Chapter 140
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Chapter 140: Going Against the Current
Fulan swiftly slipped through the crack in the window and soon perched on Lin Qingliu’s desk, resembling an exquisitely crafted figurine.
“You’re quite nimble,” Lin Qingliu remarked with a smile as he closed the window and returned to his seat. He then turned to Fulan and asked, “Didn’t you go to observe that rather pleasant target? Why are you back so soon?”
Fulan’s expression was one of barely concealed disappointment. Though Lin Qingliu couldn’t quite decipher what a cat’s disappointed face looked like, he felt certain that was the case.
“Master, Fulan misjudged!”
Fulan’s playful voice carried a faint tremor of tears:
“The target was captured almost instantly! She didn’t even struggle before she started confessing—the whole ordeal took less than a minute; it wasn’t even thirty seconds!
“Waa, Fulan’s judgment is truly terrible…”
“…”
Lin Qingliu was momentarily speechless at this sudden revelation. While he didn’t outright doubt Fulan, he couldn’t help but feel that a kitten less than a year old shouldn’t be tasked with observing and filtering humans; it seemed rather absurd.
But what could he say?
Upon hearing this news, Lin Qingliu felt a subtle shift within him.
He glanced at Fulan, who seemed unwilling to lift her head, and gently reached out to comfort her. “Tell me what happened.”
“Alright, Master.”
Fulan began recounting her recent observations of Shi Jin. Being a respectful kitten who valued others’ privacy, her tracking and observing were quite limited.
After listening to this part, Lin Qingliu turned his attention to the events unfolding in the black market while he was occupied with psychological treatment that evening.
Fulan detailed how Shi Jin was apprehended by a superpowered individual who wielded shield abilities, recounting every detail meticulously. Then she looked up at Lin Qingliu with a pitiful expression.
“Hm?”
Lin Qingliu caught a familiar ability mentioned in the story.
“Tell me more about the person with the shield ability.”
Lin Qingliu instinctively felt this was a point worth noting, especially since Lucas had been fatally poisoned right before his eyes. Lucas’s final words had also been spoken in Lin Qingliu’s presence; despite his dire circumstances, he had maintained an inexplicable trust in him.
Having received Lucas’s gift before his death through the system, Lin Qingliu had also resolved to care for his only child.
Now, this young, chubby individual with the same ability was likely Lucas’s son.
At Lin Qingliu’s question, Fulan’s spirits lifted. It seemed she had remembered something, and her voice grew slightly louder, tinged with excitement as she said, “Master, it’s that person! He asked Shi Jin if she knew anything about the 【Believers】!
“He’s investigating you!”
Hearing Fulan’s warning, Lin Qingliu was momentarily stunned, then suddenly burst into laughter.
“Don’t worry; with his skills, he won’t be able to uncover anything about me.”
After a brief silence of two seconds, Lin Qingliu suddenly conceived a new idea.
He turned to Fulan:
“Are you certain that when you departed from the Ministry of Internal Affairs building, that Young Man named Shi Jin had entirely severed her ties with the 【Believers】?”
“Absolutely. She couldn’t respond to any inquiries about the Believers. After all, your organization is exceedingly secretive; even if she attempted to fabricate something, she wouldn’t know what to concoct.”
“Haha, indeed, that makes it all the more intriguing.”
Lin Qingliu gently stroked the cat’s head and continued, “Fulan, I’ve suddenly come to appreciate your discernment. That Shi Jin, we might consider inducting her as a believer.”
“But, Master, she’s evidently timid and inept…”
Fulan was visibly disgruntled, as the encounter had caused her to lose face.
“No, no, no, that’s inconsequential. Ponder this: if there’s someone in Hope City who is least suspected of being a 【Believer】, who would that be?”
“Who might that be?”
“Undoubtedly, it’s Shi Jin, who has just been exonerated.”
Lin Qingliu chuckled:
“She wasn’t a believer in the past, isn’t one now, but who can predict the future?”
“Meow? Is that feasible?”
“Certainly.”
“But Master, I’m apprehensive that this individual might readily divulge our intelligence.”
Fulan remained uneasy; Shi Jin’s disposition rendered her exceedingly cautious.
Lin Qingliu contemplated the deletion feature inherent in the Divine Cultivation System, harboring no concerns whatsoever.
He gazed at his cat, speaking in a tone that was both jesting and earnest,
“In that case, let her become your subordinate. At least until your departure from Hope City, she’ll be under your jurisdiction.
“Who could effortlessly apprehend a cat capable of transformation?”
Fulan regarded Lin Qingliu with astonishment, as if imploring, “If I’m apprehended, you must come to my rescue!” After a pause, she continued,
“Understood, Master, Fulan comprehends.
“What course of action should Fulan undertake now?”
“What is the initial verdict from the Ministry of Internal Affairs regarding Shi Jin?”
Fulan recollected the documents she had perused through the ventilation duct prior to her arrival and responded,
“Since no fatalities were involved but a substantial sum was implicated, she is anticipated to receive a sentence of fifteen to twenty years of labor reform.”
Lin Qingliu clicked his tongue; for an ordinary individual, enduring fifteen years of alternating shifts, survival remains uncertain.
From Fulan’s depiction, although Shi Jin was as timid as the point of a needle, her skills and character were at least passable.
Another pivotal aspect was that Shi Jin had no family.
Though it may sound callous, the absence of attachments implies the absence of vulnerabilities, rendering her less prone to exposure in life or to manipulation.
Taking into account her age, skills, personality, and background, Lin Qingliu concluded that Shi Jin met the developmental criteria for a 【Believer】.
“The psychological treatment team will traverse the Ministry of Internal Affairs the day after tomorrow. I’ll instruct Zhuang Mian to devise a means to postpone the verdict for several days.”
“Master, what purpose does that serve?”
“I recall there’s an obscure regulation in Hope City.”
Lin Qingliu looked at Fulan, who appeared perplexed:
“Superpowered individuals must be exploited to their utmost potential.”
This was an unforeseen maneuver by Lin Qingliu, but he was confident that his visit to the Ministry would yield abundant rewards.
For there, not only was there a prospective 【Believer】 to cultivate, but also a Young Man suspected to be Lucas’s son.
And amusingly, that Young Man was presently endeavoring to investigate him.
If he were to discover that the leader of the 【Believers】 was standing right before him and was even about to administer psychological treatment, his expression would undoubtedly be priceless…
Contemplating this, Lin Qingliu couldn’t suppress a chuckle, hoping he wouldn’t miss this spectacle in the future.
However, what if he were to inflict a psychological shadow upon the other party? Would he then be obliged to personally treat them?
Lin Qingliu shook his head, dismissing that trivial internal drama, and addressed his cat with an instruction:
“Then it’s settled. The operation commences; Shi Jin will be your charge, and I shall arrive as scheduled in two days.”
