Then let them offer their loyalty!

Page 209

After learning that Wu Zhi was a confidant of a powerful figure and was suspected of being there to investigate Qiu Tu, to be honest, he was tempted.

However, it's important to know that he wasn't fighting alone—he was a follower of Lariro.

Qiu Tu was a key target of La Riluo, to the point that he had to send his ex-wife, whom he had divorced, to infiltrate her.

So, after returning to his office, he did not act rashly, but instead made a phone call to his superior, Secretary Bai.

As a result... he couldn't get through to Secretary Bai's phone no matter what he tried.

Under these circumstances, Zheng Tao could only remain still and patiently wait for Secretary Bai to contact him.

As a result... after waiting, they received the news that Secretary Bai had been arrested.

There were no secrets within the Investigation Bureau, and Qiu Tu's actions were not kept secret either. So when Qiu Tu led his men to disarm Secretary Bai's guards and storm into Secretary Bai's villa, some of the mid- to high-ranking members of the Investigation Bureau gradually received the news.

Besides being shocked by Qiu Tu's audacity, they were also trying to find out why Qiu Tu had arrested Secretary Bai.

This led to the news gradually leaking out. As a result, Zheng Tao also learned of the news.

To be honest, Zheng Tao felt despair the moment he heard the news.

Others may not know what crime Secretary Bai committed, but he certainly does!

Colluding with evil gods! This is a heinous crime against humanity!

Besides... Secretary Bai was his superior. Now that Secretary Bai has been arrested, will he also implicate him?

Therefore, for a moment, Zheng Tao was in a state of confusion and somewhat at a loss....

And then, at that very moment...

Suddenly, the landline on his desk rang.

"Ring ring ring!" The crisp ringing was particularly clear in the office, startling Zheng Tao.

Zheng Tao snapped out of his daze, then turned his gaze to the landline.

He hesitated for a moment, then reached out and slowly moved his hand over the landline.

"Ring ring ring..."

The landline kept ringing.

Zheng Tao's expression shifted. But in the end, he still placed his hand on it.

Picking up the landline receiver, Zheng Tao tried to remain calm. "This is Zheng Tao. Who is this?"

A man's voice came through the receiver, "Director Zheng, this is Director Yu's secretary. Half an hour ago, I invited you to come over for a meeting on behalf of Committee Member Wang and Counselor Wu."

"You promised, but you haven't come yet. So I'm calling to ask where you are? Is something holding you up? Should we wait for you a little longer?"

Upon hearing Yu Zhengyi's secretary's words, Zheng Tao instinctively wanted to refuse outright—after all, he was already overwhelmed with problems and had no time to deal with Wu Zhi and Qiu Tu's affairs.

When Zheng Tao thought of "Qiu Tu", he was stunned for a moment, and then his eyes lit up.

Yes... Qiu Tu is the one who arrested his superior, Secretary Bai.

Wu Zhi's target is Qiu Tu.

If... I can help Wu Zhi defeat Qiu Tu, wouldn't that be like relieving the siege of Wei by attacking Zhao, rescuing Secretary Bai, and also saving myself?

Thinking of this, Zheng Tao suddenly became ruthless!

He made up his mind. When he got to Wu Zhi, he would exaggerate Qiu Tu's problems and even... frame him!

In the face of life and death, morality means nothing...

Thinking this, he replied, "Ah, hello, Secretary Zhang. Something came up in the department just now, which caused a slight delay."

"I'll be right there."

After saying that, he hung up the phone, got up, and prepared to go up to the 12th floor to meet Wu Zhi.

Just as he stood up, his office door was suddenly pushed open from the outside.

Zheng Tao frowned and looked at the person who had just arrived.

The person who came was his ex-wife, Tan Huimin.

Upon seeing Tan Huimin, Zheng Tao felt a surge of irritation.

He completely ignored Tan Huimin's attempt to start a conversation and simply said, "I have something urgent to attend to and need to leave first."

"Could you clean my office for me?"

After saying that, he straightened his uniform and left the office.

Tan Huimin watched his hurried figure disappear into the distance, reaching out to call him back for a chat, but her hand hovered in mid-air. Ultimately, she lowered it.

With a soft sigh, Tan Huimin closed the office door and began cleaning Zheng Tao's office...

Taking the elevator, Zheng Tao quickly arrived at the 12th floor.

Arriving at the conference room on the 12th floor, Zheng Tao took a deep breath and then knocked on the door.

A middle-aged man's voice rang out in the conference room, "Please come in."

Zheng Tao pushed open the conference room door, and four people came into view.

There were four people, two sitting and two standing.

The two people sitting there were a middle-aged man with a large belly and a young man with an arrogant expression.

Although Zheng Tao had never met the two men, he guessed after a moment's thought that the middle-aged man was Committee Member Wang and the arrogant young man was Wu Zhi.

The person standing was clearly Wang, the committee member, and Yu Zhengyi's secretary.

After quickly recognizing everyone in the room, Zheng Tao forced a smile at them and said, "Committee Member Wang, Councilor Wu."

Zheng Tao held a high position, so when they saw him, Committee Member Wang and Wu Zhi didn't act arrogantly and stood up to shake hands with him.

And so, the three of them got to know each other briefly, and then began to talk about Qiu Tu's situation.

Faced with this only chance to make a comeback, Zheng Tao certainly didn't let it slip by.

With a serious expression, he recounted the details of Qiu Tu's work in the interrogation class, embellishing the story.

He recounted a series of incidents, including disrespecting his superiors, being late or leaving get off work early, and having extramarital affairs.

However... although Qiu Tu was always unserious, he rarely broke the rules. So no matter how much he embellished his story, Wu Zhi's expression didn't change.

Seeing this, Zheng Tao gritted his teeth and finally resorted to framing someone.

