Dealing with Jia Shu

Hearing Qiu Tu's question, the agent replied respectfully, "The minister is waiting for you upstairs." At that, Qiu Tu looked up toward the Investigation Bureau building. Vaguely, he seemed to sense a pair of profound eyes gazing down at him. He smiled. This was not bad news. The fact that Jia Shu was still in the Investigation Bureau building meant the Political Department had not formally intervened yet, which gave the Security Bureau ample time to erase all traces. That meant he, A Tai, and Lao Ying were all the safer. With that in mind, Qiu Tu calculated the timeline and formed an estimate. Jiuxiang Street, the Qin residence, and Chengzhong Garden roughly formed a triangle, with the Investigation Bureau building sitting right at its center. Therefore, by the time Qiu Tu reached the bureau, Qin Heng would likely still be rushing back, not yet having arrived at the Qin estate. Before understanding the full sequence and severity of events, Qin Heng would not seek help from the Investigation Bureau. That was why Qiu Tu had arrived at the bureau before Jia Shu even had a chance to leave. Following that line of thought, Qiu Tu deduced further: had Jia Shu placed that call to lock him down the very second he learned trouble had broken out at the Qin residence? Qiu Tu's eyes flickered. *Heh... see, that's a true master.* An effortless, seemingly casual move had played a pivotal role, nearly derailing Qiu Tu's entire plan. After all, executing a plan in person produced vastly different results than directing it remotely. If Qiu Tu had not made contact with the Security Bureau in advance and tricked them into wiping away the evidence; if he had not seized Fourth Master Qin's wife and children beforehand to stop the man from reneging with a single phone call—if he had needed to handle every detail himself, this single move would have already defeated him. *So... the greatest danger tonight really was right here.* It seemed the time had come to cross swords with this legendary superior. Straightening his clothes, Qiu Tu put on a smile and strode into the Investigation Bureau building. At night, the building stood pitch-black, looming like a giant beast waiting to devour prey. Taking the elevator to the ninth floor, Qiu Tu was guided by the agent to Jia Shu's office in the Political Department. *Knock, knock, knock.* "Come in." Upon receiving Jia Shu's consent, the agent pushed open the door and ushered Qiu Tu inside. "Minister, Section Chief Qiu is here." Qiu Tu's gaze fell upon Jia Shu. Jia Shu wore casual civilian clothes, with a pair of gold-rimmed glasses perched on the bridge of his nose. Behind the lenses, his narrow eyes held a faint smile. Without having witnessed his depraved side, a casual glance would make him look like nothing more than an ordinary beast in human clothing. *"Good evening, Minister!"* Even as he muttered curses internally, Qiu Tu snapped a crisp salute. Seeing this, Jia Shu pressed his hand down with a fake smile. "We're all our own people here, no need for so much ceremony." When he smiled, his narrow eyes curved into slits, giving off a hypocritical aura that seemed both amused and menacing. Qiu Tu adopted a solemn expression. "It is the regulation, sir. Forgive me, but I cannot comply." Jia Shu did not press the point. He waved off the agent, and once the man had left, he asked with a pleasant smile, "You arrived quite quickly, Agent Qiu." He checked his watch. "I said eighteen minutes, yet it took you only fifteen." Qiu Tu replied, "I had just left home, so I made a U-turn and drove straight to the bureau. I didn't waste a second on the road." Jia Shu nodded with a half-smile, then asked as if out of casual curiosity, "Were you planning to get together with friends tonight?" "Yes." "Which friend?" "Wang Tai. He just passed the assessment to become an official agent of the Special Service Department the day before yesterday. We were celebrating for him." "Where?" "A small restaurant at No. 29 Nanfang Street." "Who was there?" "A few childhood friends of mine and A Tai's." Jia Shu sized Qiu Tu up with two sweeping glances. Detecting no flaw, he asked again, "Did you receive any calls along the way?" "I did!" "From whom?" "The first was from A Tai, asking where I was. I told him official duty came up suddenly and I couldn't make it." "The ones after that were from Fourth Master Qin." Jia Shu let out an "oh," a look of genuine interest surfacing on his face. "Fourth Master Qin? What did you discuss?" Qiu Tu glanced at Jia Shu and said without batting an eyelid, "He cursed me out. He said I took his leads and turned around to sell him out." "He swore he wouldn't let me off." "I hung up on him several times, but he kept calling back." "In the end, I picked up once more and traded curses with him." "Would you like me to imitate what he called me, and what I said back to him?" The smile on Jia Shu's face grew exceptionally bright. "No need. We're just chatting casually." "After all, I interrupted your plans for the night, so I