Chapter 257 (Two Hundred and Fifty-Six) - Working Overtime in the Early Morning
The director's office is on the top floor of the main building of the Foreign Affairs Bureau. At midnight, you can see the lights in the distance through the window behind it.
Bian Zheng was facing away from the ceiling light in the office, staring blankly at the pattern on the carpet.
The document that Director Yan had thrown at her earlier was lying not far away, with the words "Anti-Bombing Propaganda" written on the cover.
The office was completely silent.
Bian Zheng carefully organized his words and said in a low voice, "Director Yan, it was my oversight."
As we all know, if you make a mistake, apologize first.
“The General Administration’s Control Division did indeed strictly follow the proposed plan,” Bian Zheng emphasized the first two words, and continued, “However, the maintenance and daily operation of the publicity points after they were set up were taken over by the branch office.”
The General Administration and the branch offices are becoming increasingly distant; everyone tacitly acknowledges this.
Director Yan remained silent.
Bian Zheng could only hear the crisp sound of Yan Ju's knuckles tapping the table.
She stopped talking and remained standing there, her heart pounding.
After a long while, Bian Zheng heard Director Yan sigh: "Director Bian, am I really that bad?"
Bian Zheng: ?
She suddenly looked up: "How could this be?"
Yanju said softly, "So everything I want to do will eventually run into problems."
"And within headquarters, there are incompetent officials and traitors. A proposal was implemented for over half a year before we realized something was wrong." Her voice, unusually weary, trailed off at the end. "What should I do?"
Bian Zheng stared at Director Yan in astonishment.
Director Yan, who has always been omnipotent and omniscient since taking office, and who always downplays everything he does, now has a look of confusion on his face.
The light shone on her face, revealing a dark and indistinct depth in her pupils.
Bian Zheng suddenly remembered Yan Ju, whom he had seen as a teenager at the Weier Hub a couple of days ago.
Vibrant and bright, brimming with a dazzling curiosity about the world.
Bian Zheng was speechless.
"Never mind." Director Yan closed his eyes briefly, and when he opened them again, the confusion on his face had completely disappeared. "I've already sent out a notice that the Execution Department will hold an emergency meeting at six o'clock."
"Let's have an emergency meeting at 9 o'clock. The meeting room and specific arrangements will be kept confidential. I hope you can submit a detailed explanation report to me when the meeting starts at 9 o'clock."
“There was an oversight.” Director Yan paused. “Which specific department made that oversight? After the publicity booths were set up, the maintenance and daily operation were taken over by the branch office. Doesn’t the General Administration conduct regular checks?”
“I want a true and detailed explanation,” she said, looking at Bian Zheng. “Director Bian, don’t overlook anything this time.”
Bian Zheng bowed and said, "Yes, Director Yan."
Director Yan: "Go out."
Bian Zheng walked out of the office with light steps, and before closing the door, she couldn't help but look back at Director Yan.
Director Yan had already lowered her eyes to continue reading the documents; her desk was covered with urgent matters recently compiled by the secretariat.
Yanju sat in the darkness of the night.
The door closed.
Bian Zheng came to his senses and loosened his tightly clenched hand. His palm was wet and even felt a faint stinging sensation.
She looked down and saw that the flesh on her palm, which she had just clenched tightly, had been broken by her fingernails, and a little blood was seeping out.
Bian Zhengtan sighed.
She looked up again and then realized that Gui Gemu was waiting by the office door, looking at her with curiosity.
Bian Zheng: "...where to go."
"Good evening." Gui Gemu greeted her lazily, then asked, "Did you get scolded?" Her tone carried a hint of schadenfreude.
Bian Zheng curled his lip and asked, "What are you doing here?" She didn't give a direct answer.
“It seems so.” Gui Gemu stared at her expression thoughtfully. “I’ll hand over the documents.”
"The Enforcement Department has so much to do..." she groaned softly. "I feel like I'm either working overtime or preparing to work overtime every day. The Enforcement Department is responsible for all the messes."
“I didn’t realize how much she had to do when Sheng Chunqiu was around,” Gui Gemu muttered under his breath.
