Chapter 55 Huangmao, it turns out to be you
Li Xiaogou walked around the room and looked around, seeming to be curious about every small ornament.
His hands were handcuffed, but he still walked out in a leisurely manner. Finally, he stopped in front of a giant oil painting, looked up and looked at it carefully.
The man in the picture has a typical Central Plains appearance, with shallow features and a flat face. This would have been a fatal blow to his appearance, but his facial features are very good. His pair of upturned phoenix eyes are very eye-catching, which makes his temperament outstanding. A mole between his eyebrows smooths out the feeling of superiority. It is a face that is unforgettable once you see it.
Li Xiaogou thought.
"Do you know who he is?"
Li Xiaogou turned around and found that the meeting had ended without him noticing.
The person who spoke was Du Tu, and his face was not looking good.
Li Xiaogou calmed down a bit. He rubbed his chin and said, "To be hung here, he must be someone very important to the Special Investigation Bureau. The scope is very narrow, and he's hung in the middle... I guess this person is the first director of the Special Investigation Bureau."
Du Tu snorted coldly: "He is indeed not stupid."
The action of touching his chin caused the handcuffs to clash together, making a very noisy sound.
He extended his hand, held it out to Du Tu, and said in a disgusting, coquettish tone, "Captain Du, did you come here specifically to help me open the lock?"
Du Tu pursed his lips, stared at him for a full minute, and finally snorted heavily, turned his head and walked away.
Win.
He breathed a sigh of relief, and at this moment, the taut string finally relaxed.
Du Tu left in such a hurry that he didn't even close the door, and the discussions outside could be heard inside.
Li Xiaogou listened for a moment and curled the corners of his lips. People who are good at observing people's expressions can already tell who has the upper hand in this confrontation.
Soon, the other captains and the director came out of the conference room.
Baili Meng smiled, looked at him and left. Wang Zheng seemed to have something to say but held it back, and quickly left as well.
Yunlou and the director walked side by side, half a body length behind him. They were talking about something. Seeing that Li Xiaogou was still there, the director smiled and walked towards him.
"Boy, you have some quick wits." The director laughed heartily, "But you're too reckless!"
"Yunlou, it's your people, you teach them yourself."
Li Xiaogou followed Yunlou back to the office.
"Close the door." Yunlou said.
"Oh." Li Xiaogou closed the door gently, turned around and a bunch of keys hit him, almost hitting him in the face.
…
"Sit down." Yunlou said again.
Li Xiaogou didn't want to get into trouble, so he sat down obediently.
"Who are you trying to show off your humble attitude to?" Yunlou retorted.
Li Xiaogou straightened his back and sat more obediently: "I was wrong."
Yunlou sneered without saying anything, and the documents in his hand were flipped like a throwing knife. Li Xiaogou was worried that he would cut his hand.
After signing the last one, Yunlou finally looked up at him, but quickly retracted his gaze and pursed his lips even tighter.
Like he was even angrier.
Li Xiaogou was confused. He took the document that Yunlou threw over, took a closer look, and raised his eyes in surprise: "Promotion? Me?"
"What the Director meant."
Li Xiaogou was still in shock as Yunlou continued, "The Yuchi family has rapidly expanded in recent years, and their lust for power has only grown stronger. Not only do they control the financial flows of the country, they're also trying to extend their reach into Daxia. The bureau has some leads linking him to arms smuggling, but it will take time to complete the chain of evidence."
"You're lucky, you're just lucky."
The atmosphere was much more relaxed, but he was still confused: "Then why did Captain Du..."
"If he hadn't taken action, were you three going to kill Yuchi Deng right then and there?"
Li Xiaogou lowered his eyes a little guilty: "I don't answer hypothetical questions."
A hint of smile flashed in Yunlou's eyes. "Now that things have gotten this far, everyone in Daxia and the country knows about it, and public opinion is unprecedentedly unanimous. It would be much easier for the bureau to intervene. But if you had really dealt with him quietly back then—"
Li Xiaogou felt that Yunlou's eyes were chilling as he looked at him, and he couldn't help but shrink his neck.
Yunlou continued, "Then the three of you are already prisoners."
After a moment of silence, when he was about to leave, Yunlou asked him calmly, "Do you know where you went wrong?"
He had guessed the correct answer for this big question, so he answered it quickly: "Trying to break the rules of the bureau."
