CH 21
The suspension car took off steadily and quickly left Ankara University behind.
Ji Xingjue was handcuffed. He calmly sat on the ground among a few investigators who were staring at him, and slowly said, “Your Highness, I am just an intellectual person with no power to even bind a chicken. You don’t need to be so nervous.”
Deen sat in front of him with his arms hugging, and sneered, “Only ghosts would believe.”
Ji Xingjue smiled slightly, and sincerely complimented, “Your Highness, disputes and fights in our teens were nothing serious. You can definitely beat me with one hand now, so you don’t have to worry about the past.”
As soon as the voice fell, the investigators sitting around all smelled the meaning of the words, their eyes floated over, and were full of shock: Your Highness, you actually lost to Ji Xingjue?
Damel, who was forcibly following the car, quickly agreed, “Yes, Your Highness, you see our Furen is too weak to stand up to the wind, so how about taking off the handcuffs.”
The handcuffs of the Ministry of Security were not the same as those of the police. They were large and heavy, covered with electric currents. If Ji Xingjue wanted to resist, he would be knocked down by electric shocks.
His hands were slender and white, and Damel was full of apprehension, for fear that the fragile Mrs. Marshal’s hands would break.
“Major, don’t worry, these handcuffs won’t break your Furen‘s hands.”
Deen glanced at his subordinates, and a group of people squeezed their gaze back. He glanced at Ji Xingjue and was not annoyed by these words. “Professor Ji, you have the skill to play tricks, so why don’t you think about how to defend yourself first.”
The suspension car slowly stopped outside the Ministry of Security Building. Ji Xingjue followed the investigators into the building and looked around with interest.
The Ministry of Security of the Empire was responsible for eliminating hidden dangers within the empire. It was a place where people were most afraid of. Basically, if one entered here, to get out was harder than ascending to Heaven. As long as there was a little suspicion, the Ministry of Security could deal with it at will.
Although Deen was petty enough to hold a grudge, he would not retaliate privately with this kind of thing.
But Ji Xingjue was no stranger to this place.
Eleven years ago, Qi Qing’s father, Duke Qi Bai, was assassinated, and none of his 20 guards had any survivors. Ji Xingjue, the only survivor, was taken away by the Ministry of Security for interrogation and stayed in prison as soon as he returned to the Imperial Capital. A week later, Yu Tong Furen who forcibly broke into the Ministry of Security, took him back.
Even to this day, Ji Xingjue still remembered the moment when Yu Tong pushed open the cell door, and that Qi Qing rushed in and gave him a full embrace, transferring the hot temperature that could not be experienced in the prison.
His brain turned stiffly, and over the tender shoulders of Qi Qing, he saw the relieved Yu Tong. At that moment, there was only one thought in his mind:
They will also be killed by me.
After a day of recuperation in the hospital, he braced himself to get up, discussed with Yu Furen, and left Qi’s house.
“Major Damel, from here is enough,” Deen stopped Damel when he walked to the lobby lounge. “If you keep following, even if the Marshal comes in person, it won’t be in compliance.”
Damel had to stop, his voice was not high or low, just so that everyone present could hear. “Furen, don’t be afraid, Marshal will be here later.”
Ji Xingjue smiled. “Okay, tell him don’t rush.”
The interrogation by the Ministry of Security was the same as that of that year. The interrogation room was dark and cold, with cameras all around to capture the micro-expressions of the person being interrogated.
Two investigators were sitting in the front. It was probably Damel’s words that had the effect. The two behaved very politely, and first asked a few questions similar to the police.
Ji Xingjue crossed his fingers, placed in front of him, and finished answering calmly. The two investigators looked at each other, and the female investigator on the left said coldly, “Professor Ji, the explanation about your disappearance for 13 days is too vague. Do you have more tangible evidence to prove it?”
Ji Xingjue appeared to be remorseful. “Although I have no evidence to prove that I have indeed stayed at home, it seems too rash to convict me on the basis of that diary.”
He shook his head. “Let me say one more thing, having too much trust in things like data is wrong.”