Bian Zheng's expression turned cold: "Watch your words."
After betraying the General Bureau, Sheng Chunqiu's name became a taboo subject within the Bureau.
Gui Gemu lowered her eyes and said, "...I know." She immediately lost the desire to continue talking to Bian Zheng. "I'll go in first."
---
Yan Shi was struggling to stay awake.
Because it is 3:30 a.m. now.
Even if she usually stays up late after get off work, she would never stay up this late.
I have to go to work the next day!
Despair.jpg
After Bian left, Yan Shi slowly leaned back in his comfortable chair, curled up in a ball, and began to question the meaning of life.
"The branch office..." she murmured, "There are still so many things to do."
With the General Administration's influence in the world and Yan Shi's military pressure, reform was easily achieved.
Branch offices are scattered throughout the human territories of the Inner World, with complex internal relationships and numerous branches.
If the report submitted by the branch office contains falsified information, there is nothing Yan Shi can do about it.
"Or should we investigate each territory one by one?" Yan Shi frowned as he pondered.
It's not written in the work manual, what should I do?
Before she could figure out what remedial measures she could take, there was another knock on her office door.
Yan Shi quickly sat up straight, rubbed his face with both hands, and put on a blank expression again. He cleared his throat and said, "Come in."
"Director Yan." Gui Gemu strode in.
Yan Shi stared at the large stack of documents she was holding in her arms, and suddenly everything went black.
"This is the recent work report from the Executive Office." Gui Gemu reported after placing the document on the table: "Everything is normal in the capital recently, and all matters concerning the Summer Palace have been repaired."
When asked about the execution department and unusual events, Yan Shi lowered her eyebrows and said, "Everything is normal." She repeated slowly.
Gui Gemu asked with some confusion, "Yes. So, Director Yan, why did you notify the Executive Office to hold an emergency meeting today?"
“I just learned that several gates in the Inner World have been broken,” Yan Shi said coldly. “But you’re telling me now that everything is normal.”
"Is everything truly normal in the area near the boundary gate in the real world these days?"
Gui Gemu's expression changed slightly.
She now understood why Bian Zheng looked so grim when he left Director Yan's office.
Good heavens, they're colleagues, and Bian Zheng didn't tell her a single thing?!
“Director Yan, this…” Gui Ge Mu lowered his head, “I really haven’t received any news.”
She hesitated for a moment, then continued, "Actually, it's also possible that the abnormal situation wasn't serious, and the various execution teams handled it easily?" She spoke slowly, her voice growing softer as she finished.
Yan Shi reached for the large stack of documents Gui Ge Mu had brought: "I don't know this, I don't know that." She flipped through the documents Gui Ge Mu had brought, "So what did you do in the Execution Department?"
"And what are all these work reports from the Executive Office summarizing?"
Gui Gemu truly hadn't expected this. She kept her head down, wishing she were merely a decoration in this office.
She has been in the executive office for so many days, so it cannot be said that she has done nothing.
On the contrary, she went to work on time, attended meetings on time, and submitted work reports on time.
They were extremely diligent.
However, as one of the three core departments of the Special Administration Bureau, the Execution Division has the largest workload in the General Administration.
Before leaving his post, Sheng Chunqiu arranged everything meticulously and did not want to make any changes to Guigemu.
She followed the existing work pattern, trying to pretend nothing was happening.
"Return to the pavilion." She suddenly heard Yan Shi call her, his voice calm.
Gui Gemu stood up straight immediately: "Director Yan, I'm here."
The spiritual energy in the surface world was quite thin, but Guige Mu suddenly felt that the surrounding fire spirits became agitated, and the temperature suddenly rose by several degrees.
"Come here," Yan Shi said softly, but his tone left no room for refusal.
Gui Gemu swiftly walked to the desk. Just as she stood still, a document was thrown into her arms, the edges of the pages singed by Huo Ling.
Yan Shi chuckled softly, a very light laugh, yet tinged with anger.
"This report states that unusual incidents have occurred frequently in multiple locations, and the General Administration has urgently deployed personnel, with some patrol teams temporarily acting as task forces to handle these incidents. What is the situation?"
