Book 4, Chapter 181: Clean Paper Makes Good Drawing Paper

After returning to the city, Chen Chuan considered visiting Cao Guiqi, but thought better of it. Cao Guiqi’s status was a pretty sensitive territory.

It was acceptable for Chen Chuan to visit him while he was a Third Limit martial artist, but now, he was a martial arts master. If he visited him at such a sensitive, tension-filled period of time, every single one of his actions would be assigned with another meaning.

He didn’t care about that, but it might bring Cao Guiqi trouble, so it was better for him to set aside that plan for now. When he was free in the future, he could contact Cao Guiqi through a safe channel.

The same logic applied to a number of other people in Central City. He couldn’t visit them just because he wanted to anymore, including Chen Xiaojin. It would end up drawing too many eyes on these people, and it wouldn’t be a good thing for them.

He could only consider it again in the future.

Chen Chuan wouldn’t have a problem contacting Border Fusion, though. After all, he was still its security advisor. He checked their status. Meng Shu and her group were still in the island nations to acquire some of the businesses and assets left by Ferris Wheel. It didn’t look like they were going to return until the start of the next month.

The company should be in contact with Meng Shu via telegram, though, so she should have already learned about him.

Chen Chuan was pretty sure that he wouldn’t be able to keep his position as a security advisor for much longer. Even if Border Fusion didn’t mind it, the government wasn’t going to let him continue.

Companies could make use of martial arts masters’ threat to rise to power. Since most of Border Fusion’s businesses were tied to the government, they were under the government’s control and could never cross the line.

While deep in thought, Chen Chuan received a call from the Resolution Department. The caller ID caused a thought to stir in him, and he answered. “You’re okay now, Director Wu?”

“The interrogation was supposed to last until the end of the month, but it ended ahead of time because of you. You becoming a martial arts master has taken care of many bottlenecks,” Wu Quan answered.

“That’s only temporary, though. I’m sure that many people are trying their best to restore Central City to how it originally was,” Chen Chuan pointed out.

“You’re right. That’s why we have plenty of things we need to do. We can’t squander the opportunity you gave me,” Wu Quan agreed.

“Since you’re back now, you can take over the Resolution Department again,” Chen Chuan said with a nod.

Wu Quan sighed at that. “It’s too bad about Lao Wen. I’ve been working with him for years. He might have sounded like a joker, but he was an honest person. No matter what you threw at him, he did his best at it. Once he set his eyes on something, he kept moving toward it and never thought about retreating. Han Fu made use of this. Even though I had someone stay back to warn him, I couldn’t change it.

“Lead Investigator Chen, you brought his body back. I thank you on behalf of Lao Wen and his family.”

“Lead Investigator Wen was my colleague too. He passed away on duty, so retrieving his body was only what I was supposed to do. Besides, if you hadn’t set things up and given me authority, I wouldn’t have been able to do all these things,” Chen Chuan remarked.

“We need to do a thorough purge, then we’ll be able to focus on fighting our enemies.

“But after these two events, many positions have become empty, and we need to fill them up. I’d like to talk to you about potential candidates.”

If Chen Chuan were a normal lead investigator, he would have only had the power to recommend people, but now, with his current status, the department couldn’t ignore his suggestions. He had the power to decide who got to join and who did not.

Even though the higher-ups hadn’t released any orders, Chen Chuan was most likely not going to remain as a lead investigator for much longer, so Wu Quan making arrangements ahead of time was to be expected.

“What are your thoughts?” he asked. “I was thinking that the most important positions in the Resolution Department are the three field lead investigators. I intend to ask the higher-ups to send a lead investigator from another Central City over. This person then won’t have obvious ties with anyone in Jibei Road and wouldn’t be manipulated so easily. Then, I’d promote someone from the department itself. What do you think of this?”

“You’re more experienced than I am in this. I have no comments about it,” Chen Chuan said.

“Do you have any recommendations for the promotion, then?”

This time, Chen Chuan gave a straightforward answer, “If I have to recommend someone, then Captain Xu is obviously the best choice.”

“Yes, he is. If he wanted to, he could have gotten the position a long time ago, but I know what he’s thinking. That’s why I’ve respected his choice all this while and didn’t push the promotion onto him. While I’d love for him to advance, we need to listen to his opinion,” Wu Quan said grimly.

“I’ll talk to Captain Xu about that,” Chen Chuan offered.

“Sure. I’ll let you handle it. No matter what happens in the end, we’ll accept it.”

“Just wait for me. It won’t take long,” Chen Chuan promised.