“But you are currently being charged for this data,” The investigator on the right said lightly, “We can fully speculate―the project with the military has mission requirements. You have been unable to develop a new type of chip and interact with the military because of the delay. After discovering that your student, Yser Lestervin, had developed the C9 chip, you wanted to take his research results as your own. After Yser refused, you contacted the spies in the Imperial Capital, betrayed the coordinates of the frontline base, and with the help of the Star thief, you abducted Yser in full view, and then got the C9 chip, destroyed the starship and returned to the Imperial Capital.”
Ji Xingjue almost wanted to applaud him. “It’s really a wonderful story.”
“Professor Ji, it’s useless for you to be stubborn to a fault.” The female investigator lowered her head and opened the terminal. “You probably don’t know that our witnesses have provided us with an interesting thing, and this thing is also consistent with the data provided by VANTECH company.”
Ji Xingjue raised his eyebrows.
The investigator on the right turned on the terminal and released a video.
That was a seven-second video.
The picture was very blurry due to the violent shaking, the surrounding sounds were noisy and contiguity, and it was hard to hear what was being said. At the last second, the camera swept Yser’s face.
Because the stay time was too short, it was difficult to distinguish Yser’s expression at that moment.
His voice resounded in the video: “Teacher, why bother…”
The picture stopped abruptly.
“After the face comparison and the voiceprint comparison, it is confirmed that the person in the video is Yser Lestervin,” The female investigator’s mouth evoked an aspirational smile, “The video was taken on June 3, 911, the day after Yser was kidnapped by the Star thief.”
“Yser call ‘Teacher.’ Who else is there besides you?”
Ji Xingjue thought for a while. “I just found out, the solid evidence that your accusation against me all comes from VANTECH company.”
“According to our investigation, VANTECH has no grudges against you,” the investigator on the right said with a heavy tone. “It is also impossible for their database to be hacked or tampered with.”
The female investigator drank some water and shrugged her shoulders. “Of course, if you can prove that their firewall will also be hacked, then you might be acquitted.”
The attitude of the two changed a lot with the “evidence” that was thrown out, and they seemed to believe that Ji Xingjue was a traitor who sold the coordinates of the base.
If it weren’t for Ji Xingjue’s identity as the “Mrs. Marshal”, with Damel watching outside, perhaps they had already begun to torture and extract a confession.
Ji Xingjue considered it for a moment. Just as he was about to speak, the investigator’s terminal on the right rang twice.
He looked down, and his face was startled. “The interrogation will stop first, Professor Ji, I have to offend you to stay in the Ministry of Security for a while.”
Ji Xingjue said “Oh”.
The investigator stood up, his voice becoming colder. “Your background is more complicated than we thought, Admiral Rand is coming.”
After going out of the interrogation room and passing through the lounge, Ji Xingjue glanced in wonder, and he really saw Admiral Rand.
Admiral Rand’s survival rule was “No meddling in other people’s business,” which was why he had lived longer than his colleagues. It was the first time after so many years to jump out and intervene in this kind of thing personally. Not only was Deen caught off guard, but Ji Xingjue was also surprised.
Even if Admiral Rand wanted to show off Qi Qing’s face, he wouldn’t need to show this openly, right?
“Xiao Ji,” Admiral Rand greeted with a smile, “Are you all right?”
Seeing Deen did not seem to oppose it, Ji Xingjue walked into the lounge and bowed politely. “It’s all thanks to you.”
“When C9 was built, you made a report with me,” Admiral Rand faintly glanced at the two security officers who followed. “Judging by the time, it is before Yser participated in the project team.”
As soon as this sentence came out, the face of the people of the Security Department changed slightly.
“The Security Department has always been reckless in its work, don’t mind them,” Admiral Rand patted him on the shoulder, “Rest assured, I believe you.”
Deen’s face was also a bit ugly. “Admiral, can you show the evidence?”
Rand snorted, took out a storage device from his pocket and handed it over. “This is the demo video when Professor Ji and I were reporting.”
Ji Xingjue was even more surprised.
Admiral Rand indeed said that something was wrong when the C9 model was first constructed, so he did report to Rand and gave a video demonstration.
