Chapter 193 - 155: What Did Chu Bamboo and Huo Qiming Say?

When he opened his eyes again, Chu Bamboo’s face was etched with unconcealable fatigue. He rubbed his cheeks, forcing himself to focus.

"Nuwa No. 17, pull up all the bestselling novels in the world from the year ’30 until the internet went down..."

As the light screen materialized, Chu Bamboo clicked on it out of habit and began to watch casually. He read at an incredible speed, his mind simultaneously lost in thought.

’I can probably finish this fifth-ranked bestselling web novel today... Four point seven two million characters. What a grind!’

This novel was one of the two Chu Bamboo had published in reality, and also one he quite enjoyed reading... although he still hadn’t received a contract offer text message...

Finally.

It was noon.

The familiar sound of a door opening rang out. Per a previously set command, the screen in front of him automatically switched to a plain silver-white.

Chu Bamboo’s eye twitched. He was so close to finishing the book... with only ten Chapters left! Being forcibly interrupted like this left him feeling utterly frustrated.

After composing himself, Chu Bamboo turned his head coldly. He saw Huo Qiming walking into the base, chatting cordially with Li Kang.

Li Kang said, "Ah Zhu, let me introduce you..."

"I know. Director Huo of the Jinghai City Police Chief Headquarters, right?" Chu Bamboo said bluntly. "And also Captain Huo of the Special Operations Brigade?"

Li Kang: "?!"

’Seriously, what is with this guy! Even if you know him... can’t you just listen normally? This interruption... it’s making me awkward, and it’s making Captain Huo awkward too...’

"...That’s me." Huo Qiming raised a hand, stopping a flustered Li Kang from trying to make excuses for Chu Bamboo. He added, "I’m not angry!"

Sizing up Chu Bamboo for a moment, Huo Qiming said, "Kid, I came here this time to..."

"Old Huo," Chu Bamboo interrupted, his expression serious. "Did you know that just now, ten minutes before you started talking to me, Special Supervision Room Two at the First District’s Police Chief Bureau headquarters had a minor power outage? And five minutes ago, with the help of Logistics Administrator Chang Kai, Qi Heng successfully escaped."

Huo Qiming froze. He met Chu Bamboo’s gaze, and once he confirmed Chu Bamboo wasn’t joking, he pulled out a translucent phone. Despite his extreme doubts, he still acted on his trust in Mr. Zhu.

"It’s too late to call now! You understand. As a Transcendent, even if Captain Qi can’t display abilities that are too out of the ordinary in front of regular people... a few minutes is more than enough time for him to get beyond the monitored area," Chu Bamboo said unhurriedly, calmly adjusting his collar.

"And if you’re just looking to vent your frustration by going after the person who let him go... I wouldn’t recommend such a direct and crude approach."

"...Speak," Huo Qiming bit out the single word. Then, realizing his foul mood, he took a deep breath and said again, "Please, speak."

"Logistics Administrator Chang Kai isn’t the only mole in the department. Or perhaps ’mole’ isn’t the right word. They don’t see themselves as moles, just as men spoiling their wives..." Chu Bamboo scoffed, speaking with an easy confidence. "And one more thing: Chang Kai has no connection to the All-Powerful Lineage! This is related to the Hehuan Sect."

The scene fell deathly silent.

Ning Linglong’s head was spinning. The information overload was so immense that her brain felt like it was short-circuiting.

"...So, what are you trying to say?" After processing the information, Huo Qiming’s attitude was completely different. He scrutinized Chu Bamboo, a strange emotion swirling in his eyes.

"Right now, call Secretary Zhang. Have all employees from the First District’s Police Chief Headquarters Special Operations Brigade, the First District Government Office’s special logistics department, and all the other various special management departments of the First District’s Captain’s Office assemble on the training grounds in front of the Police Chief Headquarters for a training session!" Chu Bamboo said, full of confidence.

"As for the slogan for this training, you can use something like, ’Ideological Study for Civil Servants, Edition 42, as Decreed by the Emperor of Daqian!’ Give them some ideological education... This sudden training session, under ideal circumstances, should be able to last for one to two hours!"

"Besides, because you’re citing political correctness, even if Governor Lu finds out you did this without filing the proper reports... at worst, he’ll just be a little displeased. You can just file the paperwork retroactively. No one will give you any trouble for it!"

"While that’s going on, you can go look for Chang Kai, Li Ping, Zhang..." Chu Bamboo fluently rattled off seven names. This was all mole information he had gotten from Qi Heng.

"Go search their dorm rooms. I’m not sure about the others, but for Chang Kai, Li Ping, and Zhang Long... check under the bed, inside the nightstand, in the water tank behind the toilet, the wall in the top-left corner of the ceiling? In those places, there’s a high probability you’ll find a phone? The chance is about fifty percent! The phone’s a Nokia waterproof model..." Chu Bamboo accurately named three people and their likely hiding spots.

Naturally, Qi Heng had not been the one to tell him this.

’Yes, this was information Chu Bamboo had gleaned while running a dungeon in the past... However, two years had passed, so he couldn’t be sure if their things were still hidden there...’

’That’s why he’d said there was only a fifty percent chance of finding them...’

’At the same time, he could only pinpoint the rooms of three people—the other four had likely been infiltrated by the Joyful Union Association within the last two years, so Chu Bamboo knew nothing about them and naturally couldn’t overcomplicate things by guessing their search locations.’

