Chapter 358: Feeling a Bit Uneasy

Beijing.

Xiao Yu and three other group leaders stepped off the helicopter. Waiting on the helipad were six more senior group leaders.

All ten National Security special-ops group leaders were now gathered.

Group One Leader: Shen Zhengyang

Group Two Leader: Wang Dong

Group Three Leader: Tan Li

Group Four Leader: Shao Jiafu

Group Five Leader: Shen Mei

Group Six Leader: Han Longteng

Group Seven Leader: Sun Yu

Group Eight Leader: Wang Haonian

Group Nine Leader: Zhou Lie

Group Ten Leader… Xiao Yu!

***

Ministry of National Security, Main Conference Room.

Everyone wore grave expressions as they turned to Group Eight’s leader, Wang Haonian.

Why focus on him?

From the day Group Eight was established, it had only one mission: safeguarding the capital.

“No signs of anything suspicious.”

Confronted by nine piercing gazes, Wang Haonian broke into a nervous sweat and shook his head. Generally, no foreign intelligence operatives would dare make trouble in the capital of a major nation. This was common sense. Every capital had top-notch security and protective measures, along with the strongest rapid-response forces. You’d have to be unhinged—or suicidal—to stir up trouble there.

Shifting their attention, everyone looked at Xiao Yu.

“Don’t stare at me.” Xiao Yu shrugged. “All I said was there’s a possibility something could happen in Beijing.”

That’s just how deduction works. You first consider a worst-case scenario and figure out potential threats. If it turns out your guess is wrong, that’s sometimes the best news. If you’re right—there’s going to be big trouble.

As a seasoned undercover policeman embedded in National Security—a double agent, so to speak—Xiao Yu merely offered his wild ideas. Whether or how to prevent any crisis was an issue for these senior leaders to figure out.

“From what I know about this kid…” Wang Dong shot Xiao Yu a peculiar look. “Wherever he goes, something tends to blow up. His mouth can be worse than a crow’s, so keep on your toes, or you might find yourself in serious trouble.”

‘You’ve got to be kidding.’ Xiao Yu glared at Wang Dong.

What blatant payback. This had to be because Xiao Yu once forced Wang Dong to ask their boss for cigarettes; now he was taking revenge. 

‘Fine then.’ Xiao Yu resolved not to believe another word out of Wang Dong’s mouth.

Still…

Xiao Yu scanned the conference room, noticing how silent the other team leaders remained.

‘Seriously? You’re all so quietly in sync that it’s making me feel a bit uneasy,’ he thought, twitching the corner of his mouth.

‘Do I really bring explosions wherever I go? Maybe…it’s not that bad?’

“All right, I’ll reinforce security measures.”

Group Eight Leader Wang Haonian stood. Before leaving, he gave Xiao Yu a strange look.

Xiao Yu, “…”

‘What’s that look supposed to mean?’

After the meeting adjourned, Wang Dong and Xiao Yu headed to Group Two’s offices together.

There was no choice. Xiao Yu discovered, much to his dismay, that despite being Group Ten’s leader, he had no dedicated office. Hard to believe, right? Seems the higher-ups weren’t too concerned about details.

“Hey, kid, I was only joking,” Wang Dong said in the office, waggling his eyebrows in a bootlicking manner. “If I’m ever in danger, you’ve gotta save me. I’ve got complete faith in your abilities.”

Xiao Yu scoffed, his gaze toward Wang Dong like that of someone eyeing a heretic.

‘If the big bro lands in trouble someday, do you really think I’ll just watch you die? No, I’d close my eyes.’

“Don’t be like that. We’re brothers.” Wang Dong forced an awkward smile, offering him a cigarette.

“Tch.” Xiao Yu accepted the cigarette and pursed his lips.

“Let’s be serious for a second.” Wang Dong’s expression turned grave. “Is there really a chance someone will stir up trouble in Beijing?”

“No idea.” Xiao Yu exhaled smoke, narrowing his eyes. “If the other side deliberately spread misinformation, using the Yushen Blade and that gas shell as a smokescreen to send us searching all over the country, then they’d strike in the next few days. If nothing happens soon, my guess was wrong.”

Wang Dong nodded, picturing the scenario. 

To become Group Two’s leader required a solid dose of intelligence. Xiao Yu’s analysis seemed sound: if there’s going to be trouble, it’ll be within these few days. If not, it means nothing was planned to begin with.

But that made Wang Dong’s expression grim. Gas-shell incidents and key security matters usually fell under Group Two’s purview; if something big did happen, he’d be the one in serious hot water.

Glancing at Xiao Yu standing nearby, Wang Dong felt somewhat reassured.

‘Yeah, the kid’s reliable. Hopefully, nothing major would go wrong with him around.’

Just then, his phone rang.

“What’s the matter?” After answering, Wang Dong’s face changed. He looked at Xiao Yu, torn. “All right, I understand.”

“What’re you so worried about?” Xiao Yu asked.

“You called it.” Wang Dong’s look turned even stranger. “At a certain research institute, two guards were killed, two researchers died, and a piece of technical data was stolen.”

“…” Xiao Yu’s expression shifted. “What did they take?”

“Quantum communication technology,” Wang Dong answered wryly.

Hearing that, Xiao Yu froze. 

‘Quantum communication technology?’

At a high level, it was about using quantum superposition and entanglement to transmit information. In simpler terms, it was an extremely secure new form of communication—mostly for military, government, defense-industry, financial, and research contexts that demanded top-secret transmissions.

If another country figured out how to break our quantum communication tech, it would be like stripping away the secrecy of their military, governmental, and research communications. All covert plans and activities would be laid bare right under their noses.

After a long pause, Xiao Yu came back to himself, muttering, “How dare they?”

And the irony was that not only did they dare, but they actually pulled it off.

***

A Certain Research Institute

Armed guards, military police, and SWAT teams had sealed off the entire facility.

Xiao Yu and the other group leaders stood in a laboratory, looking down at two bodies in white lab coats: one middle-aged, one elderly. The older man had been an academician.

“At 8:20 last night, Academician Liu entered the research institute with two assistants. Upon entry, one assistant went to the monitoring room and killed two guards.

“At 8:28, all surveillance in the institute was destroyed and went offline.

“At 9:15, during a guard shift change, personnel discovered the monitoring-room guards murdered and found Academician Liu and another expert also killed. The lab’s computer showed evidence of data being backed up and stolen.

“Upon further investigation, we learned that Academician Liu’s two real assistants…died half a day earlier. It’s confirmed that the pair who came in with Academician Liu were impostors.”

“…”

As he listened to the briefing, Xiao Yu crouched beside the two corpses.

Cause of death: broken necks.