Chapter 63

The gaze of her colleagues made the Scarf Woman shift uncomfortably, her face darkening involuntarily as she nodded.

“Everything he said is true. This was indeed my fault; I wasn’t prepared beforehand and just calculated based on the prices of ingredients reported by the field staff, casually mentioning a price of one silver wheel… But there’s something off about this guy too!”

She glared fiercely at Leon, who had distracted her, allowing the rebels to escape, then took a deep breath. The female police officer named Isa pointed seriously at Leon and said:

“To avoid losing sight of him, after noticing the price was high, I immediately offered a lower price to stabilize him. However, not only did he keep secretly observing me, but he even started watching the room of our target!”

“I was just looking rando—”

“It’s impossible that it was random! It can’t be a coincidence either!”

Interrupting Leon mid-sentence, the female police officer furrowed her eyebrows and questioned firmly: “There are over a hundred rooms in the building across the street, and from the coffee stall, you could see around thirty or forty of them. How come you were specifically staring at the window of our target?”

“…”

“Not that… Why are you still suspecting me?”

Seeing the secret police once again eyeing her with suspicion, Leon could only say helplessly: “If I were really with the rebels, I would’ve run when you messed up the price! Seriously, have you ever been to one of those coffee stalls? Without counting the coffee, the stuff you served me could’ve been sold for five people elsewhere, you know? You only charged two copper wheels for all that. You got up early, braved the cold wind to set up your stall, clearly not aiming to make money. If you weren’t tailing someone, were you just there to warm up the street?”

“You… don’t change the subject!”

Caught off guard by Leon’s somewhat sharp mockery, the female police officer pursed her lips tightly before slapping the table angrily: “I didn’t ask how I was exposed, I asked why you kept staring at the target’s window!”

“I was staring there because you were staring there. As for why I looked at your target…”

After briefly explaining his reasoning process, Leon sighed helplessly:

“Though I thought you were acting strange, I never imagined I’d be this unlucky. Just buying a coffee on my way to work, and I bump into secret police making an arrest. Plus, since I’m also part of the Public Security Bureau, kind of like half a cop, I glanced in the direction you were looking. Who knew you’d react so strongly and start interrogating me instead of pursuing the target?”

“…”

Looking at the speechless female police officer, the uncomfortable Leon couldn’t help but urge:

“Ah… you’re overthinking this. I’m really one of your own! By the way, hasn’t it been almost half a day? Have you finished verifying my credentials yet?”

“You… don’t think this is over. You still have—”

“Alright, Isa!”

Interrupting the female police officer who wanted to say more, the muscular man who had previously poked his head out from the second floor stubbed out his cigarette, pointed at Leon, and said expressionlessly:

“Take the handcuffs off him.”

Hearing this, the female police officer hesitated slightly before questioning:

“But the credentials still—”

“The archives department hasn’t returned the results yet, but his credentials have all the necessary stamps, something the rebels wouldn’t be able to forge so meticulously. So as long as we rule out the possibility of him being an insider, we should let him go.”

“Yes…”

Biting her lips unhappily, the female police officer lowered her head and came over to remove Leon’s handcuffs.

Even though she was quite a striking beauty, Leon had already been irritated by the restless morning, having been cuffed and sitting on a cold iron chair in the interrogation room for half the day. After flexing his reddened wrists, seeing the still unsatisfied look on the female police officer’s face, as if she wanted to interrogate him some more, Leon couldn’t help but retort with a sarcastic tone:

“Isn’t it almost noon? Thanks to Miss Isa’s generosity, if it weren’t for the generous bread she gave me earlier, I might be starving now!”

“You!”

“Sorry, it’s all my fault for misjudging, wasting your time. I sincerely apologize!”

Although her voice was strained and the apology lacked sincerity, considering she belonged to the kingdom’s intelligence agency, Leon didn’t dwell on it and instead turned to the scarred muscular man who had poked his head out earlier.

“Could you return my credentials please?”

“Of course.”

Upon hearing Leon’s request, the scarred muscular man with scars all over his face grinned, showing a smile that could silence crying children, then stood up, picked up the credentials from the table, and handed them over while smiling: “I’ve heard a bit about your bureau. Our department occasionally encounters situations where we need assistance from your bureau. Hopefully, we’ll have the opportunity to cooperate in the future.”

“…”

Cooperate with me, a ‘cleaner’? That can only mean encountering abnormalities. Are you sure you want this chance?

“Sure, sure…”

Feeling somewhat awkward due to the other party’s ominous politeness, Leon mumbled a few words and left the interrogation room with a secret police officer.

When others had gradually left, leaving only two people in the room, the female police officer finally exhaled heavily and gritted her teeth, asking:

No mistake in content found on 69 Book Bar!

“Why didn’t you let me continue interrogating him?”

Raising his eyebrow covered by a scar, the scarred muscular man countered: “Interrogate what?”

“Of course, four days ago!”

The female police officer exclaimed: “Four days ago, a fully black-clad masked person beat up the chief editor of the Social Edition of the Daily Highlights at the restaurant on Flower Imprint Street, then took a vehicle to the headquarters of Chal Department Store.

This person was injured by the Golden Wheel a few days ago and appeared on the entertainment section of the Sun Newspaper. I saw the photos taken of him at the time, and his attire matches exactly with the masked person on Flower Imprint Street!”

“Hmm, then what?”

“Then today, he interfered with the arrest of the rebel, kept trying to bother me, letting the rebel who participated in the assassination of the princess escape!”

The female police officer anxiously said:

“If he hadn’t shown up today, I might have considered it a coincidence. But now, I can confirm that this person is definitely suspicious!”

“Yeah, I agree he’s suspicious.”

Nodding in agreement with the female police officer’s judgment, the scarred muscular man lit another cigarette. His face, illuminated by the red-hot embers, showed intersecting scars like wriggling venomous snakes.

He slowly said:

“The royals and nobles are nothing but lice in the crotch. Once they suck blood painfully, they deserve to be caught and squashed!”

Repeating the “masked person’s” words, the scarred muscular man smirked: “After saying such incredible things, he still dared to approach you with his real identity, covering the evacuation of this target. He’s the most daring opponent I’ve ever seen!”

“Heh heh, if it weren’t for this incident, I wouldn’t have guessed that the rebels had infiltrated the Public Security Bureau, and even joined that extremely dangerous Clearing Bureau! This guy is absolutely an unimaginably big fish!”

“I think I understand…”

After pondering for a moment, the female police officer frowned: “So… you didn’t arrest him to play a long game, to lure out more rebels?”

“No.”

Extinguishing the cigarette in his hand again, the scarred muscular man leaned back in his chair and chuckled: “You’re overthinking it. He’s from that Clearing Bureau, and I simply don’t dare to arrest him.”

Female Police Officer: ???

(End of Chapter)