Then let them offer their loyalty!

Wang Xi's pixelated character not only became bruised and battered, but also had a "Loyalty +3" notification appear above his head...

.........

The azure moon hung high in the inky black sky, radiating a deep and tranquil light.

The thousands of dilapidated buildings in the New Territories cast shimmering silhouettes under the moonlight, blending with the darkness of the ground to create an eerie and mysterious scene.

And so, the night passed without further incident.

The next morning, Qiu Tu was awakened by a scream...

----

Chapter 66 Harvest - Fragments of Memory (4k words)

Hearing the scream that echoed throughout the room, Qiu Tu groggily woke up.

He slowly opened his eyes and looked at Shen Lingshuang beside him.

Then he saw Shen Lingshuang hugging the blanket, huddled by the bed, looking at him with a terrified expression.

Qiu Tu yawned and asked, "What's wrong?"

Shen Lingshuang glared at Qiu Tu, "You, how come you're sleeping with me?"

Qiu Tu paused for a moment, then innocently pointed to his cramped home, "What else can I do? There's only one bed, and the sofa is so small. I can't possibly sleep on the floor, can I?"

Upon hearing Qiu Tu's words, Shen Ling Shuang was taken aback for a moment, then she snorted and turned her head to the side, "Well, you delivered yourself to my door, I'm not going to take responsibility for you!"

After saying that, she pulled up her pants and left.

Qiu Tu:? ?

Now it was Qiu Tu's turn to be dumbfounded.

Wait a minute, is there something wrong with how I got out of bed? Why does it feel different from what I imagined?

Thinking this, he paused for a moment, then lifted the blanket to look at himself. His clothes were intact, with no signs of being undone.

He looked up again at Shen Lingshuang, who was walking towards the living room. The girl's ears were a little red, and her face looked a little unnatural.

Qiu Tu... understands.

As expected of a proud and masochistic young lady. She's really stubborn.

But... should I tell her that the tsundere archetype has become obsolete?

...

After silently grumbling to himself for a while, Qiu Tu lay back down on the bed and found that he couldn't fall asleep.

He decided to forgo taking a nap and instead check his gaming progress from the previous night.

Upon summoning the "Loyalty Game" panel, Qiu Tu was immediately greeted by a "Game Over" message.

In the image, Atai's pixelated character holds a small hammer, hands on hips, laughing loudly. Wang Xi's pixelated character, on the other hand, sits on the ground with a bruised and swollen face, sobbing uncontrollably.

Along with this scene, a package shimmering with golden light appeared in the center of the image.

Seeing this, Qiu Tu knew that Atai had won the game last night, and that package was probably the reward he got last night.

Thinking this, Qiu Tu didn't delay, but instead clicked on the package with his mind.

The next second, several notifications appeared in front of him.

[Win the loyalty game and receive a reward.]

Wang Xi's loyalty +5

[Wang Xi's memory fragment (short) +1]

After reading the game prompts, Qiu Tu's eyes lit up slightly, feeling that he had gained quite a bit.

Not only did it increase loyalty a little, but it also gave me a memory fragment.

If this memory fragment is of Wang Xi committing murder, then Qiu Tu feels he can already solve the case.

Thinking this, he tried clicking on the [Memory Fragment] to see what was inside.

With the click, the next second, Qiu Tu felt his vision go black, and then he seemed to find himself in a small room.

There was a strange man in the room, dressed in a black suit, with bright red hair and wearing a clown mask.

He was holding a shotgun and cleaning it.

After wiping it clean, he tossed the shotgun to "Qiu Tu," then picked up another shotgun, grinned at "Qiu Tu,"

"Tomorrow we're going to rob a pharmacy. The plan is... you take care of the staff and customers inside."

"I'm here to handle security and backup agents."

The screen went black again. When Qiu Tu came to his senses, he found himself back in bed.

Qiu Tu sat on the bed, stunned for a moment, then felt like a million grass mud horses were galloping through his mind!

Holy crap! This task force is truly full of hidden talents!

Four members with names: a traitor, a spy, and... a ruthless bandit?!

Qiu Tu recalled what had just appeared in the scene, and then quickly searched through the original owner's memories.

He quickly found the relevant information.

Two weeks ago, an official pharmacy on Xiafang Street was robbed.

The robbers not only stole medicine and medicinal herbs worth hundreds of silver dollars, but also brutally murdered two security guards, three shop employees, three customers, and six temporary and two permanent agents who came as reinforcements—a total of 16 people.

Because the incident caused a great deal of trouble, the Investigation Department received severe criticism from the Municipal Council.

Meanwhile, Qin Zhengguang's police department also received a severe punishment from the investigation department and was ordered to solve the case within a limited time.

However... in this era without surveillance and DNA testing technology, solving cases is not so easy.

In addition, after the robbers killed all the store employees and security personnel, they left without a trace, and a large number of onlookers rushed into the store to rob other valuables, making it almost impossible to identify the traces at the scene.

Therefore, the case remains unsolved to this day.

Unexpectedly... this major case was actually committed by Wang Xi, a seemingly weak and unassuming pharmacist?

Thinking of this, Qiu Tu was a little stunned.

Indeed, you never know what your colleagues will do after get off work.

After silently ranting in his mind for a while, Qiu Tu also briefly analyzed the information revealed by the memory fragment from earlier.

