Chapter 442

Chapter 442 The Big Shot Who Lowered Their Status

The reason everyone felt their blood boiling was that the helicopter’s license plate bore a row of small characters in plain sight. Unlike the ostentatious display of the Guoan No.1 aircraft, these characters still conveyed an indescribable sense of authority!

What was written there was — Lu Te 001!

Lu Te! These two characters represented — the People’s Liberation Army Ground Forces Special Operations Unit!

And the license plate number 001, just like Guoan’s, meant that the top figure of Lu Te had also arrived on the scene!

What was going on tonight? It was just Su Rui — how could one person draw so many powerful figures to stand up for him collectively?

Their simultaneous appearance would be hard to come by even on the evening news broadcast!

How could a mere nobody hold such enormous value?

Or perhaps this was no longer a personal grudge between the five great families and Su Rui, but had evolved into a game of power among the top players!

The fierce wind kicked up by the helicopter’s rotor blades had already tousled Jiang Qingyuan’s hair, and at that moment she felt her entire body go rigid, even her breathing becoming somewhat difficult!

Tonight, the outcome had been decided!

If they wanted to pursue Su Rui further, they would have to wait for another time!

The cabin door of Guoan No.1 opened, and an elderly man dressed in casual summer clothes stepped out.

He was slightly heavyset, with a gentle gaze, and appeared very kind and amiable.

Yet when this old man appeared, the twenty-odd Guoan agents all snapped to attention simultaneously, offering him a respectful salute!

Guoan was an exceptionally special institution — under normal circumstances, outside personnel were not assigned to leadership positions within it. This old gentleman had firmly held the position of Guoan’s top leader for nearly twenty years, which was an almost impossibly rare exception in China’s political landscape!

His name was Luo Yunlu!

In the hearts of certain Chinese officials, this name carried a special kind of power — one that could very well keep them up at night!

Jiang Qingyuan’s brow furrowed deeply. She simply could not figure out why this old man, who could almost be called the most mysterious person in all of China, would go out of his way to stand up for Su Rui!

After all, Luo Yunlu had not appeared in public for a very long time. He had long since passed retirement age, but because the Guoan position was too unique, no one had ever been qualified to take over. Recently, rumors had been circulating outside that the reason Luo Yunlu had not shown himself was that his health had taken a serious turn for the worse, and that he did not have long to live.

Now, seeing this legendary figure with her own eyes, Jiang Qingyuan realized just how unreliable those rumors had been.

Looking at his glowing complexion and vigorous spirit, where was there even the slightest sign of illness?

“You’re all here.” Luo Yunlu glanced at the several Qin family elders and Li Zonghan, and smiled faintly.

“Couldn’t sleep tonight, came out to watch the excitement.” Qin Zhizhang stepped forward with a cheerful smile. Although Luo Yunlu was a few years younger than himself, the man was after all the biggest “spymaster” in China — calling him all-seeing and all-knowing was no exaggeration whatsoever.

“I didn’t come to watch the excitement. Wanting to take away one of my Guoan people — I haven’t agreed to that yet.” Luo Yunlu turned to look at Jiang Qingyuan. His words sounded mild on the surface, but the information they conveyed was enough to shock anyone to their core!

A Guoan person?

What did that mean?

Was he saying that Su Rui also held a Guoan identity?

“Young lady, I’m afraid you don’t know this yet — twenty years ago, the establishment of the Classified Operations and Training Division was primarily my proposal. This secret unit may appear independent, but its roster has always been under the Ministry of State Security. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

The Classified Operations and Training Division actually fell under Guoan! Luo Yunlu truly never failed to drop a bombshell!

In that sense, Su Rui was indeed within his jurisdiction!

Su Rui, standing at the back, also showed a faint expression of surprise — clearly he too had not known that the two units shared such a relationship!

Although the vast majority of those present had no idea what the Classified Operations and Training Division was, they could all sense from the name alone that this unit’s importance to China was absolutely at the six-star level or above. Otherwise, it would never have been brought up again and again by these top-tier figures!

Jiang Qingyuan smoothed the hair that had been blown into disarray by the helicopters. By now, all four helicopters had stopped their rotors, yet the cabin door of the fourth helicopter still had not opened.

“Grandpa Luo, I understand what you mean. But five years ago, Su Rui was ordered by the No.1 leader to have his merits and faults offset, and was expelled from the country. I would think that someone with such a record would no longer belong to Guoan.”

Luo Yunlu glanced at the still-unopened cabin door of the Lu Te No.1 aircraft, and said with a chuckle, “Young lady, since you want to split hairs with me, I’ll reason things out with you too.”

With that, Luo Yunlu extended his hand and said, “Bring it!”

A subordinate came jogging over and handed him a document envelope!

“Take a look for yourself.” Luo Yunlu passed the envelope to Jiang Qingyuan.

Although she knew in her heart that the situation was already lost, Jiang Qingyuan still wanted to hold on a little longer. Perhaps that fourth helicopter from the Army Special Forces hadn’t come to help Su Rui after all?

Yet even as she tried to encourage herself with that thought, Jiang Qingyuan felt it was hardly convincing at all!

Jiang Qingyuan opened the envelope and pulled out a sheet of paper — Su Rui’s identity file, an ordinary A4 page, but with six stars printed in the upper left corner!

