Chapter 225: Reality

Mu Ke practically took the car by storm, arriving at the stronghold Tang Er had called about in less than three minutes.

Tang Er took out his uniform and ID card and got out of the car, closing the door behind him and blocking Mu Ke, who was about to get out of the car, and warned with a serious look, "You and Liu Jiayi are still on the Heretic Management Bureau's most wanted list, so stay in the car honestly - your insistence on going in with me will only delay the time to save him. You will only delay the time to save him if you insist on going in with me."

Mu Ke paused as he pulled the door out.

"I promise to bring Bai Liu out unharmed." Tang Er made a solemn promise, staring straight into Mu Ke's eyes, "If he did what he promised me, then I will do what I promised him."

"Do whatever it takes to fish him out."

With that he drew the gun at his back, and hurried from the spot where he had parked to the stronghold.

The appearance of this stronghold of the Heresy Disposal Bureau looks like a mediocre convenience store, but at a time like this when the whole city is in a panic, it's a bit unusual that the people operating in this convenience store are all still organized, buying things and selling things.

As soon as Tang Er walked in, the convenience store vendor looked up and saw his face for a second, then happily led him to the warehouse.

Seeing Tang Er hit disappear into the convenience store, Mu Ke sitting in the car took a deep breath before releasing his grip on the car door.

"Do you think he'll do his best to get Bai Liu out?" Mu Ke looked distractedly at Liu Jiayi, who hadn't said a word in the backseat.

Liu Jiayi wore a pair of sunglasses to cover her unusual eyes. She didn't seem the least bit flustered, and as soon as Tang Er hit the road, she stretched out and laid down to occupy the entire back seat, looking as if she was ready to take a nap.

"You're asking me?" Liu Jiayi turned to look in the direction Mu Ke was speaking from, and she pulled the mirror down to reveal her gray eyes, "I think you should have asked me differently."

Liu Jiayi's casual, over-the-top demeanor leaves Mu Ke slightly stunned, but he quickly continues to press, "...... What should I ask?"

"It's not when this Captain Tang will be able to get Bai Liu out." Liu Jiayi pushed the magic mirror back with her index finger and lazily nestled into the comfortable backseat of the car, "It's when Bai Liu feels this Captain Tang is qualified and willing to let him get himself out."

Mu Ke doesn't understand, "What does ...... mean?"

Liu Jiayi muttered in a small voice, "You're not a fool, why are you so disoriented every time you encounter Bai Liu's affairs, can't you see that? Bai Liu is deliberately letting himself be caught by the Dangerous Heresy Authority people."

Mu Ke completely freezes up, "...... on purpose?!"

"Right." Liu Jiayi's tone rippled as if he already knew, "Otherwise, after this guy sent out an explosive declaration and forced these people to be on alert all over the city, he'd already accomplished his goal, and he could have used his eyeballs to flip into the [In-world] and hide, completely eliminating the need to stay put and wait to be captured."

"But he still got caught." Liu Jiayi shrugged, "That can only mean one thing - he let himself get caught on purpose."

"Then why did Bai Liu let himself get caught-?!" Mu Ke snapped out of it as he looked over to that convenience store, "Is he trying to trick Tang Er into fighting?!"

"I think you should have guessed one of his purposes correctly." Liu Jiayi moved his head and continued, "Bai Liu this guy allowed Tang Er 打 to join, then Tang Er 打 is a member of our group, that guy is so controlling, he won't allow Tang Er 打 to develop a sense of belonging to a group other than us."

"Bai Liu should be trying to use this incident to force Tang Er Ta to make a choice, so that Tang Er Ta will actively cut himself out of the Heresy Authority as a group, and be completely controlled by him - this Captain Tang type is very easy to be completely controlled because of his guilt, and Bai Liu is utilized this."

Liu Jiayi looked slightly sideways at Mu Ke : "If I'm not mistaken, Bai Liu should have the person in the Heresy Authority who is the best connected to this Captain Tang interrogate him, or even induce the other side to punish him-"

"--witnessing Bai Liu being punished by those closest to him would further aggravate the guilt Tang Er fights, and in order to make it up to Bai Liu, he would voluntarily disassociate himself from everyone in the Heresy Authority... ..." Mu Ke muttered as he finished adding the second half of his sentence.

Liu Jiayi snapped his fingers, "Bingo!"

Mu Ke let out a breath, "-- Bai Liu did this for the league right?"

"Yes." Liu Jiayi nodded repeatedly, "Tang Er hit as an excellent main attacker with deep feelings for his original team's tactician, his obedience to his new team is not high, and Bai Liu, as the new tactician who took over his role, needs to psychologically split him up in order to make sure he's absolutely obedient to himself."

"And that treatment, generally, is to sever the psychological connection between the person and those closest to him."

