Chapter 63: Comrade Odd Zhuo Is Awesome!
The arrest of a girl suspected of being the Master of Shadow Stream caused a huge stir.
Before that, the Red Ribbon killers which Shadow Stream had sent to No. 60 High School had been completely eliminated. Now, students from No. 60 High School had come to No. 59 High School for an exchange meet... in the end, this Gold Ribbon killer who had wanted to take advantage of the exchange meet to cause trouble had been apprehended even before the first step in Shadow Stream's plan could be carried out.
The most crucial thing was that the man who had apprehended the girl was in fact an elder brother of one of the students from No. 60 High School...
That damn No. 60 High School again...
People recalled that in events related to Shadow Stream, the National Cultivation Police Department had launched a code red investigation, but for several years, there had been no progress. In the end, less than a month after the start of the semester, there had been one breakthrough after another centered around a small, ordinary high school... was this damn school poisonous?!
As a result of this incident, people once again started to ask questions.
How did a beautiful 36D maiden become a merciless, bloodthirsty killer? A planned operation had been foiled in advance before it was carried out? Was it warped morality or a lack of humanity behind all this? A game between the light and the dark? Or a showdown between cunning and wisdom? The questions that emerged in the wake of this incident confounded people no matter how much they puzzled over them.
Until now, that female killer had yet to regain consciousness and Wang Xiaoer, the person who had thwarted this evil scheme, had been forcibly taken away from the police station less than half an hour after he had arrived... this string of related incidents looked like they had been perfectly premeditated.
To conceal Wang Ming's true identity, Huaxiu nation's Cultivation Academy of Science in the end pointed the bewildered police in a clear direction ― Songhai city's General Administration of 100 Schools.
And so, after Secretary Dakang had come by the office that day to chew the fat for several hours, Odd Zhuo had just returned home from the office when his home phone also blew up with calls.
He glanced at the phone numbers; he had countless missed calls, and now it happened to be Secretary Dakang calling...
Although he had already spent a whole afternoon chatting with the old leader and was feeling a little agitated, he knew he had no choice...
He had learned a lot in his position as deputy director in the last few years and could summarize his experiences into four rules for practical survival in a government department: first, one shouldn't speak nonsense; second, get up earlier than a chicken and sleep later than a dog; third, do more than a donkey does and eat less than a pig does; and the fourth and most important point — in receiving a phone call from the leader... do not! Ever! Hang up on him!
Odd Zhuo didn't know what else this old Secretary had to talk about after they had already spent the afternoon chatting, but he still picked up the landline...
Nowadays, the landlines used holographic projections; once Odd Zhuo accepted the call, Secretary Dakang's face was projected in the air.
Odd Zhuo lived in the staff apartment which a government agency had arranged for him. The current government advocated an anti-corruption policy, so to reflect how their staff endured hardship and wholeheartedly served the people, all staff apartments hadn't been expanded with the Space Expansion Skill.
However, this directly led to a problem — the space was relatively cramped, which resulted in the holographic projection looking exceptionally big.
After picking up the phone, Odd Zhuo almost couldn't help laughing. This holographic projection of Secretary Dakang... his nostrils were bigger than his head!
"Hello, Little Zhuozi?"
Secretary Dakang's voice on the other end of the phone call almost gave Odd Zhuo a shock.
Little... Little Zhuozi?
This nickname was a bit intimate!
Honestly speaking, Odd Zhuo felt a little surprised and flattered. "...It's so late, is there something else Secretary Dakang needs?"
"Little Zhuo, I really couldn't tell, you're very good at pretending, aren't you? When I was at the office with you this afternoon, you looked very calm and composed. It turned out you were plotting and watching in secret. You were going to surprise me, weren't you?"
Odd Zhuo: "???"
"Oh, don't deny it! Just tell me, that girl whom we suspected of being the Master of Shadow Stream at first was apprehended through your plan!"
Odd Zhuo: "!!!"
"This time I have to reprimand you for this... after all, she's a Gold Ribbon killer; even if you had known her strategy beforehand, you should have at least reported it in advance. There were students nearby. Furthermore, it was after school, so it was dangerous."
Hearing this, Odd Zhuo now knew what the old Secretary was talking about. On his way home, he had received a text message from the General Office saying that the cultivation police station in Peiyuan district had caught a Gold Ribbon killer suspected of being the Master of Shadow Stream at No. 59 High School.
He had intended to reply after he returned to the staff apartment and investigated the situation himself, but he had never expected that the old Secretary would call him first as soon as he had stepped into his place.
When he heard this, however, he felt something was off... why did he feel that with every development in the situation, he was being undeservedly credited with all these accomplishments as if by some imperial edict, like what had happened six years ago?
"Secretary Dakang, I..."
"It's fine, you don't need to explain. I know you didn't want to act rashly and alert the enemy, so you secretly arranged for the expert to sneak into No. 59 High School and set them an easy target to catch, right?"
"..."
"I tell you, you've really done yourself proud this time! After a preliminary interrogation, the girl who was arrested is very likely the younger sister of the Master of Shadow Stream! Isn't that surprising?! A shock?! Isn't that exciting?!"
"..."
"The Master of Shadow Stream hasn't appeared yet, but I believe that with this important lead, it will not be long before our Huaxiu nation destroys Shadow Stream and its criminal activities! Comrade Zhuo, to possess such intelligence and executive ability at your young age... I, this old comrade, really admire you!"
"...Can I ask Secretary Dakang, where did you hear this from?"
"Chairman Qi of Huaxiu nation's Cultivation Academy of Science personally called me to explain the matter. Little Zhuozi, I know that you want to keep a low profile, but sometimes when you've done a good deed, you really don't have to hide it."
Odd Zhuo sucked in a breath. "..." He completely had no idea when he had become connected to an institute with such a big name.
"Little Zhuozi, who knew you had such depths..."
On the other end of the phone call, Sun Dakang smiled. "All along the higher-ups have been wondering whether to promote you... they were worried that you might be too young to handle it since a tall tree also attracts the wind and you tend to do things low-key. But we just carried out a public poll and discovered that of all the government officials in Songhai city, you are at the top in terms of your reputation. Rest easy, given today's incident, you only need to wait to be promoted!"
Odd Zhuo: "..."
"Also, remember to prepare your program well. I look forward to seeing your Sky-Parting Sword at the spirit sword exchange meet tomorrow!"
"..."