39 – Of course, she has never forgotten her grudge

Chapter 39: Of Course, She Had Never Forgotten Her Grudge

Fortunately, there was a laptop in Xie Xue’s bedroom. And Xie Xue was a rarity in modern society—an eccentric who didn’t put passwords on her electronic devices.

He Yu opened the laptop and quickly tapped the keys. His delicate eyes stared intently at the monitor. Streams of code flashed frantically across his pitch-black pupils.

After a few minutes, He Yu’s slender finger pressed the Enter key. Simultaneously, decrypted information popped up and reflected on his retinas.

“L isn’t even a subject of investigation right now,” He Yu muttered, glaring at a single line in the pop-up window on the monitor.

“The police already knew who WZL were long ago.”

By this time, Xie Qingcheng had barely managed to calm his emotions. Instead, perhaps because he had been too agitated earlier, his body was drenched in sweat. Amidst the taut tension, he stood straight beside He Yu, leaning over to examine the code on the laptop.

It was an internal police communication message; He Yu had [unauthorized copy]hacked a total of three lines. Although slang was used, the content visit our sitewas stolen contentclear to the two men, who had grasped the general context.

[Wang Jiankang, Zhang Yong dead.]

[Internal spy present. Requesting channel change.]

[Locate the last known signal of Lu Yuzhu.]

Even He Yu was momentarily flustered, let alone Xie Qingcheng.

The final target… was Lu Yuzhu?

Lu Yuzhu belonged to the type of people who seemed the most diligent and ordinary in society.

Now around forty years old, she was a refreshing and talkative middle-aged woman who worked in the school’s infirmary. He Yu and Xie Qingcheng had spoken with her a few times when they visited the Huzhou University infirmary for various reasons.

To think that such a woman as Lu Yuzhu was the final target…

* * *

Meanwhile, at the same time. Near the scene where Zhang Yong was murdered, next to the lecture hall of Huzhou University.

Zheng Jingfeng sat silently in the command vehicle. Blood boiled in his sharp, leopard-like eyes. The police officers sitting in the back remained equally silent.

They had all just heard a man hurling insults at Zheng Jingfeng over the phone. The veteran detectives knew exactly who that man was. Even the young detectives, who were unaware of the inner workings, had a rough idea of the situation.

Of course, what left them most aghast was the fact that murder cases had repeated twice before their very eyes.

The flames engulfing the refrigerated truck were still menacing. Some officers were preoccupied with photographing and preserving the crime scene to find evidence.

Zheng Jingfeng opened his tumbler lid, drank some water, and struggled to regain his composure.

“Can we still contact the informant?”

A junior team member shook his head.

“Contact was lost after the guestbook was discovered and passed over to us. He said he wouldn’t be safe for a while, and that this was the last piece of information WZL could convey to the police.”

Zheng Jingfeng leaned back against the seat and pressed his fingers firmly against the bridge of his nose. A deep sigh escaped him.

WZL would be murdered at Huzhou University. This was the warning the informant had provided in advance.

Jiang Lanpei. These four characters were the code agreed upon between the informant and the police.

However, that secret organization was far too deep. They moved so covertly that it was rare for high-ranking members to exchange information. Furthermore, they all used slang. The police informant had simply passed along the encrypted message without even knowing what WZL meant.

After investing a long time and piecing together all sorts of investigative methods and clues, Zheng Jingfeng discovered that WZL was not one person, but three. This was a language intentionally encrypted by the dark organization to shake the police.

The three decrypted individuals were Wang Jiankang, Zhang Yong, and Lu Yuzhu.

All three were involved in the case and were scheduled to undergo a “cleaning” soon.

After capturing the clue, the police had to protect the informant while simultaneously communicating with and protecting the three targets embedded in the “darkness.” In reality, it was not an easy process. If the three discovered the police’s objective, the dark organization might be notified. Thus, they had no choice but to monitor them twenty-four hours a day and initiate action only if a problem arose.

However, even with twenty-four-hour surveillance, it was impossible to maintain perfect focus every single second. Moreover, the informant only knew the approximate timing of when they would be killed, not the exact time.

