Chapter 469: Played in the Palm of His Hand

"You're acting me!"

Yu Dazhang suddenly stood up, his face wearing an expression of disbelief.

"I wouldn't call it acting you out," Li Mingzhao said, looking at him with an innocent, harmless air:

"You discovered there was a traitor, and you yourself proposed going undercover to launch an investigation. From start to finish, I was just cooperating with you."

"By the way, for this, you even made a request of me, which I agreed to."

It seemed that way... Yu Dazhang was momentarily speechless, his face turning bright red.

What a good actor.

Unknowingly, he had become a clown before this man.

"So you saw long ago that they were colluding from within and without, and had already sent people to investigate secretly."

Yu Dazhang said this through gritted teeth.

This was the first time he had tasted the flavor of playing the fool.

"Is it that hard?"

Li Mingzhao said in a relaxed tone:

"To a forensic doctor, the dead speak, and they never lie. A single autopsy report is enough to reveal many problems."

At this point, his gaze sharpened:

"Moreover, we conducted an in-depth investigation on that researcher. He had no access to core secrets and would not know the exact location of the test zone."

Finally, he concluded with full confidence:

"In summary, it is obvious that the leaker is someone else."

Fine, fine, fine, so you're playing it this way... Yu Dazhang laughed in anger.

He stared at Li Mingzhao and said:

"You didn't say it like that before."

He remembered clearly that before, this Team Li Zuzhang had given him two possibilities.

One was that the researcher voluntarily sold the information.

The second was that the researcher was tortured.

He didn't mention a single word about an autopsy report, and revealed nothing at all about the in-depth investigation.

Even if he had said one of those, Yu Dazhang couldn't have been fooled.

Li Mingzhao was not the least bit panicked, still speaking calmly and composedly:

"My way of encouraging people is to let them build their own confidence. Besides, your analysis wasn't wrong, so there was nothing for me to correct."

Ye Lin watched quietly from the side, a smile on her face.

This trap was dug by myself... Yu Dazhang could naturally hear the meaning in his words.

Didn't you see Ye Lin laughing?

"Then why did you bring the matter to light at this moment?" Yu Dazhang asked again.

He felt Li Mingzhao could have kept deceiving him; even if he didn't know the truth, it wouldn't hinder subsequent work.

"It's not good for a person to go too smoothly," Li Mingzhao answered seriously:

"So appropriate reminders are very necessary; this also keeps your mind clear."

At this moment, Yu Dazhang felt like a monkey who knew neither the height of the sky nor the depth of the earth, being played with in the palm of Li Mingzhao's hand, at his complete mercy.

Underestimating the State Security!

Li Mingzhao was right; he had been too smooth all along.

To the point where he didn't quite take others seriously, not realizing that at State Security, he was merely someone with a little cleverness.

"The method of adding checkpoints on the periphery, you had thought of that long ago too?"

When Yu Dazhang asked this, he sounded very unconfident.

Before this Team Li Zuzhang, he could no longer distinguish truth from falsehood.

"Not exactly," Li Mingzhao denied:

"We indeed didn't think of your method; our focus was mainly not there."

Yu Dazhang stared at him, trying to read something, but unfortunately found nothing.

This Team Li Zuzhang's expression remained unchanged, leaving no flaw to be found.

Nothing could be picked out as wrong in his words either.

Knowing there was a traitor, Yu Dazhang himself would also have focused his attention internally.

Seeing him dazed, Li Mingzhao brought the conversation back:

"You are quite impressive too. Relying solely on deduction, you confirmed there was a traitor inside Institute 53, and upon arriving, you discovered the person they sent, and also..."

"Enough, enough," Yu Dazhang immediately raised his hand, interrupting:

"No need to slap me and then give me a sweet date; I know how I stand."

He didn't want to continue this topic, so he changed the subject and asked:

"Judging by the timeline, the other side should have sent someone over again. Did you catch them?"

