noveltune Chapter 66: Harvesting Memory Fragments
Chapter 66: Harvesting Memory Fragments
Chapter 66: Harvesting Memory Fragments
Hearing a scream that echoed through the entire room, Qiu Tu woke up groggily. He slowly opened his eyes and looked at Shen Lingshuang beside him. He saw her holding the blanket, shrinking to the edge of the bed, and looking at him with a face full of fear.
Qiu Tu yawned and asked, "What's wrong?"
Shen Lingshuang glared at Qiu Tu, "Why are you sleeping with me?"
Qiu Tu was taken aback, then innocently pointed at his small home, "What else could I do? There's only one bed, and the sofa is so small. I can't sleep on the floor, can I?"
Hearing Qiu Tu's words, Shen Lingshuang was initially stunned, then snorted lightly and turned her head away, "Well, you brought this upon yourself. I won't take responsibility for you!"
After saying this, she put on her pants and left.
Qiu Tu: ??
Now it was Qiu Tu's turn to be dumbfounded.
Wait, did I wake up the wrong way? Why does this feel so different from what I imagined?
Thinking this, he was dazed for a moment, then lifted the blanket to check. His clothes were intact, with no signs of being undone. He looked up at Shen Lingshuang walking towards the living room; her earlobes were slightly red, and her expression was a bit unnatural.
Qiu Tu understood.
As expected of a tsundere and masochistic young lady, her mouth was really tough.
Should he tell her that tsundere behavior was outdated?
After silently complaining in his heart for a while, Qiu Tu lay back in bed but couldn't fall asleep. He gave up on trying to sleep and decided to check last night's game results instead.
He called up the Loyalty Game panel, and the first thing that caught his eye was a "Game Over" screen. On the screen, A Tai's pixelated character, holding a small iron hammer, stood with his hands on his hips, laughing up at the sky. Meanwhile, Wang Xi's pixelated character, bruised and swollen, sat on the ground holding his head and crying.
Accompanying this scene was a glowing golden package in the center of the screen.
Seeing this, Qiu Tu realized that A Tai must have won last night's game, and that package must contain the rewards. Without hesitation, he mentally clicked on the package. The next second, several prompts appeared before him.
[Loyalty Game Victory: Rewards Received.]
[Wang Xi Loyalty +5]
[Wang Xi Memory Fragment (Short) +1]
Seeing the game prompts, Qiu Tu's eyes lit up slightly, feeling that the rewards were pretty good. Not only did he gain some loyalty, but he also obtained a memory fragment. If this memory fragment contained the process of Wang Xi committing murder, Qiu Tu felt he could solve the case.
Thinking this, he clicked on the "Memory Fragment" to see what it contained. With the click, the next second, Qiu Tu felt his vision go black, and he seemed to appear in a small room.
In the room was a strange man in a black suit with bright red hair, wearing a clown mask. He held a shotgun, which he was wiping down. After wiping it clean, he tossed the shotgun to "Qiu Tu," then picked up another shotgun and grinned at "Qiu Tu."
"Tomorrow, we’re going to rob the pharmacy. The plan is for you to deal with the staff and customers inside."
Meanwhile, as Qiu Tu quietly analyzed the case, elsewhere, in a secret office within the military headquarters, Qin Shuman stood in a dark green military uniform, straight and expressionless, before a desk. Behind the desk sat a tall man with a broad, full forehead and chiseled features, his expression indifferent but with a ruthless glint in his eyes. He looked at the report and clicked his tongue twice, then looked up at Qin Shuman with a cold smile.
"Rain Butterfly, I can’t even bring myself to sign off on this case report," he said. "To save Fourth Master Qin, you sacrificed a key mole placed next to Yan Chen. And to ensure his safe extraction, you had the Detection Office clean up, directly exposing our Security Division to Yan Chen. In just one day, we lost nearly all our moles in the Investigation Department's upper echelon!"
He tossed the report onto Qin Shuman’s face, "With such a failure, you still have the nerve to ask for my signature?"
The sharp-edged report slashed Qin Shuman's delicate face, but she remained unflinching, eyes straight ahead, letting the cold document slide off her face and fall to the ground.
Seeing her reaction, the man's anger subsided slightly. He coldly issued an ultimatum, "I don't care how you do it, but within a week, I want you to rebuild our line in the Investigation Department and restore our critical intelligence control! It’s a massive dereliction of duty that we didn’t get a single piece of internal information about such a major case like the assassination of Deputy Chairman Tian’s mistress!"
"If you can’t do it, prepare to face a military tribunal."
"Yes, sir!" Qin Shuman saluted crisply.
Seeing her take the order, the man’s expression softened a bit. "Also, about the Qin family," he continued. "Since you paid such a high price to bring someone back, don’t let them go easily. The Qin family has been positioning themselves in the shelters since the last generation. They’ve been expanding their influence in politics and commerce while maintaining ties with Yan Chen and Commissioner Jiang. Now they’re entangled with the RUF, which is suspicious!"
"Investigate thoroughly. I want to know what’s hidden in the muddy waters of the Qin family!"
At the same time, in the dimly lit Director's office of the Investigation Department, Yan Chen leaned back comfortably in his chair, showing none of the fury Secretary Bai had mentioned. He lit a cigarette and asked in a low voice, "How's it going?"
Standing before him, Jia Shu smiled brightly, adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses, and said, "Very well, Director. We’ve taken the opportunity given by the Security Division to eliminate six of their moles planted around us. Since they struck first, no one can fault us."
"After removing those moles, I released probing information regarding Deputy Chairman Tian's mistress’s death, successfully identifying a batch of suspected spies. We’ve recorded everyone who acted suspiciously after last night’s play, and we are comparing the data one by one. There were some surprising individuals."
Yan Chen raised an eyebrow, intrigued, "Who?"
Jia Shu's eyes glinted coldly behind his glasses. He spoke with a faint smile, "For example, Secretary Bai. Upon learning the news, he immediately called Qiu Tu."
"I'm very curious about what he could have possibly said to Qiu Tu in that brief call."
"Then there's one of my promising subordinates in the Political Division. I didn't expect her to get the information as well, and she hastily met with several related individuals, including Qiu Tu."
Hearing Jia Shu's words, Yan Chen smoked his cigarette and asked with interest, "What about Qiu Tu?"
Jia Shu's smile faded slightly. He replied, "Qiu Tu surprised me. Last night, he went to the Milan Hotel, probably following our arrangement to meet with the Security Division. During the meeting, he received a call from Secretary Bai. After that, he showed no unusual behavior. On his way home, he encountered my esteemed subordinate. They talked and interacted for a while but nothing more happened. Overall, his behavior seemed very normal."
Yan Chen nodded lightly. Tapping his fingers on the chair armrest, he said softly, "To quickly and comprehensively control the security of New Realm City, our department expanded from a few dozen core members to over ten thousand in just one year. In this process, we didn’t strictly control personnel, allowing spies and plants from various forces to mix in."
"Now that New Realm City's order is initially established, we finally have the time to sift through our personnel."
"Identify those truly loyal and useful to us, and weed out those with issues. This is a rare opportunity; we must make the most of it."
Jia Shu nodded slightly, "Understood."
After discussing this matter, Yan Chen asked, "What do you think about Deputy Chairman Tian's mistress's death?"
Author's Note