After all, they had always stayed out of each other's way, even cooperating a little from time to time. Yet today, they had suddenly come straight to his door and started raiding the place. Who wouldn't be dumbfounded? Who wouldn't be completely at a loss?
Even Sichuan opera face-changing wasn't that fast!
Trump, on the other hand, might be capable of it!
Brown immediately called IRS Director Chris.
However, Chris had already taken his phone off the hook after Zhou Yi warned him in advance.
"Take the phone off the hook so I can't hear it. Don't answer it, don't answer it... Hehehe, feels awful, doesn't it?"
Chris was lounging comfortably at home. Unable to help himself, he recited the lines Zhou Yi had said before leaving, finding them strangely amusing and—
"I'm a little hungry." Chris rubbed his stomach, got off the couch, and headed for the refrigerator to find something to eat.
Meanwhile, Yinsen and the others successfully infiltrated the building. In the storage room where the alarm was located, they knocked out the receptionist, changed clothes, and began their operation.
As for why no one came to deal with them...
"We have decided to carry out fundamental reforms to the CIA's internal management system as well."
Darrell had now barely finished telling Zhou Yi about all the parts of the CIA that were "being renovated."
Seeing that he had run out of substantive material to stall for time with, and that Zhou Yi might soon state the purpose of his visit, he had a sudden idea and began padding things out... Ahem, changing the subject to fool Zhou Yi.
"Oh?" Naturally, Zhou Yi wanted to drag this out as long as possible. "What are you planning to do?"
"At present, our management system has major problems. Take the division of responsibilities, for example. Many matters are handled by only one person or a few people. While that makes accountability clear, the efficiency is simply too low."
Darrell once again put his ability to make things up on the spot to work.
"We plan to adopt a cross-management responsibility system to improve efficiency, make fuller use of personnel and resources, enhance security, and patch some of the loopholes in the CIA's current management. Of course, that will also consume a great deal of funding..."
Zhou Yi: "..."
After glancing at Darrell again, Zhou Yi began to wonder whether this man was pretending to be stupid or genuinely stupid.
If Darrell were truly stupid, he was quite good at reading the situation and could point out so many of the CIA's current shortcomings.
But if he were pretending to be stupid...
That didn't make sense either!
How could he know the details of Yinsen's operation and also know that Zhou Yi and Yinsen were on the same side?
Zhou Yi felt that should have been impossible.
Which meant—
Another bluff?
As he listened to Darrell's explanation, Zhou Yi nodded from time to time and occasionally interjected with a few remarks.
For the moment, Zhou Yi had no way of figuring out what exactly was going on with Darrell.
However, his superhuman brain had already devised dozens of methods to deal with different situations.
There was no need to worry about threats to his life or anything of the sort.
He only needed to adapt to whatever came his way.
No matter what, Zhou Yi was now practically a young Superman in this world, not to mention the various high-tech devices supplied by the IRS Equipment Department.
Protecting himself would naturally be more than easy.
Besides, a direct firefight was basically impossible during this operation. What Zhou Yi's identity represented was something even Brown, the CIA Director, had to carefully consider.
Elsewhere, after failing to reach Chris again, Brown chose to give up.
He planned to solve the problem another way and deal with the current situation.
"Since you were the ones who turned hostile first, don't blame me!" Brown rubbed his head and said viciously.
Then he called Darrell.
Darrell was still fooling Zhou Yi, while Zhou Yi was being extraordinarily cooperative in letting himself be fooled. The two of them sat in the reception room, each harboring his own scheme as they killed time.
Just then, Darrell's phone rang.
"Ding ding, ding ding!"
"Sorry," Darrell said, not even looking at it as he declined the call. "Let's continue..."
At this point, he believed he had successfully strung Zhou Yi along.
Their conversation had moved from "CIA renovations" to "CIA system optimization," and now to daily life, entertainment and relaxation, as well as strange tales and curious anecdotes.
If they kept chatting like this, Darrell could not guarantee anything else, but he could guarantee this: as long as Zhou Yi did not bring up business himself, Darrell could keep talking to him until evening without repeating a single topic!
After all, as an administrative director—cracking jokes, changing the subject, rambling on, calling a deer a horse, borrowing a tiger's might, making things up... Weren't all those things their professional skills?
As an administrative director, Darrell was highly competent.
"Ding ding! Ding ding!"
The ringtone refused to relent. Not long after being declined, it rang again.
This time, just as Darrell was about to decline it and turn off his phone, he instinctively glanced at the caller ID and immediately stopped.
At the same time, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
At last, the scapegoat... Ahem, the savior. The savior had called!
Darrell immediately said to Zhou Yi, "I'm very sorry, Mr. Zhou, but I need to excuse myself for a moment."
"Please, go ahead." Zhou Yi took a sip of coffee.
Although Zhou Yi had not seen who was calling Darrell, he could roughly guess.
Zhou Yi had always understood Darrell's intentions. In fact, if he had not been playing along with Darrell, the two of them could not have chatted for this long.
Darrell had directly declined the earlier call, but after looking at the screen this time, he immediately said he wanted to answer it.
That meant the caller had to be even more important than Zhou Yi and could make Darrell disregard any tax-related matters Zhou Yi might raise—his so-called "true purpose."
The caller's identity was therefore obvious.
Zhou Yi calmly drank his coffee as he reasoned it out, quietly waiting.
"Director?" Darrell stepped outside the conference room, closed the door behind him, and answered the call. "I was just speaking with that IRS agent, Zhou, so I answered a little late."
Although Darrell wanted Brown to take the blame, he obviously could not make that clear. If he made it too obvious, Brown would make things difficult for him in the future.
So, while explaining to Brown why he had answered late, he also conveyed the message that he was diligently carrying out Brown's instructions.
Although Brown's order to Darrell had been, "Keep that man occupied, find out what he wants, and preferably send him away," what Darrell had been doing differed slightly from Brown's instructions...
But speaking was an art.
Darrell skillfully "summarized" what he had been doing, making Brown think he was carrying out his orders.
So, no matter the country, if you wanted to get by within an organization, the most important thing was knowing how to talk.
P.S. How about giving the protagonist a heart? It's free, so don't miss out!
(￢￢)σ
Knowing how to speak is genuinely important. Sometimes, the exact same sentence can mean two entirely different things—even complete opposites—when phrased differently... Most importantly, this matters in everyday life, whether you are dealing with family, friends, bosses, or superiors. It can prevent a lot of unnecessary disputes, and sometimes even make your path smoother... Just something I felt like saying. Don't think I'm being too long-winded...
Before you continue