CHAPTER 175: SPILLING THE SECRET

Gan Dayao, secretary of the Foreign Affairs Department, was sitting in the lounge of the private clubhouse with a teacup in his hands. He was in his thirties and wore a pair of square-framed spectacles. His hair was quite messy as well. At that moment, he was looking around the place while shifting his feet with unease. He appeared quite nervous.

Even though a long time had passed and he had poured himself three cups of tea, no one came to see him. Even so, he continued sitting and did not get up, as if something was tying him in place.

Anyone who had worked in the Department of Administrative Affairs before could tell immediately that this was someone who threw away all his grievances and did his job according to the rulebook.

The clubhouse’s door swung open, and Wei Jun walked in with his butler and a few security guards. When Gan Dayao saw them, he quickly set down the teacup and shot up in an uneasy manner.

Wei Jun didn’t even look him in the eye when he came in. He went straight to the main seat and sat down before using his fingers to massage his temples.

Gan Dayao continued standing nervously.

Wei Jun sat for a while before turning to him. “So, tell me. You said that your department gave evaluation points to a student. When did that happen, and to whom?”

“I... heard that as long as I provide information, y-you will give me help in certain areas.”

Wei Jun gave him an unimpressed stare. The Foreign Affairs Department was a government department with little power. The officials there usually stayed in their posts until the day they died. Unless they got involved in sensitive matters like giving evaluation points to Martial Valor University students, Wei Jun would never meet any of them, not even the director, much less some nobody like Gan Dayao.

He motioned at the butler, who stepped forward and looked at Gan Dayao. “Do you want a promotion, Mr. Gan?” he asked kindly.

Gan Dayao nodded, then immediately shook his head in panic. “I don’t want to stay in the Foreign Affairs Department. Could you help me transfer to another department?”

As he spoke, he looked at the butler, then at Wei Jun, who gave no reaction to his request.

The butler gave him a smile. “Of course. As long as your information is valuable, we’ll do it. How does the Water Management Department sound? Plenty of vacancies have opened up there recently, so helping you transfer there shouldn’t be hard.”

“The Water Management Department?” Gan Dayao hesitated.

“If you’re not pleased with this and want to go somewhere else, we’ll need to negotiate this properly, and you’ll have to wait. I won’t be able to promise when you’ll get transferred. You must know that plenty of people are vying for the positions in the Department of Administrative Affairs. When a position opens up, someone always swoops in to take it—”

“I’m satisfied with it! Absolutely! I’ll go to the Water Management Department!” Gan Dayao panicked upon hearing the butler’s words. He was worried that if he was a step too late, he wouldn’t be able to get transferred at all.

“Well then, Mr. Gan, shall we get to business?” the butler asked with a smile.

Gan Dayao hesitated for a moment before saying, “In February, Mr. Liu gave evaluation points to a student in the name of the Foreign Affairs Department. I was the one who wrote the report and gave him the file to sign it to make it official. M-Mr. Liu also told me not to tell anyone about this.”

“February? That’s almost half a year ago.” The butler cast a glance at Wei Jun. “Looks like you’ve obeyed Mr. Liu’s orders and didn’t tell anyone about it, so why are you telling us now? Have you run into some sort of trouble?”

With anxiety and regret written on his face, Gan Dayao said, “Mr. Liu is about to be transferred, and Mr. Cao, the new director, doesn’t like me. He might fire me...” He whipped his head up. “I have a wife and children, so I-I can’t lose my position. I’m betraying Mr. Liu by doing this, but...”

He slowly lowered his head again.

The butler caught the crux of the situation—Liu Zhan’s transfer. Since he was leaving, it was impossible for this matter to be kept hidden. The butler knew all too well how the government officials of Yangzhi City’s Department of Administrative Affairs behaved, so Liu Zhan had to also be intending to use this to get some benefits of his own.

Judging by the situation, even if Gan Dayao didn’t approach them about this, Liu Zhan himself would spill the secret some time later.

