Chapter 1 The Turn of Events

Feng Bujue suddenly turned his head, looking toward the door.

At that moment, thoughts raced through his mind: "Who could it be so late? Has Asass been back already? Or is it the neighbors downstairs coming up to ask about the explosion they heard? If it's the latter, when I open the door, they'll definitely notice the blood on me and the bloody smell in the house... But if I don't open the door, will they just give up...?"

Just as Jue-ge hesitated, a familiar voice came from outside the door: "Bujue, open the door, it's me."

"Bao Qing?" Feng Bujue recognized Bao-daren's voice immediately, but his suspicions increased instead, "This situation is a bit off... Why would a government employee with a happy family and a successful career be at my door at two in the morning..." His eyes flickered, "Could it be he argued with his wife and got kicked out? No... Even if he really got kicked out and planned to crash at my place... he should have called first. And... My intercom didn't ring, how did he get into the building?"

With that thought, Jue-ge took a few steps toward the door and replied, "Oh... Lao Bao, what's going on so late?"

"I'm here to help you," Bao Qing replied in a very serious tone.

"Huh?" Jue-ge stalled for time while tiptoeing behind the door and looking out through the peephole, "What are you talking about?"

"Bujue, I know you're behind the door watching us," Bao Qing replied, as he and the dozen or so figures behind him came into Feng Bujue's view, "I also know... that an 'Angel' died in your house just now." He paused, "Anyway... Open the door and let us in, we can talk slowly."

*Click*—

Before he finished speaking, Feng Bujue opened the door.

"Eh?" Bao Qing was also taken aback, he thought it would take more effort to persuade Jue-ge to open the door, but he didn't expect the other party to comply before he even finished two sentences, "Why did you..."

"Why did I open the door so readily?" Feng Bujue continued Bao-daren's words, and laughed, "Heh... there are two main reasons..." As he spoke, he swung the door wide open and walked back to the living room without any reservations, turning his back to the door, "First, you have a strong force, if you really wanted to force your way in, my crappy door... probably wouldn't be able to stop you. You showing courtesy before resorting to force can be considered giving me face. Secondly... I don't have many friends, and we've known each other for many years, I believe you wouldn't harm me."

"Hmph..." Bao Qing revealed a meaningful smile, containing a trace of relief, a trace of bitterness, and a hint of admiration, "Indeed, you are Feng Bujue."

As he spoke, he led the dozen or so strong men behind him in single file and closed the door.

"So... where should we begin?" Feng Bujue asked as he walked back to the living room and turned to look at Bao Qing.

"Let's start with my identity..." Bao Qing replied, "I am Bao Qing, Lieutenant, belonging to the Supernatural Affairs Administration and Supervision Bureau of the People's Republic of China... also known as 'Department Nine'. In recent years, my mission has been... to monitor specific targets and regularly analyze and report on the degree of their threat."

"Hahahahahaha..." Upon hearing this, Feng Bujue burst into laughter, and no one knew what the laughter meant.

"Are you finding it hard to believe, or hard to accept?" Bao Qing asked in a deep voice.

"No, no, no..." Feng Bujue stopped laughing and waved his hand, "I just realized... recently... so many subversive changes have occurred in my life, making me feel very interested." He smiled again, "Continue..."

"Alright..." Bao Qing said, "Initially... I only had one target, and that was Wang Tanzhi..."

"Wait a minute..." Feng Bujue immediately interrupted him again, "Are you mistaken?" He pulled a few tissues from the coffee table, wiping his face (there was still a lot of blood on his face, but Bao Qing and the Department Nine agents ignored it) as he said, "I remember when you first hung out with us... you were still in kindergarten, right? You were a spy at the age of five?"

"Initially... I was just your playmate," Bao Qing explained, "I was recruited in the fifth grade of elementary school, and in middle school, I became a formal agent and started performing missions. Considering my relationship with Xiao Tan, I was assigned a long-term monitoring mission."

