Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation
Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After Liu Dongli called Ai Qing to report the Universal Compassion matter to her, what followed was a dizzying sequence of arrangements.
Within ten minutes, a black salon car screeched to a halt in front of them, and two people politely invited them to board the car, taking them to that strange organization where Huai Shi had been interrogated last time.
By the time he walked through the door, the entire so-called Universal Compassion had been investigated from the bottom up.
Inside the conference room, the middle-aged man who had been in charge of Huai Shi’s interrogation earlier was staying silent and looking far from pleased.
Only Ai Qing was still flipping through each page of the documents in her hand. The papers were still warm from the printer. Soon enough, she raised his eyes and said, “This is quite the exposé here… I can’t believe that a leather bag company so obviously involved in money laundering has accepted donations from this many people. Most of these donors are the hotshots in this city, too, so no wonder the Special Affairs Bureau could never find anything… There won’t be any leaks this time as well, will there?”
The middle-aged man gave a cough and said drily, “The Special Affairs Bureau is the Special Affairs Bureau. The other departments are the other departments.”
“Why didn’t you just do that from the start? Was there any need to break your backs for those old fogeys?”
Ai Qing raised her gaze and glanced at him. “How many people are involved?”
“Quite a few…”
The middle-aged man sighed. “According to the investigations, this fund would invite some masters over every so often to give the donors classes about positive energy, sharing their experiences about ascending their souls and maintaining their health.
“Most of it is meaningless meditation and self-hypnosis, mixed with a mash of Kokugaku…”
“No wonder.” Ai Qing sneered. “Those are all things those old leaders like. If this company is really related to this case, a lot of people will be in a lot of trouble, huh?”
“The Special Affairs Bureau is the Special Affairs Bureau—”
The middle-aged man repeated his earlier words helplessly. “You don’t have to keep testing us. With these large-scale problems, we can still tell right from wrong. Please, you don’t have to worry, invigilator.”
Behind them, Huai Shi stealthily poked Liu Dongli in the side with his arm. “Hey, are invigilators really so bad*ss?”
Liu Dongli rolled his eyes and said in a low voice, “The Astronomical Association is a branch of the United Nations, with members all over the world. Its main job is to stifle the negative influence of the borders and solve Ascender crime cases… You can look at it this way: As long as it has anything to do with Ascenders and border relics, she has the right to interfere in it. Once she has the permission, she just has to sign on a black letter, and she can kill your entire family. So what do you think?”
“She’s that powerful?” Huai Shi was stunned. “Even East Xia is willing to go with this?”
“The leaders of the Astronomical Association, the Governance Bureau, are none other than the five permanent members of the UN, sheesh.” Liu Dongli said quietly, “They’re governing their own people here.”
While the two were engaged in whispers, at the very top of the conference table, Ai Qing and the middle-aged man seemed to have exchanged some conditions. After Ai Qing promised not to make a big deal of the incident, the man looked a lot more satisfied.
There was a voice from the intercom on the table.
“The operatives are in place.”
The middle-aged man gave Ai Qing a look. “We received the signal. The operation is commencing.”
The enormous screen on the table lit up in an instant, and the footage it showed clearly came from a helmet camera. All Huai Shi saw was a group of people dressed head to toe in black, armed with all sorts of guns. Once they received the order, the car door opened and the entire group rushed out at once.
He had no idea where this counter-terrorism unit came from, but it seemed like they had prepared their plan of attack a long time ago. When they moved, they did not hesitate in the slightest, and within two minutes, they had controlled the entire car park. One team rushed toward the control room and a bunch of people shut down the entire office building, inside and out. They fixed locks and set up police tape, cutting off even the mobile signal and optic fibers.
The helmet camera shook, and Huai Shi finally saw the view outside the window.
WTF, did they have to go that far?
This was clearly the busiest part of the New Ocean city center, and the crowds flowed like water on the ground several dozen floors away. This was the busiest time after the end of the summer holiday, and no one ever dreamed that there was a special operation merrily going on above their heads.
At the corridor outside, they quietly set up a battering ram.
Someone gave the orders, and there was a loud crash.
Amidst the deafening noise and before anyone inside could react, they threw a few stun grenades into the room. There was a flash and another loud boom, after which the armed soldiers streamed in, instantly taking control of Universal Compassion’s entire outer workings.
