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nTranslator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

n“Who did you say you met?!” Deputy Chief of Staff Xu was under house arrest when the military police arrived to arrest him and his wife. He slapped her fiercely. “Are you stupid?! How could you have trusted the Japanese?!”

nHis wife was frozen with terror. She had stumbled back from the blow and fallen onto the sofa. She choked out, “I… I just wanted to save our daughter! I didn’t do anything else!”

n“You can save it for the judge at the military court.” The leader of the military police waved his hand in dismissal and ordered his men to handcuff Deputy Chief of Staff Xu and his wife. Deputy Chief of Staff Xu was detained in the detention centre of the Special Military Court. He looked around the tiny square shaped room and tried to think about how he would l get discharged and find another job—how had he ended up locked away in here? And also facing prosecution by the special military court? What had he done wrong? He sat alone with his thoughts, defeated and worn out.

nThe confused Deputy Chief of Staff Xu learned of what his wife did the very next day. “She…She leaked military secrets to the Yamaguchi-gumi?!” Deputy Chief of Staff Xu’s eye bulged in shock inside the interrogation room, “But… But… how did she know any secrets?”

n“That’s what we need to ask you, Deputy Chief of Staff Xu.” The military official holding the trial was expressionless before him, but he hated Deputy Chief of Staff Xu. If he had really betrayed his nations’ soldiers, the man thought, then death was too lenient a punishment!

nDeputy Chief of Staff Xu composed himself and carefully looked over the evidence. He refused to admit his wife would do such a thing, saying, “Neither my wife nor I have anything to do with this incident. I need to see her and ask what’s going on.” Because Deputy Chief of Staff Xu wouldn’t admit to his crime during the interrogation, the military official reported this and Huo Shaoheng finally agreed to let Deputy Chief of Staff Xu see his wife. They had been held in separate rooms since their arrests.

nDeputy Chief of Staff Xu’s wife saw him and immediately started crying. She kept sobbing and was unable to say anything.

nDeputy Chief of Staff Xu finally calmed her down and asked, “You have to tell me: where on earth did you meet that Japanese woman?”

nDeputy Chief of Staff Xu’s wife had by now realized that Yamaguchi Aiko was not just any person, but an important member of the Yamaguchi-gumi. “It was Yunxiao who told me. She said that there was a very capable person who could help Piaohong, so I believed her and met with her a few times. But we didn’t talk about anything else. We only talked about Piaohong’s case almost all the time.”

n“Miao Yunxiao? Where does she know her from?” Deputy Chief of Staff Xu frowned “There are some things even I don’t know, but how could she?”

nBecause Miao Yunxiao had had direct contact with Yamaguchi Aiko more than once and since Yamaguchi Aiko had been confirmed as an important member of the Yamaguchi-gumi, the young girl was arrested. Gu Nianzhi and Ma Qiqi stood at the door to their dorm room and watched an ashen faced Miao Yunxiao was handcuffed and had a cover placed over her head.

nTwo police women took her away. “What did she do now?” Gu Nianzhi was very puzzled. “Other than pissing people off, what other horrible things is she capable of? It doesn’t match up with her IQ.”

nMa Qiqi wanted to laugh but knew it wasn’t appropriate in this situation. Holding herself back, she pinched Gu Nianzhi hard. “Don’t kick her when she’s down! She must’ve gotten into trouble. It won’t be easy to clean up this time.”

nGu Nianzhi nodded with a small smile. “Qiqi is right, Miao Yunxiao’s been poking at sleeping giants for too long and finally woke one up.” The two girls watched from their door for awhile then went back inside and didn’t pay any more attention to what was happening outside.

n…

nScared witless, Miao Yunxiao was taken to the detention center of the Special Military Court. She only wanted to help her cousin, yet how had she ended up in here herself?! Seeing her uncle and aunt locked up as well she pleaded tearfully to them.

n“Aunt, I was only trying to help Cousin! You have to save me!”

nDeputy Chief of Staff Xu asked her anxiously, “Yunxiao, how did you meet with someone like Yamaguchi Aiko?”

nMiao Yunxiao sobbed. “Dou Aiyan introduced her to me; she said Yamaguchi Aiko had many contacts and solutions and she could help Cousin for sure. I believed her because she’s the Prime Minister’s daughter.”

