Chapter 16 An Unexpected Visitor

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

At that moment, his mind raced: “Who could it be this late? Has Asass already returned? Or is it the neighbors downstairs coming up to ask about that explosion? If it’s the latter, they’re bound to notice the blood on me and the bloody smell in the apartment when I open the door… but if I don’t open the door, will they just give up?”

Just as Brother Jue hesitated, a familiar voice came from outside the door: “Bujue, open the door, it’s me.”

“Bao Qing?” Feng Bujue recognized Bao Da-ren’s voice right away, but suspicion only increased in his heart. “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 had a fight with his wife and got kicked out? No… even if he really was kicked out and planned to crash at my place for the night… he should’ve called first. And… my intercom didn’t ring; how did he get into the building?”

Thinking this, Brother Jue took a few steps toward the door and replied, “Oh… Lao Bao, what’s up so late?”

“I’m here to help you,” Bao Qing replied in a very serious tone.

“Huh?” Brother Jue stalled, while tiptoeing to the door and peering through the peephole. “What are you talking about?”

“Bujue, I know you’re watching us from behind the door,” Bao Qing replied. He, and the dozen or so figures behind him, had all entered Feng Bujue’s field of vision. “I also know… that an ‘Enniel’ died in your apartment just now.” He paused. “Anyway… open the door and let us in, we can talk slowly.”

*Click*—

Before the words had finished, Feng Bujue opened the door.

“Eh?” Bao Qing was also taken aback. He had expected to need to use a lot more persuasion to get Brother Jue to open the door, but he hadn’t even finished two sentences before the other party complied. “Why did you…”

“Why did I open the door so readily?” Feng Bujue continued Bao Da-ren’s sentence, smiling. “Heh… there are two main reasons…” As he spoke, he had already opened the door wide and, without any concern, turned his back to the door, walking back to the living room. “First, you guys have a lot of manpower, and if you really wanted to force your way in, my lousy door… probably couldn’t stop you. You being polite first is giving me some face. Second… I don’t have many friends, and we’ve known each other for years. I believe you wouldn’t hurt me.”

“Hmph…” Bao Qing revealed a meaningful smile, which contained a hint of relief, a hint of bitterness, and a hint of admiration. “Well said, Feng Bujue.”

As he spoke, he led the dozen or so burly men into the apartment in single file, and closed the door behind them.

“So… where should we start?” Feng Bujue asked, turning to look at Bao Qing after returning to the living room.

“Let’s start with my identity…” Bao Qing replied. “I, Bao Qing, lieutenant, belong to the Supernatural Affairs Management and Supervision Bureau of the People’s Republic of China… or ‘Ninth Division’. In recent years, my mission has been… to monitor specific targets, and to regularly analyze and report on the degree of threat they pose.”

“Hahahahahaha…” Hearing this, Feng Bujue laughed loudly, it wasn’t clear what the laugh meant.

“Is it disbelief, or is it unacceptable?” Bao Qing asked in a deep voice.

“No, no, no…” Feng Bujue stopped laughing and waved his hand. “I just realized… recently… there have been so many disruptive changes in my life that I find it very interesting.” He smiled again. “You go on…”

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

“Wait a minute…” Feng Bujue immediately interrupted. “Are you kidding me?” He grabbed a few tissues from the coffee table and wiped his face (he still had a lot of blood on his face, but Bao Qing and the Ninth Division’s agents ignored it), saying, “I remember when you first hung out with us… weren’t you in kindergarten? Were you a spy at five years old?”

“Initially… I was just your playmate.” Bao Qing explained. “I was recruited in the fifth grade of elementary school. In middle school, I became a formal agent and began carrying out missions. Considering my relationship with Xiao Tan, I was assigned a long-term monitoring mission.”

“Fifth grade, huh… you debuted early…” Brother Jue couldn’t help but retort.

“Not early at all,” Bao Qing replied calmly. “Our country’s agents are all cultivated from children aged 9-14. We’re not some brain-dead organization like the CiA that likes to secretly recruit from the Ivy League. We’re the kind of organization that… makes its agents get into the Ivy League, wait to be recruited by the CiA, and then infiltrate them.”

“Hey, hey… that’s not right!” Feng Bujue suddenly raised his voice again. “According to what you’re saying, someone like me… should’ve been called in for an interview by the National Security Bureau when I was nine, right?”

“I’ve seen your file… they wanted to interview you when you were eight…” A strange expression appeared on Bao Qing’s bitter face. “But a year later, you were put on another… uh… ‘list’ that I still can’t access, and you were placed under surveillance.”

“Huh? Didn’t you say that you only had Xiao Tan as a surveillance target until middle school?” Feng Bujue asked again.

“Initially, you weren’t under my surveillance,” Bao Qing said. “For some reason… your surveillance level was higher than Xiao Tan’s… you were always being monitored by adult agents.”

“Ah? Who?” Brother Jue asked with wide eyes. He really hadn’t felt like he was being watched.

“Until high school, all of your homeroom teachers… were from the National Security Bureau,” Bao Qing replied. “After graduating high school, I took over… because I was an adult.”

“Holy crap?” Feng Bujue’s eyes flashed with the faces of his past homeroom teachers. “They really are professionals, they managed to hide it from me for so long!”

“In fact…” Bao Qing swallowed. “After completing their 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 at Mount Wutai the second year after you graduated…”

“What’s with that… ‘it’s all your fault’ tone?” Feng Bujue shouted. “It’s not my fault, is it! And… what exactly is that ‘list’ that you still can’t access!”

“I’ve heard some rumors…” Bao Qing replied. “Legend has it… that the list records some ‘extremely dangerous people, but who still seem to be useful when necessary’.”

“Hmm…” Feng Bujue lowered his voice, “Hmm” and didn’t say anything else, because he couldn’t refute it.

“Alright…” At this time, Bao Qing straightened his expression. “If we want to reminisce, there will be plenty of time later. Right now… I still have a mission on my hands.” His eyes became sharp. “Feng Bujue, I must ask you to come with me.”

“Where to?” Feng Bujue asked.

“Of course… to the Ninth Division,” Bao Qing replied.

“Uh… how about you give me an address, I’ll take a shower, and then take a taxi over 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 he said this, Feng Bujue was shocked. Two seconds later, he smiled wryly, “Heh… you guys always knew… that I was 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 what I could do?”

“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 higher-ups’ decision… me coming to you at this time, in this place, and saying these words to you, are all arranged by them…”

“It seems I have no choice?” Feng Bujue asked, smiling as he looked into his old friend’s eyes.

“I’m sorry,” Bao Qing said, these three words containing too much.

He was a much more complex person than he appeared. His friendship with Feng Bujue and Wang Tanzhi wasn’t fake. 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 play a role that he himself loathed…

“Alright, I’ll go with you then.” At this moment, Brother Jue seemed very relaxed and cooperative. He quickly scanned the Ninth Division agents in the room and smiled, “Heh… why bother mobilizing 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.”