Secret Intelligence Department, Deputy Director Qing Chen

After the world fell into darkness, it was illuminated again.

Qing Chen was still in the midnight of City No. 10, as if he had just presented Zhang Wenqi's mother with that bouquet of flowers yesterday.

He glanced back at the building behind him, hoping the mother could feel Zhang Wenqi's sincerity.

Return countdown: 168:00:00.

Another seven-day cycle has begun, which means that the Inner World are once again closely connected and rapidly intertwined.

Qing Chen took out his phone and dialed Jiang Xue's number. "Hello, Aunt Jiang Xue, did you arrive at the school safely?"

Jiang Xue: "Everything went smoothly, but what happened was quite absurd. We passed through an iron gate at Kunlun Bookstore... to be precise, the iron gate didn't open, and we just walked right through. Xiao Ying said it was done using the Forbidden Item ACE-004 True Sight Eye. You'll have to ask Zheng Yuandong for details. After passing through the iron gate, we arrived at an island, but we don't know exactly where it is. The island seems very large, stretching as far as the eye can see."

Qing Chen immediately asked, "When you arrived there, was it during the day or at night?"

Jiang Xue: "Tonight..."

Qing Chen asked, "Where is the moon located?"

Jiang Xue: "Dongfang feels like it's about to sink into the sea."

It's the end of the lunar month now, the moon is rising in the west and setting in the east, and dawn is about to break on the island where Jiang Xue and the others are. This means that the island is to the east of the mainland, and is very likely in the Pacific Ocean.

But this island isn't particularly far away; if it were, it would be daytime there.

Qing Chen then asked, "What's the temperature like on the island? Is it warm or cold?"

Jiang Xue recalled, "Even though it was an island, it wasn't very warm. I felt it might have been around 5 degrees Celsius at night? Only a little warmer than Los Angeles."

Qing Chen stood on the long street, lost in thought, "Then it must be an island between 35 and 45 degrees north latitude. Further south or north, it's difficult to find an island with this temperature. If the island's time is 5 a. m., then the distance of one time zone at 40 degrees north latitude is 15 times 111 kilometers multiplied by cos40, which equals 1275.39 kilometers. The island is about 6377 kilometers away from the Jingcheng's time zone..."

A time zone is 15 degrees, and 111 kilometers is one degree on the equator.

It's worth noting that the straight-line distance between Jingcheng and Tokyo is only 2,478 kilometers. In other words, this island is indeed in the Pacific Ocean, and it's quite a distance from the island nation.

Qing Chen was puzzled; he had never heard of any large island there.

Etc...

Hawaii is about 7,500 kilometers away from Jingcheng, while Midway Island, which belongs to North America, is even closer.

In other words, if Jiang Xue's information is correct, then Kunlun's school is only a little over a thousand kilometers away from Hawaii.

That is, the distance from Jingcheng to Shanghai in China.

But now, all the islands in the Pacific Ocean, whether inhabited or not, have ownership rights. These things were shamelessly divided up by the great powers in the 19th century.

Where did Kunlun get such an island?

Okay, even if Kunlun could create a huge island through some inexplicable means.

Then another question arises: now that the entire Earth is being monitored in real time by satellites, won't it be discovered if Kunlun builds a school on an island?!

How can Kunlun hide an island right under the noses of the whole world?

Qing Chen was filled with doubt...

The only answer to this question is indeed to Zheng Yuandong; it's no longer within the realm of science, and science doesn't concern itself with this.

Of course, he wasn't the only one puzzled; Jiang Xue was too. She couldn't understand how Qing Chen had deduced the approximate location of the school from just a few words...

Qing Chen said on the phone, "Aunt Jiang Xue, please take good care of them at school. I'll be there soon."

Jiang Xue said, "Yes, you must be careful. Don't worry about the loss of the villa. Our cash flow during the day is still very healthy."

Qing Chen was taken aback for a moment. "Oh, there's no loss. The insurance company will cover it. It was just a normal fire."

In fact, a careful inspection would have revealed explosives inside the villa.

However, Kunlun was the organization responsible for verification and identification, Qing Chen was certain that Kunlun would insist that this was just an ordinary fire.

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Therefore, he should be able to make some money from this deal.

The only thing to note is that the North American Time Walker are becoming increasingly active on the world stage, and have even begun to extend their reach into the Inner World Federation and the Outer World, which may lead to future conflicts.

After hanging up the phone, Qing Chen did not leave the city immediately, but instead headed to the Caramel Bar on the first floor of the Leiming Building.

