That was Huanggang Science and Trade Company.
The three got into the car and sped toward the company.
At the company entrance, Zhou Mei flashed her police ID. The barrier rose, and they headed straight for the main office building without the slightest pause or detour, arriving directly outside the chairman's office.
A stunning beauty with a seductive figure and vivid lipstick sashayed over. "May I ask..."
She had only managed two words before Chang Ye reached out!
She struck the woman across the neck.
The beauty's eyes flew wide open, her gaze turning blank as she slowly collapsed.
The chairman's office door was pushed open directly.
A man sat in the broad executive chair. It was Ding Haichun, the man they had seen in the footage.
Ding Haichun frowned slightly. "You are..."
"Ding Haichun, your plot to assassinate Qu Taiqing at Qingyuan Temple has been exposed. You're under arrest!" Chang Ye stepped forward and came before him.
Ding Haichun's expression changed sharply.
He raised a hand, and a syringe appeared out of thin air. Whoosh!
It shot toward Chang Ye.
At the same time, he sprang back to the window, raised his hand, and—Boom!
The floor-to-ceiling window shattered into pieces.
Lin Xiaosu was stunned. This... this was absolutely not something an ordinary person could do!
Zhou Mei's face changed as well. A Gene Person!
The man before them was actually a Gene Person too!
Gene Persons were rare exceptions in the world. Ordinary people might never see even one in their lives, yet she had seen one yesterday and another today!
Was this luck?
No, it was terrible misfortune!
For a police officer, there was nothing more dangerous than a suspect suddenly revealing himself to be a Gene Person during an arrest, resisting capture, and striking back.
Yesterday, Li Diandian—Hu Ya—had helped her escape disaster. But what about today?
Through his divine eye, Lin Xiaosu clearly saw the hair-thin needle less than three inches from Chang Ye's head, but there was nothing he could do. He could see it clearly, but he could not react in time...
At that very instant.
Chang Ye's finger moved.
Her fingernail trembled lightly and flicked the needle, sending it flying toward the ceiling.
The next moment, that finger suddenly accelerated and tapped Ding Haichun on the back of the head. Half of Ding Haichun's body was already outside the window, but Chang Ye's finger hooked sharply, catching his collar. Boom!
Ding Haichun flew backward and slammed heavily onto the desk. His eyes went blank, and he fell unconscious.
Zhou Mei stood there as if turned to stone...
Lin Xiaosu's heart pounded even harder...
Of all the women he had ever seen, Hu Ya was the fiercest.
But today, everything he had long believed had been overturned. This woman named Chang Ye was even fiercer than Hu Ya.
Her movements looked refined enough, but the results she achieved were truly brutal...
"Sister Chang, I... we'll send people over right away." Zhou Mei took a deep breath and regained her composure.
"No need. My people will be here shortly. You... should head back first!"
When Lin Xiaosu and Zhou Mei left the building, a Maglev Flying Car appeared in the sky...
Sitting in Zhou Mei's car, Lin Xiaosu watched the maglev rise through the air and vanish beyond the clouds. He slowly turned his head, only to find Zhou Mei looking at him too.
"Officer Zhou, who... who exactly is she?" Lin Xiaosu asked.
"Captain Zhang said she was from the provincial department, but now I suddenly feel... that doesn't seem right." Zhou Mei said, "At the very least, the provincial department definitely doesn't have a system like that. She never won anything in the province-wide skills competition either."
"So, you don't really know her at all..."
"It isn't easy to understand someone. I don't understand you either!" Zhou Mei said. "Today's murder case was even stranger than yesterday's. How were you able to make that breakthrough?"
"Can I brag a little?" Lin Xiaosu blinked.
Zhou Mei rolled her eyes. "...Just say what you want to say. Don't beat around the bush!"
"The world of geniuses is beyond the comprehension of ordinary people!"
Zhou Mei stared at his punchable face for a long time, speechless. Finally, she let out a quiet breath. "If I run into another difficult case next time, can I still come to you, genius?"
"Sure! Didn't your provincial department leader set an example with his actions today? Ten thousand yuan per consultation!" Lin Xiaosu said.
"Ten thousand yuan? Are you robbing people?"
"Nonsense!... This is faster than robbery, far more sophisticated, and it isn't even illegal."
Zhou Mei had no interest in talking to him anymore.
She stepped on the gas, took him back to Old Tashan Village, dropped him off, and drove away...
The days that followed were peaceful.
Lin Xiaosu studied at home, occasionally chatting with Hu Ya about the life of C Egg. Time passed quickly.
One day, two days, three days. In the blink of an eye, it was April 12, one month later.
The civil service exam was only a week away.
His mother went to Qingyuan Temple again in the meantime. This time, she found a patron even more powerful than Guanyin Bodhisattva—Tathagata Buddha.
Whether that patron would be of any use remained to be seen, but Lin Xiaosu himself had begun to waver.
Before gaining his divine power, he too had thought that a stable, secure government job was pretty good.
The salary might not be high, but it was stable.
