Then let them offer their loyalty!

This also means that the interrogator's attitude will determine their fate.

Thinking this, the agents all lowered their heads but stood ramrod straight, wanting to make a good impression on the upcoming interrogator and save their own fate.

Just as everyone was filled with unease, the interrogation room door was opened from the outside, and two people stepped in.

Before the agents could react, the young female agent quickly stood up, saluted, and said, "Good morning, sir!"

Upon hearing this, Cao Dabiao and the others secretly glanced over out of the corner of their eyes, wanting to see who was interrogating them.

The first thing they saw was the young female detective who had led them there. Her hair was slightly disheveled, her cheeks were flushed, and her eyes were glistening with tears, as if she had just experienced something.

Behind the young woman, the interrogator who held the fate of everyone today in his hands was... Qiu Tu, with a smile on his face.

The moment they saw Qiu Tu, Cao Dabiao and the others' eyes widened.

In that instant, they felt as if they had seen a savior.

Ecstasy filled their chests.

---

Chapter 71 Soaring Loyalty (7k views, please continue reading!)

Qiu Tu smiled slightly as he looked at Cao Dabiao and Chen Feng's wide eyes and their barely suppressed but still upturned lips.

That's exactly the effect he wanted.

Only when these agents have given up all hope and can only pray that the interrogators will let them off the hook, can he reappear to maximize his standing in their eyes and quickly increase their loyalty.

For this scene, Qiu Tu even specifically reminded Liu Fuping not to say his name when announcing the interrogation order.

And now it seems the results are pretty good?

Thinking this, Qiu Tu walked to the interrogation table, sat in the middle interrogation position, and calmly swept his gaze over all the detectives in front of him, taking in their loyalty as well.

Cao Dabiao: 23+8

Chen Feng: 42+6

[Ding Xiaoliu: 29+6]

[Ding Xiaoqi: 13+6]

[Zhu Huoyan: 31+5]

【...】

The first number represents the agents' loyalty before they met Qiu Tu, while the second number represents the instant increase in their loyalty after Qiu Tu's appearance.

Overall, most agents' initial loyalty levels were not high. Apart from Chen Feng, whose loyalty exceeded 40 points, and three other agents including Zhu Huoyan, whose loyalty exceeded 30 points, most agents' loyalty levels were between 20 and 30.

This was not unexpected for Qiu Tu.

After all, he had only been these agents' superior for two days, and there wasn't much of a relationship between them. Moreover, he had dragged them into the mess that was the Qin family.

Now that I'm no longer their boss, and there's no superior-subordinate relationship between us, it's already a miracle they don't hate me. So it's perfectly normal for their loyalty to drop below 30 within two days.

Qiu Tu guessed that their loyalty level hadn't dropped below 20 because he had given them benefits before.

Therefore, Qiu Tu is more concerned with the increase in their loyalty than with their initial loyalty.

Each appearance increased loyalty by 5-8 points, letting Qiu Tu know that his plan had worked.

He felt that if he made a little effort and manipulated their image more during the interrogation, he should be able to quickly raise their loyalty to a higher level.

With that in mind, Qiu Tu continued to carry out his plan.

He tapped on Liu Fuping's table. The beautiful young woman smoothed her hair, understood, stood up, and began reading the document.

The document contained very simple information about the mistakes made by Cao Dabiao and others during this mission.

This includes failing to protect the safety of a key person (Qin Shuman), allowing a major suspect (Shen Lingshuang) to escape, failing to complete the task assigned by superiors (obtaining evidence against the Qin family), embezzling public funds, etc.

The more the charges were read aloud, the stranger the expressions on Cao Dabiao and the others became.

It's really strange, because although these crimes are indeed related to them, it seems that most of them were led by Qiu Tu, who was sitting in the middle of the interrogation table.

Now, Qiu Tu is sitting on the interrogation table, and they're all handcuffed?

Such a stark contrast could hardly help but make Cao Dabiao and the others feel strange.

Of course, it was precisely this comparison that made Cao Dabiao realize Qiu Tu's background and influence once again.

Despite all that has happened, Qiu Tu has remained unharmed and was even able to interrogate them. Qiu Tu is indeed as the director has said, deeply favored by him.

Therefore, when Liu Fuping finished reading the charges and Qiu Tu slowly began to speak, they listened very carefully.

Then they heard Qiu Tu slowly say, "We're all acquaintances now, so I won't hide anything from you."

"This interrogation wasn't actually my responsibility at the beginning."

"After all, I also participated in this operation and was your superior. I should recuse myself from any conflict of interest."

"But...on the other hand. Precisely because I participated in this event and have an understanding of everyone's situation, I am the best person to hear this case."

"So, I went to the director and the minister specifically to take on this internal review."

At this point, Qiu Tu tapped Song Qing's hand, which was writing furiously, and coughed, "You don't need to memorize the ones above."

Upon hearing this, Song Qing paused, then tore up the half-page of interrogation record she had just written, crumpled it into a ball, and threw it into the trash can.

Qiu Tu's simple words and command immediately left a deep impression on the group of agents below.

Having worked with Qiu Tu before, they knew that Qiu Tu was demonstrating his abilities and also giving them a warning.

Qiu Tu not only told them that Yan Chen and Jia Shu were behind him, but also gave them a simple order that he could arbitrarily modify the records of this interrogation and decide their fate.

So, in an instant, another notification appeared in front of Qiu Tu indicating an increase in [Loyalty].

Qiu Tu glanced at it casually, and then began the formal trial.

He first looked at Cao Dabiao.

"Cao Dabiao".

Upon hearing Qiu Tu's greeting, Cao Dabiao quickly stepped forward with a fawning smile, "Yes, sir. I'm here."

