Release that Man

“It is indeed an open conspiracy!” Han Chu had also left the city for work for a few days. He returned about one week later than Ye Shuang. When he heard Ye Shuang bring up the issue of ‘the local police superintendent welcoming FBI’s special profiler, Albert, at the station to share his experience’, the man could not help his lips from twitching upward. Obviously, the man was in a good mood.

“This is actually a gamble. I told those people openly that I was using the public system’s legal process to drag Albert down, but the problem is that this public system is too sensitive. Then is this considered a favor or a bribe? Can this Albert be trusted or not? Is he really helpless, or will he make use of this opportunity to steal information from us? Are things really what they seem on the surface? Perhaps the chance of Albert betraying us is a very small one percent, but should we bet our future on this small possibility?”

Han Chu tutted softly and explained coolly, “Every world has their own rules. Due to the sensitive relationship of the departments, no matter how many people believe that Albert will not betray his own country, logically speaking, he has to be invited back to the FBI to receive some questioning and to stop the communication for a period of time. He has to answer for his every movement during ‘his holiday’ and explain everything that he has done in this period. Since no one can vouch for his actions during this period, seeing this from the worst perspective, he might have betrayed his country. Also, if we consider this from the most likely scenario, perhaps we might make use of Albert’s FBI identity to create rumors… In any case, anything is possible.”

Ye Shuang poured a glass of water for Han Chu. After she pushed it to him, she sat down across from him. She added with a smile, “I hear that to prevent an organization’s thinking from getting to concentrated and to prevent hidden threat, most organization will be someone that plays the character of devil’s advocate?”

Devil’s advocate was an old, western phrase. Initially, the purpose was to make sure the discussion would be in-depth. Therefore, it was decided that one of the members had to come up with an opposing opinion unconditionally. To put it simply, it was to critique and to suspect. This was not something that was symbolic; the person really needed to counter as often as they could to prevent an echo chamber from forming.

This was because human beings had a tendency to follow the crowd. When someone brought up an idea, the remaining people would normally form similar ideas. For an example, if everyone in an organization that had ten people had their own opinion, it would be fine. However, if the first nine people formed the same consensus and agreed to the same idea, then the tenth person would have to reject this idea no matter what; this was to prevent a blind spot due to the follower’s perspective.

Of course, this kind of philosophy was rarely practiced in today’s society, but if one looked closer, one would realize that there would be a character that everyone hated, one that everyone thought was there just to make life difficult for everyone else.

For example, during a meeting, someone might like to go against the grain to make their presence known, or during school, there would be this tattle-tale that liked to rat other people out. Their similarity was no matter what they said or did, nobody liked them, but for some unknown reason, the leader would never fire these people. There could not only be one voice inside an organization. Ye Shuang was not that familiar with the operating ideals within the FBI, but she happened to know from Anthony that they practiced the ideal of the devil’s advocate.

In other worlds, no matter how innocent Albert was, regardless of the fact that Han Chu’s open conspiracy had been easily seen through, as long as there was this devil’s advocate at the FBI, even if Han Chu did not mean it the way he did, this devil’s advocate would summon Albert back to the FBI to be investigated.

Han Chu picked up the glass of water and nodded. “The devil’s advocate… In this one month, Albert will have to return.”

Ye Shuang sighed in relief. Even though,she was no longer as afraid of Albert’s presence with Han Chu’s help to cover her tracks, no matter what, she would feel much better if Albert was not around. The only bad thing was that Albert had already shown his intention to help them fight the money-laundering organization, but if he was summoned back, they would lose the aid from Albert.

Oh well, the benefits far outweighed the disadvantages.

Relaxing, Ye Shuang could not help laughing as she chided Han Chu. “Could it be that you were afraid that my secret will be exposed, so you purposely came up with this idea to help me chase the man away?”

Han Chu stayed silent.

Er, I was only guessing. Don’t tell me that I was right! Ye Shuang was also speechless.

Then she heard Han Chu sigh and comment lightly, “It was already very troublesome with one Tony, but it only got worse when your problem was added onto the pile. Last new year, a fortune teller said that my luck will be very bad for this coming year, and I have to say, the master has been right so far.”

Ye Shuang felt like dropping to her knees in dismay. The feeling that she was someone’s jinx was not a nice one. Thankfully, Han Chu only got depressed for a brief moment before he collected his emotions and raised his head to ask about another subject. “How is the case that I gave you before I went away coming along? The case is only for one week, right? How come there is no news from the client and the end payment even after three days?”

Since Xu Jian had a dark history, Han Chu was paying special attention to this particular case.

