CHAPTER 1704: CHAPTER 808: MISUNDERSTANDING ARRIVING AT THE CAPITAL

Chief Pi hung up the phone feeling a bit frustrated—these people are really unreliable nowadays. If the surveillance target happened to notice you, you could chalk it up to sloppiness. But if they can accurately pinpoint several instances of being watched, then the job was done far too irresponsibly.

Still, he wasn’t entirely sure if this was his people’s mistake. He had to confirm it first.

Originally, the staff at their recycling station were already considered retired personnel. However, after they procured an extraordinarily oversized chunk of "scrap metal" last time—which utterly stunned a large group of people—their team promptly transitioned from retired to semi-retired status.

That’s why Chief Pi now had the possibility of helping Yan Fei inquire about this matter. Otherwise, as retired personnel, it wouldn’t be suitable for them to meddle too much in these things.

Due to internal job division differences, Chief Pi couldn’t directly go and investigate the information himself. He simply made a call to his supervising superior and passed along the news.

Yan Fei, after all, had contributed to them in the past. Plus, he was a well-known entrepreneur, so this wasn’t exactly a tricky matter to address. The key point, however, was that no one understood what kind of "monster" Boss Yan truly was. The surveillance had been exposed so thoroughly it became a laughing stock.

The news Chief Pi provided was relayed to the upper management. They weren’t even angry anymore; instead, it was more of a mix between amusement and helplessness. Whose sloppy work led to the situation where even the surveillance target was fed up and directly approached them?

Honestly, this sort of thing was quite bizarre!

Normally, even if someone realizes they’re being monitored, they wouldn’t easily approach the department involved—they deal with special cases, after all. Most people, whether they’re guilty or not, usually opt to cooperate quietly. Who would’ve thought someone would actually complain in reverse?

Yan Fei wasn’t exactly fearless in this situation, even though he didn’t think he’d done anything wrong. It was purely that the past week’s workload was a complete torture for someone like him who couldn’t sit still. Now that he’d finally sorted out all the documents, he was rushing to deliver them to the Capital city. Surveillance? What for? Were they planning to intercept my data halfway? Worried I’ll ask for a high price?

To top it all off, the recent days had been honestly hectic. Being stuck at home without moving meant endless phone calls daily. Because of the surveillance issue, he hadn’t even given his wife her gift yet—it was all stashed away in Dinosaur World, and he hadn’t had a chance to retrieve it during travel.

This trip to the Capital was meant to resolve the surveillance issue first and then come back and fool his wife by saying the gifts were shipped over—after all, books are quite heavy, and using that as an excuse worked perfectly fine.

Chief Pi’s call didn’t come through until Yan Fei was close to the Capital.

On the phone, Chief Pi sounded rather anxious: "Your issue’s been sorted out—it was all a misunderstanding. Uh, Xiao Ren will come by later to apologize to you. Let’s just call this matter settled, alright? Communicate more in the future. Someone’s here selling scrap metal; let’s talk later, okay?"

With that single sentence, the phone abruptly clicked, and the call was done.

Yan Fei held the phone in his hand, completely stunned. When did buying scrap metal become more important than this conversation with me? Don’t tell me someone else is trying to make ’big deals’ with your group?

It took him a moment to realize—this was simply Chief Pi trying to save face. Worried that Yan Fei might push further, he intentionally cut the call in such a rushed manner.

Yan Fei was right—Chief Pi was seated on a small stool at the recycling station, dangling a cigarette butt, holding some tea, basking in the warm midday sun, complaining to an elderly companion beside him. "Look at this mess Xiao Ren caused. Freshly returned from abroad, and already so careless. Now I can’t even properly respond to them..."

When Yan Fei drove up to the toll booth and paid the fee, he spotted Ren Fei.

This guy wore a look of helplessness, which shifted into awkwardness when he saw Yan Fei. Yan Fei, being proactive, got out of the car and extended his hand for a handshake: "Comrade Ren, you’ve worked hard!"

Oh, so you’re slapping me in the face directly now, huh?

Ren Fei’s initially helpless expression turned into one of sheer discomfort, almost like a bitter gourd. "I’m sorry! I messed this up because I just came back and hadn’t figured out the situation yet..."

The matter was really quite simple. Ren Fei had spent years abroad, where working in his line of profession was basically a life-and-death matter. Due to a series of major incidents recently, Ren Fei had been quite active.

In their profession, being overly active never leads to anything good, which was why he’d been urgently recalled.

The flight schedules overlapping was truly coincidental. But Ren Fei’s professional instincts kicked in when he noticed Yan Fei and Yang Xing—a pairing of contrasting characters from First High School and the adult world. His curiosity was piqued.

Primarily because the teacher didn’t seem like a real teacher, and the student didn’t seem like a regular student. Moreover, the two carried visible signs of vigilance. In particular, Yang Xing wasn’t good at hiding things, constantly preoccupied while interacting with Yan Fei, keeping certain facts tucked away mentally. This led Ren Fei to casually direct his team to investigate Yan Fei and conduct a brief surveillance.

This was just their standard procedure—any signs of suspicion demand action. In today’s bigger picture, failing to remain alert turns one into a sheep awaiting slaughter. Besides, for most people, such surveillance would go completely unnoticed. Who’d have thought they’d stumble upon an anomaly?

The two exchanged small talk, but Ren Fei resisted—time and time again—the urge to ask Yan Fei how he managed to detect them. To be fair, the agents involved were the same elite personnel who had dispersed and been recalled alongside him. Those assigned abroad were always exceptionally careful! For the time being, their work wasn’t even properly tied together, so Ren Fei had picked up this temporary odd job himself.

In truth, the unanswered question of "how" was exactly why Ren Fei came to meet Yan Fei in person. His superiors hadn’t instructed him to; it was entirely his own decision to insist on this face-to-face meeting.