Chapter 149

Aside from Bao Junyi and Su Huchen, the other three supervisors all held their breath.

It’s over—this thing is going badly.

“You saw it, Director—you saw it today! It’s not that our Su Hanlin is incapable, but that some people are incapable. Our Su Hanlin worked tirelessly analyzing intelligence for everyone, exhausted like a dog. And now, not only does he get no reward, he’s slandered, insulted, and falsely accused!”

No one should be treated this way.

From now on, analyze your own intelligence reports yourselves.

Don’t bring them to our Dongcheng Intelligence Office and expect our Su Hanlin to analyze them for you.

Our Dongcheng Intelligence Office won’t serve you anymore.”

Bao Junyi watched as Su Huchen spoke outright.

He no longer stayed silent: “Then it’s settled. From now on, the Dongcheng Intelligence Office will handle only Dongcheng intelligence analysis. Other districts must cultivate more intelligence personnel—don’t keep relying on others.”

Bao Junyi’s words completely silenced what Zhang Zhi had been about to say.

Zhang Zhi had wanted to suggest that, for the greater good, Su Hanlin should hold on a little longer.

But Bao Junyi told them to cultivate their own intelligence personnel!

If they couldn’t cultivate any, wouldn’t that mean they were worse than Su Huchen at recognizing talent?

“Intelligence analysts aren’t easy to cultivate,” Han Yiqu said.

“But you can’t keep relying on others forever? You must cultivate your own analysts—that’s how you get them to work smoothly. If you always depend on others, what happens when they leave?” Bao Junyi said. Just like Su Huchen cultivated Su Hanlin—anyone with eyes could see Su Huchen had long planned to take Su Hanlin with him.

“What if I really can’t cultivate my own intelligence analyst?” Tang Junyi suddenly asked.

“Since you’re so incompetent, I’m planning to replace you. Do you think that’s acceptable?” Bao Junyi shot back.

Tang Junyi instantly fell silent.

With Tang Junyi silent and Zhang Zhi without support, he dared not speak either. Soon, Bao Junyi dismissed them all.

As everyone left Bao’s office, Xu Yunrui naturally approached Su Huchen, intending to ask about the situation.

Han Yiqu walked off on his own.

Tang Junyi and Zhang Zhi huddled together, glaring angrily at Su Huchen as he left with Xu Yunrui.

“Didn’t you say this setup would guarantee absolute success?” Tang Junyi privately demanded of Zhang Zhi.

“I can guarantee not a single piece of material I sent was genuine,” Zhang Zhi said with a serious expression.

“Then how did Xu Yunrui catch the insectoid spy?” Tang Junyi asked, baffled.

“I suspect they discovered our intentions and turned the tables on us,” Zhang Zhi said.

“Is Su Huchen that clever?” Tang Junyi asked.

“Perhaps the truly clever one is Su Hanlin,” Zhang Zhi added.

“So what do we do now?” Tang Junyi asked.

“First, capture the few traitors we secretly discovered. Claim they were found by our own cultivated intelligence analysts. Secure the credit first—so Bao Junyi can’t use excuses like incompetence or uselessness to remove us,” Zhang Zhi said anxiously.

He was a veteran of Xiancheng; Bao Junyi was a later appointee.

It was impossible for the two to get along!

He had long adapted to the former director’s management style and was now being subtly excluded by the current one—he’d sensed it for a while.

This was one reason he wanted to suppress Su Huchen.

Su Huchen shone too brightly, making him look dull. What future did he have? He might even be purged from the Police Inspector Office.

Zhang Zhi thought: I absolutely won’t be driven out like a beaten dog.

…

Su Jin and the others cleaned their new wooden house and arranged their personal belongings.

Liu Shi began reassigning tasks.

Their entire class—twenty people altogether—was assigned to the largest herbal workshop on Mount Woniu.

This workshop was mass-producing various external wound powders.

The students were scattered across different sections: some sorted raw materials, some ground herbs, others boiled them.

Su Jin, Su Wuji, and a few others were assigned to inspection and packaging.

The powder arrived in clumps, piled on large wooden trays; they wrapped each clump in paper, then placed them into Su family’s specially made containers designed for long-term storage of powders and elixirs.

The most students were assigned to this task.

Eight in total.

Including Su Lan, Qi Yi, Su Jin, Su Wuji, Su Cheng, Su Qingniao, Su Linyuan, and Yang Guan.

This task was easy to learn: just watch how others wrapped the powder, practice twice yourself, and you could start immediately.

Everyone sat at long tables—on both sides sat not only these new students, but also many newly hired temporary workers and a few veterans.

But it was also hard to endure: wrapping and wrapping again, it quickly became tedious.

Su Jin had only wrapped about twenty packets when she suddenly stood up. Liu Shi was sitting nearby in the large room and noticed her rising, asking immediately: “Su Jin, what’s the issue?”

“The chicken-tail grass in this powder has spoiled and decayed. They’ve ground it into powder and packed it into these packets,” Su Jin said, holding up the packet.

Liu Shi’s expression changed instantly.

She took the packet from Su Jin’s hand, opened it, and sniffed lightly.

Without another word, she immediately contacted someone.

“There’s another problem with the Qingwen grass—there are insect eggs in it. They boiled and dried it, yet still mixed the eggs into the powder,” Su Wuji said, seeing Su Jin report it. He pushed forward two wrapped packets he’d separated: “These two paper packets each contain one black insect egg. The eggs are tiny, but they won’t escape my eyes.”

At their words, everyone around the long table froze.

They stared at them, stunned and shocked.

“It’s all ground to powder—how did you detect the abnormalities in the chicken-tail grass and Qingwen grass?” Su Linyuan exclaimed in disbelief.

“By smell, of course. Genuine herbs and inferior ones differ too much in scent—how could you not notice?” Su Jin explained.

Su Linyuan rushed to Liu Shi, picked up the packet she held, sniffed carefully, then frowned: “I didn’t smell anything.”

“Wait until your Yi Mu Changchun Art breaks through Qi Refining third level—you’ll smell it immediately,” Su Wuji said. When he broke through Qi Refining third level, his senses toward plant life strengthened across the board.

He believed Su Jin was the same. “Su Jin, you’ve broken through Qi Refining third level.”

“Huh? I just broke through two days ago, and you noticed already?”

Su Cheng glared at them both, thinking: Enough already—you two monsters! At a time like this, you still can’t resist showing off yourselves? How infuriating!