“Suspected?”
Lu Bai noticed that this special service personnel’s wording was not very precise.
Moreover, instead of directly notifying him, they sent special service personnel to inform him, so it probably wasn’t any emergency situation.
“A cleaner said he saw a monster in the restroom. From his description of the appearance, it was indeed a parasitic organism.”
The special service personnel thought for a moment and continued to add: “But the police officers at the scene went to the restroom mentioned by the cleaner and found no traces of the parasitic organism.”
Clearly, this special service personnel just thought the matter was a bit strange and believed it should be reported to Lu Bai.
“No need. Have someone inquire with that cleaner, and once done, tell me the result.”
Lu Bai gave his reply.
Strictly speaking, he actually didn’t care at all about these lone parasitic organisms.
Priorities must not be reversed.
Although he had joined the Special Affairs Bureau on the surface and even maneuvered to the position of external affairs team leader, it was all just to make it more convenient for him to hunt death fighters.
Besides, this might even be some death fighter’s trick to lure the tiger away from the mountain.
Now on the verge of obtaining the double points reward for the “node,” doing less means making fewer mistakes, so Lu Bai naturally wouldn’t rush off to handle things just because of some vague rumors.
That special service personnel didn’t see any issue with it either, saluted, and then left the hospital room.
Seeing nothing else, Yao Yi simply went back to playing on his mobile phone.
……
Time passed, and soon several hours went by.
While waiting for the obtain countdown to end, Lu Bai was groping around with how to use [Ink Black].
Yao Yi on the hospital bed suddenly let out an exclamation.
“Why the sudden fright?”
His train of thought interrupted, Lu Bai looked up and glanced at Yao Yi.
Yao Yi looked a bit anxious: “No, Brother Lu, this, sigh, you should check the news first.”
“Hm?”
Lu Bai wouldn’t develop any negative emotions toward Yao Yi just because his train of thought was interrupted. Hearing this stammering description, he quickly opened his mobile phone to check.
No need for him to specifically search; as soon as he tapped into the hot trends list, he realized exactly what Yao Yi was referring to.
It was still negative news about him.
Most importantly, this news was really fresh this time.
The exposer was a nurse from this hospital.
That expose lightly touched on the tragedy that occurred in the hospital last night, stating that the Special Affairs Bureau and the police were conducting a joint investigation.
Against this backdrop, it detailed how, this morning, a cleaner at the hospital saw a parasitic organism while working and chose to report it.
The turn came right away: the article greatly praised how seriously the police took it, how heroic the veteran detective surnamed Pu who led the team was, braving possible dangers to personally investigate the restroom.
In contrast, the Special Affairs Bureau, whose job it was to handle parasitic organism incidents, just casually sent a special service personnel to ask the cleaner a few questions and then dropped it.
By this point, the rhythm was already picking up.
But it wasn’t over yet; later someone posted that in this incident, the person in charge from the Special Affairs Bureau side was the acting team leader of the Third External Affairs Team of the Special Affairs Bureau—Lu Bai—who had been at the center of controversy these past days but had never come forward to explain.
It even included a video showing a special service personnel running to the hospital room to notify Lu Bai after learning the news, only to come out a few minutes later and return to his original post as if nothing had happened.
This was explosive, and public opinion erupted once again.
By now, the controversy wasn’t limited to just Lu Bai himself and Xu Qiang who had promoted him.
It even led to the civilians questioning the entire Special Affairs Bureau.
This was the charm of journalism.
The civilians wouldn’t care at all how many parasitic organisms the Special Affairs Bureau had handled or killed during this time.
They would only suspect what the meaning of this department’s existence really was.
A guy with a spotty record who dropped out of high school could actually rise like a rocket.
If it was just a matter of morality issues, as long as he was willing to do the work, getting scolded a bit to vent would be fine—after all, as long as they were human, backdoor dealings were unavoidable.
Not being able to handle parasitic organisms could be called a lack of ability, but not even putting on a show was an attitude problem.
They couldn’t just occupy the latrine and not shit, right?
The comment sections under these articles were uniformly denouncing Lu Bai and the Special Affairs Bureau.
The conspiracy theorists were vigorously calling for a deep dive into the matter.
Some even directly rumored that Lu Bai and Xu Qiang were relatives, stated with utter conviction.
But you really couldn’t say otherwise—the more absurd the claims, the more recognition they got.
The internet was mainly about whoever had the loudest voice being right.
Lu Bai looked for a bit; though due to his body he didn’t feel any frustration or anger, he was very clear how troublesome this wave of heated public opinion was.
It was certain that there were pushers behind this wave of rhythm.
But what actually troubled him was the bit of information revealed in this framing operation.
That was that death fighters and the parasitic organisms on the mayor’s side were cooperating.
The reason was simple.
From the mayor’s perspective, whether Lu Bai would go to the restroom because of the cleaner’s report was in a Schrödinger’s state, very unstable.
After all the early preparations, even specifically arranging for someone to take photos, just to bet that Lu Bai wouldn’t go to the scene?
This clearly didn’t make logical sense.
Only a death fighter could be certain that Lu Bai wouldn’t leave over some trivial matters during this time.
“What will they do next? Just force Xu Qiang to remove me from my position?”
Lu Bai wasn’t clear if those death fighters cooperating with the mayor had leaked any other information, so he could only guess.
He thought for a moment, pulled up his contact list, and called Xu Qiang.
The ringtone had just started when it was answered, as if the other side was also looking at his mobile phone.
Xu Qiang’s voice came from the other end: “Hello?”
“Are you at the press conference site right now?”
“Yeah, I haven’t left yet.”
“Turn around.”
Wind blew over the microphone.
“I don’t see you?”
“Not this side, turn the other way.”
Another sound of turning.
“I’ve looked all around, where are you?”
Lu Bai chuckled in response: “I’m at the hospital.”
Xu Qiang: “…”
After a silence, Xu Qiang said with some toothache: “Pretty good, looks like your mindset is still solid. You’ve seen the news already, right?”
“I’ve seen it all.”
“Don’t worry, I can hold the line here, won’t suspend you. It’s just that this sudden huge public opinion stir has probably greatly discounted the effect of this press conference of mine.”
Xu Qiang’s tone was serious, but his supportive attitude toward Lu Bai was still very clear.
Hearing this, Lu Bai shook his head.
Realizing the other couldn’t see him shake his head, he added: “No need, suspend me first.”