Chapter 104: Testing

Lu Jin.

Uncle.

One name strange yet familiar, and one title.

The other side exists in the world of agents with a legendary air, separated by several thousand *li*, yet like the majestic mountains beside Spring Thunder Lake, making them impossible to ignore.

In the Zhou residence study, only Traces, Gold Pig, and West Wind remain, flipping through the official gazettes.

West Wind sits upright in the grand master's chair, his expression indifferent and contemptuous, as if he’s not reading official gazettes, but the memorials from the governors-general of various provinces and directly controlled areas of the Jing Dynasty.

Gold Pig sits by the redwood desk, putting down the official gazette in his hand and looking at the grim face opposite him: "You think, the earlier firearms explosion case in Luo City was all due to internal strife within the Jing Dynasty's military intelligence department?"

Traces holds the official gazette in his hand, spreading it open for Gold Pig to see: "Lu Jin leaving office because of political struggle failure means his political enemies will inevitably immediately cut off his wings. This can explain why the Jing Dynasty assassins attacking you, sir, were yet again killing each other with the monks from Jing Dynasty's Bitter Awareness Temple."

Gold Pig claps his hands: "It took me a whole day to figure this out, and you only needed to look at one sentence in this official gazette. Impressive, impressive."

"So you already knew, sir."

Gold Pig says with a smile: "The internal purge of the military intelligence department is not only happening in Luo City; there's chaos in the capital, Jinling, Suzhou, Yangzhou, and Tianjin as well."

Traces doesn't understand: "They are fighting each other so much, aren't they afraid of delaying important matters?"

Gold Pig says meaningfully: "In this world, is there anything more important than power?"

Traces thinks for a moment and asks: "Has the internal conflict in the military intelligence department ended?"

Gold Pig says with a smile: "Still early."

"Oh?"

At this moment, outside the door, a secret agent holding a tray delivers a pot of hot tea.

Gold Pig lifts his sleeve, and while pouring hot tea for Traces, he sighs: "Lu Jin will not be content with failure. Such a person, until the moment he dies, absolutely cannot easily be judged a success or failure."

"You seem to admire him greatly, sir?"

Gold Pig also pours himself a cup of hot tea, chatting slowly: "Lu Jin was originally a descendant of a family with military merit in the Jing Dynasty, but his family had fallen into decline. He then ruthlessly knelt at the gate of the Privy Deputy 'Yuan Zhong', acknowledged Yuan Zhong as his foster father, and presented all the remaining fields and money of his family in exchange for a 'Division Cao' position in the Privy Council."

"At that time, that group of Jing Dynasty noble descendants was popular in the Privy Council to hold idle posts, spending every day walking birds, fighting dogs, gambling, and consorting with prostitutes."

"But this Lu Jin did not simply pass the time in the Privy Council. Instead, he requested to establish the military intelligence department. Yuan Zhong publicly ridiculed him, telling him to properly spend his days in the Privy Council and not be ignorant of his place. Lu Jin did not give up. He simply knelt before Yuan Zhong again for three days and three nights. Yuan Zhong, impatient, then publicly said, 'You go to the Ning Dynasty and kill a cabinet elder, and I will let you establish that nonsensical military intelligence department.'"

Gold Pig sighs: "From that day on, Lu Jin disappeared, only to reappear several years later. When he reappeared, he actually carried the head of our dynasty's Ministry of Revenue Secretary, pickled with lime, and stood in front of the vermilion painted gate of the Privy Council. This matter shocked both dynasties. Our Ning Dynasty was enraged and dispatched over thirty batches of assassins to kill him, yet without success. At the same time, Lu Jin was favored by the Chancellor 'Yuan Mao' and rose step by step."

The Chancellor, the chief minister of the Jing Dynasty, second only to the Emperor.

Traces is somewhat surprised: "Sir, why do you know everything about this matter?"

