Then let them offer their loyalty!

Page 366

In a short period of time, he made another three leaps, so Shen Lingshuang probably never guessed it.

To everyone's surprise, Shen Lingshuang pouted, glanced at Qiu Tu, and then said haughtily, "What else could it be?"

"The acting director, I suppose."

Qiu Tu paused for a moment, then looked at Shen Lingshuang with some surprise, "You knew all along?"

The little girl leaned gently on Qiu Tu's shoulder and said cutely, "Of course I know."

“Since you became the Minister of the Political Department, I have made many more friends.”

Upon hearing this, Qiu Tu couldn't help but look at her.

It's probably the age for puberty. I haven't been in contact with the girl for over a month, and she seems to have grown a bit more.

Although still bearing a hint of youthful naiveté, her eyes and brows now possess a touch of womanly charm. Her large, watery eyes, while still clear, also hold a hint of the melancholy of a young girl in the throes of first love.

She had probably just taken a shower; her jet-black, glossy hair cascaded over Qiu Tu's shoulders, carrying a faint fragrance. Occasionally, a few strands of hair brushed against Qiu Tu's cheeks, tickling him.

"Friends? What friends?"

Shen Lingshuang stretched out her hand, counting on her slender fingers, "Aunt Wang next door. Aunt Liu across the hall. And Sister Tian who likes to make handicrafts. Sister Xie who likes to cook..."

"There are so many."

Qiu Tu was taken aback. "They are all...?"

Shen Lingshuang nodded and said precociously, "They're all people trying to curry favor with you."

Her eyes gleamed. "Lung Shan Road used to be the power center of the New Territories. After the shelter came, they all lost power."

"So they want to rely on the new powerful figures to restore their former glory."

"And you... this high-ranking officer from the Investigation Department who comes from the New Territories, naturally became their first target."

At this point, Shen Lingshuang added, "Of course... they didn't expect you to climb so fast."

"So their gradual plan was somewhat disrupted. When they came to see me that day, they could hardly hide the change in their eyes."

"So... after I casually asked around a few times, I found out everything~~" Shen Lingshuang pouted proudly as she spoke.

Upon hearing this, Qiu Tu glanced at Shen Lingshuang in his arms with some surprise.

To be honest... although I knew long ago that Shen Lingshuang was intelligent and knew a lot because of her family background.

However, perhaps because of her unreliable reputation for concocting potions, Qiu Tu never considered her a trustworthy helper.

But... just by contacting Longshan Dao and the Five Elders, they were able to guess so many inside stories and find out so much information.

Qiu Tu's impression of her immediately changed—this little girl seems to have some talent. She's worth nurturing...

Just then, Qiu Tu had become the deputy director, and even the acting director, with an ever-increasing workload. He also needed more helpers.

Although Tan Huimin is meticulous, gentle, and considerate, she is, after all, a housewife and lacks certain abilities.

Being a personal secretary, warming the bed, and driving around is not bad. But it's not quite enough to help Qiu Tu.

However... Shen Lingshuang is quite good. With proper training, she could very well become a valuable assistant.

Thinking this, Qiu Tu's gaze involuntarily fell on Shen Ling Shuang.

At this moment, Shen Lingshuang was unaware of Qiu Tu's thoughts. She leaned against Qiu Tu's chest, gently tugging a strand of her hair and sliding it lightly along his neck, while saying in a cute voice,

"However... Qiu Tu, the higher you go, the more careful you must be."

"My father once said: The officialdom... is like a group of monkeys climbing a tree. Looking up, all you see are butts, and looking down, all you see are smiling faces."

"The higher your position, the more you'll find that everyone around you is a good person."

"They fawn over you, praise you, and flatter you. Gradually... you become arrogant and start to think you are omnipotent and can accomplish anything."

"Finally, it fell from the sky to the ground."

"Therefore... the higher the position, the more one must learn 'self-discipline.' Only by learning to restrain and discipline oneself..."

