Chapter 122: Gin, Are You Angry?

The main body was still parked in the stairwell.

When Jiangxia Tongzhi's consciousness returned, he slipped out and padded lightly toward the bathroom—just in time to hear Tequila yelling into his phone in a thick Osaka accent: "Hello? It's me, Tequila. Don't worry, Vodka. The deal's done. Mile, I'll head over to meet you before evening. Make sure to tell Gin."

A single line dropped three code names with deadly precision.

As Tequila hung up and moved to check his briefcase in the bathroom, Jiangxia took out his phone and fired off an email.

His phone rang almost instantly.

Jiangxia picked up.

"'What's wrong with Tequila's bag?'" Gin's voice came through the receiver like a blizzard with a grudge. He repeated Jiangxia's message in a murderously calm tone. "Explain. Why are you sending Vodka this message out of the blue?"

It was clearly Tequila's assignment.

Jiangxia, having recently burned through his shikigami and a good chunk of energy, found himself a bit peckish mid-threat. Casually, he hugged a ghost, took a light sip like a cat testing soup, then used the two seconds of ghost-nibbling to arrange his words.

When he spoke again, it was in his usual respectful tone used for upper management.

He explained briefly: "...I wasn't planning to get involved, but the luggage tag got handed off to Tequila out of nowhere. He was dressed just like Vodka. I spotted him and got a bad feeling—figured he might be one of us. So I followed. Then I heard him dropping code names over the phone…"

BOOM—

Fire erupted in the hallway. Almost simultaneously, an earsplitting bang came from the direction of the bathroom.

Brother Buzzcut really meant business with Nakajima. Who knew how many explosives he stuffed in that bag. Even from a distance, Jiangxia's ears went numb.

Once the air wave passed, he pocketed his phone and sprinted to the bathroom—maybe the ghost had been stunned by the blast. If so, he could teach it how to take proper revenge.

…

Gin heard the explosion from the other end of the call and instantly sensed trouble. His expression darkened as he stormed out.

Vodka had heard it too. "Boss, something happened?!"

"I'm afraid Tequila's in trouble." Gin recalled what Jiangxia had said, glanced at Vodka, and mentally compared him to Tequila. Yeah… they did look similar. Especially in those outfits.

Honestly, it made sense. Jiangxia had solid observational skills—it was only natural for someone who'd been thriving in the detective industry. And after hanging around the organization for a while, he had that special aura. Gin didn't doubt him.

Also, Jiangxia didn't interfere directly with Tequila. Instead, he contacted them. That was smart—if he'd confronted Tequila head-on and brought up the mission, Tequila would've flipped out and probably tried to kill him. Better to pass information along through mutual acquaintances than cause a random brawl in a public space.

As for the bomb… well, even Gin couldn't have predicted that one.

When Jiangxia explained how Buzzcut secretly swapped the luggage tag, Gin had assumed it was just a case of deliberate interference with the organization's deal with Nakajima. Maybe Buzzcut was pulling some classic corporate sabotage—swapping bags to make Nakajima's contact look bad. Typical workplace infighting.

Gin did not expect the bag to contain a bomb. Neither did Jiangxia, probably.

That made Gin even more annoyed. These reckless murder-happy yinbi, always popping up and ruining the organization's operations—they were like cursed NPCs from a bad RNG roll. Eternal enemies of logistics and timing.

By the time he reached the car, Gin was back on the phone. "Can you hear me?"

Knowing how cautious Jiangxia was, he assumed he hadn't been standing too close to Tequila. And since the call hadn't dropped, Jiangxia was likely still alive. Maybe just temporarily stunned.

A moment passed.

Gin asked again.

This time, Jiangxia answered, "Yeah."

After a beat, he winced, pressing his aching ear, and said with a sigh, "Tequila's dead."

No ghosts either—just turned into a bland old shikigami. So stingy.

Gin frowned. Recruits were already thin these days, and now one had suddenly gotten vaporized.

Still, no use dwelling on it. Damage control came first.

Fortunately, Jiangxia had been on the scene. If he could grab the right data, the mission wasn't a total loss.

"You should be able to ID the buyer with that info," Gin said grimly.

Jiangxia replied, "Got it."

Despite the extra workload, Jiangxia wasn't upset about the overtime. Actually, this had been part of the plan.

One: get Gin to come in person. If Jiangxia had just reported the incident via text, they might not have met face to face. But with data in hand, Gin had to show up.

Two: clear his own name.

As a famous detective, Jiangxia's face would definitely appear in the media if he was near a bombing. If Gin and Vodka saw the news later and realized Jiangxia was nearby when Tequila exploded... that'd look very bad. Better to explain now, before the gossip reached them.

As for sneaking off and not solving the case? Tempting. It'd avoid suspicion from the Organization. But there were too many variables. The building had security cams. The explosion would draw cops like flies. Anyone seen in the area would get questioned.

If Jiangxia, known for his justice-loving detective image, just vanished after a bombing without a word, it'd raise more than a few eyebrows. A one-time slip might get overlooked—but stack up too many weird incidents and even the police might start wondering.

Thinking this through, Jiangxia left the smoldering bathroom and headed for the main lobby.

The blast had thrown the place into chaos. Jiangxia summoned his Little White (XIaobai) puppet again, piloted it past the security cams, swiped two briefcases from the lockers, and stashed them somewhere safe.

Afterward, he recalled the puppet, located Ran Mouri and Sonoko Suzuki, and casually tagged along with them back to the explosion site—just to make sure the cops saw his face and filed it under "present and helpful."

*Goal #1: Top 200 fanfics published within the last 30 days by POWER STONES.

Progress: 26/50(approx) for 10 BONUS CHAPTERS

Goal #2: One BONUS CHAPTER per review for the first 10 REVIEWS.

Progress:1/10*