Chapter 388 Mistaking a trivial matter for a powerful authority!
The jeep turned at the intersection and disappeared into the rising yellow dust, but Su Yue's brows remained furrowed.
The car left, but the people didn't disperse.
Outside the factory gate, several unfamiliar faces in uniforms were still loitering around, writing and drawing in notebooks. They didn't look like military police; they looked more like they were scouting the battlefield.
Su Yue withdrew her gaze, turned around, and went downstairs.
"Sister, they haven't gone far." Chen Xinyue followed behind, carrying a stack of documents, her glasses fogged up with anger. "Just now, Xiao Li from the security department said that those people are blocking the back gate. They're tearing apart any delivery trucks that come in or out, and even the old lady buying vegetables in the cafeteria had her basket searched."
“Zhao Dezhu is like a stubborn plaster.” Su Yue didn’t stop walking and went straight to the archives. “Once he’s stuck to you, he’ll want to tear off a piece of your flesh.”
That empty city ruse he just used could only scare him for a short time.
A scoundrel like Zhao Dezhu will only become more ruthless after suffering a loss.
His current retreat is a prelude to something even worse.
As soon as the two reached the corner of the administration building, they saw a shadowy figure sneak into the archives room at the end of the corridor.
He had a buzz cut and was wearing the uniform of the disciplinary team. He had been following Zhao Dezhu around, bowing and scraping.
Su Yue paused, reaching out to stop Chen Xinyue from rushing forward.
She put her index finger to her lips as a shushing gesture, then moved closer to the wall, inching her way over.
The door to the archives was ajar.
Through the crack in the door, the man with the crew cut was facing away from the doorway, busy in front of the file rack labeled "Raw Material Invoices".
He didn't look through anything.
Instead, he pulled a brown paper file folder from his pocket, quickly stuffed it into the bottom shelf of the file rack, and even pushed it further in, hiding it with two old ledgers.
After doing all this, the crew-cut man straightened up and shouted in a mocking tone, "Team leader! We've found something here!"
That shout was extremely affected; it was clearly a signal sent to the outside world.
The warning light in Su Yue's heart flashed instantly.
frame.
The oldest, and most deadly, method.
Once that document is found, no matter what's inside, as long as it's labeled "confidential," Gu Beichen's political career will be over, and the entire Gu family will be imprisoned.
The sound of hurried footsteps came from the other end of the corridor, and Zhao Dezhu's hoarse voice, filled with excitement, asked from afar: "What discovery? Have you found evidence of a crime?"
There's no time left.
Su Yue didn't move. She turned her head, leaned close to Chen Xinyue's ear, and said two sentences very quickly.
Chen Xinyue paused for a moment, then nodded emphatically and turned to run in the opposite direction.
Su Yue straightened her collar, took a deep breath, and just a second before Zhao Dezhu led his men into the corridor, she pushed open the door and strode into the archives room.
"Comrade, those are last year's invalid receipts. You don't need to look through them so carefully, do you?"
The crew-cut man was startled, his body jerked violently, and he almost crashed into the shelf.
He hadn't expected Su Yue to appear at this moment. A hint of panic flashed across his face, but it was quickly masked by fierceness.
"Stop talking nonsense! We're on official business!" The crew-cut man pointed at the shelf. "I saw you sneakily stuffing things into this place earlier; it's definitely something shady!"
That's when they started to turn the tables and blame others.
Su Yue sneered, leaned against the door frame, and crossed her arms: "Is that so? Then take it out and let everyone see what treasures I, Su Yue, have hidden away."
At this moment, Zhao Dezhu rushed in with three or four burly men.
"What's going on?" Zhao Dezhu's beady eyes swept over the two men before finally settling on the shelf the crew-cut man was pointing to.
"Team leader! It's right here!" The crew-cut man regained his confidence and bent down to reach for the file folder.
"Wait a minute."
Su Yue spoke. Her voice wasn't loud, but it was sharp as ice shards.
“Team Leader Zhao, let’s get this straight. Nobody comes into this archive room except for me and the accountant. The dust on these shelves is a finger’s width thick.”
Su Yue pointed to the partition on that shelf.
Sure enough, there was a uniform layer of dust on it, except for the spot where the crew-cut man had just touched it, where there were several clear fingerprints left, which were freshly rubbed off.
"If this thing really is something I hid before, then the dust on it should be as thick as the surrounding area. But if this thing just flew in..."
Su Yue looked at Zhao Dezhu with a half-smile: "Then this gray doesn't match up."
Zhao Dezhu's expression changed.
He's a rough man who only cares about the results when he's plotting and scheming; he never pays attention to these details.
But he reacted quickly, his eyes darting around, and he snapped, "Stop giving me that crap! The evidence is irrefutable, your denials are useless! Xiao Wang, show it to me!"
Without further hesitation, the crew-cut man snatched the file folder and slammed it onto the table.
"Smack!"
The envelope was torn open, revealing a corner of a red document header.
The words "Top Secret" were prominently printed on it, and below it was a line of smaller print: "Distribution Diagram of Core Components of Project 596".
Nuclear engineering.
When Zhao Dezhu saw that line of text, he was so happy that his back teeth were showing.
This isn't evidence; it's practically a death warrant for Gu Beichen to the guillotine!
"Fine! Su Yue! You've got some nerve!" Zhao Dezhu pointed at Su Yue's nose, his fingers trembling. "You dare steal such a top-secret national secret! Let's see how you deny it this time! Men! Cuff her!"
Two burly men pulled out handcuffs and were about to pounce on him.
"Let's see who dares!"
A furious shout, like a thunderclap, resounded through the corridor.
Zhao Dezhu's ears were ringing from the shock. He turned his head and was immediately dumbfounded.
Huo Wenxuan was seen supporting an elderly man with a full head of white hair, who was standing angrily at the door. The old man was wearing a faded Zhongshan suit and was leaning on a cane. Although his back was somewhat hunched, his eyes were frighteningly bright.
Behind him followed four or five equally distinguished elderly men, each with a frosty expression on their face.
"Old Li... Old Li?" Zhao Dezhu's legs went weak, and he almost knelt down.
This is Professor Li Qingfeng, a leading figure in the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Even provincial leaders would address him respectfully as "Teacher," let alone a mere disciplinary team leader like himself.
The reinforcements Zhang Huilan brought have arrived.
Li Qingfeng ignored Zhao Dezhu, walked straight to the table, picked up the file folder and glanced at it.
"absurd!"
The old man slammed the file folder heavily onto Zhao Dezhu's face.
"These blueprints are discarded drafts from five years ago, and they were declassified three years ago! They're even being cited in university textbooks now! You're treating this as a secret and trying to arrest people?"
Zhao Dezhu's nose stung from the blow, but he dared not dodge, only able to cover his face and groan, "This...this is marked 'Top Secret'..."
"That was printed back then!" Li Qingfeng's beard trembled with anger as he jabbed the floor with his cane. "Ignorant fools! You're making a mountain out of a molehill! Comrade Su Yue is a key technical advisor for our Academy of Sciences. Her bacteriophage project is a major undertaking that benefits the country and its people! Instead of catching the bad guys, you come here to make things difficult for a female researcher. Who gave you the right to do this?!"
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