The next day, Lu Chen changed into the Banner Sergeant official uniform and stepped into the door of the Archives Bureau on time.
The atmosphere in the company is completely different from yesterday.
If it was just an invisible rejection and a cold distance before, then today, these eyes have taken on a substantial weight - contempt, gloating, and avoidance, as if he was surrounded by the ominous Curse.
The whispers stopped suddenly as he passed by, but started again behind him, like the neighing of a poisonous snake.
As soon as he sat down in his seat, a figure walked over slowly, blocking the light in front of him.
It's Supervisor Chen.
There was undisguised sarcasm on his face, and his voice was not loud, but it was enough for a few people nearby to hear clearly:
"Lu Banner Sergeant, what a great skill."
He leaned down and placed his hands on Lu Chen's desk, his eyes filled with scrutiny and malice.
"I've only been here at Capital City for a few days, and I'm already able to get into trouble with the Demon Suppression Division law enforcement team, and get involved with Sixth Prince... Chen is really ashamed of his ability to cause trouble like this."
He deliberately emphasized the word "getting into trouble", and the gloating in his tone almost overflowed.
"Tell me, if the higher-ups knew that we Archives Bureau had such a capable person, would they think that... our feng shui is not very good? If it affects the future of other brothers in the department, Lu Banner Sergeant, would you feel sorry for yourself?"
These words were extremely insidious, directly expanding the risk that Lu Chen may bring to the individual into a threat to the Archives Bureau as a whole, with the intention of provoking other colleagues to collectively reject Lu Chen.
Lu Chen raised his head, there was no expression of irritation on his face, instead he showed just the right amount of helplessness and confusion.
"Supervisor Chen I'm exaggerating. What happened last night was purely a misunderstanding. The brothers from the law enforcement team have already found out. As for Sixth Prince, Lu is a newbie here and is very quiet. I really don't know where Supervisor Chen heard the gossip."
He spoke in a calm tone, gently pushed away the opponent's hat, and pointed out that the opponent's source of information was unreliable.
Supervisor Chen touched a soft nail, his eyes became a little colder, and he snorted:
"You know whether it's gossip or not. I just kindly remind you that Archives Bureau is a quiet place and does not tolerate too much right and wrong. Just take care of yourself!"
After saying that, he straightened up, looked at Lu Chen with an almost pity look, as if he was looking at a guy who was about to die, and then turned and left.
Lu Chen looked at his back, his eyes darkened. Supervisor Chen's reaction was more eager and vicious than he expected.
In the next few days, Lu Chen behaved more silently than before, almost burying himself in the vast pile of old papers.
He no longer made eye contact with anyone, turned a deaf ear to overt and covert taunts, and just mechanically and meticulously completed the boring work of classifying, sorting, and filing.
He seemed to have been completely shaken by the sudden frame-up and the ostracism from his colleagues, and became resigned to the situation.
However, under this disguise, his actions were carried out quietly.
He found an opportunity to "encounter" Little Li again, and taking the opportunity to ask for advice on an insignificant filing issue, he asked in a low voice as if unintentionally, "Li Wenshu, I'm new here, and I heard... our department, or should we say Capital City, seems to be quite taboo about things related to Sixth Prince?"
Little Li heard this, his face suddenly turned pale, and the file in his hand almost fell to the ground.
He looked around in panic to make sure no one was paying attention, then he pulled Lu Chen to the corner of a bookshelf and said in a cry-like voice, "Master Lu, Mr. Lu! You must never mention these three words again! That's a taboo! A huge taboo!"
He swallowed, his eyes full of fear. "Two years ago, a case of witchcraft occurred in the palace, which was extremely involved. His Highness Sixth Prince was accused of being involved in the case. Long Yan was furious and reprimanded him in court. He completely lost his Sacred Heart! It turns out that The power tree that originally relied on him was destroyed, and his close friends were either demoted and exiled, or... or died suddenly for no reason! Whoever gets involved now will be in trouble! You must never, never have anything to do with that place again!"
