"You certainly know a lot. Someone like you isn't suited to working on the front lines. You'd be better in management."
Lu Ding spoke casually.
"Please, Brother Lu, don't. With my combat strength, nobody would respect me if I went into management."
Lu Ding glanced at him and deliberately teased, "So you do have that ambition? Yan Feifan, you've got some nerve, wanting to be an official!"
That gave Yan Feifan quite a fright, and he hurriedly denied it. "No, no, Brother Lu, I don't."
"Hahahahaha, I'm joking. Don't be so nervous. Relax. All right, we're pretty much done eating. Time to head to Baofan District."
Yan Feifan froze. "Hey! Wait, Brother Lu, I haven't eaten yet."
"That's what you get for not eating. Let it be a lesson."
"Brother Lu, that's not fair. Weren't you the one who asked me to explain?"
Lu Ding was only joking. He still had to let the man eat.
Yan Feifan gulped down his rice porridge and stuffed buns into his mouth, finishing in no time.
Next up: taking office in Baofan District!
Baofan District Public Security Administration.
As Bureau 749's specially assigned district administrators, Bei Heguang and Ming Jun had offices on the top floor, with ample space and expansive views.
But because of one mistake, they could only hand over such a fine place.
They also had to return to the bureau to receive their punishment.
The two were packing their things.
Ming Jun looked around. "A Guang, are you really willing to just leave like this?"
"Of course I'm not, damn it. We haven't even looked behind that huge door yet. There's bound to be good stuff in there. But there's nothing we can do now. We screwed up our work. This is fate. We have to accept it."
The reason the two had failed to kill the White-Haired Hou back then was that they had spotted a great many treasures while pursuing it.
Originally, they had planned to kill the White-Haired Hou first, then collect the things.
But after they saw that stone door traced with wondrous runes, they decided to set the White-Haired Hou aside for the moment.
They would get the door open first. There had to be good stuff behind it.
Otherwise, delays might breed complications and someone else might show up.
In the end, they failed to open the door, and the White-Haired Hou escaped too.
The two had gone back to check afterward, but the stone door remained tightly shut. During this time, they had thought of every method imaginable, yet still could not open it.
They had intended to rely on slow, painstaking effort to wear the stone door open bit by bit.
Even if the bureau handed down a punishment, that was fine. They would accept it.
Surely they wouldn't be transferred back before their term was up?
But, well, they really were transferred back.
When the transfer orders came through, both felt as though the sky had collapsed.
Now Bei Heguang was saying again that this was fate and they had to accept it.
Ming Jun immediately bristled. "Fate, my ass. I went from an ordinary person to a qi refiner-that was Heaven watching over me. I joined Bureau 749 and worked my way up from intern investigator to full investigator-that was Heaven favoring me. Now I've come across this stone door. It has to be Heaven's reward for me!"
"I refuse to just leave like this!"
Bei Heguang put down his things and folded his arms. "Then lay out a plan. Let's hear your brilliant ideas."
"Uh..."
"Well, do you know which investigators are coming this time?"
"Are you nuts? The bureau controls information so tightly. Who would know? I'm not management."
"Don't you have all sorts of connections and contacts? Why don't you ask around?"
Bei Heguang hesitated. "Then I'll ask around?"
"Just hurry up and stop asking questions!"
Bei Heguang took out his phone and tapped his network of contacts.
After a while, his brows slowly knitted together. "That's strange. Isn't this against regulations?"
"Well? Well? Did you find out?" Ming Jun asked anxiously beside him.
"Half of it. This friend of mine only happened to hear bits and pieces. He said the patrol officers coming to our Baofan District were reassigned at short notice, and they're intern investigators, at that. As for who they are, he doesn't know."
"Temporary investigators? Temporary investigators coming to Baofan District? Isn't that suicide? Or did they offend someone? Make a mistake? Were they deliberately sent here?"
Bei Heguang looked at him as though he were an idiot. "Couldn't these two temporary investigators be particularly strong, so they made an exception and transferred them here?"
Ming Jun thought it over. "It's possible, sure, but none of those powerful ones seem likely. There are only a handful of ruthless types among the intern investigators. Bai Hemian tops the list, and he's still in confinement."
"Then there's Tantai Xianyue. She caused such a huge commotion in Ninglong City. She couldn't be coming back either."
"The others have all been promoted to full investigators, so they don't fit."
"You've forgotten one. The Corpse-Dissecting Taisui, Lu Ding, who made his name in Baiyao Ancient Town and beat Yuan Baifeng to death on the highway."
That name had already been on everyone's lips last night. Though the two were fretful and irritated, they had heard the rumors too.
A perfect assessment taker, someone who had killed a spirit sea cultivator while at Illuminating the Jade Pivot, who left no intact corpses among those who died at his hands.
Every one of those claims sounded terrifying.
Ming Jun shook his head. "Doesn't seem likely. A great reputation isn't built on nothing, but Lu Ding only carried out a mission yesterday, and he caused such a huge stir. He even had Wen Yuquan put out word that the Wind-Calming Pearl was for sale. Wen Yuquan, Yin Feng, and the others are still on administrative leave. They couldn't single him out and transfer him to Baofan District. At the very least, they'd have to pair him with a full investigator, right? Two interns? I really can't think of any formidable candidates."
His whole analysis was well reasoned and supported, and it sounded plausible.
Bei Heguang beside him was led along by his reasoning too.
"All right, all right. Just tell me what we should do."
Ming Jun simply stopped thinking about it. "They're probably just relatively strong intern investigators. Here's what we'll do. When the people taking over arrive, we'll first see whether we know them. If we don't, we'll put them in their place right away and make them go back and submit a report saying they aren't capable of handling the work in Baofan District."
"That way, we can buy a few days. We'll use those days to get the tomb door open."
"If we do know them, we'll talk things over properly, be nice, and split everything evenly."
Bei Jun's idea was actually quite good: serve each guest a different dish, deciding his attitude based on the other party's strength and reputation.
The plan was perfect.
But he had overlooked one link in the chain.
Neither he nor Bei Heguang had ever met Lu Ding or knew what he looked like. They only knew he existed, had heard his name, and knew his nickname.
"Good. That's a good plan. Let's do that."
The two were no longer in any hurry to pack. They simply waited.
Soon, Lu Ding arrived at the entrance with Yan Feifan.
Once the call went through, the director of the Baofan District Public Security Administration and his entire leadership team personally came out to welcome them, all smiles and utterly delighted.
At last, they had new patrol officers from Bureau 749.
The previous two hadn't exactly been terrible, but they certainly hadn't been good either. They had also caused plenty of trouble during their already short term. This time, their mistake at work had even cost dozens of ordinary people their lives.
They really had made their work a great deal harder.
Now the past was past, and the new patrol officers had arrived. Hopefully, they would be a little more reliable.
"Hello, comrade. I'm Gao Zhengliang, director of the Baofan District Public Security Administration."