How could I possibly be confined in a cage?

The newspaper office was located in the west of the city, right next to the Mi River, and behind it was the city's first park. It was usually bustling with people and was a favorite dating spot for young people who had received a new education.

However, at this moment, neither Qingru nor the other had the mind to pay attention to those things; they only wanted to know if there were any suspicious forces operating within the newspaper office.

"Yesterday's newspaper was published by Yuxin Newspaper, and the reporter's name was Jiang Dongfeng," Qingru said, looking at the newspaper.

Guo Zixing nodded and made a mental note of it.

The two parked their car in front of the newspaper office and immediately set off for the office.

"What's going on? Why are there so many people here?" Qingru asked, puzzled.

Guo Zixing didn't know either.

A large crowd had gathered outside the newspaper office, pointing and gesturing towards the inside.

A passerby, seeing Guo Zixing's attire, immediately slapped his thigh and exclaimed, "Oh dear, you've finally arrived! You're late, you're late!"

Guo Zixing frowned and asked, "What happened?"

The passerby looked regretful. "There's been a murder at the newspaper office. This morning, Old Tan went to deliver milk, and when he opened the door, several blood-soaked people rolled out. Look, they were terrified."

Guo Zixing and Qingru followed the directions of passersby and looked over. Old Tan's face was vacant, and he was acting incoherently, repeatedly muttering, "Murder! Murder! They're all dead, all dead..."

The two exchanged a glance, realizing something was wrong.

Guo Zixing immediately took charge of his duties, pushing the passersby aside, and Qingru also brought out a cordon from the car.

"Police are handling a case, please keep your distance, bystanders."

Qingru and Guo Zixing both had serious expressions, and the onlookers wisely stepped back immediately. Many of them recognized Guo Zixing.

"Isn't this Young Master Guo...?"

Ignoring the murmurs, the two had to quickly separate the people to avoid disrupting the situation.

The newspaper office building has three floors. The ground floor is a shop, and the newspaper office is accessed through a side door.

Guo Zixing parted the crowd and led Qingru upstairs.

Guo Zixing tossed Qingru a gun and said seriously, "Be careful, the bandits might not be far away."

"Yeah, you be careful too."

As Qingru spoke, she cocked her gun and cautiously made her way upstairs with Guo Zixing.

The newspaper office doors were wide open, and several bodies lay sprawled at the entrance. Their hands were outstretched, their arms still in a pleading gesture. The stiff posture suggested they had at least struggled and were not immediately dead.

Further inside, most of the workstations were occupied by corpses lying face down. Judging from their stiffness, they must have been dead for a night.

Darkening of the lips and a bluish-purple complexion are clear signs of poisoning.

"They showed no signs of resistance, so it doesn't seem like they were killed by outsiders."

"There's a mole inside."

Guo Zixing's expression grew increasingly grave. If he had previously thought it was an accident, he was now almost certain that it was a conspiracy, or even a conspiracy aimed at Sifang City.

"They want to disrupt the situation in this city, but why?" Qingru couldn't understand. After two years of relative peace, why stir up the waters again?

Guo Zixing couldn't provide an answer either, so he could only continue to observe the situation here.

Fortunately, the newspaper's phone was still working, so Guo Zixing immediately dialed the Marshal's Mansion.

"Hey?"

"This is Guo Zixing. If the commander is here, give him the phone. If not, find your highest-ranking leader."

"Yes." A flurry of voices came from the other end, followed a moment later by Commander Guo's voice.

"what's up?"

"Something's happened! At the newspaper office..." Guo Zixing explained the situation at the newspaper office to Commander Guo in detail, and also shared his speculations.

After a long silence, Commander Guo said, "You stay at the newspaper office for now. I'll send a team of men to you to at least find out the situation at the newspaper office."

"it is good."

After hanging up the phone, Guo Zixing felt no relief whatsoever; on the contrary, Qingru made a new discovery.

"Look here!"

Guo Zixing ran over to Qingru, who pointed to the scattered photos on the ground and said, "Look, they took several photos of you and Miss Zheng from different angles, and ultimately chose the ones of your backs. But these photos are clearly clearer, so why not use them? Wouldn't they be more convincing?"

Guo Zixing picked up a pen and gently touched the bloodstained photos. Yes, why?

"Could it be that they're afraid of offending the Marshal's Mansion? But that doesn't make sense. If they were afraid of offending the Guo family, they would simply not report it, or at least they would have come to inquire before reporting it."

