Chapter 148 - Advantage

"What? The Prime Minister's younger brother was the person behind their deaths?!" Xiu Mei slapped her hand on the table as she raised her voice. She stared at Lu Chen in disbelief.

"Is that the truth?"

"Yes." Lu Chen affirmed.

This was what he found out a few days after the police closed his cousin's case years ago. He started snooping around that person but he was more powerful than him back then. He lost a lot of men when he tried to dig around that person so he had no choice but to temporarily halt his investigation on him.

Back then, he had just received the title as the chief leader of The Blade hence his power wasn't fully stabilized yet. He wasn't as strong as he is right now, and not many people supported him. The underground city was also in chaos and it was still under the leadership of a different organization.

And then the demise of some of his men put his position as the chief leader of the assassin organization in danger. So he did what he had to do first. Solidify his position as the chief leader and become the main leader in the underground world. It had taken him years to do this and after stabilizing his position, the first thing he did was to resume the investigation of his cousin's death.

Resuming this investigation means putting himself and Lu Qiang in danger once again. That's why he had to put Lu Qiang under strict surveillance even back then when he was still little. He was afraid that that person would use this child against him to stop the investigation.

And then when he resumed his investigation on that person, his family had already entered one of the highest positions in the government. It made his investigation more difficult because a higher position granted that person more power to cover-up all the secrets he wanted to hide.

Xiu Mei covered her mouth.

She knew that some politicians do have their own secrets to hide but murder… she can't just pass it off as some normal dirty secret at all. And to think that the Prime Minister's younger brother ordered to kill a person, it seems like he's been flaunting his family's power so discreetly.

"Then when you mean that Lu Qiang is in danger, do you mean that Yu Ming Xi is already aware of his existence? And why would he kill an innocent child when he already achieved what he wanted to do when he killed his parents?" Xiu Mei uttered.

Seeing her emotions fluctuating too much, Lu Chen immediately tried to calm her down. He held her by her hand and made her sit back on the couch. Sitting beside her, he patted her back trying to ease her.

"He is unaware of his existence. He only knew that I'm related to my cousin, and when I started monitoring him then set him up right after, he immediately hit back with the attack in our database. I doubted him at first since the attack wasn't on a large scale at all but maybe, this was his aim all along."

"But your subordinates just confirmed that the leak to the press wasn't his doing."

"Yes, but he's a cunning man. He knows a lot of people are trying to plant their own spies in our company. He must have been betting on that then later, someone would use this against us."

"That's… actually plausible. Then I should probably start with the cleanup within the company and across all regions."

"Not yet." Lu Chen disagreed.

"But why?"

"They're still useful for us."

"But that person is using them against us! Right now, we're like a pig waiting to be slaughtered if we keep all of them."

"But those spies would be easier to identify than finding out which one is the spy that Yu Ming Xi planted here in our company."

Xiu Mei paused. She couldn't refute that.

He was right. It would be more dangerous if once they start purging the spies within the company, Yu Ming Xi would start planting his own men here. Then once he does that, it would be difficult to identify which one he planted to monitor them. That would make it more dangerous either for the company and for Lu Qiang.

"Then what should we do?"

Lu Chen turned to his two subordinates. "Identify who are the rats within the company. Then we'll decide what to do with them next time. Right now, we need them to be useful for that person. We can't let him get through in our defenses."

"Roger that, Master." Ming Xuan and Lee In answered.

"Keep an eye on his actions and alert me if he makes a move."

"Understood."

After giving out his instructions, the two left the room.

On the other hand, Xiu Mei had her fingers on her chin as if she was thinking hard about something. Seeing this, Lu Chen looked at her in distress and reached out to ruffle her hair in an attempt to distract her. He revealed this to her because she has every right to know about this now that his other 'work' is already known to her. But he didn't want her to overthink this since she already has a lot of problems to worry on her own. She was already in enough danger and now, he was telling her that she was in even more danger than she already knows.

"Don't worry, I'll keep you both safe." He said in assurance.

Xiu Mei felt slightly annoyed when he kept messing her properly combed hair so she held him by the wrist and tilted her head a little bit.

"I know. But that's not what I'm thinking about."

"Then what?"

"When you married me…" She paused for a second. "Is this part of the reasons why you wanted to get married to me?"

It was just originally a passing thought when it hit her. She wasn't too worried about if this was part of the reasons why Lu Chen chose to marry her but she would surely feel slightly hurt if it really is.

She already knew that the person who would get married to her would have the opportunity to gain some standing. A family hailing from military and politics? Who wouldn't want that right?

Lu Chen immediately shook his head and defended himself. He didn't want her to misunderstand him. He didn't intend to make her think that he married her just because he wants to gain the power that her family has.

"No, that thought never occurred my mind when I married you, wife." He grasped her shoulders to make her look at him. Then he held her hand firmly and looked straight to her.

"Never, ever did I think of using you for that reason when I married you. At first, I thought that you would be the best choice to be Lu Qiang's mother so I proposed to you. But after that, I genuinely thought that I just wanted to marry you even without those reasons. I wanted to protect you and keep you beside me. It never occurred to me to exploit you in anyway at all." He cleared up.

It was never his intention to hurt her like that.

Yes, that person he's investigating is quite powerful. But it's not like it was the only person he's enemies with. He already faced countless enemies in his life that are more violent and ruthless than him but he never had to use someone like Xiu Mei to gain the upper hand.

If he would use someone, he would never create ties with that person because creating ties with him/her would just make him feel guilty.

So marrying Xiu Mei was just his pure desire to stay by her side and take care of her.

Seeing him slightly panicked when she asked him that question, Xiu Mei smiled helplessly at him. This guy must have thought that she would get angry and disappointed so he quickly cleared it up for her.

She felt touched and hearing his explanation, she felt thrilled. At least, it wasn't in his plan to use her family like that at all.

But as her wife and family, and the situation right now, it was an advantage that she wants him to use.

She caressed his cheek and smiled tenderly.

"Chen, let's inform my Dad about this?" She suggested.

"Wife, it's fine. I just told you that I don't plan on using you like this." He retorted.

"But this is what I want. I want to help you, but on my own, I'm not exactly useful in that area. It's my father's and brother's domain so I want to request their help. Besides, if they are the ones monitoring his actions then he wouldn't think that it's connected to you at all. Even if we're family by law, he'd just think that we are keeping tabs on him for political use."