Ye Shuang thought about it and said, “Yes, the original case was only for a week, but a few days ago, the client called to ask if we could extend the service for a few more days, and the payment would be counted daily at 6000 per day. I agreed to that, but I have no idea what that was for. Should we call Xu Jian to ask?”

“Never mind.” Han Chu thought about it and shook his head. “Unless there is something urgent about the case, we should not ask for the details of the assignment. After all, this is considered the client’s personal privacy.”

After hearing that there was no problem with the case, just the client wanting to extend the service, Han Chu put the case out of his mind. However, to their surprise, someone came to knock on Ye Shuang’s door that night, and when the latter went to open the door, she saw Xu Jian standing beyond it with an awkward expression, and trailing behind him was the silent Qiu Yu. The girl was carrying her suitcase with her.

Ye Shuang almost instantly tossed an incriminating gaze toward Xu Jian. Could this man have gone after his client’s girlfriend? Earlier, he had seduced An Zixuan, and for this little part time work, he had seduced another person?

Xu Jian probably understood the hidden meaning behind Ye Shuang’s gaze, and he quickly pulled up his arms to explain, “It was not me who drag her here; she insisted that I bring her here!”

Qiu Yu stepped forward calmly and nodded slowly. “Yes, this is my idea.”

“Wait a minute.” Ye Shuang had a headache. She walked past the two and went to the apartment next door. She keyed in the password and poked her head through the door to shout at the top of her voice, “Brother Han, come over here please. Something big is happening…”

Three minutes later, Han Chu and Ye Shuang moved to Ye Shuang’s living room, and they sat side by side on the sofa. Xu Jian and Qiu Yu sat on the other side. The situation looked very similar to an interrogation.

Well, it was indeed an interrogation.

Han Chu rubbed the bridge of his nose like he was suffering a headache due to this surprise event as well. Then he raised his eyes to scan the two opposite him. Finally, he opened his lips to say, “I only have a few questions to ask. Firstly, is the mission completed?”

Xu Jian was stunned, and he nodded subconsciously. “Mr. Wang said the rest of the payment will be entered into Xiao Shuang’s account tomorrow. The mission… is completed.”

But after the mission was completed, a side mission popped out, so what should we do about that?

“Okay then, then you don’t need to tell me the rest.” Han Chu nodded easily. After hearing that the mission had been completed and that the payment was coming in, he decided to ignore the rest. He stood up and prepared to leave. “I’ll be leaving already. Do try to rest early. After the payment enters the account, deal with the commission as soon as you can and give the employee their deserved cut. Deal with the rest of the problem as you see fit!”

After he was done, he lifted his legs and… failed to move. Ye Shuang pulled on Han Chu’s right hand tightly, looking like she was not going to let his leave unless he stayed to listen to what others had to say. “Brother Han, don’t be act so rushed. Xu Jian looks like he still has something else to say.”

“Problems beyond the mission have nothing to do with us.” Han Chu frowned and pointed this out clearly. “We only need to focus on a few things. First, whether the content of the case and the clients have crossed the law; second, the client’s credibility; third and final, the talent’s capability and suitability for the case. Beyond that, as long as the case was completed, personal problems or the arrangements of the client or the talent have nothing to do with us.”

Han Chu had always been a rational thinker, and he hated to get involved in other people’s business. Based on Xu Jian’s expression, it was clear that it was not him who had kidnapped the client’s girlfriend, so why would the girlfriend come to them? Han Chu had no desire to find out. As long as his talent did not do anything to violate the moral and legal code.

Xu Jian looked so conflicted and depressed that even Ye Shuang felt pity for the man. However, it was indeed unreasonable to ask Han Chu for help. If it was not Xu Jian who kidnapped the girl, then to put it frankly, this was Qiu Yu’s own problem. Why would they help the girl for no reason‽

Thinking about this, Ye Shuang could not help but open her lips. “Miss Qiu, why don’t you tell us if there’s something that we can help you with since you’ve come to us?”

“I do have a favor to ask, and I came here so that it would not affect the payment that you might get,” Qiu Yu said softly and raised her finger to move her hair behind her ears. Then, she turned her body to open her suitcase. She picked out a box from inside it, and she looked at it for a while before placing it before Ye Shuang. “After Wang Xueyu has paid you, please hand these things back to him.”

Ye Shuang looked at the box before opening it with confusion. She was almost blinded by the glint of the jewels inside it—a diamond ring, diamond necklace, diamond earring, female watch, brooch… On top of the pile of glowing jewels, there was a credit card lying on top.

The crowd gawked, speechless.