"Fifth grade... you debuted pretty early..." Jue-ge couldn't help but retort.

"Not that early," Bao Qing replied calmly, "Our country's agents are cultivated from children aged 9-14. We are not like the CIA, which likes to secretly recruit people from the Ivy League (American elite universities). We are the kind of organization... that makes agents enter the Ivy League, waiting to be recruited by the CIA and penetrate its interior."

"Hey, hey... that's not right!" Feng Bujue suddenly raised his voice again, "According to what you said, someone like me... should have been called in for an interview by the National Security Bureau when I was nine years old, right?"

"I've seen your file... when you were eight years old, they wanted to interview you..." A strange expression appeared on Bao Qing's bitter face, "But a year later, you were added to another... uh... 'list' that I still can't view, and were put under surveillance."

"Huh? Didn't you say that your only monitoring target was Xiao Tan until middle school?" Feng Bujue asked again.

"Initially, you weren't under my surveillance," Bao Qing said, "For some reason... your monitoring level was higher than Xiao Tan's... it was always adult agents monitoring you."

"Ah? Who?" Jue-ge asked with wide eyes, he really didn't feel like he was being monitored.

"Until high school, all your homeroom teachers... were people from the National Security Bureau," Bao Qing replied, "After graduating from high school, I took over... because I became an adult."

"Damn?" The faces of his successive homeroom teachers flashed through Feng Bujue's eyes, "They really are professionals, they were able to hide it from me for so long!"

"In fact..." Bao Qing swallowed, "After completing the mission of monitoring you... they all applied for a transfer, citing excessive pressure... and never did field work again... By the way, our middle school homeroom teacher became a monk in Mount Wutai in the second year after you graduated..."

"What's with that...'it's all your fault' tone of yours?" Feng Bujue shouted, "It's not my fault, is it! And... what exactly is this 'list' that you still can't view!"

"I've heard some rumors..." Bao Qing replied, "Legend has it... that list records some 'extremely dangerous people, but who may still be useful when necessary'."

"Hmm..." Feng Bujue lowered his voice, "Hmm," and said nothing more, because he couldn't refute it.

"Alright..." At this time, Bao Qing straightened his expression, "If you want to reminisce, there will be plenty of time in the future, but right now... I still have a mission to carry out." His eyes became sharp, "Feng Bujue, I have to ask you to come with me."

"Where to?" Feng Bujue asked.

"Of course... to Department Nine," Bao Qing replied.

"Uh... how about you leave me an address, I'll take a shower, and then take a taxi there myself?" Feng Bujue asked with the attitude of "it doesn't hurt to try".

"Address... don't you already know it?" Bao Qing replied expressionlessly.

As soon as these words came out, Feng Bujue was shocked, and two seconds later, he smiled bitterly: "Heh... you've always known... that I'm investigating you?"

"Yes," Bao Qing said bluntly.

"Then why didn't you arrest me earlier?" Feng Bujue tilted his head and asked, "Did you want to see how far I could go?"

"These questions..." Bao Qing said, "I can't answer you." After saying this, he took out a pair of handcuffs and a black hood from his jacket pocket, "Everything is the meaning of those above... at this moment, I came to you, and telling you these words, all have been arranged by those above..."

"It seems I have no choice?" Feng Bujue looked into his old friend's eyes and asked with a smile.

"I'm sorry," Bao Qing's words contained too much.

He was a much more complicated person than he appeared. His friendship with Feng Bujue and Wang Tanzhi was not false. It was the purest emotion, without any impurities, a kind of bond that was extremely difficult to establish in the adult world. But his values, and his loyalty to the country, forced him to take on a role that he himself loathed...

"Okay, I'll go with you." At this moment, Jue-ge seemed very relaxed and cooperative. He quickly scanned the Department Nine agents in the room, and smiled, "Heh... why bother to mobilize so many people to arrest an ordinary person like me."

Bao Qing stepped forward and put the handcuffs on Feng Bujue: "Don't misunderstand, they... are here to clean up the scene."