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Mu Ke drove the car like it was taking off and within three minutes, he arrived at the base that Tang Erda had mentioned.
Tang Erda took out his uniform and ID card and got out of the car. He reflexively closed the door to block Mu Ke, who was about to get out, and warned with a serious look, “You and Liu Jiayi are still on the wanted list of the bureau. Stay in the car obediently first. If you insist on going in with me, it will only delay the time that could be used to save him.”
Mu Ke’s action of opening the car door stopped.
“I promise to bring Bai Liu out unharmed.” Tang Erda solemnly promised as he stared into Mu Ke’s eyes. “He has done what he promised me so I will also do what I promised him.”
“I will bring him out at all costs.”
Then he drew out his gun and hurried from the parking spot toward the base.
The base of the Dangerous Heretics Bureau looked like an ordinary convenience store but despite the panic in the city, the people at this convenience store were still normal. They were buying and selling things, which was a bit abnormal.
The moment Tang Erda walked in, the convenience store employee looked up and was stunned. Then he led Tang Erda into the warehouse with joy.
Tang Erda disappeared into the convenience store. Mu Ke, who was sitting in the car, took a deep breath and let go of the hand that was on the door handle.
“Do you think he will do his best to save Bai Liu?” Mu Ke looked uncertainly at Liu Jiayi, who was sitting silently in the back seat.
Liu Jiayi wore a pair of sunglasses to cover her abnormal eyes. She didn’t seem panicked at all. Once Tang Erda left, she stretched out and lay down, occupying the entire back seat like she was going to fall asleep.
“Are you asking me?” Liu Jiayi turned her head and ‘looked’ in the direction where Mu Ke was speaking. She pulled down her sunglasses to reveal her gray eyes. “I think you should ask another way?”’
Liu Jiayi’s idle posture made Mu Ke feel slightly startled but he continued to ask, “…What question should I use?”
“It isn’t whether this Captain Tang can save Bai Liu.”  Liu Jiayi pushed up the sunglasses again with her index finger and lazily lay in the backseat of the comfortable car. “It is when will Bai Liu feel that Captain Tang is qualified and let Captain Tang rescue him.”
Mu Ke was puzzled. “What do you mean?”
Liu Jiayi told him softly, “You aren’t a fool. Why is it that you are so brainless every time you encounter Bai Liu and can’t see it? Bai Liu deliberately allowed himself to be caught by the Dangerous Heretics Bureau.”
Mu Ke completely froze. “…Deliberately?”
“Yes.” Liu Jiayi seemed to have known about it for a long time and her tone was calm. “Otherwise, this guy had achieved his goal once he issued an explosion declaration and forced the whole city to be on alert. He could have used the eyeball to enter the inner world to hide instead of waiting on the spot to be caught.”
“Yet he was caught anyway.” Liu Jiayi shrugged. “This can only mean one thing. He deliberately let himself get caught.”
“Then why did Bai Liu let himself be caught?” Mu Ke woke up suddenly and he looked at the convenience store. “Is he trying to deceive Tang Erda?”
“You should’ve guessed one of his purposes correctly.” Liu Jiayi moved her head and continued speaking. “Bai Liu allowed Tang Erda to join and this means Tang Erda is a member of our group. That guy is so controlling that he won’t let Tang Erda have a sense of belonging to a group other than us.”
“Bai Liu should be trying to use this incident to force Tang Erda to make a choice. This way, Tang Erda will completely cut off the Dangerous Heretics Bureau and be controlled by him. This Captain Tang is easily controlled with guilt and Bai Liu is taking advantage of this.”
Liu Jiayi slightly turned her head sideways to look at Mu Ke. “If my guess is correct, Bai Liu should let the person who has the best relationship with Captain Tang in the bureau be the one to interrogate him. He will even induce the other person to punish him.”
“If he witnesses Bai Liu being punished by the person closest to him, this will further aggravate Tang Erda’s guilt. In order to make it up to Bai Liu, he will take the initiative to draw a clear line with all the people in the bureau…” Mu Ke murmured and added the second half of her sentence.
Liu Jiayi snapped her fingers. “Bingo!”
Mu Ke exhaled. “Bai Liu did this for the sake of the league, right?”
“Yes.” Liu Jiayi nodded again. “Tang Erda is an excellent main attacker with a deep affection for the tactician of his original team. His obedience to his new team isn’t high. Bai Liu is the new tactician who took over and requires psychological segmentation in order to make Tang Erda completely submissive to him.”
“This type of process is usually to cut the psychological connection between him and the person closest to him.”
“—It is like what Hearts did to me.” Liu Jiayi was silent for a moment after saying this. “It might be cruel but this is necessary for a game that bets on life or death.”
