Chapter 475: A Heart-to-Heart

You again!

Hearing Li Ang, who had no idea he had become the number one piece of gossip in the Security Division, turned his head at the sound of someone approaching. Seeing that the newcomer was that walking headache, his face instantly darkened.

As someone with a fairly mild temperament, after a whole day of cooling off, the anger in his heart had faded quite a bit. But seeing this pest who kept pestering him, he still couldn't help a surge of irritation rising in his chest.

"Are you done yet?"

Setting down the large sniper rifle in his hands and stepping back from the firing position, Li Ang, who had a fair amount of dirt smeared on him, demanded with a long face:

"I've told you many times already. What happened yesterday morning was just an accident. The reason your target got away is because your disguise had way too many holes — you didn't look like a coffee seller at all!

And even if I did cause you to lose your arrest target, you interrogated me all morning first, then withheld my lunch in the cafeteria at noon. If we tally it up, we're about even, right? If you keep this up, don't blame me for not being polite!"

"You—!"

Hearing Li Ang bring up yesterday's events, and recalling how she'd been played for a fool in the morning, along with the embarrassing scene in the cafeteria at noon, the female police officer's anger flared up in her chest too. She glared and was about to yell back.

But after catching a glimpse of Li Ang's thin frame and the old greatcoat on his body covered in dust, her entire presence deflated at once. She changed to hunching her shoulders and lowering her head as she "roared" in a small voice:

"Can't... can't you just talk to me nicely?"

"..."

???

Are you out of your mind?

Watching the female police officer who had clearly been a lioness from the east of the river a second ago, then transform into a meek, wronged little wife the next, Li Ang's brain couldn't keep up at all, and the momentum he'd built up to demand an explanation wilted along with it.

Is this... a dagger behind a smile? Courtesy before force? Sneaking across the river? Or some new trick I don't know about?

And just as Li Ang was being stunned on the spot by a single soft-spoken "roar," staring at the female police officer with eyes full of suspicion, wondering what the hell she was planning, he saw her actually reach out and pinch the hem of her clothes, twisting her face as she asked in a small voice:

"Have you... been doing okay lately?"

"..."

No good... I really can't figure out what she's trying to do...

Completely thrown off by the female police officer's schizophrenic behavior, Li Ang stood dazed for several seconds without reacting. In the end, by desperately recalling all the annoying things about her, he barely managed to scrape together a bit of residual anger and replied grumpily:

"Thanks for the concern, then. Apart from being pestered by a petty walking headache, nothing else unlucky has happened to me lately."

"You—!"

Having barely managed to swallow her anger, only to be mocked to her face again, the already hot-tempered female police officer instantly grew even angrier. She jerked her head up and glared back, her willow-leaf brows bristling as she barked:

"You... as long as you're fine, that's good..."

"..."

"..."

After sneaking a peek at Li Ang across from her — his eyelid twitching madly, his expression as awkward as if he'd eaten beef stewed with chocolate — the female police officer, who was also feeling thoroughly choked and uncomfortable, suddenly whipped her head away. Only when the old greatcoat was no longer in her line of sight did she feel a little better inside.

There was no helping it. After reading through Li Ang's file yesterday and learning about the debts her father and the military owed his family, the female police officer had felt so guilty she couldn't sleep a wink all night, scratching fingernail marks all over the wall beside her bed.

When arresting other rebels in the past, the female police officer had heard plenty of their angry accusations, but at most she only sympathized with their plight — when it came time to take them down, she was just as ruthless as anyone.

Because she had always firmly believed that no matter what injustices one had suffered, once a person joined the rebels and began using means like assassination, poisoning, and bombings — methods that endangered innocent lives — to take revenge for the injustices they had suffered, they had already become a new perpetrator and ought to bear the consequences of their own crimes. But Li Ang's file was clean to an almost excessive degree. Apart from one extremely extreme statement and interfering with her arrest operation, it was almost entirely about struggling desperately to survive — working from dawn to dusk without complaint, desperately keeping his little family from falling into the abyss.

He had never raised a butcher's knife against the innocent, and had even saved an entire hospital full of people. The evaluations of him were all positive terms like diligent, willing to work, and kind to others. Almost no one had a bad word to say about him — the kind of perfect victim beyond reproach.

And what was even worse was that a large part of the injustice and betrayal he had suffered came from the military controlled by her own father. On the proposal to stop paying his parents' pension early, there was even her father's signature!

I'm done for... in front of this guy, I probably won't be able to hold my head up for the rest of my life...

After biting her lip with a mix of frustration and grief, the female police officer looked toward the small mountain of gas cylinders piled beside her and, doing her best to sound both stern and fierce, demanded:

"Practicing this kind of dangerous shooting — what exactly... what... are you trying to do..."

"..."

Damn it!

Looking at that face that had barged into her line of sight on its own and was now gazing at her with a face full of puzzlement, the female police officer, who had gone soft halfway through, took the lesson to heart and simply shut her eyes tight. Summoning her courage, she barked again:

"I'm warning you! This kind of extremely dangerous shooting method has already been banned by the Security Division!"

"From now on, I will carefully check the nail-firing records issued to you. Once any similar attack happens in the capital, you'd better be able to account for every single nail you fired!"

"Don't think that just because you haven't slipped up, I'll give up investigating you! I will definitely keep a close eye on you!"

"Li Ang Lane! Listen to me! You don't have any record of harming innocents yet — it's not too late to turn back!"

"I know you've suffered a lot of injustice, but that's no reason to give up on yourself! I can help you get away from them too!"

"Did you hear me? Say something!"

After yelling for a long while with a furious expression on her face, yet receiving no response at all, the female police officer had no choice but to carefully open one eye to peek. The result was that her entire face instantly flushed red, and she was so angry she turned the color of liver.

That bastard rebel who deserved to be cut into a thousand pieces had actually long since put on his soundproof earmuffs, with his two butt-cheeks pointed right at her, and had lain back down at the firing position over a meter high. All those heartfelt warnings she had just poured out had actually been spoken to his backside!

"Aaaaaaaaaah!!!"

Watching those two cheeks calmly facing her, swaying violently with the recoil of each shot as though they were rocking back and forth laughing at her, the female police officer, whose shame had exploded, let out a scream. She then clenched her fists and lunged forward, throwing a full-force punch at that damned backside!

"Ah!!!"

"What the hell is wrong with you?!"

"Brother?"

Hearing footsteps that sounded a little off, Anna had worriedly opened the front door ahead of time. Seeing Li Ang limping toward her, covered in dust, she couldn't help but toss down the bag in her hands and rush over. Patting the dust off Li Ang's body, she asked with heartache:

"Brother! How did you end up like this?!"

"Uh... even though I don't go out on calls, I'm still part of the Security Division, so I joined in some combat training."

After surreptitiously rubbing his still-aching backside, Li Ang waved his hand with a look of bad luck on his face and lied, half-truthfully:

"Originally it wasn't a big deal, but the person I was sparring with was a bit off in the head. I... got punched in the thigh by him. Move around a bit and it'll be fine...

By the way, how's your packing going? Will you be ready to move tomorrow morning?"

(End of chapter)