But he didn’t refuse to entertain Gan Dayao after realizing this, because dealing with a secretary was much easier than dealing with a director. He was much easier to control, and it was much cheaper to control him.

The butler looked at Gan Dayao and tried to make his voice sound as casual as possible. “You don’t have to blame yourself for this, Mr. Gan. You made the right choice. We treat the government officials who are friendly with us very well. By the way, what’s the student’s name?”

Gan Dayao stared at him, then at Wei Jun, who still hadn’t given any sort of reaction. He gulped and said, “His name is Chen Chuan.”

***

Back in the Nian residence in the constables’ residential area, Chen Chuan went to the living room and took the phone from Yu Wan. “Mr. Cheng?”

Cheng Zitong sounded stern when he spoke. “When you were on the bus, He Nan called me. Liu Zhan’s transfer is pretty much set in stone, and he might have already gotten his transfer letter. Xiao Chuan, get ready. The storm is coming.”

Chen Chuan looked outside. It was already August, and he could hear the cicadas cry. The scorching sun shone down, but the branches didn’t sway, because there was no wind. As he stared at the scenery outside, he said, “It’ll be great if there’s a storm. Once it passes, it won’t be so stuffy anymore.”

After the conversation with Cheng Zitong, Chen Chuan gave his situation some thought before he said, “Aunty, I’m going out for a bit. I’ll be back soon.”

He walked out onto the main road and went to the phone booth nearby. He picked up the phone receiver and inserted a coin.

The call went through after a moment, and he said, “Gao Ming, it’s me. Liu Zhan’s transfer is confirmed. I’ll wait for you at the martial arts training center.”

“Sure. I’ll head over right now,” Gao Ming replied.

***

Back in the private clubhouse, Gan Dayao presented the letter regarding Chen Chuan’s evaluation points to Wei Jun. It detailed the entire process from what Chen Chuan did to why he received his points, and the cause of the entire event leading up to him receiving his points.

The butler also gave Wei Jun the detailed records and files that he got from the Mutual Aid Group about Chen Chuan, including his performance as a student, his results, experiences, all the things he did that could be looked into, and his current level as a martial artist. As long as Chen Chuan was a student of Martial Valor University, everything was saved in his file.

Wei Jun read both documents. His expression changed from a relaxed look to one of sternness. At the end, he even looked shocked.

After all, any of Chen Chuan’s feats while at the university would be beyond what an average martial artist could do. Even if he did them during his senior year, they would still be considered amazing feats.

Wei Jun had never thought that such a student could exist right under the Mutual Aid Group’s nose. Chen Chuan had managed to achieve great heights without anyone noticing.

Normally, someone like Chen Chuan should shine brilliantly, but the reality was different; he kept such a low profile that he practically didn’t exist on their radar.

Now that he thought about it, this student was why Tan Wang left the branch campus and why Wei Jun had to stay outside as well. Why had he never paid any attention to him?

Thank goodness he still had time to put a stop to this.

He stood up with the folders in hand and left the lounge to return to the swimming pool. Jiang Wei, Shao Xiaobie, and Qiao Rong were still waiting for him. He lay down on the recliner and turned to face them. “Have you thought about it?”

Qiao Rong huffed and crossed her arms before sitting up on her recliner. “We’ve discussed it. I’ll give up my slot, but my word doesn’t mean anything, and I have no obligation to be your messenger. Talk to my family by yourself.”

“As long as you admit to it, you don’t have to care about what happens later. Whether the deal goes through or not, I’ll still owe you one,” Wei Jun said while looking her in the eye.

“Fine. Is there anything more? If there isn’t, I’m leaving.”

Wei Jun motioned for her to sit back down. “Wait. I have something else to tell all of you.”

He threw the folders on the tea table, then tapped on them with his fingers. “I believe that if we don’t take care of this first, something might go wrong with the allocation of recommendation slots.”

The three were surprised. Shao Xiaobie even asked, “What happened?”

“What happened?” Wei Jun huffed and stared him in the eye. “One of the students in the university got evaluation points from the Foreign Affairs Department and kept it hidden for half a year. I believe you all know what this means.”