But that was just a few minutes, and he didn’t expect Rand to record it and store it for so long.
“…We will verify it as soon as possible,” Deen had a bad feeling in his heart, and squeezed these words out of his teeth, “But if there’s another video record, it will be more convincing. Ji Xingjue still needs to be investigated by the Ministry of Security.”
Admiral Rand chuckled. “Then I won’t interrupt your investigation. Professor Ji, I will wait for you to come back and play chess with me.”
Ji Xingjue’s hands were handcuffed, but still looking elegant. “I’m looking forward to it.”
The prison cell of the Ministry of Security was also familiar to Ji Xingjue.
Although he had only stayed for a week; he escaped from a terrifying encounter only to be locked in a dark place afterwards. The impression was quite impressive.
Walking into this quiet and closed dark room again, his heartbeat seemed to slow down.
Ji Xingjue closed his eyes, listened to the door behind him closing with a “click”. He took a few deep breaths, but his mind still couldn’t stop surging with many things that he didn’t want to recall.
The starship that was hit and exploded and spread into a boundless sea of fire, him being held and fleeing in the sea of flowers, the guard who dyed the white petals red with drops of blood…
A slight “click” suddenly came from the door, interrupting these intertwined memories.
Ji Xingjue’s face was slightly pale, and sweat was floating on his forehead. He slowly opened his eyes and was a little surprised when he saw the person coming. “Come so soon?”
Standing at the door, Qi Qing turned around and faintly said, “Retreat, I will chat with him alone.”
The guard at the door was a little awkward. “Marshal, this is not in compliance.”
“Even a prisoner has the right to privacy,” Qi Qing looked at him condescendingly, with a deterrent expression in his cold eyes, “Not to mention that he is not a prisoner.”
The guard laughed dryly. “But, you just come to find Mr. Ji to say a few words, and there is nothing about privacy…”
Surprisingly Qi Qing said, “We are husbands, do you want to stand in a circle and watch us kiss?”
Guard: “…”
Ji Xingjue: “……”
The guard stayed for three seconds, faced with an expression that was not like a joke, he shrank his neck and swallowed. “The, then, you talk, I’ll stay outside.”
The door closed again.
The corner of Ji Xingjue’s mouth twitched, feeling that Qi Qing’s sacrifice was a bit big.
In order to facilitate certain non-compliant measures, there were no monitoring equipment installed in the small cell of the Ministry of Security, but only a few cameras.
The light in the cell was extremely dim, Qi Qing took out a rabbit-shaped touch night light from his arms and placed it on the table.
The warm yellow light illuminated, dispelling the cold darkness.
Ji Xingjue’s eyebrows jumped. “Lord Marshal, I have a foreboding that you seem to be quite impressive.”
Qi Qing said in a cold voice, “I said, Ji Xingjue, don’t let me catch your handle.”
Ji Xingjue raised his head and looked at Qi Qing’s face that was hidden in the light. From this angle, his eyes were slightly rounded and looked very innocent. “Then what handle did you catch?”
“May 29th this year, 11:30 p.m.,” said Qi Qing, “you pretended to be an ordinary tourist and boarded the star ship leaving the Imperial Capital under a false identity, and the surveillance captured your back.”
He paused. “No matter what you become, I can recognize you at a glance.”
He waited for Ji Xingjue to deny it or cover it up with the next lie.
Unexpectedly, Ji Xingjue smiled when he heard the words. “Ah, I was discovered by you.”
This unexpected answer made Qi Qing trace the source of this slip of tongue.
Ji Xingjue sat quietly in front of him with a smile on his face. The red mole at the corner of his eye was sultry, and his voice was low and soft, somewhat coaxing. “What else did you find?”
“…No more.” Qi Qing lowered his eyes and looked at him seriously, “You only appeared in the surveillance once, and then you disappeared.”
Ji Xingjue blinked. “Then am I still ‘harmless’?”
Qi Qing’s Adam’s apple rolled, and he was silent for several breaths before answering, “Yes.”