Gui Gemu was taken aback: "Huh?"
She stared in disbelief, frozen in place, her mind blank.
The report wasn't written by her, of course; it was written by the secretary's office of the head of the executive department. She was just there to submit the report.
However, when the secretariat handed the documents to her, they only said "everything is normal," without mentioning the contents of the report at all.
Gui Gemu's gaze fell on the document, and he found that it not only stated "frequent abnormal events in many places", but also "enforcement teams in some cities have lost contact".
The curtain fell dark before my eyes.
"The emergency meeting that was originally convened by the Execution Department was to discuss this matter," Yan Shi said. "Now that the Execution Department has already begun to handle it, there's no need for an emergency meeting. The Execution Team's main focus should be on completing the mission and containing any unusual events."
As for returning to the pavilion.
Yan Shi paused for a moment, then continued, "You are temporarily suspended from your duties. The new head of the execution department has been promoted from the branch office and will start work today. The system has already been adjusted."
Guige Mu Chang let out a long sigh: "Director Yan." She gave a wry smile, "I did have oversights in my work, but I really can't handle the affairs of the Executive Office."
She was just a weak, pitiful, and innocent array master!
Let her go back to the information desk and lie down.
Yan Shi stood up: "Now that we've finished discussing the Bureau of Different Affairs, let's talk about yours." She walked past Gui Ge Mu, glancing at her: "Come on."
Yan Shi turned on the light in the small meeting room inside the director's office.
Gui Gemu followed behind her, somewhat puzzled: "Director Yan?"
Yan Shi sat down on the sofa on one side of the small reception room, his expression calm: "Let's talk about Sheng Chunqiu, and you."
He returned to the pavilion, his eyes lowered.
At Yan Shi's prompting, she sat down opposite him: "Director Yan, we haven't been in contact since she betrayed the General Administration."
Yan Shi: "She is currently at the Weier Hub Branch of the Foreign Affairs Bureau."
Gui Gemu's fingertips clenched into her palm: "Eh?" She subconsciously repeated, "Weil Hub Branch of the Bureau of Alien Management."
"So that's where she was," she murmured, her voice so soft it was almost inaudible.
"She's the one who broke the barrier," Yan Shi continued calmly.
Gui Gemu pursed her lips and said, "...Oh," almost lightly.
Yan Shi sneered, her gaze fixed on Gui Ge Mu's face: "With the world barrier completely shattered, you should be the first one who can't escape, right?"
Gui Gemu suddenly looked up. The lamplight trembled in her pupils, and her eyes met Yan Shi's. She almost froze on the spot.
“Return to the Pavilion, the Golden Bone resides within you,” Yan Shi said, his tone softening, yet his words were direct and merciless. “If the world barrier shatters, and the inner and outer worlds become connected, I think, amidst immense temptation, your destiny should be the furnace.”
Gui Gemu did not reply.
“You’re right,” she said slowly after a long silence. “I need to hide in the surface world.”
When you carry the authority of a spirit, it will naturally attract spirits of the corresponding attributes in the surrounding area.
However, Guige Mu is a formation master, and her own strength is not strong.
The fact that she could suddenly attract Jin Ling was practically a blatant warning to everyone that something was amiss with her.
Adding to the fact that Guigemu's mother was also present, the previous owner of Sanyilou passed away very suddenly.
Although Guige Mu is the eldest daughter of the Sanyi Tower's main branch and the rightful young master, if it were known that the power of the spirit, which everyone desires, is in her hands, the elders of the Sanyi Tower would not only fail to protect her, but might even rush to throw her into the furnace first.
She truly had nowhere to go.
Gui Gemu gave a bitter smile: "It's something everyone wants. I almost wish I'd never had it."
"My mother perished because of this, and the elders I knew disappeared because of this. Everyone says that the authority of the spirit is humanity's greatest trump card, but I feel that it is a trap."
Now that everything was out in the open, Gui Gemu became more composed: "Director Yan, don't you want the Golden Bone?" She tried her best to sound gentle.
Yan Shi did not answer.
She just watched her quietly.