Those stars meant — highest-level classified document!

Qin Zhizhang, standing nearby, also caught sight of this file representing a classified identity in China. He and Qin Bikai and Qin Fanghua exchanged glances, each seeing the wry smile on the other’s face.

Years ago, Su Rui had successfully transformed Qin Ranlong, turning him from a spoiled young master into a young man with drive and ambition. This had given the Qin family the idea of recruiting Su Rui — yet even with their far-reaching connections, they had been unable to uncover Su Rui’s identity, obtaining nothing more than the two words “classified.” Just as the Qin family was preparing to investigate further, they received a warning.

Now, Qin Zhizhang couldn’t help but recall the moment he had seen that warning note written in brush calligraphy. He still remembered it clearly — in just a few short seconds, the cold sweat had soaked through the back of his shirt completely!

And yet now, this file that the Qin family’s top brass had exhausted every connection trying to uncover, had appeared before them just like that, with such ease!

Jiang Qingyuan’s gaze fixed on Su Rui’s ID photo, studying it carefully.

At that time Su Rui had looked very young, not yet fully shed of his youthful rawness, yet between his brows there was a sharpness that was not so different from how he appeared now.

Jiang Qingyuan’s eyes scanned line by line, and when she came to the medals and commendations Su Rui had once received, her gaze shifted ever so slightly.

She was silent for a moment, then pointed to the “Awards and Punishments” column and said, “Five years ago, merits and faults were offset — all these awards should have been revoked.”

“Merit is merit, fault is fault — they are two separate things, not something that can simply be cancelled out.” Luo Yunlu said calmly. “Besides, in some people’s eyes, none of that even counts as a fault — it could even be called a job well done.”

Doesn’t even count as a fault!

A job well done!

In other words, Luo Yunlu had openly declared his own stance on the incident from five years ago!

For Su Rui’s sake, he was even willing to stand in opposition to the five great families?

“I’ve read it. What does this file prove?” Jiang Qingyuan said.

“Very simply, this file proves that Su Rui has always been a member of the Classified Operations and Training Division — which means a member of Guoan.” Luo Yunlu said calmly.

“But he has already been…” Jiang Qingyuan still wanted to press her argument, even though she knew at this point that defeat was inevitable!

When a top-tier figure lowers themselves to reason with you, do you still have even half a chance of winning?

“Although Su Rui was expelled five years ago, no one ever processed his personnel file, and his roster position has remained intact all along. Of course, I can also tell you with complete certainty that Guoan has never once withheld his salary all these years. Five and a half years — after deducting the five social insurance and housing fund contributions, Su Rui has received a total salary of 279,108 yuan.”

Su Rui’s eyes went wide. He himself had never received any of that money! As for the five social insurance and housing fund contributions — what did any of that have to do with him?

Qin Ranlong, however, said with a look of disdain, “Five and a half years of total salary and that’s all there is? Could you even buy a bathroom in the capital with that?”

Qin Ranlong’s voice was not quiet, but no one present was distracted by his words — because whether it was Jiang Qingyuan, the police, or Qin Zhizhang and Li Zonghan, all of them had been stunned by what Luo Yunlu had said!

From what Luo Yunlu had said, these people had quickly come to a conclusion: this man, the biggest “spymaster” in China, was nothing short of a crafty old fox — and a thoroughly shameless one at that!

How could a dignified ministerial-level official calculate things so precisely? All that talk about no one processing the paperwork, no one changing the roster, continuing to pay the salary — was any of that even true? Why did it all sound a little off?

Su Rui, however, felt no sense of anything being off at all. He didn’t even bother giving Luo Yunlu face, and blurted out directly, “So which card was my salary deposited into? After I left back then, all my accounts were frozen.”

It had to be said, the angle and speed at which this guy shifted his attention was truly beyond anyone’s comprehension.

Luo Yunlu shook his head with a smile, looking somewhat amused and exasperated, and said, “I’m doing you a favor, and you’re pulling the rug out from under me?”

At that moment, a Guoan subordinate accompanying Luo Yunlu had already handed Su Rui a thick envelope, saying, “The salary card and medical insurance card are all inside — they’ve long since been reissued.”

Su Rui looked at the envelope, and a sudden warmth welled up in his heart.

Who said this world was full of cold and indifferent people? Who said those at the very top only had politics in their eyes and no room for human feeling?

Luo Yunlu then turned to Jiang Qingyuan, smiled gently, and said, “Young lady, we’ve laid out the facts and reasoned things through — have my arguments convinced you?”

“As you said, merit is merit and fault is fault. But how many people did Su Rui injure five years ago? And how many people has he killed this time? Why has he not received the judgment he deserves?” Jiang Qingyuan still refused to give up, a trace of stubbornness written across her beautiful face!

“Very well, young lady. Since you can ask that kind of question, then let me ask you this — if the net of justice is wide and lets nothing slip through, why are the members of those five families who committed such utterly inhuman acts still living perfectly fine lives to this day?”

As though provoked by Jiang Qingyuan, a layer of coldness crept into Luo Yunlu’s voice, and the temperature of the entire scene seemed to drop by several degrees!

Jiang Qingyuan lowered her head slightly, her teeth biting into her red lips, at a loss for how to respond!

And at that very moment, the helicopter bearing the license plate “Lu Te 001” finally opened its cabin door!