The remaining operatives continued to delve deeper into the office. At first there was a scream, followed by two gunshots and another wail. Finally, all they heard was a piercing shriek.
“Don’t shoot, I surrender! I surrender!”
Soon enough, the camera showed a middle-aged man being carted out pathetically. There was already a gunshot wound on his leg, tears and snot covering his face, but he continued to yell, “I’m turning myself in, I’m turning myself in! I’ll tell you everything, everything! It was the Master who made me do this! I don’t know anything, I really don’t know anything at all!”
After the chaos, the captain reported to the camera, “He was transferring funds. All of the liquid funds have been moved overseas, and we found a plane ticket to France in the office too…”
He was clearly preparing to make a run for it.
In the stunned conference room, the middle-aged man’s expression turned unpleasant too.
If there had been the possibility of a misunderstanding before, now it was almost certain that something was up.
“—Question him!”
The middle-aged man nearly snapped the pen he was holding in half, giving an order through clenched teeth, “Make sure you question him properly!”
Ten minutes later, the pen he was holding really did break in half.
…
Wang Hai, nicknamed Sea Otter Wang1. That was the Master’s real name.
According to the files in the public security systems, this guy had been using superstition to earn dishonest money since more than twenty years ago. He would swindle old men and women out of their pensions, and they even arrested him twice, but after that, he went missing. When he next appeared, he had morphed into Father Wang from the Church of the Heavenly Father of Salvation. His business boomed and expanded exponentially.
As for the man they arrested at the office, it was one of his many disciples, Tu Tai. He was in charge of the storefront business and money laundering, laundering all of the money the Master earned through his cons and changing the cash into bearer bonds and fixed-value goods.
Tu Tai had graduated from a famous school, and he was only here for the money. He never thought much of this Master, and he had even pocketed quite a bit of money for himself. Besides, Wang Hai kept many secrets from his disciples as well, trusting only his first disciple who had been with him the entire time. Wang Hai and Tu Tai were only using each other, so it was fine when things were going smoothly. Once things went downhill, though, Tu Tai immediately sold out his Master. He answered every question freely, and he even volunteered quite a bit of information on his own. That included the fact that the Master had been involved in the trading of illegal substances, as well as the ‘miracle’ Tu Tai had accidentally stumbled across.
“A miracle?” asked the interrogator.
“That’s right. A miracle.”
Tu Tai took a sip of water and wiped the cold sweat from his face. “Wang Hai has always been hiding something, and I have no idea what’s inside. He hides it under the altar every time he leads a prayer… When he opens it, a really nice smell wafts out, and just breathing it in is enough to lift one’s spirits. Suddenly, you’re not scared of anything anymore. The people who come to class here have no idea about it, so they all think he’s some powerful master. Ptooey, he’s just an old con artist. I suspect the drugs he’s been distributing have something to do with that box too…”
A box.
Ai Qing could not help but look at Huai Shi.
The pieces were finally coming together.
Huai Shi secretly heaved a sigh of relief too. They finally caught the mastermind, so he did not have to live in constant fear for his life anymore.
He could finally return to his normal life, heading toward his bright future with a good career, plenty of wealth, a wealthy and pretty wife. One day, he would reach the pinnacle of life…
The people in the conference room were no longer interested in what Tu Tai had to say next. Only Huai Shi was excitedly waiting for the follow-up, asking Tu Tai to explain how his Master initiated his female devotees in detail…
Eek— That b*stard even installed cameras around?
Alright, spill. Where was the hard disk?
Before long, though, they received bad news from the scene: Wang Hai was escaping.
Tu Tai had a keen nose for these things, and he knew this ruse would not last forever, so he always kept an ear to the grapevine. When he realized that his Master was transferring away a ton of funds, he knew that things were bad. At first, he had wanted to secure a back-up plan, so he immediately booked a ticket to France. He wanted to hide for a day or two and see how things turned out, but before he knew it, it was already too late.
Now, Wang Hai was performing his last mass at the Old Pond Town outside New Ocean. He was clearly planning to make a break for it that night, so they had to act fast before this became more troublesome.
However, Ai Qing fell silent.
As though she had stumbled across a question she simply could not solve, she stood there blankly, ignoring everyone else. No matter how they hastened her, she did not say a thing.
A long time later, she raised her head and let out a long breath, her expression dark.
