Steam Era: The Lord of 'Puluo' Chapter 872 - 511: Harmonizing Agent

The driver parked the car and opened the door for Shen Jingye.

The gatekeeper opened the main gate for Shen Jingye.

The two department heads originally walking behind Shen Jingye quickly sprinted to the front, pressed the elevator, and held the elevator door for Shen Jingye.

After entering the office, Shen Jingye looked at the scenery outside the window and took a sip of tea.

Up till now, there was no news about Li Qi; it can’t be confirmed that he is gone, but preparations need to be made accordingly.

The previous Balancer, Chen Weixin, disappeared for a long time, causing quite a bit of work to fall into passivity. This time, we must avoid similar situations.

"Li Qi is missing and cannot perform the duties of a Balancer normally. The relevant search efforts must continue, but preparations for selecting the next Balancer should also be made..."

Shen Jingye was drafting a speech. The draft wouldn’t be written by him, but he had to provide some guidance to the secretary to prevent the content from deviating.

"I am deeply saddened by the consequences of Li Qi’s unauthorized actions. While deeply reflecting, we must also be clear that the lack of discipline and awareness of the big picture is almost a common issue among all Balancers. We can understand the adverse environmental impact of Puluo State on Balancers, but we also need to strengthen constraints..."

Di la di la di la~

The desk phone interrupted Shen Jingye’s train of thought. Seeing the incoming number, Shen Jingye’s cheeks twitched slightly.

He answered the phone and heard the voice he least wanted to hear:

"Little Shen, come to my office."

In the Dark Star Bureau, there’s only one person who calls him Little Shen...

Putting down the desk phone, Shen Jingye called the front desk: "When did Director Li arrive? Why wasn’t it reported in time?"

The front desk was confused by the question and couldn’t answer for a long time. Shen Jingye hung up the phone and asked several deputy directors and department heads. None of them received news of Li Qi coming to work.

Rubbing his forehead and feeling uncomfortable, Shen Jingye got another call from Li Qi: "Little Shen, why haven’t you come over yet? How long do you want me to wait for you? You need to correct your work attitude!"

Ten minutes later, Shen Jingye arrived at Li Banfeng’s office.

No matter how much discontent and disappointment he felt inside, Shen Jingye had to show concern for his colleague: "Little Li, you really worried me! What on earth happened?"

Li Banfeng smiled and said: "I was just about to tell you about the incident. Don’t rush, let’s sit down and talk slowly. Who took the Public Security Team to the textile factory yesterday?"

Shen Jingye said: "It was Deputy Director Wang; it’s the work he oversees."

Li Banfeng asked again: "Was this Deputy Director Wang’s spontaneous action, or under your command?"

Shen Jingye was a bit angry and was about to argue with Li Banfeng, but he twisted his words before speaking: "Director Wang’s actions were in fulfillment of his responsibilities and in completing the mission assigned by the bureau."

This is experience; this is ability.

Rephrasing the words from another angle, not giving Li Qi the chance to make a fuss.

Even if Li Qi wanted to argue, he definitely couldn’t dispute Director Wang’s responsibilities, nor should he question the bureau’s decisions.

Li Banfeng frowned: "Little Shen, is this something you can’t explain?"

Shen Jingye didn’t know how to respond, as Li Banfeng wasn’t following his line of thinking at all.

Li Banfeng continued: "If you can’t explain, I’ll call Director Wang over."

Shen Jingye still couldn’t respond.

Li Banfeng picked up the desk phone and dialed Director Wang’s number: "Little Wang, come to my office."

...

An hour later, there were four directors sitting in Li Banfeng’s office.

Director Liu, in charge of restricted area management, first received the news. The drone patrolling the restricted area of Ruirong Textile Factory discovered an unknown smoke, which upon investigation was found to come from a cigarette butt.

The textile factory was already off-limits at that time, so where did this cigarette butt come from?

Director Liu relayed the information to Director Zhang, who was responsible for reconnaissance. Director Zhang dispatched a drone to search, discovering several suspicious individuals at the scene. These individuals were active near workshops three and five.

Director Zhang immediately relayed the situation to Director Shen. Director Shen took the incident very seriously and called in Director Wang, in charge of the Public Security Team, and had him devise an action plan with Director Liu and Director Zhang to organize the operation.

The staff delivered the drone footage to Li Banfeng’s office. Li Banfeng first watched the first set of recordings, he saw the cigarette butt, but this cigarette butt was not left by Li Banfeng and his team.

Light Bulb and Ming Xing did not enter the factory, and Li Banfeng and Dumpling did not smoke in the factory. The time the cigarette butt was found on the surveillance video was half-past nine at night, and Li Banfeng did not arrive at the textile factory until ten o’clock, so the times did not match.

Now watching the second set of footage.

This footage was captured by a drone, and at nine forty-five, the drone captured five individuals appearing in the factory courtyard.

These five individuals were uniformly dressed in black long gowns, wearing hats, and were completely covered from head to toe, with gas masks on their faces.

They flashed across the courtyard and then entered workshop six, where the cameras did not capture their figures.

Director Zhang stated: "Based on my many years of experience in reconnaissance work, this group likely has invisibility-like abilities, or they are carrying dark energy carriers that can render them invisible. Of course, it does not rule out that they interfered with the monitoring equipment."

While speaking, Director Zhang occasionally glanced at Li Banfeng, seemingly showcasing his professional ability.

Li Banfeng did not make any comment on his professional ability, because what Director Zhang just said was nonsense.