Chapter 958: 594. Spy Bureau, Deputy Director Qing Chen

After the world plunged into darkness, it became bright once again.

Qing Chen was still in City No. 10 at midnight, as if he had just placed that bouquet for Zhang Wenqi’s mother yesterday.

He looked back at the building behind him, hoping that mother could feel Zhang Wenqi’s thoughts.

Countdown to return: 168:00:00.

Another seven-day cycle, which means the Outer and Inner Worlds are once again closely connected, weaving rapidly together.

Qing Chen took out his phone and called Jiang Xue: “Hello, Aunt Jiang Xue, did you arrive at the school safely?”

Jiang Xue: “Everything went smoothly, but what happened was absurd. We passed through an iron door at the Kunlun Bookstore… To be precise, the door didn’t open; we went through it directly. Xiao Ying said it was achieved using the Taboo ACE-004 Eye of Truth. For more details, you’ll have to ask Zheng Yuandong yourself. After passing through the door, we reached an island, but we don’t know where the island is. The island seems large, disappearing beyond sight.”

Qing Chen immediately asked: “When you arrived there, was it daytime or nighttime?”

Jiang Xue: “Nighttime.”

Qing Chen asked: “Where was the moon?”

Jiang Xue: “In the east, it felt like it was about to sink into the sea.”

It’s the end of the lunar month; the moon rises in the west and sets in the east. The island where Jiang Xue and the others are is about to welcome dawn, which means the island is east of the continent, likely in the Pacific Ocean.

But the island isn’t particularly far; if it were far, it would be daytime there.

Qing Chen asked further: “What’s the temperature on the island? Warm or cold?”

Jiang Xue recalled, saying: “Although it’s an island, it isn’t very warm; at night, it might be around 5 degrees? Just a tad warmer than Los Angeles City.”

Qing Chen stood on the long street, lost in thought: “Then it should be an island between 35-45 degrees north latitude. Going further south or north, it would be hard to maintain this temperature. If it’s 5 a.m. on the island, then at 40 degrees north latitude, a time-zone distance is 15 times 111 kilometers times COS40, equaling 1275.39 kilometers. The island is approximately 6377 kilometers from Jingcheng’s time zone…”

One time zone is 15 degrees, and 111 kilometers is the distance of one degree along the equator.

Note that the straight-line distance from Jingcheng to the Island Country’s Tokyo is only 2478 kilometers, implying the island is indeed in the Pacific Ocean, and it’s quite far from the Island Country.

Qing Chen was puzzled; he hadn’t heard of any massive island there.

Wait a minute…

Hawaii is about 7500 kilometers from Jingcheng, with the nearer Midway Island belonging to North America.

This means if Jiang Xue’s information isn’t wrong, then Kunlun’s school is just a little over a thousand kilometers from Hawaii.

That’s the same distance from Jingcheng to Shanghai domestically.

Yet, every island in the Pacific, regardless of whether it’s inhabited, has been claimed since the 19th century by colonial powers.

Where did Kunlun get such an island?

Alright, even assuming Kunlun could mysteriously create a massive island…

The question then is, the entire Earth is under real-time satellite surveillance. How could Kunlun build a school on an island without being discovered?!

How could Kunlun possibly hide an island under the world’s noses?

Qing Chen was full of questions…

The answer to this, he indeed could only ask Zheng Yuandong; this was no longer a matter of science. Science doesn’t explain it.

Of course, Qing Chen wasn’t the only one puzzled; Jiang Xue also couldn’t fathom how Qing Chen deduced the school’s approximate location from just a few words…

Qing Chen said on the phone: “Aunt Jiang Xue, take good care of them at the school, I’ll be there soon.”

Jiang Xue said: “Okay, make sure you stay safe. Don’t worry about the loss of the villa; our cash flow during the day is still very healthy.”

Qing Chen was taken aback: “Oh, there’s no loss. The insurance company will cover it; it was just a normal fire.”

Actually, if they inspect closely, they would find explosives in the villa.

However, Kunlun is the organization responsible for inspection and definition, so Qing Chen was confident Kunlun would insist it was a regular fire.

Thus, he figured he might even profit from it.

The only thing to note is that the North American Time Traveler is becoming increasingly active on the world stage, even starting to extend their reach into the Inside World Federation and the domestic Outer World, likely causing conflicts in the future.

After hanging up, Qing Chen didn’t leave the city immediately but headed towards the Caramel Bar on the first floor of the Leiming Building.

He resumed his original appearance for fear that the underground Lao Shen might think someone was invading and set off the explosives underground.