From Little Li's near-collapse fear, Lu Chen confirmed two points.
1. The situation of Sixth Prince is indeed extremely difficult, and it has become the source of the plague that Capital City officials avoid;
Second, because of this, the fallen prince and his remaining forces may need more and be more receptive to fresh blood and external forces like him.
The risks are huge, but the potential rewards may also be beyond imagination.
He decided that he could no longer wait passively.
He began to purposefully read and sort out the files that had been sealed and marked as "abandoned" or "to be reviewed" and were related to old cases from a few years ago, especially those related to military dispatch, border town affairs, and personnel demotion and movement.
Most of these files are boring and seemingly worthless.
However, when he was flipping through an ordinary list recording the transfer of a certain frontier army logistics officer, his fingertips brushed over the blank space at the end of the file, and he was keenly aware of an extremely weak difference in paper thickness and texture that was different from other parts.
Lu Chen's heart moved, his face remained calm, and he mixed this file with several "to-be-repaired" documents that needed to be brought back to his residence for careful checking, just like dealing with other waste papers.
Late at night, the small courtyard is brightly lit.
Lu Chen took out the file after confirming that the surrounding area was safe.
He did not rush to take action, but carefully checked the material of the paper and the threads of the binding to confirm that there were no warnings or destructive restrictions attached.
Then, he took out a special thin candle that produced almost no smoke, lit it, controlled the flame to a very small area, and carefully and evenly baked the blank space of the last page of the dossier.
With the slight change in temperature, deep in the fibers of the paper, a line of handwriting, written with a special colorless liquid that is usually difficult to detect, slowly emerged. "West of the city, Three Stone Bookstore. Ask for the annotated version of <Nanhua Scripture>."
The handwriting is thin and powerful, showing a restrained edge.
This is indeed a contact signal! A contact signal from the remaining forces of Sixth Prince!
Lu Chen's heartbeat was steady, but his eyes were a bit sharp. He did not destroy the dossier immediately, but instead cast his eyes on the cover of the dossier by accident.
In the lower left corner of the cover, in an extremely inconspicuous position, the signature and date of the filer were written in the smallest block letters. It was a name that he could never mistake -
Clerk Chen!
In an instant, Lu Chen felt a chill rush from his tailbone to Tianling Gai!
Clerk Chen! The old official who seemed to be dying in front of South Mausoleum Demon Suppression Division Armory reminded him of the depth of the Capital City water, and finally handed Zhou Wei the crucial black iron plate to him!
He actually handled files related to the old department of Sixth Prince a few years ago?
Is it a coincidence, or... is this all a carefully arranged chess game from the beginning?
Clerk Chen cooperated with him, was it done casually, or was it premeditated?
What role does he play in this complex chess game involving the prince, Aristocratic Clan, and Demon Suppression Division's internal factions?
I got this iron plate, came to the Archives Bureau, found the parchment scroll, was framed by the black market, and now found the signature of Clerk Chen... all these clues seemed to be connected in series by an invisible thread.
He looked at the secret words and the signature of Clerk Chen under the candlelight, his eyes as deep as an abyss.
Should we follow the secret words to contact the forces of Sixth Prince, or should we stay put and do our best to find out the details and purpose of Clerk Chen?
Just as his mind was spinning and he was weighing the pros and cons--
"Duh, dunk, dunk."
Outside the courtyard door, there were three slight but urgent knocks, breaking the silence of the night.
Immediately afterwards, the familiar voice of Little Li, but at this moment with unprecedented panic and nervousness, came through the door panel:
"Lord, Mr. Lu! It's not good! An order has just been sent from the Secretary, asking you... to ask you to go to the Myriad Spirit Pavilion! Elder Faction's bosses... want to ask you personally!"
Myriad Spirit Pavilion! Elder Faction!
Lu Chen pupils shrink.
What was supposed to come finally came. And it came so quickly and so directly.