Qiu Tu glanced down at the document in his hand and then said, "As a Level 1 Detective, you are the person in charge of this mission and also the leader of the escort team."

"Regarding your failure to protect important personnel, the release of suspects, and the embezzlement of public funds, do you have anything to say in your defense?"

Cao Dabiao was stunned for a moment when he heard Qiu Tu's question.

To be honest, he really has a lot of grievances he wants to defend.

For example, letting suspects escape...

God is my witness! He didn't even see the suspect, okay?!

Qiu Tu didn't actually hand it over to him during the handover.

He only found out after he was arrested that there was actually a suspect in the guard group.

For example, embezzling public funds. He did embezzle a little, um... a bit. But of the 500 silver dollars in public funds, most of it was taken by Qiu Tu. He only took 100 silver dollars.

If someone else were presiding over the case, he might hesitate before saying these things. But now that Qiu Tu is presiding, can he say them?

cannot....

He knew that even if he dragged Qiu Tu into the mess now, it wouldn't save him; instead, it would offend Qiu Tu. So he figured he might as well admit everything and leave a good impression on Qiu Tu. Maybe Qiu Tu would remember their past relationship and help him out.

Thinking of this, he gritted his teeth and forced a smile, saying, "I admit it, sir."

Cao Dabiao's loyalty +6

Hearing his words and seeing the pop-up notification, Qiu Tu knew perfectly well what Cao Dabiao was thinking: he was starting to bet on him.

So Qiu Tu gave him a deep look and said with a smile, "Detective Cao, won't you reconsider?"

"Are you sure you let the suspect escape? Are you sure you embezzled public funds?"

Cao Dabiao was stunned for a moment.

Looking at Qiu Tu's ambiguous smile, he secretly groaned inwardly.

He was convinced that Qiu Tu was testing him to see if he would really not betray Qiu Tu, so he gritted his teeth again and said, "Sir, it really was me!"

Qiu Tu looked disappointed. He tapped Song Qing's notebook again, signaling her to pause.

Then he said to Cao Dabiao, "Detective Cao, don't feel pressured. This is just a normal internal hearing."

"Let me share my opinion first."

He took a sip of water and said calmly, "As the guard regiment and the investigation team, you have failed to complete the tasks assigned to you by the ministry, which is truly disappointing."

"However, no one expected that the Qin family would suddenly undergo such a drastic change that day."

"Fourth Master Qin set fire to the main house, throwing the entire Qin family into chaos."

"You realized something was wrong and rushed to protect Miss Qin Shuman."

"But who knew that when they arrived at Miss Schumann's residence, they found that the Secret Service agents had been knocked unconscious, and Miss Qin Schumann had been taken away as well."

“You followed the clues to try and rescue her. But you didn’t expect to fall into a trap. Not only did you fail to rescue Miss Schumann, but your base was also attacked.”

"You have indeed committed a great dereliction of duty in this matter, but there are extenuating circumstances."

As Qiu Tu recounted the details of the case, the eyes of the detectives present grew increasingly bright.

If Qiu Tu's appearance just now only gave them hope, then now they seem to have seen the dawn of light!

At this moment, Cao Dabiao was also filled with joy and excitement. He nodded repeatedly, "Ah, yes, yes, that's it, sir, you're right!"

Cao Dabiao's loyalty +2

Upon hearing this, Qiu Tu's expression changed, and he rebuked, "What do you mean I'm right?"

"What did I say?!"

"Cao Dabiao! I'm warning you, don't talk nonsense here!"

Qiu Tu's sudden change of expression startled Cao Dabiao, but he immediately realized that his choice of words was inappropriate and might not only fail to save him but also add to the evidence against him.

So he quickly said, "Sir, I'm sorry, I misspoke. I finally remembered what happened that day."

Cao Dabiao's loyalty +3

Seeing that he understood his meaning, Qiu Tu tapped Song Qing's hand to signal him.

Song Qing rolled her eyes and tore up the interrogation record again.

Then, while crumpling the transcript into a ball, she said to Cao Dabiao in an annoyed tone, "Think carefully before you speak this time! I'm tired of taking notes all the time!"

Cao Dabiao quickly gave Song Qing a fawning smile, bowing and scraping.

With Qiu Tu's instructions, the recording went very smoothly.

All the detectives insisted that the incident happened so suddenly that they didn't have time to react, which led to all these consequences.

After taking the statements, Qiu Tu flipped through the documents and then randomly pulled out a few statements, saying, "Ding Xiaoqi, Shi Zhang, Su Yun, your statements are incorrect."

“I remember Cao Dabiao saying that you two are the on-duty personnel guarding the suspects and the slush fund.”

Upon hearing Qiu Tu's words, Ding Xiaoqi, Shi Zhang, and Su Yun were all stunned.

They are not fools.

According to the previous statement, at most they were just incompetent, but now that they have been designated as guards of suspects and slush funds, it has become dereliction of duty, and the punishment will be much more severe.

But before they could refute it...

Qiu Tu pulled out a few more statements and said, "And Chen Feng, Zhu Huoyan, Li Xian, and Jiao Ming, weren't you all sent out to investigate the case that day?"

"Why did you go to rescue Miss Schumann too?"

"Change it, change it all."

If it were just that the statements of Ding Xiaoqi, Shi Zhang, and Su Yun were altered to make them look "bad," most detectives wouldn't think much of it.

However, when Chen Feng and others changed their statements directly towards "innocence," many detectives realized something was wrong.

They looked at each other, then thought back and suddenly realized... Chen Feng and Zhu Huoyan seemed to be the same people who had spoken up for Qiu Tu in the detention room these past two days.

Chapter 72 The Grateful Agent (7k views, please continue reading!)