Yunlou let out an ambiguous laugh, but he quickly suppressed it.
"You should have told me before you did anything."
Li Xiaogou didn't even dare to look at Yun Lou. He knew without looking up that Yun Lou's eyes, which seemed to see through everything, were staring at him. He began to feel uncomfortable from head to toe.
"Never mind, it's my fault. A captain who can't earn the trust of his subordinates is truly derelict in his duty."
As he spoke, Yunlou's tone became somewhat self-deprecating.
Li Xiaogou raised his eyes and wanted to say something, but his throat was blocked. Yunlou took the initiative to change the subject: "Whatever you think of me is a matter within the team, but for people outside the team, I must remind you not to cross the line."
"You mean Dutu?"
"Du Tu." Yun Lou corrected him.
Li Xiaogou pursed his lips and said nothing.
"You may have many opinions about him, but everyone in the Special Investigation Bureau has different principles and ways of doing things. You don't need to understand others, but you shouldn't interfere with them easily either. Captain Du manages the most elite assassination team in the entire Special Investigation Bureau. Do you really think he can't do anything to Yuchi Deng?"
These words were like a heavy bomb dropped into his heart, and the scenes of Du Tu and him fighting several times flashed before his eyes one by one.
Du Tu did say that Yuchi Deng would pay the price for his actions, but—
"The assassination was too easy for Yuchi Deng. To avoid implicating the bureau, the assassination must have been very covert, right? A car accident? Poisoning? Such a death is a reward for him. He deserves a fair trial."
Li Xiaogou finished speaking in one breath, ready to face Yunlou's anger.
However, Yunlou did not.
He looked at Yunlou in surprise, only to find that Yunlou was staring at him blankly, his eyes seemed to be looking through him at something else.
After a while, Yunlou regained his composure. He had no intention of explaining anything and naturally jumped to another topic: "I'll go and complete the formalities later. The director has given you a half-level promotion, and your salary will also be adjusted."
“Where can I get a raise?”
Li Xiaogou's expression was so urgent that Yunlou couldn't help but laugh: "Invite Tao Qi to dinner, he will naturally take care of it."
"What clues have you found regarding the list of puppeteers? Are you just focusing on being a hero?"
Li Xiaogou touched his nose and said, "You must have heard everything Du Tu said."
Yunlou raised his eyebrows: "I am your captain, you can only report to me."
Li Xiaogou had no choice but to repeat his investigation results.
"When I went to the dungeon to meet the Puppeteer, I saw a little bit of her past, her... a secret crush. I think this relationship is the reason why she later hated men so much. However, that incident was not enough to support such strong hatred. I thought it was a bit strange at the time and just thought that my ability was not enough and that I could only understand this. When I left, I took a look at the Puppeteer. She was in a strange state, dazed, as if she was in a trance. I thought she was tortured."
Yunlou's sneer made Li Xiaogou feel guilty again. He seemed to have thought the Special Investigation Bureau was too dark.
"Later, when I investigated the people on the list, I found that they had all done evil to varying degrees, but the reasons that led them to this path were different. Situ Ming wanted to save Situ Yan for the sake of family. Sang Zhize did it for love. Hong Yao did it for money. And the Yuchi family did it for power."
"Is it wrong for humans to go astray due to some kind of temptation?"
He nodded. "That's right, there's no such thing as evil without a cause, but why did the Puppeteer put them on the list? Was it to enforce justice? And that weird website?"
Yunlou's knuckles tapped lightly and rhythmically on the tabletop, a habit he used when thinking. Suddenly, he stopped and looked at him sharply: "What is your conclusion?"
Li Xiaogou licked his dry lips, his skin crawling with goosebumps from his wild imagination. "I suspect the organization is conducting some kind of induced social experiment. They're consciously exploiting the weaknesses of these people, guiding them to become destroyers. Perhaps this is how the Puppeteer became one as well."
Yunlou pondered for a moment and then asked, "Why didn't the puppeteer tell us directly, but instead used such a roundabout way? Don't tell me she wasn't sure if there was an undercover agent in the Special Investigation Bureau, so she didn't dare to tell us. Your large-scale investigation will also alert the undercover agent."
He really thought so, and Li Xiaogou once again had the illusion that Yunlou knew him very well.
However, he had already ruled out this possibility, following the same logic as Yunlou. At the same time, he came up with a bolder guess: "She didn't say it because she couldn't say it."
