Night's Nomenclature
Chapter 386: Grabbing People

"Isn't a million-dollar membership fee a bit too expensive?" asked an intelligence officer from the Chen Family of Intelligence Bureau One's sixth group. "As you know, the Federation's funding for Intelligence Bureau One is getting less and less, and a million dollars is a bit tight."

Even Li Yunqu, the Supervisor of Intelligence Bureau Two, questioned: "What you're doing is a bit underhanded. Aren't you afraid of incurring public anger? Is it worth it for a million dollars?"

Qing Hua sneered inwardly, so you have days when you pretend to be poor?

Now, besides the testing group, who in Intelligence Bureau One relies on government funding from the Federation? Aren't they all backed by conglomerates?

A million dollars, for the funds allocated by the conglomerates, is a mere drop in the ocean. No one really takes this seriously.

These people don't think the price of one million is too high, but rather that paying Group Seven feels humiliating, that's all.

At this time, it wasn't just the Chen Family intelligence officer from the sixth group at the third-floor stairwell, other intelligence groups had also arrived.

Seeing that they couldn't reach an agreement with Qing Hua, they started playing the emotional card: "We're all one family in Intelligence Bureau One, why do we need to charge each other to share intelligence?"

Qing Hua rolled her eyes and went straight back to the large office on the third floor, leaving behind a sentence before leaving: "Intelligence Group Seven welcomes everyone to apply for membership at any time."

The other intelligence groups felt angry and hurried back to their floors to hold emergency meetings.

In Intelligence Group Six.

Supervisor Chen Sai sat at the end of the conference table, his Face^[-] cold, saying: "The Qing Family is too arrogant. This new Supervisor's actions clearly show that she wants to be the boss of the entire Intelligence Bureau One. The director of the Federal Central Intelligence Bureau's term is up in two months, maybe she's aiming for that position. Let's hear your thoughts."

Probationary Supervisor Chen Zhen thought for a moment and said: "It's just that the Qing Family has arrested too many people, so we want to know who they have in their hands. But I think we can't remain so passive. We should ask our superiors for permission and arrest some officials from the Qing Family faction. Once we have leverage, we'll have the opportunity to negotiate on an equal footing."

Chen Sai pondered: "That's the only way now. Everyone, stop working on other tasks and focus on Qing Family faction officials. However, after we gather the evidence, we'd better not offend the Qing Family. Give the evidence to other intelligence groups and encourage them to make a move. It doesn't matter whether we have Qing Family faction officials in our hands; what matters is making Group Seven submit."

"That might be difficult," a low voice said from an intelligence officer, "Other intelligence groups may not be willing to take the lead."

Chen Sai shook his head: "It would have been difficult before, but now the Qing Family has broken the alliance between Shendai and Koshima. Although these two are secretly at odds, they're even more annoyed by the Qing Family. At this moment, if someone offers them a knife, whether they use it or not is no longer their decision."

Every intelligence group is backed by a conglomerate. What they want to do depends on what their boss says.

Now, the Shendai and Koshima intelligence personnel have probably received instructions from their bosses to launch plans targeting the Qing Family.

The Chen Family has always developed slowly in the south of the Federation, not provoking anyone, so their strategy this time is still to give the knife to others and hide behind.

Although their investigative capabilities are not as good as Group Seven, if the other four groups unite, wouldn't they be able to overthrow Group Seven?

The officials of various factions in City 10 may not know that this place has become the main battlefield for the intelligence systems of various conglomerates.

The war at the front has temporarily ceased, but the fighting at the rear is fierce.

And those who usually enjoy the limelight have become bargaining chips on both sides of the negotiating table.

…

…

At this moment, Qing Zhun sat opposite Qing Chen's desk and asked: "Boss, Group Seven has now incurred public anger. How can you still be so calm?"

Qing Chen glanced at Qing Zhun: "There's no use worrying."

"What should we do now?" Qing Zhun asked.

Qing Chen thought for a moment and said: "They now have two options: one is to pay the membership fee, and the other is to find evidence and arrest officials from the Qing Family faction to use as bargaining chips to negotiate with us. We also have two options: one is to continue finding more evidence to nail down their people, and the other is to protect our own people."

Qing Zhun hesitated and said: "These days, there are no truly clean officials in the Federation. If they give the order to find evidence, they'll definitely find it."

Qing Chen looked at Qing Zhun: "It doesn't matter, we'll do our best and leave the rest to fate. By the way, I've found some things. Go to the pce Public Security Management Committee and arrest Yan Feng for me. His brother-in-law's account has so much money of unknown origin; he's really asking for it. Then go to the Food and Drug Administration and bring back Fang Xia. They dare to secretly sell Federation strategic reserve medicines; they're asking for trouble. Then go to the ice Tax Management Committee…"

Qing Chen rattled off more than a dozen names, and Qing Zhun became increasingly surprised.

"Boss, how did you know Fang Xia had a problem?" Qing Zhun asked.

Qing Chen looked at him: "The number of medicines entering and leaving the warehouse daily doesn't match the inventory."