Gold Pig gulps down the hot tea in the cup, closes his eyes to savor it for a moment, then opens his eyes, smacks his lips, and says: "Top grade Xinyang Maojian, what a pity the season has passed... It's not strange that I know this. Ever since Lu Jin gained the Chancellor's favor, that big mouth Yuan Zhong would tell people every day after drinking wine about how Lu Jin once knelt to him twice. Not only that, even when Lu Jin was the same rank as him, he would still call and command Lu Jin like a son."

Traces laughs: "This Yuan Zhong's grave must be more than one meter high by now, right?"

Gold Pig squints and smiles: "If Lu Jin had really killed Yuan Zhong, that would just be a commonplace story, and Lu Jin would just be a commonplace person, not worth our secret agent department treating him as a great enemy. The truth is, Lu Jin not only didn't kill Yuan Zhong, but instead always called him foster father and presented generous gifts every New Year and festival, thanking him for his past promotion."

Traces is startled.

Gold Pig praises: "Now, the common people of the Jing Dynasty may not know what laws Emperor Jing issued, but they definitely know that Lu Jin repays kindness. As long as you have helped him, it's like having a death-exemption gold medal."

Traces doubts: "This person has extremely high political acumen, why would he lose to Lu Guan Wu?"

Gold Pig shakes his head: "It wasn't that he lost, it was Chancellor Yuan Mao who lost... Let's not talk anymore, keep looking at the official gazettes."

"Okay."

Traces quickly flips through the entire box of official gazettes. He suddenly realizes one thing: all the official gazettes inside do not mention that Lu Jin still has a younger sister.

As if that woman never truly existed.

However, just at this moment, outside the door, a secret agent, taking advantage of the night, knocks open the Zhou residence gate.

With a creak of the wooden door turning, that secret agent doesn't wait for the door to fully open, then squeezes sideways into the courtyard, kneels on one knee, cups his fist, and says: "Sir, bad news!"

Gold Pig steps over the threshold, walking from the study to the courtyard: "Didn't I tell you to escort Six Stripes and the others to transport the deputy supervisor out of the city? Why have you come back alone?"

The secret agent says in a low voice: "Six Stripes stuffed that deputy supervisor into the interlayer of a night soil cart, just about to secretly transport him out from the northern Green Dragon Gate, when the Luo City military command office coincidentally searched out that deputy supervisor! Before I could step forward to rescue, the military command office's infantry had already surrounded Six Stripes and the others in a military formation. Over twenty elite infantry formed a military formation, I had no confidence."

Gold Pig's face changes: "What? I just told you to transport a person, and you actually made such a big mistake!"

The secret agent says bitterly: "This method of transporting people has succeeded repeatedly, I didn't expect to fall flat this time. Sir, what should we do now? Six Stripes and the others are probably going to suffer. Sir, why don't we reveal our identities and tell the Luo City military command office to release them? How can our people fall into the hands of these local chickens and tile dogs?"

Traces also steps out of the house at this time: "Cannot."

All the secret agents look at him, like one knife after another scraping on his body.

Gold Pig looks at Traces: "Why do you say so?"

Traces looks at the night sky, thinks for a moment: "If we reveal our identities at this time, we risk letting Liu Ming know, and then all our previous efforts will be wasted. Gold Pig sir, is it more important to overthrow the Liu family, or to save a few subordinates?"

"Both are important."

Traces consoles: "Perhaps they will come back themselves by dawn?"

"Hmm?" Gold Pig seems to be deep in thought.

Traces no longer answers, but turns back into the room, continues to take out official gazettes from the box and quickly flips through them, constantly searching for some information.

Gold Pig turns back and looks at the thin back in the room. He always feels like the other person is the twelve zodiacs, and he himself seems to have returned to the days of being a pigeon-level secret agent.

At that time, if the sky collapsed, there were taller people to support it. No matter what, it wasn't his 'Song Qian''s turn to worry his mind. The superior gave an order, and he would rush forward with his head held high to catch the Jing Dynasty thieves. After catching the Jing Dynasty thieves, he would eat a bowl of steaming beef noodles on the way home, as if even the bloody aura in his mind was swallowed down.

