Chapter 19: The Three Old Gentlemen

When Qi Fei found the private room and pushed open the door, she froze. After a quick apology, she immediately backed out, looking up at the room sign with a puzzled expression.

Had the room number been sent incorrectly?

Just as she was about to call Zhao Shan, she caught a glimpse of him walking over.

"Why aren't you going in?"

"This room? I just looked inside, and there are three old men in there."

Zhao Shan: "Old men..." He nearly burst out laughing at the remark.

*Is that Qi Fei who just came in?*
*Why did she leave again?*
Exchanging glances, they thought, *Are we three really that old?*

Hearing their internal thoughts, Qi Fei finally realized something was off. In hindsight, one of the three men’s faces looked vaguely familiar. Her first reaction had been that she’d walked into the wrong room, so she hadn't looked closely.

Just then, the door opened, and seeing the three men walking toward her with smiles on their faces, Qi Fei felt a bit awkward. She hadn't expected the three of them to have heard her comment about them being "old men."

*I never imagined that mind-reading really existed in this world, and it has even alarmed the higher-ups.*
*This girl, Qi Fei, has been very popular lately; her news is all over the internet.*

Following the scandal of the explicit photos, Qi Fei was inevitably caught up in the coverage. Because the situation had flipped, the fact that her "downfall" was a frame-up was still trending on search engines. The gossip was so massive that even days later, the netizens' enthusiasm hadn't waned. With Zhou Ying managing the narrative behind the scenes, you could find news about Qi Fei on every major platform. Now, everyone knew that the recent allegations against her were false.

"Hello, Qi Fei, we meet again."

Seeing the hand extended toward her, Qi Fei quickly shook it. She recognized him; this was the old man she had seen in the office last time.

"Don't just stand at the door." Hearing this, Qi Fei turned to look at Zhao Shan with a cold expression. What happened to the confidentiality? Is this how you keep things confidential? Could you have invited any more people? At this point, everyone might as well know.

Zhao Shan felt a bit guilty under her gaze.

*This was the Chief's decision; I couldn't make the call.*
*The backgrounds, personal details, and family members of all three have been re-investigated from top to bottom. I guarantee they are absolutely trustworthy.*
*If these three cannot be trusted, then no one can be.*
*We have all signed non-disclosure agreements and will never leak your secret to outsiders.*

Zhao Shan knew Qi Fei’s abilities; even without a word, he knew what she was thinking. Seeing her expression soften, he breathed a sigh of relief. He couldn't help but feel guilty—he had promised her confidentiality.

The two of them could communicate without obstacles, but it left the three men standing nearby completely confused. However, since they were there, they knew of Qi Fei’s unique nature and guessed that the two were communicating.

Once they sat down, Zhao Shan took the lead. "Fei Fei, let me formally introduce these three chiefs to you."

After the introductions, she realized these three "old men" were far from ordinary. Military, government, and police—they were all represented here. These were the true heavyweights of the world.

Wait.

Qi Fei was a bit puzzled. She looked at the three men and then turned to Zhao Shan. Did they really decide to organize such a high-level meeting without even verifying her ability first? Or was it possible that she wasn't the only one in the world with this magical ability?

She decided to ask.

"Don't you need to verify it? You just believe it?"

Were people in this world really this naive? Qi Fei didn't believe it.

"What if I’m just delusional and talking nonsense? Do you really believe that mind-reading exists in this world?"

If she didn't possess this ability herself, she would definitely think anyone saying such things was crazy.

Hearing this, the men exchanged looks and laughed.

*If we weren't sure, we wouldn't have made this trip.*
*Of course we investigated; otherwise, we wouldn't have taken so long to meet her.*
*Never underestimate the power of the state. If they want to find out something, no one has any secrets.*
*The first arrest might have been a coincidence, but the undercover case and the matter with Guo Qiang are hard to dismiss as mere luck.*

Without Qi Fei knowing, she had been investigated thoroughly—from her childhood to the present, they had dug up things that the original Qi Fei had likely forgotten. Because of this exhaustive investigation, they were absolutely certain that Qi Fei had no connection to drug traffickers and had never crossed paths with the police before, making it impossible for her to have learned information from outside sources.

Excluding all other possibilities, the remaining truth—no matter how incredible—had to be the reality. It seemed there was no other explanation besides mind-reading. They were certain that, aside from their meeting at the station, she had never had any contact with Team Leader Long. No one had known he was compromised before then—not even Zhao Shan, his partner who worked with him day and night, had noticed anything.

If the previous two incidents could be explained by her having other sources of information, the case with Team Leader Long was truly inexplicable.

With Zhao Shan staking his own career and reputation on her, even if they found it hard to believe, they had to accept that Qi Fei truly possessed the ability to read minds. What Qi Fei didn't know was that everything she had done lately had already been compiled into a report and submitted to the higher-ups.

*To be honest, when we first heard Zhao Shan’s report, our first reaction was disbelief. No one believes that special abilities like this exist.*
*But the results of the investigation forced us to believe.*

Listening to their thoughts, Qi Fei blinked repeatedly. Had the things she had done also been discovered? At this thought, it wasn't Zhao Shan who felt guilty anymore; it was Qi Fei who started to feel uneasy.

Zhao Shan’s thoughts had already shifted elsewhere. He looked at Qi Fei.

*On the very day Qi Fei warned me, I arranged for surveillance. Although I shouldn't have doubted my own teammate, I couldn't afford to be careless. Who knew? But I didn't have to struggle with that for long—the very next day, Guo Qiang made his move.*

But after two days of interrogation, they hadn't managed to get a single word out of him.

*I still can't understand why Guo Qiang would help drug traffickers and go so far as to kill his own wife.*

Listening to their inner voices, Qi Fei looked at them and shrugged with a smile. "If I didn't have this ability, I wouldn't believe that mind-reading exists in this world either."

She turned to Zhao Shan. "You can't understand it, and neither can I. I’m also very curious why he had to kill his wife."

She speculated, "Either he was turned by the drug traffickers a long time ago, or he was an undercover agent planted by them from the very start."

How could Zhao Shan not have investigated? *We’ve already checked. His personal files are clean, so it must be that he was turned.*

But Guo Qiang hadn't confessed to anything yet, and his demeanor had convinced many of the brothers in the department that he might be innocent. After all, they had worked together for so many years; being told their superior was a drug trafficker—and one who had more than one life on his hands—was something many couldn't accept.

"Are you sure his identity is clean?" Qi Fei didn't think so.

This matter was of great significance, and a task force had been sent down by the higher-ups that very day. Even Wu Guangyuan and Zhao Guangsheng, who weren't in the police force, had heard whispers of it. The three men guessed what they were talking about, but they were curious—how was Qi Fei so certain?

Seeing the four of them staring directly at her, Qi Fei shrugged. "You can consider it my intuition. My intuition tells me there is a problem with this man's identity."

If they hadn't known about her mind-reading, they would have just smiled and dismissed the mention of "intuition." But since she was so adamant, it forced them to think twice.

"I will instruct the task force to investigate again, very carefully," said Wang Zhiqiang, Zhao Shan’s direct superior.

Zhao Shan, no matter how authoritative he was at the station, could only nod in agreement.

Qi Fei nodded. She had given the warning; the rest was no longer her job.