Chapter 289: Are the People Above in Cahoots with [Mask]?

The voice on the other end of the phone was a cool, mechanical female voice: "The number you have dialed is temporarily unavailable, please try again later."

Feng Ju frowned and hung up the phone; the blue-white car he was sitting in also happened to stop right at the No. 8 Middle School campus gate.

As an important venue for the Martial Arts Joint Examination, the Eighth Middle School had recently adopted a semi-open management model, warmly welcoming students, parents, teachers from various schools, and other outsiders to enter and visit.

The campus was bustling with people coming and going; not only were there figures of students and parents, but TV station reporters could also be seen busy at work, preparing to cover this grand event.

This Martial Arts Joint Examination was no longer merely a grand comparison of the students' martial arts skills, but also an important opportunity for the school system and the Executive Government to cooperate and jointly showcase their political achievements.

It was gradually being held as a grand event, aimed at demonstrating the results of martial arts education and the school's comprehensive strength to the public.

Starting the day after tomorrow, the top sixteen would be selected from each grade, and after the first round of the Super-Level Challenge Match was completed, every subsequent platform duel would be broadcast live simultaneously on the TV station.

This would inevitably push this Martial Arts Joint Examination to an even higher level of popularity, attracting even more attention.

At that time, officials from the education system and influential dignitaries from all walks of society would arrive on the scene as guests.

It could be said that the nature of the Nine Districts' first Martial Arts Joint Examination was subtly changing; many people, relevant and irrelevant alike, wanted to take this opportunity to fish for a bit of benefit, be it fame or profit.

As for whether this deviated from the original intention, or the thoughts of the students and teachers, no one cared anymore.

Even though the Eighth Middle School had recently just suffered a vicious serial murder case, and the case remained unsolved, very likely still ongoing, it fundamentally could not hinder this grand performance from proceeding in full swing.

The many problems or complaints from below received only a few perfunctory sentences from above in response:

"Increase security, no mistakes allowed; whoever causes a problem gets stripped of their uniform."

"With so many important guests present, and so many cameras, even if a murderer really is hiding in the school, would he still dare jump out and kill in front of the cameras?"

"In short, difficulties or no difficulties, it must be held; the grand scene organized by the higher-ups, how could it stop because of a mere murderer?"

In short, the current situation was that the people above were all very calm, while the people below doing the specific work were hard-pressed to say they weren't panicking.

Feng Ju didn't even need to show credentials; the uniform on his body was the best travel permit, and the security guard at the gate just glanced at him and let him through directly.

Besides the groups of students or teachers, the people coming and going to the school the most these past few days were from the Patrol Bureau and the Investigation Division; their uniforms the security guards had already seen until they wanted to vomit.

Of course, that batch of Patrol Bureau and Investigation Division people the security guards saw the previous few days were not Feng Ju's batch.

That batch was dispatched to assist school security, maintain the "performance" order, and, in case of accidents, protect the personal safety of the guests.

That batch of constables was led by the Patrol Bureau's current Captain Li Shang, and cooperating with him was the Investigation Division's Third Brigade.

So, Li Shang was currently panicking so much he was cursing inwardly; he had only just barely escaped the vortex of identifying 【Mask】 with great effort, how come in the blink of an eye he was back in this ghost place, the Eighth Middle School?

This time, he indeed did not need to deeply distinguish 【Mask】's true appearance, but rather directly shoulder the heavy responsibility of security work, ensuring this grand event could proceed safely and smoothly.

"Can this really proceed smoothly?"

Li Shang raised his head to look at the bright banners hanging in the campus, looking at the dense, teeming heads of people, and only felt a wave of dizziness assault his head.

If the previous Eighth Middle School was a rice jar, and 【Mask】 was a parasite hiding inside it, then the current Eighth Middle School had already been expanded into a huge rice tub; you test whether the parasite inside will steal grains of rice or not?

You guess, can 【Mask】 hold back or not?

Li Shang shook his head vigorously, his gaze wandering and scanning over those reporters carrying cameras, as well as the cameras hanging on walls and tied to trees, motionless, for the sake of editing more "reality show" material in post-production.

Li Shang's heart held not a trace of warmth, but instead felt bursts of chill; an ominous premonition arose spontaneously.

Standing to the side, Chang Erbing was also looking around at the cameras; his heart settled a little, and he couldn't help muttering:

"Captain Li, I had a look, there really are a lot of cameras, 【Mask】 shouldn't dare come out and commit crimes. Once he shows his face, the possibility of being filmed is too great, he couldn't possibly be that stupid, right?"

Whether 【Mask】 would act stupidly Li Shang couldn't rashly conclude, but Li Shang guaranteed on his Divine Detective reputation that Chang Erbing was truly stupid.

He looked at Chang Erbing with a gaze of near-pity, let out a cold laugh, then asked:

"Let me ask you, why is 【Mask】 called 【Mask】?"

Chang Erbing answered almost without thinking: "Because, he wears a 【Mask】?!!"

Li Shang lightly pressed his own throbbing brow, speaking slowly and firmly: "Exactly, he wears a 【Mask】, so, would he be afraid of cameras?"

Chang Erbing seemed to suddenly wake from a dream; his gaze fell on those cameras again, and he instantly felt a stream of cold air rush from his spine straight to his forehead, as if the whole world had turned black and white, his head frozen as if about to split open.

Chang Erbing took a few deep breaths, his voice unable to suppress the panic:

"No good, Captain Li, we can't take this security job anymore, we have to hurry and find the Councilor, think of a way to push it off..."

Li Shang extended a finger to block Chang Erbing's mouth, grinding his teeth and roaring in a low voice:

"How to refuse? Stage the kidnapping of Secretary Hou all over again?"

Right, a task assigned by the Superior isn't that easy to refuse; the two of them had already refused the Special Commissioner, if they refused the Councilor this time, they might as well just strip off these uniforms on the spot.

Li Shang and Chang Erbing looked at each other, their eyes both silently complaining:

"What's the meaning? We risked our heads, went through untold hardships to barely jump out of 【Mask】's vortex, and it turns out it was just to step back into this even deeper quagmire now?"

The two of them could hardly avoid feeling a kind of bizarre anger, as if maliciously toyed with by fate.

Li Shang's teeth ground with a creaking sound; he truly hated that he couldn't just rush straight to those big shots making the decisions and smash their heads one by one, to see if their brains were all stuffed with rice porridge?!!

Li Shang now had to seriously suspect that those people above and 【Mask】, might possibly be in cahoots after all!

(End of Chapter)