He also knew that this Caramel Bar was members-only, not open to the public, and everyone in the bar was an undercover agent from the Spy Bureau.

However, as soon as Qing Chen walked into the bar, the people who were chatting suddenly stopped to look over at him.

The bartender behind the bar, dressed in a white shirt and black vest, was visibly excited but, due to discipline, didn’t dare to say an extra word.

Several dozen people in the bar just silently watched Qing Chen, with a slightly affectionate look, making Qing Chen feel a bit awkward…

“What’s up,” Qing Chen chuckled helplessly.

As soon as he spoke, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, and a middle-aged man behind the bar said: “Director Qing Chen… you’re finally back!”

Currently, Qing Chen is no longer an undercover agent in the Spy Bureau but the only Deputy Chief.

In fact, before Qing Chen’s appearance, the Spy Bureau didn’t even have a Deputy Chief position. The Chief was the Shadow, below the Chief were the undercover agents, below the undercover agents were the Kite Falcons, and below the Kite Falcons were the informants.

Few levels, a streamlined structure.

The architecture of the Spy Bureau was set by Qing Family Ancestor Qing Zhen. In this ancestor’s view, an intelligence agency needed rapid response capabilities.

The more layers of hierarchy, the more procedures for passing along a piece of information.

The more Deputy Chiefs, the more power struggles there would be.

Intelligence is about racing against time, so in the Spy Bureau, the Shadow held the highest authority, capable of making decisions with a single word.

Many people feared the immense power held by each generation of Shadow in the Spy Bureau would lead to an imbalance of power, hence the call for Deputy Chiefs to balance the power.

But Qing Zhen felt it was unnecessary. This was a powerful violent institution, and power should be centralized, devoid of power plays.

In the Qing’s Family, commanders of various forces had absolute authority. This approach had potential risks of power imbalance, but Qing Zhen believed that the Family Head who emerged victorious from the Shadow was indeed capable of controlling everything.

He believed that the Family Head as a victor of the Shadows was the most formidable person in the clan.

Now, the Spy Bureau had a Deputy Chief.

Everyone knew the Shadow didn’t create this position to find someone to compete for power but to ensure a smooth transition of power.

A transition to Qing Chen’s hands.

Previously, the Spy Bureau would be turned over to the next generation’s Shadow, that was the unspoken rule.

But Qing Chen isn’t currently a Shadow, and most people weren’t even aware he was a Shadow Candidate, so the current Shadow doing so was clearly a breach of taboo.

Yet, no one in the intelligence agency, from top to bottom, said anything, as if it was only natural for Qing Chen to take over.

Now they only recognized Qing Chen.

The middle-aged man behind the bar said: “Director Qing Chen, we’re the ones responsible under Lao Shen, pretending to be guests here at the Caramel Bar to protect the underground documents. We’ve been waiting for you for nearly a month here; Lao Shen only said you’d certainly come but didn’t say when you would.”

Qing Chen asked: “Is there something going on?”

The middle-aged man was stunned: “Not really, just that you brought Officer Qing Mu and his subordinates out of A02, and that was genuinely admirable!”

The bartender said: “Not only that, the Shadow boss also just internally announced recently that you killed Jindai Yunhe in City 22, and captured Jindai Yasuhito, one of the Ten Eunuchs… that was one of the Ten Eunuchs!”

The middle-aged man stated: “Right now, Jindai Yasuhito is detained in the pigsty of the Southern Military District. The Jindai Clan sent people to exchange for him, but the Shadow boss didn’t agree.”

This matter was incredibly sensational and satisfying.

Actually, just rescuing those intelligence personnel would have already been a miracle, yet now he even captured one of the Ten Eunuchs…

If not for the fear of appearing unknowledgeable, every intelligence officer here would have shouted “Whoa!” or “Amazing!”

Qing Chen smiled and asked: “This was what I should have done. Is there anything else?”

The middle-aged man suddenly said: “The Shadow boss said you won’t be returning temporarily, but we are waiting for the day you come back.”

“Okay,” Qing Chen nodded; he suspected these people had been instructed by the Shadow, scared he’d run away and never return…

If it were someone else, Qing Chen wouldn’t have speculated so, but that’s the Shadow, any action would be understandable.

For a moment, Qing Chen felt proud thinking about the group in the Spy Bureau waiting for his return.

But for now, he truly couldn’t return.

Returning would mean becoming entangled in the Qing’s Family factional struggles.

It’s better to remain in the shadows, waiting for the rise and fall of the clouds, than to stand openly as a target.