T/N: from chapter 23, the VIP chapter looks longer than the previous chapters. (◡ ‿ ◡ ✿)
Ji Xingjue was handcuffed. He calmly sat on the ground among a few investigators who were staring at him, and slowly said, “Your Highness, I am just an intellectual person with no power to even bind a chicken. You don’t need to be so nervous.”
Deen sat in front of him with his arms hugging, and sneered, “Only ghosts would believe.”
Ji Xingjue smiled slightly, and sincerely complimented, “Your Highness, disputes and fights in our teens were nothing serious. You can definitely beat me with one hand now, so you don’t have to worry about the past.”
As soon as the voice fell, the investigators sitting around all smelled the meaning of the words, their eyes floated over, and were full of shock: Your Highness, you actually lost to Ji Xingjue?
Damel, who was forcibly following the car, quickly agreed, “Yes, Your Highness, you see our Furen is too weak to stand up to the wind, so how about taking off the handcuffs.”
The handcuffs of the Ministry of Security were not the same as those of the police. They were large and heavy, covered with electric currents. If Ji Xingjue wanted to resist, he would be knocked down by electric shocks.
His hands were slender and white, and Damel was full of apprehension, for fear that the fragile Mrs. Marshal’s hands would break.
“Major, don’t worry, these handcuffs won’t break your Furen‘s hands.”
Deen glanced at his subordinates, and a group of people squeezed their gaze back. He glanced at Ji Xingjue and was not annoyed by these words. “Professor Ji, you have the skill to play tricks, so why don’t you think about how to defend yourself first.”
The suspension car slowly stopped outside the Ministry of Security Building. Ji Xingjue followed the investigators into the building and looked around with interest.
The Ministry of Security of the Empire was responsible for eliminating hidden dangers within the empire. It was a place where people were most afraid of. Basically, if one entered here, to get out was harder than ascending to Heaven. As long as there was a little suspicion, the Ministry of Security could deal with it at will.
Although Deen was petty enough to hold a grudge, he would not retaliate privately with this kind of thing.
But Ji Xingjue was no stranger to this place.
Eleven years ago, Qi Qing’s father, Duke Qi Bai, was assassinated, and none of his 20 guards had any survivors. Ji Xingjue, the only survivor, was taken away by the Ministry of Security for interrogation and stayed in prison as soon as he returned to the Imperial Capital. A week later, Yu Tong Furen who forcibly broke into the Ministry of Security, took him back.
Even to this day, Ji Xingjue still remembered the moment when Yu Tong pushed open the cell door, and that Qi Qing rushed in and gave him a full embrace, transferring the hot temperature that could not be experienced in the prison.
His brain turned stiffly, and over the tender shoulders of Qi Qing, he saw the relieved Yu Tong. At that moment, there was only one thought in his mind:
They will also be killed by me.
After a day of recuperation in the hospital, he braced himself to get up, discussed with Yu Furen, and left Qi’s house.
“Major Damel, from here is enough,” Deen stopped Damel when he walked to the lobby lounge. “If you keep following, even if the Marshal comes in person, it won’t be in compliance.”
Damel had to stop, his voice was not high or low, just so that everyone present could hear. “Furen, don’t be afraid, Marshal will be here later.”
Ji Xingjue smiled. “Okay, tell him don’t rush.”
The interrogation by the Ministry of Security was the same as that of that year. The interrogation room was dark and cold, with cameras all around to capture the micro-expressions of the person being interrogated.
Two investigators were sitting in the front. It was probably Damel’s words that had the effect. The two behaved very politely, and first asked a few questions similar to the police.
Ji Xingjue crossed his fingers, placed in front of him, and finished answering calmly. The two investigators looked at each other, and the female investigator on the left said coldly, “Professor Ji, the explanation about your disappearance for 13 days is too vague. Do you have more tangible evidence to prove it?”
Ji Xingjue appeared to be remorseful. “Although I have no evidence to prove that I have indeed stayed at home, it seems too rash to convict me on the basis of that diary.”
He shook his head. “Let me say one more thing, having too much trust in things like data is wrong.”