“In the field, there can’t be the slightest doubts about the orders of our tactician. Tang Erda obviously has a certain degree of rejection and doubt toward Bai Liu and this is very fatal for a main attacker of his level.”
“Therefore, Bai Liu set up this game.” Mu Ke completely relaxed after knowing that Bai Liu would be fine. “You said that this is just one of Bai Liu’s purposes. What about the others?”
Liu Jiayi took off her sunglasses and her gray eyes ‘looked’ at the sign of the convenience store outside the window.
The sign had a chibi version of a small octopus—the symbol of the Dangerous Heretics Bureau.
“My guess is that Bai Liu wants to use the identity of the bomber and the help of Tang Erda, a third-party, in order to cooperate with the Dangerous Heretics Bureau.”
“Cooperate?”
The people of the bureau should currently be eager to kill Bai Liu. Could they still cooperate?
***
“What did you do to the captain?” Su Yang’s tone finally changed and he put his fingers together on the table as he tried to hide his anger.
Bai Liu leaned back on the bench. The bench was shaken by him as he crossed his legs, slightly raised his chin and smiled extremely wickedly. “I seduced him with the rose perfume and made him completely loyal to me.”
“He was abandoned by you so I picked him up and trained him. I made him loyal to me and made him betray you.” Bai Liu smiled. “Is there anything wrong with this?”
“We didn’t abandon the captain!” Su Yang couldn’t bear it and slammed his hands against the table. He tried to take deep breaths to adjust his emotions and controlled his desire to question what Bai Liu had done to Tang Erda. He returned to the topic that Bai Liu had diverted from. “Where is the explosion site?”
Bai Liu smiled in an unmoved manner. “It is in the factory. Vice-captain Su, don’t you know this?”
“Where in the factory?”
“Oh yes, Vice-captain Su still doesn’t know why this factory was chosen as the explosion site.” Bai Liu smiled in an even happier manner. “I know that Vice-captain Su’s home is within five kilometers of this factory.”
Su Yang’s breathing stopped for a moment.
“Vice-captain Su, you have seen the videos of the deaths of those who tried to quit, right?” Bai Liu leaned back and tilted his head toward his shoulder as he smiled at Su Yang. “Let me tell you something you can’t see in the videos.”
“Under the impact of the explosion, the aroma within five kilometers is enough to put newborns and mothers into a state of severe addiction.” Bai Liu’s tone was very light. “If they don’t get a high concentration of perfume within 30 minutes, they will start to wither.”
“Vice-captain Su, you haven’t seen the withering process of a severe addict, have you? I’ve seen quite a few.”
“The baby’s arms and eyeballs will burst first and there will be cracks like their skin is dry. Due to the pain, they will start crying and begging you to give them the perfume like it is milk.”
“As a father, you know what the child wants but you can only watch your child cry in pain and turn into a broken corpse in your arms—”
Su Yang raised his bloodshot eyes. “Where in the factory will the explosion occur?”
Bai Liu stared straight at him and smiled very abruptly, his tone becoming gentler. “Vice-captain Su, think about it. Why do I know about the withering process of a one month old child under the erosion of the aroma so well?”
“Of course, it is because I have personally experienced it. There was a poor child who withered in my arms. When the child died, the mother knelt at my feet and begged me weakly to save the child.”
Bai Liu sighed. “However, there was nothing I could do but watch the child wither. The father wasn’t even around.”
Su Yang stared into Bai Liu’s dark eyes and tried his best to maintain a calm shell. However, his inner panic seemed to expand like a black hole. No, An An and the child were fine before he left…
He instinctively looked at the door of the interrogation room. The team member holding the scale outside the door had a gloomy expression.
There was Heretic 1076—the Judge’s Scale. It was a tool used to detect lies.
If Bai Liu lied, the scale would tip to the ‘no’ side yet throughout the interrogation, the pointer of the scale was in the direction of ‘yes.’
This meant that Bai Liu didn’t utter a single word of lies.
Su Yang’s mind went blank.
Bai Liu lowered his eyes and whispered, “Vice-captain Su, do you know that before a bomber actually carries out an explosion, he will first choose a relatively similar but smaller place to conduct the explosion test?”
“Guess where the pre-testing site for tonight’s explosion was?”
The moment that Bai Liu said these words, there was a smile in his eyes and on his face. Su Yang had seen this smile on the faces of countless human beings polluted by the heretics. It was a smile that completely lost its humanity. It was lighter on Bai Liu’s face but this made it more shocking.
Bai Liu smiled. “Vice-captain Su, have you ever wondered how we got your identity card?”
“Maybe you can ask your wife how she is doing tonight?”