According to Wang Ze's confession, he would lie in wait on the mountain for a week, so the other side would send someone within this period to replace him.

Yu Dazhang had been counting the time, estimating the replacement would arrive in the next two days. "Caught them," Li Mingzhao replied:

"We caught two people in succession within three days. The interrogation is over. These two, like Wang Ze, were hired with money; one was responsible for observation, the other for sending messages."

"Sending messages?" Yu Dazhang didn't understand:

"Sending what messages?"

If there were any unusual movements on the test zone side, the person responsible for observation would withdraw immediately; the other side had already confessed this during Wang Ze's interrogation.

Where did this messenger-reporter come from now?

"That messenger-reporter—his job is to keep an eye on the person in charge of surveillance."

Li Mingzhao explained:

"Before every rotation, the other side sends someone over to check whether anyone is at the surveillance post."

"If no one is seen at the scheduled surveillance post, it proves the person has already been captured by our side, and that person will immediately go back to report."

Double insurance… Yu Dazhang immediately understood their intent.

This also prevents the Ministry of State Security side from running counter-infiltration.

"I didn't misjudge you." Li Mingzhao continued:

"Only you managed to infiltrate successfully. We tried twice before, and both attempts failed."

"Without professional knowledge, in their kind of work environment, you simply can't hide—and yet you did."

He looked at Yu Dazhang with an appreciative gaze:

"I believe you can find that person."

Another three days passed.

Yu Dazhang had already fully adapted to the work rhythm here.

It looked high-end on the surface, but in reality every day was just repeating those few tasks.

The auxiliary work required very limited professional knowledge, and he couldn't access the truly high-end content either.

At the same time, his relationship with Liu Hai and Chen Yang grew closer and closer.

The three of them were all at the very bottom here, and this similar situation naturally drew them together.

"Come to my room tonight, the three of us will have a few drinks."

The one who made this suggestion was Chen Yang; from the look of it, he was in a pretty good mood today.

"Sure thing." Liu Hai agreed at once:

"I've still got a bottle of good liquor at my place, brought from home at the very beginning. I'll go get a case of beer too, and the three of us can enjoy ourselves tonight."

A PhD likes this stuff too? Yu Dazhang looked at the two of them curiously—no matter how he looked at them, they didn't seem like the type who loved drinking.

"Is drinking allowed here?"

He didn't want to be a spoilsport either, but having just arrived, he needed to appear cautious and careful—that was what fit the identity of a newcomer.

"Once we're back in the living area, no one bothers us." Chen Yang waved his hand dismissively:

"Stuck in this mountain gully every day, you've got to find something to pass the time, otherwise no one can stand it after a while."

That much was true—Yu Dazhang deeply resonated with that remark.

No matter how reclusive a person is, they always have some personal hobby.

Like reading, playing games, growing flowers, and so on.

Some perverts even like…

That evening.

The three of them gathered in Chen Yang's room.

"You've really got leisure to spare—raising a pet in a place like this."

The moment Yu Dazhang stepped into the room, his gaze was drawn to a small cage on the desk.

In the cage, a tiny, delicate squirrel was curled up, quietly crouching in a corner.

"I'm raising this for Professor Ying." Chen Yang explained with a smile:

"She really likes animals, especially clever little ones."

Afterwards, the three of them drank and chatted happily in the room.

Yu Dazhang knew his drinking capacity wasn't great, so he didn't dare touch the liquor.

Liu Hai and Chen Yang had probably been cooped up for a long time, and the two of them quickly polished off that entire bottle of liquor.

Still not satisfied, they kept on drinking beer.

Once the two kinds of alcohol were mixed, the kick hit, and Liu Hai's face and neck both turned red.

Chen Yang clearly had a better tolerance, but his speech was starting to stammer too.

He put one hand on Yu Dazhang's thigh and gave it two hard pats:

"Let me tell you, Professor Ying—Ying Xuelian—that woman is not as simple as she looks on the surface."

(End of chapter)