thought I'd check in on you." With that, acting as though it truly had been nothing more than idle chatter, he reached out, opened a drawer, pulled out a dossier, and tossed it to Qiu Tu. "Here is your mission for tonight. Earlier today, we captured a female captain from the Reform United Front who had infiltrated the Xinjie Chamber of Commerce." "Work overtime and interrogate her. See if you can find a breakthrough." Qiu Tu caught the dossier. Looking down at it, he asked, "What methods am I permitted to use?" Leaning back in his chair, Jia Shu looked at Qiu Tu with a wry smile and teased, "Section Chief Qiu knows how to conduct an interrogation?" Qiu Tu looked up at him and chuckled. "I don't." "But I know how to kill." The mirth in Jia Shu's eyes nearly spilled over. Looking at Qiu Tu with great interest, his narrow eyes curved into slits. "No bottom line. The Political Department never lacks death quotas." Qiu Tu saluted. "Understood!" Having assigned the task, Jia Shu waved his hand dismissively. "All right, go get to work." Qiu Tu nodded, turned, and walked out of the office. Once Qiu Tu was gone, silence slowly reclaimed Jia Shu's office. Jia Shu sat quietly in his chair for a moment before reaching out to pick up a face-down document on the desk. Opening it, he found a clear record of Qiu Tu's calls over the past dozen minutes. Because Xinjie City was newly established, the Investigation Bureau's Information Section was far from complete, and their equipment was limited; they could only record calls targeted for surveillance. Thus, he only had records of the outgoing and incoming calls on Qiu Tu's communicator after his own call to Qiu Tu. The document clearly detailed that the first call was from A Tai to Qiu Tu, lasting a dozen seconds. Right after that, Fourth Master Qin called Qiu Tu, also lasting a dozen seconds. Following that, Fourth Master Qin dialed three times in a row, none of which connected. Finally, on Fourth Master Qin's fourth attempt, Qiu Tu answered, and the two spoke for over twenty seconds. It matched everything Qiu Tu had just said down to the letter. "Interesting... how very interesting..." The smile on Jia Shu's face turned increasingly radiant, his pupils faintly reddening, as if burning with the thrill of discovering prey. Leaving Jia Shu's office with the dossier in hand, Qiu Tu did not let down his guard. Instead, he proceeded methodically to carry out the assignment Jia Shu had given him. He turned and headed toward the Interrogation Section. Just as he reached the door, voices and laughter drifted out from the brightly lit room. A young woman asked curiously, "Sister Liu, hurry and spill! What's really going on between you and Section Chief Liu next door?" A mature woman's voice laughed coquettishly, "Hahaha~ what could be going on between us? We're just ordinary friends." A young man's voice scoffed, "Bah, impossible! I see you two making eyes at each other every day, how could there be nothing?" The young woman chimed in, "Yeah, exactly! When I was on duty the other day, I even heard Section Chief Liu feeding you something in the conference room, and you were complaining that it was too big and you couldn't swallow it!" "You little brat, do you want to die?! Spreading rumors like that, take that, and that!" "Hehehe!" Listening outside, Qiu Tu felt a certain part of his body stiffen slightly... Sure enough, an office was never short on scandalous gossip. With a light cough, he knocked on the door. At the sound of the knock, the roughhousing inside instantly ceased. Only then did Qiu Tu push the door open and walk in. Jia Shu had brought Qiu Tu by the Interrogation Section that afternoon, so he had already met everyone. The moment they saw Qiu Tu, the three men and two women stood up with varying expressions, calling out in a scrambled chorus: "Hello, Section Chief!" "Section Chief Qiu!" "Greetings, sir!" "Sir!" Meanwhile, back in Jia Shu's office. *Ring, ring, ring.* The landline on the desk suddenly rang. Jia Shu, who had been lost in thought, snapped back to reality. Glancing at the caller ID, he immediately picked up the receiver. "Director, any news?" Yan Chen's low, raspy voice came through the earpiece. "Mm. Ji Chen just reported in. Old Fourth Qin ran away, and his wife and children were evacuated long before that." "Qin Shuman is missing as well." "The agents and maid protecting her were knocked out and tossed into a warehouse. But because the fire wasn't large, none of them were hurt." "The blaze has been put out now. Ji Chen did a brief inspection and found that the fires were all set in remote courtyards of the Qin compound." "It seems Old Fourth Qin was leaving room for the Qin family and for us." "He was very likely coerced." Hearing Yan Chen's analysis, Jia Shu's eyes flickered slightly as he pondered in silence. After a moment, he asked, "Director, do you have any suspects in mind?" Yan Chen did not answer directly. Instead, he countered with a low question of his own: "Has Qiu Tu returned to the Investigation Bureau?"