Qiu Yu smiled politely. She touched her hair again before she explained, “There are some more clothes and bags. I’ll mail them to Wang Xueyu’s home after I return to university. However, these things are too valuable, so I hope you’ll be able to help me return them to him personally.”

Ye Shuang closed the box. She closed her eyes to think before saying, “I don’t quite understand what is Miss Qiu’s meaning…”

“This means that I’m breaking up with him.” Qiu Yu placed her palms on her knees. She took a long sigh before continuing. “He has pursued me for a long time, and he is a good man. Even though I hate to say it, a marriage cannot be solved with just love between the couple.”

A marriage is the union of two surnames, or put in modern vernacular, it is the union between two families.

First, Wang Xueyu’s mother made Qiu Yu feel very uncomfortable. If she was really not satisfied with her family background, even if they said yes due to their son’s insistence, in the future, there would be endless trouble. When Wang Xueyu was at a low point in his career, Mrs. Wang would complain that her daughter-in-law could not help her son. When Wang Xueyu was busy with work, she would complain that her daughter-in-law could not help her son. She could imagine if she gave birth to a daughter, there would more complaining from her mother-in-law.

Even though these scenarios might not necessarily happen, no one’s life would be smooth sailing all the way. When they were in trouble, Qiu Yu was willing to fight it out with her husband and support her husband, but she did not want to suffer the wrath of her mother-in-law for no reason at all.

The other reason that made Qiu Yu make this decision was Wang Xueyu’s little brother. The days Qiu Yu stayed at the Wang family, she just so happened to see when the mistress visited the b*stard son. Instantly, the pair of mother and son hugged each other in tears while the other pair of mother and son looked on with disgust. The man of the family, Old Man Wang, ran up the stairs to hide away from the drama. This event that was straight out of a soap opera made Qiu Yu incredibly uncomfortable.

There were hateful relatives in every family, but this one was so closely related to Wang Xueyu. Thinking about the brother-in-law that would get up in her hair whenever he had the chance and the possible fight for inheritance that would be waiting for her, Qiu Yu lost all intention of getting married.

Qiu Yu herself was the quiet type and preferred to live a simple, quiet life. Wang Xueyu’s personality was honestly not that matching for her, and that was the reason Wang Xueyu had to spend a whole year to pursue her.

It was not easy to get her to say yes. When they were just a couple, things had been fine. When it was approaching their graduation, Wang Xueyu had suddenly brought up the issue of marriage. Hearing this, Qiu Yu had been touched and willing. However, when Wang Xueyu explained his family situation, the romantic feeling in Qiu Yu’s mind receded almost instantly, and all she could think of was…

She really had no intention of getting involved with such a complicated family. However, due to Wang Xueyu, Qiu Yu thought that she should try to give it a chance. Returning home with Wang Xueyu was her one trial and gamble. If she could get the approval, Qiu Yu would decide to continue this relationship with Wang Xueyu, but if the man’s family refused to accept a girl from a normal family background, she would treat this as a final holiday together before the break up.

What happened next, everybody knew. Wang Xueyu’s family was much more complicated than Qiu Yu had imagined. When Wang Xueyu hired Xu Jian to come over through Han Chu and when she was memorizing the script that should describe her life, Qiu Yu’s emotions had been complicated. The already reticent girl retreated into herself because she was too tired to say anything already.

The performance by the little brother was the last nail on the coffin. If he dared to buy out others at his current age, this kind of family could quite possibly nurture a murderer in the future.

Qiu Yu explained her thoughts briefly and then added slowly, “So, as I’ve said, I really cannot accept this kind of family and his mother’s attitude. However, if I return the items too soon, perhaps he might think it was because of your working attitude that Auntie Wang is not satisfied with me. Therefore, to prevent the unnecessary trouble, please return these things after Wang Xueyu has paid you all the necessary funds.”

Han Chu and Ye Shuang shared a look with each other; neither of them had expected the girl before them to make a decision like this. Honestly, if they really thought about it, the girl was doing this because she was concerned about them, and she was quite a clear thinker. If she had left the Wang family and dropped all the stuff at home, when it was discovered, it definitely would have raised a storm, and it would have affected their work review.

Because of this, Han Chu could not say that this was unrelated to him anymore. He opened the box and pushed it to Qiu Yu. Under the girl’s confused look, he asked the girl to hold the box of jewelry before her chest while he took out his phone to snap a picture. When he was done, he put away his phone and nodded. “The box and the contents inside the box will be returned to Mr. Wang’s hands with nothing missing. Other than that, other than the picture, we need Miss Qiu to write a letter of transference for us. Since this is technically just a favor, there’s no need for payment. If you need our service in the future, Miss Qiu, you are welcome to seek us out, and we can cooperate again.”

