Chapter 228: Bluffing, Summoning (5k)

"Old Meng, don’t worry. If I ever got something to get rid of, you’re the first one I’d think of!"

Wen Yan didn’t hold back, tossing out a couple of lines Old Meng liked to hear.

Old Meng felt a bit relieved after hearing this—that’s exactly what he wanted.

Besides, for Wen Yan to think of him first when buying intel, that was a big step forward.

This time he was probably going to lose money, whatever, just treat it as an early investment.

"Alright, wait here, I’ll go check it out for you right now."

Wen Yan didn’t ask Old Meng how he’d do it. That was the guy’s secret; probably had something to do with his wandering merchant gig, otherwise, with the way Old Meng roamed all over the world, there were certain things you just couldn’t dig up.

If he was just relying on his network, it would be impossible—this is definitely some cheat-mode digging.

He wasn’t just sweet talking Old Meng—if Old Meng really delivered this time and dug up something even the Nanwu County Scorching Sun Department hadn’t figured out yet,

then from now on, he’d sell Old Meng some good stuff he didn’t need.

Honestly, once the trouble got dumped somewhere else, this matter didn’t have much to do with Wen Yan anymore. He just wanted a bit of security. Once he felt safer, he’d still keep an eye out—concern where concern’s due.

That woman turned out to be even crazier than he’d expected, and now there was some Dragon God entangled in the mess. He lived downstream, and the last thing he wanted was to see things spiral into a fish-dies-net-broken showdown, Dragon God style.

Most important, what he tossed out was a fake; the real thing was still in his hands, and he hadn’t figured out what to do with it yet.

On top of that, today Wen Yan had keenly noticed something—Liu Qiying was getting info insanely fast.

With the Scorching Sun Department as a benchmark, he realized just how insanely quick she was at getting information.

They hadn’t come back to him, and they’d ignored that little thief too, which had to mean they knew full well the little thief had already been registered—and might’ve even watched Wen Yan record the whole thing for the file.

They say money can make the devil turn the grindstone—Wen Yan could believe that.

But for Liu Qiying to pull all this off, it couldn’t just be a wad of cash.

Either someone under her had the ability to peek into some moderately classified files from the Scorching Sun Department, or someone inside the department was leaking those mid-level secrets to her.

Wen Yan figured it was the latter. Feng Yao had been privately griping to him, saying the Yu State Scorching Sun Department, under the previous minister, had gotten riddled with holes like a sieve.

Over in Wei State and Duanzhou, things weren’t nearly that crazy.

Apparently, that’s all thanks to Cai Qidong coming in with serious clout—he was backed by headquarters and had an iron grip on personnel, so things in Yu State had tightened up a lot.

If not, the old Nanwu County Scorching Sun Department was just like the West River Water System, with each department doing their own thing; everybody minding their own business. Whatever was said in the morning meeting would be all over town by lunchtime.

These days, that kind of thing didn’t happen. Cai Qidong’s reputation and skills meant integrating the Nanwu County Scorching Sun Department wasn’t too tough.

Especially since he’d just arrived and immediately got handed a whole slew of staff, put together a Sanitation and Cleaning Office, and the challenge level dropped even further.

Too bad Cai Qidong hadn’t been here long; flipping the entire work culture wasn’t going to be that easy.

Which meant, even now, there were still people daring to leak some not-so-secret stuff to outsiders.

Cai Qidong knew the deal—if he had the old-timers in the Scorching Sun Department investigate Changfeng Group, the moment they beefed up the team, if more than a handful of people knew, by the time the meeting was over, the other side would’ve found out.

Who knows, before he even had his people in place, Liu Qiying might waltz right into the Scorching Sun Department base and proactively come clean, just to shift their focus elsewhere.

With Liu Qiying’s personality, that was exactly the kind of thing she’d pull.

If she was willing to take the olive branch and proactively confess, based on the data Wen Yan had seen, she might be a little crazy but always knew where the line was—one of those types that, when she chose to cooperate, she did it right.

Maybe she’d even hand over some extra crucial intel.

Then, after some overall assessment, the Scorching Sun Department definitely wouldn’t go for any over-the-top punishment—she might not even get detained.

Wen Yan thought it over: if Old Meng came through this time, he’d have him look into this big boss from Changfeng Group—otherwise, he just wouldn’t feel at ease.

Packing up the files, Wen Yan strolled over to Pei Tugou’s place—Pei Tugou was nowhere to be seen, but Jia Jinfeng was still tutoring the kid with her homework.

This usually friendly sister-in-law was especially anxious that her daughter would fall behind after transferring schools, so her daily pitch was about as high as her blood pressure.

Wen Yan didn’t dare walk into that bad mood—he just hung around playing with his own son.

The little rascal was growing fast, packing on noticeable weight every day, eating and pooping like a champ.

When feeding him milk, Wen Yan added a touch of Yang Energy, and the little guy gripped the bottle like it was his life on the line, chugging with all his might.

"When you’re bigger, don’t go turning into your sister, only good for treating low blood pressure."

Wen Yan lowered his voice, muttering uselessly in his son’s ear, not caring if the little squirt could understand.

Just as he finished eating, Wen Yan caught a whiff of something nasty—he thought about it for a second, then gave changing the diaper and cleaning up a go himself.

He was super careful about it, but the kid couldn’t handle Wen Yan being so slow, and started bawling like crazy.

Jia Jinfeng rushed over, pulled Wen Yan aside, and got everything sorted out in no time.