115: Chapter 112 Kill him, you must kill him.

After a bit of small talk, Li Changsheng felt he had gained some understanding of this young Officer Zhang.

Zhang Zhirong was actually a police officer who had graduated from the police academy five years ago. He wasn't much different from Li Changsheng himself; he wasn't married yet, and his Family lived in a nearby town.

Moreover, both sides spoke in their local dialect, which felt quite warm and familiar.

In fact, local police officers were just like everyone else; they had their own lives. For instance, young Zhang currently had a girlfriend.

He usually spent very little time with her. He had hoped to take some time off to be with her more, but as it turned out, he had to break his promise again for the sake of the mission.

During dinner, the three of them had plenty to talk about. Since they were all locals, the old lady seemed to enjoy having more people in the house, her face constantly wearing a smile.

Looking at his grandmother's smile, Li Changsheng suddenly understood why she was always nagging him to find a partner and get married.

“Grandma wants to hold a great-grandson!”

Li Changsheng sighed inwardly. He really had no thoughts about marriage; he hadn't even considered the matter.

In the past, he had no money and felt a lot of pressure, feeling that life was just lived to carry the burden of mortgages and car loans, so he didn't have such thoughts.

Now he had money, and once the bounty came in, it would be a huge sum of several million, but...

Why do I still not want to get married or find a partner?

Li Changsheng fell into slight contemplation, his eating motions pausing briefly.

It wasn't that he didn't have those kinds of impulses at his age, but rather that Li Changsheng practiced every day, and that Internal Alchemy Meditation was quite effective at suppressing desires, so his state of mind had always remained quite peaceful.

But truth be told, he actually had some thoughts now.

“Could it be because my Foundation Establishment was damaged before, causing my Internal Alchemy Meditation to be lost in an instant, and the suppressed thoughts are resurfacing?”

Li Changsheng thought about it briefly. It made sense; at his age, he was in his prime. If he didn't have these thoughts while his Internal Alchemy Meditation was temporarily dispersed, then there would really be a big problem.

However, Internal Alchemy Meditation was indeed quite peculiar. One should say that all Internal Alchemy was quite strange, emphasizing the preservation of essence without letting it leak.

“Forget it, I'll let nature take its course. I'm doing quite well now; having an extra person around would actually make me feel uncomfortable.”

Li Changsheng thought to himself as he shook his head. After being prodded by his grandmother, he quickly resumed eating.

—

Meanwhile, in Shanghai, inside a low-rent apartment.

The neon lights outside provided the room with a decent amount of ambient light.

A figure stood with his back to the window, hiding his face in the darkness. He tapped his fingers lightly on the tabletop before gently pressing the play button on a device on the desk.

Zzzz!

A burst of static sounded from the device, followed by the faint sound of wind and a person's slightly hurried breathing.

Then came the sound of a human voice. If Li Changsheng were here, he would surely recognize it as the voice of the last Japanese spy.

This recording was precisely the conversation between Nakamura and Li Changsheng before he died, with gunshots audible in between.

Evidently, this was the sound transmitted through Nakamura's earpiece at the time.

The audio wasn't long and soon finished playing.

The figure continued to tap the table. After a while, he pressed the play button again, over and over.

The figure's body began to tremble slightly, his shoulders twitching faintly.

After a long while, he stood up, drew the curtains, and turned on the slightly dim light in the room.

The figure bent down and dragged a guitar backpack from under the bed. He unzipped it and opened the wooden box inside, revealing various components.

The figure's hands flew as these loose parts were assembled at a speed visible to the naked eye. In a short while, a long-barreled sniper rifle appeared in his hands.

The figure was not tall; holding this rifle with both hands looked rather exaggerated.

He used a towel to gently apply some special oil and wiped the surface. Bit by bit, he acted with a great sense of ritual.

Buzz! Buzz!

Just then, the figure felt the vibration of the phone in his pocket. He placed the firearm on the floor and then casually picked up the phone.

“Takeda, what is it?”

The man spoke. His voice was somewhat raspy, clearly having just cried silently.

There was a brief silence on the other end of the line, and then a slightly angry voice came through, scolding him immediately.

“Shiro! I am very sorry about your brother's death, but that is absolutely no excuse for you to disobey orders!”

“Commander Takeda! I can't stand it! As soon as I hear my brother's voice before he died, I can't sleep for days on end. I want to kill him! I want to use my best method to end that damned Xia Country killer!”

Nakamura Shiro roared in a low, raspy voice.

Since they were young, his elder brother, Nakamura Jiro, had always protected him in the Family. Even if he couldn't do anything well, Nakamura Jiro had always encouraged him.

He was even happier to see that Shiro was good at shooting than he was about his own skills. Eventually, the two of them even joined this damned organization together!

“Shiro! You can seek revenge, but do you know who the killer who killed your brother is?”

The words from the other end of the phone immediately plunged Nakamura Shiro into a dead silence.

That was right; he knew nothing. He didn't even know where his brother had been carrying out his mission.

In operations behind enemy lines, unless the mission required a joint action, even those with the closest relationships would not know each other's identity or location.

“Shiro, rest assured, you are the sharpest sword among our group! There will be a time for you to be unsheathed, but remember, it is definitely not now.

And for now, your mission is to continue your previous undercover assignment and wait for my awakening!”

“But... but my brother... he...” Nakamura Shiro beat his chest. Because he didn't dare disturb the nearby Xia Country neighbors, he could only lower his voice and wail silently.

There was a brief silence on the other end of the phone before a sigh came. “Rest assured!”

“I will send people to investigate the cause of your brother Nakamura Jiro's death. We lost eight of our elites in one breath, and silently at that. Even if I could swallow this insult, the people above me cannot.

Rest assured, they are the elites of the Empire, the heroic souls of the Empire. I, Takeda, will never let their loyalty be in vain!”

—

For several days in a row, Li Changsheng lived quite comfortably.

Young Zhang wasn't acting like a surveillance officer at all; he was practically half a nanny.

Why half? Because if it weren't for the grandmother's firm insistence, he would have taken over all the cooking.

And truth be told, the food Young Zhang cooked was actually quite good.

Once, seeing Grandma go out to chat, Young Zhang hurried into the kitchen and refused to come out.

When he emerged again, he had prepared a meal that was no less impressive than one from a restaurant.

When asked, he said somewhat bashfully, “Haha, I don't have much time to spend with my girlfriend, so I cherish every encounter and want her to have the best meal every time!”

Well!

That killed the conversation. Consequently, Li Changsheng had very little interaction with this guy over the past few days, because he found that Young Zhang could steer any topic toward his girlfriend.

—

Early in the morning, the two of them began their morning jog as usual. Initially, Young Zhang was quite nervous. After all, Li Changsheng, a key target, had just suffered a gunshot wound; how could he engage in strenuous exercise?

But upon looking, the wound was mostly healed, or at least it didn't tear open while running.

“Brother Li, you... wait for me!”

Currently, the two were jogging on the country roads. For Li Changsheng, it truly was a slow jog, but for Young Zhang, this was no slow jog!

This was almost as fast as a hundred-meter sprint for a high school athlete.