n“Dou Aiyan?!” Deputy Chief of Staff Xu’s eyes flashed. “I know now! This incident has nothing to do with us—they should be investigating the Dou’s!” He reported the information but received a negative response. Dou Aiyan denied knowing Yamaguchi Aiko and even accused Miao Yunxiao of framing her and dragging her into their mess.

nAt the same time, the military police discovered a list of the members of the Special Operations Forces unit in Japan when they searched Deputy Chief of Staff Xu’s home. With this, all the evidence connected together.

n“Xu Guiqi, you abused your authority to steal the list of the members of the Special Operations Forces unit in Japan. The Japanese contacted your wife through Yamaguchi Aiko to obtain the information, causing nearly all the members to be eliminated. Not only that, but you also attempted to frame Dou Aiyan and drag the Prime Minister into the case; that is an additional crime!” The interrogator declared their crimes to Deputy Chief of Staff Xu.

nDeputy Chief of Staff Xu looked at the interrogator in shock. This time, he was very certain that he had been set up. Even If the list hadn’t been found in his home, he would still have suspected his wife of inadvertently leaking information. However, with the planted evidence, he was sure the whole thing wasn’t that simple. Someone needed him to take the fall, that’s why all the evidence pointed to him. However, the key point was that he had no way of clearing his name because his wife and niece had indeed interacted with Yamaguchi Aiko several times. They had been so desperate to save Xu Piaohong because Yamaguchi Aiko had promised to get her out of jail and send her to Japan start a new life under a new identity. Would their entire family go to jail like this?

nXu Guiqi refused to accept this; Huo Shaoheng and his men also disapproved when they saw the final evidence. “Mr. Huo, no matter what, there’s no way Deputy Chief of Staff Xu could have obtained a member list from the Special Ops.” Zhao Liangze was the first to object because he was the one who managed the Special Ops’ system. If Deputy Chief of Staff Xu infiltrated the Special Ops’ system and steal the member list with his rank, that meant Zhao Liangze’s system had a huge security flaw. This was one of the reasons he disagreed—he didn’t believe that anyone had the ability to crack his system’s encryption unless the culprit had a high security clearance to begin with. That way they could easily access the system and directly obtain the list.

nHuo Shaoheng clasped his hands tightly behind his back and walked to his desk to study the chain of evidence on his computer. He also nodded and said, “That really is impossible. The who thing is likely a set up.”

n“Then why would this person want to frame Deputy Chief of Staff Xu? What’s their motive?” Yin Shixiong followed up with more questions. “At this point, Deputy Chief of Staff Xu is the most suspicious. He has a motive, purpose, and the means to do it.”

n“He has no means because our system is very secure. It would never allow people with insufficient clearance of Deputy Xu’s rank and lower to access it.” Zhao Liangze kicked Yin Shixiong. “Don’t be so easily fooled!”

n“I’m not being fooled. I just think you need to present your own evidence.”

n“Even if he was framed, this piece of evidence is real.” Huo Shaoheng stared at the list. “This list was indeed leaked from our intranet and required a high security clearance to access it.”

nZhao Liangze was suddenly nervous, and he blurted out, “Mr. Huo, if this list is real then it really wasn’t stolen from my system. It must have been directly copied.”

nHuo Shaoheng looked at the chain of evidence and his gaze finally fell on Dou Aiyan’s name. This person must be the key to the case. However, Miao Yunxiao didn’t have any evidence to support her claims and Dou Aiyan insisted she had never met Miao Yunxiao or introduced her to Yamaguchi Aiko. So, with this situation, it was she says versus she says. The judge couldn’t trust either person and in fairness he would only forfeit this suspicious aspect and disregard Miao Yunxiao’s words. As the three men discussed the trial for the case, they knew it would be unpredictable.

n“Do you guys want coffee?” Gu Nianzhi knocked on the door and poked her head in. She had come over to Huo Shaoheng’s official residence to spend the weekend; Huo Shaoheng had brought all his work to his suite so that they could spend more time together.

nYin Shixiong got excited when he saw Gu Nianzhi and waved her over.

n“Nianzhi, come in! See if you have any suspicions about this case.”

nHuo Shaoheng understood Yin Shixiong’s intention but stayed quiet. He didn’t object to Gu Nianzhi helping them crack the case.

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