Gold Pig smiles self-deprecatingly, and also enters the room to continue flipping through official gazettes, leaving a crowd of secret agents looking at each other.

By Si time, the sky outside the Zhou residence is already bright.

West Wind is sleepy and keeps nodding off, while Traces is still spirited, taking out new official gazettes from the second box.

He stands beside the box, opens the first page, and sees a passage: In the autumn of the fifteenth year of Jia Ning, Chen clan's Chen Li Qin took office as Luo City assistant prefect, his legitimate son is quite talented, his bastard son is dull and taciturn...

Just as he is reading here, a hand reaches out from the side and takes away the official gazette in his hand.

Traces is astonished and raises his head. Gold Pig smiles, squints, and closes the official gazette: "These official gazettes are secret documents sent by my secret agent department to various states for Sea Eagle and the twelve zodiacs to consult and inquire. They require Sea Eagle and the various zodiacs to open them with brow blood. It's already an exception today to let you and West Wind look at the Jing Dynasty information. You can't look at the rest anymore."

The two people look at each other, and the atmosphere suddenly becomes stagnant.

Traces is silent for a moment, then smiles and says: "Then I won't look."

Gold Pig smiles and pats his shoulder: "Hurry up and achieve merit. When you become Sea Eagle, you can naturally look however you want. If you become a zodiac, you can even go to Resolve Troubles Building to look at even more secret case files."

Traces explains: "Achieving merit is secondary. This time, I'm mainly helping to overthrow the Liu family to take revenge for you, sir."

"Good brother!"

At this moment, several secret agents flip over from the gray tiled eaves into the Zhou residence.

"Eh? Six Stripes!" A secret agent in the courtyard is puzzled: "Weren't you caught by the Luo City military command office? Why did they let you go again?"

Gold Pig comes to the courtyard and asks solemnly: "Did you reveal your identity?"

Six Stripes shakes his head: "No, last night before leaving, you and this sir instructed us not to reveal our secret agent identities, so we could only let the military command office capture us. They took us to the city tower for detention, then separately took that deputy supervisor away for interrogation. Probably after a stick of incense, the military command office's Mr. Liu came and told us we could leave, and to respectfully await the department head's arrival in three days."

The crowd of secret agents is startled: "Just like that, they let you go?"

Gold Pig asks: "Were you followed?"

"Yes, but we shook them off."

The secret agents look at Gold Pig: "Sir, something is fishy."

Traces says calmly: "This is the Liu family's probe. That deputy supervisor should be a member of the Liu family. Liu Ming deliberately handed him over to us to see how we would handle him. Since you weren't caught revealing your identity, our plan to act as the Jing Dynasty military intelligence department has succeeded by half."

Gold Pig praises: "I didn't expect you to be so young, yet your work is so meticulous."

Traces cups his hands: "All thanks to your good guidance, sir. Now the Liu family should already believe us. Meeting again in three days will likely bring surprises. I'm here to congratulate you on obtaining your great revenge beforehand. However, I have been out for too long this time and must quickly go home."

"Go, go. Remember to rendezvous here the night after tomorrow."

"Understood."

Gold Pig stands on the steps in front of the study door, watching Traces's back walk out of the Zhou residence. His smile gradually fades. He waves to Six Stripes: "Dispatch one person on a fast horse to Kaifeng Prefecture to invite Dream Chicken over. Once the Liu family matter is finished, I have many people to interrogate."

At this moment, West Wind stands up from the grand master's chair, puzzled: "...I have been with you for seven years, how did I not know you still had enmity with the Liu family?"

Gold Pig is startled, then sighs: "Department head, you indeed are very deeply into the role."

There is still one chapter in the evening, but it's estimated to be very late after revisions. Everyone should read it when you wake up tomorrow morning.