It was 1 December. Lin Huang initially had class as it was a Friday, but he did not need to teach anymore.
His class had been temporarily suspended.
The other teachers who were temporarily suspended, including Qin Tianxing, were those who had spoken to Hong Zhuang before. Even Vice President Wang Zijun, who had interviewed her, was suspended temporarily.
Hong Zhuang's identity was sensitive. The Union Government found out that she was not only the core member of the Division 7 Purple Crow but also one of the candidates of the Crow Spirit. Many students and teachers had seen Lin Huang and Qin Tianxing frequently eating with Hong Zhuang at the canteen. Furthermore, because Hong Zhuang got into the college by disguising as Lin Huang's cousin, Lin Huang was now a suspicious person. They were now being watched by the Union Government personnel and would be interrogated almost every day. They were brought into interrogation whenever there was a new clue, and some questions were repeatedly asked.
A familiar knocking came from Lin Huang's dorm room door that morning. Liu Ming had assigned him a new dorm as his previous one could not be accommodated anymore. Lin Huang opened the door helplessly. There were a man and a lady at the door. The man was tall and skinny. He was almost 1.9 meters tall and wore a gray trench coat. The lady was lanky as well at nearly 1.8 meters with her heels. With her sky-high hair bun, she was no shorter than the man. She wore a beige trench coat, and although her style was different from the one that the man wore, they looked like a couple.
The lady smiled as she greeted, "I'm sorry to disturb you again."
"Please come in." Lin Huang nodded and invited the both of them to go into the living room. He then poured some tea for the duo. They were the investigators who were responsible for his case these few days. The man remained expressionless. He looked pointedly at Lin Huang after taking a sip of tea.
"You know the drill."
Lin Huang nodded forlornly as it was useless for him to be pissed. The man was just doing his job.
"Name?"
"Lin Huang."
"Gender?"
"Male."
"Age?"
"16."
…
"When and where was the first time you met Hong Zhuang?"
"September last year at the Fog Canyon."
"Why were you at the Fog Canyon?"
"To kill the Vile Marionette so that I could level up to bronze-level."
"You're saying that you only took a year to level up from bronze-level to white flame-level now?"
"Yes." Lin Huang had to admit the fact that he had a terrifying speed of leveling up since the Union Government found out anyway, or else there might be consequences.
"Who were you with at that time?"
"Yin Hangyi, but he's passed away."
"Who else was with Hong Zhuang?"
"Xu Qiang, her partner at that time."
"Describe Xu Qiang's appearance."
"He's very tall. I think he's 2.2 or 2.3 meters. He's very muscular, much bigger than an ordinary person. He had a buzz cut and looked like he's ready to kill. There's nothing significant on his face. If not for his hulking size, he looks just like everybody else whereby it's easy to overlook him in a crowd," Lin Huang described as he really did not have much impression of Xu Qiang. He only remembered he was big and had a buzz cut.
"So, Hong Zhuang and Xu Qiang from the Purple Crow didn't kill you when you first saw them?"
"No, Hong Zhuang asked me to join the Purple Crow as she knew that I'm an Imperial Censor."
"And you agreed?"
"Xu Qiang gave me two options. One was to join the Purple Crow while another was to die. To keep my life, I chose the former as I knew I couldn't escape from the two transcendent-levels that time," Lin Huang explained.
"So, you joined the Purple Crow after that?"
"I was brought to the Purple Crow training camp, but I escaped after spending almost a month there."
"How did you manage to escape?"
"I used a relic that Mr. Fu gave me to fake my death," Lin Huang lied as he knew that it was impossible for the investigator to confirm that with Mr. Fu. Even if somebody did look for Mr. Fu to substantiate that, he knew that Mr. Fu would side him.
Although some people knew that Mr. Fu had only taken Lin Huang as his apprentice after he left the Purple Crow, nobody knew when was the first time they met. It was not the first time Mr. Fu gave something expensive to juniors that he liked.
"Nobody from the Purple Crow came after you since you betrayed them?"
"Please allow me to correct you right there. I didn't betray them as I've never joined the Purple Crow. The official steps to join the Purple Crow will be a graduation ceremony from the training camp and you'll be brainwashed before being considered a reserve member of the Purple Crow. The people in the training camp are only considered captives." Lin Huang frowned as he corrected the investigator as it was not his first time rectifying that fact.
"The Purple Crow sent someone to come after me, but I killed them. Mr. Fu knew about this later on and spoke to the Purple Crow leader. Nobody came after me since then."
"Why did Hong Zhuang find you after she came into the White Capital? Also, why didn't you expose her identity and even allowed her to bring a threat to the Martial Hunter College?"
"I've no idea why Hong Zhuang came here to look for me." Lin Huang stopped and fidgeted.
"I know her abilities roughly, that's why I didn't expose her identity. The dean wasn't around, so there was nobody who could fight her. She told me that the students and teachers of the college would suffer if I were to tell anybody about her. According to the Purple Crow's action model, I know she has her partner with her. Even if Union Government were to send someone to fight her, her partner, who was hiding somewhere, would attack the college. Moreover, she guaranteed that the Purple Crow would not harm the college and asked me not to intervene in her mission. Since there was no harm to us, I chose to keep mum about it."
"Why was Qin Tianxing so close to Hong Zhuang?"
"Hong Zhuang pretended to be my cousin when she joined the college as a teacher. Qin Tianxing thought she really was my cousin, that's why he was extra friendly with her since he was told that we were close." Lin Huang did not tell the investigator that Qin Tianxing might have been interested in Hong Zhuang so that he would not get into trouble.
After the uncomfortable interrogation ended, the man in the trench coat stood up and stared at Lin Huang in all seriousness as the lady next to him was done documenting.
"Lin Huang, Hong Zhuang wants to see you."
"What?!" Lin Huang thought that was ridiculous.
"She hasn't wanted to say a word the past few days since she was captured. There's a special layer of energy guard on her consciousness that makes her mind unreadable. The people in Building 33 tried many ways, but they couldn't get anything out of her. The only thing she said was that she wants to see you!" The man in trench coat glared deadly at Lin Huang, hoping to see a flaw in his expression.
"See me? Why?" Lin Huang had thoughts racing through his mind, but the most significant possibility he could think of was that she might want to use Mr. Fu to get out of her situation.
"She didn't say why. She said she'd only talk if we let her see you."
"What if I don't want to?" Lin Huang frowned.
"You must! The only way to prove your innocence is to meet her face-to-face," the man in the trench coat said solemnly.
Lin Huang frowned as he had no idea what Hong Zhuang wanted to do, but he did not eliminate the possibility that she might harm him. However, it was clear that he had to see her even if he was unwilling to as the request came from the Union Government. It was useless for him to reject the man in the trench coat now as the Union Government would definitely send someone else later. He might even be brought to see Hong Zhuang by force.
"Alright then, I'll see her." Lin Huang agreed to see Hong Zhuang after some careful consideration.