Wang Jiankang, a womanizer, had a hobby of cheating behind his wife’s back. The problem was that due to this secret hobby, he remained extremely vigilant wherever he went.

He was murdered at the school hotel. While heading to his destination, he stopped by a dormitory building to switch to a colleague’s car. Since it was a day for school meetings, all staff members were wearing school uniforms; the police mistook Wang Jiankang, who had changed cars and into civilian clothes, for his colleague and lost surveillance for an hour.

An hour later, Wang Jiankang was strangled to death at the hotel while wearing high heels on both feet.

The second target, Zhang Yong, had a timid and fearful personality—a member who coveted money but feared working under the organization.

Perhaps he had realized that the upper echelons of the organization distrusted [stolen content]him. Therefore, the police had planned to reveal [Read on Read BL Novels]the truth to him and persuade him to divulge the information he knew in exchange for guaranteed safety.

However, true to his sensitive nature, Zhang Yong did not trust people. When he met the plainclothes officers, this idiot mistakenly assumed the officers were spies sent by the organization to test his loyalty.

Thus, he kept his lips sealed and guarded the secrets. Then, to prove his loyalty, he reported this matter to the upper echelons.

From that point on, tailing Zhang Yong became extremely difficult and dangerous. As the saying goes, there is always someone better; while the police tailed Zhang Yong, members of the secret organization watched the police from even darker places.

Therefore, a certain time interval was needed to track Zhang Yong. In fact, he had called the police a few hours before being hit by the refrigerated truck, but after seeing the photo of the murdered Wang Jiankang, he threw away his phone, fearing that both the police and the organization might track his GPS.

The police will save me before I meet Jiang Liping. Clinging to such hope, Zhang Yong hid in an empty office. He firmly believed that since there were no electronic devices left to track him, he was now safe.

Never dreaming that the organization had planted a GPS in the Buddha pendant hanging around his neck.

And the final survivor, Lu Yuzhu.

Lu Yuzhu was the most difficult person among the three.

She was different from the foolish men who died chasing money and sex. She hated the public authorities and society because of her own unfortunate circumstances.

The path Lu Yuzhu took into crime was very peculiar. As the first female graduate student produced by her hometown, she returned home after graduation and served as a local council member for the county.

Then one year, an intern reporter from another city visited. The rookie intern, burning with a simple sense of justice, was full of intent to uncover corruption in the lower village covertly and land a scoop.

Lu Yuzhu tended to be thick-skinned and handled things half-heartedly. Moreover, her hometown was such a small place that inappropriate behaviors were bound to occur even if one tried to distinguish between public and private matters. A prime example was her family receiving bribes during the process of promoting local projects. Of course, the amount was not large. It was a token of sincerity habitually exchanged among villagers, barely enough to buy a single pig.

However, this intern reporter swung his pen boldly and added a string of ‘0’s after the amount that would buy one pig.

Oh dear, what to do. A terrifying corrupt official has taken root in a small county, so I have no choice but to investigate honestly and thoroughly.

One could tell by investigating that the trash reporter, who had sold his conscience to his ancestors, had exaggerated and fabricated the case. But Lu Yuzhu was also incredibly unlucky. It happened to be the period for re-electing local council members, and the opponent competing with her for the seat was the reporter’s best friend and the employee in charge of this case.

Closed rural societies are often far darker than big cities. unauthorized copyunauthorized copyLu Yuzhu, who was falsely accused, ultimately had [unauthorized copy]to serve a prison sentence on charges of bribery and embezzlement.

At the time, Lu Yuzhu was a young mother raising a two-year-old child. She was imprisoned just as her child was barely beginning to call her “Mom” in baby talk.

By the time she was released, her husband had already found a new lover. Her daughter, held in the arms of a stepmother, did not remember her biological mother at all and merely looked at the agitated Lu Yuzhu with frightened eyes.

Devastated, Lu Yuzhu finally left her small, narrow hometown.

The reporter took pride in claiming he stood on the side of justice and exposed social evils. A low-level rural department, backroom deals unknown to superiors, the betrayal of a weak husband… the articles written carelessly rained down upon her entire body. A few words, a few cents, and the position of a local council member ruined an ordinary woman’s life.

