Night's Nomenclature
Chapter 384: Bringing Someone Home

For intelligence officers, if captured, the best outcome is death.

Qing Mu was arrested because one of his Kestrel defected.

This Kestrel not only betrayed Qing Mu, but also led to the arrest of 121 people in the Qing Family's northern intelligence system.

The Shendai Family used the lives of these 121 people to ensure Qing Mu wouldn't commit suicide. As long as he peacefully raised pigs in the northern military base, these 121 people could do the most menial tasks in the northern production base.

Although the 121 people had a hard life, they didn't even have cotton-padded clothes in winter, and more than 30 of them developed night blindness due to prolonged lack of meat in their diet.

But at least all 121 survived.

Qing Family Shadow sat on the edge of the rooftop, looking at the distant stars and said, "Sometimes I wonder, how many 19-year periods does a person have to squander? Qing Mu was 31 when he was arrested, and now he's a 50-year-old man... In his first year in the pigsty, everyone thought he would give in, but he didn't. In the second year, everyone thought he would give in, but he didn't."

Shadow continued, "Gradually, everyone in the Qing Family knew that Qing Mu would not yield, and he became the soul of the Qing Family's intelligence system. Shendai wanted to break him, but he endured year after year, becoming the backbone of the Qing Family intelligence officers in the pigsty. So you ask me what contribution he made to the Qing Family? This contribution is immeasurable."

As Qing Family Shadow said, the Shendai Family kept Qing Mu alive not for anything else, but to break him.

Those northern jackals are adept at manipulating people's minds. They knew that once a figure like Qing Mu couldn't endure the humiliation and eventually defected, all the Qing Family intelligence officers held by Shendai would collapse together.

This is the best way to break through the psychological defenses of Qing Family intelligence officers: If a Qing Family intelligence officer, after being captured, is planning to fight to the end, the Shendai Family suddenly pulls out the already compromised and surrendered Qing Mu and says, "See, even a figure like Qing Mu has surrendered, what's the point of your persistence, intelligence officers?"

It's conceivable that most intelligence officers wouldn't be able to withstand this.

This is far more terrifying than physical torture.

However, Qing Mu withstood it.

Qing Chen understood that this was also the reason why Qing Family Shadow suddenly intervened in Team Seven's affairs. This time, they were going to bring Qing Mu home.

Qing Chen suddenly asked, "How is Qing Mu doing now?"

Shadow paused, "Not good. Seven years ago, the Shendai Family tried to seize his consciousness using Neural Link technology. In this way, even if Qing Mu didn't yield, someone could impersonate him and become the new Qing Mu. But that Neural Link surgery failed. The consciousness of the person who wanted to seize his body was annihilated, and Qing Mu became a madman who only mechanically fed pigs and could only say one sentence. In this situation, the Neural Link technology can't be used again; if it is used, Qing Mu will die."

Shadow continued, "Shendai wasn't sure if he was really mad or faking it, so they used more methods to torture him and insult him, but he only had that one sentence."

Qing Chen was stunned. He couldn't imagine how strong Qing Mu's will had to be to resist the Neural Link surgery's mind control.

He even annihilated the consciousness of the person who wanted to seize his body in his mind.

Qing Chen asked, "What's Qing Mu's sentence?"

He was asking what the sentence was that Qing Mu left the world with after resisting the Neural Link.

Qing Family Shadow said, "Don't mind me."

Qing Chen was astonished. These four words weren't heroic at all; they were very bland.

But for some reason, he felt that behind these four words was Qing Mu's last bit of persistence after he had seen through life and death.

Qing Family Shadow said, "Actually, logically speaking, Qing Mu dying at the hands of Shendai, or continuing to stay in that pigsty, would be in my interest as Shadow. Because that way, I could continue to use Qing Mu's story to arouse the hatred of intelligence officers and make Qing Mu a wall in the hearts of all intelligence officers. But today, I suddenly wanted to bring him home. No reason, I just feel he should come home."

At one point, Qing Chen even felt a strong emotion hidden in Qing Family Shadow's bland tone.

This Qing Mu might have some kind of relationship with Qing Family Shadow.

On the phone, Qing Family Shadow seemed to have guessed Qing Chen's thoughts. He chuckled, "Do you feel like you've caught a clue that could reveal my true identity? Try it. You might actually find it."

Qing Chen retorted, "The Intelligence Bureau One's database doesn't mention Qing Mu at all. You should be able to find it in the Qing Family's internal database. Would you dare to open the Qing Family's internal database to me?"

Qing Family Shadow laughed, "If you can become Shadow, wouldn't the Qing Family's database be readily available to you? Go for it."

After speaking, Shadow hung up.

Qing Chen sat in his office and made himself a cup of tea. At this time, Qing Hua had already returned. He smelled the peculiar tea fragrance at the office door.

He was surprised, "Boss, is this Jingshan Tea?"