’In Chu Bamboo’s plan, a search of those three should turn up at least one phone. And finding just one would be enough to prove his words—of course, if they really couldn’t find any of the three, Chu Bamboo would just have to accept it.’

’Worse comes to worst, he’d just go for broke, reveal Huo Qiming’s identity as the Masked Hero, put his own credibility as Mr. Zhu on the line, and flip the whole table, forcing Huo Qiming to conduct a wide-scale search of all their rooms...’

’Then, after digging up the information, he’d just reset. In the next life, he would reveal it all directly!’

’It’s just a failed flex... Reset, and try again!’

’Chu Bamboo was never afraid of being proven wrong. In fact, much of the information he’d gathered in the past was obtained through this very process: getting his face slapped repeatedly, putting his own credibility on the line to obtain the truth, and then resetting...’

’What does losing face in this life have to do with how cool I act in the next?’

"A ’Nokia’ waterproof phone?" Huo Qiming was baffled. He didn’t recognize the word. Chu Bamboo had spoken it in Chinese...

’Chu Bamboo wasn’t worried about any problems arising from saying the word ’Nokia.’ After all, speaking a Chinese word wasn’t an issue. The real problem would be showing that he understood the meaning of Chinese and could use it to communicate with Nuwa No. 17...’

He continued speaking with unruffled calm, "Open the phone. Inside, you’ll find long-term call records with an unknown number. Whether you find one of the phones or all of them, the unknown number they’ve been contacting should be the same one!"

"This number... you can trace it! It leads directly to the Human-Demon Workshop on Joy Street... to a pimp! You should realize by now! The Human-Demon Workshop is one of the Hehuan Sect’s main bases in the Second District."

"..." Li Kang’s eyes glazed over.

Ning Linglong felt her mind descend into chaos. She muttered subconsciously, "How could it be the Human-Demon Workshop? Shouldn’t it be Louwailou Restaurant...?"

The Human-Demon Workshop was a place for pastimes beyond imagination! Although the prices were exorbitant, its clientele was certainly not very broad...

Louwailou Restaurant, on the other hand, was the most famous and largest brothel on Joy Street.

"Yeah." Chu Bamboo rolled his eyes and gave Ning Linglong a speechless look.

He said, "Isn’t it common sense that a brothel would be connected to the Hehuan Sect? And yes, Louwailou Restaurant does have ties to them... but would the leaders of the Joyful Union Association have to be brain-dead to put their main base in a place everyone would guess immediately?"

"Tell me, how many times have you raided Louwailou Restaurant in your anti-vice sweeps? But have you ever found conclusive, undeniable proof of their close ties to the Hehuan Sect?"

"...We found some evidence, just nothing critical to them!" Huo Qiming’s expression soured.

"Exactly. If you found nothing at all, you’d realize something was wrong. So they reveal just a tiny, non-critical flaw! That way, you just assume your search wasn’t thorough enough." Chu Bamboo gave a silent, meaningful smile. "And in doing so, they firmly grasp your attention, helping them conceal the truly critical points!"

It was precisely the subconscious assumption that a place for such bizarre tastes like the Human-Demon Workshop would have nothing to do with the almost quaintly old-fashioned lewdness of the Joyful Union Association.

That’s why they did it!

And as it turned out, their plan worked perfectly... Ning Linglong, Li Kang, and even Huo Qiming had never suspected this blind spot right under their noses.

"..." Huo Qiming was silent for a long time. He gave Chu Bamboo a deep look, then made a call. "Secretary Zhang, I need you to immediately target the First District... No, this matter involves ’Kung Fu crime.’ Don’t act directly... have Secretary Lin handle it... to prevent anyone from sensing that something is wrong!"

Secretary Zhang was a Transcendent and privy to the inner workings of the Extraordinary. If he acted personally... while the probability was low, it was still possible the targets of the investigation would sense something was amiss.

Using a regular person as the secretary would greatly reduce that risk!

After all, it was common knowledge that Extraordinary matters were not to be revealed... Having Secretary Lin mobilize the various agencies would clearly lower the targets’ guard.

Huo Qiming then relayed Chu Bamboo’s words, verbatim, without changing a single thing. Unlike Governor Lu—who, upon seeing a complete plan, would feel the need to add his own unnecessary flourishes, suppress the plan’s originator, and then offer a small token of conciliation afterward to show he hadn’t done *nothing* but was still a magnanimous leader—

Huo Qiming’s greatest strengths were his tolerance for others, his chivalrous spirit, and his pursuit of what was right!

A perfect plan was a perfect plan. When he saw one he couldn’t find fault with, he would only express his admiration... and then adopt it completely! He wouldn’t feel that, as a leader, he was being slighted, humiliated, or manipulated by a subordinate...

He hung up the phone.

Huo Qiming’s face was expressionless as he crossed his arms and stared intently at Chu Bamboo. Unbothered, Chu Bamboo simply smiled back.

Ning Linglong looked from Chu Bamboo to Huo Qiming and back again. She wanted to say something to break the tension several times, but she was too intimidated by Huo Qiming to speak... In the end, she just stared helplessly at Li Kang!

Li Kang: "..."

Li Kang looked up at the ceiling... ’Wow, this ceiling is really white.’

Finally.

After more than twenty minutes that felt like an eternity to Li Kang and Ning Linglong, Huo Qiming’s phone rang again.

"Speak!" Huo Qiming answered the call. As Secretary Zhang on the other end delivered his report, the faint, gentle smile that had been on Huo Qiming’s face since he’d arrived gradually vanished, and his eyes filled with a chilling cold.