“But you are currently being charged for this data,” The investigator on the right said lightly, “We can fully speculate―the project with the military has mission requirements. You have been unable to develop a new type of chip and interact with the military because of the delay. After discovering that your student, Yser Lestervin, had developed the C9 chip, you wanted to take his research results as your own. After Yser refused, you contacted the spies in the Imperial Capital, betrayed the coordinates of the frontline base, and with the help of the Star thief, you abducted Yser in full view, and then got the C9 chip, destroyed the starship and returned to the Imperial Capital.”
Ji Xingjue almost wanted to applaud him. “It’s really a wonderful story.”
“Professor Ji, it’s useless for you to be stubborn to a fault.” The female investigator lowered her head and opened the terminal. “You probably don’t know that our witnesses have provided us with an interesting thing, and this thing is also consistent with the data provided by VANTECH company.”
Ji Xingjue raised his eyebrows.
The investigator on the right turned on the terminal and released a video.
That was a seven-second video.
The picture was very blurry due to the violent shaking, the surrounding sounds were noisy and contiguity, and it was hard to hear what was being said. At the last second, the camera swept Yser’s face.
Because the stay time was too short, it was difficult to distinguish Yser’s expression at that moment.
His voice resounded in the video: “Teacher, why bother…”
The picture stopped abruptly.
“After the face comparison and the voiceprint comparison, it is confirmed that the person in the video is Yser Lestervin,” The female investigator’s mouth evoked an aspirational smile, “The video was taken on June 3, 911, the day after Yser was kidnapped by the Star thief.”
“Yser call ‘Teacher.’ Who else is there besides you?”
Ji Xingjue thought for a while. “I just found out, the solid evidence that your accusation against me all comes from VANTECH company.”
“According to our investigation, VANTECH has no grudges against you,” the investigator on the right said with a heavy tone. “It is also impossible for their database to be hacked or tampered with.”
The female investigator drank some water and shrugged her shoulders. “Of course, if you can prove that their firewall will also be hacked, then you might be acquitted.”
The attitude of the two changed a lot with the “evidence” that was thrown out, and they seemed to believe that Ji Xingjue was a traitor who sold the coordinates of the base.
If it weren’t for Ji Xingjue’s identity as the “Mrs. Marshal”, with Damel watching outside, perhaps they had already begun to torture and extract a confession.
Ji Xingjue considered it for a moment. Just as he was about to speak, the investigator’s terminal on the right rang twice.
He looked down, and his face was startled. “The interrogation will stop first, Professor Ji, I have to offend you to stay in the Ministry of Security for a while.”
Ji Xingjue said “Oh”.
The investigator stood up, his voice becoming colder. “Your background is more complicated than we thought, Admiral Rand is coming.”
After going out of the interrogation room and passing through the lounge, Ji Xingjue glanced in wonder, and he really saw Admiral Rand.
Admiral Rand’s survival rule was “No meddling in other people’s business,” which was why he had lived longer than his colleagues. It was the first time after so many years to jump out and intervene in this kind of thing personally. Not only was Deen caught off guard, but Ji Xingjue was also surprised.
Even if Admiral Rand wanted to show off Qi Qing’s face, he wouldn’t need to show this openly, right?
“Xiao Ji,” Admiral Rand greeted with a smile, “Are you all right?”
Seeing Deen did not seem to oppose it, Ji Xingjue walked into the lounge and bowed politely. “It’s all thanks to you.”
“When C9 was built, you made a report with me,” Admiral Rand faintly glanced at the two security officers who followed. “Judging by the time, it is before Yser participated in the project team.”
As soon as this sentence came out, the face of the people of the Security Department changed slightly.
“The Security Department has always been reckless in its work, don’t mind them,” Admiral Rand patted him on the shoulder, “Rest assured, I believe you.”
Deen’s face was also a bit ugly. “Admiral, can you show the evidence?”
Rand snorted, took out a storage device from his pocket and handed it over. “This is the demo video when Professor Ji and I were reporting.”
Ji Xingjue was even more surprised.
Admiral Rand indeed said that something was wrong when the C9 model was first constructed, so he did report to Rand and gave a video demonstration.
