A Good-for-Nothing

154. The Removal of the Vice-Superintendent from Office (2)

Translator: Dragon Rider

Li Zong said in a flat tone, “I’ll send Han Zhuo, Tun Shanhai and Lin Di of your group to you. You’ll have to stay in Mount Wushan for some more time. At least you should find members of those sects who once went to the Holy Land to eliminate surviving demons and figure out what they know.”

Zhang Jingqiu’s face went tense. This was more than giving him a hard nut to crack. It was after several days’ search that they’d finally found the former den of the Demon King. And now he was requested to seek out those obscure sects who had once come here to kill remaining demons. Zhang Jingqiu was bursting to ask Li Zong whether he had any idea how long it might take to find those obscure sects some of which didn’t even have official names.

Zhang Jingqiu opened his mouth intending to refuse.

Li Zong bent his arms with his elbows on the desk in a very steady way, and then his eyes unhurriedly rested on Zhang Jingqiu’s face, dismissing Zhang Jingqiu’s intention of speaking.

“Every day the Demonic Seed stays unfound, the danger builds up. Today, it was just a shadow-demon sneaking into SMB by means of the body of an examinee; nobody knows what will happen tomorrow.

All of us have read the divinatory symbols left by Zhu Ning, so I’m afraid you’ll have to do some extra work, Group Leader Zhang. I’ll consider joining the search with some others if necessary.”

Zhang Jingqiu’s face turned from tense to grave, and eventually Li Zong’s reassuring remarks cooled him down.

“All right. Then I and my group will stay here. By the way, the group leader of the Fengdu action group and his deputy are both with me at the moment. The matter concerning Fengdu…”

“I’ll handle the rest of the matters.”

After hearing these words of Li Zong’s, Zhang Jingqiu said no more. There might be conflict of interest between them, but when it came to a task, none of the staff members of SMB would shrink from performing their duties.

“Do you have any other instructions, Mr. Zhen?” asked Li Zong blandly, looking at Zhen Daoyuan.

Zhen Daoyuan rubbed his forehead. Li Zong had a sense of propriety and seldom had he ever been so pushy, but from the vantage point of the present, it was an indisputable fact that the sooner the Demonic Seed was found, the lower the risks would be.

“Let’s do it Li Zong’s way.”

Li Zong inclined his head and shifted his gaze to Tan Lubai. “Director Tan, there’s a particular matter I need your help with.”

Tan Lubai immediately came to understand, nodding. “I’ll personally go to Shen City and pay a visit to Old Master Zhu. We’ll give it a try and see if we can find out some information about the locations of those sects and make things easier for you.”

Zhang Jingqiu on the other end of the video call had never expected that Li Zong would be so considerate, but Li Zong had always been poised and steady in work. Zhang Jingqiu was so touched by Li Zong’s conduct that he was nearly reduced to tears. He willingly stayed in a godforsaken backwater of Mount Wushan.

The video call was over.

Li Zong gave an account of his fight with the shadow-demon that had happened not long ago. The couple of directors of the Counter-demon Committee knew very well what this meant. Zhao Yidi, after hearing it, sneered, “These demons are way too bold.”

“Double the guard at all posts. Set up an extra security check at the front gates. From now on, nobody enters SMB without being examined first. Negligence like this must never happen again,” ordered Zhen Daoyuan seriously.

All others nodded repeatedly in the realization of the severity of this matter. And then the meeting came to an end.

Staff members walked out of the conference room one following the other. Li Zong didn’t leave. As two of those in nominal charge of SMB, Zhen Daoyuan and Li Zong could hardly absolve themselves from the blame for the occurrence of this incident. Moreover, in a sense Li Zong was to take a larger part of the responsibility for it, and he must go to Director General Zong to receive his punishment.

Zhen Daoyuan looked at Li Zong who was standing bolt upright, a frown on his face. “This time the punishment might be quite severe.”

“It’s okay.” Li Zong didn’t really care.

Everybody in SMB was sensible of the fact that though Li Zong himself hadn’t taken sides, members of the two action groups had done it a long time ago — Zong Xian and Zhang Jingqiu were tightly bound together. Originally the two sides had been neck and neck, living in peace with each other, but then Li Zong had been directly promoted to vice-superintendent for his meritorious service in the handling of a major Yōkai-trafficking case. Attendant on it had been a disparity between the group leaders of the two action groups.

Sure enough Zong Xian wouldn’t allow such wide disparity to exist.

“Director Zhen, now is not the time to consider personal gains or losses.” Li Zong’s voice was as flat as always. “The position of vice-superintendent doesn’t really mean much to me.”

Never letting personal interests cloud his judgement about the big picture — this was indeed the Li Zong that Zhen Daoyuan always knew.

“Never mind. So many years your senior as I am, I still failed to see this matter as clearly as you do,” smiled Zhen Daoyuan, shaking his head, “but speaking of the position of vice-superintendent of SMB… You deserve a position higher than that, given your powers.”

Zhen Daoyuan didn’t put it too explicitly, but neither were his words roundabout.

Li Zong made no reply.

The next day, all staff members of SMB saw on the internal website the announcement about Li Zong’s punishment, which read, ‘Li Zong, vice-superintendent of SMB, group leader of the first action group, committed dereliction of duty, for which the punishment, as decided by the committee, is dismissal from his position as vice-superintendent and a 100% deduction of this month’s salary. All other staff members are to take this as a deterrent.‘

Nobody had thought that this all-too-rare incident would cost Li Zong his position as vice-superintendent. All staff members of SMB were jittery, feeling that Li Zong had been made a fall guy for the affair.

Zu Zhichong, who was rather irritable, almost lost his temper immediately after seeing the announcement. It was true that a demon had successfully infiltrated into SMB because of their negligence, but Li Zong was not the only one to blame! Why did he have to take full responsibility for it?! Surely Zong Xian the Director General should be held partially accountable as well?

Zu Zhichong was storming towards Zong Xian’s office intending to reason with him when Li Zong was informed of it, scolded him and called him back.

Everybody was frustrated, and nobody was insensible enough to tell He Zheng about this in these circumstances, so He Zheng was still unaware.

Nobody could have foreseen that the removal of Li Zong from his post as vice-superintendent would be an opportunity of Qiao Peiyu and her daughter.

When the announcement about Li Zong’s punishment was posted online, Qiao Peiyu received a text message.

In her bedroom.

The light from her smartphone screen was frighteningly bright in the pitch-dark room. Reading the text message, Qiao Peiyu gave a watery smile in the knowledge that an opportunity had presented itself.