The little girl spoke in the purest tone, conveying the most profound truths, which made Qiu Tu pause for a moment, but also made him completely determined.

He put his arm around Shen Lingshuang and said with a smile, "Lingshuang, since you know so much, why don't you come and help me at the Investigation Department?"

Shen Lingshuang was still tickling Qiu Tu with her hair. Hearing Qiu Tu talking about this, she thought he was joking.

She smiled cutely and said, "Sure. If you're not afraid of what people will say about you, even turning your dog into a police dog, then go ahead and do it!"

She was clearly laughing at Qiu Tu's sudden rise to power, which allowed him to arrange for over a dozen of his brothers, including Atai, Akun, and Ashui, to join the Investigation Department.

This actually caused a lot of controversy among the Investigation Bureau at the time.

But that was then, and now is now.

Qiu Tu is now the acting director of the Investigation Bureau, second only to the director!

And that "one person" was often ridden beneath him. He didn't care at all!

So he scoffed and said, "So what if it's a police dog! Let me tell you, I can turn even a rolling pin at home into a police baton!"

.....

Meanwhile, as Qiu Tu and Shen Lingshuang were exploring new positions...

The villa area built by the city hall. Outside Deputy Director Wu's villa.

Guan Xiao and Miao Xiaoxiao are still carrying out their mission.

Under the dim streetlights, a black cat moved silently through the interplay of light and shadow, each step so light and cautious.

Upon entering the villa's courtyard, she looked around with her clear yellow cat eyes, then crouched down and slowly walked around the main body of the villa.

The curtains were drawn and the lights were on, indicating that Deputy Director Wu and his family had already gone to bed.

The black cat jumped down the balcony and into the dark villa, where it began to inspect the interior.

Deputy Director Wu's home is just like the home of a mid-level manager in a municipal government building, with exquisite decoration and a touch of petit-bourgeois sentiment.

This stands in stark contrast to the slums that still dot the New Territories.

Miao Xiaoxiao is a native of the New Territories. Her mother was a homeless woman from the lower class.

The term "homeless woman" refers to a woman whose family cannot afford to support her but wants to earn some food, so she is placed in the homes of bachelors who cannot find wives and "wanders."

These "homeless women" gave birth in one bachelor's home this year, recuperated for six months or a year, and then went to the next bachelor's home to continue their "homelessness" and have more children...

And so, she supported herself and earned some food for her family...

Therefore, Miao Xiaoxiao's life was difficult from a young age. She had no mother's love, and her father died from alcoholism when she was six or seven years old, leaving her alone and destitute.

It wasn't until she unintentionally became a Cataclysm survivor and met Guan Xiao that her fate changed...

After wandering around the dark first floor without finding any valuable information, Miao Xiaoxiao quietly went up to the second floor.

The cat's paw pads are very soft, and it makes no sound when it steps on the marble stairs.

Upon reaching the second floor, the dim light of the nightlight cast a long shadow on the wall, like the claws of a demon, as the black cat struggled in the darkness...

Using the dim light of the night lamp, Miao Xiaoxiao searched each room in the darkness.

Deputy Director Wu and his wife, along with their six-year-old child, were all sleeping soundly.

No signs of catastrophic power were found elsewhere either.

She crawled into a dark, empty guest room and tapped the special communicator in her ear a few times with her cat paw.

He sent Guan Xiao a message in Morse code: No abnormalities.

But what she didn't know was...

As she sent the message, a pair of eyes slowly opened on the wall behind her.

His eyes gave her a blank look, then slowly closed again.

As if sensing something, Miao Xiaoxiao suddenly turned around and looked at the wall behind her. But... there was nothing there.

Her cat showed a human-like hesitation on its face, but finally turned its head away.

A moment later, she received a reply from Guan Xiao, which contained only two words: "Infiltrate".

Miao Xiaoxiao received orders and returned to the first floor of the hall. She then hid in a corner and continued to quietly monitor Deputy Director Wu's home...

And so, the night passed without further incident.

