Chapter 473: You Traitor!

"You, what are you saying?"

Chen Yang panicked. He stared at the slip of paper in the name card holder and said, his face full of horror:

"I never wrote any slip of paper. Someone is trying to frame me with a squirrel!"

His voice was loud, his tone flustered, but his words came out perfectly clear.

In that one short sentence, he hit the key point and even offered a further guess at what was going on.

Yu Dazhang looked at him with a smile on his face:

"Easy, no one said the slip was written by you."

"I, am I flustered?" Chen Yang's face went from red to white, and he began to stammer.

With that kind of nerve, you're not even fit to be a mole… Yu Dazhang found Chen Yang's performance a little funny.

He felt that the next moment Chen Yang would drop to his knees and roar at the heavens: Heaven above, tell the loyal from the traitor!!

"That doesn't add up, though. When the shot rang out this afternoon, you were with us."

Liu Hai, standing to one side, was quite composed. He stared at Yu Dazhang and asked:

"Even if the squirrel was let loose by someone else, how did it end up in your hands?"

His voice was steady; though there was doubt in it, his expression was calm.

After he finished speaking, he even picked up his glass and took a sip of wine.

"There you go again with your little tricks." Yu Dazhang turned his head, his gaze sharp as he looked at him:

"At this point, anyone with half a brain can see I'm a cop. Why bother asking the obvious? That only makes you look more suspicious."

Over the past few days, he had analyzed every single member of the research team.

He had found that those with high academic titles didn't care much about money; what they cared about more was research results.

Science begins with interest and passion, and only that can drive a person to delve deep into their work.

So in Yu Dazhang's eyes, these highly-titled scientists would never betray the country for personal gain.

Besides, the price would be far too steep.

At their level, they weren't short of money at all, so there was no need to take desperate risks for cash.

If anyone was likely to turn traitor, it would be those with low titles—or none at all.

For instance…

The Chen Yang and Liu Hai right in front of him.

The stage these two were at now was the toughest period of their lives.

Once they got here, they had gone in an instant from being children of heaven to being utterly ordinary.

That kind of gap could breed certain psychological changes in a person.

"You suspect me?"

Liu Hai's eyes went wide as he stared at Yu Dazhang in disbelief:

"If you're a cop, then all the more reason you can't just talk nonsense."

"The squirrel isn't mine, and when the shot rang out this afternoon, I was with you the whole time."

His tone was exactly the same as Chen Yang's had been a moment ago, making it hard to tell truth from falsehood on the spot.

Even Chen Yang chimed in:

"Right, if you suspect someone you need evidence."

Quite the sharp tongue… Yu Dazhang picked up his glass and said:

"Come on, bottoms up first."

This time no one clinked glasses with him. Chen Yang and Liu Hai both stared at him without blinking.

From the moment that fat man had revealed himself as a cop, they had known there would be a reckoning tonight.

At a time like this, as the ones being suspected, neither of them was in any mood to keep drinking.

"Afraid that after a few drinks your brain won't react as fast?"

Yu Dazhang set his glass down and laughed at the two of them:

"Too late for that—you two have both had plenty."

After that quip, his gaze settled on Liu Hai.

"There you go again, being clever. You think that because the squirrel isn't yours, you're off the hook. Then tell me—where did this squirrel come from in the first place?"

The moment those words left his mouth, Liu Hai's face changed at once.

Chen Yang, standing beside him, also sensed something was off, but this time he said nothing and simply watched in silence.

After waiting a while and hearing no reply, Yu Dazhang went on:

"Half a year ago, when you first arrived at this test area, you went to that stretch of woods every few days. You even hollowed out a few tree holes to make homes for the squirrels." His tone was perfectly even, as if he were telling the most ordinary story in the world:

"But after the first gunfight broke out in those woods, you hardly went there anymore."

"Until you brought this squirrel back, and then you never went again."

When he finished, Yu Dazhang fixed his eyes on Liu Hai, waiting for his response.

Chen Yang also turned his attention to Liu Hai, surprise and doubt in his eyes.

"Where did you hear all this?"

Liu Hai looked up at Yu Dazhang. No emotion could be read in his eyes, but his voice had gone a little cold:

"You're right, when I first got here I did go to those woods a lot. That was because I like small animals."

"And being new, I didn't know a single person, so most of the time I could only be on my own."

He paused briefly, then went on:

"Later it got cold, and on top of that there was a gunfight there, so naturally I went less often."

"Besides, I only went there to see the squirrel. After bringing it back, there was no need for me to go again."

Yu Dazhang picked at his ear, seemingly not too satisfied with his explanation.

After a moment, he asked:

"Then why didn't you raise it yourself after bringing the squirrel back?"

When a person has done something with a guilty conscience, every question from others feels like an interrogation. Flustered, they naturally fall into the other person's rhythm.

Liu Hai was in exactly this state right now.

Without realizing it, he had already begun thinking through the problem along Yu Dazhang's lines.

"I-I didn't have the time," he stammered:

"So I gave the squirrel to Professor Ying. I knew she liked small animals too, I just didn't expect her to end up asking Chen Yang to help raise it."

What a roundabout story, tiring just to listen to it… Yu Dazhang looked at Liu Hai with some helplessness.

Clever people love these twists and turns.

If he were really suspected, these little tricks would be useless—they'd only add to his suspicion.

"So this squirrel is yours!"

Chen Yang caught on at this moment, staring at Liu Hai with an incredulous look:

"I get it now. No wonder you were so nice this morning, bringing me breakfast. After all that fuss, you were trying to take the squirrel away while I wasn't looking."

Chen Yang was a postdoc, naturally no fool. He quickly pieced together the whole story:

"You just tie the note to the squirrel's leg, then let it go. You don't need to pick any special time at all."

"Once released, the squirrel will naturally return to that grove, because that's where you brought it from in the first place."

He suddenly raised his voice, his emotions flaring:

"You're collaborating with the enemy!"

"The contents on that note must be the intelligence you wanted to pass to the enemy—you traitor!"

As he spoke, he raised his arm and pointed at Liu Hai, his eyes filled with anger and heartbreak.

If he weren't in the habit of cursing, he would have already started swearing by now.

He's quite the hothead… Yu Dazhang looked at Chen Yang and blinked twice.

Those are all my lines—you've gone and said them all in the space of a moment.

"Is your head filled with bean curd dregs? What kind of logic is that!"

Liu Hai raised his hand and pushed aside the finger Chen Yang was pointing at his nose bridge, glaring as he said:

"Just because he said it, you believe it? Besides, which of your eyes saw me take the squirrel? If you ask me, the two of you colluded and used the squirrel to frame me."

Won't shed tears until seeing the coffin… Yu Dazhang had long expected he wouldn't confess.

After he finished speaking, Yu Dazhang smiled and asked him:

"Do you know why I wanted to drag you two out for drinks tonight?"

Hearing this, both shook their heads at the same time.

Yu Dazhang picked up the transparent box holding the note and said unhurriedly:

"I don't understand codes, but I do know that to decode a cipher, you first need to find the matching codebook."

He stared at Liu Hai, his gaze piercing:

"I bet that codebook is in your room."

(End of chapter)