“Yes,” Qingru pondered, “So they’re not afraid of offending anyone at all. Then what does that photo of their backs in the newspaper mean?”

Qingru couldn't understand it, and neither could Guo Zixing.

"Let's look for other evidence."

"Hmm, wait a minute, didn't you and Ms. Zheng notice when you were being photographed? You don't seem like such an unvigilant person. Look at this angle, it's clearly very close to you, like... you've been hiding all along. And there are photos taken from the front, side, back, from high up, and from a distance... which means there was more than one person taking the photos."

Guo Zixing looked at the angle in the photo, which was exactly the same as what Qingru had said.

"It's now basically certain that these photos weren't taken accidentally at all; they were staged. They sent four or five reporters to take these photos just to spread rumors about me, Ms. Zheng? What good would that do them?"

Qingru reasoned, "Your affair with Miss Zheng only benefits the Guo and Zheng families. One side has power and troops, and the other side has money and connections. It's a powerful alliance. If I were another warlord's family, I probably wouldn't be happy to see this happen."

"The Military Intelligence Bureau is the same. Local warlords occupy their own territories, making them difficult for the government to manage. Cooperation has always been more important than orders. They only want to see the warlords disintegrate and break up, and they will not be happy to see us entangled with the comprador forces."

Qingru hesitated before giving her answer, "You mean, the Communist Party?"

"No, not necessarily. I find it strange. If they wanted to sow discord between the warlords and the Military Intelligence Bureau, why would they target me instead of my father? You know, I haven't been officially recognized as the young marshal by my father yet. If they go to all this trouble, and in the end, I'm not the one who inherits the marshal's mansion, wouldn't that be a waste of their efforts?"

Anyone could be, and no one needs to be. So who could it be?

With too little evidence at hand, and what those young masters and ladies from Jin Anna did and said last night, Guo Zixing's mind is completely blank; he can't remember anything in detail.

Seeing that her reasoning had reached a deadlock, Qingru stopped worrying and got up to continue her search.

The newspaper's office area is not large, with a total of ten tables and three other offices.

A manager's office, a guest room, and a printing room.

"Let's go inside and take a look."

We've looked all the way outside, but we haven't found anything new.

The manager's office was a mess, with things rummaged through and papers scattered all over the floor, making it impossible to figure out what the other party was looking for.

The guest room was the cleanest; it was completely empty.

The printing room was very large, almost as big as the outer office area, but it only had one old printing machine.

Guo Zixing stepped forward to take a look and quickly recognized the brand. "Made in Shanghai. This is a four-panel vertical printing press. It's a bit old."

"With the efficiency of this printing press, can it print so many newspapers overnight?"

Guo Zixing said, "The largest newspapers can print no more than three thousand copies a day. This Yuxin newspaper has been around for a short time, so printing five hundred copies a day is the maximum. They don't want to be stuck with unsold copies."

Guo Zixing paused for a moment, then continued, "The fact that last night's events appeared in the newspaper this morning, and that Zhang Yan was able to buy porridge this morning, means that quite a few copies were printed, at least five hundred."

Don't you find it strange?

"what?"

"First, some of the newspaper staff died from poisoning, and some died from shootings. Furthermore, no one in the surrounding area reported hearing gunshots. Let's assume they really didn't hear them. Then, were those who died from shootings actually killed here?"

"Secondly, the newspaper received last night's photos and printed the newspapers overnight, but they died. So who will distribute the printed newspapers?"

"Third, I always felt that this content was written in advance, and it was just waiting for the photos to arrive so that it could be printed in the newspaper and the entire newspaper could be completed."

“But,” Qingru pondered, “I really can’t understand it. Other news might take a day or two to be reviewed and revised, but how could something that just happened last night be printed so quickly? And why kill the newspaper staff? What are they trying to hide?”

This case has too many suspicious points and involves many aspects. It's not that we can't find clues, but that there are too many clues, and for a while, we simply don't know which one is the key.

Guo Zixing pressed his temples, his head throbbing with pain. This was the first time he had ever faced such a complex case.

Just as the two were suffering from headaches, reinforcements sent by Commander Guo arrived.

The sound of synchronized footsteps approached, and Qingru and the other person immediately stood up to greet them.

When Qingru saw the person's face clearly, her eyes widened.

It's him!