Second update,

...

"Don't look at me with those eyes. In fact... I already know everything that I should know!"

Looking at Fan Ning, with a mouth so agape she could swallow an ostrich egg, Qin Fang merely smiled faintly and said, "Tell me who has the antidote, and I'll take care of the rest..."

"What do you know?"

Fan Ning put down the roast meat she was holding, and her expression turned serious as she spoke solemnly.

"Everything about you, including the meaning of this tattoo and the spy organization that controls you from the shadows..." Staring into Fan Ning's eyes, Qin Fang leaned in again, very close, so close that his words were almost a whisper in Fan Ning's ear.

Whoosh~~

Upon hearing Qin Fang's words, Fan Ning instantly became flustered; she truly hadn't expected Qin Fang to know so much about her.

"Don't ask how I know. Just understand that I can help you get out of all this! Just tell me who has the antidote... Uncle Cat, Xiao Dao, or the Taoist Priest?"

Of course, Qin Fang wouldn't reveal anything, but he indeed had a way to pull Fan Ning out of this whirlpool.

Hearing these names, Fan Ning's already panicked face showed disbelief. As someone in the know, she was very familiar with these names, the kind she could almost never forget, yet now they were being uttered by Qin Fang.

Fan Ning hesitated; she didn't know how to choose or whether she should trust Qin Fang.

Just as Qin Fang had said, he had grasped Fan Ning's past and the secrets buried in her heart, among which was something of utmost concern to Qin Fang.

Fan Ning belonged to a spy organization from the island across the strait. Officially, the island was also considered a province of Dragon Country, but the other side had never acknowledged it, and successive high-ranking officials even expressed intentions to declare independence.

Such a situation was clearly intolerable to Dragon Country. Intelligence officers were dispatched to the island, and naturally, personnel from the island were also sent inland.

The Jiangnan Province, where Ninghai is located, is one of the most developed coastal provinces in the east. The Ninghai Military District is one of the seven major military districts, and its jurisdiction includes the island. Therefore, there are many intelligence organizations in Ninghai, and the one Fan Ning belongs to is one of them.

They look for suitable individuals in the inland, control them through various means, and, after certain training, have them serve their purposes. Fan Ning was such an individual.

Fan Ning's parents had passed away, while Fan Ning herself was controlled by a drug identified as XDD3. The tattoo on her arm was the outward manifestation of this; if this poison was activated, its potency could kill a person within a mere three seconds.

Fan Ning's theft of the drug was because she was tired of living this way. By chance, she overheard a conversation among three leaders of the organization and knew that they would have the pill she stole. Only she hadn't expected that it wasn't the antidote at all.

Her intention to steal the ledger tonight was the same: Fan Ning wanted to use this account to break away from the organization. The bodyguards that Qin Fang encountered were from that organization.

"Uncle Cat ... the antidote should be in Uncle Cat's hands; he is a pharmacist. All of the drugs in the organization are prepared by him, and I believe he is the real person behind the scenes. The antidote should be in his possession."

After a long silence, Fan Ning finally chose to lower her head to Qin Fang, revealing the secret that Qin Fang had not been able to discover.

"Uncle Cat ... Do you know what he looks like?"

Qin Fang nodded and then asked. The organization was extremely tight-knit; apart from those bodyguards who appeared outwardly, the real core was very concealed.

It was just like the villa Qin Fang had burglarized, which truly belonged to the name of a high-ranking official's mistress. However, Fan Ning's organization had taken advantage of this and stored some very secretive things inside while having people covertly protect them.

"I don't know. We only know their codenames. As for what they look like, we have never seen anyone, and even the voices are altered with voice changers..."

Fan Ning shook her head. Such organizations mostly have single-line contacts, and apart from liaison officers, they really know nothing about who operates behind the scenes.

That's why Fan Ning only wanted to get the antidote and flee, rather than expose the organization and let the police or Dragon Country's intelligence officers deal with them.

"Leave it to me. Just act as you usually do! Don't worry, it will be resolved soon..."

Qin Fang fell silent for a moment; the complexity of the matter exceeded his expectations, but it was equally challenging. He immediately reassured Fan Ning and took over the matter.

...

"Sister Ning, what are you up to?"

After sending Fan Ning back to school, Qin Fang pulled out his phone and called Ning Yumo. The situation was quite complicated; he knew he couldn't handle it alone.