Qiu Yu would never need Han Chu’s service, and Han Chu was merely saying that out of kindness; he knew that Qiu Yu had considered his team’s difficulty before making her decision, so he was willing to respond in kind.

Qiu Yu understood why Han Chu snapped the picture. She revealed her smile again and lowered her head to start writing. She left her thumb print and then stood up to bid farewell to both Han Chu and Ye Shuang. “Then, I will leave the items with you. I still need to get to my hotel, so I will leave now.”

“There’s no need for that. Why don’t you just stay here with me?” Ye Shuang smiled and tried to make her stay.

Qiu Yu shook her head politely. “Thank you, but my plane is early tomorrow morning. The hotel is just next to the airport; it’s more convenient that way.”

Since she had said that, Ye Shuang naturally did not insist.

After Qiu Yu left, the remaining three had the chance to ruminate over what had happened on this latest case. They looked at each other and had nothing to say.

“That…” After some time, it was Ye Shuang who shattered the silence. She picked up the letter that Qiu Yu had written and then turned to look at the box. “That was truly surprising.”

“You’re right.” Han Chu nodded calmly. “She looks so quiet and reserved, but she is surprisingly resolute when she has made up her mind.”

Xu Jian chuckled mirthlessly. “Now do you understand how I felt when she insisted on following me here? She probably heard about Han… Mr. Han’s relationship with Wang Xueyu through Mr. Wang, so Miss Qiu probably thought you guys are the best candidate to leave these valuable jewels with. They will be safe with you guys. If this was anyone else, she would have worried about them exposing her or claiming these jewels for themselves.”

“Since this is already a done deal, there’s no need to focus on it anymore. I’m now more concerned about another problem…” Ye Shuang scratched her chin and then said, “Brother Han, do you think Wang Xueyu will come after us with the grief of a break up after we hand the items back to him? What should we do then?”

Han Chu assumed that this would be over after they got the rest of the payment, and he did not consider the possibility of the client being unreasonable and holding grudges. Han Chu cleared his throat and raised his head to ask, “Does that Wang Xueyu know your home address?”

“Of course not.” Ye Shuang grinned proudly. “Plus, the one who dropped Xu Jian by his place… was Brother Shuang. Even if I come across Wang Xueyu face to face, he will not be able to recognize me.”

Han Chu nodded. “Good, he doesn’t know my home address either.”

Similarly, he had not shown himself to the man.

Xu Jian’s heart skipped a beat. “Wait… wait a minute, this means that Wang Xueyu only recognizes me‽”

Ye Shuang lit the flashlight on her phone. “…Here, I’ll light a candle for you.”

“Stop kidding, Xiao Shuang!” Xu Jian’s blood got stuck in his throat. He felt like rubbing the tears from his eyes. How come he always ended being the one that people came after‽

Ye Shuang sighed and patted Xu Jian’s shoulder with pity. “Just let it be. You’ll get used to it after a while… By the way, since you’re already familiar with Wang Xueyu, you should be the one who return him this stuff!”

Why should I‽

Xu Jian looked at Ye Shuang with resentment. If this was not his ex-girlfriend, he definitely would have gotten into an argument already.

However, even Han Chu agreed with Ye Shuang’s suggestion and shamelessly added, “Then before you return the items to Mr. Wang and we get the confirmation from Mr. Wang, I’ll will keep your payment temporarily. The case is only considered officially over after the items have been returned. Other than that, there is something else that I want to add.”

Han Chu raised his lips coldly and then added the threat in a cold tone, “Even though the stuff inside the box is worth more than your salary, don’t think that you’ll be able to run away with them. I have your ID number, and you really do not want to experience being on the wanted lists of all the police stations over the country.”

This b*stard!

The following afternoon, Ye Shuang’s phone received the notification that the remaining payment had entered her account. After taking out her commission and Han Chu’s commission from her part, she cleared the account, and it did not take long for Han Chu’s call to arrive. It was for two things only.

First, it was to inform her that he had received the money, and second, it was to inform Ye Shuang to tell Xu Jian to go return the items.

Ye Shuang, who answered Han Chu’s order, went online to buy a train ticket once she hung up the phone. Then, without wasting any more time, she drove to Xu Jian’s home to take away the man and the box. At the train platform, Ye Shuang took out her handkerchief to lament Xu Jian’s fate for three seconds before she turned and walked away, tossing the saddened Xu Jian out of her mind.

Xu Jian hugged the box helplessly, and he felt like crying, seeing the heartless Ye Shuang walk away from the platform. San Lin City was indeed the saddest location in his life! He swore to never to return to this place again…