Chapter 149: Provincial Bureau Meeting

"I was originally going to wait for your body to fully recover, but..." Looking at Chen Yu, who was bursting with health and vitality, Yan Zheng once again revealed a look of shock accompanied by a helpless, wry smile.

This kid was an absolute monster through and through.

"I will contact the provincial bureau immediately," Yan Zheng said as he stood up, his expression turning solemn once again.

"This time, although the plan was conceived by me, everything that follows will be led by the provincial bureau. My rank only allows me to provide support!"

With that, Yan Zheng turned and strode out the door, his footsteps hurried.

After about half an hour, the door to the ward was pushed open once more.

The person entering this time was not Yan Zheng, but several investigators dressed in crisp uniforms with distinctly different auras, followed closely by Yan Zheng.

The leading figures immediately locked their gazes onto Chen Yu on the hospital bed.

When they saw Chen Yu leaning back energetically with one leg crossed over the other, disbelief was written all over their faces.

One of them turned his head to look at the attending physician who had been keeping watch nearby, his eyes full of inquiry.

The grey-haired doctor, well over fifty years old, shook his head vigorously, a look of utter bewilderment on his face.

"In all my years of practicing medicine, I have never seen anything like this!"

"When he was brought in, he had multiple fractures all over his body, severe internal organ damage, and was literally on his last breath. And today... today he is healthier than I am!"

The doctor looked at Chen Yu as if he were staring at an extraterrestrial organism.

"What can I say? I'm young, in good shape, and recover fast," Chen Yu laughed casually, grinning at the arrivals from the provincial bureau.

"Are you leaders here to make your rounds?"

The middle-aged lead investigator paused for a moment, then chuckled.

True to the files, this kid really had no sense of propriety.

"It's genuinely wonderful to see you're alright." The middle-aged investigator's smile was warm, but his eyes seemed capable of piercing right through a person's soul.

"This isn't the place to talk. Shall we head to the conference room for a brief meeting?"

Chen Yu nodded and leaped off the bed.

He followed them out of the ward, walked down a long, heavily guarded corridor, and arrived at a windowless conference room.

A massive oval conference table and cold metal chairs made the atmosphere turn serious instantly.

The middle-aged man who had spoken earlier took the primary seat, and the others seated themselves in turn, leaving only one chair for Chen Yu directly across from him.

"Chen Yu—no, from now on, I should call you Zhe."

The middle-aged man rested his hands on the table, his gaze locked onto Chen Yu.

"Hello, Zhe. I am Han Li, Deputy Director of the Provincial Investigation Bureau. Operation Ghost will be under my sole command and coordination!"

With that, Han Li reached across the table and extended his hand to Chen Yu.

Chen Yu reached out and shook it.

The palm was warm and strong, but Chen Yu had the sensation of grasping a slippery piece of ancient, eternal ice.

Another old fox.

Chen Yu muttered inwardly.

Do these criminal investigation veterans all have to attend some advanced training seminar for "old foxes" to get gilded once they reach a certain rank?

They all talk and act with the exact same flavor.

Han Li seemed to read his thoughts and gave an embarrassed chuckle.

"I happen to be Captain Yan's junior from the academy, and I've learned a great deal from him! I hope we can cooperate happily from here on out!"

A junior?

Chen Yu's expression immediately turned peculiar as he glanced at Yan Zheng, who was standing behind Han Li.

The meaning in that look could not have been clearer:

Look at that guy, his junior is already a deputy director of the provincial bureau, while you, the senior, are still stuck as a precinct captain in the city. You're not doing so well for yourself, are you?

Yan Zheng's facial muscles twitched, and he turned his head away, clearly refusing to dignify the look with a response.

Having introduced himself, Han Li gestured toward the other side of the conference table.

A woman had been sitting quietly over there all along.

She wore a sharp, tailored black tactical uniform that accentuated her curvaceous figure, and her hair was tied neatly into a sleek bun, revealing a smooth forehead and a swan-like, slender neck.

Even completely bare-faced, her features were so exquisite they lacked a single flaw.

Especially her eyes—bright as stars, yet deep as a pool of water.

Chen Yu's old bad habit flared up again.

His gaze, like a drone equipped with an auto-cruise system, shamelessly swept down from that pretty face all the way along her form.

Her neck, her collarbones, the astonishing curves tightly hugged by her tactical uniform, her impossibly slender waist, down to the subtle curve of her hips and her straight, slender legs...

Tsk, tsk.

Top-tier.

With a figure like that, not becoming a model and choosing to be an investigator was a terrible waste of natural resources.

Just as Chen Yu's gaze lingered and his mind began to conjure up some indescribable imagery, the woman suddenly raised her head.

Her gaze precisely collided with Chen Yu's line of sight in mid-air.

That look was calm, profound, and carried a trace of all-knowing amusement.

She stood up, took long strides, and walked straight up to Chen Yu.

A faint, pleasant fragrance drifted into Chen Yu's nose.

It smelled wonderful.

"Hello, Zhe."

The woman extended her fair hand.

Chen Yu smiled and shook it; the skin was delicate and remarkably smooth.

"My name is Zhang Luoyao."

"I know what you're thinking right now," Zhang Luoyao said, looking at him with the corners of her lips curled upward.

"Those images wouldn't pass the broadcast censors if you spoke them out loud."

"..."

The smile froze on Chen Yu's face.

In the entire conference room, apart from Yan Zheng, who wore a "I knew this would happen" expression, Han Li and the other investigators all revealed strange expressions, wanting to laugh but not daring to.

What the hell!

What's up with this chick?

Mind reading?

I haven't even figured out her depth, yet she already knows my length... wait?

Storms raged in Chen Yu's heart as he seriously suspected whether this girl possessed some sort of cheat code like [Insight Eye] just like he did.

"And," Zhang Luoyao's hand was still clasped with Chen Yu's with no intention of letting go as she added:

"Li Qing and Su Qingzhu are both my best friends and my classmates from the police academy."

"Li Qing is even the senior who saved my life."

"Therefore, the mission to rescue her must include me!"

By the end of her sentence, her gaze had turned exceptionally firm, and her grip on Chen Yu's hand instinctively tightened with a bit of force.

So she was one of us.

Chen Yu breathed a sigh of relief internally, though immediately afterward, he felt a slight headache coming on.

This woman was not only a partner assigned by the provincial bureau, but also the best friend of both Li Qing and Su Qingzhu.

That relationship was getting awfully complicated.

If he ever wanted to play the field in the future... cough, cough, I mean, execute missions, it looked like he was going to have one more supervisor watching over him.

"Luoyao is our provincial bureau's top psychological expert, proficient in micro-expression analysis and hypnosis, and she is an indispensable core member for this operation," Han Li chimed in opportunistically, breaking the bizarre atmosphere between the two.

"From now on, you are teammates sharing life and death. You must cooperate with absolute sincerity."

"Of course." Chen Yu released her hand and flashed Zhang Luoyao what he hoped was a sincere smile.

"Specialist Zhang's joining us is like a tiger growing wings; I welcome it with both hands and feet."

Zhang Luoyao merely glanced at him indifferently, said nothing, and turned back to her seat.

That look seemed to say: Yeah, I totally believe you.

"Oh, by the way."

Just then, as if remembering something, Han Li spoke up.

"Aside from Luoyao, there is one more person you need to be introduced to."

As Han Li's voice trailed off, the heavy metal door of the conference room slowly pushed open a crack from the outside.

Everyone's gazes were instantly drawn toward it.

A pair of perfectly proportioned long legs, encased in black fishnet stockings, stepped through first.