"Ah, don't even mention it. I was supposed to attend a dance tonight—it's no secret how much I despise such tedious socializing. Instead, I stayed home to watch a movie. But then, there was a shooting in the Lakefront Villa District, and I ended up having to go investigate..."

Ning Yumo did not seem to mind that Qin Fang was calling her so late. On the contrary, she seemed rather pleased and kept on complaining to Qin Fang.

Qin Fang also felt rather awkward since the incident was his own doing. Luckily, Ning Yumo couldn't see his expression at the other end of the phone.

"There's something I need to discuss with you. Do you have time?"

The matter couldn't wait, and with the villa district's shooting incident, if they could use it to their advantage, both Qin Fang and Fan Ning could easily extricate themselves from this situation.

"Then come over. I can't sleep now anyway..."

Ning Yumo did not hesitate and agreed immediately.

Qin Fang arrived quickly, his hands empty, carrying nothing; the community was monitored by cameras. The spy organizations were ubiquitous, and that ledger wasn't a trivial matter—if it were accidentally captured on camera, Qin Fang would be in a lot of trouble.

"What brings you here so late? Did you have a fight with Feifei?"

Ning Yumo opened the door for Qin Fang. Perhaps because it was quite late, she wore only a silk nightgown at home. Her full, upright bust faintly visible before Qin Fang's eyes, especially the seemingly bottomless cleavage, gave him an involuntary surge of desire.

But Ning Yumo didn't seem to care about that at all. As she bent over to pour tea for Qin Fang, her chest was even more revealing, almost too much for Qin Fang to handle.

"Sister Ning, why do you always think it's about that! Feifei and I are fine; there's not a single problem between us. I've come to discuss something very important with you..."

Qin Fang sighed helplessly. Almost every time he visited Ning Yumo, she would say such things, which left him feeling quite exasperated. However, serious matters took precedence. Pretending to reach behind, Qin Fang then held the ledger in his hand.

This ledger was originally meant to be given to Fan Ning, with which Qin Fang could have declared his mission complete, thus gaining experience points, skill books, and proficiency all at once.

After some consideration, Qin Fang decided to keep the ledger with him for the time being. The mission had no time limit, so there was no need to rush it.

"I was drinking with a couple of friends tonight and it got a bit late. I decided to sleep over at my cabin, but halfway there, someone bumped into me. The person was in a rush, not even apologizing before disappearing. That's when I noticed something had fallen to the ground, so I picked it up and saw..."

The story had to be fabricated; Qin Fang couldn't just say he had stolen it from the villa.

"Is this... a ledger?"

Ning Yumo took the ledger with a mix of doubt and belief, scrutinizing it closely.

Perhaps due to habit, Ning Yumo crossed one leg over the other. If she had been wearing her police uniform, there wouldn't have been anything inappropriate, but she was wearing her nightgown, and this motion inadvertently revealed too much.

Qin Fang was sitting opposite Ning Yumo, getting an eyeful of it all. He felt increasingly agitated and couldn't help a physical reaction. In an attempt to hide his embarrassment, he kept shifting in his seat, tapping his leg, forcibly suppressing the rather insubordinate part of his anatomy.

Ning Yumo's inspection was thorough; her expression grew increasingly grave at certain parts of the ledger. The more she read, the more alarmed she felt.

"Qin Fang, tell me the truth. Where did you get this ledger from?"

Ning Yumo stopped reading after a few pages and looked at Qin Fang with all seriousness.

"I was on my way there... Okay, I'll tell you the truth. A friend of mine stole this ledger from the Lakefront Villa District, the site of the shooting you're investigating. It has something to do with him, but he was lucky and escaped the ordeal!"

Qin Fang had intended to stick with his original flimsy excuse, but Ning Yumo's skeptical look told him it wouldn't hold, so he changed his story, mixing truth and fiction such that even Ning Yumo would struggle to determine its veracity.

"So how did it end up in your hands?"

Ning Yumo asked another question.

"He didn't expect it to cause such a big commotion, so he left the item with me for the time being and has already skipped town..." Qin Fang had his reasons, of course. (To be continued. If you wish to know what happens next, please visit www.qidian.com. More chapters are available, and your support for the author and legal readings is appreciated!)

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