But that was just a few minutes, and he didn’t expect Rand to record it and store it for so long.
“…We will verify it as soon as possible,” Deen had a bad feeling in his heart, and squeezed these words out of his teeth, “But if there’s another video record, it will be more convincing. Ji Xingjue still needs to be investigated by the Ministry of Security.”
Admiral Rand chuckled. “Then I won’t interrupt your investigation. Professor Ji, I will wait for you to come back and play chess with me.”
Ji Xingjue’s hands were handcuffed, but still looking elegant. “I’m looking forward to it.”
The prison cell of the Ministry of Security was also familiar to Ji Xingjue.
Although he had only stayed for a week; he escaped from a terrifying encounter only to be locked in a dark place afterwards. The impression was quite impressive.
Walking into this quiet and closed dark room again, his heartbeat seemed to slow down.
Ji Xingjue closed his eyes, listened to the door behind him closing with a “click”. He took a few deep breaths, but his mind still couldn’t stop surging with many things that he didn’t want to recall.
The starship that was hit and exploded and spread into a boundless sea of fire, him being held and fleeing in the sea of flowers, the guard who dyed the white petals red with drops of blood…
A slight “click” suddenly came from the door, interrupting these intertwined memories.
Ji Xingjue’s face was slightly pale, and sweat was floating on his forehead. He slowly opened his eyes and was a little surprised when he saw the person coming. “Come so soon?”
Standing at the door, Qi Qing turned around and faintly said, “Retreat, I will chat with him alone.”
The guard at the door was a little awkward. “Marshal, this is not in compliance.”
“Even a prisoner has the right to privacy,” Qi Qing looked at him condescendingly, with a deterrent expression in his cold eyes, “Not to mention that he is not a prisoner.”
The guard laughed dryly. “But, you just come to find Mr. Ji to say a few words, and there is nothing about privacy…”
Surprisingly Qi Qing said, “We are husbands, do you want to stand in a circle and watch us kiss?”
Guard: “…”
Ji Xingjue: “……”
The guard stayed for three seconds, faced with an expression that was not like a joke, he shrank his neck and swallowed. “The, then, you talk, I’ll stay outside.”
The door closed again.
The corner of Ji Xingjue’s mouth twitched, feeling that Qi Qing’s sacrifice was a bit big.
In order to facilitate certain non-compliant measures, there were no monitoring equipment installed in the small cell of the Ministry of Security, but only a few cameras.
The light in the cell was extremely dim, Qi Qing took out a rabbit-shaped touch night light from his arms and placed it on the table.
The warm yellow light illuminated, dispelling the cold darkness.
Ji Xingjue’s eyebrows jumped. “Lord Marshal, I have a foreboding that you seem to be quite impressive.”
Qi Qing said in a cold voice, “I said, Ji Xingjue, don’t let me catch your handle.”
Ji Xingjue raised his head and looked at Qi Qing’s face that was hidden in the light. From this angle, his eyes were slightly rounded and looked very innocent. “Then what handle did you catch?”
“May 29th this year, 11:30 p.m.,” said Qi Qing, “you pretended to be an ordinary tourist and boarded the star ship leaving the Imperial Capital under a false identity, and the surveillance captured your back.”
He paused. “No matter what you become, I can recognize you at a glance.”
He waited for Ji Xingjue to deny it or cover it up with the next lie.
Unexpectedly, Ji Xingjue smiled when he heard the words. “Ah, I was discovered by you.”
This unexpected answer made Qi Qing trace the source of this slip of tongue.
Ji Xingjue sat quietly in front of him with a smile on his face. The red mole at the corner of his eye was sultry, and his voice was low and soft, somewhat coaxing. “What else did you find?”
“…No more.” Qi Qing lowered his eyes and looked at him seriously, “You only appeared in the surveillance once, and then you disappeared.”
Ji Xingjue blinked. “Then am I still ‘harmless’?”
Qi Qing’s Adam’s apple rolled, and he was silent for several breaths before answering, “Yes.”
T/N: from chapter 23, the VIP chapter looks longer than the previous chapters. (◡ ‿ ◡ ✿)
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