Qing Chen glanced at him, "You know this tea?"

Qing Hua said softly, "I had the chance to smell it once from a big shot. This tea has a unique fragrance, and you won't forget it once you smell it."

"Mm," Qing Chen responded indifferently, as if this Jingshan Tea wasn't precious in his eyes.

Qing Hua cautiously said, "Boss, it is said that only Shadow Master has this Jingshan Tea. His confidants who have made great contributions can only get a little as a reward... I also heard that this tea is grown by Metahumans..."

After speaking, he looked at the open tea canister on Qing Chen's desk. It was probably a whole pound of Jingshan Tea!

Qing Hua's attitude towards Qing Chen became even more humble.

A person who could obtain a pound of Jingshan Tea from the Shadow Master was probably the Shadow Master's most trusted confidant!

For Qing Hua, that's a big shot in the heavens.

After listening to Qing Hua, Qing Chen suddenly realized why Qing Family Shadow asked him to bring the Jingshan Tea to Intelligence Bureau One. It turned out that the other party went to deliver the tea in the middle of the night to facilitate his gathering of hearts in Intelligence Bureau One.

If he had let Qing Hua smell the tea fragrance as soon as he reported, there wouldn't have been a show of power.

Shadow Master didn't know that Qing Chen not only didn't carry such precious Jingshan Tea with him, wasting his kindness, but also subdued Team Seven in one day, making the Jingshan Tea completely useless.

Qing Chen looked at Qing Hua and calmly said, "Let's put the Jingshan Tea aside for now. Have the Koshima people been taken care of?"

"Yes," Qing Hua said, "I've sent people to spread the news of the trade. If nothing unexpected happens, Koshima will soon know that Shendai traded their two important missing persons to us."

Qing Chen nodded and said resolutely, "Good. Remember to update the names of these two people on the whiteboard tomorrow and cross out Shendai Jingyi's name. If people from Koshima come to inquire or observe, tell them straightforwardly that we want Shendai Jingbian, and only him. If they bring Shendai Jingbian over, I'll hand over these two people from Koshima to them."

Qing Hua was startled, "Okay, I'll do it right away."

Qing Chen sat alone in his office drinking tea. Actually, he didn't have any sense of belonging to the Qing Family, but he also really wanted to bring Qing Mu home now.

...

...

Daybreak. The agents of various teams in Intelligence Bureau One came to work one after another.

The first thing everyone did when they arrived at the building was to go to the third floor to see the whiteboard to see what names had been updated.

Actually, everyone had heard about what happened last night, but they still wanted to see with their own eyes if the rumors were true.

Especially the agents of the Li Clan and Chen Family were completely in a mood of enjoying the show and not being afraid of making trouble, happily pointing at the two new names on the whiteboard: "Li Guangxian has been missing for two years, and it turns out he was captured by the Shendai family! It's unexpected that Shendai and Koshima are seemingly close on the surface but secretly capture such important figures from each other. Tsk tsk tsk."

"It's not unexpected that the Shendai Family can do this. They're the best at plotting against others secretly."

Actually, the secret capture of Li Guangxian wasn't done by the Shendai Family.

But when the news spread, everyone felt that it wasn't surprising that the Shendai Family could do such things behind people's backs. At this time, Shendai should reflect on themselves...

What happened last night was too big, so that Li Clan Supervisor Li Yunqu, who is usually serious with people, even ran to the third floor to watch the show.

Li Yunqu looked at the whiteboard and thought to himself that the gentleman from Autumn Leaf Manor was really awesome. He just came to Intelligence Bureau One and stirred up the place.

Sure enough, those who can be valued by the previous head of the family, Li Xiurui, are all ruthless characters.

Li Yunqu chuckled and said to his subordinates, "I wonder if Shendai and Koshima can still be affectionate?"

In the past, when agents from Shendai and Koshima met, they were all polite and seemed like a loving family.

The supervisors of both families would even occasionally have lunch together, showing off their alliance in front of everyone.

Now, everyone was waiting to see the show, wanting to see what Shendai and Koshima's reaction would be.

When Shendai and Koshima arrived, Li Yunqu was surprised to find that both sides were still greeting each other with smiles as usual.

He immediately understood that because of the war in the north, the two families couldn't openly tear each other apart yet, so they continued to put on a false show.

They are all adults with scheming, so they can still act.

But Li Yunqu wasn't a pushover either. Seeing that Shendai and Koshima were still acting affectionate, he chuckled and said, "Look at these fools from Koshima. They're still counting the money for others after being sold. Their own two big figures have been secretly captured, and they're still calling each other brothers. Come on, brothers, let's go. If you watch fools too much, you'll become a fool."

The faces of the agents from Koshima changed. They couldn't save Face^[-]!

Li Yunqu's words directly tore open Koshima's wound and sprinkled salt on it. It was too heartbreaking!