“It’s true that a lot of things make sense now. All the clues are falling into place, but something just feels wrong…”
She suddenly turned around, staring at the young man behind her through her long and narrow eyes. “Is there something you’re not telling me?”
‘Of course, there are a ton of things I’m not telling you. The crow, the Book of Destiny, the awakening… I’ll get in trouble the moment I mention it, so how could I tell you?’
“Nope!”
Huai Shi shook his head decisively. “I already told you everything I can! I even told you the things I can’t!”
His expression was so determined it seemed to say he was willing to sacrifice himself at any time, but inwardly he was guilty as hell. He was terrified that Ai Qing would ask Liu Dongli to interrogate him again.
What if he confessed about the Book of Destiny?
The crow seemed to imply that the cursed thing was quite the treasure, so before he managed to disown it, there was no way Huai Shi would dare to let his secret slip.
Ai Qing pulled her gaze back silently, as though she believed him.
“In that case, commence the operation immediately.”
She looked at the middle-aged man. “However, in order to prevent any accidents… Although we don’t have much time, we should still figure what the heck this Church of the Heavenly Father of Salvation thing is before we execute the plan.
“After all, a border relic is involved, and no one knows what they’re hiding. Besides, there are other Ascenders hiding in there as well, right?
“This is all necessary intel—”
“Huh?” The middle-aged man was confused. “What do you mean by that, Lady Ai?”
Ai Qing looked behind her but did not speak.
That middle-aged man saw Liu Dongli and immediately understood something. He stood up and shook Liu Dongli’s hand, saying passionately, “On behalf of the Special Affairs Bureau, I thank you for your help and support, Mr. Liu.”
“Huh?”
Liu Dongli looked utterly perplexed. He had no idea what was happening, but he instinctively felt it was nothing good. “Nah, I didn’t, I’m not… Don’t just…”
Before he could complete that sentence, Ai Qing interrupted him. “It just so happens that aside from Liu Dongli, there’s another civilian volunteer who has some experience with them and who is willing to help us…”
With that, Ai Qing looked at Huai Shi, who was enjoying Liu Dongli’s suffering at the back.
“—With the two of them forming our advance party, I’m sure things will go swimmingly.”
Huai Shi’s smiled froze on his face, and he instantly leaped to his feet, becoming a tragic copier. “I didn’t, either! I’m not, either!”
“You just have to go in there and scout out the place for a bit. With so many people waiting in the wings, you might not die.”
“Might not, you say!” Huai Shi protested furiously. “I said I won’t be the bait anymore, didn’t I?! Why am I suddenly in charge of infiltrating the enemy base?!”
“Isn’t it perfectly normal for the first party to change their requirements?”
Ai Qing rested her chin on her hand and considered him nonchalantly. “At most, I’ll give you another eight hundred.
Huai Shi flew into a rage.
“Forget eight hundred, even if you gave me eight thousand…”
Before he even completed that thought, there was a beep from his waist. “Eight thousand yuan has been credited into your Alipay account!”
Huai Shi paused, and his expression stiffened. “Did you really think I would give in over such a small sum?”
Beep!
Another soft notification tone, and that gentle female voice informed him again, “Eight thousand yuan has been credited into your Alipay account.”
“I’ll be risking my life here! What if I die?”
Huai Shi glared. “Don’t you have death benefits or something?”
Ai Qing pulled her gaze back, and with a wave of her phone, she sent out another transfer.
“—Seven hundred yuan has been credited into your Alipay account.”
Seven hundred?
Why were the death benefits only worth seven hundred?
She just gave him sixteen thousand! Why did he get so little for his death?!
For a moment there, Huai Shi did not know if he should sulk or rage, or if he should try to wheedle more from her.
“Bro, seven hundred is already quite considerable.”
His comrade in suffering, Liu Dongli, walked over to him and shook his head in awe. “After you take the money, you can go to the crematorium at the east end and buy an environmentally-friendly bucket. They might even throw in a box for free!
“Remember to rate them five stars before you give them your wreath, and state your preferences before you make your order— After all, you’ll be living in that box for some time, so you should choose one you like.”
Ten minutes later, Huai Shi and Liu Dongli were stuffed into the armored car, heading toward the Old Pond Town with the melancholy of a soldier going to war.
When they left, Huai Shi randomly shuddered.
It felt like he had fallen into a pit of ice.