But I'm a Meritorious Official!

"Hello? Li Jinshui."

After the call connected, Ye Mei's slightly weary voice drifted through.

Li Jinshui leaned back against the dilapidated sofa, raised an eyebrow, and teased, "Oh, Supervisor Ye, you really know how to shirk responsibility, don't you? Only calling me now?"

"..."

Listening to Li Jinshui's snide remarks, Ye Mei remained silent for a second before admitting frankly, "It's my fault. I underestimated their infiltration methods and influence. I was too confident and oversimplified everything. For that, I owe you a sincere apology."

She paused, her tone growing more complex. "You did very well last night. To be honest, I suspected you were hiding your strength back at the Youth Training Camp. You were holding back during every blood-qi test, but I never expected you to be hiding so deep. Because they bribed Chen Yu, they received false intelligence and misjudged your strength, which ultimately allowed you to completely disrupt this entire scheme."

"I'm just a low-key person by nature," Li Jinshui said modestly, then curiously probed, "So, what kind of scheme were you 'immortals' actually playing at?"

He couldn't quite grasp it. Before last night, he was nothing but an insignificant nobody. How did he end up being used by Wei Hu Security as a pawn in this so-called scheme from the very beginning?

"Simply put, it's an internal company struggle, but it has wide-reaching implications. You can think of it as one faction being close to the authorities, while the other is purely self-serving. Last night was just a minor skirmish." Ye Mei explained concisely.

"It seems you belong to the faction close to the authorities." Hearing her terminology for the two camps, Li Jinshui immediately deduced her stance.

"My mentor is an official." Ye Mei didn't evade the sensitive question and answered calmly.

Li Jinshui's eyes widened. He sat up straight, his tone turning gentle as he tentatively asked, "If I may ask... how high-ranking is your mentor?"

"An Imperial Envoy!"

The two words fell lightly from Ye Mei's lips, yet they hit like a bombshell, causing Li Jinshui to leap off the sofa, his expression shifting instantly.

"Oh my, Mei-mei, so our mentor is an Imperial Envoy!"

His tone did a complete 180, dripping with both sycophancy and intimacy. "Why didn't you say so earlier? Such a joyous occasion! Given our relationship, why be so formal? I must pay a personal visit to kowtow and pay my respects to our mentor!"

"..." The other end of the line fell into a dead silence.

Li Jinshui: "Hello, Mei-mei? Why aren't you saying anything? Say something, Mei-mei."

"Shut up!"

Ye Mei finally couldn't take it anymore, her voice gritted through clenched teeth.

She took a few deep breaths to steady her tone before whispering, "As I said before, we needed to stir up the situation to have a chance at a comeback, and my mentor is that trump card. He came south to Rong City on an inspection mission. I can't say much more, but you can guess it has to do with Daming Technology. The situation in Rong City is complex, and with time tight and the mission heavy, my mentor hadn't found a suitable entry point."

"Until last night, when you committed that earth-shattering crime, which finally gave my mentor a logical reason to forcibly intervene and demand accountability."

"Wait, hold on!"

Li Jinshui's eyes widened, alarm bells ringing in his head as he suddenly raised his voice. "Supervisor Ye, you can't just say things like that! What do you mean I committed an earth-shattering crime last night? I, Li Jinshui, have always been a law-abiding citizen who stands against evil. Don't you go slandering me!"

"Don't worry, it's just a temporary classification by the authorities to justify their intervention. It's being called a mass-murder case, but they won't actually convict you," Ye Mei said, sounding annoyed.

"Phew! That's what I thought."

Li Jinshui immediately relaxed and resumed his sycophantic grin. "We're all family here and know each other well. How could someone as pure and kind as me be framed as some kind of perverted serial killer?"

"However, the Inspection Bureau will be looking for you to assist with the investigation. Don't say anything unnecessary when they ask; just play dumb. I'll handle the rest," Ye Mei warned, her tone turning serious.

"What? I have to assist with the investigation? Is this how a great hero is treated?"

Li Jinshui was immediately dissatisfied. "Supervisor Ye, do you even know what I went through last night? I was besieged by nearly a thousand people! It looked dangerous, but in reality, it wasn't safe at all. If I were even a little bit weaker, I would've died there."

He said this, but he didn't actually take last night's encounter to heart.

After all, from the very beginning, both sides had been open and honest about the terms. It was a clear, transactional cooperation.

Ye Mei and her group provided the resources, and he acted as the pawn to clear the minefield. Wealth is sought in danger, and one is responsible for their own life and death.

It was fair!

But now that he had survived and over-delivered on the mission, logically, it was time for the exciting MVP reward settlement.

Yet, instead of mentioning rewards, she wanted him to go to the Inspection Bureau for questioning.

That place was bad news. What if something went wrong and he ended up being used as a scapegoat?

"It's just a simple inquiry, a formality. There won't be any trouble."

Ye Mei's tone sounded noticeably weary again; communicating with Li Jinshui seemed to be an exhausting task.

Still, she sighed and continued patiently, "Actually, there were no winners in this probe. Chen Yu will soon be fired and sued by the company, and Wei Hu Security will likely be ordered by the authorities to undergo rectification and face heavy fines. As for me, I'm being transferred to the company headquarters immediately."

"???"

Li Jinshui thought the first part sounded decent—mutual destruction was a win—but after hearing the last sentence, he wore a look of utter confusion.

Big sister, are you listening to yourself?

You're getting a transfer to headquarters, and you call that having no winners?

"And Commander Zhang was forced into early retirement by the higher-ups last night. Commander Huang suffered the most; he took the fall, received a major demerit, and is being demoted."

Ye Mei continued, lost in her own thoughts. "But these are only temporary. Once I establish a foothold at the Beijing headquarters, I will definitely find a way to pull them up..."

"No, wait a second, big sister! They're both old bones; whether they get promoted or not doesn't matter. They should have been enjoying their retirement years ago!"

Li Jinshui couldn't listen anymore. He slapped his thigh in distress and cried out, "The point is me! I, Li Jinshui, as the number one contributor, used my invincible prowess to help you disrupt this layout. Surely I'm not getting fired too, right?"

"Who are you calling big sister?"

Ye Mei snapped angrily, then paused, her tone turning as formal as if she were reading an official announcement. "The new Shuanglong Street branch was declared closed by the company at dawn. As for your position as acting station manager, it has been deemed an irregular operation and has been directly revoked."

Li Jinshui's mouth twitched.

Regarding this point, they had long since anticipated it; after all, once this matter blew up, the station certainly couldn't be kept.

But as for his status as station master, Old Huang had even patted his chest back then, guaranteeing that if they won, he could keep the position.

And now, it was gone too?

That was a sweet gig with a monthly salary of fifty thousand!