawned.
"Why are you getting so worked up about this? I think the Commissioner is supposed to be the least of your concerns. We have a highly political family deep into this mud - from the ministry who is supposed to protect the citizens."
"Shit, if Commissioner Zhong is in this, then who are we supposed to trust?"
Mingshen shrugged. "I never trusted the cops anyway."
Jia eyed him.
"Except my Spicy of course~"
She rolled her eyes.
"Which is why I did so digging," he smirked. "So you two should praise because I found so very interesting things about your lovely Commissioner."
Jia said, "I checked his records. His service was sparkling clean. No scandals or serious mistakes."
He scoffed. "Yeah, is he God? He did a good job of bleaching his dark past."
"And what is that dark past?" Huojin asked.
"Putting an honest cop in jail and snatching away his promotion?"
They stared at him, wide-eyed.
"Yup. A long ti ago, Su Lingyun and Zhong Kai worked together in the bureau. From my underling’s report, I almost puked reading that they were close buddies because close buddies are not supposed to push each other into hell."
"Are you insinuating that he has anything to do with putting all those accusations against Su Lingyun?"
"The report doesn’t have to spell it out. We can read in between the lines. It was a perfect opportunity to throw him under the bus and climb the promotion ladder."
He then shrugged. "Word is that there were talks about Su Lingyun becoming the Commissioner in the near future but then that woman disappeared. Miss. Nuwa. And he got right into investigating it. Clearly, sobody way high up, probably watching the shit show with popcorn in his hands, didn’t like him poking his fingers in his popcorn tub."
"So...the Zhuo or the Hou family probably enticed Commissioner Zhong with a bright future in exchange for getting Mr. Su out of the way," Jia slowly guessed.
Mingshen gave a bingo sign. "Ah, the betrayal of a good friend...And he just didn’t get that family’s protection. He probably was promised with Long Sicong’s protection too. Huayuan’s earlier ruler. He must have had sothing to do with the disappearance too.
Huojin said, "I think this is why Commissioner Zhong was so agitated when we got Danya’s case. He didn’t want us to get involved with Huayuan because he was connected with it. There could be still people there from thirteen years ago who might know him."
He sneered. "Not only because he pushed Su Lingyun into the fire but also because...he might be a regular visitor in Huayuan? How would that look on his image if that gets exposed?"
Huojin made a face. "I am starting to think that Long Sicong, Commissioner Zhong and that family - all worked in so sort of a nexus to cover up the case."
"Shit, shit," Now Jia expressed her frustration.
"Mr. Su. He had mouthed his na while leaving, which ant that he didn’t trust our conversation to be private and secure."
"Ah damn, don’t tell that the Commissioner is keeping an eye and ear on his movents - even after all these years?"
"The bigger problem is eting Su Lingyun and asking about Miss. Nuwa has probably already reached his ears."
"So what? Will we be getting called in his office soon to drop our investigation? That’s bullshit and I won’t be standing up to that," Huojin sneered.
Mingshen said, "He won’t. Technically, he should only know about the cult’s investigation. If he takes any action now, then he will expose himself."
Jia looked at Mingshen. "Where did you get all this information anyway?"
"Uncle Weizhe. He told everything. It had co as a surprise to him that Zhong Kai ended up getting promoted and not Su Lingyun. The underworld and cops generally kept tabs on each other, especially back then when the contract was not yet set."
Huojin placed his hands on the table, leaning his torso towards them.
"So basically, we have to be super quiet about this thread of our investigation."
"If you two want to keep your jobs, then yes."
He then turned towards Jia. "But don’t you worry, Spicy. Even if you lose your job, my lab will welco you with open arms. I will provide for you for the rest of our life~"
"Take your flirting outside," Huojin snorted.
"You are just jealous."
"Yeah sure. Why not?"
Jia raised her palm and stopped their bickering.
"Huojin, what about Zexi and Beiye? Did they find anything related to Survival Grounds?"
His expression turned grim. "That’s where I was coming to. It’s not good news at all."
"What do you an?"
"You should hear it from Li Beiye itself."
He dialed her number and put her on the speaker.
"You finally rembered to call now?" Beiye’s lazy voice echoed from the other end. "I missed you so much."
Mingshen and Jia threw him an unreadable look to which he coughed.
Mingshen chuckled. "Who is flirting now?"
"She is just fooling around. Don’t mind her."
"Am I on speaker?"
"Yup. Please explain to Jia and Mingshen about what you found about Survival Grounds."
There was a pause for a long mont and she said, "I believe the ga is fucked up."
Jia blinked questioningly. "Fucked up how?"
"It’s ssing up with the players’ minds. I followed the lead coder all this ti and figured there is a section of this ga’s coding that he doesn’t want to find out about. He just gives random shit reasoning that it’s just backup code, but it’s not."
"So what is it?"
"I sohow gained access to his laptop and managed to get a piece of that code," she cursed, apparently frustrated at her failure of retrieving the full code.
They heard her inhale a shaky breath as she said, "It is doing sothing with the players’ brains and affecting their cognitive abilities. The more you play, the more you get dragged into that shithole. It is causing ntal imbalances. Survival Grounds should be shut down. It is killing people."
User Comments
0 comments from readers