Chapter 139: Chapter 139: Renqin's interview
"You remember Renqin? The group leader that became a bus driver?" Yezi spoke up.
"Renqin? Yeah I remember him, he was the one that drove me out once." Xiaoyun thought back to the day where he and Renqin drove to the gas station once.
"Some of the militia confessed that Chen Gang tried to get Renqin on board with the plan."
"Okay and? He's just a bus driver no?" Xiaoyun got a little confused.
"Well, I went over to ask him about it. And he told me Chen Gang asked him if they can use the bus to transport some concrete to the armory to strengthen the building.
But he saw through Chen Gang's plan and realized they were planning to use the bus for something else. He noticed reinforcing the armory wouldn't be done by the militia.
So if it wasn't for him refusing them, they could of had guns already in hand during the coup. He got a sharp mind and know how to use his connections."
Yezi paused for a second, then added an important detail.
"Also he told me he tipped them off to Yuqi, you can ask her if she got an anonymous letter."
"Really? Do you have his number? I want to meet him in person." Xiaoyun was fully intrigued by how Yezi was portraying him.
Yezi told Xiaoyun his number and the two ended the call.
"Yueyue and Renqin..." Xiaoyun stared at the two document on the table with the police reform crossed out and replaced with domestic intelligence, and the foreign intelligence on the other side.
Xiaoyun pulled out his phone to call Yuqi.
"Hey babe what's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong, Yezi just told me that someone sent you a letter informing you about the coup?"
"Yeah someone did tipped them off... do you know who that person is? I need to thank them."
"I'll thank them for you, don't worry about it."
"Okay... also we're heading back right soon, our lunch break is ending." As soon as Yuqi finished speaking, she hung up the phone.
Xiaoyun hesitated for a second, but finally typed the number Yezi gave.
"Hello, who's this?" Renqin's voice came out of the phone.
"This is Xiaoyun, I just want to give a personal thank you to the contribution for the town, and I was wondering if you can come to the administrative office."
"Of course, I'm coming right now." Renqin hung up the phone.
---
It was almost two o'clock.
When Renqin arrived in the office, Xiaoyun was editing a few things on the foreign intelligence document.
"Mr.Mayor?" Renqin stood in the office nervously as Xiaoyun didn't look at Renqin at all.
"Oh sorry, I just got a little to focus on work. Have a seat." Xiaoyun gestured for Renqin to seat down.
After Renqin was fully seated, Xiaoyun handed the document to Renqin.
"I was wondering if you can lead the foreign intelligent department." Xiaoyun asked as directly as possible.
Renqin looked a little shock by Xiaoyun's offer out of nowhere, but didn't accept or rejected it.
"Can I ask why did you want me to do this job?" Renqin curiously asked.
"Yezi told me you are qualified for this job. Not to mention the way you were able to tell there was a coup happening against Yuqi." Xiaoyun explained.
"Just part of my job Mr.Mayor... please give me some time to read this."
"No problem, take as much time as you want." Xiaoyun laid back on the chair as Renqin started reading the document.
Just as Renqin was halfway through the reading, the office door opened.
"Hey babe! I brought you lunch... who's this?" Yuqi noticed a person was sitting across from Xiaoyun as she took out the lunch container.
"He's Renqin. You remember the person that tipped you about the coup? He's the one." Xiaoyun explained.
"Oh really! Thank you so much! If it wasn't for you, I would of been completely caught off guard." Yuqi bowed down in gratitude.
"No problem Mrs.Yuqi. I'm just doing my duty as a citizen of the town." Renqin replied back.
As the three sat down in their seats, Renqin was almost finished reading.
"Mr.Mayor, can I borrow a pen to edit this?" Renqin asked.
"No problem. Here." Xiaoyun handed Renqin a pen on the desk.
Renqin started writing rapidly and crossing out multiple parts in the document as Xiaoyun waited.
After a while, Renqin was finally finished reading as he closed the documents.
"So what do you think? Do you want to lead a department?" Xiaoyun asked.
"I don't see much flaw in this... but are you sure you want a bus driver to lead this?" Renqin asked again just to make sure.
"Of course, I don't see why a bus driver have to do with anything." Xiaoyun reassured Renqin's worried.
"I accept the job offer. But I wrote a few small condition I wanted and edit I want to happen." Renqin handed the document back to Xiaoyun.
Xiaoyun started reading the document Renqin edited and it was mostly the same thing.
The foreign department edited from the fifty people down to twenty five, with the extra funding still being the same amount.
"Can I ask why did you reduce the people?" Xiaoyun was a little focused by the choice.
"Um..." Renqin hesitated to answer as he looked over to the Shuli and Nami.
"Don't worry about them, they won't leak it out." Xiaoyun reassured Renqin again.
"Okay. The reason for this change... Well I believe we don't need to have such a big intelligence department this early.
My dad used to be a soldier and he told me that more people doesn't mean its better. So I believe this apply to the this as well.
Also I had never done this before, so it wouldn't make sense for me to expand into such massive numbers at once. I need some experience with smaller group first." Renqin explained his reasoning.
"Valid point... but who are these two people?" Xiaoyun noticed the names near the end of the document.
"It's two of my friends... they are currently in prison right now." Renqin stopped as he wasn't sure how to say it.
"In prison? Why?" Xiaoyun looked a little confused.
"They joined in the militia coup... I know this isn't right for me to ask for them, but they had been my friends since the zombie apocalypse happened. If it wasn't for them, I would of died when I was back in my apartment...
Also, they were the one that told me about this after Chen Gang invited me and these two. If it wasn't for them telling me about the insider info, I would of never guess that there was a coup." Renqin finally spilled the beans.
A long silent between the two, with the only noise coming from the three writing with their pens.
"Fine, I can give them a special pardon. But you have to make sure they don't do anything stupid." Xiaoyun wrote his signature on the document and handed it back to Renqin.
"I swear they wouldn't dare to betray the government again... What do I do with this document?" Renqin looked a little lost.
"You can get the funding from Yuqi over there. With the signature you can go to the police station and get those two out of prison." Xiaoyun explained for Renqin.
Thank you Mr.May—— boss." Renqin bowed down in gratitude.
"No problem." Xiaoyun gesture him to leave.
After Renqin left the office with the document, the three got up from their seat and surrounded Xiaoyun.
"Foreign intelligence department? Is this some sort of American CIA in those movies?" Nami curiously asked.
"Which department would this fall under?" Shuli asked immediately after Nami finished asking.
"Okay okay, it's just a brand new department, it's not going to be the next CIA. And for the foreign intelligence department, it's going to fall under the Civilian branch, so they still report to Yuqi, not just me." Xiaoyun explained.
"Foreign intelligence? So is there a domestic one that focus the town?" Yuqi noticed Xiaoyun purposely putting the 'foreign' implying the outside.
"Yeah, I separated the two since I felt like it would be too much power for one person to have both internal and external spying...
I was originally thinking putting the internal one to the police department. But Li Zhen convinced me not to since it militarizes them and ruin their trust with the population." Xiaoyun explained the reasoning.
"Seem about right, that doesn't seem fitting for a police department at all." Nami supported Li Zhen's side.
"Yeah... do we really have to do this? This whole secret police?" Shuli seem to dislike the idea.
"We have to do it Shuli. How else is Xiaoyun suppose to stop this from happening again?" Yuqi responded back before Xiaoyun could.
"Shuli, its the apocalypse, not some normal everyday people. Also the demostic intelligence isn't just in case of insurgent, they are also meant to combat corruption and abuse of power on the higher up levels."