The immortal is beside me

Chapter 14 Showdown
"Specialist Qin Jiajia has begun to move and entered the monitoring range."

"The route of action is correct and we are heading to the target location."

"We have arrived at the target location, the north gate of Liangzhou Park, and are waiting for the target to arrive."

In front of the monitoring desk, several specialists looked up at the real-time footage in front of them.

The screen showed the gate of a park. A girl in a white floral dress and carrying a shoulder bag stood in front of the gate. She looked around uneasily, her hands raised and lowered, appearing extremely uneasy.

According to the planned schedule, she had made an appointment with Zhou Qing to meet at the nearby Liangzhou Park today, and would also take this opportunity to negotiate with him.

Under the supervision of several specialists, she paced restlessly for a while, suddenly raised her head as if she sensed something, waved in a certain direction outside the screen, and then trotted out of the screen.

"Turn off the surveillance," Li Yulan said suddenly, stopping the officer in front of her from switching the feed. "Judging by her lip movements, she's definitely calling Zhou Qing."

The operations specialist was a little confused. "Why? She's already met her target. Isn't that the perfect time to start tracking her?"

"High-level cultivators often have the ability to sense danger. Some powerful ones can even vaguely detect drone photography. Now, through surveillance, he might be able to sense it as well. We can't take that risk."

Li Yulan looked at the direction Qin Jiajia left on the screen. "Now, as long as we can be certain that Qin Jiajia did enter the park with him and determine the approximate range of their movements over the next few hours, that's enough. It's better to miss it than to go too far."

In order to ensure that everything goes smoothly, Qin Jiajia did not have any specialists accompanying her on this operation, and did not even bring common listening devices and pinhole cameras. She focused on traveling light.

But if she knew what the Environmental Sanitation Bureau did behind the scenes, she probably wouldn't think it was "lightweight".

In the past few days, all service personnel in Liangzhou Park have been rescheduled to work at different times to ensure that only the most qualified and service-oriented personnel are present during this period. Even the sweepers are polite and courteous. All electronic equipment with information transmission functions in the park have been readjusted, and all problems that may hinder visitors have been resolved in the shortest possible time. Even several broken roads that often trip people have been repaired.

All possible interference factors have been eliminated, everything is for the smooth progress of today's negotiations.

The commissioner muttered a dull "oh" and pressed a button, and the screen in front of him went dark. Behind him, Li Yulan pressed the intercom button, and all regulatory departments within a three-kilometer radius of Liangzhou Park entered the channel.

"Attention all units, from now on, enter Level 1 alert. If any abnormal astronomical phenomena or disasters occur within your jurisdiction, report them immediately."

Liangzhou Park is not a well-known tourist attraction, nor does it have any special cultural significance. The scenery inside is all man-made, consisting of nothing more than an artificial lake, rockery and some old pavilions.

Over the decades of renovation, the rockery has been repeatedly built up, the hills shaded by green trees, and the huge artificial lake is perpetually shimmering, creating a truly picturesque scene. Many people come here to run, exercise, or take a leisurely stroll, slowing down the pace of life.

The two of them picked up two drinks from the milk tea shop next to the park, walked on the sidewalk while drinking, and casually chatted about their recent life.

When they were students, they often met here to stroll, admire the scenery, and chat about everything under the sun. Since they were both history majors, their favorite topics were anecdotes from the past and present.

At that time, she felt that Zhou Qing's insights and views on history were quite special. Many dry records became extremely vivid and lively when he spoke, as if they were not historical materials but what he had seen with his own eyes - she didn't expect that they would come true.

As they walked up the path, the scenery grew increasingly desolate. The voices of people gradually faded, while Qin Jiajia's heartbeat grew stronger. Looking around, there was no one in sight. Only the untended shade of trees covered everything, transforming this place into a dense, dark forest, hidden even from surveillance cameras. It was obvious that this was a perfect place for dirty deeds.

Qin Jiajia stopped in her tracks. She had been using the opportunity to chat to calm herself down, all preparations for the upcoming mission.

For this moment, she had rehearsed in front of the mirror dozens of times, and every line was prepared thoroughly, but when it came time to speak it, she still felt her hands and feet sweating.

"Actually, I came here this time to ask you something."

She looked at the young man in front of her who was wearing a sweatshirt and jeans and holding a large glass of lemonade. She opened her mouth with all her strength and squeezed out a sentence almost instinctively.

"Zhou Qing, you're not actually a mortal, right?"

The whole world froze, the sunlight and the wind stopped at the same time, and she could not feel any movement except for her own heartbeat.

Although she had rehearsed it countless times in her mind, she still regretted it as soon as she said it.

The mission required her to hide her identity and not alert the enemy. Once she said this, it would be equivalent to leaking secrets. If Zhou Qing really lost control because of this, she would probably be nailed to the pillar of shame. Expulsion from the organization would be the basic punishment, and she might even have to go to jail.

But her shoes were wet and she was already on the pirate ship, so she gritted her teeth, closed her eyes and jumped into the river.

"What I'm about to say may be unbelievable, but you have to listen to me."

She took a deep breath and tried to keep her voice steady. "I think a department called the Environmental Sanitation Bureau, also known as the Environmental Investigation and Defense Bureau, came looking for you before. That's actually my unit. I was recently transferred to the Extraordinary Post and learned about you from my superiors. Now the people in the department want to approach you through their acquaintances, and I was assigned to come here this time."

"Ok, I know."

"I know this is a bit sudden, eh?" Qin Jiajia's eyes suddenly widened. "When did you know that?"

"The first time I saw you just now," Zhou Qing said, "the causal changes in you are so great that they can only be caused by the immortal path. And when you were talking to me just now, your mind was not very stable, which was obviously not coming from your own will. If it were a sect, they wouldn't be so roundabout. Then you must have been sent by the authorities."

The expected script was interrupted, and the words prepared for several days were all stuck in the stomach, fermenting into a dizzying fermented glutinous rice wine.

Qin Jiajia stood there staring at Zhou Qing. She felt that the other person's eyes were like looking at an elementary school student who claimed to have mastered a shocking secret, and was telling him mysteriously, "I found that I can light a fire by pointing a magnifying glass at the sun."

I can't say that I was completely unmoved, but at least I felt like laughing.

"Tell me, what happened that made them ask you to come to me?"

(End of this chapter)