He looked at Wu Zhi and said, "Counselor Wu, actually... Qiu Tu's mistakes are far more than what I just mentioned."

"During his time working in the interrogation department, he actually... also silenced important criminals, accepted bribes from criminals' families, and released criminals without authorization."

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Chapter 245 Shooting Huang Shangzong's Trusted Clerk! (10,000 words, please subscribe!)

Upon hearing Zheng Tao's words, Wu Zhi and Committee Member Wang exchanged a glance, their eyes lighting up.

Wu Zhi couldn't help but say, "Director Zheng, please tell me more about these matters."

"This will likely be of great help to my investigation."

Hearing Wu Zhi's words, Zheng Tao breathed a sigh of relief and quickly recounted all the evidence he had fabricated on the way.

Although Zheng Tao has some character flaws, his abilities are undeniable; he has almost all the cases handled by the interrogation department over the past year in his mind.

He knew almost everything clearly: which items were questionable, which had problems, and which were not entirely compliant.

So he simply picked two cases that occurred during Qiu Tu's tenure, changed some details, and pinned the blame on Qiu Tu.

He understood perfectly well: Wu Zhi's purpose in coming here was to eliminate Qiu Tu.

So, whether what you say is true or false, it will eventually become "true".

Because once Qiu Tu is taken down, he will never be able to rise again.

More importantly... if we can't capture Qiu Tu and rescue Secretary Bai this time, then he might be the one to be captured.

So, although this frame-up couldn't withstand investigation, it didn't matter. He no longer cared.

Just as Zheng Tao was thinking this, Wu Zhi quickly wrote down an interrogation record.

After writing it down, Wu Zhi checked it, then picked it up and handed it to Zheng Tao. "Director Zheng, please confirm this. If there are no problems, please sign your name."

Upon hearing Wu Zhi's words, Zheng Tao quickly checked the evidence and, after confirming that his framing had not been downplayed, he signed his name without a second thought.

Wu Zhiming breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing Zheng Tao sign his name.

Although he was Huang Shangzong's confidant and enjoyed Huang Shangzong's deep trust, Huang Shangzong did not only have him as a confidant.

Therefore, although he could easily find an excuse to take down Qiu Tu with a simple investigation, while this might accomplish the task, it would sow the seeds of future problems for him.

Therefore, he wanted everything to be as compliant as possible.

Zheng Tao has now signed his testimony, which means he is willing to take responsibility for it.

This gave him ample reason to take down Qiu Tu and eliminate him completely.

Even if it is ultimately proven that this testimony is problematic, the matter will have already been settled and cannot be undone.

At worst, he can arrest Zheng Tao later and interrogate him to find out why he committed perjury.

Thinking of this, Wu Zhi finally put on a confident smile.

Then he looked at Committee Member Wang beside him and asked, "Committee Member Wang, now that we have a lot of clues and evidence, can we go and meet Qiu Tu?"

"Let's see what he has to say?"

Upon hearing Wu Zhi's words, Committee Member Wang chuckled and said, "No problem. I feel it's definitely feasible."

As he spoke, Committee Member Wang turned to Yu Zhengyi's secretary, who had been waiting to the side, and said, "Secretary Zhang, do you think it would be appropriate to arrange for us to meet with Qiu Tu?"

Secretary Zhang was one of the people who participated in the entire investigation.

He knew exactly what Wu Zhi wanted to do.

So, after hearing Zheng Tao's framing and slander, he knew that Qiu Tu was "finished".

Regardless of whether Zheng Tao's words were true or false, Zheng Tao was already prepared to be the knife to stab Qiu Tu.

Therefore, he didn't say a single good word for Qiu Tu, but just smiled and said, "I'll contact Minister Qiu right away."

After saying that, he took out his communicator and started calling Qiu Tu.

But it's unclear whether Qiu Tu was busy with a case and didn't check his phone, or if he saw it but deliberately didn't answer. In any case, his several calls went unanswered.

This gradually made Wu Zhi and Committee Member Wang somewhat impatient.

Just then, the conference room door was suddenly pushed open from the outside.

Ji Chen walked in from outside.

He looked at the people present and then said, "Committee Member Wang, Councilor Wu. I just received intelligence that Qiu Tu forcibly disarmed Secretary Bai's guard team this morning without any authorization, broke into Secretary Bai's villa, and arrested Secretary Bai."

“Now, he won’t answer the phone or reply to messages under the pretext of handling a case.”

"So, I suggest we go to Secretary Bai's villa and see what's going on?"

Upon hearing Ji Chen's suggestion, Wu Zhi hesitated for a moment, but finally agreed.

After all, he knew that things could get complicated if he waited too long. Now that he had obtained "evidence" of Qiu Tu's crimes, he could remove Qiu Tu from his post at any time and bring him back for investigation.

If giving Qiu Tu time to prepare allows him to find a way to retaliate, then many more problems will arise.

So, with that in mind, he stopped hesitating, stood up, and said to Ji Chen, "Okay, let's go then."

The group then drove off in a grand procession toward Secretary Bai's villa.

On the way, Wu Zhi seemed to remember something and said to Ji Chen, who was sitting in the passenger seat, "I originally wanted to visit Director Yan today."

"But I heard that he caught a cold last night and took the day off to rest. That's why I didn't go to visit him."

Hearing Wu Zhi's words, Ji Chen smiled and said, "Counselor Wu, you're too kind. The Director is indeed not feeling well today. But he also instructed me to cooperate fully with Counselor Wu's work."

"So don't worry, Director, you understand everything."

Upon hearing Ji Chen's words, Wu Zhi finally smiled.

The convoy traveled through a large part of the city, eventually arriving at the villa district of the Investigation Bureau's high-ranking officials, including Secretary Bai's villa.