The Federation doesn't have any powerful external enemies. Although the Wildlanders are making trouble, they don't truly threaten the Federation's ability, at most they hide in the Forbidden Zone or the southwest snowy mountains to avoid being wiped out.

Therefore, the biggest responsibility of the pce Federal Central Intelligence Bureau is to supervise officials.

They even have access to the internal systems of various other departments. According to Qing Chen, she thinks that this pce Federal Central Intelligence Bureau is a replica of the Jinyiwei.

Although they're the thugs of the conglomerates, at least in terms of their duties, they're very similar to the Jinyiwei.

Qing Zhun looked at Qing Chen: "Boss, the number of items entering and leaving the warehouse daily, that's a huge amount of data…"

Qing Chen pondered for two seconds and asked: "How much is entering, how much is leaving, and how much is left? Isn't that a simple addition and subtraction problem?"

Qing Zhun was stunned. For some reason, after Qing Chen said that, he suddenly felt that the data didn't seem so huge.

He pondered for a long time before suddenly saying: "But Boss, these are all from our Qing Family faction. Why arrest them?"

Qing Chen glanced at Qing Zhun: "The Chen Family, the Li Clan, Shendai, and Koshima want to target us. I arrest these easily caught people; who else can they arrest?"

"Ah?" Qing Zhun laughed and cried. This is truly: I'm so ruthless I even arrest my own people?

But this seems like a way. These officials with obvious evidence who can easily be caught, it's better to clean them up ourselves rather than letting others have them.

The talent reserves of the conglomerates are more abundant than imagined. Arresting a dozen people, hundreds more are waiting to fill in, it's nothing at all.

And it's not just officials from the Qing Family faction who are being arrested, haven't you seen Qing Hua going out again? Group Seven is now casting a wide net, regardless of which faction, they're not letting anyone go.

At this time, Qing Chen said to Qing Zhun: "We must act quickly, before the other groups catch them, catch them first. Directly state the Qing Family's identity and tell the suspects not to resist and come to Intelligence Bureau One obediently."

Qing Zhun thought for a moment: "But these are just small fry. Even if we bring them all back, some people will still have handles in the hands of other groups."

"It's fine," Qing Chen said calmly, "We'll do our best and leave the rest to fate."

At some point, Qing Zhun wondered whether the City 10 system would become clearer than a mountain stream after this sweep by Qing Chen…

It also seems to be a good deed for the residents of City 10.

Qing Zhun suddenly turned around before leaving Qing Chen's office and asked: "Boss, do you want to take this opportunity to purge City 10's harmful officials? At this time, when intelligence systems are fighting each other, no one has the power to control who you arrest."

Qing Chen smiled: "Purge? I don't have that much ability; I'll arrest as many as I can."

"Understood," Qing Zhun replied.

Half an hour later, Qing Zhun took half of the investigative officers and left. From today onwards, he and Qing Hua would have a clear division of labor: Qing Hua would arrest people from other families, and he would arrest people from his own family.

Attack from both sides.

…

…

The other intelligence groups also moved. The third intelligence group from Shendai's side's first target was Yan Feng, the senior police officer of the pce Public Security Management Committee, whom Qing Chen had mentioned, and they had solid evidence.

However, when Shendai Changming and his team arrived at the pce building, they were informed that Yan Feng had already been arrested by Group Seven.

Shendai Changming raged in the pce office building: "When did they arrest him? How could they have taken him away so easily?"

The pce investigators didn't dare to provoke him. After all, whichever group from Intelligence Bureau One came out was a living Yama King; they were not someone they could provoke.

But the pce investigators couldn't understand what was going on with Intelligence Bureau One; why did they suddenly start a fight to grab people?!

It wasn't just Shendai who encountered this situation.

Koshima's team was on their way to the Food and Drug Administration when they happened to meet Qing Zhun's motorcade returning to Intelligence Bureau One.

Koshima Li Zhongxian watched Qing Zhun slow down, roll down the window, and then have Fang Xia, who had just been arrested, greet the people from Intelligence Group Four.

Fang Xia was almost crying in the car, but since Qing Zhun had asked, he couldn't disobey.

Qing Zhun in the car had pretty specific requests: "You have to smile, remember to show eight teeth, otherwise the smile won't be good-looking and friendly."

Intelligence Group Four's Li Zhongxian sat in the car, his Face^[-] livid as he watched Qing Zhun's motorcade pass by: "Don't go to the Food and Drug Administration, change course to the ice Tax Management Committee!"

Then, an investigator in the car cautiously said: "Boss, my informant just told me that Chen Yuan, whom we're going to arrest, has also been taken by Group Seven."

Li Zhongxian sat dumbfounded in the car. Is this the legendary: walking on someone else's path, leaving others with no path to walk?

Preemptive arrests are easy to say but difficult to do, because Qing Chen's Group Seven must always be one step, or even three steps, ahead of others.

Shendai and Koshima finally found three suspects each, but Qing Chen had already caught them, which means Group Seven's investigative abilities are equivalent to both of them combined?

Li Zhongxian said: "Return to Intelligence Bureau One. I don't believe I can't catch even one official from the Qing Family faction, and I don't believe she can bring back everyone with problems!"

…