Chapter 63: The Price of Standing Out

An Mingshan did not stop tormenting me until my hands were too weak to even be raised. Right at that moment, I received a call from the Director, summoning both An Mingshan and me to the bureau for a "talk."

At a little past eleven in the morning, inside the Director's office of the Paranormal Bureau.

As soon as I stepped through the door, I saw both Liu Shan and Liu Wei already present. I could tell that both of them were deeply grief-stricken, looking as though they had just suffered a major family bereavement. The moment Liu Shan saw us enter, he rushed forward, grabbed me fiercely by the collar, and yelled, "Did you kill my eldest brother? Was it you? Tell me right now!" Seeing him in such an agitated state and hearing him bring up his brother, I knew that this matter could no longer be kept under wraps.

I looked over at the Director and said, "Director, this..."

The Director shook his head and replied, "That matter was bound to come to light sooner or later."

With that, I gave a detailed account of what had happened back then.

The person who had been discovered by the leader of the Divine Physiognomy Cult and ordered to be executed was Liu Gang, the eldest brother of Liu Shan and Liu Wei. He had been a senior agent in the Special Investigation Division of the Paranormal Bureau and the person I respected the most. The Director took out the identification card he had given me back then, and to my astonishment, tucked inside the interlayer of the card was a 2GB MiniSD card!

The Director turned the computer screen toward us, and I saw that the card contained a video file created a few days prior to that incident—precisely two days before he handed me those belongings. Opening the file, I found a self-recorded video. Its main content was a message to Liu Shan and Liu Wei, urging them not to be saddened by his death, explaining that he had met a brother and comrade here, and stating that he had entrusted all the evidence he had gathered regarding the cult's criminal activities to this brother. He also said that if the Divine Physiognomy Cult was ever wiped out one day, they should burn some paper offerings to let him know, so that his sacrifice would not have been in vain.

After watching the video, Liu Shan let out a roar of anguish—“Ah!”—and bolted out of the room. Fearing he might get into trouble rushing out like that, I told Liu Wei to follow him. Now, only the three of us remained in the office, and the Director decided to speak without any more beating around the bush.

The Director said, "Take a look at the masterpieces the two of you have created! Especially you, Li Shucheng! Look at what all of this is!" With that, the Director showed us today's news—the very headline we had made.

I stammered, "This... this was purely an accident... an accident. Things happened so suddenly, I had no choice but to step in and help."

The Director retorted, "You expect to brush me off with 'just an accident'? How do you expect me to explain this to the superiors?! Do you have any idea how serious this incident is?" The angrier he got, the more he looked as though he wanted to devour me whole.

At that moment, two men walked in, and I could tell they were investigators dispatched from above. They were dressed in professional attire, holding file folders, with pens clipped to their breast pockets. They informed me that this incident, combined with the previous one, constituted a severe violation of discipline on my part. However, given that my intentions were good, that I had helped the police apprehend those robbers, and that I had assisted the Hongyi Group in catching an embezzling employee—for which the chairman of the Hongyi Group had expressed his gratitude—I was handed a disciplinary warning and a one-month salary deduction. As for An Mingshan, because her involvement in both incidents had turned her into an internet celebrity, violating the Paranormal Bureau's regulation that personnel must maintain a low profile, she received a severe warning. Internal regulations explicitly stipulate that "members of the Paranormal Bureau headquarters and its direct-tier organizations (such as the Exorcism Corps, the Special Investigation Division, etc.) must maintain a low profile when executing missions." I had specifically emphasized this to her beforehand. On the bright side—at least as far as she was concerned—her biological parents were guilty of abandonment for having deserted her and were sentenced to one year in prison. Because no serious consequences had resulted, the sentence was suspended for a year. Yet, An Mingshan declared that she refused to acknowledge them, willing at most to recognize An Qimin; this was her absolute "concession."

The two men also quietly whispered to me that they had originally intended to place me on probation within the bureau for a year and officially reprimand An Mingshan, but my master and the Director had argued forcefully on our behalf, combined with the expressions of gratitude from the concerned parties, leading to a lenient sentence for both of us in the end. After they left, the Director told us to keep a lower profile from then on, stay put at the shop to read fortunes and birth charts for people when there was nothing else to do, and only go out when a mission arose, saving them the trouble of constantly cleaning up our messes.

Reader's Corner.

Q: Mr. Author, which manga do you enjoy reading?
A: Yes, I like reading manga. Primarily Chinese manhua such as *A Shuai*, *China's Weird Detective*, the *Old Master Q* manhua series, *Weapons of the Gods*, and the *Magic Angle Detective* manhua series, as well as foreign manga like *Detective Conan*. These manga have been adapted into animations, and watching the animations while reading the manga brings a uniquely different feeling.