Shao Xiaobie was stunned, then sat up straight. “Who is it?!”

Wei Jun picked up the folders and threw them to him. “The details are all there. Read them through, then we need to think about how to take care of the situation.”

Shao Xiaobie opened one of the folders and read it for a bit. He was stunned by what he saw. “Chen Chuan? A freshman? Is this some kind of joke or a mistake?”

“Exactly. He’s a freshman. Take a look at what he’s accomplished. Now, think about what he’s going to be like during his sophomore and senior years,” Wei Jun shot back coldly.

Shao Xiaobie quickly read through the rest of the folder. The more he read, the more surprised he was.

Qiao Rong took the folder and gave it a read as well. Then, she mocked them, “Heh. You managed the university so well that you missed this freshman, huh?”

“Cut the mockery. How could we possibly know that this kid would be able to do so many things in the dark? He’s good, alright. To think that I never noticed anything even after he did so many things,” Shao Xiaobie snapped back.

“Yes. He’s really special,” Jiang Wei added with a smile.

“I don’t care how special he is or what he’s done. I’m just going to tell you this: I don’t want to see another Shen Zheng,” Wei Jun hissed.

At the mention of Shen Zheng’s name, all their expressions changed.

They still remembered him. Back then, no recommended student could win against him. Even if they forced him into all sorts of disadvantageous positions, he managed to overcome all of them and kept moving forward while using them as his stepping stones. The Mutual Aid Group had been reduced to a really pathetic state during that time.

Later on, he managed to get his unrestricted defense permit and became just one step away from going to Central City.

At that point, they could no longer tolerate it. After all, based on what he had been doing all this while, once he got his footing in Central City, he was going to come back and uproot them all. This would also affect the political and economic situation in Yangzhi City, and those two were the most important things to them. Fortunately, their families saw this budding problem and took swift action, which was how they managed to get rid of him.

Jiang Wei took a look at the folders and analyzed the situation. “He has the evaluation points from the Foreign Affairs Department, and he’s bound to get evaluation points from the Resolution Department, so once the new semester starts, he can apply to take the unrestricted defense permit test. With his strength, his chances of passing the test are really high.

“After that, he’ll be free to apply to go to Central City. Thank goodness we learned about this beforehand. Otherwise, it’d be hard for us to stop him.”

Wei Jun’s expression was quite dark. “We can’t let anything happen to the allocation of recommended slots. No matter how small the problem is, we can’t let it be. No matter what methods we use, we must get rid of him.”

Shao Xiaobie started cursing up a storm. “Damn it! Where’s that brat?! I’m going to kill him right now!”

Wei Jun’s butler spoke up. “Mr. Shao, it’s the summer holidays right now. This student spends most of his time at a private martial arts center located at Respite Street, which is in the south of the city. It’s Mr. Cheng’s private property.”

“Mr. Cheng?” Shao Xiaobie was stunned.

Qiao Rong gave him a disdainful look. “Are you blind? Didn’t you see that Cheng Zitong is his mentor? It’s written right there. In the file.”

“Cheng Zitong? That makes things harder.” Shao Xiaobie hesitated. He knew Cheng Zitong’s background, and he was quite afraid of the man.

Jiang Wei smiled. “He’s just his mentor. Once the mentee is no longer around, what can the mentor do?”

Shao Xiaobie thought about it and decided that it made sense. When Shen Zheng died, they had been really nervous and worried that He Xiaoxing wouldn’t let it slide. Their companies and families had prepared a lot of countermeasures, but in the end, He Xiaoxing never did anything.

Shao Xiaobie stood up from his recliner and declared viciously, “Let me take care of this. I’ll get the men ready.”

He started walking out.

“Shabby.” Wei Jun called out to him, and Shao Xiaobie turned around. While looking him in the eye, Wei Jun said, “When you kill him, make sure to leave no loose ends or tracks.”

“Don’t worry. I’m going to use outsiders for this. The group won’t be drawn into it,” Shao Xiaobie said firmly.