"-like Heart did to me." Liu Jiayi says this after a moment of silence, "It's brutal, but it's necessary for a match where life and death are at stake."

"On the field, we can't have the slightest doubt about the tactician's orders, they are an absolute presence, and Tang Er playing obviously still has a certain degree of rejection and questioning of Bai Liu, which is very fatal for a leading attacker of his caliber."

"So Bai Liu set this up for him." Mu Ke completely relaxed after realizing that nothing would happen to Bai Liu, "You said that this was only one of Bai Liu's purposes, what about the others?"

Liu Jiayi removes her sunglasses and her gray eyes "look" out the window at the convenience store sign.

The sign has a small Q-tip octopus on it - the logo of the Bureau of Dangerous Heresy.

"My guess is that Bai Liu is trying to use the identity of the bomber to coordinate with the Dangerous Heretics Bureau by using Tang Er to fight as a third party."

Mu Ke was stunned, "Cooperation?"

After all this, the Heresy Handling Bureau should hate to mess with Bai Liu, and this is still cooperative?

--------

"What did you do to the captain?!" Su Yang's tone finally changed, her fingers on the desktop closing as she tried desperately to hold back her anger.

Bai Liu leaned back and sat back on the bench, which rocked under his pressure as he crossed his legs and lifted his chin slightly with an extremely beatific smile, "I compelled him with rose perfume to be completely loyal to me."

"He was abandoned by you guys, so I picked him up and trained him to be loyal to me and betray you guys." Bai Liu smiles slightly, "Is there anything wrong with that?"

"We didn't abandon the captain!" Su Yang couldn't hold back and slapped the desktop, he tried to take a deep breath to adjust his emotions, controlling his desire to question Bai Liu about what he did to Tang Er fight, and shifted the topic that had been diverted away by Bai Liu back, "Where was the explosion?"

Bai Liu smiled unimpressed, "At the factory, ah, doesn't Captain Su know?"

Su Yang followed up with, "Where in the factory?"

"Oh yes, Captain Su still doesn't know why the location of the explosion was chosen in this factory, right?" Bai Liu smiled with growing pleasure, "I know that Captain Su's home is within five kilometers of this factory."

Su Yang's breathing stopped for a second.

"Captain Su has seen the videos of the deaths of those trying to quit, right?" Bai Liu leaned back in his chair crookedly, his head resting on his shoulder as he smiled at Su Yang across the room, "Let me tell you a little bit about what you don't see in the videos."

"The intensity of the aroma within five kilometers of the blast impact is enough to send newborns and mothers into a state of heavy addiction." Bai Liu's tone was light, "If they don't get the highly concentrated perfume for thirty minutes, they'll start to wilt."

"Captain Sue hasn't seen the withering process of a heavy addict yet, has she? I've seen quite a few."

"The baby's arms and eyes will be the first to start popping and cracking like dry skin, and because of the pain they'll start crying and begging you to give him perfume like they're begging for milk."

"And you, as a father, know exactly what he wants, but you can only watch as your child cries out in constant pain in front of you, and turns into a body that shatters into pieces in your arms-"

Su Yang lifted her bloodshot eyes, "Where was the explosion inside the factory?"

Bai Liu looked directly at him and very abruptly hooked his lips in a smile, his tone growing more and more conciliatory, "Why does Captain Su think that I am so aware of the process of withering of a child just a month old under the erosion of aroma?"

"Because I've seen it myself, of course - a poor child withered in my arms, and he died with only his mother on her knees at my feet, begging me feebly to save him."

Bai Liu sighs, "But there's nothing I can do but watch him wither in my arms, and his father isn't even around."

Su Yang stared into Bai Liu's dark eyes, trying his best to maintain a shell of composure, but inside his heart the panic seemed to be widening like a black hole - no, An An and the baby were fine before he left ......

He subconsciously looked out the door of the interrogation room - the team member outside the door was grimly holding up a scale.

This is heresy [1076] - the judge's scales, an instrument used to lie.

When Bai Liu lied, the scale tipped in favor of the [no] side, and throughout the interrogation, the direction of the scale's needle was on the [yes] side.

--That means Bai Liu didn't lie about a word.

Su Yang's mind went blank.

Bai Liu lowered his eyes and whispered, "Captain Su, you do realize that bombers pick a small, relatively proximate location to test their explosions before they actually carry them out, right?"

"What do you suppose is the pre-test site for this explosion tonight?"

Bai Liu said this with a smile in his eyes and at the corners of his mouth, a smile that Su Yang had seen on the faces of countless heartless human beings tainted by heresy - a smile that was completely dehumanized, lighter on Bai Liu's face, but even more shocking.

Bai Liu smiled slightly, "How does Captain Su think we got your ID card?"

"Maybe you could ask your wife how she's doing tonight?"