Soon, the dawn of the second day arrived.

Deputy Director Wu and his family got up.

Deputy Director Wu was a middle-aged man with a large belly and a bald head.

His wife looked a little younger than him, only twenty-seven or twenty-eight.

The maid prepared breakfast, and the family of three went downstairs to eat.

Deputy Director Wu ate a sandwich while reading the shelter's daily newspaper. His wife fed their six-year-old child beside him.

After reading the newspaper for a while, Deputy Director Wu snorted and said, "Now that Dongye Prefecture has been established, the prefecture has instructed all cities to do a good job in household registration statistics, and then allocate relief funds according to the permanent population of each city."

"But Bai Ru from our Civil Affairs Department! She's so stubborn! We asked her to falsify the number of people, but she just wouldn't do it!"

"I've been criticized by Committee Member Jiang several times!"

He said with a hint of exasperation, "I really want to replace her!"

Hearing his words, his wife asked curiously, "Then why don't you tell your superiors to replace her?"

The wife seemed to have just remembered something, "I remember... she seems to be a local from the New Territories? She used to rely on her father and the Qin family?"

"Now that the Qin family and her father have fallen, she should be easy to manipulate, right?"

Deputy Director Wu said with a face full of resentment, "I don't know how that slut managed to hook up with Qiu Tu!"

"With Qiu Tu backing her up, who in the New Territories would dare to touch her?"

"Qiu Tu?" His wife was clearly familiar with the political situation in the New Territories, and she was obviously surprised when she heard the name Qiu Tu.

Deputy Director Wu let out a heavy sigh. "Qiu Tu is no ordinary man. In just six months, he has risen to the position of deputy director. He not only has connections at the local level, but also in the prefecture and the shelters."

"Now he is the acting director on behalf of the government."

"Even Committee Member Jiang wants to win him over, so how could he possibly touch his people?"

"So... that's why Committee Member Jiang wants me to be the scapegoat. But I'm not falling for it..."

The couple spent half an hour talking about Qiu Tu and Bai Ru that morning.

Everything seemed perfectly normal.

Even their son seemed to be quietly eating his meal, showing no signs of anything unusual.

So... after Deputy Director Wu went to work, Miao Xiaoxiao, who had been lurking in the living room on the first floor, received a message from Guan Xiao: "Return to base."

Miao Xiaoxiao received the message and quietly followed the shadows out of the main villa and into the garden.

Then she jumped off the garden wall.

However, perhaps because the black cat was too conspicuous during the day, the little boy in the hall caught a glimpse of it out of the corner of his eye, looked over curiously, and then suddenly pointed and said to Deputy Director Wu's wife, "Mom, there's a cat over there."

Miao Xiaoxiao was very agile; she disappeared over the courtyard wall in a flash, so when Deputy Director Wu's wife looked over, she could no longer see anything.

She glanced around curiously and said, "What nonsense are you talking about, silly child? There's no cat..."

She tiptoed to the car, where Guan Xiao was already waiting.

She rested her long legs on the steering wheel, smiling sweetly as she looked down at her communicator.

Staying up all night didn't seem to affect her beauty at all.

When she saw Miao Xiaoxiao coming over, she opened the car door. Miao Xiaoxiao jumped into Guan Xiao's arms and stepped on the two soft, big thunderbolts.

Guan Xiao chuckled, tossed the communicator aside, closed the car door, and said, "Looks like it's not Deputy Director Wu. Let's go~"

"How about we check out the other groups?"

After saying that, she started the car, turned around, and headed towards the investigation department.

Shortly after she left, a pair of white eyes slowly opened beside the wall where their car was parked...

It glanced indifferently at the departing car, then slowly closed its eyes again, as if relieved...

Meanwhile, Guan Xiao, who had been driving slowly for two kilometers, was accelerating faster and faster, and her face was becoming increasingly pale!

After running wildly for several kilometers, Guan Xiao suddenly slammed on the brakes and came to a screeching halt on the side of the road!