"When we captured the Puppeteer, she instantly switched bodies. I later suspected it wasn't a trick of the Puppeteer, but rather some kind of soul-switching ability, but I couldn't find any evidence. But what if the state she was in when I last saw her was a sign of soul loss? Then everything would be explained."
Yunlou pondered for a longer time this time.
"You mean to say that the body the Puppeteer is imprisoned in the dungeon is slowly being hollowed out, and her soul is being transferred to another body."
Li Xiaogou nodded heavily: "Yes!"
"That's a really bold guess," Yunlou said. "The boldest part is, what makes you think the puppeteer doesn't want to escape and instead wants to give us, the ones who locked her up, hints?"
He really couldn't explain this, so he chose to play dirty. He blinked and said, "Anyway, there's no other way to investigate right now. The captains are so capable. If they want to investigate whether she's soul-depleted, there must be a way, right?"
Yunlou chuckled, not saying yes or no. But he knew that this was Yunlou's response of agreement, so he also laughed.
When he came out of Yunlou's office, Wang Bo and Jiang Mu were already waiting outside. Only when they saw his tense muscles did they relax.
"Should I say you are skilled and courageous? The bureau actually didn't pursue the matter." When there was no one else around, Jiang Mu couldn't help but sigh.
"How can you say there was no investigation? Didn't I get a raise?" Wang Bo couldn't help but show off, as if he was the one who got the raise.
Li Xiaogou didn't waste any time and directly booked a luxurious seafood boat: "I won't be back until I have a fever tonight!"
…
After eating and drinking, Li Xiaogou told the two that he had obtained authorization from Yunlou to continue investigating the list and gave him full authority.
He had nothing to hide from Wang Bo and Jiang Mu, and told them all his speculations.
Wang Bo said that he would do whatever Li Xiaogou wanted to do.
Jiang Mu pondered for a long time, then nodded and said, "Although it sounds outrageous, the details match. So how are you going to deal with it?"
To deal with it, naturally, refers to dealing with the person behind the scenes who can freely transform the puppeteer's soul.
"The puppeteer uses such an obscure way to hint. Is it possible that during the soul conversion process, the person can also understand the situation in the Special Investigation Bureau through the puppeteer's eyes?" Wang Bo said suddenly.
Li Xiaogou was shocked. He had never thought of this possibility.
"If that's the case, then I have to change my next plan."
The dim yellow light from the restaurant shone on Li Xiaogou's head, making his brows and eyes look even darker. He said slowly, "This list must contain some of the truly controlled individuals. It would be too slow for us to find them one by one. So, let's find a way to make them come to me."
"When will you deliberately reveal a flaw?"
Since it is a flaw, you can't be too deliberate, otherwise the other party won't take the bait, nor can you make it too difficult, otherwise the other party won't take action.
Li Xiaogou has already thought of a good opportunity.
A month later, Yuchi Deng's case was tried in public.
This case, which shocked two countries and involved human trafficking, forced prostitution, intentional injury, intentional homicide, involvement in organized crime, and money laundering, finally went to trial under the watchful eyes of the public.
Yuchi Deng looked much more haggard than before.
Li Xiaogou sat in the gallery, recalling the news he had received the day before yesterday.
Yuchi Deng has become an abandoned son of the Yuchi family. After his father realized how much importance the Daxia government attached to him this time, he decisively gave up on him. Now all the sons adopted from the side branches have been sent home.
Cases that are tried in public usually have sufficient evidence, so the entire trial process goes smoothly.
Yuchi Deng was convicted of multiple crimes in the first trial and was sentenced to death.
When he heard the verdict, he lowered his head and fluttered his eyelashes, but otherwise had no reaction. He was alive, but it was worse than death.
After the public trial, Li Xiaogou walked out of the court. The sun was shining brightly outside the court. It was a clear and beautiful day.
He didn't take a car. He had some free time, so he just walked and strolled around.
I was just walking along the roadside food stalls and somehow ended up in a dead end.
He held a string of candied haws in his hand and looked at the three masked men who suddenly jumped in front of him. He was speechless: "Are they filming a martial arts movie?"
A sneer came from behind him, causing him to shudder.
He turned around suddenly, but felt a sharp pain and a huge electric current ran through his body, and even his heart stopped beating in an instant.
In the last moment of Li Xiaogou's consciousness, he saw the man's eyes.
Oh, Huangmao, it turns out to be you.
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