“Of all the powers of the spirits, only the Bones of Gold and the Heart of Light can be directly integrated into the body. The Heart of Light can bring the dead back to life and heal flesh and bones. And the Bones of Gold,” Guige Mu slowed his speech, “can breathe with the Spirit of Gold.”
"Golden Spirit is the foundation of all alchemical products and magical artifacts. With Golden Bones, one can become a top alchemist in the Inner World without any training."
In the Otherworld, alchemy, along with formations and medicine making, is one of the most difficult professions to learn, with extremely high entry barriers and costs.
“But,” Yan Shi interrupted her, “you are a formation master.”
Guige was stunned.
She is indeed a formation master, not an alchemist.
But if she so desired, with her current alchemical skills gained from the Golden Bone, she would be revered as the most honored person by all living beings in the Inner World.
The Golden Bone was indeed extremely dangerous, but it also gave her unparalleled power.
However, apart from the required basic courses in Zhanzhou, Guigemu never entered the smelting room.
She looked up and gazed into Yan Ju's eyes.
It was at this moment that Guigemu clearly and dejectedly discovered that Yanju's eyes remained calm and undisturbed.
There was no greed, no surprise, and no interest.
Previously, when Director Yan confirmed with her that she indeed possessed spiritual authority, his eyes had looked the same.
It's just confirming a fact.
"Director Yan, do you really not want it?" Gui Gemu asked again, unwilling to give up. "This is the authority of the spirit."
Yan Shi looked at her quietly.
The light reflected in her pupils, a light that was neither gentle nor cold.
It was just extreme lucidity.
"What you gain from external things will never truly belong to you," Yan Shi said. "You understand this very well, don't you?"
“...Perhaps.” Gui Gemu murmured to himself.
After a long while, her thoughts started racing again, and she finally calmed down: "Director Yan, what do you need me to do?"
Yanju already knew that the power of the spirit was in her hands, so why did he suddenly bring it up again today?
Guigemu noticed the problem.
Yan Shi: "The stability of the world's barrier requires the authority of the spirit at its place of suppression."
"The suppression office?" Gui Gemu asked, somewhat bewildered. "I... don't know where the suppression office of the Golden Bone is."
All she knew was that the Golden Bone was brought back by her mother.
When her mother returned, she was already severely injured. With her last breath, she stuffed the Golden Bone into Guigemu's body, quickly arranged the affairs of Sanyilou after her death, and then quietly closed her eyes.
He never woke up again.
Everything begins and ends on the same day.
Yan Shi didn't know either.
However, Grandma's work notes state that she moved the Death Throne to the skies above the capital of the surface world, where it interacts with and suppresses the golden bone within the Guige Curtain.
As long as Zhan Zhou is still alive, and as long as Gui Ge Mu stays obediently in the outside world, there will be absolutely no problem.
Yan Shi suspected that the recent instability of the world barrier was due to Gui Ge Mu's visits to the underworld several times recently.
The spirits in the suppression area already had little authority, and the Guige Pavilion always left.
The world's barriers are fragile.
Of course, we certainly couldn't tell Guigemu about the Death Throne being in Zhan Zhou.
“I need you to stay in the capital of the Outer World,” Yan Shi said slowly. “The Headquarters is the place where the Golden Bone is suppressed.”
She silently gave herself a thumbs up for her brilliant idea.
Gui Gemu's pupils suddenly dilated: "Huh?"
She stayed in the real world purely to escape.
She never expected that the suppression office of the Golden Bone would be the headquarters.
“Yes.” Yan Shi repeated affirmatively, “So I need you to sign a contract with me.”
Gui Gemu had already understood Yanju's meaning.
Yanju was not interested in Jin Zhigu.
But in Yanju's eyes, the importance of global barriers and order is paramount.
He returned to his chamber and closed his eyes.
She recalled that when she was still in Zhanzhou, she shared a dormitory with Sheng Chunqiu.
Sheng Chunqiu came from the outer world, which was rare among the Zhan Zhou people at that time.
Therefore, Gui Gemu asked with great curiosity, "Sheng Chunqiu, what if you are unable to graduate from Zhanzhou?"
Sheng Chunqiu replied to her at the time: "It depends on the individual's choice."