First, there's Wang Xi's contrasting identity: a ruthless bandit.

This identity proves that Wang Xi is not as honest and ordinary as he appears. Rather, he is a figure who walks on the edge of darkness.

Secondly, Wang Xi should belong to a small group or organization.

Based on the images he recalled, he was being directed by a strange man wearing a clown mask, so he probably wasn't the leader of that small group or organization.

Furthermore, this small group is clearly not very strong. If they were strong enough, they wouldn't have robbed a pharmacy.

Finally, this small group's source of income is likely [illegal drugs]. And these [illegal drugs] are most likely made by Wang Xi after get off work.

After all, there were so many other shops that were equally less dangerous but more profitable, yet they chose to rob apothecaries instead. Clearly, they had ways to make those medicines more valuable.

This means reprocessing drugs into prohibited substances for resale.

Thinking this, Qiu Tu's gaze also became deep: the main target of banned drugs is actually anti-government armed forces.

Could it be that Wang Xi made contact with anti-government armed groups like the United Front because of this? And did he kill the female spy to silence her for money?

Thinking about this, Qiu Tu felt that he might actually be able to test Wang Xi today—provided he was still around...

After making this decision, Qiu Tu sat on the bed, but he wasn't particularly happy.

For some reason, he had a vague feeling that something was off about the whole thing.

He analyzed the situation silently. The suspects in this case:

Needless to say, he had seen Liu Fuping last night, so he was basically ruled out as a suspect.

Next was Song Qing. Qiu Tu had spent two days with this girl and felt that she was a bit dim-witted. She clearly came from a good family and had a rare carefree attitude in such chaotic times. She didn't seem like a murderer.

As for Wang Xi, he was indeed somewhat suspicious. Qiu Tu was also planning to test him.

However...on closer reflection, the possibility of a joint operation hiring someone to commit murder seems rather low.

After all, how did the alliance happen to know that Wang Xi was the pharmacist who interrogated the female spy?

If Qiu Tu remembered correctly, last night's interrogation seemed to be something Jia Shu had temporarily organized to trap him, and no one could have predicted it in advance.

Thinking about this, Qiu Tu felt that things were getting interesting.

If none of these three people are the murderer, could the murderer be the two operational agents? Or some other agent who had access to the female spy?

For some reason, Qiu Tu felt that there seemed to be a bigger story behind this matter...

.......

Meanwhile, Qiu Tu was quietly analyzing the case.

Military headquarters, a secret office.

Qin Shuman, dressed in a dark green military uniform, stood straight in front of a desk, her gaze level and unwavering.

Behind the desk sat a tall man with a broad, full forehead and a sharply defined face. His expression was somewhat indifferent, but a ruthless and merciless glint was hidden deep in his eyes.

He sat behind the table, pen in hand, glancing at the report and clicking his tongue twice.

Then he looked up at Qin Shuman, his smile a little cold, "Yudie, I can't even put pen to paper with this case report of yours."

"For the sake of Qin Laosi, you have lost a key spy planted next to Yan Chen."

"That's not all. In order to successfully escort Qin Laosi out safely, you even had the investigation department clean up the mess, directly exposing our security department to Yan Chen."

"In just one day!"

"In just one day! Almost all of our spies in the upper echelons of the Exploration Bureau have been completely removed!"

At this point, the man threw the report directly at Qin Shuman's face, "With a failure like this, you still have the nerve to come to me for my signature!?"

The fluttering reports scratched Qin Shuman's delicate face, but she remained focused straight ahead, her expression and movements unchanged, letting the cold reports slap her face and fall to the ground...

Seeing this, the man's anger subsided slightly. He looked coldly at Qin Shuman and issued an ultimatum, "I don't care what methods you use, within a week, I want you to rebuild the upper echelons of the Investigation Bureau! Restore our control over the Bureau's critical intelligence!"

"We didn't even have a single inside tip about such a big case as the murder of Vice Chairman Tian's mistress!"

"To this day, we know absolutely nothing about the progress of this case or what has happened!"

"This is a grave dereliction of duty on your part as the head of the investigation department!"

The man's voice trailed off at the end, but its icy tone remained undiminished: "If you can't do it, you can expect a court-martial..."

"Yes!" Qin Shuman snapped to attention and saluted!

Seeing that Qin Shuman had received the order, the man's expression improved.

He gave a deep "hmm," and then added, "And the Qin family too."

"Since you went to such great lengths to bring him back, don't let him go so easily."

“The Qin family began laying the groundwork for the shelter from the previous generation. They not only got to know Yan Chen and Jiang Shigang (Committee Member Jiang) in advance, but also continued to expand their influence in both the political and business circles.”

"As a result, they're now entangled with the Allied Forces again, which is clearly problematic!"

"So, investigate this thoroughly! Investigate it to the very end!"

"I want to see what's really hidden in that murky water of the Qin family!"

.....

at the same time.

Investigation Department. The Director's office, dimly lit.

Yan Chen sat behind the large desk, looking quite content, showing none of the fury that Secretary Bai had described.

He leaned back in his chair, struck a match, and lit the cigarette in his mouth. Then, as he gently shook the flame out of the match, he asked in a low voice, "How's it going?"

Upon hearing his question, the person standing in front of him smiled brightly—it was none other than Jia Shu.

He adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses and then said with a smile, "Chief, progress is going very smoothly."