And civil servants carried status as well. What his mother never stopped talking about was that if he had a civil servant's position, he could pick a wife from villages ten miles around. Not only would the girl's family ask for no bride price, no car, and no house, they would be afraid of asking for too much and scaring off such a golden son-in-law...
But after gaining this great divine power, Lin Xiaosu kept asking himself again and again.
With the Heavenly Dao Insightful Eye, am I really going to work as a weather observer at the Meteorological Bureau?
A man who observed celestial phenomena, only to end up observing the weather?
That couldn't be right, could it?
This was a divine power with tremendous earning potential, the kind that had earned him ten thousand yuan in half a day...
Still, those thoughts could only stir in his heart. He truly did not dare discuss them with his mother. She was easy to talk to about most things, but not this. If he dared back out now, she would absolutely beat him flat with the family discipline...
As the sun set, Lin Xiaosu took a walk outside before returning to his room.
The moment he pushed open the door, he was startled.
Someone was in his room.
A beautiful woman sat quietly by the desk where he studied. She turned back and smiled at him.
Chang Ye!
Chang Ye, whom he had not seen in a month, had silently appeared in his room.
"The civil service exam is coming soon. You applied to the Meteorological Bureau." Chang Ye lightly closed the open book.
"Yes." Lin Xiaosu raised his hand and shut the door.
"Are you willing to be a weather observer?"
"Sometimes life isn't about being willing or unwilling. It's about compromising with fate." Lin Xiaosu poured her a cup of tea. "At least when I applied, that position was relatively unpopular, so the competition should have been less intense."
"How about I give you a suggestion?" Chang Ye asked.
"What?"
"Don't take the exam!"
Lin Xiaosu's heart gave a slight jump...
"You could have a more suitable position."
"What do you mean? You're arranging a job for me?"
"If you're willing, there's a unique job available for you." Chang Ye's eyes flickered faintly.
"Unique? How unique?"
"To outsiders, you would be working for a private company."
"And in reality?"
"In reality, you would be working for the country. It's highly sacred, highly solemn, and the compensation is quite generous!" Chang Ye said.
Lin Xiaosu slowly raised his gaze. "What exactly would I be doing?"
"Whatever is needed! Sometimes you might be needed to investigate cases, sometimes to go undercover, sometimes to take on different identities..."
"Are you extending this invitation on behalf of the provincial department?"
"No. I don't represent the provincial department. The provincial department isn't qualified!"
Lin Xiaosu stared into her eyes. "Who exactly are you?"
"Do you know Hidden Dragon?" Chang Ye asked him five words.
Lin Xiaosu's entire body shook, and waves crashed through his heart...
Hidden Dragon. Any man with even a little heroic spirit knew that name.
Hidden Dragon, the Republic's hidden dragon guard.
The kings among police officers, the peak of the pyramid among soldiers.
They lived in the darkness, yet allowed the people of the nation to see the light.
Every one of them was a godlike existence.
No ordinary person ever got to meet any of them. Once you did, it meant something earth-shaking had happened.
"Why choose me?" Lin Xiaosu lightly licked his lips.
"You may not realize this, but because of you, Hidden Dragon solved a shocking major case. And because of that case, Hidden Dragon's higher-ups truly saw the immense role a criminal investigation genius could play. That was why they made an exception to recruit you. The review process was completed within a month, so I came overnight to ask your opinion."
"Which case?"
"The case of Qu Taiqing's murder at Qingyuan Temple. Through Ding Haichun's interrogation, we uncovered a criminal organization deeply hidden within the country, pushing the Qingping Plan a major step forward..."
The Qingping Plan targeted sabotage operations by foreign organizations.
The plan had many branches. One of its main branches was the infiltration and sabotage of the Gene Project by foreign organizations.
The Gene Project was a popular field this century. There was even a consensus in the scientific world that the next century would be the century of genes. Whichever country took the lead in the Gene Project would basically gain dominance over the future world.
Therefore, the Gene Project was a key national project and also a field where nations infiltrated one another and competed fiercely.
Qu Taiqing had been one of Hidden Dragon's people, numbered 2198. He was not a Gene Person, but he was a top scholar researching genetics. He had lived in Tashan for eight years, and his research had made tremendous progress. If his findings were carried forward, they might very well solve the century-old problem of genetic rejection.
That was why the enemy had plotted to assassinate him.
They sought to use this method to halt Great Xia's progress in genetic research...
"Such a complicated game of power, at the level of nations... can a tiny ant like me really make waves on such a stage?" Lin Xiaosu murmured.
"In this situation, everyone is an ant. No one can handle everything alone. But don't forget, you aren't fighting alone. Countless unsung heroes are fighting too..."
Lin Xiaosu slowly stood and walked to the window. He smiled faintly. "My mother has her heart set on making me a civil servant. If I take this step, does that count as being a civil servant?"
"That depends on how you define a civil servant, and what you hope to achieve by becoming one. If your goal is fame, this position cannot give you that. If it is comfort, it can give you even less. If it is money, no problem, it can provide that. But if you sincerely want to do something for the country, then this is your most suitable choice."
Before you continue