He restored his original appearance because he was worried that Old Shen underground would think someone had invaded and detonate the underground explosives.

He also knew that the Caramel Bar was a members-only establishment, not open to the public, and staffed with plainclothes agents from the Secret Intelligence Department.

However, as soon as Qing Chen entered the bar, everyone who was chatting stopped and looked at him.

The bartender behind the counter, dressed in a white shirt and black vest, looked excited, but because of discipline, he didn't dare to say a word.

Dozens of people in the bar silently watched Qing Chen, some even with a hint of affection, making Qing Chen feel somewhat awkward...

"What's wrong?" Qing Chen asked, both amused and exasperated.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when he spoke. A middle-aged man standing behind the bar said, "Director Qing Chen... you're finally back!"

Now, Qing Chen is no longer a secret agent in the Secret Intelligence Department, but the only deputy director.

In fact, before Qing Chen appeared, the position of deputy director did not exist in the Secret Intelligence Department Division. The director was the shadow, below the director were secret spies, below the secret spies were Kite Falcon, and below the Kite Falcon were informants.

It has few levels and a streamlined structure.

The person who originally established this structure for the Secret Intelligence Department was Qing Zhen, the ancestor of the Qing family. In his view, what intelligence agencies needed was rapid response capability.

The more redundant layers there are, the more processes a piece of intelligence needs to go through.

The more deputy directors there are, the more power struggles and scheming there will be.

Intelligence is all about seizing every second, so within the Secret Intelligence Department, the Shadow holds supreme power and can make decisions with a single word.

Many people worry that the immense power held by the Shadows in the Secret Intelligence Department over the years will lead to an imbalance of power, so a Deputy Director is needed to balance the power.

But Qing Zhen believed that this was unnecessary. He argued that this was a powerful, violent institution, and power should be centralized, without infighting.

Therefore, in the Qing family, the commanders of each unit have absolute power. This practice has the potential to cause an imbalance of power, but Qing Zhen believes that the family head who can stand out from the crowd will definitely be able to control everything.

He believed that the patriarch who emerged from the shadows must be the most powerful person in the family.

Now, the Secret Intelligence Department has a deputy director.

Everyone knows that the Shadow created this position not to find someone to compete for power, but to ensure a smooth transition of power.

It was transferred to Qing Chen's hands.

Previously, the Secret Intelligence Department would pass on its shadow to the next generation; this was an unspoken rule.

However, Qing Chen is not currently a Shadow, and most people don't even know that he is Shadow Candidate, so it would be taboo for an active Shadow to do this.

However, no one in the intelligence agency, from top to bottom, said much, as if it were only natural for Qing Chen to take over.

They only recognize Qing Chen now.

The middle-aged man behind the bar said, "Director Qing Chen, we are under Old Shen's command. We're posing as customers at the Caramel Bar to protect underground information. We've been waiting for you here for almost a month. Old Shen only said you would definitely come, but he didn't say when."

Qing Chen asked, "Is there something you need?"

The middle-aged man paused for a moment, then said, "It's nothing really, it's just that you brought Commander Qing Mu and his subordinates out of A02. That's truly admirable!"

The bartender said, "Not only that, a few days ago, Boss Shadow issued an internal announcement saying that you killed Kamiyo Yunhe in City 22 and also captured Kamishiro Seisho, one of the Ten Eunuchs... That's one of the Ten Eunuchs!"

The middle-aged man said, "Kamishiro Seisho is currently being held in a pigsty in the Southern Military Region. Kamishiro sent people to exchange him, but the Shadow Boss did not agree."

This incident was both sensational and incredibly satisfying.

In fact, Qing Chen had already created a miracle simply by rescuing those intelligence agents, but now he had also captured the Ten Eunuchs...

If they weren't afraid of appearing uncultured, all the intelligence personnel here would have wanted to say "Holy crap!" or "Awesome!"

Qing Chen smiled and asked, "This is all I should do. Is there anything else?"

The middle-aged man suddenly said, "The Shadow Boss said you won't be back for a while, but we'll wait for the day you return."

"Okay," Qing Chen nodded. He suspected that these people were rehearsed by Shadow, afraid that he would run away and never come back...

If it were anyone else, Qing Chen wouldn't have made such a guess, but it was Shadow, so he could understand whatever it did.

At one point, Qing Chen thought of the group of people in the Secret Intelligence Department waiting for him, and it would be a lie to say he wasn't proud.

But he really can't come back right now.

Upon returning, he would be drawn into the factional struggles within the Qing family.

Rather than standing in the open and becoming a target for others, it's better to wait in the shadows for the clouds to rise and fall.