As a convicted felon, Lu Yuzhu could not find a decent job even after her release. She tried everything from dishwashing and caregiving to housekeeping. Shortly after being hired, employers who discovered her criminal record fired her, either tactfully or bluntly.

During the most grueling period of her life, Lu Yuzhu entered a decadent massage parlor.

The people who came to sleep with her came from a wide variety of professions. Occasionally, people appeared who should never have come to such a place.

Then one day, a customer who was curious about her educated demeanor unauthorized copyasked about her past. In truth, visit our siteLu Yuzhu wanted to keep her words to herself. But the human heart cannot remain strong forever. Eventually, [stolen content]she poured everything out in the dim room. In the end, she even burst into tears.

The customer smoked a cigarette, pondered, and wrote down an address for her. He added that if she wished, she could go to this address and meet his friend, who would provide her with a stable job.

Thus, Lu Yuzhu came to work as a caregiver in the Huzhou University infirmary.

She worked there for a very long time. After about three years had passed, something surprising happened. The prosecution, while investigating a fabricated case, discovered Lu Yuzhu’s embezzlement and bribery case, overturned the verdict, and summoned the reporter. Not only that, but the public officials involved in the case at the time were all rounded up and imprisoned.

A young prosecutor personally visited Lu Yuzhu to apologize and offered her compensation. New prosecutors appointed to the county followed the man.

After handing out medicine to the students who visited the infirmary and sending them away, Lu Yuzhu looked at them and smiled. It was a very peaceful smile.

—It’s all in the past anyway. You can take this money.

The prosecutor asked Lu Yuzhu for the reason.

She answered with a cold gaze.

—Is this an amount that can buy back someone’s entire life?

—…

—My life was completely ruined; what use is this bit of money? It’s not like it can return my twenty-five-year-old self, can it?

—…

—My child, my husband, my home—can you give all of those back?

—…

—Please leave.

Despite this, the prosecutor persistently persuaded her to accept the compensation.

Then, Lu Yuzhu said:

—Then use this money to establish a foundation or something and educate journalists. Tell them to write articles cautiously and fairly. They earn plenty of attention and money from articles written carelessly. But do you know what is left for the party involved once the aftermath passes?

She spoke with a smile. The young council member who had once wielded power in the county now had deep wrinkles around his eyes.

—Only a lifetime of notoriety and pain remains.

As such, Lu Yuzhu was not a person who would hold the hand of the police.

But here, a question arises. Why would a person who hates the police and is recognized and compliant within the organization suddenly be targeted for a “cleaning”?

“Lu Yuzhu does not possess her own electronic device. She might be using someone else’s phone. Location tracking is currently impossible.”

A police officer from the intelligence investigation team stolen contentreported stolen contentthe situation to Zheng Jingfeng while tapping the keyboard.

“Currently, over fifteen thousand phones are transmitting and receiving in this area. Tracking them one by one is meaningless.”

At that moment, another officer received a call, entered the command vehicle, and spoke to Zheng Jingfeng with a grim expression.

“Team Leader Zheng, the tailing failed. Lu Yuzhu is the most vigilant target we’ve seen in years. It’s certain she’s been trained in this area and possesses signal jamming devices. Given the current situation, Lu Yuzhu is the only person who can be placed on the same level as first-class wanted criminals.”

Zheng Jingfeng remained silent. His leopard-like eyes were still staring at the control tower where RPG characters were playing ‘duck-duck-goose.’

The letter L pierced his eyes vividly, like a blood-stained hook.

L…

Veteran detective Zheng Jingfeng could not shake his suspicion. Had they decrypted L incorrectly? Could it be someone other than Lu Yuzhu? There was no reason for such a loyal woman to be murdered by the organization’s upper echelons.

Lu Yuzhu was the most suspicious target among the three. No matter how he thought [stolen content]about [unauthorized copy]it, the motive for murder was woefully insufficient.

However, it was also true that there were no other specific targets besides her.

Even now, Zheng Jingfeng could not let go of the thread of suspicion that the letter L might contain another meaning they had failed to uncover.