"If you decide to stay in the Inner World, you need to sign a contract that you will never return to the Outer World in this lifetime; if you want to return to the Outer World, you need to sign a contract that you can never speak of anything related to the Inner World again."
Gui Gemu never imagined that one day this situation would happen to him.
She can never go back to the other world.
They can no longer go back to their past and their former home.
"Okay." Gui Gemu opened his eyes. "Director Yan, thank you for your help."
The laws governing the surface world are not very binding; in the end, what was signed by the cabinet was an agreement.
She left the director's office in a daze just as her phone received a message.
Director Yan has already sent the transfer order to the system.
Gui Gemu was dismissed from his post as director of the executive department and transferred back to the information department's confidentiality division.
The new head of the Executive Division has been transferred from the Underworld branch, and the person taking over is...
Shu Zhijing?
Gui Gemu was taken aback.
Shu Zhijing is the most outstanding student of the Kunlun Sect Leader, the senior sister of Kunlun Mountain, and also the well-known next Kunlun Sect Leader.
How did she end up being transferred to the World Headquarters?
Regardless of whether Shu Zhijing and Shu Yao agree or not, Yan Ju's recent swift and decisive handling of traitors and incompetents at the General Administration is surprisingly reassuring.
Guige Mu felt that he couldn't understand this world.
---
Yan Shi checked off Jin Zhigu and the 6 o'clock meeting on his to-do list, then slowly sat back down at his desk and rubbed his temples.
The secretariat of the executive office is still staffed with personnel from when Sheng Chunqiu was in office.
Yan Shi estimated that it was not necessarily true that there was a traitor.
However, if Sheng Chunqiu mentions it, it only requires them not to proactively tell Guigemu the specific situation, and to write it normally in the report, which would not be considered concealment.
The Secretary-General of the Executive Office should not refuse such a "reasonable" request from the former leader.
Interpersonal relationships are such complicated matters.
If the head of the executive department were not Gui Gemu, but someone else, such as Shu Zhijing, this kind of loophole would be useless.
Because Shu Zhijing would definitely review the report again herself and strictly confirm all the details.
Yan Shi sighed again.
She first sent a message to Shu Zhijing, who was still on her way from the Otherworld, briefly explaining the problems in the Executive Office's secretariat and asking her to reorganize personnel after arriving in the capital.
Then he continued to review the work reports submitted by the Executive Office that Guigemu had brought earlier.
Yan Shi needs to first confirm the list of cities where the execution team has lost contact.
The disappearance of the enforcement team is no small matter.
The spiritual energy in the surface world is very thin, and even in the rarest emergencies, it will never reach the point of losing contact.
There are naturally no problems with the areas surrounding the capital, because the headquarters is located in the capital, and teams with higher execution team codes will be given priority in handling abnormal events near the capital.
The problems are all in the coastal areas.
Most of those enforcement teams were temporary patrol teams, lacking both experience and strength.
It's perfectly normal for things to go wrong.
Yan Shi flipped through the pages and suddenly saw a familiar place name in the city where he had lost contact.
Tonghai City.
It is also the place where Yan Shi grew up after leaving Guixu Town with Lin Zizui.
One strange thing is that Lin Zizui has no job in Tonghai City, nor does she reside there.
However, the primary and junior high schools she arranged for Yanshi were both in Tonghai City.
Meanwhile, Yan Shi's high school actually enrolls half-elfs like Wen Ying, as well as students who know Wen Ying's half-elf identity.
Yan Shi had never thought about the issues in detail before, so he was taken aback when he saw Tonghai City.
She tilted her head and checked the time first.
4:06.
There were still three hours until dawn, and nearly five hours until the control office meeting.
At 10 o'clock, I also need to go back to Baiyujing to monitor the progress of shooting down the floating island and prevent anyone from causing trouble.
Yan Shi hesitated for a moment, then sent a message to the secretary's office.
[Yan: Arrange the flight route. We'll head to Tonghai City at 3 PM today.]
Author's note: After writing all day, I feel like Director Yan has so many things to do every day (exhausting).
Is this the price of growing up?
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