“Alright. That’s it for now. Let’s talk again when you’re back.”

The moment Chen Chuan ended the call, he received another one. This time, it was from Chang Dong. He answered it, and Chang Dong’s excited voice immediately rushed through.

“Lead Investigator Chen, the headquarters sent a telegram, and you have a new designation. They’ve also given you new instructions. If you have some time, could you drop by? We’re at Majestic Light District.”

That caused a flicker of surprise and anticipation in Chen Chuan’s heart. “I’ll come over right now.”

He headed to Majestic Light District based on the directions on his Realm Pass.

Half an hour later, he arrived at Chang Dong and Gao Yanjun’s rented office. Both of them were waiting for him. The moment he stepped in and they exchanged greetings, Gao Yanjun went to serve him tea. Meanwhile, Chang Dong handed him two interpreted telegrams.

Chen Chuan read them. The first was a designation from the purity faction’s headquarters. They asked him to become the branch’s head for the time being.

Also, since he had become a martial arts master, they were automatically promoting him into a central member of the faction, according to the rules.

Central members were much more powerful in the purity faction. They could participate in deciding the purity faction’s direction and how to carry out their strategies. Whenever the headquarters made important decisions, they had to send telegrams to the central members to ask them for their opinions.

The central members could also participate in certain leaders’ designations and relocations.

Of course, this wasn’t going to be a position forced on Chen Chuan. He simply had the right to participate now. If he didn’t want to be involved, it wasn’t going to affect the faction.

“Branch leader.” Chang Dong laughed. “You’re my branch leader now.”

Then, his smile faded away, and he schooled his face. “When you become a branch leader, you are supposed to go to the headquarters to officially receive your designation, but they sent a telegram that since Jibei Road’s situation is so complicated, they’re sure that you won’t be able to step away for the time being. So, they’re going to treat this as a special case. They’ve assigned you as the branch leader and will send your designation letter later.”

“Okay.” Chen Chuan was fine with it. He was only given the position because he was strong, not the other way around. At most, he just had to adjust to certain procedures now.

Then, he flipped to the next telegram. It was about the same as what Chang Dong had said, but they also reminded him that the refined training faction and fusion faction had managed Jibei Road for a long time. His sudden appearance as a martial arts master from the purity faction was likely going to cause the fusion faction and the refined training faction to send their own martial arts masters over to keep him in check. The political tension in Jibei Road was going to get tense.

This telegram had just arrived, but when it was sent, they likely didn’t know that he had already fought against Long Xiang. Still, the leaders of the purity faction had great judgment.

They also asked him whether he intended to continue staying in Jibei Road or go somewhere else. If he had other plans, he could submit a request.

Chen Chuan thought about it. The Zhao Zhenye problem was still around, and the branch had just been set up. It had yet to get on track. This was a crucial moment for the branch, so he couldn’t leave.

He was also a lead investigator in the Resolution Department, so he had plenty of other things to do. He couldn’t just leave everything behind. Besides, it was confirmed a long time ago that there was an existence from the other world hiding in Central City. As part of the purity faction, even if he had other plans, he needed to get this settled before considering anything else.

While thinking about it, Chen Chuan looked up and found Chang Dong and Gao Yanjun watching him. Knowing that they were waiting for his decision, he set down the telegrams and said, “Mr. Chang, Miss Gao, please reply to the headquarters that I will continue staying in Jibei Road. I won’t leave before settling everything.”

Chang Dong turned to Gao Yanjun and smiled. “I told you. Branch Leader Chen wouldn’t just leave us with all this mess in our hands.”

Gao Yanjun set a cup of freshly brewed tea in front of Chen Chuan and nudged her glasses up. “I was expecting that.”

After straightening her back, she said, “Since you’ve only just reached the Fourth Limit, you need to pay attention to your training resources. You should confirm what you’re going to get from the government as soon as possible.”

“Yanjun is an expert. She can assess and cook the ingredients for even martial arts masters,” Chang Dong supplied.

Gao Yanjun explained, “I was once an assistant for a martial arts master, who trained me, and I was in charge of her daily meals. The quality of the nutrient and calorie-dense ingredients in each area is different, and everyone’s training method and physical bodies are different. Their preferences and focus are also not the same. Usually, the government adjusts your daily ingredients based on your training.

“I’ve never seen the ingredients in Jibei Road, so I’ll need to inspect and assess them first. If you could get this settled as soon as possible, that would be for the best.”

Since she went into such detail, Chen Chuan knew that she was drawing from the experience of working for a martial arts master. He nodded. “Got it. I’ll get this settled soon.”

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